Chapter 10 - Howl of Devastation
I felt pretty tired, finishing helping the hunter with the bath as well as patching up the bullet wound on his arm had taken a bit out of me. It surprised me a bit when I started washing his hair; it basically remained the dark red color, even with the three washes to get all the nasty stuff out of it. I actually had to drain and refill the tub twice with all the grime that was on him. I had gotten him the new set of clothes, which to my chagrin I had to help him into. He refused to give up his hoodie the moment I tried to take it away from him, even going so far as to hiss at me. I reluctantly had to let him keep it.
We were back out in the main room now, and I was checking our supplies. Veronica was now asleep, and Josh was dozing on his feet, eyelids drooping until he'd shake himself back awake. He had been curiously watching over the girl, and it surprised me that he hadn't tried to eat her or anything while I was distracted with the hunter. I was searching through the box of food, making a tally on everything we had left. Cursing under my breath, it was blatantly obvious that we would have to make a food run sooner rather than later. With two more mouths to feed now it was not going to last nearly as long as I would have liked. I sighed, rubbing the back of my head before wincing at the pain in my shoulder; which I still needed to clean up as well.
An idea struck me then. I could always send the hunter out to scrounge for more canned goods. The other infected wouldn't really pay attention to him, unlike they would if I were to go out with him. I turned and wandered off into the back rooms again, picking my backpack off of the bathroom floor and moving over to the bed to dump out its contents onto the mattress. Oh geez it was almost like holding up a feather without everything that had been shoved into it.
Before I could even utter a word, my hunter was at my side, his gaze roaming over every item that covered the bed now. He picked up one of the soaps, bringing it closer to his nose to sniff it before pulling his head back, a look of disgust crossing his features. I couldn't help but chuckle at the scene. He glared up at me, to which I only shrugged with a smile on my face. I looked him over, amazed at how well the bath had seemed to improve his features. Without his hair being matted and disgusting and all the dirt and grime covering him he looked… human. If it wasn't for his grayed skin and pale, glassy eyes he could definitely pass as still alive.
"Do you feel better now?" I muttered quietly, raising a hand to my chin. My eyes were turned back to the objects on the bed, but I saw him nod from my peripherals. "This is sudden, and I hate to ask…" My thumb was at my mouth and I was chewing slightly on the nail. "But we will need to make a supply run soon. We won't have enough to feed everyone for however long we're going to be here for more than two days… and that's with us having two meals a day." I looked back over to him. "Would you maybe be able to go find some more canned goods for us?"
His head was tilted slightly as he stared up at me. There was a question in his gaze, wondering why I was sending him off to do this. "I don't think I'm quite up to the task of going out in my condition yet. Josh looks fucking exhausted, and if we were to try sending Veronica out, she'd never come back." He seemed to chuckle at the last statement, that rolling growl making his shoulders shake. "We could probably do more with bottled water as well." I muttered more to myself, making a mental checklist. I handed him my backpack, which he swiftly looped his arms through the straps.
I reached down, letting the tips of my fingers ruffle the hunter's hair. He seemed miffed at me for a second before leaning into my hand, a soft purr escaping him. "Just fit as much as you can into the bag, alright? And if you find anything you'd like while you're out don't hesitate to pick it up." I smiled at him, and he grinned back at me. "There's a few mini marts around the area here that I can remember, maybe you can try those. If there's nothing there then theres a grocery store a few streets over in the opposite direction that we went last time." I shuddered at the memory of the charger. I felt his clawed hand lightly clasp onto mine and squeezed it softly. He seemed to know what was going through my head.
He crouched low, hopping from the room on all fours as I listened to his movements. A soft growl echoed back to me followed by a laugh from our resident jockey. Then the metallic grating of the front door opening and closing. He was off and I had work to do on myself. I grabbed one of the outfits I had found for myself at that little store as well as one of the soaps I picked out for myself. I picked out a few towels and washcloths and stopped for a moment. The hunter's wallet had caught my eye, and I had to sate my curiosity so I decided to bring it with me as well. I moved into the bathroom, setting my items on the toilet lid so I could rinse down the muck from the hunter's bath.
After the grime was down the drain I put the stopper back in and sighed at the water temperature. It was perfect, even with how much we had used earlier to get him cleaned. I shook my fingers off before slowly working my way out of my clothes. My shoulder kept protesting at me the whole time I was trying to remove my shirt, and then the bandages wrapped around it. I cringed at the wound as I finally got a good look at it.
