The Book of a Few (12 page)

One thing I nearly forgot to tell you is that we left Will unbound last night. He ate with us and helped Branden and me board up a few more windows, but he still doesn’t talk much. Branden, Taylor, and I still feel a slight general distrust with him. We all know that the episode at the hospital was just a spook, but goddamn we got spooked good. I could have sworn we were about to get rocked. But I suppose that until we have a solid reason to tie him back up, he deserves to be free. I have realized that we do need his help, even though Branden will never admit to it.

In the morning, we set out to look for more weapons, unfortunately. If we were going to try to outlast this, and try to gather more people to help us all survive, what good are we doing those people if we can’t help them defend themselves? We looked in a few general stores, only to find a hatchet and a couple more baseball bats. It seemed as though guns were completely missing, and I’m not surprised one bit by that. I suppose the best way to get a gun so late in ‘season’ would be to take it off somebody else.

Speaking of firearms, my rifle isn’t operating too well. Almost every time after I pull the trigger, the bolt will lock up. I can’t get it to cycle with it up to my shoulder; I have to physically lower the gun and pop it up with the palm of my right hand. This is a serious problem for me, as it is
drastically
slowing me down. I feel like I might as well use a muzzleloader.

Unfortunately, on the third-to-last stop of the day, we got careless. Without checking in the back and in a few side rooms, Branden and I fired upon an unsuspecting infected, without knowing exactly what we were up against. Within seconds of firing, we were surrounded by the infected. The building we were in was a smaller sized pawnshop, so those of us with guns were worried about our bullets ricocheting. So in order to avoid shooting one another, we only fired a few times throughout the fight.

During the scuffle, it felt like I was fighting my gun just as much as I was the zombies. I ended up getting bitten because of it. I couldn’t reload, so I resorted to predominantly using my bayonet. The bad thing about that is I can only engage one target at a time. After all was said and done, and the shop quiet, I spoke with Branden about my problem, and how we severely needed to go back to the sporting goods shop where we found the other guns and find the key to remove the trigger locks. He agreed.

Upon examining our condition after the fight, it looked like Branden’s face was beginning to swell up from a heavy punch. All four of us had bites and deep blood-drawing scratches. Will nearly threw out his shoulder. We all agreed that we did not want to experience that desperate of a fight a second time. If it weren’t for Taylor and Will being with us, this oddly large group of eleven infected would have easily consumed Branden and me.

I think I know how Taylor feels now. It is so unnerving getting bitten, even when you know that, as long as Bella’s words stay true, you won’t turn or suddenly lose your sanity. Even though I am still alive—thankfully, lest you forget—it doesn’t feel
right
.

How the hell is this a zombie apocalypse when this disease doesn’t infect you on first contact? Yes, the signs are obvious; this particular infestation has been rather slow to take hold. It’s surprising how there aren’t hordes of fifty or more infected shuffling their way down the streets. I won’t complain too much because I don’t want to have to deal with that big of a group. Sure, the Cedar Valley’s population isn’t much in the big scale of the world, but I would have expected more instantaneous chaos. Damn you, Hollywood, for engraving that into my brain.

Our return to the sports shop proved to be worth the second trip. While we were all hoping to find the trigger guard key to our extra guns, we found something, or someone else. Joining our group of rabble, codenamed “The Survival Squad,” is a man named Dana. Like Branden and me, he is plagued with red hair. It seems true—gingers travel in packs.

I first met Dana with a gun pointed directly in my face. I was startled, not only by the fact he could blow my skull open, but also by what I had caught him in the middle of. He was sitting in a bathroom stall, with his pants pulled down to his ankles. Finding a man taking care of his bodily business isn’t what was awkward about it. It was the items that lay at his feet that made our first meeting uncomfortable.

Now, let me take a step back and explain how it all happened. The Squad and I were searching throughout the sporting goods store in search of the key we desperately need, like we had planned. Noises such as grunting, moaning, and heavy breathing were coming from the men’s bathroom. We stood outside the door for a few moments and felt that the noises coming from inside were not normal. Branden, Taylor, and Will all deemed me to be the scout, so I went in the bathroom first. While remaining as quiet as possible, I approached the stall where the noises were coming from.

I was nervous walking into an unknown situation, yet I still felt relatively safe knowing that standing in the doorway were three other men who would help me if I needed them. Just a few short seconds before I reached out to open the door, it swung open. The door slammed into the next stall and nearly ripped my face off in the process. By chance, I was quick enough to step back in time to not get hit by it, but then I became stunned by what I was seeing inside the stall.

With his handgun pointed in my direction, the man cursed and tried to pull up his pants. An adult magazine, a small plastic jar with a blue label and lid, and what appeared to be paraphernalia rested on the ground near his feet. Having never experimented with drugs of any kind myself, but having witnessed all different kinds of substances in use in movies, I had a general idea what the syringes were for.

In the surprise of the moment, I glanced away like I was trying to respect his privacy. That was probably foolish since he had a gun pointed at me. Nonetheless, I saw what I saw. I feared for my own safety and dove out of the doorway of the stall. Branden and the others rushed in at that point and quickly pulled me up from the floor. Profanity poured from the bathroom stall unrelentingly. Before too long, the man stepped out with his gun pointed at us from his side.

