Now that I've calmed down and thought about it, a similar situation as Kailey's happened before. When we found Keily on our first excursion, he was infected but still was able to talk and somewhat control himself. Even Zhaire was shocked back then so occurrences like these must be rare. Then again how many people have actually tried to talk to an infected.
"Zhaire I got a question."
"What's up Jay?"
"Do we know for sure that the infected are dead?"
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"You mentioned before that shortly after becoming infected the person is considered brain dead. They're unresponsive and show zero signs of being alive."
"Yeah and the virus acts almost like a parasite. It keeps the body functioning without a soul to steer it."
"Yeah but aren't we assuming that? We're guessing they're in a zombie like state after that but zombies are actually undead. What if people who are infected are actually still alive in there. They have a conscience but they don't have control of their own bodies."
"That's a scary assessment to make." Zhaire replied. "That's a suffering I don't even want to begin imagining. What do you think Violet? I noticed you were listening in on us."
"That would mean you normally notice me too right?" She asked with a smile and walking closer to us.
"I don't know what you mean." Zhaire responded looking away.
Her smile grew larger as she leaned in closer to us.
"Your revelation about the infected is definitely one to ponder about indeed." She said to me. "May I ask what led you to that conclusion?"
"The infected we... no I killed, she talked to me."
"What?" Zhaire exclaimed.
"She told us her name and was fully aware of the things she's done since becoming infected. That includes killing her own dad."
"Jesus."
"I see, this is certainly interesting to say the least." Violet stated.
"It's like what happened with that other kid you knew." Zhaire pointed out.
"Yeah." I replied. "In Keily's case he was a lot more responsive than this other girl, but in both cases they were aware of what was happening."
"I've always understood the virus to be a destructive force that attacks your nervous system and renders your brain dysfunctional. Afterwards the virus itself forcefully controls your nervous system and basically hijacks your body. It was a bit of a stretch to believe such a thing but we had no other answer until now."
"Tell me something Violet, do you think it's possible for a person to overpower the virus?" I asked.
"Calling me by first name huh, you're surprisingly audacious." She said with a grin.
"Sorry Captain."
"No no it's fine, please continue to do so." She replied. "To answer your question though, I can't say. I've never came across any of these anomalies so I can't make any conclusions on what they're capable of. I can attempt to make an inference though. Tell me more about your conversation with the girl."
"Well... it looked like she still couldn't control her body much. She struggled to look at me and her head swayed back and forth almost the whole time. When she spoke it was broken up and dragged out. The expression on her face never changed but she did cry several times."
"It's as if her consciousness just barely emerged to the surface." Violet said. "Let's say the virus is a glass container keeping her conscious trapped inside. For some reason that glass cracked and allowed a miniscule amount of her conscience to leak out."
"So do you think there's anyway to fully shatter that glass?" I asked.
"Hmm... who knows. I'd like to test it though."
"Test it how?" Zhaire questioned.
"If we come across some infected I'll inform you both." She replied with a smile. "I'll be in touch boys."
...
"Say Zhaire, does she always talk so sophisticated?"
"At this point I don't really notice it."
We carried on walking without any disturbances and everything appeared normal. However dark gray clouds soon began to roll in over head. A storm was brewing in the sky above us and there wasn't anywhere for us to take shelter.
"So we just have to accept the fact that we're about to get soaked?" Alyssa asked.
"Unless you have a giant umbrella for everyone then yeah, we're about to get soaked." Liam answered.
"I hate rainy weather." Shea stated.
"Really? I think it's the best weather." Lici responded. "Especially around this time of year when the temperature starts to drop, this weather just feels so nice."
"It's nice when we're not stuck outside." Dameer added.
As everyone conversed about the on coming storm I could feel the atmosphere changing. It's just like before the tornado outbreak. I can feel this pressure beginning to weigh on me, but it feels different this time. Thunder rolled in from the distance which made birds in the surrounding area flee from their positions. What's this feeling? I turned and gazed off into the horizon as the wind began to pick up.
"What's the matter?" Lj asked.
"...Nothing I guess."
"If you're all up for it we can run to our campsite for today." Zhaire suggested. "It's another small abandoned town about two and a half miles away."
"I don't think I can handle all of that." Captain Kane stated.
"It's alright if you can't." Rodney replied. "We just need to pick up the pace a bit and hopefully we'll be alright."
As he said that, a bolt of lightning broke through the clouds and sent a blast of thunder roaring in every direction.
"I don't think we'll be alright." Angie said.
