Some moral issues and the safety of responding to them on the whole.

After you check for a watch and find a pocket watch that is self winding pocket watch that has a spot for day and month as well so it seems so long as you move around you will be able to tell pretty accurate time. Thou you do realize every four years chances are this watch will not keep track of the day in February. So you will be losing a day every 4 years but that is alright, all and all if you live long enough to care about a day you will count a lost day as a blessing. You look over the other watches and find a few that might be good just to use on battery to help keep track of time month and date, thou you realize because of your power source at the base you might be better off with a computer that automatically keeps track of it. And your pretty sure that there might be one in one of the offices you had stuck stuff in but either way you had not considered or decided or realized you might have a use for it.

After 30 minutes and you place a few other pocket watches and watches into your pack to bring back along with watch batteries, you realize you only have one more thing to find, and you realize this thing is of some importance and you wonder why you all had not brought one with you. You grab a few gas masks, you look over them and pick a modern one with a full face plate rather then goggles. And you grab one of each of the others, you look around a bit more and find a few cans of tear gas. You are pretty sure there has to be more in the shop but you attach them to your pouch on your hip and stress the point to yourself that you all need the gas masks.

Tracy looks at you funny as you hand her the gas mask but you add " Make sure it fits, I found some tear gas. And I think if a fire fight starts I am starting with that." Tracy nods. You find Grace and she is doing her thing as well so you hand her the mask, and smile as you realize she has pretty much packed three back packs full of everything she could get into them. You explain to her like you had Tracy and then Find Max as he is finishing up with the moving of the ammo and he takes the mask and just smiles. You ensure they all adjust them to fit tight and well and so on before you go and find yourself a pair of gloves.

Now all dressed and ready with all the ammo the four of you can carry as well as the food, Tracy and you make your way to the back door. The Gas masks are all hanging off your ammo pouches ready to use if you need them, as you open the door you exit looking both ways gun trained one way then the other. Tracy does the same followed by Max and Grace, Max looks at you a moment and then waves for the four of you to get down behind some garbage cans in the alley. You pull your silenced 9mm, and see the girls do the same Max had taken to the task of carrying his crossbow in his hand because of the issue of his back being covered with the pack, he can still access his arrows and he is not in any pain on the whole but still it's all good.

Max waves his hand a moment before looking around the can, what he sees is not only a shock to you but to the girls as well. It seems Max had been hearing a dog, before you is a dog and you can't help but wonder besides dead bodies about what the hell could the dog have been eating and you honestly can't help but feel this is a bad thing to encounter the dog. You quickly say " All of you put the gas mask on, we are going to have to make sure we put down any dogs in the future we come across."

The girls look at you a moment but you cut them off saying " This dog has been living off eating rotting corpses or so I would guess and dogs and humans are known to have sicknesses that can be carried by one or the other and caught. It would be best for all of us to kill it, so we don't catch a new strain of the sickness." You look at the dog a moment and it does seem pretty sickly on the whole.

You turn to Tracy and ask " What did the Military types tell you about animal contact if anything?"

Tracy shrugs and says " They said many house hold animals died from contacted with their masters. And they had pointed out pretty much what you suggested. Plus we can never know when they might turn if they do so. Most of us know the signs to look out for if a person is rabid from this sickness but I doubt seriously any of us have seen what happens to a dog or cat or other animal when that happens. And since we know what it does to a human I would have to agree."

Grace gets a little upset but adds " If you think it will help keep us safe then I agree, we kill the dog and any others we come across."

Max just shrugs and says " I have no idea what they have been eating, I have come across a few of them. But most of them stayed away from me at a great distance. since they had been wandering and alone for at least 2 or 3 months they are very shy in most cases around people. Which either means this one belongs to someone who is out and about here, and I can honestly tell you the kind of personalities the guys that took my mother have does not lend well to the likely hood they kept a pet other then a woman who they are miss treating or so I would guess."

You look down at the dog and wave your hand and say " Go home!"

