by Evans, Mike
Mike pushed up as he saw Shaun walking away, feeling even more belittled. Greg yelled, “Shaun, watch out!”
Mike was quick, but it was obvious that he had no clear plan once he accomplished his goal of tackling Shaun. Unfortunately for Mike, Shaun, being a wrestler and having no patience left for the day, was every bit ready for him. Mike tackled Shaun from behind and both boys went down on the ground. Shaun pushed up off of the ground, bringing a left elbow back and meeting Mike’s face twice. Shaun tried to push up further, but Mike stopped him from getting up and flipped Shaun to his back. Shaun got a knee up between himself and Mike; he pushed Mike up and back in the air, causing him to land on his ass. Shaun pushed up, scrambled to his feet, and ran towards Mike, who was trying to get back up to his feet. Shaun threw a hard right punch, knocking Mike back to the ground. Blood instantly flowed from Mike’s nose and poured down his face. Shaun, who was not even close to done after trying to leave, jumped on Mike, landing on his chest and punching lefts and rights in a blind rage as he cursed and screamed, “Is this what you wanted? Huh? Is this what you wanted, goddamn it? Goddamn you!”
Mike stopped trying to put up a fight, and Greg watched for a second in awe. He snapped out of it and ran for Shaun; he gripped him under the armpits, lifted him off, and pulled him back. Shaun resisted and tried running back up at him but Greg held his arms around Shaun in a bear hug, trying to keep him from resisting. Shaun yelled, “Let go of me, goddamn it, Greg. Let go of me now!”
Greg knew he needed to stay calm and needed to get Shaun to that point also. He whispered real lightly, “Shaun, it’s okay, man. Look at him; he’s done. He doesn’t need any more man. Really.”
Mike tried to sit up but fell back down. Shaun stared at him, seeing what he had done and realizing that he had gone too far. He had messed the kid up pretty badly.
Greg let go of Shaun once he stopped trying to break free, and Shaun dropped to the ground, tears coming from his eyes. “Goddamn those things. None of this would have happened if those freaks hadn’t come—if they hadn’t ruined everything!”
Greg put a hand on Shaun’s shoulder. “They’re going to figure all this out. The government will make things right. They have to, right? I mean, it’s what they do.”
Shaun said, “I kind of wonder how it all started. It seems too much of a coincidence that it broke out at the same hospital her mom was at—right after my dad was there.”
Greg said, “Your dad wouldn’t do anything like that on purpose, man. There’s no way he had anything to do with the outbreak, is there?”
Shaun shrugged, thinking of the note that he had put in the box on top of the fireplace. “You know, I’m not sure. I just don’t know. I don’t think he’d do something like that either, but at the same time, accidents happen, right?”
“Those people on the radio earlier said that any clues that could be given to them might be what saves everyone. That is, if they are able to develop a cure.”
Mike came around and sat up. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping at his tender nose. Shaun stared at him, seeing what he had done. Mike was going to look like he’d been in a war for days because of his doing.
Mike started shaking in convulsions, his shoulders rising and falling. The two boys stared at him until they saw fresh tears running down his cheeks, making smooth pathways on his cheeks where the blood had been. Shaun raised a hand, ready to say something; he saw his knuckles and looked at his other hand. They were both covered with the kid’s blood.
Mike said, “I’m sorry. I just… I just wanted some things from my house. I wanted some pictures. I saw Ellie unpacking pictures you got from Patrick’s and I just… I don’t know, I guess I let it get the best of me. I’m sorry. Don’t make me leave. I know I need to stay here; I don’t know enough to make it on my own.”
He warily walked over to Mike, pulling him up to his feet. Greg and Shaun stared at the boy’s face, used the bottle of water that Greg had brought, and cleaned him up as best as they could with the handkerchief. Greg said, “Oh man, the girls are going to give you guys so much crap for fighting.”
