Craig DiLouie - The Infection

Wendy wakes up with a massive headache and an overwhelming sense of dread. The small room is filled with men staring at her. Sarge presses a cool, damp cloth against her forehead and looks at her with an odd mixture of love and fear. Paul, Ethan and Todd are here, and so is Ray and all of the cops of Unit 12 except for Jonesy and his dad, their faces lighting up at seeing her awake. Ethan looks like somebody punched his lights out, grinning with a black eye. Somebody is asking her how she is feeling and she struggles to concentrate on the voice. Her mind has been swimming in and out of consciousness and she wants to wake up. She is not even sure she is awake now. If this is a dream, it is a good one; she feels happy having Sarge close and strangely safe being with the other survivors. Odd that she should spend the two worst weeks of her life with this group of people and suddenly feel so bonded to them. They are her people. She remembers how, at the hospital, she began to think of them as a tribe.

She wonders if she is dying.

Sarge is asking her if she needs anything. Does she need water?

After she drinks, she asks them how she got here. Her voice sounds funny and she thinks there might be something wrong with her ear. The men glance at each other, avoiding her eyes. The truth is she remembers nothing. Whatever happened to her was so bad that they cannot bear to say it out loud. Ray sits on an ammo crate next to her bed and tells her that she and Jonesy were attacked. Jonesy has a concussion and is in bad shape. She got banged up pretty good but physically she is fine. Wendy takes this in and wonders why she cannot rise from the cot. She feels oddly feverish. She cannot shake the feeling that she is dying.

You should see the other guys, Ray says with a grin, nodding with respect. You really did a number on them. We caught two of them. We know who the third guy is and we’ll have him in the bag soon. You don’t worry about them, Wendy. We’ll take care of it. They deserve to die for what they did and we’re going to take care of it.

Ray places her badge on the pillow next to her head.

We found this at the scene, he tells her.

Her head is pounding. She feels confused. Her dreams were filled with nightmares, and now she is wondering if some of them were real.

Ray asks if she has a problem with them taking care of things the Defiance way.

Wendy surprises herself by saying clearly, “Do it.”

She leans over the side of the bed and vomits onto the floor at Sarge’s feet. Moments later, she is plummeting into a nauseating darkness lit briefly only by a few tiny sparks.

The Unit 12 boys, smiling like wolves, leave the room in single file to deliver justice to the men who attacked their people. They nod to Ray, who is staying behind to look after Wendy, as they pass by with their black shirts and bullet-proof vests and guns.

Wendy tosses and turns on the bed for the next few hours while Sarge dabs at her face with a wet cloth. As evening approaches, soldiers bring in steaming bowls of beef stew and the survivors sit on the floor in a circle to eat by candlelight.

“Just like old times,” Paul says, chewing. “Except for this good food.”

“Must be nice to have a job that pays in raw beef,” Ray says.

Ethan grins. “You don’t know what I had to do to earn it,” he points out.

“Something dangerous, from the looks of your face,” Sarge says, squinting at him as if trying to figure out a puzzle.

“It’s nothing,” Ethan tells him happily. “Some people at the government center thought I was a doctor and attacked me. I ran, found a crew unloading cattle, and worked the day.”

“Ah,” Ray says in understanding. He knows about the cattle crews and how they use people as bait for the monsters that infect the animals.

“When I got back to the government center, the same people were waiting for me and gave me this,” Ethan answers, pointing at his face and laughing.

Todd laughs with him and says, “Why are you so happy about it?”

“I’m happy because I think I may have found my family.”

The other survivors glance at each other and offer weak smiles.

“That’s good news, man,” Ray says.

Sarge touches his shoulder and adds, “Yeah, it’s good, Ethan.”

Ethan glares at them. “I’m serious.”

“And I’m taking you seriously,” Ray answers carefully, bristling.

“I spent several days at the government center. The records people found one Carol Bell in the camp, but it wasn’t my wife. I kept pushing until I finally convinced somebody to check some of the other camps. Turns out there is a C. Bell and two M. Bells at the FEMA camp near Harrisburg. Three days after Infection, a C. Bell and an M. Bell arrived on the same day.”

He studies the faces of the other survivors for a reaction.

“It sounds hopeful, Ethan,” Paul says, nodding. “I mean it.”

“It sounds awesome ,” Todd tells him.

Ethan turns to Sarge and says, “I was wondering if you could take me there. There, or as far as you can.”

Sarge believes it is appropriate that the other survivors are here with him again, as he has never really left them. His mind has been plunging into the past, against his will, during every still moment, reliving the horrors of Infection, the Screaming, Afghanistan. The worst is when he suddenly finds himself standing in the dark alone in front of the hospital, shooting the Infected swarming across the parking lot while every atom in his body screams at him to run. He surfaces from these terrifying flashbacks drenched in cold sweat, his heart clenched in his chest, refilling his lungs with a sudden gasp. He is not stupid. He knows he is suffering heavily from post-traumatic stress. He also knows that getting back out into the field will cure it, at least temporarily.

“I might be able to take you to Steubenville,” Sarge says.

“What’s in Steubenville?”

“Bridges.”

“The Infected of Pittsburgh,” Ethan says, nodding.

“What are you guys talking about?” Todd says.

“That big fire that chased us out? It also chased out all the Infected,” Ethan explains. “They’re walking west, straight to the bridges. Straight to us. Right, Sarge?”

Sarge nods. “I’m leading a mission out there to blow the bridges. Specifically, the Veterans Memorial Bridge. Six lanes across the Ohio River.”

“You can’t help but hear them,” Paul adds. “They’ve been attacking the camp ever since we got here. The gunfire has become almost constant, day and night. After a while, it gets to be background noise. If they get inside, we’re done.”

“We’re the last refugees that made it to the camp from Pittsburgh,” Sarge says.

“Can the Infected swim?” Ray says.

“Our intelligence says they can’t,” Sarge tells him. “If we blow the bridges, they’ll be stopped cold at the river.”

“What they’ll do is go north and south.”

“That’s not our problem.”

Ray shrugs. “You’re right. It’s not.”

“The migration will be deflected and that’s all that counts as far as we’re concerned.”

“I want in,” Todd says. “Let me come, Sarge. Please.”

“I might as well join in, too,” Paul says, eyeing him hopefully. “I could be useful.”

Sarge shakes his head in mild disbelief. The truth is he would be happy to bring them on the mission. The boys he commands are good but they do not know what the survivors know. Frankly, he is surprised that they would want to leave the safety of the camp to go back into the jaws of the beast. And after just a few days, no less. Was it not the point of their journey together, after all—to find this sanctuary, and try to live a normal life?