by Kuhn, Steve
The fact that everyone just followed him in is exactly the sort of shit I’m talking about. I had addressed everyone, yet they all followed one person’s move without an opinion of their own. They all just armed themselves, as usual, and followed him.
Once we were all inside, we made a quick once-over for anything out of place and blocked the door behind us, as has become customary. It was all clear, but you can never be too safe. I mean that literally. There is no such thing as truly safe anymore. Come to think of it, that’s never been the case, but the spread has really brought that point home.
I started off with a public apology to Rebecca for what I said last night. I told her that it wasn’t the fact that she was leaving the room or anything. It was more about her secrecy. I made an effort to sincerely show my remorse in hopes that opening up would encourage others to do the same.
She nodded her thanks and told me, “It’s all right. I’m just still really shaken up, and I didn’t want all of you to be bothered by it. I’m sorry I snapped at you, too.”
JC scoffed obnoxiously and said, “Aww… that’s cute coming from Mr. Secrecy himself.” This raised eyebrows all around the room.
Surprisingly, Kylee spoke up and jumped right in JC’s shit with, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He replied, angrily snapping, “Oh, really? I know you open your legs to whoever is around at the moment. You’re probably fucking Cutty, too!”
Cutty raised his hands, smirking and said, “Eeeeeasy now. I don’t mess wit’ da white meat.”
For a second there, I could have sworn Cutty was enjoying this.
Fool, unwisely trying to joke, said, “I don’t mean ta butt in, ladybird, but I’m down if you’re down, know what I’m sayin’?”
Cutty swiftly smacked Fool with the broad side of one of his machetes right across his thigh. Fool flinched as the pain no doubt shot up his leg.
Pointing the blade at Fool’s face, Cutty warned him with, “Until you do somethin’ ta earn some respect, you watch yo’ tongue or I’ll cut da muhfucka out. Don’t think I forgot ’bout you takin’ a shot at me. I still owe you fo’ dat shit.”
Rebecca nudged Cutty about his cursing in a church. He shot a glance up to the enormous crucifix over the altar and muttered, “Ma bad on dat, Mista Jesus,” swiftly making the sign of the cross. He turned his attention back to Fool and said, “Now I owe ya two times—got ma pressure all up and whatnot.”
Kylee ignored Fool and went back at JC, shouting, “I’m not sleeping with Dext! Matter of fact, I’m not even sleeping with you! You think just because we fooled around one time that I love you or something? Here’s an idea, Jon. Why don’t you take a page out of your own book and cut the shit. No one here likes you. You’re a self-centered, arrogant asshole. The only reason I did anything with you in the first place is because I was weak. I promise you that won’t happen again.”
JC moved to leave, but it was Murphy who blocked his path. JC told Murphy, “Move, old man. Don’t make me move you.”
Murphy quietly told him, “Calm down.” He turned to all of us and said, “All of you. Everyone, calm down.”
Now, I know what Murphy was trying to do, and he was probably right. JC is a strong and competent member of the group, even if he is a pain in the ass. I almost make myself sick at how much I want him to stick around. That’s the problem. We need JC, but we don’t like JC. I keep hoping he’ll show some redeeming qualities besides his capability at surviving, but he is just an ugly human being.
JC put his hands on Murphy to get by, and Fart latched onto his leg, growling angrily. She shook her head vigorously before letting him go, and JC bounced back in shock to examine his leg for damage.
Murphy shouted, this time angrily, “That’s enough! All of you! Fart, go lay down! JC, sit your ass in that pew over there so I can have a look at that leg. I’m gettin’ sick of this shit!”
JC narrowed his eyes and plopped down in the church pew with an impatient huff.
We hashed it out as Murphy tended to JC’s leg—I mean everyone. Rebecca and Kylee had words about what happened back at Murphy’s place. Cutty and Murphy argued passionately about whether or not we should go back and take over the compound from the cross-huggers, which is apparently a no-go. Cutty made it clear that he’d personally whoop anybody’s ass who backed that plan. Pretty much all of it came out except for one thing.
As silence seemed to fall over all of us, Kylee said, “There’s something else.”
