Infected

by Justin Clay

  “June! Eli! Are you okay?” I call and my sister looks up, squinting, her face dirtied and scratched by the plummet.

  “I’m fine!” she says. “But Eli…He’s trapped beneath Thunder…I can’t get him out!”

  “It’s okay, you’re going to be okay,” I say quickly. “Don’t try…Just stay there with Eli…I’m going to go and try and find something to get you guys out with, okay?”

  “Okay,” June says, nodding. “Rian, be careful!”

  “I will,” I tell her firmly. The horses had allowed us to get far away enough from the Infected to where their incessant moaning was no longer noticeable, but I know they’ll be coming eventually, and I’m not sticking around to find out when.

  ...

  I watch the sun as it begins its inevitable sinking into the westward sky above. The muscles in my calves are aching so much from walking I have to sit down at the edge of the sidewalk. It’s been what felt like an hour and still I haven’t found anything useful to get my sister and Eli out of their predicament. There’s a strange rustling from nearby and instantly I snap to attention, searching for Infected. Sighing in relief when I see nothing, I decide I will have to keep going. What else can I do?

  I’m standing at an intersection looking out to mixture of unassuming gray and brick buildings. I narrow my eyes as an erratic movement brings me out of my current daze. Did I just see someone disappear in that alley? I must be losing it…but still. What if…? Gripping the handle of my pistol I press forward, going with my instincts at this point. Some inward voice is telling me to investigate. I’m not sure if this voice wants to get me killed or potentially help me — regardless, I follow. I break into a run, sprinting into the shadows and when I reach the narrow opening, I barely catch a glimpse of a dark figure vanishing around the back of the building. It had been someone…

  “HEY! Wait up!” I shout, lunging my legs out, feeling my boots collide with cement with a jolting force. Breathing heavily, I clear the corner where a massive dumpster occupies the space producing quite the aroma. I hold my breath and continue running. I feel my face burn, flustered and by the time I get to where three rusted, defunct vehicles are parked in the middle of the street, I’ve lost track of him. Dammit. Where did he go?

  Standing there puzzled, I search the surroundings. Where could he have gone to so quickly? And then it hits me. He must have went up. Before me is another towering brick building and adjacent to its multiple grimy windows is a flight of rickety metallic stairs connected to the fire ladder that’s been dropped down to a reachable level. Squinting, I could make out his deftly moving form already three stories above.

  “Hey you! Stop! I can see you!”

  And to my surprise whoever it is, finally stops. The figure leans his hooded head over and peers down at me, questioningly. He only does this briefly, before returning to his rapid escape. Groaning, I hoist myself up to the stairway by climbing up the ladder that shakes under my sweaty hands. My heart’s slamming against my chest; my stomach is in knots, and I can barely catch my breath. This person, whoever they are, is not making this easy on me. I continue to follow him up and up until I get to the top most level and it’s so high I notice a few pigeons have taken roost on the roof of the building about ten feet away from me. This isn’t helping the nausea bit whatsoever.

  At long last, I reach a halfway opened window and manage to slide myself through into the dim room beyond. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the lack of light and everything comes into clear focus. I seem to be standing in what looks like a bedroom of sorts. I say that because there’s so much stuff in here that calling it a bedroom just doesn’t seem to fit its personality. There’s everything from old, tattered stuffed animals to packs of ammunition stacked on a desk against the wine red wall and hunting rifles leaned against the same desk. This person has collected…years worth of stuff from the looks of it.

  I step carefully through the room, searching and when I reach the bed, I hear a definite click of a gun being readied. I swallow, stunned, looking and see the mysterious figure I’ve been following — a teenage boy, around eighteen from the gruff shaggy looks of his black unkempt hair and acne-scared face. The tall, lanky boy is holding the gun at me, his eyes fiery. Shit.

  “You shouldn’t have followed me,” he says coldly. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “But I — ”

  “DON’T TALK!” he says wildly and my eyes widen, startled. “You’re going to do what I say and exactly how I say it…You’re going to leave this room, go back to where you came from, and never try to find me again…If you do, I won’t hesitate to shoot.”

  I have my arms raised in surrender. “But I — I could use your help.” I give him a pleading look, but he doesn’t seem to care. What the hell is this guy’s problem? Shouldn’t he be happy to see someone else who isn’t Infected?

  “What did I just say?”

  “Okay, okay, I’ll go,” I say pissed. “You don’t have to be a jerk about it…I just thought you could help me…My friends are trapped in a hole and I need to get them out.”

  “What makes you think I want to help?”

  “Oh, I don’t know maybe…because we’re probably the only not Infected human beings in this forsaken town.”

