Turned World (On Hiatus)

18 - Evolved

  Trein’s patrol was going pretty smoothly. In the last ten minutes that he had been walking, he had shot down six turned. He came to a halt, looking around. This is the second time he’s been here. He had made a complete lap of his jurisdiction. Trein sighed and walked out, away from the building. If there was nothing left to find within close proximity, then he’d have to expand his range.

  He walked out one hundred metres from the building. He came to a halt before a tall pole. It was a tall cylindrical pole made of some sort of metal.

  Trein sighed, then instantly tensed up. There was a low growl coming from behind a building not far from where he was. Swallowing, he cocked the gun and slowly made his way over to the source of the growling, the sound of the fusion core charging up drowning in the background.

  Trein gripped the brace and hopped around the corner.

  There were four turned there. The zombified people looked up at him, as if shocked. Realizing he was a human, their growling got louder and more aggressive. Two of them made a dash for him, jaws gaping open, filled with dirty saliva. 

  Trein took a step back and held up the plasma gun. He flicked a switch and heard a click and something releasing inside the gun. He pulled the trigger and mowed down the advancing two with quick burts, with the gun in semi-automatic fire. The two fell down, their limbs burning violently where the plasma bullets had hit them. The other two Tu                                                                                              rned followed suit and Trein replied by firing another round at them. The two quickly fell, twitching and screeching.

  Trein let the gun hang down and he looked down at the decaying bodies with disgust. He could feel the heat radiating from the gun as it cooled down.

  More growling sounded, this time from back where he had come. The growling was louder this time, and it sounded like way more than just four. He bit his lip under the mask and trotted over to a vantage point.

  He peeked around the corner and nearly yelled in shock. Around the corner was a huge crowd of turned. What was even more surprising though, was that they simply stood there. They were not moving, just standing there as if dormant.

 “You. You. And you.”

  Trein froze. The voice that spoke just now was very cold, and sent shivers down his spine. It came from within the crowd, he was completely sure of that. It must be another one. What did Riverich call them? ‘Original Turned’?

 “What do you think? They were close to you, were they not?”

  Trein gripped the gun tightly. He’d dealt with an Original Turned before, how much worse could this be? He put one leg back, ready to jump out and fire.

 “Why…why are you doing this?!” 

  Trein froze. That was a human’s voice. A woman’s voice. Was she speaking with the turned? But that’s... He quickly recalled that Fort did, infact, respond to their actions in a very much sentient way. Trein gritted his teeth and pressed his head closer to the wall to hear better.

 “Why do we do this?” 

  There was an evil, sinister laughter.

 “I don’t know why the others do it. Or rather, I do know why they do it. But I have my own reasons. Why seek something as trivial as revenge? Why not just accept what we are? Why not make the most of it?”

 “You…monster…” The woman’s voice was breaking. Trein wasn’t sure if that meant she was tuning or crying, but judging by what he was hearing, it was most likely the latter.