Whatever It Takes (8 page)

He shook his hand, careful to wipe his bloodied knuckles on a clean towel before leaving the bathroom and the apartment. He walked straight to the central stairwell. He looked at the group of survivors sitting silently around the table. Only Sarah looked up at him as he approached.

Percival dropped into the closer of two empty chairs. “Andrina, Roy Joy, did Sarah tell you about what we heard?”

“She did, Mister Polz,” Andrina answered. She looked up at him. “Mister Slowell mentioned it as well, though Miss Josephewitz explained it in more detail.”

“I stand by my previous statement,” Karl said.

“You’re welcome to do that. However, this’ll come to a vote of those present.” Percival looked around the people at the table. “We’re presented with a dilemma. These could very well be armed-hooligans with a radio. I, personally, think they’re remnants of the US government and military. Why else would they waste the fuel to pipe their message out over the airwaves?”

“Military’s bad. They shoot my friends,” Roy Joy said.

“I’m voting for following the directions to this camp. We can creep up and observe it, and the worse that happens is we turn around and leave.” Percival ignored Roy Joy.

“That sounds dangerous. Wouldn’t it be better to drive up, or walk with guns held high, so they don’t shoot us thinkin’ we’re zombies?” Sarah asked.

“The specifics of our approach can be discussed after the vote.” Percival said. He looked around the table. All eyes were on him. With only five people healthy and conscious, it meant there wouldn’t be a tie. “Those against visiting the military depot?”

Karl and Roy Joy immediately raised their hands. Karl looked as though he were going to add something else, but thought better of it.

“Those in favor?” Percival asked. It was a simple formality, something he had picked up from more council meetings than he had wanted to sit in on. He raised his hand.

Sarah and Andrina raised their hands.

“It’s settled then. We’re going to the depot tomorrow.” Percival reached out and pulled the map closer to him. “It shouldn’t take us long to get there, maybe half an hour or an hour since we have the car now.”

“We shouldn’t bring the car,” Karl said. “They may confiscate it. If anything we should put leave it a few miles past the exit they mentioned.”

“What about Evan?”

“What about him?” Karl asked.

“He’s injured and not even conscious yet,” Sarah said.

“He’s infected. We leave him.” Karl said.

Andrina turned to Karl and slapped him. The smack echoed up the stairwell.

Sarah’s mouth dropped open and Percival’s mouth felt dry.

“Mister Slowell, as long as anyone of us is still alive, we will not be leaving them behind.”

Andrina sounded angrier than Percival had ever heard her before.

“Infected or not, he’s still a member of our team until he turns. I’m sure our leader will agree with my assessment.” Andrina looked from Karl to Percival.

“He’s not a zombie yet, so, he’s still one of us, and we don’t leave our own behind.” Percival wished the statement was true. They’d left Nadia behind, but that was a different circumstance entirely.

Karl looked dumbstruck for a moment. “Fine. I still think we should leave the car well away from the depot.”

“Will you carry Evan?” Sarah asked.

“If it means leaving the car, yes. That car will make our travel so much quicker and easier. I don’t want to lose it to a bunk of armed fanatics.” Karl crossed his arms over his chest. “I won’t be happy about it though.”

“No one’s asking you to be happy about it.” Percival looked down at the map for a moment.

“We drop the car off here,” he pointed at a spot a mile down the road, “with the gas and majority of our ammo inside, just incase.”

“First bright idea I’ve heard today,” Karl muttered.

“I’ll drive and I’ll drop you three,” he pointed at Roy Joy, Andrina, and Karl, “and Evan off here. Sarah, you’ll ride with me down the road. I assume you don’t mind the extra walking.”

“We get to ride in a car after how long? Walking doesn’t bother me at all, hon.”

Percival smiled. “Right. Now that that’s settled—“

“It’s not settled. How are we going to approach the depot?” Karl asked. He then added, “Oh wonderful leader.”

“Drop the attitude, Karl. I’d expect it from someone half your age.” Percival didn’t need to have Karl’s shit hitting the fan right now. “We walk up the road. Even if they’re fanatics, it won’t look like we’ve got much, ‘cause we won’t. That ought to keep ‘em from shooting us on sight.”

“Well that’s a pleasant prospect,” Karl muttered.

“They shoot everything. Pansy Popper has told me about the army guys. They shoot both civilians and infected.” Roy Joy nodded, thumping his knuckles against the table as he spoke. It sounded as though he were talking mostly to himself. “They shot my friends.”

Percival looked from Roy Joy to Sarah.

She shrugged.

He had assumed that Roy Joy’s earlier outburst was simply a statement that the military shot zombies. Percival wondered, not for the first time, just what had happened to Roy Joy before they found him. “I don’t think these guys are going to shoot us if we make it clear we’re not infected. I mean, they are calling other survivors to them.”

