I promised them women.
Eight days ago I found Jones with his gun in his mouth. He said he was going to kill himself, because there was no future. What could I say to him? We fight off the infected or we wait until they starve to death, and then what? What do nine men do, except wait to die themselves? I moved us from the blockade. I set the radio broadcasting, and I promised them women… because women mean a future.
This is what I’ve seen in the four weeks since infection. People killing people, which is much what I saw in the four weeks before infection, and the four weeks before that, and before that, and as far back as I care to remember. People killing people, which to my mind, puts us in a state of normality right now.
Salvation is here. The answer to infection is here. If you can hear this, you’re not alone. There are others like you. There are others like you. There are other survivors. We are soldiers, and we are armed. And we can protect you. Our location is the 42nd blockade in the M-602, twenty-seven miles northeast of Manchester. You must find us. Salvation is here.
And lastly, meet Mailer.
Mailer, Jim. Jim, Mailer. Got infected two days ago. Mitchell managed to knock him out cold, and we got a chain around his neck.
The idea was to learn something about infection. Have him teach me.
In a way. He’s telling me he’ll never bake bread, farm crops, raise livestock. He’s telling me he’s futureless. And eventually he’ll tell me how long the infected take to starve to death.
Since it began, who have you killed? You wouldn’t be alive now, if you hadn’t killed somebody.
You killed all my boys.
I want to give you a chance. You could be with us, but I can’t let them go.
