Two Alive, стр. 11
“We should still look.” Miles pulled his Dragunov off his shoulder and raised it to look down the scope. He examined the front of the store and saw the shutters were pulled down at the demolished entrance. “It could be closed off. Maybe we can find a way in from the back.” He lowered his rifle and scaled the short cliff along the parking lot’s outer edge.
Antonio followed and kept an eye on the stumbling freaks still pacing through the lot. The brothers made their way around to the back of the store and found the truck loading area. It was jam-packed with stacks of shopping carts and a deserted semi still backed up to the dock. From the way the carts were arranged, there seemed to be a path constructed to a possible entrance behind the truck’s trailer.
“Ok. This good enough.” Antonio was spinning his golden gun on his finger. “We see the store. Ain’t nobody staying here.”
“We can wait and watch the building. We can watch the building to see if anyone come out. We can watch it and wait.”
“We gon have to scout the area then and don’t get too close to the store. It’s still hella lurkers wandering around and shit.”
“C’mon.” Miles went jogging up the hill and away from the store.
Antonio followed and the brothers went running past two long-term infected goons that were too far gone to move fast enough after them. The boys found a clear opening with a straight sightline to the Costco store; they’d be able to see everything from this spot. Antonio pulled a fishing line from his pack and started wrapping it around the trees, making a ten by twelve-foot square perimeter. Miles took small bells from a side pocket on his pack, tied them to the lines, and plucked the taut strings to start a soft ringing. He plucked the string again and pulled his earbud out to hear the bell better.
There was a ringing behind him and when he turned, he saw the slow moving fiends from earlier, tangled up in the ringing wire. The creeps were practically falling apart with skin hanging from bones and teeth showing through rotted cheeks. One of the creatures was absentmindedly searching with vacant eyes, reaching out with black hands and black fingernails. The other creature had little left of what should’ve been its face. Someone or something had made a mess of the infected man’s face, turning it into what looked like kneaded dough. Miles drove his knife into the skull of the first infected man, but before he could take out the other, it lunged at him and he fell backwards, startled.
Antonio saw this and started laughing, uncontrollably, “Hahaha! You aite? He scared you? Almost got you?” He kept laughing and Miles scoffed at him.
“Shut up!” Miles shouted, then got up and brushed himself off. The man, tangled up in the wire, thrashed about and tried reaching for anything it could get its hands on. There were bite marks all over the thing’s shoulders and large chunks where flesh was teared away. Its veins were all black around the wounds and its skin was discolored from what the old man said was lack of healthy blood circulation.
The infected man slowly began dropping its hands and its thrashing was dying down. However long the virus had been in this man’s system, Miles couldn’t say, but this creature was reaching the final stages of the LRS-10 virus. The infection ravaged the body and mind until the host was worn down to what the boys and the old man called a lurker. Slow moving, blind, and dull monsters that were driven by the body’s hunger and need to feed. Though lurkers still attacked simply with the intent to kill, most would try to eat their victims; that’s where many bites came from.
These lurkers in front of Miles, including the dead one on the ground, had been infected long term and their bodies were breaking down. Miles took his knife and drove it into the sullen creature’s head and it slumped to the ground. Lurkers were the easiest infected types to deal with.
The boy wiped his knife against the dead man’s shirt to clean it. He looked over at Antonio, who was still laughing, and Miles stuck his bottom lip out. “Stop laughing. It’s not funny!”
“He almost got you!” Antonio climbed over the wire and went to sit down against one of the trees tied off inside the square, taking his pack off as he sat. “You good though? You ok? He didn’t scratch you or anything, did he?”
Miles groaned at Antonio’s continued laughter but still checked himself to make sure he hadn’t been wounded even a little bit. A scratch could transfer the virus just as easily as a bite if there was blood or saliva under the nails. It was always just best to try and not be touched at all by anyone infected. Protect your skin and not get any exchange of fluids. After a quick inspection, Miles was relieved to see he wasn’t at risk.
“Shut up. We gotta watch the Costco. We gotta be quiet so they don’t hear us. If there’s somebody in there we don’t want them to hear us.” Miles went into the square and sat at the tree with Antonio, putting his backpack down too.
“We ain’t stayin’ here and watchin’ for forever though.” Antonio said.
Miles pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. Nirvana’s Something in the Way, started in his head and he hummed the song to himself. Antonio rolled his eyes and pulled out his weapons to check the ammo count