by Jay Brenham
Sam racked the shotgun methodically but quickly, pulling the trigger and putting more lead on target. He aimed for whatever infected was closest. That happened to be a woman wearing a shirt with the words “World’s Best Mom” printed across the chest. Maybe she’d been the mother of the child who clutched the toy dragon in his meatless palm.
Sam pulled the trigger. The buckshot ripped through her abdomen and she dropped to the ground, down but not dead.
“Go! Go! Go!” He heard Matt shout from behind him.
Sam turned and ran in time to see the muzzle flash from Matt’s rifle. He sprinted past Matt, reloading as he went. The report from Matt’s AR-15 was much more frequent than that from the shotgun. He ran twenty yards past Matt and knelt down, making sure the entire shotgun tube was loaded before he told Matt to go.
There were fewer infected now, and this time Matt stopped next to Sam instead of running past him. They dispatched the last three together, with Matt sending the final bullet through the head of the world’s best mom.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Matt said.
“No shit. There are probably others. Better go while we can.”
They jogged back to the Zodiacs, keeping a wary eye on the surrounding area. As they went by the house they had first bypassed they noticed the front door was broken open. In the shadows they saw something move. They kept their weapons trained on the opening but kept moving for the boats.
At the sight of the Zodiacs, Sam’s heart lifted; they’d stayed through the shooting instead of high-tailing it back to Raft City. He wondered if they’d done it out of a sense of duty or self-preservation; two men with guns who were willing to fight were a valuable asset, after all. Food gathering expeditions would make these people wealthy—by Raft City’s standards, anyway—and they needed Sam and Matt as protection. If they’d left their guard dogs behind, they might not find anyone else willing to guard the flock.
In the end, Sam decided it didn’t matter: a getaway was a getaway.
It wasn’t until they got back into the Zodiacs that Sam and Matt realized Carl was missing.
“Where’s Carl?” Sam asked.
Everyone looked towards the first house.
“Once you guys passed the first house Carl tried to get some of us to collect whatever supplies we could,” Rodrigo said. “That way we could keep everything we found. He said any infected would have attacked you when you knocked. He’s inside.”
Megan was a woman on Matt’s boat. She was a big woman—not fat, but taller than most men—who’d been silent up until now, seemingly nervous about being away from the safety of Raft City. Still, Sam respected her for being bold enough to come in the first place.
“He kept saying the two of you were going to get everything,” she said. “But we didn’t want to go. This is the first time our friends and families will have full stomachs, with some leftover to trade. None of us wanted to take the chance that we wouldn’t come back.”
“Fucking asshole,” Sam said, standing up. “We need to get him before more infected come. Didn’t he hear the gunshots?”
The rest of the group exchanged nervous glances.
“The infected are already inside the house,” Rodrigo said, pointing.
Sam turned. Infected ran down the road toward the house, so many that they outnumbered the bullets in he and Matt had in their weapons.
They started the motors, pulling twenty yards away from the dock in order to give themselves distance, then rafted the two boats together and waited. A few of the infected looked in the direction of the Zodiacs but they all chose to go to the house instead.
Matt raised his rifle but Sam reached across to the other boat and put a hand on his arm.
“Why bother?” he asked.
Matt lowered his rifle but didn’t take his eyes off the group of infected gathering outside the house. “I think we should give him a few more minutes. Maybe he...”
“Yeah,” Rodrigo said. “A few more minutes.”
A few of the others nodded.
Sam gave a one-shouldered shrug. He hadn’t known Carl well but, if he had to guess, he thought Carl probably exemplified most of the inhabitants of Raft City: having escaped the initial onslaught of infected, they didn’t understand that playing the odds with the infected was dangerous, reasoning with them was impossible, and the consequence of losing a hand was death.
The group watched the house as they traded the two pairs of binoculars amongst themselves. More infected had arrived, bleeding out of the trees like shadows. The house was packed with infected and surrounded by more. Sam glanced at Matt, sharing a knowing glance.
Carl was gone.
“It’s too late,” Matt said.
The others didn’t argue. Rodrigo started the motor again and turned the boat toward Raft City.
The return to Raft City was notable in its silence. There were no cheers of success, no good-natured pats on the back about the close call they’d had. No, whatever camaraderie had been fostered through their success was dampened by Carl’s death. None of the people in the team had known him well but the loss of a team member hit hard.
As the Zodiacs pulled up to Raft City, a man named Franklin met them at the stern of Options clutching an old rifle. Sam had met him a few times in the past week. He was in his early forties, with thick brown hair and a pudgy body better suited to sitting in a cubicle than standing an armed watch. Regardless of the man’s looks, he was held in high regard by Quinn and that was good enough for Sam.
A big smile crossed Franklin’s face when he saw the bounty of fresh seafood in the two boats. “How was it out there?”
Sam saw the moment Franklin realized one of the boats was short a man.
Franklin shut his mouth with a snap, then shook his head. “Nevermind,” he said. “Are you guys hurt? Are you okay?”
“We’re all fine,” Matt said, “but Carl didn’t make it out.”
“What happened?”
