Chapter 14

"Morning" Anissa bops my nose, I snag the out stretched finger in my mouth, lightly pressing down before realizing her finger. I am not a fan of getting bopped on the nose, yet she does it every morning. She's flushed again so I pull my hand out from under my head to check her temperature. She seems fine. "Feeling better today?" I utter an unintelligent sound in response, so bops my nose again, this time I grab her hand with my own. She looks disappointed when I let her hand go again.

"Dude, you are so slow" Mathew leans agents the door frame "You know she's..."

Anissa goes nova on him, shrieking "Get out Mathew now!" I am so confused right now.

"I need coffee"

"You need to think with you'r..."

Anissa half lunges at him, hands out stretched like an infected does when it plans on killing you. "Mathew, I swear to god I will castrate you if you don't get out now!" He beats a hasty retreat, if anyone could get away with that threat it's her.

"That seemed a little bit like over kill" I yank her back down into bed, she's still half naked. That shirt will only cover oh so much on her, good thing her legs got caught up in the sheets. "And I am not slow, I'm the smartest person here. Yes I know that sound coincided, but my s.a.t score proves it." She snorts at me and points to the door. "Fine, I'll take my stuff and go so you can get dressed for the day"

"No, I need a shower. Close the door so I can find my stuff and head that way." My hand swings out wildly, slapping in the general direction of where the door normally is. "It's agents the wall, you'll have to get out of bed to close it" Right. Fudge. I grumble again, half falling out of bed. I close said door and fall back into bed again, face down. She grabs her stuff and opens the door. "Morning Mr. Harlen, excuses me, it's my turn for a shower today." She wraps the towel around herself some more and walks away.

My dad takes one look at my mostly vacant expression and nods before walking away. "Mathew is right, you are slow. Or you need to wake up faster in the morning, one of the two." I glance at my clock, I'm not late for training. I have this vegish feeling wash over me, I missed something again. I half fall out of bed again to go in search of clothes stripping as I go, for once allowed to change in my own room. The door opens and slams back into place before someone runs away, back down the hallway. It takes a moment but the light bulb goes off above my head, I do believe Anissa got an eye full. This is confirmed when she comes down from her shower, spots me and goes a deep shade of red. Nelle almost falling out of her seat laughing at this set's Lucas off. Ryan chuckles in his seat, even dad is laughing at her. Great, we're a real graceful couple aren't we. Knocking needs to become a thing, fast. She skips breakfast, choosing to dash out to the barn. So I'm left scratching my chin trying to figure out how to make the next encounter less awkward for us. I'm still scratching my head unsure of my idea when I hear her scream from outside. I'm out that door, flying fast to her aid. That memory coming to mind has my weapon out and ready even as I run. She screams again and I jump around the corner weapon half way to the intruders face without a thought. It connects and he falls back grunting in pain. Anissa kicks at his prone form before dashing behind me cowering. I see red seeing a part of her shirt in his hand. My weapon goes up but something stops it from coming back down. Or rather, someone.

"Darin," Lucas and dad surround the guy as Ryan holds my weapon. "Stand down, back up is here"

"You" Dad kicks out at the man still huddled over his face. "Speak now" the man glares back at this. "If you can't speak your infected and I'll finish you off myself, last chance." Dad pulls out his todashi with such speed light dances off it. Anissa crying behind me sets a fire a blazing in my veins, I'll finish the fucker off before dad can if he doesn't explain right away.

He opens his mouth and screams at us. "I didn't know anyone else was here. I thought she was infected"

"Lies!" Nelle screams as she comes barreling around the corner yuma already loaded. She fires before I can blink, dead center mass he looks shocked as the arrow sinks in deep.

"Nelle!" Dad looks horrified at this but she's still snarling into the guys face.

"We got a watch out buddy, I saw you sneak up and tackle her from behind. She has way to much motor function to be infected, your boner proves it." He has nothing to say for this as she knocks another arrow. A glint of sliver connects with his neck before she can pull. He's dead a few seconds latter. "Sensei?" Nelle backs up as she puts her weapon away. "You stole my kill"

"Indeed. Such things should not be handled by children"

"Too late for that" Mathew leans on the corner of the house picking something out from under his nails. "But damn, wish I had one of those facing off that first bunch, maybe we could have saved Mr. and Mrs. Tryphaina then." Dad crumples at the reminder.

