Mike's face is white. He holds his hands to his head, still holding his guns. He mumbles to no one in particular, not looking anyone in the eye.
"F@%*er tried to kill me. Leave 'im to die."
Judd and Sam dash up to the action.
“What? He’s infected – but – is he a zombie or not?” He glances at Sam. “Man, if he’s infected, we can’t risk it – we can’t help him.”
The man groans and spits some more blood.
"You're... <coughs blood> ... all gonna fncking die."
Johnny: "I can't leave him like this."
Patrick aims at the infected man
"You first."
He fires at the head.
Attack: 1d20+5=20, Dam: 2d6=10
Patrick looks at the others
"If that bothers you all I'm sorry. This guy was a menace, and obviously highly infected. Either he was going to attack us now or when he turned. We don't have time to play nursemaid to every infected almost-zombie out there."
Patrick shuts down, his face going still, betraying nothing.
Dave winces, turns his head away, but nods in agreement with Sarge. It had to be done … he’s just glad he didn’t have to be the one to do it.
“Did we get all the stuff on the list?” he asks Mike, giving the body a wide berth as he heads towards the van. He can’t help glancing at the corpse though. All this zombie stuff has given him the creeps … surely it can’t have survived that.
“If so, let’s get back to the Colonel, drop off some of this sh*t.”
"Why'd you do that, Sarge?! He could have been saved!" Johnnie shouts. It is clear that he is disturbed by the entire event.
Patrick wheels on Johnnie
"HOW could he have been saved man? You gonna tell me you got a magic cure in your doctor bag? Did you want to get close enough to see if he wanted to take a bite outta you? fncker attacked you guys and was running a temp that'd put most people in the ground. If he had shown any sign of being okay then I would have bandaged him myself!"
Patrick's face flushes with anger
'fnck this man ..."
Patrick stalks away
Sarge:
Johnnie is about to reply to Sarge when he falls silent, perhaps reconsidering words better left unsaid.
After his investigation of the hidey hole in the back Patrick stalks back to the group
"Seems our two friends were busy eating someone's raw liver. It's human, one of the corpses is missing theirs."
Patrick breathes deeply
"This has bad implications. It means people can be cannibal zombies and still talk. We can't trust anyone who is exhibiting signs of infection."
Sam looks on in shock as Patrick raises his gun and fires. In her heart she knows it was the right descision but it still doesn't make it any easier. She walks over to the van and climbs in, not waiting for the others. She just wants to be a lone for a few minutes before they get underway.
As Patrick levels his gun and fires, Mike's eyes widen, more with mild surprise than shock. He shakes his head vigorously as he begins to walk toward the abandoned shopping cart.
"Not my f##%ing problem..."
"Not my f#*~ing problem..."
On that note Mike pulls the cart out to the van and loads up the groceries silently.
While Sarge, Judd and Johnny quietly scan for incoming Zs the afternoon sun breaks through the cloud cover and columns of sunshine creep from west to east, drying the day's rain in patches.
Loaded, the caravan rolls out, speechless, and heads back to the gun shop.
Resuming his spot in the driver's seat, Patrick fiddles with his iPod for a little driving music that suits his mood.
Dave’s been thinking. “Look, I think we discovered something important here,” he says before everyone heads back to the vehicles. “These guys were infected, but from what you guys saw they still moved and reasoned and stuff like normals … but they appeared to be murderously inclined, like the zombies. Now unless we just happened to stumble across a couple of garden variety psychos in the later stages of infection, just before they went Z, we might be dealing with something new here. Something bad.”
He looks thoughtful for a moment. “I don’t know exactly what though… does the disease effect different people in different ways? Is this a new strain? Is this a stage before full zombification that we just haven’t seen yet? Or worse, is this the next stage …” he falls silent for a brief moment, thinking of the implications of this, before turning to Johnnie. “Is there any way we can tell?”
Johnny:
In his best scholarly voice, Johnnie explains that:
"From what I have gathered and observed, the symptoms are:
Stage 1: raging fever that terminates with palsy and dementia.
Stage 2: as the fever drops the victim falls into a state of catatonia characterized my muscle rigidity. In other words they look like statues.
Stage 3: When they wake up they are zombies – cannibalistic, uncommunicative, simple-minded and enraged."
"But we could have discovered more about the virus if I was able to observe a victim at the early stages."
“Right … right,” says Dave, glancing at Sarge, “though observation can be difficult when some guy’s coming at you with a knife … But anyway, from what you were able to deserve, did this look like any of the stages you just described? Didn’t to me, though I can’t say I really saw either of ‘em in action. Anyway, I think we should let the Colonel know about this, and keep it in mind for ourselves. Could be important.”
