Dead Last (Vol. 1): Dead Last

by Quaranta, Marc

  "Hey, Scott, what's up?" Kurt asked.

  "I don't know how to say this," he began. "I was doing a quick scan of the building. Ya know, checking windows and doors; making sure everything was sealed off. Then I decided to look around the building to see if I could find anything that might make our situation a little better."

  "Did you find anything?" I asked.

  "No."

  "What's the problem? Jack and Travis just brought us back a bunch of things," Kurt reminded him.

  "I don't know if you heard about the incident in Terre Haute a while back. A disgruntled employee was fired for bringing a gun to the station. He came back a couple nights later after hours and shot the place up."

  "Okay, I'm lost Scott," I had no idea where he was going with this.

  "After that, I got a gun and locked it away in my office."

  "You brought a gun in here?" Kurt sounded surprised.

  "Yea, I never took it out and never told anyone about it, but I had it here in case something like that ever happened."

  "Jesus...so what's the problem?"

  "That gun is missing. It's not there anymore."

  "What?" I said.

  "No one else knew about it?" Kurt asked.

  "No one. But if I had to guess who might find it and keep it to himself..."

  "Jack," was my first thought.

  "Jack," Scott agreed.

  "Well let's go ask him," Kurt stood from his seat.

  He really was new to Jack. If one of us went up and accused Jack of hiding a gun from the rest of us, he'd probably blow a gasket and make a whole scene about it and it would get everyone startled and uncomfortable knowing there was a gun on the loose.

  "Kurt, we can't just go ask him."

  "Why not? If he has the gun, I'll get it back."

  Before I could say anything, Kurt was out of the room.

  X

  Kurt Elkins

  I didn't care, at that moment, who Jack Scoville was. It could have been Pee Wee Herman or the Incredible Hulk who took that gun, but I knew I was going to get it back. I walked past the group looking for Jack and, like I could have guessed, he wasn't sitting with the group. He was over to the side, minding his own business, eating from a bag of Funyuns and drinking a Diet Pepsi.

  He looked at me and saw that I was walking towards him, but broke eye contact and turned his body away to look out the window. There wasn't much to see outside, unless he was just dreaming of being out there, but I knew he was just ignoring me. Trying to get under my skin.

  "Hey, Jack, you got a minute?"

  "Sure thing, cowboy."

  I could feel Haylea and Scott catch up to me. They were standing behind me and were definitely putting pressure on Jack. He leaned forward in his chair and looked at each one of us.

  "Whoa, am I getting kicked off the island?" he joked.

  "I got to ask you something and you need to be dead serious with me," I said. "Scott had a gun locked in his drawer."

  "Whoa, a gun. I wouldn't have guessed it from you," he looked at Scott and then back at m, "Maybe Scott's the cowboy, huh?" Jack deflected with a joke.

  "Yea...maybe, Jack. Did you take it?"

  "Take what?" Jack asked.

  "The gun. Did you take the gun?"

  "The gun is missing?"

  "No, it's still there. I just wanted to know if you took it and then put it back," I hit him back with a taste of his own sarcastic medicine.

  "Funny."

  "Yea, it's gone. Do you have it?"

  "I wish I did. Honestly. I wish I had that gun, then maybe people would actually leave me the fuck alone."

  "Do you have it or not?" Haylea interrupted.

  "No, I don't. Let me ask you something. Did you ask anyone else?"

  "No. We don't want to scare anyone."

  "But you asked me. You think I'm the only one here that would take a gun and not tell anyone?"

  "Well, apparently your reputation precedes you," I said. Because the truth was I didn't know Jack. Maybe he would take the gun, maybe he wouldn't, but Scott thought he did and, more importantly, my fiancé thought he did. I trusted them. I didn't trust Jack.

  "Maybe Barry took it, huh? Maybe it was Nick before we left. Hell, maybe the damn kids are running around with it cause it looks like a fun toy. Anyone could have it for any fucking reason. I didn't take your damn gun," Jack was right. We had no proof he took it.

