Author's Notes: Thank you MCBLUE for reviewing my story. I will try to keep my story interesting.

This chapter is short, but they will get longer.

Learning of Infection

The four strangers led the way as Rogue tried to keep up. She was having difficulty moving by all the obstacles that lied in her path. The boys seemed to be able to get by them without a problem.

While they moved Rogue kept her eye open, wondering if there were any more of those things that Taryn had become. Her eyes darted from one dark ally to another, whenever she heard the slightest noise.

The sun was beginning to go down by the time the boys stopped in front of the Bayeville mall.

Rogue looked at it and saw that it had transformed from the happy place where Jean and Kitty used to shop to their hearts content to a desolate lonely building. It seemed so empty without the many people walking from store to store.

"What are we doing here," Rogue asked, not really expecting any of the boys to answer.

The boy with the machete who Rogue could now identify as Drew turned to her. "Well I guess you could say this place is home."

Rogue looked at the building again. There were many holes in the walls and it did not look like it could provide much protection from those things.

"Um" she began, "shouldn't we go somewhere a that looks safer."

"There's no time," said the boy with the bat. "It'll be dark very soon, and the infected mostly prefer the dark."

There was no more discussion about it. They all went into the mall to hide for the night.

It took some time to pry the door open. It was one of those automatic doors, and seeing as the power was out it did not work.

The boy called Drew jammed his machete into the crack of the door and then the kid with the baseball bat hit the handle until the door swung open. They had done this before.

When the were inside they pushed the door shut again and made their way down the mall in till they came to a small store.

Rogue walked inside it and saw what the boys had done with the place. They had taken things from other stores in the mall and brought them all here to make it somewhat livable.

They had for small chairs each with blankets laid upon them. They had taken food from some of the restaurants in the food court and put them neatly in a corner. They had flashlights and lanterns to provide them with a little light. Other than that they did not have much.

The boys did not sit down and relax right away. They always had to do their little routine before anyone rested.

Rogue watched as they closed the cage that block off the entrance to the store. Then the boy carrying the ax pick up a rag that off of one of the shelves in the pretty empty store.

He wiped the blood off his ax and handed it to the boy with the bat.

He wiped the blood off his weapon and then threw it into a small garbage can in the corner. He then took a box off matches out of his pocket and lit it.

As he did that the boy called Drew took a can of lighter fluid and sprayed it into the can. When the match was thrown in the rag burned in a matter of seconds.

Rogue was very curious as to why they were doing this, but she was smart enough not to ask about it. These boys didn't seem to like answering questions.

When the weapons were clean and they were all locked up tight the boys finally took off their face coverings, and Rogue could finally get a look at them.

The boy with the ax had jet-black hair and a small goatee around his mouth. His face was long and pale. His eyebrows made a small connection above his nose giving him a psychotic look.

The boy called Drew had brown hair. It curled slightly and was very tangled and messy around his head. He had brown eyes and his face looked mostly normal, except for a long scar that ran down his left cheek.

The boy with the baseball bat had a shaved head. His face was like that of a drill Sargent. He had a tough face that would make anybody cower at the sight of it.

And finally there was the boy with the hammer. His hair was black as well, but instead he had it spiked all around his head. He had the face of a normal everyday jock.

The boy with the ax walked up to Rogue and looked her right in the eyes.

"Why were you in the hospital," he asked her.

Rogue looked at him questioningly and then remembered she was still in the hospital T-shirt.

"Ah Ah wasn't in the hospital," she said. "Ah was in the infirmary of the Xavier Institute."

He looked over her before asking, "you're one of those mutants?"

Rogue looked sadly to the ground and then nodded. Knowing how people felt about mutants they would probably throw her back outside to deal with those things on her own.

The boy just nodded and said, "I always thought it would be a real pleasure to meet a mutant."

Rogue cocked an eyebrow at his response.

"What's your name girl," he asked.

Rogue hesitated for a few seconds before answering. "Mah name's Rogue."

"Rogue," said the boy. "Well Rogue, my name's Jack."