The mark the charger had left me with was deep, and would most likely leave behind a nasty scar. Some of the edges where the teeth had been embedded were jagged, as if a saw blade had tried to cut the holes open. It did surprise me at how nicely it was healing though; the flesh was pink and healthy, but still made me panic a little bit as I could see one of my veins pulsing in the depths of one of the holes. How was I healing this quickly? Something like this would take months to heal and would probably have needed stitches. The only thing I could really compare it to, coming to mind, was a dog bite and with what little knowledge I had on those I was astonished at the progress. Whatever the hunter had done to it had worked some kind of wonders, which made me smile. He really had taken care of me the whole time.
I turned then, slowly sticking one of my toes into the warm water to test the temperature. I shivered with delight before basically throwing myself into the water's welcoming embrace. Almost immediately the water was becoming cloudy. Good lord I was filthy! How many weeks had it been since I had an actual bath? That didn't really matter now I suppose. I lifted one of my arms from the water, carefully looking over it. I was pale, definitely paler than before the bite. Maybe the sickness was still in my system or something and that's why I was lacking so much color. Was I actually infected now? Bites were how it was spread right? Then why wasn't I trying to get up and run around looking for my next meal?
I huffed at my thoughts. Maybe that was why I was so accepting of Josh. Maybe I'm just slowly turning and not even realizing it. No, I felt fine, except for being tired from all the effort I exhausted today from being sick. I'm not going to lose my life to some stupid infection that I'd been fighting for who knows how long. I let a confident smile slide across my lips; I was going to be alright, one way or another.
Reclining back into the water I sighed, my eyes going over to stare at the pile of things on the toilet. I zeroed in on the hunter's wallet, curiosity killing me. Man, I just got comfortable too. I groaned as I stretched my arm out to snag it off the slightly out of reach toilet, quickly going back into my relaxed position. Running my fingers along the leather, I felt my anxiety kick into gear. My question of who he was was finally going to be answered, but on another note I was going to see all of what he had going for him before the infection kicked in full swing. I took a deep breath as I flipped the wallet open.
On one half was the driver's license, staring me in the face. All of his information was there on full display, as well as a picture of him, uninfected. It was strange seeing that dark, red hair and those pale, though slightly darker, blue eyes staring at me from a tanned face. I scrolled my eyes over his information, trying to look for his name without taking the card out. It seemed to be under the border of the plastic frame though. I quickly pulled it out, sitting the wallet on the side of the tub so I could hold it in both hands.
Thorne Xanthos Lowell. I kept repeating the words in my head for a minute before looking over the rest of his information. I finally had a name for the face! The rest of the card just told me his age, twenty-five, and his height, six feet five inches, and obviously hair and eye color. Holy hell this guy was basically a foot taller than me, no wonder I felt so damn small when he stood up to his full height! I picked up the wallet again, shoving the card back into its specified slot before nosing through the rest of his items.
The other side of the wallet just held his bank cards, and a few business cards. The money slot held a few bills, as well as some pictures. Jackpot! The first picture in the stack was a photo of Thorne, standing in a backyard somewhere with two other people, one being a man in a wheelchair and the other looking like a short, female version of him. His arm was around the girl's shoulders, while his other hand was resting on the chair bound man's shoulder. Turning it around to the back gave me more information, three names. 'Thorne, Josh, and Maya' was written there in sloppy chicken scratch. The girl was definitely related to him, there were too many similarities between the two for anything else. And Josh? They knew each other before the infection apparently. It was the same guy that was in the jockey's wallet.
The next picture in the pile was one of Thorne holding up a beer can, Josh at his side and a dark haired girl leaning up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. A shiver crawled down my spine and I quickly moved onto the next picture. This one was folded in half, which made me raise a brow. I slowly opened it, and almost dropped it into the water at the surprise waiting for me. Thorne was down on one knee in this picture, holding up a little black box with a diamond ring in it to the same dark haired girl. She looked on the verge of tears, but extremely happy with her hands covering her nose and mouth.
"He was engaged?" I questioned to myself. The thought of him having someone had never crossed my mind before. Then again there were other important things going on that the thought had never even come up in the first place. Why did I feel disappointed at this discovery? I quickly shook the thoughts away and put the pictures back into the wallet, tossing it away from me onto the floor. I needed to refocus myself on the bath.
