Infected (Book 1): The First Ten Days (13 page)

Once I finished Marcus and I equipped with the minimum of what we needed. As I stood in front of the equipment table I became extremely aware that I had a headache and a bit of dizziness; it was likely due to the blow I took to the head. It wasn’t the time for me to worry over it, though. It was time to find out if my brother was being held captive or if he fought for his life somewhere in the base.

Marcus put his hand on a gun that was on the table and slid it over to my side. “Take it,” he said and took one of the guns on the table for himself. The idea was to travel light so that our movements would be swift. The plan was simple… right? We go in, find the other survivors and catch up with John. Not much to it.

Two of the survivors were ready at the door to open it for us to leave, and close it behind us so the infected would not get inside. Marcus stood in front of the door for a moment, and because I followed him, so did I. He took a deep breath and gave the two guys a nod. The doors flew open and Marcus and I ran outside. The sudden burst of light gave me the feeling that the sun came down and slapped me a few times, but only to make sure I was wide awake and fine. The sun wasn’t the violent type with me.

The doors shut behind us and the infected gathered around us. We moved fast to avoid them and headed to the location where the other survivors were last seen. At a distance it might have looked like Marcus and I were celebrities being followed by a large mob of paparazzi. In this case the paparazzi weren’t fans of our work but rather fans of our designer fleshy bodies. Like edible supermodels.

As my eyes resolved their issues with the sun and become friends with it again, structures achieved more defined forms but I became increasingly dizzier. I kept up with Marcus which was no easy task on its own, but now I had to keep up with him while I stumbled around. I glanced back at all of the infected focusing entirely on us and leaving the infirmary alone. The first mission was now complete, but we still needed to get the other survivors, which meant I needed to reach them first. I wasn’t sure how far we needed to go but was sure I couldn’t make it too much further. I was weaker, dizzier. I didn’t think much of it. It must have been related to the injury to the head I took, and whatever was going to happen to me probably already did when I was unconscious. I figured that it would pass and internalize with time. Safe survivors were more important than a break for a bit of dizziness that would fade eventually. And everything went dark… again.

Marcus shook me back into consciousness. I must been out for only a couple of seconds. The infected were gathered around us and I blacked out again. When I managed to wake up the second time, Marcus opened fire on all the infected. He dragged me with one arm and shot the infected with the gun in the other. I was terrified of what was going on, although I didn’t understand it since all I remembered were second based increments to assess the situation. I felt like I blinked and when my eyes opened again we made it inside of another building. Marcus shut the door behind him and I was already inside. He managed to save both of us.

There were no windows on the building we entered; as a result no light could get inside. When the door shut, the darkness returned. Marcus struggled with the door until a faint click ended the struggle. The door was locked. The sounds left were those of the infected that beat the door in their attempt to get inside. Marcus lit the lantern and the little light illuminated much of the things that were still in the dark. The room was filled with random things: shovels, pickaxes, hoses and supplies to clean. It was some sort of general workers building.

I was still dizzy. Wasn’t sure whether I was completely conscious or not, and by the looks of it, Marcus didn’t know either. I wasn’t going to be able to reach Jason at this pace. Marcus and I were both aware of this.

“I should have left you with John,” Marcus made a fist and slammed it sideways onto the wall in anger, “This is my fault.” (Sort of)

“What are we going to do now?” I asked and failed to sit up. My arms gave out in an attempt to support my upper body off of the floor. I fell back down. Something was wrong with me. All I knew is that I was too weak to do anything. The damage I took was more severe than I gave credit for.

“Stay here. I will go find the others on my own. When I do, I will bring them here, and we will decide what the next plan of action will be.” Marcus grabbed the lock on the door and put the lantern on the ground so that I would have some light with me. I didn’t reply to his plan. There was no other choice.

Marcus opened the door, moved to the other side and shut it behind him so the infected that didn’t follow him wouldn’t come for me. I was alone in some random building, with no energy to do anything. I laid my head back and took a deep breath. I passed out right there.

Crashes, scratches and moans were just some of the sounds that lingered in my subconscious mind whilst I slept.

I dreamt something worth amazement; traveled outside of our galaxy at several times the speed of light. I crossed the Event Horizon and saw time move in reverse, until I jumped out of my spaceship and decelerated to see the past catch up to the present. I’m not sure how I floated in space without a ship or protection, but it was a dream so who cares. What caught my attention was more of the logic behind the occurrences in the dream. If someone watched me accelerate over the speed of light, would they suddenly see me vanish? Or would they see me still there?

That dream didn’t last long before Marcus showed up again. The door closed behind him and he automatically put the lock on it. I noticed no one was with him, but I wasn’t ready to speak yet. I observed him, he was tired. There was no way for me to know how much time went by, but it must have been a while for him to return so exhausted. The fact that I could see him at all brought up some questions. The lantern Marcus left behind still shined brightly. (Best lantern ever!) Some of my energy came back, enough to sit up without struggle but then I also felt this way when I sat up at the infirmary and the dizziness kicked in a while later.

“Where is everyone else?” I asked.

Marcus was fatigued from having to run from the infected, but he composed himself to answer my question. “They were gone. I don’t know since when or where they went, but everyone is gone. No signs of struggle and no signs of death.” With his back against the door, he slid down to the ground and sat down to relax. “We are going to have to leave without them. We are likely the only two people still in the base. The large number of infected in the base have caused enough ruckus to attract more of them. If we waste any more time here, the numbers will get too great for us to avoid them.”

