Stage 6

by James, Dylan

  Kevin looked as if he was about to speak, but then stopped as I continued on, “I’m not interested in halves here Kevin. You’ve already given us cause to distrust you. If you want to stay with us until a certain point and then leave that’s fine, but you need to let us know right now if you have any plans to join us. Sarah, from what we’ve all seen of you I think it’s a safe bet that you would be welcome in our group if you choose to.”

  There was an uneasy silence, and then Ian spoke up, “Well alright, point number one. I think we should stay here. We have almost no gas, limited supplies, and besides why would we go anywhere? We’re safe here and that’s what counts.”

  I privately disagreed with what Ian said, but instead of arguing I simply said, “The way I see it we’re going to leave here eventually no matter what. We’re not going to live here the rest of our lives. The question is, do we leave now and head onwards out of Texas where there aren’t ANY Infected, or do we settle in down here until the military manages to clear ‘em out? By a show of hands, who wants to stay here as long as we can?”

  Ian and Karen raised their hands immediately, upon which Kevin cut in angrily, “Haven’t you two ever seen a zombie movie? EVERY time they try and camp in one spot they get overrun and eaten alive. I don’t know about you but I have yet to see a movie where they switch spots every day. You know the reason they don’t have a movie like that? Because the survivors live in those movies, and that’s not interesting! We need to keep moving, never staying in one spot too long.”

  Karen replied, “No I haven’t seen any zombie movies but this is real life, not like some dumb movie.”

  Kevin asked incredulously, “Are you kidding me!? This is exactly like a zombie movie! We have crazy psychopath human beings rambling around trying to eat our flesh, while we run, hide, and defend ourselves at whatever the cost! They are the zombies, we are the survivors! I’ve seen a damn lot of zombie movies, and I know NEVER stay in one spot for too long. Bad things happen when you start thinking you’ll be ok if you settle down for a bit.”

  My mom said, “Kevin these aren’t zombies. These are real people, just Infected and acting irrationally. If we could find a cure, they would go back to their normal selves. These aren’t zombies don’t you see?”

  Kevin replied, “Whether this is like a zombie movie or not, the point is we need to survive. And in this case the best survival tactic is to keep moving on, avoiding all large hordes of zom-, Infected fine, and stocking up on supplies as w-”

  Ian interrupted Kevin’s speech and said, “Sit down and shut up! What you think doesn’t even matter. You are barely allowed to sit here, never mind allowed to be a voice in our group.”

  Kevin instantly rose to his feet as if to fight somebody until Steve glared menacingly at him, and he meagerly sat back down.

  Shaking my head I asked, “What do the rest of you think? Anybody else want to stay?”

  Steve put in, “Honestly I think we need to rest here a bit and recuperate. There doesn’t seem to be any Infected around here and it’s the safest place I’ve seen around. And while we’re here we can try and acquire some gas and supplies from the villagers. It’s the logical thing to do.”

  I agreed, “My thoughts exactly Steve. Can we agree this is the best thing to do?”

  My mom spoke up, “I’m with you whatever you decide Jack.”

  Lucy said, “Yeah I think considering the circumstances it’s the best thing to do.”

  Ian looked angry and if he was about to argue so I quickly said, “And we will play it by ear. If after a few days we realize it’s not that bad here, we might decide to stay. How’s that?”

  We all agreed on this point minus Kevin who wanted to leave immediately and Sarah who was noncommittal.

  I said, “Glad that’s over with. On to the next topic: supplies. I think this one is pretty obvious; we’re going to have to get food and ammunition from the villagers. The thing we need to decide upon is how we’re going to go about doing that. Any suggestions?”

  Suddenly an unfamiliar voice broke in through the open door, and I turned to see a kid I guessed was about twelve standing there. He was the same kid I saw in the gas station last night, and had on running shorts. He was obviously out of breath, and must have heard us while jogging and came to see what was going on. Nosy, but I would have done the same.

  The kid repeated, “I know how you can get supplies.”

  Surprised, I asked, “What’s your name?”

  He replied, “My name’s George.”

  I said, “My name is Jack, it’s nice to meet you. What makes you think you can help us get anything?”

  He said, “I believe you guys. I heard about what you said last night, and I believe you. My dad went to go see what was wrong with the supply trucks about three weeks ago, and he hasn’t come back since. Before he left he told me about a disease spreading around and made me promise to keep myself safe. The people around here are dumb and won’t listen to reason. My dad tried to convince them that all the trouble we’ve been having with supplies, and our animals and such is because of the disease but they just laughed at him.”

  I let this sink in, while my mom waved George inside and made room for him to sit on the bed.

  Ian spoke up, “George, you said you were having problems with your animals?”

  George nodded, and said, “Yes some of our livestock have been acting very strangely and non-responsive. One of our pigs even bit Joe yesterday.”

  All of us looked up sharply at this news, and I asked, “George, are you sure he was bit?”

  He replied, “Yep, I saw it myself why? Do you want to see him?”

  I nodded slowly, and said, “Yes I would like to see him in a bit, first we have some issues to finish up.”

  George got up to leave, but then suddenly said, “Please let me stay with you guys! I heard about you deciding whether to leave or not, and if you leave than I want to come with you!”

