Outbreak

Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Avi

I grunt with each punch I throw, hitting the little target Reyes holds in each hand. Ever since we started training with him, I became faster and knowing how to fight made it easier to sleep.

I duck when he kicks at my head, dropping to my knees and push out. He jumps, expecting it before he allows me to stand and get back in my stance.

"Last pig died three months ago. You girls need protein. All we've got here is vegetables, so I'm going to the city. It's crawling with the infected, but on the plus side the supplies are hardly touched. I'll leave tomorrow morning and be back before dinner." He smiles at me.

"Can we go with you?" I slam my fists into the targets once again, but my mind is far away. "It's been about a year since you took us in and started training us. You've given us everything, yet you make us stay here. Let us help you."

"You're not ready." He grunts between his teeth. "When I think you're ready, I'll let you come with me one day. But that day is not today."

"Reyes, you can't keep us safe all the time." I stop my attacks. "Like you said, you're not going to be here one day to protect us. Let us go on this run with you, and if it doesn't go well, I'll never ask about going again. I need to leave this farm."

"We've come a long way, Reyes. Please let us go with you tomorrow ... For taking us in." I argue.

I am surprised when Marlowe walks in, startling Reyes and me.

"I'm with her. You've been taking me shooting for how long? Almost a year? For what? So we can get the occasional group of infected that wander by?" Marlowe debates.

Reyes rubs the back of his neck, pondering, then gives us a small smile. "I see my testing has helped you two mentally too. Not only are you faster and stronger, you're wiser then before."

I smile at Marlowe.

"You have to bring your weapons, but Marlowe, you can't use your pistol. It's too loud and the infected are attracted to noise." We watch wide eyed as he grasps a gun, one with a long barrel and scope,and hands it to Marlowe, who is speechless. "Use a sniper."

"I-I can't! We barely trained with it, and I don't think I'm ready!" Marlowe stops her rambling when Reyes gives her the look that says to shut up.

"We will use you as our eyes in the sky," He winks, "and I most certainly think you're ready..."

This sparks something inside of me, something that feels pretty close to jealousy. I decide not to think anything of it because I don't want to act like a child, well, more like a child.

He walks over to a bag he hid in the fallen tree log.

We've long finished the fencing around the land, then we added another one that just surrounds the house just in case those things got past the first.

Everyday, we patrol them to check for weak spots. We fix them with stronger wood then go in and eat dinner.

I watch as Marlowe puts the scope up to her face and looks through it. After a long moment of hesitation,Reyes hands her the pistol.

"You only use it as a last resort, ya hear? A last resort."

When she mutters a yeah, he turns to me handing me a huge looking knife.

"A machete?" I smile with glee.

"I thought you would like to use something...special."

I throw my arms around his neck, warm tears falling down my face. "This is better then the time my father got me a pocket knife when I was eleven."

Then a wave of emotion crashes through me like a hurricane. I step away suddenly, leaving Reyes frowning. I take the weapon tenderly in my hands and walk over to the fence. I place my legs through the two railings and rest my head gingerly on the top.

As I watch the sunset, sad tears flow down my cheeks in a steady pace as I remember my father's funeral.

He died a week after my eleventh birthday. It was a heart attack.