Chapter 4: Chapter 04: Trouble

"Easy there!" I caught her midair and inspected her body and luckily, she was unhurt.

Because she is 5,2 ft (1,60 m) tall and weighs nothing, it was easy to hold her up like that with my 6,1 ft (1,85 m).

"You idiot, let me tackle you down!" she started lightly hitting me while I still held her in the air.

"I assumed the worst already. Why did it take you so long to come back?" she asked with teary eyes, so I put her down and hugged her.

After we separate, I show her the book and say, "I stopped by a bookstore on the way."

That only confused her and she looked at me speechless... It looked funny and I tried to catch every moment of it. Maybe it will be one of the last for me...

I lay the book down and sit on the ground, to relax and recover a bit.

Shana saw this and came out of her confusion. Then she took something from her bag.

There was a needle, thread, antibiotics and a small bottle of alcohol.

It seems she searched for it while hiding from the infected couple.

She gave me the antibiotics and Maria brought me some water and I drank the antibiotics with it.

Then she started to untie the bloody bandages. The wound looked pretty ugly already and was slimy.

Since it was not the first time she treated me, she had no problem pouring alcohol over the wound since she knew my pain threshold was high.

At least I tried not show how much it burned.

In our time together, we kinda got into a lot of trouble.

Sometimes because we walked into the wrong alley or some drunkards didn't understand that she already had a boyfriend.

And then she needed to treat me afterwards.

But no one ever laid a finger on her.

Even before my time in the military, I was a capable fighter.

If you live in an orphanage and then on the streets, you have a lot of chances to practice fighting against others...

After I got old enough, I even fought in some underground matches. To earn money and leave the streets behind.

"This will hurt now." said Shana, pulling me out of my memories.

I nodded at her and she started stitching the bite wound.

This caused Maria to block her children's view because it looked gross, but nothing that Shana couldn't handle.

After she was finished and started to bandage my wound again, I asked, "What happened after I left? How did Franziska turn?"

Shana looked a bit frightened after remembering it, but then collected herself and said,

"After you left with the infected. I did what you said and parked in front of the store and we waited. But after a few minutes Peter started panicking, so I checked on Franziska but she was already dead."

Then she closed her eyes and kept going.

"Peter told me she had a weak heart and didn't take her medicine the whole day. So I think stress gave her a heart attack or something like that.

But after a few minutes, she suddenly woke up and bit Peter, who was still hugging her and then she tried to attack us too, but we could exit the car in time and run into the store."

Then she points to the counter and says, "Thank goodness I remembered what you did in the mall and closed the door.

Then we started to hide because we thought some infected could also be inside, but lucky there seemed to be none."

I patted her on her head and said, "Well done. I'm happy that nothing happened to you."

Before I leave this earth, I need to teach her self defense or at least how to fire a gun...

"But how did she turn? Did an infected bite her?" asked Maria.

"No I checked her for bites. It could have a few reasons.

My hope is that she got saliva or blood or something like that from an infected in her mouth, but my instinct tells me it's worse than that."

Maria got terrified and asked, "What... what do you mean?"

But Shana gave her the answer.

"The bite causes people to die. But it is not the trigger to become infected, but the dead is right?"

"Yes." I nod and Maria looks in shock while closing her mouth with one hand.

"We only saw one case and we don't know if that really is the case. So let's not think too much about it and think of a way to get out of here."

I pointed at the door, where some infected had already crept up and looked through the door before beginning to scratch and hit it.

It seems the glass somehow confused them. Is it their reflection that confuses them so much? I need to test it someday.

"What should we do?" asked Shana.

We were lucky to find a drugstore that had not only... well, medicine, but also useful items like backpacks and so on. This is probably because it was September and school would start soon here in Germany.

They even had a small fridge display, where some cold drinks were.

"Everyone grab a backpack and fill them with water and Shana you fill yours with the necessary medicine and stuff that we will need."

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I will check the doors and then help you.

Walking around, I found an empty toilet. When I walk into the back, I find a backdoor made of iron, leading possibly into an alley behind the store.

From the outside, it didn't look like you could access it from the front. Therefore, this would be our escape route, since countless infected are blocking our car right now.

Why the hell do they keep coming here?

I continued walking around the back and found a small kitchen. When I looked through the drawers, they only had butter knives... what the hell, man? What should I do with butter knives?

Life is relentless. I miss the US, where nearly every shop owner has a gun.

I wish we could find a weapon store or something like that, but with my luck, we will probably end up in a puppy store or something like that.

Leaving the kitchen behind, I headed to the storefront, grabbed a green backpack and packed it with water and snacks. Even the children carried small backpacks filled with stuff.

As soon as I finished packing, I checked my gun. Only one full magazine and three bullets remained.

Because the bullets will only be used in emergency situations, I begin searching again for something to defend myself with.

My options now were a half-broken mop that looked like it would break more at any time, butter knives or my trusted book.

I grab the book and walk around until I find what I was looking for, earphones with a cable.

I walk closer to Shana. She looks confused again when she sees the book, but I ignore that and say, "Can I have your phone for a moment?"

"Yes?" she hands it to me and I plug the earphones in and open the radio app.

Even though the emergency broadcast still transmits the same old crap, we can now hear when something new is reported.

"Keep them so we can listen to radio broadcasts." Shana nods and puts the phone in her pocket.

Then I called Maria and her kids and said, "We can't take the car, there are already too many of them. We need to travel by foot." which made them look in distress.

Sure, I could try again to lure them away, but my instincts screamed not to do so for some reason.

"Don't worry I will keep you safe.

I will walk in the front keep the children in the middle between you two and stay near me at all times."

They nodded and we wanted to move, but suddenly there was a loud roar.

When I try to turn around and look at the glass door, the pain in my head and arm returns.

"Ah!!!" it hurt so much that I fell to my knees again.

Then, it appears as if time slowed down and the infected made room for someone to pass through them.

The pregnant zombie walks between them and comes to the door, places her ugly hand on it and starts to smile. It feels like every time she comes closer and closer to me.

Suddenly my wristwatch vibrates and when I look at it, it shows that I have only twenty hours left.

Looking up, time started flowing normally again and the pregnant zombie was now missing. She left only the horde of infected behind.

"Jake are you alright?" Screamed Shana and ran to me to help me up.

"Yes don't worry." I say weakly and stand up but then another roar, now closer.

Looking at the horde we saw some infected flying through the air from the back row, as if someone was tossing them around.

Realizing what it could be, I screamed "Run!"

We ran through the back door and landed in the empty alley behind the building.

As I turn around, the shopfront's window explodes and a topless, infected figure appears.

It was over 8 ft tall (~2,4 m) with muscle swelling all over the body, with a knife sticking out of its chest, but it didn't care about it.

As soon as it sees us, it starts running through the shop like a wrecking ball.

I close the door and it crashes into it. This sent the door flying into the alley. Unfortunately, I was directly behind it, so I grew wings and flew through the air too.

"Jake!!!" I could hear Shana scream while crashing to the ground.

The rough landing stunned me for a second, but it was not enough to knock me out.

Jumping up, I reached for my gun, only to see that it couldn't get through the door's opening, because it was so bulky.

Fortunately, this blocked the path for the other infected too, so this was our chance to escape.

"Let's go!" I say as we begin to run.

Escaping the alley, we came to a street where no infected were visible yet, so we kept moving forward.

The goal was to create some distance between us and the infected. But then we heard a loud noise, as if something had broken through a wall.

When I look back, the wrecking ball infected runs out of the alley, looks at us and roars like the Hulk.

 

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