Sarah reached the landing and looked around her. There was a small hall ahead with a light shade of pink covering the walls. Framed photographs of babies and children covered the largest wall. There were four doors around the landing, all of them shut except the one directly across from the stairs.
Sarah looked at Mark and nodded her head towards the open door. The crying was coming from inside. They walked towards it slowly, Mark holding the crowbar tightly, ready to attack if anything went wrong.
As she reached out for the door, a loud crunching noise came from beneath her feet. She’d stepped on a photo frame and it had cracked beneath her feet, a couple’s smiling faces now marred by large, spider-web like cracks in the glass. The man in the picture seemed familiar to Sarah, but she couldn’t figure out where.
The crying stopped. For what seemed like forever, they stood there in silence and just listened, unsure of what the woman inside was going to do. The air seemed electric with tension.
After a while, Mark pushed passed Sarah and opened the door slowly, crowbar at the ready in his other hand. He blocked the doorway with his body so Sarah was directly behind him and out of the firing line if anything was to happen.
“Please don’t hurt me!” a female voice cried weakly from behind the door, making Sarah jump.
Mark pushed open the door — it was too late to turn back now. A young woman sat on a bed in front of him, her arms covered in purple lumps that oozed pus and blood. Her pink pyjamas were covered in brown and yellow stains and her eyes were bloodshot and swollen. She was sweating profusely.
“She’s infected,” Mark whispered to Sarah, “badly.”
“Please, just go away and leave me alone. I have nothing here for you,” the woman whimpered.
She moved her short blonde hair behind her ears and held her hands to her face, sobbing quietly. There were remnants of beauty in her features — she had large brown eyes, a small, slightly up-turned nose and very high cheek-bones which gave her an elfin beauty. But as her condition worsened those eyes had become sunken, dark circles encompassed them and her skin had turned pale and lifeless. Her lips were cracked and bloody and her teeth were discoloured.
“We’re not here to hurt you. We heard you crying. We came to help,” Sarah said with a small smile, stepping in front of Mark cautiously.
The woman looked up and moved her hands away from her face, studying her guests suspiciously. Mark placed the crowbar on the floor slowly.
“You can’t help me now,” she sniffed. “It’s too late.”
“You’re infected,” Mark said and the woman nodded sombrely.
Sarah walked closer to her gingerly. “I’m Sarah,” she said, “and this is Mark.”
“I’m Adrianne,” she said with a cough.
“We’re — we’re leaving the city,” Sarah stuttered nervously, “maybe you could come with u—”
“I can’t. I’m as good as dead and you know it. If you two don’t get out of here when I change, you know what will happen,” Adrianne cried into her hands.
Sarah looked at Mark hopelessly, her tortured face wrenching his heart. He couldn’t blame her — he had once felt compassion for a stranger in need.
“You could come with us, you don’t have to d— to stay here alone,” he said.
Adrianne shook her head and broke into a coughing fit. “You can’t come anywhere near me, you might catch it.”
“It’s okay,” Mark said. “Sarah’s already had it and I can look after myself.”
Adrianne looked at Sarah confused. “Then how is she alive?”
“I don’t know,” Mark said, “but I don’t think she can catch it again.”
Adrianne sank into her hands again. “It doesn’t matter anyway, I’m okay with dying. My entire family is dead — my father ripped my mother’s face off with his bare hands. The woman he loved,” she croaked, her face wet with tears. “I heard what happened outside. What you did to Kev.”
Mark and Sarah exchanged a look of surprise and guilt.
“Don’t feel bad,” Adrianne said, seeing their exchange, “you had no choice. It wasn’t the man I love out there. Love doesn’t survive this, it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and I can’t keep living knowing they’re gone. That everyone I love is gone. You two are lucky to have each other.”
Sarah’s face reddened when she realized Adrianne’s assumption, but didn’t correct her. It didn’t seem important. She glanced at Mark and he was already looking back at her, he pursed his lips in an almost invisible smile, he also stayed silent.
“There must be something we can do to help you. We can’t leave you here to suffer,” Sarah said miserably.
Adrianne shifted on the bed and looked up at Sarah, her eyes wide and serious. “Yes, there is something you can do,” she said and coughed up fresh blood into her palms. “Kill me.”
“No!” Sarah yelled, stunned at the request. “I can’t do that! There must be something else we can do!”
Adrianne smiled warmly, her eyes showing her appreciation. “There isn’t any other way. It’s been over an hour now and it only took my Dad ten minutes to change. I can already feel it in my mind, my thoughts are...erratic to say the least.” A troubled look fell on Adrianne’s face and she looked down at the floor, a look of concentration on her face.
Mark watched her as she listened to something that wasn’t there. In the corner of his eye, he could see Sarah looking at him pleading him for a solution. He looked at Sarah without expression and then returned his indifferent glare to Adrianne.
Adrianne, free from her thoughts, crawled to the end of the bed and sat upright, facing the man in front of her. She looked at him, studying him intently and then, as if reading his mind, she nodded solemnly.
