Somewhere In The Middle

by Lucas Coon

Mitchell knocked on the door in three sets of two. He stood looming over the fact that, not only had he directly not done what was requested of him, he let someone that was infected go in the building, and even though he told her to not come back, he worried that she might. He was visibly upset and he had hoped that this would be enough to convince Darren that he had followed through with it. He put his gun back in his pocket. It was still quite warm, but it wasn’t enough to burn him. Either that or he had gone numb; it was definitely one of the two.

  Darren opened the door. He stepped back and let Mitchell enter the room. He saw that Kayla and Lilly were in the kitchen area with the bags of food they had collected. He assumed they were rummaging through it to find something they wanted to eat. Darren had obviously been sitting in the chair near the door. Again Mitchell wondered if that chair had been used much prior to them camping out in the office. He assumed it hadn't and further assumed that it was probably there to just look nice, or to be a seat for someone extra, though he wasn't sure why the financial department would be seating extras.

  "Are you alright Mitchell?" Darren inquired into Mitchell's health again.

  "As alright as I could possibly be right now..." Mitchell tried to play it off. He nodded in the direction of Kayla and Lilly to indicate his curiosity about what they were doing.

  "Oh, Lilly saw that we had food and she started to tear open the bags. Kayla took her in there to make it a little more organized. It looks like we did pretty well. We should be able to eat just fine for a little while." He chuckled and looked back at Mitchell. His face hadn't changed from the emotionless slate that it was when he was downstairs. "Hey man..." Darren put his hand on Mitchell's shoulder. Mitchell liked to believe that, had he not been a teacher, he would've done just fine as an actor. He imagined that he could have been an extra on whatever show was currently popular on the cable networks. He pulled away from Darren's hand, just enough to indicate that he was distraught, but not enough to make it seem like he was blaming Darren. "Mitchell, you did what had to be done. Desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures and I'll be damned if these aren't desperate times. Do not blame yourself for this. It's not your fault, it's just, well and it’s just life at this point." He was right again. It was just life at this point. The homicide that Mitchell was supposed to commit was justifiable, at least that's what Darren believed.

  "I could go for something to eat." Mitchell shrugged off what Darren had said, he knew he wouldn't take it personally. He started walking towards the kitchen. Darren followed behind. He walked through the threshold separating the cubicles from the kitchen. "Hey."

  "Hi Mitchell!" Lilly looked up and smiled at him. Kayla didn't even bother to acknowledge him. Mitchell looked over the spoils from the trip. He grabbed one of the jars of pickles and a couple bags of chips.

  "Is anyone against me taking these to my room? Mom? Dad?" He jokingly motioned towards Darren and Kayla. Darren shook his head and Kayla ignored him. He grabbed them and walked off to his corner office. He shut the door as he entered and placed the food on the desk in the center of the room. He reached in his pocket, pulled out his gun and placed it at the end of the table. He dropped himself into the comfort of the leather chair and turned to face out the window again. The sun was starting to set on the skyline and Mitchell knew that this brought him one day closer to finding Aria. Everything up to this point was behind him, and the sun setting was enough for him to prepare for the next step; heading to the hospital.

  He grabbed a bag of chips from the desk. Cheddar flavored potato chips would be his dinner this night. 'It's better than nothing.' He tried to convince himself that it would be an acceptable meal but it didn't work. He crunched down on one and tasted what he assumed to be a number of salt-filled seasonings pretending to be cheese. He had forgotten that he liked the flavor of this particular brand of chip. He continued on chomping down on them and they continued bringing a little joy back to his evening.

  "Mitchell." He spun his chair around to see Kayla standing in his doorway. She stepped in and shut the door behind her. They looked at each other for a moment but remained silent. He grabbed another chip and crunched down on it; she wasn't going to interrupt his dinner.

  "Did...did she say anything?" Kayla was looking at him with expectation of an answer.

  "Not really." He didn't know how to respond. She really hadn't said anything.

  "Did you say anything to her?" What was she looking for him to tell her?

