That was true. But Corbin helped with both sheds, and surprisingly they were his idea.
It was also his idea to move the station wagon off the property in the middle of the night.
“Just in case,” Corbin said.
I didn’t understand the ‘just in case’, but I didn’t bother to question further. Corbin had a method to his madness I was still trying to figure out.
How we came to acquire the infected was part of that madness.
It all started because Scott our newcomer hadn’t done much. He slipped into some sort of quiet depression, avoiding most of us and keeping to himself. He attributed his behavior to adjustment. It wasn’t that long before, weeks maybe, that he had lost his entire family, and it was the first time he had stopped moving since.
It was all just hitting him and he was absorbing it all in.
Ben tried talking to him, and I blamed Ben’s crass manner for the reason Scott was doing so badly. So much so he seemed to forget about the horse he brought with him.
We didn’t.
Just after we got the shed for Seltzer, Lev, Corbin and myself worked out turnout times. Each of us taking turns walking the horse or riding him outside and close to the perimeter of camp.
With Ben and the others deciding to stay and plan scouting parties, we were quickly establishing a rapport and routine. Edi was getting better, Sue Ellen was teaching the kids, and I worked on the radio.
On Scott’s third day at our camp, right after we built the shed, Corbin took Seltzer out for an afternoon ride and didn’t come back.
He was gone for hours. Long enough for Lev to get concerned and start prepping the truck.
Just before sundown Corbin trotted to the gate with a bouncing body slung over Seltzer’s back. The body was partially on Corbin’s lap. I thought for sure he found a body and just wanted to add it to our little graveyard.
Until Corbin hollered out to Lev, “Hey, I got something for you,” and the body started to writhe. It was then I noticed the male body was bound at the hands and feet.
My second thought was Corbin kidnapped someone. Then that same body shook back and forth violently, growling each time until he convulsed off of that horse, fell hard to the ground and was rendered unconscious.
“Oh, good.” Corbin dismounted. “I don’t have to knock him out again.”
“Again?” Lev asked,
“Yeah, had to hit him like three times since I found him to knock him out. My hand hurts. It might be broke. Probably not, but it hurts.” He opened and closed his fist a few times. “I think we ought to figure out what to do with him pretty quick. He gets more agitated every time he wakes. He’s feisty.”
I saw it on Lev’s face, he was fuming. For a moment he stared. He looked away once, to glance over his shoulder and ask Ben to make sure everyone was inside the cabin safe. He even told me to go inside, but I wasn’t about to miss the exchange between him and Corbin.
“You brought an infected on to the property?” Lev asked. “Why?”
“Nila told me you wanted to learn them. See if the infection mutated. If they’re infected longer before they die. I thought it was a great idea. But then you never said anything more about it. I thought you forgot or … were just scared to get one.”
“You did tell me that,” I said. “Not you being scared to get one, but wanting to watch one.”
“What?” Lev asked in confusion.
“Pool Man Two, the sequel?” I tried to refresh his memory.
“Hey,” Corbin snapped his finger. “I got an idea.” He then yelled. “Ben! Hey! What do you have to keep this thing unconscious for …”
“Shh.’ Lev hushed him.
“Why am I being quiet?” Corbin asked. “He’s out.” He nudged the infected with his foot.
“You suggested we learn the enemy,” I said. “We have our chance. Kill it or learn it?”
“I don’t know.” Lev shook his head.
“How did you find him?” I asked. “Do you think there’s more?”
“I didn’t see any,” Corbin replied. “I was taking Seltzer down the driveway, thought I’d take him along the road up to Big Bear. Before I got there I saw this car.”
Lev’s attention was caught. “A car? Where?”
“By Big Bear. It looked like it had careened off the road,” Corbin said. “At first I thought it was the product of Scott’s smoke signals, then I knew something was wrong. I got closer. There was a woman in the front seat. She was dead. I could tell by the black lines on her face she was infected, but her entire chest was torn apart.”
I cringed.
“Then I saw our friend here,” Corbin nodded downward. “He was having lunch on his kid. He was so engrossed he didn’t see me. I thought of what you said about learning them and hit him with my gun. Rest is history. Here we are.”
At that moment Ben came over with a syringe. “This will keep him out for a couple hours. Should I give it to him?”
“No,” Lev said. “Don’t waste it.”
It was then that I saw the face of the infected man. “Wait.” I held up my hand. “Corbin, you said he was with a woman and a child near Big Bear?”
“Yes.”
“Lev,” I said. “That’s Lester Williams. He left Big Bear with his family that day your dad got bit. You got into a fight with him about taking supplies.”
“Shit,” Lev whispered.
“Yeah, just like Bill. He left and came back. Which means he has to know. The infected have to know what they’re doing. Hell, he may even have driven the car. That’s a scary thought.”
“That’s impossible,” Lev said. “He was probably like Bobby, sick and died close to his destination.”
“But what if that’s not the case.” I suggested. “What if the infection stage isn’t just lasting longer, they aren’t just rage driven, they’re enraged and intelligent.”