The dog looks at you a moment and turns away, but you also don't know if you should follow your suggestion and kill it. In the end last thing you need is groups of feral dogs mutated on some level of being rabid going about killing people simply because you did not put down the last bitch on earth or whatever. It's clear to you as you think this it is indeed a female dog, and you wonder if the rates for dogs was the same as for humans and the likes. But at the same time you can't help but be worried about what the dog has been eating and what you might catch from it.

You look at the other three a moment and ask " What do you all want to seriously do? we know we got two people who have gotten through the sickness with little or no problem. We got others who as best as we can tell we can't make a clear guess at, I am not trying to be rude Tracy or Grace, but the only ones we know are not sex crazed freaks are myself and Max. And I am not saying I don't enjoy the time but it does clearly tell us there is a trace of the virus or whatever left with in you."

You then look at the dog one more time and say " And then we have the dog, that clearly only looks sick because it needs a bath. We have no idea what it has been eating let alone drinking. And we can guess it had something to do with corpses but at the same time, as far as most of us know besides Max here it is one of a kind just about."

Max shrugs and then says " Well, the others seemed like male dogs."

Tracy looks at Max and says " Social behaviors are often able to be compared to that of animals as they are able to be to humans, in the case of dogs. Females are more willing to approach strangers in more cases then a male. And after the Feral or distancing the remaining animals had to humans, it would be the females that would approach us first. The males are Defensive and protective of themselves where as the females tend to be defensive and protective of humans in many cases. I mean when you have a feral population, which is why the other dogs had kept distance from you Max."

You look at Tracy and nod and say " Thanks for some insight, but it still leaves me wondering what to do. We know Tommie had many infected cocks and large amounts of sexual fluids left in her but she is not sick. And I have not gotten sick from contact with her, we also know that what little contacted a few of us had with other humans. We have not gotten sick from them as well, like in the case of Grace. As well as myself with Grace and then Max here, has had contacted with a few people who have not gotten him sick either. Then again Tommie had contacted with guys who had their brains fry in their skulls one after the other, after they suddenly went lustful and started to do what they did on the highway. So it leaves me wondering how to decided or figure level of exposure, we have already moved corpses out of spaces and so on that had been infected. So it leaves me to wonder what level of exposure can the dog have over there and it be safe for us as well as the dog."

Grace thinks for a moment and then says " That would be a question to ask Tracy's mother, she is the nurse with some understanding of the medical side of all of this. But at the same time, we know that it might be safer to kill the dog as well. Based on the basic logic of all the things considered."

You muse for a second and say " The female dog may be much like the female humans, looking for a protector against the male dogs. We can't be to sure on this but it would merit some thought to that degree, thou that would mean when the dog went into heat we might have issues because the dogs would smell her and make a lot of noise. Which if we kept her would be a bad thing, put on top of it we don't know how the virus affected the sex drive of the dogs. Or even the pheromone response in regards to all of this or if the human response is even an alteration in are pheromone response, that is to say maybe my presents or even the presents of yourselves is what is making most of the men and women. So sexually driven, then again I am only guessing at this."

Tracy smiles and says " That sounds like something that could merit a talk but we are still in the middle of an alley trying to figure out what to do with the dog."

Max looks at you and then at the dog, and says " I say we let it follow us and then, when we get it off on a road we don't plan to ever go down again we put it down. Safety first, we protect are selves and then we figure out if we should protect other people or animals or things we meet."

You nod and add " I guess that makes sense, we will get rid of the dog once we get away from this area, in one of the back Alleys or area's we have no use for." Max nods clearly making it clear he knows just where to do it more or less.

You think one last moment then add " I realize only one other problem leaving a fresh corpse about could be a sign to anyone who might be about that someone was about, and that to could be of danger to us. So we might indeed need to make sure we are a greater distance from are base before we decided to dispatch the dog. In less we are going to pick it up and throw it in a trash bin but that leaves any number of other issues as well. Like the fact no one has emptied these garbage bins in god knows how long." You see everyone shudder when they realize you brought up the fact the trash bins you have been standing behind mostly would smell worse if you opened one of them. You then add " So we really need to consider this a big longer, I guess we could say so long as it is not a threat to us at the moment. And it does not draw other dogs to us, we might just wait and observe what is going on. Hell if we are lucky the damn thing could be fixed and none the things we have considered is even an issue." Max and the two girls look re-leaved after the other considerations that had been shared.