He began to point to his comrades while he spoke. "The guy with the machete is Drew as you know. The fat guy is Keith, and the guy with the spiked hair is Derrick."

"Ok," Rogue said as she looked around at the four boys. She was still a little uncomfortable around them and still didn't know if they could be completely trusted.

"So Rogue," said Jack, "as you can see we don't really have much to offer. A few days before the evacuation people went into a panic from the news of infection. Practically everything in the mall was looted. We don't really have any clean cloths to offer you, except for some over there in the corner."

He pointed to another far corner of the small store.

"They belonged to my sister," he said, "you look about her size so if you want to you can change out of that hospital shirt."

Rogue did not move at first. "What do you mean belonged to your sister," she asked.

Jack face did not change. He just said very calmly, "she's dead. She was killed shortly after we all went into hiding. The cloths over there are the only ones she had time to take from our house, before the infected broke in."

Rogue sighed and said, "Ah'm sorry."

"Why should you be," Jack said, "you didn't kill her."

He turned away from the Goth and walked back to his group of friends.

Rogue turned and walked to the corner. Sure enough there were cloths there. Ones that she would prefer not to wear.

First there was the matter of the shirt. It was a light blue with dark blue sleeves. The sleeves only cover her arms a few inches below her elbow.

Then, to cover her lower half, all that was there was a pair of short cut off jeans. If she wore those then her legs would be nearly completely exposed.

The only other thing there was a pair of black and white shoes, and those definitely wouldn't help her hide her skin.

"Ah can't wear these," she said to the four boys.

Derrick looked over to her. "Why not?"

"Because of mah mutant abilities that's why," she said some what angrily.

The boys looked at her confused. Rogue then remembered that she didn't tell them her powers yet.

She sighed and said, "when every a person comes in contact with mah skin Ah absorb their life force and memories. And Ah can't control it."

Jack, who was sitting in a chair, did not look back when he spoke. He seemed to sound irritated.

"Look Rogue, that is all we have to give you. If you don't like it then just stay in that fucking T-shirt. You're just gonna have to deal with what we've got."

Rogue did not complain after that. She took the cloths and went behind a nearby shelf to change, so the boys wouldn't see her.

After a few minutes of being back there she came out in her new attire. She was afraid to admit it, but she felt good having some of her skin exposed. Still she was very nervous.

As she headed to where the boys were sitting she pulled on the shorts to try and make them cover a little more of her thighs. She gave up after the fifth pull.

Luckily she still had the white rubber gloves to put on her hands.

When she came back the boy called Jack looked at her. "I suppose you want to know what has happened here."

Rogue looked at him, still nervous from her exposed skin. "Well, it would be nice to know why Ah lost everything," she said ort of sarcastically.

Jack did not react to it however. He stood from his chair and patted it. "Sit down," he said, "I prefer to stand."

Rogue sat in the chair willingly. She was still weak and she it felt good to sit down.

"Who wants to start," Jack asked, as he looked through the cage that block the entrance to their hide out.

"I'll do it," Keith said, in a somewhat saddened voice.

He took a deep breath and looked at Rogue as he spoke.

"It began about twenty eight days ago. Infection had just broken out and no one even knew of its existence. After a while people began to change. When ever the disease was administered into a person, he or she changed."

"It was like their minds were no longer theirs. Is if they had de-evolved into blood thirst animals. They would become filled with rage and all they would desire is to shed more blood."

"Those things you saw, the ones that chased you, are the result of infection. They are no longer the people you know, those people were dead, but the virus kept their bodies alive."

Rogue looked at Keith. This story was hard to believe, but after what she had seen she was willing to except what was said.

"So," Rogue asked, "you're saying that these people turned into some type of zombies, is that it."

"Yes and no," said Keith. "Zombies are creatures that come back from the dead. Those with Infection did not start out dead. If you are killed then you can not be effected by Infection. It can only enter into living hosts."

Rogue paused before speaking again. "Well, that explains the science behind this whole mess, but that still doesn't really tell me what happened."

Drew was the one to speak of this. "Infection is what happened," he said. "That is what caused all of this."

