Scott had reached the civilisation, or what left of it, with most of his supplies. He had only drank one bottle of water out of the six that he had and there were a lot of candy bars left... He would have to stop eating every time he got hunger pangs.
He walked around the small town. Scott couldn't quite fathom what its purpose was, besides a place to send supplies to the institute. He walked through the main street, hoping to find somewhere to hold up and think.
His nose was the first to be alerted to the presence of the infected. The disease seemed to cause necrosis of the extremities, and the bacteria had found fat reserves other than the brain. As a result, the infected were decaying while they were still alive. It was...not a pleasant smell.
He then heard the soft growling, almost like a pack of dogs. It seemed to have a rhythm to it, as if the poor unfortunate souls were doing something repeatedly.
Then he saw them. Between a 7 11 and a clothing store, there was a group of them. They were visibly male. One was apart from the group, watching, sitting on his haunches. The others surrounded a female.
The infection, whatever it was, made the victim loose all sense of his or her humanity. They reverted back to instinct. This mostly culminated into hunting for food, regardless of whether it was packaged, raw or even still alive and a fellow human. Obviously, some other instincts had taken over as well, and the infected girl had to take the brunt of it. Under any other circumstances, Scott would be fascinated.
But he was in no position to take notes. He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted as loudly and lowly as he could. He would have used the air horn he had in his bag, as they did to repel the infected back at the institute, but he didn't have time. They needed to perceive him as a threat quickly, or they'd attack.
Nearly all of them ran away, scurrying further down the ally, up a fire escape or over a wall. The female was the last to go, fully sure that her ordeal was over, away from this obviously bigger creature than her. Just one remained the one who was watching.
His eyes still had a glint of intelligence behind them. Like a true predator, not just a scavenger. Torn rags still adorned his body. A low growl started at the back of its throat. It's hands looked like it would have no problem in crushing Scott's airways.
It leaped. For the good it would do, Scott brought his hands up to defend him. As soon as he had made an X, he heard a gun shot. The creature was now writhing on the tarmac, in obvious pain. It somehow managed to get itself up and run away in-between the empty cars.
Scott looked down the other end of the street and saw his saviour. He was dressed in a wife-beater and black leather vest. It was bloodstained, naturally. The man was making his way down the street, shotgun trained on Scott.
Scott couldn't help but look astonished. Never in his life had he have a gun pointed at him, so he was unsure to react. The man was looking at him up and down. Scott felt obliged to say something.
"I'm not infected. And they don't usually go for other infected people. Just us."
"Then you obviously haven't met many of 'em. I seen 'em fight each other in the car park, goin' at each other like dawgs." The man sniffed and pulled the shotgun down, using his now free hand to fetch a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. "Yer clean. Now, if I can trust ya', ya'll go into that there store and git these. He pushed the paper into his hand. Then bring 'em to the house just outside town in that", he pointed with his shotgun down the street he had come by, "direc-shun."
He started to walk back down the street. He called back "Oh, and pick up some new clothes. Ain't practical to go walking in shirt and pants. Pick something thick."
****
I know where I'm going with this guy Anon.