Shaun nodded, seeing how Mike’s face was puffing up. If Greg hadn’t stopped him, he was unsure he would have had the willpower to have stopped himself. Shaun tried to recall when Greg had pulled him off; he couldn’t even remember that he had been hitting the kid. All he could see and remember was white.
Mike said, “Will you two show me how to help with firewood? I think I could help do that.”
Shaun nodded and said, “Yeah, let’s show you how to do that, but why don’t you go use the mirror inside and some soap and get your face cleaned up. See if there are any bandages inside that you can put on your face to help cover the cuts and keep them closed.
Mike walked down the hill to the cabin slowly. Shaun looked at Greg and said, “Sorry about that. Thank you for pulling me off him. I don’t know if I could have stopped.”
Greg nodded his head and picked up the axes. “I don’t know if you would have stopped either. That was crazy, man. You got to be able to hold it together better than that.”
Shaun whispered, “I know; that isn’t like me. I… I keep thinking about the outbreak and how my dad said he was only a few days away from the cure for Karen. What I keep thinking is that if he was only a few days away, then maybe he was just lying, and he gave it to her at the hospital when he was there. Things didn’t go crazy until after he went back to E&T. He could have given her a dose when he was there the first time, before he gave us a ride home.”
Greg said, “Did he keep his papers at the lab or did he keep them at the house?”
Shaun said, “He left me a note. I think that it’s time I go read it, but I don’t know if I can, man.”
Greg questioned, “What do you mean?”
Shaun looked up at him, the tears still in his eyes and the blood still slowly dripping from his mouth. “What I mean is that what do I do if my dad was the reason that the entire world is going into a ball of fire? What do I do?”
Greg shrugged and said, “Yeah, that sucks. I don’t know what to tell you, but I do know that your dad had every intention of doing the right thing by Karen, and after all that happened yesterday, he still only cared about getting everyone to safety. I mean, think of what could have happened if you and Ellie would have stayed at the hospital.”
Shaun tried to imagine himself or Ellie as one of those things and it gave him goose bumps that ran up and down his back. Shaun said, “Everyone here, everyone in town, everyone everywhere would have me to blame. The kid of the guy who unleashed hell on society.”
Greg said, “Dude, why don’t we go read the note? If there is anything saying that he was responsible for it I think that we should get to his work immediately and see if we can find any notes. The CDC said to get them the information. I’m not sure what we can do to get it to them with the phones down, but we’ll figure something out, right? That Kristy chick is pretty smart. Maybe she can help us with something.”
Shaun wiped at his eyes and said, “So she’s a chick now, huh?”
“Dude, she might be one of three girls left in the world who isn’t a zombie, for all I know.”
“Greg, do you ever let the big head do the thinking?”
“Not when I can help it, dude.” Greg pointed to Mike, who was still walking to the cabin. “What are you gonna tell the girls? They’re gonna be pissed, man.”
Shaun watched him go down the hill. “I’ll deal with Ellie later, I guess.”
*****
Mike opened the heavy wood door to the cabin. He was in no hurry to have people stare at him; his humility level was currently strong. When Tina and Ellie saw him come in, they gasped and couldn’t help but stare. Kristy saw the look on the other girls’ faces and turned around. “Oh, for Christ’s sake, what happened to you?”
“Uh, I tripped coming back.”
Ellie said nothing; she got some alcohol and a first aid kit and set them on the table. She motio
ned at Kristy, who was still shaking her head, and pointed at the wood stool. “Sit, Mike; our resident nurse is going to make you feel all better. You look like you fell from a very tall tree.”
Mike walked slowly to the table and sat on the stool. Kristy sat at the taller chair so that she wouldn’t need to lean over to work on his face. Ellie motioned for Tina to follow her, while Patrick pulled up a chair across from Mike and sat. He was still feeling the effects of not having the proper amount of drugs that his body required to function. “You okay, Mike?” he asked as he watched Kristy and Mike’s “doctor” visit take place. “Hell of a fall. How does the other guy look? Was it Greg or Shaun?”
