When Alex's house came into Tommy's sight, poking just over the horizon like the rising sun, he took off sprinting. There hadn't been a sign of the infection since the incident with the house, so he was secure with his decision to let his gun hang loosely from his shoulder. The soil was loose and hard to get footing in, so he tripped on several occasions, but he kept forging forward, so glad that he had finally reached his goal.
Then he saw a glint of light, the all-too-familiar flare the barrel of a gun makes when someone pulls the trigger. The bullet hit the dirt next to Tommy, shouting up a spray of dust, before he heard the sound. The crack echoed through the air and Tommy dropped to the ground, waving his gun in the air.
Gosh, he though, they must think I'm an infected. He chuckled to himself, seeing the slight irony in the thought and the possible misconception, before peeking around the precariously placed piece of farm equipment that had luckily been there when he got to the ground.
He saw Alex's house, and the garage that was a few yards away from it, then he saw the large barn and he could faintly make out someone on top of it moving around, most likely to get a better view of him. Then he saw James, whom was getting out of his wooden chair on the porch and walking out into the yard, towards Tommy. Tommy was too afraid to stand, so he kept waving his gun until he heard James call out.
"Quit doin' that you fuckin' idiot!" James voice was happy, excited, ecstatic. "Before I wish Alex would have shot you." Tommy dropped the gun and slowly stood up, facing the ragged faced James. They stared at each other for a moment, not moving, until smiles spread like butter across their face, and it was just like the moment at the mall. They embraced in a hug before pulling away quickly and looking back to the house. They saw Alex get down from his perch on the barn as he waved them back to the yard.
"Infected!" They heard Alex scream. "They're moving closer to the edge of town, we need to be careful!"
"Then maybe we should stop screaming." Tommy said quietly to James, and he burst into laughter. They began walking towards Alex who was planning on meeting them halfway, but stopped on the road, staring down it. Tommy and James both chanced a glance in the direction Alex was looking, and they saw what gained his attention.
A fire, a large one; it stretched into the sky just where Catlin was sitting. None of them were sure exactly where the fire was, but if they had to chance a guess it would have been the church, close to the center of town. But it wasn't a fire; there was smoke, but no flame.
"What do you think it is?" James asked, reaching the road with Tommy.
"I don't have a clue." Tommy said, staring dumbly at the cloud of smoke.
"Some kind of gas," Alex said, studying the cloud that he noticed wasn't just rising, but spreading as well. "Most likely to incapacitate the infection."
"What activated it?" Tommy asked, looking to Alex, who seemed to know what was going on even though that seemed impossible.
"I don't know," Alex said, shaking his head. "I'm not even sure what kind of gas it is. There weren't any planes or anything flying over head, so it had to be someone on the ground."
"Do you think the army is here?" Tommy stepped towards the house, as if he was afraid the gas was going to shoot across the field and force its way into his lungs.
"Nah. They'd come in from the border of the infection, if there even is one. There's no way they'd just drop into this mess unless…"
"Unless they had it under control." James finished Alex's thought, looking to him with a slight glint of hope in his eyes.
"So what you're saying is that, either the infection is quarantined and they are now cleansing the entire area, or someone got a hold of some chemical weapon and unleashed it in Catlin?" Tommy said,
"It's one of the two, yeah." Alex continued to study the gas cloud. "You see, it's dissipating around the edges already. It won't even spread through the entire town, so whoever was using it must have been using it for a reason."
"What reason?" James leaned in as if to get a closer look, even though it was several miles away.
"Depends on the gas." Alex began, turning to walk back to the barn, most likely to get into his perch. "If it's a deadly gas, then the person is most likely using it to kill a giant group of infected. If it's just like a smoke bomb, or something of the sort, the person is just trying to blind them so they can escape."
"Then again, it could also be a diversion." James added, following with Alex, who began to climb the ladder to get on top of the barn. "But either way, there's one thing we do know."
"There's someone alive in there." Alex said, laying down with his sniper rifle, aiming down the scope, hoping to catch a glimpse of anything. "And they're not stupid."
Tommy left the two, as they continued talking, so that he could get inside and tell the others that he was ok. But most of all, he wanted to see Coleen, to smell that vanilla scent of hers and feel her cool, smooth skin again. The house was just as he remembered it from all those years ago, when Alex and he used to go out on late-night-raids to the local gas station, and stay up all night playing videogames.
