"He's a murderer. He thinks I didn't hear him call my brother into his office on the first day that we got here. Since then, I've never seen him."
I was stunned.
I didn't know what to say.
Surely she was lying, or misunderstood? I had known my brother my whole life. We were close friends and knew practically everything about each other.
Burner was a military fanatic, but he was no murderer.
I knew he could never take another life, especially unjustly.
But before I could even say anything in his defence, the door to the cafeteria slammed open so loudly that everyone's attention was drawn.
"Speak of the devil." The young girl sighed beside me.
I turned to the door to see my brother Burner standing there. His muscular arms bulged, as he wore the same vest and cargo bottoms from yesterday. In his hand was a double-barrel shotgun, which he held in a readied position. His face was serious, and his eyes scanned over the room.
Everybody went quiet. The commotion died down in an instant.
Burner looked around. As he spotted me, he nodded his head in respectful acknowledgement, yet his face remained serious the whole time.
He looked at the young girl beside me for a moment and I tried to see if I could catch a hint of guilt on his face.
There was nothing there.
I felt like a bad brother for doubting him.
Burner made his way over to the commotion, and I quickly rose and followed close behind him. Once he reached the storage room, nobody wished to speak until he did.
"What's going on? Are you trying to attract the zombies with all that noise?"
The man in the suit stepped forward, pointing towards the fat man.
"I'm sorry Burner, he stole our food. Half of our stocks missing!"
Burner's eyebrows raised in disbelief.
"Half?" He spat fiercely.
He was a terrifying man, my brother. Even without the shotgun in his hand. Not only because he towered over most people but also because of his buzzed hair and hard face.
The suited man nodded nervously.
"I swear, it wasn't me Burner." The fat man pleaded. "I wouldn't still be here if I did that. I would have made a run for it."
Burner was furious, but he wasn't irrational. He knew that it didn't make sense.
So instead, he began counting everybody in the room.
Once done, he looked around speculatively.
"Andrew. Where's Andrew?"
Everyone began to look around. There was no sign of the man they were looking for.
It seems that they found their culprit.
Burner's eyes fell on Jake. The man who was responsible for watch duty last night.
Then, in a sudden instant, he dashed towards the man grabbed him by the throat with one arm and lifted him from the ground.
It was a terrifying show of speed and strength. No regular man should have been able to move like that.
But he and i both knew that neither of us were regular any longer.
We were... enhanced.
"Do you know what the fuck this means, Jake?" He growled at the man as Jake's eyes began to bulge, and his face went red.
All the man could do was choke.
After bringing him close to suffocation, Burner threw the man to the side.
Jake lay on the floor, trying to regain his breath.
"That means we've only got food for the next few days. Thank Jake for not doing his job."
Without saying another word, Burner began to storm from the room, leaving everyone frightened. Not because of him, but rather what he said.
They only had food for the next few days.
They knew what the words implied.
Their settlement was falling apart. They could no longer stay held up inside without worrying about what was going on in the outside world.
Everything was about to change.
I made my way towards the exit, following after my brother. I couldn't leave him alone at times like this. We had to come up with a plan together.
Before I left, I took one last glance at the corner of the room, where I had spoken to the young blonde woman.
Her words still played in my mind.
However, she was nowhere to be seen.
———
"Burner, what the fucks is going on, man," I called out to my older brother.
After finally catching up to him, we walked shoulder-to-shoulder up the stairs back towards the top floor. I could see from his face how stressed and angry this situation was making him.
Eventually, he let out a deep sigh.
"We wouldn't have this problem if I wasn't a coward."
"What do you mean?"
We reached his room, and my brother plopped himself down on his makeshift bed.
The man fiddled with his hands. Something that he often did when thinking.
Leadership was taking its toll on him.
"The northern building has its own cafeteria." He announced. "If I managed to get over there, I could bring back a duffel bag of food and provisions."
I realised then why he was calling himself a coward. He had prioritised safety over resources.
Rather than trying to cross the field of the zombies and secure the northern building, he decided to barricade every exit and lock themselves in the southern building.
A difficult decision to make in the heat of the moment. However, it had led to the group's survival for an entire week.
"You're not a coward. You had no other option."
My brother looked at me with surprise and stopped fidgeting
I continued.
"Back then, you were the only enhanced. Sure you could give the others weapons, but they wouldn't be able to keep up with you. The mission would end in deaths. You did what you thought was best."
Burner chuffed to himself as a faint smile spread across his face.
"I should have known you'd understand. You're my lil bro after all."
I stepped forward and clasped my brother's hand in a first handshake. We had come to an unspoken agreement.
He was no longer the only enhanced because I was here now.
We could do this together, if we had the right plan.
Wasting no time, my brother reached into his bag, pulled out a pistol and handed it over to me. Then, he suddenly remembered something, and pulled out a pair of brass knuckles, handing them over to me as well.
"I know you can throw one hell of a punch. With your enhanced body, these might pack more punch than the gun."
I nodded my head and slipped them onto my knuckles. Afterwards, I used a holster that he gave me to equip the pistol onto my hip.
Burner checked his shotgun ammo and tied extra shells to a belt. With the shotgun in his hands, he truly looked like a menace.
A soldier.
He looked at me with a serious expression on his face. "You ready?"
"I'm ready."
Finally, we made our way out of the room, both prepared to do what needed to be done. Not just for ourselves, but for the sake of our people.
He had accepted the mantle of leader, and as his brother, it was my duty to aid him.
But as we made our way down to the bottom floor, a thought continued to plague my mind.
It persisted, even after I tried to brush it away.
The blonde-haired girl... Just what did her words mean?