Chapter 8: Blue Eyes

"Do you even know where you're going?" I teased the curly haired lad beside me. The sun was still high in the sky, beaming down on us and making the asphalt beneath our feet hot to the touch. We've been on foot for almost an hour, but the way Harry's nose scrunbched up and his eyes narrowed in thought had me wonder if he actually knew where the starting point was for Washington D.C..

"I know where I'm going," Harry rolled his eyes, his voice rising a little before he cleared it and waved me off. "Don't interrupt a man when he's thinking."

Behind us, Anna was asking Tyler questions about how his arm was doing while keeping Thalia up with her arm around her waist. I felt terrible about how much she'll have to endure during this very long trip. Her swollen belly was medium sized, but I knew at the end pf this trip, she was going to be twice that and suffering worse symptoms of her pregnancy.

"We should make camp," Tyler called out. "My arm hurts."

"We're not stopping because of how you feel." Harry rolled his eyes and changed direction to where a few old and crumbling shops were. "We need to scavenge some things first before we settle down for tonight." He nodded to me to follow him as he motioned for everyone to stay back just in case anything happened.

"He's your friend?" I asked randomly as we slowly approached what could possibly have been an old bakery.

"You can't choose your friends anymore." He mumbled to me, eyes mainly focused on the the large glass window displaying one corpse sprawled dead on the seat facing us, his dead eyes were glazed over and his jaw was gone, showing off strings of pale bloodied meat attached from top to bottom.

"Yes you can." I snorted, following his moves as he cautiously clutched the door handle.

"Not with Tyler," He eased the wooden frame of the door forward, the slow creaking noise pitching loudly in the small place. Tables were overturned with the chairs either broken or pushed over. "Seems clear." With that, he pushed it further, making the tiny silver bell ahead clink.

A long, guttural croaking noise had both of us freeze in our steps. My blood turned cold as a figure appeared from behind the counter at the far wall, his whole body twitching and smelling of rancid death. His face was covered with peeling flesh, showing tendons that connected with his jaw, moving in fast motions as it clicked its teeth together with hunger. Within seconds, it busted through the little door on the counter, his croaking sounding choked with blood.

"Aria, move!" Harry pushed me away as the beast almost made contact with me. "I can't fire the gun since it's only one."

"Here!" I unhooked the machete from my belt loop and tossed it his way as I rushed to where we first saw the Stalker. I backed up into where they stored the bakery packages as Harry tried to get a good swipe at the Infected charging at him. My heart beat rapidly as my fingers reached out blindly for anything to help, but I came out empty handed.

Harry was able to only shove the heavy machete into the Infected's shoulder. He let out a yell, shoving it back and making it smack hard against wall, the blade penetrating through flesh, bone, and plaster of the wall. It tried to claw at him, but Harry smirked, jiggling the blade to make sure it held fast. "Well, that's that," Harry turned to me, but his green eyes widened at something behind me. "Aria, don't move a muscle." He said and I furrowed my brows

I didn't listen and turned my head sideways a little to get a clear view. Behind me was something I had never seen before. The skin of the creature was pale white with dark blue veins protruding from the thin, pappery white flesh. It's dark eyes were sunken in, staring at me hungrily, but the mouth was what had me rooted to my spot, the thing that had a permanent shiver rush through my whole body. It was black around the gaping hole, cracks and tears were under the bottom lip, making black blood seep through to drip onto the dirty floor.

"Harry," I whispered. I wanted to make my way towards him because whatever this thing was, I didn't want to be gorged upon by it. "Help." My voice had never sounded more small or scared.

"It's blind, Aria and deaf. But it knows fear. Just don't move." I didn't remove my eyes from the thing behind me, my grey eyes always on target with it. It made no noise, only letting the thick blood from it's mouth slap loudly against the tiled floor. I could hear a commotion from where Harry was, making me look back. He had pulled the machete out from the Stalker's shoulder soon crushing it on top of its head, spattering him with dark fluids.

He moved slowly towards me, ducking under the small slab of door connected to the counter before finally reaching me. I don't know what took over my mind, but I found myself clinging to Harry's black shirt, making him stumble a bit, but he was able to keep his balance.

"What is it?" I whispered cautiously. It never moved or made a sound, only standing still in one spot, the dark eyes dazing off in front of itself.

"I don't know, but an infected that has a strange addiction to rip your skin off before eating your body whole. I've seen it done." Harry's strong arm moved me behind him as he approached it, tightening his grip on the handle of the machete.

As Harry raised the blade, ready to strike, a gunshot rang out, making me slap my hands over both ears and kneel down from the stinging pain the aftershot left behind. My ears ringed from it, as if a thousand church bells were inside my head.

"What the fuck?" Harry asked, more in confusion instead of pain from the loud noise. I looked up to see someone else, not an Infected, was standing before us. His eyes were an icy blue, fixed with a bit of humour as he concentrated on the curly haired man in front of me.

"Well, this is a surprise." The man with the gun in his hand said, he ran a hand through his messy, light brown hair before lowering the gun and shoving it back into the waistband of his jeans.