Lucas snorts at us pointing to his own swords. "A lot of good these did me not that long ago. Kill shots are easy when they are laying down like that. It's a different story when their fighting back and mindless about it." Another thing dad missed, I see the guilt is weighing heavy on him as his shoulders slouch even more.

"Guys" Anissa holds her tattered shirt edge to herself. "Thanks. But if you'll excuses me" She takes off back into the house and I'm once more racing after her. No one fallows this time. She comes to a grinding halt outside the bedroom door and whips around to face me with tears on her checks. "I'm sorry"

"It's not your fault" No thought required on that.

"No, I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention, I should have seen or heard him coming at me"

"Maybe" half my brain is in over drive the other half is blank. "But you never blame the survivor for what the attacker did. Even the most prepared can be undone by a cunning opponent. If what Nelle saw was true, he never planned on you being able to fight back." I can feel my face contorting with anger as my voice gets deeper and my face flushes with each connective thought falling into place. "It's looking like the end of the world. People are beyond desperate now. The weak will pray on everyone for anything they can get their hands on. It was only a matter of time before any humans still around turned on each other. Fighting like savage beats for scraps. Morals degrading with each step. After any semblance of honor is gone they will start with wheeling and dealing in other people to keep themselves a float. Woman were often seen as pray before this started. If it has already reached this level of horror it will only get worse from here on out as the foolish think all woman are open game." I'm only getting started when she places a hand on my shoulder to stop me.

"Darin" my eyes snap up at this. "It's okay, no lasting damage was done. My ego took a hit and my shirt is toast. But I will be fine, give me a minute to change ok"

"Want me to burn that?" I nod at the torn shirt.

"Sure" She slips inside the room and tosses the shirt back out at me. I hand it off to Lucas at the stairs. He takes off without a word, I'm sure he over heard everything and will take care of it for me. I'm glued to her side for the rest of the day, trigger hand itching to bash someones face in if they look at her funny. But since it's just my family and friends around I quickly burn through any rising anger. "Should have fed him to Yvonna." My eyebrow reaches up into the sky at her comment. "She needs nourishment, she would have drawn something out of him"

I can feel my face contort with rage as Ryan talks and makes logical scene about the whole thing. I don't want to be logically about it. "Probably nothing good, he didn't deserve to die in the first place. Sinking men will always drag everyone else down with them. Nelle should have stayed her hand, not force dad's like that. Now dad has blood on his hands and a desperate man is dead. Yes I probably would have killed him myself in the heat of the moment, but reflection shows we are now no better then him. We killed someone before they could comet a crime. In this world with smart infected walking around, he was right to think she may have been one of them. What Nelle saw was a man attacking a woman. What she saw was her own fear and worse case scenario playing out in front of her, she may have jumped to consultations. We don't know what his intention were, maybe he really didn't know you weren't infected. Now we never will."

I sigh, damn he's right. "We got twitchy trigger fingers" I saw red, I was ready to kill him. Without knowing what or why he was here I was ready to end him simply for ripping a shirt. If he was a bad person, if he meant Anissa harm we saved her from it. If he wasn't we are bad people for jumping the gun. That's too man if's in one get go. We we're desperate to protect our selves. We were the drowning men in this case, and an innocent man may have just paid the ultimate price for it. We can't say sorry for that later, because there is no excuses for acting out in such ways.

Anissa shivers beside me. "He didn't grab me like someone that was scared, that was a bad touch grab. I stand by the harsh actions, but it was skin it saved and I won't say sorry for keeping myself intact. I'd rather say sorry for killing an innocence man then risk my body, my life, my mental, emotional and physical health on the off chance he's just confused."

Dad has a good point, but I stand by Anissa. "Survival at any cost may add up to more then you're willing to pay"

"I so did not get this far into the end of the world to have it all cut short by someone that can't be bothered to say something first. I'll deal with that price when it's all said and done. Till then I'll keep a tally." It's a cold, harsh and logical statement. We we're willing to leave an entire city behind to get away when the infection broke out, what was one more person?