Corbin whistled. “Wow, staying alive got harder.”
Infected Lester growled.
“What am I doing?” Ben asked.
After a beat, Lev answered. “Knock him out.”
Ben administered the morphine, then reluctantly at our request examined Lester.
“Four days,” Ben said. “This bite is about four days old. So he’s turned into the rabid stage probably yesterday, day before at most.”
“That’s still longer than the initial outbreak,” I said.
“Not much,” Ben replied.
“Which means, he probably was sick, turned and crashed his car right before getting to Big Bear,” Lev said. “Four days doesn’t prove that he went there on memory.”
“I highly doubt that,” Ben said. “The fever alone makes them unable to comprehend. Yes, he’s lived longer than he should have, but …” Ben shook his head. “I don’t see him lasting in this state much longer. The infection and necrosis is in his veins. You can see it. He’ll probably make the turn into the dead phase tonight.”
That was the word of the doctor.
<><><><>
That was days earlier.
Now we stood, on the fifth day of being in possession of Lester, building him a home and feeding him small animals, while watching him and learning.
Lester was still in the rabid infected stage.
Still going strong and showing no signs of moving into the death phase any time soon.
FROM LEV’S SIDE
I distinctly remember being told that when Nila’s father Earl was stockpiling for the retreat to the cabin, that he had purchased so much ammunition that he was flagged by homeland security. Yet, as I stood in the shed with Nila, I was amazed at how little ammo we did have.
“Does this seem right?” I asked her, shaking a half empty box of shells.
“I don’t know.”
“You said there was a lot.”
“When is the last time we counted?” she asked.
“Don’t know that we ever counted,” I said. “Just know there was more than this when we left.”
“Whe
n we returned, did we leave some on the truck, maybe lose some?”
“I doubt it,” I said.
“You don’t think someone is stealing it, do you?”
“Who?” I asked. “I don’t know. I find it hard to believe any of them would steal. They aren’t going anywhere.”
“Can we get more? You and Corbin are doing the first scouting party next week.”
“We’re gonna have to,” I said. “Hopefully find a place that isn’t picked clean.”
“You know, for a dead world, things are awfully picked clean. Who did it, who picked these places clean, and where are they?”
“I don’t know who, but more than likely they are like Lester.”
“Maybe they’re not. Maybe they’re out there. We just need to find them.”
I shut the bin that held the ammunition. “Maybe.”
“Ah, you’re coming around on this.”
“There’s no coming around. One day everyone wants to stay, the next Ben is talking about Canada again.”
“He says there’s a reason we need to get there and it’s not just because there’s supposed to be life there.”
“Yes, well, Canada is cold. I can’t see there being too much life there come winter.”
“What if what he heard is right?” she asked. “Maybe the reason we can’t find those people who picked over everything is because they went to Canada and it’s infection free.”
“How could that be?”
“I hear they have great healthcare.”
She made me laugh and I shook my head at her bad joke. Assuming it was a bad joke, there was a chance that Nila wasn’t joking,
She sighed as if she were done with me and stepped back. “Okay. Was that all you needed? To ask me about ammo?”
“You act like I bother you.”
Nila looked up to me and smiled. “Never.”
“Thank you.”
“I want to get back to the radio and I still need to deal with Edi.”
“How is she feeling today?”
“Better. Enough to say she wants to go back to her pop up trailer. I keep telling her she will smell Lester from there. But she’s stubborn.”
“Maybe have Ben talk to her.”
Nila laughed. “She found out he was a plastic surgeon and her attitude changed. She said when she needs a breast lift then she’ll listen to Ben.”
For some reason that made me wince. We said our goodbyes. She headed back to the cabin, and I stuck the extra rounds of ammunition in my pocket.
Not that I needed it, but I wanted to have it handy when I walked outside the fence for my daily assessment of Lester.
Part of me wished I would have put him in the pool house up at Big Bear, but it really would have been too much going back and forth to check on him.
Corbin joined me. He seemed to get some sort of sick enjoyment out of the daily checks on our infected guest.
“Day Six,” Corbin said after snapping a picture with Nila’s phone.
“Why is she having you take pictures?” I asked.
“She said she is comparing them and it makes a good record.”
“Does he look different to you?” I asked.
“No. Not at all.”
I peered in our observation window. Lester was always agitated, moving constantly. He smelled so badly that my eyes watered even if I looked through that window only briefly.
“Are you gonna try it today?” Corbin asked. “You should before he turns dead.”
I knew what he was referring to. After Corbin brought him to the camp, the next day I went down to take care of his family. I found Lester’s wallet and in it were pictures. I wanted to try and see if he recognized anyone. I had put it off, maybe a bit of me was scared that there really was a memory in that deranged body. A thinking infected was a scary thought.
“Yes,” I told Corbin and pulled out the wallet.
After flipping through, I grabbed the license and held it up to the small opening.
Nothing. Next was the picture of his son, I even called out. “Look Lester, it’s your kid.”
He flung himself violently toward me.
Credit cards, a debit card, then finally, when I held up the picture of his wife, he stopped.
