The Infected

A few hours into driving we had stopped for gas. The pumps still worked, which was lucky. I don't know what we would have done had we not been able to fill up. Brittany went into the gas station, tire iron in hand. I think she was jittery, and needed something to do. She told us there was no one there. We figured as much, and every place we stopped that had no people brought our hope down another notch.

We passed a firehouse and we all got out. I didn't want to leave Lily alone in the SUV. One of the fires was about a mile from here, most of the crash sights weren't fiery, but the smoke was thick in the air. We pulled our shirts up to cover our nose and mouth to keep from inhaling the smoke. The firehouse, like the other places, was empty.

“The city's gonna burn to the ground.” Lily said.

“No it isn't.” I assured her. But the smoke was getting bad, and avoiding the crash sights was getting harder. “Maybe we should head for the country.” I muttered to no one.

Lily stopped, hands on her hips. “Where's the country at, Leah?”

I threw my hands up. “I dunno.”

We hopped back in the car. “Do you think we could try to use one of those trucks and put the fires out ourselves?” Brittany absently said.

“I don't think we're strong enough to handle the hose. Plus, we probably couldn't even drive the trucks.”

“Oh, yeah. Right.”

“And it's mostly just smoke. It should die down in few days, right?” I said, suddenly unsure.

Brittany voiced the concern I now had in my head. “And if it doesn't?”

I shrugged. After all these hours we still had no clues as to what was going on. Some of the phones we had were now dead, some of the websites we tried weren't working and the ones that did said nothing useful, if at all. The radio stations were all out now, too.

Needless to say we were all feeling pretty hopeless when found ourselves driving slowly through one of the city's business districts. Shops lined both sides of the streets, places where on a Saturday they would normally be packed. It looked like a ghost town now. It was rather sad to see. I had to stop the SUV. The four lanes were too congested to navigate the huge SUV through. All the cars door were open, every person in them had excited the vehicles and were who knows where now.

“We'll have to find a different road.” I said, looking at the sea of cars on the once busy street.

“Or we could just crash some place,” Brittany said, “It is getting late.”

She was right, the sun was getting lower in the sky, and soon night would be approaching. And who knows what was to come then. “Where can we go?”

She shrugged. “Anywhere, I suppose.”

“We passed an apartment building a few streets back.” Lily told us as I made a U-turn. “Maybe there.”

“And maybe we can find someone.” Brittany said, hopeful again. “And we're not too close to any of the fires now.”

So we backtracked, and drove to where Lily directed. “Stop!” She suddenly yelled.

I slammed on the brakes. “What's wrong?” I turned around to face her.

“I think heard someone. Someone yelling.”

Brittany's eyes widened when I looked at her. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Over there.” She pointed to her right.

“Are you absolutely sure?” I asked.

She nodded her head.

“Do you think it's safe?” Brittany asked, “I mean, what if she didn't hear anything.”

“I can hear you.” Lily stated, annoyed.

“And what if she did?” I countered.

“I don't like this.” Brittany said, wrapping her arms around her middle. “I mean, we haven't met anyone all day. Why now?”

I understood her suspicion. There was no one around. We hadn't seen anyone in hours. Well, no one normal, that is. Maybe Lily was just letting her imagination run away from her. But then I heard it. Someone shouting. Not screaming, but shouting. And not too far away either. I hopped out, scanning the streets. I walked around the SUV and looked in the direction Lily had pointed.

“Hey!” a voice shouted from far off. “Wait!”

I still hadn't seen anyone, but they had clearly seen us. Brittany had rolled down her window, Lily too. “Leah?” She handed me the tire iron. “Just in case.”

“Maybe you should get back into the car. You know, in case we have to floor it.” Brittany said. She was right, but there was no way we could floor it with all these cars in the way. But I took their advice and got back in.

That's when the shouting got louder and closer. A male voice. He came into view, running fast towards us.

“Leah.” Lily and Brittany both said at the same time, worry and fear in their voices. We didn't know what to think.

“Wait! Don't leave me!” He yelled as he ran.

His hoodie was billowing out as the wind caught it, and he slowed down when he realized we weren't going to drive off. He stopped once he was about twenty feet from us. He put his hand on his thighs and bowed, tired, out of breath. He had run far.

Brittany's window was still halfway down. I yelled out, “You okay?”

He looked up, his tan face pained. “I think I pulled a hamstring.”

He was only about twenty one or twenty two, short, for a guy that is, only about five seven or eight. Short curly dark hair, and dark eyes. He wore a backpack, dark jeans, and a white t-shirt beneath his grey hoodie. He seemed to finally catch his breath enough to speak.

“Am I glad to see you.” He straightened. “I haven't seen anyone... all day. Well besides,... you know.”

“Right.”

He looked at all of us in turn, and his cheeks reddened. “Uh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I saw your car and... I got exited and I didn't... want you to pass me by. I had to get your attention.”

“It's alright.” I looked back at Lily and whispered, “You alright?” she nodded. I looked at Brittany. “And you?” she nodded, too, nervously. “What's your name?” I asked the guy through the window.

“Harper.” He straightened his backpack.

“Harper.” I repeated. “Where are you coming from?”

He pointed behind him. “That apartment building.”

“Is that where you live?”

He shook his head. “No, my abuelo.” He looked at us. “Grandfather.”

“I know. I took Spanish.”

He almost smiled, but he looked around him and just couldn't. “After everyone started acting, you now, strange. I came looking for him. He lives on his own. I was halfway across town. It was crazy.” He looked behind him for a minute. “He isn't here No one is. I can't reach any of my family. I've been trying to find out anything I can.”

“Us too.” Lily said, she didn't seem to be afraid of him anymore, but Brittany was still tense. I could feel it from where I sat. I didn't know what to think. He seemed okay enough, but I had my guard up, just in case.

