The Diseased Heart

Chapter 33

The only sound was the ticking of the clock and my own footsteps. I paced anxiously across the floor of the small room. Last night was a catastrophe, we were all positive she would signal us, but hours passed, and she never did. We retreated, seeing as the worst case scenario may have come to pass. To my ire, Clementine had suspected this may happen and stated as much when we explained the situation upon our return.

You didn't trust her judgement? Why not? We knew what was going to happen! That's why she told us of a plan to fall back!! This is why I always hated you, but never showed it.

Apparently, think of the devil and he shall appear, as Clementine walked into the small room I was pacing in slowly, holding a few papers in her hand with a pen behind her ear. She looked up at me and sighed, I glanced to her but continued to pace, now watching her like how a cougar stalks the elk.

"The military has been contacted-"

"Yeah, yeah good to know." I cut her off, my tone clipped. Whipping my head back to face the floor.

She paused for several minutes, taken aback my my sharp words, and her inability to complete her sentence, "Olive, I know you're itching to run into that base and fight them, but we can't do it so soon. After what happened, they'll expect us to attack them right away, we have to let them put their guard down before we attack. There is much more chance of our survival and victory if we do."

I snapped at her, baring my newly pointed teeth, "What do you know about fighting?! You're just a scientist, and Molecules and DNA strands don't fight wars among themselves! How long will it take for them to let their guard down? Weeks? Months?? We don't know what happened to Riley, she could still be alive in that base! If we wait that long, she might loose her chances of survival, because who knows what they're doing to her in there!"

Clementine was stunned at my sudden words. Had she really never thought of any of that? How someone so stupid became a scientist was beyond my comprehension. I growled, "We are fighting them tonight. It has the best chances of her making it out of this alive. Nothing you can say will convince me otherwise."

She simply nodded before leaving the room, I could smell her vague sense of fear, despite her physical composure.

With a snarl, I pulled my fist back and punched the wall in front of me, leaving a sizable dent in the drywall. I backed up from the damage I caused, clutching my hand in surprise. I had forgotten just how strong I had become, and just how much my mind had changed. Wearing sunglasses all day was still a strange habit to get used to, and eating almost nothing but meat was still odd, along with longing for the sun to set. My fear of the dark had completely diminished.

Despite being a new species, no longer human, I still kept to my own moral code. I had never killed an animal, and even as a carnivorous zombie, I had still never hunted for food myself. I had done some hunting practices when we needed to learn, but I would catch the animal, and console it until it was no longer afraid before releasing it. Riley even told me that my scent clinging to it would protect it from predators for days, as they would do anything to keep away form a Crawler.

She had warned me I may not be able to stay like this forever, that I wouldn't always be able to stay kill free as a hunter, but I was going to try to live as a Crawler without killing to eat.

I shook my head. Live as a Crawler...I'm going to be cured wheather I like it or not, thanks to my dad.

I sat on the hard tile floor and thought. Those sirens went off, Riley must have been captured or discovered right then. If alarms went off, it is possible they found their own Crawlers dead, but it is just as likely they found her searching for them.

Even if she had killed a few, we don't know how good their healing is, they may already be back in fighting shape.

If they treat humans like war tools, and turn them into these monsters, I don't want to imagine what they would do to someone who is already a Crawler, someone they might see as already being a monster.

I sighed aloud, "well...either way, I have a war to fight tonight. And I'm bringing back either a friend, or a corpse."

Standing up, I left the room. It was time to prepare for war.