Karo doesn’t seem impressed, not that Jack was expecting him to be.
“It’s been helpful knowledge. Knowing what we can and can’t eat, and how to prepare it safely.”
Once again the only conservative gesture Karo offers is a simple nod.
“You’re not an easy person to have a conversation with.”
“Not much worth talking about these days.”
With that Jack let’s their conversation dwindle. After a few minutes of silence filled walking Karo comes to a stop in front of a patch of woods. He studies the environment for a long moment.
“We could probably go around this, adding unnecessary time.” Karo says.
“Why not just go through it?”
“This is thick brush. Lot of noise, low visibility. Things tend to blend together under all that green.”
“Whatever you decide is what we’ll go with.”
Karo takes another long moment before speaking.
“We have to go through it. We need as much daylight as possible while searching the buildings.”
“Alright.”
“Move slowly, don’t speak, and be on high alert.”
Karo enters the brush first, moving slowly, and Jack follows. The rainfall adds an unexpected benefit in this densely wooded area, the wet ground prevents leaves from crackling. Unfortunately the constant slapping of moisture on their bodies makes it harder for Karo to know if he’s being painted with fresh blood left on the trees and plants, or just water.
The wooded area is long in distance, but shallow in depth. The two make it through the unwelcomed determent in under an hour. The road they passed on their initial travel to the trailer is now visible, and from what Karo remembers the buildings aren’t too far from where they are currently.
Their travel remains quiet until they reach the paved road. To Jack’s surprise it’s Karo who strikes their conversation back up.
“How’d you find the boy?”
“Patrick? Stroke of luck, I guess. We stumbled upon him laid out on a creek bed.”
“How’d you know he wasn’t a diseased?”
“We didn’t at first. We thought he was just a dead person. We watched him for a few minutes and Norman could see he was breathing, but it was shallow. We’d never seen a diseased like that.”
“So you took a risk?”
“An educated guess. He was dirty, had self inflicted cuts on his arms, was malnourished, and there were fresh splotches of vomit around him. It was clear he was sick. He’s a kid, we couldn’t just leave him there.”
“He could’ve been infected and you’d all be dead now.”
“It was a chance we were willing to take if it meant saving a kid’s life.”
“Not an educated move.”
“No, I guess not, but it was the right one.”
Karo doesn't audibly respond in full, but reacts with a bob of his head and a soft grunt. The buildings are in view now. Karo stops them and kneels down. He instructs Jack to lay flat on his stomach, doing the same along with him. They scan the buildings for a good passage of time.
“What do you know about him?” Karo whispers.
“What?”
“Patrick, what do you know about his past?”
“Not much. He lived with his parents until his father became infected and killed his mother, then he had to kill his father to survive. He’d been on his own since then until we found him.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
Karo rises to his feet, and Jack joins him. They timidly approach the buildings. Karo instructs Jack to stay close, they’re not going to split up. The first building is two stories. Two backrooms upstairs are hidden behind locked doors that Karo decides it’s best not to try and pry open. From the clothing scattered about it’s apparent that once upon a time this store served as some sort of apparel shop. This place doesn’t provide anything of use, putting a damper on their trip.
The second building appears to have been a sort of general store, and brings a sliver of sunshine as they find a roll each of gauss and duct tape and a two boxes of 9mm bullets. The shop is quite small allowing them to fully search it in less than twenty minutes.
The third building has bars in the window panes and shelves tipped over behind the broken glass doors. They wont be able to easily enter this place, and as such they leave it be.
The fourth and final building was a grocery store. Any food they find in here now will be far beyond it’s expiration date, and not worth the trouble of eating. That wont be an issue for them since there isn’t one ounce of packaged food left anywhere in sight, not that they would take any if they found it.
Jack finds a rusted crowbar left on a water drenched shelf, bringing his collection up to two crowbars. After about two hours of searching the aisles, and not finding anything else of use, Karo moves them to the fairly large stock room in the back. The doors weren’t locked, but the splatters of stained blood gave them a momentary pause.
Upon entry their nostrils are stuck by an overwhelmingly sour stench. The only light in the humid stockroom comes from the two small windows on the far side, and the slight hint of light breaking through the stockroom doors from rest of the store. Empty boxes are strewn about all over. A dolly resides suspiciously wedged up against the back door, keeping it shut. They are only inside for a few minutes before a morose sense of dread cracks the air like lightning in a storm--something rustles just beyond the view of the faint light breaking past the windows.
Karo grabs Jack’s arm, gripping him firmly. He slowly retreats them back in the direction of the entrance. A confusing sensation of terror and heat bound down upon Jack in a flash, then he feels another grip upon him--this one pulls at his shirt.
Jack spins around in a haste filled blaze, the scant light from the sun shines upon a lumbering and decrepit figure looming over him. The foul aroma permeating off this creature clogs his throat, choking him. He tries to call out to Karo, but dry
