Cody

As I stumbled through the woods, over the fallen branches and thorn bushes that were making my legs bleed, I imagined Desi next to me.

Her long legs would be stepping over the nature with ease compared to my wounded body, but she would wait for me, hold out her hand to help me. Her blonde hair would blow in the wind, sweeping away from her face, her beautiful face.

"Here we are,"  Durbin interrupted me from my thoughts.  My eyes trailed away from the spot I imagined Desi to be, and to the small cabin-structured general store standing in front of us. 

The red and white sign that was once hung above the door, now dangled on one side, swaying with the wind; the door wide open underneath it.  Soda cans and bags of chips filtered out of the store, rolling along the gravel with the gust of air that ruffled my hair.  The nozzles from the gas tanks in the lot lay strewn on the ground instead of connected to the pump, leaked gas staining the gravel below them.

"It was a lot prettier the last time I was here," Durbin said, cracking a smile.

A sharp throb shot through my leg, causing my back to crack backwards as I reached down to grab the spot it burned the most.  My hand was damp and smeared with blood as I touched the bandage that covered the bite on my leg.

"Let's get you inside,"  Durbin said reaching for my arm.  He wrapped it around his shoulders and led me limping through the gravel lot, no matter how much I refused.  When we got to the open door of the Last Stop I handed Durbin my gun.

"I won't be a good shot right now,"  I said, as he took it from my hands with wide eyes.  "I need water,"  My voice came out as a whisper, almost cracking from my thirst.

When Durbin stepped away from in front of me to walk down an aisle, my eyes connected with a pair of midnight black ones, stained with bloody tears.

"Durbin,"  I whispered as quietly as humanly possible.  He spun back around to look at me then followed my gaze to the opposite end of the small store.

The black eyes belonged to a little girl, maybe five years old.  Her dark hair was ratted around her head, crusted blood masked her mouth, and in her hands was a teddy bear missing one of its legs.  She stood so still, it was as if she wasn't even breathing, silence filling the store with tension.

I looked to Durbin, who was holding the gun steadily in his hands, pointed at the infected girl in front of us.  I felt the need to run and protect her since she was so small, but the thought of what she might be capable of erased all sympathy for this unlucky little infected girl.

A high-pitched laugh rang from her, making me flick my eyes back to her.  A smile crept across her face, revealing blood-stained teeth.  In the blink of an eye, her matted hair trailed behind her as she sprinted behind an aisle, blocking her view from us.

"Shit,"  Durbin whispered next to me, taking a step closer to the cashier counter.  I stood motionless in the doorway, my eyes scanning every inch of what was visible for a sign of the girl.

Another laugh echoed from the right side of the store, at the back of the aisles.  The innocent, yet horrifying sound of her giggle chilled me to my bones, prickling my skin. 

Durbin aimed the gun down the first aisle, saw that it was empty and walked to the next one, doing a process of elimination on which one she might be hiding in.  I followed closely behind him, not wanting to be left alone to defend myself with my broken body.

The infected girl's laugh rang through my ears again, making me cringe.  Durbin stepped to the next aisle and froze, his body tense with adrenaline and fear.  I stepped next to him and gazed down the destroyed aisle of peanuts and beef jerky.   

The girl stood at the end, in front of the glass doors of the coolers, her silhouette reflecting behind her.  Her smile slowly began to fade and she inhaled a deep breath of air, as if savoring the scent of us.  Without warning, she let out an ear-shattering scream, and hurled herself towards us, hands at her side like claws.

Durbin held down the trigger of the gun for one second, spraying a couple of bullets into her.  Her little body fell lifeless to the ground and blood began to pool around her and the mess of nuts on the floor.

"There's not many bullets left in this gun," Durbin said, throwing it over his back.  "We need to use them sparingly."  

I knew that he knew it was bad luck to step over a dead body, but he did it anyways as he walked to the cooler at the end of the aisle and pulled out a cold water bottle, tossing it to me.  The sudden condensation from the bottle felt soothing on my battered hands.