  Incredulous, I asked, “George just how long were you standing out there listening to us?”

  He replied sheepishly, “Since I saw the man with the baby walk in.”

  I threw my hands up, and said, “The whole time huh. Well George we can’t just take you away from your family, you have to stay with them here.”

  George said sadly, “My dad was the only family I have, and he said he’d be back almost two weeks ago. I don’t think he’s still...”

  My mom looked with pity at him, and Ian got up and went over to his side.

  He put a hand on George’s shoulder and said, “My dad died a few days ago, right in front of me. And let me tell you; until you know for sure that he’s dead don’t give up hope. Because he’s probably out there right now trying to fight his way back to you, and you have to be here when he gets back, don’t you?”

  George smiled through tears in his eyes, and nodded his head. He then told me, “The guy who got bit by the pig, Joe, is over two houses to the left of the gas station. I’ll be there.”

  And then he turned and fled from the room. I sat back and sighed.

  Then like so many other things in the past week, I shrugged it off and continued, “So I guess George will help us find supplies. We need to have a look at the guy who got bit and make sure he isn’t left to turn into an Infected, but before then we need to finish off this discussion.”

  I turned and looked at Kevin and Sarah, “Do you two even want to be a part of our group?” Kevin looked off towards the wall, obviously not fond of the idea of being ‘part’ of anything. Sarah looked as if she was about to speak, but then quickly glanced over at Kevin and fell silent.

  After a few moments of tension, Kevin turned to face me and he said, “Before you guys found us, we were scared and shocked by what was happening. We didn’t even know how this was transmitted, or that it could infect animals, or what! If you wouldn’t have come by when you did we would be dead now, I’m sure of it. It seems to me that you guys are much more prepared, much better armed, and much more exp
erienced than me in this zombie warfare stuff. For that reason, I would like to join up with you guys to learn more about how to survive. I just got out of hell; I have no intention of going back.”

  Kevin gave an attempt at a smile, and offered his hand to me. I grinned broadly, glad to see this uncharacteristically emotional speech from Kevin, and took his hand firmly. I then let go and looked at Sarah.

  She returned my gaze and said simply, “I want to join too.”

  It was obvious she was not sure what she wanted to do, and was simply following Kevin, probably the only person she felt like she knew, but I was happy nonetheless. The more the merrier in this hectic world.

  I then looked around and asked, “Anybody have any objections to these two joining us from now on?”

  Lucy ran over to Sarah and hugged her. I guess the two of them had become friends at some point.

  Everybody was shaking their heads, and then Steve said slowly, “I guess I don’t have a problem, but on one condition. We still don’t give Kevin back his gun until he’s proved himself trust-worthy.”

  Kevin immediately stood up with an outburst, “What do you mean I can’t have my gun I have to protect myself don’t I!?”

  I then said firmly, “Sorry Kevin, that’s the way it is. There’s no way around that for now at least. We can’t have you going crazy and shooting that gun around anymore. Are you still with us?”

  Kevin grudgingly sat back down and nodded, “Alright, then.”

  I stood up and said, “Let’s go see George and this biting pig of his.”

  We all filed out of the room, and the whole group minus Steve who stayed behind with Victoria, followed me to where George said he’d be. The second house to the left of the gas station huh? I easily spotted the house he was talking about, as in this town all the houses were spaced at considerable distances from each other.

  We walked up to it and met a woman who was also walking there but from a different direction, who good-naturedly asked us, “Are you folks wanting to see my Joe?”

  I smiled and replied, “If that would be ok with you ma’am, we are curious about this strange incident.”

  She walked over to the open door of the house and waved us in, “Well come on in, my name’s Carey. Joe has had lots of fun being the center of attention for so many people. He’s the first room on the left up the stairs.”

  I thanked her and we went up the stairs and found the first door on the left. There was a man in a bed who I assumed was Joe, and a crowd of four-five people around him. One was obviously a doctor, holding some type of instrument to Joe’s chest. Joe looked deathly ill, with pale white skin and his hair falling out in clumps.

  As we entered the room (which was very large fortunately), one of the people turned and greeted me, introducing himself as “Bob, the town veterinarian.” greeted him in turn, and he said, “Well let me guess, you guys are here to hear the story of the biting pig eh?”

  I smiled and asked, “I’m guessing there have been many other curious folks?”

  He replied, “Oh yeah, there’s been no end of visitors. Well Joe isn’t feeling very well right now, so I’ll take it upon myself to tell you guys what happened. It was like this, I was out there with Joe at the farm this morning, as we normally are. We were milking the cows when we heard a sudden ruckus coming from the pig pens- keep in mind that we had been having trouble with these pigs for a while now so we ran over thinking to find the answer to this mystery. When we looked in the pen we saw the strangest sight, one of the pigs was actually trying to eat the other pigs! I know; unbelievable, right?”

