Infuse
Page 14
Natalie didn’t ask any questions. She could see the pain in his eyes, the rage burning hot behind them. “I told them I would come back, that we would all come back if you and the others are willing.” Alec could see thoughts floating around in her head, some of them written on her face. Worry, fear, uncertainty, and maybe even a glimmer of hope in the corner of her thoughtful eyes. “You think we would be safer there? Even after everything you found?” “I do. The men that had control of the prison were lazy, feasting on food from the prison as if it would never run out. They were wasteful and either too confident or too stupid to realize what they had. If we closed off the openings in the fence, secured all the doors, and posted a few on watch duty it would be far more defensible than the cabin. The grounds between the fencing and prison would provide ample space to begin growing crops.”
Natalie watched him as he spoke, considering the proposition. She had never been big on change, but had impressed Alec with her adaptability after the disappearance. “What about Sara? She isn’t in the best conditions for moving right now.” “I know and I’m not saying that we have to make the move today. Speaking of Sara, how is she today? Have the antibiotics helped any?” Natalie stirred what appeared to be a pot of greens and a pot of baked beans cooking over the camp stove. “I checked on her a few hours ago. Kable says the fever is down a little, but she has still been sleeping more than she’s awake.” Alec considered the news, “If the fever is breaking that’s a good sign. I was worried the antibiotics wouldn’t have any affect if it was viral.” She looked up from the pots, “Let’s hope not. Poor thing has been suffering long enough.”
Taking a seat at the table, Alec noticed water was pooling under him as it dripped off his waterlogged body. “As far as moving her I’ve been thinking about that and just how we’re going to get all of our stuff to the prison. It doesn’t have to be right away and there is no way we can do it all at once even if we wanted to. I could make a trip back with as much as I can take or even a few trips in the next few days.” The wooden spoon clinked against the pot as Natalie loosened her grip to come sit with him. “You know I don’t want you going out alone like that. What if you ran into another group like the ones from the prison?” “I’ll take Mr. Pat or Nick with me if I go this time. That is, if everyone decides they want to go.” “When do you plan on talking to everyone about it?” “Talk about what?” Kable’s deep voice bellowed as he turned the corner leading to the stairs. “About moving to the prison.” The large man didn’t say anything, he just grunted and peered into the pots simmering on the camp stove as he bounced Luciana with one arm. “I’ll go and let Mr. Pat and Nick know dinner is about ready,” Natalie said, excusing herself.
It wasn’t every night that they all sat and had dinner, but often times when fresh game had been killed, enough to feed everyone, the group sat down as one big family. Tonight was one of those nights where everyone sat down and ate together as on big family of survivors. As the sun went down they all ate as Luciana serenaded them with a lovely melody of da-das and goo-goos. The conversations and little Luciana were a welcomed distraction from the thoughts of the prison that were still haunting Alec. It almost felt like the old times, before the disappearance, before the abominations, but there was one painful piece missing, Alexa. Every time he began to smile or laugh, he felt guilty. Guilty that she might be out there going through who knows what, all alone. It made him sick. He knew it wasn’t fair to Natalie or the others to be gloomy and downtrodden, so he bottled it up as much as he could and kept those feelings bottled up inside. His friends didn’t need gloom and doom, they needed a leader, someone to inspire them. That’s what he planned to do. That is what he would do and he would find his baby girl, too.
“I know that most of you know my thoughts on this by now, but I want to bring it up since we have everyone together.” Alec saw Kable glance down, and he quickly corrected himself, “Almost everyone.” He looked around the table as he continued to speak, most of his friends fixing their gaze upon him, but Kable continued to watch the food as he slowly stuffed in his mouth. “After visiting the prison today, I still think it’s our best bet moving forward. The cabin has served its purpose, but now it’s time to plan for the future. We can’t readily defend the cabin if the abominations were to attack. The prison was built to keep people in, but can easily serve the purpose of keeping people out just as well.” “What did you find there today?” Nick asked. Alec was a little surprised that it was Nick who spoke up first. He wasn’t usually one for a lot of questions, but then again Alec hadn’t known him very long. “A group of around twenty inmates were holding up there.” He went on to tell the others what had happened.
