Two Alive, стр. 69

“I should’ve gone with her in the first place. I shouldn’t have let her go out there. It should’ve been me. I can’t let her stay out there.”

“I’m goin’ too.” Clint was regaining his breath and put his hat back on. “I want to do the same for Danny and my grandson. And for Franklin.” Clint turned to Kayla and she was looking back at him through watery eyes.

Carver was so furious he could scream, but he didn’t let his emotion show on his face. “Are you sure about this? Their bodies might not even be there. We don’t even know if these boys are telling the truth.”

“I can take you to them. I can take you,” Miles responded, looking at Lance and Clint.

Lance looked back at the boy and gave him a slight nod. By now, Castle was helping Kayla to her feet and offering her support so she could stand. Ben’s daughter Alana entered the room, creeping in from behind the soldier and found a wall to lean against in the hopes that no one would notice her. Miles saw her, however, and was staring at her, unable to look away. When she spotted him he averted his eyes and looked down at the floor.

“Ok then… we’ll get a team together.” Julia crossed her arms, amused that the major’s strategy didn’t go his way. “I want to go… if you think that’s alright Major Carver. I’m starting to get claustrophobic in here.”

Carver growled but smiled big. “I think that’s a great idea, Julia. Someone from the committee should go along, to show the compound how serious all this is.”

“I’d like to go as well,” Manson piped up from his corner of the room and startled those who had forgotten he was still there. “It would be a great opportunity to see the infected outside and the changes they’ve gone through. It can help further my research.”

Carver just shook his head, laughing. “Is there anyone else who wants to go?” He spun around, looking for volunteers. “Then you can get ready to move out in the morning. Until then, keep those boys locked in the office.”

Julia rolled her eyes and motioned for Miles to head to the room. He went with no fight. When they opened the door though, Antonio was standing ready to attack with the sharpened pens he had earlier. He had even managed to cut the ties around his wrists. Baker just about rushed the teen, but Miles moved between the two of them and kept Antonio from attacking.

“Oh, this will all work out so well in the morning,” Carver mused, eyeing the pens turned weapons in Antonio’s hands. “We don’t have anything to worry about with these two boys.”

Julia closed her eyes for a few beats and put her hands on her waist. She had had enough of the major’s cynicism for the day. “That’s about as much excitement as I can deal with in one day. We’ll get a group together in the morning and have the boys take us to find our people.”

“One of them will stay here,” Carver said with a curt expression and everyone’s eyes went to him.

“Come again?” Julia responded.

“One of the boys will stay here for insurance.”

“Or as a hostage.”

“Call it whatever you want, Julia. I’m trying to take your survival into consideration. You can leave, find the bodies of our people and come back with them. And when we see everything went over with no issues and everyone comes back ok, we’ll let both of them leave with a small ration of supplies. And they’ll never come back here.” The major narrowed his eyes at the boys, his last threatening words hanging in the air.

“Yeah… we’ll never come back.” Antonio met Carver’s glare and wasn’t fazed by his dark words.

Julia shook her head, sensing that if the vibe in the room didn’t change, the teen and the older man would be at each other’s throats in no time. “Fine. We’ll take Miles with us and Antonio can stay here.” Antonio would be too much of a loose cannon out in the woods and wasn’t even trying to negotiate. So the psychologist knew her best bet for a guide would have to be the younger brother

Carver scoffed and turned to the woman. “Fine.”

Miles tightened up and looked back at Julia. “No! We can’t split up! We can’t split up!” His eyes started to well up from the fear of being separated from his older brother.

“Miles!” Antonio tried calming his brother down.

“We can’t split up!” Miles turned to Antonio. “Stay together. The old man said to stay together.”

Antonio grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him to the side. “Miles, calm down.”

“The old man said stay together. No matter what, stay together. We have to stay together.”

“We will. We always stay together. No matter what. We’ll only be apart for a little while.” Antonio began whispering. “We’ll get back together. As soon as I get the chance here, I’m gonna break out and meet you at the treehouse. And while you out there, you sneak away when you can and go to the treehouse and wait for me.”

Miles was sniffling and fighting back his tears but losing that fight.

“Stop crying so much. People gon think you weak.”

Miles wiped his face with his tied hands. “I’m not weak!”

“Then stop cryin’!”

“I’m not weak.” Miles wiped his eyes again and had a mean-mug expression on his face with his lip poked out.

“Aite.” Antonio smiled then turned to Julia. “Aite, we good.”

Julia nodded in response. Brandon went inside the office with the boys and hugged Miles and Antonio, embracing them for a long time before Baker asked him to step out.

“I can’t believe I found you guys again.” Brandon stood