Two Alive, стр. 96

“No! What happened? What happened after I passed out?! Where’s that kid? Did they lock him up? Where the hell are Baker and Ben? Is Karen back in here? We can’t let her back in here with her infected son!”

“Eric calm down! I’m afraid all this stress is going to give you a heart attack!” Chakrabarti tried reasoning with the bigger man.

“Martyn, those idiots are going to get us all killed! She’s with those boys somehow, I know it! This was all a distraction! It was all so they can slowly start breaking in here--” Carver stopped and clutched his chest as he wheezed, dropping to the floor on one knee.

“Eric! You have to calm down! Look at yourself! You’re driving yourself insane with all this madness!” Chakrabarti started backing away and told one of the men to come with him as he rushed into Manson’s bathroom.

Carver grit his teeth and stood up. When the other man tried to help him, the major lashed out and turned around, stumbling away in the opposite direction and holding his chest.

Antonio was in the security room, starting to dance and pose and strut with his gold gun. He was feeling too fresh with the new haircut, the new J’s and the new sweat suit to match. He wished he could find a full-length mirror. If he could he’d take a selfie. But when he spun around again, he saw Nadine trying to roll her chair to the table where a radio was waiting.

“Ah! Don’t do it!” Antonio pointed his gold gun at her and went to grab the radio. “I don’t want to kill you if I don’t have to.”

“Damn it!” Carver growled when he entered the room, looking exhausted just standing at the doorway.

Antonio spun his gun around to the major and went back across the room to the table with the rest of his things. “Don’t move!”

“So, this your plan… to tie us up and have your people come in and steal everything we have? Is Karen a distraction?” Carver was breathing hard and coughing harder.

“I don’t know that lady and I don’t need nothin’ from y’all! Never did!” Antonio grabbed his other backpack and stuffed it with Miles’ extra ammo and his two pistols. Then he remembered the file cabinet against the wall, “Give me the keys to that cabinet too.”

“And I thought you didn’t need anything from us.” Carver was pale under the fluorescent lights and he rested against the doorframe.

“Just give me the keys!” Antonio raised the gun higher, aiming it Carver’s head.

The major sighed and threw him the keys from his pocket. Antonio wore the second backpack over his front and grabbed Miles’ bag from the table. He bent down to pick up the keys from the floor and went to the cabinet, not taking his eyes or the gun off Carver for even a second.

“What are you trying to find?” Nadine asked, watching him fumble with the keys to unlock the drawers.

“I don’t know. Miles told me to look through these stupid cabinets and if I didn’t, he’d never shut up.” Antonio pulled open the first drawer then went to the middle and opened it too, only to find old file papers and cassette tapes.

“There’s nothing in there.” Nadine said.

“Yeah, you would say that. Yall might be hiding a gun in here or somethin’!” Antonio opened the bottom drawer and pulled it out, all the way. There were just more tapes and papers. “Damn it Miles.” He said under his breath.

“Happy now?” Carver wheezed and coughed.

“Yeah. I’m gone then. I’ma go out that back door and be gone. These keys open the door in the back?”

Carver coughed and nodded.

“And what about our people with your brother?” Nadine asked.

“If they was smart they just let him leave and didn’t try to follow him or some shit.” Antonio started inching towards the door to the docks. “He ain’t gon do nothin’ but sneak away from them and they can come back here. We’ll never see y’all again.”

“Good.” Carver narrowed his dark eyes on the boy and nodded his head towards the exit. “Now go.”

Antonio took one last look at them and turned to run. Carver walked across the room slowly and started helping Nadine get free.

“Should we call someone to go after him?” Nadine asked, pulling the tape off herself when her hands were free.

“No. Fuck him.” Carver coughed and covered his mouth. “Let him go. And since Baker and Ben are so hell bent on letting Karen in here, we’ll use her as a hostage if that kid comes back.”

“Do you really think they’re connected?”

“I don’t know. But I do know that Karen’s son was bit, and we can’t let her back in here.”

Carver coughed again and went to the monitors. He covered his mouth and when he took his hand away, he saw blood. Then he looked at the screens, watching Baker have the gates opened and let Karen in with her son. The major grit his teeth through another cough, feeling betrayed by Captain Baker. But then the major paused with dread when he saw on another screen, Antonio was in the back on the docks, trying keys to open the lone trailer sitting back there. The major backed away from the table and started shuffling to the back as quickly as he could. Nadine called after him, but he was blind with panic.

At the front of the store, Baker was having his men close the shutters and there were people starting to gather near the registers to see what was going on. Karen looked around flustered and grabbed her son’s hand, pulling him close to her as more people started to creep out into view.

“Are you ok Karen? Did