WILLA, стр. 24
Between the Jenson’s home and our next stop, which we hoped would be Uncle Carson’s house, one of the creatures got Kayla. We were on the outskirts of a small residential area and hadn’t heard the pack of seven zombies until we came around a corner to see them pacing in front of a house. We damn near ran right into them.
I turned to run, as did Chase, but Kayla froze, and Uncle Jamie and Sam braced themselves for a fight. I don’t know why the two decided to go up against the creatures at that moment unless it was because they had instinctively known that the small horde had someone or a group of someone’s pinned in the house. The two men had been correct, though I was never sure why the people hadn’t escaped out the back door. I was sure we hadn’t seen any zombies back there when we’d passed by the yard. Something else must’ve been going on inside the house, but we never found out what.
“Shit,” I said when I realized that Uncle Jamie and Sam weren’t following us.
“What?” Chase asked, coming to a stop beside me.
My words had halted our running, and we were both bent over panting and not paying attention to our surroundings.
“We have to go back,” I said, nodding toward the fight behind us.
“I can’t,” he said, shaking his head.
I could see the terror in his eyes. I felt it coursing through my body, but that didn’t change what we had to do. Or what I had to do at least. His brother was back there, our cousin and our uncle. We couldn’t just leave them. Ever since the fire, we’d noticed that the fight had gone out of Chase. The only reason he was still with us was because of Sam.
“Then find someplace to hide, but I’m going to help,” I replied, dropping my pack and heading back to where my uncle and cousin were fending off the dead.
“Don’t just stand there,” I said as I passed Kayla, who still stood frozen in the middle of the road.
I had my machete out and was seconds from swinging it at the nearest zombie’s head.
Kayla didn’t move.
Realizing that we’d distracted the zombies in front of their hideout, a group of six people exited the house once the front porch was empty. Two men and a woman attacked the creatures from behind while a third man hurried away with two children in tow.
The six of us made quick work of the undead, and we thought we’d done so without casualties, but a few of those creatures had taken down one of the men in the other group, and one of them had bitten Kayla. She’d managed to knife the zombie that had attacked her before coming to her senses enough to run away, though by then it was too late.
The other man and woman went after their companion and the children without even thanking us, asking if we were all right, or checking on their fallen friend. Uncle Jamie put a bullet in the dying man’s head to end his suffering.
The second we found the two of them hiding in a rundown gas station, Kayla tried to cover her bite, but Chase told Jamie. Chase had called Kayla to him when he saw her running his way. Now, he was cowering in a corner away from her.
“Everyone okay?” Uncle Jamie asked, leaning against a wall to catch his breath.
“Yes,” Kayla said, not looking at us.
“No,” Chase said, pushing himself further into the wall.
“Are you hurt, Chase?” Uncle Jamie asked, straightening but not brandishing his weapon.
Sam rushed to his brother to inspect him for bite wounds.
“No. Kayla is. She was bitten.”
Chase was shaking his head furiously and pointing at our cousin while Sam patted him down.
“That true, Kayla?” Uncle Jamie asked, stepping toward her with his hands up to show that he wasn’t going to hurt her. At least, not yet.
“Ye...Yes,” she stammered, rolling up the sleeve of her shirt to show us her mangled arm.
“Okay,” Uncle Jamie said.
“Shit,” Sam said.
“No,” I nearly screamed.
Uncle Jamie put up his hands to quiet all of us.
“Kayla, honey,” my uncle said in a false calming voice. “You know your choices. Stay with us, and I’ll kill you the instant you start to turn, or you can run.”
“I killed it the second it sank its teeth into me. I won’t turn. We can just bandage my arm. I’ll be all right,” Kayla argued.
“You know that isn’t how it works. Everyone turns no matter how insignificant the bite. Your wound is massive.”
“That’s because flesh came away when I pried its mouth off me. I killed it before it could transfer the virus.”
Kayla was frantically wrapping her arm in whatever she could reach as she spoke.
“You can’t know that,” Uncle Jamie said.
“You can’t know if I’m wrong,” Kayla countered.
“Fine. We’ll find a place to stay for the night. You’ll be tied up until we’re sure you won’t change. That work for everyone?” he asked.
We nodded, though I could tell that my cousins were just as leery about having her around as I was. We didn’t have to worry for long. Before we could take two steps toward the door, Kayla dropped to her knees and began vomiting.
Uncle Jamie stepped to her with his gun raised. When Kayla looked up at him with nearly opaque eyes, he shot her. I threw up that time. He turned to me with his gun still up.
“I’m not infected,” I said, wiping my mouth.
He grabbed my face and looked into my eyes. Once he was satisfied, he nodded and motioned for us to exit the store.
“Are we just going to leave her there?” Chase asked.
“We