Chapter 12
Jordan
Sitting in an empty house with a corpse is not what I had in mind for today.
Kate was adamant she must study the body, confident she hasn’t seen an infected quite like this one before.
Though I had grumbled my irritation, perhaps it wasn’t a bad idea. Other infected will smell this one’s blood and avoid the area. I still don’t know how or why this infected managed to end up here.
I had left to check my snares like I do every day. The door was closed behind me, the windows sealed. The most likely possibility is that Kate’s scent made its way outside, and this infected happened to stagger past at the right time.
Keeping Kate here is dangerous. While the beast thinks we can protect her, this shows I can’t. If I hadn’t walked in at the right time...
Maybe I need to release her. It isn’t safe out here for her. The beast whines in my mind, but it seems to understand where I’m coming from. We could’ve lost her.
Kate lifts the wrist of the infected, and I growl, “Careful.”
She whips her head to me, brows furrowed. “It’s dead.”
I grit my teeth. The beast and I are on edge.
Kate ignores my warning, going back to examining the corpse, mumbling to herself.
“The protruding bones, slightly enlarged hands.” She peels back one of the eyelids.
“The prominent veins. Red sclera with no red ring around the iris.” She stands, still observing the body, as she murmurs, “This infected had a variant of the virus.”
I didn’t quite follow when she first mentioned it, and I’m still unsure now. “A what?”
Her green eyes land back on me as she explains, “Viruses will replicate themselves within a host and spread from one host to the next. In order to survive, it can change, creating new variants. It means…” Her eyes dart back to the dead infected, then back to me.
“It means this infected person has a different variant of the virus than what we’ve seen before.
It could also mean you have a new variant. ”
I blink at her. “So the infection that I have is different than what everyone else has.”
She bites her bottom lip for a moment before continuing, “In a way, but it’s, technically, still the same virus.
Each variant would slightly differ from the original, but it’s ultimately still the same.
It could explain why you have all the same symptoms, but you’re able to talk and be in control of your central nervous system.
We have to get you to the lab so they can study whatever variant you have. ”
“Excuse me?” My eyes nearly bug out of my head. “I’m not going anywhere near the lab, or the safe zone, for that matter.”
“You have to,” she urges, stepping to me. “If there are variants, we need to study it. Maybe even to…find a cure.”
I fight the urge to scoff at the mention of a cure. I should let her go, but the beast rattles my mind against it. “I’m not going to step one foot into the city, and neither are you.”
Anger radiates from her. “You can’t fucking keep me locked away. Look at what happened today. I nearly got infected, or worse. You’re risking my life by keeping me here, and for what?”
An annoyed growl builds in my chest. “Sit down while I take the body out.”
She sets her jaw. “No.”
“Excuse me?” My eyebrows raise a hair.
“I’m not your prisoner anymore. I’ll fight you every day that you keep me here.”
The beast purrs at that. I roll my eyes. “We both know I’m faster and stronger than you. You’d barely make it down the front steps before I caught you. And let’s not forget, an infected wandered in here in broad daylight.” I shake my head. “You’ll end up running straight into a horde.”
She bares her teeth at me, but we both know I’m right. “Then stop restraining me upstairs for hours on end. That nearly cost me my life.”
Guilt worms its way into my body, and the beast whines in my mind. “Fine,” I say a bit too gruffly.
She crosses her arms, clearly still angry. “Fine.”
We stare each other down, our bodies all but trembling with aggravation, neither of us particularly happy with each other.
This is a mistake, I think. I should take her back.
No, the beast grumbles, stubborn as ever.
I jerk my chin at the body. “Are you done with it yet?”
Her irritation leaves her as she looks down at the corpse, curiosity poking through instead. “I think so.” She sighs before biting her bottom lip anxiously.
I lift the corpse into my arms, heading out the front door and onto the overgrown lawn. While other infected may smell the blood, I don’t want to subject us both to the smell of a rotting body.
Gently, I ease it from my arms, letting the tall grass surround it before I hunt for rocks to place around it. I may be glad it’s dead, but everyone deserves some dignity in death.
I place rock after rock around the body until I’m satisfied before heading back inside.
Kate is meandering around the house, looking at the few photos still on the walls. When she looks in my direction, her face is heartbreakingly sad; it nearly knocks me to my knees. I haven’t even glanced at the photos in this house—remembering the people who once lived here does no one any good.
As soon as it appeared, the sadness evaporates and is replaced with irritation. She looks down her nose at me in a way that sets my teeth on edge. I mumble something about preparing dinner before stalking away, needing a moment of space.
I step into the kitchen and try to collect myself.
Keeping her is a terrible idea.