Lethal

This story, unlike so many others, starts at the death.

It is certainly an unconventional way to start a story but not unheard of. The end of her life was unquestionably the beginning of the most interesting chapter. And it was a lovely death. One could not ask for more. Surrounded by her friends as the life fades from her body.

*****

Death certainly was taking a long time.

All the stories you had heard about fading peacefully out and heading towards the light were bullshit. She was still in as much pain as she had been when the process of "dying" had started.

If she had known the sickness would hit her so hard and so fast she would have let them put her out of her misery long ago. It seemed like ages ago now that she had been bitten.

She rationalized it away at the time as, it's hardly a bite, hardly a scratch even. Even as the blood wept from the wound. Luckily it was fall, so long sleeves could cover it. She wrapped it up with some gauze and for a while had pretended it hadn't even happened.

She had told no one, which explained why they had been so dumbfounded when she had hit the floor and started convulsing.

She hadn't felt sick. She felt no different actually, except that a few days after her appetite revved up to three times what it normally was. The guys had only looked in amazement as she ate all of the double portions on her plate and then went for more.

They were in the middle of a field when she dropped. They were on their way to the ocean. They were going to find a boat or a ship and head out to sea. It seemed to be the only safe place to go.

Land was overrun with the sick, and though she felt it terribly cliché to call them zombies, that appeared that was what they were. Hoards of wandering, ravenous, resurrected beings.

They had joked about becoming pirates once they were out on the sea. Her heart began to hurt along with the rest of the agonizing pain in her body.

Though she had never believed in God, she sent out a silent prayer to whoever was listening that her friends would make it to the sea, safe and sound.

The pain eased from her body. She became aware that someone was holding her hand. This is it, it's time to find out what is on the other side. She waited for a flash of light, the trumpets of angels, the fire and brimstone, but instead she was laying there in her body. And of all the things she could be feeling right now she was, hungry.

Her stomach clenched then it bottomed out. She felt as if she hadn't eaten in years. Her appetite from before was nothing compared to this. Now, she was.. Ravenous.

A delicious sent drifted up her nostrils. She was very much still on planet earth, and whatever that delicious morsel was, she was going to devour it.

Her eyes popped open with less effort than she thought it would take. All she could see at first was the vast expanse of grey sky above her. Her vision was blurred as she motionlessly took in her surroundings with animalistic accuracy.

There was a boy knelt to her left, he was the one holding her hand. There was another beside him at her feet and another at her right side. They were all knelt with their heads down as if they were mourning her.

Though she didn't really feel the need to, she took a deep breath to re-inflate her upper body which was looking tragically sunken. This caught the attention of the one to her left and at his gasp they all grew wide eyes and dropped jaws.

She didn't know this at the moment but she looked like hell warmed over. Her once blue irises had taken on a bright red color and her skin had taken on a greyish pallor. Not to mention that she had just come back from the dead. This last part wasn't a new thing for them, however, they dealt with this on a daily basis. Somehow she had become one of them and had turned. Only one thing to do now.

The one at her feet was moving for something as his belt and telling the others to back up. She felt the one to her left start to move and her hand instinctively tightened. Her head turned towards him and the look on his face stopped her. He was terrified and staring at her hand that was now clutching his. Black claws had grown from her fingertips and were digging into his skin. A part of her wanted to tell him that she wouldn't hurt him, but with a slight gust of wind brought that smell to her nose again and she realized the smell was him. That delicious sent of fresh baked bread and grilling meat and probably had the taste of every favorite food you could possibly think of in one bite.

She forced her hand to release and got to her feet faster than she thought humanly possible. The boy was still fumbling for his gun but there was no reason to give him more of a reason to shoot her. A distant crackling and campfire talk caught her attention off in the woods behind them, but there was no one in sight. She would find wherever that sound was, and God help whoever was there when she did.

She took off in a dead sprint and was over the barbed wire and to the tree line in a matter of seconds. She was moving like a gazelle. Though this was Alabama. She was moving more like a white-tail deer.

The old her was clumsy and could trip over her own feet. This new girl was fast, and graceful, and lethal.

She noticed that predatory sense that had kicked in when she neared the campsite. A deer no longer, something much more vicious was taking over. A wolf maybe. Her footsteps were quiet, even in the thick carpet of pine needles, cones and sticks. Each step was measured carefully, as to not make a sound.

The family had a family vacation setup. It appeared as though they were on any old camping trip and the world hadn't ended at least a year ago.

A tent at the edge of the campsite with a line tied from it to a tree to hang their freshly washed clothes on. The family was gathered around the campfire roasting hotdogs. Fucking family vacation during the apocalypse, who knew?

If these people didn't know what was up, they were about to get a rude awakening. A part of her wanted to move on but her stomach and animal instinct kept her planted where she was. A buildup of energy in her muscles tipped her off that whether she was mentally prepared or not, her body was ready. The attack was coming.

At least there weren't any small children. There was a mom, dad and a teenager that looked like she was bored enough to kill herself with the lack of technology.

