The Diseased Heart

Chapter 26

The branch below me snapped free from its base, sending itself and me to the leaf litter and dirt. I snarled in frustration as I stood up, wiping dirt and small droplets of blood from small scrapes off my arms. The raccoon above me chittered mockingly at me, and I growled up at it.

Clementine cautiously walked over, "Are you alright?"

Glaring over my shoulder at her, I spoke through a growl, "I would be if I could hunt properly."

She regarded me with confusion, "You hunted just fine these past weeks, what do you mean?"

With a heavy sigh, I turned to her, and leaned against the tree I just fell from, "Do you leave a porcupine without quills to fend for itself? Do you expect an eagle without feathers to manage? What about a shark with no fins? A cougar without claws? A dart frog with no poison?"

She tilted her head, "I don't think I understand. None of those animals would be able to survive."

"Exactly. Those limitations mean they cannot defend themselves or catch their prey. Think of a limitation like that for me being my Crawler legs stuck in this brace. Like the cougar, it may be able to catch a few animals, but not always as reliable. The dart frog may be able to evade a few predators, but without its true defences, it is guaranteed to die."

She stared at me in shock, "I had no idea it was that troublesome..."

"I literally told you yesterday."

"You- wait, what."

I facepalmed, "For a scientist, you can really be stupid sometimes."

"Aw, don't be so harsh on her."

I glanced over at Olive who was skipping over, Maple and Jack following down the small path. I had smelled them long before I heard them, and even then it took them a while to come into sight. Either way, I wasn't surprised they stopped by.

Clementine shook her head and dug a small key out of her lab coat, "Here, let me unlock that for you. We were only keeping it there as a safety precaution, we were unsure if you weren't going to attack at a moments notice. It was more the boss than me. If its causing that much more harm than good, I see no reason for it."

I stood still as she went behind me, I heard the faint click of the key turning in the lock and the brace releasing. I took in a deeper breath as the pressure was gone. Clementine backed up and I took the brace off fully, and wasted no time throwing it into the bushes. Before Clementine could utter a word of protest, I had already extended my main six Crawler legs and stretched them out, "Holy shit. If any of you have ever had a cast and been unable to move a joint, this is probably exactly how it felt."

I had never had a cast myself, but it was a safe assumption.

Planting them down on the ground, I used my newly freed Crawler legs to launch up off the ground into the high branches of the trees, scanning the branches, I grinned and shot down after the raccoon. I'm gonna kill you, you little shit.

○ ○ ○

Climbing up to the top of one of the taller trees, I surveyed the area. The bustling city one direction, and the alluring forest the other. This was surely not how I had expected to spend my life as a fourteen year old.

Technically, I'm not fourteen anymore, but does it really count if I'm still physically and mentally a teenager? I'm sure Clem would bring up the technicalities, but who's really keeping score-

My very thoughts screeched to a halt. Did I just...

I turned in the direction the smell had come from, the wind had suddenly changed direction, bringing the odd odor to my senses. It was towards the laboratory. With a small growl, I pounced off the tree and towards the nearest open window the smell had come from. Latching onto the rough outer wall, I peered inside.

What I saw caused a blood curdling screech to instinctively tear from my throat.

Inside the large room, the first thing anyone would see would be the large surplus of blood smeared across the floor and walls. The stench was unbearable even from the window, so I had no immediate plans to enter. The blood was far too fresh for any rot, and this gaggingly strong stench could only be from one thing.

A dead Crawler.

The virus, for some reason, was quite fragile. If a Crawler's body truly died, the virus would begin to send out a gas that was so terrible it could convince me of it being toxic. For whatever reason, most humans were unable to smell this scent, but most feral Crawlers were drawn to it. Occasionally one would guard the body for days before they realized they wouldn't wake, but most often, they went straight to eating the corpse.

I had never known of anything else making any kind of scent that even came close to that of a deceased Crawler. But there should be no Crawlers but me here!

The blood and bits of flesh and bile that covered the floor may have been confusable to a human, but they were obviously Crawler to me. So there was no chance of someone possibly turning with an experiment using my DNA, and attacking a human. But, if that had happened and the newly turned Crawler was attacked, they would have been transported downstairs and wouldn't have turned so soon. Not to mention their sanity would be intact due to my genetic mutation carrying on in their infection, and all in this lab knew this.

This meant there was one, and only one other possible option to what had happened here. And the very thought made my stomach turn and heart drop. My Crawler legs nearly gave out, nearly let go of the wall and let me fall the three stories down as I screeched a second time in anguish at the realization of what this meant.

Raven...