Two Alive, стр. 66
Miles was humming louder now, squeezing his eyes closed as he rocked back and forth in his chair.
Julia made her way to Miles and clasped his hands over his ears. “Miles… calm down. It’s ok.” She was sweet. She smelled sweet and had kind eyes. Miles slowly stopped rocking and looked up at Julia like she was the only one in the room.
“The old man told me,” Miles whispered. “He told me, don’t take chances. I didn’t want to kill Bates. I didn’t want him to die. But people die. It’s better to die before you turn. The old man always said that. It’s better to die before you turn.” The boy’s eyes started to well up and now everyone was watching Miles and Julia. The small boy buried his face in her chest and she held him, stroking the back of his head.
“You can’t be--” Carver stopped when he started coughing. “You can’t be--” He stopped again but coughed harder, trying to get it all out. “You can’t be falling for this shit!” the major finally said. He looked around the room and felt reality slipping from him. He nearly fainted and Baker went to help him. The major shoved Baker away and started coughing again, covering his mouth. He staggered out of the room towards the docks and could be heard hacking and spitting as he made his way down the small hallway.
“Are y’all sure he ok?” Antonio asked.
“I better check on him.” Dr. Chakrabarti went after the major, though he knew there wasn’t much he could do.
“Cuz that man coughing every five minutes and shit…” Antonio continued.
“He has lung cancer,” Baker said sharply, his glance went from the hallway to Antonio now. “It’s a miracle he’s made it this long.”
Antonio was silent and looked away to avoid Baker’s intense stare.
“Alright. Pongamos nuestras cartas sobre la mesa… let’s put everything on the table.” Julia sat down with a heavy sigh and addressed the boys. “Before you two got here, we sent out a small group looking for some people we sent away.” Julia eyed Ben, expecting him to speak up, but he just cleared his throat and shifted his stance next to Lesly. Julia continued, “You say you ran into those people?”
“We did,” Miles said softly.
“Where? When?”
“A day or two before we came here,” Miles spoke again in a hushed tone. Antonio just shook his head at his brother.
“And you say there was infighting between our people?”
“Yeah. They was fighting. They was arguing and then they started shootin’ each other. They killed each other and we found them. They was all dead or dying.”
Julia paused for a moment. “If we went out there, could you take us to them? Their bodies, could you show us where they are?”
Miles looked at his brother and Antonio stared back at him with his eyes narrowed and his mouth a hard line. “We… could show you,” Miles said softly.
Antonio let out an irritated grunt. “What the fuck Miles!”
“If we show you, will you give us more food? Can we get more food now?” Miles ignored his brother and continued speaking to Julia.
“Yes,” the woman responded.
“Julia…” Baker was standing with his arms folded. “Should we be negotiating something like this?”
“Yes. We should. Only if you two can be honest with us.” Julia looked between the brothers. “Is there anyone else with you two?”
“No,” the brothers said in unison.
“No old man waiting for a chance to strike. No group out in the woods.”
“No. We don’t have a group. It’s just us.” Miles said.
“It’s just us.” Antonio added, feeling like they were losing in this negotiation. He slouched in his seat.
Baker shook his head.
“Captain.” Julia looked at Baker then Ben, Lesly and Manson, tilting her head to signal for them to follow her to a corner of the room to speak privately, away from the boys. “Look, what other choice do we have but to take their word for it. We can see these boys have no reason to hide anything from us,” she whispered as the small committee stood in the corner.
“I don’t know, Jules. They didn’t exactly tell us outright about their old man.” Baker’s words were low and his eyes were cautious.
Lesly was nodding her head so much she looked like a shaking Barbie doll. “They could be still lying and like Carver said, someone could be waiting for us to let our guard down out there.”
“I don’t think they have people to take down the store.” Baker crossed his arms. “I’m just saying they’re holding back information.”
“Wouldn’t you?” Julia jumped in. “What was there to say? Their father figure died. How would that come up in our interrogations? And why would they tell us that? Should we tell them about everyone we lost in the store?” Julia saw Lesly dropped her head and Baker avoided her eyes and sighed. Then the psychologist continued, “Look, we already know a lot about them. We know they can take care of themselves and they’d rather be by themselves. Do they seem like the type to hang with a gang or something?”
Baker sighed again. “They came back after dealing with the hive too. If they really did have a group, why come back and why alone.”
“Exactly! They’re still just kids and they grew up in hell and were raised to survive in it. Why wouldn’t they be apprehensive dealing with anyone new? And if I had to guess from my experience, both of them may be some level of autistic. At least Miles, for sure. Besides his