Somewhere In The Middle

by Lucas Coon

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Kayla inquired into the joke.

  "Nothing. Just, yeah, nothing." Mitchell scoffed. He opened the bag, looked Darren dead in the eye and took a huge bite of the jerky. "Yum. It's teriyaki." They both chuckled like school-girls at each other.

  "You guys are morons." She dismissed them. "Lilly, dear, what do you want?"

  "I want macaroni." She looked at her mother expectantly.

  "Lilly, you know we don't have macaroni. Pick something from the bag." Darren tried to correct her.

  "Oh, OK then." She grabbed what appeared to be a chocolate coated cake with cream in the middle. Mitchell assumed that, if this were a normal night, she would be told that she couldn't have snack cakes for dinner. It was easy to see why her parents weren't quick to pull it away and give her something healthy or nutritious. At this point it was just a blessing that she was eating.

  After their dinner, the Barbers spent their time together telling stories to each other. Mitchell sat by the family and listened, each time declining an opportunity to tell a story to them. He would've loved to tell them a story or two, but he honestly had nothing to say. After two rounds of stories, Lilly started to nod off and her parents decided they should all turn in.

  "You guys go to sleep then. I'm going to go into the producer's room and take care of some things." Mitchell grabbed his bag and flung it around his arm.

  "Well don't stay up too late. I don't want to have to kick you to wake you up." Darren snickered at his own joke.

  "Ha. Ha. See this deadpan look? Yeah that's how funny that was." Mitchell snapped back and stood up. “Don’t make me shave you.”

  "Oh, sorry! Didn't mean to hit a sensitive spot." He patted Mitchell on the shoulder. "Get some sleep if you can man. We're going to get out of here first thing, then we're going to find your wife." He smiled at Mitchell and turned to lay with his family.

  Mitchell returned to the other room and sat in the beat up chair. He pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and held the power button. The logo of the manufacturer flashed on the screen and it slowly made its way to a usable state. He unlocked it and held it for a moment. He was waiting for a beep, a chime, a ring, anything to indicate that Aria had tried to contact him. He stared at it for several minutes and waited for it to do anything, but nothing happened.

  "Dammit." He pinched his forehead inward. "I was really hoping." He tapped the icon to make a call and pressed the number two. The phone replaced the two with Aria's number and dialed. It sat silent for a few seconds.

  "Hello…"

  "Aria?"

  "... you've reached Aria Swartz, I cannot get to your call at this time. I'm probably busy doing something else, but, I promise, if you leave a message with your--" Mitchell Hung up.

  "It went straight to voicemail, so her phone's off. Great." He thought about this for a few moments. "Maybe she turned her phone off to save battery? Maybe the battery died and she hasn't gotten to a charger?" He wiped the sweat from above his brow. "Maybe she's dead."

  He turned the phone back off and put it in his pocket. He decided that it was worth a shot. He walked back into the main room, took off his shirt and laid down near the door. It was darker in the station than it was in the office, but it was nice. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted to sleep.

  "Hey! Will you let me in?" Mitchell eye's opened to a small amount of sun light and the sight of Denver standing on the other side of the door. He was looking down directly at Mitchell. "Will you please let me in? I stayed down there all night like you told me to!" Mitchell sat up and looked puzzlingly at the man on other side of the glass. "Seriously, I was down there all night waiting."

  Mitchell stood up and grabbed his handgun. He pointed the barrel at the glass. "Step back." Denver put his hands up and took a step back as he was told. Mitchell opened the door and stepped onto the stairs shutting the door behind him. "What the hell are you doing up here?"

  "It's morning! I stayed down there all night like you said! Now I need to get in there to do my radio show." Denver started to try to push past Mitchell. Mitchell put his hand on the wall and stopped him. "The hell man?"

  "Denver, seriously, I didn't say stay down there just for the night. I said stay down there until we leave." Mitchell was not in the mood to deal with this.

  "What's going on here?" Darren opened the door and stepped out behind Mitchell. "Why is he up here again?"

