TORN FLESH

CHAPTER EIGHT: BLOODY STARS

"VIOLET, please." Margo pleaded her voice raspy due to the lack of water, it seemed to become far more obvious with each passing second that she did indeed need to drink something.

The young girl shook her head her bright blonde hair swishing with each movement, "I'll move when you drink some water." she retorted unscrewing the cap, Margo shook her head, "I already told you Violet." her cough broke through her words interrupting her midsentence, she wiped her mouth, a dark crimson color smearing along the length of her arm, "I'm fine." she mumbled.

"Margo." she began placing the cap over the top of the bottle once more, the older girl held her hand up to keep the girl at bay the blood crossing her vision, "you're not fine." she spoke brushing past her weak arm to stand in front of her. Violet gently latched onto Margo's arm raising it to her level of sight to gaze upon the blood, it was dark, spread thickly across her pale arm.

She was dying.

"You're sick." Violet spoke her voice filled with realization, she'd simply thought it was her limp and the fact that she was in pain, but no, she was sick, and upon first glance, she couldn't figure out why, after the second glance she knew why.

"My leg, I'm willing to bet it's infected." she spoke letting out another rough cough, a small bit of blood lingered on her lips the substance tasting metallic on her tongue, "what do we do?" she questioned, she didn't know how to deal with an infected leg much less patch a wound, "we get somewhere safe-" she wiped her mouth once more, "and then we treat it the best we can." she spoke.

The young girl's thoughts had been set ablaze with worry as she tried to work through their options, there weren't many. They could run into a good stache of medical supplies and treat it to the full extent necessary, they could use what they had to treat it and hope for the best, or, they could amputate it, and she doubted that Margo would live past that.

She would die from either blood loss or a Lurker, either way, amputation wasn't an option.

When she came back from her thoughts,  she took notice of the way Margos eyes were glazed over, how her lips were just slightly parted- the crimson tint of blood creeping along the edges- she reached her arm out to lean against the tree closest to her but let out a gasp when her hand missed the wood and fell through the air.

Unable to catch her weight, Violet watched as she struggled to roll onto her back trying to pull oxygen into her lungs, "Margo!" she spoke her voice pinched as she dropped to her knees beside the girl, she coughed once more holding her shaking hand out to try and keep her away, her lungs- finally ready to cooperate- sucked in the thick oxygen they needed so badly.

The air caught along her throat sending her into another rage of coughs Violet gently smacking her back to try and help her clear her lungs, she watched as blood dripped from Margos pale lips, she hadn't expected to see so much. It coated the dirt in a thick puddle the color blended with that of the dirts, gently pulling on her shoulder, Violet helped coax her into a sitting position her breaths uneven as she tried to slow her racing heart.

She'd never felt this way before, her insides on fire, her head threatening to explode, her entire body tingling from the lack of blood flow, her leg throbbing from the bullet wound.

"We have to keep going." Violet spoke removing the cap from the bottle she'd previously opened earlier, Margo- too weak to argue or push her away- slowly opened her mouth wincing as the water trickled past her lips and down her throat, the few droplets that had formed at the bottom of her chin were quickly swiped away by Violet as she closed the water bottle and slipped it back into her bag.

"You're gonna have to help me walk." she mumbled her voice barely audible as the words came out, Violet ducked beneath her arm allowing the girl to lean onto her for support, she hoped they would reach their destination. Margo shakily reached her hand up to wipe away the blood letting her arm fall back to her side as the blood dripped along her skin, the two of them- working together as quickly as possible- began their trek towards the small town they had already been heading to.

The darkness of dusk didn't take long to close in on them- holding little regard as to the fact they needed to reach the town before dark-  stumbling up the long hill they currently resided on, Violet could see the edge of the town over the darkened green top, she let a sigh escape her lips, it gave her some peace of mind to know that they could still make it before absolute darkness drapped over them.

"We can make it." she breathed out, she hoped that by saying it enough it would be far more true than she thought it was, which wasn't much. They treaded through the tall grasses the wind carrying whispers through the green blades as they passed, Violet took note of where Margo had stored her gun in the case she needed to use it.

The grasses seemed to thin out to rough patches of dirt after a few feet telling Violet that they hadn't been the only ones to recently pass through, taking a slow breath, she continued on as quickly as she could with Margo's weight pressed against her.

The girl- Margo- seemed to be half-conscious and half unconscious, as if she might tumble over at any given moment, it also seemed that Violet was half dragging her half carrying her- which was far harder than she'd ever admit- and with the fear of night looming over them it seemed that they would indeed be left vulnerable to the threats the darkness brought with it.

