It have been quite some months after the release and outbreak of what survivors call, the zombie virus or RDU as resurrection of the dead to the undead.
A group of survivors of 8 adults and a newborn for coming soon. Some of them seemed more tied than others, but as they walked, they finally got some luck as they spotted a prison.
With caution, the group walked slowly towards the prison, and then Jeremy noticed something in the prison yard.
In the prison yard was someone kneeling down and using a hammer to hit a woodpiece to the ground carelessly. The person looked around to a small crop field with wood covering around.
The group moved closer, until they got close enough to see who that someone was, was not just wearing a riot police suit and protection along other reinforced clothes and the riot shield being on their back, but their face was uncovered and was broken with no lips and along a rotten face. Was an infected.
They hesitated, the group obviously scared and worried, while Jeremy had it already aimed with his bow.
Marcus: "Jem, wait a second before you call the attention and we get surrounded. Do you think an infected would really be doing something like that?"
Jeremy: "Mark, I don't know, but I don't care. You should know better how we are. Look how we are, and remember for what we went until now. Infected or not, we need this place and whatever it has."
Jeremy, then shot with precision, the bow went through the fence, but the infected noticed and moved to their left. As they dodged, they observed the arrow, before turning and look around.
Jeremy remained hiding along the group, while Marcus gave a frustrated and disappointed stare at Jeremy.
After a short moment, nothing happened, so they checked and the infected was continuing to build something that seemed to be connected to the wood around the small crop field.
Marcus hesitated, but then after sighing, he got up and walked closer to the fence. The group hesitated, some tried to whisper to call him and convince him to go back, but Marcus continued walking closer.
Marcus: "Excuse me?"
The infected quickly stopped and looked at Marcus.
Marcus: "Sorry for the inconvenience, and about the arrow. I apologize for what one of my group tried to do, and I hope we can let that as a misunderstanding. Could you please let us in?"
Jeremy (Whisper): "There's no way this guy is still the leader..."
Sofía (Whisper): "Is your friend too."
Jeremy (Whisper): "With more reason, is a dummy."
After what Marcus said, the infected hesitated for a second while looking around Marcus, and then nodded. Then, the infected turned slightly to their left, and started pointing and moving their left hand, making Marcus look at the entrance.
After a second, Marcus whispered to make the group get out and start walking, but they all hesitated, surprised and wondering, while the infected placed the hammer on a wood board of the small crop field and started walking slightly erratically towards the entrance.
After a moment, they quickly moved and reached the entrance, while the infected calmly grabbed the keys and searched for the correct ones. After a long short moment of nervous, the infected finally opened the entrance and opened it by moving the gate fence.
The group hesitated and remained distant while entering, while Marcus walked and remained near the infected as was closing the entrance gate fence again.
Marcus: "Thank you for letting us in, are there others with you?"
The infected hesitated while saving the keys on the back of their waist, and then shook their head.
Marcus: "I see. Can you talk by any way?"
The infected hesitated, slowly moving their head down a little, while moving their left hand to cover their mouth and touch their teeth. After few seconds, it moved their left hand to their neck and shook their head once again.
Marcus: "I see... So you are really infected, but... How are you-?"
The infected moved their left hand to mimic an answer, first pointing at itself, then mimicking a mouth opening and closing very quickly, and then shooking the index finger.
Marcus: "Oh, right. I'm sorry. I was just fascinated about you."
Then, the infected and Marcus walked, while the group looked around and Jeremy had the arrow he shot before but now on his right hand firmly.
The prison yard was three quarters as crop field, while in the fourth quarter was where the infected was building whatever it was on the small crop field.
The people followed Marcus, who was following the infected as opened the doors for the group. Inside Block C, the infected applauded their hands, what made the group get nervous and panic, but the infected with the attention, holding a riot baton with their right hand, started pointing and hitting softly a poster on the wall.
The group hesitated, still very nervous, but then they looked and observed the poster was a schedule of 24 hours, organized of morning, mid-day, and afternoon.
Marcus: "Oh, I see. You have a very well planned time for every thing in the day. I think you want us to meet with this too?"
The infected then nodded few time slowly.
Marcus: "Alright. We'll make sure to follow it."
