“I got it.” Castle swallowed hard, fighting back a sensation to spit up his hash browns. But he found what little courage he had left and made his way over to the creature. “I can at least put him out of his misery.” He stood over the infected man and raised his gun, but Torrez stopped him.
“No guns.” Torrez said, “We don’t want that hive coming back here.”
Castle nodded and chose instead to bludgeon the creature with the butt of his gun.
Shuffling footsteps could be heard behind the soldiers and they all turned with their guns raised. “It’s ok! It’s me! I made it!” Bates was hunched over next to a minivan with his hands up.
“Bates… you ok?” Baker asked, relieved to see he hadn’t lost another soldier.
“Yeah.” Bates came stumbling over and laughing to himself. “That was fuckin’ crazy right? But we did it! We fuckin’ did it!” He took off his bandana and wiped his wet forehead.
“You think those kids made it?” Castle asked when he came back to the group.
“I don’t know. They could be halfway to Frisco by now, or worse.” Baker turned his radio on, “This is Baker. The hive is gone. We lost Anderson. Over.”
“Baker! It’s about time!” Carver’s voice came through the radio sounding intolerant. “You say the infected are gone? You lost them in the woods, over?”
“Yeah. The plan worked. Over.”
“Good. And Anderson was the only casualty, over?”
Baker held the radio to his mouth waiting a beat. “Yeah. One casualty, over.”
The receiver was quiet. Then Carver came back on. “And those boys? What happened to them? Over.”
Baker looked to the tree line. “We lost them in the woods sir. Over.”
“Damn it, you lost them? They could have run off with their group or went to find them!”
Baker just sighed.
“Speak of the little devils…” Lincoln pointed towards the trees and they all turned to see Antonio and Miles jogging into the parking lot.
“Well I’ll be damned.” Castle shook his head and chuckled.
“Sir, the boys came back. They’re here. Over,” Baker reported into the radio.
“Captain Baker, we can see you on the camera.” The new voice coming through the radio belonged to Julia. “Glad to see you all made it. And I’m sorry about Anderson. Over.”
Baker waited a few beats. “Yeah. We’re coming back in now. See you in ten, over and out.” The captain lowered his radio and clipped it back to his waistband.
“You little bastards are something else, man.” Lincoln held his hand up and Miles came to high five him gleefully.
“We gotta get the fuck back inside before them strikers try comin’ back,” Antonio said, breathing hard from running.
“I can’t believe that actually worked. How’d you get away from those freaks?” Bates was fidgety and his head twitched sporadically as he spoke.
Antonio saw his shake but let it go. “We just zigzagged through them trees and circled back when they thinned out. It’s not really--” Antonio stopped when he saw Bates twitch again, then he gave the man a quick once-over. “He’s infected.”
Bates reeled back some. “Wha--what? What are you talking about kid?”
“He’s got a scratch on his arm.” Antonio pointed with the bat he was still holding onto. Miles’s eyes went large when he noticed the scrape.
“What, this? I got it jumping on that car.” Bates looked between his comrades and saw the growing caution in their eyes. He twitched again. “C’mon guys. I fuckin’ took out all those infected and scratched myself on one of these shitty cars.”
“Is anyone else injured? Does anyone else have any injuries?” Miles chased himself in a circle trying to check if he had any scratches. The other soldiers started self-examining.
“I’m not infected! These little shits don’t know what they’re talking about!” Bates licked his hand and started rubbing at the scratch on his arm. “It’s nothing! Look at it, it’s nothing!” He wiped and wiped, but small pebbles of blood kept forming on the small wound. His head twitched again.
Antonio locked on. “Look, the virus got him! The first symptom is a nervous twitch! Y’all don’t know that?!” Antonio was pointing again with his bat and looking at Captain Baker. “We don’t know where he got that scratch from, but there was hella strikers on him and it ain’t no way he didn’t get scratched or bit or somethin’!” Antonio gripped his bat and slowly backed away from Bates.
“Screw you kid! I’m fine!” He turned to his commanding officer of seven years. “Captain, I’m fine.”
Baker could see the desperation in his eyes. Torrez and Lincoln were both still checking themselves and Castle was watching Bates hesitantly. The situation was growing tenser by the second. Baker looked twice at the scrape on Bates’ arm again.
“You got it jumping on the cars?” Baker questioned.
“Yeah!” Bates responded.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah!”
“Positive?”
“Yes!” Bates was shouting now, and Castle shushed him, worried about attracting any infected in the area; a few slow-moving freaks were still lumbering through the parking lot. “Look, I’m fine. I’m not changing or anything. It’s just a scra--” Bates shook violently again, this time the shaking all through his body. It was a roll of contorted spasms and his mouth hung open as he tried to speak but it came out
