Stage 6

by James, Dylan

  Steve smiled, “Hey Ian can you open up my bag back there? There’s portable butane stove in it. We can use that to heat up anything you have. Also pull out some of those boxes in there.”

  My mom thanked him, and did as he asked. Steve took the little boxes, and my mom set to work preparing bean tacos.

  Ian asked Steve about the boxes, and he replied, “Its milk that doesn’t need to be refrigerated. I brought some thinking that Victoria would need some.”

  He took his baby from Lucy and attempted to feed it his weird milk stuff. He didn’t seem to be having much success, and meanwhile I thought hard about our situation. I didn’t see anything we could do but stay here in this town, which was beginning to sound like not such a bad idea. If there really were no Infected here, than this was as good a place as any to camp out. We could wait here for a while, at least until it seemed dangerous.

  I jumped out of the car, and stretched for what felt like the first time in forever. How amazing it felt, to finally move and walk around with a sense of security. I massaged every muscle I had, and felt new life come into my body.

  I opened the trunk and beckoned Hunter to me. “Here, boy!”

  The dog awkwardly clambered over Kevin’s motionless body and leapt out of the trunk. Hunter immediately began stretching from head to tail, in every possible way.

  I informed everybody of my decision, and they all heartedly agreed except for Steve, who had some reservations about staying in one spot. He agreed though, but made me promise we would reevaluate the circumstances every day and make a new decision based on that. After a satisfying dinner of Chile and crackers, we all piled back into the car and drove a mile to the motel. I jogged there with Hunter, relishing the fresh air. If the world wasn’t taken over by vicious Infected humans, it could have been a vacation. My mom went inside to get us a room, and came out surprised a few seconds later.

  She said, almost laughing, “They say it costs fifteen dollars a night per room. We didn’t bring any money Jack. All I have is my license that I always keep in my pocket.”

  I thought back to those first few terrifying days stuck in the house, and didn’t blame myself for not bringing any money.

  Then I remembered, “Wait! When we went to that drug store to get protective gear, I moved my wallet into that new jacket I bought. And now I’m wearing that jacket.”

  Grinning, I reached into one of my jacket’s bigger pockets and retrieved it from the depths. I pulled it open to reveal about two hundred dollars.

  I handed her thirty dollars, “Why don’t you get two rooms? For at least the first night we can all have a bed to sleep in.”

  She went inside and came out with two keys for the rooms. I took one and headed off with the Truck with Ian, Steve and his baby, while Lucy, Karen, Sarah, and my mom took the other room. I looked disapprovingly at Steve as he got out of the truck and walked into the room, baby in one hand, assault rifle in the other.

  I yelled after him, “I don’t think we’ll need that Steve.”

  He shrugged me off and went inside, “Don’t bring your gun if you don’t want to. Personally I feel a lot safer with the gun, then without it.”

  I thought about it, and followed him with my shot gun. I put it in by the side of the room near my bed, and then went back out to the car to grab my backpack. I came back inside leading Hunter to see Steve laying the baby carefully down on the bed, and gently placing pillows around it so it wouldn’t slip off. He then went back outside and unloaded all his gear. He transported it all in one trip to the room, looking like a moving stack of supplies.

  Then I drew Steve out with me and asked him, “What do we do about Kevin? He’ll wake up soon I’m sure.”

  Steve frowned, and after a few seconds thought said, “I see no reason to move him. Better that he’s stuck in the truck than in here with us. Who knows what he’ll do?”

  I wasn’t sure if I was ok with leaving Kevin tied up locked in the truck, but I was too tired to argue. I threw myself onto my bed, and lay on my back spread across the wonderful softness. I hadn’t felt the comfort of a bed in over a week. Hunter jumped up beside me, but I didn’t mind. Something that I never appreciated in my world of comfort was how amazing it felt to simply feel safe. How terrifying and unreal it was, to go through life for just seven days fearing everything and everybody. In the span of a few months my life had gone from a normal, everyday existence to whatever the hell it was now.

