CHAPTER TWENTY
Violet felt endlessly more comfortable once she moved a heavy wardrobe in front of the breached window. This house wasn't as well fortified as her sanctuary had been but it was solid. No other infected head breached anywhere except the bedroom window. She was willing to hazard a guess that the window was a feat exclusive to the hunters, as the other infected weren't as agile. But she really didn't need a flock of hunters after her small family. Estelle was still fairly immobile and Vincent was weak. She knew his name, but it didn't seem to suit him. Although, she had no trouble calling Hayley by her name. In fact, she seemed pleased by it. Violet was starting to observe Hayley closer than she had ever observed Vincent.
Hayley was strange. Violet knew this. She wasn't aggressive like the other hunters, and she wasn't picky about what she ate. She enjoyed a variety of canned foods, and crackers. Cheetos were here favorite snack, and she demolished them at a rapid rate. She made no attempt to verbalize with Violet aside from the whines, snarls and yelps Estelle and Violet had grown accustomed to. But when she slept, Violet watched her have nightmares. Horrible, tremor inducing nightmares, where she could clearly be heard whimpering words. English, distinctive words that chilled Violet to the bone. The same phrase kept popping up. "No mama please comes back"
Any attempt to get Hayley to talk in the waking hours left her with an uneasy blank stare from the hunter and lots of questions. Violet was once again reminded, these were people. They were mutated and deformed by a disease that had ravaged their bodies, but when it came down to it, they were just sick people. Vincent never talked, asleep or not. He spent most of his time sleeping, the rest eating. His recovery was much faster than a normal person; she assumed the infection must have brought on that unexpected benefit. But the truth was, he was very hurt and needed time to heal, along with good care.
If she could get Hayley to stop trying to lick him every two minutes, progress might be more rapid. She had taken on many doglike habits, including being very possessive of the infant that seemed to plague her with constant affections. One day Vincent rolled too close the Estelle while she was napping next to Hayley and before Violet could bat an eye, Hayley threw Vincent across the room. He awoke with a startled snarl. He seemed rather confused as he crawled back up onto the bed. He heeded the warning he got and kept his distance.
Violet opened the cupboard and was dismayed. There weren't really any medical supplies left; Vincent was using them at such a rapid rate. She was going to have to venture out to get more, but she was very wary, as the last time she had gone out, she came back to a demolished home. She knew this place wouldn't keep them safe forever, and they would have to move on. But for now she was going to hole up and let Vincent get better. She dreaded having to travel with an infant; she knew it was going to be dangerous. She had heard about fortified rooms CEDA had set up, but she was uneasy about chasing after some "safe room" that may or may not be there.
For now, she would be going to the store. While she trusted Hayley not to eat Estelle, she didn't feel hoards. She had come to expect very few common infected. From the looks of things, the infected had started to cannibalize each other. She hadn't seen another survivor in weeks. So when she heard blood curdling screams she was thrown off. Against her better judgment she, she moved towards the sounds of the screams. She quickly assessed what she knew. It had been about thirty five seconds since she had heard the scream. The scream had seemed to come from inside the hardware store. The scream sounded human, and was likely to belong to a deceased human now. Maybe this human had supplies she could scavenge. As bad as that sounded, Violet wasn't about picking useful items, such as food, water, weapons or medical supplies off a corpse. It's not like they needed it anymore.
She got near the hardware and ducked around the corner when she heard movement. Hidden in the shadows, Violet observed a group of three men moving away rapidly. So there was a few stragglers like herself. She turned to go when a nagging voice in her head insisted she go into the hardware store anyways. Maybe it was because she needed some supplies and wanted to see what hadn't been looted from the store. Or maybe it was because she wanted to know why the men had moved on so quickly. Violet didn't want to admit that it was because she didn't think any of those men had made such a high pitched wail.
She entered the store slowly, very watchful and alert, wishing she had brought Hayley with her. She was stuffed her pillow sack with bags of potato chips. She also found power bars, a partial package of bottled waters and a box of deadbolts. They were four dollars a piece, but she would have to put it on her tab. As she quietly chuckled to herself, she very nearly missed a very quiet shuffling. She froze and readied her handgun. Whatever was approaching was trying to be stealthy and that immediately made it a threat. She swiftly rounded the corner and scared the ever living daylights out of…
A bloody grimy teenage boy? He visibly trembled as she lowered her gun. She stared at him blankly for a few moments before saying "Hi. Im Violet. Im going to the store. Would you like to come with me?" He was shaking like a leaf and clung to a small hammer as he nodded yes. He didn't look too injured as he followed her quickly through the streets. Thankfully, there wasn't an infected to be seen, just rotting corpses all around.
By now she knew the store well and was dismayed to find that it had been heavily looted. She had to search far and wide for the medical supplies she needed. She looked around for the boy but she couldn't find him, agitated she prepared to leave. Then she heard a crinkling noise. She paused and went to investigate. The boy was in the snack aisle shoveling in crackers at an impressive speed. He noticed her and followed her submissively, but didn't relinquish his hold on the crackers. He seemed half starved.
They arrived to the house and Violet showed him the cellar door they had to go through to get into the basement. He followed as quickly as he could, nearly treading on her heels. As they got to the basement door she turned to him and said "Okay I know youre scared, but when I open this door theres going to be something in there that may frighten you. Please don't scream."