After 30 Days

Forty-Six Day 60

Marcus bolted for the nearest door of the car, diving inside and shutting the door before anyone could stop him. His hand slammed down on the lock button. He had dove into the back seat though, and couldn't lock all of the doors from back there. He tried to reach up front and hit the door locks, but Shawn wrenched the other back door open first. Marcus kicked out at Shawn, but the hit barely glanced off of him as he grabbed the smaller man and dragged him from the car.

Marcus tried to keep himself from being removed from the backseat, but he was no match for Shawn as he flailed somewhat weakly and grabbed onto any part of the car that he could reach to try to anchor himself. Shawn dragged him from the car with a handful of his shirt. As a last ditch effort, Marcus swung his bag at Shawn. The contents of the overstuffed backpack spilled out all over the side of the road as the zipper split wide open on impact.

Once he had removed him from the backseat, Shawn shoved Marcus hard, sending him sprawling on the ground. No one asked him if he had done what Sam had said. We didn't need to. Locking someone else out of the car seemed like exactly something the self serving coward would do. Shawn stood over him, looking like he was having a hard time not kicking the guy while he was down.

I wasn't that nice and I had every intention of kicking the crap out of him, already down or not. Of all of the rotten things that he had done, this crossed the last line and my tolerance for him was gone. I lunged around the car, intent on giving Marcus the beating he deserved.

Arms grabbed me before I could reach Marcus and I was so intent on hurting the guy that I struggled for several seconds, trying to get free.

"He's not worth it."

Shawn's voice in my ear was what finally made me see some semblance of reason. I stopped trying to get away from his hold and settled for glaring my hatred. Marcus could count himself lucky that the only person I was likely to listen to in that moment didn't want me to attack him.

"Besides, he's not going to be a problem for much longer. Are you Marcus?" Shawn was talking to the figure that was still sprawled on the ground. Marcus shot him a nasty look, but didn't say anything. He was using all of his strength to sit up.

I really saw Marcus for the first time at that moment. Clammy with sweat, ashen skin, but his cheeks burning with color. Bloodshot eyes that I had thought showed exhaustion and stress, now looked like something else entirely.

"You're infected," I breathed. How had I missed the signs? Now that I was looking at him, it seemed so obvious. "How long?" I directed the question at Shawn, knowing that Marcus wasn't likely to be in a chatty mood.

"I'm guessing he got bitten when that zombie attacked the group that wanted to eat Rex. Right?" He sent the last part to Marcus, who ignored him as he climbed shakily to his feet. "I wasn't positive until I grabbed him back at the car garage. He's burning up, just like Carrie did."

"Why would you not say something?" Sam interrupted Shawn's explanation, looking as surprised as I felt. "We slept in the same room as you last night."

Marcus was upright again, but he looked like he was going to tip back over. He ignored us all as he slowly stooped over and began picking up his belongings that had spilled out. Mechanically, almost in a trance of some sort, he picked up the backpack and a stained shirt from the ground. Aghast, I stared at him, not knowing what to do next. Slowly, as if every bone and joint in his body was protesting every movement, he began stuffing his things back into his broken bag.

Sam, clearly very upset, wasn't ready to give up on his questioning yet. "Tell me," he demanded. He stepped aggressively closer to Marcus. His cheeks were flushing red. It was the most emotion I'd seen out of the man the entire time I'd known him.