  He sighs glumly, and I feel as if I have somehow won. Maybe the tears running down my cheeks are helping the cause. “Fine,” he says through bared teeth, “I’ll help you but only on one condition.”

  “Name it.”

  “Once your friends are free, you all leave this town.”

  “Why are you so keen on being by yourself?” I say, bewildered. “No one sane would want to be alone in a place like this.”

  “Well, maybe then I’m not sane.”

  “I get that from you still holding that gun at me,” I snap. “Can you lower it?”

  “Are you Infected — ARE YOU Infected? Have you been bitten anywhere?”

  “Damn, no!” I cry.

  “How do I know you’re not lying?”

  “Do I look like I’m Infected?”

  “No,” he says, and begrudgingly drops his weapon. “But for your information…”

  “The name’s Rian.”

  “Okay, Rian,” he says, making a face, “I’m not living here by myself…alone.”

  “Then who are you living with?”

  “That’s why I told you, you shouldn’t be here…Because the guy that also lives here with me…He doesn’t take kindly to strangers.”

  “Well, where is he at?”

  “He’s not here right now…He’s out on a raid.”

  “A raid? Alright…Was he the one who made that covered up hole?”

  “Yeah,” the boy says curtly. “Bear is a little on the paranoid side to say the least.”

  “I can see that,” I say. “Must have taken him awhile considering it was deep enough to kill a horse.”

  “What? A horse?”

  “That’s how we got here…On horses,” I tell him flatly. “My horse took off after I fell…You haven’t seen her have you?”

  He shakes his head. “No…Sorry, I haven’t.”

  “Figured,” I say. “So…What do we do? Wait for your friend Bear to show back up?”

  I could already tell by his wary expression that isn’t what he wants exactly. “Unfortunately, we have no choice but to.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means if you want to get your friends out of that hole, you’re going to have to wait on him…”

  “Why do we need to do that?”

  “Do you remember where the hole was at?”

  “Vaguely,” I say. “I think it was in the downtown district…The main street.”

  “You were on the main street?” he says, incredulous. “That’s the worst part of town…Infected are literally everywhere there…”

  “No kidding,” I say, rolling my eyes.

  “Well, anyway…Bear will be able to get you there the quickest…He knows this town li
ke the back of his hand…He’s been here for his entire life; I haven’t…”

  “Is that why he hasn’t left? He doesn’t want to give the place up?”

  “Not to the Infected, no,” he clarifies.

  “Is that his real name? Bear?”

  “Is Rian yours?”

  “Point taken,” I say.

  “His ‘real’ name is Abram,” the boy says.

  “I told you my name, what’s yours?”

  “It’s Aidan,” he says quietly.

  “Aidan,” I mutter.

  “Why are you here Aidan?”

  “Same reason as you, I’m guessing,” he says. “I had been passing through with a group about five years ago…I’m all that’s left of them…Bear was kind enough to take me in, seeing I had no left and I was eleven at the time.”

  “You’re only sixteen?”

  “Yeah, what about it?”

  “You look older.”

  “So I’ve been told,” he tells me indifferently. “Who are your friends, the ones trapped?”

  “My younger sister June and a man, our friend, named Eli.”

  “Oh.”

  “When do you think Bear will be back?”

  “I don’t know,” he tells me. “Not long…He usually comes back before nightfall.”

  “What were you doing? Raiding too?”

  “Yeah, you could say that…Bear and I have split up the duties,” he tells me. “I look for medical supplies, practical things he can use to build things…He’s always building something weird to protect us, car parts and things like that…He looks for weapons, food, Infected, monitors their whereabouts and watches for any visitors.”

  Suddenly, there’s a loud racket of tinny noise and I see it’s coming from a metal can fixed against the wall that’s been attached to a long cable that runs along the wall and out the window to who knows where.

  “That’s Bear,” he says. “He’s made this invention where he can alert me if I need to meet him down below, by him pulling the cable.”

  “Interesting, so we’re going?”

  Aidan nods, and gestures to the window. “Ladies first.”

  ...

  When I first see the man named Bear, I couldn’t think of any word better to describe him. He’s this tall, brooding man who’s nearly as wide as he is tall. But he’s not fat, rather bulky. And every inch of him is covered with hair except comically enough, his head; there a prominent receding hairline has taken residence. And his brown thick beard is even more unruly than Eli’s. He has these eyebrows that could be mistaken for caterpillars nesting above a pair of equally brooding hazel eyes. And Bear isn’t alone. He’s holding the reins to my horse, who is somehow still alive.

  “Wind!” I shout, ecstatic, running to meet her. “You found her!”

  I think Aidan had tried to warn me with a wait, but I ignored him.

  The gray mare looks at me intently, her black eyes glimmering. She’s excited to see me. Bear seems anything but. He emits a paralyzing stare. Frowning, he looks to Aidan.

