by Andrew Gates
Sixtine shrugged, as if to say she was fine. But then she turned her head and coughed into her arm. Bad timing, Grey thought.
For a split second, he thought he saw a faint red spot on her arm beneath her uniform sleeve. He grabbed her arm and raised the sleeve. She did not say anything. As he expected, it was covered in ulcers.
“Dammit,” he said. “You have it too.”
She nodded reluctantly.
“I do. All this time outside, it’s not good for us. I think we need to start thinking of a way to get back to the station,” she explained.
Grey could not believe she was still thinking about the station. Her ignorance was now becoming almost intolerable.
“I don’t think that’s possible,” was all he said back.
“Oh, true. I guess we’d just be infecting everyone down there,” she replied. “Although the doctors should be able to take care of us, right?”
There was almost no sense arguing with her anymore.
“Probably,” Grey said, finally just giving in.
“Hillary is going to think this is crazy,” she continued, not letting her theory go. “I can’t wait to tell her all about this when I see her again.”
“Right,” he said, nodding. “When you see her again.”
Sixtine coughed again, this time straight onto the ground.
“Thank you for helping with Misha these past few days, but now you need to get rest. You need to recover like Selena,” Grey suggested.
“But don’t we have to keep moving? Your brother seems to want to keep going,” she asked.
Shortly after Iris announced her pregnancy, the group started moving again. As per Dan’s request, they were finally heading west instead of south. He was pleased, though not everyone in the group was happy about it. Selena did not like the idea of moving, even before she came down with symptoms. Grey agreed, though he did not voice his concerns as loudly.
Ryan seemed reluctant to leave all their equipment behind. They no longer had their weapons or medical equipment, not even the radio to communicate with the FCP. But everyone else agreed, going back for the supplies was just too dangerous.
“Dan wants to keep moving, yes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t rest. Selena is resting most of the time when we’re not moving.”
“Like now!” Kaitlyn added, enthusiastically.
“Yes, Kaitlyn, like now.”
“I just want to be useful,” Sixtine said. “I don’t want to sit around if there’s work to do. I can help watch the kids or hunt or start a fire or refill the canteens.”
“Others can do that,” Grey explained. “I’m glad you want to help. I am thankful that you’ve watched over Misha as long as you have, but seriously, you need rest.”
Sixtine lowered her head and sighed. She hobbled for a second and then braced herself on a nearby tree. Grey reached out to stabilize her, but she did not seem to need his assistance.
“I guess you’re right,” she said as she leaned against the tree. “Look at me. I can hardly stand.”
Grey was glad she had finally come to her senses.
“Come on, let’s get you back to the group,” he suggested, reassuringly. He turned to the kids. “Girls, come on! We’re heading back.”
“But I just got here!” Misha protested.
“Stop whining,” Kaitlyn replied. She coughed into the air.
“Gross, you’re still sick!”
“Girls, both of you, calm down and let’s go!” Grey snapped his fingers and pointed off in the direction they needed to go.
Both of them stopped talking and started moving. Sixtine already started slowly making her way over. It did not take long for the other three to catch up with her.
The walk back took longer than Grey expected thanks to Sixtine’s slower pace. The four of them were quiet the whole way. When they finally reached the group, something was cooking on a fire. It looked like they had caught something to eat.
Grey wiped his face and realized he was sweating. It had been getting warmer and warmer each day. He looked over to Misha. She was still wearing her thick bulky suit, the only thing they could muster that would fit. Part of him worried that she would overheat if the weather kept getting warmer like this.
“Grey, Sixtine, girls!” Tobias greeted as they approached the fire. Tobias was standing by the flames, cooking whatever they had caught. Ryan was next to him.
Selena was lying down to the right, far from the rest of the group, but still in visible range. Dan was crouched beside her. Iris and Ophelia were seated with each other off to the left. Jallah and Margery were nowhere to be seen.
“Hey,” he said as they arrived. “What did you catch?”
“The small hairy ones,” Ryan answered. “What do we call these?”
“Squirrel,” Tobais answered.
“Right, squirrel. We got two.”
“We’re finally figuring out how to catch these guys without guns,” Tobias said. He seemed excited. “It takes a bit more cunning, but we’re managing!”
“That’s good,” Grey said. He took a few steps forward and peered over his shoulder. The girls both ran off to their sick mother. Sixtine was still making her way over.
“What is it? You look like you have something to say,” Ryan noted.
“I do,” Grey replied with a nod. He kept his voice down. “It’s Sixtine. She’s sick. She has what Selena has.”
Ryan looked dismayed.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“I saw ulcers on her arm. She’s having trouble walking. She’s coughing a lot.”
Tobias nodded his head.
“The symptoms do match up. She’s the fourth one to come down with it now,” he said. “But Kaitlyn’s recovery is a positive sign. If she can get better, others can too.”
“Yes, but in the meantime, she needs to rest,” Grey said.
Ryan also nodded.
“Right. I understand. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.”
Grey could not get over how professional Ryan sounded whenever he talked.
“When do we plan on moving again?”
