by Bobby Adair
Wilkins didn’t answer. Nobody spoke. The silent consensus was yes.
Wilkins said, “Human civilization is going to be very different going forward.”
Felicity looked down at the floor. I’m sure she already knew. Her question was little more than a desperate expression of hope.
I spoke up next. “Look, like I was telling Jerome yesterday, I’m not sure how we’re going to get through the next few weeks or months, but we need to get somebody online right now. I don’t know when or if we’re going to lose electricity. I don’t know when or if the internet is going to go out.”
I stood up to look at everybody, “Everything humans have ever learned or knew can be downloaded from the internet right now, for free, while it’s still up. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t know anything about farming and growing my own food. If what Wilkins is saying is right, we need to figure it out. It’ll be better for us if we figure it out with a book than by trial and error. There’s going to come a time when we run out of food to scavenge, and when that time comes, we’d better know how to grow something. We won’t be able to live through too many crop failures. And if we want to live anything remotely like the life we used to have, we’d better learn how to hook up some solar panels to an electrical grid. We need to learn how to manufacture gunpowder if we run out. There are a million little things that make life possible, and none of us knows much about any of them.”
I looked around the room for acknowledgment—for confirmation—but they just looked at me like I’d changed color again.
“Thoughts, anyone?” I asked.
“Well,” Wilkins started. “This is as good a time as any to talk about how you fit into that, Zed.”
“I don’t even have a computer,” I replied.
“Why don’t you sit down, Zed?”
What? That seemed odd to me. I looked around at the blank faces. Something wasn’t right.
As I stepped back toward the couch to take my place beside Murphy, I saw a very slight shake of his head. He was reading something here that I’d missed.
As I turned to sit down, I noticed Murphy’s hand move discreetly toward the trigger on his M-4. He flicked the safety off.
“Zed,” Wilkins started. “We all appreciate what you‘ve done for us. Some of us definitely owe you our lives, and the rest of us probably do.”
I nodded, curious as to where this was going.
“Because you and Murphy and Jerome are infected, you can move among the other infected with ease. You’re in no danger.”
“Mostly no danger,” I corrected him.
“Zed, please don’t take this the wrong way, but you three are infected and that makes some of us pretty nervous. Not me, mind you. I’m not worried, but I have to speak for the group.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Again, as much as you’ve done for all of us, many here are afraid of you.”
“Afraid of me?” This was starting to sound like bullshit.
Wilkins went on. “We don’t know if we can catch the infection from you or how. We don’t know when we’re going to wake up and find you standing over our beds and attacking us. We don’t know what you are, and we need to do something about that.”
I heard shuffling behind me, then Murphy’s big voice stopped everything. “I don’t know where this conversation is going, but just so you all know one thing, I’m leaving when this is done. Actually,” he continued, very deliberately standing and stepping toward the hallway. “I’m leaving right now. I need to go find my sister and my mom.”
Mark butted in and said, very pointedly, “We need that ammunition you’re carrying.”
Murphy, beside Wilkins now, turned so that he’d have no one at his back. He was holding the M-4 with one hand over the trigger and one under the barrel, in a way that made it clear that he was fully prepared to operate the weapon if necessary. “Zed and I picked up all of this ammunition. Zed and I picked up all of the guns that you bunch of pussies have right now. If it wasn’t for Zed, you wouldn’t have shit. You’d be sitting in that building next door like a bunch of zombie bait, waiting to get eaten.
“All of you people piss me off. After everything that Zed has done for you, you’re going to tell him to hit the bricks, aren’t you? Oh, and you want to take our guns and our ammo while you’re at it. Well, fuck you. I’m leaving here with this gun and this vest and the twelve clips I’ve got. Just so you know.”
Everybody was motionless.
I spoke first. “Is that what’s happening here, Wilkins? You’re kicking me out?”
Mark muttered. “Of course we are. You’re possessed by demons. All three of you are.”
Wilkins ignored Mark and continued. “No, no. Let me finish, Zed. Clearly some of us don’t feel comfortable being so close to you. We can continue to work together but we’d feel more comfortable if maybe you guys moved into the building next door.”
“Without our guns,” I said.
“No, that’s not what we’re saying,” Wilkins said.
“That’s what Mark just told Murphy,” I retorted.
“Listen, you guys can walk outside and get all of the ammunition you need. You have to admit, it’s more dangerous for us.”
Murphy interrupted. “Zed, you want to come with me? Let’s get the fuck outta here.”
“Wait.” I couldn’t believe it. I looked over at Felicity. I didn’t mean to plead but it probably came out that way. “I risked my life to save you guys.”
Felicity quickly spoke. “Zed, we’re so, so, so thankful for that. But, we saw what you did to those infected outside a little while ago. Zed, you worry us. We don’t know what you’re capable of, or what you might turn into.”
Amber looked down and shook her head. “I don’t agree, Zed, but…”
“This is bullshit!” I said. “Fine. I’m outta here. I’m not going to live in the servants’ quarters next door and run around and do your dirty work. You guys are on your own.”
I turned and started to walk up the hall as Murphy backpedaled beside me.
“Just so you know,” I told them. “I’m gearing up before I leave. I got all of this shit. I’m not going out empty-handed.”
They’d all stood up by then, and walked into the hall to watch Murphy and me go.
I stopped and turned. “What about you Jerome, are you coming or are you staying?”
Wilkins spoke up. “Jerome, we’d like for you to stay. We just need to work out some kind of quarantine to keep us all separate. We can’t risk getting infected. You understand, right?”
“I’d be by myself?” Jerome asked.
“Well…” Wilkins started.
Jerome shook his head. “No, no. I don’t want that. I’m going with them.”
We headed up the hall to get our stuff from the room.
Mark walked a few steps further up the hall and stopped. “Begone demon! Begone mindless monsters! You’re all going to suffer and die!”
“Put a lid on it, Mark.” Wilkins said.
Ten minutes later, Murphy, Jerome, and I walked out of the dormitory, each with an M-4, a pistol, a full load of ammunition in our MOLLE vests, canteens full of water, and enough junk food for a few meals. We hustled around the corner of the building and out of sight of the dormitory, just in case Mark went even more nuts and decided to shoot at us from the windows.
With the afternoon sun blazing in the sky, the billows of black smoke roiling up out of southeast Austin, infected lurking everywhere, and the sound of gunfire in the distance, we started our trek northeast to search for Murphy’s mother and sister.
The End
Follow Zed in his quest for survival in my next book, Slow Burn: Infected, Book Two, due out in September, 2013.
If you enjoyed Slow Burn: Zero Day, Book One, please take a moment to check out my other books online, and consider giving a review on the service where you purchased the book!
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