Somewhere In The Middle

by Lucas Coon

  He began to feel dizzy again. He stepped back and tumbled into his chair still facing out the window. He place his head in his hands and rested his elbows on his knees. This was an impossible situation for him to surpass. Was he to kill the infected and push on with his own life? Was that wrong because the people that were infected were still alive? Could anything be done to separate the puppet from the puppet master? If so, would the host live? There were hundreds of thoughts all trying to force their way to the front of Mitchell's mind.

  'He died almost instantly.' Mitchell continued his thoughts. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face. He could feel himself sweating. He wasn't sure if it was the realization of everything or if it was the fear of what was bound to happen.

  "What the hell are we supposed to do?"

  Chapter 8 – Where We Started

  Mitchell sat silently in thought. Though a decent amount of time had passed, he was hooked on the thought of the hosts being alive. After dwelling on it for as long as he could, he decided that he needed to work on the plan for the trip that they were about to embark on. Things were going to be more difficult with another person in the picture. Mitchell had almost wished that Abram was still with them, at least then there would be three of them to scout for food. The more firepower the better. At this point Mitchell was defenseless; he had no guns, no knives, overall nothing to take out any infected if they attacked him. It grew even dimmer as he thought about whether or not he would actually be able to do so.

  Sweat was beginning to build up on his arms and forehead. The sun was bright today and the temperature was starting to push into at least the mid-nineties. 'What time is it? It has to be at least one', he thought. He lifted his arm to glance at his wrist watch. The glass covering was cracked in several places, to the point that it spider-webbed the entire front. The hands weren't moving and were stuck near eight-thirty. Clearly this wasn't right. 'It must be completely broken'. He started to undo the clasp from the leather band, but paused. He changed from a focused look to a slight smile and reconnected the strap. Even though it wasn't working, it was still a reminder of a better time. A time where he wasn't in a constant fear for his life. A time when living had a meaning.

  'Why am I still bothering with this? Why am I still going?' He pondered his reasons for continuing. 'Does it really make sense to keep going? Wouldn't death be a sweet release from this hell?' He coughed, his throat was getting dry. He grabbed his water and took a quick drink. The sun wasn't going anywhere anytime soon and the heat was going to keep climbing. If they were going to survive another day, they needed to not sit around any longer. They needed to get out there and make sure they would be OK for at least another day. He stood from his perch on the edge of the desk and looked around the room. His third floor executive's office was nice. He hadn't bothered to read the name on the building when he was running. Even though he knew it now, it really didn't change things. He was glad that he had found his safety but how long was it going to remain safe?

  The fact that the office was mostly glass was nice as it offered him a great view of the downtown area but it wasn't helping the heat issue with the sun beaming into the windows. He decided to look over what was available nearby. He saw what looked like a small, family owned burger joint, as well as a number of big name fast-food stops. There was also a strip mall less than a mile down. Any of these could be housing their next meal but would it be easy to get there and back? With how bright it was outside his chances were better than if they waited any longer, but every trip came with the possibility of failure. 'If I stand here and do nothing, death is a certainty.' He considered whether or not that would be so bad. He shook his head. 'I have to stop thinking that way. I thought I was over this. I need to get to Aria and that's that.' He looked down on the street below. He saw that there were several infected still out walking. The streets never seemed to be completely clear, there were always a few of them out roaming. He looked the path over to the nearest location. It would be easy to get there but what would they find there? Would they be able to make it back? The closest building would be their best bet for the first day of scouting. He knew that they weren't going to be in the direct area much longer, but he wanted to better know the area.

  "If only I knew what damn time it was." He muttered, he started to move his hand towards his pocket to grab his phone.

  "It's about two." a small voice interrupted his action. He turned to see Lilly standing in his doorway. He hadn't spoken to her much, and any opinion she had of him couldn't be great, but there she was answering his question.

  "Oh, hi Lilly. What are you doing in here?" He looked at her smiling curiously.

