Joey’s face was heartfelt and serious the look of pain on his face was still very clear and they knew that as much as they had all lost today that he had lost more than anyone had. Shaun realized that he was right and patted him on the shoulder. He went back to the truck finding a handful more of magazines and went to the bus. Ellie followed him and Kya and Joey went with Greg. They pulled out together Ellie sitting close to Shaun her hand in his and gripping it tight vowing never to let go no matter what. Phillip followed closely behind Greg taking his time and keeping an eye out looking everywhere. Ellie whispered to Shaun, “Hey remember please, Tina, and the others are not your fault. Not everything is in your control ok?”
Shaun didn’t nod he just thought of Tina and how viciously she had been taken from them. He felt guilty about having to keep her from turning but knew that it was for the best and that the adding of that moment into his psyche for ever and the nightmares that would haunt him because of it were worth it. He felt confident that no matter what happened with them that taking care of each other and keeping each other from becoming one of those things was the most important thing they could do.
“I know it isn’t my fault, but really its ot so easy to forget what my dad helped do. I don’t care if it was for love, at some point you just have to accept the way things are.”
Ellie looked at him and said, “Really shaun, so like if I was in the middle of zombie ridden Des Moines and I needed to have you come after me even though the chances of you and Greg making it were like sub zero you are saying you wouldn’t have came and got me?”
Shaun didn’t answer he knew that was exactly what he had done. He smiled putting his arm around her and setting his head back. It took seconds for him to fall asleep. She curled into him as well and the two of them enjoyed the closeness that would only last for so long. Greg took the long way making it take twice as long but he watched carefully seeing that there were no bridges to pass under. There were also no other cars to be seen anywhere it didn’t make a bit of difference when they went through small towns or highways.”
When they pulled up to the base Aslin and Clary were standing at the guards building. Aslin was on top of the roof resting behind a tripod and Clary was standing out front with a mounted machine gun and a large beautiful german shepherd sitting obediently beside him. Greg rolled down the window waving a hand at the two and more importantly guaranteeing they wouldn’t open fire on the truck. The heavy coverage of trees made the bus impossible to see and Clary yelled up to Aslin, “Shit man it doesn’t look like they came through.”
Aslin looked through the scope never letting him out of his sights. He yelled down, “Yeah I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
Aslin smiled seeing Joey climb out the side of the window giving two metal hands in the air towards him and then waving at the two soldiers. Clary yelled up, “Hey it looks like some of them made it.”
The bus came into view and the heads in the seats just barely poking up enough to see. Aslin said only to himself to hear, “Well look at that, those little shits can do anything, good for them.”
Clary disappeared inside the guard building and the columns slowly disappeared into the ground. Greg pulled in first pulling the truck to a stop and parked it. When he opened the door and whistled the guard dog came running around the side and jumped into the cab with them. Kya said, “You got a new friend there Greg?”
Greg smiled petting the dogs neck and ears and said, “Yes, he’s going to be my zombie killing buddy, aren’t ya pup.”
Joey said, “What’s his name?”
Greg stared at the dog and said, “Harley seems about right. Lets call him Harley.”
He patted its side and they climbed out of the truck ready to go. When the bus came through the two men stared intently towards Eric and Phillip, when the bus came to a stop they came out first holding their hands up in as non threatening manner as possible. Clary took in Eric’s bloodied face that even after being cleaned was still stained of blood. He said, “What happened to you?”
He was already imagining hearing a horror story that he didn’t want to make himself subject to. But when Shaun stepped off of the bus Eric pointed directly at him and yelled, “That little shit, that one right there went all crazy and punched me in the face.”
Clary looked at Shaun who shrugged and said, “Ask him why I punched him in the face, and then try not to do so yourself.”
Clary didn’t say anything he just stared at Eric waiting for the explanation that he did not want to try and explain to the man that was twice his size at least. When Eric didn’t start his explanation Clary screamed, “Did I fucking stutter boy, tell me why he punched you in the face.”
Eric went to talk but Phillip came out and to his defense. “We made a mistake, and we know that now. We were trying to get supplies and food but thought we should start with weapons. When there wasn’t anyone at the gun store in Adel at Andy’s place we found where he had his address written down and that is what led us to his farm.”
Clary said, “And there isn’t anything else that you feel you might need to mention to us?”
Eric was feeling some confidence building and said, “We had them chasing us we didn’t think enough about if anyone else was at the farm. We know we made a mistake but there isn’t anything we can go back and fix now because of it. What’s done is done.”
Clary puffed up his chest and Eric was trying to back up not alowing him to be pulled into a fight. He walked up pushing Eric saying, Tina, Jenn, and Andy. You are the reason for so much god damn loss today. You are why we have to keep dealing with all this shit?”
Eric said, “You want us gone, then we can go. But we arent going to be any trouble if you let us stay. You might want to end up having some adults around here to help you protect this place.”
Clary pushed him one more time shoving him to the ground trying to keep himself from ripping hin limb from limb. “I’d take anyone of these kids over you anyday of the week. If you’ve seen what they’ve done then you’d know exactly why im saying that.”
Phillip started walking towards Clary with only the intention of trying to cool off the situation and Aslin took it as a sign of agression. He fired off a few rounds inches from his feet and yelled, “You two just stay right where you are damn it. The longer you are here, the more i’m thinking that maybe you need to move on and get on out of dodge.”
Eric screamed, “We got nowhere left to go, and besides we got a bus full of kids right there, if you kick us all out you might as well just shoot them now because we don’t have the food or artillery we would need to go somewhere else and try and make a go of it.”
