Two Alive, стр. 46

“Oh my god.” Martyn put a hand to his mouth, shocked into silence.

“Holy shit!” Nadine’s blue eyes shot back and forth between the monitor display and the major standing over her, “What do we do? What do we do?”

The major watched the turmoil on the display and was entranced. He barely even registered when Captain Baker came running in and asking what was going on outside. Carver was too fixated on the creatures as they started trying to break into the semi’s trailer as well as the shutter doors.

“There’s still time,” Miles called from the door as his brother tried pushing him into the office. “There’s still time to get rid of the hive! There’s still time! You still got time!”

“Miles, c’mon! We gotta get in here and close this door! Maybe we can ride it out!” Antonio tried prying his brother’s fingers from the doorway.

“What do we… what do we do then?” Carver coughed and coughed and then struck his chest with his fist. He turned to the boys and hacked up something that he spat on the floor then stomped with his boot, smearing it.

“How do we stop this? What do we do?” Julia’s eyes were hard but fearful.

“You need to drive them away.” Miles looked to his brother and Antonio shook his head and let him go. “You gotta lure them away with somethin’. A loud noise. Lure them into the woods. Use a loud noise and lure them.” Miles made his way over to the monitors with the adults.

“Lure them away how?” Baker stepped behind the small boy.

“With a loud noise,” Miles said again.

“And lure them where?”

“Into the woods.” Antonio shook his head and reluctantly added, “If we can get them into the woods, we can lose ‘em there. Just lure ‘em into the woods wit some kinda sound or some shit and then when they get in the trees just spin off on ‘em.”

“Spin off?” Martyn was scratching his head, still mesmerized by the display on screen but listening to the plan to get rid of the horde.

“You mean like, get away from them, slip away, right?” Julia clarified.

“Yeah.” Antonio was making his way over. “But that’s a big ass hive and they got a siren sittin’ right there. You need somethin’ hella loud.”

“We’ve got air horns in the store.” Julia snapped her fingers at the realization. “Can you make it work with an air horn?”

“Like one of them loud horns wit the button, that go, baahhhhhhhhh!” Miles tried imitating the sound but was just annoying everyone.

“We have to hurry this up people!” Baker glanced back at the screen. The mob outside their door was getting more ferocious. “Yeah, an air horn! Will it work?”

“Yeah, it should. But if we gon do it, we need some weapons.” Antonio gazed at the major who was still locked onto the monitor screen.

Carver glanced out the corner of his eye at Antonio. He stifled a hard cough that caught in his chest then cleared his throat, staring daggers at the teen who just crossed his arms in annoyed patience.

“Eric… we have to let them do this. They know more about these things than we do.” Julia spoke up behind the major’s left shoulder.

“Sir, I don’t like the idea of this.” Baker spoke up and his men started running in from the dock area, frightened. “But with the current situation and the way these kids talk and how they handle themselves… we could use them out there if they think this plan will actually work.”

“It will.” Miles was looking up at the captain and then turned to Major Carver. “It’ll work. It will work.”

Carver took a deep breath and stood up straight. He swallowed his pride and knew that something had to be done quickly. Against a nagging voice in the back of his head, he pulled a knife free from a holster on his belt and slammed it on the table in front of Antonio. It was a decent size hunter’s knife, six or seven inches long with a sharp edge and a serrated back side. Miles picked it up and flipped it around in his hand.

“We can’t get our guns?” The question came from Antonio with legit curiosity.

Carver eyed the boy, letting seconds tick away. His cold eyes scanned the blank expression on the teen’s face and the much older man wanted nothing more than to punch Antonio for posing such a request. The phrase, beggars can’t be choosers came to mind but didn’t quite fit the bill. The major felt more along the lines of, dead men tell no tales, or something like, people-who-were-supposed-to-be-dead-shouldn’t-have-anything-to-say. The two brats were clever enough to see through Carver’s attempt at poisoning them with rat poison laced water, and now they were trying to dish out strategies and make requests. It was infuriating.

The major took his Beretta from his side holster and removed the clip. He thumbed out seven of the fifteen bullets before reloading the magazine and gave the weapon to Baker.

“They can use that when they get outside.” The major slipped back into his role as leader and went over the plan like it was his idea. “Take them through the front and find the air horns. Take six of your men with you, captain.” Carver considered it handled after he had finished speaking and Baker nodded.

“Eight bullets? What the fuck?” Antonio scrunched up his face, upset.

Carver’s glare found the boy and he stifled another aggravated cough. “If you’d like, I could give you a stick and you can just go out there and figure it out.”

Antonio scoffed and shook his head. “Do your men even know how to handle themselves? How many lurkers have y’all killed?” He directed his question to Baker and the rest