A Thousand Nights with You - 5. Fight or Flee

Day 44

I told Mark about what I heard.

The army is based in Lincoln High. That’s where Tristan studied. And that’s where mom and dad went to look for him. There's a chance that they are still alive.

I had to go look for them. Even though I’m scared to death, I will go or die trying.

At that time, I didn’t really know why I told Mark. I didn’t expect him to go with me. It’s too much to ask from a friend. Maybe, it’s my way of saying goodbye to him.

His reaction to my decision was less than encouraging. It was a huge gamble and my life is at stake. All the odds are against me.

“Is it worth it, Dan? You might never be able to come back here.”

Silence.

I averted his gaze. I didn’t want to think about that. But Mark persisted.

“It took me two days just to get across the street alive, and only barely. They are everywhere, Dan. You won’t make it there alive.”

He would know. From the way he finishes off Mrs Trellis, I could tell it’s not the first time he had to kill them. I really don’t want us to part, but I have to look for them.

“I have to do this, Mark. I’m sure you would do the same for your dad too.”

He looked at me with unflinching eyes. I had to look away before I regret my decision. “Help me take care of the algae will you? I want a decent meal when I’m back.”

It was a lame joke, and I already missed him.

“Are you seriously thinking-”

I couldn’t continue on with this conversation without breaking down. So I turned away from him and started packing. I need to go as soon as possible, before the fear grips me so hard that I can’t move. At that time, I don’t know if I was more afraid of dying or more afraid of being alone again. Even if I survived the journey, it might turn out to be a wild goose chase. And I won’t be able to see Mark again.

He didn’t say a word.

When I turn around, I find him packing his own bag as well.

“What are you doing?”

“Do you really think you can survive out there without me?” He smirked.

The emotions that I fought so hard to keep in check burst out from my chest like a cage. I went over and hugged him tightly, sobbing like a fool.

“Hey easy man, this is fresh from laundry you know?”

I choked between sniffing and laughing.

“If we’re going to do this. You have to follow whatever I say.” He patted my arms and said, “Your doe eyes won’t work on those infected. You understand me?”

I smiled. But it worked on you. Mark looked puzzled by my clandestine joy. Every teenage kid is entitled to their own secrets. And I’ll bring this one to my grave.

He says that we need a proper plan to do this if we want to survive. Lincoln High is close to the edge of the city. Driving there in a good traffic condition would already take us forty minutes. Walking and evading the infected might have to take us days. We need better equipment, he says. Like the ones the couple had.

“But they have a baby…”

“They stole it from the guy they killed, Dan. I’m sure the dead guy would rather have us take his stuff than those two.”

“What are we looking for?”

“Maps, weapons, protective gears, whatever army supplies we can find on him. We won’t touch their food.”

Deep in the twilight, both of us lay still in the attic until we can hear them snoring in the room. Fortunately for us, they left the tall guy’s body to rot in the back halls. The smell was bad, but it made things easy for us. Obviously, the couple don’t plan to stay here for long.

I stayed on the top of the attic holding the Maglite to shine the way for him. The hand gun shook in my trembling right hand. I’m supposed to cover him if things turned ugly. The assault rifle and the dead guy’s bag are still on the sofa where he left them. After searching his body and taking whatever he found, Mark grabbed everything and passed it to me while he climbed back up.

Smooth as a criminal.

Back in our own room, he sorted the soldier’s belonging while I pack the supplies that we need for the journey. I took the camper’s bag from the attic and packed in the seeds, a jar of wet algae and some books that I hadn’t read.

“We are not going camping you know.” He said.

“In case we need to relocate.”

The seeds and wet algae will let us re-grow the algae crops if we stayed elsewhere. The camping stuff and DIY books will get us through if we stay in the wilds. It will be much safer than staying inside a city any way.

“Good thinking Dan.”