"Don't know how the coolers are still on,"  Durbin said, stepping back over the girl's body on his way back to the front of the store.  "But hot damn, am I glad it is!"  Throwing his head back, he laughed.

I unscrewed the lid of the bottle and poured the water down my throat, feeling my body quickly respond to the hydration.  Durbin disappeared as I drank and returned with a roll of bandage.  I sat down on the floor, ripping open the package and tied it around my leg, lapping layer over layer, hoping to stop the bleeding.

Durbin found a backpack from a tourist section and began to fill it with granola bars, beef jerky, and cans of peanuts, topping it off with a big jug of water.  Slinging the now full backpack over his shoulders, he looked at me and my bandaged leg, throwing me a package of jerky.

"It's going to take weeks to get to Vegas on foot,"  He said, brushing his fingers through his black hair.  "That means a lot of stops, and possible run-ins with infected."

"I know it's not going to be easy," I said, ripping open the package of beef.  "But I have to find her.  And I will not go down without a fight."

Durbin nodded his head, and stepped closer to me, offering a hand.  I grabbed hold of it and let him lift me to my feet. 

Desi

I hadn't seen Vivian since this morning, and I was happy until my moment was ruined by the sound of her voice through the phone in my suite. 

"Are you getting ready for the match tonight?"  Vivian asked as if she were speaking to an old friend.

"Match?" I asked back, not aware I was supposed to go watch the one scheduled for tonight.

"Ryder told me you did well in your training today," Vivian admired, I could picture her sinister smile through the phone.  "So instead of me or a guard escorting you tonight, I thought it would be appropriate for Ryder to take you."

"Thank you for your graciousness," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

"No problem at all," Vivian said, either not recognizing or ignoring my tone.  "He will be there at seven.  Wear something presentable."  Then she hung up, leaving me idle with the phone still attached to my ear.

Slamming the phone down on the hook, I stood up from the desk chair.  The guard standing in front of the open door to the suite watched me get up and walk towards the door to the bedroom.  I was grateful that the presence of the soldiers had died out in my suite, but there was still one too many as I watched him watch me out of the corner of my eye.

Feeling uneasy about the guard, I locked the bedroom door behind me, scared he might creep up on me while I was in the shower.  The hot water felt amazing on the sore muscles of my legs and arms from my session with Ryder and it was hard to pull away as I reminded myself I had to finish getting ready.

I pulled on a tight sparkling red dress that cut off above my knees, hugging my curves, brightening the color of my skin.  I spiraled my hair into curls with the curling iron and found a tube of red lipstick that matched the color of my dress. 

When I looked at myself in the mirror I was shocked at the woman that I had turned into, almost overnight, and felt the sudden pang of guilt as I remembered what I was dressed up for.  Just don't think about it, I told myself.  You have the opportunity to dress up so take it.  I nodded to myself in the mirror and pulled out a pair of black stilettos from the closet floor, surprised that they were my size.

My heels clicked along the floor as I walked towards the bedroom door, glancing at the alarm clock.  It was six fifty-five, so five minutes until Ryder was supposed to be here and I wondered to myself if he would be as dressed up as I was.

I turned the door knob, unlocking it as I did so, and came face to face with a man as I opened the door.  He was the guard that had been blocking the door, and he was panting heavily in front of me.  His mud colored eyes trailed down my body down to the tips of my black stilettos and back up to my face, stopping briefly to gaze at my breasts. 

I suddenly regretted the dress I had chosen to wear, and wished I had picked the turtle neck sweater at the back of the closet.

"My, my," The guard's voice said huskily, his breath smelled hot and sticky of something Italian, maybe garlic bread.  "Aren't you nice to look at?"

I stepped back slowly as he leaned his body towards mine, clenching my fists at my sides. 

"Where you goin?" He asked, a cocky smile spreading on his lips.  "I just want to talk."

He stepped in the room after me, closing it behind him with a lock of the door.  My heart jumped up to my throat, and I stumbled in my heel as I took another step backwards.

"So how do you like it here?"  The guard asked, his arms out to his sides, showing off the room. 

"I don't,"  I said as calmly as I could, my voice wanting to shake. 

