The Diseased Heart

Chapter 27

Leaning into the corner of the frigid metal, my mind was both racing, yet blank all at once. Thoughts and worries raced across my brain, all merely hazes and foggy glimpses.

I knew why I was in this room, the barred cell wall casting twisted shadows across the walls due to the flickering dim light in the corner. Once realizing what had become of my friend, the one I had tried so hard to protect, yet didn't realize was still in this very building, I had snapped. Darting from the window I had lunged at Clementine, rambling and snarling in the Crawler's language about how she lied, about how Raven had been there and she refused to tell me about anything, about everything.

In my bloodcrazed fury I'm sure I would have killed the scientist had they not drugged and restrained me. Deep down, I knew there was some explanation, but my instincts refused to listen to reason.

I was unsure how long I lay there on the cell floor, both calming my mind and nerves, when who other than the very scientist I had assaulted walked in. Her expression was one of concern and vague fear, they had no insight as to why I had gone off the deep end, for none of these humans could hope to decipher a Crawler's speech.

Before she was even able to fully open her mouth to speak, whatever excuse she had formulated to explain my outburst, I snarled to pause her voice. She froze and took a single step backwards.

I sighed, speaking in a whisper through my clenched jaw, for if it wasn't I would be trying to tear her throat out, "Why did you hide her from me."

She paused, absorbing the strange words, "What do you mean?"

"Raven. Why did you hide Raven from me, you said she wasn't here, but you lied!" I roared out. How dare she insinuate she didn't know!

"Raven? The other Crawler? She had been...wait, are you saying you saw her?"

"Saw her strewn across a room in chunks of rotted flesh like vile, bloody confetti? Yes. I sure as hell saw her."

A hand went to cover Clementine's mouth in shock. The reaction was not faked, the slight increase in her human heartbeat and pause in her breath were true signs of shock she could not fake.

I sat up, sitting cross legged by the cell door. Clementine hesitantly sat down in a similar fashion on the opposite side. We stared at eachother, her fear filled eyes met with my cold, empty black ones.

To break the still silence, I reluctantly gave in, "You really didn't know. Did you."

It was not a question, but a statement.

She shook her head, "No," she proclaimed, as if her innocence would decide her fate, which it would, "I was unaware that Raven was even here. I would suspect to know, seeing as I am the head researcher for Crawlers, but clearly...this was hidden from me. You said she was...dead?"

"Yes. Truly dead. This would take someone powerful. Someone with plenty of information on my kind, and someone with lackeys willing to hold down a violent beast."

She sat thinking for a long while, "The men you heard speaking outside your room, they-"

I cut her off, "Yes. They were the ones to do this I'm sure, they...had planned this. They have likely used her body to re-create the infectious virus, just as they had said. But if they plan to infect the world as I assume, where else would they turn to, than the source it used all those years ago?"

She gasped, "The Vaccines! They plan to infect the latest flu vaccines!"

"Exactly. Seeing as they have definitely planned this from every angle, they expect the police, even the military. I would even bet they have already infected several people to use as enslaved Crawlers. And if all of this is true, they are willing to make many more."

"What on earth would give you that idea!?"

"It was done in the past. I was never attacked directly by one of these, but it was a sight to see when a truck with several Crawlers teathered to it barrelled down the highway in broad daylight.

"If they had gone so far as to research more than you have to create the virus' original, highly infectious, and fast acting string, they will have planned to make weaponized Crawlers."

Clementine sat, with her heartbeat pounding at this horrific news.

She knew we had one option.

After all, it takes a beast, to know a beast. But I was no match for an army with access to solutions that could erode my mind from the inside out.

Neither of us liked it, but what other option did we have?