The Infected Mind

Chapter 6

We made it to a small town. Uninhabited by both humans and Crawlers, but overrun with vermin. In this new world, being infected by a Crawler was the main worry, of course, but being infected by a rat was still not ideal. The proper medical supplies to deal with animal bites were nearly impossible to come by, so you really just had to hope for the best. God forbid you get a mystery bug bite while you're sleeping.

The Crawler Virus, once it got inside a human, seemed to destroy all other viruses or pathogens before it started altering the person's body. Thankfully, the virus couldn't survive in other animals or insects, despite practically turning us into insects. Raven and I would be fine, Savanah, Amber, and Mika however, wouldn't. 

I looked around the tiny space, it looked like at some point it had been a decent neighborhood. Many of the lawns were kept before, by the looks of it, but were now overgrown or dying. None of the buildings had been broken into, aside from one which had the door broken off, likely by a previous human who looted the place.

I pointed to a small corner store, "We can hide in there for the night. The windows and doors are too small for Crawlers to get in and the lack of broken walls means none have gotten in by other methods. Not to mention, there's probably some sort of food in there if it hasn't all been looted."

We entered the building, it was probably pitch black for everyone else, but I could see fine even with my glasses. Cobwebs coated the ceiling and corners. Dusty shelves lined the walls and formed four isles along the center of the small room. Almost everything had been taken off the shelves, and the fridges had been boarded shut. Not like I was planning to open them after six months without power. That fact also made it extremely dark, "I'll see if I can find a generator or something, get some light in this place."

"You'll see?" Savanah started, "No one can see in here, and you are wearing sunglasses, it wasn't even that bright today. You were wearing them last night too actually."

"Why do you wear those all the time anyway? I haven't seen you take them off once." Asked Mika, her voice had a strange tone of mischievous curiosity that I wasn't too fond of. Raven looked at me, wondering how I would tell them.

I sighed, "I have a lazy eye. I wear these glasses so people don't make fun of me for it, or automatically think I'm stupid." I didn't like to lie, but there wasn't really another explanation. I could say I was sensitive to light, but that would tip them off to me being infected, and I wanted them to be oblivious for as long as possible. 

Mika had other plans, "I want to see! Show me!" She ran up to me and grabbed at my sleeve, trying to reach up to pull off my glasses. I tried to pull away from her grip but she was not letting up, and she managed to grab my glasses. I closed my eyes tightly so she hadn't seen my black eyes when she yanked them off. Like a toddler, she started poking at my eyes trying to force me to open them. I shoved her backwards, rightfully, and heard her fall onto the ground before multiple people started coming closer.

I hadn't realized what was even happening until I was shoved to the ground too. I almost opened my eyes to see what had happened but thankfully I stopped myself, I had a pretty good idea who it was. I could hear Mika crying like a two-year-old and Amber yelling, presumably at me, about 'attacking her precious angel sister'. Did you not see what just happened? Seriously. I guess I can see where she got her insufferable behavior from. I'm glad I never have to meet your parents.

Raven managed to get Amber off my back and she handed me back my sunglasses, by grabbing my wrist and putting them into my hand. I put them on only to see one lense was cracked and one of the arms was broken. Looking over at the bawling Mika, I assumed she either fell on them or Amber had broken them out of spite. Raven helped me up and we both silently agreed to go look for something in the store alone.

"Did you really have a lazy eye? I mean...before you got infected?" We spoke in a whisper, one most humans wouldn't even be able to make out.

I shook my head wile holding my glasses on, "No, I just said that to give them a reason. You of course know the real reason." I took the glasses off, allowing me to see easily in the darkness, I almost immediately saw boxes that said they held flashlights and began opening some to check the contents.

"Don't Crawlers have night vision? I was wondering if maybe that appears when someone's eyes change?"

I remembered the adjustment to a nocturnal creature when I had been first infected, "That's how it was for me. I wear those glasses for both hiding my eyes and helping me see in the daytime. I'm going to have to find another pair before I go back to the others though."

I handed Raven a few flashlights, "Speaking of, I don't know about you, but I can smell a few Crawlers in the area. Pretty far, but you should get these to the others so you can blind them if they show up."

Raven looked surprised, "You can smell them? How good are Crawler's senses of smell that you can smell a few from so far away and in an enclosed space?"

Oops.

"I'll explain that later, at the moment we have to make sure they don't find us." Raven nodded and turned back to the others, right when she turned around I looked down and growled at a rat poking it's head out of a box. It retreated immediately, realizing what it was looking at, I rolled my eyes and continued through the store looking for anything of use. God I hate rats...

Any cameras that were here were long dead, and I couldn't smell any other humans around, so I didn't have to worry about any secret prying eyes.