The Altered.

Chapter XXI.

Miles didn't recognise where Bri was leading them, but it was unsurprising. He'd explored most of the city, but not its outskirts. He was pleasantly surprised to discover that outside the city, the streets were more spacious and there were even trees in people's yards. You didn't often see that, anymore.

She still hadn't told anybody where she was taking them, but it didn't bother Miles. There was no reason for her to take them anywhere dangerous, so for the most part, he trusted her.

He didn't trust her fully. He didn't trust anybody here fully.

Miles felt himself drifting close to Lia, Aaron, and Eira most. Though it was a subconscious motion, he knew that those were the people who he currently felt most comfortable with - he'd been with them the longest. Especially Aaron, who Miles had spent more time with when the group had split up the previous night. If he was to trust anybody, these three would be the ones.

On multiple occasions, there was a frantic hushed whisper, and Bri would guide them to the nearest appropriate hiding place when an Altered walked past. Walked wasn't even the right word for it - it was more like the Altered were lost and hallucinating. Stumbling with wide eyes, trying to find their way around.

It was frightening.

Conversation was sparse as they walked. Sometimes Aaron and Eira would murmur something to one another, and other times Lia would say something to Percy, who liked to frequently complain about how wet and dirty he was.

"When am I going to be able to get into clean clothes?" Percy whined. His complaints always sat along the same line, but he seemed to be able to find enough different ways to word it that he got a different sympathetic response from Lia each time.

This time, Miles was the one to respond. "Percy," he stated bluntly, "nobody actually cares."

Percy looked deeply offended. "Well, I -"

"Don't argue." Lia sounded tired and defeated. She lifted one hand. "We don't need to hear it."

There was a moment where Miles opened his mouth and prepared to spit something nasty back at her, but then he closed it again. Lia was right - there was no need for arguments. He also didn't fancy annoying Lia or, admittedly, upsetting her in any way. This whole experience was nerve-racking and unpredictable. Fighting was completely unnecessary.

"Sorry," Miles said, and actually surprised even himself when it sounded genuine.

Lia shared a small, grateful smile with him and waved one hand dismissively through the air. "Don't worry about it."

They continued walking quietly, the silence suiting the circumstance. When nobody was speaking, there was almost no noise at all around them. Bar the occasional cry of a distant bird or the clatter of something far away, the silence was shared by every being in the area.

"I hate this," muttered Aaron under his breath. He looked small and nervous despite his height, shoulders turned inwards and gaze flitting about uncertainly.

Miles eyed Aaron thoughtfully, wondering if he needed to voice that fact that he hated it too; that everybody here did. They were walking peacefully and yet still had to be constantly on the lookout for anything dangerous. "It's frightening," Miles said softly, "how our idea about what's happening has so much potential to be right."

"So many of my friends are Altered," Aaron said, voice pitchy with stress. Bri glanced over her shoulder to check that he was okay before continuing walking, not saying a word. "And our families."

Miles had been thinking about that a lot already - he wished he could get the thought of of his head. "I had one friend," said Miles, "who was Unaltered like me." His eyes stung as he turned his head, hands wrung and fiddling with one another. "And now he's dead." What was worse was that Miles knew it still hadn't fully hit him yet. The fact that he would never see Harvey again, that he'd left his dead body behind in an alleyway, that he'd not been able to prevent such an unnecessary death, would haunt Miles for the rest of his life. But the term dead was such a blunt way of putting things. Miles had never thought the term would hit so close to home. He sucked in one short, shuddering breath and held it, willing himself to think of something else. Anything else. His feet caught on one another and Miles had to quickly catch himself before he fell, audibly gasping when his shoulder issued a painful reminder of his wound.

He wrapped his mind around the thought of his own pain instead of Harvey's and he forced the memory of Harvey's body from his mind. Miles rubbed his eyes frantically when he felt tears - brought on by a combination of pain and overwhelming sadness - welling there.

Aaron didn't reply immediately, but sympathy was a mask on his face. Miles' devastation wasn't discreet. "Hey, don't think about that," he said suddenly. "Our families and friends will be fine, I'm sure. All viruses blow over eventually."

Miles didn't remind Aaron that this had already proved itself to be no ordinary virus. He kept his pessimism to himself, letting it be yet another distracting thought. "Yeah. Okay."

Dark storm clouds gathered overhead, tainting what would have been a bright day with the sinister promise of ferocious rain later on. The longer that the group walked, the darker the clouds got, covering the sun until it was almost completely dark down on the streets.

As a group, they passed a convenience store. The neon lights from inside were an assault on Miles' eyes, which had become so accustomed to darkness by now. The lights lit up flashing signs labelling aisles and sections and windowsills.

"I guess the battery-powered lights still work, then," Percy noted. Everybody's eyes were on the shop as they walked, pace automatically slowing courtesy of their distraction.

Bri seemed to be the only one keen to ignore it. "Doesn't matter. Let's go."

Percy was the first to oblige, arms folded and shivering. Miles noticed for the first time that there was something off about the way Percy held himself. It was as if he was unbalanced, always leaning slightly to one side, shoulders on a slant. Though he'd noticed it, Miles didn't really know what it meant. His eyes briefly took in Percy again and noted how he was moreso holding one arm with the opposite hand as opposed to folding his arms. How his lips were blue though it wasn't cold.

"Hey-" Miles started, but was cut off when Eira spoke instead.

"We need to find some flashlights," she said. "Y'know, like the really old ones that they used in like, 2030. The battery ones. Without electricity, we won't be able to charge up any LightSpheres and we can't keep using phones for flashlights, because the battery will die."

"Eira," said her brother tiredly, "those battery-flashlight things are ancient. We'll never find any."

"They're still sold," Luca chipped in, and Miles involuntarily jumped at the sudden voice. Luca was so quiet that it was easy to forget he was there. "In big department stores. Not everybody has LightSpheres."

"Really?" Aaron seemed genuinely surprised.

Miles was only half-listening to the conversation. He was distracted with watching Percy, trying to figure out just what seemed so wrong with him. Percy and Lia were talking quietly, and Bri wasn't talking to anybody at all, just leading the group.

There was suddenly a voice next to Miles. "Got your eye on Percy?" Aaron said, wearing a mischievous grin.

Miles scowled and shoved Aaron away. "No! I have a boyfriend."

"I don't know how."

"Why is that so surprising?"

"Because you're really mean!" replied Aaron, and Miles didn't even have to pretend to be hurt. He gave Aaron an offended gaze, and Aaron shrugged helplessly. "I'm serious!"

"Dude." Miles didn't even have anything to say to what Aaron had just said. He thought briefly about telling Aaron that he had hardly been the meanest one in his friendship group, but just thinking about his friends made his stomach tie itself into knots.

Miles rested a hand dramatically over his heart and shook his head in feigned sadness. "That hurt my feelings," he said finally. There was a glint in his eye that hadn't been there before.

"Do mean people even have feelings?" teased Aaron.

"As a matter of fact, they do!"

Aaron laughed. It was a pleasant sound that almost managed to bring a smile to Miles' face - there was something wonderful about hearing a noise like that at a time like this. Bri turned around to mutter at him to be quiet, to which he responded, "Harsh," but clamped his mouth reluctantly shut regardless.

Bri said, turning onto a desolate backstreet, "We're almost there."

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+1445 Words

Aaron really thinks mean people don't have feelings, why is the boy like this