Heaving her across the barren blood streaked road, human remains littered the cement- Violet turning away to try and keep her fear from leaking into her thoughts- "Violet." the girl stopped glancing at Margo as she leaned against her, she let out another cough, "find a building, something." she mumbled her legs working slower than her lips.

She nodded her head- despite the fact she knew Margo wouldn't see it- "find a building." she mumbled to herself. Dragging herself and the older girl across the road she saw something that gave her hope.

A car.

It would have to do.

It was all they had at the moment, and they needed to get out of the dark as soon as possible, not spend more time in it.

At least in the car, they were protected from the horrors outside. The vehicle would provide them with some safety and even a mode of transportation if the gas was still resting in the tank, she prayed it was.

"We're almost there." she spoke ignoring the probability that Margo wasn't even listening, she knew that once they had time and safety she'd be fine, she could treat Margo and she would get better, and then they could get back to their trip at hand.

Approaching the car, Violet leaned against the side pulling the handle towards her, when it made no click and didn't pull forward she tried again, nothing.

It was locked.

And she could hear the low groans of Lurkers nearby. She tried the next handle finding that it too was locked, her eyes narrowing and bile threatening to spill from her throat, she went for the second to last handle, it was locked.

Dragging Margo with her she proceeded to check the last handle having little faith in it being unlocked, it wasn't.

Panicked and stuck in place by her fear, Violet glanced around at the surrounding landscape, there was hardly anything, a small building off to her right and a motel to her left, but she couldn't risk either, they were too big for her to clear by herself and carry Margo with her while doing so.

Behind the car, she could hear the dull sound of bare feet meeting cement, they were slow and uneven steps making it clear that they weren't from any human- at least not alive- she quickly dug through Margos bag retrieving the gun before she cocked it and held it at her side, switching it to her left hand she removed her machete and held it out in front of her as if the thing would shield her from any and all harm.

It wouldn't.

The Lurker came at her slowly, giving her enough time to bring the blade down into its skull, unable to support both herself and Margo, she settled the girl against one of the tires while she dealt with the Lurker. The blade easily slid through the things head a dark blackish red fluid running down the edge of the blade in thick gushes of movement, she glanced over at the girl just to check that she was alright before yanking the blade from the skull of the Lurker.

It collapsed to its side on the cement, its blood continued to pour out before it slowed to a dull drip from the wound, she understood why the cement was coated in as much blood as it was. There had been several deaths, she couldn't tell if they'd been the deaths of innocent people or these things that wore the faces of people but were monsters in their newfound reality.

The next Lurker gave no warning as it came from the side and reached out for Margos leg, spinning to face the damned thing she fired a bullet through its head watching as it toppled backwards from the force. It seemed that after those first two kills they had begun to come from every direction, and they did in a way.

They appeared through the darkness, some coming in pairs of two or by themselves, being as careful as possible, she made sure to go for the ones closest before firing rounds into the ones that got too close to Margo. She slammed her blade forward into the skull of another Lurker, flinching as the blade sliced through the rotted flesh, blood gushed out from the jagged cut and it fell to the side taking Violet with it.

She quickly jumped to her feet yanking and pulling on the blade to try and free it from the skin as it held it in place, the Lurkers- closing in and approaching Margo as well as herself- seemed to be multiplying by the second, she didn't have many of those. Giving up on the blade, she turned and fired a shot into the walker closest to her followed by the one closest to Margo.

Both dropped to the cement their blood creating puddles around their skulls.

The girl continued to pop off rounds knowing that if she didn't do something about the attack the two of them would go up in screams and tearing flesh, she wasn't going to go out without a fight.

She fired the last two shots in the clip listening as the gun clicked- signaling that it was empty- her eyes widened in horror at the realization and she dashed across the small space between herself and Margo dropping to her knees to riffle through the girls bag. She wasted no time in locating the second clip making sure it loaded correctly before she glanced over her shoulder and aimed it at the Lurker that had attempted to come up behind her.

"HEY! GET DOWN!"

The voice came out of nowhere followed by a bright light that sent black dots dancing across her vision.

"GET DOWN KID!"

The gunshots rang out across the air and she dropped onto her stomach clutching her hands over her ears, a small ringing had begun to develop there as the automatic guns fired off round after round into the heads of Lurkers.

After a few moments, Violet opened her eyes at the sudden sensation of hands on her back, someone was picking her up.

Unable to fight against them- due to the fact she was far too small- she watched as they carried her away from Margo, and while she wouldn't recall such words leaving her mouth as her ears continued to ring, the others would tell her how she'd desperately called out for the older girl.

TORN FLESH

CHAPTER EIGHT: BLOODY STARS