I grabbed one of the washcloths and my soap, slowly lathering it up, but the damn picture kept surfacing back to the forefront of my mind. It brought up a different spike of emotion every time it resurfaced in my head. I couldn't be jealous could I? It didn't make any sense if I was. I didn't have those kind of emotions for him, at least in the romantic way… right? No. Maybe I was just jealous of what had been; being the romantic at heart that I am the thought of someone being happily engaged was always something that I wanted eventually. I had just never found that person willing to commit to me that much… Don't bring up those thoughts.
I finished bathing, having to drain the tub and fill it one more time before the water came away mostly clear. I dried myself off quickly and applied some ointment and bandages to my wounds before getting dressed. Thankfully I picked out a cold shoulder, purple top that would let my shoulder breath a little. I picked up my disgusting clothes and threw them out into the bedroom before rinsing out the tub one more time.
The sound reached my ears and I froze in place. The almost deafening noise was so close by. I darted my way back into the main room, my heart racing the entire time. As I made it to the door leading into it, I had to stop and lean against the doorway at the sight that greeted me. Josh was down on his side, his eyes halfway open and exposed grin twisted in shock. In the middle of his forehead was an oozing bullet wound. My mouth was opened in a silent gasp as I looked the jockey over before turning my gaze at the only other occupant in the room. She was shaking, the pistol in her hands still smoking. Fear and anger radiated through me at what had happened. "VERONICA!"
~Thorne/Hunter's P.o.V.~
The hunter leaped from roof to roof, using his powerful legs to propel him forward and grabbing onto the edges of brick and concrete with his claws. His eyes were scanning the surrounding areas trying to find one of the places his human had requested him to go to. His ears kept picking up the sounds of the stupid ones wandering around down below on the streets but everything else had been quiet. He grinned to himself, his thoughts moving to if his human had looked into the piece of leather to see who he was. It had been strange seeing himself, uninfected, staring back at him.
He caught sight of a sign on the next building over and let himself fall to the ground, his legs bending to brace for impact before rolling forward with the momentum back into a crouch. He carefully wandered into the small, dark store, the glass of the storefront having been broken out in possible attempts to get into the place to salvage food. Just what he was trying to do right now. He was slowly looking over the shelves, moving the backpack around to his front so he could pull cans off of them and shove them into its depths. He didn't take time to read the labels, just stuffing them in and deeming it enough after the twenty-fourth can.
He then started to search for water, finding the plastic bottles closer to the back of the store. He piled as many of those into the bag as well. The bag was now heavy enough that he could hardly keep it comfortably in his arms so he swung it around to his back once again. A slight glimmer out of his peripherals caught his attention as he was moving to leave. Curiously he meandered over to the grungy object on the floor. He carefully picked it up with his thumb and index claws, wiping some of the grime away with his other hand.
It was a small, silver banded ring with a single diamond at the top. The more he looked at it the more his head started to hurt. He remembered this feeling, a memory resurfacing in his mind. He whined out loud, bringing his unoccupied hand to his head at the pain coursing through his skull.
He was standing in her house, Josh off to the side and waiting with a camera in his lap. They both knew that the woman they were waiting for would soon walk through the front door, getting home from work. Thorne was jittery, playing with the little black box he had clasped behind his back. He kept twisting it in his hands, trailing his thumb over the velvety material it was covered in. Soon he would propose to the woman of his dreams, but he was nervous if she would decline.
"Dude, just relax. If she loves you as much as I think she does, she'll say yes without you even having to ask." Josh spoke in a quiet voice, trying to reassure his friend and to keep quiet just in case she walked in. Thorne nodded, drawing in a deep breath through his nose and slowly exhaling through his mouth. He had always liked having Josh around; the man was smart, level headed, and always knew what to say and when you needed to hear it.
His anxiety was still high though as he looked down at himself. He had dressed up just a bit more than he normally would. He wore a button down, crisp, white shirt, his best pair of dark jeans and topped the whole look with black sneakers. He tilted his head up as he heard keys at the front door before the woman strolled into the entryway. He smiled at the sight of her, his mind reminding him of the three years they had been together before he decided to make today the day he proposed.
