Two Alive, стр. 15
“Dr. Manson, you can swoon over these things later.” Carver waved to his men and they took the backpacks from the two boys.
Miles was still trying to hold onto his rifle, repeating “no” and curling up into a ball to keep from losing it.
“Give it up kid! Don’t make this any harder,” the soldier warned.
“Major.” The soldier behind Antonio took the assault rifle from his shoulder against the boy’s protest.
Carver saw the weapon being raised and recognized it immediately. “Wonders never cease. Restrain them.”
“What the fuck?!” Antonio stood to his feet and the soldier grabbed him by the arm. But the teen slipped free and moved behind his captor, pulling out his knife and putting it to the man’s kidney. The movement made all the other soldiers raise their weapons.
“Whoa, whoa.” Carver held up a hand to halt his men from firing.
“Calm down son!” Ben stepped between the soldiers and the two boys. “Everyone just calm down, lower your weapons.”
“Fuck you!” Antonio pressed the knife harder and the soldier winced. “You ain’t restrainin’ us! We ain’t yo prisoners!”
“We’re not trying to imprison you.” Ben locked eyes with Antonio, “Just calm down.”
“I’ll calm down when y’all--” Antonio was cut short abruptly when the man who was standing behind Miles struck him in the side of the head. He hit Antonio with the butt of his gun and the teen went down, unconscious.
“No!” Miles shouted and he was rushed by the soldiers before he could attempt any similar actions like his brother.
Miles wasn’t going to struggle. He even let go of his rifle and watched them take it, along with all their things, to a table against the far wall. Then the soldiers tied Miles’ wrists with zip ties and ushered him out of the room, carrying Antonio behind him. Miles went peacefully, but never took his eyes off Carver until he was taken through a doorway that led to a short hallway.
Carver watched his men take the boys away, then turned to see Ben standing in front of him with a furrowed brow. “Yes?”
“What are you doing? We don’t need to restrain them.” Ben was fuming. “Those kids needed our help and now we look like their kidnappers!”
“I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation.” The brash military man coughed a haggard cough as a soldier brought over the AR-15 the older boy was carrying. “This is one of our weapons. Those kids probably got it from our people who we sent out. How they got the weapon, who the hell knows, but it might’ve been because someone in Franklin’s group was careless. Like Bryant here.” Carver eyed the soldier in front of him and his icy gaze was enough to make the man lower his head and hold his side where the boy had put his knife.
Ben began, “But that doesn’t--”.
But Carver broke in, “Those kids are also very proficient with the weapons they had.” He took one of the backpacks from his subordinates and started to sort through it. “They’re heavily armed. They had enough guns here to take out a hundred of those things. They were killing them like they were nothing and it didn’t seem to bother either of them, even though they’re pretty young looking. Didn’t even look like they needed our help.” Another crashing bang at the shutter made the major look that way. “And now we have a shitload of infected right outside our doorstep when we haven’t had a problem in months. Those kids are a goddamn curse.” Carver coughed again and spat on the floor.
“I get what you’re saying and it all makes sense.” Ben followed the major when Carver started for the doorway, “But there’s no reason to treat these kids this way. We have no idea where they’ve come from or what they’ve been through and you’re treating them like a threat.”
“I need two of your men to help me with this specimen.” Dr. Manson called after Ben and Carver as they continued towards the door. Rather than wait for their response though, he took it upon himself to employ two nearby soldiers, to pick up one of the infected bodies on the floor. They weren’t exactly thrilled about this.
Ben ignored the doctor behind them. “C’mon, we can’t stay in this place forever and we can’t just refuse to let people in.”
“We don’t need to leave the compound!” The major shouted so loud that his booming voice echoed and seemed to shake the rafters above them. The monsters outside began howling in response and attacked the door more forcibly. Everyone in the room jumped or reacted in some way to the violent banging on the steel door. Everyone except for Carver, who seemed cast in stone and immovable in his heavy boots. He lowered his voice and continued. “I listened to you and we sent people out and look what the hell is happening.” Carver turned abruptly and started to walk away.
Ben watched the major leave and noticed that his men were eager to follow.
“Hmm. He does have a point if only by coincidence,” Manson said, with a hand to his chin. Then a sudden crash outside startled the doctor and the two soldiers helping him.
“Shut up quack!” Ben chased after Carver. He rushed through the short hallway with one light hanging only a few feet above your head and met Carver in the security room. There were monitors lined up across a table but only four out