Somewhere In The Middle

by Lucas Coon

  "Are you crazy? You two would die out there!" Kayla laughed as if they were kidding. "Wait, you guys are serious?! Darren you cannot go out there!" Her outward presentation changed from a grin with her arm crossed, to her flailing and expressing her thoughts angrily. Mitchell noticed that she talked with her hands. Her thoughts were almost as easy to read as words on a page of a book, mainly because she was over expressive. He chimed in to regain control of the situation.

  "We'll be alright. We're going to stay in this building for now. Unfortunately the kitchen is on its last leg and is in desperate need of restocking. We were thinking that there has to be other floors within the building that have food." She appeared as if she was paying attention. She waved her arms in defeat.

  "Alright, fine. But don't die out there. I can't take care of Lilly all by myself Darren." That didn't quite sound sincere, but Mitchell was certain it was. "You said a couple of floors up? How far are you guys going to go?"

  "Well, I was kind of hoping that you could tell us what would be our best chance? I know you stayed on this floor mostly, but I can't imagine that you don't know anything else about the building." Darren pushed this issue this time. Mitchell wasn't sure if he wanted to ask, so he was glad Darren did it for him.

  "Well, let's see. This is the floor that finance was on. The first floor was reception only, but it's out of the question. The second floor was mostly meeting rooms for clients and partners with management. However, there were a number of mini-fridges always stocked with bottled water from corporate, which is in New Hampshire. Those would be safe, so that's a possibility. However, there wasn't any food down there, so it wouldn't be ideal since that's what you're going for. The fourth floor was a floor for the project managers, but it housed sensitive data, so the doors are locked. My badge might work, but there's only a fifty-fifty chance. The fifth floor was the tech department. Those guys always had food all over the place, and the only time I went up there to get cups out of the kitchen, there were literally cases of energy drinks and snack chips up there." Mitchell laughed. "I know it sounds stereotypical, but I'm not joking. I'm fairly sure half of their approved budget was for junk food."

  "Alright, so we'll have to go to the fifth floor, and the second floor if we have time. The fifth floor is a must though. We have a large bag that we packed in that we can use to carry as much as possible. Mitchell, I only have the shot-gun, and we gave Abram his back, so you'll be the designated gatherer of supplies." Mitchell didn't like this idea, but reluctantly accepted his assignment. "Since it's day, and a good amount of this building is glass, there should be plenty of light for protection. Since we're only going up two stories, I can't see this taking too long, so once we finish we'll come straight back. If we can, we'll head downstairs afterwards. Either way, we grab as much as we can and head back as quickly as possible. Sound good?" Mitchell met eyes with Darren and they both nodded. They opened the door and started walking out to the center aisle. Darren handed Mitchell the duffel bag that was sitting empty by the wall. He opened it up and peered around to get a feel for the amount of space that he had to store food in. He opened one of the zippers and found a picture of Darren and Kayla when Lilly was born. He assumed it was Lilly as it was a baby and Kayla was lying in a hospital bed with a gown on. Darren looked like he hadn't shaved in a while in the photo, and Kayla had short, dark-blond, hair. This photo was five years old, but the couple had definitely grown up since it was taken. They both looked much more like adults now than they did in the photograph. Just as well, they both also looked like they hadn't over-aged due to the burden of taking care of Lilly. They were great parents, and Lilly wasn't a huge cause of stress for them. Kayla saw the photo and smiled.

  "Her birth was one of the quickest the hospital staff had ever witnessed for a first time mother, or at least that's what they told me. It could've just been words of encouragement. I swear it felt like I went into labor and she was just there. Darren looked goofy with all the peach fuzz didn't he?" She nudged him.

  "If I remember correctly, you're the one that told me not to shave it!" He sounded like he was getting defensive over his facial hair. Mitchell looked at him then, versus him now, and agreed, goofy was an appropriate adjective. "So if you hated it, then you had a really weird way of showing it!"

  "I didn't hate it! You just look better now, but, since you haven't shaved in a while it's starting to come back." Kayla launched her assault at his defenses.