“Where are you headed?” Harper asked.

“Dunno.” I said, since I seemed to be the designated speaker for the group.

He stood there, looking at us, and us looking at him from the SUV. None of us seemed to know what to do or say next.

“Wanna come with us?” said Lily eagerly.

I turned around quickly to chide her, but I she looked so hopeful. “Lily.” I said softly so he couldn't hear, though he still was standing away from the car. “We don't know this guy.”

She looked at Brittany's seat. “We don't know her, either, but she's with us.” She had a point. Brittany said nothing.

“Good point. But what if-”

“What if what? What more can happen to us?” She had tears in her eyes now. It was breaking my heart seeing her like this. “This was the point right. To find more people, people who were all right. We can't just leave him behind.”

Once again, she had a point.

“She's right.” Brittany said. “What more could he do to us then has already been done?”

Rob us. Rape us. Kill us in our sleep. I didn't say that out loud but it was there in my mind. All the worst thoughts came into my head. This day was making me jumpy and fearful. I knew it would only get worse.

“So you're okay with taking him with us?”

She shrugged. “Yeah. I guess.”

I looked back at my little sister. “Okay. But promise me you won't hesitate to use the tire iron on him at the first sign of trouble.”

“I promise.” Lily said, Brittany nodded.

My eyes were still on my little sister. “Things may get dangerous from here on out. And I have to protect you. You come first, no matter what. I hope we're not making a mistake.”

“I don't think we are.”

Harper had been waiting patiently for us to finish our conversation, rubbing his side a little. “Just so you know, I'm not a serial killer or anything. Look none of us know what's going on, right? So maybe we should stick together.”

Since I've been outvoted I told him, “Fine. You wanna come along?”

His eyes widened in surprise. “Really? Thank you. Yes. Yes.” He approached the car briskly.

Brittany opened her door and said, “You take shotgun, I'll ride in back.”

He nodded as the girl climbed in back with Lily. She made her move over so she would be seat directly behind me. I was happy about the arrangement. Brittany could keep an eye on Harper while I drove.

“Are you hungry?” Lily asked as him.

“A little.”

Before he could say any more she was rummaging in one of the boxes at her feet. “Do you like turkey? I've got a turkey sandwich on rye, here.”

He smiled a little. “Yes. Thank you.” She handed it over and he dug in. When he noticed me watching him he said, “I haven't eaten all day.” Lily gave him a warm can of Pepsi and he downed half of it quickly, belching. “Sorry.” he said, embarrassed.

“So,” I said, hiding my smile, “you said you were across town when all this happened.”

“Yeah.

“Home?” I inquired.

“Work.” He didn't elaborate any further and I didn't press the issue. He had his guard up as well.

“Where were you at when it happened?”

“Lunch.”

He glanced my way. “All together?”

“Yeah. You could say that.”

“So you really don't know where you're headed?”

“No. Not really.”

“We need a place to sleep.” Lily blurted out, adjusting her hat.

“We could just stay at my abuelo's.” Harper said, “It's small but I think the four of us would make it work.”

I knew he would eventually suggest something to that effect. My imagination filled my head up with ideas of ambushes, being robbed, and beaten, things of that nature. Maybe Harper was just waiting until someone came along so he could lure us back to his “abuelo's”. I knew how paranoid I was becoming, but I was airing on the side of caution, for my sake, but more so for Lily's.

But why did I suspect this guy of anything at all? He was just as much in the dark as us. I had no reason to believe he would be hostile towards us. Or any reason to think he would lie to us. Maybe further down the line if this, whatever this was, continued maybe I would have reasons to be suspicious of others. But today, the first day of this strangeness, I had to be trusting somewhat.

I answered him. “Let's check out this other building first.”

I only glance at him for a brief second. He looked slightly disappointed, but that was about it.
The building Lily had pointed out was a few blocks away, but at the speed we were driving it took us longer than it should have. The streets were a mess. The building which was filled with nice condos, was about ten stories high and from the outside it looked deserted. But better safe than sorry.

“I'll go in.” I said, “Harper, you in?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Protect her.” I whispered to Brittany as Harper hopped out.

I knew someone had to go in with me and I wasn't going to leave Lily alone with our new guest. I'd rather have him with me should anything happen. I don't know why I thought I could trust Brittany more than Harper. Both were strangers but I got the feeling that she would do all she could to protect my baby sister. I wanted to say something like “If I don't return get Lily away as fast as you can,” or “Drive off if were not out in ten minutes,” but that seemed be foolish, and making either of them more frightened than they already were would be counterproductive.

Brittany nodded, a little wary, and I joined Harper, with my tire iron in hand. As we headed into the building I began thinking that maybe it would have been better to just go back to Harper's grandpa's place. It wasn't a bad idea. But something inside of me said it wasn't safe. I shook my head and squashed that feeling again. We both looked around the deserted hallway and started knocking on doors that were locked and going inside the ones that were. We searched the whole place. All the units were empty.

“Another dead end.” Harper said with a huff of annoyance.

“Yeah.”

He rubbed his temples for a second. “This sucks.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Most of these places have two bedrooms. There's food. But I'll feel kind of funny taking these peoples things.”

“Yeah. Me, too.” The more I thought about it, the more it felt weird. Like stealing. “Your abuelo's place is sounding better and better. And it's getting too late to keep looking.”

Harper said, “Yeah. And he wouldn't mind if we crashed at his place, or eat his food.” A sadness took over his expression. When he thought I was looking he fixed his face but said, “I hope he's okay.”

“Me, too.” I looked at all the emptiness of this place and couldn't help but feel a bit sad, too. “All of those people. Let's go.”