He paused for a second and looked sadly to the ground. "It started out as many riots. People killing people No body knew of the disease they were carrying. We were all unprepared."

"The police tried to stop the chaos, thinking they were just simple riots. Everything went bad. The virus spread like a wild fire. The more police that came to assist, the more became infected."

"All of New York went to hell. It wasn't until the virus became so out of hand that the government got involved. The army tried to evacuate the entire state. Do you know how hard it must be to evacuate that many people? Damn near impossible."

"As you can guess they didn't get everybody out in time. They had to quarantine us Rogue. The army has had to surround all of New York."

"The Infected tore this city apart, probably the whole state apart. There are survivors, much like us. God knows how long they'll live in this turmoil."

"Does the army know there are still survivors," Rogue asked.

"Yes," Drew answered. "Its easy to tell the survivors from the infected. And it doesn't take long to find if someone is infected. It just takes one drop of blood of one bite to become a host for the virus. And then it only takes a minute or two for the disease to manifest."

Rogue sat with a look of distressed on her face. This news she had received was terrible. Everything she knew had gone strait to hell. And what about the X-Men? What had become of them? Did they make it out of New York, or did they become infected as well?

As she thought of this tears began to roll slowly down her cheeks. She never really cried much, but in this case it was impossible to avoid. Every thing she had was lost.

Jack looked at her and saw her crying.

"Dry those tears," he said. "We've all lost what meant most to us here. If you want to survive in this mess you need to learn to deal with it."

Rogue looked up at him. His face was very serious, but also gentle in a way.

"He's right," said Derrick, who had been quiet for quite some time. "If you don't learn to live with your losses then you won't last more than a day."

"Is that so," said Rogue very upset. "Ah just lost the only true family Ah ever knew."

"So did we," said Derrick.

He looked at Rogue angrily as he spoke. "The day of the evacuation my family and I were about to escape this nightmare. There was such a huge crowed that it was to difficult to even move."

"There was so much insanity and panic that nobody realized that one of the people in the crowed was infected. The virus began to spread quickly through the mob of people. Everyone was falling left and right. Either dead of infected."

"The only way I could stay safe was by climbing on top of telephone booth. And up there I watched as my family, may own family, was torn apart by those things. I barely got out of that mess alive, so don't tell me how hard you've had."

Jack covered Derrick's mouth. "Enough, she gets the point," he said sternly.

He then looked at Rogue. "Tomorrow we'll take you back to your institute, incase you want to take something to help you remind you of this family you're talking about. But as of now we're going to stay here where it's safe."

Rogue didn't answer him. She just stood up from the chair and walked to the back of the store, grabbing one of the flashlights in the process. There she leaned her back against the wall and sat down. She needed to be alone for a while.

Jack took the blanket off his chair and threw it over to her. "If you want to sleep in my chair tonight you can," he said.

He then looked at his comrades. "Alright. Here's how it's gonna work for tonight. I'll keep watch from ten o'clock to midnight. Then Drew will take midnight to two, Keith will take two to four and Derrick will take four to six. Derrick wake us up as soon as it's six."

"You got it," Derrick answered.

Rogue just sat in the back. She was glad that they didn't ask her to keep watch.

She looked down at her knees as another tear came rolling down her cheek.

As she looked she saw a small green notebook lying in the rubble of the store. It reminded her much of the notebook she had at the institute. She had kept it sort of as a diary, she could record her own thoughts and the events of her days.

She reached over and picked it up. Luckily there was a pencil not to far away from it. She took that as well.

As she opened the cover o the notebook she could hear the four boys talking about something nearby. She did not want them to see her righting.

She grabbed the blanket that Jack had thrown to her and put it over herself covering everything from the waist up.

Back at the chairs Jack looked back at her. He could see her legs sticking out from under the blanket as she turned the flashlight on under it.

As he looked he thought, 'poor girl, she shouldn't have to deal with this crap.

Back under the blanket Rogue opened the notebook and began to right in it.

Dear Diary,

Everything that I have known has been destroyed.