Outbreak Chapter 19

They were on a main street now and Brendon couldn't see any major obstructions on the road in front of them so he leaned down inside of the vehicles so he could hear the others better figuring that he wouldn't need to do any shooting for a little while. "So what's your name?" he asked the man who was still visibly shaking.
"I'm Tom," he replied. "I live on the third floor of our apartment building. I've seen you guys come in and out of the apartment building with guns and gear quite a few times before." Brendon couldn't ever remember seeing Tom before but he was sure that by now everybody in the apartment building had noticed him with weapons at one point or another. Most of his weapons fit into gun cases but a handful of them like his AK-47 and AR-10 didn't fit any of his cases quite right so he'd just have to walk in and out of the building with them slung. Plus he usually just wore his tactical vest home after going shooting at his parent’s farm which had gotten him quite a few strange looks.
Brendon reached down and shook Tom's hand. "I'm Brendon and that's Aidan and Rebecca up front," Brendon said motioning to the other two as he spoke.
"So can I have a gun?" Tom asked after they had all exchanged brief hellos.
"You have much experience with guns?" Brendon asked back wanting to figure out if Tom would be very useful or not. He didn't want to just hand a loaded weapon to someone who wasn't experienced unless he absolutely had to.
"No, I've never shot a gun," Tom said after a moments hesitation. "But I have gone paintballing before."
"Well that's at least mildly helpful but until we get you trained up on how to use a gun properly you'd be more of a liability than anything else." Brendon explained. "We're just heading to a friend's place on the edge of town while we figure out what to do since the military has the place quarantined. You help carry the bags inside then we'll show you how to use one of the guns."
Tom didn't look very happy with his answer but he nodded and didn't push the topic any further. When nothing else was said Brendon stood back up so he could get a better look at what was going on around them. He spotted quite a few infected running around, some of them tried to chase after their vehicle as they went by but they were easily dodged and quickly outdistanced. What was mildly unsettling was the people they saw being chased by infected. Some of them would wave their arms and yell to get the attention of Brendon's group for help but Brendon knew they couldn't stop and help all of them. He wished he could go around trying to save more people but knew that if they tried to be heroes they would either end up getting themselves killed or end up with a large group of people but nowhere to keep them safe and fed.