I pull up my sleeve. My arm has a distinctive bleeding bite mark and also some torn flesh where the teeth pulled back when the infected’s head was slammed with the bat. So I am bitten, and my kids are gathering behind my wife. Hannah and Olivia are standing with shocked wide eyes. William is on the verge, like Simone, with tears welling up. Benjamin says, “Uh-oh, owie.” And points to my bleeding arm. Only Amelia stands stoically, and says, “You’ll be all right, Daddy. You always are.”

“Simone! Kids! Check for more infected,” I say, realizing we were all out in front of the store now, and made quite a commotion with the fighting. “My being bitten doesn’t change a thing. You all have to keep watching out for more of them, okay?”

The infected female that I hit is paralyzed from the neck down, but her mouth is still snapping and her eyes are darting from person to person wishing to get a bite on one of us. Simone uses her bat to collapse the skull of the chomping head. You can see the fear and anger in Simone’s face as she repeatedly brings down the bat. It is a terrifying sight that I never want to be on the bad side of.

Getting out from under this idiot that bit me is difficult. Getting up is painful and not just because of the bite on my arm. My back is killing me from the fall, and I’m sure I have some friction burns on it from sliding a little when I impacted. Hannah is first to say that nothing else is out here, and Simone shortly agrees.

“Okay,” I tell them. “Everyone get back in the store. It has almost been a minute since my bite. I could change anytime. Just stay in there for five minutes and watch me.”

Five minutes come and go as I am sitting outside waiting for the change. I don’t turn, so I get up and head into the store to figure out our next step, and get my arm cleaned up.

I have a small medical kit with disinfectant, bandages, and stitching supplies. So while Simone is cleaning my wound and preparing to stitch up my arm, I am going over what we should do next with everybody. “I’ve been bitten, and we are about four hours away from our place at a slow walk. I didn’t become infected immediately, so we should have the six hours before the fever hits me. If nothing has changed, this will give us plenty of time to make it back home to the ranch. It also looks like it is just about noon, so we have plenty of light left in the day to get there without issue as well.”

“We could leave the bikes and trailers here and head back at a quicker pace. If we hurry, we might make it in two hours if we want,” Olivia offers.

“I’m not going to leave all of these archery supplies here. This is the future of your defense.