  Bob rocked back and forth punctuating the ‘unbelievable’, as if he still couldn’t believe it, and then continued on. “So Joe rushes in and pulls the pig off the others, when suddenly the pig turns on him and rams him to the floor. By the time I got in there and shoved it off of him and dragged Joe out, he had bruises all over and the pig has even bit him across the chest! He could walk but he was hurt pretty bad, so I brought him here, this is where he lives with his wife- you may have met her-, to recover. It’s the darndest thing though, instead of resting for a few hours and getting right back out there like I thought, the Doc over there says he’s getting worse! Some kind of Infection he thinks.”

  We all shuddered at the mention of the possible Infection, knowing to ourselves what it probably was. I excused us out into the hallway, and we all crammed together.

  Kevin said urgently, “Well that’s the Infe-” We cut him off with “SSHHH’”s, and told him to keep his voice down.

  He mumbled, “Sorry,” and started again more quietly, “well it sounds like the Infection doesn’t it? What are we going to do?”

  I replied in a whisper, “Last night when I told the people in the gas station about the Infection the looked at me like I was crazy, I don’t think they will believe us here. It will cause more harm than good to try and explain to them what it is, and besides we don’t know it’s the Infection for sure, for all we know it could just be rabies or something.”

  Ian scoffed, “Just rabies. I remember a time when rabies would have scared the crap out of us. Now, it’s mocked.”

  Lucy put in, “Well what do we do then? Do we just let this go on and go about our business? What happens when or if he turns into one of them? He could kill people!”

  I shook my head, not knowing how to respond to that when Kevin replied to her, “NO I think Jack is right.”

  I looked up surprised at this backing from an unlikely source, and he continued on, “The only thing that will happen right now if we tell them about the Infection will be more suspicion and doubt being placed on us, and we don’t want that right now. What we need to do is go find George, and trade for supplies so we can get OUT of here if we need to. Maybe once we have everything we need we can attempt to explain to them what it is, but right now we don’t want to alienate the townsfolk from us. They are our only shot at getting out of here.”

  Lucy slowly nodded her head, but then said, “I understand, but I still don’t like it. I can feel it; this is going to be trouble for all of us.”

  On that ominous note, I walked back into the room and said, “Well thanks, Bob, that cleared up a lot for us. Say would you happen to know any people around here with stuff like food and gas that they would be willing to trade to us for money or supplies or something?”

  He gritted his teeth, thought about it for a second and then replied, “Well I don’t know about the gas, but I’m sure you could find some food around here. Most of us have a surplus in food we’d be willing to sell or trade as that surplus would normally be shipped out of here to stores anyways. On the gas, your best bet is Alex. He lives behind the general store, and a few months ago he realized before the rest of us that the trucks were stopping to come in, and he bought up a bunch of gas for himself. He’s pretty stingy with it but he’s about the only one of us with any gas other than the gas already in our vehicles.”

  I thanked him again, and we shuffled down the stairs and out the door, to see George sitting outside with a slingshot shooting at birds. I opened my mouth to say hello when suddenly a bird plummeted out of the sky aiming straight for him. Shocked I didn’t have time to do anything when Kevin raced forward and tackled George out of the way. A split second later the bird crashed beak first into the earth, instantly dying upon impact. We all ran over to Kevin and George and helped them up.

  We all looked at Kevin surprised, when he said, “Hey I just remember you guys first telling me those animals could be Infected too, that scared the hell out of me.”

  George dusted his shirt off and looked thankfully at Kevin. I then asked him, “Hey George do you know where someone called Alex lives? We heard he has a bunch of gas.”

  I could tell George quickly got over his incident with the Infected bird because he immediately laughed and said, “Yeah I know where he lives, but good luck getting anything out of that guy. He hoards stuff like there’s no tomorrow.”

  Grimly, I thought to myself t
hat wasn’t far from the truth. Without those supplies there might very well not be a tomorrow. I asked George to take us there, and he replied, “Sure.”

  We followed him around the store I had gone to get baby food from the day before, and saw a lonely old house in the distance with no grass or trees near it.

  George pointed at the deserted landscape and remarked, “He conserves his water so much he won’t even use it to feed the grass.”

  My hopes of trading for gas were plummeting with each step we took, and I hurriedly turned to my Mom and asked her, “What do we have that we can trade?”

  She looked blankly at me before replying, “Well we have all the money left from your wallet, and I guess if we had too I’m sure we could trade some of our guns. Maybe some parts from our truck? We really don’t have much we can part with.”

  Kevin spoke up, “Well hey guys I have about two hundred bucks here if we need it?”

  Grimacing I nodded; hopefully Alex would be interested in money.

  We walked up to the door of the house and George gave a quick three knocks, which brought an immediate drawling reply of, “Who is it now?”

  George whispered to us, “We come around here every few days to ask for gas to go into the cities and find out where our trucks are going, but he always refuses.” George then spoke up, “It’s me, George, and a few travelers who are passing through. They want to see if they can work out a trade.”

  We heard a sigh from inside, and a few seconds later the sound of bolts being withdrawn came to our ears, and the door was opened.

  A middle-aged man stood there with a frown on his face, and after having a good look at us he said, “I am not used to so many visitors; three of you can come on in but the rest have to stay outside.”

  His tone was apologetic, and I thought it a reasonable request. I told George to wait outside, and asked quietly and quickly who thinks they would be a good negotiator.