“After lunch,” Ryan answered. “I guess we’ll have someone else stay with Sixtine.”
“I guess so,” Grey agreed.
Grey heard rustling in the trees off to the right. He looked up as Jallah and Margery suddenly emerged. They each held several refilled canteens in their arms.
“Looks like everyone is back,” he noted, pointing off to the others.
“Yes, it seems so. We won’t eat just yet. The meat still needs more time, but it should not take too long,” Ryan said.
“We found water!” Jallah presented with a smile. He held up the canteens for all to see.
This announcement seemed to get Dan’s attention. He stood up from Selena and walked over to the returning kids.
“Where did you find it?” he asked in a serious tone.
“There is a huge river nearby. It’ll be tough to cross,” Jallah answered.
“How far?”
“Probably about 15 minutes from here. Well, walking our speed,” Jallah answered.
Dan seemed worried by that news. He squinted his eyes at them.
“You walked that far away?”
Margery stepped in immediately.
“Don’t worry, Dan. We marked each tree we passed. We weren’t getting lost. Plus we stopped along the way,” she explained, trying to calm Dan’s worries.
Grey was surprised that Margery was able to convince Jallah to walk so far away from the group. The boy had been fearful lately. But if there was one person who could convince him to do anything, it was Margery.
“Why did you guys stop?” he asked.
Grey had his own presumption. They were a young couple alone. It was not hard to guess the answer.
“Because we found something,” Margery explained.
That wasn’t the answer I expected.
“What did you find?” Dan wondered.
“We’re not
sure. It was some sort of structure,” Jallah replied.
Grey did not like the sound of that.
“Mantis?” Dan asked.
“It didn’t look like it. We thought that too, but it’s different,” Margery answered.
“Different how?”
“Old, very old,” she replied.
Ryan stepped in now.
“If there’s an old structure by a river, that may not bode well for us,” he said.
Tobias followed him, leaving the squirrels unattended.
“I concur with the lieutenant,” he added.
“You guys don’t understand,” Margery replied. “This thing was ancient. It was like the pictures of ruins Iris used to show us in class!”
“Ancient ruins?” Dan asked for clarification.
The group paused for a moment. Then Dan turned to Iris, seated next to Ophelia, far away from everyone else.
“Iris!” he shouted to her.
No response.
“Hey, Iris!” Grey added, trying to help get her attention.
Still no response.
When talking to Iris, she could generally hear just fine so long as she was already attentive. The hard part was getting her attention in the first place.
Ophelia tapped Iris on the shoulder and pointed to the others. Iris looked up. She appeared surprised as Dan waved to her.
“Oh, sorry!” she shouted back. She stood up and walked their way. “What is it?”
“Margery and Jallah say they found ruins by a river,” Dan explained. “Any theories?”
“A big river!” Jallah added.
Iris seemed a bit surprised by this news. She took a moment to think about it and then turned to the kids.
“These ruins, were they a city?” she asked.
The kids both shook their heads.
“It was just one thing,” Margery explained. “It was like a pointed structure. Probably like four meters tall, even wider across.”
Iris looked to Dan. They both seemed confused. Then she turned back to the kids.
“Did it look like it went deeper into the ground?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” Margery answered.
Jallah shrugged as if suggesting he did not know either.
“Is the structure west of here?”
“Yes,” Jallah answered.
“And the river, I’m guessing it was even further west?”
“Yes, it was just past the structure,” the boy explained.
“Do you have a theory?” Dan wondered.
“I might, but I need to see it first,” Iris replied.
Grey did not like the sound of this news, but the kids did not seem to be so worried. Perhaps they had good reason not to be afraid. After all, if it were a trap, the mantises would have arrived by now. He was curious to hear Iris’s idea, though she simply nodded her head and turned to Ryan.
“How long until we head out?” she asked.
“I think we should move after we eat,” he answered.
Iris continued nodding.
“Okay,” she replied. “We’ll investigate it together once we eat. We are heading west anyway, so it’s not like we’re going out of our way.”
“You don’t think it’s hostile?” Ryan asked.
“The kids don’t seem afraid.”
“Yes, but they’re kids,” Ryan replied.
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Jallah responded.
Ryan lifted his left hand in the air as if to suggest he misspoke.
“Look, I just mean, Iris has better judgment here. She understands this stuff,” the lieutenant clarified. Jallah still seemed bothered by his answer though.
“No, I don’t think it’s hostile,” Iris repeated, going back to her earlier point, “and I have a guess on what it is, but like I said, I’ll need to see it first.”
“I understand,” Ryan said. He quickly turned and examined at the fire. “Looks like it is almost ready,” he added as he turned back around.
“Smells like it too,” Dan agreed.
Tobias and Ryan promptly walked over to the fire without saying another word. The kids followed shortly behind, leaving Grey, Dan and Iris to themselves.
“So are you going to tell me your guess?” Grey asked as the others took care of lunch.
Iris looked back at him and shifted her gaze to Dan.
“I might be completely wrong here, so I don’t want to set up your expectations. To be honest, the information they gave me was not much to go on.”
