"Attention, all residents on the list of people who can be taken to the quarantine area are asked to bring their ID cards and wait at the designated location. A truck will take them to the quarantine area later!"
On the noisy streets, residents with large and small bags walked down the street with their heads held high and a smile on their faces, as if lucky, heading toward the military-designated assembly point.
On both sides of the street, countless people crowded together. They looked at the people walking down the middle of the street, their eyes filled with envy and jealousy. Of course, there were also supporters saying goodbye to their former teammates.
"Goodbye!" Brian and Sarah stood on the edge, watching Osborne and Kelly in the crowd, waving to them and shouting goodbye.
It wasn't until the two entered a concentrated area guarded by soldiers and no one could be seen that they turned around and returned.
"Grandpa Yarman and the others should have entered the quarantine area now..."
Sarah held Brian's arm, her eyes shining with tears, as if she was sad to say goodbye to so many people in one day.
"Well, they must have come in at this time." Brian was not at all surprised that Yarman's family was able to enter the isolation area. In this apocalyptic day, medical personnel are arguably the most precious, and no one will be stupid enough to let them go, let alone government agencies.
He looked past the crowd in front, looked at the blue sky in the distance, and muttered to himself, "Now there are only two of us left..."
....
The two of them went back to the RV, sat down on the chairs, and looked at the empty space, feeling a little bad.
Not allowing themselves to think about it anymore, the two decided to keep busy and prepare the things they would use before leaving.
In addition to what they had to carry, Brian also prepared a larger travel bag in which he disassembled the shotgun. Fortunately, the shotgun had a short barrel, if it had a long barrel, they would have to give up.
Although it was a burden, it was better than nothing. As for the assault rifle without bullets, they simply abandoned it.
What worried him was that if the soldiers searched his belongings, they would easily find what he was trying to hide in the bag. After thinking for a long time without finding a solution, he decided to leave it for now, and if it didn't work, he simply wouldn't take it anymore.
"Oh! There's still some beer here, but no one's drinking it anyway, so let's give it to that old Antoine."
After packing, Brian opened the refrigerator and wanted to take out the contents, but found that there were still four or five bottles of beer inside. He sighed softly, pulled them all out, held them in his arms, and walked to the next door of the RV.
"Hey, Antoine, open the door quickly and see what delicacies I bring you!"
Arriving at the RV with several bottles of beer in his arms, Brian called Antoine. However, to his surprise, no matter how loudly he knocked on the door, no one answered. This puzzled him, as normally, no matter how drunk Antoine was, he would always respond in some way upon hearing his call.
"Has something happened to this old man?"
He looked inside through the car window, but it was pitch black and he couldn't see anything clearly. Recalling Antoine's abnormality the night before, he felt vaguely uncomfortable.
Brian quickly put down his beer, reached out, and tried to open the car door. He found that the door was open and opened it immediately.
But the moment he opened the car door, a large amount of unknown gas suddenly came out of the car, making him feel dizzy, nauseous and gagging.
That strange smell put Brian on alert. She immediately knew something was wrong. Without thinking twice, he covered his mouth and nose, hurriedly backed away, and ran to a farther place. Only when he was far enough away did he allow himself to let go of the contained air and breathe fresh air deeply.
"What's wrong with you!"
Sarah, who was arranging her things in the car, heard a noise outside and poked her head out to see what was happening. The first thing he saw was Brian leaning against the vehicle with one hand, while with the other he clutched his neck, panting desperately for air.
This made her panic for a moment, and she quickly ran out of the car to hold her body and asked with concern.
"No... I'm fine..." After taking a few deep breaths to recover from the abnormality of just now, Brian once again set his sights on Antoine's RV.
I didn't understand why such a nasty gas suddenly came out of the car if Antoine was still inside...
Thinking about this, Brian went back to the car, took a clean cloth, soaked it with water, told Sarah not to go there, then covered his mouth and nose with the damp cloth and ran to the RV again.
The uncomfortable feeling invaded him again, but fortunately this time he had a damp cloth covering his mouth and nose, so he could resist it.
He looked randomly around the dark car. It was a mess, with empty beer bottles on the floor, but there was actually a figure lying on the bed inside.
