[You know... you owe me quite a bit, boy. After all... I was the one who saved your sister's life.]
The mouth which opened out of the cheek of the woman molded itself to form a tentacle which wriggled forth as it's words struck the boy who was filled with indecision upon the revival of his sister.
"What are you doing... coming out of my face like that?" Sylvia trembled.
Clearly disturbed at the fact that the creature inside her held no concern for Sylvia's desire to control her own body, the woman spoke to the creature in a quivering tone.
[I'm talking here. Need I remind you, host?]
It was then that hundreds of tentacles shot out of the woman, all forming blades and weapons made from flesh as they surrounded the woman, aimed at her throat.
Barely able to breath, Sylvia felt sweat flowing down her corrupted body as she was put on the brink of death.
[I am in control here.]
Number 1 snapped back at Sylvia's comment, shutting her up without leaving any opportunity for retribution.
And then, without a moment's hesitation, the weapons and tentacles dissipated, returning inside the body of Sylvia.
[Now then... where was I... ah. That's right. Boy. I went through all that effort to save your sister from death. I must be quite the hero, right? Hahaha...]
The demented laughter filled the air as the four people were brought to silence, forced to listen to the rambling of the creature.
[Ah. But that isn't how a hero works, right?] The creature mused, a lilting laugh in it's tone.
[Heh.]
[Wrong.]
Wrapping itself around the neck of the boy, the mouth grew to form a full face as Number 1 continued to speak.
The disturbing face of a ruined woman.
[In human society, you all sure seem to love your heroes.]
Speaking with clear disgust, the creature held an unnatural animosity towards its own words.
[You all love those who give up everything to help those around them... those who sacrifice everything for the sake of everyone else... yet it's because of this obsession that human society created that man. And it's because of that man... that human society created us.]
With a smirk, Number 1 retracted herself, bringing the head close to Sylvia, who now looked as if she had a second head as it slowly deformed.
[But this isn't how a hero is supposed to act, right? After all, I was the one who caused her death. How then could I claim to be a hero when I saved her?]
Sylvia found herself faced with this creature - with this monster - and yet she could say nothing in response.
For she knew nothing of what she would even say.
[If a hero creates destruction wherever they go, then even if they help people... they're merely cleaning up after their own mess. Right?]
As the head slowly disappeared, she let out one last statement before she molded into the body of Sylvia once more.
[You would be surprised at how many humans clean up their own mess... only to pat themselves on the back and receive the praise of everyone. The only difference between me and them... is that you know that I'm evil.]
With that, Sylvia regained complete control over her body, at which the four humans were left in silence.
The two monsters had now finally retracted into the minds of their hosts, and the four were left to contemplate their situation.
Surrounding them, hundreds of zombies had been slain in an instant.
Destruction was abound, and as they looked around, the four realized it.
Living within the two were nothing more than disasters.
Monsters.
Calamities which would cause destruction wherever they went.
"We... should leave you two."
Speaking up, Sylvia turned to the children with a sad expression, frowning and avoiding their eyes.
'If me and Marcus stay around these two... then they will only become more and more wrapped up... in this mess.'
She didn't want to leave them alone.
It was dangerous.
To call it risky would be an insane understatement.
It was reckless.
However, even more reckless would be to let these two endure whatever torment Number 1 and Number 7 would create for them.
They could be killed, used as hostages, or even tormented on the whims of the creatures within Sylvia and Marcus.
And that was not something Sylvia was mentally prepared for.
However, it was at that moment that Sylvia was met with a slap across the face.
Her eyes widened with surprise as she gathered her bearings to see that Shane was standing before her, panting and breathing heavily after having given her such a slap.
"Absolutely not."
Looking up to the woman, the boy spoke with a firm determination in his eyes.
"It was that thing which made my sister into this... and if you were to up and leave... then I would never learn anything about what the hell she has become. Plus..."
Looking down, the boy seemed to whisper as he spoke.
"I need to understand what that thing is thinking."
'Ah.'
As she saw the boy before her with such strong resolve, Sylvia once again realized… how weak she had been.
This boy, who had just been tormented and mocked, was now resolved to find the answers to the things which he didn't understand.
For the sake of his sister.
He must have been terrified, barely able to contain his fear, yet even so - he stood firm.
"I see. Did Number 1's advice... actually reach you?"
As Sylvia asked this, the eyes of the boy went wide, to which he looked up at the woman with surprise.
"Did it... reach me?"
Holding a hand to his forehead, the boy seemed to fall into deep thought as Sylvia asked him this question.
"I... don't know.", he admitted.
"The more I witness these things inside us... the less I seem to understand about them."
Stepping forth, Marcus intervened as he took the lead from the two.
"Yet there is one thing about them which is absolutely certain. They are a threat. And one which could end our lives at any moment, if they wished to do so. Therefore... since that is the case... we must accept that for what it is - and we must continue forward nonetheless."
With this, the three nodded solemnly, looking to one another with grim expressions.
"Hey, are we gonna go on a drive? I've never driven before. Can I drive!?"
