Two Alive, стр. 65
Carver finally stopped coughing, sucked at the back of his teeth, and scoffed at the boy’s remark. Julia’s eyes cut to him and he remained silent. “Who’s the old man?” Julia asked.
The boys visibly tightened up and Miles hung his head. Antonio started shaking his head again and looked at his younger brother.
“You mentioned an old man and something he said.” Ben stepped closer to the table. “Is he someone with you? Someone you’re protecting?”
“Someone you’re hiding?” Carver asked with a shady undertone.
“Johnathan?” Brandon blurted out the name and the room turned to him, especially the boys.
Antonio looked like he didn’t want Brandon to say anymore and Miles looked like he took a dagger to the heart.
“Johnathan… who’s that?” Carver leaned in. “Is he the one who’s out there? Is he the one waiting? Are their others? Brandon!” The major barked and gritted his teeth through a cough.
“I don’t… I don’t…” Brandon was confused and looked back and forth between the boys and the major. Then he rested on Antonio and leaned towards him. “What happened to John? Is he still with you? Is he ok?”
Miles was rocking harder in his chair and yanked his phone from his pocket. He flipped at the blank screen, searching for a song.
Julia watched Miles cover his ears with his hands, cradling his chin where his wrists were tied. He closed his eyes tight and started humming a song. Antonio just kept shaking his head and looking down at the table. “Antonio… can you tell me who Johnathan is?” Julia asked.
Antonio looked up from the table and sighed. “He was the old man.” He turned towards Brandon, then slowly looked away and whispered, “He died.”
Brandon sat back in his chair and hung his head. “Damn.” He stammered, licked his lips and swallowed back tears as his chest rose and fell. “Was it after the BART? How far did he make it with you guys? I never… I never saw you guys again after we got off the BART.”
“Naw… he was with us until the end two months ago.”
“Damn.” Brandon got choked up and pulled his shirt collar to his face and cried softly into it.
“Oh my god.” Lesly was standing next to the monitor tables, chewing at her thumbnail.
For a second everyone in the room had forgotten the store manager was even there. She was more an active listener when it came to serious meetings like this and tended to just go along with the majority at the end. So, to avoid adding her two cents and causing arguments, she chose to stay quiet.
Julia waited a few beats before she went on, “So you all knew each other before this?”
The boys didn’t answer. “Yeah.” Brandon wiped at his face, sniffling and snorting. “I was an aide in their classroom. I helped the teacher. Johnathan worked at the school as the maintenance man. He wasn’t that much older than me, but he was so much like an old guy. He was stuck in his ways, hard-headed and liked old-school music.”
Julia eyed Miles and now recognized the song he was humming was James Brown’s It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.
“He used to love to play dominoes.” Brandon chuckled and Antonio laughed under his breath.
“And he was with you guys when everything fell apart?” Julia asked.
“Yeah.” Brandon looked at the unusually quiet Antonio and continued. “Yeah, he helped a lot of us at the school. He saved me and a lot of the others who were there that day.”
“And then… he stayed with you two and helped you… until he passed?” Julia’s question was aimed at the boys but neither of them responded.
“How did he die? When did he die?” Carver leaned in with his questions and hovered over the table with a cold glare.
“Eric, do you really think that’s a question we should be asking right now?” Ben tried urging the major to back off with a hand on his shoulder, but Carver shook him off.
“What the hell is wrong with you? What the hell is wrong with all of you?” Carver backed away from the table and addressed the room. “Why are we doing so much digging into their past and the events that have led us to this point if we’re not going to try and find out if they’re a threat to the compound? This is fucking ridiculous.” The major shook his head and almost laughed at the absurdity of it all.
“Hm. The major has a point. Even if it’s less tactful than we’d like to hear.” Manson was staring off, looking at the ceiling as he spoke. He obviously didn’t want to be there.
“Have you two forgotten that these boys just saved this entire compound?” Chakrabarti said, exchanging looks with Carver then Manson.
“And they were the cause for it in the first place. If we’re being technical,” Manson retorted, his eyes finding the doctor as though he’d come back from a fog.
“And what would we have done if the hive had come on its own? Huh? We weren’t exactly prepared to deal with something like that,” Chakrabarti said. “We sent out six trained military men and only four came back, while two kids came up with a plan and put it into action. You can be upset with them all you want but it doesn’t change the fact that they saved our lives.”
“At the sacrifice of two men. And they could be responsible for our search party going missing.” Major Carver coughed and folded his arms as he nodded to Julia. “Why don’t you ask them about that? Did their old man die killing our people?”
“Fuck you!” Antonio jumped from his