Infected (Book 1): The First Ten Days

by Thomas, Jack

  All the closets were filled with great winter clothes, some of which I changed into. It was a matter of time before we all wore clothes appropriate for the weather. We hurried every other day while we scavenged or searched the places we visited which meant we missed a lot of the useful clothes, and managed only a random coat here or a sweater there. This time around, our pace was slower and more relaxed. I took anything warm I could find. We took all the clothes back to Trevor’s building in order to turn one apartment into clothes storage so water would not be wasted to clean any. The old clothes could then be used to keep fires burning in the case of the future continued with no cure for the infection and no energy for heat or light. All of these ideas came from Marcus’s head. He was building a survival plan and used Trevor’s building as the center point.

  Time went by; I cleared out the last apartment on my floor and took the rest of my findings up to the roof to meet up with Marcus and Strobe. Every building we fully cleared, we would take what we found back to Trevor’s before we set off to the next one on schedule. The building we finished was the last one we planned to search for the rest of the morning. All the buildings we searched connected roof to roof. We built bridges out of long two-by-fours and ladders to get across when they weren’t directly connected but weren’t too far apart either. The buildings, which gave us most trouble, were the ones across the street. We left those for another day. It was time to deliver our final trip’s loot back to Trevor’s place and plan the next part of the day.

  Everything on top of buildings, in the alleyways, and even over whole streets was covered in snow left over from the blizzard. We initially wanted to clear the buildings out then, but the blizzard prevented movement too far and forced us to stay indoors most of the day and night. It took less time than we expected and as a result we still had enough of the morning left to return all the things we found and move on to phase two.

  Once we emptied the buildings we scavenged, we’d build barriers and blockades inside and outside so infected couldn’t make their way in. Around our plank bridges we’d leave massive amounts of junk to block the path so that they’d have to be moved in order for anyone to cross. This was going to be the screening process for anyone who tried to get into Trevor’s building over the bridges. This would also help with the infected. The idea came from the assumption that the infected were not rational enough to move anything before they tried to cross. They’d plunge to their death in the alleys below wherever said bridge was located.

  Marcus, Strobe and I took the things we collected back to Trevor’s building two bags at a time. We left all of the barriers opened to return and get more things. There were about twenty or so laundry bags filled with goods we looted from the last building. We would have asked for help from the others but going over our makeshift bridges while we carried anything was a dangerous act of balance we were unwilling to let them take. If they tried and failed, a sudden drop to halt their hearts would follow.

  Soon enough we managed to get everything to the roof on Trevor’s building and that is when we recruited the rest of the group to help us bring the things in. I barely said a word the whole morning because of the massive amount of solitude that came with the search. No one else was in the mood to speak either. It was a rather silent morning but our productivity was unaffected by our lack of communication.

  Everyone was given a task and everyone executed their task with no questions asked and no flaws attached. Marcus led in a way that made sense to us. We shared faith in his plans.

  We sorted out the loot through the apartments on Trevor’s floor the way Marcus suggested, all the food in one apartment, all the tools in another, and all the clothes in yet another. The morning was overall productive. There was enough food to last a few weeks if rationed properly, and enough clothes to change into every few days, and even more materials to build virtually any kind of barrier or larger tool that could prove useful.

  An hour or so after we finished up what we needed to do assortment wise, we were once again sitting in Trevor’s living room prepared to figure out our next move. I still needed to find my family in The Hills high school.

  Trevor did not want to leave his home because he believed there would be nothing good to come from it. He believed his age would slow us down. He said if he was going to die he would rather it be somewhere he was comfortable and familiar with. He wanted to die at home.

  Lizbeth felt safer with Mara and Edwin at Trevor’s place. Edwin wanted to leave after Marcus and I said we needed to head to The Hills, but the rest of us agreed he should stay with Lizbeth and Mara so Marcus and I wouldn’t have to keep a third person alive while we tried to keep ourselves alive.

  Strobe like everyone else decided to stay with the group and help build a home because he didn’t believe a rescue team would come.

  “I’ll escort you to the border of the city and use the trip as a way to recon any potential places that might support survivors,” Marcus said, “Then I’ll return with the details and you’ll know where to start your search through the city when things improve here.” He spoke now to the group that would stay behind. “If survivors are located, by the time a rescue team arrives, the number of lives saved could be much greater.”

  I understood his “need” to save everyone, but that plan involved me alone at some point. I considered turning back with Marcus but that would be more time wasted. “So then I’ll continue to travel alone from the border?” I asked. I knew the answer.

  “Yes, but we need to look at the bigger picture. More people could be out there which means more people could be saved. That’s my first priority.”

  We talked it out for a while, jumped from one concern to the next until everyone understood the pros which outweighed the cons. Once in agreement, we began to plan our route out of the city and what I’d do once I made it out. The conversation was similar to one that would take place while planning a skate session. Our main method of transportation was the city streets, they allow us to move in the straightest paths possible to shorten our travel time, but we needed escape routes everywhere we went in case we came across more infected, walkers and runners alike. They took place in alleyways and through narrow passages to thin down the number of infected behind us or serve as cover if violent survivors were encountered.