Mike tried to shake the question off. “How are you feeling, Patrick? Any better yet?”
“I asked you a question; who did that to your face?”
“It was Shaun, all right? So what? He kicked my ass; what exactly do you think that you're going to do about it?”
“I don’t know, but he doesn’t need to start fights. What has he done for us to be able to put up with that?”
Kristy slammed her hand down on the table, startling both of them. “Are you both idiots? Well… are you? What did they do? Well, hmm, let’s think… they saved your asses at the school, fed you, and got you clothes to survive the winter. They brought you up to a cabin far away from town and all those… things wandering around wanting to kill everyone still living. Oh, and Patrick, what was it that Shaun did for you again? Oh, that’s right; he went and got you some insulin so that you wouldn’t die, because, as you said earlier, a boy with out his drugs is a dead one, right?”
Mike whispered slowly, “She’s right, Patrick. And besides, I started it. I went out with a chip on my shoulder, and he handed my ass to me. All he’s been doing is trying to help us stay alive and it’s not even his job to do that. Hell, we are probably older than he is, but it’s his house and they’re his rules, I guess, going forward. All I can think of is that we need to do something to be able to contribute around here.”
“Hey, speak for yourselves. I’ve done more than anyone has, so far… well, maybe not Shaun; he had the cabin and all. But look over there.”
Both boys looked to where Kristy was pointing; across the wall was a long line of day backpacks loaded to the brim. They counted, realizing she’d put a bag together for everyone. “What’s in them?” Mike asked.
“Well, it’s got a change of clothes for each of us, a canteen, a few MREs, a knife, and a few other things. That Andy guy gave us a ton of everything. I figured if this place becomes not so safe and we need to leave, it’d be better to be ready to take something with us and not have to abandon everything we currently have.”
Patrick got up slowly, walked over to them, and opened the one that had a P in black Sharpie written on it. He looked through it, nodding his head. When he looked up, he had a look of guilt on his face. “Thank you for putting some insulin in here for me. I really appreciate it. I don’t know what my chances are going to be when I run out.”
“Hey, we are all here together now. We can find you some when we need to; don’t worry about it,” Kristy said.
“You keep tabs on it, and let us know what's going on with you, and we will do what we need to so you don’t end up worse off,” Mike added.
******
Shaun and Greg were getting ready to head back to the cabin when Ellie and Tina came out. They didn’t look around; they just looked at the two boys and never blinked. Then they started a determined walk towards them like they were on a mission from God. Greg noticed that he had flakes of dried blood on his hands from helping Shaun and Mike and rubbed them off on the back of his pants. He then leaned in towards Shaun, smirking. “Well, I hope you know what you are going to tell them. Between what we think your dad might have done and them coming up here to rip you a new A-hole over what happened with Mike, it’s not going to be a good thing.”
Ellie, even though shorter, made it far quicker than Tina. She was ready and determined to unleash on Shaun. She opened her mouth, ready to start a rant and then closed it as quickly as she was ready to start it. She saw Shaun’s lip and chin and took in the puffiness around his eyes. She looked down at his hands, seeing they were bright red from fighting and that they were covered in drying blood that would probably stain them for a few days if not cleaned soon. Tina caught up to Ellie, seeing none of this and out of breath from the hike up the hill. “Okay, Greg, why the hell’d you have to beat the hell out of that poor kid? What's wrong with you? How much older are you than him? Jesus, he looks like he went through a mixed martial arts contest and everyone got a turn to kick the crap out of him.”
Greg just opened his mouth, unsure how to answer her. He used his eyes to point at Shaun, not wanting to throw him under the bus, but at the same time, unable to take Tina’s motherly stare. That look from Tina, who usually shot sexiness with her eyes, was creeping the hell out of him.
Tina said, “What?” She looked over at Shaun, who was also baffled by her, never hearing her talk like that. Then he remembered how she’d come from a house where she was the only woman and probably had to keep her dad and brother in line from time to time. She looked at Shaun, seeing him and putting everything together.