  "He was just going back down…" Mitchell kept his eyes directly on Denver.

  "Hurry up! I need to get back on the radio immediately." Denver turned and walked back down the stairs. Mitchell looked back at Darren and rolled his eyes.

  "That man is somewhere between insane and psychopath." He stepped back up the stairs and he and Darren walked back in the room. Kayla was awake but Lilly was still sleeping. Mitchell walked over and put his shirt on. He grabbed a fruit bar from his backpack and bit into it. He had a feeling that this was going to be a highlight of his day.

  "Kayla, wake Lilly up and let’s get our stuff together. I want to get out of here as soon as we can." She nodded and did what was requested. She knelt over Lilly and whispered to her to wake her up. Mitchell wanted to hear the sweet statements whispered from a loving mother to a sleeping daughter, as he assumed it would be adorable, but he was busy watching the bottom of the stairs.

  After a few moments, Kayla stepped forward holding Lilly and indicated she was ready to leave. Darren turned to Mitchell and indicated the same. Mitchell opened the door and the three started to walk down the stairs. As they reached the last step and were about to exit the building, the door to the office opened and Denver stood in the doorway. The group paused for a moment and Denver stared at them smiling. Mitchell stopped and watched him; this man's smile meant nothing but malice. Kayla and Lilly stepped out and Darren followed. Mitchell stood and stared Denver straight in the eyes. He wished that he could just come out and say that he knew what he was, what he had done, but he decided against it. He turned and walked toward the door that Darren was holding.

  "You went in the kitchen didn’t you? You saw my project?" He laughed his raspy laugh. Mitchell stopped but didn't turn to look at him. "Isn't it beautiful? I originally started it out of boredom with the couple. Then the girl showed up. She was a fighter. I had some fun with her." He chuckled again. Mitchell started to walk away; he wasn't going to give him the attention he was asking for. He walked out the door and the group started on their way.

  "I know what you're thinking, and yes, you guys were next. I was going to have a lot of fun with all three of you." Mitchell shuddered. Darren started to turn, but Mitchell stopped him.

  "I know you want to man, but don't. It's the exact thing that he wants out of you." They continued to walk. They could hear Denver laughing behind them.

  "Oh fine. If you don't want to play then I'll let you leave. Goodbye friends." He lowered his voice to a much creepier tone. "Goodbye, Lilly." This was the snapping point. Darren turned and started to walk back towards Denver.

  "You think that's funny?" He raised his shotgun to eye level and pointed it directly at Denver. "Do you think that is funny, you sick bastard?" He kept walking toward Denver and he stood right in front of him. Denver lifted his head and the barrel of the shotgun hit his throat. "Do you get off on taunting people? Do you enjoy making little girls cry?" Darren kept his finger on the trigger. Denver's face was unchanging. He kept his sick smile flashing even with the threat of death right in front of him.

  "I think it's the funniest damn thing I've ever said, Darren. Now what are you going to do about it? Are you going to splatter my brain all over the wall right in front of your precious little girl? Are you going to give her that image for the rest of her life?" Darren pushed the gun harder on Denver's throat. He stared the man straight in the eyes and gave him the angriest look he could muster and turned to walk away.

  "That's right you coward. Walk away. Just keep running and--" Denver's sentence was cut short by the handle of the shotgun in
Darren's hands meeting the side of his head. The sound that it made was an incredibly loud smack and Denver fell to the ground motionless. Darren stood over him and examined his gun. He made sure that the handle wasn't badly damaged, turned and walked back to the group.

  "Did you just kill him?" Mitchell was genuinely curious if that just happened.

  "Honestly Mitch, I have no clue if I did or not." He turned and smirked. "But I'll be damned if that didn't feel amazing."

