THE NEW WORLD: CHAPTER XI

The Scamper, Sleeper, and Wanderer

"Craig!" A disembodied voice eachoes through his sleep.

"CRAIG!" It repeats itself now even louder and sounds directly around him.

"BOY WAKE UP!" He wakes up right up front of his father's sweaty and redden face.

"Are you okay?" Randall shook the bewildered boy. He picks up his senses as he looked around the room picked clean other the strips of duct tapes that his father cut away. "Time to move" the only thing his father said as he is adrift in panic. He gets up and his father pulled him by the arm making sure that he stay right beside him. Craig witnesses the zombies, most of them awake now running away after them, most of them he recognized prostating earlier. He looks up to see that it is nighttime, he did not get the right amount of sleep and was immediately thrown into this nightmare. "Why?", "what is happening?","weren't we safe?" his thoughts upon witnessing everything around him, which was understandable. The room felt so safe, and nothing felt off. "Why is this happening right now?" more thoughts pour into his head and all he can do is run with his father. The truck starts to move further and the 2 made haste.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING DAD?" Craig asked in the middle of their sprint but was ignored. Corey stands right beside them frantically crying. He suddenly ran faster than them and closer to the truck as his instinct kicks in.

"RAND HOP ON!" Dylan screams on the back of the truck while reaching for them. Randall pulled Craig first as he is the lightest, then followed by Corey. He made his last sprint as the zombies right behind him are about to match his speed. He can hear the running of the dead right beside him as if they were all charging to their deaths. Randall jumped as the truck made a turn and was pulled up by the three.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?" Randall panicked and immediately turned to Corey for answers.

"Why were they moving? They were dead weren't they?" Randall started an argument as his face is riddled with confusion, and Corey seems to not even say something and just allow the old man to berate him.

"Why were they running?" Dylan asked calmly.

"Isn't Rigor mortis supposed to slow them down?" Randall explained.

"Its like that, in the morning, or at the least when the sun is out they hide from the sun" Corey corrected Randall, but he refutted it, "What about the girl earlier?". It seems Corey immediately had no explanation but he proposed a theory.

"What if they can smell us?" He said, something similar to a concept that Randall told Tobias.

"They can, or to a certain degree they can"

"Okay, let me explain the sun thing... they stay in cold and dark places since viruses naturally thrive in those environment... unless I believe they are drawn by something" Corey explained as his voice trembled.

"Which is scent?" Randall added to the exposition, and some sense was put into it.

"I think so, but their sense of smell aren't the best, their corpses at the least"

"Is that how you survive?" Dylan jumps in the discussion, "I believe so" Corey confidently replies.

"I hid, and those things appear to be asleep" Corey said. It added more fear already into the looming threat of every zombie, now you cannot tell whether they are put down properly or asleep. Every moment from now on they must have the strictest safety measures in order to avoid even being detected.

"So, if in the morning, or when the sun's out they sleep, and in the evening?" Dylan asked.

"They run like they did now" Corey replied, "They move, walk, run, I have identifiers for them" He said and the 3 bolted their vision towards them.

"And you only say that now?" Craig said.

"Sorry, it was a theory at best but now, I think its proven"

"Go on" Randall said and so he explained.

According to Corey, upon his arrival in the town it was daybreak, empty, no one was there to greet him not even the dead; similar to how Randall and his family came upon the town. There were only drops of bloods and the different deceased rotting bodies of the infected left by the military. As he kept exploring the oddly placed bodies were there. Until the group who called themselves as Aptissimum appeared and performed what they did within the nights he was there; he would often evade them by hiding in different houses that they locked up; which were filled with the terrifying display of corpses that they have all seen. During those nights he can hear the corpses 'wake up' and devour someone as part of their ritual. Then they would be locked up in the house as they believed they are still alive but stronger than a person; the perfect version as he understood them.

All these rituals and they preached and praised the dead as the sign of the coming of the messiah or they are gods themselves. Then the group went through a final sweep of each houses and made several stashes for their 'army' and left in small amounts the boxes and scattered around the town. As they all preached and had sermons in the morning, in the night the dead that they hid broke out of their houses and started to attack them but they were defeated and easily overpowered by the group. They spared one of them as he seemed to be himself. He bit one of their own but only a fever came and they did not turn as the virus was too little and weak within their body. The 2 placed them in one of the houses, where Corey was hiding and the other in the funeral home.

