Victims of Circumstance

The silence was unbearable as two men, one clearly older than the other, drove down the lonely and desolate road that was torn up from the lack of maintenance and upkeep. The snow and ice wasn’t helping either. The younger man looked to the older one and silently regarded him, admiring all of his perks and flaws. He had been traveling with his older brother for quite a few years. Hell, the old bastard practically raised him. He looked to the road, but could barely see a thing out there. This winter was beginning to be a real nuisance.

The snow made hunting and foraging difficult. Animals were often hibernating or just trying to stay warm, so food had to be rationed among the two. Often the older brother went hungry so that his sibling wouldn’t. Although it was tempting to take some of the food for himself, he constantly had to shove the thoughts back. Times were tough these past years, resources had gotten more scarce around the world. Humanity was running out of time, and if something wasn’t done about it, things were going to get way worse.

The younger brother looked back to the older, and asked while he adjusted himself in his seat, “Where are we going again, Lucas? You didn’t really specify.” A look of doubt was on his face. Generally he didn’t mind where they were going, and just let his brother do the work. But he was just looking for something to talk about.

“East.” Lucas responded rather abruptly. His voice had a tone of annoyance in it. It was unclear if he was thinking extremely hard, or just trying not to crash the truck due to the ice. “Too many poachers n’ slavers in Nevada, so we’re going to Wyoming to talk to an acquaintance of mine. For gas n’ directions. Then... I don’t know.”

“So my ass is going to suffer the long ride then. Wonderful.” his younger brother sarcastically replied. They had been on the road for God knew how long, and Wyoming was pretty far away. No, there would be no fun. Just some quality family bonding time with big brother Lucas. Wonderful.

“Listen Brett. You know the rule about complainin’.” the old man disappointedly reminded his younger brother. “That means next time we make camp, you gotta go scout the area.” Clearly he wasn’t in the mood to be toyed with, after what had happened before they left Nevada.

“Yeah, I know. It’s just that for all our survivin’, we never sat down to enjoy ourselves. I know that, in this new world, such ideas are crazy. But I just want a piece of the good life, ya’ know?” Brett said, his daydreaming getting the best of him yet again. He knew that ideas such as those got you killed but, frankly, what was the point anymore? It was just camp here and then move on. That’s all it ever was. Occasionally there would be civilization, but too many times that hasn’t worked out.

“You think I enjoy this too? All this killin’ n’ murder. It ain’t right. But now there’s a whole new meaning to right n’ wrong. Now it’s why you killed a man that makes it good or bad. Where I was raised, we were told to turn the other cheek when we were slapped in the face. Now when you get slapped, you have to choose to hit back until they stop moving, or to let them go...” Lucas replied to his brother’s ‘ideas’, but it was obvious something was on his mind. He seemed to get bitterer with every word and sentence. Clearly this wasn’t bringing up happy memories.

Brett knew that these words rung a truth greater than most. He knew of a town that had an impressive population of about fifty six. But they trusted the wrong guy, and let a bite victim in. In a matter of days, the last of the stragglers either died or moved on. It was unclear how many did live that massacre, but rumors said about five of them turned up. That in itself was a miracle.

Lucas was thinking about this as well, the sounds of screaming and burning, growling and flesh tearing. It was a brutal massacre. Remaining fresh in his mind as if it just happened the day before, he stared out before them as the memories flooded his mind.

“Damn it, we’ll keep him under supervision! What the hell can one infected locked in a room do?!” The mayor shouted at Lucas, making him wince as spit and leftover food hit his face. They’d been arguing for a good thirty minutes now, and it definitely didn’t seem like it was going to stop soon.

“Unless ya’ want your ‘supervision’ to be writhin’ on the ground with bites on their necks. You’ll take that bite victim, give them some food and water, and throw them out in the wild where they belong!” the old man shouted back at the mayor. He was quickly losing his patience with this man. If the bite victim didn’t kill the mayor, Lucas would probably just do it himself.

“But it just isn’t right! Whatever happened to kindness?! To humanity?!” The mayor retorted rather weakly, his composure visibly shaking now.

Lucas could see in the mayor’s eyes that he knew what had to be done. He was just too god-damned stubborn to act on that truth. He thought Brett was stubborn, but this was ridiculous. “Kindness died when half the world did from an epidemic we couldn’t control! Humanity? You know where that’s going! Down the drain! Now either you’re gonna throw his ass out, or I will. I’m not letting more of our people die for the sake of ‘kindness’ and ‘chivalry’. That’s all bullshit nowadays and YOU KNOW IT!” he yelled almost at the top of his lungs. Lucas was about to lose it right there. It was hard to keep his cool when dealing with someone who barely knew how to run a group of fifty six people. It was pathetic.

