Whispers on an Undying World

Help Me

Micha was leaning back in her chair; they had lost contact to the school not long after that. Matt worked for twenty minutes to regain the connection, in the mean time they had to find out what they meant by the whispers.

“Has anyone been able to find out which wall they were talking about?”

Richelle was the first to hold up her hand, her triple band bracelet chimed with the movement. “There are no available cameras in the section of the school. It appears to have been damaged in the last forty-eight hours. I have video of that.”

Thomas and Micha rolled up to her, looking over her shoulder and at her computer monitor. On the top left of her screen she had a little anime character sticker of Naruto. “Play it.”

She clicked on play and sat back. There was no audio and the screen was dark from night time. For the first two minutes there was nothing but a few random movements, then there was a body walking sporadically. At first it wandered around a table, occasionally walking into it, then it jerked its head up and appeared to be looking directly at the camera. Its eyes flashed and it ran and jumped at the tree in front of the camera.

It fought for a few minutes but it made its way up the tree. Right before it jumped at the camera, breaking it, the infected woman screamed followed up with lip movements that made it look like it was talking. Then crash! The video feed stopped.

“Do you have software that can translate lip reading?” Micha looked closer at the last shot of the screen. The woman looked insane; no part of her face truly looked human.

Richelle nodded, now she looked hesitant. “I already ran it.”

Looking down at her, Micha watched every move that she made. “What did she say?”

Richelle hesitated again.

“Richelle, why are you hesitating?”

“If the translation is correct it could suggest intelligence.” She looked at the screen and pulled up a single sentence. “Stop watching us.”

For a moment Micha was stunned, a chill ran down her spine before leaving behind the feeling of dread. “Lantern to Castle.”

One of the twins answered. “What’s happening Cap?”

Sighing Micha spoke. “We have a problem.”

“Lay it on me.”

Micha explained what she saw and what was said. He jumped to the same conclusion that she did but it wasn’t something that either one of them could really say. It was absurdly clear that the infected were possibly retaining who they are but are being pushed to violence by the virus. If that were true then ever single infected that has been hunted down and killed could have been brought back. They were all murderers.

“It’s going to be ok. We will figure it out.” He paused on the other end of the line. “Micha, we need to focus on what we can do. We’ll all need to find humanity when this is over.”

Micha walked around a corner before answering. “How am I going to face one of them if I know that the person that once existed might be trapped right below the surface?”

“I don’t know. But you have to get to those kids.”

Sighing, Micha put her forehead against the plaster wall. “I know.”

“When it comes down to it, you’ll know what to do.”

Thomas poked his head around the corner. “They’re back online.”

She nodded. “I have to go. Lantern out.”

Micha walked up to the desk, trying not let her thoughts reflect on her face. Sitting down, Micha turned the microphone on. “Hello again. I’m sorry about the disconnect, service has been so flaky. You must be Kaley?”

A teenaged girl was the one sitting on the table with the phone to her ear. Even from their view she was in rough shape. “Yes.”

“It’s nice to meet you Kaley. My name is Micha, my companion’s name is Thomas. We would like to ask you a few questions about what happened a few days ago. May we do that?”

“Yes.” Just on appearances she looked like she was a happy popular girl and yet right now she looked like a shell.

“What do you feel like right now? Anything different than before?”

“Nauseous and tired.” Her voice was low.

“Have you been sleeping?”

“Not really.”

Micha paused; it was becoming very clear that she was going to only give minimal answers. “What was the last thing you ate?”

She didn’t answer for a few seconds then they could hear her asking one of the teachers what was the last thing she ate. She turned back to the phone. “I had a can of pineapples yesterday.”

“Did you eat the whole can?”

“I don’t remember.”

Micha looked at Thomas for a moment then turned back to the phone. “Kaley may I talk to Temperance for a moment?”

They heard some rustling for a moment then a confused voice, “Hello?”

“Temperance, how do you think Kaley is doing?”

“She looks a little out of it, I’m not surprised because she was up most the night from nightmares.”

Behind Micha, Sean was typing down everything they said. He was trying to make a profile so they could compare it to any others that they found that survived an infection. “How is her food intake and water intake?”

Temperance put a hand on Kaley’s shoulder then took the phone just outside the door. “She’s barely eaten this whole time, almost no water too. The only thing she’s been able to hold down in the taco meat on the first day.” She paused for a moment, it was very clear to them that she was hesitant to say what she was wanting to say. “We noticed that at night she started to lock herself in the pantry, and.. and she whispers at night when the others are sleeping. I was responsible for last night.”

