The man was called Jed, and he was the leader of what Mark now resolved to simply call 'The Crazy Cult', and he kept talking about demons. How they came annually now, sun and ships.
"They say you are demons, but I don't believe that, you will be our friends now." Jed continued, the wound on Darnell's shoulder had luckily been forgotten, and he had had enough sense to cover it.
Apparently these people had been attacked by a Berg two months and three days ago, and some people from their village, who Mark concluded were also crazy, had not joined the crazy cult, but liked to attack them periodically. You couldn't make this crap up, but somehow they were living it.
As the man talked they began to quietly free themselves from the ropes, no one took any notice of this. If they were lucky they would be able to bolt back to their camp before long, collect the girls then run as far away from these people as possible.
Mark tried to ask him a few questions, but this only caused him to shout about pain and clutch at his head. Mark remembered that the main symptom of the virus was intense pressure in the skull, and that it seemed to be weakening as it spread.
Then there were the sounds of a few dozen people running, screaming, laughing hysterically, making animal noises. There were even more crazy people.
"What now?" Alec said with clear disgust.
"We warned you about them," the woman said from where she knelt. "They used to be our friends, our family. Now the demons have taken them and all they want is to torment us, to kill us."
Jed suddenly reared up on his knees screaming at the top of his lungs. Violently, he jerked his head down, then left and right, as if he were trying to knock something loose from his skull. Mark couldn't help but scoot backward, crab-walking until the rope around his neck grew taut. The other end was still in the hands of one of the kneeling men.
Jed let out a piercing, horrific sound that cut off all the new ones coming from the forest around them.
"They've killed me!" he yelled, the words ripping from his throat. "The demons … finally … killed me!"
His body went rigid, his arms stiff at his sides, and he fell over, a last breath rushing from his mouth. His body stilled, and blood began to seep from his nose and mouth.
At the death of their leader the crazies went still, like bees without a queen.
"Can we go now?" Darnell whined, throwing his ropes off altogether.
"Yes." Alec replied as they all got up, none of the cult people moved, they were obviously still stunned. The other infected coming towards them were getting louder. Mark wanted to be almost anywhere on the planet other than this camp of madness.
The wave of attackers crashed into the rows of singers, jumping on them with animalistic cries of battle. Two men leaped into the air and straight into the bonfire. As Mark watched in horror, their clothes and hair ignited.
Screams tore from their throats as they stumbled out of the flames, but it was too late. Engulfed and burning alive, they ran out into the woods, sure to set the whole forest on fire. Mark turned back to the chanting villagers. They were being beaten and choked, he was surrounded by chaos—it was too much to take in.
They were suddenly in the middle of what seemed like a thousand-person fistfight. Mark was pushed and shoved. To his surprise, he realized that it wasn't just the new people versus the old. Many of the attackers were actually pummeling each other—he saw a woman fall into the fire, her screams filling the air.
They took off up the slope, away from the fire that was now gaining traction in the dry forest, spread by the fighters who had no regard for their own safety.
The crazies mostly ignored them, but they had to fight off a few. The fire was spreading terrifying quickly, a huge section of burning forest cutting them off from their camp.