Surviving, Not Living/Issue 14

This is Issue 14 of Surviving, Not Living, entitled Two Second.

Issue 14:
10 Days Later

Just outside of the forest behind the Douglas Family Farm, Charlotte, Anthony, Vicky, Jackie and Jack all stood in a row. In front of them, Doug and Bobby stood.

“Everyone knows how to use a gun here s-” Bobby began.

“I don’t!” Ava called from the side.

“We’ve spoken about this, Ava.” Charlotte snapped. The little girl sighed and went back to her drawings. “Sorry...”

“Everyone knows how to use a gun here...” Bobby repeated. “So, we’re not going to look down on you and teach how to use a gun...”

“But, guns aren’t glued to your hand.” Doug rudely finished Bobby’s sentence. “What happens if an infected jumps on you and knocks your gun away?”

“We scream for help?” Jackie answered.

“No, you have to fight them with your bare hands.” Bobby told her. “We’re going to train you in hand-to-hand combat.”

“You’re the youngest here.” Anthony spoke up. “How come you get to train us?”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you were a master of hand-to-hand combat.” Bobby sarcastically snapped. Anthony grunted. “Good.”

“Now...” Bobby walked towards Vicky and grabbed her shoulders. “What would you do if a infected came onto you like this?”

“Kick him in the balls.” Vicky said.

“No.” Doug told her. “Infected don’t feel as much pain there as we do. First, you disable it’s hands so it can’t hurt you and then, you must destroy it’s brain with your bare hands.”

“Or you could just through it off you.” Anthony suggested.

“Just shut the hell up.” Doug snapped.

From inside the building, Amelia watched through the window as Bobby and Doug taught the others.

“Got your eye on anyone?” Sarah asked her as she pulled the comatised Danny’s eyelids open and shined a small torch in his eye.

“Really?” Amelia exclaimed. “Bobby’s my brother, Anthony creeps me the heck out, Jack is like eighty and Doug’s like fourty.”

“Fourty? That could only be eight year older than you.” Sarah told her.

“Don’t... You make me feel so old.” Amelia laughed.

“Think about me, I don’t even wanna think about how old I am.” Sarah laughed too.

All of a sudden, Danny began to shake rapidly on the bed. Amelia ran over and began to call him but there was no response. His skin began to turn paler than before as the colour drained from his face. The bed shook forwards and knocked Sarah to the floor.

“He’s having a seizure, or something of that kind.” Sarah called to Amelia over the noise of the rattling metal of the bed.

“JAAAAAACK!” Amelia screamed. “JAAAAAACK!”

Outside, the group froze as they heard her screams. Once it had registered that she was calling Jack’s name, he began to run inside, as fast as his old body would let him. The rest of the group looked at each other before following him. The long distance proved too much for Jack and he resorted to speed walking.

While waiting for Jack, Amelia noticed that Danny’s lips were slowly moving. She grabbed the bed, steadying it and moved her ear to his lips. He muttered one word but it didn’t register in her mind. Amelia listened as Danny repeated the word over and over again.

“What?!” Sarah said as she stood up. “Did he say something?”

Jack ran inside, followed closely by Vicky and Bobby.

“What? What?” Jack shouted as his son returned to his seemingly endless sleep.

“He said something.” Amelia’s face looked shocked and confused. “One word, repeated, for two second straight.”

“What was it, then?” Vicky asked.

“Amelia?” Bobby looked scared for his sister.

“One word...” Amelia repeated.

“What?!” Sarah shouted.

“Poison.”

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