My stomach dropped. I knew she was going to tell them. I mean, she had to tell them eventually, but I have been dreading it since the day she told me. She was about to drop a bomb on everyone, and all I could do was sit there and wait for the impact. I wanted to throw up.
She paused a moment as she gathered her thoughts before saying, “I’m infected… I think.”
Everyone froze.
“Fool, too,” she continued. “Maybe even the entire military. We all were given a vaccine before deployment, but it’s failing, like when you get a flu shot, and sometimes you get the flu because of the shot. See, Murphy, some people are turning for no reason. It’s just taking some longer than others.”
JC snapped, “And you knew about this?”
Fool stirred uncomfortably as everyone in the room seemed to shy away from both him and Kylee. It was an awkward change in the room, one that Kylee seemed to understand, but Fool was like, “Hey, hey… what you talkin’ about, ladybird? I ain’t turnin’ into no bernie, know what I’m sayin’?”
Murphy spoke up, saying, “I knew those pricks were gonna fuck this up.”
Finally, Cutty told us all, “Y’all ain’t turned yet, but you sayin’ that it could happen any time? Or is there a chance that y’all might not turn at all?”
Kylee looked at the floor and answered quietly, saying, “I don’t know, Cutty.”
JC jumped up and moved to square off with me. Cutty held him back as he shouted over Cutty’s shoulder, “You! You knew about this all along, didn’t you, you little fucker?”
I answered him flatly. “Yes. That’s why she was with me last night. I was watching her. Kylee told me about it after Bizzy and Tom died. It wasn’t my place to tell anyone right after we lost two people, and I just never found the right time.”
JC flipped out, shouting, “Wasn’t the right time? It wasn’t the right time! When would it be the right time? Once she’s taking a bite out of one of us?”
What could I say? He was right. I had no words.
Rebecca sort of panicked and said, “We have to kill them—both of them! They have to die, just like Trey did, before they turn on all of us!”
She made a move for JC’s gun, but Cutty threw JC aside and wrapped her in a tight bear hug, holding her still before she got to it.
“Eeeeasy, baby, eeeeasy. I know. I know,” he whispered to her as she cried tears of sorrow and rage.
Rebecca shouted at Kylee, “You came to me and told me Trey had to die, and I listened to you! You knew, damn you! You knew, and you said nothing! I hope you both burn in hell! You hypocrites! Especially you, Dext!”
She shook Cutty off and slumped into a pew, sobbing.
Murphy said, “Now wait a damn minute! We don’t know that they’re gonna turn, and if they manage to survive, either one of these two could hold the key to this thing. We need to get ’em to a facility. Believe me, if anybody should be against that idea, it’s me, but I can put my own shit aside if there’s a chance this thing could be stopped altogether.”
Fool spoke up and suggested, “We should try an’ find some stuff at the convoy. I bet the nerds left some stuff back there, know what I’m sayin’? And I’ll tell ya this… any one of yous come at me, I ain’t gonna just stand there and take it. I told yous guys before that I ain’t the dyin’ type, know what I’m sayin’?”
Murphy chewed his lip thoughtfully and nodded, saying, “You might be right. The only thing we were lookin’ for last time was food and ammo and shit. Who kn
ows what else is there in the form of paperwork or whatever? If it’s medical, I’m sure I can make sense of most of it.”
Cutty put his stamp on the whole thing, saying, “A’ight! Nobody does nothin’ until mornin’. Ya heard? Nothin’. Fool, take yo’ ass out to the truck to sleep. Dext, you watch Kylee, and you can sleep while we on the road tomorrow. E’erybody else, keep yo’ head on straight. I’ma need to sleep on dis one. Any of y’all got a problem wit’ dat, speak now.”
He told Rebecca that he would stay with her, but she protested, saying, “This isn’t fair, Uncle Curtis! This isn’t fair!”
He reiterated that he always sleeps before he makes a big decision, and she of all people should know that. One of these days, I’m afraid Cutty isn’t going to have that luxury.
I took Kylee off into one of the offices and have been watching her as I’ve been writing. It took forever, but eventually, she slept.
Entry 73
The morning came on slowly, and I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I just wanted to sleep. Everyone else was fairly well rested. This overnight watch was gonna be a bitch, and it was going to have to go on indefinitely.
