VALERIE opened her eyes, heart pounding in her ears as she laid next to a corpse.

Her hands were stained with blood as her dull eyes stared at the peaceful face of her father.

They had found him in his last moments, they couldn't afford telling him the horrible truth marked in their future. He'd know when they join him in the afterlife. He didn't have to worry about them not making it when he fought his last dying breath with the hope his fight had been enough to save them, to see them one last time.

Valerie had seen enough death to be fazed by her father's, yet she knew the ache in her chest as a small, silent sob leaving her lips was her way to grieve for the man who gave it all up to raise her and her sister.

A small groan from behind her made her stiffen and stop moving. Slowly, silently and dreading what she was going to find, Valerie turned her head to see her sister waking up.

Well, what had once been her sister anyway.

Valerie covered her mouth, muffling the horrified shriek as the echo of a croaking click sounded close to her position.

Valerie had no time to feel confusion as she stared at her infected sister who seemed to cry and groan and even lament herself in pained moans.

The area of her neck where she had been bitten was pale and mottled. She was not facing her way though, making her a bit relieved, considering how violent and loud new infected were.

She had to be really silent because they weren't alone. She didn't know where the other infected was, clicker her dad called them.

Fitting term, Valerie agreed with a wince at a particular loud click coming from the infected out of her sight.

Valerie felt her body start to shake in fear as she made it her mission to be as silent as possible on standing up, first lifting her legs one by one and bending them closer to her body, all the time keeping her eyes on her sister who twitched very often as if sensing her close by, twitching with every silent movement she made. She paused, heart pounding loudly in her chest but waited for the twitching to stop before continuing the process of standing up.

Once in a crouch, Valerie could feel sweat breaking out in her forehead, a surge of heat making her uncomfortable. It was fear, she realized, fear that she would be spotted and attracted the attention of more infected.

Valerie grabbed her backpack, having the night before filled it with the things her dad carried in his and her sister giving her half of hers.

Just in case, she had said with eyes filled with tears and a sad smile. As if she hoped this had been all a bad dream and they would wake up and continue their journey to find a safe place to live.

Valerie was good at being silent, her father used to praise her that she would have been a great soldier if they had stayed. She didn't feel like a good soldier, she felt like at any moment she was going to attract every infected close to the building they took refuge at.

It didn't happen though.

Backpack secured, she gave her sister a sad look. She didn't want to kill her. She didn't want to be the responsible of putting a bullet in her head.

Promise me, Val. Promise me we won't turn into one of those things.

I promise, Valerie had said, crying as they both held hands the night prior.

She failed her promise.

With shaky hands, Valerie lifted the switchblade she took from her father's pocket. She failed a promise, but she was going to end her suffering. Rebecca will not hunt and eat others' flesh, she would reunite with their father without blood in her hands nor soul. 

Tears freely ran down her face as she stared at the twitching, pale body of her sister and with one swift movement, she stuck the end of the switchblade straight to her cranium, blood sputtering and coating her hands as Rebecca shrieked in both surprise and pain. She knew right away that was a mistake, if not for the rapid clickering then the thud of thundering clumsy footsteps getting closer.

With one last tug, Valerie groaned as she pulled the blade from the now limp body of her sister, in a hurry picking up her father's riffle and her baseball bat as she turned away, just in time for the clicker entering her sight. 

Valerie knew running was pointless at this point, so the moment she knew she created enough space between her and the infected, she hid herself behind a fallen couch as the building she was at seemed to be long ago apartments, her breathing fast and she covered her mouth and nose so as to not make that much noise.

The seconds in which she waited for her demise seemed to last an eternity as she closed her eyes. Suddenly, the croaking and clicking of the infected was less alarming, risking a glance out of her hiding place, seeing the infected clumsily stumbling near by, it's body full of fungal growth and erratically twitching every second or so.

How was she going to bypass the thing?

Valerie felt a surge of frustration within her as more tears fell down her face, lowering her head on the couch she hid on.

She was utterly dead.

She was not going to survive this.

Wait.

She lifted her head, wide eyed. Now without the looming threat of her infected sister lunging at her and the clicker on her ass, a crucial detail soon flashed to the front of her mind.

Rebecca wasn't the only one bitten.

With frantic movements, still mindful of not making too much noise, she lifted the hem of her pants, examining the wound with horrified eyes.

The wound still looked fresh, no sign of fungal growth, no sign of infection.