Shalei stared at what was left of the Infected's corpse. Its ankles and wrists had been cut off cleanly, and there was a garrish slash on each of its heads that dissected them into two and each of the skull was lined up neatly like a sacrificial offering.
Blackish and white brain matter sloshed out on the ground like wiggling worms and from Shalei's position, she could faintly make out the tormented expression on the Infected's face near the moment of its death. Its eyes bulged out in agony, smeared with blood and other bodily fluids. The smell that emanated from the corpse was plainly biohazard.
The seven of them — Meagan and Patricia had chased after her in the end, bringing with them the torches that they were using now — were standing around the corpse, eyes trained on its twisted figure.
Patricia was the first to react, bringing them out of their reverie. The twelve years old girl covered her mouth, retched and dashed a few meters away to empty her stomach. Grimacing an apology, Meagan caught up to her daughter, her face was also a sickly hue of green.
Shalei wished she could also throw up all of the meager breakfast she had just eaten earlier. Alas, either her adrenaline was still running high or because the warm scent of sandalwood was still lingering on the tip of her nose, she managed to curb the urge down.
Despite enjoying many science fiction movies which depicted gore murders and virus outbreak, seeing it in person was an utterly marvelous experience and definitely not something she wanted to go through for a second time, thank you very much. Shalei's head was pounding and exhaustion dragged on her bones. All she wanted now was to have a hot bath and lay down on her bed. Maybe, she could also request Sebastian to play her a song or two.
However, this wasn't the right time.
The first to break the silence between them was the tall man who had the gall to tease Sebastian and called him 'Sebby' — Shalei had to try to call him that sometimes, simply for the sake of teasing.
He had his hair pulled into a low ponytail, both sides in undercut, lip and eyebrow pierced with small metal barbells. Somehow, Shalei could imagine tattoos running under the expanse of skin hidden under the combat suit. He looked… dangerous, nefarious. The kind of people that her mother loathed the most. Quote trash of society unquote. But in such a situation, he displayed a huge amount of courage and sharp observation by stepping forward to scrutinize the corpse closer.
Shalei wished that she could show her mother how such a person would be an irreplaceable treasure in hard times, such as now. Instead of those people suit her mother fancied who could only talk in circles and sat in meetings for hours with an air of importance.
"It is different from the others we have killed before. Its pupils are developed and its blood is dark red, almost black." He gave a short whistle and turned to Shalei with a grin. "Your Excellency, are you the one who killed it?"
Sebastian kicked the man's shin, earning him a painful — and mostly exaggerating — howl. "Be polite and introduce yourself."
The man harrumphed yet still offered Shalei a bow, deeper than what she was comfortable with. "It's very nice to meet you, Your Excellency. My name is Keith and I am the pack's Beta."
"Beta," Shalei echoed flatly. One more foreign title. Alpha, Beta. And Patricia said she wanted to be a werewolf. Shalei didn't really like where this was going.
"It means that I am Sebby's second-in-command." Keith winked. Following Keith were two other members; Collin, who looked too young, skinny and pale to be in the front line and Sven, the polite gentleman who reminded Shalei of her combat instructor who wouldn't hesitate to do a shoulder throw on her with that impeccable smile on his face. Shalei had to swallow down the urge to grimace everytime she received the excessive amount of reverence in their greetings.
Sebastian grunted in displeasure after the brief introduction and moved to pull Shalei further from the corpse by her arm, possibly even tugging her out of everyone's sight. His forehead creased in worry. It must be due to sheer respect and courtesy that he didn't scan Shalei's body up and down by himself. "Are you—"
"I am not injured, don't worry." She held up one palm to interject. "And to answer Keith's question, no. I am not the one who killed it."
All eyes simultaneously turned to Sebastian, the silent inquiry oozing out of their imploring eyes. Sebastian denied by shaking his head. He had been killing the Infected who swarmed to him when the sky started to get dark, worry wrung tight on his stomach at the sight of Shalei fighting alone. The rest was history needed not to be mentioned. Shalei had disappeared into thin air the split second when he took his eyes off her and he was going mad searching for her. Where would he get the time and attention to kill the three headed Infected?
Keith hummed thoughtfully. "Neither Her Excellency nor Sebby did it. And it definitely couldn't be me, Collin or Sven because we are too busy dealing with the minions. So… who killed it?"
Who had killed that Infected in such a short time? The question hung between them like a heavy cloak. Shalei's tongue was ladened with lead. She was perplexed. Should she tell them or not…?
Shalei had no idea which one was more terrifying; the fact that a mysterious person had just appeared in the nick of time to rescue Shalei from the brink of death, or the fact that he — Shalei assumed that it was a he because she was only met with flat, hard chest earlier — wasn't part of their group, meaning that he must be hiding somewhere without them knowing and most certainly had been watching over them for a long period of time.
He might even be watching right now as they crowded around the corpse and speculated on the identity of the culprit.
.
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A/N: Please drop a review to let me know what you think of the story so far >< thank youu