The Infection

New Society

“Dale, is it?” I asked, a little in shock to what he just said.
        “That’s me.” He exclaimed, still not looking up.
        “You don’t even know what I was going to ask.”
        “You wanted to know if you could leave and go back to your petty little shelter, where you think you’re safe in the woods.”
        “And what makes you think we’re not safe?” Atris interrupted before I could say something.
        He finally looked up. “You guys are alone out there. You don’t have any food, I take it. Water, supplies, the basic needs of life, you lack all of that. You may be secluded from the outside world, but you are far from safe.” He chuckled a little. “Huh, I doubt you even have any kind of defenses set up.”
        “It’s only been a week since the outbreak.” I exclaimed.
        “It’s only been a week; yet look at us, here. We have food, water, shelter and a temporary barrier until we can build a more permanent one. In just a week, we’ve plowed crops, set up a fence, and made for ourselves a home. You have a cabin in the woods.”
        I thought this over for a moment. He was right. We haven’t done anything to prepare for the coming future. “Look, I don’t care about what YOU have. We want to go home; OUR home. You’re not about to deprive us of that.”
        “Look here, no name, you aren’t leaving. In this new world, we can only survive by sticking together. I have a great plan of rebuilding society, and of creating a new world from these barren ashes. We need every single survivor we can find. Every single living being that is not infected can only find safety with us now. The more we have the safer, and closer to a new society we are. If that means we have to force you against your will to stay, then so be it.”
        “And what if we refuse?” Atris stepped in.
        “Then my friend Squeaks, there, can make you come to your senses.” We looked behind us where he had gestured with a nodding of his head. A big, muscular guy had somehow crept behind us and I wondered how long he had been standing there. I assumed this guy was Squeaks. Odd name for such a big guy. “Besides, what if you have another one of these episodes that you just woke up from, or are you just counting on another group like us to just miraculously appear to save your hide like last time?”
        I hadn’t thought of that. What if I had another one and didn’t make it? I couldn’t leave Atris alone like that. “Alright, we’ll stay.” I finally said in defeat.
        “What?! No!” Atris shouted, apparently shocked.
        I pulled her aside; Squeaks tried grabbed my shoulder, but dale stopped him with a nod and a gesture of his hand. “How could you just give in? Can’t you see he’s insane?”
        “Look Atris, he had a point. What if I do have another episode? I can’t just leave you here again. There’s no telling that I could even make it through the next one. Then where would you be?”
        She paused, taking this new information in. “I know. I’ll protect you though, as you do me. You took me into your home when I had nowhere else to go. Now it’s time I pay you back.”
        “And now these people are trying to take us into their home.”
        “They’re trying to imprison us into their society!”
        “For the greater good, Atris. Look, I’m not saying to abandon the cabin completely. Just for now though, we need to stay with these people. We’re safe here.” She went silent. After a moment of letting her take it all in she hugged me, burying her face in my chest.
        “I just don’t want to lose you.” She looked up at me, tears building in her suddenly reddened eyes. “I thought you had died the other day. I hadn’t even learned your name, and now it looks like I might not ever know. I need you; more than you can possibly ever understand.”
        I stroked her hair and hugged her, trying to calm her. “I’m not going anywhere, as long as I can help it. But that’s why we have to stay here.”
        After a long silence she finally came to terms with the reality. “Okay, we can stay.”
        We walked back over to Dale, who was still standing, talking with Squeaks. They went silent as we approached. “We have decided to stay.”
        “Great!” Dale said half twistedly. Something about Dale was very uneasy to me. I mean, other than the fact that he threatened us with a guy three times my size. “And don’t worry, you won’t regret this. Soon, we’ll expand our borders to more houses. Hopefully, eventually we can secure all of Auburn. We’ll even rename the town Fort New Hope. You guys can take today to rest, tomorrow, we’ll show you your chores and even set No Name here up with some scouting gear for our next scouting mission.
        “I’m going to be scouting?” I questioned.
        “All the men here are the scouts and guards. The women care for the children and the farms.” Atris grew an offended look on her face.
        “That’s sexist! I can fight!”
        “First of all, you could barely hold that hatchet the other day. Second of all, this ain’t no democracy sweet pea. If you want reform, take it up with our dead president. Otherwise, you do as I say. I’m leading this here shindig.”
        “Don’t you ever call me Sweet Pea!” She shouted at him, and marching up to him, slamming her finger on his chest. “I will personally b…”
        I interrupted her, trying to defuse the situation. “Whoa Atris, settle down. It’s alright. Until we can find more people and establish a more normal system, this is for the best.”
        Dale only smiled and said nothing. “I’m watching you, Pretty Boy.” Atris glared at him and walked off in. I chased after her, after apologizing to Dale.
        “Atris, what was that about?”
        “He’s a sexist little…”
        “I know.” Again, cutting her off. “But we don’t want to cause any trouble here. Just go along with it for now. We think of something later.”
        After I said this, Jack finally came around the corner, apparently just realizing that I had woken up. “Hey Jack!” I said happily. He jumped on me and started wagging his tail, happy to see me. “Glad you’re still here. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
        The rest of the day was spent observing the house. I paid attention to the pecking order of the people here. The children, I found out almost immediately, were at the bottom, doing whatever the adults said, and generally just trying to stay out of the way. They sometimes helped out in the gardens though. The two women here, as Dale had pointed out, cared for, and looked after the children as well as tended to the gardens. The men here were constantly on patrol duty. At all times, at least two were on either sides of the fence, keeping watch for any intrusions. To me, as much as a dictatorship as it looked like, I had to admit that it was a pretty sound system.