  I wondered how the other countries in the world were reacting to all of this. Do they even know? While Ian fell asleep very fast, and very comfortably I strangely had a tough time falling asleep. Just as I was about to fall to sleep after hours of trying too, I heard a small noise.

  Confused, I peeked my head out from the covers and looked over at the other bed. Steve was curled around his little baby, cradling it with his massive bulk. His shoulders were shaking like he was pushing some imaginary barrier with all the strength he had, but he was still. He sobbed, once, and then again, great heaves of sorrow. He continued that way for a long time, just holding his baby and crying. I thought I knew why. He was thinking of his wife dying during childbirth. Then I remembered how I felt when my dad had passed away. I was only thirteen. Tears began to come to my eyes, and uncontrollable thoughts came to my mind. I began to think, how would I feel, if my mother was torn from me tomorrow by one of the Infected? I didn’t know Lucy or Karen very well, but Ian was one of my best friends. What if he died? I couldn’t stop these horrifying thoughts and images flowing through my mind, as I just now realized I had somehow kept them locked away over the past few days. Now that I was safe for the time being, these fears were surfacing. I lay in my bead for a while, and Steve in his, both crying, both letting out our sorrow and pain. Steve cradled his baby; I hugged my dog. We were all in this together now.

  Day 7

  I woke up to the sunlight coming through the window sill. I yawned and stretched up, making Hunter jump up and realize I was awake. He licked my face while I fought to push him away, laughing. The commotion woke Ian up, and he kind of blinked a lot to get used to the surroundings. I got up and looked around the room to see Steve with a bottle of his non-refrigerated milk, trying to feed Victoria. I told him good morning, and asked how he was doing.

  He replied, “Not so good I’m afraid. She still isn’t drinking very much of this stuff. I need some real food.”

  I said, “Hey Steve we can go to the store they have here. Maybe they have some real milk she would like? Or some baby food or something.”

  His face lit up, and he said, “That’s a great idea Jack, can you go down and see? I’d like to stay here with her.”

  I obliged him, and put on my shoes to go out the door. I threw on my TAS jacket, and debated whether to take my shotgun. I figured it would just cause a massive amount of unease in a town like this to see the new strangers toting guns.

  I turned to Ian and asked, “Hey can I borrow your pistol? I don’t want to carry around the shotgun and scare anybody, but I can conceal the pistol.”

  He shrugged and opened a drawer near the bed where he had kept it. He handed it to me and said, “Feel free to but there’s only a couple bullets left in there.”

  I nodded, and hid it within my jacket. I opened the door to let a blast of cool air hit me, and surveyed the surroundings. I could instantly hear muffled yelling from within the truck and I solemnly went over to the back. I took out the keys from my pocket and unlocked it, opening it.

  Kevin immediately started yelling profanity at me, and in between the words I caught, “How... you. what the. where are.”

  I cautiously helped him get out of the truck, and braced him while his legs got used to standing again.

  I told him, “Alright shut up Kevin. We took away your gun and tied you up because you were obviously a threat to us, we didn’t know when you’d shoot another person. Here’s the deal. We’re at a small town now where apparently they’ve never seen nor heard of the Infected, or at least the magnitude
of the Infected. You are free to go if you want, or you can stick with us. Just know that we can’t give you back your gun until you’re trusted.”

  He took in my words for a second, and then surprisingly said, “Alright. I understand.”

  I told him to walk into the hotel room and have Steve untie him because I had an errand to run. Then I took Hunter with me, and set off to find the supermarket. Being the only large building in town, it wasn’t exceedingly difficult.

  I jogged towards it, and told Hunter, “Stay.”

  I had trained him when I got him a few years ago to obey only three commands, ‘stay’, ‘free’ and ‘fetch.’ I figured that a command for staying still, a release command, and a command for moving was all I would need. He obediently stopped where he was, and I ventured inside.

  I was immediately surprised by the surroundings. Most of the shelves were entirely empty, and those that had anything were useless supplies such as paper, and toys.