... ... ...

Ok, here we go again. Dad and myself are off to a near by small town to gather some food, if we can find any. "Is this wise? Two man teams don't seem to work out very well"

"Two man teams made of ill trained people do not fare very well Lucas"

"Ryan is not ill trained any more then Mathew is"

"But Sky and Yvonna are. We will be fine my son." I hope so, we're off to the first town Mathew tried to visit. To see if we can find anyone to barter with. He wants us to look weaker then we really are. I'm not sure why, I would have gone with big and scary. "Wouldn't looking strong make a better first impression?"

"If we want to come across as demanding or intimidating yes. But we want to come across as nice and simply looking to rebuild."

"But we have nothing to offer"

"Yes we do. Our blades, we can offer to get ride of an infected area or help build up a garden for everyone."

"In exchange that they do all the manual labor, we keep the infected away till better walls are built. We can demand our fare share in food for sticking our necks out like that. What if they have a way to deal with the infected already?"

"Maybe we can move in and help around town."

"Shouldn't you have brought Darin with us then?"

"I have made plenty of business deals in the past, I can do it again." I look at him over imaginary spectacles. Yaa, but Darin always did better because he can use the big words and talk people in circles so he gets more of what he wants. "I don't need your brother here to make a fair trade." He fidgets in his seat and we both know Darin would have been a better pick for that part. Hopefully that gives him something to think about for when we get there. If there's anyone left to talk to. If said somebody doesn't just shoot first and ask questions later.

I sit here in the passenger seat, looking at a pair of nice neat lines made of infected. That is so a trap. I watch the infect come barreling out of the field and hit the van as dad watches a few more creep up on his side. How are they doing that, is it the same ones? No way, Mathew was covered in brain matter, they have a few new infected in on this.

"I got one on this side"

"Three on this side"

"There not moving right." I squint at the guy banging on my side, he's getting tired.

"Neither are mine, and the infected are trying to move towards us, despite no screamer around here."

"Ok, I'll deal with mine first, see if we can get some answers from him." Dad nods me on so I swing my door out wide and wait, and as expected my so called infected doesn't lung at me. "Dude, your acting skills suck." He shambles at me and I can see the makeup job. "My girlfriend will need to give you guys some tips on how to blend."

"Your woman isn't infected yet?" He pauses part way in the door and looks at me before nodding at the shambles inbound. "They will get here eventually." at that pace, it will take at least 20 minutes.

"Then call your friends off and hop in, we can talk away from the masses." He backs up, looks at us, looks at the inbound infected and shouts out to his buddy's, gigs up they know. They instantly stop what their doing and I send them to the back. Dad switches off, leaving me to drive, stationing himself between them and me. "Interesting set up you got there"

"After a group of infected took out a bunch of incoming people we realized it was a great way to keep others away. They usually leave after the banging starts. What gave us away?"

"Several things" My dad starts off. "Infected are more aggressive. Even weak and half dead they attack faster and harder. You, were playing the part of a crazy infected, they are savage and would not wait for us to open the door, they would try to take if off the van themselves"

"Yaa" I can only imagine their shuttering back there in that pause. "We've run across a few of the unstoppable kind before."

"Second my son is right, you need some lessons in blending, you look dead, infected are not dead. Nor are you covered in anything other then dirt. So, there are humans in town still?"

"Yaa, we got us a few survivors. But we don't have any room for new guys. You mentioned a girl?"

"No, we mentioned a daughter in law." I'll let that pass and pretend not to freak out in the driver seat, why does everyone keep bringing that up? I guess it is the easiest way to say off limits.

"He said girlfriend"

"If he doesn't put a ring on it soon she'll be nothing after this mess." I twitch in my seat, surly she's okay waiting till after the dust settles. "So basically she's a daughter in law."

"To him? He's just a kid"

"She is not up for discussion. We we're hoping to find more survivors and open trade routs, to help each other out. If not we can drop you off at the road we found you on and go on our way." Guess dad is cranky and witching tactics on us. Told you we should have brought Ryan and Darin along.

"And besides the girl, what do you have to offer?"

"A way to get rid of the infected for you."

