“Kurt!” Matthew shouts.
Kurt looks at Matthew and sees the group walking away. Kurt doesn't want to be left alone, so he decides to get up and walk back toward the group. Matthew turns and follows the group as well. He hopes Kurt behaves well because he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt here.
The sun rises above the heads of the group members. A few hours have passed by. The group is walking along a highway, but this one doesn't have nearly as many cars as the other one that Matthew had walked along before. Matthew walks ahead of the group next to Jacob who is leading the way. He notices that he plays the role of the leader when compared to everyone else. It seems they all trust and follow whatever he does. Matthew is a little surprised by this, but he is ready to take that kind of responsibility. Michael walks next to Matthew, and his sisters walk behind. Moxxie, Matteo, and Linda follow them. Kurt stays in the back of the group. Linda looks behind her to see Kurt. She gives him a dirty look. Matteo also looks back and looks scared of Kurt. Kurt begins to feel guilty and unwelcome in this group. He is only now beginning to realize how he appeared to the strangers when he saved them. They continue to walk on the highway, and Jacob stops suddenly for no reason. Matthew also stops and looks at Jacob to see what he is doing. Jacob points off of the highway toward the top of a building. The front of the building is cover by trees, but he can make out that he’s at the right place.
“There it is.” Jacob says.
Matthew looks at him, waiting for him to proceed. Jacob continues to walk but strays off the road and toward the building. The entire group follows him. Matthew begins to question whether this group can hold itself together. He has faith in his cousins, but these strangers have come all this way unarmed, and almost died to only a handful of infected. Matthew realizes he was in a similar situation a few days prior, but he had been held up in his house for the last month. Surely these strangers have been exposed to the violence longer than him. They should have been able to defend themselves. Matthew begins to think about Kurt, and why he is acting differently lately. Matthew thinks about Francesco for a moment. He never considered how close the two of them were. Spending a month with someone is surely a way to create a bond, so maybe he is just grieving. Matthew feels sorry for Kurt, but he still doesn't know if he is stable enough to cooperate with the group.
Finally, the group reaches the large parking lot in front of the sporting-goods store. The group steps onto the pavement of the parking lot and walks toward the building. Matthew looks up at the building and sees a large “Wilderness Sports” sign above the doors. Matthew had never come to this place before the apocalypse, but he had surely heard about it. He remembers Michaels father speaking about where he had bought his hunting rifle and remembers him mentioning this place. Matthew realizes there is a good chance this building has already been looted by other survivors, but they might as well check just to be sure.
Near the entrance of the building are four infected, mindlessly roaming. Michael and Matthew sling their rifles over their shoulders and pull out their blades. The group stops walking and watches these two take on the infected. Matthew approaches the nearest one and grabs it by its collar. Matthew quickly stabs the infected in the temple, killing it quickly. Michael walks past Matthew and does the same to the next infected. Kurt watches them kill the infected from behind the group. He squeezes the grip on his rifle. He gets that same urge from before. Kurt holds himself back, but the feeling doesn't go away.
Another infected approaches Matthew from the side. Matthew swiftly kicks the infected in its knee. The infected falls to the ground, and once it does, Matthew crouches next to it and stabs it in the back of the head with his knife. The final infected is further away. Michael gets ready to take it on, but Sydney steps forward and pulls out her blade.
“Let me try” Sydney says.
She looks nervous, but she knows she is going to need to practice if she wants to survive in a world like this. Matthew looks at Sydney, worried. She nods, reassuring she can handle this single infected. Sydney walks forward toward the infected. Sydney stops and waits for it to approach her. It gets close, and lunges toward her. Sydney panics and drops her knife to grab the infected. She holds its head, so it can't bite her. Sydney can't hold it back any longer. Matthew and Michael run toward her to help, but suddenly, the infected is struck by a bullet in its head. Matthew turns around to see Kurt pointing his rifle at them. Matthew looks back at Sydney. She is scared after what just happened. Matthew realizes how close Sydney was to the infected, and how easily Kurt could have missed his shot and killed Sydney by accident. Matthew looks back at Kurt.
