“This can’t be happening!” Katie’s legs buckled, but Travis managed to hold her up.
Kevin lowered his head, feeling sick of it all.
A soldier stepped up beside Bruce and pushed him gently toward the side of the road.
Opening his eyes, he looked at his daughter and gave her a smile. “It’s okay, Katie-girl. It is. I promise. I got to see you again,” he said, walking past her.
Katie reached out toward him, but her father shook his head.
“Bruce, I’m sorry. ” Travis’ tone was full of grief.
“I’m not. I got to see you and my daughter. I got to feel my grandchild moving in my daughter’s belly. I got to say goodbye. ” Bruce had tears in his eyes. “I love you Katie-girl. I love you and I’m proud of you. I’m damn happy you’re going to be a mother and you’re going to have a good life. ”
“Dad, I love you. I love you so much,” Katie said passionately. Her nose was running and her eyes were nearly swollen shut.
Bruce blew his daughter a kiss, then stood on the side of the road with his head down. Katie held onto her husband, weeping, unable to go to her father.
“This day can’t get much worse,” Kevin whispered to Bette.
But it did. By the time every truck and bus was searched, seven people stood next to the side of the road. Four men from ages sixteen to maybe sixty stood in the cold wind, shivering from either the cold or the infection spreading through their bodies. Three were women. One was around eighteen the other two in their forties. The eighteen-year-old was having spasms by the time the search was done. Kevin was sure she was on the verge of turning.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he walked down the line of infected. “You’re infected. You have two choices. We leave you here and you turn. Or, we can put you out of your misery and save you from the fate of the rest of the world. I know it doesn’t seem fair and it’s not, but in the end none of us have any choice. ”
“I’ll do it myself,” the girl said through chattering teeth.
Kevin looked at her, then at the soldier standing behind the her. The soldier nodded. Sadly, Kevin handed the girl his revolver.
People in the buses and trucks behind him were watching. The soldiers had tried to make the people look away, but he knew there was something innately human in not being able tear their eyes away from the drama.
The girl’s breathing was getting shallow, her eyes milky. Kevin could tell it would be any minute now. He took a step back and looked at the soldier behind the girl. Slowly, he saw the rifle being raised as the soldier stepped to one side to avoid the coming gunshot.
The girl looked at Kevin and whispered in a voice that was barely human, “Take my Mom to the fort. ” Then she shoved the gun in her mouth and, without hesitation, pulled the trigger.
The spray of blood splattered the others. One infected man screamed and ran into the pasture.
“Let him go,” Kevin ordered. “He made his choice. ”
“I can’t do it myself,” one of the women said, her eyes flicking to the dead girl at her feet. “I can’t. ”
Kevin hesitated, not willing to ask anything more of his men. It was one thing to shoot a zombie, another a person even if they were infected.
“I’ll do it,” Bette said softly.
“Bette, I-”
Bette came up behind the woman and shot her. It was so quick the shot made Kevin jump.
“Me, too,” a man said. “Me, too. ”
Kevin looked into Bette’s green eyes and saw a tear. He moved to stop her, but she had already fired.
The boy turned and ran.
“I can’t,” the last woman whispered. She also turned and ran.
>
Bruce reached down for the gun at the dead girl’s side. He was very slow in his movements. When he took the gun, he shivered. “I don’t want to ask you to do what I can do myself,” he said in a trembling voice.