by Lucas Coon
"He was one of my students." Mitchell shut his wallet and tossed it onto the boy's body. "He was one of my seniors and he was actually a smart kid. He was one of the few people that paid attention and actually gave a damn about the subjects I was teaching. He was always on time in class and turned in all of his work when he was supposed to." He grabbed the back pack and put it over his shoulder. "And now he's reduced to a corpse sitting in a hole in the wall restaurant because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"You can't save everyone man." Darren put his hand on Mitchell's shoulder. Mitchell pulled himself away from Darren's hand.
"That's the fu--" He snapped at Darren. He stopped himself mid-sentence to keep himself from yelling at his only friend in this situation. "That's the problem Darren. Who can we save? Is there anyone out there that we can actually save from this? Is there anything that we can do to stop more people from dying? Or are we just test subjects in the biggest damn experiment this side of the equator? Think about it Darren. We're the lesser species here. We are literally the ants to the magnifying glass, being picked off one by one until the only ones left are the ones that scurry off into their holes and hide out for the next chance to maybe get some food to take back. For once in our species' existence, we are on the lower end of the food chain. Those...those damn bugs are changing, they are evolving to a point that we aren't going to be able to keep taking them out as easy as we have been. Have you not noticed? They're getting less afraid of the light. They're starting to figure out how to detach from their host to infect others. They've already got us scouring for food and afraid of the water. What next? Based on how things are going I'd say that they'll probably start spraying their damn eggs through the air or shoot fire from their damn mouth!" He stopped talking to breath. He wasn't trying to yell at Darren, he was just yelling through frustration. He cleared his throat and regained his composure. "Listen, Darren, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to yell at you"
"You're right Mitchell. There's not a damn thing we can do to help anyone else. Do you know what we can do? We can keep going until we fall over dead. That's literally all we can do right now. We can just keep scouring the floor for food to delay the inevitable and hide in our third floor offices until they smash down the damn door. And you know what I'm going to do if that happens? I'm going to pick up this gun and unload my last four rounds into the hoard of infected taking out as many of these sick bastards as I can to protect my wife and my daughter. Do you know why that's the mentality I've had to develop? Because when I saved your ass after you collapsed in the hallway I realized that it was fight or die. I had two choices in that scenario. I could have left you to be killed and assured my family's safety, or I could have dragged you in and risked my own life as well as Kayla's and Lilly's. I chose the latter. You are worth saving because I can save you. These people, there's nothing we can do for them. They're already gone, they will always be gone. There is not a single thing that you or I could possible do to bring them back from the other side. We need to keep going for our own sake. I can't expect my family to stay on the third floor for the rest of their lives and I don't expect you to just give up on us." He ran his hand through his hair. "Do you understand me Mitchell? We are our only chance of survival. The rescue isn't coming and the military is gone. We're honestly just lucky they haven't nuked the city." He put his hand on Mitchell's shoulder again. "Please man, just come on. Grab what we can and let's get back. Consider yourself part of my family, because none of us are continuing without you."
Mitchell sat there silent. The conflicts in his mind never seemed to end. Darren was right, but so was he. They were as good as dead in the end, but they could keep going for the sake of going. He grabbed the bag and filled it with everything they could. There were plenty of cans and dried foods in the back. He stuffed the bag to its limit and walked back to the door waiting for Darren to finish.
"Hey Darren." He called out.
"What's up Mitchell?" He finished filling his bag and walked back to the doors where Mitchell was standing.
"What are you going to do when this is all over? When we get to safety and all is said and done, what are you going to do?" Mitchell decided that he needed to have the same mindset as Darren.
"Good question. First thing I'm going to do is figure out where you live and buy the house right next door. Then we're going to have a big barbecue with you and Aria. Then I'm going to invest in a fallout shelter that links between our houses and goes on for miles. In other words, you and I are going to have our own little city under the ground." He laughed. "What about you? What are your plans?"