"No man, we got that covered. They keep other humans away. Or rather they keep a certain group of humans away"

"Oh?" My interest is peeked as well.

"Information cost old man, and right now we got the numbers..." I can't help it, I pull over harshly laughing so hard I can't breath right. "What's so funny kid?" I can't even get a good lung full of air in to warn them. Dad moves so fast his blade is out, damage is dealt and it's put away before the blood even flows. The guy jerks back hissing in pain as the shirt turns red.

"Numbers won't help you right now when we have the weapons." A glance in the mirror shows fear on their faces, all but one... "I was offering help, I am trying to help rebuild what's left. Do not insult me further, my patients has run thin already. I ran a dojo, a martial arts gym back home before all this. I am a master of more then one style, my son is set to take over after I retire. We don't need numbers, we don't need bullets. What we need is food and a safe half way point. I was offering a defense stance to help build up walls, to help secure a line of supplies for both sides. Yes or no?"

The last guy on the left, he's supper skinny, lanky, gaunt comes to mind, his lack of fear sets me on edge as he sits up straighter. "I like this idea, let's go back and we can talk some more about this idea."

"I request the presence of whoever is in charge of the town before making any official offers."

"Your in luck, that's me." He directs me down a back dirt road, a left, a right another left, he's trying to confuse me with mismatch directions. We've passed that tree twice now. I fallow a few more lefts and rights before pulling up to something that could pass as a barricade. It's only cars piled up. It's a good ambush set up. Looking hap hazardous most would think the cars where abandoned and left on the side of the tiny, just enough room for one car back lane road. We stop a ways back and he hops out, his men fallowing him. He steps in front of the van, waves till someone pops up and waves back. His arm sung wider to the left then the right, the guy did the same thing. He hops in the front seat beside me, as the others walk outside and beside us. I go slow to avoid leaving anyone behind without a fast hiding spot. That guy looks amused with this. The skin on the back of my neck crawls. "Names Brant. I made my way back home after the news broke out about the infection. My parents turned shortly after. Too much stress I guess." He looks at me and I feel like screaming lair to his face.

"We fled the city before the bridges were shut down." It's about as non dis-scripted as we can get, I'll let dad focus on answering and keep an eye on the road.

"Names?"

"I am Scott Harlan, my son Lucas"

"Nice to meet you boys." Man he's leaving a lot out right now. Dad is talkative about all of us to new people. He's a proud dad. Then again this leaves out how many we have, so potential advantage. "I don't know everyone's name in town anymore, most are stragglers we picked up from near by locations. They themselves looking for a safe place. In turn each help locate more supplies and bring it back. Somethings are worth more then others. It's down to barter style around here, a fraction goes into the stock piles but most of it staying with the finder."

"Finders keepers with a small fee to the town. Sounds like you have a system worked out here. What of those that are injured and cant fend for themselves?"

"That's what the stock pile is for. Everyone puts into it, and if something happens your allowed to take out of it. As you know this only works when everyone is being honest with what they found."

"Something that not every man likes to do with dwindling supplies to be found."

"That is why minatory random searches are done."

"And what happens when someone is found with more then they say they do?"

He doesn't look happy with the question, face sours a bit. "He gets put up on zombie duty and the extras are taken and placed in the stock pile."

"Zombie duty?"

"The men playing infected, some idiots wondered by with their fancy armored RV and got taken out before finding us. Unforgettably one of them took out the infected coordinating the attacks and the crazy guy before being dragged back inside the RV. So we had to kill off the screamer and started playing the roles our ourselves." Oh, goodie. He's talking about Mathew. Dad's idea to keep our numbers hidden is already paying off.

"So did you have more then you were suppose too?" Dad gives me quite the glare for this comment, the grin has my face splitting slightly as Brant shakes his head.

"Yes. But it was a miscalculation on my part. You see I'm not that good at math and counted the can's wrong. Besides, I volunteer for this role often. I don't make my men do all the dirty work around here." Little red warning bells are going off in my head, more lies. And he was doing so good at telling the truth.

"It happens to the best of us at times. With hungry stomachs it is easy to make mistakes."