The house had two stories, the first story contained the kitchen (to the right), the living room (to the left), and what used to be the master bedroom (pass the living room). The second floor held three bedrooms, one to the right, and two to the left. Tommy could see Tanya lying on the couch in the living room as soon as he came in. She didn't move, most likely thinking that it was James or Alex, so Tommy walked in and stood in front of her. She looked like a wreck, even with a working shower and food she still looked like a frightened-to-death war veteran.
"You could use a nap." Tommy said, just before Tanya looked up. Her face filled with color as she sprung up from the couch, wrapping her arms around her supposedly-dead friend. She didn't make any sounds except for a few small gasps as if she was being suffocated. Tommy just patted her back and said that it was nice to see her too.
"What the hell happened?" Tanya asked, pulling away and looking at the mess Tommy was.
"I'm going to save myself the trouble and tell everyone at one time." He said, looking toward the stairs. "Is she up there?"
"You could say that. She hasn't moved much at all." Tommy felt a stab of guilt, knowing that it wasn't just because she was tired. He gave Tanya one more hug before heading up the stairs to meet his fate. His feet made loud clunking sounds with each step, and when he reached the top of the stairs he wasn't sure which way to turn. To the right there was just one room, and from what Tommy could hear, there was no one in there. Which meant she was most likely in the room to the far left, through the expansive, yet empty bedroom and on into the small cramped one.
He saw her immediately after stepping through the door frame. She was curled up in her favorite position, her chest was moving with her slow breathing. Her hair was all over the place, just as it always was, and she looked to have not had much food for god knows how long. Tommy wasn't sure how long he had been "dead", but he was sure that that time period was the same length as her lack of food.
The stab of guilt hit him again, this time it was even harder. He wanted to hold her just so she would know that he was ok, just so she could sleep soundly. His hand reached out and brushed the hair out of her face, which looked even paler than it had before. The rings under her eyes were as black as the cloud of gas Alex had seen from the road. Tommy leaned over and kissed her cheek, feeling her cold skin on his lips; it made him feel alive again. Now it was his turn to make her feel that way.
Slowly, Tommy slid into the bed with Coleen, wrapping his arms around her and laying his head on her back. He felt her wake up. He also felt her wriggle out of his grasp, turning to look at him with her blue eyes. That's when she screamed, and kicked. Her foot connected with Tommy's gut and knocked the wind out of him, along with knocking him out of the bed and onto the floor. She didn't scream for a moment as she stood up and walked over to Tommy, who was clenching his gut and gasping for breath.
Her breathing was hard as she stared at him, her eyes wide as if she was seeing a ghost, and Tommy supposed, to her, he was a ghost. He tried to say something, anything, but he was still trying to catch his breath. She cursed at him before kicking him in the stomach again, this time taking aim, making sure to hit him right where he was clenching.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" She screamed, stepping back, tears forming in her eyes. "You died! You fucking died! James said you were dead!" Her voice began shaking as if there was an earthquake in her chest. She was sobbing uncontrollably at that point, falling to the bed and holding her head in her hands.
"Coleen." Tommy forced out through a chocked gasp.
She looked up at him, holding her sobs for a moment. It was as if she didn't even believe he was there until that moment, until he spoke up through his coughs.
"What the hell were you thinking, Tommy?" Coleen asked again, sounding desperate and looking the part as well. "Where have you been?"
"I was bitten." Tommy began, finally catching his breath. "I was bitten and James saw it. There was nothing he could have done, so I told him to leave. For some reason…"
Tommy was cut off by himself, because for some reason he began to cry, just like Coleen had been doing. She held out her arms and fell to the floor next to him, beckoning for him to come to her. Tommy let his head fall into her arms, and she held him as they both cried.
"I thought I was dead." Tommy said through the sobs. He wasn't sure if it was his body or Coleen's that was shaking, so he assumed they both were. He closed his eyes and just let it all out, and continued to do so until he felt Coleen's hand running through his messy hair, hitting every snag along the way.
"It's ok," She said, breathing in through her nose to clear it of all residue. "I'm here. You're here. That's all that matters right now."
Tommy continued to sob, feeling all of his emotions from after he was bitten leave him. They pooled on the ground around him and Coleen, but they didn't touch them; they never would again.
"Where have you been?" She asked again, just like she had in the church. Tommy looked at her, their eyes meeting and holding, then he told her the story.