The Touch of Infection

Chapter 42: Other humans

So all children from the alaois here were no older than two years old. In the spam that they'd destroyed humanity, they had kids, made families, and raised them. In all that time they'd murdered human children, set a plague in the cities killing everyone in them. And creating the air toxic for anyone going in.

Carisa looked at the child in her arms in pity, while she'd been surviving two years in a zombie apocalypse... he had been surviving to live in a world without the joy of childhood. He'd as well been born human, having nothing but a weight on his back of becoming a commander. As much as she'd want to feel hatred for him... He's just a kid, and not at fault.

Had his own father even held him before or was he cold to him just like everyone else. He didn't seem that annoyed about just letting her take him, or was this all part of the test? Did he just not know how to react?

"Carisa," Bavyn whispered having learned her name just a few minutes ago while she tried to get him to talk.

She smiled and nodded, "That's me."

They'd walked back to their room and Carisa sat on the floor with the kid, having grabbed things along the way. Something that resembled paper and pencils, letting the kid play with it as a normal human child would. He'd drawn sticks and figures across the pages, looking up at her as if to see he was doing it right.

Carisa would smile and draw squiggly lines forming a flower. He'd stare at what she did and draw around it, looking up when Marnik walked near them.

"You've been sitting on the floor all day Carisa, let's do something different. We can take him on a walk, he can meet H. Just let's get out of this room." Marnik complained and laid on the seat.

"We can do that later, he's having fun." She told him and continued with Bavyn.

"Well, I'm going out." The announcer and opened the door, "The moment to leave is now... I won't be back in a long time if you don't come with me now..." he began closing the door, "Last warning."

Carisa waved at him, "Bye." She sang and watched him close the door with a huff.

It was like a weight had been lifted off Bavyn, he sat up and continued drawing, even laughing and talking to her the words she couldn't understand. It was a good thing Marnik had left her a dictionary and more so that he'd left. Bavyn seemed all the calmer without him there.

Looking for the words the kid spoke and determining he said something along the lines of, "I like this."

Carisa searched the words she needed in the book and talked back to him, "I'm glad you like it. Can you tell me about your dad?"

Bavyn went quiet and whispered something she barely understood part of, "He's quiet... school."

She cursed the language barrier. This was Marnik all over again but smaller and cuter. He'd lean against her and giggle, "I like this." He'd been saying that a lot and every time he did it made her heartache.

She ruffled his hair and continue playing with him. The papers got filled with drawings and now she brought some other pencils out. Taking the small drawing she'd previously made of a flower and adding color. Handing him the pencils he'd start coloring everything, a smile on his face going from ear to ear nearly.

The door opened up without either of them noticing, "I see you did take the kid."

Looking up Fallyn stood there with her arms crossed, looking down at the two, Bavyn became quiet again and moved his papers to sit behind Carisa.

"Yeah, he's so adorable." She said and passed the pencils to him.

Fallyn sat on the floor with them, "You know Vasin is pissed off. Saying, oh who does this human girl think she is." She laughed and continued, "You should have seen his face..."

Carisa laughed a little but was too worried now to do so, "Um... I'm happy it causes you joy. But what will happen to me?"

"Nothing, he'll have to learn to deal with you. No one has managed to get close to his kid, much less get the child out of his room... well aside from classes that are, but even then. I think your human looks might have helped him open up," She paused, seeing the kid look at her and hide again, "Because you look different, he's always been curious... like any kid his age. But you don't speak with authority or frown all the time, maybe you humans can teach us a few things about communication."

Carisa clicked her tongue, "Some of us may be... maybe before all this apocalypse happened. But now... people have changed. Their all crazy out there, it's kill or be killed. That's why I was alone after I left the people I was with... they were family. But things were going south, it wasn't working, food was running short, people were fighting, all it brought was zombie attention towards us. So I left, I took risky paths and didn't look for human interaction." she pushed her hair back, "Funny to think I actually caught the attention of an alaois instead."

She listened to her until she stopped, Fallyn saw how Carisa's emotions were mixed up, "Well there must be a few more like you around. You seem stable, there are probably more out there like you.

Bavyn grabbed Carisa's hand and watched Fallyn intently. All eyes on him he hid behind her from the attention he drew.

"How come he's small? I expected him to be bigger." Carisa asked, after all, what Marnik told her and the size of the kid didn't make sense.

"He's just growing slower. It happens to some kids, but it's all fine. It'll just take him longer to reach his full height." Fallyn explained and looked at the kid to get a good idea of how small he was, "He's got the height of a one-year-old or so, he's not that far behind at least."

Fallyn stood up and paced in the room, she was thinking of something else, what if there really was more humans out there like Carisa? She wouldn't mind bringing them in... but Vasin was the issue. He'd deny the idea the mere second it was proposed. And for this to work they both had to agree.

"Carisa?" She got her attention and continued, "Did you ever perhaps hear of big groups of humans? Maybe a town that's been surviving all along."

Carisa hummed and collected her thoughts a moment, "There where a few, but finding them could be an issue. They make sure to hide in places that are even difficult to get to on foot. Some take a high advantage point while others took a much-hidden approach and use caves."

Fallyn waved her hand, "But there are towns? Forget about locating them for now."

"Yes, there should be newly made up towns." Carisa raised a brow looking at Fallyn.

With that Fallyn's plans got in motion, "I'll talk to you later. If you need anything just call me, also, when you take Bavyn to his dad use him as a shield." She walked out of the room and called up her teams getting everything set.

Carisa was suspicious but her attention was driven to Bavyn, brushing his hair, "I'll never use you as a shield."