  And just like that Jack turned his back on us, put his feet on the ledge, and went back to looking out the window. The three of us stood in silence; the only sound was the crunching of the Funyuns in Jack's mouth.

  We didn't ask anyone else about the gun that day. Instead, Scott, Haylea, and I searched the building for it. We secretly looked through people's belongings; we looked through the areas that people were setting up camp. The only place we didn't look was in Sam's office and that was only because he was in there all day relaxing. We never found a gun. Everyone seemed to be calm for the first time, so we let it go for the rest of the night.

  That night, everyone finally got some sleep. A big group of us were by the windows to see the moon while we slept. We kept the light in the kitchen on so if someone needed a midnight snack they would be able to find their way around, but it was such a big building that the light didn't bother us. We sort of welcomed the light. It was such a dark time in the world right now, that the light gave us hope. So, did the moon. It glowed overhead and gave us the feeling that someone was watching down on us.

  As pretty as the moon was, I needed to see something beautiful so I had my back to the window and laid on the ground staring at Haylea while she slept. The moonlight reflected off her face and made her look like an angel or a goddess. Like a beautiful work of art reflecting off the water perfectly.

  I couldn't help remember the first time we ever spent the night in the same bed together. We had both gone to a work party at Nick's house. This was even before our first official date, but she came back to my place with a couple of people. Everyone was pretty drunk and had no intentions of driving home. I didn't drink so I drove Haylea, Heather, and a couple other guys, Kevin and Ryan, to my place to crash.

  I told Haylea that she could stay in my bed with me, and no, I had no intentions of making a move and sleeping with her that night. I just wanted her to be comfortable. For some reason, it was freezing in my apartment so I lent her my favorite Lakers sweatshirt and a pair of Laker sweatpants. She looked so adorable in them. They were at least three sizes too big for her, but she didn't care.

  I could barely sleep that night because my heart was pounding a thousand beats a minute with her next to me...except that is why it was funny. She wasn't really next to me. She was all the way on the other side of the bed, completely decked out in the sweats, like she wanted nothing to do with me; like she was afraid if we touched, we'd both be sent to hell. I actually heard her head bump the wall a couple times in the night during her sleep because she was pressed up against it.

  "Hey," I said to her. I don't know if she was sleeping, but I wanted to wake her up and talk to her. "Hey, are you awake?"

  "Well, I am now thanks to you," she said with her eyes closed.

  "Do you remember the first night you slept in my bed?"

  Without opening her eyes, a smile wiped across her face, "You mean the dreaded sweatshirt, head butting the wall night?"

  We both laughed, but her laughter went away when she opened her eyes. Her eyes grew wide and her head tilted up so she could see out the window.

  "What's the matter? Haylea, what?"

  "Don't turn around. Pretend that you are sleeping."

  I kept my head still but now my heart was pounding; just like it was the first night we slept together, but this was out of worry and fear. Her eyes were following something outside the window but I had no idea what it was. With my head still, I scanned the room to see if there was anything that would reflect like a mirror so I could see outside.

  "Haylea, God damn it, what is it?"
<
br />   "There is someone outside walking to the front door of the building, Kurt."

  I could feel my heart beat completely stop beating inside my chest.

  XI

  Jack Scoville, April 19th, 2013. 4:42 a.m.

  T here was a time, about ten or eleven years ago, when I took a trip to San Diego with my girlfriend. Yes, at the time I did have a girlfriend. We had actually been together about a year and a half at that point. My parents were moving out to Arizona because my dad was promoted and had to go work at their corporate office. I was a couple weeks away from going out there to live, but I got a job in Chicago and didn't want to leave Illinois; I didn't want to leave my girlfriend.

  For a week that spring, my girlfriend and I took a trip out to Arizona to visit my parents. We stayed there for a night and then drove to San Diego because neither one of us had ever been. We stayed at a little place called Old Town San Diego. It was gorgeous and it was a couple miles away from downtown. We were in the perfect place and it was a great couple of days.