"I know something you might like," He said, the cocky smile reappearing on his face.  I wanted to slap it off of him so badly, but remained still thinking it might save my life.

"I highly doubt it," I retorted and snorted through my nose.  I quickly glanced at the alarm clock and saw that it was six fifty-seven.  Only three more minutes,  I thought to myself.  Hopefully Ryder is the early type.

The guard wasn't happy with the way I was acting towards him and stepped closer to me, toe to toe.  I narrowed my eyes at him and tried not to show any fear of him.

"You always look so angry," He said deeply, quietly.  "It's sexy."  His breath was hot as he whispered in my ear, sending an uncomfortable tremor down my spine, making me want to gag.  "How about we have some fun?"

"No thank you," I said through my teeth as my hands braced themselves on his chest and shoved backwards, sending the guard stumbling.

Quickly gathering himself, he was back in front of me, clutching my face in his hand, my cheeks smashed together and my lips unwillingly puckered.  His lips crashed down hard into mine, painfully.  I tried to break free of him, elbowing him in his ribs and kneeing at his thighs, but his hold was strong as his arms wrapped forcefully around my back.

The man was kissing me so hard that his lip slid through mine, grazing my teeth and I took the opportunity to bite down on it, sending his head jolting away from mine and screaming in pain.  I turned to run towards the bedroom door but the back of his hand reached up to slap across my cheek, the force slamming me down hard onto the bed.

My cheek began to throb and sting as my head rolled to the side to glance at the alarm clock. 

Six fifty-nine.

Suddenly, a heavy weight crashed down on top of me, crushing my lungs and making me gasp for air.  The guard reached his hand between our bodies and began to fumble with the buckle of his pants.  I screamed out for help and a hand was quickly brought to my mouth, muffling me.

I heard a rush of footsteps from outside the bedroom and the twisting of a doorknob.  I tried to my head to look around the guard's body at the door, but his hand held me firmly in place. 

Then the first slam on the door sounded, rattling the picture frames on the wall, catching the guards attention.  His head lifted away from me to look at the door, his hand trailing away from my mouth.  As he turned back to look at me I head butted him. 

My forehead cracked into his nose, instantly releasing blood from his nostrils.  His hand went to his nose as he screamed, and the door busted in, parts of the wood flying and some hanging from the hinges. 

Ryder barreled into the room with a crazed look in his eye, dressed in a black suit with a red undershirt.  Undoing his tie with speed, he pulled it from his collar and wrapped it around his knuckles. 

The guard's weight was pulled off of me, leaving me scrambling to my knees on the bed, as Ryder pulled him down onto the floor.  Leaning down on one knee, he clutched the neckline of the guard's shirt and brought his protected knuckles down into the man's face.  I covered my face with my hands not wanting to watch.

Every punch sounded like a boom of thunder in the quiet room, the guard's moans slowly fading away into nothing.  I opened my fingers slightly, letting me peek through them and at Ryder who was still kneeling on the floor.  His shoulders rose up and down, as he panted, a muscle throbbing as he clenched his jaw.

I leaned over the bed more and saw the face of the guard, which was distorted so much he didn't even look the same.  My heart slowed down, almost stopping when I saw that his chest was still.

"You killed him," I whispered, bringing my hands away from my face.

"I had to," Ryder said without looking at me.  "What do you think would have happened if he lived?  He would have gone to Vivian.."  His voice trailed off and he hung his head, the bloody tie that was wrapped around his knuckles falling to the floor.

I slid off of the bed and knelt down next to Ryder, my knees touching his leg and my hand resting on his back. 

"Thank you," I said, making him look over at me with his sad ocean eyes.

Reaching up with his hand, he trailed his thumb over the top of my lip, a heat spreading across my skin. 

"That's better," Ryder said a smile twitching in the corner of his lips.  He showed me the smeared lipstick on his thumb and I realized he had wiped away the mess the guard had made of it.  But his small smile died back down as he became serious again.

"We have to do something with the body,"  Ryder said quietly, his voice filling me with nerves.