The rest of the night was far less eventful. Sam came across several groups of animals much smaller than those he’d already faced down. Each group was easily startled when he started shouting and laughing, melting into the night so they could search for more familiar fare.
The next day followed the same pattern, though the impact of the virus was becoming more pronounced. Sam found himself blurting nonsense in normal-speak more and more frequently.
He suspected it wasn’t nonsense, though. The virus found many ways to spread. Forcing him to converse with friends or strangers would be a good way to draw them closer, to let the virus spread to them. Out here it didn’t matter. There was nowhere it could spread to. That knowledge was both comforting and saddening. He would almost hav
