Infected (Book 1): The First Ten Days (30 page)

Now, this specific detour was on a time constraint. If they contained the capacity to use structural advantages against the infected, they would eventually start to obstruct their tracks out of fear of being followed by some starved, desperate person. I needed to get to them before anything like that crossed their mind, especially if it turned out to be Richard.

I took my eyes off of the infected and carefully planned my way to the other side of the building they blocked off. The purpose here was to get to the other side and find the survivors who likely moved at a slower pace now that they thought it was clear.

The goal: To make it out of the alley I was in, across the street with all of the infected on it and back onto the continuation of the alley on the other side of the street. As simple as it was on paper, the law of the infected brought the difficulty up to new heights.

I made my distance from the alley and onto the parallel street to get as far away from the infected ahead of me as I could without losing sight of the goal ahead of them.

I wouldn’t be able to cross the street without being seen. At least one would see me and this would trigger a chain reaction and lead the entire cluster of infected straight to me. Something I could take lightly with walkers, but these were runners. If I crossed and didn’t find a suitable place to lose them immediately, they would force me to go further than I wanted or they would catch up and tear me to pieces right there. On the other hand, I was being given no option, if I plotted a way around or set up some sort of distraction, the sheer amount of time it would take could allow the survivors to get out of range and they would be lost till I found more tracks and started the cycle again. I couldn’t risk it.

I made it to the last building on the block and took cover around the corner. I carefully looked around the corner down the street at the infected. They looked distracted but I knew better than to think it meant they were.

Timing was everything.

I ran out.

My eyes were on the infected to see how they would interact with each other when only some of them could see me and I counted the seconds it would take for all of them to notice me.

One… Two…

The ones who did see me yelled out their cries of pain and hunger.

Three… Four…

The ones who saw me began their chase.

Five… Six…

The rest of them reacted to the screams and run with their fellow infected and turned their view my way to watch me with the rest of them.

Seven… Eight…

The rest of them yelled out their battle cries and began their chase after me as well.

Eight second is all it took and the entire cluster of infected frenzied and chased after me.

Another alley started across the street. I ran straight into it and looked ahead to try to spot a good place to take a turn and vanish from the sight of the infected. I hoped two or three turns was all it would take to lose them and get back on track. The survivors probably heard the infected when they spotted me and though it meant they were seen. This could have provoked them to increase their movement speed again.

I sped up too.

I dashed through the alley, took a sharp left around the fifth building down and it led me to a backstreet which started on the other side. The same side the exit to the building the survivors took was on.

I didn’t need to look back to know the infected still tailed me. Their screams remained consistent through the entirety of the chase. The distance between us increased, but never enough to lose any of them.

I continued to run. I tried to ignore the horror behind me and focus on finding another set of tracks on the exit side of the building I came closer to. I didn’t have to look too hard.

A small, fresh set of tracks came out to the street. I followed them around the corner of the next block and then through a small patch of woods. Once I was in the woods the number of infected after me dropped dramatically. They lost sight of me beneath the dark of the woods and behind the trees and bushes that populated it.

One set of the tracks moved erratically from one side to the other and bunched up behind trees.

They’re being followed.

I had to be careful. Something I did not yet understand was happening; someone else was already on their tail.

A fence!

The tracks continued through the woods and out on the residential area of the town, over a fence and into the backyard of some old fashioned house.

I lost the infected.

Richard’s Neighborhood

O
n the front side of the house was the neighborhood Richard was raised in. Simple, quiet, and seemingly untouched, the neighborhood looked like it entirely survived the outbreak of the infection. The likelihood of the town with an early warning about the infection was greater than that of the town being missed entirely by a viral outbreak which hit all the surrounding towns and cities. The signs of the infection weren’t obvious but they were present. The windows broken and the doors open on many of the homes, althoughthe streets remained relatively empty of cars and chaos.

The tracks became closer together.

A few houses down the street the beams of modified lanterns shined out of windows on the second floor.

Why did they stop?

I crept my way over to the house. When there was only one house left between me and the survivors I took to the yards to hide behind whatever junk was kept back there. Patio furniture sat on a concrete portion of the yard; two chairs and a large round white table. They stood fifteen feet, more or less, from the back entrance to the house. I kneeled by the table to use the shade it provided from the moon’s light as cover.

Snow compressed under someone’s boots behind me. I turned around and looked into the backyard of the neighbor’s house, where I heard the sound come from. I couldn’t see anything or anyone, but I could still hear the movement. I backed up to the fence and hid behind the one tree in the yard.

Patiently, I watched the yard, waited for something to happen. A shadow jumped over the fence and went over to the table I was just at.

Is it just this one guy?

He took a knee by the table the same as I did and peeked over the top. Slowly, I moved in behind him. I held the rifle tightly aimed at him and when I was close enough I let the rifle fall to the ground and grabbed the man’s arm. With my grip now tight on his arm I flung him to the ground face first.

Tightly, I held his arm pressed against his back, with my knee against his spine and my left hand on the back of his neck to hold his head in place. “Who are you?” I asked.

