This chapter follows the previous one pretty closely (same day), I know it's a week late. Next chapter likely to take at least a fortnight. Enjoy.
Steve stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled. The people in the cars at the head of the convoy looked up. He beckoned.
"No one here." He shouted. "By the look of it, it's been empty for weeks."
It was coming up on sundown. They'd been on the lookout for somewhere to stop for the night when they'd seen signs to a gas station just off the freeway. He, Romanoff, Johnny and Rance (an ex cop) had gone ahead as a scouting party to check it out. The place seemed deserted. It had been picked clean, there was no food and probably no gas – though they'd check – but it did seem to be deserted, fortunately, nobody there to ambush them.
The convoy started their engines again and started to crawl up towards them.
"How likely do you think we are to find people alive in places we stop?" Rance asked Steve.
"Depends." Romanoff answered first. "Depends on where we stop, how many people were there to start with, what the resource situation is like, and not all areas got hit equally." She looked down, then up again. "It's better not to meet people. We have to assume everyone is hostile. Or could infect us." Steve didn't reply. He supposed it was her nature to be cynical, to mistrust everyone. He could still believe that people would be good to each other. They were, weren't they? This group of forty-four, most of whom barely knew each other, were throwing their lot in together and trusting each other.
"Park up in a tight circle." He called. "Nose to tail, as close as you can." His thinking was that the vehicles formed a perimeter fence; shelter, a warning to anyone else that they were a big, organised group, and if it came to it, cover.
,
Food was, of course, scant and uninteresting. But of course Steve had had worse meals in the field. They'd stripped every vacant apartment they'd been able to get in to, including by bashing down doors, of food that was still eatable before they'd set out. At some point, starvation was going to become a real risk, but they were hopefully a couple of months away from that. Steve would have liked to eat until he was full, to eat enough to start putting the weight he'd lost to the infection back on. He'd lost near enough fifty pounds, almost all of it muscle. He was still strong, stronger than any other single person in the group, but he was nowhere near as strong as he could be, as he had been. He was afraid a time would come when he'd need his strength, in this state he might not be enough. But to try to eat enough to regain it was to risk starving the group out sooner.
"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Steve smiled almost in spite of himself as the fragment of scripture came to the surface of his mind. It was right though. For the moment, the most important thing was keeping the group together, focused and optimistic.
"Right." He clapped his hands once, which did make everyone look up at him. "Do any of you young things still know Roll Out The Barrel?"
The answer was about ten people, not including any of the Avengers. Jimmy Crack Corn and Sloop John B were a bit more successful, harmonies had started turning up by the third chorus of Sloop John B. Then the sillier songs started turning up, after a while, Stark stood up and led the one about the old woman who swallowed a fly, he sounded much more like Howard when he was singing, then of course somebody had to Find a Peanut. But they were laughing. They'd forgotten that they were still hungry, they'd forgotten their dead for a while, they'd forgotten how many ways they could still all die.
,
"Watches." Steve called as people started to slink away to bed. "Any volunteers?" About six hands went up. "We need two lots of five." A few more hands went up. "Thank you. You, you, you, you and I'll do first shift, we'll come and wake the rest of you up in a few hours. Rance, that side, Helen, to the right, Jethro, the left, Jessie, looking back the way we came." And they went. They didn't question him, they didn't ask what he was going to do, they just trusted him. He had to keep them alive.
The watchers had no flashlights, just radios, they called him over by turning their radio on for a count of one then off again, once, twice, three times or four times, depending on who they were. Steve was on patrol, just walking a circumference, shield on his arm, hoping any invaders would only see him at first, and only shoot at him. The camp quietened down gradually as people fell asleep. The four static watchers sat in the shadows, staring in to the dark, almost invisible unless you knew they were there. Steve padded in circles, changing direction every so often to keep himself from getting too predictable.
,
Nothing at all happened for hours, until it must have been gone midnight and he was thinking about waking the second shift up. But Helen signalled him over. He went and sat down as close to her as he dared and took his shoe off, as though to take a stone out of it.
"What?" He asked her, as quietly as he could.
"I'm not completely sure it isn't my mind," she started. "but I think there's something alive down there." She pointed. Steve picked up a stone and threw it at the cluster of bushes she was pointing at. Something moved, but there was no alarm call, no sound of bolting hooves or wings, nothing to suggest he'd disturbed a wild animal. They were being stalked.