I like the way he calls me Dan, instead of ‘kid’. It’s strange that even little things like this could make me happy. It’s funny that in the old world, we had so much things but nothing made us happy. But when everything is gone, even a simple connection and sweetness can fill me up with so much joy.

While he goes through the bag, I find myself stealing more glances at him than I should. Then the image of last night’s wet dream flashed in my mind again. Am I gay? I wondered.

I definite love the guy to bits. I want to be him. He reminds me so much of Tristan but he’s so much sweeter that I almost wished he’s my big brother instead. I almost felt guilty about that. Certainly, these feelings are normal for a kid my age right? Then I thought about his rock hard cock.

It’s just puberty going crazy. I shake my head to get a grip.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I swallowed.

My mind is drifting off as Mark explained the assault rifle. It is a 5.56mm calibre, capable of semi or fully automatic fire. I wasn’t paying attention to what he said, but to his voice and his eyelashes instead.

“Are you listening?”

“Um, yeah.”

The tall man had a large riot shield, possibly taken from one of the cops during those early days. Inside his bag, he kept a night vision goggles which can be attached to a helmet. When Mark took out the map from his bag, we could see the markings he made and figured out how they got here on foot.

“They came here by the subway tunnel.” I said. It was brilliant. They probably won’t encounter any infected in the tunnels. Those creatures tend to stick to habits and routines.

“No wonder. With the night vision goggles, they can get through the tunnel easily.” He said.

“What about the subway station? I bet there will be a lot of infected down there.”

“We’ll figure out when we’re there.”

Once we’re done packing, we figured that we might have a few hours to rest our eyes before the sun rises. With every passing second, the dread in my guts grow. I found myself shivering even in this hot summer night.

We can’t sleep.

This might be our last night here. It might be our last night together. And it might even be our last night alive. Every breath we take is like the last whiff of comfort. From tomorrow onwards, we would need to start getting used to fear. As l lay there curled up like a foetus, Mark shifted close to me and put his arms gently around my waist. We didn’t say a word, until we feel the first light warming our faces.

***

I took one last look at the rooftop before climbing down to the fire escape staircase behind the building. Since it is outside and exposed, any infected below can see us coming down. But fortunately, many of them are too weak to move. They hadn’t eaten much for a month and the whole bunch of them is lying on the streets like vagabonds. We would sneak past them like a rat.

Before we left, Mark went through the ground rules once more.

1. Flee before fight

2. Ditch the bags if I have to

3. Never hesitate to kill

4. Never leave each other behind

He picked up a sharp metal pike from the junk pile and passed it to me. For my size and height, keeping the infected at a distance is a good idea.

“Aim for the eye or the neck. Go for the soft bits and a clean kill. If the pike gets stuck, pull it out with a kick. Don’t use your hands. Got it?”

“I got it.”

We tread down eight flights of stairs really slow, carefully avoiding any noise on the metal steps and railings.

The more we descend, the closer I could see them clearly. They look horrifying. A month ago, they still look more or less human, with slightly grey skin and blotches of dark pigments. But now they look completely emaciated like a walking skeleton and their skin turn to a corpse grey. Dark patches grown to almost black on their skin, protruding like a scab or fungus growth. Most of the black patches are around their neck and faces, especially behind where the spine meets the skull.

Their eyes are red. Although the eyes are open, they seem to be sleeping or hibernating. It happens to some animals like bears. They do that during winter to conserve energy when food is scarce. There are five of them lying around in the back alley under the shade.

The subway station is about three blocks away, around the corner. We wanted to go by the sewers originally, but an infected is blocking the manhole entrance. I look at Mark, wondering if we should kill it or take another route.

His expression was clear. Flee before fight.

Never engage the infected because it will always attract more of them to come after you. Therefore, the only way to get to the subway is go by the main street.

It’s time for Plan B.

From the roof top, it doesn’t look like there are a lot of them out in the streets. But once we get close, we could see them lying about in piles in several corners. Those look like they had a binge but were too full to move. Within the pile, there are actual corpses among them. The infected are desperate enough to be eating dead carcasses now.