  "Well, I think I'm going to keep it this time! Like a badge of honor. It proves that I'm a man!" He did a strong arm pose to amplify the humor. It worked, Kayla burst into laughter. Darren moved out of his pose to show that his ego was damaged.

  "You don't need to prove you're a man honey. I'm pretty sure you've done that quite enough." She leaned in and kissed him. Mitchell yet again found himself quite glad to be with these people. In fact, the only place he would have preferred to have been at this exact point in time was at home with his wife. It was Sunday, so the pair would've gone through the normal "End-of-the-weekend rituals". Mitchell would've woken up around eight. He would've gotten out of the bed quietly to not wake Aria up. Despite his best efforts, she never did stay asleep. She would always wake up when he got up and walked out of the room. She'd pretend to be asleep though, just to give him the pride of getting up and not waking her. For the past two months, Mitchell was the one to get up and make breakfast on Sundays, and she absolutely loved it. She got a little extra sleep, and he demonstrated the cooking skills he didn't have. It didn't matter to her, she loved that he was trying. The last Sunday they were together Mitchell had woken up later than usual, around eight thirty, but she still pretended to stay asleep. She woke up at the normal eight, but let him sleep in, the night before was quite tiring, and she could tell that he was exhausted. When he got up, he walked into the kitchen and looked in the cabinets and fridge for what he needed.

  He pulled out the eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon. This week he was going to make a French style toast, or at least something in the same vein as French toast. He mixed the milk and eggs with some sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. He looked at his mixture questioningly.

  "That doesn’t seem thick enough. French toast is supposed to be thick, right?" He wasn't sure who was going to answer this question as he was the only one in the room. He looked for a way to thicken it. He first pulled out corn starch and looked at the container. 'Corn is sweet, right?' He dipped his finger in and tasted it. This was the point in his life where he realized that he had never actually tasted corn starch. This was also the point in his life where he wished that he had never even considered tasting corn starch.

  He tightly screwed the lid back on and tossed it onto the higher shelf. He grimaced at the horrific taste. His mouth was filled with a gritty, bitter, overall disgusting flavor. Once the horrible experience was finally over, he went back to searching. He found the one thing that sounded like it may actually work; ready-made pancake batter. He took it out and repeated the experiment that had worked so well with the corn starch. It was a little bitter, but it was perfect for what he needed. He mixed it into the French toast batter and dipped his bread. It looked interesting. He had bread that looked like it was coated in pancake. He plopped it into the skillet and let it cook. The end product was something quite entertaining. It was definitely similar to French toast in looks, but it also looked to be pancakes with a lump in the middle. Regardless of how it looked, Mitchell felt a sense of accomplishment come over him. He stared at his end product and smiled. He plated the soft lumps and placed them on the table. He then placed the peanut butter and syrup beside the plates, lastly, he opened the fridge to get the juice out. Upon removing the container, he noted that it was lighter than necessary to fill two glasses, so he filled hers and preceded to fill a mug with hot water and a teabag for himself. He laughed at the thought of drinking tea with breakfast, and assumed that, if he were in England this would be normal. His mind wandered on to what it was like to be British, but after a few moments of
thought, he decided that England was not the place for him. He didn't get their obsession with towels or numbers in the low forties, and it bothered him. He made a mental note to do an Internet search for "British people and towels" later.

  Upon setting the table up, he walked towards the bedroom and peered in at his wife from the door frame. He glowed with pride that he was able to wake up every day next to such a lovely person. He was excited for their future and their family, and everything was falling into place. He trotted lightly over to the empty side of the bed and positioned himself right beside his wife. She felt him get into the bed and rolled over to look at him. They met eyes and stared silently for several moments.

  "Good morning, dear." He tried to sound as sweet as he possibly could. "What's for breakfast?"

  "That depends on what you made, doesn’t it Mitchell?" She saw through his playful question. "Actually, what did you make? It smells good."

  "Well, why don't we go find out what the…." He paused for a moment to think of something clever "….breakfast gnomes? Anyway, let's go see what they made for us!" Aria leaned in and kissed him. They got up and walked into the kitchen. She looked confused at the cake-like lumps.