The mayor was red in the face as he was yelled at by Lucas. The guards off to the side were ready to pounce. Lucas was just as ready if not more, his temper barely in check. If these assholes decided to try anything, he’d be ready. They were idiots, just like the mayor. You couldn’t keep a bite victim in your home and expect things not to go badly for everyone.

Lucas took a pen and slammed it into the wooden desk. Making it stand straight up, because the writing side was lodged into the desk. This was primarily to intimidate the mayor, but also a tool in case the guards tried to remove him from the area. “You haven’t seen what I’ve seen.” he said in the most deathly tone the mayor had ever heard.

“You try anything, Lucas, and we’ll be forced to drop the population from fifty six to fifty five. Maybe fifty six to fifty four if your brother jumps in.” The guard on the left threatened Lucas, who walked up and into his face.

The older survivalist cringed as the guard’s odor reached his nostrils. He ignored the smell, and waited for the guard to finish his sentence. Then, in one swift movement, Lucas grabbed the left wrist of the guy and the back of his head. He’d slam the guard’s face directly into the pen, causing it to go through the eye and to his brain. “Total population, fifty five.” Lucas said over the dead body that was now leaking blood through its face. “You were right, we were forced to drop the population.”

“Wha-... the hell…?” The mayor stuttered, his eyes wide in shock. It seemed excessively surreal to him, probably because he didn’t witness death all that much. Almost instantly, the four other guards closed-in on Lucas, who merely grinned like an absolute madman.

It was dangerous to provoke someone who was already on edge. Too bad Lucas was already over it years ago. He stared at the revolver barrel aimed at his face, and grabbed the man’s wrist. He pressed his finger on the cylinder and popped it right out of the gun. The bullets hit the floor, scattering about their feet. Lucas then pulled the gun down, and pivoted so the man was behind him, so he was able to jerk his head back to hit the chin of his opponent so that he would drop the gun.

The other guards were about to converge on Lucas, who was already turned around and ready. Just as he was about to kill off the remaining guards, the entire room’s occupants stopped and stood still when they heard a shrill scream of pure terror somewhere within the village, followed by the sound of ravenous snarling.

“Told you so…” Lucas scolded the cowering mayor.

Lucas hung his head in silence for a moment. That day was a flat-out massacre. One of the biggest he’d seen in a long time. They weren’t ready for anything at all, the village was so secluded from the rest of the world that they didn’t prepare for one to attack from the inside.

“You and me have been through the worst. At least we went through it together.” Brett said, trying to reassure his brother.

“Look, if things ever get better, then we can relax. But now? If we let our guard down for even ten minutes, we could end up dead and all the things we’ve done will have been for nothing. I don’t see it ending soon, thirty years’ve gone by, and nothing’s gotten better. If you have a shot, you take it and you-” Lucas was going to go on one of his lectures again that he was famous for, but he saw something in the distance coming up on the road. It appeared to be the silhouette of a person, laying on the ground.

“Hey hey, stop the truck. It could be another bite victim but we’d know as soon as we pulled up. Looks like he’s alone anyway. Hopefully...” Brett said, his compassionate side showing. I mean, what could go wrong? He was still wary, though.

“Looks can be deceiving...” Lucas said as he pulled the truck over, quite a few feet away from the body. “Stay here.” he told his brother. Taking a step out of the truck, he left it on idle in case they needed to get away as fast as possible. After pulling his hood up on the jacket he was wearing, a moan came from the body, but it was inaudible to them.

“Alright. He looks dead, so it probably won’t be all that interesting. Oh, and if he’s dead then we should loot him. That is, if he has anything good.” Brett said as his brother got out of the truck, seemingly bored. This wasn’t an occurrence that was rare. It never hurt to look, though.

Lucas made his way over to the body, and already felt the cold of the air on his face. Reaching down to his pant leg, he grabbed the hilt of his machete and removed it from its sheath while approaching the body. The old man bent over to inspect the body but something was off.

It was warm.

There was something definitely wrong about this. Playing on a hunch, Brett pulled out his hunting rifle from the space behind his seat and turned the safety off. He continued to watch the surrounding trees, looking for signs of movement that would indicate trouble. He slowly got out of the truck, making sure not to let his eyes stray from the woods.

There wasn’t much time to react. A gun was already pointed at Lucas’s face before he immediately let his instincts kick in. In the blink of an eye his machete was swung, and the gun-hand of the ambusher was removed from the wrist, blood staining the blade from the clean cut. As soon as it touched the snow, Lucas grabbed the gun out of the dead hand and pointed it out toward the trees ahead, shooting it off right at the silhouette of a person. At the same time, he stabbed his already-dying opponent in the neck with his blade so he would stop screaming. “Brett!” he yelled to alert his brother.

