Two Alive, стр. 17

Miles watched his brother turn around and hold his knife up, ready to pounce when the door was opened again. It was classic for Antonio to come up with the most extreme way to resolve anything. If not for his rash thinking occasionally working out in the end, Antonio might not have felt so invincible in times like this. Miles pulled out his phone and looked at the screen. Unable to come up with a plan better than his brother’s, he just tapped the screen and Rag’n’Bone Man’s Human started in his head as he slouched down in the back corner of the closet; sitting under a silhouette that could have been shelves.

“I’m only human, after all. I’m only human, I make mistakes, don’t put the blame on me. Don’t put the blame on me.” Miles rocked back and forth in his corner, reciting the words to the song in a hushed breath. The dead phone in his hands was quiet and black but he could still hear the music continuing on.

Outside the closet, Carver was staring at the door with his arms folded over his chest. He heard whispers and short shouts but he couldn’t make out what the boys were saying. He wasn’t sure whether that was cause for concern. Besides, he was still distracted by what was happening on the screens in front of Nadine.

Then Ben stepped in front of Carver, “Eric… you can’t be serious.”

Carver sighed and rolled his eyes, “As serious as a heartbeat.”

“Do you really think those kids are dangerous?”

Carver laughed at the question. “Do you really think they’re not?”

“C’mon. So what if they’re able to survive on their own. What would you expect from people out there? We may have been cooped up in this shitty store for the past two years, but we can still remember what it was like out there.”

“Actually, we have no idea how it is out there now.” Dr. Manson came shuffling by with two soldiers carrying the infected corpse, wrapped in a torn blanket. “There’s no telling how these infected have changed or what new behaviors they have. The people surviving out there would obviously have different standards for living than we do.”

“And those kids were living in that. Those boys are still young and we shouldn’t be treating them like this.” Ben continued, “Who knows what they’ve been through. Hell, they were almost torn apart outside our door a few minutes ago. This isn’t like before.”

“This is exactly like that!” Carver yelled, followed by a fit of coughing as he tried hacking something up from his throat. “Don’t try bringing that up like things could have gone differently! It was your decision to let those people stay.”

“Eric… please.” Ben tried pleading again but the major only turned away and looked at the monitors in front of him. This frustrated Ben. “I’m still… I can still have some say in how this place is run, Major Carver!”

The major sighed and lowered his head. “Ben, you’re the one who wanted to take on a smaller role here. And don’t you forget that when the shit hits the fan, my men and I still have to protect this place.”

“What the hell is going on?” A voice came from across the room.

Everyone turned to the middle-aged woman standing in the doorway that led to the inner store. She was wearing a tank top and baggy denim jeans with steel toed boots. She had a golden-brown skin tone and a mess of unkempt curls on her head. Her green eyes almost looked blue under the lights and right now they looked like icicles as she scanned the small room with Carver and Ben in its center. There were two soldiers standing near the closet, Chris Anderson being one of them and looking more nervous than usual, and the other was Major Carver’s ever loyal captain, Calvin Baker who was stoic as he held his rifle.

The woman continued her scan and saw Dr. Manson creeping along the wall towards the office with the two privates, Nathan Burrows and Henry Castle. Burrows and Castle were carrying something that looked like a body, wrapped up in a blanket with blood starting to stain through it. Castle shook his hand in disgust when he touched the wet spot.

“What the hell is that?” The woman asked the doctor.

“Oh, this? Oh, it’s nothing. Just a dead infected that I’m helping dispose of.” The corners of Manson’s mouth went up slightly in what looked like a smile.

“A dead infected? How’d it get in here? What the hell is going on?” She turned to Ben and Carver expecting an explanation.

“Julia.” Ben was surprised to see her, but not entirely. They had been making enough noise now in this back room that eventually someone would’ve heard them. There was only a wall between the monitor room and the interior of the store. Ben sighed and nodded to Carver for the answer to her question. “Why don’t you ask the major.”

Carver scowled at Ben, irritated, and then turned his gaze back to Julia and sighed. “We captured two individuals after they brought a shit ton of infected to our front door. They’re locked up now and we’re dealing with the--”

“Two kids,” Ben broke in. “He locked up two kids.”

“Who were carrying guns that our search party had,” Carver finished with a fit of coughing.

Julia rolled her eyes at the two men as they began to argue and walked to the table to stand over Nadine. “What kind of shit ton are we…” She stopped and watched the hordes racing around the platform outside on the dock. Her mouth hung open and her eyes grew wide as she took in the scene on the monitor. Then a loud bang could be heard coming from