Only two more blocks to go.

The streets are broad and the pavements are wide. They tend to lie at the sides, so we stick to the middle of the road. Mark takes the lead, but he walks at a glacial pace, almost like an infected. His head is focused straight ahead, but I turn around from time to time, just in case something spring on us from behind.

Then I saw one of them standing about a hundred metres away across the road. It is watching us. I touched Mark’s arm lightly to get his attention. He noticed it as well, but he stayed calm and maintained his pace.

It caught my gaze. And it started to follow us. Then the moaning begins.

Another one woke up from afar.

And then another.

Both of us start to hasten our pace.

They were moving slowly at first. The more infected joined, the more momentum they gained.

“Run!” Mark said.

Those creatures started running towards us. All these time, I had never seen them run before. Mark grabbed my hand as we dashed down the street, “Don’t look back!”

Everywhere we passed the infected wakes up and joined in the herd.

We are going to die.

The subway station is within sight, but once we entered there will be many of them waiting inside. We would just get cornered and killed. I panicked as I struggled to keep up with Mark’s speed.

Should I ditch the bag now? I could feel my lungs bursting from being chased, and I am slowing him down. Worst of all, the road ahead was blocked by cars. We would have to run through the pavements.

We leapt over two infected and dashed through before they wake up and tried to grab out ankles. They only missed by a hairbreadth.

Behind us, the moaning grows. I dare not look back.

My heart pounds so hard it hurts.

Mark turned back briefly to see how far I lagged behind. I screamed when I saw a grey hand reach out for him from the side alley. He was dragged in.

I raised my pike and charged into the corner.

Mark almost lost his balance when the infected pulled him in. He tried to bite his shoulders but the bulky bag slowed him down and the football shoulder guard prevented the teeth from sinking in. Suddenly, a man came up from behind and pulled the infected off him. He pinned it against the wall. Finally, I get a clear opening to strike.

Aim for the eye socket. With a cry, I impaled the creature with my pike and watch it drop lifeless to the ground.

“Follow me!”

The man said and ran down the alley.

We followed him and reached a large metal door at the end, in the loading bay of a supermarket. A large horde of them are getting close. I could hear the haunting moans ringing right behind my ears. I didn’t look back but I could tell they are only a few feet away.

One of them briefly touched my shoulders but didn’t get a good grip. The moment we went inside, a few of them pushed back the infected with a long pole. A stout black man slammed the metal door and bolted it with a heavy bar.

The pounding and the moan grew louder by the second.

Three of the men leaned heavily against the door. Even with their full weight against it, I could see the sheer weight of the infected outside is putting it under a heavy strain.

The hinges on the door rattled.

We are inside the storeroom of the supermarket. Other than the three men, there is a lady, a young girl around my age and an old man. All of them are carrying a weapon.

“We can’t hold the door much longer.” The stout man shouted.

Mark pointed his assault rifle at the door, ready to shoot the moment it breaks down. Everyone, prepares for their last stand.

I looked around frantically and spotted a box of firecrackers on a shelf. Above me, I saw an aerial window leading to the roof.

“I need someone to push me up.” I exclaimed. “Quick!”

“I’ll go with you.” Mark said.

“No, they need your gun.”

“I’ll go.” The young girl said.

She followed me as we climbed up the shelf.

“Hold me up as much as you can.”

Standing on the top shelf, we pile up a few boxes to get close to the ceiling window. I try to pull myself up to the ledge. The girl held my waist from behind and takes off as much weight as she can. Once my fingers got a good grip, I managed to pull myself up with her support.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“Stay there, I’ll be back.”

I am afraid of heights.

Unlike our old rooftop, this is an actual roof, and it is slanted and tiled. I tried to balance myself when I reach the edge. I gasped when I saw the entire back alley is flooded with a sea of the infected. I lit one of the fire-cracker and hurled it towards them.

