normally are. We were milking the cows when we heard a sudden ruckus coming from the pig pens- keep in mind that we had been having trouble with these pigs for a while now so we ran over thinking to find the answer to this mystery. When we looked in the pen we saw the strangest sight, one of the pigs was actually trying to eat the other pigs! I know; unbelievable, right?”
Bob rocked back and forth punctuating the ‘unbelievable’, as if he still couldn’t believe it, and then continued on. “So Joe rushes in and pulls the pig off the others, when suddenly the pig turns on him and rams him to the floor. By the time I got in there and shoved it off of him and dragged Joe out, he had bruises all over and the pig has even bit him across the chest! He could walk but he was hurt pretty bad, so I brought him here, this is where he lives with his wife- you may have met her-, to recover. It’s the darndest thing though, instead of resting for a few hours and getting right back out there like I thought, the Doc over there says he’s getting worse! Some kind of Infection he thinks.”
We all shuddered at the mention of the possible Infection, knowing to ourselves what it probably was. I excused us out into the hallway, and we all crammed together.
Kevin said urgently, “Well that’s the Infe-” We cut him off with “SSHHH’”s, and told him to keep his voice down.
He mumbled, “Sorry,” and started again more quietly, “well it sounds like the Infection doesn’t it? What are we going to do?”
I replied in a whisper, “Last night when I told the people in the gas station about the Infection the looked at me like I was crazy, I don’t think they will believe us here. It will cause more harm than good to try and explain to them what it is, and besides we don’t know it’s the Infection for sure, for all we know it could just be rabies or something.”
Ian scoffed, “Just rabies. I remember a time when rabies would have scared the crap out of us. Now, it’s mocked.”
Lucy put in, “Well what do we do then? Do we just let this go on and go about our business? What happens when or if he turns into one of them? He could kill people!”
I shook my head, not knowing how to respond to that when Kevin replied to her, “NO I think Jack is right.”
I looked up surprised at this backing from an unlikely source, and he continued on, “The only thing that will happen right now if we tell them about the Infection will be more suspicion and doubt being placed on us, and we don’t want that right now. What we need to do is go find George, and trade for supplies so we can get OUT of here if we need to. Maybe once we have everything we need we can attempt to explain to them what it is, but right now we don’t want to alienate the townsfolk from us. They are our only shot at getting out of here.”
Lucy slowly nodded her head, but then said, “I understand, but I still don’t like it. I can feel it; this is going to be trouble for all of us.”
On that ominous note, I walked back into the room and said, “Well thanks, Bob, that cleared up a lot for us. Say would you happen to know any people around here with stuff like food and gas that they would be willing to trade to us for money or supplies or something?”
He gritted his teeth, thought about it for a second and then replied, “Well I don’t know about the gas, but I’m sure you could find some food around here. Most of us have a surplus in food we’d be willing to sell or trade as that surplus would normally be shipped out of here to stores anyways. On the gas, your best bet is Alex. He lives behind the general store, and a few months ago he realized before the rest of us that the trucks were stopping to come in, and he bought up a bunch of gas for himself. He’s pretty stingy with it but he’s about the only one of us with any gas other than the gas already in our vehicles.”
I thanked him again, and we shuffled down the stairs and out the door, to
Bob rocked back and forth punctuating the ‘unbelievable’, as if he still couldn’t believe it, and then continued on. “So Joe rushes in and pulls the pig off the others, when suddenly the pig turns on him and rams him to the floor. By the time I got in there and shoved it off of him and dragged Joe out, he had bruises all over and the pig has even bit him across the chest! He could walk but he was hurt pretty bad, so I brought him here, this is where he lives with his wife- you may have met her-, to recover. It’s the darndest thing though, instead of resting for a few hours and getting right back out there like I thought, the Doc over there says he’s getting worse! Some kind of Infection he thinks.”
We all shuddered at the mention of the possible Infection, knowing to ourselves what it probably was. I excused us out into the hallway, and we all crammed together.
Kevin said urgently, “Well that’s the Infe-” We cut him off with “SSHHH’”s, and told him to keep his voice down.
He mumbled, “Sorry,” and started again more quietly, “well it sounds like the Infection doesn’t it? What are we going to do?”
I replied in a whisper, “Last night when I told the people in the gas station about the Infection the looked at me like I was crazy, I don’t think they will believe us here. It will cause more harm than good to try and explain to them what it is, and besides we don’t know it’s the Infection for sure, for all we know it could just be rabies or something.”
Ian scoffed, “Just rabies. I remember a time when rabies would have scared the crap out of us. Now, it’s mocked.”
Lucy put in, “Well what do we do then? Do we just let this go on and go about our business? What happens when or if he turns into one of them? He could kill people!”
I shook my head, not knowing how to respond to that when Kevin replied to her, “NO I think Jack is right.”
I looked up surprised at this backing from an unlikely source, and he continued on, “The only thing that will happen right now if we tell them about the Infection will be more suspicion and doubt being placed on us, and we don’t want that right now. What we need to do is go find George, and trade for supplies so we can get OUT of here if we need to. Maybe once we have everything we need we can attempt to explain to them what it is, but right now we don’t want to alienate the townsfolk from us. They are our only shot at getting out of here.”
Lucy slowly nodded her head, but then said, “I understand, but I still don’t like it. I can feel it; this is going to be trouble for all of us.”
On that ominous note, I walked back into the room and said, “Well thanks, Bob, that cleared up a lot for us. Say would you happen to know any people around here with stuff like food and gas that they would be willing to trade to us for money or supplies or something?”
He gritted his teeth, thought about it for a second and then replied, “Well I don’t know about the gas, but I’m sure you could find some food around here. Most of us have a surplus in food we’d be willing to sell or trade as that surplus would normally be shipped out of here to stores anyways. On the gas, your best bet is Alex. He lives behind the general store, and a few months ago he realized before the rest of us that the trucks were stopping to come in, and he bought up a bunch of gas for himself. He’s pretty stingy with it but he’s about the only one of us with any gas other than the gas already in our vehicles.”
I thanked him again, and we shuffled down the stairs and out the door, to
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