Killers

Chapter 4

The next day, Stuart and I were called by Chief Commander Joy to join a seminar. Apparently, we would be taught certain things that we were unaware of after the whole Plague shebang. To be honest, I wasn't fond of the idea of going to the seminar with Stuart. I've been here for three days and I haven't heard him breathe a word. When I woke up, I saw Rox on the floor with Chuck, playing a card game. It seemed like Chuck was winning but I knew Rox was taking it easy on him. Her reflexes were too quick to lose in a game of Speed.

"Speed!" Chuck announced as he slammed his hand on the deck with less cards. Rox threw the cards she had in her hands in defeat. She had that beautiful smile on her face again and I instantly forgave her for being such a pain in the gluteus maximus yesterday. She looked up and saw me staring at her. Her smile was still intact when she said "good morning. I must say Dexter, that bed hair looks quite sexy on you." I knew she was joking but I still couldn't control the blush that rose up to my cheeks at the word 'sexy'. As you can probably tell by now, I'm not much of a ladies man.

I heaved myself out of bed to see Stuart still fast asleep. The white clock on the wall above the bathroom door displayed the time 7:30 in the morning. I had half an hour to bathe. So, I grabbed my towel and before I closed the door, I could hear Rox giggling. She unfortunately still remembered the last time I took a shower.

After the shower, I walked out of the bathroom to be met with a pair of black eyes looking at me. Stuart had definitely been waiting for me. He motioned his head to the door and I nodded, following him. We walked silently toward the seminar that was held in the common room. I was shocked to see only a dozen of us, sitting by, waiting for the speaker to arrive. I looked around, analysing the people in the room. Stuart was busy biting his nails. Two blonde female twins were holding on to each other as if the other twin would disintegrate if they let go. A few boys, some of them were younger than Chuck, sat in a group, neither of them talking. Most of the people there with me were just catatonic. I mean, who wouldn't be after looking at the Things?

"Good morning" a resonating voice echoed around the room and I knew it was CC. Joy. He looked dapper as usual in his uniform and beret. He walked up to the podium and stood painfully straight. Again with the posture, I thought.

"Now, I know all of you cadets have questions to ask me, questions that have been bothering you since all this chaos ensued," oh, don't we ever "so today, I will be answering all of them as best as I can. But first, let me give you a heads-up with what's happening to our world" and he paused for a dramatic effect.

"The world is in danger" you don't say "and all these Creepers are out roaming the streets. You've seen them. I know you have. And they're ugly motherf-ugly" he decided not to swear because of all the young kids in the room. Like that would make a difference anymore. Oh here kid, have an SR-25 and go shoot those things that used to be someone's dad or mum but don't use nasty words like 'fuck'.

"These things are, believe it or not, human. They may not look like it now but they used to be. You guys heard of the Plague?" and some of the kids nod apathetically. "That Plague contains a rare virus that enters the body and eats our brain. People who suffer from this tend to bleed and suffer chronic headaches. They lose their memory and part of who they are. By the end of it, they won't even be able to speak a coherent sentence. That is because the part of the brain that contains our vocabulary and such has been completely eaten out. I'm sorry to the people who witnessed their loved ones die this tragic death" and he paused, maybe he knew someone that suffered from this disease. "But even after this is all over, the virus isn't done yet. It re-stimulates the brain, only activating the part of the brain that stimulates hunger. This causes them to feed on anything they see, including us because they don't know any better. The only way for us to stop them is to permanently deactivate their brains by destroying it. And while doing this, we must not get bitten. The virus is transferred through fluids such as their saliva and blood. And once you're bitten, it's in your system and we will have no choice but to terminate you" he says this as if we're cockroaches instead of actual people. "So, it's your job, sorry, our job to wipe them out completely. It's our job to rebuild civilization and make Earth safe again" he stopped and took a breath. "Any questions?"