** spoiler omitted **
Other than the rods of sunshine slicing through steel gray clouds, the drive back to the gun shop is filled with some of the same sights and some new. A few small fires have grown into neighborhood conflagrations, but the density of housing is low and the underbrush wet – perhaps they’ll burn themselves out.
Choppers every few hours, the bursts of gunfire becoming less sporadic in North Van, odd cars, a bike gang, and the frightened rooftop scouts you've already seen. Bold, white, freshly painted letters across a condo you passed earlier spell "The end is ni". The mangled graffitist bleeds out below the unfinished epitaph - his blood stark crimson against a pool of spilled white paint. White footprints lead from the pool toward the north.
Not far from the gun shop a group of thirty or forty people dart across the road in the same direction, toward the northern ridge. It’s no guess from the hunched-over lope that they are plague victims.
You stop the cars and ready yourselves to turn around but they don’t seem to notice you.
“... did this look like any of the stages you just described....”
Johnny:
"I figure the guy's in stage one."
** spoiler omitted **
"I figure the guy's in stage one."
"Or maybe, he was just some CRAZY F%#* thought he was a F!@@IN' ZOMBIE!"
Mike gestures spastically with one of his pistols, inadvertently discharging it into the air, causing him to jump slightly.
"I wonder if that's gonna come back down..."
He's starting to come off his nut.
"Um ... yeah, let's get going."
---
Back at the gun shop, Judd parks the car in the back alley, then carefully scans around for signs of lurking zombies before exiting.
The smell of cooked meat and diesel fuel creeps into your cars as you turn into the alley. Someone has been busy. While you were away someone piled the bodies with a Bobcat skid steer and doused them with fuel from a small double axel tank truck a few buildings down. A black column of smoke spirals up and stretches out to the west in the air currents above.
Klein, perched on the back crenellation of the gun shop, greets you with a perfunctory wave and then resumes his watch, scanning the buildings and streets beyond through heavy binoculars… and covers your asses.
While you unload everything quickly by the back door Klein calls down: “Thanks guys. Knock three times when it’s all stacked. You need anything? We’re trying to keep traffic in and out of the building to an absolute minimum.”
He talks into a WT.
"Johnny, your girl is coming to the door."
If everyone agrees with that, Judd relays that to the Colonel. “Oh, and these jokers want to only take one car,” he calls up. “We’ll take the Salami-mobile; any problem if I leave the Camaro parked here?”
Judd also relays to the Colonel the position of any large groups of zombies they’ve seen nearby, for what its worth (the ones down the road at the park and mall, the mob they just saw before they got beack here, and the group that was following them on the way to the bridge). He’ll also relay the situation at the bridges.
“We’re headed down to the Marina at _____” he says. “Seen anything down in that direction? Know how to start a boat?”
Patrick helps with the unloading, keeping quiet and with one hand near his Anaconda.
Sam is feeling a bit better after the ride through town. She jumps out and gives the Colonel a wave, before pitching in and helping to unload the van.
He talks into a WT.
"Johnny, your girl is coming to the door."
"Copy that, over."
If everyone agrees with that, Judd relays that to the Colonel. “Oh, and these jokers want to only take one car,” he calls up. “We’ll take the Salami-mobile; any problem if I leave the Camaro parked here?”...
"Sure, give the keys to Mary Ann."
...“We’re headed down to the Marina at _____” he says. “Seen anything down in that direction? Know how to start a boat?”
"Like a car but without the wheels. You're headin' to Mosquito creek, eh? I hope there's something left down there."
Mike walks past the Colonel, muttering to himself.
"I've seen some wicked f+*+ed things in my time, but nothing like... that..."
He trudges into the building, deciding not to help unload the van.
"They don't need my help anyway."
Mike trudges into the main floor back door as Mary Ann opens it. Jack keeps watch behind her with his assault rifle barrel down but ready.
"Mary Ann and Klein want to keep the risk of transmission down so in and out of the shop at a minimum, Mike. Only come in if it's absolutely necessary. We're gonna close up the building next door so we can compartmentalize the whole place."
"And there's two other groups out there scavenging solar panels and water collection supplies."
She looks around for Johnny.
He trudges into the building, deciding not to help unload the van.
Inside the receiving room of the gun shop Mike bumps into an attractive young woman wearing a nomex flight suit and ammo harness. She's carrying an AK-47 with a lot of cute little heart stickers on the stock.