  I went to the counter and asked the only person I could see in the store, “Umm, excuse me but what’s wrong with the store? Why is everything missing?”

  He was a balding, middle-aged man who looked like he had been through some stressful times. He replied, “The whole town hasn’t gotten anything in or out in forever. Our supplies just slowly dwindled until as you can see now, we have barely anything left.”

  Desperately I asked, “Do you have any milk?”

  He said grimacing, “That was one of the first things we ran out of. The only milk in the town now is those that in our houses that we are using sparingly.”

  I said, “What about any baby food or anything like that?”

  Raising an eyebrow he replied, “Well if you really are that desperate for food, yeah I think we have some on one of the isles.”

  I quickly said, almost defensively, “It’s not for me. We have a little baby in our group who isn’t eating, so that’s why I asked about the milk.”

  Sadly he said, “Well you can go look. I haven’t been back there in a while, it’s too depressing.”

  I went back to the isle he pointed out, and was pleased to immediately see a large stack of assorted baby items. I grabbed a bunch of baby food containers, and as an afterthought I also took a little toy bumblebee. I took it the counter and dumped it all down.

  He just looked at it and told me, “Don’t worry about it. I got a one year old at home. Good luck with the food.”

  I thanked him and waved good bye as I was leaving the store.

  As soon as I saw Hunter I said, “Free!”

  He jumped up to meet me, and almost knocked the groceries out of my hand. I pushed him down and with both hands clutched around my chest holding the baby food containers I started jogging towards the motel. I enjoyed the cool breezy air, mixed with the warmth of the still rising sun. I kept jogging straight through our open room door. I could hear the baby crying, and I stopped, slightly out of breath. I noticed that Ian wasn’t to be seen, but Kevin was grimacing and rubbing his wrists sitting on my bed.

  Steve turned around and saw me, and immediately asked, “Did you get the milk?”

  I replied sadly, “No, apparently that was one of the first things to go. But there was a bunch of baby food, and I got her this toy I figured why not?”

  Grimacing he took the groceries from me and thanked me. He pressed the toy into her hand, and she started shaking it. The rattling noises evidently kept her interest, because the crying soon stopped. Steve then opened a container of baby food, and sat there motionless for a second.

  Then he turned to me and asked, “Do you happen to have a spoon?”

  I told him, “No sorry, I don’t. Do you want me to go look for one?”

  He replied, “Nah, it’s not that big of a deal.”

  He went over to the sink and washed his hands meticulously, and then scooped his finger into the baby food and proffered it to the baby. She looked at it suspiciously for a second before reaching out for his hand. Steve gave it to her, and she looked content. He continued to feed her in this manner, until she refused to take anymore.

  Beaming, he turned to me, “Great! She likes it. Before we leave here, we should stock up on that baby food. It’s good stuff. And I still think she needs milk, as soon as we can get it. Are you sure there is none?”

  I replied, “Well the owner guy said that there was a little bit of milk left in the town, but in people’s homes and they were saving it.”

  Steve frowned, and sat there silently for a bit.

  I asked him, “Where’s Ian?”

  He answered, “I’m not sure. He said he was going to go get Karen, but that was right after you left a good twenty minutes ago.”

  I said, “Alright, well I’m going to go talk to my mom ok? I’ll see you later.”

  Steve nodded his head, and I walked out, closing the door behind me. Steve stopped me, saying, “Oh, could you leave that open please? I want her to have some fresh air.”

  I obliged him, and left it open before resuming my short walk to my mother’s room.

  As I walked out Kevin jumped up to join me and Steve instinctively tensed before I told him, “It’s ok Steve. I don’t think he wants to hurt us.”

  I stood outside her door and knocked, for it to be quickly opened by Lucy, who was shivering under her damp clothes. Karen and Ian were sitting on one of the beds talking, and my mom was nowhere to be seen.

  I let out a small chuckle at her appearance as she invited me in and I asked, “Lucy, why do you look like you just jumped into a lake?”