Sarah’s head shot from Adrianne’s to Mark’s and back again, trying to understand the silent dialogue between them. They were staring at each other with a dark look that Sarah couldn’t decode. When she saw Mark’s eyes shoot to his crowbar on the floor, their silent decision dawned on her. She shook her head, helplessly and panic surged through her chest.
“No. No. You can’t,” she uttered in disbelief.
“This is what she wants Sarah, she doesn’t want to suffer. We owe her that, at least,” Mark said, his voice stern.
Adrianne nodded her agreement. “It is,” she said, turning to Sarah. “Thank you for coming here, Sarah, and for caring about me, it warms my heart. But I’ve been waiting here alone for too long now, I want to be with my family again. It’s okay, I want this.”
Tears fell from Sarah’s eyes. Her conscience ripped in two. This can’t be happening. Her skin prickled as she watched Mark pick up his crowbar from the floor and stood in front of Adrianne, his face giving nothing away. Sarah wanted to run but her legs wouldn’t move.
“Are you ready for this, Adrianne?” Mark asked, his voice wavering. His stony facade finally broke and his eyes filled with compassion.
“Yes I am,” she smiled at him warmly and her brown eyes shone, revealing a glimpse of her beauty. “It’s time to go home.”
“Don’t do this. Please,” Sarah muttered. As Mark took a step towards the woman on the bed, Sarah could take it no more, the horror was too much for her. Her legs gave way and she fell to the floor. She turned away from Mark and sat with her knees up, covering her ears and eyes in a desperate attempt to block out the inevitable.
“Good luck out there,” Adrianne said to Mark and closed her eyes.
“Thank you. Goodbye, Adrianne,” Mark said quietly, he pursed his lips to stop them trembling.
A smile crept on Adrianne’s face and she sighed peacefully, her shoulders relaxed and she placed her hands on her lap.
Mark raised the crowbar over his head swiftly, trying not to think about what he was about to do. He had done this many times since the outbreak started and he’d done it without sympathy — until today. Nausea rose in his stomach and he listened to Sarah’s whimpering behind him, causing a flicker of self-doubt in his
mind. Clenching his jaw, he pushed his surroundings out of his mind and tensed against the tremor that tried to take hold of his arm. Then, he regained his nerve and swung the crowbar smoothly downwards towards Adrianne’s head in an expert blow.
A sickening crack filled the room and Mark felt the crunch of bone rise up his arm, nausea rising in his throat. Adrianne uttered a small sigh as she flopped sideways onto the bed, blood poured from the wound on the top of her head and soaked into the sheets. Her body twitched uncontrollably for a second and Mark, fearing she was still alive, swung the crowbar at her head for a second time. The second crunch was wetter than the first and the impact had been soft — blood spattered around the room. Adrianne’s muscle twitches finally stopped.
Mark stared at the body beneath him, his mind blank. The crowbar slipped from his grasped and thumped onto the floor, leaving a large red stain where it landed.
Sarah was still crying heavily on the floor with her hands over her ears and didn’t hear Adrianne’s demise over the sound of her own hysterical cries. She did, however, feel the crowbar hit the floor with a ‘thud’ and opened her eyes to see Mark covering Adrianne’s body with a sheet. White speckles filled her vision as she saw the blood-soaked sheet, causing her to fall onto her side on the floor. She pulled her knees up into the foetal position as she tried to regain control of her breathing, desperately stopping herself from passing out.
Mark saw her turmoil and knelt down on the floor beside her, his eyes filling with tears. Sarah’s body shook beneath him and she whimpered gently. He reached out and stroked her hair, unsure of how to comfort her, or even if she wanted it.
Feeling his touch, Sarah turned to face him, her eyes bright with fury and pain and she hated him in that moment. She punched him in the chest, trying her hardest to hurt him but she couldn’t muster the strength, her body was too weak.
Mark didn’t flinch — he took her fury without trying to stop her, wanting nothing more than to ease her pain. Her fists thudded onto his chest in rapid succession. Tears tried to leave his eyes but he willed them away.
After a while, Sarah’s arms became too heavy to lift and her anger quickly melted away. An overwhelming grief replaced her hatred and, feeling defeated, she sank her head into Mark’s chest. He put his arms around her and they laid side-by-side on the floor.
“Shhhh,” he whispered. “It’s okay. It’s over.”
After a while, her breathing relaxed and she fell quiet but Mark still held her tight, his chest wet with her tears. Realising she had cried herself to sleep he closed his eyes and let exhaustion take over.
Chapter 5
Mark awoke from his sleep and looked around the room, his neck aching as he moved it and the right side of his body was stiff and cramped. The sun shining through the bedroom window was now high in the sky, telling him it was at least noon — he’d slept for at least two hours! He took his arm from around Sarah, trying not to wake her and wiggled his fingers to get some circulation back.
