Silver Horizons (Silver Horizons #1)

Silver Horizons | 5

"I will not negotiate with the undead!" – David Wellington, Monster Island

 

“Do you think we should help him?” Forest asked.

            Kyle scoffed. “You can.”

            “No thank you.”

            “Well I’m not.”

            “But he shouldn’t be left to die!” Forest fought back, trying to convince us to stop so that we could help the man. “That’s a person out there, you know.”

            Kyle sighed, then, “Yeah, we know.”

            “We’re people, if you haven’t noticed,” Forest said. “We can’t leave him here without helping him! What if he isn’t infected?”

            “He’s being eaten by a zombie, Forest. Of course he’s infected.”

            For some reason, once I saw the man being devoured by the zombie, I stopped the car, not bothering to drive on until we settled on what we should do. I hoped that they wouldn’t ask for my opinion, because I didn’t really care. If Forest wanted to go on his little suicide mission to see if the man was okay, he could do that, but he wasn’t bringing us with him.

            Even though I knew that there was no way he would make it through the rescue mission, I still agreed with him. That was a person out there, and he or she was being munched on by the living dead. If that were me, I’d want somebody with enough guts to stupidity like Forest to come and pull the disgusting creature off me so that I could die in peace and not in pieces.

            Forest didn’t give up his fight. “You have a point, but what if he’s not?”

            “There’s no chance,” Kyle retorted. “Drive, Elijah.”

            “No, Elijah, don’t drive. That man out there . . . what if that were you?”

            Kyle shrugged. “I’d want you guys to drive on so that none of you risked your lives drying to save my ass even though I was already so far gone.” Kyle sounded so serious. “There’s no way you can possibly save that man.”

            “B-but . . . “ Forest trailed off, and I knew that Kyle had won. And so I drove on. “You can’t leave him behind!” When I looked in the rearview mirror, I saw that Forest was pressed up against the window, staring at the sight that we were leaving behind. “Elijah . . . drive back.”

            I shook my head. “No, we can’t.”

            “And why not?” he asked defiantly.

            “It’s dangerous. He was already dead. I’m sorry, Forest. I don’t know why—“

            He cut me off. “We could’ve shoved the zombie off him or something! My parents gave us shotguns. We could’ve used those!”

            Kyle sighed. “It takes at least five bullets to kill a zombie. I would say I’m sorry, Forest, but I’m really not.”

            “Whatever,” Forest said. “But seriously. We could’ve . . . like, told the zombie to kindly leave the man alone . . . “

            “What?” I asked, flabbergasted. “Did you really think we could’ve convinced the zombie to leave the man alone and not eat him?”