WILLA, стр. 41
“You’ve thought way more about this than I have.”
“I’ve been alone longer than you. I’ve been out in the world. I’ve contemplated my reasons for going on daily. If I’d given up, you’d be dead right now, and if you’d given up, I’d be alone.”
“I don’t get you.”
“What do you mean?”
“One minute, you’re talking about how none of this is permanent and sounding like we should give up, and now you’re all hopeful and saying that it’ll work out because we have each other.”
He laughed.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing. I guess it does sound contradictory, but I think that’s the point. We, as in those of us living right now in the apocalypse, aren’t safe anywhere and from anyone. We can do our best to help each other to survive, but in the end, most of us, no matter how good of a person we think we are, will look out just for ourselves. If a zombie had been chasing you or if I thought you’d been bit, there’s a good chance I would’ve left you.”
“I don’t think I would’ve blamed you.”
“Yeah, you would’ve. At that moment, you wouldn’t have been thinking about my safety, but your own. Afterward, if you survived or even when in a situation where you were in my shoes, then you would’ve understood.”
“I guess. Why didn’t you think I was infected? I did. That’s why I left my family. We’d run into a horde, and there was a fight. I came out of it with this nasty wound. I don’t know how I got it. It was so gross that I was sure I was infected.”
“I couldn’t see any teeth marks, and the wound looked to be days old. If you’d been bit, you’d have turned way before now. Actually, with something that nasty, you’d have turned almost right away.”
“My Uncle said that he’d heard of people taking days to turn.”
“I’ve heard the same rumor. I haven’t seen anyone take more than a few hours. With the days, the person merely had a graze, so I guess only a hint of the saliva-ridden virus was on the zombie’s teeth. I’m not sure.”
“So, I left my family for nothing.” It took everything in me not to scream the words. “Damn it.”
“If you didn’t know, and you thought you could be putting them in danger, then you did the right thing. For all you knew, a zombie could’ve grazed you during the fight, and the wound was a secondary injury. I’m not saying I’m glad you don’t have your family. For that, I am sorry, but at least I know you’re willing to make hard choices. In our world, that’s important. For future reference, though, tell me of any potential bites, and I’ll look you over and lock you up for a time to see if you turn. I’m not keen on being alone anymore.”
“Deal. And thanks.”
“For what?”
“For not making me feel like a complete idiot for running from my family.”
“No problem.”
We sat in silence for a while.
“Do you know how the outbreak started?” I eventually asked.
“Nope. There are so many rumors about that. None of them are even remotely similar. Some are plausible, I guess.”
“There isn’t a cure...is there?”
“Again, rumors, but none that anyone I’ve met believes. A few groups I’ve encountered were heading to some of the military bases up north and out west that are still standing in the hopes that they can provide safety and might be working on something.”
“Shouldn’t we do that?”
“I don’t know. I’ve thought about it, but in nearly every zombie movie I’ve seen and books I’ve read, which, granted isn’t more than about fifty, the first places to go up in flames are medical facilities and military bases.”
“Why?”
“Overcrowding. That makes it too easy for someone who’s infected to go unnoticed, die, and then attack. And too easy for someone to get sick and die without anyone realizing it due to lack of resources, then turn and attack.”
“Does everyone have the virus in us? Do we all turn when we die?”
“That I don’t know. I haven’t seen anyone turn into a zombie that wasn’t bitten. I know in some of the mythology that’s how it works, but I don’t know if our zombie-apocalypse works that way. I just know if you are bitten, you turn.”
“Our mythology? You think what’s going on out there could be different from the stories you’ve read?”
“Very much so. All of that was fiction. Granted, some of it the author could have grounded in real science, but it’s mostly fiction and theory. We live in the real world. Our zombies could live, behave, and die, exactly like those writers thought they would, or they could do something completely different. We don’t know.”
“The bullet to the head theory works, right? Is there any other way to kill them?”
“Yep, and not that I know of, but maybe. I haven’t killed many, though. I’m not a hunter. I mostly hide until they go away. Right now, we have the luxury of there still being enough humans around that the zombies are easily distracted. Once we’re nearly extinct, though, dodging them that way won’t be near as easy.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know how I said that I hid in my attic?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing. If I can get into a place that the zombies can’t get to me, eventually, usually within an hour or so, they move on, and that’s because they can smell easier prey nearby. I don’t know from how far away they can sense us, but people have told me it’s pretty far. That’s why they’re moving west. There are more people west of here. The outbreak started here on the east coast. It’s all across the country now, but the theory is that there are more zombies here than there are humans, and vice versa in the Midwest and west coast, so they are migrating.”
“Do you think they’ll all leave here?”
“No,