Once Candace heard that they were all still soaked from their night in the lake she rummaged around in the bow of the boat and returned with a garbage bag full of clothes. One thing they’d scavenged a ton of was clothing so she had no problem parting with some dry underwear. Even though she said she knew she might regret it in another few months. It wasn’t like you could just run down to Costco and buy a ten pack of your favorite color panties.
The setup seemed pretty ideal to Yue. Especially when Candace let drop that there were multiple lakes around the area. They’d pretty much lay claim to this one. They’d actually gone to check out one of the neighboring lakes early on when the infection had first started spreading. They’d turned around and come straight back when they’d seen a couple boats moored in the middle of the next lake over full of drunk guys waving guns around. Since then they’d heard plenty of shooting from every direction. They stayed on the less developed side of the lake as much as they could. They only ventured onto the developed side when they needed to gather more supplies.
They’d been on their way over to gather supplies when they’d heard the single gunshot and seen the three people running down to the dock. Candace told them normally they’d have just turned around and cruised the other way, but something had moved her to come help them. She noticed Drew looking over at the packs and weapons she’d made them leave on the deck.
“We have our kids on board so we can’t be too careful. Don’t worry we’ll give you your stuff back when we drop you off. Throwing you out into the world today with no weapons would be the same as killing you. Between the day walkers and the ones that come out at night I don’t see how anybody can stand to have their feet on dry land anymore.” Candace said. She seemed slightly oblivious to the fact that she was going to be casting them off onto the shore in the very near future.
They arrived at the far shore way too soon. None of them were really ready to leave the comfortable boat seats to force their way through the briars and bushes quite yet. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like Candace was in any sort of hurry to see them off either. She offered to fix them some lunch first and they eagerly agreed. It wasn’t like anyone had offered to fix them lunch in a while.
Over a warm meal of baked beans with fresh scallions on top they told the family what they’d seen in their travels so far. Candace and her family listened wide eyed as Yue and LeBron told their story about the trip from Florida to here. Their whole life had become the two lakes they were stuck on. Being stuck out on the lake had given them plenty of time to observe the behavior of the infected on the shores though. They referred to the infected who walked around in the light of day as day walkers. They were extremely interested in why LeBron had settled on the term surgers instead.
“They can walk in the day light for a lot longer than three days though.” Jim said breaking his silence after LeBron explained what he’d pieced together about the surgers. Everyone looked over at him to see what he had to say. When he didn’t keep on talking right away LeBron prodded him along.
“It’s not an exact science but what they were saying on the news was that once you get bitten you start avoiding the sun after a few days. I even saw sites where people were discussing how that could’ve been how the vampire legends started. Back when the virus was loose in the world and people noticed that the people who got bitten couldn’t stand the sunlight.” LeBron said. He was really hoping Jim would tell them some more about what he’d observed. You could never know too much about your enemy. He was also hoping the conversation would continue long enough for him to reasonably request another helping of the beans. The fresh scallions were stupid good. The family must have to risk their lives to pick them, but some things were just worth the risk.
“I guess we should stock up on garlic and crosses then.” Candace joked.
“I don’t think they care too much about herbs. They definitely suck at crossing bodies of water though. There’s another point to your vampire mythology. I’ve watched them pretty much every day. Two or three of them have been what you call surgers for about a month now. Maybe the infection hits different ones different ways or it just takes longer for the toxins to build up in some of their systems, but I definitely wouldn’t put too much ‘stake’ in the three-day thing.” Jim said smiling. The only person who got it was LeBron.
“Come on guys. Stake? Vampires?” He looked around as the light dawned in Yue’s eyes, Candace looked slightly bemused and Drew was completely lost. All attempts at joking aside LeBron was rapidly assimilating this