  What was the most amazing thing about that trip? The bed. I'll never forget that bed. The pillows were about twice as thick as I was and engulfed my head when I lied down. The blankets were warm and cozy, but not big enough that I would wake up sweating from in the middle of the night. It was a King Size bed so I had plenty of room to myself. It was amazing.

  I would trade anything in my life for that bed right now. Waking up on the hard-carpeted floor in the middle of WTIX was not a dream come true. It was a nightmare. I had a couple jackets pushed together to make a pillow and a blanket that would be better served as a tablecloth.

  It wasn't just the uncomfortable ground that was waking me up in the middle of the night, either, it was the people. I could always hear some mumbles of whispers and complaining. It wasn't exactly ocean sounds or sounds of the midnight creatures to sooth me to sleep. It was annoying sounds of the people I'm trapped with.

  "Jack," said a girl walking up to me.

  "Ugh, what?" I couldn't exactly see who it was walking up to me, but I didn't care anymore. These people were going to be my death.

  "Jack," she repeated.

  "I said what!"

  "Kurt and the others want to see you," it was Elyse, Sam and Emily's seventeen-year old daughter. She was cute, in a high school-type kind of way. I hadn't talked to her much, but in my experience, you don't talk too much to a girl that young. It's all superficial and they don't have that much to say. They could talk about celebrity gossip, make up, malls, and The Bachelor. There isn't a deeper layer to them.

  "What time is it?" I asked her while rubbing my eyes and sitting up. Moving put a strain in my back.

  "It's almost five."

  "My God. This better be good," I rose to my feet and walked down the hall. I didn't even look back to see if Elyse was following me. I didn't care if she was. I wanted to find Kurt, see what the problem was, and then go back to my corner and fall back asleep.

  I walked into the kitchen to find Kurt, Haylea, Sam, Emily, Scott, Travis, and Jenny. I figured the rest of the group was still sleeping. Kurt probably didn't want to wake everyone up, but I don't know why he didn't decide to put me in the unimportant group. Why did he have to wake me up?

  "What the hell do you want?" I addressed Kurt first.

  "Mornin' sunshine," he said to me with his smug tone. "You need to look outside."

  "Why? What's outside?" I asked.

  "Just look," said Kurt's better half, Haylea. Actually, I'm not sure which half was the better half.

  I stepped around the corner and that is when I saw what everyone was so worried about. There were three guys standing outside the doors pounding to be let in. They weren't banging on the glass in an angry, "let us in before we die" type of way, but they were tired of being outside and definitely wanted us to let them in.

  Two of the guys were wearing breathing masks like we had worn when we went to the gas station, but one of them wasn't wearing one. He didn't have anything covering his mouth, his arms, or his hands. He was as good as dead, but the two guys with him didn't seem to be worried about their friend. They were worried about getting into the building.

  "Jesus Christ," I said when I saw them out there.

  "So, what do we do?" Jenny asked the group.

  "What? We don't do a damn thing," I said to her.

  "We have to do something. They could be starving," she responded.

  "No. No fucking way. We agreed not to let anyone in here."

  "We let Kurt in. We have to consider this," Emily spoke up.

  "Are you fucking kidding me?" I couldn't take these ridiculous debates anymore. "Kurt was dressed like the fucking Terminator. That guy doesn't have anything. We are not letting them in here.

  "We have to see what they want," that's when Kurt tried to show his dominance.

  "What?"

  "They may need supplies. They may be hungry. We can give them food and send them on their way," Kurt said.

  "You're kidding, right? I risked my life, Travis risked his life, and Nick is dead because we went out there to get food for all of you and now you want to just give that food away to a bunch of strangers that are probably already sick and probably already dead."

  "Kurt is right," Dan had snuck up to the group with nobody noticing him. That's how it was with him, I think. No one ever noticed him. "We can't just leave those people out there to die. If they are hungry we need to give them food."

  "Okay, that's enough Dan. Go back and lie down," I said to him.