Lester grew quiet and calmly walked toward me.
“He knows her,” I said. “He remembers her.”
“Everyone remembers a really good meal,” Corbin replied.
“Did you just say that?”
“I did. And I’m getting sick. I can take a lot, but this stinks too bad for me. I came armed.”
I didn’t know what he meant until he whipped out a can of Lysol and proceeded to spray it continuously into the opening.
Lester started to cough.
“You hear that?” Corbin said. “He’s coughing. His reflexes are still good.”
“He’s still alive. Six days later, why is that?” I handed Lester the picture. Surprisingly, he put it right in his mouth and ate it.
Corbin pointed. “See? I told you. He remembers a good meal.”
I gave up on Lester when I saw Ben walking the horse. He didn’t ride, but he also didn’t mind walking Seltzer when he was on watch.
We joined him on the inside of the fenced in area.
“I see you were visiting our friend,” Ben said. “Not dead yet?”
“No, and that’s what I wanted to speak to you about,” I replied.
“He’ll go any day now.” Ben nodded. “I’m sure.”
“I’m sorry, but didn’t you say that the other day?”
Ben winked. “And if I say it every day, I’ll eventually be right.”
“Why do you think this is?” I asked. “I mean, I saw how sick people get. Why is Lester still alive?”
“You saw how sick people get after the bite, before they turn rabid,” Ben said. “Very rarely do people die from the onset of symptoms. The virus mutated, plain and simple. A virus is not meant to die. When the host dies, so does the virus, so it’s trying to stay alive longer. It adapted to survive. Sort of like you have a pot of water. You keep it on the highest flame it will boil down faster. Lower flame, it takes longer. The virus just turned down to survive. Honestly, though.” Ben said. “You’re dancing on inhumane territory. I know you want to see how much longer this lasts, assume a long time, and put the man out of his misery. We got the answers. It mutated. For all we know the method of transmission could have changed.”
“Airborne?” I asked.
“We don’t know. That’s why we need to get to Canada,” Ben shifted his eyes to Corbin, then back to me. “There are answers there.”
“You are very certain about this. You do not even have proof,” I said.
“It’s a really strong gut instinct and we have reason to follow that.”
“And why is that?”
“Lev!” Sue Ellen called my name and came running from the cabin.
My attention was drawn to her. “What is it?”
She caught her breath. “Nila made contact on the radio.”
When I heard that, I immediately ran into the cabin. Nila was sitting in the front room smiling as she held the radio. I mouthed the word, ‘who’.
She released the button on the microphone. “Helena. The Kentucky camp.”
Helena? It had been weeks since we heard from her.
“So things are good?” Nila asked her.
“Very good now. It was touch and go for a bit Sweet Pea,” Helena said. “But we’re back on our feet and got things running again. We’re in a temporary camp now. But we found a new place and are heading there.”
“Canada?’
“Not yet,” she said. “I want to get through on the radio first.”
They chatted back and forth for a little bit more. Nila seemed thrilled to hear from her. I would have been as well, had something not seemed off.
For months I heard Nila talk back and forth with Helena, but this call was different. The sound of Helena’s voice was crystal clear. No sta
tic. No interference. It was almost as if Helena was close. Very close. And since Helena knew our approximate location, if she was that close, why didn’t she say anything?
TWELVE – PIECES
August 10
The sense of normalcy, if you could even call it that, was going to be short lived or at least placed temporarily on hold. There were four of us making rounds, but Lev and Corbin planned on leaving in two days for the first scouting trip. Aiming to go south-west. Ben really wanted them to go north, but according to Ben, they’d have to go deeper into Canada to find infection free zones. Places, he had heard, were working on a cure.
First trip out wouldn’t be to Canada. Once they left, that would leave only me and Ben to split the shifts. I was getting used to sleeping, and not only that, having Lev get some sleep.
There were nights I’d be on the verge of sleeping and I would hear him tromp about to his loft bedroom. Or if he knew I was still awake, he’d pop in my room to say goodnight.
The night before, he stopped in, lay horizontally across the bottom of my bed, head propped on his hand and talked. We talked about a lot of things, where he was headed, what Lester was up to, how Katie was starting to read … then, mid conversation, he fell asleep.
I left him there and covered him with a blanket. Not only did I not want to disturb him, I liked having him around and close. After all, he would be gone for a few days.
That was the reason I got up early. It was my day to turnout Seltzer and I wanted to get that done before Lev woke up. I just really wanted to spend time with my friend. I felt we had become complacent, kind of rolling with the punches of life.
I waved to Corbin as I walked out to the back, lit the water heater and noticed Scott wasn’t there, but Seltzer was.
I called out for Corbin and he came around the back.
“Where’s Scott?” I asked, untying Seltzer.
“Oh, he went fishing about two hours ago.”
“He didn’t take Seltzer?”
“He said he didn’t want to.”
“That’s odd.” It was then a breeze swept in and with it came the smell of rotting flesh mixed with a sour pungent smell. “Did Lester die?”
“Not that I know of, why?”
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