“When we first landed here, you said you thought we were in Virginia. Do you still think that’s true?”
Iris looked his way again.
“Seeing this object will hopefully help answer that question,” she explained. Iris moved her hands to her belly. She had been doing that a lot lately. Grey wondered if she even knew she was doing it most of the time. “But for now, let’s not worry about it. We have other things to worry about.”
“Okay,” Grey said, not wanting to fight with her.
Dan took a few steps in her direction and patted her on the back. She smiled.
“Let’s get some food,” he suggested.
“Good idea,” Iris agreed.
The two of them joined the others by the fire. Grey turned to check on his wife. She was still lying in the grass. Sixtine was crouched beside her now, as were Kaitlyn and Misha. The sight brought a smile to his face. Once Selena started coughing, the quickly smile faded away.
Grey walked over to them. They were all very quiet over here, even the girls, surprisingly. They calmly looked up as he approached.
“Hi Grey,” Selena said in a dainty tone. It was hard to hear her speak with this voice. She seemed so weak, so frail.
“Hi Selena,” he replied. He leaned down and kissed her forehead. It was a lot warmer than he expected. She smiled back to him as he pulled away.
“How are the others?” she asked.
“The others? How are you?” Grey replied, ignoring her question. There were more important things to discuss right now.
She smiled, as if amused by his concern.
“Don’t worry about me, Grey. I’m in good hands. I have a man who loves me and two girls who come running to my side.” She motioned to her daughters as she said this. They both grinned. “I have everything I need.”
“I don’t mean to be funny,” Grey explained. “I’m worried about you. Whatever you have, I don’t think we should take it lightly.”
“And we’re not,” Selena replied. “I’ve been resting most of the day.” She turned and faced Sixtine and then turned back. “And now I will have someone else to rest with.”
That’s a strange way of looking at it.
“Since when have you become such the optimist?” he asked.
Selena shook her head.
“Oh, I’m not an optimist,” she replied with a chuckle. “I’m a pragmatist. I recognize that there are more serious things going on now.”
“Like that Dan wants us to keep moving?”
“That would be one concern, yes.”
Sixtine sighed.
“I don’t see the fuss about moving or not moving. Just as long as we survive, that’s all that matters to me,” she added.
“But how can we survive if we don’t stop and settle?” Selena asked. She let out a deep exhale and lowered her head. “At least we left those guns behind.”
“Those guns that helped us hunt, you mean?” Sixtine responded. “And that saved us from the zombies?”
Selena raised her head again and glared at her sick counterpart.
“Oh, don’t tell me you’re on their side!” she snapped. Her mood changed so quickly. Grey did not know what got into her all of a sudden.
“Mommy, don’t fight!” Kaitlyn said, standing up.
“She’s right, Selena,” Grey added, trying to sound reassuring. “You need to rest. This is the wrong time to argue.”
Selena let out another deep exhale and closed her eyes. Grey coul
d tell it was hard for her to calm down, but she was going to try. He was glad to see her make an effort at least.
“Okay,” she eventually said with a nod. “You’re right. This is not the time for arguing.”
“How is the food?” Sixtine asked, ignoring the fact that Selena had just lashed out at her.
“I think they’re about finished cooking the squirrels. We should be eating soon,” he explained, glad to change the subject.
“Good. I’m hungry!” Misha added.
“Me too!” said Kaitlyn.
“Are we eating the meat plain?” Sixtine asked.
“No, Dan and I collected some nuts and vegetables earlier.”
“They should cook it in a stew. What’s the point in having that pot if we don’t make stew?” she added. Grey agreed with her point. The group had to leave so much behind, but somehow the pot managed to come this far. They might as well have put it to use.
“It’s hard when we don’t have water,” Selena answered. “You need water to make stew.”
Also a good point.
“Hey!” Dan shouted from the fire.
Grey turned his way.
“Yeah?”
“The meat is ready! Come on over!” he said.
Grey helped the sick stand up. It took a few seconds, but eventually they were all ready to make their way over.
Tobias tossed dirt onto the fire to put it out. Ryan and Dan pulled apart the meat into separate portions with their fingers and placed the pieces onto some rocks. Grey knew putting food on rocks was not the most sanitary thing to do, but they were probably the cleanest surfaces around.
“Eat up!” Dan said as he tossed a bone over his shoulder.
Kaitlyn picked up a piece of meat and swallowed it. Grey was glad to see her appetite returning. Misha went in to pick up her own piece, but Kaitlyn blocked her and snagged another.
“Hey, Kaitlyn! Share!” he said, pointing to her.
“But I’m hungry!”
“We all get equal portions,” Dan added, stepping in. “Take three pieces each.”
“But the pieces are so small! That’s three bites!” Kaitlyn protested.
“Squirrels are small animals and we have 12 people to feed,” Dan explained.
Kaitlyn turned to Grey.
“Dad, I’m sick. Shouldn’t I get more?”
He had to admit, she had a point there. Grey sighed and picked up a piece of meat from the nearest rock.