  "What are these?" She sounded less upset at the sight of the French toast blobs, and genuinely concerned or confused.

  "Well, my dear, those are one of the greatest delicacies of France. They are French cakes!"

  "I feel like you're making that up, but I guess it could be a thing." She smiled at him. "Thank you."

  "Absolutely. I hope they don't taste absolutely horrendous, because I'm nervous about actually eating them." Mitchell shot her a grin to try to sound sarcastic, but was concerned about the health repercussions of eating his experiment.

  That was the last Sunday they had spent together before all of this happened. He wanted nothing more than to go back to that time; to go back to a time where they were together. When he could wake up before her and make a failure of a breakfast for her, only to have her choke it down every time. It didn’t matter how bad it was, she'd always eat it and thank him sweetly. He did everything for her, to make her happy, and that's all that mattered to him. He thought about how much he missed it all, even though it hadn't been that long. It was amazing what a couple of days could do to a life. He shook his head and handed the picture to Kayla. He looked over to Darren to assure him that he was ready.

  "Kayla, tell Lilly what's going on, but make sure you tell her that we're not going outside, just upstairs. We don't need her having a panic attack at five." He grinned at Kayla and she rolled her eyes. "We'll knock three times in groups of two. When you hear that please open the door and let us in." They locked eyes and she grimaced.

  "Be careful out there Darren. Seriously, come back alive." She embraced him and held tight. She was obviously scared that he wouldn't come back. It was such a simple plan, but the unknown does that to people. She kissed him and stared him in the eyes for a moment before she stepped back. "I love you."

  "I love you too Kayla. We'll be alright." He smiled and gestured to Mitchell that it was time to at least make the attempt. They opened the door and walked out of the safe room. They shut it behind them and stopped for a moment. It was completely silent in the stairwell. Was the building clear? Had the infected not rushed the building? Mitchell considered the possibility of the windows actually being what was saving them. Regardless of it all, they began walking up the stairs. It was warmer in the stairwell than it was on the floors, which was likely caused by a lack of ventilation. The walls appeared to be cemented bricks, and that probably didn't help.

  They stepped rhythmically to the door that blocked the fourth floor. Darren ran the badge over the reader, but nothing happened. He peered into the window and saw nothing but cubicles and meeting areas that were completely empty. There was nothing on this floor but dust. They agreed on this fact and moved on.

  "So Kayla worked here, huh? What did she do?" Mitchell decided to make small talk on the way up.

  "She was the assistant to the head-honcho in finance. She's ridiculous with numbers. I couldn't spend a penny without her knowing. It got annoying sometimes, but, hey, at least one of us knew exactly how much we had at all times. I just liked to spend money on things we didn't need." Darren smiled at the remark of his bad habit. "I'm a bit of a nerd with technology. I liked to have the newest gadgets. I tried to stop when Lilly became impressionable, but it wasn't easy. Right before this whole thing happened I bought this ridiculous smart watch." He gestured towards his wrist. "A whole hell of a lot of good it's doing me. I don't have the charger for it, so it's basically just a wrist mirror." Mitchell looked down at his own wrist. He looked at the silver gear watch and, to his dismay, noticed that the glass was broken. He didn't want to think about it, so he went on with the conversation.

  "So she was fairly important here. Is that why you guys came here? Because she knew the area?" He was genuinely curious as to why they would've chosen this place over a military evacuation area. Darren stopped in the stairwell.

  "Yeah, we thought it'd be safe. Do you remember when they told everyone to wait for the evacuation call? Well, I'm not exactly patient. I immediately darted out the front door and gunned it down the road to pick Lilly up from her day care center. After I picked her up, Kayla called me and asked if I had heard what was going on. She had just gotten home and was in a state of panic. I went home to pick her up and she told me that we should wait for the call to evacuate from the military. Well, as you know, that never happened. I got fed up and asked her what we should do since we couldn't stay home. She suggested we come here and that there should be a number of people here and we would be safe. We got here and it was just us. We decided to hole up in her cubicle and were listening to the radio. They kept saying that help was on the way, but it never came. We listened for as long as it was on the air. They suggested that anyone with a safe zone put the sign on the window. We found some spray paint in the storage closet from some sign that the company had and marked the window." He shrugged. "Then Abram showed up with his wife. Then you got here, and that's that. It's only been you three aside from Kayla, Lilly, and I. It's almost sad to think that there may not be that many of us left out there. I know that some evacuation efforts were successful, but most weren't. They never came to my neighborhood, and Abram said that they failed to get them out of his area. I'm guessing that's why you're here." He looked at Mitchell expectantly.

