The Infected Mind

Chapter 14

I stared directly at Travis, he still hadn't looked up as he loaded the bullets into the case. My teeth chattered lightly, something that happened to me even as a human. If I was worked up too much, my jaw would chatter. Megan noticed my sudden aggression, and the telltale signs of my emotions, and followed my gaze. When she noticed who I was glaring at, her eyes widened at the realization.

She covered her mouth with her fist and cleared her throat deliberately. Some of the people who weren't already looking up to us glanced over, including Raven. When she saw me her eyes lit up. At least I think they did, I was watching her with my peripheral vision.

Some of the people shifted uncomfortably with the tension building in the room, nine humans and one angry Crawler weren't a good mix. David elbowed Travis in the ribs, when he looked up, David snapped his fingers and pointed towards me. Travis looked over and his eyes widened, I saw him grip tighter on his currently useless gun. I felt a faint growl slip from my throat, I understood he had his reasons, but anger was clouding my judgement. The first time, he was protecting his friends from an infected. The second time, he was protecting his friends from a Crawler.

Travis shifted backwards on the couch, and I noticed him absently loading the half filled magazine into his gun. I clenched my free hand into a fist to keep myself from lunging for his throat, my instincts were unusually active at the moment. I could hear Megan backing away from me, having the proper sanity to give me my space. Raven, Savanah, and Mika were confused, likely not knowing of my history with Travis. I seriously doubt they were told who these individuals were.

Travis himself broke the silence, "R-Riley, I know you're angry but-" My screech cut him off, everyone hastily covered their ears and over my own voice I could have sworn I heard someone scream. This had been the longest screech I ever used, with it lasting well over five seconds, I stopped and took in ragged breaths, some people uncovered their ears. My breathing became heavier and more frantic as I prepared to go again, not quite finished expelling my rage in a fashion that didn't involve a corpse on the floor. Megan ran over to the middle of the room to warn everyone, "She isn't done yet!"

In a fraction of a second I let out my three working Crawler legs and climbed over the top of the sofa, just in front of Travis, I screeched again, this time louder and with more force behind it. The high pitched noise could have reminded me of a screaming cougar mixed with TV static and grinding metal. Travis was huddled into a ball to shield himself from me, prepared to be attacked.

My screech lasted about five more seconds, I simultaneously ended the screech and turned away from the group. I flung myself off the couch with my Crawler legs, and used the momentum to ricochet off the ground by my hands. Quickly extending my Crawler legs further, I pushed off the wall and jumped to the ceiling. Latching onto a rafter, I hauled myself up and sat there with my back to the dusty wall. My Crawler legs were shaking from the force needed to preform such a task while I was this heavily wounded.

Those screeches were originally to get out my bottled up anger, but the second one spiraled out of control, Travis' ears would be ringing painfully for a few hours, which had not been my intent. He may even be somewhat deaf for a while, but I hoped I hadn't caused any lasting damage.

Listening to the room below me, I heard David joking about how he was deaf and how Travis looked like a horrified statue. Raven was asking why I would be so mad at him and why, when I turned around, it was clear that my light blue T-shirt was soaked in blood from two separate points in my back.

The air in the room was different, when I entered, it felt like a friendly room with people talking and joking among eachother, now it felt tense and unwelcoming.

Great job, you managed to screw things up again.

○ ○ ○

"Bam, Got you Savannah!" I heard Jasmine yell from below me. They had found a Monopoly board in a closet, but no one really knew how to play, plus it was missing almost every piece, so they were making up their own rules as they went. From what I could hear, it seemed like they were playing Monopoly mixed with Sorry and Battle Ship. They even had some of the pawns from Sorry.

The Monopoly tokens seemed to be bosses, or maybe it was better to compare them to the kings and queens in a chess game, who were ordering the pawns around. If someone lost all their pawns, someone could go after their token, once they lost that, they lost the game. This continued until only one was left on the board. Jasmine had just booted Savanah's dog token from her tower of cups.

I chuckled to myself at the array below. If this is the stuff people did before technology, then I definitely understand why our grandparents were alcoholics.

It had been a few hours since the episode, and everyone was mostly again at ease. Travis understood my explanation, as did everyone else, though they were still uneasy. They understood that I was irritable because of how wounded I was, and being around so many humans.

They had asked me if I wanted to play, but I passed. I remained a spectator from the rafters. Being so close to the outer walls meant I could hear if anything tried to sneak up on us from outside, although, with the growing snowstorm any sounds would be very muffled from the winds. The cabin had good insulation and a large fireplace so we were keeping relatively warm, but I wasn't very fond of the smoke caused by the fire. Crawlers were drawn to that smell, despite it meaning there was a very bright and dangerous light source making it. Something in our instincts told us that humans could be found by following the smell.

I shifted my position on the wall so I wasn't leaning against it as much, after eating the buck earlier I had started regenerating at a shocking rate. My eyes were completely fine now - especially since Jasmine gave me a pair of sunglasses she had in her backpack - and my arm was almost as healed. If I were to guess, falling earlier caused me to crack one of the bones in my forearm, but it, along with the knife wound, were barely painful now as long as I didn't move too much.

The gunshot and my missing legs were the uncomfortable parts, to say the very least. The legs were regenerating fast, but it always felt itchy and had pins and needles scattered throughout my body. The gunshot had times where it felt like the most intense migraine I ever had, and others where I could hardly keep my eyes open, let alone hang onto the rafter. I hadn't experienced this the first time I was shot, considering I was unconscious for the majority of it.

I was having one of the tiring sequences at the moment, and considering I hadn't slept for days, I decided not to fight it anymore. I moved to another rafter that was closer to the corner so I wouldn't fall as easily, and let sleep overcome me. The sounds of my friends yelling at each other soon drowned out into nothingness.