Infected

A stinging sensation erupts into her eyes. Amara quickly shuts her eyes, taking a deep breathe through her nose and let's it out through her mouth.

This was no time for tears.

After calming herself, she cleans the wound, to the best of her ability, then wraps it back up with clean gauze and black scraps of cloth to cover it up.

She puts the first aid kit back under the sink and looks back at the mirror.

"What will I do?" Amara whispers to herself.

So many questions were running through her head as she leaned her head against the reflective surface. Thoughts swimming back and forth, hoping that it was all a dream, a nightmare that would eventually end.

When the kingdoms were warring with each other, magic and weaponry devastated parts of the land, transforming it and those that live in it.

These individuals manifested certain abilities at childhood after they were exposed to nuclear magic that altered their genetic code.

Amara feared she was infected with the Neo Virus. A disease caused by a parasite known as "Vega." No one knows where it came from or how it started, only that it was deadly and those infected changed forever.

All they know is that it started after the war ended. Most people thought it was some form of rabies, but it soon became more than that.

It wasn't until people started getting bitten that the virus displayed the horrors of the disease. A countdown begins for you once you've been bitten.

Depending on what happens, the body will display two types of mutations. The first and most common mutation is that you turn into a mindless monster. Your body tries to fight off the infection but overcompensates in the process, causing your body to break down.

This results in a string of symptoms such as weakness, high fever, pain, nausea, and excessive bleeding of black blood (the virus also turns your blood black). In the second stage, the virus travels to the brain and begins to shut parts of it down, leaving nothing but the animalistic instinct that is full of rage.

The second mutation is that you develop special abilities from being infected. This mutation is rare, though there have been a select few who have these 'strange gifts'. At first, the body seems to be able to bond with the virus, leaving no symptoms and development of various powers. Changes in outer appearance often happen but it can also happen in the first stage as well.

But, despite all of that, those with this mutation don't live very long. Its because our bodies aren't able to completely bond with the virus, as it sees it as a threat, so it slowly begins to reject it. This causes damage to the immune system as the body tries to rid itself of the infection, resulting in the above symptoms and the host dying from a weakened state.

Shuddering at the thought, she reflexively turn on the water.

"Damnit."

The water runs slowly down the drain as she looks at the herself in the mirror once again.

Then cast my bright eyes on the scissors. She picks them up again. She runs a finger along one of the blades, and then start to trace it along her arm and stop at her wrists.

There was no way she could let my sister watch her turn into a monster.

"I should do it."

Tightening her grip, she tried to will herself to stop her hand from shaking.

'I have to do it,' she coaxes herself. 'I need to do this.' She thinks back to what happened in the woods.

. . .

She is hiding behind a large oak, waiting patiently for the right moment. She adjusts the dark hood that covered her dark brown curls, looking past the tree that kept her hidden from a doe that was grazing nearby.

It had brownish-gold fur with a white-tipped tail that flicked back and forth lazily as the doe continued to gorge itself in the patches of greenery. She gently lifted an arrow from my quiver, loading it onto the crossbow.

Breathe.

She breathes in gently, feeling the air tickle the inside of her nose. She let it out, the hot air escaping her mouth as she aims the crossbow, placing a finger on the trigger.

She's about to take the shot when growls are heard from a distance.

She curses under her breath.

The deer tears its head away from the grass. Its body goes rigid. It's ears are twitching towards the sound, suddenly aware of the potential danger approaching. Without a second thought, it bolts from its spot, speeding off into the woods.

Amara quickly removes herself from the tree trunk, running down the old forest path.

She quickly glances behind her, straining ears to catch the slightest sound. She couldn't see anything yet but she could hear the growls in the distance.

She could only hope that the deer served as a good distraction.

'Almost there,' She thinks, Her heart beating through her chest as She pushes her body to run faster. She stumbles on a branch, causing her to briefly lose her footing.

A few seconds was enough as she heard a pair of feet padding towards her.

A wild dog jumps up at her. She sidesteps him as he lands on the ground a few feet away. It was a big, black dog with patches of fur missing from parts of his body, black ichor dripping from his mouth.

Amara quickly knocked an arrow to her crossbow. She lined up her shot as the feral dog glared at her with its pale, yellow, eyes.

He attempts to attack again but Amara quickly nails him in the eye with an arrow. He slumps to the ground with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, the ichor dripping endlessly from his mouth.

Amara doesn't relax though. She suddenly hears multiple growls from behind her. She turns abruptly to see that there are six other dogs raging at her.

'Brilliant' she muttered, taking a few slow steps back, strapping the crossbow to her right side and pulling her machete from its sheath strapped to her left hip.

A small dog with pointy ears was the first to charge at her. Brandishing the machete with her right arm, She swipes him across the face, leaving him yelping in protest as two more come at her from both sides.

