They Call Me Daring

Chapter 11

Hair dye. Where was hair die when you needed it?
    I rummaged through another pile of junk in the storage room; and by rummaged, I mean I threw it everywhere. My white hair flopped down in front of my eyes, and swore, flipping it out of my vision.
    My entire mop of brown hair had been turned pure, almost painfully bright white. I ran my tongue over my fangs, wondering; had they gotten longer? I pulled my watch back from my wrist, and grimaced at the sickly white skin that didn't seem to be mine, the green pallor creeping up my limb and the spiderwebbing pattern of tiny red veins full of infection sprawling on the inside of my arm.
    How much longer could I possibly hide the bite? Already my hair and skin was much too ivory to pass for normal... Not to mention the fangs. When would my eyes turn... had they already?
    I found a tin lid on the ground and nervously held it up to my eye, then I let out a sigh of relief. Still green, which meant I still had time. I had decided that as soon as my eyes turned blood-red, I would force myself to leave civilization, and I would simply walk in one direction until the transformation hit me, so maybe I wouldn't hurt my family.
    I took a deep breath, sucking in the pitch-black darkness of the room. Every second it grew more clear, my night vision becoming more clear, the blurry lines of the world becoming razor sharp. Normally that would have been a good thing, as I had always had bad vision, but considering the circumstances, I would have much rather worn glasses. No great loss comes without some small gain, and as terrible as that saying is, it's true.
    I pulled my make-shift paper bag mask back on over my head, and laid my hand on the doorknob. I couldn't hide in here forever, as much as I would have. If I was going to live my last fews days to the fullest, then sitting in a dark room moping probably didn't meet the quota.
    I braced myself for whatever was waiting, and opened the door. The bright lights in the hall stung my eyes, and I was about to back away back into my lair, when Clark barreled around the corner, down the hall and almost slammed into me.
    "Liam!" He cried in surprise, skidding the a halt. "We've been looking for your everywhere!"
    "You... have?" I raised an eyebrow at this. Since when had my family ever wanted to lay eyes on me more that necessary?
    "Yeah- hey, where were you?" Clark narrowed his eyes at me, and I spit out the first thing that came to mind.
    "Uh... sleeping..."
    "Fun. Anyways, tonight's Mass Food."
    "M-Oh..." I remembered what Mass Food was suddenly. Every week, the entire city population- well, what remained of it anyways- gathered in the giant church on the next block over to exchange news and... food.
    "Yeah, tonight," Clark suddenly dropped his voice, so I had to lean in to make out what he was saying. "Tonight, Dad and the Doc are going to be announcing the big news to the public."
    "Big news?" I asked him, genuinely puzzled. He goggled at me, and then it hit me, and I mentally slapped myself for forgetting the second apocalypse. I had been so distracted with turning into a monster that I had forgotten zombies were adapting to come out in the daylight. "Oh... That news."
    "It won't be pretty..." Clark sighed. "But they need to know, to take precautions. And we need to leave now!"
    "Um, yeah, no thanks," I tried to decline politely. "I'm not feeling great right now-"
    "Is that what the paper bag is about?"
    "What paper b- Oh, no, I told you, uh, it's all the rage now... You ought to get one." I added convincingly at the end. No reason not to take advantage of dumb people.
    "I don't want to wear a stupid-" He stopped suddenly, and I could tell he was picturing himself with a bag over his head. "You really think so?"
    "Oh, yeah," I nodded, glad my expression was covered, because I couldn't keep a straight face. "With your eyes? Instant celebrity material right there."
    "I-Can I try on yours?" He said with enthusiasm, already reaching for my mask.
    "NO!" I yelped, grabbing my head in my hands and backing away. He blinked at me in surprise. "I mean, uh, no, no, you don't want this old thing anyways. You need a nice, crisp new paper bag."
    "Oh," Clark frowned, and for a second I thought he was on to me, but then-" Alright."
    I love stupid people.
    "Great. Now you go get one, and I'll just-"
    "Come on, troop!" Dad's boisterous voice boomed down the hall, and me and Clark turned to watch him carrying a screaming Jess towards the stairs. "Better get moving before sunset, unless you all want to be zombies!"
    Clark chuckled at this, but it wasn't funny in the least to me.
    "Uh, yeah, Dad, I'm not feeling great-"
    "No excuses. Important announcement tonight, and I can't leave you all home... alone..." What he really meant by that, was that he didn't trust us with the house.
    "I really don't-"
    "Liam Trackerson, get your butt down the stairs right now, or I'll take away your laptop!"
    "I don't have a laptop." I argued, but since it was no use, I dejectedly made my way down the steps.
    "Well, if you ever get one, I'll take it away!" Dad threatened when I halted, and me and Clark led the way out the doors and into the chill night air.
    Dad jammed the deadbolt on the fort, then joined us at the gate in the wall.
    "Everyone ready? Good. Liam, don't you want a jacket?"
    I looked down at my sweatshirt, then realized the rest of them were in winter coats. I felt the cold, but it was more relaxing than anything.
