Infectious

"Ethan." Ethan said standing up and holding his hand out to Cruz. But Cruz just looked at his hand like it had been the infection itself. Ethan noticed it and dropped his hand quickly.

"Are you infected? Any bite marks? Cuts?" Cruz went into full interrogation mode as he stepped in between Ethan and me. "Where did you come from and how many others are there?"

I watched as Ethan put his hands up as if surrendering to Cruz. "Well, I've been one of the dead for quite some time now." You could hear the sarcasm in his voice. "As for where did I come from, you see, when a mommy and daddy love each other v-" I couldn't help but laugh as Cruz interrupted him.

"Enough with the wise cracks." Cruz said taking a step closer to him. "Are you sure you aren't infected?"

"As sure as I am human." Ethan said nodding. Cruz didn't seem like he was convinced. The way Cruz was getting closer to Ethan, it seemed as if Cruz was going to check for himself if Ethan was or not. But after seconds, Cruz looked back at me and gave a slight nod.

"Call for the others to meet us at point A." He said before he turned, heading towards the entrance, making sure the coast was clear before heading down the street.

Pushing down on the PPT, I contacted the group and told them where to head to. I watched Ethan as I did. I wondered if he would join the group or if he would go off on his own. Cruz basically gave him the acceptance, since Cruz was practically the one to say who was okay to stay with the group. All the adults agreed one hundred percent with his decision. There was no ifs, ands or buts about it.

Jason gave the signal that they were on their way and I placed the walkie into my pocket. I was going to make sure I didn't lose it again. Brushing the loose strands of hair behind my ear, I turned my attention away from Ethan and began to make my way after Cruz. But I realized Ethan wasn't following behind either.

Turning back to him, I watched him. He was back in his seat just examining the pile of junk once again. What was it about him? He seemed like he didn't give a care in the world that I was about to leave him here out with the crawlers. If I was him, I would have been asking if I could go along with them. But is that just me?

"You coming or are you going to sit there and become crawler bait?" I watched as he shrugged and didn't move. I waited a few more seconds just in case he was going to get up and follow, but he didn't move. I shrugged and turned and headed to meet up with the group.

Point A was at the corner of S Olive street and 5th at a sushi bar called Sai Sai. If the place was still opened, it would have our group as its only customers. But with the world has been lately, I probably wouldn't eat anything raw. Sometimes, sushi sounded good. Oh how I miss the old days where the human population surpassed the crawler population.

By the time I reached the doors, everyone was already waiting for me. When I came in through the side door that we always used, Cruz's head lifted up quickly. He took me in and nodded but then confusion formed on his face wondering where Ethan was. I just shrugged. It was always easier to talk with Cruz through gestures then actual words.

"Now that we are all here." Cruz said as he pulled out the map from his pocket, placing it on the counter and spreading it out. "Today, we'll make our way down Oliver." He trailed his finger along the street we were currently on. "At each block, we separate into groups of two. Each group will make their way down to Flower." All of us watched as he showed us the route of the day. "By sundown, we all need to be at the library. Any of you that aren't there by then, you will be left behind."

I heard a soft gulp form Janice and her boys. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Same buddy system?" I asked Cruz and then looked over at Jason.

"Always the same Ms. Baker." He said with a nod. "We still have about five hours of sunlight left. Be safe, use your common sense and get to the library as soon as you can." And with that, Cruz folded up the map and lead us out of the kitchen and we began to walk down Olive street.

***
When we reached the first block, Jason and I were sent off in the direction of 6th street. Cruz wanted me closer to the tower so I didn't let my curiosity get the best of me. I had rolled my eyes at him and stormed off in the direction I was supposed to, with Jason following me.

At first, it was silent, really silent. No one talked, there wasn't even the moans of the crawlers. All there was was the sound of the wind every once in a while. We stayed alert and always at a fast pace. We didn't need any reason to be slow. We made zig zags down 6th street, stopping at each building looking for supplies. We got lucky and met our requirements with in the first few shops. We got the feminine supplies that all the girls were asking for. We stopped at the dentistry school and got a bunch of scalpels as well as other sharp objects that were needed for an emergency.

Since we still had about three hours before we had to be back at the library, Jason agreed to some exploring. We found an old run down Bevmo! and went in. It sounded nice to have wine for the tower.

"Wine gets better with age." Jason said as we walked down each aisle. A lot of the bottles were broken and shattered on the floor. We tried to walk carefully over all of it so it wouldn't pierce our shoes. Eventually, we got about four bottles and placed them in our bag with the other supplies we collected.

By the time we reached Flower St. We managed to have our bags full with crap we wanted and needed for the tower. It was like we had a shopping day in this ghost town after all. But the whole time, I felt like I was being watched. But like everyone does, I turned around and found no one there. No one was following us.