"Wait, who's that ahead!" Zhaire exclaimed pointing up the road.
A person walked out from a dirt trail that connected to the main road, holding a plastic bag filled with what looks like grass. I say a person but he looks like a little kid. When he noticed us he froze.
"What's a kid doing out here?" Mali asked.
"He's not infected." Violet stated.
"Hey kid!" Zhaire shouted.
The kid grabbed his bag tightly then ran away up the road.
"No way there's still people wandering the wasteland." Captain Wilson said.
"He's heading in the direction we're going so maybe we'll see him again." Cory stated.
At that moment a whistling noise came pass my ear which made me spin around. A few of the others turned and looked around with me.
"What's the matter?" Rodney asked.
"You didn't hear that?" Lici asked.
"No, what did you hear?"
"It was like a high pitch whistle." I said.
"A super high pitch." Angie added.
"Was it not just the wind?" Dameer questioned.
"That didn't sound like wind." Lici replied.
Then once more the whistling sound pierced my eardrums, this time causing me to cover my ears and flinch from the sharpness of the pitch. The same people that heard it the first time reacted in a similar way to me this time.
"You guys really don't hear that?" I asked.
"I'm not hearing anything." Lj answered.
Me, Angie, Lici, Miguel, Cory and Khiara were among the few that heard it. Nobody else including all of the captains heard anything.
"Let's hurry and get to the campsite so we can figure out what's happening." Rodney stated.
We continued forward at a faster pace than before and thankfully the rain never came down. We also didn't hear the whistling again for the duration of our walk. What was that about, and why only a handful of us could've hear it?
"We should be approaching the campsite site any minute now." Zhaire stated.
As the lead searcher it would make sense that Zhaire is the most qualified at navigation. He carries a map around, but I've barely seen him use it.
"Just over this hill and we should be there." He said.
We ascended the short hill and at the top, gazed upon our campsite for tonight. A small town similar to where we found Kailey. However something isn't right.
"Isn't that light from a fire?" Nesha asked pointing at a house which was illuminating red.
"This place doesn't look abandoned if you ask me." Lj said.
"Maybe that kid from earlier came here." Alyssa suggested.
"Everyone stay close to one another." Rodney said. "This could be the people we were meant to rendezvous with or this can be locals who are still somehow surviving out here. Until we figure out the nature of these people we all to stay close to one another."
Dad might be down there. I came so far for this moment...
"This place does look a bit deserted." Dameer stated.
"Yeah but there's a difference between this town and the one from earlier." I said. "All the doors on the houses are closed."
"A closed door means something is being hidden behind." Nico stated.
"Why don't we be polite about this then." Mali suggested.
We all walked down the street towards the house which we saw the light in. Mali walked up to the door without hesitation while everyone else stood back.
Knock Knock Knock
A few seconds went by with no answer. Also the light we saw before wasn't there anymore.
Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Maybe there isn't anyone here after all." Mali said.
"People here don't appreciate strangers banging on their door!" A man announced from down the road.
We looked over and found a middle age man walking towards us with a shotgun in his hand. The kid from before was walking with him.
"We don't want any trouble." Rodney said as several people equipped their weapons.
"Neither do I, but this is far too sketchy. What's your business here?"
"We intended to use this place as a camping ground, but was unaware that there was actually residents here."
"We apologize for the intrusion." Zhaire said.
"Camping?" He asked. "Where exactly you folks coming from?"
At this point he was stood a few feet in front of our group. He wasn't aiming his weapon at us but it still had everyone on edge.
"We came from one of the major cities located north of here." Rodney said. "We're on a journey and only plan on staying here for one night if possible."
"Must be an important journey if you've left one of the major cities."
He looked away from Rodney and examined our entire group.
"The names Clayton." He said extending his hand to Rodney.
"Rodney, I'm the captain of this group." He replied shaking his hand.
"Now Rodney I can't make the decision alone on what to do with you all. For now you can seek shelter in that school building over their. I'll talk to some of the others on the matter."
"Thanks Clayton, we appreciate it." Rodney replied.
"It's close." The little boy said covering his ears.
"Alright Benji, do me a favor and see these guys to the school." Clayton said to the kid.
"Okay." He replied walking through us. "Follow me."
He really just left this little boy to escort us. Clayton immediately left us and ran back up the road where he came from. The school was vastly different from the one we went to back in the city. At first glance it's roughly the same size as the outpost we were at last night.
"All of the rooms are open." The kid said. "Wait here Clayton."
He turns to walk away before stopping abruptly and grabbing at his ears.
