Two Alive, стр. 14
Then the steel shutter doors behind them came up and three men came running out with machine guns. They opened fire and Miles watched them for a moment, stunned.
“Get inside, hurry!” One of the men said while spraying into the infected mobs.
Antonio didn’t hesitate and Miles went in soon after him. The men followed, providing cover, and slammed the door back down; but not before three infected muscled their way in. The creatures barked and howled as they snapped at the men and jumped them immediately. The lips and skin around their teeth seemed peeled back and torn off. Their bodies were wrecked from heavy exposure. The men with guns fought back the frantic beast but were losing the fight. Why they weren’t using their weapons to shoot the monsters, Miles wasn’t sure, but he moved in and stabbed one of the infected in the back of the head. Antonio caught another in the ear. Miles prepared to take out the next freak, when a gunshot hit the creature twice between the eyes.
The brothers finally took a moment to look around the loading area they were standing in and saw ten more men with guns, aimed at them. One of the men was standing in front of the line with a smoking pistol in hand, sucking at his teeth.
“Well… you just killed us all.”
Chapter 2
Miles and Antonio were immediately dropped down to their knees by two of the men behind them. These guys were dressed up in true army fatigues and carried their weapons with military training as they instructed the boys to get down. All the other men in the room, in fact, were dressed in camouflage outfits and some even wore helmets. But the leader standing in front of the line of trained soldiers was wearing a blue V-neck sweater and dark denim jeans. He was some grizzled old guy with pale skin and a few scars along his jawline. A patch of gray beard covered most of his squared chin. He seemed like the no nonsense type judging by his exaggerated sigh and the way he was standing.
One of the soldiers behind Miles started to take his Dragunov from his back but the boy grabbed the straps and told the man “No.” The soldier pulled at the gun again, trying to convince the boy it was in his best interest to let it go, but Miles only reaffirmed his “no” and pulled tighter on the strap.
Antonio moved to help but the soldier behind him pressed the barrel of his gun against Antonio’s head and said something akin to “don’t even think about it.”
“Leave my brother alone!” Antonio growled.
“Give up your weapons. Your guns, your knives…” The man in the blue sweater laughed to himself and brought a hand to his chin. “Everything you have. Give it to my men or you can die right here.” He had a low, garbled, rough voice that made him sound like he had a frog in his throat.
Miles looked back and forth between the man in the sweater and his brother, still holding on to his rifle strap. The tension was thick and the air was stale. The boxes stacked everywhere made the room feel smaller, and the infected monsters still screeching and howling outside the shutter door only added to the claustrophobic vibe.
“Shit man! That thing almost got me! It almost got me!” One of the soldiers who had wrestled with the infected creature a second ago was hunched over with his hands on his knees, freaking out.
“Calm down Anderson,” the soldier behind Antonio said.
“Did you see how many of those things were out there? There had to be at least a hundred of them.” Another soldier from the line was shaking like a leaf, trying to keep his gun trained on the two boys.
Anderson took off his helmet, and was flushed and starting to gag, “The smell. Oh god, the smell…”
“Get your shit together Anderson,” the man in the blue sweater barked, then turned back to the boys. “You can give up your shit or we can send you back out there with the parade you brought with you.”
“Fine, then send us back out there! We’ll take out chances.” Antonio grit his teeth and felt the gun pressed harder.
“Chill the fuck out kid!” the soldier behind Antonio said, “You’re lucky we even opened the--”
“Major Carver! Stop this!” A voice came from behind the line of soldiers as a different man came walking up with another guy in glasses.
“Ben, I agreed to let them in here, and against my better judgment.” Carver, the man in the blue sweater, sighed and spoke to the new man with a careless tone. “But before we take this any further, we’re going to need their weapons and backpacks.”
“This is unnecessary Carver! They’re just kids!” Ben was less militant than Carver, which was clear from his softer pink face and simple outfit. He had on a green t-shirt and a tan vest that matched his cargo shorts.
“Don’t be dumb, Ben. We both watched the same monitors and saw what these kids are capable of.”
“Incredible. The virus is changing these people at incredible rates.” The other man who came in with Ben, peered through his circular bifocals and made his way over to one of the dead infected