"I'll just be happy to be with Aria again. I like your ideas though." He chuckled at Darren.
"Good, then it's settled. We build our underground kingdom and if this all happens again, we'll be safe forever. We're going to stock up on several decades’ worth of food. I heard that you can buy astronaut food that lasts for a hundred years. We should get some of that just in case." It was a good plan. Mitchell knew it would never happen, but he laughed with Darren anyway.
They both agreed that they had gotten all they could out of this trip and that it was time to head back. The two of them started in the direction of the entrance. Mitchell stopped at Harold's body and thought for a few moments about what he had done. He hated the thought that he had to do it, but he was convincing himself that it was necessary. He had to; otherwise it was going to tear him up from the inside. It probably would anyway, but he was going to try to stuff it down as much as he could. He looked over to Darren as they both walked towards the glass frame. He wasn't the same person as yesterday and it was Mitchell's fault. He had convinced him that they were dead anyway. What Darren said rang in Mitchell's head as he thought about it "You killed the monster, not the man." That was a lie; he'd killed both.
"Darren, what's your last name?" Mitchell wanted to strike up conversation. He realized that he had no idea what he, nor his family's last names were. If they were going to be a family, as Darren had put it, then he had to at least know their last name.
"Barber." He didn't turn around to answer, he just turned his head and said it in the direction of the question. Mitchell was fine with that. He wanted to drum up a conversation, but at the same time had nothing worth talking about. He averted his gaze back to the ground in front of his feet.
They both walked back across the street to the corner of the neighboring building to the office. They crept towards the alley and peered back down it. Nothing; the infected was still gone. This worked to their advantage. They both stepped quickly to the door of the office building and entered, they passed the desk in the center of the room and entered the door to get to the stairwell. The heat was still climbing in the building and, as they had both noted the day prior, it was much warmer in the stairwell than it was on the floors. It was uncomfortably warm in the stairwell, which meant that it was getting hotter everywhere else.
"Why did the AC have to stop working?" Darren asked. The question was definitely rhetorical as Mitchell couldn't have answered it. He huffed a half chuckle in response. They made their way up the three flights of stairs to the door on the third floor. Darren turned to Mitchell. He banged on the door in the rhythm that they had earlier agreed on. "Good haul Mitch. We definitely succeeded this time."
"Yeah, we did." Mitchell smiled. It was nice to hear something positive amidst all the things that had happened over the past few days. The deaths they were responsible for, the failure of the first mission and him passing out on the stairs, forcing Darren and Kayla into a hard spot. It was just nice that it was over, they'd succeeded. The next thing they'd be doing was heading to the hospital to find Aria.
"What the hell is taking her so long?" Darren pounded on the door again. After a few seconds the door cracked open.
"Are you a monster?" Lilly was talking through the small amount that she had cracked the door open. Mitchell thought about how adorable this was. He then thought about the fact that, had they been infected pounding at the
door, Lilly would have just killed herself, Kayla, and Claire. Another thought he wanted to go ahead and ignore.
"No, Lilly, it's daddy." She opened the door and looked up at him.
"OK, you can come in." She stepped back to let her father through the door.
"Where's your mother, Lilly?" Darren set the bags that he was carrying, as well as his gun down on the table near the door. Mitchell set his bags down there as well. He thought about how much that table had been used over the past few days. A weird thought to have, but he was confident that the table was probably never used until they started using it. "Kayla, where are you?" Darren's shouting interrupted Mitchell's table thoughts.
"Darren! Mitchell! I need your help! Back here!" Kayla shouted loudly. Her voice wavered from the back area near where Claire was staying. Darren jumped into a jog to the back of the room and towards where she was. Mitchell picked up his pace but wasn't in a mood to jog. He got there only a couple of seconds after Darren. As he approached the scene he saw Claire on the floor shaking violently. Kayla had a look of complete fear on her face and Darren's concerned face turned to shock and confusion.
