Chapter 7: Bone Crusher

"What? No, no way am I letting this bitch cut my fucking arm off." Tyler moved back away from all of us, his brow coated with sweat as he glared his deep, blue eyes at us.

"Wasn't I babe a few minutes ago?" Anna replied, her small smile spread on her angel face. I looked to Harry, wondering if he'd step in and try to reason with his friend, but he was too busy watching Felix, pinching his bottom lip with his thumb and finger.

"Yeah, well, that was before you decided to cut my arm off!" Tyler snarled.

"Look. If you want to stop the infection from spreading anymore than it already has, your arm has to go," Anna stepped forward towards him, but he moved back, clutching his bitten arm. "The transformation is at least two days, longer if you're lucky. The only way is this. I'm sorry."

"Keep your apologies to yourself." Tyler rolled his eyes.

Everyone was silent for a moment as we all pondered what would happen next. I agreed that the only way to eliminate the obstacle was to just cut off his infected arm. In another part of my mind, I wanted him to live with it and have me revel in his painful moans and screams.

"Tyler, calm down," Harry finally spoke and sat down on the long couch, patting the seat by him. "Come sit down for a moment." His voice was low and steady, but I could hear the definite strain in his words. Tyler hesitated, his dried and bloodied biten arm still clasped with his other hand before he wandered and sat next to his friend.

"You know I'll kill you all if you try and touch me, right?" Tyler said, chuckling bitterly as he spoke.

"Yeah, yeah. But you won't do that with me," In a quick flash, Harry pushed the blond-headed Hunter down against the couch cushions, both hands holding his arms down as he cursed and kicked beneath him. "Hurry up!" He yelled to Anna. The time of being quiet to let Thalia sleep has vanished and now we were starting to prepare for an amputation.

"Okay! Felix grab the towels in the back and also the iron near the bathroom. I'll have to cauterize the wound once everything is done," Anna said quickly, shoving off her robe as Felix went to do his duty. "Aria, grab the machete against the wall there," She pointed to the far wall were our scavenged weapons and supplies were. "Isn't this exciting? My first amputation. Hopefully I don't mess this up." Anna said, biting her lip and her eyes shining with a weird light.

"Fuck no! She's not cutting my arm off! Let go, Harry!" Tyler yelled, trying to knee him in the groin.

I made my way over, grabbing the long sword-like knife, the metal clicking against the wall to make a shivering sound. As I turned back, Harry was having a hard time keeping Tyler beneath him. Tyler was at least two inches taller and had a little more muscle, so it was a large struggle.

"Keep that thing away from me!" He yelled as I gave Anna the machete.

"Shut up or I'll cut something else off." Anna said, causing Tyler to quiet, but his thrashing still thrived on. Felix soon came back with the towels and iron, along with a small cloth and an old bottle of dark brown liquid--whiskey.

"You'll need this." Felix said to Tyler as he handed him both the cloth and large bottle of alcohol.

"God dammit," Tyler only took the whiskey and popped the cap before chugging at least a large gulp. He was definitely racing to get himself buzzed, but Anna took it from his grasp before he could reach his goal. "Give it back, you little bitch."

Anna raised a brow before pouring a small amount on his bite, making him seethe with pain. The stitching she did last night didn't exactly pull everything together. Just from then, it has grown slightly bigger, pulling the threads apart in some areas and showing off an orange and dark red mess with tiny fungi spores growing inside against the meat. The smell it gave off was pungent and almost smelled something of curdled milk and shit all in one.

"Don't drink it all," She said and gave it back. Tyler drank another mouthful and leaned his head back, sticking the cloth between his teeth and baring his canines against it. "On the count of three," She breathed out, touching the edge of the blade to just below his elbow. "One..." Tyler had stopped moving as he waited and Harry was above him, eyes on the wall behind me. "Two..." Felix stood, watching every moment with his finger on the rifle trigger.

"Three." Anna brought the sharp machete up and she almost hesitated before bringing it down, resulting with blood spraying everywhere and a bone crushing sound. Tyler's screaming against the cloth was muffled by the cloth in between his teeth. His blood that splattered out from the blow painted me from face to knees. Anna was the worst though--her face coated with it and her hair sticky with dark red.

"This is dull." Anna complained as she brought the machete down more time, squishing as crunching sounds filling my ears as another spray of his blood flashing onto me. I dared to look since my eyes were always looking at Harry. Tyler's arm was hanging off the couch side, dripping with blood and pus. The bones inside were shooting straight and stringed meat poured out like spaghetti.

The arm was hanging buy a chord of skin, loosely swinging back and forth. "Hurry up, please." I pleaded as I felt a wave of nausea hit me.

"Just one...more," Anna gasped and brought down the last slice and ending the disgusting torture scene. Tyler had passed out from the second blow and his blood didn't hold up for a minute. "Okay," she sighed out and patted the stump, pressing the towels hard against him. "Aria, hold this here for me." She pulled me down alongside her and I cautiously pressed down on the towels on arm to hold the coming blood back, the blood seeping through was staining my bandaged hands.