“What about Evan?” Sarah asked quietly.

Percival frowned. “We carry him in and do our best to convince them he’s harmless. It’ll help if he wakes up and can walk on his own.”

“What’re the chances of him doing that?” Andrina asked.

“Don’t know. I’m not a doctor and that stalker really tore him a new one. It messed him up bad. I’m not even sure he’ll last the night,” Percival said.

Andrina nodded.

“Speaking of stalkers,” Percival looked to Roy Joy. “Want to share what you know with the rest of the class?”

Roy Joy avoided meeting Percival’s gaze. “No.”

“I want to know what you know incase we bump into them again. I don’t want to learn through trial and error. That would be costly and dangerous.”

Roy Joy squirmed in his seat, looking away from everyone. “I don’t want to talk about it. They don’t tell me anything.”

Percival leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “That’s bullshit, and you know it.”

“No, it’s not. I can’t tell you what they don’t tell me. Bob and George and Pansy Podder are scared of them and not talking.” Roy Joy’s eyes shifted back and forth. He seemed agitated, fingers drumming against the table as he searched the shadows of the room.

“Why won’t you tell us? It helps us all,” Percival pressed on.

Roy Joy jumped up from his seat, sending the chair careening to the floor with a clatter.

“You don’t understand,” he screamed at them. He pointed at all of the people sitting at the table. “None of you get it! No one listens! They talk, and tell you everything, but you don’t listen. Then you want me to translate what they don’t say and… and…”

Roy Joy trailed off. He stared at Percival, his hand lifted and finger pointing accusatorily, before he turned without warning and ran up the staircase.

Roy Joy’s retreating footsteps were the only thing to break the silence for several long moments.

For Percival, he felt as though he had pushed Roy Joy too far. Or not far enough. Percival still felt that Roy Joy knew something useful about the stalkers, and simply wasn’t telling the rest of them.

“Was that entirely necessary, Mister Polz?”

“What?” Percival looked at Andrina.

“He clearly doesn’t know what you’re talking about, or is repressing the experience.” Andrina stood up from the table.

“He knows something. Do you see another zombie expert in the room?” Percival said. He felt a little betrayed by Andrina’s chastising tone.

“No. I’m going to see if I can calm him down some, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t press him so hard next time.” Andrina walked away from the table and started climbing the stairs.

“What just happened?” Percival looked at Sarah.

“You were told off for interrogating one of your own,” Karl answered. He stood up. “If we’re done here, I’m going to go give our new weapons a closer look and clean the old ones.”

“Whatever,” Percival said. He waved his hand for the other man to leave.

“Was I too hard on Roy Joy?” Percival looked back to Sarah.

She shrugged. It wasn’t the response Percival had hoped for. “I don’t know. He’s a well of useful information, but often times it’s cryptic and hidden in shit that only he understands anyways. If your pushing had gotten more out of him, sure you weren’t too hard. If not, then, I hope we’ve not scarred our relationship with him.”

“I’m tired.” Percival stood up from the table and rubbed his hand over his eyes. He pushed his chair in and walked toward the apartment with Evan.

“If you’re tired, you should go lay down or sleep. We’re secure here.” Sarah stood and followed him. “Where’re you going?”

“Evan shouldn’t be alone. If he wakes he should have a friendly face there. If he turns, someone should be there to put him down.” Percival let out a sigh. “The least I can do is make sure the kid ain’t alone.”

Percival woke to a cough and a groan. The latter sound worried him, but was drowned out by the meaning of the first sound. Zombies didn’t cough. He sat up in the chair and scrubbed his hands across his eyes.

“Hey,” Evan said, his voice drifted across the distance to Percival. Evan coughed again.

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Percival stood and moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Ha ha,” Evan muttered. He punctuated the words with a cough. “What time is it?”

“Not sure. You got me up and I don’t remember going to sleep. Sun’s not up, that much I can tell you.” Percival gestured at the window.

“Pity no one wears a watch.” Evan sounded pained. “What the hell happened to me?”

“One of the stalkers—“

“Stalkers?”

“The zombies we ran into at the car dealership. You do remember that, right?” Percival looked toward the door. He carried a watch but had left it with his motorcycle helmet in the living room.

“Yeah. I remember running upstairs, and that’s where everything gets fuzzy.” Evan tried to sit up and let out an anguished groan. “My chest’s all torn up, isn’t it…”

“More your stomach,” Percival answered. “Do you want me to tell the story?”

“I want some water first,” Evan muttered.

“That can be arranged. Don’t go anywhere.” Percival patted the youth’s shoulder and got up.