  “Who is this girl?” he says, his voice considerably deep.

  “She…She followed me,” he admits hesitantly.

  “What do you mean followed…So she knows where we live?”

  “I told her to leave.”

  “Apparently, not convincingly enough…Look kid,” he tells me bluntly, “I’m not out here raising an orphanage so if you’re looking for a place to stay — ”

  “I am not looking for a place to stay, thank you,” I snap. “I’m looking to save my sister and friend from one of your traps.”

  His brow crumples. “What do you mean?”

  I explain the situation to him quickly, and by the end of it he doesn’t look to be any happier. In fact, he seems worse off. “So you’re telling me you ruined one of my traps,” he says. “Why the hell were you all in that part of town? That’s the worst place to be.”

  “How would we know? We just got here…So are you going to help me or not? If you don’t, whatever…Just tell me how I can get to a rope or something! My sister could die!” My face is burning and I’ve nearly had it. I very well knew that the likelihood of my sister actually dying wasn’t very high but it couldn’t hurt my case.

  Bear grumbles, dissatisfied. “Oh, alright…So be it…I’ll have to fix the hole they messed up anyway…But if I help you, you’re going to have to help me.”

  “What is it with you people? First Aidan naming conditions…Why can’t you just be a decent human being and help us without wanting anything in return?”

  “Well that’s not really the kind of world we live in, now is it, darlin’?” he tells me and I want to roll my eyes. “If I’m going to scratch your back, you’re going to have scratch mine.”

  I could gag. I hope he isn’t serious, although I know he doesn’t literally mean that… “Fine, whatever,” I say belligerently.

  “So we got a deal?” he says extending a hand. He’s arching one of those furry brows at me curiously. “If you shake on it, there’s no backing out…And I haven’t said what I needed yet.”

  I don’t think about it. “Deal,” I say, taking his hand.

  31

  NOT ALONE

  HAD I KNOWN WHAT Bear’s deal actually entailed, I might have given it more thought. But that doesn’t hold much water, because with any choice presented to me I would only make the one. To save my first sister first, and then Eli. Nothing else matters. That at least — to me is clear enough. When we arrive near where the hole should be according to Bear, Aidan runs ahead to make sure everything is clear, or rather there are no Infected in sight. We had been lucky thus far. Too lucky. Hadn’t seen any Infected, well alive ones — if you can call that state of being, alive. From about twenty feet away, Aidan motions for us to come closer. Bear cocks his head, meaning that I need to go first.

  “I’ll watch from behind,” he tells me. “But keep your eyes peeled, kid.”

  “Sure thing,” I say, tightening my grip along my pistol’s handle. I wince. Ignoring the stiff, aching muscles in my arm is becoming too much.

  When I approach Aidan, he whispers for me to go ahead, so I do. The hole is about five feet away and my stomach is in knots. I can scarcely breath. As I hear my sister’s voice calling out, asking if it is me, I’m relieved. She’s still alive.

  “Yes, June,” I say. “It’s me and I’ve brought help.”

  Once Bear throws the rope into the hole, and fastens it around a nearby pole, it doesn’t take long to get my sister out. Eli’s predicament poses a more difficult challenge. We first had to shimmy our way down into the hole, and lift Thunder, who was by now really dead complete with buzzing flies, off of him. Bear counted to three and it took all three of us heaving to move the poor animal. Eli’s side and lower right leg had been trapped beneath the horse, and once uncovered it looked like he had dislocated the leg by its funny location. Eli cracks his eyes open wearily, gazing at me bleary. “Rian, is that you?”

  “Yeah,” I say softly. “It’s me…I’ve brought a friend.”

  Eli doesn’t say anything and instead his head drops back onto the muddy ground and he closes his eyes again. I watch Bear as he surveys Eli’s body.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  “Your friend here has definitely hurt his leg, I’m afraid,” he says, crossing his arms. “We’re going to have to pop it back into place.”

  “So you don’t think it’s broken?”

  “It could be,” he says, shrugging. “But let’s start with this first…Aidan…Want to do the honors?”

  “Wait, what?” I say, confused and unsure if this is the right decision as the teenage boy steps around Bear, knelling down.

  “Relax, girl,” Bear tells me. “Aidan knows what he’s doing…He’s been trained.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He means that my father, who was a doctor, showed me how to do things like this,” he says quickly, “well, in the time before…all of this…I’m glad he did; it help
ed me save Bear’s life…Actually, it was kind of how we met…Anyway, Rian I’m going to need you to hold him still.”

  “Why me?”

  “I’m assuming he trusts you, right?”

  “Well, yeah…But honestly, he probably doesn’t even know what’s going on right now.”