  "No. I am just as big a part of this group as anyone. This is my life now, too. I get a say. So...you shut up."

  Hearing Dan show some attitude was exciting. I took a couple steps closer to him to see if he was serious. I think he was a scared little coward and didn't really want a fight if he got caught in one. He was trying to be the tough little hero, but he was nothing but a scared man and I wanted to prove that to him.

  "You telling me to shut up?" I was close enough to whisper to him. "Dan, do you have a problem with me?"

  "No. I don't. I just think you need to be a better listener."

  "You want to let him in?" I stopped whispering and turned to the entire group, "I think it is the biggest mistake and when you learn that it is, don't come looking for me. Don't come begging me to fix another fucking problem of yours. You're all on your own."

  I walked away from the group, but not before giving Dan a slight, playful smack on the cheek. I winked at Haylea and then left the room. It was too damn early for a debate like this, especially since the rest of the group was going to act like a bunch of damn morons.

  I was right. I knew I was right and I knew there was no way to convince me otherwise. Nobody has seen how quickly the infection takes place. I saw it. I saw it take Nick. I had to make the tough decision to let Nick die out there under the sun. This wasn't a tough decision. This was an easy decision. This was the easiest decision that we've had to deal with since this whole catastrophe happened. If they came into this building, people were going to die. If the air didn't kill us, if the infection didn't kill us, those three guys outside were going to kill us.

  I tried to get as comfortable as I could in my new bed. I pulled the blanket over my head and tried to drown out the noise. But I couldn't.

  Then a gunshot went off.

  XII

  Kurt Elkins

  W hen I saw Jack wink at Haylea, I wanted to hit him. I wanted to pull him to the ground and pound on his face until he would never be able to be recognized. I felt a little bit of that when he started getting in Dan's face. I didn't even like Dan too much, but Jack was trying to step on people's toes like he was God's great gift to earth, like he could get away with anything. I could still control myself. That is what separated me from Jack. I could hold my emotions in check and not let myself go. But if it came down to it, if there came a day when Jack needed to be put in his place, I wouldn't hesitate. I knew at that moment that there was going to be a day when I was going to have to be
the judge, juror, and executioner to Jack, and I knew that I couldn't hesitate when that day came.

  Once he walked away, I could see on everyone's face that we were all thinking the same thing. No matter what those guys outside wanted, we had to find out. We had to find out if they were dying, or starving, or looking for a place to stay. We couldn't let them in here, but I know that nobody would have been able to live with themselves if we just let them stand out there to die.

  "Dan is right, you know," I said to the group. "We have to see what they want. They may need something."

  "We can't let them in here, though, you know that," Haylea said to me.

  "I know. I'm not going to let them in. I just want to make sure that they are okay and that they don't need food. We can spare a couple of bags. They may need water and we have plenty," I spoke loudly so the whole group could hear me and when there was no response, I took that as everyone agreed with me.

  "Want me to grab that gas mask thing?" Haylea asked.

  "No. I won't be able to talk very well. Are there any of those cleaning masks left?"

  "Just a few left. I think four," Scott said to me.

  "Alright, can you grab me one?" I asked him.

  I walked over to the door so that I could see, head on, the guys outside. They didn't look dangerous, but at the very same time, something about them didn't look harmless. Two of them were wearing plain white t-shirts and jeans. The other guy, the guy that didn't have a mask to cover his face, was wearing a blue sweatshirt and khaki shorts. He was a small white guy, and so was one of the white t guys, but the other guy wearing a white shirt was black. He was big too, in between muscular and stocky.

  "Don't get too close to them, babe. If they come at you, close the door and get back in here. They may be aggressive or, at this point, crazy," Haylea rubbed my back and looked out the window with me.

  "Nothing is going to happen. I promise," I assured her. I thought about kissing her at that point, but something stopped me. What if something did happen and those guys got into the building? If they saw us kiss, they would be able to use that for leverage. Threaten her or threaten me and I couldn't let anything happen to her. So, I had to pretend that she meant nothing to me.