Infected

Chapter 23: Different Similarities

After I told Leo what happened the next morning, he told me to take it easy with survivors. He told me if Flare was infected and attacked me like she did last night, I would've been infected a long time ago. I understood him and brought food for flare and her little brother. When I knocked on the door, flare replied with a soft,

"Come in..."

and walked in the room. I saw flare rocking the baby kitten back and forth. "Hey, Flare." I said to her. "Uh...hi, cain." she replied. I gave her a tray of food. "Here. I brought this for you." Flare looked down at her food and then to her baby brother. "Here blaze, you need to eat too." Flare said, using her claws to peel the skin of her apple and gave a piece to him. Blaze smiled and bite the apple. "So um...what happened to you?" I asked flare. Flare froze, slowly biting her apple and looked at me. "I-if you don't mind me asking." I added. Flare shook her head and told me what happened to her.

Flare looked at blaze and stroked his head. She sighed and replied,

"I...really don't want to talk about it..."

I didn't say anything else. So, I decided to say, "Y'know, flare. I realize something about you." Flare faced me again. "Whenever you get angry, your eyes turn yellow. What's that about?" I asked her. Flare looked down and replied,

"I...I...I have PTSD."

My eyes widen, I learned about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in school. Flare must've killed many infected to protect herself and her brother, Blaze. "You need to be careful around me, Cain. You'll never know when I'll strike." Flare added. I nodded. "Okay..."

*Silence again*

"What about you?"

Flare asked, looking at me. "Hm?" I questioned. "What happened to you before this all stared?" flare asked again. I looked down, remembering the deaths that were caused in front of me. "I used to live in Happy Tree Town...with my mom and her boyfriend, Alex," I started.

"Boyfriend?"

"I never knew my dad. He left my mom when she had me."

"Oh...sorry."

"It's alright. I never really had any friends, until I met this friendly brown chubby bear named Pillow."

"Pillow?"

"He's extremely soft."

"Ah..."

"When this hell started, I lost my mom and alex. Pillow and I recently teamed up with these survivors named Ava and her little brother Ryan."

"Little brother?"

"He's a bit older than blaze."

"Oh...okay. What happened to them?"

I paused, looking down as Ava's lifeless purple eyes flashed into my mind. The sight of ryan turning into an infected fox in front of me because of some infected spider. Tears welled up and I answered Flare,

"The same thing how my close friends died...turned into those things..."

Flare looked at me. "Sorry...I asked." I smiled, ruffling her hair and I replied,

"Don't worry about it!"

Suddenly, just when I was going to get up,

"Hey, guys!"

I quickly looked at the door and aizen walked in with angel. "Cain!" angel cried, running to me and hugged me. "Oof! Wow, you're getting big!" I grunted. "Cain, Leo and Clarity said that they want to see you." aizen replied. I looked at him, confused. "Why?" I asked. Aizen shrugged. "Dunno." he said. I got up and walked downstairs. I saw leo and clarity in the living room, with bags on the table. "You needed me?" I asked. Leo nodded, he tossed me a bag and said, "Here."

I caught it and was instantly being weighed down by heavy material inside the bag. I fell on the floor. "UGH! WH-what the hell?!" I said, trying to lift up the heavy bag. Clarity laughed, picking up the bag off of me and replied,

"Wow, you're weak!"

I glared at her again. "Okay, cain. I want you to do something for me." leo said. I nodded my head as I replied,

"Sure."

"There's a large building down this forest path. It's surrounded by gates. Hopefully there's food and water inside of it. But be careful, there may be some survivors that have lost their minds. Meaning, they'll attack you when they see you. In the meantime, I'll go check on the cats I brought in yesterday."

"*Gulp* O-okay."

"One more thing cain,"

"Yeah?"

"Take Clarity with you."

"What!?"

A hard smack slapped my back. "OW!" I cried. Clarity put her arm around me and replied, "Yup! Just you and me! On a mission together! A perfect opportunity to get to know each other!" Clarity's spunky attitude was really hard for me to know if she's really scared or serious about this. I sighed, "Yeah...sure...whatever." The lighter blue fox grinned at me and headed out to the door. "See ya, leo!" clarity said. I started following her, outside when the snow finally stopped.