However, just as the three were overcome by a solemn mood, the young girl interrupted it - bursting into the conversation with energetic excitement.
"Hey, I wanna drive! Let me drive! Please!? Miss Sylvia, you'll let me drive, right? If you don't, I'll ask Number 1 instead! She'll let me drive! I know it!"
"No, Amy. I can't let you-"
[The girl gets to drive.]
As Sylvia tried to reject the offer, Number 1 decided to speak once again - forcing a condition on the group which would do nothing more than put them in danger.
[If she crashes, the only person who would die is the boy anyways. What's the harm?]
----
"Ehehe!! Driving is so much fun!!!"
Three of the four people found themselves grappling onto their seats for dear life as the girl drove them through the streets, weaving in and out of all the obstacles which lined them.
"Roaaar-"
Splat.
Except for the zombies.
She didn't bother to dodge the zombies.
"Hahaha!! Look, Miss Sylvia and Mr. Marcus!! Look, brother!! The zombies explode when I hit them!!"
"That... blergh!!!"
Chunks of vomit flew behind Shane as he emptied his stomach out the window, though the other two didn't seem to be much better.
Swerving back and forth, the driving of a 10 year old girl was not something which even the empty stomach of a zombie could handle, for Marcus and Sylvia both added on to the lines of vomit which were ejected from the vehicle.
"Ugh... s-slow down..."
"Before we get into an accident...."
"Ehehe!! Nope! Number 1 said I could go as fast as I wanted!! Ah-"
As she was driving along a sidewalk, the girl slammed into a power pole - causing the entire vehicle to come to a halt.
With a crash, the four inside the vehicle were bobbed forward as their momentum kept them moving, however fortunately - or perhaps unfortunately - their seatbelts kept them from flying forward.
"Ugh!"
As all four were left in a daze, the girl shook her head, quickly gathering her bearings as she got out of the truck.
"Ah, looks like this truck wasn't very sturdy.", she mused, frowning. "It couldn't even destroy a pole like this? How pathetic..."
"What do you expect your vehicles to be able to do!? They're meant to drive people, not eradicate everything in their path!"
"Ow ow ow!!"
Grabbing the cheek of the girl, Sylvia had just about had enough.
"Do you know how dangerous that was? You just about got all of us killed!"
With a smile, the girl turned to Sylvia without the slightest hint of guilt.
"So?"
Holding her hand to her face, Sylvia widened her eyes in shock as she realized just how far gone the girl had become.
'She... doesn't even fear death anymore....'
'No... it's not that she doesn't fear it...'
'She isn't even aware of it.'
"Alright... that's enough of that. No more driving for you. Number 1, I'm not backing down this time. She isn't driving anymore."
[Ehh...]
"Ehh..."
Both the wicked voice of the creature and the young girl who Sylvia scolded said this in unison, like children who were denied a toy from the store.
[So boring...]
"So boring..."
They were in perfect sync.
And as they said these things, Sylvia realized something.
[Ah well. It was fun while it lasted.]
"Well... I guess I had fun driving while I could... so I'm sorry that I scared you and everyone else."
'Ah.'
Watching as the two seemed to line up almost perfectly, Sylvia realized something which she would have never otherwise seen.
'These two... despite the fact that one is human and the other is a parasite... they think the same.'
'And all that was needed for that to happen....'
'Was for the girl to snap.'
----
"Ahem... well, we seem to have cleared out the majority of zombies as we drove here.... but that doesn't mean we're in the clear. There was a large sound, so the zombies will be making their way to this location."
Stepping forward with a carsick child leaning on his shoulder, Marcus approached with Shane.
"We should perhaps try to find another vehicle... and have someone with more experience drive it this time."
Sylvia and Shane quickly nodded.
"Yep."
"Yep."
"Ehh..."
The girl still seemed to be somewhat disappointed, looking up to the two with a pouting expression.
"Was my driving really that bad?", she whimpered.
"Yes." Met with three immediate responses, the girl stuck out her tongue.
"Well I'll drive even worse next time! Hehe!"
The three could do nothing more than sigh as they babysat the girl.
"Now then... it would seem that we've arrived upon a schoolground. If my hypothesis is correct, then this place should be relatively free of zombies, believe it or not. Normally schools would be completely infested, however there are two reasons for why this place will actually be one of the safer locations."
Holding up a finger, Marcus spoke with a smile as he motioned to the area around them.
"First, these fences. The entire school has been fenced in, meaning that the zombies likely cannot get in or out unless they possess some sort of jumping ability - which I would desperately hope is not the case. As you can see, many zombies have been impaled trying to climb over them."
Pointing to the iron fences around, one could immediately notice that many zombies had been impaled after failing to mount them, and were wriggling about with half dead expressions.
"Second is that since the cataclysm happened at night, there are likely to be very few zombies if any on the school grounds. It was 9:00 at night at the time, therefore unless there were some exceptionally hard working teachers or some students who came late at night for whatever reason, there should be almost nobody present on school grounds."
