What We Become/Issue 49

'''Harold lay motionless on the bed. From the angle view of the doorway, Harold looked like a war veteran. He looked like someone who had been through hell and back. He was missing his left hand and his right leg. As Karen looked down at him, she couldn't help but feel so sorry for him. He was her friend, but as much as she wanted him to live, how was this any with to live? He was disabled for life. Morgan walks into the room and sits down beside her.'''

'''"How's he doing?" Morgan asks. He places his chin on his hand and stares down at Harold.'''

"Not good. He's running a fever, and a bad one at that. I got him on some antibiotics, but there not helping at all. He's slowly...slipping away" Karen replies.

'''Morgan sighs. "Well...what is he going to do if he lives? We don't exactly have a wheel chair that he can use. He's going to have a lot of trouble getting around".'''

"That's what I was thinking. This is fucked...everything is fucked" Karen says with sorrow.

'''Morgan looks down at the floor and then back up at Karen. He stands up and motions for the door.'''

"Come'on, you need some rest. You can check up on him first thing tomorrow".

'''Karen ponders for a moment whether she should leave Harold alone for the night. She stands up and walks towards the door with Morgan.'''

"Yeah, I'm tired".

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'''Adam stands by the bottom of the stairs, he rubs his hands through his hair and continues to glance at the stairs. He figures it's best not to distract the women while they work on Harold. Lilly comes walking down the stairs and Adam walks over to her.'''

'''"How's Harold?" he asks.'''

"Well, I'm no expert because I only did a year of medical school. But he's not good, not even close. I'd say he probably doesn't have long to live. Karen think's so as well"

'''Adam sighs and rubs the bags under his eyes. It's night time and he hasn't gotten any sleep.'''

"So the cycle continues..."

'''"Yeah" Lilly replies sadly. "Maybe, it's a good thing in Harold's case"'''

'''They sit down at the dining room table. Adam looks up at her with a shocked look.'''

"How could it be a good thing?"

'''"Well..." Lilly shrugs. "Harold's lost so much. Losing his hand and now his leg sort of limits his ability to do normal everyday things, don't you think? I don't want Harold to die, but in case we ever have to go on the run again, Harold will slow us down or slow himself down".'''

'''Adam takes the words in. He slowly nods. Harold's been handicapped beyond recognition now and his odd's don't look so good. Lilly lifts up the bottle of liquor she had found earlier and hands it to Adam.'''

'''"Want a drink?" she asks.'''

'''Adam grabs the bottle. "Thanks". The burning feeling fills Adam's throat and he takes the moment to enjoy it and for moment, he forgets everything else going on. Adam spots Lilly staring at him and she turns away blushing.'''

'''"So what do we do now?" Lilly asks.'''

"I don't know. I don't see why we couldn't just stay here. That was the plan after all, to find a place out here because the cities to dangerous".

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'''That night, Adam passes out on the couch in the living room. He doesn't remember, but he's sure he got drunk last night. Sunrise comes faster then he thinks and can feel the blinding light coming in from the living room window. As he opens his eyes, he see's a shadow move in front of the light. Jeff stares straight at Adam with his face mere inches away.'''

'''"HEY! WAKE UP BRO!" Jeff yells.'''

'''Adam jumps off the couch in shock and points his gun at Jeff who is rolling on the floor in laughter. Adam growls in anger.'''

"For fuck sakes, Jeff don't do that"

'''Jeff picks himself up from the floor and he continues to laugh. "Sorry, couldn't help myself. It is pretty funny though, your reaction. I think Theresa agrees" Jeff says and points to Theresa at the doorway laughing.'''

Theresa walks off and leaves the two brothers alone.

'''"Hell of a day yesterday, huh?" Jeff asks. "We run into each other again, god knows how. The herd and this farm. Harold..." Jeff says the last part with uneasiness.'''

"Yeah.."

'''Jeff scratches his head. "So, hurry up to the kitchen and make breakfast man. I'm starvinnnnnnnnng"'''

'''Adam yawns and raises an eyebrow. "Cook breakfast? When did I agree to that?"'''

'''Jeff grins. "You didn't, I volunteered you for it".'''

'''Adam laughs. "Nice, don't expect any quality food. All we have is canned shit"'''

Adam and Jeff walk to the kitchen.

"Well, with your expert skills, you can make it taste better can't you?"