"You alright little man." Nico asked walking up to him.
"It's coming." He muttered out.
"What's coming?" Violet asked.
After she asked that question the whistling returned and again the same people as before heard it and nobody else.
"What's going on?" Cory asked.
"Everyone get inside!" Clayton exclaimed.
He ran straight pass us into a classroom with the kid following behind and another woman that came with Clayton. We followed right behind them and piled into one classroom.
"This weather is an issue." Clayton said looking out of a window. "Benji how far would you say?"
"Maybe two miles." He responded.
"What's going on?" Rodney asked.
"Well Benji here is the youngest here in town and he's pretty good at estimating the distance between himself and the demon from the whistling."
"Wait what demon, and what's this whistling that they're hearing?" Rodney asked.
"Oh, you don't know? You all never encountered one of the tall boys before?"
"What, you mean infected?" Zhaire asked.
"If you mean the big ones then we have dealt with those before." Cory stated. "What does that have to do with this whistling though?"
"Oh I don't mean the fat boys. I'm talking about the tall ones, they create the whistling your hearing."
"This is the first time we've experienced this." Rodney said.
"Well in that case let me educate you all real quick. There's an infected out there that only comes out when it's dark out. We call him 'a demon' cause it's unbelievably terrifying. It produces this whistling sound at high frequencies that only kids can hear."
"How's that possible?" Captain Wilson asked.
"As we age the frequency range that we can hear gradually decreases." Violet stated. "Kids can hear noises at higher frequencies than we can as adults."
"Just like how a dog whistle sounds silent to people but affects the mutts, that's exactly what's happening hear." Clayton exclaimed.
"So why does some of us hear the whistling while others don't?" Lici asked.
"I'm guessing you all just have a better sense of hearing." Clayton stated. "Anyhow, the whistling does get louder the closer it gets."
"And what exactly does this thing look like?" Zhaire asked.
"Like I said he's tall. About four stories tall."
"Four stories?! You're kidding."
"He's skinny too, looks malnourished and his skin looks like burnt wood."
"I can see why you call it a demon." Nico stated.
"Like I said he only appears at night but sometimes it comes out in weather like this."
"So how do you deal with it?" I asked.
"We don't, we coexist. Benji here and a few of the other older kids alert us whenever it comes near then we go into hiding."
"I got a question." I exclaimed. "The way you reacted to us, means you haven't seen anyone else come here."
"You all are the only outsiders we've seen in years." He replied.
So dad hasn't been here. Rodney looked over at me and so did Zhaire and Violet.
"So there isn't a problem with us staying here for the night?" Rodney asked.
"I haven't had the chance to discuss that, but don't worry. I won't let them throw you good people out." Clayton replied with a smile.
"Thanks." Rodney said.
"Benji you hear anything?" Clayton asked.
"Nope."
"Alright then let's get out of here. I'll be around to check on you all but, it should be alright for you guys to use this building for the night."
After he left time flew by without us really doing anything besides separating into rooms. I found myself being taught sign language by Nico in an empty classroom. Lici and Angie joined us and decided to start learning it as well.
"At some point we have to go out to find food right?" Angie asked. "I'm starving."
"I noticed we passed some grapefruit trees on the way in." Nico said.
"There's no way they're gonna let us go outside." I stated. "Especially since we know that thing is out there."
"We can detect it so I don't see the problem, plus I wanna get a look at it." Nico exclaimed with a grin. "Wait isn't that the kid from earlier."
We all looked out the window to find Benji walking over to the neighboring woods.
"Come to think of it he was alone way down the road too." I said.
"Alright I'm interested." Nico says as he got up and walked to the door.
"You really think they gonna let you out?" Lici asked.
"I'm a hunter, I'm going to hunt us something to eat." He replied.
"Well you need to be guarded when out there so I'll join you." Angie says following behind.
"If you're coming then I have to guard both of us."
"Shut up before I punch you."
"Well, we shouldn't let them go alone." I said smiling and standing up.
I take one step to follow behind them and I feel Lici grab my hand.
"Wait Ejay. Didn't we have stuff to talk about?"
A cold wind blew into the room which made her hair flow over face. For some reason it seemed to have gotten quiet, not like it was necessarily noisy before.
"Yeah, I guess it's a good time. We could join them after." I said as I sat back down.
"I'm a very straightforward person so I'll be upfront. I like you Ejay."
Maybe the last thing I expected to here from her was said to me. She wore a soft smile and a relaxed expression as she stared into my eyes. Is she serious?