"What? Why, where are you going?" I was shaken and somewhat perturbed. My gut stirred painfully, and my gut was always right. Something is going on - something dreadful, extremely dreadful.

"I won't be far." She pointed to our weapon in the far corner of our shelter. "I have a whetstone with me. I might as well sharpen those while you discuss among yourselves."

"Why..."

"Don," She cut me off. "I'm giving you privacy. I promise to stay in sight, but I am not staying here." She sternly added. Thereafter, she walked away towards a big willow with our weapons in hand. The wolves migrated with her, leaving us alone.

"What's going on with you, Ash?" Amy's voice made me snap my head back to our group.

To say her response was violent was an understatement. Ashley's head lurched from side to side, and she began mumbling about something neither of us could understand. She scratched her hand with her nails, drawing blood. Percy grabbed Ashley's right hand, effectively stopping her.

"Stop it 'n talk to us!" She tried to pry her hand out of his grip. Nothing she did eased the growing suspicion I had. While I wasn't sure, I knew this was not the Ashley that I knew. And I have known her far longer than everyone here. When she realized she couldn't shake Percy off, she brought her other hand to her mouth and bit off her fingernails.

"Percy, let go of her hand." My order was very placid. The last thing I wanted was to aggravate the situation at hand.

"What?" Percy did not follow my train of thought.

"Please, can you let go of her hand?" I gave him a pressing look. Fortunately, Percy knew how to obey orders without asking questions, even when he wanted to ask a billion. He let go of Ash's hand, and immediately she continued mutilating.

"Ashley, what happened before we got into the store?" I wasn't sure if she even was in the capacity to answer. But still gave it a shot. "I would like to clarify before we make any rash decisions."

"In the store?" She appeared to be distraught by my interrogation.

"Yes, the store you went into. In the outdoor store, we went to yesterday. Do you remember? You were excited because they had coats, and you went in ahead of us. What happened?" My anxiety rapidly warped into panic.

"Zombies jumped out of nowhere..." She started crying. Her eyes skimmed the air frantically. Percy was about to hug her before I lunged forward and stopped him. Keep your hands off of her! I mouthed to him as we stared at each other.

"Two... two of them attacked me..." Ashley's antics got worse. She dug her fingers into her hair, pulling it fiercely. "Then... then..."

"Go on. Then what? What happened, Ashley?" Percy ignored my facial cues, telling him to shut his mouth.

"Then one of them bit me."

There was a pregnant silence.

At that instant, my blood pressure rose so high that I had to close my eyes. I tried not to get mad. Took deep breaths. I wasn't sure at first. I was hoping she got a very severe flu or something. Or a stomach bug from the tree barks we ate. But subconsciously, I already knew - my instincts told me something was off. There was a lengthy lapse of time subsequently, and I had to break it.

"What do you want to do, Ash? Because you sure as hell ain't coming with us." It pained me to say it. This had to be resolved. If one of us got infected as a result of Ashley's stupidity, I would never forgive myself.

"The heck, Ashley, why didn't ya tell us?!" Percy went on to say.

"I-i tried." Ashley sobbed, finally looking at us. "I tried to tell you! But then Percy yelled at you, and your sister showed up and announced she had a better life waiting for all of you! One I won't live to see! WHEN WAS I SUPPOSED TO TELL YOU!"

"YOU HAD PLENTY OF TIME TO TELL US!" Amy shouted back at her. Everyone got up and put plenty of distance between themselves and Ashley, myself included.

"It's not fair! IT'S NOT FAIR!" She hollered, like a petulant child.

"Well, that's life, Ashley! And you put every single one of us in danger! Do you realize how selfish that is?" Mira was beside herself.

I walked in a trance to the willow. An axe was leaning against it. I picked it up. I paid no attention to Rory sitting at the base of the tree and walked back. Stopped when I stood before Ashley, who argued with our party. "... you're so fucking unbelievable..."

"I give you two choices." I interrupted their altercation. "One, we leave you here, and you become a zombie. Two, we give you a graceful death. You have five minutes. After that, we are leaving."

I had killed before. And it still haunted me. The guilt was present, albeit all I did was under the pretence of a good cause. A life is still a life. And taking one never got easier. It lessened when you dissociated your feelings for the person and rationalized your act. "Kill me." I tensed upon hearing her words. I now have to kill a dear friend of mine, something I never thought I'd do, which I did a lot recently. This was survival of the fittest. Eat or be eaten. It was not a game you could stop playing when you had enough. It was not a war in a faraway country that you could leave when it was too much. This was what reality was like now. And I had to be grateful for how far we have come. Be appreciative that this is the first person dear to me I had to take the life of.

"Don..." Amy tried to talk.

"Shut up!" I couldn't afford to get distracted, I had to follow through. She did not speak another word.

"Are you sure?" My voice trembled as my hands shook. Ash nodded, her head held down. "Any last words?"

"I love you, Don."

"Yeah. I know you do." Lifting my axe over my left shoulder. Widening my stance, I braced myself to swing with all my available force, to cut swiftly through her neck. She looked up, and that made me falter. Because it was so fucking hard to imagine her as an enemy when I saw her tear-stained face. All our memories together came unhinged in my mind. Taking a lungful of air, I was about to deliver a fatal blow when an eerily loud detonation burst.