“Sam and I left the boats to check out a couple houses for supplies. We bypassed the first house to make sure no infected were lingering in the second…” Matt trailed off.
“Then we got ambushed,” Sam said. “Carl had gotten off the boat to try and get supplies from the first house without us. The infected got him when he went inside.”
“Ambushed?” Franklin asked.
“Yeah, ambushed. By the infected,” Sam said.
Franklin looked confused. “Ambushed by the infected? I didn’t think—”
“Neither did we. But they sure as hell did,” Matt said.
Two of the other crew members had climbed on board Options while they spoke. Rodrigo and Megan started handing the bags and buckets of shellfish up to the aft platform.
“Was anyone bitten?” Franklin asked, backing up a step.
“No, they didn’t even touch us,” Sam said.
Franklin had seen them off this morning and glanced down at Sam’s mostly empty bandoleer.
Sam followed his gaze. “It was close,” he said.
Quinn stood behind them, a sad look on his face. The loss of Carl was exactly the kind of situation Quinn had feared, Sam realized. He had to have been angry but there was also relief in his eyes. Sam offered Quinn his hand and Quinn pulled him in close for a hug and patted him on the back. Then he did the same to Matt. “I’m glad you two are back safely.”
Quinn went to each member of the expedition and told them the same.
“There’s going to be talk about putting you two in quarantine,” Quinn said.
“That’s crazy. It’s been two hours since we ran into the infected and both of us are fine. We never made contact with them,” Matt said.
“Why don’t we head this off and I’ll tell the four that you two will spend the night on my boat? That way we can talk about what happened and people won’t be as scared,” Quinn suggested.
Sam looked at Matt and shrugged. They were fast becoming reliant on one another.
“That’ll work,” Mat
t said. “But someone has to take Jenna part of our portion of food.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Rodrigo said.
“Thanks. Just take her what one person can eat for the next couple of days. I want to trade the rest for supplies for when we go out again.”
“No problem, I’ll handle it,” Rodrigo said. “Want me to store your portions on my boat? It’s more central to the market.”
“That sounds good. We’re going to need more ammo to replenish what we lost today,” Sam said.
Rodrigo nodded.
“Thanks Rodrigo,” Matt said again. “We’ll see you tomorrow when we come by your place.”
#
Just as the ride back from the expedition was quiet, so was the walk to Quinn’s boat. The only stop they made was at the Carver so Matt could tell Jenna they were back safely and to let her know where they would be staying with Quinn for the night.
Sam felt bad that Jenna and the baby couldn’t come to Quinn’s catamaran. It was luxurious compared to the basic amenities on the Carver, but somebody needed to stay on their boat. Nobody would be bold enough to attempt to steal from the Carver with someone there. If everyone left there was a good chance their supplies would be gone by morning.
When they all sat down around Quinn’s mahogany table the real discussion began.
“What happened out there?” Quinn asked. “Why’d you leave the boats?”
Sam hesitated, unsure how to phrase what happened without making Quinn regret letting them go.
Matt spoke up. “Because we were standing across the water from the houses for over an hour and we saw no sign of infected. Because Raft City needs supplies and I’m not talking about toilet paper and toothbrushes. What will we do next week if someone gets an infection and needs antibiotics? Or one of the kids needs an inhaler? There are good reasons we went in there.”
Quinn shook his head out of frustration. “I know Matt. I know you guys weren’t being stupid. I know both of you well enough to know you would give the infected a wide berth, probably wider than the others.”
“Matt’s right,” Sam said. “We did go in there to find supplies for Raft City, but that’s not the only reason I deviated from the plan.”
“Why then?” Quinn asked.
Some men could be led by greed and Sam knew he was no different. He wasn’t a unique snowflake, immune from the desires that had caused problems for mankind since the beginning of time. Still, greed wasn’t what had drawn him to investigate the houses on Potato Neck Road. Of course he’d been looking for supplies but, the truth was, in his naiveté, he’d also been hoping to find survivors.
“Survivors…,” he said. “Survivors on the mainland would mean the establishment of normalcy, a possibility to a return to my previous life instead of a temporary existence on a bunch of boats. People surviving on the mainland would mean that my wife and son might be alive.”
Quinn nodded solemnly. “I understand.” He cleared his throat. “You were telling Franklin about an ambush?”
“The infected…they were using methods we hadn’t seen before,” Matt said.
“Methods?”
“They planned an ambush,” Sam said.
Quinn turned to Sam. “You said the infected were insane, with no care for their own safety. You said they overwhelm their victims with their numbers and ferocity. Like a pack of rabid dogs.”
“That’s what they were like the last time I saw them.” Sam glanced at Matt, looking for support.
“Rabid is exactly the term I’d use,” Matt said.
“They weren’t rabid this time? Were they getting better? Could they be reasoned with?”
“No,” Matt shook his head. “No, not better, just more organized. They had a leader and they’d done…things to their victims.”
Sam took a deep breath. “Not things. They tortured the people who lived in those houses, Quinn. Spiked them to the ground and cut the tendons on their heels. They skinned a child’s hand and placed a toy dragon in its open palm. Almost as if they remembered what the toy had been for.”
