Featured Fiction: The Plague S:2 EP:1

Rising Suspicions

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Rising Suspicions

“Here’s a list of what I want you to grab from the truck,” William explained. He’s seemed more content than usual, it’s either because of the great luck we’ve had with hunting, or that nobody else thought to go to Bilger’s Rocks to survive. But he’s far from okay, being his brother for all 15 years of my life, I’ve learned of a few keys that mean something. Right now, his eyes are half shut, and he can’t stop moving his hands around, he’s concerned for someone’s safety. The only problem is, is that I don’t know whose safety he’s concerned about. Everyone around him has been in danger since the outbreak.

“I need you three to be careful, use your knives as much as you can,” he said.

“Why?” Dwain asked, “Why don’t we just use the 45s you gave us?”

“I need you to use your knives because of three big reasons.” William holds up his hand and starts counting on his fingers. ”First: your 45s only have 6 rounds each. Second: noise attracts the undead, and with 6 rounds, there’s no way you’ll survive. Lastly: that’s the only ammo we have. So don’t go firing like a maniac unless it’s an emergency. als-”

“Define, ‘emergency,’” Dwain interrupts.

William sighs heavily, he’s obviously beginning to regret assigning Dwain to this run. “Anything where split seconds mean life or death. Now Dwain, may I continue without interruption?”

“You may,” Dwain said, almost as if he were mocking William. I’m almost positive if Dwain didn’t have a 45 and a knife on him, Will would have tackled him by now.

It’s kind of startling when you think about it, Dwain didn’t hesitate to volunteer for the run, almost as if he was relieved to get away from his family, even more so when you realize that his twin brother, Jack, died no more than two days earlier. If anything, all I’d want to do is stay with my family after something like that. He’s also messing with William’s mind, and disrupting everyone with loud shrieks late at night, and when he’s asked what’s wrong, he just sits there. He needs to leave.

“As I was saying,” William continued, “Ryan, you need to take some action on this assignment. I know you the most, and I know you’ll be able to handle it, Jamal isn’t the most courageous in life threatening situations, I assigned him here because I know he can carry a lot and, well,” He pauses. “We just can’t trust Dwain yet, and we need to put him to the test to make sure we can.”

“What about Shawn?” I asked, in an attempt to create an excuse for Will to get Dwain out of this. “He’s still in too much pain to do anything, and with everyone else assigned to a job, who’s going to watch him?”

“You’re right. Dwain, can you go take over for Hailey as Camp Upkeep?”

“Why can’t I just keep an eye on Shawn? It can’t be too hard to help him,” Dwain said, smirking as he said the word ‘help’. I’m starting to regret my decision to try and get him out of the run. Now I’ve put Will, Jamal, and I on the spot for an excuse. Luckily, I’d already thought of one.

“Hailey was in a Health Tech class before the virus went global, she has the most medical experience out of everyone we know.”

“Then, why wasn’t she assigned to Medic in the first place?”

Uh oh. I didn’t think of that. There was a long and intense silence before Will decided to ask Dwain to follow his instructions.

“Okay,” Dwain muttered as he walked off, leaving his knife and 45 as instructed.

Will picked up and pocketed the weapons, looking nervously back at Dwain as he walked away.

“Alright you two, I expect to see you both back here in a week, two weeks tops,” Will said.

“Keep an eye on Dwain, he doesn’t seem right,” I said.

“I know, I’m thinking of re-assigning him to Rock Climbing Training for our soldiers and during the Propelling Unit make him ‘accidentally’ fall off the rocks.” Will rolled his eyes when he said the word ‘accidentally’.

I nodded in agreement. I don’t want people to die, especially by our hand, but Dwain doesn’t seem right, It might be best if we get rid of him, and I see where Will was going with this.

If we just drop Dwain out in the middle of nowhere, his family would get suspicious and go looking for him when we need them for defense at the rocks. Even then, Dwain will most likely be looking to get us afterward, and if he keeps up with what he’s doing right now, he won’t be able to stay here. Our only option is to plan an accidental death.

William wished us luck, and sent us off on our two day trek back to our truck. I look one last look over my shoulder at William before leaving, I tried to look at his face, but all I could lock my eyes onto was the red bandanna around his wrist.