Zara's POV
My vision was swimming and every time I took a step it felt like the ground was shifting beneath my feet, and I looked down at my hand and saw that my fingers were swollen to twice their normal size and turning a nasty shade of purple and red. The infection was spreading fast and I could feel the heat radiating from my skin and traveling up my arm toward my shoulder, and I knew that if I didn't find some water or a place to rest soon I was going to collapse right there in the middle of the dirt. I tried to keep moving through the thick brush of the Neutral Zone but the mud I had smeared on my face was starting to dry and crack and it made my skin itch, and the silence of the forest was suddenly broken by a low and guttural growl that made my heart stop.
I turned around slow
