Two Alive, стр. 23
“Y’all got a movie night too?! That’s what’s up!”
“Lesly, this is Antonio. Antonio, this is Lesly Cooper.” Julia did the introductions.
“Um… nice to meet you.” Lesly was shaken up a bit but still managed to bring back her Colgate smile, if only half as big as before.
Close behind her was a tall, brown-skinned man with long hair and short whiskers under his nose. “What… what’s going on here?” the man asked the room as a whole.
“And this is Dr. Martyn Chakrabarti.” Julia gestured towards the tall man.
“Shaka-barty?” Antonio screwed up his face trying to say the name back.
“Martyn, will do just fine.” The medical doctor was tense as he entered the room, but when he turned to Julia and she gave him a reassuring look, he relaxed his shoulders.
“Manson, get your ass out here!” Julia shouted and before she finished her sentence, the scientist appeared from the office room, standing at the doorway opposite the closet.
“Yes, yes. I’m here.” Manson took off his glasses and cleaned them with his shirt. He nodded to Dr. Chakrabarti and put his glasses on without even acknowledging Lesly’s presence. She turned up her nose at him.
There was a past between the two that left Lesly cross with the appropriately nicknamed, “mad scientist.” It wasn’t just his reckless use of store items but also his indifference and odd behavior with many of the members of the store community, including herself. With a name like Bob Manson, being too peculiar was almost alienating and cause for concern. Though the scientist didn’t seem bothered by the snide looks he often got, like now from the store manager.
“Ok,” Ben sighed. “The full committee’s here.”
“Ben… did you want to come back on the committee?” Martyn looked almost elated by the idea.
Ben hesitated. “Not exactly. But at the moment, things have gotten complicated and I feel responsible for it.”
“You are responsible for it.” Carver coughed.
“This boy and his brother there,” Ben pointed to the still rocking Miles in the closet, “they were outside on the dock, surrounded by freaks.”
“Strikers,” Antonio corrected.
“Right, strikers. The infected had them trapped at our door.” Ben looked to Antonio, who seemed to agree that infected was an acceptable term. Ben continued, “I… I made the call to let them in.”
“And now we have two intruders and a swarm of freaks right outside our door.” Carver added, not caring to use any of the new terms from Antonio.
Lesly looked across the room and saw Nadine at the monitors, shaking her head. Lesly’s heels clicked on the linoleum floor as she went to have a look at the display, and Nadine moved aside to give her a good look. Lesly shrieked and Martyn went to see the screen next. There were dozens upon dozens upon dozens of monsters jumping and climbing over each other as they crowded the small dock outside. Many of the creatures looked lost but determined while others pounded on the steel door with bloody fists; paying little regard to the assault breaking their fingers and wrist.
Dr. Martyn’s mouth hung open. “Oh my… oh my god. This is…”
“Insane.” Nadine finished his sentence for him.
“I’ve never seen so many freaks in one place.” Lesly turned to Ben and the others. “This is like the news reports that talked about whole cities being infected.”
Antonio started laughing. “Whole city? It ain’t that many out there. It’s hella them, but it ain’t a whole city.”
“What… what are we going to do?” Martyn asked, his brown eyes darting back and forth between the teenage boy and the adults in the room.
“About the strikers?” Ben asked.
“The freaks.” Carver corrected. “And these boys.”
“Strikers!” Antonio corrected.
Martyn looked back at the screen, “All of it! What are we going to do about all of it?”
Lesly had had enough and went back to the table with the others.
Ben took a breath. “That’s what we called you guys here to figure out. We all need to decide what to do next.”
“The freaks outside aren’t the most pressing matter. These kids might have a group nearby waiting to try and attack us,” Carver stated and Antonio scoffed at him. The major continued like he hadn’t heard him. “The infected outside will eventually move on when they see they can’t get in. We’ve seen it happen countless times before. There’s nothing to worry about. They’ll leave.”
“No the fuck they won’t.” Antonio chuckled.
Carver narrowed his eyes on the teen at the table. “They’ll leave. They always do. The freaks wandering the parking lot always come banging at the doors and leave after they realize they can’t get in.”
“Those was probably lurkers. They dumb, of course they leave. Strikers don’t just leave.”
“Ok, I’ve had enough of this!” Carver roared, his deep voice booming. “Lurkers, strikers, hives... how many new names are you going to come up with? We’ve listened to this little bastard long enough!”
Antonio slouched in his chair and rolled his eyes. “Aite. Don’t listen to me. And get everybody killed.”
The major glanced at Antonio with irritation and turned away from the boy.
Julia leaned forward in her chair with her hands once again flat on the table. “What do you mean? Why won’t the strikers leave?”
Antonio sighed and his wandering eyes went back to the woman in front of him. “Strikers go after noise. Wit all them strikers out there banging on the door, hollerin’ and barkin’ and all that shit, they just gon stay there forever. Even if they forget why they even came here in the first place, all the noise is gonna keep them here and they gon stay and just make more noise and probably attract