Two Alive, стр. 9
Miles grabbed and shoved the creeper aside and used his blade to stab the now wailing dunce. He counted one to himself and was already jealous that Antonio was starting the day in the lead. He hated odd numbers. It always meant someone would have more kills than the other. But he’d rather face only three lurkers instead of six. Then came number four, rambling out into the street. Miles jumped at the opportunity to get his second lurker kill and tie things with his brother.
The last infected tweaker was twitching and biting at the air. It staggered slowly with a lethargic will that made it seem just as likely to walk away rather than to try beating Miles to death. Its hair was knotted and caked with leaves and mud. The teeth in its mouth were jagged and broken; this one was probably an eater, judging by the flesh still in between its gums. The other infected, dead on the ground now, had most likely been bit by this one standing in front of Miles. It was wearing what was left of its tattered clothes and one shoe. Then Miles saw something in its eyes and the creature really looked at the boy.
Antonio bumped past Miles and was looking to steal his brother’s kill, “You ain’t tryna catch up? I was tryna let you get this last one but--”
The infected freak threw its head back and hollered at the top of its lungs. A scream that was so jarring, Miles was frozen by the shout. Antonio reacted and ran at the monster and knocked it down. Stab after stab, Antonio brought his knife down a dozen times to make sure to stop the creature from screaming. It finally went silent and Antonio looked around with a serious focus, scanning the tree line.
“Miles, get the fuck down!” Antonio shouted, not able to see what was behind him.
Miles dropped down and held his knife as he surveyed the area just as Antonio was. “Did you see that? Did you see it?”
“Shhhh!” Antonio shushed him and Miles lowered his voice.
“I saw it change! It went from lurker to siren! I saw it! I saw it change! It changed!”
“That don’t fuckin’ matter right now! You see anything? Do you see anything?”
The two brothers spun around several times and checked for any movement or any sound, with their panic slowly starting to subside. If anything was in the area, it would have been on them by now. Sirens were notorious for having packs and hives of lurkers follow them simply for the sound. These infected would literally scream their heads off if you didn’t get on them quick; Miles had seen it twice before. But if you didn’t stop it, all kinds of infected freaks would come flocking to the area like a swarm of locusts, wrecking everything. Miles had seen that happen twice too. It was always best to either steer clear of a siren or take it out immediately and flee the area.
“C’mon, we gotta go.” Antonio stayed low and went slinking towards the broken sign and his bike.
“We can’t take the bikes to Costco. They’d hear the bikes coming,” Miles whispered.
“Fuck Costco! We gotta go! Now!”
“That siren just turned. I saw it change. I saw it. It couldn’t have any other lurkers attached to it yet.”
“Miles, we ain’t takin’ that chance.”
The two brothers looked at each other. Antonio sighed before he went to stand in front of Miles. In unison, they started to shake their fist in front of each other and repeat, “Rock, paper, scissors.” After a quick two out of three, Miles won the game and his decision to press on was the plan. It wasn’t the most diplomatic way to settle a debate, but rock, paper, scissors, still was their go-to when faced with arguing over what to do next. The old man chose this rather than having to constantly be the tie breaker for the brother’s disputes. Whoever won the best of three would call the shots and everyone would go along with their plan, no matter how risky.
“What the fuck?! We really doin’ this? Even the old man would say no to stick around here after findin’ a siren. We shouldn’t be going to this place anyway.”
Miles put in his earbuds and took out his phone.
“I know you can hear me! We. Should. Go. Back!” Antonio watched Miles continue walking and he sighed deeply. Then he reluctantly followed.
On the road, the brothers ran into another group of staggering lurkers that brought both of their kill counts to five apiece. Things were even and Miles was visibly pleased by this. The next group of lurkers though were too many for the boys to take on confidently, so they quickly hid behind the trees and let the large collective move on. There were half a dozen long-term, infected people in the stumbling crowd with the freshly changed monsters moving swiftly in front. A camp must’ve just fell nearby, judging from the large number of fresh gimps with torn mouths, bite marks and scars showing through tattered clothes.
Then after a five-minute trek through the woods, Antonio found a line of bottles set for an alarm system, and a hole in the links where lurkers probably got through. Miles found a trip wire that they easily avoided. then they found the tents and sleeping bags camped around a dead fire pit. They also found the gutted remains of some woman who had been torn apart and splayed over a rock. A man whose head had been bashed in from behind. And a couple dead inside their SUV that was stuck in a ditch. Miles stood over an infected little