  "Mommy and Daddy are talking to that lady. She smells funny." Mitchell wasn't sure what she meant by that, he hadn't smelled anything on her. Maybe it was just her body odor that Lilly was breathing in.

  "Oh yeah? I didn't notice." He lifted his shirt and sniffed it jokingly. "I don't smell funny, do I?" He smiled at Lilly. He loved kids and she was such a doll.

  "No, you smell OK." She looked at the floor shyly.

  "Good. Hey, how did you know what time it was?" He thought he'd ask. It was easy to strike up a conversation with her at this point in time.

  "My watch says it, see?" She showed him the cheaply made plastic watch on her wrist. The digital clock on it showed five minutes after two. She was right on the time. The little watch had a pink plastic band that was kind of rubbery. It didn't clip, it just slipped over her hand. The face of the watch had pink flowers on it, and it said "Smile" on it in yellow letters across the band. Mitchell guessed that she loved her little watch.

  "That's a neat watch! Where did you get it?"

  "On my birthday! I didn't go to school because I stayed home with daddy. We went to the computer store because he needed to get ink for his printer. He told me I could get something for my birthday and I wanted this. It's got flowers on it and I think it's pretty." Lilly had the cheeriest voice telling this story.

  "Oh yeah? I think I might need to buy one. I have to replace mine. It's broken." He showed her his watch begrudgingly.

  "Why did you break it?" She looked at him upset.

  "Oh no, I didn't break it. It was an accident. I wouldn't break this watch on purpose, it means a lot to me." He looked at it. Seeing it broken lowered his spirits some.

  "Did you get it for your birthday?" Lilly wanted to know if he got his watch for the same reason she got hers.

  "Actually, I did!” Mitchell tried to match her enthusiasm. “Aria bought this for me last year for my birthday. I had another one but someone took it from me, so she bought me this one. She even had it special made for me. See?" He took it off and showed her the underside of the metal. The inscription said "Happy Birthday Mitch. Don't lose this one." He read it and chuckled. It was quite a sarcastic joke, but that was the way she was.

  "Was Aria your wife?" Lilly was full of questions.

  "Yes she was. She was the prettiest lady I'd ever met and I married her as quickly as I could because I didn't want to ever let her go." He knew she'd appreciate the exaggerated love story.

  "Is she a monster now?" He didn't expect that question.

  "I don't think so. I think she's out there looking for me, just like I'm going to go look for her." He smiled.

  "Is that why we're going to leave? Are we going to help you find your wife?" The bombardment of curiosity was never going to end.

  "I hope so. I need to go find her and I would love for you guys to come with me." He tried to answer her as best he could. He wasn't sure if Kayla and Mitchell had really talked to her about this.

  "Did you have any babies?" Another one out of left field.

  "We wanted to. We were going to, but then all this happened. You know, with the monsters and all that."

  "Monsters are nasty! I like kitties." This one wasn't a question, so maybe she was going to trail off. "I have a cat named KitKit. He's orange and fluffy. I hope he's OK, but mommy said he's a smart cat and that he'll be OK.
I just hope he's got water because I don't want him to be thirsty. Do you have a cat?"

  "No, I didn't have a cat. I like cats though, just never owned one." He did like cats. He thought about it. "Why did I never own one?"

  "Do you have anything to eat? I'm hungry." It was difficult to keep up with the little girl's topics.

  "I have a candy bar in my drawer." He opened it up and handed it to her. "If you want, you can have it." She grabbed it from his hands and smiled her cute little smile. Mitchell had come to believe that she got away with a lot by simply shooting a grin at Kayla or Darren. He figured Darren was more susceptible to her charm.

  "Thank you mister Mitchell. I'm glad you're not a monster!" She unwrapped the bar and took a big bite of the chocolate. She turned around and started to walk out of the room. Mitchell stood up and followed her out to the cubicle area and to the cubicle they were staying in. Mitchell and Kayla were sitting there discussing something but Claire wasn't with them. Mitchell looked curiously at Darren.

