Two Alive, стр. 91
“Major.” One of the men who accompanied Carver went to help him up.
Carver shoved him aside and hacked even harder, now down on all floors. Baker turned to leave again and with one last hard cough, Carver shouted, “I said, NO!”
The boom of his voice shook the room and for a solid five seconds, no one even moved. Then the major collapsed to the floor, coughing and holding his chest. Baker told the two men with guns to go find Dr. Chakrabarti and the men took off.
“Nadine, keep an eye on the major until Chakrabarti gets here!” Baker barked and the woman at the monitors spun around in her chair, flustered but obedient. “Ben, come with me.”
Ben was equally surprised by the captain’s commanding presence and just went along with it. The two left and not soon after, the doctor came running in.
Chakrabarti looked down at Carver and put two fingers to his neck. “His pulse is weak.”
“What do we do? Is he going to be ok?” Nadine asked. “Is he dying?”
“I don’t know. Without any medical equipment I can’t do much to check his status and there’s little we could do anyway. His condition has just gotten worse and worse the longer we’ve been in this store and there’s not much we can do about it. But the way he works himself, Carver’s gonna kill himself from just stress.”
“So what can we do?”
Chakrabarti thought for a minute. “That bastard Manson might have something in that makeshift lab of his. Get him up and follow me.”
The two, soldiers, went to help Carver up but fumbled with trying to hold their guns and lift the major. Chakrabarti sighed as he watched them and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What should we do about the lady at the front door?” Nadine asked, backing away from the table in her rolling chair.
Chakrabarti hadn’t even looked at the security monitors until they were mentioned. “What’s going on?”
“Captain Baker and Ben went to talk to her, but that lady Karen and her kid came back. Are you going to with them? Should I call Lesly? Should I go?” Nadine stood up from her chair.
“No, just… just stay here Nadine. I’ll stabilize the major and go see what’s going on with Ben and Captain Baker.” The doctor left and the two men carrying Major Carver went with Chakrabarti.
Nadine plopped back down in her chair with a deep sigh. “I can do more than just stare at computer screens you know.” She turned around in her chair and started typing on the keyboard in front of her. She was muttering something and moving the mouse to open new windows on the screen. She could see Karen jumping around outside, trying to get someone’s attention. Then a soft moan could be heard from the office where Antonio was.
“I need water. Can I get some water?” Antonio groaned from behind the door.
Nadine stood up from her seat, trying to peak through the papers plastered to the window. “Water? You don’t have any?”
“No. They didn’t give me any before I came in here. Can I get some?”
Nadine looked at the case of water bottles on the table where Antonio’s confiscated things were. “I, uh…” She shook her head and sighed, standing up from her chair and going to grab a bottle and the keys. “Yeah, ok. Sure.”
She went to open the door to the office and Antonio rushed her with his sharpened pens pressed against her neck. Nadine let out a sudden yelp, but Antonio shushed her and backed her up to sit back in her chair. He dropped his bag, pulled out duct tape and began taping the woman’s hands.
“So, Major Carver was right. You’re gonna take me hostage and--”
“Shut up!” Antonio bit the tape and tore off the last band going around Nadine’s wrists. “This just so you don’t tell yo people and they come chasin’ me down or some shit!” He pulled out a long strip and began wrapping it around the woman’s waist. “I never even wanted to come here. It was Miles’ idea and it was only so we could get some supplies if we found it. I’m tryna get back home lady.”
Nadine stared at him with her lips pursed, not even trying to fight her captor. “But… you’ll die out there. The infected are dangerous! They’re monsters! They’ll kill you out there. You were lucky we let you in that day.”
Antonio shrugged his shoulders, “Everybody monsters. When y’all let us in y’all almost killed us too. But we still here. I’ma keep survivin’ no matter what.”
Everybody dies, except us. The old man’s words rang in the boy’s ears and he pushed Nadine’s chair into the far corner. She was harmless but kept trying to convince him to stay. To let her go and how she knew he wasn’t a bad person. Antonio just shook his head and walked to the table with his stolen property. He took back his hunting knife, his three glock pistols and put them in his backpack; along with his clips of ammo. He picked up the AR-15 and threw on the strap, hanging the weapon over his shoulder. Then he took up his gold Beretta and cheesed, ecstatic to be holding the weapon in his hands again.
Back in the store, Ben and Baker were speed walking, nearly jogging as they made their way through the store. Family members and people from the community greeted the two of them but the two men just pushed on and didn’t respond.
“How do you think this will play out?” Ben whispered to the captain.
“I don’t know. But why the hell do you want to get involved?” Baker