Turned » 5sos

0.9

c a l u m

The next day, I woke up on my own. It was weird not being woken up because Ashton was yelling at me or because Michael or Luke told me to wake up so Ashton wouldn't yell at me. It was also odd not hearing anything coming from Kit. I started to wonder if she was even still there.

I rolled over and saw that she was still laying on the steel bed, she just wasn't moving or making noise. Had someone snuck into the room last night and done something to her?

I quickly got up, stumbling a little from getting up so fast, and walked the short distance to where she was chained. She looked up at me, her eyes blank. I quickly scanned over her body and saw she was okay. No one had stabbed her or anything. Her bandages needed to be changed, though. And maybe it was just the lighting but she was starting to look a little bit blue instead of the usually normal minty color the infected usually got.

"Hey, Kit." I smiled softly, running my fingers through her hair since she seemed to like that. "You feeling okay?"

I didn't expect her to respond so I wasn't disappointed when she didn't. She looked away from me and looked down at the wall across the room. I wondered what was going through her head if anything at all was.

"I'll go get some bandages for your leg, okay?" I told her, removing my fingers from her hair and walking toward the door.

I heard a soft grunting and I turned to see Kit trying to sit up as she watched me.

"Don't worry, Kitty, I'll be right back." I promised her. "I'm just getting things to help your leg."

She kept making noise and pulling against her restraints until I went back over to her. She continued to struggle, though, and I rested my hand on her wrist closest to me to make her stop. She calmed down but kept looking up at me. I wished I knew what she was thinking about.

"It's alright, I'll be back in thirty seconds." I said. "Do you want Michael to come watch you until I get what I need?"

Kit just looked at me, not that I expected her to say anything or even nod her head. I called for Michael who walked into the room looking well-rested for once.

"What's up?" he asked as he looked between Kit and I -- she hardly even moved when she saw him to my surprise.

"Can you keep an eye on Kit while I go eat and get her bandages?" I asked him. "I don't think she wants to be alone in the dark."

He furrowed his eyebrows, "I guess so."

I left the room without Kit making any noise. Ashton was sitting by the fire while Luke was whittling a stick that he must've found yesterday when I was trying to get Kit to show any sort of sign that she was learning besides the fact she simply laid there now when she saw me.

Luke looked up and smiled, "Good morning."

I gave him a small wave, "Hey man."

"How's Kit?" he wondered, sounding like he actually cared.

I heard Ashton scoff but I ignored him, deciding it wasn't best to get into anything with him right now, "She's okay. She's been responding a lot to physical contact and recognizes when someone leaves or enters a room. Her skin's starting to turn kind of blue-ish too."

Luke cocked his head, "Really? Hmm..."

"What?" I asked him as I grabbed some perishable food from my backpack.

"The zombie she got bit by also had blue tinted skin." he remembered. "Do you think that has something to do with why she does? But how did it get blue skin in the first place?"

"But her skin started out green like every other infected," I reminded him, "so it must be something else."

"You guys are thinking way too far into this." Ashton spoke up. "You wanna know why her skin's a different color? Because she's dead yet she's walking around like she isn't. Weird shit happens, okay?"

"Says the ignorant leader to the science genius." I scoffed. "Luke may not be as well-rounded to be named number one but he's definitely the smartest out of all of us. I'm sure he knows what he's talking about when he says it's not just nothing."

He turned and looked at us, not looking very happy, "Are you telling me I don't know what I'm talking about?"

"I'm telling you he's smarter than the rest of us."

He rolled his eyes and turned back to the fire.

I rolled my eyes back even though he couldn't see and went through my bag to look for some bandages. When I found one to wrap around her leg, I went back into Kit's room to see Michael was leaning against the wall beside her, watching her. She was looking down at her feet until she saw me come in. She looked at me intently, not making any noise or movement.

"Hey," I smiled at her and held up the roll of bandages, "I got you new bandages like I promised. Sorry I was gone longer than I said."

"No offense," Michael began slowly, "but can she even understand you?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I know she can."

I took off her old, dirty bandages and saw her wound was healing a little but it still looked like it was getting infected. Since I had nothing to do to fix that, I just wrapped up her leg with the new bandages and secured it in place. Kit and Michael watched me the entire time.

"Do you think she gets hungry?" Michael asked me.

I looked up at him curiously, not having thought of that before, "I...I don't actually know. Hey Luke?" I called to him softly since the door was already open.

He walked in and looked at me, "Yes?"

"Do you think she'll get hungry?" I asked, nodding toward Kit.

Luke looked down at her while he thought, biting on his lip ring, "The infected still eat, even if it is humans. I'd say yes."

I removed the muzzle from Kit's mouth and took the apple from Michael's hand that he was about to bite into. Ignoring Michael's whining, I held it up to Kit's mouth to see if she'd eat it. She seemed to sniff it and then cringed away.

I sighed, "C'mon, just try it. You used to love apples and I'm sure you'll still like them now."

She looked up at me and made a low grumble, causing Michael to laugh, "Was that her? Dude, she's like a four-year-old."

"She does seem to be showing signs of intelligence..." Luke commented. "She realizes that the apple isn't what she normally would eat as an infected, yet she hasn't gone for you or Michael yet."

I looked up at Michael, "Did she try to bite you at all?"

"Nope." he shook his head. "I walked in and she just stared at the wall until you showed up."

I focused back on Kit who was still trying to move away from the apple. I grabbed the knife from my belt and pricked my finger with it, swiping my blood into the apple. I brought it back to her lips and tried to see if that would help.

She sniffed it.

She paused.

She bit into it.

As she chewed the apple, I saw that she didn't seem repulsed by it. In fact, she didn't even seem to go for me despite the fact I had an open wound. Kit's brain was developing.

"That's actually amazing." Luke breathed.

"What is?" Ashton asked as he walked into the room, probably wanting to know what we were all making a big deal about.

A low growling noise came from Kit's throat before she tried to lunge at Ashton, snapping her teeth widely.

Michael chuckled, "Yeah, she's definitely learning."