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?
From the ground below the treehouse, Buddy barked.
Aaron groaned. "How are we meant to look after a bloody dog?"
Miles didn't have the energy to respond, so he waited for somebody else to bother. Resting his head on the top of his knees, Miles finally felt the overwhelming wave of emotions fill over him that had been building up since the night the notification had come through.
He'd never felt quite so useless in his life. The answer to all this - the virus, the house - had to exist, somewhere, but it felt so far away. How was it fair to rely on all the Unaltered in the world to solve a problem caused by an unknown entity?
Miles didn't want to hurt anyone. He didn't want to kill anyone. But he didn't want to isolate himself here, in a treehouse, and wait for somebody else to save the world.
At the same time... he never wanted to leave the safety of this place.
Miles felt somebody sit beside him cautiously, and he lifted his head, finding his green eyes meeting Aaron's own blue orbs.
Aaron tipped his head. "Are you okay?"
Miles pulled his knees closer to his chest. There was some comfort in Aaron sitting so close to him, but Miles still found himself frantically hurrying to shut his feelings behind a bolted door. "I don't know. I'm confused," he said defeatedly, lowering his gaze.
Aaron looked like he was trying to be sympathetic, but he ended up grinning anyway.
Miles glowered. "Why are you smiling?"
"Because it's super hard to take you seriously when there's a heart-shaped lollipop in your mouth."
Miles hadn't been expecting Aaron to say that, and though he would have prevented it if he could, he felt a smile starting to take shape on his lips, too. It felt wrong to be happy right now, but he also wanted to cling to the feeling as long as possible. "Oh, shut up."
Aaron teasingly elbowed Miles, letting out a laugh. The noise called for a few surprised glances from other teens around the room who had been previously engaged in conversation. "You're way cooler when you smile, Miles," Aaron told him, eyes glittering. "You should do that more often instead of being so mean."
Miles rested his head back on the wall, trying to wipe the silly smile off his face. It didn't belong there in circumstances like this. His smile was meant to be reserved for people and places and moments he really cared about.
Yet here he was; grinning at something that really shouldn't have entertained him. This feeling was more pleasing than sulking.
"So, what," started Declan, catching Miles' - and everybody else's - attention, "we just stay here forever? Do nothing?" He sounded expectant for other ideas.
"Not forever," Lia spoke up from beside Percy. Percy had fallen into another fitful sleep. "But for at least another little while. We should familiarise ourselves with this area, since it's a lot safer than the city right now. And we also need to figure out what to do with... you know." She inclined her head towards Percy. "After we figure things like that out, we can move onto the next step."
"What might that be?" Declan prompted.
"Well," Lia started, "I was thinking maybe soon, we should split back up into our initial groups again. I know you guys" - she was referring to Bri's group - "have been here for a few days now, but we" - now referring to her own group - "should head back to the city. That way, we can be like... allies. You guys can stay here or at least around this area, and we can go back and find some place relatively safe to stay in the city. Then all of us can keep in contact and help one another if needed."
"What benefit does splitting up serve?" Bronte asks.
"Easy," Lia said, turning on Bronte. "We have eyes in more places. And now that we know one another, we can protect one another when need-be, as I said. Also, we have to remember that we're not the last sane people alive. The city - and every other city and country around the world - will be teeming with Unaltered fighting for their lives. Maybe with your group here, Bri, you can try and find some of the stragglers, and same with when my group goes back to the city. There will be Unaltered everywhere in danger, and some might even know what's going on. I'd say most people will have found groups now, like we have, but not everybody will work like us. There are almost certainly kids taking advantage of the no-relibale-adults situation."
"This plan makes sense," Bri spoke slowly, though her voice didn't waver. "But we can't wait that long to put it in place, since the sooner we split up the more time we'll have to keep searching for clues and piecing everything together."
Lia bit her tongue, looking at Percy worriedly. "We need to figure out how to get him better, otherwise we won't be able to move him anywhere."
"I've told you how we can make him well again, but you don't want to snap his arm," called Miles across the room.
"Can you blame me?" Lia snapped.
Bri winced at the yelling. "Okay, calm down. Let's say within a week, we should split up. Surely we'll have enough time in a week to figure out how to fix Percy."
Miles huffed and rolled his eyes, earning an empathetic glance from Aaron.
A week seemed like a long time to stay in this treehouse, but it wasn't like they'd have nothing to do. Especially with Percy in the condition he was, and a new dog in their care.
"Well, on a different note," Claire said, "we're going to run out of food really quick. When Declan went to get it yesterday, I'm sure he wasn't expecting to be feeding so many extra people and a dog."
"Let's hold off for today," sighed Bri, rubbing her face. "Tomorrow, two or three of us can head into the city and try and get some more."
Eira's lips twisted. "Isn't that dangerous?"
Bri opened her eyes and stared expressionlessly at Eira. "We need food."
"Okay, well that's tomorrow," Miles said dismissively. "What are we meant to do for the rest of the day?"
Everybody looked uncertain.
Then Kano said, "Can I meet the dog?"
___________________
+1618 Words.