An anguished and furious Rad stands above the bipedal figure of death, the muzzle of the rifle pressing against its head, pulling the trigger until only clicks can be heard. The stomping of sneakers, another scream, a yelp of worry and horror. The disbelieving sister falls to her knees. Her arms cradle her brother, her wet eyes race over him. His hand finds her cheek, his gaze meets hers, his lip quivers, and his chest convulses.
"I don't wanna die!"
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Karo takes Daisy’s hand, guiding her through the window. Her feet plop to the grass, and he hands her the nearly empty bottle of rubbing alcohol.
“Pour this over the crowbar. We don’t have time to search for cloth to clean them, this will have to do for now. Just keep it hanging out of your pack. We’ll wash them in the first water we find.”
“Should we do that?”
“What?”
“Clean the infected blood off in some random creek or lake? What about the people who may use that source of water later?”
“You think we’ll be the first to do it?”
She looks upon the hardened man from below lowered eyelids, this thought having never come to her before.
“People have been cleaning weapons and all sorts of items in open water sources for years. They have to have been. There must be something in water, or maybe the virus doesn’t survive long in blood out of the body or in open air. Otherwise everyone would be infected by now.”
“That’s-that’s a good point, actually. There has to be some reason most of our sources of water aren’t tainted. It’s a wonder they all aren’t by now.”
The ravaged man’s head bobs, but he doesn’t reply.
“They’re, what, two, three hours ahead of us?”
“Sounds about right.”
“That’s not long, can’t be too far in front.”
“If they haven’t hit any snags, two to three hours of continuous travel is enough to put a good distance between us and them. It’s unlikely we’ll reach them in less than two days.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“It also depends on how quickly they’re traveling. If they ran for the better part of those hours then they’re even further ahead. Let’s hope they found shelter, obvious shelter.”
“Norman’s smart, they’re bunked up somewhere waiting for us.”
“You really believe that?”
“He wouldn’t leave me behind. You? Maybe, but not me.”
Her sly grin returns, as does the rugged man’s grimace. Without another word he pivots on his heel and begins the trek. Daisy scoffs, and quietly laughs to herself, then follows the brooding fighter. She keeps her thoughts to herself for the first hour of their search, giving Karo the opportunity to cool off and focus on the task at hand.
Somewhere after the first twenty minutes or so of searching a question pops into Daisy’s mind. It tumbles over in her, burning to get out. She ponders the possible answers, not finding any that qualify as satisfactory. After another forty minutes she can’t take the silence any longer.
“Hey, I have a question for you.”
Deep in concentration, his eyes scanning over trees, shrubs, the dirt, and occasionally up to the sky, Karo grunts, but does not offer a real response.
“Okay, I’m going to take that as ‘Sure Daisy, what’s the goss?’ I love answering your questions.”
His pace slows, his head swivels, he peers over his shoulder at her.
“Goss?”
“Goss, gossip. It’s something we used to say before the outbreak. Basically, it’s like saying ‘What’s up?’ or ‘What’s going on?’ that general sentiment.”
“You think it was quicker having to explain that? Rather than just leaving it out entirely?”
“I’m brushing past that.”
He grunts again, returning his attention to the landscape in front of him.
“So, why didn’t you shoot those infected back there? We were losing that fight, we got lucky.”
“Honestly?” he asks, peering over his shoulder once more.
“Well, yeah, honestly.”
“That thing headbutted me, I wasn’t thinking right.”
“And here I was thinking you didn’t want to create any extra noise.”
“I try to avoid that at all cost, but once that thing downed me shooting it would’ve been the safest course of action.”
“So, basically, you were just loopy and we almost died.”
He exhales loudly, intentionally, letting his annoyance be known.
“In the future, let’s try not to get caught off guard again. Say, for instance, let’s check all rooms before we, hey, what’s that?”
Daisy quickens her steps, hurrying over to a large oak tree. Numerous branches protrude from the tree, barren of leaves, wet, and sagging. Hanging around one of the branches, at just about her eye level, is a faded blue piece of cloth. She tugs on the cloth, pulling it off the branch.
“This could be from one of Norman's shirts, certainly looks familiar.”
“It’s not even, but it’s clearly been cut with scissors, folded and cut in the middle too.”
“This has to be from them. He’s leaving us a trail.”
“Good.”
“Told you he’s smart.”
His brow lowers, he regards her with a look of expectance.
“Can’t believe you doubted me.
His chest inflates deeply, his eyelids flutter shut.
“Oh, yeah, I’m irritating. You know it, I know it, you can exasperate, but nothing’s going to change. This is what made me such a good lawyer.”
“Let’s just hope you’re as attentive and aware as you are talkative.”
She waves the piece of blue cloth in front of her face, a flag flying as the declaration of her persistence.
“Found this didn’t I?”
“Just keep your eyes out for more. It’s likely he left a piece every thirty minutes to an hour. That’s what I would do.”
He was right. About every forty to fifty minutes they find another piece of cloth. Karo estimates Norman did, in fact, leave them roughly every thirty minutes, but the trail is crude, and the slower pace he and Daisy keep makes finding them take a little longer.
The duo continue to search for their separated companions, collecting the bits of cloth along the way. Once dusk begins to settle in they keep on until the next piece of cloth is found, then decide to make camp for the night. There’s nowhere of any value