There was a minute of appalled silence around the table.
“You said there was a leader,” Quinn said eventually. “Why do you think that?”
“Because this fucker had blood smeared across his chest and when he held a bat over his head the others to waited. None of the infected charged, not when he told them to wait,” Matt said.
“I saw something similar in Norfolk,” Sam said. “I just…I just didn’t realize it at the time. The infected killed a guy who’d been driving a sports car. They all piled onto his corpse and one of them came out holding the guy’s head by his hair. They lifted him up like he’d just scored the winning touchdown.”
“If they are designating leaders—”
Sam interrupted, thinking out loud, “But this wasn’t the city. There weren’t as many infected this time. Maybe it’s...” he trailed off, struggling to find the word.
Quinn looked at him sharply. “Maybe it’s what?”
Sam shrugged. “Mob mentality?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Mob mentality is when—”
“I know what mob mentality is,” Quinn said sharply. “What does it have to do with the infected?”
“Maybe they only acted like a mob because they were a mob. Every mob has instigators, right? A few people the mob follows, the primary instigators. Maybe back in Norfolk that man they raised in the air was their leader. Their instigator. Even a herd of cows has a bull it follows.”
Quinn pursed his lips, considering. “What about the other things you told me about? The infected attacking in groups of two or three? That woman you were with, Gloria—you said her son attacked her. There was no primary instigator there.”
Matt shook his head. “Sam isn’t saying that without a leader these people would be normal. The infection makes them crazy, we know that. He’s saying humans naturally look for leadership. Look at how quickly order was established in Raft City, in the middle of absolute chaos. Even in their twisted minds, the infected probably look to follow or be followed.”
Sam nodded. “Exactly. I’m not even sure it’s something they think about. It’s not like they’re holding elections. They’re just doing what people do.”
Quinn still looked skeptical. “You really believe the infected set a trap for you? Even after what you saw in the city? You think they’re capable of higher-level thinking?”
“Why not?” Sam held his palms up. “When it comes down to it, the infected are us. The only difference is they’ve been exposed to a disease. I know it’s terrifying, but it’s really no different than what wolves or primates are capable of. I know what I saw——that infected man was signaling the others to wait before they attacked. And,” he added, suddenly remembering, “they stayed hidden at first instead of charging right away.”
“If what you’re saying is true,” Quinn said, “if that man was capable of higher-level thinking and you shot him without provocation, then you murdered him, Sam.”
Matt made a derisive noise in the back of his throat.
“You can’t be serious,” Sam said, even as he felt the blood drain from his face.
“I am serious. We can’t just go around shooting everyone who might do us harm. Sure, if we get attacked we have a right to defend ourselves, but shooting a man because he looks crazy? I can’t stand for that. Actions like that don’t belong in a civil society.”
Sam and Matt shared an incredulous look.
“How do you explain what happened after Sam shot the leader?” Matt demanded. “Those people attacked us. They tried to kill us.”
“What would you do if you saw a stranger murder the leader of your group?” Quinn asked.
“Quinn, this isn’t the same thing,” Matt said.
“Why not? You both said these infected are capable of higher-level thinking. Is it so crazy to think that maybe they didn’t mean you any harm? That they would’ve let you return to the boat
without hurting you? It seems to me they didn’t do anything other than confront two people attempting to steal supplies and violate their property rights.”
Matt stood up. His hands were balled into fists. “What the fuck are you talking about? Property rights? Stealing supplies? Have you lost your mind, Quinn? It’s us versus them out there. There are no rights when it comes to the infected—it’s kill or be killed.”
Sam appreciated Matt’s willingness to defend him. The fear and danger they’d faced together had forged a bond quickly, just as it had with Gloria. Still, he waved a hand at Matt, telling him to calm down.
“Look, Quinn, I understand what you’re saying,” Sam said, trying for a reasonable tone. “There isn’t a person in the United States who is a stronger believer in the Constitution than I am. Due process, the Bill of Rights, the rule of law. I firmly believe it’s what makes our country great. But you know what else I’m a fan of?”
Quinn just stared, waiting for Sam to continue.
“Staying alive by using common sense. I wouldn’t have made it out of Norfolk without my neighbor Jack’s help. I was used to a world where other people protected me, where the possibility of being ripped apart by an angry mob existed in fiction and not in your driveway. Where the paramedics, police, and fire department were a phone call away. My neighbor Jack was an old man, but he was adaptable. And thank God for that, because I wasn’t. I was living in yesterday’s America and Jack was already looking toward the future. You say actions like mine don’t belong in a civil society, and you’re right. But we aren’t living in a civil society anymore. Jack learned that early on. It took me a little longer. Now it’s your turn.”
Sam set his hands flat on the table, careful to keep his voice level. “What I’m telling you, Quinn, is that you need to look at the big picture. You need to adapt. You wanted us to go on this expedition because we’re the two people in Raft City with the most experience fighting the infected. Was some of our survival luck? Hell yeah, some of it was luck. But through that luck we learned. Plenty of what some people would call luck was instinct and common sense.”
