Kept us fed for a month. No way looters would have broken in, killed a group of heavily armed people, and then left without ransacking the place.”
“They all drank the Kool-Aid,” Cannon said reluctantly. “Still it’s a bit sick.”
“Technically it was Flav-R-Aid,” Ryan mumbled.
“Hell, Cannon, we’ve seen a dozen things just this fucked up over the years,” Cahz pointed out.
Cannon chewed his lip. “Suppose.”
“Well, let’s make this place secure,” Cahz said. “We need to be sure we can get to the roof and check it’s suitable to land a chopper. Ryan, you know this place better than us.”
Ryan nodded his agreement.
“You and Cannon check that out. Go scout things out up there. I’m going to start making an inventory of what we can use in here.”
“No point,” Ryan said. “We gutted the place of anything useful.”
“I want to know that for sure. You guys might have missed something. Now get a move on.”
Cannon gave a nod and turned for the stairs.
“Cannon,” Cahz said. Cannon stopped and whipped round. “Go up one staircase and down the other. Don’t go onto the other floors, but keep your ears open for other residents. We’ll sweep the place clear only if we need to.”
“Got it boss.” Cannon made a salute and jogged away.
Ryan hesitated. He looked at Elspeth and the child she cradled.
His daughter was still whining, her cheeks flushed, the scratch down her face puffy and prominent. Elspeth looked cold and grey. Her skin had a waxy sheen to it and her eyes looked sunken. Ryan had seen that pallor so many times before. The condemned look of the infected.
“You comin’?” Cannon called back.
Elspeth was Samantha’s mother and they shared the same hair and the same eyes. And now Elspeth shared the same haunted expression Ryan had seen on Sam when she’d realised she was going to die.
“Yeah, sure,” Ryan said softly and turned to follow.
Cahz slung his carbine behind him and marched up to the crates.
The various wooden and plastic boxes weren’t as ordered as he’d first thought. Cahz guessed that at one time they had been neatly stacked, but that Ryan and his friends had seen no need to tidy up after their foraging.
He squatted down on his haunches and gave a huff before opening the first one.
Inside was an array of bandages and other basic first aid.
“Here,” Cahz said, offering a Mepore dressing.
“Oh, what’s the point?” Elspeth sighed.
Cahz nodded and tossed the dressing back.
“It doesn’t hurt now anyway,” Elspeth said.
“Gone numb, huh?” Cahz didn’t look back to make eye contact. Instead he opened the next box.
“After all this time…” Elspeth sucked in a sharp breath. “I mean… Well, I don’t know what I mean. We’d survived all of this, Samantha and me.” She looked down at the sleeping child in her arms. “It was a shock when she died. I thought I could console myself with my granddaughter. There was always a reminder of Samantha. But she reminds me too much sometimes. It’s all so unfair. I mean, who dies in childbirth these days…” Elspeth paused for a moment. “I mean, no one should die in childbirth in this day and age, what with the medicines and machines and doctors. If we’d have had them Samantha wouldn’t have died. She’d be here to look after her baby girl just like I looked after her.” Elspeth looked up, her eyes wet with welling tears. “That’s how things are supposed to be. Not this nightmare.” She took in a deep breath that transformed into a sob. She started crying.
Cahz looked round from his rummaging. Elspeth was sitting with tears streaming down her cheeks. Her short salt and pepper hair combined with the deep wrinkles from her weeping made her look like a pensioner. Cahz guessed she was actually younger than that from the way she talked and the way she had run the gauntlet of zombies.
He gazed at her blankly, trying to decide what to do. He could go across there, sit down next to her, and put a comforting arm round her. But what would be the point of that? Cahz didn’t know her, had only just met her and there was no point investing time in getting to know her as she’d be dead in a few hours.
He might as well go over there and put a bullet in her brain-wouldn’t that be the kindest thing to do?
As prudent as it was, Cahz knew he shouldn’t dispatch her. Elspeth was a longstanding companion of Ryan’s and he’d no doubt want to say his goodbyes.
He sucked in a brisk draft of air through his teeth. He turned back to the first crate and retrieved the dressing.
“Let me have a look at that,” he said as he walked over.
“I’m sorry,” Elspeth sobbed.
Cahz pulled back the blood soaked collar. The bite mark beneath was black. The contagion’s spread was marked against her pale skin by the tendrils of dark veins. He unpeeled the dressing from its packaging and gently placed it over the wound. The stark white plaster showed the contrast of the greying dead skin and infected deep blue blood vessels.
“Nothing to apologise about, lady,” Cahz said, staring down at his boots. “Whole world’s shit and there’s no rhyme or reason to it.”
“I was supposed to look after her.” Elspeth looked down at the baby. The child’s face was still raw looking with a thick red welt.
“You did your best. Sometimes that just isn’t enough.” Cahz paused a long moment. “I was about to try and empathize with you, lady-tell you about the people I let down. But it’s not the same.”
Elspeth glanced down at her blood stained blouse. “No, it’s not. You’ve not been infected.”
Cahz straightened at the comment. He felt the tainted mucus in his mouth rise. He shook his head. “There’s nothing anybody can do for the infected.”
“There is one thing,” Elspeth butted in, looking down at his side arm.
Cahz saw where Elspeth was going with this train of thought.
“How do you want to play it?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I just know I don’t want to be a nuisance. I don’t want to come back and… well, you know.”
Cahz did know.
“When?” he asked solemnly.
Elspeth took a deep swallow. “Not right now, if that’s what you mean.”
She gently stroked the baby’s uninjured cheek. The small child pursed its lips and made a sucking motion in its sleep. “She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?”
“She sure is.”
Cahz meant it. Even with the nasty scratch covering one side of her infant face, her wide eyes and pug nose were still cute. He felt a cold shudder run down his spine at the thought of having to shoot such an angelic face.
He picked himself up and made his way back over to the supplies.
“Best sort through this stuff,” he said, trying to distance himself from the child and the appalling notion.
“Find anything useful, boss?” Cannon asked, looking at the heap of crates.
“Nothing much. The most important things are these.” Cahz stood up and ushered Cannon over. “There are six of these five gallon water bottles,” Cahz said as he gently kicked the first container with his toe. The water inside sloshed against the clear walls.
“Will they be safe to drink?” Cannon asked.
“Should be fine,” Ryan said. “Water doesn’t go off so as long as the lids are on tight. There might be a bit of a taint off the plastic but it won’t kill you.”
“You know that for sure?” Cannon asked.
Ryan thumped his chest. “Never done me any harm.”