"Stay here." He breathed to Helen and got up. "Deer." He said, more loudly, shaking his head. He didn't believe for a moment that what had tried to dodge his stone was a deer. He walked on towards Rance, then cut back inside the ring of vehicles and laid a hand on Romanoff's shoulder. She was awake before he'd finished saying her name.
"What?"
"Get up. I think there's at least one person to the north watching us."
"Worth waking Stark?" She asked.
"Not sure."
"Best wake him then."
By the time Romanoff and Steve were ready to face who or what ever Helen had seen and Stark was kitting up, half the camp was waking up, watching them. Steve wasn't sure how he felt about that. He didn't want to cause a panic, but if this went badly it might be better if everyone was awake. He and Romanoff slunk back towards Helen, who was staring pointedly off towards Jesse's post.
"They moved?" He asked her.
"That way." She nodded.
"More than one?"
"I'm not sure."
"OK, I take point. Romanoff, don't shoot unless you are very sure you're shooting at an armed hostile."
"Copy."
Steve could feel his guts starting to knot up. There were forty people behind him he had to keep alive. But they had no idea what they were up against, it could be six heavily armed lunatics or one guy with a baseball bat. And if the invader was just hungry, who was he to kill them without warning? That didn't feel right. He reached the tree line, he could half hear, half sense Romanoff somewhere behind him. He stopped, listening hard.
Something moved to his left, it was breathing quite fast, it sounded human. How close was it? It was a cloudy night, he could barely see a thing. Maybe twenty feet? Assuming he didn't crash in to something, he could dash that far. If his adversary had a gun, that was the safest option. He raised his shield, so whoever they were they couldn't get a chest shot, and bolted towards the sound.
A voice cried out, just before his body hit it. A male voice. The body crumpled to the floor, it wasn't a big body. He grabbed out with both hands. If he could control his adversary's hands he'd have won.
"Ethan, run!" The body shouted as Steve's hands found his arms. The body was long and skinny, a boy, not a man. Two sets of running footsteps behind.
"Romanoff! Don't sh-" Steve shouted. But before he'd finished, he heard another voice cry out and the sound of a body falling to the floor. Steve pulled the boy's wrists behind him and wrapped them in one of his hands. "Don't struggle." He warned. The boy obeyed, panting with fright or exertion, Steve wasn't sure which. Nobody else was moving. "Romanoff?"
"I'm fine, was just a kid."
"He alive?" A brief pause.
"Yes." Steve's captive sighed with relief.
"So's mine. Let's get back to somewhere we can see."
"And do what with these two?"
"Hadn't got that far."
"Rogers, what if they're infected? We can't bring them back to camp." Steve hissed in irritation. He hadn't thought of that.
"I'm going to come to you, you're going to take mine, I'm going to carry yours, we just need a bit more light."
Romanoff was happy to comply with that, they led and carried the two boys back out of the trees. Now he saw them in the light, Steve didn't think they could have been over fifteen, the smaller one probably less. They shouted for rope to tie them up, Banner appeared with some, then Romanoff pulled Steve away up the hill, towards where Stark and a few others were looking on.
"We cannot let them go." Romanoff said shortly.
"Romanoff, they're kids."
"Children half that age can be trained killers. Even if they're not, they might report back to a bigger, more dangerous group, or be carrying MRYP. Some people here haven't had it. We let them go, we risk Stark and others dying of the infection, or them bringing back a full squad of armed men."
"I can't believe you're saying this."
"I'm not saying I want to. Killing people that young is unpleasant, sometimes it is the lesser evil. If we want to protect our own, we are going to have to kill sometimes."
"Look at them." William cut in. "They're teenagers. Are we really entertaining the idea of shooting a pair of teenage boys in cold blood?"
"I am not sanctioning that." Steve said firmly.
"It is the safest option for the rest of us." Romanoff said, looking at the ground.
"They're kids." Banner repeated.
"If we let them go, they could run back and try to snatch raid us, and potentially shed MRYP in to the camp, or go and fetch a whole lot more."
"Look, she's right." Rance cut in. "There are four people here who didn't get it. They'll all die if they infect us."
