Two Alive, стр. 72

“Johnathan, I have to go home to my mother. She’s probably worried sick right now. We--” Grant stammered and waited a beat. “We should’ve stayed at the school like Ms. Michelle said. We should’ve stayed at the school. My mother is probably calling the school and asking for me!” He twirled the shoestring he still carried around his fingers.

“Grant, you gotta relax man. There’s a lot going on right now and you’re making things more complicated.” Johnathan wiped his face with his hand, finally realizing he was sweating a lot but thankful he wasn’t still bleeding from the cut above his eye.

“We have to get off this train!” Grant shouted and threw his hands up in the air.

“I know that!”

“Man, shut the fuck up, Grant!” Antonio punched his hand and cracked his knuckles.

Down on the other end of the car, Francine finally got Miles to settle down and was rocking with him in her arms. The voices and the shouting all around them turned to white noise and the two were tranquil on the floor in the middle of the aisle. Francine sat the boy down and wiped his eyes when he looked up at her.

“You wanna listen to my phone, Miles? I got like a thousand songs downloaded on here.” She reached in her coat pocket and pulled out the Samsung phone with white corded headphones. “Here.”

She put the earbuds in Miles’ ears and plugged the cord into her phone. She entered her password and turned the phone around to him so he could see the buttons she pressed; in case it went into sleep mode while Miles was listening. On her music app, she clicked the ALL folder and pressed play.

“I just charged my phone too. One hundred percent. You can just listen to it until my phone dies, OK?” Francine smiled.

Miles smiled back as the first song started to play through the earbuds, Georgia by Ray Charles. Miles giggled and Francine’s smile spread wider.

Johnathan stepped in, “We have to get off the train. There’s infected people in the front car.”

Francine’s joy deflated into despair and she sank down. “Oh no.”

“It’s ok! We’ll be alright.” Johnathan grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

Miles swallowed hard and said with a big goofy smile, “You two should get married.”

Johnathan scoffed, “Yeah, as soon as we get off this train. Everyone’s here right?” He stood from where he was kneeling and saw Brandon holding a little girl, Antonio standing by, but no Grant. He looked further to see the boy, still down at the other end of the train, trying to pull open the connecting doors. “GRANT! Don’t do that!” Johnathan’s voice was like thunder that quieted the other voices around him.

Grant looked up and looked around a bit confused. “There’s a woman in there! She needs help!”

Johnathan started moving down the aisle, “No! Grant, everyone in that car is infected!”

“Infected?! Like them crazy people?!” A woman jumped up and started running to the opposite side of the car. Many others started to do the same.

“But there’s a woman in that car that needs help! You have to be a gentleman and help her!” Grant struggled to push apart the first set of doors.

“Somebody stop that retarded kid!” someone yelled out.

“No, leave him alone!” Johnathan went running towards Grant but the flow of people going against him made it difficult.

Grant pushed open the second set of doors, ignorant of the danger on the other side. A man grabbed him and threw him to the floor. But once the doors were open, two crazed fiends hurled themselves through the opening and everyone went into a panic. The chaos was swift and the two fiends went attacking right away. Johnathan kept trying to push through the throngs of people running in the opposite direction, but when he saw more infected rushing through the open doors, Grant was lost in the mess of people kicking and screaming.

Johnathan turned and ran to where Francine and the others were. He shoved people aside and climbed over those who fell in the stampede. Suddenly he stopped and jerked forward, falling to the floor with many others when the trains brakes slowed the vehicle down. The BART train screeched to a stop behind another train at the Lake Merritt station. All the doors to exit flew open and Johnathan jumped back up to his feet in time to see the train operator running across the platform for the stairs. Several tweaking maniacs chased after the operator. Johnathan had his own pursuers on the train to worry about, but at least the doors were open now.

Johnathan jumped over two people still down on the floor. He picked up Miles in his arms and snatched Francine to her feet. He grabbed Antonio by the hand and looked around for Brandon. But he saw the younger man was already off the train and running for the stairs, still holding the little girl. When two freaks ran up to Brandon and grabbed the little girl’s legs, Brandon tried to hold on to her but let go when he saw it was useless. He turned and ran and that was the last Johnathan saw of him.

“John!” Francine had a hand to her mouth almost ready to cry, but her body reacted, and she ran off the train towards the girl and the psychos tearing her apart.

Johnathan grabbed her shirt and yanked her back. He redirected her down the platform along the side of the BART train. Other survivors went running from the open doors. Johnathan shoved people out of the way, clearing a path for himself and the others. Francine was holding his right hand. When Johnathan wasn’t knocking people out of his way, Antonio was holding his left.

“C’mon! Stay close! Stay close!” Johnathan checked Miles again, who was wrapped around his chest like a snake.