“And you really think that you’re going to be able to find this? That you are going to find any of this?”
“Won’t know if we don’t try, but we can’t do anything yet,” Joey said.
“Why’s that?” Mark questioned.
Joey responded, “It is going to be hard to collect the list…”
“That’s what I was saying…”
“Mr. Mark, remember what I said about being impolite? You are being that way right now. I was trying to say, thank you, that you haven’t written anything down. If you could make the list then that would be great. I got some work to go do.”
Mark thought if he was going to leave then he would happily let him. The idea of having to go back and forth with a teen for too much longer was a painful existence. Mark wrote slowly and neatly, not wanting to have to worry about the kids bringing back something that wasn’t right. The idea of him screwing up and them not getting the one ingredient needed to be able to create the hope that was in the vial made him sick to his stomach. He finished his list, looking at Ellie, almost unsure if it was safe to give it to her. From a medical standpoint, the idea of sending someone off to do this probably wasn’t on par with being ethical.
“Would you feel better if I took someone who knew a lot less than me about guns and military protocols? I’m sure some of your group has been training with a tough ass Navy Seal for the last year and change, right?”
“Would it be someone much older?”
“Yes, yes it could be someone older, and probably a few more who aren’t. We try not to go out in two people groups with, you know, being outnumbered a million to one.”
“That would be horrifying.”
“Well that’s why we don’t go out in twos.”
“No, no, because that idea of a million, never mind, just let me write for a minute or two.”
Ellie nodded and said, “Down the hall is a lab. If you want to get it cleaned or organized, I think that would be a good place for you. There’s a lot of natural light that comes in. I have this digital camera. I think you ought to try and record your process.”
“I won’t forget it, don’t worry…”
“Did you hear Joey when he mentioned it isn’t polite to interrupt people? Well, he wasn’t kidding. I don’t doubt that but if you don’t know if you’re going to live then you might want someone else besides you and Scott to know how to do it. On top of that, we are in Iowa. If we upload it to the internet, then everyone out there can make this stuff and we can take the world back just a little bit quicker!”
“That does make sense doesn’t it?”
“It’d seem you are smart, aren’t you?”
“I guess that will depend.”
Chapter 6
“Wait, how much time does that thing take to get ready?” Greg asked, looking a bit uncomfortable.
“Oh, it don’t take too long, once you get it ready. I’d say maybe four or five minutes. You see anything that we need to be using it on at the moment?”
Scott, who very much wanted to see the end of this zombie apocalypse that the world was going through, slapped Earl hard enough on the back of the head that it brought a tear to his eye. “You realize what he’s doing, right, Earl? He’s going to bring the zombies to us, so if it isn’t too much trouble do you think that you could get your gun loaded up and ready to do the only fucking reason that we came out here for, please?”
Earl flipped a switch and opened a tank valve. “All ya had to do was ask; you know I’m a sensitive man. I’d like to think that in a day and age such as this that we are beyond violence towards one another.”
“Earl, I’m…”
“Yeah, I wasn’t done talking just yet. If you ever lay another hand on me, I’m going to hit you back so fucking hard that you won’t wake up for a week. I don’t give two shits who you are or what you helped contribute. The last thing I’m going to do is deal with some high school bullying.”
Greg snickered leaning forward to Shaun and asked, “So this is the guy that we are counting on to be the one who saves like the entire fucking world?”
“I’m not counting on shit, Greg. But I assure you what they used originally worked with no issues. I trusted them enough to take that shit and I didn’t die. I watched more of the Turned die than we’ve ever been able to do in a day….well maybe not that many but they didn’t have to fire a single bullet to do it. It was definitely impressive. Just give it a shot. Earl fixed the gun and they are set to kick ass with it.”
Scott said, “Earl, how did you fix it?”
Earl looked over shocked, “Oh, I’m sorry, Scott, are you done physically abusing me, already?”
“I said I was sorry…or at least I was going to before you cut me off. Yes, I won’t lay another hand on you, Earl.”
“All right then, fixing it didn’t take a whole lot of work, I mean I already knew how I put it together the first time, so all I did was repeat what I’d done the first time. Why fix what ain’t broken, right?”
“Joe very clearly explained to you and I that you guys couldn’t kill anything at first because your zombie lung, the one and only, would not break the vials filled with our precious