  She smiled through her chattering lips and said, “They don’t have hot water here, so I took a cold shower. It felt good to scrub off all that dirt so I stayed in for way too long.”

  I laughed and shook my head, and then asked, “Where is my mom?”

  Lucy replied, “She just started her shower, and she told me she wasn’t going to stay as long as me because she hated the cold.”

  I smiled, and told her, “Well that’s good because I wanted to talk with her. I haven’t had a chance to do that in almost a week.”

  She nodded, and I sat on the bed opposite of Ian and Karen, thinking that they probably didn’t want anybody else in on their conversation. Kevin tentatively kneeled down besides Sarah who was in an armchair across the room. I lay down on the bed and tried not to listen, but it was hard not to. I decided it wouldn’t be too rude to listen, because if they truly wanted privacy they could venture ten feet outside and be perfectly in peace.

  Ian was replying to something Karen had said, saying, “No Karen don’t worry, nothing will happen. We’re safe now! We escaped!”

  Karen said, “How long will we be here? This place is weird.”

  Ian told her, “But it’s safe here, and the people here haven’t even heard of the Infection... We can stay here as long as we want until this is all under control!”

  Karen grudgingly agreed, but voiced her concerns again, “This just doesn’t feel right though. Remember those Infected we saw on the road just a few hours before getting here? They are spreading everywhere. Why would a little town like this be free of the plague sweeping the country?”

  Ian didn’t have an answer for her, and just sat there repeating his reassurances. I marveled at Karen’s intelligence. I hadn’t thought about when the Infection would arrive here, I was preoccupied with the dwindling supplies of the town. All the same, what could we do? We didn’t have enough gas to get to the next station, and the whole town hadn’t had any gas in weeks. Regardless of the danger, we had nowhere else to go. It was our only choice to remain here. As I was left to my thoughts, I heard the shower stop and knew that I could soon discuss this with my mother. I waited for her to get ready, and then greeted her with a hug, saying, “well, at least for now we made it huh? We got away!”

  She nodded and said, “Yeah! I’m just so happy we’re all ok.”

  I saw Ian and Karen stiffen at those words, and almost reminded her we had lost Mark before I stopped myself. It wouldn’t do an
y good to upset her. I sat down on the bed with my mom while Lucy stood off by a mirror and examined herself I guess looking for any cuts or bruises.

  As I talked to my mom I realized it felt remarkably similar to talking to an old friend after a long absence. Along with a flood of fond memories came the realization that I should have kept in touch with her. But then after all, it has only been a few days. It shouldn’t feel so different. We have both changed so much because of the Infection... We talked for a long while, first about how we felt about the Infection and the rapidly changing world around us, and then about all the things we left behind. We agreed that as long as we all survived nothing else mattered, but the realization that all the money and belongings we had worked for over our entire lives was gone, probably with no way of getting it back. Even more striking was the fact that the friendships we had made along the way were all gone as well, with the chances of death or Infection to our friends at such a high rate. Preferring not to dwell on such dark topics, we swiftly moved on to our current situation. I asked someone to go get Steve, and Ian volunteered. Shortly thereafter Steve arrived with Victoria. We all found comfortable positions, and began to talk about what to do next.

  I spoke up, “Here’s the agenda right now. I came up with three points we need to decide on. Number one: location. Are we going to stay here? If so, for how long, and if not where else do we go and how do we get there? Number two: supplies.” I looked over at my Mom who was in charge of inventory.

  She spoke up, “We only have enough food for another three or four days max. We’re also running low on ammunition, except for Steve who has basically a personal armory.”

  There was a chuckle among us, and I smiled and continued on. “Number three: the newcomers.”

  Kevin and Sarah looked uneasily around as I said this, no doubt wondering what I was about to say.

  I spoke directly to Kevin, “We have to know where your loyalties lie, so to speak. First we need to know exactly what you are planning to do, if you join our group or don’t. And then based on that decision we need to decide amongst ourselves whether we are ok with you joining us, or so forth.”