The other members were then forced to drink the blood of the infected and each of them were tied to one another to be; connected. They all turn slowly and the end their bodies decayed in the sun. They started to prostate and pray whatever overzealous prayers they had. When the moon rose so did they with it, they were still being infected but in a slower rate. That night the man who was first infected and was sacrificed awoke and started to scream as parts of his legs were missing. He was alive and they started to gnaw on his flesh. The members outside watched for hours outside of the house and celebrated. But Corey had to stay inside and watch all of these unfold and disturb his mind. The sun came and they all fall down on the ground head first as heavy chaines were put on their heads to avoid biting those who weren't infected.

The church cemetary was next. They took down the figure of Christ and instead put one of their own onto it as he resembled the wooden figure. They dragged the bodies there and cut their joints so that they cannot move, and left their all of them prostrating then they abandoned them. For the past 2 days and 1 night, Corey saw the phenomenon and studied it instead with what little composure he had.

"The one's that we face were not like those, they were standing and they hated the light" Randall said.

"No, not the light, yes light hurts their eyes but its more in regard with the sun that they truly hate" Corey replied confidently.

"Explain?" Dylan said, "The UV-A is what hurts them, light they would evade it" Corey said, "Similar to how it blinds us, like lights in general?" Dylan asked for clarification and Corey nodded in agreement. He was so sure of what he has studied and everyone believed him as he had no reason to lie to them.

"But how come they run" Corey asked. The 2 men agreed with the quesion as well.

"Because they did not die, the virus took them before rigor mortis could set in, they alive almost" Corey said ominously, "Actually they still are, their heart continues to beat, but as for those that died and turned rigor mortis will naturally set in and therefore they move slowly"

"You sound like you know them?" Dylan said.

""I first started thinking of them, when I was leaving New York, that's where I saw, some ran some walked"

"Are you sure, are you really sure about this?" Randall asked.

"Yes, both are easy to distinguish, those that have died appear to be thinner, and those that turned more looks like you and I"

The world seemed a lot harder now, they have to look out for different variants of these creatures. Everything seemed hopeless with this knowledge and in order to help them, Corey explained the identifiers that he appears to be so proudly of.

Sleepers, the dead that are neutral so long as they are not disturb or attracted to something; some of their 'triggers' are crowds, extremely loud noises, and if made contact with others. Though they remain asleep as long as they are not disturb. They are nocturnal, only hunting until the sun has fully sunk over the horizon, whether they can run or walk does not matter as both types can be sleepers.

Wanderers, the dead that turned as a result of a death. Rigor mortis will naturally kick in and therefore limiting or slowing their movement. They are usually seen walking around. Tasks like getting up or and reaching is slow when it comes to these variant.

The Scampers, the dead that turned as a result of the virus taking over and fully infecting them. Unlike wanderers they are quick and can run, they can also sprint, usually meaning that they will tackle you down. They have better senses compared to Wanderers.

They use smell to distinguish themselves from one another, and is highly dependent on it rather than hearing. Hearing does attract them, but wether they'll attack or not depends on the smell of their pray. They are sensitive to light, especially their eyes mainly due to UV-A lightwaves.

The zombies in general have weak eyesight caused by their psuedo-death and will attack something that has caught their attention. They have an acute sense of smell and can only differentiate zombies from other living organisms by getting close to it. Their pungent smell will usually take over unless their are up close with their prey. They have moderate hearing and are attracted to sounds. When they cannot smell or hear, they will use their hands to reach out for anything that appears to be 'flesh-like'.

"Why didn't you tell this earlier?" Dylan asked.

"I don't know as well, I really don't" Corey replied in the verge of tears, clearly regretting withholding that information.

"We should just throw you out then" Dylan said. The 3 went into a rift of panic and Corey can only sit there frozen, this is the consequence of his action.

"Dad we need him" Craig spoke out of his place and stared directly into his Uncle's eyes who has realized and regretted his brash reaction. "We can tell this Tobias if we meet him again" Craig's hopeful plea. As Randall looks at his son he felt calm as he is. In a way, Corey seems to have no more purpose for them other than being a dead weight, the information that he gave was pretty much the only thing that he had. He had no purpose in the men's eyes.

"Well, I guess your staying with us" Randall said.

"Thank you so much" Corey replied without the mumbling mouth that he usually had when he was filled with fear.

"But, if something like this were to happen again, you know what will happen"

"Yes, I really do"

Randall wishes to be a better man as his son is still in an impressionable moment in his life. His son looks up to him, an example on how he should live his life.

"You're with us now, you will help us, and we will see this shit through okay?"

"One hundo" Corey said and offered his hand. "Hundo?" Randall asked. "Hundred percent" The 2 shook their hands and settled down. They call picked up their bearings and as they are nearing the unincorporated community of Deepwater. It stands on the other end of the Delaware memorial bridge, and like most places that they have travelled to so far is abandoned. But with the new information that they received from Corey, the community might be awake.