One of Them Turns.
"Do you have family you can go to? In another country?" Will asked Loli through Miss Somerset.
Loli shook her head, responded and Miss Somerset translated. "All of her family lives in Lyon. They've probably made their way to Switzerland, or Italy by now."
Will and Loli smiled to each other. "What made you move to Paris?"
Miss Somerset translated. "College."
"Looks like the Highlander's gone off on that pussy you wanted to fuck." Zach whispered to Carl. "But check out all the bitches in here. They're all fine."
"Yeah, but I still think that girl wants me." Carl said, nodding his head to Loli. "And she can have all she wants before this is over."
Fred was just sitting off by himself, watching the candle. They had covered all of the windows in the few hours that had passed by, so they deemed it safe to have a little bit of light. He was tired from the long day and was starting to doze off to hearing the quiet murmurs of everyone in the room. Fred looked at Roxy asleep with Will's sword resting on her. Before she fell asleep, she asked if she could look at it, Will agreed and gave it over to her. While admiring the sword, she eventually fell asleep with it resting on her forearm and Will decided not to take it back from her just yet. Roxy was asleep, Zach and Carl were talking amongst themselves and the other girls were chatting with Will.
Fred liked Will, he wasn't a bad guy. He didn't know why Carl had to be such a dick though. As soon as Carl saw Will, he started acting like a prick. Why would he do that? Fred glanced over at Will trying to communicate to Loli through Miss Somerset, and chuckled when he'd make an attempt at French. It was strange to Fred, seeing a Scottish guy try French in that accent.
Something flew in front of Fred's face and he shoed it away. He remained listening to everyone's murmurs, and he was starting to fall asleep, when he felt the small sting in his neck. He slapped at it, smeared it down his neck and took a look at what was in his hand. It was a crushed mosquito, with a streak of blood on his fingertips.
"You alright?" Zach asked at Fred's sudden slapping.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bug."
Fred scratched the itch at his neck, and a tingling sensation seemed to spread from the bite. It wasn't anything alarming, just something he noticed. Fred's heart rate began to increase slightly, as the seconds went by, and Fred started to grow nauseous. He glanced at Zach and Carl chatting amongst themselves, then to Miss Somerset talking to Will and Loli. He noticed Roxy asleep, and soon he could feel a pain in his chest.
"Ahh!" He screamed out, and began to vomit blood. Fred's body began to convulse and soon he could feel warmth. Like stepping into a warm bath, the feeling crawled up his skin and engulfed him. He felt trapped, like he was in a small room that was closing in on him. Fred's anxiety grew enormously and he began to feel anger for everything. Everyone in the room with him, shouldn't be in there. This was his space. Fred gasped again, twitched and threw up another pint of blood.
Will reached over as fast as he could respond, grabbed Fred's bat and struck it over the back of his head. Fred fell to the ground with a solid thud. Everyone was up and alert at this point. Fred remained motionless on the ground.
"What the fuck happened?" Zach demanded. "How the fuck could he have gotten infected?"
They all looked down at Fred… He was still breathing.
Will looked up to Roxy. "Could I have my sword, please?"
Roxy only handed the sword back when he stuck out his hand for it. He placed the tip on the back of Fred's neck.
"Wait!" Miss Somerset said.
Will looked up at her. "He's one of them. I don't care if he's a friend, he'll still try to kill us."
"The Mick's right. If we don't kill him, he will kill us." Carl agreed.
"I know that, but he's still your friend."
"Fuck that!" Zach hollered.
"Shhhh!" Miss Somerset hushed as Zach continued.
"Fred was a cool guy, no doubt, but I'm not gonna let him kill me just because you don't want him to die."
"Then throw him outside, or something. But we don't need to kill him."
Fred gagged in his unconscious state, threw up more blood and began to wheeze.
"He's a fucking zombie now. We have to kill him."
"Then throw him outside or something."
Carl spoke up. "He knows we're in here. They may be crazy, but they're not stupid. You've seen the way they move. If we just throw him outside, he'll know to come right back in."
"And I'm not going outside until daylight." Zach added.
Miss Somerset looked up at Will with tears brimming her eyes. "Please. Is there anything else we can do?"
Will still held the sword at the back of Fred's neck. He sighed heavily.
Carl, Zach and Will each dragged Fred into the back room and chained him down to the floor. Will raided through some of the medicine drawers and searched around.
"I can't read what any of these say. What's tranquilizer in French?" Will asked.
"Tranquilisant." Carl replied. "It's not that different."
Will searched through each drawer and found a big bottle that was labeled, Tranquilisant pour Chevaux. He filled an entire syringe with the tranquilizer, came over to Fred and knelt beside him.
"I don't know where to stick this." He said.
"Just stick it in him." Carl said.
"Yeah, but is it supposed to be injected into the tissue, or into the bloodstream? Do I need to find a vein, or what?"
"I think you're just supposed to stick it in him. Like in the movies, where they stick the needle in the guys ass."
Will's heart was racing and sweat began to bead along his forehead. He looked down at Fred and even though he was unconscious, Fred was panting with every breath. Will didn't know what to do. He would have preferred to just kill him, even though he had nothing against Fred personally. Killing him would have been simpler and risk free, but he was tired of killing people for the night, and maybe this would do something. But if it didn't, Fred could wake up and kill everyone, or at least alert the Infected on the outside.
"Fuck it." Will said and stuck the needle in the left cheek of Fred's buttocks.
Fred kept panting, as if the tranquilizer did nothing.
"Give him another shot." Carl insisted.
Will refilled the syringe and injected it into Fred once again. Fred began to have lighter breaths, but he was still panting. Will gave him one more, and soon Fred's breathing had calmed down.
"Wow. That might have actually worked." Will exclaimed.
Carl got up, walked towards the sink and got a rag. He brought it back to where Fred was chained down and looked at Will. "You think you could raise his head for me?"
Will looked up at Carl with a deep scowl, but complied. He raised Fred's head above the ground and Carl wrapped the rag over Fred's mouth and around the neck, gagging him.
"That should keep him from biting now."
Will nodded his head and Zach and Carl began to walk away.
"I'm tired. I'm gonna go to sleep. We can get out of here in the morning." Carl said as he left the room.
Will stood up and followed them out. Miss Somerset was waiting in the doorway with the candle in her hand. "Thank you." She said as Will went through.
He smiled at her and went into the waiting room with the others. He was tired too, and it would be a busy day when he woke up.