  Trevor helped Marcus sketch up a map of small details he remembered about the city on the back of a napkin. They talked out depictions of the streets and buildings and they imagined it in their heads and added anything helpful to the map. Fire escapes, alleyways, large dumpsters and sharp turns, anything even relatively relevant to our survival was added to the map. Safety came with elevation, more roofs and fire escapes to come. (Yay!)

  “It’s time to go,” Marcus said when they finished the map an hour later.

  I sat at the kitchen table to watch the gathered snow on the corners of the window get blown away by the gusts left behind by the blizzard. There was a backpack on the floor by my chair. Earlier that morning I packed it with some supplies, food and water. The weight of the bag was also considered. It needed to be light enough to allow fast pace movements and keep me fed at the same time, bread and water.

  I took the bag and walked passed everyone to the door where I set it on the floor before I said my goodbyes to everyone.

  Lizbeth, Mara and Edwin were on the verge of tears.

  Lizbeth wrapped her arms around me and tightly squeezed. “Be careful,” she whispered. Her voice quivered. Once she released the death grip on me, she turned to Marcus who stood next to me and readied a backpack similar to mine. Mara took her turn hugging me while Lizbeth put her death grip on Marcus. “Come back in one piece,” she said. Based on the soft extra loving tone she said it with, I figured there was a crush for him hidden somewhere in there.

  Mara said nothing while she hugged me. When she let go, she went for Marcus, Lizbeth still attached. They both held him tightly.

  Eventually they retreated so Edwin and Strobe could get their goodbyes in t
oo.

  Edwin, like the child he was, remained angry with us since we wouldn’t let him come along. But it was not worth the risk. He ignored us and played with some toy Lizbeth found for him in the apartments.

  Strobe walked over and shook my hand followed by Marcus’s.

  Trevor didn’t agree with the plan, but he understood I had a family to get to. He shook my hand and patted me on the shoulder with the other. “Don’t get cocky out there, anything could happen.”

  Silence lingered around us and waited for its opportunity to take over the moment, and the time was perfect. No one wanted to speak and make things any more real than they were.

  My feelings remained indifferent. I didn’t realize it yet, but regardless of how worried I could have been about any of them, I was distant. My family was my only worry, my only sadness, my only focus.

  “Be careful,” Lizbeth’s voice scared off the silence up the stairwell to where Marcus and I were, now at the door to the roof.

  Creed City: The Winter Wonderland

  “Let’s go!” I told myself.

  Marcus grabbed the doorknob and turned it gently. Light came from behind the door. I might have even gone blind for a few seconds after from how bright it was. On the roof, Marcus walked ahead. His mind was on the task.

  My mind was elsewhere; worried about my own safety and the time I would spend alone.

  The boot prints we made in the morning were still crushed into the snow; the crackle and crush sounds returned with our exit off the building and continued with every additional step we took. There was more ease moving over the snow this time around, but the streets below told an entirely different story.

  We used the same roofs and bridges we build during our scavenger hunt to return to the dollar store we came up through.

  The fire escape collected some snow but not enough to slow us down. The alley was empty; the walls that surrounded it prevented the push of any snow gathered on the building down to the alley.

  We made our way down the fire escape, walked the alley, and came back out the store. The sidewalks collected more snow than the streets. An upside down arch formed with most of the height on the sidewalks and the lower sides towards the streets. The arch followed the entire street. The corners of the buildings trapped the snow unlike the streets where wind continued to blow the snow freely to smooth it out. Three feet nearest the buildings and one foot in the center of the street, it wouldn’t be a walk in the park, unless said part was frozen over.

  We took to the street and began to force our way through the thick snow. It gave us more resistance than we hoped for. The further into the center of the street we went the less snow we dealt with but we were still forced to bring our knees high to our chests while we walked. The best way to describe how we looked: awkward penguins looked cooler than we did.

  Marcus scanned every building we walked by to search for unnatural sources of light and open windows, alongside footprints in the snow or signs of struggle anywhere. He was determined to return with enough information to help the group gather supplies and survivors if any were left. “We’re taking a right on the next street,” he said too focused to look up at me. His eyes still fixed on what surrounded us. He didn’t plan to lose focus on this trip.

  “Yessir,” I saluted him in a failed attempt to lighten up the grim and dark mood he was in, but he wouldn’t budge.

  City boarder! City boarder! City Boarder!

  The echoes of the phrase ‘city boarder’ repeated in the back of my mind moments after I heard it. Fear, the most powerful thing I could have encountered (What a cliché.)

  Right turn;

  “We’ll be on this street for three or four hours before our next turn,” Marcus repeated what Trevor told him while he pointed down the street in the direction we would head. If Trevor’s information was accurate, the street would take us a large part of the way out of the city.