Her muscles lunged her forward from the bushes and into the small clearing. She wasn't quite sure what to do from there. Her muscles had lunged her forward without telling her brain what to do next. The dad hopped up from his foldup chair faster than she expected he could and eyed the tent, as if he were judging if he could make it there before she did. A devious smile played at her lips. Not likely as she was standing between the two, but the idea of a chase made her senses flare.

She caught that scent again. Much powerful this time. It was fear, and it was coming from all three of them. They all had the same look of horror on their face, as they should. They were in for a very bad night, but she would make it quick.

The scent was just too powerful to resist.

She made quick work of the family of three. The first of course was the dad, as he was the closest.

She ripped out his throat and let him drop to the ground. She went after the mom knowing there would be no chase if she took the daughter second. But the teenager was guaranteed to run, and that is exactly what she wanted.

She used her nifty new claws to slash across the woman's stomach and with a wet plop her intestines spilled out and hit the dirt. At the sight of this the girl turned tail and ran off into the dark woods. A wide smile crept across her face. Perfect.

She let the body of the woman drop to the ground and sunk to the ground next to it. She stuck her hand in the abdomen and rooted around. She shoved her hand up into the ribcage and found what she was looking for. Her fingers curled around the ventricles and she yanked. The heart was the size of her hand and still quivered from having pumped life throughout a body only seconds ago. Oh how stubborn the human body was to give up, even when there was no hope.

Each quiver sent blood oozing out and it started to drip around her hand and down her wrist. She thought briefly of a ripe summer peach and then of how much she absolutely loved peaches. She dipped her head and bit in. The textures were very similar as well, and all too soon she had devoured it all. She looked over at the man. He was very close to bleeding out, but if she didn't go after the girl, she would be gone.

With a growl at the lost heart she took off into the woods. She breathed deeply and caught the scent. She had run pretty far in the dark, a lot further than she could have given the girl credit for.

Now the girl was sitting up against a tree weeping as quietly as she could, but this wouldn't do, she needed to chase. She purposefully stepped on a pinecone which sent a crushing noise permeating through the silent woods. The burst of scent that left the girl then was too powerful. It enveloped her and urged her forward. It was dark in the woods, and though her night vision had sharpend, she was still having to focus to see.

The scent is what led her. The girl sank closer to the tree as if she were trying to push her way into it. Surely if she could become part of the underbrush she would have.

A single stream of moonlight that had found its way through the pine needles and to the ground revealed a glint of something in the girl's hand. On instinct she crouched to the ground and watched. If she was having trouble seeing, then this girl was no doubt blind in the darkness.

She had a knife, fiercely gripped in her hand and was looking frantically around. Her eyes were searching for anything in the dark and as soon as they latched on this girl was going to lunge at it.

If she couldn't get the girl to run, then a fight would be just as interesting as a chase. She moved from the crouch to an attack position, like a runner about to take off into a sprint.

Instead of going straight for the girl, which would no doubt get her stabbed, she darted to the right, jumped, and dug her claws into a tree. The girl was looking off to the right and not up into the tree. She jumped for the back limbs of the tree the girl was against. She grabbed the branch that she knew was thick enough to support her weight but thin enough that she could grab on with her hands and swing up and over. Unfortunately she didn't take into account how sharp her new claws were.

She hit the ground with a thud, from a height that should have broken her back and several other bones. All it did was knock the breath out of her. The limb that had failed her, hit the ground seconds after her. Sensing the fall hurt the beast that was following her, the girl got up and sprinted into the night, knife still in hand.

She was certainly going to have to teach the girl a lesson about running with sharp objects. Right after she regained her own composure.

She expected to sit up in a massive amount of pain that hadn't hit her when she was laying down, but none came. She got to her feet and looked up. The branch had been sliced clean and her nails were sticky with tree sap. Ugh. She hated being sticky. She took off into the night to teach the girl a lesson.

She caught up to the girl in a matter of seconds. She ran around her a wide birth to get ahead of her without tipping her off that she was there. Anticipating the girl's path, she snapped another small branch and placed it precariously in her path. Then she waited just off to the side. Sure enough he girl came through and tripped, sending the knife directly into her abdomen.

The girl lay on the ground gasping, having little luck getting air. She most likely nicked a lung.

She circled her prey "tsk-ing".

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not the run with sharp objects?"

She crouched by the girl and looked down into her eyes which were wide with fear. She put a hand gently into the girl's hair which sent a burst of scent into the air. She reached down and wrapped her hand around the hilt of the knife. She pulled it directly outward, as to not cause more damage than had already been done. Although it didn't matter how the knife was taken out. It was a hunter's knife with backwards barbs to cause more damage as it was taken out.

The girl's body jerked and seconds later blood spurted out of her mouth.

She only had a few seconds to get the heart out. She put the backs of her hands together and dug her finger into skin between the girl's ribcage. With a quick thrust of her arms and several loud pops and cracks, the girl's ribcage was splayed open. Blood pooled around her organs. The heart still faintly flicked with the urge to pump and the lung that still worked filled slowly and dispersed air for the last time.

She dropped to her knees so she could dip her head and sip the blood pooled there. One sip turned into greedy pulls. She raised her head and released her body down onto her heels. Her vision blurred and she felt as if she had just drank an entire bottle of very expensive wine. She yanked the heart out and then allowed herself to fall flat on her back next to the girl.

