Keep Looking For Steve

You rush through the woods, knowing that time is running short. It's already too late for you, but Steve... Steve... You're starting to find it harder to concentrate. It's like something else is pulling your attention. You remember the shoulder, the bite on it. You remember the pain you'd felt as that thing had plunged its fangs into your flesh, and realize that you don't feel anything there anymore. You try to get a look at the wound, but it's too dark and your shirt still covers it. And Steve. Steve is more important. If it's doing anything, you can fight it. At least until you help Steve.

You try to double your pace, but start losing your sense of direction. Everything looks the same, it's all spinning. The feeling of hitting the ground face-first cuts through the dizziness for a moment, but still, you can't seem to stand. It's like everything around you is just spiralling out of control and all you can do is watch. It must be the bite, you tell yourself. Some kind of poison or something to slow you down while it spreads. Going to get worse before it gets better, but you can't think about that right now. Right now, you have to get up and run. Taking hold of a nearby tree, you pull yourself to your feet and start stumbling into the woods. You can't even tell if you're going the right way anymore, but you still need to try.

Darkness begins to creep into your peripherals, and you grab your shoulder tight. Something wet covers your hand. It's red and it shimmers in the moonlight. Rubber? No. Blood. You aren't infected, you're bleeding. Not just bleeding, but bleeding fast. You can feel it dripping down your side now. Can't feel anything in your arm. You still want to find Steve, still want to save him, but you're so tired... so tired...

When you come to, you're lying on a cot in a small shack, shadows dancing across the wall as the single bulb hanging from the ceiling swings to and fro. Your shirt is shredded, its tattered remains wrapped tightly around your shoulder and covered in dried blood. The trees outside a window across from the cot make it clear that you're still deep in the forest, and yet you can't hear even the faintest sound. Even your saviour is gone, leaving you once again feeling fortunate to be alive, not to mention human.

Once again, you're completely alone.