“You almost hit her!” Matthew screams.
Kurt doesn't respond. The two look at each other for a moment, but Matthew quickly breaks eye contact. He looks angry. Matthew doesn’t know what he would do if Sydney was the one who got shot. Michael walks up to Sydney to see if she is okay. Matthew, fed up, walks past the two and walks toward the front doors of the building. The group takes a moment, but eventually follows him inside. Sydney watches Kurt as he walks in the building. She doesn't look happy either.
Matthew kicks in the door to the storage room. It was locked, so he needed to use brute force to get inside and see what they might have stored here. He slowly enters with his rifle drawn. He is cautious, and ready to take down any infected that may be hiding in the dark. Michael and Sydney follow from behind. The rest of the group enters the room after a moment. Matthew walks past a shelf and sees an arsenal of hunting rifles and handguns at the other end of the room. Matthew is surprised to see this. It must be untouched because someone secured the room at the start of all this, and no one has been able to get inside. He wasn't expecting to find anything in this store, but here is a gold mine of weaponry. Matthew approaches the arsenal at the back, and quickly realizes there are too many guns for them to take. Matthew picks up one of the hand guns and pulls the magazine out. It is unloaded, but he is betting that he can find some packs of bullets somewhere in the store. Matthew signals the rest of the group over to him. Michael approaches and also takes a handgun. Matthew turns and looks at the others.
“These are all unloaded, so you’ll have to look around for some ammo. Pick one and stick with it. Each rifle and each handgun might take its own type of bullets so pay attention to what you find.” Matthew explains.
Each member of the group picks up their own gun and continues to look around the room. Eventually, Kurt comes in and walks over to pick up his own gun. Matthew looks around at the other members of the group.
“We should look around the rest of the store as well. We might find something useful that we can take.” Matthew says.
They all slowly exit the room after finishing looking around. Kurt picks up a handgun and picks up a pack of bullets. He unpacks the bullets and loads them into the magazine. Clearly Kurt knows what he’s doing when it comes to bullet types. Matthew looks at Kurt for a moment. He is still angry from before.
“You need to calm down.” Matthew says.
Kurt doesn't say anything and just looks at Matthew. After a moment of tense silence. Kurt picks up his things and leaves the storage room. Matthew looks mad. He doesn't know how much longer Kurt can keep acting like this. He begins to think Kurt might turn on him. He might be a threat to the well-being of the group.
Sydney walks around the store near the hunting section. She walks by the shelves and notices something. Hanging on one of the shelves is a machete with a red handle. Sydney goes over and picks it up. She tears it out of its packaging and picks up the sheath which is next to it on the shelf. Sydney looks at it and decides to take it with her. Sydney takes her belt off and puts the sheath on it. Sydney puts the belt back and wears the sheath on her left hip. She then picks up the machete and puts it into the sheath after getting it ready. Sydney walks over to a mirror that's next to the counter where cashiers once worked. Sydney checks out herself in the mirror wearing the machete on her hip. She thinks she looks cool with it. Michael walks by,
holding a hunting backpack he found. Michael notices the machete that Sydney found.
“It’s pretty badass, huh?’ Sydney asks.
“Yeah. Maybe next time you can actually kill one of those things with it.” Michael chuckles.
Sydney looks a little annoyed, but she knows her brother is just teasing her. Michael walks away and continues looking around the store.
Kurt walks through an isle of the store, looking at what's on the shelf. Nothing catches his eye. Once Kurt reaches the end of the isle, Kurt notices Moxxie and Jacob kissing in the next isle over. Kurt watches them like a creep, but quickly looks away when he sees Michael walk by a few isles down. While she's kissing Jacob, Moxxie puts her hand on his forearm. As soon as she does, Jacob flinches and groans in slight pain. Moxxie stops kissing him and steps back. She is confused by his pain.
“What’s wrong” Moxxie asks.
“Nothing it's fine.” Jacob says.
Moxxie still confused, looks down at Jacobs arm. Moxxie notices blood coming from underneath his sleeve. Moxxie looks concerned and doesn't understand why she sees blood.
“You’re bleeding, Jacob!”