It was Mr. Pat that raised the first question, and it was a good one. “Sounds like it’s a pretty big place. I know it would offer more protection than we have here, but wouldn’t it be hard for the handful of us to protect a place that big?” Alec had considered this already, “We don’t really have to maintain watch on the entire grounds at all times. Yes, it would be ideal but once we secure the fencing around the entire perimeter it would be fairly difficult to get in. Aside from that, we can all stick to one of the Cell blocks at night and lock that down instead of trying to patrol the entire area.” Nick spoke up again, “Think the fence will be able to keep out the abominations?” “Honestly I doubt it. My hope would be that it would slow them enough to give us ample warning. Even if it doesn’t, there is no way for them to get past the steel doors inside. Here at the cabin, we have to worry about both. We’ve been lucky so far, probably because it’s so isolated, but I don’t want the distance from cities and roads to be our only means of defense.”
“And if we decide not to go?” Kable asked, surprising Alec with his question. He looked at his childhood friend who had momentarily looked up from his meal in order to gauge Alec’s response. “Well…I’m not making anyone go. I do think it would be best, but I want this to be a group decision. If you all decide we should stay, then I’ll start working on a plan to better fortify the cabin.” He stopped for a moment, allowing time for Kable to reply, but he didn’t say anything further. Alec decided to pry a wee bit more, “Are you thinking we shouldn’t relocate to the prison?” Kable was looking at his plate again, scraping up the few remnants of food remaining, “Not real sure.” For as long as they had been friends Kable had always been short with words and sometimes, like now, it drove Alec crazy. “We would all love to know your thoughts, Kable.” The words came out of Alec’s mouth with a little more sharpness than he intended. Kable set his fork down, turning his gaze to Luciana as she bounced up and down on his knee. “Not really sure I like the idea of her, he placed a large hand on Luciana’s back, growing up in a prison. Don’t know that I like bunkering down instead of pushing on and looking for other survivors, other groups of people that are still fighting back.”
Alec looked around the table, at his friends, and then looked to his wife, “What about the rest of you? I want us to put everything on the table, so if you have an opinion or question please don’t hold back.” The room sat silent for a moment save for Luciana until Mr. Pat broke the silence, “I find it hard to believe there is still an organized resistance. Maybe there is, but I feel it would be detrimental to our group’s survival to go on a wild goose chase in hopes of finding something we don’t even know exists. I am certainly not trying to impose negative views upon the group, but I do think it wise to focus first on survival and allow everything else to come secondary to that, even looking for other survivors.”
The group fell silent again, all waiting on someone else to take a turn. Natalie spoke up next, “I really don’t like change, but I understand that we need to do something. I know this doesn’t help, but I’ll support whatever the group decides.” She looked back to Alec and grabbed his hand, giving it a little squeeze. “Nick, do you have anything to add? Alec asked. Nick scratched the back of his head and shrugged his shoulders, “I think it’d be a lot easier to defend the prison than to try a
nd make the cabin into some sort of fortress. Are there still woods around for huntin’ game?” “Yes, the prison itself was built out in the country. From the article I read awhile back, the people in the nearest town threw a fit about the original proposed location and the county moved it several miles further into the country.” “Good enough for me then,” Nick said in a satisfied voice.
Alec turned back to Kable, “Have you spoken to Sara about it?” Kable grunted and then let out “she thinks we should go,” in a low murmur. Alec was a little surprised to hear this, but that concession all but sealed the deal. “So are we all in agreement to begin moving to the prison as soon possible?” He glanced around the table and saw everyone nodding their heads until he came to Kable. He sat staring at Luciana as she pulled on one of his dreadlocks and cooed at him. “If you think moving will help keep her safe, then let’s do it.”
