The Fox, the Hound and the Virus

The Army

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Chapter Six

The Army

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It took a couple of hours for the shock to wear off. Having been woken abruptly in the middle of the night, being chased through the forest in the dark, finding out their group carried zombie tranquilizer guns and being thrown back in the truck led to an enormous adrenaline crash. Zoe and Will passed out, their heads resting on one another. It was late morning when they were jolted awake to the huge truck doors being opened. They blinked dazedly.

'Right,' said Rob pleasantly. 'I think we should all have a nice little chat.'

Will and Zoe were sitting as far apart as they could from the group. Zoe's expression was one of open distrust. She glared at Rob as though he had personally come after her. Will couldn't stop himself from glancing at the other truck, knowing what was contained inside. So far the "contents" of the vehicle were peaceful and quiet. How long things stayed that way, Will had no idea.

'We aren't going to hurt you,' Rob said gently.

Zoe's expression soured further. 'Yeah, easy to say for the weirdo with a truck full of guns and an unconscious infected.'

'Look, just let us take our packs and we'll go,' Will started.

Rob shook his head. 'Sorry kids, but I can't in good conscience do that.'

'Why the bloody hells not?!' Zoe barked.

'Because now that we have that infected, the pack is going to be on our heels. You'll be sitting ducks if we leave you here.'

'That's our risk to take!' Zoe snapped.

'Unfortunately, that's not quite true. If we find unarmed healthy civilians on the road, we are bound by the state to escort them to the nearest inhabited camp.'

'You'd only get in trouble if you were stupid enough to admit you found us in the first place. You were happy to let us go our own way before!' Zoe pointed out.

'That was before we captured that infected.'

'Yeah, about that. Let's talk about that. What the actual fuck?!' Zoe glared at their companions with something like fire in her eyes.

'Quite the lively one, isn't she?' Peter muttered. Trudy snorted.

'We've seen a lot of things in our travels, a lot of bounty hunters and a lot of infected. We've never seen anyone try to capture an infected. Who exactly hired you?' Will expanded.

Rob considered them both for a moment, scratching at the stubble on his jaw. 'I suppose you could say we work for the army.'

'And how often do you... catch infected?' Will asked, keeping one eye on his bristling sister.

Rob shrugged one massive shoulder. 'It used to be quite often in the beginning. It was also easier in the beginning. You couldn't swing a stick without running into an infected. Then... about eighteen months ago, shit began to change for the worse,' he sighed.

Trudy snorted. 'That's an understatement. The infected went from being your stereotypical mindless bitey zombies to being...' she hesitated.

'Organized?' Will guessed.

'Not... organized. That might be giving them a bit too much credit, but they did start to sort of group together. The eggheads couldn't understand what made them change their behavior. It's not just here either. All over the world, the infected seem to be mutating in different ways. Sometimes they hunt their own kind and kill anything that moves. In other countries they seem to be forming groups.'