The woman, with her dark hair thrown up into a messy ponytail, did not see the two men in her living room immediately. Her heels clacked on the hardwood floor as she marched herself into her kitchen, dropping her keys onto the dining table and opening the fridge. She pulled out a vegetable based drink, quickly settling her thirst with it. Thorne watched her from around the corner, he didn't know why she liked that drink. When he had tried it he nearly gagged; the thing tasted like extra liquified ketchup.
She capped the bottle of vegetable juice and turned to go into the living room. She stopped in her tracks, finally spotting the tall man before her, and then the chair bound man on the other side of the room. A gasp escaped her as she held a hand to her chest, a smile coming to her face. "You boys scared me about half to death!" Her voice was slightly gritty, almost as if she was always screaming at something and her voice didn't know how to heal itself.
Both men smiled at her as she started to walk toward Thorne to embrace him. Josh lifted the camera into position, just as his friend lowered himself down to one knee. The woman stopped in her tracks, eyes going wide. Thorne pulled the box from behind his back, opening it and presenting it to her. "Elizabeth Marie Schooly," He paused for a moment, watching her reaction as she studied him and then the small diamond ring in the box. "Will you do me the honors of taking my hand in marriage?" The woman, Eliza held up her hands to her face, covering her nose and mouth as her eyes looked ready to overflow with tears. Josh quickly snapped the picture before she made her decision.
"Yes!" Her voice was watery, barely containing the happy tears that wanted to spill. "Yes, I will marry you, Thorne!" He pulled the ring from the box, sliding it onto the fourth finger of her left hand. Eliza wrapped her arms around his neck, and he wound his around her waist as he stood, lifting her into the air. He spun them in a circle for a minute, placing soft kisses on her lips and cheeks, basically anywhere his lips could touch before placing her down on shaky legs.
"I've got to go call your sister and tell her the news!" Eliza was so giddy her voice almost cracked.
"You know how Maya is; she probably already knows." Thorne smiled down at his girlfr- fiancee as she smiled back up at him, bouncing off to find her phone. "I can't believe she said yes!" Thorne whisper yelled, pumping a fist into the air as he turned to his best friend. Nervous laughter spilled out of him.
"Told you it would be alright, dude." Josh smiled a crooked smile. It was only a few weeks after the happy moment that the world went to hell. The Green Flu was running rampant around the area. Thone and Josh, ignorant to the world around them were going to a shop for a tuxedo fitting when they encountered it.
The memories were coming back to him so quickly, tears were rolling down his gray cheeks as he came out of the dream like state. He held his head in his hands as the tears fell from his chin down to the dirty floor. Raspy sobs erupted from his throat as the memory kept replaying in his head. "Ellliiiizzzzaaaa…." His vocal chords managed to rumble out. The feeling he had around his human, around Ravei… was that because she reminded him of Eliza? How could he not have remembered someone he had loved so deeply? How could he have forgotten about his friends and family as well? What had happened to them this whole time?
He grabbed whatever was closest to him and threw it into one of the displays near by, the unopened soda bursting on impact and showering everything around it with sticky liquid. He was angry at himself, but quickly started to calm at the sudden destruction he caused. He had to get back to Ravei, back to Josh and the new human as well. Thorne pulled his sleeve over his claws, using the cloth to wipe away the tears. He took in a breath through his nose, catching the grape scent of the soda, and exhaled slowly through his mouth.
He quickly lashed the bag into place on his back, tightening the straps slightly to secure it better. He moved as fast as he could to get out of the store, taking back to the roof tops. He bounded over the stupid ones below, building to building, trying to get back to his den. By the time he reached the building, he dropped down into the street, landing in the middle of the road and dashing toward the building. The sound stopped him in his tracks though.
The noise rattled through his ears like a sonic boom. It was close, too close! The den! Was it under attack? He quickly bound through the storefront and slammed himself into the steel door, making it swing back and crash into the wall behind it. The sight his eyes met inside made his body run cold. His human was crouched low over the monkey thing, Josh, anger and fear radiating off of her in waves, and in the hands of the other human girl was a small boom stick. His eyes then went back to his friend, who hadn't moved the entire time he was there, only then noticing the blood coming from a hole in his forehead.
