I crossed the living room and slammed the recliner rearward, looking directly into his eyes, the anger building once more. “And if you would have left me the fuck alone like I warned you too, then you’d be back with your asshole friends! You started this asshole,
you
, but I’ll damn well finish it!”
“You came into my house, remember?” Morris added.
I wanted to hit him. Just punch him right in the face, although the violence wouldn’t do me or Rachel any good, as he was stuck in his ways as Smith had been. The things that others did were unacceptable, while his actions – in some warped way – made perfect sense. I was in no mood to argue with him. I had done enough and had gotten nowhere. Some people you couldn’t reach no matter how hard you hit them, even with doubtless proof.
A smile ran across Rachel’s face and I was captured by it. Instead of acting upon the feeling I was being compelled by, I shrugged it off as awkward and returned to the window to gaze out into the street. Four undead shuffled slowly by unaware that we were anywhere near and I watched them until they vanished into the sheets of rain. The insipid memory from earlier flooded back to me like a tidal wave towering four stories above, threatening to crash down upon me with ungodly strength and wipe me from existence. I could see the undead attacking the poor victim, throwing themselves upon him, yet moments later they simply got up and shuffled away. Rachel broke my train of thought as she approached and stopped beside me.
“You really think it was a good idea to bring him along?” She asked softly.
I nodded my head and answered. “No, as a matter of fact I don’t.”
“Then why did you?” She pushed.
“My initial reasons you already know, but at this point in time, I think the more of us there are, the better chance we stand of making it longer than if we were by ourselves,” I explained, although none of what I had just told her was the truth. I didn’t need any of them, as I hadn’t since the very first day. My thoughts were still the same when it came to Morris. I was going to make sure he paid for what he had done, at least had a hand in. I took it upon myself to ensure that his punishment fit the crime he was guilty of. I could see in Rachel’s eyes that she hadn’t bought a single word I had told her, yet she never argued with me or even questioned my true motives.
Out of nowhere a memory flashed before me that I had overlooked, somehow from the past and as much as I didn’t want to say it out loud, my mouth quickly overloaded my mind.
“They don’t eat us,” I said suddenly, calling Rachel and Morris to both look at me. They stole a glance at each other, and then tossed their eyes back to me. Not sure if I was talking to them or simply speaking out loud.
“Do what?” Rachel asked.
“Those things out there,” I said. “They don’t kill and eat us like an animal would do.”
“That’s because they aren’t animals,” Rachel added.
I shook my head as if trying to shake the memory away. “No, I know that.” I moved to the coffee table that separated them. “Those things, when they attack someone, you would think that they would eat them since they are ripping them apart, but they don’t. They used to be us, but they aren’t anymore. If they don’t need to eat anymore to survive, then why do they attack us at all?”
Morris tried mumbling something, however, with the rag in his mouth only faint sounds echoed from him. I leaned forward and removed the rag. “What?”
Chapter Nine
“I’ve never seen them eat anyone either, always wondered about that, but I just thought that maybe they weren’t hungry at the time. Kind of like if a lion was to kill a gazelle and hide it until she was ready to eat it,” Morris stated.
“Wait a minute here,” Rachel announced. She pointed at me. “If you are saying that they don’t eat us.” She pointed to Morris. “And you say you’ve never seen them do it either, but suspect they might come back for the body later, then how does one become infected or, heaven forbid, turn into one of those things?”
I looked at both of them, stunned that they had no idea of anything that had happened in the last ten days. The school had power like every other place I had been and there were loads of televisions in the giant complex, but still they knew nothing. “How do you people spend well over a week inside of a school with all that technology at your fingertips and still don’t know shit?”
Still they just looked at me.
“A bite… maybe a transfer of liquids from them to you,” I said. “If they bite you… you turn, so I’m guessing that if you were close enough to them and they got some of their blood or saliva in your mouth, then that would do the trick.”
“Okay… and where is this coming from all the sudden?” Morris asked.
“I saw one of your men get taken down by a small group of them. I just assumed they would tear him apart and eat him alive, right there in front of me, but they didn’t,” I explained. “When he was dead they got up and just walked away. They didn’t continue to chew on him like a well-cooked steak; they simply got up and went about their business.”
Rachel burst in. “Why are you bringing this up now though?”
“Those things out there, the slow ones. They are easy to get away from, even in large packs. It’s not until you are cornered that they become lethal.”
“Yeah, well we already knew that?” Morris said.
“What about the ones we just ran into out there?” I asked. “Those things could run and even reacted when I started shooting at them, like they could think and were aware of the dangers around themselves. Why else would you duck behind a car when someone is shooting at you?”
“To keep from getting shot!” Morris responded.
“Exactly!” I stated. “But if they’re already dead, then why hide from a bullet that is far less likely to kill you? Why not just power through even faster and take out the gunmen?”
Morris and Rachel looked to one another for a few quiet moments. I don’t know if they were really considering what I was saying or if they were simply humoring me to get me to shut up. But the facts were there, staring us right in the face so you had to be blind or in simple denial to see the truth, if you dismissed my words. I kept the part about one of them speaking to me in check. The looks upon their faces told me they would surely think I was crazy.
And I very much could be. I had seen quite a lot in the last ten days, things that men were not supposed to see and it easily could have altered my brain somehow and made me mental
Rachel asked a serious question, one that got both Morris and I thinking. “What if the ones that could run, really aren’t dead?” She stood for some unknown reason. “Whatever this is that’s happening out there, it’s not going away anytime soon. We can all agree to that, right? So it has to be some kind of disease or virus, maybe even a sickness that there’s no cure for like aids, who knows. But what if you could contract whatever this was and not die in the process?” She moved to a better spot where Morris and I could see her. “It would explain why they didn’t eat the guy you told us about, right?”
