The Altered.

Chapter XVIII.

Miles was just about to start climbing the ladder when Luca stopped him.

"What are we going to do with Buddy?"

Miles fixed Luca with a deadpan expression. "Did you seriously name the dog Buddy?"

Luca's cheeks reddened. "He needed a name!"

"Now you're going to get attached to it."

"He can't come upstairs and his hungry," Luca said informatively, folding his arms.

"I don't actually care," groaned Miles, running a hand through his blood-caked hair and gripping it while trying to think of a compromise. "You know what? We can leave it here and come back down soon to feed it if we have food to spare."

"What if he runs away?"

"Then he's stupid. I'm not letting you stay down here with it; it's not safe being outside." Without waiting for Luca to protest again, Miles reached once more for the rungs of the ladder and started to painfully pull himself up.

The first thing Miles saw when he poked his head through the open trapdoor was Aaron leap to his feet. "Where have you been?" he demanded.

Before replying, Miles pulled himself into the treehouse to let Luca follow him up. "Turns out," Miles said without answering Aaron's question, "the Altered will attack anything, including each other." His gaze shot to Bri. "Also turns out, this street isn't completely empty. Luca and I just found a house. Two dead adults inside. I guarantee it's been hardly an hour since they die."

He didn't mention the scare that he'd had when he was inside and realised that one of the Altered wasn't quite dead yet, for that was irrelevant information.

Miles stomped towards the food. After throwing everything he'd eaten up, he was starving again. He sat down and reached for a lollipop, which he knew would be insufficient in satisfying his hunger but tore the wrapper off anyway. "Also, we now have a dog to take care of."

Everybody was silent. Even Percy, who was curled in the corner - still trying to control himself.

Miles clapped his hands once. "Anyway, how's your morning been, you guys?" His tone was dry and uninterested, but if they weren't going to respond to the previous conversation then he was going to start a new one.

Aaron clenched his fists but said nothing.

Declan leaned back against the wall, one eyebrow quirking upwards. "We told you to be back quickly. How were we to have known there were people living in that house? Tell me you didn't think everywhere was abandoned, too. I know you did."

Miles didn't answer. Luca, who had just appeared, looked around at everybody, who was now staring at him. "What?"

"Nothing," Lia said in a hurry. She was hovering near Percy, standing up and shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot. "Are you two okay?"

"Fucking sensational." Miles stuck the lollipop in his mouth.

Luca gave a half-hearted shrug and slowly lowered himself to the floor. "I don't really know what happened. I'm fine."

"Well, now we know the Altered are killing indiscriminately and aren't selectively murdering just the Unaltered," Eira said optimistically.

Miles lifted his knees and hugged them to his chest, awkwardly resting his back on the wall while trying not to let the wood touch his shoulder. He still couldn't really comprehend how or what had happened in the house down the street, and he was brimming with unanswered questions. Most importantly, he wanted to know: if that house had residents, what about the other old houses on this street?