  "It is actually. I was home with Aria at the time." He stopped the thought there. Darren could see that he was biting his tongue.

  "I'm guessing that's your wife's name. She's out there somewhere right?" He wanted to give the situation a positive light.

  "Yeah. Last I heard from her she was at the hospital. We lost communication when they were evacuating. I don't know if she just lost her phone in the chaos or if they were hit." Again Mitchell stopped mid thought.

  "Alright. We can talk about it later. Maybe we can help you find her." Darren decided that they should move on. He was sincere in saying they could talk about it later, but right now was the time to focus on the task at hand.

  When they got to the fifth floor, there was no reader on the door. Darren twisted the handle, and the door opened. He pointed his gun up and walked in slowly. His breath became shallow and his steps were impressively light for a man of his size. He entered the room slowly keeping his face towards the wide open area, and finishing with his back facing the wall. He kept looking as Mitchell inched his way into the room. They both silently analyzed the new environment before them.

  "Looks like we're clear." Darren called it. He lowered his weapon but kept a firm grip, just in case something were to come jumping out at them. They walked further onto the floor and examined the desks. Kayla wasn't exaggerating. There was a trash can in the corner that said "Recycled Cans" that was piled to the top and overflowing onto the floor. There were desks that had trash cans full of wrappers and chip bags. These people were absolute gluttons. This was a promising t
hought to Mitchell. Gluttons always kept food nearby, and if they were gone in a rush, that food may still be there for the taking. In the back corner there was a dark room that was located almost directly where the kitchen downstairs was. Mitchell and Darren had both guessed that this was where they would have the best luck. They walked in and out of the rows of cubicles making sure there were no other survivors, but mostly making sure there were no infected. At about halfway through, they were content that they were alone. They walked towards the kitchen door and shined a light into the room. There was nobody there. Mitchell flicked the switch upwards and the fluorescent bulbs kicked into action.

  They glanced around and saw exactly what Kayla had meant. There were a couple of twelve packs of soda in one end, a full vending machine, and half a cardboard box full of cheese flavored chips. They opened the fridge and were greeted by even more sweets and carbonated drinks. This was perfect. While the spoils of the trip weren't exactly described by any adjective a doctor or dentist would approve of, Darren and Mitchell had decided that this would do for the time being. In times of survival, beggars can't be choosers, and they were certainly in the position of beggar. They had definitely found enough to hold them off for a little while. Mitchell opened the bag on his shoulder and started to cram cans and wrappers into the openings. He looked at the soda and noticed that the team on this floor seemed to have an obsession with orange flavoring. He found some beef jerky and pressed cheese sticks in the drawer of the fridge. 'Awesome! This is a great find.' He pulled as much as he could cram into the side pocket. He didn’t want to overdo it on the items in the fridge, when there was so much more to choose from. He shut the door and stood up. He snatched up as much of the bagged chips as he could. He turned to Darren and smiled.

  "Well, this looks good, but how do you suggest we get the items out of that vending machine?" This was a question that Mitchell regretted asking. Darren took the shotgun and smashed the front glass on the machine. "Well, I guess that works, huh?" Darren grabbed a couple of the candy bars and put them in his pockets. Mitchell grabbed a good amount and filled the remaining space in the bag, and did the same as Darren. He found his favorite chocolate bar, filled with caramel and nougat, and put the entire row worth in his empty pockets. "Sorry, these are mine!" They both chuckled. "Hey, if I have to eat junk food, it's going to be something I like."