He held in a cough and cleared his throat, “Would it matter? Who are you?” His sarcastic tone was familiar but he voice wasn’t. He was definitely young.

He sounds no older than…

“Can you let me go?” he asked. I searched his body for guns or knives but found nothing. I let him go. “Take it easier next time. That hurt!”

I picked up the rifle next to me and held it up to him. “Why are you following them?”

“What is it to you?” he continued to evade my questions.

Is this kid serious?

A
familiar level of sarcasm attached to a significantly more annoying kid. “I highly recommend you answer the question.” I wasn’t going to allow him to waste my time.

“Jeez, alright; I’m traveling with two idiots who are inside the house,” he answered.

“Why aren’t you with them right now?” I didn’t understand why he was being so evasive while I had my gun aimed at him. The kid was fearless.

“I managed to escape from them a few minutes ago.” Again, he only answered exactly what I asked and did not include any other relevant information.

“Alright, this next paragraph, include everything I need to know about you and them or I will simply assume you are here to stall till they come out, in which case I will shoot you in both your legs to stop you from following me and I will do the same to your two friends.”

“Okay, gotcha. I understand.” He nodded his head twice and began, “They picked me up two days ago with a larger group. Their boss took off to some quarantine zone with some other men and they left us behind to look for supplies. I’m only with them because they are doing whatever it takes to survive, but they’ve been killing people left and right, so I took my chance to escape when we were separated by some infected.” He started to understand my patience ran thin.

“If you were trying to escape, why are you still here?” I hoped for some information I could use before the other “two idiots” inside decided to leave.

“They began chasing a kid who is after their boss.” There it was. He told me the useful information I wanted.

The kid is here!

If the kid took refuge in the house and these were two of Richard’s men who searched for him, he was in more danger than I thought. I found him as the mess I tried to prevent his involvement from started. “Are they armed?” my voice hit a peak of urgency, it nearly cracked.

“Yes.” The look on his face was of understanding. “We can still save him. That’s why I came back. Those two aren’t the smartest guys on the block.”

“We need to get them away from him.” I focused my sight on the house to scan the structure.

“The problem with that is they’re pretty fast. Otherwise I would have tried to drag their attention away from him, but they’d be on me too soon if I did. They would just kill me for trying to get away.” His point was made loud and clear.

“I heard something upstairs,” one of the two men yelled out from inside the house.

“Go, go! Check it out!” The other one instructed him.

I knew those two voices all too well. Adam and Rafael, both soldiers, both served with Richard and me, both extremely lethal men who’ve always backed Richard and his beliefs.

The back of my throat dried out. I couldn’t believe how much bad happened in my attempt to do a little good. I caused more damage and chaos by bringing these animals together than any good I managed. I had to be the one to put an end to this. If death came while I tried to fix my mistakes it was a cross I was meant to bear.

“Okay, okay, let me think.” I ran a plan through my head. I knew both men where quick, Rafael was incredibly built and Adam was incredibly accurate with a gun. There wasn’t an option here, there needed to be a distraction for both of these men.

Me.

“Aright, take these two guns,” I handed over the rifle and one of the handguns. “Go around the house and get inside through the front after you hear the signal.”

“Okay, and what do you want me to do then?”

“Go here.” I handed him a note I kept in my front pocket. “I want you to find the other kid and give him one of the two guns. Then I want you both to wait for me where it leads you.” It was my responsibility stay behind to deal with Adam and Rafael in order to assure the safety of these two kids. I would catch up.

“I got it,” he replied no questions asked and took the note and the two guns.

“Run.”

He turned and ran around the house. Everything that happened taught me not to trust every random person I came by, but there was no choice this time. I could only hope this kid was reliable and could be of use.

There’s still a chance to stop Richard.

I adjusted my grip on the handgun, adjusted the tightness on the backpack and aimed up at the sky. Two loud pops followed.

Fourteen rounds were left in the gun.

“What the hell was that?” Rafael asked.

“It came from the backyard. That kid is trying to escape!” Adam replied.

They rushed outside.

I ran and jumped over the fence to the next yard and out onto the street.

They weren’t the brightest of soldiers. Richard manipulated people like this to think his way.

I made it to another house across the street and broke the window to get inside. Adam and Rafael were bound to hear the sound of the window shatter and would come find me. That they did.

Rafael took to the front door and Adam came in through the same window I used.

The house was a big one and had a lot of room to move around. I crept around, and tried to stay out of sight in the darkest corners of the rooms. I made my way up to the second floor of the house. The moonlight was enough for me to roughly see where everything was located.

I made it upstairs to one of the bedrooms and lurked in the shadows while I waited for the first one of them to come into the room and look for me. The wood the floor was made of squeaked while Adam and Rafael walked around the house. One of them came up the stairs and walked through the hallway. If I moved now, something was bound to make noise and get me caught, so I froze up and stood in place against the corner where the walls met.

Rafael walked into the room I was in. I could not take this man in a fight. Our size difference was too large for my body to handle several hits from him.

If I have to shoot him, I’ll go for the legs.

I nervously mouthed, “He won’t see me” over and over from the corner I hid in. I tried to see where he held his gun. It wasn’t in either of his hands.