"What's wrong with her? What's going on?" Darren tried to assess the situation before him. He knelt down and tried to hold Claire's arms down with Kayla.
"I don't know! She just started doing this a minute ago!" Kayla was obviously unknowing to the situation.
"Guys, stop! Don't hold her down. Darren, Move that chair out of the way. Kayla, put a pillow under her head." Mitchell took control of the situation. "She's having a seizure. Do you know if she's epileptic?" Mitchell knelt down beside her as Darren pushed the chair out of the way. Kayla did her job and looked at Mitchell confused. She had no idea whether Claire was epileptic or not. Mitchell looked over her wrists and neck. There wasn't any sort of medical jewelry indicating anything of importance.
"How do you know she's having a seizure?" Darren inquired to Mitchell.
"Well, aside from the fact that she's violently shaking on the floor in the same manner that someone having a seizure does, my mother was epileptic. I had to help her all the time when I was young." He tilted her to her side and held on to her. He put his hand in front of her mouth to see if she was still breathing. He could faintly feel the air exiting her mouth. He pressed her chin down slightly to make completely sure. As he did, her mouth fell open slightly. Mitchell looked down to make sure she wasn't choking on her own tongue.
"No, no, no, no, no. Son of a..." Mitchell stood up and stepped back. "Darren did you not check her?"
"What do you mean? What's wr--" Darren looked down at Clair. "No! No, you can't be serious." He turned around angrily and kicked the wall, expressing his anger through various expletives. "Dammit, you cannot be serious!"
"What? Is she going to be OK?" Kayla was still in a state of confusion, she was oblivious to the obvious problem they were talking about.
"No, Kayla, she's not alright. She's infected." Darren turned back around to face his wife as he snapped back at her.
"What? No! She can't be! You checked her!" Kayla snapped back.
"No, I actually didn’t. I was going to when she came in, but that got stopped when you ran over and hugged her all buddy-buddy like."
"Guys! Stop! No one is to blame here. It was an oversight and that's all." Mitchell reasserted his authority. He looked down at Claire as she stopped shaking. "We need to figure out what we're going to do." He knelt down near her.
"If she's infected, then why isn't she trying to kill us, or whatever?" Kayla was in denial. "She's been perfectly fine until this! How do you even know she's infected Mitchell?!"
"She hasn't been taken over completely yet. It's not instant Kayla. The eggs get into your system, they hatch and grow, then take over. Based on what I saw, they've hatched but haven't taken over yet. Best guess; she has less than twenty-four hours." He stared her over and grimaced. 'It just keeps getting worse. Even the ones we rescue can't be saved.' He looked back at Kayla; she was a mess.
"You can tell she's infected by the holes in her tongue. There are four small holes on the top near the front.” He tried to make eye contact with her, but she was lost.
"No. No that can't be right. You guys are wrong. You have to be wrong." She shook her head at them violently. Her tough exterior was breaking quickly. Mitchell had only met her a couple days prior to this, but he was certain that she was breaking mentally. Things just kept getting worse for them. Kayla started to cry, but her blank and lost expression didn't change. Claire stopped shaking and was lying still at this point. Kayla stood from her position and walked over to the wall. She was visibly shaken.
Darren and Mitchell met eyes and Mitchell nodded. Darren understood this cue and walked over to Kayla. Mitchell looked back down at Claire. She wasn't conscious yet, but she wasn't seizing anymore. 'Why? Why did you have to be infected Claire? Dammit, I just thought you were going to slow us down, not throw us into a frenzied panic.' Claire began to come back to consciousness. "Guys, she's waking up." She slowly woke in confusion for a few seconds and looked over to Mitchell like a lost child.
"Claire, you had a seizure. Are you epileptic?" He wasn't going to burst straight into her being infected; he figured this may be easier to start with.
"No. I've never had a seizure in my life. I feel really dizzy." She slowly tried to stand and stumbled. She was able to pull herself to a semi-standing position with the desk. "Where's Kayla?"
