Forget

Issac felt a chill run down his spine as he watched the interaction between Soren and Avery. It gave him a better picture of the relationship between the two and he did not envy Avery at all. He could only hope that he never became Soren's enemy if this was how he treated those he kept close.

"Now, I'm sure you'd rather head out right away, but I'm afraid that you'll have to wait until morning before you can go. I want to make certain that it is safe for you to be out and around humans."

"Ethan and Fry seem to be doing well."

Soren had turned his attention to Issac, "Ethan has never been left alone and Fry has been closely monitored since she came here. You'll start out fine, but without the proper diet and control, you will be no better than a mutated. I will spend the rest of the day making certain you understand your limits.

"Unless you're ok with losing all control and indiscriminately attacking innocent people to kill and eat. Then, yes, you can leave now."

"I'd rather avoid that outcome as much as possible."

This was a Soren that Avery knew how to handle.

"Good. Avery, meet with Jordan at the cooler. The two of you will be taking care of dinner."

"Yes, sir."

Avery's voice was hesitant, but nonetheless, he left to do as ordered.

*******

After they had scrubbed the blood and brain matter off the walls and floor of the cages the team of four had some downtime. The dead body had been placed in a bag and was sitting by the door.

"Man, I'm hungry. How long do you think they'll make us wait before we can eat?"

Moss complained while dividing his attention between the caged mutated and the door. He was more afraid of Ethan or Soren coming than he was of the mutated. Actually, he was completely afraid of Soren coming. They all were.

"What I want to know is what the hell happened earlier. That thing has been trying to get at us, but it didn't even give a shit about Wells."

Saunders shuddered as he remembered the experience of Ethan throwing him at the mutated to elicit a response. He had thought for sure that it was going to get a hold of him and rip off an arm, or worse.

Vaughan shook his head, "I don't know. They've fucked him up good, though. No, Soren has fucked him up. His personality doesn't seem like the sharing type."

Saunders snorted and leaned his head back, staring up at the ceiling. He knew that he had messed up with Avery. He had let his emotions get the better of him and pushed away a friend when they needed him.

"If we stay here much longer we won't be any better than Wells. We're not completely isolated because we have each other, but we are isolated from the rest of the world. Add on all of the psychological shit that he's throwing at us and we may find ourselves unable to break free."

Bates was the only one sitting down. He was also the only one of the team who had gone to college.

As the vice-captain leadership had fallen on Vaughan after Cruz's death. He felt woefully unprepared. Knowing what had happened to Cruz and the rest of their missing members had messed with all four, but especially Vaughan. He had grown up with Cruz, they had gone to boot camp together.

"I don't think we get a choice, Bates. There is no way we can overpower them, Saunders has had enough experience in that area. We're not even certain where we are or how to get out. As your leader, all I can do is try and boost morale. I'm just not certain if it's worth it."

Vaughan knew that their survival depended on their compliance. He had no illusions about Soren caring if they were alive or dead.

Ethan returned with the news that they could move. He sent Moss and Bates back to their room and locked them in. It was Saunders and Vaughan who were tasked with carrying the dead body.

Vaughan looked at everything as they followed Ethan, memorizing the path they took to leave. He was surprised to find that they were underground. The first level they came up had a hole in the floor.

"Neat isn't it? The boss has this whole place locked down. Takes a code to get that door open and it only locks from the outside. Boss doesn't even trust me with the code."

Ethan glanced down at the entry to the lower level before resuming his walk. Eventually, they made it outside. Saunders and Vaughan were both surprised to find that they were still at the house they had started at. Ethan led them to the side of the house where two shovels lay on the ground.

"Good news, you two get to dig a hole. It needs to be deep enough to put kindling and still hold the body."

They laid down the body and picked up the shovels.

"Why are we burning the body? I thought you guys, you know…" Vaughan had mustered the courage to ask, but he still could not bring himself to talk about them eating people.

"He's not human, he's one of us. Poor bastard lost his mind. He's getting burned because we're not cannibals, we don't eat our own. Boss also doesn't want to chance his body spreading the virus."

While they were digging they noticed that there were tree branches everywhere on the ground. It looked like a huge storm had hit. The ground was still wet from the storm and made it difficult for them to dig up.

"It looks like a big storm hit recently."

Vaughan spoke while they took a quick break. Ethan was standing near the body supervising their work.

"We got hit with the edges of a tornado. It doesn't look like the winds were strong enough to take out anything big. Boss said that it went through KC and the edge of Culton. Did quite a bit of damage."

Ethan turned to look at the driveway, lost in thought for a moment. "I think it's already bad out there, otherwise the suit wouldn't be here." Ethan turned back to look at Vaughan, "You're safe here so long as you don't piss off the boss. He's trying to make a safe place and save as many people as he can. It's easier for us to go out there, the mutated won't mess with us."

"Is… Is Avery one of you now?"

Ethan shook his head, "No, but I don't know what the boss did. He smells like the boss. I know I wouldn't want to be in his place. The boss can be friendly, but he had a mean streak on him that I don't even dare cross. It's best you forget about your friend. The only way that the boss will let him go is dead."

Ethan motioned for them to continue digging. Saunders had stayed quiet the whole time. He threw himself into digging. It was easier to lose himself in physical activity than to dwell on the loss of so many good friends.