  "She's over on the other side, near where Abram was. She's laying down, I don't think she's eaten in a while and she seemed to have zero energy. Sorry we didn't come get you yet, we were talking about our plans to go to the hospital." He smirked at Mitchell. While Mitchell hated when they spoke telepathically to each other, he understood what Darren was trying to imply. He thought that he may be able to join them in their mental conversations soon. Mitchell appreciated it. "Lilly-Anne, did you take Mitchell's candy?!" Darren spoke direct to Lilly.

  "Don't call me that Daddy!" She protested. Her face had chocolate all around her mouth, and she was chewing furiously at the caramel. "Mister Mitchell gave it to me!"

  "Mister Mitchell, did you really give her the candy bar?" He grinned and looked up at Mitchell.

  "Yes sir. She said she was hungry and I wanted her to have it." He played along with the authority roles that the situation had assigned.

  "See daddy. I told you! Mister Mitchell is nice!" She stuck her tongue out at Darren. They both smiled.

  "OK, fine! You can have it Lilly. I just wanted to make sure you aren't stealing other people's food." He looked at Mitchell. "So, do you have a plan?"

  "To some extent. I think we need to head for the nearest place to see if there's anything available. It looked like either the family run restaurant or the fast food places would be the best bet here. Obviously we would need to find things that we can keep without them spoiling. Canned foods, jarred foods, bagged foods. Anything microwaveable would be good as well. We're not going to have access to full kitchens here, so quick and easy is the best way to look at this." He looked at Darren, and then shifted to Kayla. "That being said, which of those two places do you guys think would be our best bet?"

  "I say the fast food place probably has the best selection for those kinds of things. The only other problem I see coming out of this is our lack of access to a freezer. So anything that requires freezing is out." Darren had a point. "Like you said; quick items that don't require special processes to make would be best. We won't be eating healthy but we'll be eating." Kayla nodded in agreement with Darren's statement.

  "That's the destination then. It's pretty much right across the street, so I don't think we'll have too much trouble. Darren, you get the gun again. I don't think we'll have a repeat of last time but just in case." Mitchell met eyes with Darren to make sure he understood.

  "Aye aye captain..." Darren responded sarcastically. Mitchell could tell that, based on the way his voice lingered at the end of his response, he was really not wanting to. Mitchell didn't blame him, he had technically killed two people yesterday. "Since we don't have our duffel bag, are we going to try to use the grocery bags again?" Mitchell wasn't sure why he was asking, it wasn't like they had much of a choice. He smirked and nodded at Darren to respond. "Alright, give me five minutes to prepare, then we'll head out."

  Mitchell pulled the phone out of his pocket and pressed the button to light up the screen. Seventeen minutes after two. He figured five minutes wouldn't hurt. "Sure. That should be fine." He turned and walked back into his office.

  "What do you need to prepare Darren?" Kayla had a sarcastic tone to this question.

  "I just need to get myself mentally ready for this Kayla. Going out there isn't going to be easy." He sighed a heavy sigh. "You realize this thing only holds six rounds? I've fired it twice, meaning I've got four left. That's it. I have no more rounds on me at all, I just brought what was already in the gun. If we're hoarded, we're dead." He looked at her directly. "We have to make it to the hospital on four rounds. That's if I don't have to fire this thing at all on this trip." Kayla frowned.

  "Oh, I'm sorry Darren, I didn’t mean to sound like that. I get that you're nervous. I'm not looking forward to carrying Lilly out there either." She stepped towards him and grabbed his hand. He could see that her eyes were starting to fill with water, something he had never seen before. "I just have to keep telling myself that we'll be alright. Don't you think I'm scared too?" He grabbed her and hugged her tight.

  "We'll be alright. I promise, Kayla. We will get out of this." He sucked it up and decided that he needed to be confident for her sake. They separated and locked eyes. "I love you Kayla. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, or Lilly. I promise." She smiled and nodded.