This caused Brian's heart to sink. He quickly opened all the windows of the car to keep the air flowing and then walked quickly to the bed.
At that moment, Antoine closed his eyes tightly, his face pale as paper, his legs tightly closed, and his hands placed in front of his abdomen. He lay stiff in his bed, no ups and downs, he had obviously been dead for a long time.
But there was no trace of pain in his expression. He was holding a photo tightly in his hand, but he showed a faint smile, as if he had dreamed of something beautiful, and he looked very calm.
Brian reached out to feel Antoine's breath, sighed to himself, and took the photo in the old man's hand. It was a withered photo of a young man and woman.
Brian could vaguely see that he was Antoine when he was young. Next to him was a beautiful woman curled up on his shoulder. The two smiled very happily at the camera. There was a phrase written behind the photo, but it seems that it was written recently - I'm here to find you, we'll see you soon... right?
...
"Name: Antoine."" Age: 67."" Cause of death: suicide due to carbon monoxide poisoning."
"..."
Outside the RV, a man and a woman, who were uniformed policemen, were taking notes on Antoine's body on the ground.
After finishing writing the log, the two took a body bag out of the trunk of the police car, worked together to get the body into it, then picked up the body and walked to the back of the police car, preparing to drive and dispose of it directly in a special place.
Suicides like this happen every day in Dallas, so they're no longer surprised. So they completed everything very efficiently, the things in the RV will inevitably be kept by them.
Brian and Sarah stepped back and watched in silence, with no expression on their faces. However, the fact that they were holding hands tightly revealed that, inside, their hearts were far from the apparent calm they showed on the outside.
"Son, your name is Brian, right? Here is a letter from the deceased..."
After loading the body into the car and closing the trunk, the police approached Brian and put a letter in his hand. Then he quickened his pace, got into the police car without looking back, and drove off.
Seeing the policewoman's strange behavior, Brian raised his eyebrows, opened the letter, and read the contents:
....
To Brian:
I suppose you'll be the first to read this letter, right? I'm sorry I can't say goodbye in person. To be honest, I like you very much, boy, and I'm so grateful to you for the joy you've given me during this time.
I'm old. For me, I died months ago. Every day that I am still in this world is like an extra, but I am already tired. Yesterday I thought about my wife again... she must be there, very alone. Maybe it's time to go with her.
Don't feel bad for me, this is a relief. Now, everything in this RV is yours. You can take what you need, if you really want it.
...
"I wish you happiness in heaven!"
Brian put the letter in his pocket, silently praying for Antoine. He looked up and watched the police car drive away. At that moment he understood why the officer had acted so strangely: he was surely afraid that Brian would ask for his belongings.
But he didn't give it much importance. He knew that Antoine did not own much, beyond his fondness for drinking. Besides, he had already seen some food, weapons, and ammunition. It was the usual thing these days, so he didn't care too much.
But on second thought, there are already many people in Dallas who don't have enough to eat and rely on supplies to survive. Who would have imagined that these two children would still have food?
"Brian, look, it looks like there's another line written at the end."
Just as Brian was about to put the envelope away, Sarah's sharp eyes noticed that there was a line of words written on the back and said as a reminder.
"Yes?"
After hearing Sarah's reminder, Brian opened the envelope again and turned it over, but there was still a sentence written on the bottom.
"I left you a surprise under the bed, don't let anyone else take it away from you!"
Brian looked at that line of text with some surprise. I didn't expect Antoine to predict that the police would open the letter first. He also knew that the officers would get the supplies before handing it over, so they ignored him, so for them the next line was nothing special.
"You're an old drunk, but you're pretty good..."
Upon entering Antoine's RV, he lifted the mattress and discovered that there was actually a safe hidden underneath. It required a password, so there was no fear of someone finding out.
Looking at the four characters that needed to be entered, Brian remembered that there was a date in the photo: 07/12.
Checking the date, he entered the password without hesitation. The password was not incorrect. He opened the safe without any problems.
But when he saw what was inside, he suddenly froze and fell silent, because inside were two injection vials and a needle, and the name of the injection was: morphine.