The Corrupted Soul

Chapter 4

I flicked the sides of the Rubix cube in my lap. Trying desperately to distract myself from where I was currently sitting, and having next to zero luck. Olive sat in the chair beside me, tapping her foot in irritation, and occasionally a Crawler leg would twitch, clearly not faring much better.

Us three Crawlers all agreed on one thing about the laboratory where most research on our infectious species took place; it was never nice to go back. Felix described it as a place where he felt like half employee, and half test subject. Personally, I was trapped in a building filled with my triggers.

It was amazing how the smallest, seemingly unimportant, things could trigger traumatic flashbacks. Being kidnapped and mutated almost beyond recognition surely counted as traumatic. I never wanted to remember what Olive's father did to me, but the deepest corners of my mind refused to forget. Even after two years I was still very easily put on edge simply from being near syringes, keypads, large amounts of paperwork, even insects were a trigger. I couldn't even look at a crane fly or dragonfly without remembering. It's those damn wings...

I handed the Rubix cube to Olive so she could shuffle it for me, having uniformed the colors for the third time this week. I really need to get a new puzzle.

Faint footsteps against polished linoleum slowly got louder as Clementine came to the room we were in. The scientist likely knew we were far from happy to come to the lab, so us coming ourselves and calling a meeting meant something bad had likely taken place, I could practically smell her trepidation before she even entered the room.

Clementine entered, she was wearing a pale grey buttoned up shirt instead of a lab coat, making it one of the dozen or so times I had seen her without the white coat, and making me think she had recently been in some sort of meeting. She looked at the two of us, Olive passing me the cube back. She tilted her head slightly, "I thought you said Felix would be here as well?"

My eyes remained fixated on the cube in my hands, "He will be. You know exactly why he's stalling."

With a sigh, she nodded, "Well, mind telling me what this was about in the meantime? I know neither of you came here for a chat."

I side eyed Olive, giving her the silent notion that she could make that choice, as she had all the details, and I struggled to talk to Clementine without aggravating my instincts. She rose from her chair and walked to Clementine, "It's about the Shadow Ferals. They have been sighted stealing cattle in the country mere feet from the Humans out there."

I chimed in before Clem could voice her concerns, "They are willing to go right up to them and take animals instead of the Human. On one hand, at least the humans are alright, on the other hand, it is only a matter of time before they do go after the humans instead."

There was a long, silent pause as Clem absorbed this information, she half covered her mouth with one hand, "That is bad news...Did the farmer get a good look at the Feral as it attacked?"

Olive shook her head, "No, he didn't. It was just a split second of shadow, and the bull was gone into the woods. It was around sunset too, not even the dead of night when Crawlers should hunt."

"Crawlers hunted whenever they found food, midnight or noon, didn't matter."

My use of the past tense was unnecessary, given the situation at hand.

Felix finally came around the corner. His Crawler legs were currently retracted, and his dark glasses remained on his face, but anyone would know he was a Crawler just from the way he moved, though he was the most human of the three of us. He was fairly tall, with short tan hair and a heavy Irish accent.

"Sorry for being fashionably late. This seemed important, but it was hard to run here with all the snow."

Clementine dismissed his worries, "Not a problem, Mr. Kelly. Though I am glad you made it. Apparently, the Ferals have begun stealing livestock in the country, did you hear of anything like this on your end?"

His eyes widened in shock and horror, promptly ignoring - or possibly completely missing - Clem's question, "What?! That far out? And why on earth would they not be hunting wild animals anymore?!"

"I believe it is because of the snow. You have all expressed that snow hides scents of various things very easily, and with nearly everything in hibernation, the Crawlers would be less likely to find their prey, thus a wide open field filled with cattle would be a prime target."

I growled silently in my own frustration, "But then why is this just starting now? There have been two other snowy winters between finding that one and now. Because we found that one, we know they have been around that whole time. My guess is they hunted all the game out of whatever forest they live in."

Clem shook her head, "Doubtful. We would have heard about it if an entire section of forest was suddenly deprived of all huntable wildlife."

Olive spoke slowly, and quietly, "Not if it was a section of the forest no one ever goes to...that would explain why we haven't found the Crawlers yet, wouldn't it?"

"I suppose that is possible..."

Walking to a small table, Clem pulled from a drawer a small stack of papers, and once she layed several of them out, she unfolded a large map of the area. I stood up and walked towards the table to get a better look.

This map showed the entire city and some of the surrounding farmlands and forests, even a small portion of the mountains to the west were visible. Clem examined several of the other papers scattered across the tabletop before taking a pen and quickly marking nearly a dozen locations with a small X. I looked at the papers myself, to realize these were all the various reports that had been sent in supposedly involving the Ferals.

Many of the papers were barely three paragraphs long, whereas others exceeded several pages that were stapled together at a corner. The reports ranged from strange sounds at night, to people claiming they saw a Crawler ahead of them on one of the many trails that crisscrossed Riverview park. That's when it clicked for me, every encounter that had involved someone seeing a Crawler, occurred in or near Riverview.

The conclusion no doubt became clear to the others around me as well, as Felix piped up, "Seems we have a bit of a lead, huh?"