“Come on pretty lady, we don’t bite.”
“Well we do, but for you we are willing to make an exception.”
“Well I for one, can’t wait till I can sink my teeth into that pretty neck of yours.”
“I think she will taste fantastic. Running and fear seems to make the meat far more delicious.”
“L-leave m-me a-alone.”
“She sounds much cute when she’s scared.”
I guess by my stuttering, they would have expected me to be cowering away in a filthy corner of this broken down house. Instead I am flicking through my notebook. I have managed to run away from base camp. Father did insist that I continue my research on humans, but he fails to deliver the specimens that I require. I was expecting most of the world to be gone and rummaging through rubbish bins but it was nothing like that at all. To be fair, I have been underground for a significant amount of time. Humans are a disgusting race but they pushed foward non the less. Despite their rotting ecosystem and their rotting neighbours, humans still ran their little towns and their little pathetic lives.
What I also didn’t expect was the others to be this scavenging. I guess a real human was rare to come by these days, but stages would eat other stages if they got the chance. Maybe I’m just fresh meat to them. They really don't care if I’m human or not. They are strong, I can give them that. I quickly jot that down, when I see the blockade on the door slightly move.
I could easily kill the lot of them. Even when I got assigned as head researcher and a scientist, dad did not give up on the training days. He keeps saying that I will rule one day but I doubt it. I really have no intention of ruling my clan. Despite the fact that everyone has believed that I am a trueborn, my skin didn’t darken like my parents.
My head shoots up when I can hear gunshots in the distance. There are a couple of sets of footsteps running around the house then nothing. I pocketed my notebook and pen and slowly made my way into the corner of the nearest room. Holding my breath, I hear the front door give way, as whatever pushed its way through my defences. I wait as the heavy footsteps move closer and closer towards me. The breathing of this stage is heavy and I couldn't actually pinpoint at what stage it is. I reach slowly for the small handgun I had attached to my thigh.
“Where are you? Come out here ya little bitch. I can’t wait until I sink my teeth into………”
Sliding out of my hiding place, I pull the trigger of the handgun. The bang echoes through the house and I watch the body fall to the floor, with a satisfying thump. I haven't been able to kill anything while I've been out. It feels good but I feel mad at the same time. I need live samples. Taking out my knife, I slice the stages arms, filing a small vial with its blood. I head out towards the sound of more gunshots. Guns click my way, when I step through the door and I see a face i knew was coming for me.
“Hello Don.”
The large man, with an eyepatch over his left eye, lowers his gun, giving me a hole riddled grin. I return the smile and fall into his warm hug. Despite me having a distaste for humans, there are a select few who help out cause. I can’t remember when I met Don, but it had to be at least thirty years ago. The word has aged him disgracefully. Don led me ott the truck where I saw Seer and a new face. I stop, putting out an arm to stop Don.
“Do you think that’s wise?”
I pointed my head to the new face and Don just smiled. We reach closer and I examine the new face. What shocks me is the attraction I have towards him. He is handsome for a human. But handsome or not, I don’t trust new faces. I narrow my eyes at the new face before giving my best smile towards Seer.
“Seer. You’ve aged.”
“I see you’re still a bitch. Nina ameet Hal, new recruit. Hal meet Nina, today’s pick up.”
I put my hand out to shake his but his eyes divert to the rip in my shirt, revealing my blue skin. I jerk my hand back, quickly wrap it up and hop into the truck. My skin is fair but compared to a human milky white skin, I am still so very blue. I have ways and paint to cover me up whenever I do manage to fight my way out of camp, but some days it wasn’t enough. I still scare the humans.
Now you are probably wondering what the hell is going on. So thirty of so years ago, when we were ambushed and rushed back into our caves, eventually my father revealed to me that the human gouvernement did in fact reveal everything about us. When our elders and council refused to give the human government live samples or even some of our people, they ran red with anger.
They thought they could use the samples of our dead kind but they were so wrong. At first on the surface, the first run on test subjects went fine and they were healing better than normal but then it all started to go down hill. The symptoms started off simple, throwing up blood, insomnia, and sore read eyes. Then they got worse, going into fits, then dying and coming back to life,. Stage One, were exactly like the brain ravenging zombies you saw in TV shows. The world was thrown into chaos as more and more people started to get infected.
The human government did try their best to try and contain the spread. So instead of using the money to help countries who hadn’t been strunck or even help the countries who still had normal survivors, they spent it all on researchers. As our kind started to branch out, the government started catching my people and using us as antibiotics to STage One.
I would like to say it got better but it didn’t. There hadn't seen to be an antidote for Stage One, it only evolved then into Stages Two to Seven. They got more and more human-like. They could make speech and live almost every day to day lives. But the smell gave them all away. They were still rotting away on the inside.
I have spent the last twenty years, trying to figure out what the hell the humans were exactly trying to do in the first place. I look out the window of the truck and notice the change of scenery. Gone is the desert wasteland and buildings have started to appear. We must have entered a human sanctuary. They are the fastest and safest ways to travel back to base camp.
“Are you hungry Nina?”
“I’ll eat when we get home.”
“But that’s a week away. Will you survive till then?”
“I should.”
“When was the last time you ate?”
“Yesterday. I didn’t go out unprepared. I packed food with me.”
“We have to fill up. Try and stay in the truck. I don’t want you to be making a scene.”
“Yes dad.”
I give Seer a smile before returning my attention back out the window. It didn’t take long for them to find me this time. Dad must have known I was going to escape one way or another. He definitely had them trailing me when I entered the wastelands. The truck stops and the boys step out. I tried to stay in the truck, I really did but I was wrong when I said we had entered a human sanctuary. I step out of the truck and Seer have a normal conversation with a stage. It was so normal that if I wasn’t studying them, I would have not known what he was. Seer saw me, shook his head and beckoned me over.
“Sully this is Nina, the general’s daughter.”
“Pleased to meet you ma’am. It’s so rare to meet a Trion out in the wild.”
“You’ve met my kind before?”
“There is a clan nearby. They have helped us restore our lives again.”
“What stage are you?”
“Nina. Sorry Sully. She lacks basic manners, since she is always boarded up.”
“Doesn’t bother me Seer. We are Stage Nine, if you must put a label on it.”
I am about to ask him another question, when gunshots ring through the air. I flinch but Sully doesn’t. He almost looks terrified for us. Looks like no matter what Stage you are at, some of you will always be the same as the humans.
“I believe your truck is full mister. Better pay and go.”
There are three large men standing behind Sully, all of them holding guns. This meant to be a sanctuary. I try to hide behind Seer, when I realise I had taken my headgear off in the car.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
ns 15.158.61.39da2