"It was winter break for the elementary schoolers at the time, however the high schoolers were not yet on break therefore there still is the possibility that there are people inside, but regardless of this, the numbers will be low. Meaning that if we can make it inside, this school could function as an excellent base of operations for now."
Sylvia and Shane looked to Marcus with hope, however Amy seemed to look at him with a slight smile, giving him eyes which attested to her madness.
"But what do we do if there are humans inside?"
As she asked this, the three paused for a moment, looking at the girl.
She did not ask 'What do we do if there are other people inside.'
But rather, 'What do we do if there are humans inside.'
"Amy... what did you just ask?"
Shane placed his hands on the girl's shoulder, to which she looked at him with confusion.
"Is there something wrong, brother? I asked if there were humans inside. After all, if there are, we need to find out how to deal with them... right?"
Looking his sister directly in the eyes, Shane knew.
He knew. Yet over and over, he had refused to accept it.
His sister truly had changed.
When it had happened, whether it was with her own death - or when she first became a killer - even that much he wasn't completely sure of.
But without a doubt, as he looked into those crazed eyes, he understood well.
That his sister no longer considered herself to be human.
----
"It's a good question. And one in which... we should discuss."
Taking the lead, Marcus gathered the attention of the group as he spoke.
"We now live in a turbulent world, where life and death are fleeting at best. And among the trials we have survived through, we have only done so because we have failed even at death - with you aside, boy. Now think for just a moment. The creature in my mind told me that 5% of people remained in this world at the time that I awoke."
"We also know that it is likely that everyone awoke at roughly the same time, however there is the possibility that some people woke earlier and that some are still asleep. Even so, in the few hours we have been awake, the people who were in a safe enough scenario to survive the initial culling... have likely just gone through hell."
Thinning his eyes, Marcus spoke in a cold tone as he fixed his gaze on Shane.
"And without a doubt, many of the people left in this world must have already gone mad."
Marcus had gone through enough torment to make him want to kill himself.
He had gone through enough pain and suffering to the point where he felt like his mind was eating away at him.
Yet he was forced to continue living.
Even so, he had met up with Sylvia and even these two children.
As insane as the child had become, and as tormented as Marcus and Sylvia had been, they had one another to rely on.
And it was perhaps only because they were together - that he was able to stop himself from falling into complete madness.
Therefore, who was to say that someone in a similar situation wouldn't have already lost their mind 10 times over?
"There are up to 5 more people somewhere in this world... just like me and Sylvia. That... we know. And if we ever come into contact with any of them... we will have to be extremely careful. For we know nothing about what someone who has been driven to the edge would do. That is not to even speak of the people who only have a single life."
Marcus, Sylvia, and Shane all had the memory of Amy being slain.
And in that moment when the young girl closed her eyes, all three of them too died on the inside.
Yet they were saved by the whim of the creature who had caused her death in the first place.
However, what if there were people out there who had not been so lucky?
People who had watched their loved ones be viciously slaughtered, faced with the decision to run away or to die helping?
The only people left would be the ones who ran.
"In this world... there are two people who will be able to stay alive."
Raising a finger, Marcus did not lighten his expression for even a moment as he spoke.
"Number 1. Those who would betray, lie, steal... and use any and all methods in order to save themselves."
And then, looking at his own hand, Marcus continued.
"And number 2. Those who have already become monsters."
Turning forward, Marcus faced the gate of the school as he walked, his coat fluttering in the wind.
"If we are not prepared to meet such people... then it will truly be the end. Let us move."
----
At this point, the sun was setting slowly in the sky.
The horizon slowly turned to a crimson shade, and with their shadows elongated, the four climbed up the gates to enter the school.
"I... was never one for exercise...", Sylvia whispered as she barely managed to hop over, exhausted.
"I did keep a regular schedule, but running was all I ever had the will to continue each day."
Struggling to get himself over, Marcus soon made it.
"Well... I had to try and be athletic at school. If I wasn't, the other boys would pick on me, so I got pretty good at this sort of stuff.", Shane said as he waited for the two.
"Ah. Hey, uh... I kinda got stuck."
Looking back, the three saw a sight which looked like something straight out of a horror film.
The zombified girl was impaled on the fence, three spikes piercing straight through her stomach as blood dripped from her body.
"Amy!"
"Are you alright!?"
"Hehe... It's ok! I don't feel any pain, after-"
"What did you just say?"
As the two adults rushed to remove the girl from the stakes, Shane looked at her with shock.
"You... don't feel pain?"
The two laid the girl down as they frantically ripped their own clothes, trying to tie up the wounds on the girl's stomach using haphazard bandages.
[Ah... now that I think about it... since I only took control of the girl temporarily... there's a difference.]
Speaking from a mouth that formed on Sylvia's neck, Number 1 spoke up.
[See now, since we've taken over your minds primarily, you've retained the human concept of pain. But since I only entered her body for a short time to transform her into a zombie... she's even less human than you two are. She is probably... right in between.]
[Heh.]
[In between the abominations that you two have become, and a full fledged monster.]