The cackling spark caught their attention. The infected turned their attention from the door towards me on the roof.

They can’t climb.

I’m almost hyperventilating, but I keep telling myself to stay calm. When there’s enough of them noticed me, I tread along the edge of the roof to lead them away.

Don’t look down.

I crouched low to get a better balance. A tile came loose and I slipped.

I grabbed the ledge of the roof before I fall over the tip. And I wailed. I cried out for dad, and for Tristan. Someone please save me.

I have to save myself.

I managed to pull up my legs in time before they can drag me down. I would have died if Mark hadn’t trained my strength for the past few weeks.

My heart pounds so loudly that I almost couldn’t hear their moans. I led them towards the diagonal end of the supermarket and hide myself from their view by going up higher on the roof. On the other side of the supermarket, there is another road that is piled up with cars. I lit up another firecracker and aimed for one of the cars. It hits the tires but missed the engine. The fire-crackers won’t last long enough to distract them for good. Once it ends, they will turn their attention back to the supermarket. I needed the cars to catch on fire. For now, the infected head towards the open road towards the loud cackling sound.

Ok, one last fire cracker to go. I better not miss.

When they gathered around the car, I threw another lit firecracker, hurling it as far as I could. I missed my intended aim. But this time, it hits another car with a leaking gas tank. It exploded and many of the infected caught on fire.

The commotion, the heat, the moans of the infected set ablaze attracted the remaining ones clustering around the alley. From the top, I could see the masses started to shift direction. I just hope the door hasn’t broken down yet.

I make my way back to the aerial window as soon as I can. The young girl is still waiting for me. From her face, I could tell things hadn’t escalated. I could only breathe when I went in and see for myself. Thank God, they managed to hold the door long enough. She helped me down to the top shelf and Mark caught me when I jumped down.

“Where the hell did you go?”

“They stopped attacking the door, what did you do?” The woman said.

I showed him the firecracker box and said, “I created a little distraction.”

“Thank God.” The old man patted my shoulders. Mark looked at me for a moment. I thought he was going to mess my hair, or pat my head, but instead, he hugged me.

“We’re safe, for now.” The guy who saved us in the alley spoke.

Mark and I would have to stay in the supermarket for a while. Once the infected get riled up, it may take them a while to go back to hibernation.

In the meantime, we get acquainted with the rest of the group. The man who saved us is Jody. He used to be a professional baseball player in his mid-thirties. The other two guys; the black stout man and a meaty guy with a small pot belly are Akim and Craig. They were the employees of this supermarket. Apparently, when it happened, the store was closed to check stocks and audits. Two of them had bunkered here all these while. The woman is Francesca and her daughter is Felicia. They lived in this neighbourhood.

“Both of you are brothers?” Francesca asked.

“No, we’re friends.” Mark said. I smiled. I thought he would say something like we just got grouped up. The way he said it sounded like we have known each other for a long time.

As we chatted, I noticed Felicia kept smiling at me. And it made me blushed. I’m not used to getting any attention from pretty girls like her. Both she and Francesca have golden blonde hair that reminds me of the rolling wheat fields in Africa. I found it amazing that anyone could still look clean and fresh these days. I guess staying inside a supermarket helps.

“You guys must be famished. Help yourself with the perishables.” Craig said.

“That’s very generous.” Mark said.

“They will turn bad anyway. Five of us can’t eat that much.”

The supermarket has its own backup generator that runs on gas. Most of the foods and beverages are still edible, even if they taste a little less than ideal. Once the civility is over and both of us are on our own, Mark and I glowed like a Christmas tree when we saw how much food they have.

My eyes almost tear the moment I saw the rows of skittles. I’ve forgotten how candies taste like. Mark helped himself with some beef jerky and chips. His expression echoed mine when our eyes met, this is unbelievable. We smiled like we’re in heaven.