The infected nodded one time, and then started walking outside to the prison yard. The group hesitated, but then they observed the map aside the schedule, showing the dining room, the generator room, hallways throughout Block C and where they connect, and more rooms in Block C.
Hours passed, and the infected continued with the schedule as always of a normal daily routine, while the group continued getting used of prison and how the place is. Then, a sudden noise called their attention, making all of them worried, so they walked to stop the noise that quickly sounded for just few seconds.
When they entered the dining room, the infected was finishing of cleaning and organizing the kitchen tools, and then walked with its own plate. The group hesitated, still nervous for the noises possibly calling the attention of zombies nearby or to come to the prison, but the infected ignored the group entirely.
After a short moment, the group had to accept it and they sat down to eat, surprised that somehow, an infected not only seemed to know how to cook, but did cook better than what the group ate from the start of the outbreak until now.
More hours passed, and the group continued looking around the prison, as every door was unlocked and open, but again, another loud noise. They followed, and this time, they ended in the generator room.
Jeremy: "Stop! Do you want to call the attention of everything nearby?!"
Marcus: "Jem, calm down."
Jeremy: "No! Are you really the only one who is buying that we are safe or something?!"
Sofía: "I have to agree, all this noise will call attention of everything near us."
Rebecca: "Yeah, every time I hear a loud noise, I remember... what that brought us... And is an infected too. Even if doesn't attack us, is clearly against us in a different way."
Jeremy, Sofía and Rebecca quickly walked away. The others of the group hesitated, but after whispers about preferring to leave than to stay, they also walked away. Marcus hesitated, but only felt left behind like nothing after tries to convince them, but failing.
After a short moment, Marcus turned around, and the infected looked at Marcus after a second, and shrugged its shoulders to then ride a bike and do exercise and refill the main generator for all the electricity used during the afternoon.
Marcus: "... You don't care, do you?..."
The infected shook its head while continued riding the bike. Marcus hesitated, and slowly walked away.
The group started to prepare to leave the next day as they couldn't stay outside during night, but then Sofía's water broke. The group hesitated, trying to search for a solution, as none of them knew about medicine, so Marcus went in search of the infected.
Marcus: "Hey, ehm... Excuse me. We need your help about something important."
The infected hesitated, stopping from riding the bike and tilting its head.
Marcus: "Do you know about medicine?"
The infected hesitated, but then shook its head.
Marcus: "I see... We need medical supplies, as one of the group broke water. But is getting late and none of us can go outside, but we also really need to rest. Could you help us?"
The infected hesitated, tilting its head, and after few seconds, it shrugged its shoulders and hands, confused.
Marcus: "We just need medical things for a pregnant woman that has just broke water. Is going to give birth very soon, could you help us?"
The infected then nodded and moved down to then walk along Marcus until the cells of Block C.
After a moment, both reached and the infected observed how the group did the most basic things of making Sofía comfortable.
But then, the infected quickly grabbed Sofía and took her with slight difficulty to the prison infirmary, while the group was shocked and surprised, but followed the infected quickly. In the infirmary, the infected placed Sofía in a more proper bed with slight more comfortable pillows.
After a short moment, the infected checked the time, then the sky, and then quickly grabbed the keys and quit from the keyring the key to the entrance, and saved that key while giving the keyring with all the other keys to Marcus.
The group hesitated, as the infected quickly walked to prepare and leave. The group remained curious and hesitating, but they decided to stay with Sofía, except Marcus who walked and followed the infected for explanations.
The infected as prepared, only did signs to point at itself, then fingers walking, then pointed at Marcus, then a sign of using a key. With those signs done, the infected finished preparing to leave, holding the riot shield on its left arm, the riot baton on its right hand, and with a big backpack.
After a moment, the infected left the prison, and after closing the entrance gate fence, started walking away, while Marcus closed doors and gates to close Block C.
The infected walked a little through the path and road, and then ran a long way until after quite a big while, finally found a city. In the city, the infected walked while observing the buildings, but then stopped at a bar where it grabbed a wine. The infected observed it, but then drank it in once.
All was silent and calm, but the infected when finished drinking the bottle, turned around and walked to leave the bar, but then as opened the doors is surprised by three survivors.
