Our Days Are Numbered

Chapter 7

The next morning couldn’t have come faster I had spent most of the night looking out through a window and watching Devin sleep, as soon as the sun hit the horizon I was out the door and knocking on door 40

“Come on, we need to go see Porta,” I said as a sleepy man looked out from behind the door, “get dressed and let's go!” I said louder as Granville made no move,

“Okay, okay, “ he said closing the door again. After a few minutes, he opened the door again. A sound coming from the room distracted me, I stood up on my toes to see a large grey cat laying on the bed stretched out and purring loudly, I looked at Grandville about to ask where the hell the cat from when he just shrugged.

“She came with the room apparently,” he said closing the door as he stepped outside. 

“Okay,” I  said slowly, “she’ll need food then? Maybe Mike might have some” I said more to myself than to Granville

“Mike?”

“Yeah we will go see him in a bit, we need to go talk to Porter first through, I think he will be happy to speak to you” we walked to the main building in silence, occasionally sneaking glances at each other.

“Here we are, hopefully, he shouldn’t have a class yet” again I seemed to be talking for the sake of my own sanity, I knocked on the door softly and waited for a reply, a series of shuffling and dragging chairs could be heard as.

“coming” came a bored-sounding voice, the door opened, a fat old man was standing in the doorway, digging out his glasses from his pocket “ah Lilith, and this must be Granville?”

“I brought him for a little talk?” I said knowing that it would put Porter in a good mood and one that might mean that I would be able to voice my option on the rising risk we were facing.

“Yes, yes come in,” he said waddling off to his chair behind his desk

Granvill’s POV

The old man seemed far too excited about a little chat, he gestured to one of the classroom tables which was situated in front of his own desk. Zoni went ahead and perched herself on a table crossing her legs and settled down

Before I could get to the seat the old man cleared his throat “how has your stay been thus far?” he asked as I sat down on a chair heavily. My thigh was slightly throbbing, my own doing though. The nurse did warn that it would hurt, but I couldn’t be in that bed any longer

“interesting, I’m learning a few things every second or so. Your camp is the best I’ve come across”

the old man raised a brow at that

“Have you been in a few camps?”

“Not by choice, the other camps don’t come near as close to this one organization, they usually have a body of water nearby as defense or they have marked out a border creating camp boundaries, most of these are however always overrun by herds coming through the area”

“Interesting and your last camp?”

“The men took over a police station, they were hoping to find guns and ammo but were sadly mistaken when they had discovered that the place had been raided of the things that they wanted. So they set up camp there. They collect the dead, beheading them and placing them around the area boundary, it keeps the dead from walking through the area. One of the men and I had an argument about keeping the full body of the dead for the same purpose but it seemed reckless to me and foolish. Needless to say, I was correct, the dead that was being kept broke free and started to attack the camp” the old man lifted a hand to stop me

“I’ve heard enough; I understand you are good with vehicles, if this is indeed true you will be put to work as soon as your leg is healed, we have a need for skills especially on the raid Jeeps” he folded his hands on the table in front of his chest

“I’d be more than happy to earn my keep,” I said narrowing my eyes at the fat man

“Brilliant that’s what I like to hear, now if that is all”

“Well actually no” Zoni said, making the old man stop mid-stand-up, he sat back down his face become hard to read, his once friendly persona was now gone.

“Zoni?” he said sternly, Z stood up this time, walking over his desk, and leaning her palms onto the wooden surface

“Supplies are running low, not only in the camp but in the raid areas, do you know what this means?”

“Well my dear”

Lilly’s POV

“Well my dear, it sounds like you need to scope out new raid grounds and fast”

“We are not the only camp in the area, we might not have bumped into any others but everything is disappearing faster than it should be, we may need to think about moving”

“NO!” Porter shouted and suddenly stood up. Once he realized what he did he cleared his voice

“No, leaving at this time is not an option”

“It should be!” I shouted slamming my hands down on the table, “The herds in the area are grouping up, their activity is more excessive, Dr. Leonard…”

“Dr. Leonard is a washed-up has-been, his word should not be taken seriously”

“They are mutating, who knows what they are capable of, you can’t think staying is the best interest in the whole camp”

“That’s enough,” Porter said raising his voice “as second in the command your duty is to the camp based on the needs of the camp, not your feelings,” he said leaning on the table and looking directly into my eyes as he spoke, a threat. I stood up straight and crossed my arms over my chest

“Fine, but this is not over,” I said starting to walk out of the room. Granville had been dead quiet throughout the argument, he walked quietly next to me eventually pulling me aside and making me look at him

“They are mutating? How?”

“I don’t know exactly but I know how to find out”

I started knocking on the door rapidly, going harder and harder until the door was flung open, I pushed my way in before Dr. Leonard could say anything, dragging Granville in after me

“Zoni this is” Dr. Leonard started

“You said that they are mutating. How?” I burst out before he could continue talking. Dr. Leonard cleared his throat before walking over to a metal shelf and taking something off of it. And placing it under a microscope. He wiggled his fingers in my direction, beckoning me over.

“Have a look,” he said, I bent down and looked into the scope

“What am I looking at?” I asked

“The virus essentially, I got this sample from Mr. Black, look what happens when you add healthy tissue to it” Dr. Leonard added something small and pink onto the slide, I leaned back over and watched as the unhealthy cells attacked the tissue, it was almost instant. I looked up at Dr. Leonard,

“They are turning faster?”

“Yes and no, what you saw there is a necrotic virus eating away at any healthy tissue, essentially the people turn before dying, their brains are slowly eaten away, its turning living people into, well a mindless walking meat eater. What the virus originally did was kill the victim and then reanimated the nervous system, this is just eating away the parts of the brain it no longer needs, it, I believe will cause some eaters to have some skills such as running and climbing. Reproduction if the need arises” Both Granville and I looked at Dr. Leonard with wide eyes

“of course” he continued “I could be wrong; we can’t know exactly