Rotting Bodies

Chapter Six: The Message

     "Are you okay, Love?" Lance asks me at breakfast.

     "Yeah, I'm fine, why?" I lift my fork to my lips, not even aware of what I'm eating. I look down at my plate and notice that I just filled it with strawberries. Huh. They must've been picked this morning. Fresh strawberries are the best kind.

     "You were mumbling in your sleep," Lance says worriedly, "and you were restless all night, I'm worried. I want you to be okay. Is this about Kris?"

     "It's nothing," I lie, but I feel bad about it and sigh, "I'll tell you later."

     When the doors to the cafeteria open again, Ade and Reyna walk in. Reyna is half carrying Ade because he should probably still be in the infirmary drinking Issac's herbs (never falling for that again, nasty, I'll never forget). And to all of our relief, Ade is fully clothed in a black tee-shirt and blue jeans, Reyna pulled his brown hair back into a tiny man bun too, which looks ridiculous. Especially on him, where his hair is barely long enough for one.

     Considering that Issac hates Ade, it didn't stop him from doing his best to heal Ade. It's a nice thought, and it's admirable. Though if Issac did refuse, Mills does have some skills in apothecary. So not all was lost for Ade.

     Ade and Reyna's brown eyes search the cafeteria for someone, or something. All I know is that it's probably someone, because Ade pointed right at me. They begin their walk over, and that's also when I notice that Ade is limping. Issac wouldn't have let him go if he had a broken leg, so I'm not really too worried about it. In my opinion he still shouldn't be up and walking around though.

     "Hey buddy." Ade sits down next to me and slaps me on the back causing Lance to jump and Ebie to give Ade the stink eye. "I heard that you shot Kris because he was infected. Vanna said you got him good, right in the head."

     I drop my fork. It hits my plate with a loud crash. Everyone is looking this way. I feel my chest start to tighten. I've been trying to forget about Kris.

     "I just want to say thank you for showing him kindness." Ade removes his hand from my back. "Kris always said that he'd never want to live as an infected, so I'm glad someone was able to put him out of his misery."

     Hearing a meaningful sentence come out of Ade is a rare thing to witness. It made all my worries and thoughts about killing Kris go away, and instead made me think that I saved Kris instead of killing him. I know it sounds stupid, but I guess I just really needed to hear it from another person. And hearing it from Ade... well it felt more meaningful than hearing it from anyone else.

     "Thank you." I turn to him and do something that is also rare. I hugged him. When he winces I back off, but I still did it.

     The door to the cafeteria opens again, and this time Issac enters looking breathless, but hopeful. I didn't even notice that Issac wasn't eating breakfast with us. I must have been so spaced out.

     "Guys, I was just at the next town over getting sugar with Lucen." He throws a bag at Mera, who catches it in her pale skinny fingers. "And there was a radio. I didn't think that it would work, but I tried to turn it on anyway. You'll never fucking believe it. It gave me coordinates, and said in Morse Code that there is a cure there, but it'll be dangerous to get to because they couldn't cure themselves before the infected got in, or something like that."

     Everyone looks at him in shock, and Ebie turns and whispers to Lance, "does he really expect us to believe that by some miracle he found the location of a possible cure?"

     Something else that I forgot to mention, Ebie and Issac are like Mills and Vanna. The only difference is how they fell out with each other.

     "How do you know that this isn't some sort of trick?" Reyna stands up. "We know that there are barely any people left, I doubt that there's even anyone alive who can make a cure."

     "I don't know man." Issac looks down for a second. "I believe it. It's not even far away, we can just go and see. What's the harm in looking?"

     "Uh, how about we could all die on the trip there?" Mills says.

     "You don't know what's out there Issac." I stand up, but look down. "The infected are dangerous, and there are many mutations that I know we cannot go up against. You haven't seen them like I have."

     Mera stands up before anything else could be said. Her tall skinny frame demands our attention. Her long curly dark brown, almost black, hair is tied back just at the nape of her neck, she's dressed as gothic as one can get during an apocalypse, and her dark brown eyes look back at all of us respectively.

     "Guys, now is not the time to be fighting." Mera walks to the center of the room. "I know it seems a bit too hopeful to think about the prospect of a cure, but isn't it worth a shot to go and see if it's real? After all we've lost, and after all we've been through, I think it's worth it to go check it out."

     Everyone is silent. Mera doesn't do a lot of public speaking, not even before the outbreak. So hearing her speak up caused sparks to fly into everyone's souls, making them finally have hope again. Our spirits were lifted.

     "Everyone who's in, shout!" Mera yells, and everyone starts shouting. "Grab a backpack and start packing!"

     We go to our houses and pack a bag for the trip. I make sure to grab my bow and quiver, just as Lance grabs his various pocket knives. We meet Ebie in the living room, who has a sword sheathed on her belt.

     "Are we ready to do this?" I ask, because Lance and Ebie have never actually seen the infected, even those few times they were beyond the walls of the Hot Tub (why did we name it that?).

     Ebie nods as we exit our house, knowing that we might never live long enough to see it again.