"That's why a little extra is waved away, a lot extra gets you in trouble. And when no one is misbehaving you can earn extra by volunteering. To which I'm told I need to work on my blending skills. Not something I ever had to do before this." This time danger bells go off in my head, she's not up for debate but he keeps coming back to her.

The streets are lined with barrels, come night fall I bet they will be lit up to add warmth and to see by. Some stores and houses are barracked shut, others left open. The one infected pressed into the glass of the home we're passing by tells me why. Men, and only men walk around with guns and weapons out in the open. If you have infected crammed into homes and building so close by, you would carry heavy weapons with you everywhere too. He seems to feel the need to answer questions before I can even ask them. "Their tied up, in the event that bad guys poke their heads in we let them loss and hide in our homes. When the bad guys leave we range them back up, put the cars back and go about our business. It's a little crud, but it works." There are dozens of people here. They don't need our help, my hair stand on end sensing a trap. His men are staring at us driving by. Some hands on weapons, some hiding behind their backs, others look ready to turn. "Forgive them, new comers are not always a good thing. Pull up in that drive way, it's the new town hall."

I loath the idea of getting out of this van, of leaving it unguarded while we are inside the house, but it must be done. Quick sliver has nothing on this guy. Lies flow as smoothly as truths. But it's his eyes that give it away. They dart around and I know where his men are hiding even as he gives their potions away. Dad whispers five, I only counted four. I missed someone's hiding spot. The tree looks like it was set on fire, smells like it too. The front porch is covered in stains. Glass is broken on the second story. There where nicer places on our way in, why this one? I get my answer inside the door. A pile of bodies are getting ripe in the family living room. Looks like they took themselves out. Up the stairs we go, down the hallway to what was once the master bedroom. The walk in closet has the old stuff shoved inside it. Make shift then. The clothes seem to have disappeared or been distributed already. Odd, you would think the wooden bed would have been used as fire food by now. That mattress looks to be in decent shape too.

Dad finally speaks up sitting down on the plastic lawn chair. "That's dangerous, dead bodies are known cesspits."

"And?" He looks at us funny.

I can't help it. "Information is costly." Dad doesn't look happy with me but the guy chortles at this. as I take a post up on the far wall to keep a better eye on the door, I may be in a corner but it's the best I can do for now. I can hear people moving in the room beside me as he finally answers.

"Indeed it is."

"How costly can it get?"

"Depends on the information. Non infected are the most valuable, food storage locations, even if it's only a possibility with a risk assessment come next. It goes on down the lines from there. Skilled labor is in high demand, but that shouldn't be a surprise to you folks."

"Whatever helps then. How do you determined the value of a piece of information without giving it away first?" Dad looks more irritated with me but lets it slide as he settles in.

"I let a small piece go, then leave it up to you. I find most people are reasonable with their counter offers. So far very little bickering has happened."

"Then you have a good set up here then." Assuming it runs as he say's it does. Dad takes over and I try to lean into the wall to hear the other conversion happening in the other room better. Snippiest coming back to me. Dad lets him know about the infection spreading by the air, on common cold and flu viruses. Removing the dead bodies would help clear the air. In return we find out about a group of no good humans to the west of here. They like making trouble. From the other room I gather someone is missing and someone else is upset about this. Dad trades more information about the virus spreading around, when asked how he knows his answer is, from my son's research. The guy looks at me but I make no move to indicate anything. So he gives up a possible storage location with a high risk factor to it, no one has taken the job on because of how many infected appear to be around it. A smaller town a few hours away from here. There was a fair in town when the infection spreed like a wild fire, most of the town folks turned or where killed. As far as everyone can tell it's fully stocked, but no one has ever come back alive from retrieval attempts. If we can scoop it out, or even better find out what's wear we can have half of what we find. Running a small place like this takes tons of man power, and tons of man power means tons of mouths to feed. Dad is thinking about this. Not what he was looking for but it may be the answer we're going to get. The guy next door gets louder in his panic so Brant excuses himself to help deal with it while we mull the information over. So I turn my attention to the other room, pressing my ear to the wall. A pair of voices are going at it.

"I'm telling you, they just killed him, a bunch of them."

"Killed him how? Marco was a skilled fighter anti nobody taking him down that easily."

"I don't know man, I was too far away but it wasn't a gun that's for sure."