"She's over there. What do you remember last?"
"I was telling Kayla that I wasn't feeling very well and I..." She paused. "...well, that's all I remember actually. She came over to check on me and I said that I felt sick and now I'm here. Why are they over there?" Mitchell looked at Claire. She had a worried look in her eyes. Her pupils were dilated, but not to their full extent. She looked at Mitchell begging for a response with her gaze. He sighed and looked down.
"Claire, you're infected."
"What? No I'm not! I'm fine! What are you talking about?" She grew furious with his accusations. She was loud enough for Darren and Kayla to hear her. "Kayla, you tell this man that he needs to shut his mouth!" She looked to Kayla for affirmation. She offered no comfort with her tear soaked cheeks and swollen eyes. "No. No you guys are wrong!"
"We're not wrong Claire. I don't know how you got it, but you are definitely infected." Mitchell didn't know how to handle telling a stranger that she was going to become a mindless killer in less than a day.
Claire's eyes swelled with tears. "No, no, no. I'm fine!" Whatever will was acting as a floodgate gave way and her eyes spilled. "Is that why I'm sick?"
"Possibly. There's no way of knowing." Mitchell still avoided eye contact.
"How do we stop it then? I'm not a monster yet, so there has to be some way to make me better, right? There has to be something we can do to make me uninfected, right? There has to be something that we can do to make me better!" She pleaded with them for a cure. She could plead all she wanted to, but nothing changed the fact that she was as good as gone. She looked the three other adults over, searching for any relief. None of them were able to help her and they knew it. After several moments of silence she hung her head. "I'm going to die, aren't I?" Kayla began to cry again. This was enough of a signal to re-affirm her suspicions.
"What are we going to do?" Darren looked back concerned.
"There's not much we can do. Really there's only one way out of this, isn't there?" This sounded heartless. This sentence was probably the coldest thing that Darren had said in his entire life, but he was completely right. There was only one way out of being infected and that was death. Mitchell looked back at Claire. She realized what Darren had said and her eyes grew wide.
"No, please! Lock me up somewhere, I don't care, but don't do this!" Mitchell once again looked back to Darren.
"Maybe we should talk about this." Mitchell didn't want to follow through with this plan.
"We don't have time on our side Mitchell. We can't risk it." Darren was right
.
"We have at least a little while. At least give her that. We can take a few minutes to discuss this, while she gets herself in order." Claire was still crying. It sounded like it was a race to see which person, between her and Kayla, could cry the hardest and loudest. "Kayla, you should join us in talking about this situation." She nodded through her tears.
"What about me? Don't I get a say in this? This isn't fair!" Claire tried to inject herself into the decision making. Unfortunately, she had a bias in this case.
"Mitchell, are you OK with her being in your office while we talk?" Darren had a good idea. It was best that she stayed locked up just in case.
"That's fine. Claire, please wait in there." She stood for a moment in complete shock. "Claire, please. You need to understand the situation here. This is for our safety and yours." She frowned. She stood and walked over to the office, they shut the door behind her. She stared out the window at the downtown skyline.
The three of them huddled together to discuss their options.
"You both know what we have to do..." Darren started the conversation. It was a grim and painful truth, but the truth nonetheless.
"Why can't we just let her go? Just let her leave?" Kayla was going to plead for Claire’s life. Mitchell saw where this was going to go.
"That's not going to work. If we let her go, you know as well as I do that she will not leave. She isn't going to go out into the infected areas, she'll stay in the stairwell, or on the floors downstairs. Then what? We get attacked when we leave?" Another valid point. If they let her leave on her own free will there was a high probability they would have to kill her later after she turned. "I'm not going to shoot her in front of Lilly. It's easier if we just put her out of her misery."
"Jesus, Darren, She's not a damn dog!" Kayla angrily snapped at him again. "She's not going to whimper outside the door waiting to come back in!"