“
What the fuck!” the stranger screamed. “World’s gone to shit and you think it’s fun to peep on strangers, ya fuck?”

Now this guy is by no means a small man. Don’t get me wrong; he is completely capable of carrying his own body. While he is overweight, he is built like a goddamn tank. It would hurt to be punched with his full force.

He took a step closer, and his eyes bounced back and forth between all four of us but always seemed to return to me. We all tried to stammer out an excuse, but with all of us talking at once, our point didn’t come across to Dana.

He spoke, “Shut the fuck up! All of you!” He waved the muzzle of his gun at all of us. “If one of you doesn’t give me a good reason as to why this fuck,” Dana motioned toward me, “is going around trying to get glimpses of people in their ‘personal time,’ I swear to God I will fucking take all I got right now.”

Taylor, Branden, and Will looked bewildered. I took a closer look at Dana and noticed his hands were shaking. A short moment passed where all of us were simply trying to make sense of what was going on.

“
What happened to your shoelace?” Will pointed down toward Dana’s feet.

“
What about it?” Dana looked down for a brief second, and I’m not even sure if he looked down long enough for his brain to register that his left shoelace was missing.

“
Well, it’s not there, so I was just wondering, ya know…where did it go?” Will asked. “Or I guess I should rephrase, what did you
do
with it?” Will’s tone of voice made it seem that he was nervous.

Suddenly, and without any warning, the stranger lowered his firearm. A grin stretched across his face. The outsider’s demeanor changed from one of violence and anger to one of giggles and lighthearted conversation.

“
You, uh,” he spoke softly, suddenly short of breath, “you want some?” The outsider motioned toward the stall and took a step back. I stood there in awe after realizing Will’s tactic. He knew the man was high and was attempting to change the conversation. The man was giddy like a child and practically skipped inside the bathroom stall.

“
Can’t let it go to waste! You’re lucky you’re my friend!”

I heard paper slide across the floor, presumably the adult magazine he had just been perusing. Dana muttered to himself something along the lines that we wouldn’t want to see it. A second later, he came out of the stall with a plastic sack that he opened to show the contents. It was full of syringes.

“
Now don’t go too crazy, just a little,” he said.

What made this man even more peculiar were his quirks. He looked about the room like he was checking to make sure we were the only ones in the room. The man babbled to himself as he began searching through the sack. He yelped and removed his hand from the sack and began sucking on one of his fingers. He must have gotten pricked by one of the needles. Sanitary.

I leaned closer to Will and whispered in his ear, “He’s fucking out of his mind.” Will and I looked at one another with wide bulging eyes that screamed the unanimous feeling of
let’s get out of here
.

By this time, the stranger had repeated “just a little” multiple times. Considering that and his sudden mood change, we all knew that this was not a safe time to be with the man. He seemed like he was straight out of a horror movie, psychotic or bipolar behaviors or whatever you would label his actions. All I knew was that he was crazy.

With one syringe held between his teeth, the stranger said, “Name’s Dana, by the way.” We all nodded, but none of us shared our own names.

Dana pulled his missing shoelace from his pocket and presented it to us. We came to find out he was using it as a tourniquet as he showed us the ‘proper’ way.

Will cut him off at that point. “Hey, well, we do have to get going, and I’m not quite sure if this is a safe place to do it.” Will tried to finagle our way out of there as harmlessly as possible. Most of our caution was probably unnecessary, as he was only one person compared to the four of us, not to mention his current state. At the same time, though, we didn’t want him to suddenly snap back into ‘angry Dana’ and shoot one of us.

“
Oh,” Dana replied, realizing his surroundings. “Well then, let’s go somewhere else.” One word immediately ran through my mind:
trapped
. Dana was going to play the ‘lost little puppy dog’ card and try to follow us back. My mind raced for polite ways to tell him to go find a bridge to crawl under.

I looked over to Will and the rest of the guys as I spoke, “I don’t think we really have the room.” Obviously a lie. “And um…” Still can’t believe I said this straight up, but I couldn’t help it. It just came out. “…I don’t think it’s a very good thing to have drugs with you. Makes you a target to anyone who wants them,” I said.

Dana chuckled at my comment. He looked at me, and I saw the depravity in him. I saw his general lack of care for his own health and safety.

“
What they don’t realize, though, is that this,” he motioned toward the bag in his hand, “is
all
I have left to lose. So, no one will get it easily.”

“
I don’t know about that, man. I’m sure you have something else to live for,” I said.

Dana laughed. “Not when you’re more than a thousand miles from home.” His eyes watered, and he sniffled.

I didn’t know if I could take a third personality of this man without shooting him.

He looked up at the ceiling, “Oh… little Jack. Hope you’re all right.”

“
That your kid?” Branden asked.

“
Yeah…” He wiped a tear from the corner of his eyes.

I didn’t care at the time and still don’t. As the five of us kept conversing for another ten minutes, no progress was made in the Squad’s favor. His intentions were clear; he had no place to stay and little to no food. It seemed that either he was going to follow us like a lost dog or follow us like a lost dog. The only thing that seemed obvious to me was to shoot the man and leave him, or he would find a way to tag along.