    "Nope, I'm fine."
    "Okay, whatever," Dad shrugged in that caring way of his.
    We locked the gate behind us, and crossed the street, the water from yesterday's rainstorm reflecting the rays of the fading sun across the cracked pavement.
    "STUPID MEETING!" Jess screamed in my father's arms the entire way down the block. We wouldn't have to worry about any zombies coming out right now. They would be too scared of Jess.
    "Shut. Up." Clark growled at him through gritted teeth as we neared the end of the block, the church's steeples peeking out over the low cement buildings ahead.
    "Shut up your face!" Jess screamed back, and I rubbed my extra sensitive ears beneath the bag. So far my father hadn't made any snide comments about my tasteful mask, but I knew it was only a matter of time.
    We reached the church and I tripped over the single step as we entered. I braced myself to slam into the ground at high-speed- and then, for the second time now, something else took over.
    I tucked in my head and brought my knees up to my chest in the split second I was airborne, flying through the open doors, and tucking and rolling smoothly over the threshold, flinging myself upwards with my hands and coming back down on my feet.
    Needless to say, it was quite the entry.
    Everyone had already been foretold of the Trackerson's arrival, because Jess felt the need to scream at the top of his lungs the entire way over, so every eye was on me when I awkwardly sulked off after my gymnastics presentation.
    I quickly separated from my family before they could comment, and barged into the middle of the food line. I was so distracted, my blood still rushing in my ears, my heart pounding and my body jittery on adrenaline, I barely noticed the jeering comments thrown at me.
    I shoveled some garden-grown potatoes onto my foam plate, along with gravy fresh from a can, and then some other assorted goodies which made me sick just to think of eating.
    I made my way with a loaded plate to the far corner of the church, and sat down on the could stone floor. It was the darkest corner, farthest away from the crowded tables, snickering people, the steaming hot food, and the overpowering stench of human blood-
    I actually smacked myself, physically. I shouldn't be thinking like that. It was too early... No, I still had time!
    Now that I had noticed it, I couldn't stop. I could smell blood, the salty scent piercing through thin, fragile skin and twisting through the smells of a thousand other foods... My stomach growled, while I listlessly swirled my peas with my fork.
    I forced myself to look down at the disgusting human food- my food- and I tried to swallow a spoonful of potato. Immediately my taste buds reacted, and it took all my willpower to force it down, and even more not to throw it back up.
    "Upset stomach?"
    I looked up.
    "Thought so," Meg said, taking a seat beside me, her own plate loaded with a heaping chunk of... steak. "Trade?"
    "Please," I passed my plate, filled with vegetables and other crap, and grabbed the meat, inhaling it's warm, bloody, juicy scent. "Where did you find this!?"
    "We keep cows in my backyard." She shrugged. As much as I wanted to bury my face in the meat, I forced myself to pick up the knife and fork and saw a small piece off. My mouth watered at the first taste, and I closed my eyes and let myself feel satisfied for the first time in days. I hadn't realized how much I had been missing meat... then I finally comprehended what she said.
    "You kill them?" I almost cried out, but remembered to hush my voice. "Isn't that illegal?"
    "Yeah." She shrugged again and thoughtfully chewed on a spoonful of potato. "We only kill one or two a year, and it's just my mom that eats the meat- I'm vegetarian. I thought you might be having a hard time with food, so I grabbed this out of the freezer."
    "Thanks," I sawed off another painfully small sliver and sucked on it, trying to savor it. She probably saw the pained look on my face, and a smile twitched at the corner of her mouth.
    "Dude, you don't have to impress me with your eating skills." She said smugly, and I flushed, embarrassed. Under normal occasions, I would have continued eating politely, but these weren't normal occasions- so I tore off a hunk of meat with my teeth, which was hard to do with the bag over my head. "But you don't have to be a total animal either."
    "How did you know I couldn't eat, well, you know..." I gulped down a huge mouthful.
    "Can any carnivore eat vegetables?" She asked.
    "Probably," I admitted.
    "Will they be satisfied, though." She thoughtfully drew lines with her fork through her potato. "That's the question."
    We both ate in a somewhat awkward silence for about a minute, when I finally worked up the courage to talk.
    "What did you mean earlier... About why you didn't give me away?" I asked. She didn't look up from her plate, and didn't answer for a long time.
Finally, she spoke.
    "Because I could tell you were giving up." She looked up and met my eyes through the holes in my mask.
    "I wasn-"
    "Yes, you were. Still are," She added.
    "What do you mean?"
    "I mean," She said, her eyes sparking furiously. "That you'd accepted you were going to die. You got b-" She stopped and looked to the side, but everyone was sitting at the tables, and they were all so loud and raucous, they wouldn't have heard even if she hadn't dropped her voice. "You got bitten, and you just gave up."
    "Well, that's not my fault." I said, somewhat insulted. "There's no cure or anything, how am I supposed to not give up?"
    "See, that's exactly it." She shook her head, disappointed. "I thought you were smarter than this, Liam."
