Infected

One More Left

Mike

Ben woke with a start. It was late evening.

"What--? How...?"

"Calm down, it's over." I said, lying on the other bed.

"It's over? How long was I out?"

"About... the rest of the day."

"The rest of the day? Wait... is everyone alright?"

"Everyone's fine. The people inside stayed quiet, so the Infected had no idea they were there, Silver included."

"But I remember someone shouting 'I'm bit' before I lost it."

"Oh, he's fine. It was just some old blood that he got from hitting an Infected. No bite."

He sighed.

"So, no one's dead."

"Yeah, it's fine, now."

He buried his face in his hands.

"What? What's wrong?"

"It was my fault."

"What?"

He looked up, his eyes full of tears.

"It was my idea to clear out the Infected outside, and Richard followed in on it. If we had stayed behind the walls..." He covered his face again.

"Hey, don't feel so bad. From what I heard, Richard took the whole blame for it."

That got his attention. He looked up.

"He did?"

"Yeah."

"I still can't help feeling like it was my fault."

"I think we're all to blame. We've been underestimating the Infected for too long. Just because we're smarter doesn't make us invincible. It could've been much worse."

"I guess so. Have they cleaned up the Infected outside?"

"It only took them four hours with every available man, but we got them out. Richard actually offered to go through every Infected to see what was on their bodies."

"Is he still doing it?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

"A flashlight and a couple of guards on the wall to watch his back while outside the walls."

He jumped up and slipped his shoes on.

"Where are you going?"

"He's not doing that alone. Not today."

He left through the door in a rush.

~~~

Ben

I still had my knife from the horde still on my belt. Someone must've grabbed it when I passed out and put it back. I was grateful to find it still there, even past curfew. I opened the door to the outside, gave the guards a heads-up, and locked it behind me. I walked around to find Richard going through the endless bodies of the Infected. He raised his eyebrows when he saw me. He had a body on a wood slab, it looked like plywood, on a couple of stilts.

"You feeling alright?"

"Yeah. Thanks, you know, for covering me before."

"No problem. Not like they'll kill me, anyway."

"So, you're going through the bodies?"

"Yeah. Nasty work, but someone's gotta do it."

"Doesn't mean you have to do it alone."