We met back up with Cutty, Rebecca, and Murphy in the main area of the church and checked our gear before heading outside. Rebecca said nothing and just glared at us in disgust.
Cutty said, “A’ight, le’s get JC and Fool and head out to dat convoy. Kylee, Dext, I’m disappointed in y’all, fo’ real. Since you ain’t bit and it ain’t no guarantee that you gon’ turn, I’ma just try an’ get you to some people that can help explain it. Until den, Dext gets to babysit.”
Murphy agreed and asked, “Yeah, speakin’ of JC, anybody seen him yet this mornin’?”
Everyone just sorta stared at each other, all of us shaking our heads. Dammit!
We put a hustle on getting outside, but it was no good. JC was nowhere to be found. In fact, Fool was also gone, and so was Murphy’s truck.
Kylee kicked the dirt and snapped, “That son of a bitch! He took the kid with him, too!”
Murphy notched an arrow and looked at Kylee, clearly pissed off. “Forget the kid. That motherfucker stole my truck! I love that truck!”
We piled in the jeep as Cutty fired it up and made our way out of the little driveway-parking-lot thingy. No sooner had we reached the main road did we see Murphy’s pickup truck approaching us and comin’ in hot. The horn was beeping and all that shit. Cutty whipped the jeep into the middle of the street and stopped dead, blocking the path.
The pickup truck slowed as it approached, and we were all piling right back out of the jeep to confront them. Everyone, save for Rebecca, leveled a weapon at that truck and stood ready to shoot a motherfucker. It stopped within ten feet of us, and out popped JC and Fool.
Murphy told JC, “Git your ass away from that truck, you little shit!”
JC held his arms up sarcastically and moved to the rear, saying, “Aww, c’mon, old man. Relax. You didn’t think we left you, did ya?” He reached in the back of the pickup and struggled as he pulled out a huge, green duffle bag, throwing it on the ground at Murphy’s feet. He told us, “Fool and I came to an agreement last night.”
Cutty, still holding both machetes, asked, “Oh yeah? Wha’s dat?”
JC replied, chuckling, “He would help get me back into the compound, and I wouldn’t kill him.” Smirking and quite pleased with himself, he looked from me to Kylee. He told us, “The three of us will have a little private chat later, but for now, as long as Dext keeps her in check and I keep my eyes on dickhead over here…” He gestured to Fool. “We’ll be all right. But your credibility is fucked with me. Now, we got anymore dirty, little secrets to tell before we move on, people?”
I shook my head, and Kylee did the same.
Murphy asked, “So, what’s in the sack, kid?”
Fool grinned and told us, “It was the shit, know what I’m sayin’? We snuck in that place like we was fawckin’ Force Recon ova here. Those assholes didn’t even know we was there! We got all kinds of shit, know what I’m sayin’? Clothes, ammo, some food… JC ova here even managed to fill up our water bottles an’ shit.”
JC nodded and said, “Peace offering. Maybe you dipshits are right. Maybe I am an asshole. Consider this an effort to change your opinion.”
Cutty nodded his approval and told Fool, “You said y’all got some clothes?”
Fool nodded and told him, “Yeah. They ain’t all that, but they’ll do the job, know what I’m sayin’? Though, we prolly ain’t got nothin’ to fit you.”
Cutty smiled and told him, “Good. Take off what you wearin’ now and change. Young blood’s clothes don’t belong on you. Dig it?”
Fool looked puzzled and asked, “Who’s dis ‘young blood’?”
Kylee took off her eye patch and let it fall to the ground. The eye still looked pretty fuckin’ nasty, what with the scabby gash from her eyebrow straight down to the bottom of her eye socket. The eyeball itself was red with busted blood vessels. She told Fool, “He was my son.”
Cutty said, “And that makes me his father.”
Fool looked absolutely baffled and half-jokingly asked Cutty, “I thought you said you don’t mess with the white meat, know what I’m sayin’? I don’t understand.”
Kylee told him politely, “You never will, kid. You never will. Now change quickly so we can get on the road.”
