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Adam hesitated and met my gaze before speaking over the radio again.
“Friend, we’re in a bit of a bind and looking for help. Our place is full of infected and one of those dogs.”
There was a long moment of silence.
“You don’t need help. You need a miracle. Sorry, friend. Good luck. Switching to another channel to repeat the message.”
I felt sick to my stomach. Adam didn’t glance at me as he replied.
“Understood. I’ll do the same.”
He sat for a quiet moment then looked up at me with a faint smile.
“Well, we know we’re not alone.”
“And we know that no one is likely to help us,” I said, facing the truth.
“Likely not. Even if we broadcast our location without saying anything about the infected or the dog, anyone who hears it will think it’s a trap.”
I studied the infected on the monitors as I thought over the message.
“There’s a barrier out there that was compromised. By what? The runners? Those black dogs? The grey men? Probably all three. Add in some humans who kill for supplies, and what chance do those of us who’ve managed to survive have? How long until you and I are truly alone?”
Adam took one of the bowls from me and gave my hand a squeeze.
“That won’t happen if those of us who are left start working together instead of robbing each other.” He set the bowl aside and started writing down the man’s words and the channel. “We might not trust each other enough to share locations, but we can start talking. That’s a start. Maybe we’ll be able to band together eventually.”
“Maybe we will,” I said, his false optimism not fooling me. Filled with fear and desperation, the end of the world hadn’t brought the best out of people. It had brought out the worst.
“The message changes the plan, for the moment. I’ll check the other channels. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“And if we don’t?”
“We need to be out of here before dark, June. The only thing that’ll keep us safe is the light.” He changed channels, listened for a minute, then started broadcasting the man’s message.
I left him to work and considered the information we’d been given. Where and what was the western barrier? Who was the originator of the message, and who was that person trying to reach in the east? Was that where those evacuee camps were? How long ago had we stopped receiving those occasional emergency broadcasts? I’d thought that had meant the evacuee camps were overrun. Now I wasn’t sure.
More importantly, why send something now, after all this time? If there had been an evacuee camp to the west, why hadn’t we heard messages from that location before now?
I returned to the kitchen and sat at the table, listening to Adam as he cycled through the frequencies every few minutes. I hoped for both our sakes someone would answer us.
About an hour later, while I was feeding the fish, Adam swore loudly.
“What?” I called, hurrying to the control room.
He pointed to the hallway camera. It was no longer positioned to a view of the door and the hallway.
“One of the infected suddenly looked up and moved it.”
“A new one?”
“No. One that’s been standing there this whole time.”
I stared at the screen, understanding what that meant. We were blind and trapped by infected smart enough to play stupid.
“Why move the camera now?” I asked.
“I think this is all a big trap. They let us see the dog, have been methodically killing the animals, and brought in new ones. They’re baiting us out and know we’re more likely to emerge when the red-eyed dog can’t come out.”
