Two Alive, стр. 60
“Nuh uh! We got rid of the hive! Me and my brother” Antonio cried out, being louder than the praise that was building for Baker. Now everyone was looking at the teen.
Carver eyed Antonio with a cold gray look and sucked at the back of his teeth. “The second thing… is during the undertaking of dealing with the infected outside. We unfortunately lost two soldiers. Chris Anderson, who was killed by a mob of infected. And Ryan Bates… who was shot by this child.” Carver waved a hand over Miles’ head.
The crowd looked at the boy and a gloom came over them. A cocktail of shock and surprise and anger and frustration. A similar surprise was seen on Miles’ face that seemed to convey a sense of, “What? What’s wrong?”
Carver continued. “These two boys were the cause of the large group of infected freaks swarming around the store and while our men were out taking care of that issue, this boy killed one of them.”
The collective’s mood was slowly building to rage and fury and shouts were coming up with how to deal with the young boy. Miles started rocking and looked out at all the faces among the mobs. The faces contorted into scowls with teeth bared and cruel words flew from their lips like spittle. The group was riled up into a frenzy and when Miles looked up at Carver, he could see the cold expression on the major’s face and a sly smile that revealed his control over the gathering. Carver was manipulating this crowd with a maestro’s skill. Not even Lesly could step in and try changing the tone of the information being given out. Carver blocked her advance to step out in center stage; a place she was more than happy to take when the time called for it. Now was not one of those times.
“Now I know you all want some kind of retribution…” Carver paused to let his audience give an auditory response in the affirmative. “But he’s still only a young boy…” This time the major stopped when he noticed Julia pushing through the masses and approaching.
“What the hell are you trying to pull now Carver?” Julia said under her breath, as she got closer.
“What should’ve been done when these boys first arrived.” Carver replied in the same low tone then raised his voice to the people. “We first need to find out where these boys came from, and whether they have more people looking to come after us.”
“You sound like a goddamn broken record, major.” Julia scoffed.
“They have more people?” Voices began to ring out.
“How many are out there?”
“Do they know we’re here?”
“Did they do something with Franklin and the others?” Kayla chimed in now, still feeling concern about the whereabouts and the safety of her missing husband.
“We should go out and find them!” Lance was next. “We should’ve gone out looking for them ages ago!” His motion for a second search party for their missing people often stirred up others who felt the same.
Julia had watched this happen time and time again. Major Carver would stir up the community as a collective and sway their consensus to whatever judgment he found the most appropriate. The biggest plays Carver made was in the begin-ning when appointing himself the leader of what remained of Captain Baker’s military unit. He wasn’t even a serving officer, but throw a grenade to stop a mass of infected from getting in the store like he did, and who wouldn’t see you as a war hero. Then there was when he kicked out Karen and Joshua with their son, weeks ago. The major was manipulating the community and inciting exile for Antonio and Miles’ or worse, executions.
“Please, everyone! Calm down!” Julia raised her hands to get the crowd’s attention. More members of the community were starting to come out from the aisles and if the mood wasn’t changed, Carver would get more to back his intentions no doubt. “We don’t know if any of that is true. We don’t even know what happened outside with Bates.”
“We saw what happened. We watched the monitors.” Carver’s booming voice was loud enough to command attention and stop everyone’s side chatter. “We watched it, Julia. We saw what this boy did.”
Julia cursed herself and then cursed Lesly under her breath for not settling this before the major got this much attention. But the store manager wasn’t much for verbal combat and wouldn’t stand a chance with Carver’s smooth disposition and imposing presence. “We saw him kill Bates, but we don’t know why.” Julia said.
“Does it matter?” The major said curtly. The crowd began shouting in agreement. Carver showed no sign of emotion on his face but he may as well be beaming from the way he crossed his arms over his chest. “They killed him in cold blood. The boy shot him.”
“It… it didn’t go down like that.” Captain Baker joined in, hesitantly. “They… they thought he was infected.”
“He was!” Antonio shouted from where he was kneeling. Miles only continued rocking and picking up speed in his nervousness.
Carver’s lip curled back as he looked at Baker with disgust. “And you believe these boys captain? You saw him change? You know for sure that he was infected with the virus?”
Baker lowered his head like a chastened loyal dog and Julia rolled her eyes. But in the middle of her eye rolling, she caught sight of the mad doctor slinking his way through the