“I won’t wander off on you. Promise.” Evan added a cough after the short statement.

Percival nodded and stood up. He walked away from Evan, heading for the living room.

“I’m infected, aren’t I?”

“We’ll talk about it when I get back.” Percival didn’t have the heart to confirm it right then. He was glad that the youth had pulled through, but it felt bittersweet when there was next to no chance that he wouldn’t be infected.

He scooped his watch out of his helmet and walked into the main hall. Sarah was sleeping with her head down on the table. Percival opted not to wake her. He walked to the pile of gear and took a canteen out. He walked back toward the apartment.

“Is he up?” Sarah’s groggy voice rang through the darkness.

“Yeah. Yeah, he is.” Percival stopped at the door to the apartment. “Barely. He’s hurt bad, that’s for sure.”

“Can I come?”

“I doubt he’ll object to the company,” Percival said. He waited for Sarah to join him before reentering the apartment.

“I’ll get a glass from the kitchen and be right in,” Sarah said.

Percival nodded and crossed the living room. He walked back into the bedroom and sat on the chair. “You still with us?”

“Promised not to go nowhere.” Evan forced a smile. “Got the water?”

“And Sarah’s getting you a glass. Let me help you sit up.” Percival helped Evan to sit up and rest against the headboard.

“Figure out what time it was?” Evan asked.

“Just after five in the morning. Sun should be coming up soon.” Sarah crossed the room and sat down on the bed opposite Percival. “Canteen please?”

“I guess you’re just bein’ cautious, right?” Evan looked between Sarah and Percival.

“Right. Something like that.” Percival passed the canteen to Sarah. “It’s pretty likely the stalker that attacked you also got you infected.”

The room fell into an awkward silence that was punctured only by the sound of Sarah pouring water from the canteen into the glass. She handed it to Evan.

“Did it, uh, bite me?” Evan accepted the glass from Sarah. He brought it to his lips and drank the entire thing in one go.

“No.” Percival waited to answer Evan after he’d finished his first glass. “It tore you up with those little bone claws it had fashioned. Those probably had infected material on them.”

“And it was still on you when we shot it,” Sarah added. She refilled Evan’s glass. “It bled a lot, all over you and probably in the wounds you got.”

Evan was silent for a moment. He then took the refilled water glass and took a long drink from it. “Fuck it. I’m a tough-ass bastard and won’t let no little thing like that do me in.”

Percival couldn’t help but smile.

“That’s the attitude.” Sarah patted Evan’s leg.

“I hope, and assume, that there’s good news, right?” Evan asked after draining the second glass.

Percival nodded. “We’ve got a car and new guns. But it doesn’t stop there.”

“Radios, and cars, and guns, oh my!” Evan handed the glass back to Sarah. “What could be better that that?”

“We think we found more survivors. Military folk operating out of a depot south of us.” Sarah refilled the glass and capped the canteen.

“They were piping a message calling all survivors to them over the radio,” Percival explained. “They claim to have ‘guns and provisions and can provide protection’ or something along those lines.”

“What about me?” Evan took the glass from Sarah. “I’m not exactly healthy and fit. Won’t they want to do an infection check or something like that?”

Percival shrugged. “We’re hoping not. And it’ll be easier to pass you off as okay now that you’re conscious again.”

“It’s dangerous for you,” Evan said somberly. “Very dangerous.”

“More dangerous for you.” Sarah took the glass from Evan after he’d finished with it.

“Not really. I’m a dead man walking as is, and have the wounds to show. They might see me an’ assume that you all weren’t cautious and are infected too.”

Percival didn’t like the direction Evan was going with that argument. “There’s got to be tests to prove absolutely one way or the other. Tests they have access to.”

“I’m a biohazard,” Evan said quietly.

“So?” Sarah’s hand shook slightly.

“Look, I’m endangering you even now. Sarah, leave.” Evan’s voice held more command that Percival thought his own did most of the time.

Sarah rose without a word and left the room. She shut the door behind her.

“Two to the braincase,” Evan said. He coughed after the short sentence.

Percival mechanically stood up from the bed and drew his pistol.

“Better make it three. I don’t want to risk getting up again. Oh, and Mister Boss Man?”

“What, Evan?” Percival racked the slide on his pistol.

“Cover me up like you did that other fellow. I know you don’t have time to bury me properly.”

“I’ll do that,” Percival said. His eyes were already beginning to water. He raised the pistol. “Anything else, or last words?”

“You’re a good man.” Evan slipped his hands beneath the blanket and closed his eyes.

Percival squeezed the trigger three times. There was no scream of anguish or thrashing about.

Death, thankfully, comes quickly at times.