I took a quick glance at Harry and saw him staring back at me, his green eyes wide and his breathing raspier than usual. His face was dotted with his friend's blood.

"Alright, the iron is plugged in. Now, we just have to wait for it to heat up." Anna sighed and helped me with the pressure on Tyler's stump. "That was different than the movies." She chuckled, wiping some blood from her lips with her arm sleeve.

"Because this was real." I said and she nodded. Harry moved back off of Tyler, his eyes trained directly on where the amputation was.

"Fuck." He shook his head. Anna waited for the iron to become more heated until she finally brought it closer and hovered it over where my hands pressed against the wound.

"Time to cauterize it." She breathed out, her pupils were dilated and her breathing was ragged, but she seemed focused. When she nodded her head, I removed the rag for her. With a last sigh, she brought the desperately hot iron down upon the blood-spurting stump, a harsh sizzling sound filling my ears.

Tyler jerked and gasped out, his screams blocking out whatever thoughts had conjured in my mind.

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"We're leaving with or without you." Harry said through gritted teeth. All morning, I've been trying to persuade Felix to accept the fact that I wanted to go and I wanted everyone else to come with me.

"Then go." Felix answered with the same tone.

"Guys, stop. We have to go. Felix, sooner or later this complex will become over run by military or Infected...and I don't want to encounter either. In D.C, we could see what's there and possibly find answers we deserve to know." My voice practically whined as I looked up at him.

His blue eyes never left Harry's emerald ones. I knew he was desperately trying to shake off my words or find an excuse to stay.

"I don't trust him." He mumbled.

"I wouldn't," Tyler spoke up from the couch. Anna made sure the cauterization went well and his stump was now perfectly bandaged. He would be fine, but obviously at a disadvantage. "Sometimes when we were sleeping in our cots back at our camp, he would find a fucking way--"

"Not helping," I hushed him, leaving him to laugh and shrug. "Aren't you curious?" I asked Felix. I could tell he was and I knew I almost had him.

"Yes, but traveling with two Hunters? My curiosity is best saved for when we have reliable people. Not two fucking murderers." He scoffed, his hand gripping tighter in his rifle.

"I think that term is a little overrated now," Harry snorted. "Although, being a pussy isn't. You seem to fit that category." Felix tried to smack him with his gun, but I pushed him back.

"Stop!" I yelled.

"You're gonna stand up for him? This dick?!" He looked utterly confused and in disbelief.

"I'm not standing up for anyone and I'm not taking sides. I want this and I want to know what's in D.C.. Come or not, Felix." My voice almost wavered at the end, but I made sure it stayed strong and firm. I couldn't show my hurt.

Felix looked from Harry then to me and back again to the Hunter behind us both. I needed his support and his military experience. And what I really needed was more people to help me protect Thalia. Felix looked like he wanted to say something more, but when he opened his mouth he couldn't form words.

"Suit yourself," Harry glared at him and nudged me before glancing back at him. "Have fun. You got your hand for company." He implied before walking back to where Tyler sat. I pleaded with my eyes for Felix to come, but he wasn't budging.

"Anna!" I called out to her, still not breaking my locked eyes with Felix.

"Yes, Aria?" She answered back.

"Get Thalia and her things. We're leaving. Now," I stepped back and grabbed the machete that lay on the floor--the same one that was used on Tyler's arm. "Felix? Please." I begged, but he didn't talk or shake his head, only stared.

"We gotta go before we lose sunlight. Otherwise, the Infected will become more of a problem," Harry said, ruffling his curls as he came up to me. "Remember what I said about your sister-in-law, love." He touched my shoulder, sending tiny waves of electric currents through my body--something I wasn't entirely used to.

"I understand." I said, almost choking on my words.

Harry hesitated before nodding and helping Felix off the couch. "You good?" He asked his friend.

"Got an arm missing, a world full of dead people, and a painful erection for a certain blond. Yeah, everything's just fine." Tyler joked, making Harry chuckle a deep laugh.

As soon as Anna was ready with Thalia, we were ready. To be honest, I'd missed this place. We were here for a little over four months and lucky. Nothing had attacked us and no one died...except Tom.

As I stepped out into the ghost town with weeds springing from cracks in the asphalt and cars stripped clean of their necessities, I felt terrified of the things we would have to deal with very soon. Either the Infected or another group of Hunters, I don't know.

"Aria?" Harry called out to me. I realised I had fallen a little short of the group. I jogged up closer, shrugging back up the straps of Thalia's bag. "If you keep this up, I may have to actually kill you this time." He joked, throwing an arm around my shoulders.

"I'll just throw myself to a Clicker and save you the satisfaction." I laughed, making him laugh as well.

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A/N: So, these updates may be slow, but I promise not too slow. Okay? I have a lot things on my plate right now. What do you guys think so far? Do you like it? What about Tyler's amputation? Felix staying?

So close to 1k! Thank so much to everyone reading :)