        I learned the names of the people here. There were the two women and children I had met earlier. There was Dale, the leader, Squeaks, Shiny, whose real name was David, and longshot, whose real name was Peter.
        For the most part, the day went on without problems. Atris kept to herself, slightly peeved at me for seemingly taking Dale’s side over her’s. She just sat in the living room, occasionally getting up to walk around and stretch her legs. Once she went over to talk to Julie, but only for a minute. All in all, she completely avoided Dale and glared at me from time to time. I thought about talking to her, but I thought it to be better just to let her cool off and settle in first.
        Peter took me to a small shed in the back of the house where they kept their farming tools and weapons. He fitted me with some police riot armor that they had looted from the local police station. Then he assigned me to a weapon of my choice. I was quite impressed by the armory that they had acquired so far. There was everything from police shotguns and 9 millimeter pistols, to hatchets, spears, and even a double rebar with a block of concrete on it to be used as some kind of hammer of mace. It was extremely heavy, however, and I thing that only Squeaks was strong enough to effectively use it as a weapon. My eye caught something though at the end of the shed. It was shiny and elongated, and it had a cloth handle. I walked over to it and picked it up. It was a Samurai sword. I immediately grew attached to it for some reason.
        Peter took it from me and looked at it. “Yeah, we found this in a house three blocks from here. The house was loaded with all kinds of comic books, figures, and all around geek stuff. It’s yours if you want it. No one’s claimed it yet.”
        My face lit up instantly. “Okay, I’ll take it.” He handed it back to me, walked over, picked up the sheath that went to it and handed it to me as well. Examining it, the blade was a very fine, silvery steel. At the base of it was some kind of Japanese engraving and a dragon spiraling around the symbols. The handle was crowned with a black wooden hand guard and was wrapped perfectly in a jet black cloth. It was footed with a black wooden dragon head with some kind of red gems as eyes. The look of it was quite menacing and intimidating, but at the same time, the look of it seemed to draw me, as if it was calling to me. The sheath was a black tube with more Japanese symbols on it. There was a leather strap attached to it. I fell in love with this sword, and claimed it as my own as if it were my best friend.
        Once I was fitted, I spent the rest of the day lounging in the living room. Occasionally I would go outside to the gardens and see what I could do to help. Both girls would answer with a “No” and go back to their work. Dale had truly brainwashed these people into a machine. I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the methodical structure of things here. Just one week and everything was running smoothly as if the infection were just some news story that had only happened in some third world country and didn’t pertain to them. Once in a while though, there was the occasional skirmish of a few straggling infected wondering around in the streets and had come a little too close for liking to the fence. The guards, however, eradicated them immediately and with perfect precision. I was quite impressed with their efficiency in combat.
        I stayed inside during the evening hours, for the night still kind of creeped me out since the infection. I looked over at Atris who only returned my glances with death stares. I just disregarded her for the rest of the night and hoped she would be over it by tomorrow.
There were only three bedrooms and eight people. Two guys were always up though on guard duty, switching out ever few hours, so there were only eight people sleeping and therefore the rooms were dived up. The six not on guard duties, which were native to the house, dived up the rooms. Atris and I slept in the living room. Atris, at first, slept on the couch, but was very restless, as was I. She woke up eventually. “Are you up?” she whispered.
        “Yeah.”
        “I can’t sleep.”
        “I know, neither can I. We’ll get used to it here eventually I guess.”
        “It’s not that.” She said, sounding a little sorrowful. I remained silent. When she was sure I wasn’t going to reply to that, she spoke again. “It’s just that I’m sorry for how I’ve been treating you today. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m just still trying to adjust and I’m having a hard time.”
“It’s okay. I understand.”
“It’s not okay, and I’m very sorry. I keep remembering how I felt when I thought I was going to lose you. I don’t know what I would have done.” She struggle with the last few words, sounding like they were trying to choke the air out of her.
“Atris, as long as I can help it, I’m not going to leave you here. I will fight to my very last breath to make sure that doesn’t happen. When I was a sheriff in Arizona, I’ve seen life flash before my eyes, staring down the barrel of some west coast gang member’s gun. I’m not going to let something as little as a bunch of deranged psycho maniacs take me down. And I’ll die before I let that happen to you.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” There was an eerie silence the seemed to hang over us like a shroud. “I don’t want to sleep alone tonight. Can I sleep with you?” She finally asked timidly.
“Sure.” I said.
She got up and walked over to the chair and sat down with me. She wrapped her arms around me and laid her head on my shoulders.
“I just don’t want you to die. Without my daughter, you’re all I have left in this world.”
“I know.” With this, she fell soundly asleep on my shoulder. I stayed up for a few hours, pondering what we had just talked about. Was I falling for Atris? There was definitely something there, and she obviously felt something for me. I would have to be blind to not see that. The only problem was, if we did do something about it and I died, or worse, what would happen then? I couldn’t do that to her. She meant everything to me at this point. There wasn’t much of anything left.