He quietly rose to his feet, leaving Sarah still curled up on the floor. Heaviness weighed on his heart as he remembered what had happened hours before. He looked at the bed and saw the lump of Adrianne’s body under the sheets, if it wasn’t for the tell-tale blood stains across the sheets, she would look sound asleep under there. Only she wasn’t asleep — he had killed her with his bare hands. He fought the sickness in his stomach. We can worry about that later.
He knew the memory would haunt him for a life-time but right now, he had a job to do and that was to keep Sarah safe until she gets back home. If he let doubt and guilt cripple him, he wouldn’t be able to do that job properly. Sarah was too gentle and innocent to do what needed to be done and every time she got a glimpse of the new world, she broke down. He would have to be the one to make the tough decisions, that much was clear — and he was okay with that.
He could tell from her reaction outside of the house that she thought he was cold when it came to sympathising with others and he’d have to be okay with that too. He wasn’t going to lose his head over a woman who would risk her own life to chase after someone who probably was dead anyway. He would have to keep his feelings hidden, not only to protect her, but to protect himself.
He watched her lying there, fast asleep and looking deceivingly peaceful and his irritation with her melted away. Yeah, she was a pain in the arse and pretty useless in a survival situation but she did have the balls to fight for something that she loved — and she’d had a pretty rough start. He decided then that he would protect her. He had the same urge the first time he had ever seen her, lying there in the road. She had looked so helpless that day, he saw her face and in that instant he knew he would have to take care of her, whatever the cost.
Sarah began to stir and a few moments later, she awoke looking drained. Mark offered his hands to help her up, half expecting her not to take them — but she did and gave him a tired smile. Her gaze fell on to the figure on the bed and stayed there for a few seconds, a haunted expression on her face. Then she looked away, the muscles in her jaw twitched as she clenched it.
She pictured him killing Adrianne and winced as she imagined the crowbar hitting her skull. She turned to him to see that he was holding his crowbar again and watching her tentatively. His brow furrowed as he searched her face, then when she looked at him, a stony expression returned to his own. His hands shook nervously under her gaze and he clenched his fists trying to stop them.
Sarah wondered what she should say to him. She wondered how this man — who had killed a woman seemingly without feeling — could be the same man who rescued her in the street, risking his own life for hers on more than once occasion. How many people had he killed since the outbreak and had he ever felt any kind of guilt at doing so? Should she hate him for what he did?
She stared into his steel blue eyes and noticed the anxiety in them, where she had only seen coldness before. How could she have not seen past it? She wondered if that cold exterior was for her benefit and if so, why?
She thought about the two different sides she’d seen of him. Was he the cold-hearted guy that she had seen a glimpse of earlier? Or was he the caring man that had saved her life and who had left the safety of his own home, just to protect her?
Mark turned away from her then, as if reading her mind and she puzzled over it. He had seen her cry so many times, why was it so bad for her to see him feeling anxious? She sighed to herself — she didn’t have the strength to find out and annoyance at him rose in her chest. She didn’t have time for his multiple personalities. She rushed past him, brushing his arm slightly and picked up her bat.
Mark watched her helplessly as she stormed past — frustrated that he could not find the words to say to make her understand what he had done. Without thinking, he reached out for her arm and grasped it gently. She spun around, her face so angry it startled him.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice quiet.
“What for?” Sarah tried to sound more annoyed than she was.
“For earlier — what I did. I’m sorry but she was suffering. I couldn’t leave her like that.”
“Look, Mark,” she said quietly, “I know you had to do that. I do. Maybe if I was a stronger person I would have done the same thing. It’s not that that’s pissing me off.”
Mark stared at her in stunned silence, it was the first time he’d heard her swear.
“It’s you!” she said, exasperated. “I can’t tell what you’re thinking. One minute you’re dead inside and the next you’re sweet and lovely. How am I supposed to trust you when I don’t even know what you’re really like?”
Mark let go of her arm. “You can trust me, Sarah. I would never hurt you,” he said, breathing heavily, “I — I just wanted to protect you.”
Sarah sighed, realising she was being too hard on him. “You don’t have to apologize, Mark. But you don’t have to be all robotic with me whenever you’re upset. I’d rather see your feelings than think that you could do the things you’ve done and n
ot feel anything at all. You don’t have to worry about me, I’m not your problem,” she added softly.
“I will always worry about you, Sarah,” he said gently, “and I do feel it when bad things happen.” Feeling more relaxed now that Sarah was calm, he added with a wink, “I feel a lot of stuff for certain people actually.”
Sarah raised her eyebrow, ignoring the butterflies that had taken hold of her stomach. “Are you flirting with me, Mr England?” She said in mock disbelief.
Mark’s face reddened and he crossed his arms defiantly. “Pfft! You wish.”
Their conversation was interrupted by a distant scream. They spun around to the bedroom window and looked outside. The forest was close by — they could see the path they needed and the treetops behind it. Then another scream echoed through the woods, this one quieter than the last.
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