Two Alive, стр. 10
“Damn. Sucks for them.” Antonio scoffed and picked up a heavy stick from the ground. He bludgeoned one lurker as it tried reaching out for him, then searched the creature’s body when it fell. “Six.” He counted.
Miles brought his knife down on the girl but didn’t have the heart to go through her pockets. Besides, she didn’t seem likely to be carrying anything worth keeping.
“Miles, get them out of here while I check the tents.” Antonio gestured at the four remaining creeps who were making their way towards the brothers.
“Why do I gotta do it?”
“You the one that wanted to come out here! Distract them thangs while I check.”
Miles just sighed and started waving his hands in the air and calling for the lurkers’ attention. The monsters barked and growled and aimed their killing intent at the shouting boy. Miles went off deeper into the woods and clapped his hands to keep the lurkers interested. One still drifted off and went after Antonio but he made short work of the creature with the stick he was holding onto. Then he went to work and started checking the tents that were torn open. He turned over sleeping bags, went through pillowcases and emptied out bags. He found a can of beets, gross, and a pair of water bottles but not much else.
Whoever survived this massacre, managed to make off with the bulk of anything useful. Either that, or this camp never had anything useful. After Antonio broke a window and checked the couple inside the car, he only found an empty revolver and two shell casings from the bullets they used on themselves. He still pocketed the gun.
When he climbed back out of the car and slammed the door, he went over to check the little girl that he noticed Miles didn’t frisk. It was always weird to see an infected child, but they had seen enough to be use to it by now. The old man would have reminded them that this is what happens when you’re not careful. Antonio found a small pocket knife in the little girl’s back pocket and decided to tuck the tool in his boot.
Miles came jogging up soon after. “Did you find anything?”
“Not really. They didn’t have shit. Lurkers must’ve got them in the middle of the night.”
“They had an alarm though. They… they had an alarm. What happened? They didn’t hear it? Was somebody bit? They were human first right? Did lurkers infect somebody?”
“Shit, I don’t know. Lurkers got ‘em, somebody was already bit, I don’t know Miles. But if anyone was still normal, they took all the shit and bounced.”
Miles looked around, still trying to catch his breath. “I got seven now. I got seven.”
“What? No you don’t.”
“Uh-huh. I got seven.”
“What the fuck, when?”
Miles pointed at the girl on the ground, “Six,” then pointed to the trees where the lurkers could be heard making their way back, “Seven.”
“Hell naw! I didn’t see it. That shit don’t count.”
“I got seven. I got seven. Uh-huhh!”
“Man!” Antonio picked up his stick again and was preparing to go get another kill. But Miles grabbed his arm and drug him in the opposite direction, away from the camp.
They continued through the woods, moving perpendicular to the road and not out in the open. No telling who or what could see you in the middle of the street and the morning fog was fully lifted. Miles looked down at the map again and nearly ran into a tree before Antonio grabbed him by the shoulder. The road didn’t go very long before they saw a sign for a Costco superstore a mile away.
The map they took also helped with the outlined road to take and post-it notes. Neither of the brothers was any good at reading that well but they managed, skipping over the words they didn’t know. The old man used to make them read a book each night before bed but unless he hovered over them while they did, they wouldn’t read for very long. Besides, Miles could only read Oh the Places You’ll Go or One Fish Two Fish, so many times before getting bored and complaining. He’d rather listen to Antonio struggle through his copy of XXL magazine for the hundredth time or Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Sometimes the old man would take over when Antonio was having trouble with too many words and then both brothers would listen.
Then, when the old man found the time, he taught them about maps and directions. The basics was all he ever taught and he instructed the boys to never venture out too far from the treehouse. On the few occasions when the boys would go off on their own, he would give them a small map and tell them to follow it to its end, then come right back the same way. More times than not, they’d get lost on their way back and the old man would have to come looking for them. Nevertheless, over time they eventually started to get the hang of being able to follow an outlined path.
There were no neighboring homes or buildings on the map so this must have been the only superstore in the area. When the two brothers went walking down the off-turn ramp, they saw the mega Costco in the distance and it was huge. It was a perfect representation of old school American consumerism at its finest. It was probably a shining beacon before the fall, but now—packed with abandoned cars, turned-over trucks and shopping carts clustered all over—the store was a dilapidated mess. The front entrance looked like it had been blown open and broken into.
“Look. Them people was