Two Alive, стр. 98
Miles was hesitant at first—and he avoided eye contact with Castle and Burrows when they glared his way—but the boy started to tell the story. “They were fighting. Something about that guy’s brother and that lady.” Miles pointed at Franklin and Nicole. “They were arguing and pointing their guns at each other. And that lady shot him. They all started shooting each other and everybody died.”
After a few beats Clint asked, “Who stabbed Danny? He’s got a stab behind the ear.”
Miles said back, “I did.”
“Wha… what?”
“He was parallel-eyzed. There was nothing I could do for him.”
Clint found it hard to swallow.
Lance jumped up to his feet, “And you and your brother just watched all this happen? You just watched?!”
Julia stood between them, “Lance, what would you expect him to do in a situation like that?”
“How do we know that this kid and his brother aren’t the ones who killed them?” Castle asked, still examining the other bodies.
“That’s a highly likely scenario.” Manson was pushing his glasses back on his face.
“Shut the fuck up Manson! We don’t know what the fuck happened out here! We don’t know because we weren’t here! But this boy was! He was!” Julia was pointing at the timid, small boy in his adult padding and armor and big clothes.
Miles put his earbuds back in and turned himself off from the world. He watched the adults continue talking and yelling and many of them kept pointing at Miles. But he was too busy listening to the start of What Do You Mean by Justin Bieber. Then he looked up and saw Alana jumping around when she saw someone crawling on the ground near her. Miles dropped down to one knee and pointed his rifle at the thing on the ground.
“Alana look out!” Miles shouted as he looked down the sights of his Dragunov.
But Torrez was grabbing his weapon and pointing it down. His lips were moving but Miles couldn’t hear what he was saying. Then Castle stomped his way over and snatched the earbuds from his ears.
“That’s one of our people!” Castle yelled at the small boy.
“It’s Tommy! Tommy!” Alana got down and took him in her arms.
“Alana! Thank god! Oh thank god!” The boy grabbed Alana and held her tight, squeezing her and crying. He was covered in dirt and mud and caked blood around his leg where a bear trap was once snapped on him.
Clint ran over to the boy, “Tommy! Are you alright?”
“Grandpa Clint! Oh my god! I thought I’d never see you again!” Tommy looked past them and saw Miles on the other side of the field. “It was him! He was there! He was there when all this happened, and he let it happen! Him and the other guy! They left me caught in a bear trap!”
“What?” Alana turned around, wiping tears from her eyes.
“They just left me here!” Tommy buried his face into Alana’s lap.
The army men aimed their weapons at Miles and he raised his hands. Julia stood in front of him and put her arms out to protect him. “No! Put your guns down!”
“Move out of the way Julia!” Castle said.
“It’s his fault my wife is dead!” Lance shouted from the sideline.
“Whatever you’re thinking, we still can’t jump to any conclusions!” Julia was talking to Lance and looking at Castle.
Miles started breathing hard and felt his chest pounding. He didn’t feel like he was making the right calls or right decisions. He was supposed to be the map and he was messing up at every turn. Everyone was mad at him and the army guys were even pointing their guns at him. Manson already had him charged as guilty and even Torrez looked worried about trusting Miles. Lance hated him even more and Clint had turned his back on the boy and was focused on Tommy. Julia was the only one trying to defend Miles. Even Alana was staring at Miles with anger in her eyes. This was another time where Miles was the map and he messed up. Like the time with the old man and when he died.
“Oh shit! Freaks!” Torrez screamed and pointed at the running infected, sprinting through the trees towards the group.
When everyone turned to look, more freaks came charging through the trees. The army men stepped forward and opened fire on the running monsters and took out the freaks with no issue.
“That was easy enough.” Burrows turned around grinning, looking to find Miles, but the boy was gone and nowhere to be seen. “Damn! Where’d he go?”
“Find him. We have to find him in case he has more people waiting for us.” Manson was signaling for Burrows to move.
“I got it!” Castle went running past Julia to go find Miles.
Julia sighed deeply and wiped her eyes, feeling all her emotions boiling over. “Miles…”
***
Antonio kicked open the door and ran out onto the docks outside. He was about to throw the ring of keys they gave him but stopped when he saw a padlock on the truck trailer. He shrugged his shoulders and dropped down to look through the many keys on the big ring, trying to see which one would fit the lock. He tried two but they didn’t work. Then when he tried another one, the door to the store flew open and Carver was standing there, breathing hard and holding his chest.
Antonio jumped up and pointed his gun at him, “Stay back major! It’s somethin’ in here huh?”
“Get the hell out of here already! You got what you wanted, now go!” Carver coughed and coughed, covering his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Naw, we could use some more if we can get it.”