They Call Me Daring

Chapter 22

"You disgust me." Meg looked away as I gorged myself on the meat she had brought from her freezer- it could have been chicken. Probably not. But everything tastes like chicken anyways, so I hardly see the difference.
"You don't have to stand there." I shot back. I was so starved, table-manners hardly seemed necessary, especially when most people were bedding down.
"I want to talk to you."
"Talk about what?" I looked up warily. That could never be a good thing, when Meg had to warn me she was about to tell me something.
"Talk about... this." She grimaced, pulling up a chair.
I blinked. "I don't think you realize just how many things that could mean."
"I mean... everything."
"Again, there are a lot of things." I put my plate in the sink and wiped my hands. "Specify, please."
"Why is it like this?" She asked absently, and I looked at her oddly, because she didn't look quite like she was talking to me.
"Look, are you going to get to the point, or keep making me guess?" I nearly turned on the sink, then decided against it. It hadn't rained much this month, and water was precious.
"We shouldn't be living like this!" Meg groaned suddenly in despair, throwing her head into her hands. I finally got her, and sat back down.
"Someday it might get better." I said gently, clutching her hand.
"Do you really believe that?" She mumbled through her fingers. "I don't."
I blinked. This was Meg. The girl who never gave up, who dared to challenge the laws of death themselves, who told me to always keep going... If she lost hope now, the rest of us were doomed.
"Don't say that!" I growled. "Someday... someday, the infection will go away, and someone will find a real cure. I know, it will happen... because you've started it. Meg," I leaned in closer. "You've just triggered the cure to the disease!"
"But Liam, there are so many-"
"Yeah, but remember, we're the humans." I said firmly. I began to hum under my breath. "They cannot break us... we will fight till last blood is shed... we shall not surrender...."
"Until the enemy is dead." She finished. "But they never will be, Liam. Even if we could find a way to stop people from transforming, there are still too many of them already lost, and there's no way you can change them back once they've gone over, that I'm sure of!"
I frowned. "No, I think once they're gone... they're gone forever... Maybe we can just eventually k-kill them all off... over the years..."
"Yeah, with only 10% of the human population remaining, and we're supposed to shoot down... how many zombies?"
"They're not zombies." I said sharply. She looked taken aback, but glanced down at my wrist, and bit her lip.
"Sure. But still... I don't know how much longer I can take it all. It's been ten years... don't you think things should be getting better by now?"
I shrugged. "What else do you want to do, Meg? I mean, this is the way the world is. We have to adjust... to live... isn't that what we do best?"
"No." She said coldly. "What humans do best is survive. This isn't living, Liam. We're surviving. And barely at that."
I sighed. "Well, I don't see how we can live then."
"Maybe we're not supposed to." She said softly, and I looked up sharply.
"Meg..." I warned.
"I mean, maybe humans were supposed to die out!" She raised her hands in exasperation. "Maybe... maybe the plague was meant to kill us all off... And we're just those last few specks of dirt sticking stubbornly to the platter God is trying to wipe clean."
I grimaced. "First of all... I don't like being compared to a speck of dirt." I began. "And second... Meg, what are you saying? We fight to survive, to live to see another day... That's what we do. That's what you do!"
"I don't want to survive anymore!" She suddenly screamed, clutching my shoulders. Our eyes met, and I felt pity as I looked on those huge brown orbs, tear rolling down her cheeks.
"No, Meg." I whispered. "Don't say that. You want to live. You do, I know you do."
"I want to live." She half-smiled, sniffling. "But this isn't living."
"What's your definition of living?" I tried to cheer her up, and gingerly lifted a finger to wipe a hot tear from her cheek. My hand was shaking.
"Not being afraid." She buried her head in my chest, and then my hands were gently on her back, and I rocked her back and forth, trying to think of something comforting to say. "I don't want to live in fear anymore."
"You don't have to." I whispered. "Because I'm going to protect you... You know that?"
She looked up into my eyes, and I felt my heart do a back-flip. "You have such a good heart, Liam."
"I try." I grinned, and she punched me in the gut.
"Don't ruin the moment." She mumbled into my shoulder.
"Sorry."
"Sometimes..." She shook her head, trying to find words as I rocked her back in forth as if in an awkward dance. "Sometimes I just wish there were more good people... maybe if everyone was more concerned for a better life than their own survival, if they were like you... maybe then things would be different."
I snorted. "Yeah, fat chance of that happening." She glared at me, and I held my hands up in self-defense. "What, am I supposed to bomb them with some chemical that's gonna make them all be better people?" I laughed, and suddenly she pulled away and looked at me sharply.
"Liam... you're a freaking genius!"
"Don't sound so surprised." I frowned. "And how am I supposed to make a chemical that will make them all think like me-"
"Not that, idiot." She turned away.
"One second I'm a genius, next I'm an idiot." I shook my head. "So tell me how I'm a genius."
"Okay, I should never have used that word because it's obviously going to your head." She said. There was the Meg I knew. It amazed me how she could go from a sensitive, sobbing creature to an unimpressed sardonic jerk in a matter of minutes. "I meant the gas bomb part...."
"You think it's a good idea for me to drop a bomb on everyone!?" I said  incredulously. "God, Meg, they distrust me already, what do you think that's going to accomplish!?"
She grinned. "It's not them who we're going to be bombing."