Ps. You Are My Happiness

6. Tainted Flesh

Very little is needed to make a happy life

-Marcus Aurelius

~.~

Henry walks to the door and keeps his hand on the handle. Taking a deep breath, he parts the door just enough to take a peek. Right as he does, a zombie slams against the door with growling sounds, and he closes the door again.

"We'll spend the rest of the day here, shall we?" he asks, looking bewildered.

I walk to the window next to the door, which has a curtain and slightly parts it enough to look through it.

"Don't." Ivan quickly pulls me back with his hand on my shoulder. "If they spot you through the window, they'll attack it. I don't think this window is strong enough to keep us safe," he says to me, looking up at me.

"O-okay..." Ahh, don't look at me like that.

There's complete silence in the room for a while. Sasha sits on the ground against the door, and Henry sits beside her. Eric sits on the only chair that's in the room. I look for Ivan, but he has gone back to the large bookrack where he's looking over something.

I walk up to him.

"Don't you think it's better to have some rest?" I ask him.

"I am restless."

"I can see that. Sit down." I put the report he's holding aside and gently shove him to the ground. Then I sit next to him, leaning against the bookrack.

Ivan clasps his hands together tightly until his knuckles turn white. I can sense that he's tense for some reason.

"Why do you look so tense?" I ask.

"I... saw someone familiar outside in the parking space."

"Who?"

"A friend of mine." he keeps his hand on his forehead and shakes his head. "It sucks to see friends infected like that. This isn't the first time."

"I get it. It might be hard to see them lifeless like that."

"That's why I am rushing this mission. I want to find the truth about this virus so someone can develop the cure soon."

"First, we have to leave this room."

"Yeah. Unfortunately, the parking space lights are on. So even if nighttime comes, we can't escape without a plan."

"How do the lights work without electricity?" I ask in confusion.

"They might be automated solar lights. I don't know."

Everyone falls asleep after a while except me. As I slept in the vehicle, I was fully awake. Ivan's head falls on my shoulder beside me, and I try my best to stay still. I can hear his soft snoring. The way he sleeps itself makes me realise how tense he is. He seems to be stressed over everything that is going on. It might've made him avoid conversations as well. I am quite surprised he talks with me even.

I turn to look at his face and admire his features. He's so damn handsome. Ahem. Anyways.

I look around the room without moving, wondering where we get all this ventilation as I don't feel stuffy here. Then I notice a line of ventilation windows on the side of the room.

After what feels like forever, I wake up Ivan, knowing he has had enough sleep for now. We've spent hours in the storage room already.

"Yeah?" he asks in his sleepy voice.

"Come with me."

I pull Ivan to his feet and take him across the room. Then I point at the ventilation windows that are wide enough for even two humans to squeeze in together.

"Our escape route," I say.

"How will that work?" he asks.

"Give me a hand."

With his support, I get on top of the large book rack. He holds me by my waist as I land on the top. Then I crawl toward the windows and get hold of them. I see the windows are fixed with some screw nails. I tug at one with my fingernails until it comes off loose. Then I copy it with the other three. The window plate comes undone, and I hand it over to Ivan. I peek inside the window to find a large square tube spreading long.

"Shall I go in and check?" I ask him.

"Let's go in together," Ivan says.

"What about others?"

Ivan walks to Henry, who's fast asleep, and wakes him up. He let him know that we'd found a route to escape the room and that we are planning to check it out.

"Will you two be safe in there??" Henry asks.

"Yeah, the zombies can't make it in there," Ivan says.

With Henry's help, Ivan gets on top of the rack behind me. Ivan then motions me to go inside. I step into the ventilation tube first, and Ivan follows me. The square shape of the tube allows us to stay inside without feeling suffocated. Then I start crawling forward.

"Make sure to remember the way back." Ivan reminds me.

"Yeah, okay."

We crawl a bit forward until we reach a place where the tube goes in two directions, left and right.

"Right?" I ask.

"Okay."

We choose right where we keep crawling until we hear a low grumbling sound coming from somewhere in the tube.

"Zombies might be below the tube," I anxiously tell Ivan.

"Maybe. Wait-" He holds my upper arm and stops me. "Listen."

We listen in complete silence to the sound for a while. As it fades away, we crawl forward, approaching an intersection.

"We can go forward."

"Okay-"

The growling sound from before grows louder.

"Ivan... I don't feel good." I say, taking a step back.

"Let's head back."

"But this is the only way."

"Still, it feels- oh, shit." Ivan's eyes fixate in front of me, and when I squint my eyes in the darkness, I can see a zombie in front of us.

"H-how'd it get inside??" I ask, fear creeping through my veins.

"Maybe this one got bitten and tried to escape through the ventilation tubes. But got infected inside... I guess?" Ivan slowly pulls me back so my back presses against his body. We keep it silent, and I can almost hear our hearts beating loudly. We stay still in the same position for a few minutes.

"Crawl backwards. We can't turn our back on it." Ivan finally says.

"Okay."

We crawl back together as slowly as possible. We almost make it silently, but my leg slams against the metal tube, that the zombie's attention shifts toward us. I gasp in fear, holding Ivan's arm tightly.

The zombie charges at us while crawling at a speed that is inhuman. We move back as much as we can. But it's too late. The zombie jumps at me with bared teeth, and I almost pee in fear. He opens his mouth with his horrifying eyes eyeing everywhere.

He's just about to bite my hand when Ivan suddenly pushes my hand aside and takes the bite from the zombie instead of me.