~Ravei's P.o.V.~
I winced at the sound of the steel door grating against the concrete wall, quickly looking up at the hunter, no, Thorne. He stood there frozen to the spot, pale eyes switching between me, Veronica and the corpse of Josh. I couldn't watch him, focusing instead on the fallen jockey. I didn't know why, but I felt somewhat attached to the smaller infected, which made my anger rise even more at the events. "Why, Veronica?" I hissed out, turning my eyes to glare at the girl still huddled in the corner of the room, the pistol still in her hands.
"Why the hell do you think, Ravei?" She was seething as well, her face red in anger towards me. Her grip on the pistol was shaky at best, if I could talk her down some more maybe I could get it out of her hands before anymore hurt could come to any of us. "He was fucking infected. Of course he had to fucking die!" Her eyes were pools of acid, as she flicked her tongue over her lower lip to wet it.
"That gives you no goddamn reason to do it though!" I growled at her, actually growled. "He brought you here when he could have let you become food for the other infected! He didn't even try to eat you himself!" My whole body felt like it was burning with the rage coursing through me. I felt myself shaking from my spot on the floor, grinding my teeth together before I did something stupid. "He saved your life and you repay him by shooting him in the fucking head!" That finally seemed to snap her away from her thoughts, shock written in her face.
Thorne decided to move then, drawing my attention to him. The backpack slowly slid from his arms, dropping heavily to the floor. He crouched low, shambling his way over to his fallen friend's body. He carefully lifted the lifeless body into his arms, cradling the smaller infected to his chest like a baby. I couldn't see much of his face as he lowered his head down, resting it against Josh's chest. The sound that came from him was soft, and from what I could tell from his shoulders shaking was that he was crying. Mourning the loss of his friend. I felt my heartbreak at the sight, rounding on Veronica once more.
"How… how can he feel…" She seemed even more shocked at the fact that Thorne was crying over the death of his friend.
"Because they were different." I watched her carefully, tears springing to her eyes. "They have emotions, and aren't just like the mindless infected we've run into." I sighed, motioning to my shoulder as she let her eyes fall on me. "I got bit by a charger a while ago, he brought me back and bandaged me up, took care of me while I was out for three whole days." She seemed even more stunned at my words. "You've seen how I talked with them as well, they understood what I was saying. They were different!" I felt my fists clench, closing my eyes to let the words sink into her thick head.
"Oh god…" Veronica muttered into her unoccupied hand, tears actually falling now. "This is my fault…" Well no shit! I heard her shift, and looked back up at her. My eyes widened in shock as I saw what she was trying to do. The barrel of the pistol was in her mouth, she had the hammer on the back of it cocked back, ready to fire.
"Veronica, what are you doing?" I raised my hands up in a placating motion. "Do not do what I think you're about to do!"
"I'm sho shorry…" She squeaked out around the gun, sitting her finger on the trigger. "I dhon't want to bechome one of sthem…" She was shaking the entire time, applying pressure to the trigger. The gun went off before I could move, splattering bone, tissue and hair onto the wall behind her. Her body slumped down against the sleeping bags, convulsing for a moment before going still.
"Veronica!" I choked, a hand reached out in her direction before I turned my head away. "Fuck no, why is this happening?" I dug my hands into my hair, unable to hold in the sob that left me. Yeah she may have abandoned me, left me for dead, but I still cared about her. She had become like a sister in the short time we spent together. The loss of both her and Josh was just starting to settle into me and I couldn't hold back the tears any longer.
I drew in a shaky breath, letting my eyes wander up to look Thorne over. He was still shaking, seemingly unable to wrap his mind around what was happening. He quietly laid the body of his friend back down on the floor, very gently as if not wanting to disturb his sleep. One of the typical hunter screeches left his throat before he turned and bound out of the safe room through the open door. There was no use for me to call him back, try to comfort him while I was hurting just the same. His suffering was probably a lot worse than mine anyway, since he knew Josh well before the infection started. This wound would leave a deeper cut than any of the others on his body.
I wrapped my arms around my knees, drawing them close to me and resting my head on them, trying to will the tears to stop flowing. I knew what it was like to lose my best friends to this damn infection, but I hadn't had them taken from me like he had. I shivered as I listened to the sounds around me, the quiet of the room only being interrupted by a haunting tone. It sent a chill up my spine, making me wonder what could be making such a sound. It sounded so familiar but I just couldn't place it with my mind floating all over the place. There was only one guess I could give about what to call the wailing sound.
It was a howl of devastation.