Letter from Dr. Morofsky
To: Col. Lang
From: Dr. Robert Albert Morofsky
Re: Mutation
Date: Aug 2nd, 1 AO
Col. Lang,
Test results confirm that the Necro-Animetric material is mutating slightly at a rate that is notable, but not yet alarming. Our resources in New Mexico are still safely contained, and the facility has not been breached as of yet. I’d like an armed escort for my team and me; if possible, to the facility to study this further, but I’m frankly not sure who to request it from.
It appears that the varying branches of the military are doing a much better job as of late in coordinating efforts in the wake of losing high command altogether. I’ve seen and heard fewer reports of the rogue behavior that we all had to overcome early on once it became clear that the paychecks weren’t going to clear. It’s pleasing to see that there is still honor among us. That being said, if you can arrange the escort, it would be highly appreciated. Perhaps SSG Chalmers can spare a few of his men and a vehicle or two?
I cannot stress the importance of my pilgrimage enough. The latest mutation has the potential to put us on the back foot once again, and seeing how we are finally making some good headway in the containment, that would be a shame.
The bottom line is this, I need to get to New Mexico and find out why the latest batch of reported neophytes is mechanically superior to the ones we have encountered in the past. The facilities here are substandard for that kind of work. They’re great for field tests, but this is much bigger. The new ones that are in good enough physical shape to move quickly are beginning to run. This is unacceptable!
Please respond immediately!
- Dr. Morofsky
Entry 74
A lot of shit’s been going on; that much is obvious. I’m still wondering why it doesn’t feel like we’re getting better at this, though. You would think that after having encountered a few herds, or a pack here and there, that we’d have this shit on lock. More importantly, you’d think that if we’re trying not to get our asses chewed off on a regular basis, we’d at least be more in tune to one another. This shit is turning into a fucking soap opera, for real. I mean, who the fuck cares if Kylee’s blowing JC and Rebecca hates her guts? Well, besides us, of course.
I was supposed to be writing this thing to document my own struggles in a new world filled with corpses that decided it’d be fun one day to walk around and chew on anything living. It was supposed to show how humanity would persevere in the face of adversity and rebuild a broken society after eliminating the threat—how we would come together an
d overcome. Instead, this little diary has become a dramatic piece of trash. I’m spending time writing down fucking arguments… arguments! Believe that shit? Piss whining, bitching, and moaning. What a joke!
Mankind isn’t going to overcome a single Goddamn thing at this rate. Every group we meet is just as fucked up as we are, if not more. The entire world, what’s left of it, is not just full of the dead. The few remnants of actual living human beings are just grouchy, nasty, pissed off, quirky, fuckin’ weirdoes. We’re traveling here and there pushing west, and for what? To find another dead end? (Hah! ‘Dead’ end. See what I did there?) To find another group of freaks like the Haven? Or the cross-huggers?
All right, Murphy’s cool, but still. He’s the exception.
Bottom line is this. You want some real shit? You want something that isn’t all melodramatic? Here ya go:
*It smells like balls in this jeep, straight up. It reeks so bad in this motherfucker that it is seriously as bad as the deadheads now.
*Cutty used to be a big, bad son of a bitch. Now, he’s lost about twenty pounds in the past few weeks, and he looks beat to shit—not so badass anymore. I mean, yeah, he’ll still fuck you up or whatever, but there’s something missing.
*Rebecca and Kylee look like shit. There’s no makeup, no decent clothes, and they both have greasier hair than I do. I miss good-lookin’ women, to be honest. Kylee was smokin’ hot in her picture in that dress. Now, she has a fucked-up eye, and she stinks. Frankly, I’m as backed up as the next guy, but I wouldn’t fuck either one of these chicks right now.
*I’m growing a beard. I thought it would look fresh as hell. Instead, I look like a muppet. It’s all patchy and shit. This is disappointing.
*JC is cooler than me. That kinda sucks. Imagine that you’re stuck with a dude who is epic at all times, even when they’re being a cock hole. Rebecca gets pissed at me, and I bumble-fuck around until I end up apologizing, only to get her more pissed off. Someone gets pissed at JC, and he commandos into hostile territory with the new guy and comes back with cake and ice cream for Christ’s sake. Thanks, JC! Why don’t you cut my nuts off and feed ’em to Fart while you’re at it. Douche bag.