  "You better mean that, because I'm going to hold you to it." She wiped her eyes and turned towards Lilly. "Go get Mitchell and get going. There's no better time than now, right?" Straight back to her sarcasm. “Also promise me we'll never get sappy like that again. I feel like I need to take a shower now.” He grinned, and pushed himself off the wall. He went down to Mitchell's office room and knocked.

  "You ready Mitch?" He peered in. Mitchell looked at his phone. Twenty-one minutes after two, close enough to five.

  "Let's go!" He stood up. Both men walked down the center aisle like soldiers being shipped off to the battlefield. Darren grabbed his gun, and Mitchell grabbed the bags. They walked to the center door, gave their fan club a nod and walked out into the stairwell for the third time.

  As the door shut behind them, Mitchell looked over to Darren to make sure he was OK. He looked focused, almost confident. This was promising because Mitchell didn't have a real plan, he just wanted to get in and get out. They started down the stairs slowly. They knew what the second floor had to offer but had no idea what the first floor was going to be like. Each step was another foot closer to the unknown. When they reached the landing for the second floor, Mitchell stopped.

  "Hey, Darren." Mitchell looked to the floor tile for comfort. He didn't want to say what he was about to but it was weighing heavy. Darren turned around and faced him. "I just really wanted to say that, if I collapse again, I want you to just leave me. Leave me and get out of there." Mitchell didn't want to look at Darren. This was a strange thing for Mitchell to say as he'd always kept a calm head about him.

  "Mitchell, you know I can't do that. You know damn well that I would not leave you behind." Darren's volume increased. "I've known you for less than seventy-two hours, and you know what? I feel like you're my damn brother. With all the people out there being killed or infected, anyone that is still alive is worth saving. If you pass out, I will personally drag your unconscious ass back to this building and up these stairs." His face was much more stern than usual.

  "I appreciate that Darren, but you know as well as I do that if I go down out there and you try to save me, we're both done for. You have a family up there that needs you; I don't have--"

  "You have a wife out there somewhere that I'm guessing would smack you if you finished that sentence. You're not going to die. I'm not going to die; Kayla and Lilly are not going to die. We're going to get out there, get what we can, get back and then head to the hospital to reunite you with Aria. Do you understand me?" Darren was obviously frustrated by Mitchell's statements.

  "I just think that it may be for the best. I'm just saying that I don't want to be the reason anything happens to you Darren." Mi
tchell offered a final rebuttal.

  "How about this; you believe that and, if it comes down to it, I'll do what I want to do. If that involves saving you, then that's what I'll do." Darren ended the conversation there. Mitchell appreciated his heroism but it didn't change his concerns and he was starting to worry that there was the possibility he had become infected. While Darren and Kayla were taking their time preparing for this expedition, Mitchell had plenty of time to consider the possibility. He hadn't shown any signs but this random sickness that was hitting him wasn't leaving him with much optimism.

  The men continued down the stairwell and got to the bottom level. The door to the first floor was wide open, which made sense as to why the infected were able to get in so easily to the stairwell. Darren peaked his head around the corner and looked into the lobby. It appeared empty but he had thought the same thing about the upstairs and that didn't end well. Darren reached his hand to the table next to the stairwell door and grabbed one of the coffee mugs sitting next to the maker. Mitchell hadn't realized that these mugs were there the other day when he entered. He looked at it while it was in Darren's hand. It was a nice, clean ceramic mug with "MTU, Inc." printed on the side in a nice royal blue. The font was very basic but overall fitting for the company.

  Darren held the mug tightly in his hand and flung it across the room. It hit the ground near the front entrance and shattered. Mitchell assumed that he had done this to try to attract any infected that may be hiding nearby. During the day, or in bright light, they were essentially blind and would be attracted to the noise. What he had just done would have easily attracted any infected hiding in the shadows.