  "We talked about her husband. I told her that he was out there helping people with evacuations. There's wasn't much of a conversation. After that I--"

  "You put her out of her misery." Kayla interrupted him.

  "I told her to leave and not look back." He was surprised that he told her that. He expected to just tell them that he had taken her out of the picture, but something about the distress in Kayla's eyes made him say what had honestly happened. She was visibly surprised.

  "You let her go?!" She was either enlightened or flustered, he couldn't tell.

  "I couldn't bring myself to do it. I just told her to leave and not come back. I'm pretty sure she'll do what I asked. I'm sorry but I couldn't bring myself to shoot a woman that had done nothing wrong." He tried to keep it quiet enough to where Darren wouldn't hear him. He knew that, while he didn't want to kill Claire, he would probably be quite upset if he had heard Mitchell compromised his family's safety. "If you could not tell your husband though, that'd be fantastic."

  "Mitchell! Thank you so much for not doing it!" She walked over and hugged him. "Thank you so much. She didn't deserve it." He remained still in his awkward position between Kayla and his chair.

  "Uh, Kayla?"

  "Oh, Sorry." She let go and backed up. "I won't tell him. I won't. I'll let you get back to eating. Feel free to come out here and join us if you feel up to it." She turned and exited the office. Mitchell twisted his chair back around to examine the skyline again. The sun was hitting its last leg on its daily race to set. The sky was a pink all along the horizon and faded to a light blue directly above, then shifted to an empty black. A black nearly as empty as the city streets below.

  Mitchell looked down at the pavement. He had made it a habit to watch what was happening when the sun went down. He was trying to see if he could figure out where the infected were nesting. Based on the information he had collected over the past couple of nights, he was getting nowhere with his experiment. It seemed that they would all just pour from everywhere and consume the dark streets and he wasn't watching until sunrise to determine where they all went.

  As with the nights prior, the infected were coming out of every building that he could see, no area was immune to the infestation. That's exactly what this was. They were pests and this was an infestation. How long was it until the exterminator made their rounds? What would they use to get rid of the menace that was plaguing the city? Would they save the survivors, or burn their bodies alongside the infected?

  Mitchell pulled the last chip from his bag and crunched down on it. The taste wasn't satisfying. Sure it was good, but he was wanting more than anything to bite into a juicy steak with a baked potato on the side. He wanted a nice tall glass of iced tea with two packets of a zero-calorie sweetener and a wedge of lemon squeezed into the glass. He wanted to feel the metal spoon start to chill as he stirred it and feel the small grits of undissolved sweetener as he took the first sip. Suddenly, the food that was enough to keep him alive failed to be enough. He crumpled the bag and tossed it into the trash can.

  He looked over the surface of his desk. One handgun complete with eight rounds still in the clip. One cellphone complete with a full battery and that was about all. Lastly, one notebook complete with sketches and ramblings of a mad man afraid to die at the turn of every corner. This was his life now; he was reduced to a phone that never rang, a gun he never wanted to fire and a notebook that he would never want to read after all this was over. 'There's that thought again, when all this is over'.

  H
e looked past the frame of the window to see if the Barber family was still awake. It wasn't very late, but there wasn't exactly much to do after the sun went down and sleep helped time pass. He noticed that they were still awake. He didn't want to seem antisocial and he appreciated everything that they had done for him. He decided that he should join them. What damage could it do?

  He stood and opened the door. He stopped for a moment to listen to what they were talking about. He decided that his eaves-dropping felt like a trust issue and at this point he trusted these people with his life, so he was going to quit doing that. He stepped out and walked towards their cubicle. He peeked his head over the wall to see what they were doing.

  "When we get home, I think we should get a turtle." Business as usual with Lilly.

  "Oh yeah? Why is that?" Darren prodded for some reasoning behind Lilly's statement.

  "Because turtles are really cool. They are like fish, but can get up on land and they keep their house on their back." Solid reasoning.

  "OK, so you want a turtle when we get home? Do you know what kind of turtle?" Kayla pushed for more information.

