Infected

Misunderstood

Silver

I watched the black man come out of the shadows, pointing a gun. But he wasn't pointing at me. He was aiming directly at Mike.

"No, don't shoot!"

He pointed it at me.

"Shut up!"

I heard a whimper from behind him.

"Dad, what are you doing?" A little boy said, walking up beside him, his eyes teary.

"Go back to your mother. I've got this."

"You're not going to shoot them, are you?" He asked. Before the man answered, I answered for him.

"No." I said. "He's not."

His eyes shot bullets at my eyes.

"You were never going to shoot us. You hid and heard exactly what we were going to do, and you didn't like it. We would've found you, but instead, you decided to handle us with a gun."

"You're wrong." He said. "I will shoot."

"You don't want to. You don't have the heart to pull the trigger."

"Who are you to tell me what I want? How would you know?"

"You have a family. A wife and a son. Any father would give anything to keep them protected. You'd die rather than them die. You'd shoot us, but eventually die by one of us. You're outnumbered nine to one, even with a gun."

I watched his face and saw it. He knew I was right. His arms drooped a little.

"But I don't want to hurt you or your family." I said. "I'm not a murderer. I have a wife waiting for me at home, or whatever you can call home. Hopefully, we'll have a child of our own someday. I know what it's like to have a family. I'd do anything to protect them. I'm no different than you are."

His arms drooped some more.

"And I want to help you. We all do. That's what we're here for. We're out looking for people to bring to our compound. We grow as a community. We handle problems and deal with them accordingly. We gather supplies to help us survive this crisis. This infection. But I can only start if you put the gun down."

He let his arms sag, dropping the gun. I walked up to him and held out my hand. Smiling, he took it and shook it.

"I'm Robert." He said.

"Silver."

He raised an eyebrow.

"It's a code-name. Don't get me started." Collin said. "I'm Collin."

The others started naming off their names.

"Ben."

"James."

"Tank."

"Brice."

"Mike."

"Jeremy."

"Chase."

"I'm RJ!" The little boy shouted.

"Boy, where's your mother?" His dad asked him.

"The bathroom."

"Of course. Go get her, but don't walk in on her like last time. And be careful."

"Okay." He ran off.

"Um... Is it safe for him to be running around by himself like that?"

"He doesn't run far. The bathroom is right there, anyway. So, you're going to take the stuff out of here."