OUTBREAK

Finale #50

"SUFFER" was painted on the wall in blood. It was dry now and barely visible.

"Wow," Lila said through a breath. She looked down at the body once more.

creek went the barn door.

Lila turned around in a flash. She pointed her gun and flashlight to the door. Her breathing turned heavy.

She spotted a person moving outside around the barn.

"Who's there?!" Lila said in a commanding voice. She tried following the person with her flashlight as they moved around, but they were too quick for her to catch. "Answer me or I'll shoot!"

The person's footprints persisted around to the back of the barn. Lila ran out and turned the corner. With her flashlight she found a person peeking into the barn. They turned to Lila with a surprised look.

BANG

Lila shot the person's leg and they collapsed to the dirt.

Lila caught a glimpse of the person's face. It was an old man with a long beard. They had some sort of cloak on that covered their person.

Lila stepped to the man and aimed the flashlight and gun to their face.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Lila said coldly.

The man held his hands up to Lila and was shivering. His shot leg squirmed slightly in pain.

"Well?" Lila asked more forcefully. The man looked like a deer staring into a bright light. He slowly reached his hand into his coat.

Lila kept her finger on the trigger and watched.

From the coat, the man pulled out a notepad.

Lila's eyebrows twitched as she watched the man flip through the pages. Once he found the page, he turned the notepad to Lila.

"I'm David. I can't speak," the pad said.

Lila moved the light away so she could see his skin tones more clearly. "David?" she said.

He lifted himself up with his arms, still frightened by Lila.

"It's Lila," Lila said. Her eyes were wide as she took in the moment.

David's eyes widened too and his scruffy beard formed a smile.

Lila started to form a smile but remembered David was shot in the leg. "I'm sorry!" she said. "We need to get inside." She helped him onto his good leg and he put his arm over Lila. He hopped into the barn and Lila helped him rest on a pile of hay. She dug into her pack and tended to the wound.

David lowered his head onto the hay and rested. As Lila began to work on his leg, he would finch at the pain occasionally. He began to write on his pad.

"It's good to see you," he wrote.

"It's good to see you too David," Lila said with a smile. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shoot you," she added.

David wrote on his pad, "You didn't know. It's okay."

"Alright then David," Lila said. She looked down at the wound as she rubbed a damp cloth on it. She hesitated on her next words.

"I doubt you have anyone to look after you, right?" she looked up at David, worried.

He wrote on his pad. "No, but don't worry about me."

"Well David, you worried about me. I need to worry about you," Lila said. She tightly tied a bandage around the leg and sat beside David to rest.

"David. Have you seen my brother at all?" Lila asked.