The Diseased Heart

Chapter 24

"You...did...What?!"

"We are sorry, Clem. But we had no choice!"

"What do you mean you had no choice?! She was not trying to attack you!"

I growled lowly in my dazed state, my eyes half shut and watering slightly at the recent surge of light they had been exposed to. Thankfully, Maple, Olive, and Jack were smart enough to keep their distance. In the past when I had been light blinded around them, it had either been only them when I deemed them as harmless, and them when we were on good terms after I had escaped. Now, there were strangers who had just blinded me, and my instincts would be unsure as to who was near me.

The pair of employees had come into my cell for a reason I was still unaware of, and the moment they saw me with the others, they had shone a bright flashlight at me. I recognized the flashlight itself, they were ones that were bright enough to hurt even as a human, which is why the seering illumination was able to phase through my sunglasses while retaining enough power and brightness.

Clementine must have been down the hall, as she came running and appeared mere moments after I snarled at the sudden pain, and was now trying to piece the story together herself.

I lifted my glasses slightly and wiped the residual tears from my face, that light had been almost worse than the sun, although that may have been due to the concentration and suddenness combined with the dark room. I was blinking faster than I normally would, but I was at least able to see vague shapes and figures.

I turned to look at where I could scent the others, and they were indeed still there. Good to know my sense of smell isn't screwed up.

Maple spoke cautiously, as if testing my control, "You're, okay now?"

I nodded, "for the most part. It was sudden, so that had a hand in most of my reaction. Although, I am glad Clem is here now, I can ask her about something I heard last night."

Olive tilted her head, "What about the stitches? Won't you ask about that too?"

I shook my head, "No, she would know they were going to dissolve soon, so the few breaking wouldn't be too big a deal. Not to mention, I'm a Crawler."

She nodded slowly in thought, to them, not speaking of something like this was a ridiculous thought. I looked back at where Clementine was with the two others, the two left just as I looked over and she shook her head. She closed the door before walking over, "So sorry about that. Apparently they were unaware of your visit, heard voices from inside here, and assumed Riley had done something."

The others shrugged or nodded, "It's fine, we weren't the ones who were light blinded."

She looked at me, "Speaking of that, are you alright? Were your glasses not on?"

I snorted, "They were. The fact that you all can see well enough in here is proof that I need them on. The light was strong enough it was able to bypass my defenses though."

"Right, I see. I will have a talk with them later about this."

"Its fine. Change of topic, I need some...clarification."

She seemed startled at the sudden change, but nodded none the less, "Of course, what of?"

"Last night, I heard part of a passing conversation in the hall. Sounded like two men. They were saying something about 're-creating the effect of the first wave'. They mentioned something about there being two of 'them' meaning they are not as heavily guarded. Something about activating dormant traits with some DNA...I think they were talking about Crawlers."

The tall scientist stared at me, her expression that of fear and shock. Several minutes passed and I raised an eyebrow before snapping my fingers, "Hello? Earth to Clementine?"

She jolted as she snapped out of her daze, "Sorry! I must have spaced out...are you sure that is what you heard?"

"A Crawler is almost never wrong when it comes to scent or sound, so I am sure. On that note, I was unable to catch their scent, so I have no idea who they are unless I hear their voices again."

She nodded as she took out a small notepad and writing that down. I suspected it was relative to her research. She turned before walking back to the door, "I have to look into this, I'll get back to you if I find anything. Thank you for bringing this to my attention..."

"No problem." I turned away at the light from the hall as the door was opened, my eyes were still sensitive, and my glasses were hardly helping at the moment. The door was closed as she left, which left me with the three others.

Jack let out a sigh, "Well, that was eventful. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a Crawler, but, after everything that's happened, I'm glad I'm not."

I growled and shook my head, "Definitely. I've been awake for what, a month now? And I've already had to pull bolts out of my joints, get blinded daily and stand frozen on the spot, got shot and stabbed while escaping the museum, had to run across a city in broad daylight, getting shot at by a helicopter and hit by cars, and now this, being forced to stay in a room without use of my Crawler legs, getting blinded by idiots, and now there's a conspiracy to possibly re-start the apocalypse. Why couldn't I just die in that lake like a normal person?"

Maple snickered and Olive pat my shoulder, "Good luck with that."

"And that's the first time I've heard sarcasm from you."

"There's a first time for everything."