Brett immediately sprung into action, whipping the hunting rifle up, taking aim at the now visible men in the woods, and taking two out in a hurry. With each shot he had to pull back the bolt and push it forward so it would put another bullet in the chamber. He then ran to the door of truck, and closed it just enough where he would have enough cover from the oncoming shots. He peeked over, taking another two out. God, he hated being right.

Lucas made sure to stay low, but he grabbed the dead body just below him and pulled it up just over his shoulder. Staying crouched, the old man used the bleeding body as a meat shield as he made his way to the truck. Just as he reached the headlights, his calf was skimmed by a bullet, and he fell over next to the truck. The body fell just on top of him. “Dammit!” Lucas shouted as he struggled to get back up and into the truck. Once inside, he put the truck in drive and did his best to drive away from the attackers.

Brett relaxed against the seat and cursed, “Shit… we should have seen that coming earlier.”

“The damn bastards got my leg, next time we see a body on the ground, we’re runnin’ over it.” Lucas angrily said while looking at his slightly bleeding leg, but his body looked like he’d taken a bath in blood. That body got it all over him. ‘He better not’ve been sick or infected...’

Brett’s eyes widened in realization as he said, “They didn’t have a car. You suppose their camp is near?”

“Of course it is, when it’s this cold you can’t go more than a mile on foot without complications. I say we wait till’ nightfall and get some good ol’ fashioned revenge. This leg is gonna’ be hurtin’ for weeks now.” Lucas said as he put the truck on cruise control and lifted his leg up, “Patch this up.”

“Stop your bitchin’. We’ve been through worse.” Brett said, rolling his eyes. he looked down at the so called wound. It definitely isn’t good, but it’s not the worst thing that’s happened. Something bothered him, though. “If they were that intent on killing us, then that means they’d do that to other travellers. I agree with you. Let’s mess em’ up.”

“Same as last time?” The older brother asked.

“Yep. Same as last time. ‘Just hope I don’t get shot this time.” Brett said, shivering as he rubbed his left hand that had been shot just a few months ago. Antibiotics were hard to come by nowadays, so they didn’t exactly have room for error (being shot). Lucas will be fine. Hopefully.

“Well maybe if you stick to the plan this time, you won't get shot. You were supposed to silently take their lookout down. Instead you alerted the whole damn camp.” Lucas scolded. It was a simple plan that didn’t require his brother to do much, and yet he screwed it up.

“They were about to execute a group of travellers. There were little girls. At least we saved two of them.” Brett said, as gut-wrenching flashbacks of holes in the victims’ skulls came to them both. He would take a bullet to the hand any day, if it meant saving more of the innocent. God, why couldn’t people work together instead of killing each other? The world the way it was, was so savage and barbaric that humanity regressed hundreds of years just from one single event.

“It was their own damn fault for getting captured in the first place, it’s not up to us to be the clean up crew fer’ other people’s mistakes.” Lucas harshly stated while he stared at the road in front of them.

“Okay. The next time you get captured, I’ll leave you to your fate. Not my mistake.” Brett grumbled angrily. he was sick and tired of his brother’s merciless attitude. What the hell was the point of surviving if you lose yourself in the process?

“Family is different, we ain’t got a point livin’ if we have nothing to fight for. If you get captured, I’d get you out. Even if I didn’t care, I still made a promise to mom. But other people just ain’t our problem because we have enough of our own. If we spent all our time helping other people, we wouldn’t have enough supplies to help ourselves so we can help other people. Understand?” Lucas lectured, it was a harsh truth he learned a long time ago. There seemed to be a lot of harsh truths these days. Like that there were no more twinkies left. And that loved ones tended to stay with you. Because their ends were usually pretty gruesome, and you just don’t forget something like that.

“So if you hadn’t made that promise, you would have left my ass a long time ago? I love you too, asshole.” Brett said, his voice conveying that he didn’t want to talk more about this. I mean, what the hell was the point? Shit happens.

“I’d go back... if it was best for the group. Sometimes you have to sacrifice one to save many.” Lucas dryly told his brother, he already knew it was pissing him off. But he didn’t care.

A look of intense hurt clouded Brett’s face as he swallowed the cruel words his own brother was sending his way, “Yeah…”

Lucas took a look at the gun he took from the bandit, and lowered his window. He threw it out and shut it again. “Damn bandits, one of these days I’m gonna just kill em’ all and be done with it.”

Brett didn’t say anything. He merely looked out the window, wondering if they were ever going to make a damn cure. There were rumors that there was a cure in production, but that was probably all bullshit. That’s all it ever was. That’s all it will ever be.