The Corrupted Soul

Chapter 7

Clementine looked up from here notebook to stare at me, "I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me. My instincts took complete control. I was conscious, but it was as if I had no control of my own body. I knew I wasn't in real danger, I knew I could fight if I needed to, but my instincts just detested that guy the moment I caught his scent. Last I checked, our friend here doesn't have that effect on any of us."

We both looked through the one way mirror beside us into the adjoining room, to see the Crawler in question pacing in circles. It truly had a Feral mind, as boredom hardly effected it. In fact, nothing much effected it but hunger and anger. This was, at first, nearly as confusing as their own existence, until we realized why we had found it so hungry; it had been shot through the head several times, and had severe brain damage. Much regenerated once it had been fed, but some of the grievous wound was unfixable, even for Crawler standards. The only reason we hadn't noticed sooner was the lack of blood, as if the Crawler had bled out before it was shot, though it had no other visible wounds.

At first, I had felt uneasy around it, and it was me alone who felt that way. We chalked it up to having met Crawlers in the past, and seeing one so different, as the others had only ever seen me at that point, thus their instincts wouldn't see too much of a problem.

"Is it possible you are effected by these Ferals for some reason?"

I shook my head, "I doubt it is that general. What I felt when we met this guy was more unease and mild discomfort, last night was paralyzing terror and a complete fight or flight response."

Clem jotted something down in her notes yet again, "Which is even stranger when you take into account the fact that you have had a fight response in nearly every situation, except ones you knew you had no chance in."

"I guess my instincts don't have much faith in me, you'd think they'd know how many Crawlers I've taken down."

Clem paused for a moment, and slowly looked up from her notes, she spoke in a whisper, as if unaware she was speaking aloud, "Taken down. For Maria and...Harris."

I side eyed the woman, confused, "Uh...you okay there?"

She shook her head quickly and looked at me, "Is it possible that Feral was, in fact, Sane?"

I jolted in faint surprise, bewildered as to how she could have come to that bizarre conclusion, "Uh, I seriously doubt that. The only Sane Crawlers exist because I have this weird mutation, remember? The only other one that existed before the battle of '16 was Harris, and he obviously couldn't have infected that guy now."

"But what if he infected someone before, and then that person infected someone, and so on until now? As some sort of...you could say lineage?"

I was genuinely curious, "Why do you think they would do that?"

Clem sat down in the chair behind her and interlocked her fingers together, half covering her mouth as her elbows rested on the table, thinking, "Perhaps they wanted to keep Sane Crawlers a thing. I'm seeing it as, maybe when you died, Harris took on the role you had; somewhat of a peace keeper among Crawlers and humans.

"Maybe, once he started getting older, possibly unable or unwilling to continue, he chose someone to infect, make a new Sane Crawler, so they could take on the job? After all, having someone with a Crawler's physical body, but with a human's mentality is an invaluable tool.

"Say a gang of raiders attacked a stronghold or safe zone. This Sane Crawler could attempt to persuade the raiders to leave, and upon refusal, could drive them out fairly easily. Or with a pack of Crawlers attempting to attack the humans."

I blinked slowly, absorbing her explaination. I agreed with some parts.

The practicality of a Sane Crawler was not a new topic to discuss, in fact, it was quite a common one among humans now. Many agreed that if a war ever broke out for some reason, many lives could be saved if Crawlers were used as primary fighters.

Maria and Harris would likely see this as well. Neither were very likely to miss such a big detail. The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed that this would be a route they would take going forward, but there were still several elephants in this room.

"If that were the case, wouldn't Maria have written about it at some point? She kept log of everything in that journal, this would be no different. In fact, it sounds like a rather big detail she supposedly missed or hid. Either way, that guy in the park didn't seem too Sane to me, if he was, I assume he wouldn't immediately attack me, he would probably help me out of the pond too. Plus, where did this obvious Feral come from if the only Crawlers around were Sane?"

"It is possible they wanted to keep the Sanity secret. Lawless humans already used Crawlers as weapons, they would gladly kidnap a Sane Crawler to take their blood to infect someone to be a slave."

I grimaced, knowing she was correct. In the apocalypse, many large groups of people would capture a Crawler, and heavily wound it before starving it. The Crawler would lash out at almost anything just to attempt to eat as they tried to regenerate, but any attempts to attack a group member would be met with torture via sunlight or fire, in both cases irreparably damaging their eyes. The Crawler would eventually stop trying to attack the group members in most cases, and would instead go after literally anything else that moved. This lead to the deaths of hundreds of people in safe zone raids, even strongholds if multiple Crawlers were 'trained'.

I hated seeing Ferals put in these situations, I couldn't even begin to comprehend what torture would be put upon a Sane in the same scenario.

Clementine sighed and held her temple, "But you are correct. The Feral in the park was not starving, as you noted by his behavior. If he was Sane, he would not have attacked you, especially once it was so clear you were Sane as well. The multiple Crawlers including this Feral mean it cannot be some sort of chain..."

I narrowed my eyes slightly, "How long have you been in the lab?"

She looked up from her lap at me, confused, "Pardon me?"

"Your house has a very strong feline scent. You own three cats after all. You always smell like them, sometimes more subtly than others but it is always there."

I lowered my voice to a near whisper, "You've been in the lab so long you don't have any feline scent clinging to you. Have you been sleeping here?"

She stared at me for a solid thirty seconds before responding slowly, "This is a very important case. I can't just leave and possibly miss something. I, will admit I have been sleeping in my office or car. I have spent the rest of the time in this building."

She stared a bit as she noticed how concerned I looked. She knew I wasn't fond of her company, and we were hardly acquaintances, so I barely showed interest in her life in any way. The fact I had even noticed this was odd enough for her. My concern was not exaggerated or faked, "Clem. I know you want to figure this out, and I know it is important."

"That's why I can't just lea-"

I cut her off, "That is why I can't allow you to focus on nothing but your work. Remember, I was human, in high school no less. You went to school for over twice as long as I ever did, you should know this."

After a long pause, a heavy sigh broke from her mouth, "You're right, you're right. Can't believe I needed a sixteen-year-old who eats birds to tell me that."

I grinned at her jab, "Don't tell Julie, she will never let you live it down. Besides, I noticed you were a bit off yesterday, today it was just a bit more clear."

She tilted her head, "What gave it away yesterday?"

I raised an eyebrow somewhat, "You called Felix 'Mr.Kelly'."

A look of faint horror crossed her face before she facepalmed with a groan, "His last name is Kershaw."

Felix no doubt noticed, but the man hadn't bothered to say anything. She quickly looked at me, sudden determination on her face, "I will find you a new brain teaser if you keep this quiet."

"Deal."