“What were you thinking? Were you thinking? Did you see Mike, for god’s sake? He looks like hell. What happened up here? God, we were inside for only, like, five minutes. Did you jump him?”
Shaun, who was already so over the day that it was making him sick, snapped at her, making her jump. “Tina, he started things. All right, I didn’t mean to go that far; Greg had to pull me off.”
Ellie watched Shaun, seeing that he was still on the verge of crying and that there was probably something more going on with him. “What else is it, Shaun? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this before. You didn’t shed a tear when you kicked the crap out of—” Ellie stopped, realizing it was way too soon to be going into past stories at school where Tina’s brother was concerned. “You don’t act like this, and you never go to that point. What happened?”
Shaun looked at Greg, who nodded, making the girls all the more nervous. He said, “My dad was working on a cure. He didn’t want anyone to know, but I had figured it out when they left the morning that he got engaged. I kept it a secret because I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
Ellie shook her head. “No, that isn’t true. Your dad set her up at that clinic with the experimental drugs. She was going to be okay.”
It was Shaun’s turn to shake his head. “Sorry, but no. I think that’s the big project that he was working on.”
“So then what was she doing all those six months while she was supposedly taking the drugs?”
Shaun delivered a one-word answer that knocked the air out of her. “Dying.”
Ellie shook her head no, rubbing her face and then started beating on Shaun’s chest as she cried uncontrollably. Tina gripped her, bringing her into a hug. She couldn’t speak for a moment and then turned around. “How could you keep this from me? If he wasn’t doing anything for her and she was just dying, god, I could have at least started dealing with it. That whole time I was making myself sick—you know that I was—and I kept thinking that she’d get better, but you knew that wasn’t the truth. I thought we were friends. I thought we were more, that you liked me. Damn you Shaun. You can’t keep things like that from people.”
“He swore me to secrecy. He told me yesterday that he was days away from being able to give her something, but I kind of think that he already did. I don’t know if your mom was taken by one of those things like Dad had said.”
Ellie wiped at tears. All of the information hitting her at once was enough to make her puke. “What do you mean that you don’t think she was taken by those things? What is it exactly that you think there, Shaun?”
Shaun spoke barely above a mumble that was impossible for anyone to hear. Ellie snapped at him, “What the hell did you say Shaun? Speak. This is important, obviously, or you wouldn’t be pussyfo
oting around it!”
“I said, that I don’t think the infected got her. I think that she was the first one.”
Greg interrupted. “Well, I kind of think she might have been the second, if you think about it.”
All three sets of eyes had Greg’s undivided attention. “What I mean is, remember my dad got called out to E&T because that scientist got killed out there? The one that was your dad's partner, I think he might have been the first one. Maybe he tried the drug and went crazy or something. Maybe he got infected by it somehow… hell, I don’t know.”
The three of them stood there openmouthed, trying to take it all in. Shaun was reaching the same conclusions as Greg more quickly than the other two, but he had a few minutes lead on them processing the information. Ellie dropped to her knees. “So what you’re saying is your dad designed the drug that ruined the world and then injected my mom who made it spread throughout the city—and from what Greg and Kristy said—the entire country.”
Ellie crawled behind an oak tree, attempting to not hyperventilate. Tina came to walk behind her, but Ellie held up a hand to stay back and then lost what little food she still had in her stomach. Greg nodded. “Yeah, that’s about how I feel too.”
Shaun said, “I am so sorry Ellie. I don’t know what I can say, but if they want information on the drugs or want his research, I think I’m going to go after it. I’m going to go back down to town. I can start at the house and then maybe go to E&T.”
“We just got back Shaun, and let me remind you… we just barely got back. How are you going to get it to people? The city is overrun. I can only imagine what the place that created the drug looks like by now.”
Shaun answered, “Yesterday was Sunday. There shouldn't have been many people there at all. Hopefully the outbreak was only on that Rogers guy. We can pray right? Maybe we can find some sort of video that will help us understand things too.”