It was done, the decision to relocate to the prison had been made. Now that it had been decided Alec felt a hint of doubt creeping in. What if he wasn’t making the best decision for the group? What if something went wrong and they all blamed him? Alec knew that all he could do was trust that he had made the best decision with the knowledge that he had and stick with it. He hoped the feeling would pass once they had safely made the move and setup at the prison, he was sure it would.
Chapter 15
Zoey and Bread made it to the south side of the city before coming across an abandoned scooter crashed beside of a law office. Fortunately, the driver must have slowed before the crash, because the scooter only had minor cosmetic damage. Zoey was surprised the no one had taken the scooter before them. It wasn’t out in plain sight, but it wasn’t well hidden either. Whatever the reason, Zoey was just happy to have a mode of transportation. It wasn’t that she minded the walking, she just hated the constant jabbering of Bread’s mouth. She liked the big man. He did save her life, but all the meaningless conversation was too much.
Turned out driving a scooter wasn’t the cure for over-talkative-redneckism that plagued Bread. The big man did talk a little less while driving but definitely didn’t stop talking, or more like shouting, altogether. They stopped about thirty miles south of the city to fill up with gas and have a bite to eat. All the more sustaining food at the service station had already been taken, but they helped themselves to a little candy for dessert. Their plan was to head as far south as they could before the sun began to set, and spend the night in one of the many small town motels that lined interstate 260. “Hope there’s nuff gas along the way,” Bread shouted as sputtered around cars plugging up the interstate. “Guess we’ll be back to walking if not,” Zoey yelled back. She half expected to hear the voice whispering in her ear, telling her they would indeed run out of gas and never make it, but the whispers never came.
As the daylight started to fade, they stuck to their plan and pulled off the interstate at an exit sign indicating three hotels were nearby. Bread didn’t bother with looking for keys at the front desk, he simply wrapped his sledgehammer of a fist with a shirt and busted out a window. Zoey crawled through and unlocked the door from the inside. He busted out several other windows of nearby rooms, “Case someone decides to sneak up on us while we’re getting’ some shut-eye.” Zoey didn’t think anyone was stupid enough to creep around in the middle of the night but couldn’t argue with the premise.
The two ate together in Bread’s room, spoke briefly about their plans for the next day, and Zoey retreated to the connecting room. Per usual Zoey couldn’t sleep much, but nor was she haunted as she lay awake in bed. Apparently Bread didn’t have problems sleeping. No less than ten minutes after Zoey closed the door to her room, she could hear the big man roaring like a freight train through the wall as he snored away.
Despite the few hours of sleep, Zoey awoke replenished. She wasn’t sure if it was being outside the city, the spark of hope kindling inside of her, or the big blundering oaf’s constant jokes and upbeat attitude. After the last handful of days, the feelings mixing inside of her were bizarre. To be fair, any feelings other than despair would have felt alien to her.
Although it was a sunny day, the cool breezed whipped over her as they sped along down the interstate. She found herself seeking shelter behind Bread’s large frame, which easily blocked the wind. It was now the second day on the road, and she was surprised they hadn’t come across any other survivors. The interstate they now traversed had been so full of life only a few weeks ago, yet they had been miles upon miles without seeing a single soul. She wondered if there were that many people taken. Was everyone in hiding or…Zoey swallowed what felt like an egg in her throat, had the red-eyes killed that many people? The thought was terrifying no matter what the truth was.
The unlikely duo continued their journey south along the interstate. Bread was rambling about fishing off the coast, “You just wait’n’see. Yer belly’ll be so full, ya might even have to get some bigger britches.” Fresh fish did sound like a welcome change from the canned meat and beans she was getting accustomed to, but she didn’t let herself share in his optimism. For all she knew, the fish had all washed up on the beach dead or would have red eyes themselves. Considering what she had witnessed the past week, even that wouldn’t have been too big a stretch.