"If they were going to give anyone MRYP, they'd have to have been exposed for the first time in the last two to six days." Banner countered. "How likely do you think that is?"
"Do you want to bet with Stark's life?"
"So instead of risking me, you want to kill two teenagers in cold blood?" Stark asked.
"The point of this group is that we keep each other alive."
"Implicit in that is the idea that we're worth saving, if-"
"Enough." Steve said firmly. Much to his relief, everyone else stopped talking. "Banner, correct me if I'm wrong, once you've had MRYP, you can't get it again."
"Mercifully not." Banner said.
"In that case, you and I can handle them safely. We just have to keep ourselves separate for a day or two. Before we make any decisions, Banner, take a look at them, decide whether you think they might possibly have MRYP-"
"If they look clean now, they might still spread it. It takes a few days to show."
"There's no risk to you in checking. And I am going to have a word with them, see what they're willing to tell us."
"You can't trust anything they say." Romanoff said. "They'll say whatever they think will keep them alive."
"I know. I'd still rather try to use their… inventions than ours."
The older boy was sitting up, eyes wide with fear, the younger was coming to. Steve set and electric lantern on the ground between them and sat down.
"You gave us quite a fright." The boys didn't reply. "Sorry if we seemed… excessive, we just had no idea who or what you were. We didn't want to take any chances." Still no reply. "What are your names?" Silence. "I don't have a gun, I'm not going to kill you. I'm just trying to work some things out." There was a long pause.
"I'm Caleb." The older boy said quietly. "'s Ethan." He gestured towards the other.
"You can call me The Captain, most people seem to." Caleb looked up at him.
"You military?"
"Ex. I'm not sure anyone is really military any more."
"My half brother was. Haven't seen him since all this started."
"So you're with your family?" Caleb shook his head.
"'s just me and Ethan now. We're cousins. Don't think anyone else is still alive." That was likely to be true. Most people had lost most people they knew.
"So who are you with?" The boys looked at each other. "It can't be just the two of you, you wouldn't last."
"'s just us." Caleb said again.
"How do you get enough food?"
"We steal. We try to take from people who've died, but there's not a lot left."
"So you thought you'd try us." Caleb nodded.
"But we won't try again if you let us go. There's too many of you, you're too fast." Steve sighed.
"The problem is, how do I know you aren't scouts for a huge armed group who can just come and wipe us out with automatic rifles?" The two boys just looked at each other, Ethan seemed to be awake enough to have caught up.
"We… we're not." Caleb said.
"But I only have your word on that." There was a long silence. Steve got up and headed back to the group.
,
"They say they're alone" he said.
"They say." Someone repeated at once.
"And I am making it clear right now-" Steve continued. "that I am not shooting, or letting anyone else shoot, a pair of unarmed teenagers. So either we let them go now or we hang on to them."
"For how long?" Banner asked.
"Maybe just the night, maybe longer."
"MRYP." Banner said shortly. "I know it isn't likely, but if we're keeping them, we need to know as soon as they start showing symptoms."
"That's quarantine more or less." Romanoff said. "That's hard to manage on the road."
"But it's not impossible." Banner said. "We're traveling in cars of two or three, we stick them in a car with one quarantine martial, we'll be fine."
"But we'd need to surrender a medic to do it." Rance said.
"I'll do it." Banner said. "If someone needs to, they're not a threat to me."
Steve stood by while Banner looked the boys over, and decided there was no sign of MRYP. The boys just accepted it, they'd probably worked out there was no point in fighting.
"As I said earlier," Steve started, as Banner stepped back. "we're not going to kill you. In fact, I'm going to give you a choice. Either we let you go when we head out in the morning, so you can't set anyone on us, or, if you really are alone and you've had enough of it, you can come with us. We're all from New York City, trying to get out to somewhere there's enough food to keep us all alive. We don't have that much of a plan. If you do come with us, you'll have to stay just with Banner until we're sure you don't have MRYP."
"We both had it already." Caleb cut in.
"Either way, you stay with Banner for a few days. And you'll be expected to fall in line, do your share of chores and do as you're told. We don't have the time or the space to fight amongst ourselves. I'm going to walk away now and let you two talk about it."
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Come the morning, two thin, ragged looking boys followed Banner to one of the cars and got in.