In the same second, the three get surprised and worried as prepared aiming at it, while it moved its left arm to cover with the riot shield, blocking the shotgun shot from one of them.
The infected then quickly charges at the middle one who had shot the shotgun, and then pushes him until crashing against a car seconds later. Then, the infected started hitting the survivor with the riot baton, while not letting the survivor use the shotgun because the riot shield, while the other two shot at it from behind and sides.
After few seconds, the infected stopped and had a sudden spam on its body as the veins of its eyes started marking clearer, and then tinted the pigmentation of its pupils red, and then the infected moved to quickly slam the survivor with the riot shield in his face, to then grab it and bite him in the left side of his neck.
As the infected started devouring the neck of the survivor, the other two struggled as they panicked as the yells of zombies were being heard. The two then decided to ran away, while the one with shotgun continued to be devoured alive.
After a moment, the survivor died, but the infected for a while until the horde arrived and started to join to devour. Then, the infected as was being moved, suddenly was back to its senses and calmed down and noticed the situation. So after it took a deep breath, it grabbed the shotgun to save it in the backpack, along some ammo the survivor had in the pockets, and then checked its hands and then the riot shield.
As it did, it then remembered the prison, and then instantly the responsibility he had, and then moved quickly to find whatever could help. But the lack of knowledge in medicine was clear as it didn't know how to improvise. So it grabbed alcohol, bottles, napkins, and few tools it found that could cut.
Then, with all ready, it rushed back to the prison. In the way before leaving the city, the other two survivors who ran away before, came back as they wanted what the infected had. So they jumped to assault it in melee, one using a machete and the other a hand axe.
The fight begun, the infected fought at both bands, using the riot shield to block the machete hits, and then the riot baton to the hand axe from landing. The infected then kicked the one with the axe to then quickly hit the second one.
Both fought, but the infected had the clear advantage, and it hit in the second survivor's ribs with the riot baton, to then quickly hit him in the face with the riot shield, to then quickly bite the survivor's hand who dropped the machete.
The infected then quickly moved and threw the riot baton at the one with the hand axe, but dodged it while was almost over the infected. But then the infected moved to the right, what ended in the first survivor landing the hit on the second survivor who was standing still holding his right hand with his left hand, and then the hand axe impacted at the second survivor's left arm.
The infected grabbed the machete, and pierced the first survivor's neck. The first survivor stopped at place, while the second one tried to move but couldn't. After few seconds, the infected moved the machete back, and the first survivor fell down, what allowed the second one to finally move but fell back as knew he didn't had much time before finally becoming just another zombie, so he plead for it to finish with him at least, and so, the infected pierced the survivor's skull with the machete.
Once the infected was done with both, grabbed everything and saved it in the sides of the backpack, while remained holding in its right hand the riot baton, and then started running again to get back at the prison.
After another long way, the infected reached the prison after running for quite a while, and then opened the entrance gate fence. It took a moment to close it, but then quickly moved inside the prison, and knocked the metal door.
After a moment, Marcus moved to check, and after noticing it was them, Marcus opened the metal door. The infected then moved ignoring Marcus, walking straight to the infirmary, and noticed Sofía was already giving birth, and the group was helping how they could, so the infected hesitated for a second to observe, but then moved and started placing aside what it got, offering it to the group to use them.
After a moment, the birth ended, and thanks to the things the infected brought, the group could properly clean the baby and cut the umbilical cord with no risk of making either Sofía or the baby get infected with anything.
After a moment, Marcus was who remained with the baby as was the father, but the group also remained near the infected. The moment was silent, but the group hesitated while observed how the infected came back, the state of the clothes and the riot shield mostly. No words were needed to know the group knew that the infected had to face other survivors to bring what it brought.
Jeremy apologized, cutting words, but doing so on his way. Then, the group went to sleep, accepting more the infected as one of them, but still feeling uneasy near it.
The days passed, the infected continued with the routine, but as the time passed, the group slowly moved closer to the infected. At first they were still uneasy and incapable of being close, despite trusting; to then as the days passed, slowly approaching and accepting it to be closer.
After few weeks, near two months, the group withouth thinking, didn't distinguish the infected from a survivor, as for them, unconsciously, was just another survivor and not a zombie.