“No, it’s nothing really.” Jacob says.
Moxxie steps closer and grabs his arm. Moxxie rolls up his sleeve and is shocked by what she sees. Right on Jacobs forearm is bite mark, and it looks fresh.
“You were bit?!” Moxxie shouts.
She steps back and puts her hand over her mouth. Her eyes slowly fill up with fears. The thought of her boyfriend turning into one of those monsters is too much for her to handle.
“I’m okay! I feel fine. It’s not gonna do anything, okay?” Jacob says. Everyone's attention has been brought to this. They all slowly come out from the isles and look at Jacob.
“It’s fine guys, seriously.”
Kurt steps out from the isle and looks at Jacob. The feeling of rage comes back. He stares into Jacobs eyes as he slowly walks closer to him. Jacob looks scared of Kurt. Moxxie turns around and starts crying. She walks away toward her mother for comfort. Jacob walks out of the isle into the open. Kurt looks really angry. Jacob looks at Kurt's expression. He doesn't understand why he looks so upset.
“You okay man?” Jacob asks.
Kurt doesn't respond. Kurt wants to say something, but he suddenly notices someone standing behind Jacob. Just a few feet behind Jacob is Francesco, with a bullet in his head. The way he looks into Kurt's eyes makes him terrified. Kurt slowly begins to cry to himself as he looks at his dead friend staring at him. Jacob looks disturbed by this. He has no idea why Kurt is crying. Kurt can't stop looking at Francesco. The urge to release his rage comes back.
“You didn't stop!” Francesco screams.
Kurt stops crying and starts screaming like a maniac. Jacob steps back in fear. Everyone in the store looks at Kurt. They are all frightened. Suddenly, Kurt charges Jacob, and tackles him to the ground. Once they fall, Kurt climbs on top of Jacob and begins punching him in the face. Jacob is beaten into submission. Moxxie runs back over to see what is going on. She begins crying and screaming at Kurt.
“Stop! What the fuck is wrong with you?!?”
Kurt ignores her and wraps his hands around Jacobs throat. Jacob starts to choke and lose control. He can't breathe anymore because of Kurt. Kurt squeezes harder, and Jacob begins to squirm to try and free himself. Moxxie cries louder than before. Kurt lifts Jacobs head off the ground and slams it down onto the floor repeatedly. Kurt does this multiple times until Jacob stops squirming. Kurt stares into his eyes until the life is squeezed out of them. Kurt slowly loosens his grip around his throat once he realizes Jacob is dead. Kurt looks up to where he saw Francesco, but he is gone. Kurt slowly stands up and turns around. He is confronted by Sydney. Sydney slowly raises her handgun and points it at Kurt. Kurt looks at Sydney as she stands there and smiles at her.
“Lower the gun.” Kurt says.
Sydney looks at Kurt. She is terrified by the sight of him. She looks over to Jacobs dead body. Moxxie runs up to Jacob on the ground and sits next to him while crying. Sydney feels sorry for her. Kurt is truly sick and needs to be stopped. Michael walks up behind Kurt and raises his rifle at the back of his head from the other end of the isle. Michael looks nervous, and his hands are trembling with fear. He doesn't want to shoot him, but he will if he must. Sydney sees Michael behind him and feels safer now. Sydney slowly lowers her handgun and steps back.
Kurt turns around to look at Michael. Kurt looks mad and Michael looks scared.
“Just lower the damn gun, okay? He was bit! He was already dead!” Kurt shouts.
Michael hesitates, but slowly lowers his rifle. Kurt turns back around and looks at Sydney. Sydney looks terrified of Kurt. Kurt genuinely doesn't understand her expression.
“What?!”
“You just killed him with your bare hands!” Sydney says.
Kurt looks angry and doesn't understand what he did that makes everyone scared of him. Kurt looks around the store at all the faces of the other survivors. They all look scared as well. Kurt begins to sweat and breath heavier. He begins to panic in his mind. He questions everything he has done to this point, but suddenly hears the echo of Francesco in his head.
“You didn’t stop!”