Clary said, “You know what, i’m not above giving you a second chance or you for that matter. But i promise if either of you do anything and yes I do mean anything that can take as you both being completely ignorant then the two of you are out of here. I’ll bounce you on your ass down that road as fast and hard as i can and i hope that you understand that because I don’t kid.”
Aslin came down off the roof nodding his head. “I am in the same boat as him, you fuck up and you leave. There’s no question about any of it. If it wasn’t for the fact that you brought a entire bus of kids here showing that you may at least have a soul i’d send your ass on the way right now hands down and without question.”
Phillip walked over with his arms still raised nodding and trying his best go give off body language that he was of no threat to either of them. He bent down giving Eric a hand up and the two looked at each other and the long empty road stretching both directions and both nodded their heads in agreement. Aslin and Clary had cleared out bunk houses and took the new survivors there and tucked them away for the night, vowing there would be food and drinks dropped off that night and that in the morning there would be a daily routine set up and that it should be appreciated and respected.
Ellie said, “What do you think? You think we are going to be ok here, this place looks creepy?”
Shaun said, “We can eat like kings here and not have to worry about starving or scavenging for food. I think that there are more people out there to and once we are ready I want to go find them. There’s no reason to make them be alone. To make them try and go through somethig horrible like this on their own.”
Ellie said, “You better watch out Shaun you are sounding more and more like a leader every single day.”
Shaun said, “We just need as many people to survive this as possible But just don’t trust in someone if they haven’t earned it, try and remember that. My dad always said there isn’t anything wrong with trusting people but they need to earn it first and foremost.”
“You know we are going to make it right Shaun, you, me, Greg we are all going to be there at the end. We stick together there’s nothing that we can’t do, that we can’t make happen.”
Shaun leaned over kissing her quickly and went back to the truck gathering his gear and getting the new arrivals where Asalin and clary had set up for them to bunk up with.
*****
Epilogue 6 monts into future Washington D.C. cdc laboratory
The two doctors ran for the elevators. There was only one set and there was such a small chance of making it that it almost seemed like suicide trying to escape. They knew that their chances were smaller. By the time they had made it to the elevator the entire facility was going into lockdown mode. Both doctors knew protocol and what would happen if there had been a outbreak happen at the research center of the infected.
When the doors opened neither doctor had taken their personal appearance into their current state of mind. They rushed out both trying to yell something at the same time which sounded like neither could speak. When they rounded the white halls a wall of men in useless gas masks and automatic rifles pointed at them shouldered and ready to fire. The doctors saw this their eyes grew wide and they skidded to a stop. When the first bullets came Jacobs threw himself in front of McBelle and took the first bullets to his arm and thigh. A commanding voice screamed behind the men, “Cease fire!”
The men did as instructed, trying but failing at not looking back at the man in charge and questioning his orders. The man pushed through the wall walking forward a few steps and staring intently. Jacobs was on the floor writhing in pain. Mcbelle laid over him trying to protect him she flinched waiting for the bullets to pierce her skin but they didn’t come. The man in charge waited and when they didn’t come seeking blood he screamed, “Stand down, call medics, now.”
He walked up to Mcbelle, who screamed, “Please don’t shoot, he’s been hurt, we need help, we have important information and we need to make an announcement! We need to let the people know!”
The man said, “What is it, what happened?”
“General Nulty wanted to speed up research and he shot one of them in the head. When we started opening him up we saw his chest.”
Jacobs screamed, “I’ve been shot! Why aren’t you doing anything?”
The man said, “Son there’s medics on the way, and when marines aim down on you, you can expect to get shot. We don’t aim a gun if we aren’t planning on shooting someone. What is the message, what is so important that you’d run up here half crazed?”
She said, “There is no hope.”
The man took a step back, his posture deflated and his eyes looked like every optimistic thought that he had, had been stabbed in the face repeatedly. “You - you can’t save them? But I thought you were trying to cure them?”
“Sir you can’t cure something without a heart. I mean it has one, but I think the only thing keeping them going is the infection. If they were cured, they would just die. There isn’t anything that we’ve been able to do with Frank Fox’s research to even make a dent. Everytime we were close it just healed itself and seemed to get stronger.”
“God help us, this changes everything.”
Mcbelle nodded ripping pieces of her lab coat apart and wrapping them around Jacobs gun wounds. He screamed in pain but the doctor in him couldn’t stay quiet. “The ones we had that had wounds, were healed in less than a day, they regenerate it seems.”
The man said, “They cure themselves?”
“Everything but the wound on their arm. Their eyes eventually stop bleeding but the hunger, no matter how much they get, or how many they take out remains constant and never ending.”
The man hit his radio again. “Let the CDC heads know we need to get a important message out. We need to let them know, we need to make this known immediately the inevitable has came and there isn’t any reason left to hide. We need to kill those things, there will be no massive cure. There is no hope.”
*****
Camp dodge iowa 6 months in future
Shaun lay prone eye to his scope. “Happy birthday.” Baam, Baam, “To me,” Baam, “Happy birthday to,” baam, “Me,” Happy birthday dear,” Baam, baam baam, “To me,” Baam Happy birthday toooo meeeee.”
Shaun rolled away from his sniper rifle pushing up from his space he’d been laying in for hours. Patrick whistled having watched the entire thing. “Damn man how far are you hitting them now, Aslin has been working miracles with me but I’m still only hitting about five hundred yards on a good day. How long have you been out here?”