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'''Adam cooks breakfast for the group. Thanks to the generator in the basement, the stove in the kitchen works. Breakfast isn't much. It mostly consists of green beans and potatos from a can. But the group tries to enjoy it all the same. Adam's group tell's their story to the trio and soon enough, it's the trio's turn.'''

'''"Well basically the fact that we ended up here..." Allen begins. "...is because we had the same idea as you guys. We thought the country out here would be much safer and so far it has, excluding yesterday. We we're all in college when the outbreak went down. Our dorm was turned into a safe haven, but that didn't last long..." Allen says. He stares at his food as if he just lost his appetite.'''

"What happened?"

'''Allen doesn't speak and instead stares at the floor. Theresa see's this and decides to continue for him.'''

'"Well, at the time when we all heard the news of the infection, there was no time to prepare for what came after. Our college was quickly flooded with infected. The infection spread like wildfire''. No one knew what to do. Luckily at the time, no one in our dorm was infected. So we locked the door to make sure no infected got in". A tear falls down Theresa's eyes as she remembers everything.'''

'''"After a while though, people started banging on the doors, screaming for help. There was nothing we could do but turn them away..." Derek continues.'''

Everyone stares shocked at this.

'''"...we chose the lives of the survivors in our dorm over the lives of the others. The worst part about was their screams as they got devoured". Derek clenches his hair as tears roll down his eyes. "I'll never forget it, that will haunt me for the rest of my life".'''

Everyone lets the story register in their minds.

'''"Anyways, after a while we ran out of food. So we had to start sending runners out to retrieve food. Allen's brother was apart of the group..." Theresa says the last part cautiously.'''

Allen nods his head and stares at the floor again.

'''"After a few hours on the last run we ever had before we left, no one came back from the food run. So we ran out of our dorm in an attempt to find where the runners were. You know, in case they we're trapped or something. That's when we came upon the cafeteria and we found Allen's brother torn to shreds along with the other runners.." Theresa finishes.'''

'''Everyone is silent for a moment. Frank looks over at Allen.'''

'''"Hey, Allen.." Frank says.'''

'''"Hmm?" Allen replies.'''

"I lost a brother man, I know how you feel. I'm sorry you had to see what you saw"

'''Allen nods. "Thank you" he replies in a low voice.'''

Theresa stares up at the ceiling before finishing off.

'''"Then we ran back to our dorm, and gathered up our belongings and we headed out. We already knew that the city wasn't safe. Derek here had some family friends who lived out in the country and taught him how to grow crops. Given that information, we figured we take our chances out here". '''

'''"I'm guessing you never found your friends out here?" Lilly asks Derek.'''

"This is their house actually".

"Oh..are they?.."

"Oh. I don't know. When I got here, they we're gone. I have no idea where they could be" Derek says and he stares up at the ceiling.

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'Allen ran down the stairs of Algonquin College. He ran as fast as he could and jumped over corpses that littered the floor. Derek, Theresa and a few other people followed slowly behind.'

'"Man this is so goddamn unnerving..." Derek says as he runs.'

He nearly stumbles over a zombie but manages to compose himself.

'"Can't we go back?" he whines.'

'"NO! Not yet. We have to find the others!" Allen yells.'

"Keep it down, we don't want any dead ones to hear us" Theresa.

"Right, sorry" Allen replies.

'The group turns a corner and Allen smacks down a zombie and stomps it's head in. Derek tilts his head away in disgust and nearly throws up. Allen runs into the cafeteria door. He pulls on the door and it's locked.'

'"Dammit! Guys, are you in there?" he calls as he bangs on the door.'

'"Allen!" Theresa warns.'

'"Just cover me!" Allen says back.'

'The others start smacking down zombies that are attracted to the noise of Allen banging on the door of the cafeteria. He finally smashes through it. The sight that greets them is a cafeteria filled with zombies. Allen's brother slowly rises up from the corner with his limbs hanging off, dangling.'

'"Oh god no..." Allen says with tears running down his eyes.'

The others stand behind Allen and stare in horror as the other runners rise as zombies and slowly inch their way towards them.

'"Fuck..." Allen says as he begins to cry.'

Credits

 * Adam Greene
 * Jeff Greene
 * Lilly
 * Jack Marsh
 * Morgan
 * Karen
 * Frank
 * Harold
 * Allen
 * Theresa
 * Derek