  Everything was for the most part quiet. Ambient sounds made up the larger part of the noise. Winds rushed through small spaces and created brief whistles that left my ears ringing consistent with the sound of the whistle afterwards. Boot-to-snow crackles filled the remaining silence. Every few moments the snow would put on a dance for me, with help from the wind, the snow would twirl and spin around.

  Life is a… Life is a… Life is… dance?

  My thoughts were interrupted by an inconvenient headache. I needed something to distract myself the way Marcus used his survival search. “A survival search for my own survival!” I told myself. It wasn’t the most coherent thought I could have come up with, but it was a way to pass the time. The idea was to trace back through the last few days and find something I might have missed helpful to my survival. Simple enough, so I began.

  I started off in the morning of the first day, in my room. Shower, cereal and television followed. The news, I could remember they said something about the infection I completely ignored. I took the skateboard, skated on the streets and sidewalks, made it to school. Was I there earlier than should have been possible on a regular day? The streets and sidewalks were less populated than usual. School; I made it to the school and went inside. Took classes, became bored half to death, two or three boredom strokes and then the girl walked into the school. Infected man chased recently infected girl, recently infected girl loses her mind inside of the school, and other students become infected outside while they tried to help out the guards. I left the class and the hallways flooded with infected and students within the time it took to walk a floor down. How much time went by between the infected girl reaching the school and Melissa and me getting out of it?

  A few miles into the street and no infected encountered. Maybe the city really was emptier of infected than we thought it was. The sun was already in a different location; at least an hour went by, at most, two and a half.

  “We’re taking a left at the next street,” Marcus said.

  “Why are we getting off of this street so soon?” I whispered in case he spotted some infected around us.

  “We’re being followed,” his answer was short, but man did it pack a punch. Wish I had some speed cola too (look it up).

  For obvious reasons I became paranoid. I began to entertain thoughts of what or who could be following us. Infected were the first on the list of bizarre things I could think of. The second was the idea of being followed by Richard and the rest of his corrupt military morons. Finally, the third possibility, maybe we’ve been spotted by someone who wanted to attack us for whatever we held in our bags in order to improve their own quality of life at the expense of Marcus’s and mine.

  “What’s the plan?” I tried to sound serious and unconcerned.

  “We’ll turn up ahead and hide in the alley around the corner. Whoever is behind us will keep going under the impression we did the same until they realize we’ve lost them. It’ll give us a chance to get behind them. We’ll have surprise on our side.”

  “Okay, I get it.”

  We continued to move and turned immediately on the street Marcus said. Left then left. Once on the next street we ran to the alley in between the first building from the corner and the second. In the alley we found a large, corporate dumpster and hid behind it. I counted the seconds till something happened. Like every exciting moment in life, I felt like an eternity went by before anyone came around the corner. We patiently watched.

  “Edwin?” Marcus said confused while he watched Edwin walk right by the alley.

  “What the…” I was as confused as he was. Did we really see him walk by?

  We both scrambled to leave the alley and meet up with Edwin before he took a turn into a store or building in search of us.

  “Edwin!” Marcus yelled out. He discarded how golden silence was.

  Edwin, a little further ahead, turned around like one of the infected after the sound of Marcus’s voice.

  Marcus and I were relatively confused as to what Edwin was doing hours from the rest of the group.

  “What are you doing
out here?” I asked desperate with curiosity. The words nearly ripped themselves off of my vocal cords.

  “I was following the two of you! Duh!” Edwin said; a sarcastic tone loitered in his voice. Chances were everyone back with Trevor was in panic because they didn’t know where Edwin was. Meanwhile, Edwin was with Marcus and me on his way out of the city. We were screwed.

  It was impossible to return Edwin and save daylight both at once. We had to continue to move forward to not waste another day, but now the pace needed to be adjusted for two adults and one child. Edwin and Marcus would arrive back home at night or on the next day if Edwin slowed us down. I did have to admire the dedication it must have taken him to follow us for so long without getting killed. The kid was braver than me.

  I finished the thought and opened up to the idea that maybe he wasn’t going to slow us down. It was inconvenient to have to keep an eye on an extra person, but who really knew what would happen? Maybe he’d keep his eyes on us too. After all, he did make it far without being detected.

  “What is wrong with you?!” Marcus raised his voice even louder. “You were supposed to stay with the rest of the group for your own protection!” By this point he was yelling.

  Marcus managed to keep his cool most other times when things became serious, but it was difficult to do the same when the safety of a child is involved.

  It was neither the time nor the place for Marcus to start to lose his mind. I walked away. Similar to how the main character would after he made a point in a drama film, except in this case no point was made. A dramatic walk-away was used in place of a logical discussion. Surprisingly, it helped the situation out. Marcus saw me walk away - so very dramatically - and realized I was being more focused than he was. This was enough to get his priorities reoriented and allowed him to put the Edwin issue at rest for the time. There was nothing left to do about it. Edwin was stuck with us until he could return with Marcus to Trevor’s building.