To Rachel. “No, because the ones that got his man were the slow ones. The ones that shuffle around with that lifeless stare in their eyes.”
“How would you contract it?” Morris asked. “Those things aren’t just going to nibble on your arm and let you walk away. Like he said, they take you to the ground and kill you.”
I looked at my arm, the wound hidden beneath a long sleeve and a bandage, and knew the answer to his question.
“Maybe you could get bit and still get away from them? Or maybe shooting them to close and getting their tainted blood on you or in your mouth would do it?” Rachel threw out.
I knew how these new monsters were created, yet I wasn’t going to tell Rachel and Morris that, as the situation could, and more than likely would, spiral out of control fast. I needed to know for sure that my assumption was correct before telling anyone and to do that we had to find others that were still alive and hope that we could find a safer place. I thought about a hospital, as there would be doctors there and maybe they had uncovered a few answers in the last ten days? No doubt they had been extremely busy with all of the new patients coming in as the days progressed, but the nearest hospital from where we were was at least twenty miles up the interstate, and that would be no walk in the park by any standard.
I shot my eyes to Morris. “What was Smith working on?” I asked him. “And I don’t want any of your lame assed bullshit answers. I want the truth!”
An innocent look brewed in his eyes, which surely meant he would divulge nothing of what that sicko had been doing to the untold masses. I kicked the side of the recliner hard enough to jar him. “I don’t give a shit how you look at it or if you want to play dumb all of the sudden. But you’re going to tell me what he was working on in that school or I swear I’ll make you wish you had been one of his test subjects!” My voice boomed loudly over the thunder.
Morris looked away from me and concentrated on a water ring on the coffee table. I again kicked the recliner.
“Okay, I heard you the first time,” he said. “I don’t know the specifics…” I cut him off by jerking the SBR up and into my shoulder.
“Let’s get one thing straight here, asshole!” I told him. “I didn’t save you out of the goodness of my heart. I saved you because I’m going to make sure you pay for the lives you helped to destroy. That’s right; you’re not getting away with the murder of an untold amount of innocent people like you thought you were. So at any time if I feel you are simply extra baggage that’s slowing my progression, I’ll inflict as much pain on you as I possibly can before sending your sorry ass straight to hell, where you belong! You got me?”
Morris nodded quickly, knowing that I was in no way toying with him. I was serious.
Dead
serious.
“He thought it was a virus, something to do with the blood in those that were infected, so by draining their blood and replacing it with the blood of normal people, he thought he could stop it… or at least slow it down and give the rest of the world a fighting chance,” Morris told us. “He thought that by giving these people a little more time, they’d be able to uncover a vaccine and reverse what was going on.”
“The worst deeds in history always start with the best of intentions,” I told him.
Rachel looked horrified at Morris. “You mean all that shit was true? The rumors floating around about Smith doing things to innocent people, rumors you told me were just that and that I shouldn’t listen to any of them?” Her voice was increasing in tone and I began to worry that she might judge him on her own standards.
“Don’t try to act all innocent all of the sudden,” Morris said harshly. “You knew they weren’t rumors, yet you chose to stay and do whatever you could to help. Just because you look away from the truth doesn’t mean you’re innocent of it in anyway.”
“Stop it, both of you!” I shouted.
“I asked and you told me nothing was going on!” Rachel spat. Her tone was now at a worrisome level.
“You are just as guilty as I am,” Morris said and smiled. “Just as guilty.”
Rachel slowly swept her right hand toward her waist where her Glock rested in its holster. I noticed and immediately countered by shoving the barrel of my rifle into his face hard enough to make his nose bleed. “Say another word! I dare you… go ahead, I fucking dare you too!”
For the moment I had quelled the problem before it could even take flight and as I turned to walk away, Morris asked me a single question. “What’s that on your arm?”
“Excuse me?” I asked, not really hearing what he had asked, because if I had, I would have lied to them both immediately.
“There on you left arm, what is that? Did you get hurt or something?” He added.
Rachel crossed the room thinking perhaps I had been injured in either the gunfight earlier or when we were crossing the fence. She reached for my arm. “Let me see it.”
I jerked my hand away and took several steps backwards, shocking Rachel.
“I just want to make sure it doesn’t get infected,” Rachel said.
Morris’s face suddenly drained of all color and he slowly looked up at me. “I noticed that before when you were at the school and didn’t think much of it…”
I swiftly cut him off. “Shut up, Morris!”
“That’s why you started blabbing earlier, isn’t it?” Morris pressed.
“I’m warning you. I’ll shoot you if you say another word!” I responded. Things were getting out of hand faster than I could think and one of them would eventually figure it out.
Rachel looked hard at me and could see the need for me to shelter my arm from her. She could hear the words exiting Morris’ mouth and slowly put the pieces together in her head. “Show me your arm.”
“Back off!” I told her.
Morris ignored my words and spoke. “He’s been bitten. That’s why he doesn’t want to show us.”
Rachel once again began to move her hand toward her weapon, yet this time I brought the barrel toward her and through anger filled eyes I shook my head slowly. “I kept you alive when I could have shot you down, just like I did to those other assholes. I didn’t ask you to follow me, nor do I need your help, but I swear as the sun rises every morning that if you even so much as look at that pistol of yours again, it’ll be your last mistake.”