  "I want a giant turtle, that way I can ride him to school!" Mitchell could find no flaws to this little girl's logic. Everything she said was fool-proof. Mitchell hoped that the two of them never got into an argument. Lilly looked up and noticed Mitchell peering over the side of the cubicle from the one next to it. "Um, mommy, is that a monster?" Kayla and Darren both quickly twisted their necks to look over. The room wasn't exactly bright anymore, so it would've been a bit difficult to see Mitchell's face and it probably didn't help that he was only looking half way over the wall.

  "Nope, no monsters here. Only Mitchell." He peeked the rest of his head over. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything."

  "No you're fine man. Come on over." Darren motioned for Mitchell to join them. He walked around the cubicle and entered. The room was scarce, but he was able to sit on the desk beside the family. "What's going on?" Mitchell assumed his visitation did seem odd.

  "I was getting lonely in there. I realized that I haven't exactly interacted with you guys outside of planning and venturing. I thought it would be nice to get to know each other a little better. I mean, we're going to have to put up with each other for a while, aren't we?" He laughed softly, trying to make light of the situation.

  "More than likely." Darren made this statement with a sarcastic tone. Mitchell thought nothing of it. "Alright, so are we just going to do extended introductions three days late?" He smirked at his own joke. Mitchell didn't feel that was a bad idea.

  "Why not? You guys go first, I'll go last. Lilly would you like to start?" Mitchell looked down at the little girl. He figured having her start would break some of the tension. "Tell me everything about you."

  "OK!" She was excited to be involved in the adult's conversation. "I am Lilly Rebecca Barber."

  "Lilly-Anne Rebecca Barber..." Darren cut her off. Mitchell guessed what the response would be.

  "I don't like to be called that!" She protested.

  "I know, but it's your full name. If you're going to introduce yourself thoroughly, you need to use your full name." He tried to assure her that it was the proper thing to do.

  "Fine, I'm Lilly-Anne Rebecca Barber. I'm five years old. I have a cat named Kit-Kit, he's grey and has puffy hair. I really love him because he likes to snuggle up with me when I go to bed, but sometimes he hurts my stuffed animals and that makes me mad. My favorite color is pink and blue, because they're pretty. My favorite food is marshmallows. Umm..." She paused for a few moments. Mitchell could tell that she was thinking really hard about what to tell him. "Oh, I'm in preschool and my teachers name is Miss Nielson. I like preschool because Miss Nielson likes to do fun things. Umm..." Another pause. She really wanted to tell him everything about herself. "I can't think of anything else..." She slunk back down into her small area. She appeared overwhelmed with disappointment in herself for not being able to talk for eternity. Mitchell felt that she did well.

  "That's alright honey. That was really good. I'm sure Mitchell knows everything about you that there is to know." Kayla laughed.

  "Marshmallows, Kit-Kit, blue and pink. Got it!" He recited it like he was taking notes over what she was saying. Lilly laughed at him with a silly grin on her face.

  "Mommy you go next." She turned her head to look up at Kayla.

  "Oh, OK then. I'm Kayla Marie Barber. My maiden name is Harrison. I am married to Darren and am the mother of Lilly."

  "We already know that mommy!" Lilly cut her off. She had a point, they all were aware of this fact.

  "OK, OK. Calm down. Let's see. I work, well, used to work here at Medical Technologies United. I was the assistant to the chief financial officer, Richard Patrick. I worked for him for seven years, starting as an assistant to pretty much doing his job for him. I'm pretty sure I was next in line for his job, which would have been amazing." She paused for a second. Mitchell could tell that she was upset that it wasn't going to happen at this point. That would've been a great promotion and he was sure the pay increase would've been helpful, though they didn't really seem hard off.

  "Let's see...” She paused and looked back down at Lilly. “...I also loved Kit-Kit, because he was a great cat. We got him on Lilly's first birthday so she would have a pet to grow up with her. He was incredibly protective of our little girl and wouldn't let anyone he didn’t know near her. He was like that until she learned to walk and then he would just watch from the side. Anytime she sat down though he was right there beside her." She smiled reminiscing about their feline family member. Mitchell questioned again why he never got a cat. "I don't know. Is there anything else about me worth telling?" She directed the question to Darren.