She goes for the one on the right, slicing it in the face and kicking the other hard in the snout.

While he flew a couple of feet away, another tried to grab at her parka, in an attempt to drag her to the ground.

Another dog was coming at her from the left. She quickly removes the jacket from her body, rolling away as the dog lunged at her with his mouth wide open.

She slices horizontally, which causes the upper part of his mouth and face to be detached from the rest of him. Black fluid splatters in the air, falling like rain to the ground.

Amara focuses on the dog that grabbed her jacket but he advanced on her before there was a chance to attack. She sidestepped him in time only to have to feel pain erupt from her arm.

Gasping in pain, Amara drops her weapon from the pain, as the dog tries to drag me down. She reaches for her knife with her free hand, bringing down the blade of the knife on the mongrel.

Her knife pierces the eye, black blood spurting from the wound as twists and wrenches it out. His jaw goes limp as she scrambles to her feet.

Amara holds out her weapon as the rabid dogs creep closer to her. She quickly eyed my machete that lay a few feet away.

'Shit,' I thought, 'this is bad.'

She pulls out another hunting knife, readying to fight to the death.

Then she feels a sharp, whizzing sound and I see arrows sticking out of the dogs' foreheads and eyes. Black liquid oozed from their wounds as they dropped like rocks to the ground.

"Amara!"

The 19-year old turns her head to see a girl in a brown jacket, with piercing indigo eyes peeking from the hood. Her black hair twisted into two braids draped past the hood she wore over her head. She had her hand hovering in the air, her hand glowing an indigo color.

The last two dogs looked back at her, forgetting about me and focusing on her. Rushing up on her, Kiera lifts two arrows from her pack. They hover from her hand, aiming at the dogs as they shoot a an impressive speed.

One arrow pierces a dog in the neck, It drops to the ground and the remaining one lunges at her. She sidesteps out of its way but the dog quickly recovers and grabs at her foot. She falls to the ground but grabs an arrow and plunges it into its eye.

"Kiera!" Amara ran to her, "Are you okay?"

She stands up, spinning quickly towards her with the indigo fading back to her natural dark brown in her.

"I'm okay," she says. Amara reaches her hand out to help her sister stand.

"What are you doing here?" Amara exclaimed, placing in a hand on the young girl's forehead. "you shouldn't be out here with your fever still blazing."

"What about you?" Amara froze as her sister jerked away from her.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Amara lets out a sigh.

''Kiera," She began. "I just-"

"You just what?" Kiera snaps. "You just thought you'd be fine by yourself?"

She clamps her mouth shut, preparing myself for her lecture.

"What happened to stick together Amara? It's dangerous outside of the wall. You know that."

"I know." Amara adverts her eyes from her younger sister. She was right, though. The outskirts left them exposed to many dangers, including infected animals, plants, and sometimes even desperate people.

""I didn't have much of a choice," Amara interjects. "We're almost low on food and meds. And who knows when the next supply shipment will show up."

Kiera becomes quiet, looking away from her big sister. The kingdoms would often send supply crates and wagons to a provide provisions for those lesser fortunate. Lately, they've been seeing less and less and the girls were learning to fend for themselves.

"You know what could happen..."

Amara's gaze softened as she heard her sister's voice crack. If there was one thing she couldn't tolerate was making her sister worry over her. Amara walked towards Kiera until She was an arm's length away from her.

"I'm sorry," she soothes, placing my hand on her shoulder. "I didn't mean to worry you. I was just trying to make sure we were taken care of."

Anita looks back at Amara, about to reply when she narrows her eyes.

"Don't be mad." Amara sighs. "I'm sorry that I-"

"You're bleeding."

She paused. She looks down at my left arm, blood dripping down from my fingers.

Shit. She forgot about the bite.

"I-It's nothing," Amara stammers, attempting to staunch the bleeding with her sleeve.

Anita steps closer and grabs my arm, pulling up the sleeve to reveal the bleeding dog bite. She cursed silently, clenching her jaw.

"We need to get you home!"

I looked anxiously away from her, body shaking uncontrollably.

"Sis, look at me."

"But," I gazed at me with an anguished-filled expression. "if I hadn't been sick..."

"Don't." She sharply says to her. "It couldn't be helped. I don't want you blaming yourself for this."

She places her other hand on my shoulder. "Do you hear me?"

Kiera nods. The sisters wrap their arms around each other, giving silent support.

When they finally let go, they stare at each other, giving each other reassuring glances.

"Okay."

"Now, let's hurry and get this taken care of. We gotta make sure this isn't infected."

Amara nods in agreement and both girls hurry home.

. . .

She considers the options that she has. There was the possibility that she could live, but more often than not, the infection does something different to humans than say a supernatural.

The scissors make a loud clink sound.

She couldn't go through with it. She's find a way, no matter how hopeless it seemed.