“How do you suggest we make our great escape?” He must have forgotten that I wasn’t exactly in the best condition to travel through a large group of infected.

“I will help you move if I must.” He stood up and walked over to me. “But regardless of how we do it, it needs to get done now for us to remain alive.”

“Let’s get this over with, I guess,” I said. I forced myself to my feet. Marcus came over and attempted support my weight to stand up but I put my hand up so he couldn’t help. I would do it on my own. It was time for me to man up, if I was killed by any infected, it was meant to be.

Marcus opened the door and shot two of the infected directly on the other side of it. We walked outside, to my surprise there were no infected out there. In fact the number of infected was extremely low. It made sense why Marcus was so exhausted when he returned and why it was so crucial for us to leave that moment. He successfully outran the infected to get to me, so that I could take my time to move without getting overwhelmed and caught by the infected.

“This way!” Marcus said. He led the way out. It didn’t look like we were too far from the entrance to the base. We didn’t move too fast, but we kept a steady pace. I kept my distance from the infected and leaned against walls for support. Marcus silently killed off the infected around us with a knife, to avoid the risk that a gunshot would attract others. “There, the gate!” He became more aggressive with his kills on the infected that were between us and the gate.

Marcus made sure he completely protected me on our way out. We made it to the gate and he ran to pull it open. It was difficult to open alone, more of a two man job, but Marcus managed to open it enough so that both he and I could squeeze through and leave the infected inside. “We won’t last too long out here if we don’t cover some ground and find shelter. I remember a subway station on a map. It’s not too far from here, maybe a couple of blocks, the furthest. We should head there,” Marcus said as he slowed his pace and put my arm over his shoulder so I could have support in the middle of the street. My energy was faint but it gradually recovered.

“Alright, you’re the boss. Lead the way,” I said with the little energy I gained. I was sure that I was dying. The blow I took to my head was serious enough to put me in this condition. It must have been serious enough to kill me. It would be a matter of time before I found out if I was going to either get better and be able to function on my own again, or if I was simply going to die from it. Maybe neither; maybe I would forever require someone’s help because my nerves didn’t recover and my brain couldn’t send the proper messages to my body (which is what I thought was taking place). I kept thinking of what the cause to my current problem could be. I knew the blow to the head knocked me out, but what did it cause that kept me in such a bad condition after I became conscious again. I saw something on TV a long time ago similar to this. A guy was in a car accident and took a serious blow to the head, like the one I took; his was significantly more serious than mine. And once he regained consciousness he died gradually. His brain gave out from a blood clot that prevented it from properly functioning. Maybe I was going through the same thing. Only time would tell.

After a short while of traveling, we found some stairs that headed downwards. After closer inspection, we noticed signs that rested over the stairs with transit route names on them. We found the subway.

Marcus went ahead to make sure the subway station was safe, while I took my time to head down, and hold on to the handrail while doing so. Once I made it to the bottom, Marcus opened a protective gate that led us to the subway staff area. He planned to find a route through the staff tunnels to exit the town, maybe even find another safe location to hold up for a while.

Subway Tunnels and Railways

I
t was difficult to see in such a dark place, but the lantern Marcus kept handy allowed us at least some visibility. Once the gate was open he helped me get to the other side and closed it. There was a door directly behind the gate that wasn’t locked. Marcus went through it and left the door open so I could catch up with him. I followed the little bit of light that came from the room. Inside, the room was filled with buttons, levers and screens which I was sure at some point displayed the subway station tunnels; it was a control terminal. Marcus shined the light on different surfaces and different walls in his search for a map or anything that would show which way we could head. No luck.

Marcus gave up the search and weighed the options. “We have to use the train tracks to guide us inside of the tunnels. It’s the only way we can head in one steady direction.”

“Where exactly are we heading?” I asked.

“We need to catch up with John but we are behind schedule, so we need to cut him off further ahead.” And then we head to the school, my original destination. My family must be waiting there.

I nodded in approval (not like it mattered) and he helped me move back towards the gate. We walked deeper into the station, but not for long before we found the tracks and the area where passengers would wait for the train. Down the tunnel it looked like the darkness would swallow us whole. But that was the direction we needed to go.

Marcus jumped on to the track first and helped me get down. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was a little better. We took our time and moved slowly, and his constant help when I felt weak allowed me to recover with more ease.

The darkness we walked into was endless. The light was swallowed up by it. Our range of sight was no more than a few feet and the tunnels were lifeless. No trains went by and no one else traveled the subway (as far as we could tell). The moans of the infected echoed across all the tracks and tunnels, straight to us. There was no way to know which direction the sound came from. What we did to convince ourselves we were safe was walk at a faster pace to avoid anything that might catch up from behind and we kept the light ahead of us to show us where we were headed.

After sometime on the tracks, the moans of the infected faded and left nothing but the echo of our footsteps in the subway, until a familiar sound caught my ear, the sound of something that would periodically and sporadically run and then come to a stop. Strange gasps of breath joined in, like someone was asphyxiating, and the sporadic pattern of movement would continue. Marcus and I stopped and tried to tell exactly from how far ahead of us it came from. We couldn’t tell.

A scream instantly made the air thick and difficult to breathe in. It was a runner. And the scream was bound to call in all of the infected our way. The fact that it started when we were close enough to hear it move meant one of two things, it either heard us as well or it could see us which was particularly bad because we couldn’t see it back. The worst part was what followed. A few seconds after the runner’s strange scream; another yelled further down the tunnel. I thought it was an echo, until it gave its own second scream.