"What did he find that he deemed a further investigation without proper backup?"

"Woman, a whole bunch of them, a few guys too but a shit ton of chemicals and like lab stuff"

I can't breath. I'm frantically signalling dad over, face pressed so tightly to the walls it hurts. He doesn't ask, just presses his ear into the wall to better hear Brant's answer.

"Calm down Mike. How many non infected? How many infected, what kind of chemicals? Your looking at a months worth of rations here is you can give us detailed. Are they friendly?"

"Someone crazy chick came flying out of the house after the others. She had a funny shaped bow and fired before the others could say anything. They got a lookout. They had pits and mazes made from spike covered wooden barrack-aids to run through to get to the inside with, so we thought it might be a good little half way. He found the barn full of testing things, he got excited by all the stuff they had. It was laying around too. I tried to get him to run with some of it but he wanted to take a look around, something was running so he figured their were others around. That's when he spotted a girl by the house. He tried to capture her but it backfired on him, I ran out of there fast and went to the next houses but didn't find much before returning."

"How many people?"

"At least one infected inside the barn, maybe half a dozen non infected outside. but that farm house isn't meant for that many to hold so they could be sharing the space. They had it set up to test on that one chick and two more cages, one was smashed to pieces so I'm thinking they had two captives and the unstoppable one got out."

Dad's eyes are flicking back and forth like mad. I still can't breath. Holly shit someone has our layout and defenses figured out. They know our location, they know approximately how many are there. My head spins and I almost fall over. They are obsessed with finding woman, that's not a good sign.

"At least three woman, maybe more. Their hogging the toys man."

I freeze watching dad's eyes darken like that. Now I'm refusing to breath, like a rabbit staring a snake down.

"Only if they want to be. A lab eh..." Dad takes off from his spot and glides back into his chair, I'm left blinking at this as he signals me to his side. Away from the wall.

"Breath Lucas" Right, air is important. "compose quickly." I snap to attention, they don't known we know all that. Best to put a poker face on before they get back. Meditation is coming in handy again to bring my focus back to the here and now. And not sending me flying through that door and back to their sides. Our potion is compromised, we can adept and move forwards. And Nelle is never leaving the house again. She can spit fire all she wants, she's locked in that room from now on. "Lucas" Right, breathing, calming the mind. Not going savage on whoever is in that other room. I'm back to breathing right when Brant comes back in. He looks to my spot by the wall and see's me half bent over with my face close to dad's. He smiles like he knows something. Dad pats my face and sends me back to my spot talking without looking back at the door, giving Brant the impression he's getting information for free.

"Your brother is working as fast as he can Lucas." Brant sits back down in front of dad, his back to the window. The sun is getting low, we should be taking off soon. "We agree we can take a look around, feeding men takes a lot of food. But what of other supplies we find? And how will we get it back here?"

"Easy, you go scout the area, get some details and return here. I'll provide the extra man power and wheels to help haul everything back. From there we can split what is returned. If all goes according to plan we may have a fruitful partnership on our hands, if you can help with the infected as much as you say you can."

"I Ran a dojo, I specials in hand to hand combat and taking down my targets with speed and efficiency." It's not a threat, more of a warning. He's not as calm as he looks. "We shale head back to our camp not far from here and be back around 8 am." It's a smooth lie. It's going to be a late night and early morning for me. "If this works out in everyone's favor, we can start something a bit more sustainable."

"I look forward to our next meeting Scott, will you be bringing your other son?"

Lol, he's fishing for more information, dad humors him. "It has occurred to me that the more on deck the better." He bows with his respect, I mimic a half heart-ed one at best but I doubt he knows that. Dad may rem me out for it but I can't fake a full one right now. As it is turning my back on this man is hard. If I get any more tense I may pop something. Once more back out at the van I'm happy to see it all in one piece. Dad back at the wheel and we're shown to the back door. Guess the main front one is out of the count, being blocked by infected and what not.

Unsurprisingly I'm told to sleep on the way back home. Then sent to my bed, he pulls Crispin and Ryan off to the side to talk with them. Darin huffs at being left out again. But he will be the girls defense tomorrow While Mathew man's the look out with Sky.