She ate the heart while lying there staring up at the pine needles that, in this part of the woods, caught moonlight at many different angles. She felt really drunk. The blood had tasted like sweet red wine. Her head swayed and the trees seemed to be moving though she knew that was impossible.

Legs still bent from falling over and arms splayed to the side, she allowed her head to fall to the side and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

********************************

God damn the sun was bright. Why had she slept so late? And why the fuck did she feel hungover?

Her wrist went to her eyes to shield her from the sun and her eyes squinted open. They hadn't camped in the woods had they?

Her fingers smelled like pine sap. Weird.

She pulled her hand back to investigate the pine smell and with horror discovered her hands were covered in blood.

Her eyes shot open despite the excruciating brightness. She had to be seeing things. She also sat up straight but they roar in her head and her gut made her lay back down. There was a dead body beside her. It had been eviscerated by something. She wondered how she had survived. She had obviously tried to help the girl, based on the blood on her hands, and had probably been cracked over the head in the process, hence why her head was in so much pain.

There was a sound of running water, and it was close. Which was good because she was filthy and parched. She rolled over slowly as to not upset the delicate truce she had with her body. The water was a small stream directly ahead. She could crawl to it.

She rolled onto her stomach and paused for a moment with her head down as her stomach lurched. She pulled herself along the ground and then directly into the stream. It was a few feet deep and cold as it didn't get much sunlight here, but it was oh so refreshing. She sat in the middle on smooth stones, the water coming to just above her nipples. Her hands were the first concern. They were stained from being covered all night so she grabbed a stone from the floor of the creek and scrubbed. When she felt she satisfied that her hands were as clean as they were going to be she pulled her shirt above her head and slipped her bra off. The bra was tossed on to the bank and the shirt was used to wash her face.

When she pulled the shirt back, it was red. Was there blood on her face too? She held the shirt in the water to wash it clean then wiped it over her brow. She checked and it was not the source. She next wiped over the sides of her face. No such luck. Fear rolled through her as she dipped the shirt once again into the water then brought it to her mouth. That was the source.

Her mind raced to reason its way out of this. She had gotten popped in the nose and this was a really bad nose bleed. She wiped several times. A very bad nose bleed.

Then it dawned on her, where were the guys? Did they run away when whatever happened, happened?

No. The camp would be here. Or at least nearby, and it was nowhere in sight. She had run away from them.

She examined herself for damage and clues as to what had happened. Her nails were longer, and sharper, but the usual color. All of her teeth were there but they were also sharper. They weren't pointy like her fingernails but it was as if someone had filed them razor sharp. She could hear bird off in the distant but saw none in the vicinity. Had she been the one to kill that girl?

No. She couldn't think like that. It was impossible. She finished washing herself and her clothes in the water. She put on her bra and panties and carried the rest of her stuff as she walked away from the creek and the scene from a horror movie.

Though he had no idea where she was, it was if her path were already laid out for her. She wandered through the woods, unknowingly taking the same path as she had the night before. The bloody scene she encountered at the campsite was what snapped her memory back into place. As she walked over to the bodies that were gathering flies, she remembered coming up on the campsite in some predatory haze. It was as if she were watching her own memories through a haze. Through eyes that were not her own.

She looked down at her arm. There was a faint scar from the bite that she wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't been looking for it. What had happened to her? She hadn't turned like the others. A chill ran up her spine and made the hairs on her neck and arms stand up. What would she do now? Would it be safe to go back to the group? What if she were a danger to them? Well obviously she was a danger to them. She would be a danger to anyone around her now. Just look what she had done to this innocent family.

She plopped down in the dirt, not sure what to do or where to go from here. She sat there for hours, eventually laying down ad staring up at the sky as the sun passed along its usual course. So many questions ran through her head and there was no one to answer them. Everything she wanted to know, she was going to have to experience first-hand, and that scared the shit out of her.

As the sun sank lower in the sky, she wondered how far the guys had made it. She remembered well the route they were traveling. Her eyes clouded and she let the tears roll down the sides of her face and wet her ears and hair. She couldn't go back. They would go to the ocean without her, and sail away without her.

She laid there until the sky was as dark blue as the deepest ocean trench. She wished she could sink there and rest there at the bottom of that trench and not have to worry anymore. She had accepted that she was going to die and was slightly disappointed now that she was alive.

She laid there on the ground, staring up at the stars, waiting for sleep to come but it never did. She doubted she would even be able to sleep if she wanted to because this was the first time in such a long time that she had been alone. Her days and nights were filled with the sounds of the guys being guys. Belching, yelling, and rough housing filled the days spent traveling towards the ocean and an array of snores filled the night. In a past life one might have said it was loud enough to wake the dead. She made that joke one night and they all had a good laugh about it, until the crushing reality snuck back in on them. Their lives, if you could call it that now, was nothing but running. Doomed to constantly run whilst looking over their shoulders. Constantly afraid of the one day they didn't go far enough, didn't make a safe enough camp, or any of the various tiny mistakes that could be made that would get someone killed.