Till the end

Chapter 40

The next few weeks passed by and winter fully left us as the plants blossomed into new life and the wild life returned. Meat became a much-needed part of our diet and it was nice to have fresh fruit and vegetables again.

Kagami proved to have an amazing green thumb and took control of the growing of our crops. Under his guidance the vegetables flourished.

Murasakibara took his place as head cook in the settlement and many young women flocked to learn from him. Himuro spent most of his time beside his lover, scowling at the lavender haired giants' fans. I felt a little bad for him but Murasakibara only had eyes for the smaller dark-haired man.

Aomine and Kise lead the hunters, normally with either Mayuzumi or I joining in as detectors. They also rotated themselves into the manual labour of regular upkeep in the settlement.

Of course, Midorima joined the two Aida's in taking care of the medical needs of the villagers and keeping up the research into a cure or preventative against the infection. They had changed the direction of their thinking. Kuroko's blood had bonded too much. There was no way to separate the infected blood and his normal blood. Mayuzumi and I however had it separated in our system. It went from dormant to active depending on how long we were without our serum or if we activated it inside of us. I had been teaching Mayuzumi how to delve into the part of his body that was infected, how to increase parts of his senses and how to gain more strength. He hadn't been able to make himself stronger but he had been able to enhance his senses. I had told him he was doing great since it had taken me years to master it.

Kuroko normally joined us for the lessons. Partly out of curiosity and partly to be there should either one of us lose control of ourselves. We always did these practises outside of the walls. At the start, the doctors and the settlers had been against the idea until they remembered who and what we were. We would be able to sense any undead nearby and be able to easily dispatch any strays that came near us.

Everyone took part in either sentry duty or patrols. Except Kuroko. I had flat out refused for him to go beyond the fence if Mayuzumi and I were not with him. He had argued against me but everyone else had agreed. We were too close to the village he had grown up in. I was not taking the chance of one of them stumbling upon him and reporting it back. They would not have forgotten him or forgiven us. Though they treated him like a dog they had depended on him to alert him to the infected.

We had not told him that they had sent out hunters to find him which was the main reason I refused to let him go beyond the safety of the settlements gates.

I was leaning against the wall in one of the larger buildings we had turned into a meeting hall while the council was seated in front of me. Our entire group was present, including Hyuga, Kiyoshi, Izuki and the two Aida's. The settlers did not want to run the compound. None of them were fighters or leaders. They had lived their entire lives in the safety and thus left the running of everything to us, despite how young we were.

Izuki was frowning at the pile of reports in front of him.

"We got another troubling report. This time from a compound on a small island. The infected travelled through the water. These ones developed webbed hands and feet making them faster in the water then a human can swim."

"That's the fourth abnormal sighting. Why is it happening now?"

"They must be adapting to better hunt us. We hide behind walls, moats, rivers, oceans. During winter, they can't move and they are dying out. All creatures must evolve to survive."

"But evolution takes hundreds of years, not fifteen!"

Midorima adjusted his glasses as he too stared at the report in front of him. Doctor Aida simply shrugged his shoulders.