"Louis? What the hell are you doing here?" Harry asked, disbelief in his voice. I picked myself off the ground, my body still shaking a little from this new type of Infected I had seen. I have only seen the two types of Infected and they scared me enough, but now this? I wasn't ready to face something completely new.

"Happen to be in the neighbourhood and hear a bit of a struggle going on in the store next to mine," Louis shrugged. His eyes moved over to me, an amused glint in his eyes as his lips curled up into a smirk. "Who's this?" His voice was boyish and quick. Harry glanced at me over his shoulder, telling me with his eyes to go to the others, but I didn't want to. I wanted to stay by him.

"Aria," I spoke up, making Harry close his eyes slowly and breath out deeply, trying to hold back anything from building over. "Are you a Hunter? Like Harry?" I stepped closer to where the two boys were, hand nervously clawing at my opposite arm.

"Well, I'm not a fucking military dog," He laughed. "Where'd you get her from?" Louis stepped closer, but it only made Harry's hand fasten tighter on the machete. Louis noticed this, but he didn't seem phased by it.

"Not any closer." Harry's deep slow voice was raspier as he talked to his 'friend'. It lowered to a mutter, his green eyes darkening to a malachite green. Louis raised his hands, never letting the simple smirk from his face falter.

"You're still pissed about the whole Matilda thing, aren't you?" From this person's name, Harry gritted his teeth. I could see he was about five seconds from slicing Louis' neck off his head, so I did the dumb thing and stepped in between the seething curly haired assassin and the cocky, murderous Hunter.

"Calm down." I whispered to Harry, making him actually step back and loosen his grip, surprising me.

"Whoa. Did she just order you?" Louis chuckled. "This is the first time Harry Styles has ever taken orders from someone. Especially from a brave little girl. Tell me...when did the great Harry become someone's bitch?" Louis was in for it now. Harry pushed past me, making me slam against the wall as the two Hunters fumbled around, hurling each other into the walls or wooden crates.

I heard the front door's bell tinkle from someone's entry. I saw the machete on the floor. Just as I was about to reach for it, Tyler came rushing in, his stump still tightly bandaged and his long blond hair matted down from sweat.

"What the hell?" Tyler moved and pulled the two apart, his hand against Harry's heaving chest and the elbow of his other arm against Louis'.

"Oh my God, Tyler? What happened to your bloody arm, mate?" Louis' eyes were wide, his nose bleeding. Harry wasn't showing any injuries from the other but only the remains of the Infected outside.

"I got bit." Tyler said slowly. He blinked rapidly, making me guess he was trying to make sense of Louis' appearance.

"Oh shit." Louis Laughed and patted his stump. Tyler winced as he did so. I grunted in pain as I slowly moved up, my back sliding against the wall. Harry must have heard since he turned to me, his green eyes immediately widening as he came over and helped me back up.

"Aria, I'm so sorry." He apologised, but I waved him off.

"Yeah, an apology is really going to remove the bruise on my back." I said sarcastically, making him smile, showing off two sets of dimples.

"I heard a gunshot."Tyler pointed out.

"I saved her," Louis said, wiping the blood that flowed out on his Hunter jacket he wore, the gruesome red face threaded on his breast pocket. "Do I get a reward?"

"I'll give you a black eye to go with that nose bleed." I narrowed my eyes at him. I didn't like how cocky and unphased he was about this whole thing and the way his pale lips turned up in a smirk made me want to see Harry go after him again.

"Oh, I like her," He chuckled, his electrifying blue eyes gleaming as he spoke. He moved his hand to his hair, swiping the messy hair across his forehead. Harry's grip on my arm tightened as he glowered at Louis. "I'm guessing you came here to get food, right? Well, there's no point, to be honest. The boys and I already looted this place clean. So, how about we take all of this," He gestured to the four of us. "Back to the camp. The original camp." He turned his eyes to Harry.

"We have two others," Harry said. "Others I don't feel safe bringing to your camp. Speaking of which," He turned his emerald glare to Tyler. "Where the fuck are they?"

"Outside. They're fine. They have a weapon." He moved back away from Louis. "I'll go get them." With that, he left and an awkward silence grew between us. Harry made sure most of my body was covered away from Louis' glance, but each time I looked into those icy eyes of his, a smirk is also written inside them.

In a few minutes, Tyler has retrieved Anna and Thalia, the nurse's hand placed gently on the swollen belly. Louis' eyes widened from seeing Thalia, making her scurry her way over to me, clasping her pale white fingers around my wrist. Her amber waves were tied up in a large bun, a few strands loose and stringing out against the back of her head.

"Is it yours?" Louis asked Harry, amusement and some concern wrapped up in one in his voice.

"No," Harry breathed out. "I guess we don't have a choice. Fine, we'll go with you, but if you follow us, any one of you, in the morning, I will kill you." He picked up the machete on the floor, his arm muscles tightening from the strong grip. Louis chuckled lightly at him before nodding his head to follow him.

"Do you trust him?" I whispered to Harry as I held Thalia's shaking hand, making sure she was alright.

"Not at all." He said through his teeth.

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A/N: I just really wanted to get a chapter out for you, so sorry for it not being long. I'm trying really hard to finish my other story, so when it has ended, I will try my very best on this story :)

-Haeli xx