The Altered.

Chapter XV.

Miles glanced immediately at Luca. "Wait," he said to everybody else. Then to Luca, he said, "I want you to tell us more about what happened with your parents."

Luca looked immediately uncomfortable, lifting his knees to his chest and hugging them.

Eira kicked Miles' foot. "Ask a little nicer!"

"It's okay," said Luca softly, but he didn't look like it was okay. He continued just as quietly, "I don't know what you want me to tell you, though. I was just sleeping, and then my parents came into my room, and -" his voice hitched.

Miles leaned in. "And they attacked you. With what?"

"I don't know!" Luca's voice cracked. "Everything. Anything in my room. Throwing it at me and hitting me. It was terrifying." His eyes were wild, and Miles had no problem believing what he'd said. "I got out through the window. They tried calling after me, but they didn't follow me."

Eira looked more so sad than concerned like everybody else. "Why would they do that?"

Luca gave his head a small shake, hugging his knees tighter and hiding his face behind them.

Aaron said suddenly, "Luca, do you have your phone on you?"

"No," the younger boy said softly. He looked so vulnerable, curled tightly up and attempting to hide his face. "I left it on the street after I ran away and saw a notification."

Recognition flashed in Aaron's eyes at the mention of a notification. "You got the message like us!"

At the same time, Miles muttered, "All you people, leaving your fucking phones behind when the notification says they need to stay intact. Presumably intact and with you at all times."

Aaron ignored him, looking around at the rest of the group. "Guys, don't you get it?" He was either excited or nervous or both, judging by the way his words were rushing from his mouth. "All of us got the notification. Do you remember what it said? I do. It said everyone under fifteen would get it. So far, that's proved true. You remember what else it said?" He waited, obviously expecting somebody else to say something.

Lia replied, "... Pack your essentials?"

He realised then that he'd left his backpack at the school, and nobody else here had one anymore, either. That meant they currently had no supplies except the ones that might be in this dorm room.

"Yes," Aaron said, "but I'm talking about something else. Guys. The message said to avoid everybody over sixteen, didn't it? And I don't know if you've already forgotten our conversation from earlier, but we started to link it all together already. The Altered, and the virus that the message mentioned."

Everybody was trying to process what he meant.

Aaron impatiently banged his fists on his knees. "What do you not understand? Virus. Altered. We've been attacked, in total, three times tonight if you include Luca's parents attacking him. We've been only attacked by Altered people. And you know who we found dead? Miles' friend, presumably a fifteen-year-old." He looked at Miles.

Miles nodded glumly to confirm that Harvey was fifteen. At the resurfacing memory of finding Harvey's body, Miles' stomach curdled, and he ducked his head, chewing the inside of his cheek. He didn't contribute further to the conversation.

"If the instructions are legit," Aaron continued, "and obviously they are, after everything that's happened to us tonight, I think I'm starting to see the pattern."

Eira narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "So you're saying... there's a virus that's only affecting the Altered, and the virus is making them attack us?"

Aaron looked pleased, finally. "Yes. Exactly. There's some kind of virus, and the notification was warning us to get out of our houses before the Altered people in our family get infected and start to hurt us."

"That's impossible," Miles objected, maybe just for the sake of arguing. "Viruses need to spread. Everybody can't just suddenly get it at a scheduled time of day. And what fucking viruses have you heard of that make adults attack kids?"

"This is different," Lia said, backing Aaron up. "This might be a different kind of virus. We all know that the Altered's brains are wired differently. The Alteration does that to them. I've heard that once you're Altered, there's a small microchip in your head that basically keeps you Altered. The chip can't be easy to corrupt, but I'm sure it's possible. If somebody figured out how to corrupt those chips, and do it to all of the Altered... it could definitely result in giving the Altered some kind of criminal mindset. So the virus technically can't spread, but it can infect everybody which fits the criteria. Said criteria being, you have to be Altered. I'm sure some Altered haven't been infected yet, which is why the streets aren't bustling with blood-thirsty adults. But by sunrise... that'll be a different story, I bet."

Miles frowned. "I don't understand. Who would make a virus that would infect only the Altered?"

"No," Aaron said, "it's not like that. It's affecting all electricity and electronics too, right? So this is probably just like a worldwide electronic-affecting virus, and since the microchips that the Altered have in their heads are technically electronics... I guess... it affected them too."

"Okay, whatever. But who would want to do that? Who wants to give every Altered on earth a 'criminal mindset' by killing off all our electronics?"

Aaron shrugged. "Maybe not a 'who', but a 'what'. I don't know, Miles. I don't even know if this virus theory is correct. But think about it. How likely is it? Highly. The instructions told us to flee, to avoid everyone over sixteen - anyone Altered - and that there would be a quick-spreading virus, but that we wouldn't be infected. And just tonight we've almost been killed. It all clicks, don't you think? Virus, Altered, attacks."

Miles fell silent. As absurd as Aaron's idea sounded, Miles was starting to see how realistic it all was, and everybody else in the group seemed to also be in agreement.

Lia pulled out her phone. "Our phones are almost completely inaccessible... except for the instructions app. It's selective. So this all makes sense, I think."

Miles was reluctant to admit it, but the more that was being said, the more sense everything made. "I think I get it now," he said carefully. "I don't believe it completely, but right now it's the best idea we've got and we should try to figure out more information while keeping out of the way of any Altered. If you're right, and the Altered are starting to be driven out of their minds by whatever this 'virus' is, they're too dangerous to approach intentionally."

"Which means," Lia furthered, "we can't stay in this dorm for long. We'll get some sleep for the next few hours and after that, we have to go. There are sure to be a few other people staying in other dorms; the students of the high-school that haven't gone home over break. We can't risk being so close to them for too long. For now, they don't know we're here, which is fine. But after a few hours, we have to go."

Aaron nodded. "That's a good point."

"So, do we have any kind of plan or anything?" Eira's voice was small and curious.

"No," Lia replied. "Not really. But tomorrow, the one thing I have in mind is packing a bag with some stuff from this room, then getting out quickly. After that... I guess we'll have to try a more long-term shelter that we can use while we continue to figure this out. Our main priority is avoiding any Altered."

Miles sucked in a short, nervous breath at the thought of what tomorrow would bring.

All he knew was that he wouldn't be going home any time soon.

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+1279 Words.

((Banner credit to itsnothardtodreamx!))

That's chapter fifteen! Fifteen is my lucky number teehee and this was a super fun chapter to write. They're finally figuring things out! I hope you all liked this chapter as much as I liked writing it :)

Please vote and comment letting me know what you thought!

- Reb <3