Max waves and says " The shop with the bed are this way, it's still a good ways off but don't worry we will get the work done. Cart I used to move it was from a lumber hard a ways away, but the thing had a large flat area, to put the bed on as well as stronger wheels and made less sound then the bed trolleys in the shop. I left in the loading dock, figured that no one would realize it did not belong. Since it clearly looked like it could be used for moving beds." You just nod as you follow Max in the direction he already knew to go, it really was lucky his mother and him had been living here thou it is sad that his mother got captured.

You think for a moment as you walk and ask Max, " Did you move into this area before or after your mother was captured?"

Max looks at you a moment and states " I moved away from the area my mother was captured in because as you said one has to find resources. I clearly found resources I can use, in an area not many bother to look in yet. By going out at night to meet the patrols that I know, at a greater distance from where I had been staying and you are staying. As well as keeping a distance from where my mother and I had been, you can see how it kinda just works out. And since I reported back to that patrol I knew that I plan to leave the area, they will not be looking for me to give me food and water like they had promised my mother from time to time should they wish to as well as other things. They might even drop the patrol at that distance because if I remember correctly they had only started it after they noticed I had moved to maintain the promise to my mother since some of the patrols still have honest people on them. The statement that I am leaving to the suburbs or some place that might have less people. Suggests to them that I am not around there any more, and they only keep patrols in area's they believe are active or could be active while their men are able to function in said area's. This area is one that they can't function in well, that and the fact many of the roads and area's are far to open for their liking or so I guess. Which in my case and yours makes it easier for us to spot them. But it also has to do with memories they often suffer from the smell of the sea and god knows what else. People are strange and their motivations as a kid are hard for me to understand."

You notice Tracy nodding and you got to take it for what it is, Max clearly has talked to them about the intent of the patrols and so on when it was safe and learned and understood this all. And he has been straight forward with you since you meet him he realized your intent was to protect and feed and keep everyone safe and he realized your intent out weighed the intent of the groups patrolling so he was better off helping you or so you guess. With that you follow Max to the mattress outlet around back watching every which way. You stop at the back door and see an old bare corpse covered in clothing still, siting next to a truck much in the way Max had said it pretty much. So you pat him on the back for his interested to details.

Before going inside the shop you ask Max " Is the front of this store as bared or boarded up as all the others?"

Max nods and says " It has boards and bars unlike many of the others, thou frankly I would prefer if they all had boards and bars to keep people out. And prevent them from looking in."

You nod at Max and say " I got a job for you, I want you to go around front and check it. Try to keep low and keep an eye on everything like you always do. Myself and the girls will be hiding between this fence and this truck away from the body of course near the end of the truck, I just want to know what the state of the front of the building is like currently before we go inside. I also want you to let us know if your coming towards us just take these keys, and shake them as you come back go up to the back door if the front is clear and open it. We should hear the keys as you come around, and it should allow us to know you are coming this way we don't have to worry on the whole if that makes some sense bro. We would hate to kill you on accident." So you hand him back his key ring, and add " Leave your back packs here, remove put the crossbow on your back to keep it close to you. I would recommend you draw the 9mm and keep the 38 special hidden. These suggestions are for your own safety on this, if and I honestly mean if. There happens to be a visible threat I ask you to let off a shot. A single shot, and we will watch for you to run back this way. You also have a few grenades, your more then capable to duck behind a corner and throw one as you run if need be. I am sure if there is an honest to god threat they would not be interested in anyone who has grenades."

Max smiles and nods and says " Don't worry on it man, I got this. I have been doing this kind of thing longer then you had in that basement of yours. And yes, Grace and the others have talked about about how you found them. And how honest and safely you dealt with them considering they could have been a threat to your person." With a smirk he nods and sets down his bags, draws his 9mm and goes off around the front of the truck with the keys on in his pack and a grin on his face to check on the front of the building.