The Corrupted Soul

Chapter 14

Both men stared in shock at my words, but neither could react before my instincts took over, and I let them. They were furious about being cornered. They were enraged that this Crawler had disregarded my warning so fast. They were especially angry that he had the nerve to attack me in my own space.

I let forth a snarl of fury and lunged at the man. He yelled and tried to shove me backwards, but I had the advantage of being smaller and having more space to maneuver in the cramped truck. I did not intend to wound him, but I wanted him out. I latched onto his shoulders and throat to get my own back on the ground before planting my knee into his gut and shoving him back.

He growled at the pain, and rose to his feet. He seemed to be about to attack me before he was dragged out by his arm, courtesy of his companions.

I shook myself off, and gingerly rubbed my cheek with one hand while stretching my jaw. Thankfully he hadn't loosened any of my teeth. If he had, I would be skinning him alive with a blunt piece of wood by days end.

Those outside seemed quite distressed and frantic. Particularly the teen, "Did she just talk?! She, she would have to be Sane then, right?!"

"Shut your mouth, Sketch! She has to be but yelling is just going to get her angrier. Not that Victor helped much on that front."

"Hey, she attacked me! I retaliated!"

The woman snarled at him, "Bull. That was a warning strike - that she didn't even land might I add - and your response was to sucker punch her in the face? I'm not even worried about her scratch on Tank, because that seemed to be another warning strike that he just couldn't dodge in time."

Victor growled silently, "If she was Sane, where are her glasses? And what is she doing all the way out here?"

I hated that I couldn't see what was going on out there. I knew they hadn't strayed too far from the semi, but they were far enough their voices were slightly distorted. I sighed heavily, "You know, I can answer both those questions, dumbass."

The insult caused him to hiss, before it sounded like he got slapped. I couldn't help but grin to myself.

There was a bit of mumbling that I couldn't quite make out, before someone approached again. I narrowed my eyes slightly until I realized it was the teen. He had dirty blonde hair - both in color and in sanitation - that was cut choppily to the point I wondered if he did it himself with craft scissors. His eyes were mostly covered by his bangs, so clearly he wasn't good at it. Now that I could see him, he looked maybe just a bit older than me, if that. Though most of his face was covered by his glasses and part of his mouth was covered by the hood of the thick winter coat he was wearing.

He came in just far enough for him to sit down inside the semi, but didn't come any closer. I shifted uncomfortably once I realized he was staring at me. I actually got concerned that he had blacked out, because he was sitting motionless and staring directly at me. Creepy kid...

I snapped my fingers after another ten seconds of thousand yard staring. He jolted and shook his head hard before looking back at me, "I was waiting for you to do something!"

I side eyed the disturbingly energetic teen, "By staring into my soul in the creepiest way possible?"

"Yes! Because then you would have to be a Feral to not do something."

That's a fair point...

I said nothing, and just stretched my jaw a few more times. Victor must not have used his full strength, because there didn't seem to be any fractures, and a Crawler could easily break someone's jaw with a well-placed punch. Sketch seemed to notice and looked back out the door, "You're lucky you didn't hit her harder, Vic. She seems like the kind to hold a grudge."

I snorted at Victor's inaudible grumbling from outside. The woman came into view, but stayed outside the door. Her hair was a very light blonde, and came to just below her shoulders. She had several visible scars on her neck and currently had a heavily bandaged hand, with spots of blood seeping through the gauze around her fingers. She was also wearing a thick coat for winter, which just made me even more confused about Victor. Even I am uncomfortably cold with just this hoodie on, how the hell is he shirtless? And why?

"Okay, let's clear one thing up. You're clearly Sane, yet you aren't part of our pack. Did you come from the city?"

I paused, unsure how to answer. They really didn't know? This way I could at least ask how that was possible. I sighed, "Yes, I'm from the city. How do you not know that already? Your friend out there sure as hell knows me."

The woman tilted her head, "Tank? How would he know you?"

I growled, narrowing my eyes, "The guy chased me through a park in the middle of the night and got us both stuck in a frozen pond, and just yesterday he killed my dog!"

I heard Tank from outside, he sounded appalled, "What?! I've never seen you before today!"

"Bullshit!" My voice was little more than a snarl, though I wasn't speaking Crawler just yet. If these guys were willing to speak English, I would too.

Sketch looked between me and Tank, as he was closer to the door and could likely see him, whereas I couldn't. Sketch turned to the woman with a distressed look on his face, "Cap, he did run in from the city with that dog yesterday..."

She nodded slowly, and looked back to me, "I think I know what's going on here. Tank always had troubles with control, whenever a new Crawler comes before they're in the pack he can't help but growl at them. I think, when he saw you, his instincts took over completely. So he never even remembered seeing you."

I blinked in surprise, "That would explain why he acted so Feral before. I know some Crawlers would attack an outsider on sight, but usually that was within their territory. He seems to be the opposite. Now that I'm closer to his territory, he's calmer."

Cap nodded slowly in thought, "I'm guessing that's why you're out here, it's because of your dog? But then why don't you have any glasses?"

I spoke quietly, still not fully coping with the fact that Martian was gone, "While I was running my glasses fell off. I have no idea where other than it was miles away. I found this semi during sunrise and hid, as it was the only dark shelter for a long ways."

Cap paused for a second before digging through one of her pockets. She pulled out a slightly cracked pair of sunglasses, "I have another pair I keep on hand incase I loose my own, you should use them until we get back home."

I shifted backwards again, "Wait, what."

She passed the glasses to Sketch, who came a bit closer before putting them on the ground halfway between us both, and retreating to his initial spot. Cap smiled faintly, "Well we aren't just leaving you here, and you're not going out in this weather without glasses."

I stared. My instincts were screaming at me from the back of my mind not to trust these people. What reason did I have to? There was a Crawler with unstable instincts who could break my skull, another who seemed to have his head stuck up his own ass, a woman who seemed to switch between army sergeant and preschool teacher on a dime, and an overly peppy kid with disturbing interrogation tactics.

Yet, on the other hand, what was my other option? Stay in this truck until sundown, run back to the city and get pummeled by Olive, only to immediately have Clem question me for hours about what had happened? I doubted I would have the mental energy to deal with either of them.

But did I have the mental energy to deal with these people either?