I picked up the shotgun and passed it to him.
He waved his hands. “No Kyle, you have it.”
I pulled out my knife from my belt. “I know how to use this,” I said. “You’re more use to both of us if you’re armed.”
He nodded, took the gun from me and then laid it down next to him. He pointed out across the field, toward the tractors, and whispered. “Suppose we steal a tractor. Smash into the farmhouse. They won’t know what’s happening.”
A distraction would be good, I knew, but it was risk. “You think they’ll still be working?”
David shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe, Maybe not. Probably not, really. But we won’t be worse off for checking.”
We snuck over to the tractors. Along the way, we got within a few feet of two hunters as they stopped for a chat. Their eyes looked dark and their skin was pale. I guessed that lately the world had been as harsh to them as it had been to us. Their voices were hushed.
“He’s got a thing for the lad,” said one of them, and took a long drag on his cigarette. The wind whipped at his coat and made the material flap.
The other hunter screwed up his face. His long fringe blew across his forehead. “Nah, he’s using him for bait. He’s obsessed with catching the other fella.”
“So he don’t really want the lad to join us?”
The other one shook his head. “Once we catch the bloke, Torben’s gonna gut the boy.”
I shuddered at the idea of what Torben had in mind for us all. I knew they were hunters, and that Torben loved his trophies, but were they also cannibals? From their tired eyes and their sunken cheeks, I guessed the hunters weren’t getting their five fruit and veg a day. Hunters tended to eat what they killed, and there was no reason for these guys to be any different.
We moved slowly around the sides of the farm and to the tractors. One of them was so rusty that the body was practically orange, and it looked like if I tapped it the whole thing would fall apart. Next to it was a newer one that looked slightly more stable, though I didn’t know if it would start.
“I never found a car that worked, “ I said. “That’s why we had to come to you. So I doubt we’ll have much luck here.”
David held his hand to his chin. I knew he was scared of the hunters and the potential of fighting but right now, stood in front of this machine, he was going into engineer mode.
“Hang on,” he said.
He walked to the side of the tractor. The vehicle was fifteen feet tall and the wheels were large enough to crush a man. David put his foot on a step on the side of it and reached up and grabbed the handle of the driver door. The door opened, and something large spilled out from the seat. David screamed.
He crashed to the floor and landed on his back with a thud, followed shortly after by an infected. David’s face went white and his usually-small eyes widened. The infected struggled on top of him, trying to get a grip on his limbs.
It all happened so quickly that I struggled to process it. My veins ran cold and my breath caught in my chest. I grabbed my knife and moved toward them as quick as I could, but I was already too late.
David pushed the infected off him. He turned his body round, held up the shotgun and pulled the trigger. The gun exploded with a booming sound that broke the stillness of the farm. To our left a bird flew from a tree, and even the wind died down, as though it were surprised to hear the noise.
The infected’s head sprayed across the floor in so many pieces that even if I had been a genius at jigsaws, I wouldn’t have been able to piece it back together. I wondered who the infected had been, and why it was sat in the tractor. I looked at David.
“Was that your – “
He shook his head. “Wasn’t dad.”
I scratched the back of my neck. “You okay?” I said.
David was quiet for a few seconds. Then, he stuck his arm out toward me. His cost was ripped down to the skin, and there were grooves in his flesh from where the infected’s teeth had punctured him. Blood started to ooze out of them and drip away.
He was bitten.
Before I even had time to process what this meant, I heard a voice next to me.
“Torben’s been looking for you,” said the hunter with the long fringe. Next to him were two other men, and one of them pointed a rifle at my chest.
“Drop the knife,” he said.
I weighed up my odds, and I came up short. I dropped my knife to the floor.
Chapter 20
The farmhouse was dirty and there was a mouldy smell that seemed to be coming from the walls. Cracked wooden beams ran along the ceiling to support it, though in some places the roof bulged slightly as though it would cave in any second. There was a dining table in the far side of the room, and a tattered couch that looked like it had been salvaged from a rubbish tip. On a dresser next to a wall, there was a solitary photo frame, and in it was a little girl with auburn hair and a wide grin. I knew that girl, or I knew the woman she had grown up to be. It was Clara.
I moved my arms and struggled at the rough ropes that tied me to the chair. They were wrapped so tight around my wrists that it felt like they were cutting off my circulation.
I looked up at the photo again. Clara had never shown me photos of her as a kid before, and it was almost like her childhood had never existed. Yet here was something; a memento her dad had saved and given a prominent place in his house, despite the fact he hadn’t seen his daughter in decades.
Torben followed my gaze to the photo. He walked over, picked it up and studied it. Seeing him with his hands on a photo of Clara made me clench my fists, but I said nothing. Instead, I looked to the door.
“Can’t we bring him in?” I said.
When they had escorted me into the farmhouse they had left David outside on the porch.
Torben put the photo face down on the dresser, walked over to the dining table and pulled out a chair. He sat in it and faced me. Despite how pale and tired his men looked, Torben’s face glowed red by contrast. There was no doubt that he was getting enough to eat.
“Your friend is bitten,” said Torben. “And soon he’s gonna turn. Or he would, if I wasn’t here.”
“What do you mean?”
He looked around him. “We’re on a farm. What do farmers do with sick animals?” he said.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“They take them in the barn and shoot them.”
I looked out toward the porch, but I couldn’t see David. I knew he was hurt, and I knew he’d be scared. I didn’t want to admit it, but deep down I knew that Torben was right. David was infected now, and soon he was going to die. I pushed the thought down as far as I could.
Across from us and through a door, I could hear footsteps walking down the stairs. They got closer and then the door opened, and Justin walked into the room. His clothes were tattered and his nose looked bloody around the nostrils, but otherwise he seemed fine. He saw me, stopped, and his eyes grew large. Torben stood up, walked over to him and ruffled his hair.
“Here’s my lad.” He said, and give him a punch on his arm. Justin looked away. Torben smiled at me. “Kyle, I’d like you to meet our latest recruit.”
I shook my head. Did he mean that Justin had joined the hunters? The way I saw it, he had been kidnapped, and there was no way he’d ally himself with them.
“Looks more like a prisoner than a recruit,” I said.
Torben walked back to the chair and took a seat. He nodded at Justin and beckoned him to do the same. “I gave him a choice,” he said. “Join us, or die. It looks like his survival instinct kicked in.”
“He’d never join you,” I said, feeling a lump in the back of my throat.