Kurt feels the urge to kill and looks up at Sydney. He wants her dead. He wants all these people dead. He doesn't care about them, and for all he cares, they can all go kill themselves. He only cared about his own group, but now he is surrounded by strangers. Kurt becomes emotional, but inevitably decides he wants to kill Sydney. Kurt reaches back and pulls out the handgun from before. Sydney sees what he is doing but can’t move. She is frozen in fear. Kurt raises the gun, but before he can pull the trigger, a bullet flies through his neck. Kurt drops the gun and falls onto the ground. He begins to choke on his own blood. Matthew steps out from behind one of the shelves with his rifle pointed at Kurt. Matthew has tears in his eyes, and slowly begins to cry when he sees his friend dying on the ground. Everyone in the store is left in shock. No one was expecting this. Matthew drops his rifle and runs over to Kurt. Matthew gets down and puts his hands over the bullet wound on his neck to try and stop the bleeding. It doesn't work.
“Why?! Why did you make me do it?!! Stop!! Just stop!! Please!!” Matthew cries out.
Matthew continues to hold the wound, but Kurt slowly chokes on his own blood. Matthew looks in his eyes as he slowly loses his life. Matthew cannot believe he had just killed his best friend. Matthew continues to cry, while the rest of the group steps out from their spots and comes to see what happened. They are all sad and angry this just took place. Two members of their group are dead, just like that. Kurt, Matthews best friend is dead by his own hands. Matthew raises his hands and stares at the blood drenched on his fingers. All he sees is red.
Chapter 8
Brothers
The cold wind brushes up against his bloody hands as he sits. His face feels cold with the dried tears on his cheeks. Matthew rests, leaning up against a truck in the parking lot in front of the store. Matthews back to toward the front doors of the store, and his hands are drenched in the blood of Kurt. He can't help but stare at his hands. They are a weapon that he used to kill someone. He never imagined living a life where he would have to do something like that, especially to his best friend. Matthew just sits, gracefully. He doesn’t think about anything other than what he just did.
The group stands near the entrance of the store. They are all disturbed and sad for what they just witnessed. Sydney looks off at the truck where Matthew is. She knows he is there, but she can't see him because he is on the other side of the truck. She wants to do something to help her cousin, but nothing comes to mind. She feels partly responsible for what just happened. She knows she provoked Kurt to a certain extent, so she knows he might still be alive if she acted differently. Michael stands next to his sister, thinking the same thing. He already had to kill someone, so he feels like he should have been the one to put down Kurt. He had the chance, bu
t his fear got the better of him. Linda holds Matteo close her. She begins to question whether she can trust these people after witnessing a murder. Michael turns around and looks at Moxxie. She is sitting up against the wall of the store with her knees close to her face. She is holding back tears, probably because of the traumatic sight of Kurt killing Jacob with his bare hands. Michael turns back to look at Matthew over by the truck. He feels that he should go talk to him. Michael takes off his bag and pulls out a rag and a water bottle. Michael looks at Sydney and Shelby for a moment. They know someone should do something, so they nod at their brother. After Michael gets his validation, he decides to approach his cousin.
Michael walks over to the truck where Matthew is. Michael walks around the corner of the truck to see his cousin sitting against it with blood on his hands. Matthew looks up at Michael for a short moment. Michael opens the water bottle and begins to wet the rag with it. Michael intends to give it to Matthew, so he can clean his bloody hands.
“Save it. We’ll need it later.” Matthew says.
“You need it now. You gotta get that off your hands.”
Michael walks up to Matthew and hands him the wet rag. Matthew hesitates, but inevitably takes the rag. Michael sits down next to his cousin against the truck. He feels that he should give him some company. Matthew begins cleaning his bloody hands with the rag.
“I didn't know what he was. I thought I did, but I didn't.” Matthew says.
“How’d you guys meet up anyways?” Michael asks.
“He saved me. He recognized me, so he let me into his group. I didn't know he was dangerous. He was my friend, so I thought he wouldn't be that way. I thought he was good, but I think he was sick. I never questioned how he lasted this long. I guess the people who are still alive are just like him, right?” Matthew asks.
Mankind Page 11
