Infection: Dying Days

"Ah!"

Faith let out a small scream as she fell to the floor due to my powerful slap. She touched her slapped cheek in bewilderment as she looked at me but I didn't care. Because right now, I'm super pissed!

There's a limit to how selfish you can be when someone is trying their hardest to help you! Oh, and let's not forget the fact that she threw blood in my face. My face!

I don't know who's blood that was! What if they had a disease? Or more scarily, what if it came from an infected? If it got into my mouth or directly into my eyes.

…

F*ck! Maybe I should've just let her die? No, I can't do that. Since I put in a lot of effort saving her, I should finish this all the way.

"Ah! L-let go of me!"

"..."

While putting my bat to the side, I Ignore her pleas of me wanting to let her go and pick her up by the collar of her blazer and forcefully jack her up against the nearby industrial refrigerator. Looking her dead in the eyes, I angrily said to her.

"Now, you listen here goddammit! I'm sick and tired of your bullsh*t! What do you think killing yourself is going to accomplish? What makes you think you'll see Trina again? Huh? Huh?!"

"Let go of me!"

Grabbing my wrists so hard that her fingers turned white, Faith tries to pry them off her collar.

 I ignored it, however.

 Her grip strength is nowhere near strong enough to the point where it can hurt me. Not to mention, she cut her right forearm so it'll hurt to move it. She also tried to knee me in the stomach but due to our bodies being in close proximity to each other, it was futile.

Treating her acts of trying to break free as pointless actions, I said to Faith.

"I'm not letting go until you tell me what killing yourself is going to accomplish. Now tell me!"

Wanting to intimidate her a little, I put some strength into my arms and hands and forcefully raised Faith up off the ground a couple inches.

It worked well.

"I-I…"

"I-I what? You better not say some cliche sh*t like 'she was my everything' or 'life has no meaning without.' Cause if you do, I don't care if you're a girl, I'mma punch you in the face!"

"..."

Taking her silence as a chance to talk some sense into her, I continue.

"Don't you realize that if you killed yourself Trina would be sad? Wouldn't she want you to live and not be eaten by those things out there? Not to mention, your parents. What about your parents? They could be fighting for their lives right now while worrying to death about yours. Don't you wanna make sure they're alright?"

"Why…"

"Why what?"

"Why do you care? Why do you care if I kill myself or not?"

Faith asked in a weak voice. By now, her big brown eyes had tears in them and her left cheek was swelling a little.

 Seeing this pitiful scene, my anger towards her was lowered tremendously and my guilt for hitting her rose instead. Maybe slapping her and threatening to punch her was a little too much? 

...I'm starting to feel like the bad guy here?

While thinking such thoughts, I gently lowered Faith and answered Faith's question with a sigh.

"There's two reasons why I care about what  you're trying to do. First, I want you to realize how rashly you were acting. Don't you know how dangerous it is to run away like that? Not to mention, all the noise we made. If it wasn't for all the infected being drawn over here towards the cafeteria, we'd possibly be dead right now."

I mean, seriously, it was by the grace of God that we managed to survive. And I bet that if there was any infected lurking in the hallways at the time, Faith would've been dead by now. Sad to say, but it's true. With how fast she was going, she would've gotten bit way before I had a chance to catch up to her.

"The second reason as to why I care about what you're doing is because…I can empathize with your pain. Not to the point where I want to kill myself but I know how it feels to lose loved ones."

Although, I don't like to remember it, I'll make an exception this time. Taking a deep breath, I continue.

"Two years ago, my mom died in a car crash. A drunk driver t-boned her and smashed into a telephone pole…"

I was just coming home from school. I didn't see mom in the house but it wasn't uncommon, because she had so many clients, she'd teach music lessons that span into the night. There were times where I'd cook the meals and make her a plate and there were times where before she left she'd cook and leave a nice plate for me. 

That day, it was her turn to cook, she made rigatoni. She saran wrapped it and put it in the fridge. There was a note placed on top of it, it was written in beautiful cursive. It read.

'See you later honey. Love mom'

Although, the only times we'd see each other would be on the weekends and late nights, we were content. 

However, that night, she didn't come home. Instead, a pair of policemen went to my door. I remember their names clear as day. The first one was officer Wilkins while the other one was named Officer Ramirez.

With looks of pity and sympathy, they broke the news to me.

'Your mom, Lucille Mori, was killed in a car crash by a drunk driver tonight at around 9 p.m.' 

The moment I heard that, my mind went blank. Everything after they said that went through one ear and out the other. The only thing echoing in my head was 'your mom was killed.' 

It didn't take long for it to finally hit me. As soon as I registered the words of my mom's death, I released a horrible cry. I didn't want to believe what they were saying so I fought the cops, landing a punch on officer Troy before being subdued.

When I told them to take me to see her, they told me no and to calm down. Pissed about not being able to see my mom, I hurled curses their way. 

I was utterly heartbroken and didn't want to believe them.

Fearing that I might try something dangerous due to my anger, the two officers decided to have dispatch call my grandma. 

As old as she was it didn't take long for her to get there, she made an hour drive become a twenty minute one.

She calmed me down and apologized to Officer Troy because of me punching him. He laughed it off as him and officer Ramirez left.

That night became the worst one in my life. But thankfully, granny was there, for two months, she tended to and comforted me. I'm thankful for her being there when I needed her most.

"That's why even though you lost someone close to you, there's always someone who has your back. Someone who'll always care for you. So don't try to kill yourself okay?"

Reeling in from my painful memories, I said to Faith.

"*Sniff*...okay."

"Okay what?"

"I won't try to kill myself no more. Trina wouldn't like that. I have to find my family and make sure they're alright because I'm sure they're also worrying about me too."

"Good.Now, get ready. I'm pretty sure that that barricade isn't going to hold much longer."

CRASH!

AHH!

As soon as I finished saying this, the barricade finally gave way and a huge amount of infected came pouring in. It was a good thing I didn't take all my attention away from them. I knew it wouldn't hold for long so I already got an escape plan in mind.

"Follow me!"

"A-ah!"

With me in the lead, I grab Faith by the arms and run towards the back of the staff area. Back there is a door used to move supplies in and out of the cafeteria, it also was a way to get back into the corridors. 

To make things better, we'll end up in the hallway moving away from the cafeteria.

And hopefully then, I could tend to Faith's wound. I don't want any infected following us back to where David and the rest were at.

Just when I was about to close in on the door…

BAM!

It was slammed open by infected!

"H-how can this be?"

Stopping in our tracks, I said with a shaky voice, unable to hide the fear inside me. How was there infected over here? 

"What should we do now?!"

A panicking Faith said. We were surrounded by infected and they were closing in.

Sh*t! Sh*t! Think!

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Author's note

- How's the chapter? Was it compelling?