  Chapter 14 – The Hospital

  'What day is it?' Mitchell walked at the back of the group as he stared at the blue sky above him. He stared at the clouds that were rolling overhead. They were the big fluffy clouds that were dark on the inside, but lightened to a bright white on the edges. He stared for several moments and couldn't figure out what they were called. He knew it, but it wasn't information that he could easily recall. 'This is the exact reason I was a history major.' He smiled at his own mental joke. It wasn't that funny, but it was true. 'Whatever, back to the sanity test. What day is today?' He kept his eyes on the blue of the sky; it was calming, but, at the same time, annoyingly bright. He thought about the days that had passed since he met Darren and Kayla. He got to the office at around sunset on Saturday. He slept there three nights and they left the morning after the third night. That would make yesterday a Tuesday. 'Oh, duh. A week ago yesterday was our anniversary.' He shook his head.

  "That makes today a week since this all started, which means it's a Wednesday." Mitchell accidentally spoke his thought.

  "What?" Darren stopped and looked at Mitchell.

  "No, I was just thinking. Today is Wednesday. That means that all this started a week ago." He shook his head and looked up again. "How the hell has it only been a week since this all started?" The group paused. "It feels like it's been forever."

  Darren put his hand on the back of his head again. This seemed to be his go to movement when he wasn't sure how to respond to a situation. "Yeah, it really does feel like it's been longer." He laughed. "It's a shame none of us are writing this all down. It would probably make for a great novel."

  "Can we move on? I can see the hospital from where we are." Kayla pushed them along. They kept walking down the sidewalk and stayed as close to the buildings as possible. After they had left the radio station there was a small discussion on how they should continue their travels. The distance between the office and the station was the majority of the trip the day prior and it was actually a smooth one. There were few infected outside and as long as they avoided them directly, they would stay safe. Upon leaving the station Darren and Kayla bickered about whether or not they should travel in the street, or travel on the sidewalk. Mitchell saw little difference between the two options. Either way they were going to be walking down the streets in what felt like hell. There were no people, there were no cars and the only noises that could be heard were birds and infected screaming.

  Kayla stopped in her tracks and looked up.

  "There it is." It was unnecessary for her to point it out, it wasn't exactly a small building. The three of them stood staring at their destination. The sectioned building looked like a husk of what it once was. Mitchell remembered it as having a colorful walkway with huge groups of people walking around. It was incredibly popular for a hospital. He thought the memories may have been exaggerated in his mind, as he'd only been here a couple of times, but this was completely different. The building sitting in front of him was nowhere near what he was expecting. He looked up the drive and saw an ambulance on its side; there were a couple of people lying on the ground in the garden area, and he assumed they were dead. It was as hellish as the rest of the city. Mitchell frowned at the sight, he wasn't sure what he was expecting, but a bloodied, torn up, dead covered lawn in front of a dark and drab building wasn't it.

  "Mitchell?" Kayla saw that he was frowning at the hospital. "Mitchell!" She spoke his name a little louder. Her calling of his name didn't seem to faze him. He kept staring at what he could only assume was an empty building. 'Is she really in there? Is there any possible way that she could be in this building and still be alive?' He felt disappointment crash over him.

  "Hey, Mitchell!" Kayla smacked him in the arm. "Are you alive in there?"

  "What? Oh, yeah. Wait, what?" He had no idea what she was talking about.

  "I said, is this the right place? You looked distraught, kind of like you were wrong and it's actually the hospital on the other side of town." She put her free hand on her hip. "Please tell me this is the right place."

  "Yeah this is it. I think that's why I'm disappointed. I'm not sure what I was thinking I would see when I got here, but this definitely wasn't it." He shrugged. "Only one thing left to do at this point, huh?" They all agreed. It was time to take the next step. It was time to see if Aria was here. This is why they left wasn’t it? This is what they came for. Mitchell took the first step forward and the other two followed.

  "Mommy, are those people in the grass OK?" It was apparent that Lilly was finally awake. She had been asleep through their trip between the two locations.

  "Um, yeah, they're probably just sleeping right now." Mitchell didn't blame Kayla for not wanting to explain death to her five year old though it was likely that she understood it by now.

  "Won't the monsters get them?" She was quite the little analyst.