“Did you hear what she was saying?”

“Yes.” Her tone sounded confused and concerned.

“What was she saying?”

“Don’t eat them.”

Thomas was holding his nose, that wasn’t what he needed to hear. He spoke now. “Has she been aggressive to any of you?”

“Not at all. It’s more like she has shut down. The only one she is really talking to is her little sister.”

Micha spoke again. “Thank you, may we talk to Kaley again?”

In response she went back in the room and handed the phone to the young lady again. “Hi Kaley. We are going to need you to tell us what happened that first day now. Every detail you can remember.”

Her voice was quiet over the phone, and she kept sniffling like she had a cold. “We skipped school, it was finals but we already turned our take home tests so we thought it was ok.” Kaley breathed. “We were at Starbucks then this guy runs right through the glass, like right through. He’s covered in blood and screaming from the ground. Some lady tried to help him, you know stop the bleeding then he bites her. She’s screaming and some others try and help but they get attacked by some people that ran from outside.” Her voice started out quiet but soon she was silently crying. Kaley spoke slowly, almost struggling to find the words.

“It’s ok. Take it slow.”

“There was so much screaming.” Her voice shuttered but continued with some encouragement. “Sammy and Sarah dragged me outside and we ran for Sarah’s house because it was closest but it was on fire. A car came out of nowhere and hit Sammy, she was dead by the time we got to her. The driver was twitching on the ground; he went through the windshield when he hit a tree. When we realized Sammy was dead we tried to run for my house but that guy jumped up and attacked Sarah, it was so fast that there was nothing I could do. But the guy jumped away from her after biting her, I was able to drag her down an alley while he was screaming.”

It took a few more minutes of calming to get her to talk again, this time her voice was thick from crying. “So I dragged Sarah down the alley, we were able to hide there for a little but then she went unconscious. I was freaking out trying to wake her up and when she did she bit my wrist. I… I had to use a tire bar to get her away from me. She, oh god I can’t Mrs. Ramirez, can I just go to the kids.”

“Not yet, they have to know what happened.”

After some more sobbing she spoke again. “I killed her then wrapped my arm up. When I got back to the street there wasn’t anyone on the road so I started to run and try to make it to my house. That’s when I saw some grade school kids hiding in a truck. They were too scared to leave; it took forever to convince them to get out. This is their school; it was closer than my house so I went with them and Lilly goes here. After that I locked myself in one of the classrooms just in case I was infectious. Besides a high fever for two days, nothing happened. My arm is really sore but after cleaning it, I don’t think it got infected.”

Sean turned the mute on and looked at them. “It’s possible that she is immune, we need a sample of her blood to be sure. She’s the only one we’ve found that had been bitten but is still sane.”

Looking at Thomas, she hoped he came to the same conclusion. “Do you think we can make her a top priority on tomorrow’s trip?”

“She’s top priority now.” Picking up a phone, he started to walk away. “We’ll find out tomorrow if she can travel.”

When Thomas walked away Micha turned back to the phone. “Kaley, I’m going to go now but can you do me a huge favor?”

“Ok.” Her voice was still thick.

“I need you to stay calm, but if you can find a note book to write down everything you are feeling. Every detail, anything that stands out or is different than before. The more you tell us the better we can find the similarities.”

“Am I going to die Micha?”

Micha hesitated, but picked up the phone so it was just them. “Kaley, I don’t know what is going to happen. We are going to be with you tomorrow morning but that doesn’t mean we know what will happen. You are the first of your kind.”

“I don’t want to kill my sister. I’m the only one she has left.”

“Keep doing what you’re doing. Just focus on not hurting anyone.”

“I don’t know if I can keep doing that. I’m just so tired.”

“Do you want to hurt them?”

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds. “I don’t want to hurt them, but sometimes when I’m looking at the teachers I just feel so much rage. It makes me want to bash their heads in while they sleep. But.. but I don’t want to hurt them.” She started to cry again. “I don’t know why I feel like that.”

“Honestly Kaley, I don’t either. But we have the smartest people here. They will run tests on you, every test that we have so we can figure out why you are different. Maybe we can stop the thoughts too.”

She was a little calmer on that side, her cries were less. “Please hurry.”