Vanilla Dusk ✓

Life Part 3

Shann wakes up with a groan. Every joint of his body aches and his chest, though patched up crudely with a piece of ragged cloth, throbs excruciatingly. Something cold tickles his face and that's when he realises something is off. He snaps open his eyes and sees a chalky, curious face staring down at him. He bounces up reflexively, causing Elis to flinch and withdraw his hand. Shann squints at the creature and then scans the room, the very same one he has fainted in. Elis has dragged him to the mattress and removed the bayonet from his chest. His shirt has been ripped open and his wound is now fully covered. Elis has wrapped it with a piece of cloth torn from the curtains. His blood has left traces on the floor and besmirches the sheets. He can see some around the corner of Elis's lips, which he still indulges in licking.

Shann's blood is sweet and aromatic – a mixture of soda drinks and smoothies in children's eyes. One drop and it is sufficient to make Elis straighten up and blink again, fuelling him with the vibrancy and strength of a fifteen-year-old. For a split second, he has considered gobbling up Shann or sucking out all of his blood till his body shrivels up, but he can't wipe off that teary face engraved in his mind. It's the first time something lingers in his mind for more than an hour. He doesn't remember the feeling of having memories or of being able to reminisce about something. These abilities have been extracted from them the day they got bitten.

And uncannily enough, he doesn't want to bite Shann or finish him off in one go.

The door opens, revealing Mateo and Johan with blood still dripping down their chins. They look reinvigorated, grinning from ear to ear. It seems that they have found something to feast on. Shann prays that it's not his family. Their gaze is now locked on Shann lying feebly on the bed. Elis immediately leaps towards them and growls, the same way he did last time shielding Shann, or rather, keeping Shann only to himself. Mateo and Johan find it unfathomable the way Elis is keeping his prey alive and going against them as if they, themselves, are the threat.

After exchanging a series of grunts and glares, Elis successfully shoos Mateo and Johan away, closing the door behind him one more time.

Now it is Shann's turn to feel bemused.

'What do you want?' he asks Elis blatantly, testing whether Elis can actually comprehend his speech and respond with something. He behaves so differently from those mindless BEASTS, as if he is a person of his own, just warped, traumatised or sick in some way. In fact, the MUTANTS are so rare Shann has never come into contact with one. This is their first combat with these unexpectedly intellectual and nimble living dead. The BEASTS might be untamed and ferocious, but they are downright brainless, only driven by instincts and can be shot easily. The MUTANTS, though, have proven so much challenging and calculating.

Maybe there is a way to cure them; drag them back to humanity.

'It's okay. You don't have to be scared.'

Elis tries to utter but all that escapes his lips is a grunt. He hands Shann a water bottle which Shann accepts tentatively. He takes a sip of the cold water and frowns. He tries to come up with an escape plan but having just seen the other two MUTANTS, he is quite certain that there are more roaming downstairs, or near this house. There is no way for him to evade these creatures unharmed, not to mention that some of them can be so cunning and sharp.

'Do you have a name or something?' Shann feels like he is going insane trying to initiate a conversation with this lifeless creature, but Elis doesn't disappoint him. He can only produce the sound of 'E' at most. When he spots a poster of a celebrity on the wall, he creeps towards and points at the letter 'E'.

'E?' gasped Shann, astounded by the fact that Elis can still recognise his own name and some letters from the alphabet.

Elis nods and points at the next letter. He searches for a long time before his eyes settle on a 'L', and then, repeating the same action, he spends almost an hour spelling his whole name to Shann, who has finished the bottle of water and is gawking at Elis in amazement.