The Altered.

Chapter XXXIX.

The following day, Miles, Lia, Eira and Aaron gathered in a circle.

Percy had planned to be there too, but he'd fallen asleep half an hour prior. He was looking significantly more well - colour was returning to his face and he was no longer shaking. He looked so deeply asleep that Miles wasn't sure he'd wake up any time in the next twenty-four hours. Around Percy's elbow was a tightly wrapped bandage so that even with his arm hanging limp, there was something preventing it from bending backwards in ghastly directions. Additionally, the tear in his 'skin' - which would have bled had the arm not been a prosthetic - would only tear more if it wasn't protected by something, exactly as any real cut would. Lia had suggested stitching the tear up, but the bandage hit two birds with one stone, so it had been the solution they'd all settled on.

Luca and Bri were both absent from the treehouse, and though Miles could guess that they were elsewhere talking about Luca's desire to stay here with her group.

"Are we just going to start without Luca, then?" Lia asked, glancing around the treehouse to check that he hadn't arrived in the last few minutes. The treehouse wasn't too large, but needing it to accommodate two groups was something everybody had gotten used to and had worked around. The other group was somewhat separate from Miles' group, who were gathered close to talk. It wasn't that they were excluding the other group for much reason, but they simply had no relevance to the conversation and therefore weren't needed.

"Yeah," Miles said. "We can tell him what we discussed when he comes back." Miles said that, but he knew there wouldn't be need to discuss their plans with Luca once the boy came back to the treehouse with Bri, so long as all went well with getting Bri to let him stay.

"Okay." Lia said, clapping her hands once as if to get everybody's attention. Everybody's attention was already on her, anyway.

There was something familiar about sitting in a circle with these three. Miles' mind strayed briefly back to the night when the notification had first come through, when they'd all gathered at the primary school to sit like this and discuss their plans like this, too.

Miles could have smiled at those memories if he wasn't distracted by the conversation at hand. Though that night couldn't have been much more than a week ago now, it felt like months had passed.

So much had happened since.

"Once we get back to the city," Aaron said from beside Miles, "where are we going to stay?" He sounded shy putting forward his concerns, as always. Miles found something quite endearing about Aaron's careful way of speech; gentle and considerate. Had Aaron been a flower, Miles was quite certain he'd be a very delicate one.

A very pretty one, too, but that wasn't associated to his way of speaking.

"That's what I was wondering, too," Eira said, sounding more confident to admit her worry than her brother but looking no more pleased about it. "Everywhere is dangerous. The Altered are like insects, now - they're everywhere and they're going to keep infiltrating every place where there's people. It's going to be incredibly hard to find some place where they haven't invaded yet. And some place where they won't."

"I've been thinking about that," Lia said, clasping her hands together and resting them on the floor in front of her very formally. "What about a library?"

The idea struck Miles at first as absurd, then as actually sensible. "Why do you say that?"

"Firstly, the Altered have nothing to gain from going into a place like that. Not that that'll stop them, of course, since they're not really thinking anymore, but once they've gone in once, they won't go back."

"They're like animals," Aaron said with a little shrug. Miles was startled by the comparison - both because it seemed a little harsh but also because it was accurate. "They don't really process things like that until they've gone and done it, and then they'll learn. Once a fox gets caught in a trap, it'll avoid traps for the rest of their life. It's the same thing, right? Once an Altered has gone into a place and realised there's nothing worthwhile in there, they won't go back." Aaron folded his legs when he finished speaking, and his knee brushed Miles' in the process. He didn't seem to notice.

"Exactly," agreed Lia with a grin. "You've got it. So, all we have to do is find a library that's already been entered. Back to your comparison about the fox, if a fox sees another fox get caught in a trap, it'll know that they're dangerous without needing to experience it itself, right? So if the Altered find a library that's already been raided by others, it's going to notice pretty quickly that it's not worth it. What's an Altered person going to do with books?"

Miles snorted. "What are we going to do with books?"

"Aha," said Lia, and gave him a wink. "I knew you'd say that. You're so negative. But I already have an answer! I thought the books could help us, actually. I know our primary concern is figuring out how we can stop this whole thing, but books are full of information. There are bound to be countless non-fiction books about the Alteration, and we can use that to our advantage."

As much as Miles didn't like to be told he was negative, he didn't really have an argument for it. Not to mention, Lia had a good point. "That makes sense."

Eira brushed her hair over her shoulder and absently twirled a lock around her fingers. "So, if we're staying in a library, where will we sleep?"

"Libraries always have comfortable places to sit, right?" Aaron said, a little desperately. "I'm sure that's way better than sleeping on the floor like we do here, anyway."

Lia pointed at him when he said that, a gesture that proved she liked his way of thinking. "And we'll have to stock up on as much food as we can... and try to get it local. I don't want to be going on a hike around the city to find a supermarket. Let's try and get a library as close to a grocery store as we can."

"We can't just pick and choose where the libraries and supermarkets will be," Miles stated bluntly, now starting to understand a little of why people always found him so pessimistic.

"We'll take what we can get," Lia said, leaning back against the wall with a resigned sigh.

"When will we leave?" Eira inquired.

Miles glanced at Percy, who was still out cold. "I reckon not tomorrow, but the day after. Give us a bit of time to rest and pack what we need into that backpack."

At the time they were speaking, it was early afternoon, but dark outside. Rain had been frequent over the last few days, and Miles could only hope it would slow for a little to give them a comfortable journey back to the city.

"Sounds good to me," Lia agreed, searching Eira and Aaron's faces for their concurrence too.

Aaron nodded, and Eira was quick to do the same.

Miles was glad it had been so easy to settle. He was sure there would be still a few more conversations they'd have to have as a group, but those best be saved for when Percy was awake and when they were nearer to leaving.

At that moment, a small boy pulled himself up through the trapdoor into the treehouse, and Miles quickly recognised Luca. There was a triumphant grin on Luca's face, which he cast immediately to Miles.

Luca was staying here, then, apparently.

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+1315 Words.