I quickly let go of Zack, took out my gun and scanned the area. A group of about five zombies were coming towards us.

"Uh, I think we're going to need backup," I said.

We only had two zombie leads and handcuffs between us. Our jeep wouldn't be big enough to hold all these CRD sufferers either.

"I'll call for backup, you shoot their knees. You have a much better aim than me anyway."

"Sure." I nodded.

Zack got his walkie-talkie out, while I shot at the zombies. I got one of them down, but the female zombie continued crawling towards me.

They were getting closer; I hated taking on more than one zombie at a time. I shot the knees of another one, that was two down, only three more to go.

I backed away, to distance myself.

"Backup is on the way," Zack said and took his gun out.

"Good."

I shot again, but missed. The stress really didn't help my aim. Hopefully there weren't any other zombies in the area.

Zack shot both knees of another CRD sufferer. She fell and crawled toward us, with the other two. These zombies really were relentless, the only thing that would stop them was a bullet to the brain.

I took a few more steps back, then shot at the two remaining zombies. I got the man's knees and he fell, just like the others.

"One more to go," I said.

"We've got this."

The last one got closer, I walked backwards to create more distance.

I was about to shoot the last zombie, when someone grabbed my shoulders. Before I could react, teeth sunk into my shoulder, causing a sharp, pinching pain.

I elbowed the zombie, it detached itself from me and growled ferociously. I turned, pushed the zombie then shot her knees. Even though the zombie bit me, I couldn't kill it; the cure could be developed soon.

Zack looked at me and his mouth was hanging open.

"The zombie bit you!"

"I know, it's really sore." I sighed.

We walked away from the zombies who'd been inching closer to us.

My shoulder felt like a volcano and disgusting blood was trickling down my arm.

"You're going to be fine. Maybe it's the first strain, you'll be cured in no time."

"I really hope so... if it isn't I could die," I said and tears filled my eyes.

My throat was almost completely closed. Soon I'd be a horrible monster with no control over my body. If Caitlin didn't find a cure soon, my body would decay and there'd be no hope for me.

"That's not happening." He shook his head.

"I don't want it to be the second strain, but it's more likely."

"Then Caitlin will work harder and find the cure much faster. I love you and I'm not losing you," Zack said and hugged me.

Tears rolled down my cheeks. It was horrible, my worst nightmare was coming true. If it was the second strain, I'd become a zombie even faster; the second strain completely skipped the flu stage and went straight to anger within a few hours.