They are dead

Chapter 8

The sun's rays came up slowly, ascending over the horizon and sharply cutting through the window of Noah's room. Not that it was much of a room, but it was home. Especially in the state that everything was in. The previous day they had made the trek back with James following behind like a lost puppy wanting a home. They walked mostly through the day and reached their place just as night had started to fall. Seeing as there were many rooms in the place that they had come across back in the day, it wasn't difficult for James to find a space to rest for the night. Noah grunted as he sat up straight and rubbed his eyes hard with his coarse fingers, taking in everything that happened the day before.

He had taken a shot, just guessed that it would be the reason for the Dooie that he had seen two days ago make its way towards him. It was totally unexpected and unbelievable. But his suspicions were right. There was a Dooie in the cave and it was the most unbelievable sight that he had ever come across in the last few months.

Noah now got up grumpily and tossed a thick down blanket (which he had taken from a store close by) off of himself and walked towards the kitchen area. There he met with Dieter who now smiled awkwardly at him as Noah had caught him digging for the last remains of what probably was a tin of baked beans.

"Sleep okay?" Dieter asked as his eyes dropped to the bottom, inside the can.

"I guess," Noah replied feebly, his hand over his mouth as he tried to yawn but nothing had happened. He finally forced it.

"I slept okay, thanks for asking." Dieter hissed sarcastically and smiled at the bottom of the can again. Noah looked up and barely smiled in his direction.

"Where's James?" he asked and now looked around him as if he had finally realised that James wasn't in the room.

"Outside."

"Doing what?"

"He wanted to see the Dooie you found."

"Did he eat?"

"No. Said he didn't want to be a burden."

"That's stupid. If he doesn't eat he will be a burden on the trip."

"I tried to tell him that. Didn't want to listen." Dieter responded, throwing the can into something that resembled a dustbin.

"I'll go talk to him then."

"Okay."

Noah pulled at his pants, adjusting them as he got up slowly and walked out through the door. What was James thinking? He obviously had very little experience with long-distance travelling. Since the whole outbreak started, it was difficult to find cars in working conditions. There were cars around, alright, but the batteries not being properly charged made a car just another piece of metal by another name. Working cars were few and far between and if you had one it was a luxury. Finding a car that was in working condition was close to impossible and unless their luck was going to change, they needed James to at least have a reasonable amount of energy on the trip. He had just come out from his thoughts when he had come across James, hands on his hips, staring down at the corpse that was now laying on the ground.

"So apparently you don't want to eat?" Noah started but James was not responding. He was standing dead still, staring at the Dooie's corpse, a confused look in his eye.

"You should eat."

"Well, what if your brother is dead? Killed by someone who thought that he was a dead one? Would you want to eat?" James now said and as he did, pulled out his firearm that he had received back from Noah at the caves, pointing it directly at Noah's face.

Noah was now treading back slowly, his hands up showing surrender. He had left his firearm in the house, not thinking that he would actually need it. Now, the man to whom he gave the gun back was pointing it straight at him, ready to shoot.

"I knew it! I knew I should have killed you the moment I saw you, you bastard!"

"Relax!"

"You killed my brother!"

"What?"

"Him! Here! You killed him without a second thought!" James said, pointing the gun at the Dooie on the ground and back at Noah. Now it had made sense: the Dooie that he had killed was probably his brother. He had said that he had fled to the caves. Probably going inside, he got attacked by the Dooie and got himself bitten too. Walked through the night, from the caves all the way here to make it to him the next day, and he put the Dooie down.

"Look, I just did what anyone else would have done. I was protecting myself!"

"How would I know? Maybe you just killed a random guy in broad daylight and when he turned you killed him again!"

"That's not what happened!"

"I don't believe you!" James said, now with tears running down his cheeks. The emotions were high and he knew that if James was not going to calm down, that he was going to be dead soon. Soon, James would take his revenge out on Noah, and there would be nothing to stop it from happening. James squeezed the handle of the gun, his grip tightening so much that his knuckles turned as white as he gritted his teeth, surprisingly not gripping the trigger with the same force. Noah thought about the fact that he had taken out all the bullets from the magazine at the caves but a cold feeling came over him that James might have picked the magazine back up on his way out of the house.

"Listen, we need to stop those people from reopening those mines."

"Do I look like I fucking care about that now?" James gripped the handle tighter, the words seething through his teeth.

"You need to calm down. We need to stop the second outbreak from happening. I'm sorry about your brother but -"

Before he could finish, before he could think about the next thing that he had wanted to say, before he could move out of the way... he heard it. A loud bang.

The firearm in James' hand was smoking and he dropped it to the ground as he cried, long tears making it down his cheeks.

"No!" Dieter shouted and let loose a round from his rifle out of no where. The bullet ran through James' head as a spray of blood and red matter fell to the ground. Dieter ran all the way down to the scene, tears in his eyes and throwing his rifle on the ground before he knelt down to where Noah was laying. Noah lifted his hand to reveal the bullet wound that pierced his chest, blood now running down the edges of his mouth as well. Dieter sat helplessly, holding his friend in his arms, crying. Long howls of grief escaped his lips as he could make no sense of what had happened. With his last breath Noah closed his eyes and his lifeless hand now dropped to the dust. Dieter stood up, overcome with anger and grief, picked up his rifle and reloaded it. He cried his last as he stuck the end of the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger.