Two Alive, стр. 22

“Y’all took his phone. Now he gon be trippin until he get it back,” Antonio responded.

“But it doesn’t work… right?”

Antonio just shook his head in response and sighed.

Julia glanced at Miles for a moment. “I saw how worked up he got when they took it from him.” Her eyes flared green when they went back to Antonio. “Is he autistic?” she asked.

“Ain’t nothing wrong with him.” Antonio was serious and almost growling as he spoke. His eyes turned dark and he squared his shoulders.

Julia’s expression softened and she undid her coiled fingers. “I’ve worked with people on the spectrum. I don’t mean to say there’s anything wrong with him.”

“Well he good. Don’t worry about us, ain’t nothin’ wrong with us.”

Julia’s eyebrow went up at the word us. Was he including himself or were there actually others in the woods.  “Ok. So, you’re name’s Antonio right? And that’s Miles?”

“Yup.”

“Nobody else with you?”

Antonio just rolled his eyes in response and let out an exacerbated breath.

“You came here looking for supplies? Food? Are you running out where you are?”

“We good. Me and my brother just saw the store and thought to search it if we could. Wouldn’t you?”

“I would. Especially if I was running out.”

“We not runnin’ out of anything!” He was biting off his words. “We just ate a deer I hunted the other day.” He was boisterous now.

Julia leaned back in her seat, her hands still on the table. “Ok. So you can take care of yourself. What happened with those freaks outside then?”

“Naw, they called strikers. You don’t even know what they called.”

“Ok. Strikers.”

Antonio licked his lips and leaned back. “Yeah.”

“What happened with those strikers outside?”

Antonio blinked and sighed. “We got fucked up. We let a siren get too close and it called a hive. It was probably following her around.”

Julia blinked and leaned in. “Wait, a siren? You mean like a police car or something?”

“Noooo. C’mon, you ain’t never seen a siren? They when infected people start just screamin’ and shit until it die or you kill it. If you don’t kill it, it’s gon call hella strikers and then form a hive.”

Julia leaned back and put a hand to her chin. “So if it’s a hive, why not just call it a queen?”

“Cuz it ain’t always a girl. And the hive tears the siren up eventually. Plus it be hella screaming. It’s like the sirens that called ships to the gallows.” Antonio laughed.

Julia might have chuckled. “Did you read that in a book or did somebody tell you that?”

Antonio took a moment to look around the room. Nadine, sitting at the monitors; Anderson standing two feet from her, shaking; Ben standing at Julia’s left; and Baker a foot or so from Antonio’s right shoulder. Everyone was so drawn into his explanation of the infected types that they were on the edge of their seats. Nadine literally had to catch herself before she fell.

Then Antonio caught eyes with the stern Major Carver, standing far enough away to be out of the dim overhead lights. Carver was just an outline, but Antonio could still see his piercing gray eyes.

“Antonio, right?” Julia broke the staring contest, leaning out some to get the teenage boy’s attention. “Hey. So tell me what happened next. You came down here… you wind up on the docks, surrounded?” She looked to Ben for clarification. He nodded.

Antonio’s brow started to relax and his eyes went back to Julia. “Yeah, that’s what happened. We was gon try openin’ the door cuz we didn’t have nowhere to go.” He moved his bound hands across the table in a sweeping motion.

Ben decided to ask a question. “Then what? What if we didn’t open the door? Did you take a gamble that we would?”

“Pshhh! Shit we didn’t even know anybody was even in here or not. We just tried what we could and it fucked us up.” Antonio shook his head and laughed.

“If we didn’t open that door… what would you have done?” Ben leaned in.

“Died probably.” Antonio inhaled deeply through his nose. “I don’t know. We got a lot of ‘em but it was just too many.”

“You looked like you were prepared to die.” Carver stepped forward and the light poured over his still dark expression. “Why?”

Antonio looked to the major. “People die every day. You don’t know when you goin’.” His eyes went to Ben. “So you just keep living until you die.” His eyes fell to Julia. “And we don’t die until we die.”

Carver regarded the words with a hint of admiration, unlike Ben, who looked troubled by what Antonio said. It was common knowledge between the major and Captain Baker, trained military men, that death was just something you lived through. Especially now that death had teeth and hands that the infected used to tear you apart. Whatever this child had been through out on the road was enough to make him realize that dying was a part of life.

Julia waited a few beats before preparing to speak again when a familiar cackle could be heard coming from the doorway. In walked Lesly, the thirty-something, most likely forty-something, Costco store manager who still believed in wearing her uniform, which she washed three times a week. She was smiling from ear to ear wearing a plum lipstick and a light blush to compliment her milky skin.

“Good news guys, I took care of the movie night issue. Everyone was so excited about the movie night tonight.” Her voice was girly and screechy. It was annoying at first but after two years, everyone in the store was used to it.

“Damn, aey you sound hella funny!” Antonio was cracking up and hitting the table with his zip-tied hands.

“Oh my goodness!”