Two Alive, стр. 16

Carver went to stand at the table with a woman who had a complexion similar to pink bubblegum. She wore dark clothes, had a short haircut and was working the cameras that showed the outside of the compound from several different angles.

“Jesus,” the woman said, watching a swarm of infected run and dart around outside the shutter door. She had been watching the scene so long she hadn’t even noticed the major behind her.

“Those things are everywhere. Must be at least fifty out there,” Carver said, his voice startling the woman sitting in front of him.

“Oh, major! Yeah, it’s… insane. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many,” the woman responded, taking a breath and shaking her head.

“Strikers.” A small voice behind them spoke out. It was the boy who was being held against the wall; the soldier with him holding his zip tied wrists. “We call them… we call them strikers. Or runners. Or fiends.”

“Holy shit. You’re that kid who was outside fighting them.” The woman in the chair was visibly awestruck. “I can’t believe you stood up against that. That was… insane.” She then noticed the other boy who was unconscious nearby.

Ben looked at the creatures on the monitor and then turned back to the boy. “Fiends… that sounds about right. Those things seem to run around here a lot. Especially in packs.”

“Hives,” Miles corrected Ben. “They run in hives. Like bees. They’re… they’re like swarms of bees. They run around like swarms of bees.”

Ben smiled. “What’s your name?”

Miles looked at Ben for a moment before glancing at Carver. The barrel-chested major had a commanding presence that overshadowed Ben’s kind expression.

“Miles,” the boy finally said. “And that’s my brother Antonio.”

“Your brother? I’m surprised. You two don’t look that much alike. But ok. I’m Ben.”

Carver cleared his throat. “Nadine, spin the camera and let me see the truck. Anderson, put those boys in the closet and lock ‘em up.” Carver coughed and covered his mouth before throwing keys to the soldier standing next to Miles.

“Do we really have to lock them up?” Ben protested.

“Yes. We’ve got other things to worry about right now besides our new visitors. Nadine.”

The woman whipped around in her chair and began typing on the keyboard in front of her. After a few clicks and taking the joystick in hand, she had one of the monitors displaying the far left of the outside dock where the semi was parked. The monsters couldn’t care any less for the inactive truck. The majority of the mob was crowding the platform area, fighting to climb over each other and get to the shutter door of the store.

Miles looked around the room, taking note of everything there—the working monitors, the file cabinets against the far wall and another door leading to the inner store—before being shoved into a closet along with his brother. Anderson dragged Antonio inside the small space, stepped out, and slammed the door shut, locking it behind him. The loud slam stirred Antonio and he started moving and waking up.

“What the… what the fuck?” Antonio put a hand on the back of his head where he’d been hit with the gun.

“Are you ok?” Miles asked.

Before Antonio answered that question, he whipped around in the dark space and knocked over a mop in a bucket before asking his own question. “Where the fuck are we?”

Miles lowered his head, “They locked us in the closet in the back.”

“Damn Miles,” Antonio wanted to scream but he lowered his voice. “Now we locked in a closet in the back of the Costco. What the fuck?”

“I saw a cabinet before they locked us in here,” Miles said softly.

Antonio stopped mid-tirade. “Yeah, so?”

“Whatever’s inside there is val-U-able. We should... we should find out what’s in there and take it.”

Antonio thought for a minute. “You know what the old man would say.”

Take what we need, and don’t get greedy. The words came to Miles before his brother even mentioned it. When they went scavenging, the old man taught them to only take what they needed from other groups. It was a good way to keep them from overreaching and trying to take unnecessary risks. It also kept them from having to fight off anyone looking to chase them down for what they took. But Miles often thought too much like treasure hunting when it came to scavenging. A hidden bag, a locked trunk, or a cabinet all looked like an opportunity to find some secret cache of supplies. But the old man would just remind him over and over again, take what we need, and don’t get greedy.

“All that don’t matter anyway.” Antonio dropped to a knee and pulled out a small pocket knife from his boot. “We gotta figure out how to get our shit back. I want my fuckin’ gold gun.”

Miles saw the small blade flip out in Antonio’s hand. “Where’d you get that?”

“I found it at the camp before we got here. That little girl you didn’t check had it.” Antonio sighed and went through his plan, “We gotta kill that Carver guy. If we kill him, the rest of them won’t know what to do. He’s the leader. We gotta get him.”

“Then the others would just kill us. They’d kill us and we’d be dead.” Miles replied.

“They gon kill us anyway. The next time they open this door I’ma kill that major nigga and get my gun back-- oops.” Antonio covered his mouth slightly, expecting to hear the old man tell him to watch his mouth.

Miles took the role of reprimanding, “Watch your mouth!” The old man never liked them saying the N-word. Miles also didn’t agree with Antonio’s plan. “You can’t do that. You can’t do that. If you kill him, they’ll kill us.”

“Man, I don’t give