  "You aren't a natural red-head." He responded with a typical level of cynicism.

  "Oh, ha ha! So sayeth the mighty grey beard." She struck back.

  "Now you leave my beard out of this!" The attack was successful, Darren was cut deep by Kayla's assault. "It's done nothing to you." He frowned and pretended to weep.

  "Whatever. I guess I could talk about my family, but that's not a story that I like to relive. To put it bluntly; my father's dead, my brother's in prison for the rest of his life and my mom went crazy. The best part is, all three of those are because of one screwed up birthday party." Mitchell cringed; this didn't sound good. "I won't get you involved in it. Let's just say I didn't have a very good childhood. I guess, to go off the other things that Lilly mentioned, my favorite color is blue and my favorite foods are pretty much anything with avocado."

  "Yuck! That is just gross. I don't think Mitchell wants to vomit honey, so you should stop there." Darren was especially snarly tonight.

  "Will you knock it off!" Kayla playfully swatted his arm with the back of her hand. "They are not disgusting."

  "I actually like avocados." Mitchell opted to defend Kayla.

  "Oh! See! I told you!" She made a sarcastically angry face at her husband. He made the same face back.

  "That doesn't make them any less disgusting!" He laughed. "Does that make it my turn mom?"

  "You're pushing it!" This scenario was great. This was definitely a family that was happy together. One that was probably doing great with each other. One that didn't deserve what was going on.

  "Alright. The beautiful specimen that you see before you." He swept his hand in front of his face and upper-midsection, as if to present a work of art to an anxious audience. "Is Darren Lawrence Michael Barber. That's right; I'm so amazing that I have two middle names." He was really hamming it up.

  "The suspense is killing me." Mitchell opened his eyes wide and situated his hands like a wooed preteen. He thought he would join in the fun times.

  "Oh, you're going to make fun of me too huh? Let's see if I stop to help if you fall down out there." He puffed angrily. "Anyways, not that you guys care, but I worked at a small startup-firm called Design It, LLC. We did interior and exterior design planning, and I was in cha
rge of blue-printing rooms and floors. Let's see...I worked there for a little bit. We did a lot of work, but I swear that place was cursed. Within the time I worked there we had a fire that took out part of our building, a major issue with rats, a second fire, various other issues, and lastly, a major pipe burst that rendered the bottom half of the building unusable."

  "Yeah, the minute he started they were doomed." Kayla took the preemptive strike this time.

  "Well damn, I'm just not going to catch a break from you two am I?" He shook his head. "As you would put it, whatever! Continuing on, I was a lead designer, which is why they kept me on. I have no idea why I liked blue-printing rooms, but I really enjoyed working with design like that. My favorite color is green and I am particular to anything in the style of pizza." He made pizza sound like a fancy item. "I guess, since my lovely wife opted to leave it out, I'll tell you the story of how we met."

  "Oh, you make it sound like a huge story. We seriously met when you worked at a coffee shop because I'd go in there every morning before my class." She hushed him up.

  "Yeah, we met at a coffee house because she would come in every morning before her class. There's more to it than that though! She would always get some caramel foo-foo drink and I would always make sure to be right there making it for her." He smiled

  "It was a caramel latte and you were the only person willing to open during the week. So yeah, you were always there." She set him straight again.

  "Why can't you let the story be a loving one? Maybe I whisked you away on a romantic coffee experience and you fell in love with the style in which I would pump the syrup into the cup and cover it in a loving layer of whipped cream and toffee bits." He looked at her longingly and fluttered his eyes.

  "After spending three months paying too much for coffee, you finally got the nerve to ask me for my name and gave me my latte for free. You did this for two weeks straight and I asked you why and you said that you wanted to be my boyfriend. I thought it was the dumbest thing I had heard, but, you were direct, so I agreed." She rolled her eyes at his false description of their beginnings. He was unaffected.