After being on the road all morning they pulled over at a service station to look for some lunch or eat the canned goods they carried with them. The service station had shiny green paint and the red dirt was still built up around the parking lot as if it had just been built. It was nice, other than the shattered glass on the front door and mostly empty shelves. There wasn’t much nutritional to be found, but Bread did find a few bags of candy. “Wanna go on inta the city’n see if we can’t find more food? Won’t do us no good to be out on the road with nothin to eat.” Zoey ate her last chip, “I’d rather keep moving. One of the service stations along the way are bound to have something to eat.” Bread seemed to think on that for a minute before responding, “Maybe, but further we get from the city the less they’ll be. That ‘n’ most on the innerstate’ll probably be picked over. We can go another day or two, but I’m gonna warn you that I ain’t very nice when I get hongry.” “One hour. Take what we find, and then we keep moving,” Zoey said in an authoritative voice. “Fair nuff,” the big man complied.
There wasn’t much to the little town as far as they could tell. The heart of it sat roughly a mile and a half off the interstate and consisted of a few fast food restaurants, some banks, and one grocery outlet. “Do you think we’d have better luck in a bigger town with more than one grocery store?” Zoey asked as they pulled right up to the front of parking lot under the big smiling pig face. “Can’t be too sure. More groceries, more people. Truth be told I’m not sure bout much these days, Zo.” Zoey flinched at his comment, not about what he knew, but at the nick name. Zo, the name her twin brother Zachary always used. “Did I say some’n wrong?” Bread asked as he waited on Zoey to climb off the scooter so he could set it on the kickstand. “No, I’m sorry I was just thinking. Let’s go.”
Bread widened the opening on the once automatic glass doors by hand just enough to fit his massive frame through. Obviously whoever had opened the doors previously were a bit smaller than him. The grocery store looked much like all the rest, like it would if people were expecting a hurricane. From the entrance they saw knocked over stands, paper and cleaning products scattered across the floor, but the only food they saw were empty cans or boxes. “I’ll check this half of the store if you want to check the other,” Zoey said pointing towards the fruit and deli isles. “Meet ya back in a jip,” Bread replied as he strolled off.
The fruit that remained was either covered in mold, completely spoiled, or both. Zoey didn’t really expect much different, but she wanted to be sure. The deli isle was much the same, only less was left behind to spoil. She found a walk-in refrigerator behind a counter in the back of the store, but was met with a foul smell as she pulled it open. The only meat that set in the lukewarm refrigerator was the rotti
ng flesh of a pale man with a bullet hole in his forehead. Zoey coughed violently and slammed the door behind her, leaning over to wretch. She wasn’t sure if the wound was self-inflicted or the man had been killed over a pound of meat. Zoey didn’t suppose it much mattered anymore, the poor man was dead. She wiped the spit from the corners of her mouth and continued on to the next isle.
By the time she met Bread on the coffee and syrup isle she had little to show for her efforts, but something was better than nothing. Bread wheeled up riding on the back of a shopping cart like an overgrown kid. “Looks like you had more luck than I did,” Zoey said as she eyed his cart. It wasn’t much, but the big man had somehow found a half dozen can goods and a few dented bottles of water. They loaded up the findings, split between their two bags.
“Always had a keen eye fur food,” he said patting his belly. “Care for some hor-deers?” Bread offered up a can of what appeared to be canned fish and a sleeve of crackers. Zoey shook her head, “Not really hungry at the moment.” She paused. “There was a dead man in the cooler. Shot in the head.” “Say?” Bread raised his eyebrows. “In the cooler behind the deli counter,” she pointed. “You’d think with all the folks disappearin and dyin to the ghouls folks wouldn’t feel the need to kill one another...or themselves.”
Zoey put her things in the cart and began pushing it towards the front door. “People have a darkness inside them, Bread. Some just more than others.” She wasn’t looking at Bread, but could feel the big man’s gaze on her. “Like to think we ain’t all bad,” he finally said. Zoey glanced over her shoulder at him, “some of us just bury the darkness deeper than others,” she replied. “What about the pope, or them folks diggin wells fur water in Africa?” “I didn’t say there weren’t good people, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a darkness inside those people either. You don’t have to look further than the so-called leaders of some churches and their young male attendees to see that,” Zoey said. “Guess you got a point. Just don’t like to think about all folks bein bad. That’d be a turrible world to live in.”