    I blinked. "Whoa, wait, you think I'm smart?"
    "Yes, I did!" She snorted. "Why do you seem to surprised?"
    "Um... I thought everyone thought I was retarded, actually..."
    "Dude, if you think like that you are retarded!" She exclaimed, her brown eyes flashing. "You just accept what everyone tells you, don't you? Somebody tells you you're stupid, so you just accept that it's true!"
    She dropped her voice again. "Don't tell me you haven't wondered at the average IQ of those trigger happy morons over there," She said, jerking her thumb at the milling, eating, guffawing throng. "If you let them call you an imbecile, you have stooped to a level far below theirs."
    "I don't think I'm an imbecile..." I mumbled.
    "Well, you never stood up for yourself!"
    "I-" I stopped suddenly, and let that wash over me. My whole life, people had tried to take advantage of me, bullied me, treated me like an animal, or just plain ignored me. And I had just accepted that I'd somehow done something at one point to deserve this treatment.
    "Your whole life, people have fed you crap that they may believe- but why should you?" She set her plate on the ground and stared me down. "Somebody tells you you're stupid, and you just accept it. People say that there is no cure for the infection... and you suck it up, hook, line and sinker."
    That hit me like a rock.
    "Wait, you mean-" I couldn't finish, but as I struggled for words she knew what I meant.
    "Yes. Maybe there is a cure, and nobody has bothered to look for it because they've been told it can't be done." She whispered, eyes sparkling.
    I let that sink in. There might be a cure? It didn't seem real, not even as dreamlike as when I had first been bitten. It was against everything I had ever been told, everything our society had been built on. Rebuilt, anyway.
    "Hang on..." I finally recalled how the conversation had began. "What does all that have to do with giving up?"
    She opened her mouth, and then a collective roar rose up from all the tables, and she put her finger to her lips and faced the podium at the other end of the church.
    "Thank you, thank you!" My father boomed, and the cheering slowly died down. "Thank you... Yes, thank you, all of you, for gathering here today, as like every week. Our lives are hard. Every day is a struggle, and every night we live in fear... but somehow we all manage to come together every so often, and are reminded that we're not alone. Our strength is not in our numbers," He said, then crossed his right hand over his chest. "But in our hearts. And in the end, we always come out on top, however much we've been beaten down... as humans, we will always rise up out of the ashes, rise and conquer!" A cheer rose up again as he finished his inspiring speech. I wondered how long he'd worked on that. "Thank you, thank you," He muttered, wiping a tear, maybe fake, probably not, from the corner of one eye as he surrendered the podium to the Doc.
    "Yes, like my good friend just said, we will always rise and conquer, the good... and the bad.... And it is my regret to have to announce the bad news tonight." Immediately the room fell silent, and every eye was on the Doc. Next to me, Meg watched avidly, worry in her eyes, and I realized my family and the Doc were the only ones who knew about the disaster. And it would be a million times worse for everybody else.
    The Doc took a deep breath, then began. "A few days ago, Eddie," Doc gestured to my father, "he reported some... interesting behavior among the alternative species." I frowned. I supposed it would have been pointless to mention my name, but the credit for braving the zombie infested streets to reach the lab was taken from me? Ouch.
    "We all learned about Darwin's theory of evolution." The Doc began, and some people nodded, pretending they knew what he was talking about. "Every species will evolve eventually.... We've learned to thrive by day, and hide in the night, simply because the other guys... they attack by moonlight.
    "We always knew that the zombies, per say, would evolve.... We just didn't expect it to be so soon." The Doc drew another deep breath, and the entire room was silent, expectant, waiting for him to say something they could scorn and scoff at.
    "But they're learning to come out in daylight."
    Silence. I could hear every heart beat quicken, sharp intakes of breath from everyone in the room. I glanced at Meg, who was chewing on her bottom lip nervously.
    "So," Some guy I couldn't see said finally. "This is it then?"
    "Yeah..." Somebody else stood up. "What now?"
    "We're done for!" Somebody cried out suddenly, and then the pandemonium broke out. People started screaming as the full realization hit them- zombies didn't need to eat. And now they would never sleep. It would be a constant, full frontal battering 24/7 from now until... ever.... and without the daylight to allow us to regather and regroup, rebuild... the last of the humans would go down without even a bang.
    Children who didn't understand cried out and bawled as they watched their parents jump up and begin screaming about their own destruction.
    "We're dead!" Somebody screamed, and this was met by more freaking out. People were already cowering under the tables as if the zombies would surge in any second now. Someone chucked a giant dish of potato out the door for no apparent room, and more people freaked.
    They were panicking because there was no hope. People could put on a brave face, pretend to be fearless and stand up for what they care for... But they couldn't last forever, and eventually even the strongest would crumble. Even as I watched, I could almost see all the hope slipping from our fingers, our entire civilization built unsteadily on the edge of a cliff and about to tumble down into the void, fear alighting behind the their eyes and the last masks of courage dissolving.
    They were falling apart right before my eyes. And I could only sit and watch, helpless, as it happened.
    Or could I?