The good news didn’t end there. They have hot water shower. When Mark was about to go in, I followed behind. The surprised look in his face startled me.

“You want to bath first?” He asked.

Stupid me!

All the time, we had been bathing together under the rain. I went in thinking that we would take the shower together. I felt like digging up a hole to bury my head.

“Um yeah, can I?”

I pretended that I wanted to go in first to save myself some dignity. At least I can blame the hot water for the flush on my face.

When I’m done, Mark threw me a set of new clothes. “Look what I found?”

The colours are a little mismatched and the pants seem one size larger. But they smell clean and heavenly.

“Sweet. Where did you find them?” I’d ask.

“The kids’ section.”

Why do I have to ask?

While he baths, I look around the supermarket. It looks like Walmart, it sells a bit of everything. The front entrance is closed with metal rolling shutters that don’t look very sturdy. If the infected knows we’re inside, the whole place will tear down within minutes.

“Heya.” Felicia smiled and twirls her hair.

“H-hi.”

“It’s nice to see someone young and cute for a change.” She smiled.

“You mean Mark?”

She giggled. “Come, I show you something.”

Felicia took me to a corner and told me it’s her hideout.

“There used to be nine of us. One got infected and attacked us. I found this place to hide when it happened.”

“Um, thanks for showing me your secret.” I wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to tell me this.

“It’s not really a secret, but I thought you should know.”

“Huh?”

“Besides me, you’re probably the only one who can squeeze in.” She explained.

At 5’7 and slim, I’m the smallest one here besides Felicia. Even Francesca is taller than me. I felt grateful and embarrassed at the same time. It would save my life, but I can’t see myself ditching Mark behind.

Felicia beckons me to crawl inside. Even with my size, I almost had to snake myself in. But once I get further down, the vent broadens into a chamber where I can sit up with my head bent slightly. It was uncomfortable but bearable.

“That was really brave.” She said.

“Huh?” I’m confused again.

“I’m talking about just now. The thing you did with the firecrackers.”

“Oh, I just reacted.”

Felicia leaned close to me, until I can smell her hair and her body. The way her soft skin brushes lightly against mine made my heart skipped a beat.

“I guess you’ve never kiss a girl?”

My face must have been beet red now. Thank God it’s dark in here. “N-no.”

If I make any sound right now, I might just bite my own tongue. Felicia leaned close to kiss me. It was a sweet chaste kiss, with no tongues, but I still feel my groin swell within moments. She chuckles softly.

“You said there were nine of you. Where are they now?” I changed the topic to hide my blushing.

“Three of them died. One of them is my dad.” She said.

“I’m sorry.”

I wanted to lift my hand to comfort her, but the tight space didn’t allow me to lift an inch. It was an awkward moment. But she smiled and gently leaned her face on my shoulders.

“Dan?”

Mark is calling for me outside. Felicia and I exchanged a glance before we crawl back out.

“What’s up?” I said. Mark turns around and saw me emerge from the air vent.

“What are you doing inside?” He asked. But before I answer his eyes lit up when Felicia came out shortly after me.

“I’ll go look for mom.” She smiled and head back into the store room.

Mark flashed an approving grin at me, almost cheeky.

“What?” I smiled.

“Nothing.” He shrugged, but still wearing that face. “It’s time for dinner. Everyone’s looking for us.”

For a while, I felt fuzzy by his look of approval. But within seconds, I didn’t want to have his approval. Somehow, it bothered me that he wasn’t bothered by it. All this adrenaline and fear must be driving me crazy.

As we enter, he casually places a hand around my shoulders. My knees went weak immediately.

Everyone was eating and smiling at us. No one knew how I felt at the moment. They were talking about food, about supplies. Akim talked about the infected. Jody talked about winter. Francesca wondered how long it would take them to hibernate again. But all I can think about is Mark’s hand around my shoulders. And at that moment, I want his hands to stay there for as long as possible.