  "No. No, I'm sure they'll be fine sweetie." Mitchell could hear Kayla's voice dwindling as she lied to the little girl. Mitchell, again, didn't blame her. He couldn't have done it. If he had to explain to a child that they were looking at bodies of deceased people lying on the ground, he would break down into a blubbering idiot and cry his way through the horrible speech. He had trouble handling the situation the last time one of his fish died.

  "Oh. That one's getting up." This statement caught the crew off guard. "That boy is walking towards us." Mitchell and Darren swung around quickly to see what she was talking about. They both realized that she wasn't lying, nor was she incorrect in what she was saying. Sure enough, there was a person walking towards them. He was short, around four foot, so they assumed he was young. They both immediately realized that he wasn't a normal boy. His pupils were dilated and his skin was pale. He was definitely infected.

  "Mitchell what do you think we should do here, man?" Darren's voice had a hint of anxiety.

  "Well, we could easily take him out, but I think it's best that we get inside and fine a place to gather our thoughts." Mitchell didn't want to commit to the former. He was reluctant to act out any defensive measures; it was easier to be evasive. The boy started to step faster. He was stumbling over his own feet as he started to build speed.

  "Uh, guys, I know that he would be easy to take out of the picture, but do you think it'll be the same with them?" Kayla gestured towards the area off to the side of the building. There was what could only be described as a small hoard peeking around the building and seeing what the fuss was. While they weren't able to see very well in the light, their hearing and sense of smell was effective enough for them to pin point where food was. Mitchell noticed that they were walking out and sniffing the air. He knew what this meant, they were on the scent of the group.

  "We need to run. Now!" Mitchell turned and gestured for them to go. The three of them ran to the door. The sticker on the front stated "Automatic door" but it was non-functional. "Dammit! Darren, help!" Mitchell got on one side of the door and started to pull, Darren got on the opposite side and did the same. They both pulled as hard as they could and the door started to separate.

  "Kayla, go!" The woman held her daughter tight and squeezed through the crack. Darren and Mitchell looked at each other. "Mitchell, you're next."

  "Really, Darren?" He looked at him sarcastically. "You know that you're next." Darren rolled his eyes.

  "Fine." He held his side and pulled himself through. "Come on, Mitchell." Darren held the left door from the inside and motioned for Mitchell to get in. Mitchell turned and squeezed himself into the crack. As he entered Darre
n's leg slipped and the door pulled shut on Mitchell's foot. Mitchell quickly pulled his leg out of the doorway, but hadn’t done so quickly enough; the infected boy had already partially squeezed into the void. Mitchell pulled himself up from the floor and both men stepped back. There was a single arm sticking through the crack in the door, reaching for the two men that were staring at the infected on the other side. Mitchell attempted to step forward to grab his bag from the floor where it had landed when he tripped and hit the ground. As he approached he was met with an incredibly angry scream and the infected aggressively attempted to get him. Mitchell flung himself backwards to avoid getting hit and stepped back next to Darren.

  "Dammit, now what?" Darren looked over to Mitchell.

  "There's really only one thing we can do here, if we don't act, they might get in." He put his hand in his pocket and gripped the handle. He took a hesitant breath and exhaled slowly, pulling the gun out from where it was securely resting. "Kayla..." Kayla nodded in understanding. She stepped away with Lilly in her arms and covered her ears. Mitchell looked down the metal sight of the hand gun. He aimed it right for the head of the boy that was trying to pull his way in. He took a deep breath in and steadied his hands.

  "I really don't want to do this..." He closed his eyes for a second. "I'm sorry." He opened them, aimed down the barrel and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew out of the chamber and through the crevice, into the skull of its target. It met with enough force to push the infected back, and allow the door to close. The boy fell backwards and began to convulse. The shaking only lasted a moment, then his body went limp.

  "I didn't want to do that." Mitchell dropped his arms to his side. "I really did not want to do that." He put his firearm back in pocket. He stared at the corpse now lying on the ground in front of the door. He took a step forward to grab his backpack and swung it over his arm. He watched as the other infected began tearing their way into the freshly murdered boy. Mitchell grimaced at this sight. He didn't want to have to kill him and he wanted this even less.