“Go down the stairs!” he shouted, and turned and slammed the door shut behind them and locked it.
The basement door was solid steel, and the basement was built with reinforced concrete. It was his father’s idea, his old man’s emergency plan in case of a tornado. God knew there were plenty of those things around the area whenever it got too warm. The basement was built to withstand a tornado, so it stood to reason it could withstand one ugly, skinny thing, couldn’t it?
Josh took an involuntary step back as something crashed into the door on the other side, but the steel door didn’t move at all. It held solidly, the way it was supposed to. Almost just as quickly, the thing seemed to give up, as if it just knew it wasn’t getting into the basement in a million years. Josh heard quick, rabid footsteps racing away.
Josh turned, numbed, and looked down the stairs at Gaby, standing at the bottom looking back up at him, arms clutched around her chest. Their faces were illuminated by soft, yellow-tinted lightbulbs that had come on automatically, activated by motion sensors as soon as they had entered the basement.
They stared at each other in silence, and Josh realized, quite suddenly, that this was the first time he had ever been this close to Gaby for longer than a few minutes. Her family had moved in across the street almost eight years ago, and in all that time, he had always watched her from afar, too shy and too afraid of rejection to approach her. Even when they passed each other in the streets, or in school hallways, they always just exchanged a courteous “hey” and went on their way.
But he stared at her now, into those green eyes. Eighteen-year-old Gaby was the loveliest thing Josh had ever seen, from afar or up close, but it wasn’t love or lust he was feeling at the moment. It was gnawing, growing terror, because he could hear it, too.
Screams, and the sounds of gunshots, from the world outside the basement.
He thought they both knew, at that very instant, staring at each other in horrified silence, that everything had changed forever.
He saw that same look of horror on Gaby’s face now as Josh hurried inside the basement with Matt hanging onto his arms. It was all Josh could do to keep his knees from buckling, because Matt was so much bigger and goddammit, he was really heavy. Josh hadn’t realized how much heavier Matt was until he had to drag the guy back to their hideout.
Gaby had opened the basement door immediately when he had pounded on it, as if she had been waiting for them all this time. When she saw the blood-soaked shirt Josh had wrapped around Matt’s left arm to stanch the bleeding, Josh expected her to start screaming, but instead she reached for Matt to help him stay upright.
Together, they carried Matt down the creaky wooden steps, Matt’s body a limp, useless thing hanging between them. They were both out of breath and sweating in the swelteringly hot basement by the time they got Matt down and carried him over to his bedroll in the corner.
The basement wasn’t particularly big, but it had everything they needed, including no window access and enough comfortable space for all three of them. Portable LED lamps hung from a couple of hooks, with two more on top of boxes in the corners. The LED lights were godsends — surprisingly bright despite weighing almost nothing, powered by lithium batteries that could be recharged every day by putting them outside in the sun.
They laid Matt down on his bedroll and Josh stumbled away, finally able to catch his breath. He wiped at Matt’s blood clinging to his shirt and pants but only ended up making more of a mess.
Gaby kneeled next to Matt, tightening the shirt around Matt’s left arm. She was wearing khaki shorts and a cotton undershirt with a long-sleeved plaid shirt over it, and Matt’s blood had already gotten on them during the short trip from the door. Matt shook violently on the bedroll, like he was suffering through a seizure. He was covered in sweat and had been since they left the grocery store.
“What happened?” Gaby asked. She grabbed a towel from her backpack and dripped water from a bottle onto it, then placed it over Matt’s head.
“One of them bit him,” Josh said.
“Oh my God. How?”
“It was hiding inside a back room. I went in and it attacked me. Matt came in to help, and I guess during the fight it bit him. I don’t know how it happened, it was so fast.”
“Josh, Jesus.” He could hear the disappointment in her voice. “I told you to be careful about that. How many times did I tell you? You never listen to me.”
“I know, but …”
“What was so important in there you had to risk your life and Matt’s?”
“There were canned fruits inside,” he blurted out.
“They’re not worth this, Josh. God, you have to know better!”
“I’m sorry…”
Gaby continued dabbing the wet towel against Matt’s forehead and wiping at the blood clinging to his face. Josh stood quietly behind her. He felt like a little kid again, hoping his parents didn’t notice he was still there and wouldn’t remember how badly he had messed up.
“He’s lost so much blood,” Gaby said softly.
“I didn’t know what to do. I just grabbed a shirt that was on the ground and tied it around his arm.”
“You did good.” She looked back at him and smiled. He knew she was making an effort, and he could feel pity in her eyes. Somehow that stung even more than when she was chastising him a moment ago.
“I’m sorry,” he said again.
“You didn’t mean for him to get hurt.”
“I didn’t…” Though I thought about it. “I didn’t,” he repeated.
“I know.” She picked up another rag and the same bottle of water and held them out to him. “You have blood on you.”
He clumsily took the rag and bottle.
Gaby went back to stroking Matt’s head. She had that deep, worried look on her face that always made her appear older than her eighteen years. “He’s really burning up, Josh. I don’t know what to do. The towel isn’t helping…”
He walked over to his corner and sat down on his bedroll, feeling heavy and tired and thankful to finally be off his feet. Josh wiped at the blood on his neck and cheek with the wet rag, then realized he had blood in his hair, too. It was while he was pulling at the sticky clumps of hair that Josh realized what he had done.
“I shouldn’t have brought him back here,” he said softly, not even realizing he had said it out loud.
“What?” Gaby said, looking over at him. “What did you say, Josh?”
“I made a mistake, Gaby. I shouldn’t have brought Matt back here.”
“Of course you should have. He’s Matt. He’s one of us.”
“Look at him, Gaby,” Josh said, trying to make her see. Didn’t she understand? “He’s already infected. The blood… That’s how it works. They bite you, get their blood into your system somehow. That’s how they turn people. It usually happens faster, but the bloodsucker at the store, it looked weak, maybe that’s why it’s taking so long for Matt to…turn.”
“You don’t know that,” Gaby said.
“You know I’m right, Gaby,” he insisted.
She shook her head. “No, Josh.”
“Gaby…”
“No!”
She looked back at Matt, as if afraid she had woken him up. She hadn’t. Josh didn’t think anything could wake Matt up now.
Gaby went back to dabbing Matt’s forehead with the wet towel, as if she expected him to wake up at any moment and prove Josh wrong.
But he didn’t. He didn’t…
Pros and cons: What were they?