---Ash's POV---

It was odd, coming back to my residence, well, former residence after all this time. Only a small group of the Hive had been allowed to follow, though I knew that if I so much as peeped, they'd come running in without hesitation.

As it was, everyone around me was on high alert, keeping a close eye on our surroundings. Jeremy's eyes glared at the forest before huffing.

My own eyes flitted around, stopping at the pile of smoldering corpses that had obviously been moved. Someone had visited here after Jeremy had carried me off after biting me.

Frowning, I huffed with annoyance as a lot of my stuff had been removed. Scavenging through the rubble gave me nothing but more irritation as none of my research books could be found.

Well, the ones that were found were smoldering, destroyed in the original explosion that had breached my base. Unreadable, destroyed beyond repair.

Years of meticulous drawings and making notes of all my findings... gone. Long nighttime hours where I looked over all the research I could lay my hands on, dreaded encounters with Infected where I had hidden away and tried my best to remain silent, taking notes as I went.

All that effort... for nothing...

The Hive seemed to respond to my annoyance, helping the search with more energy than needed.

Rocks and broken furniture was sent flying through the air, crashing loudly wherever they landed until Jeremy gave out a warning snarl.

"We don't want to draw any unwanted attention." He stated calmly whilst a few of the other members sniffed at the tracks left behind.

"Are any of these familiar? They're relatively fresh." Elijah let out a low growl as he eyed the tracks, dipping down to catch a scent from the boot prints.

I followed his example, sniffing at the tracks and taking in the scent. Just the action, the mere idea of leaning down to a footprint and take a whiff of it, felt odd.

And the array of scents that hit me was even more surprising. I should've only detected dirt and the scent of moss. Instead I could smell the leather of the boot, a slight hint of gravel that the owner had once stepped on, even the faintest scent of sweaty socks.

The more I focused on the scent, the more I could detect; a hint of disinfectant that stung the nose, a soft floral scent from detergent and, to my shock I realized I could define their gender simply from the hormones that clung to their scent.

I went over all the footprints until I paused at one of them, the scent familiar yet odd at the same time. Familiar because Eric was a good friend, one I had hung out with for a long while.

And yet, there were hints in the scent that I would never have been able to detect if I had been human. I sniffed again before sighing, nodding once.

"Eric. A good friend when I had been... human." My eyes flitted to the ruins of my former base and the pack of hive members that were sniffing around. "They must've picked up on a distress signal from the Rogue party."

It was the only way why on Earth Eric would even consider leaving the security of his base, with a crew from the looks of it.

The rogue band would have let their headquarters know instantly that they had found a bounty. I had more than enough experience with them, had read enough to know that they held a tightly knit communication between their HQ and any of their roving bands.

There had been plenty of notes where groups had been spotted by a single group of scouting rogues, minutes before several armored vehicles appeared at the horizon.

It was one of the many reasons why lookout posts were set up, why border patrols back at Eric's place had an itchy trigger finger.

Because all it took was one person to deliver a message. One single person that could end their entire world as they knew it.

Taking in another whiff of Eric's scent, I felt my stomach twist uncomfortably. I hadn't anticipated Eric coming here to investigate but if we could find their tracks, possibly even follow them home... so could the rogues.

Which also put them at risk. The thought flashed through my mind, putting every one of the Hive on edge. Rogues wouldn't track down prints of infected but if they were bored enough...

"It will not happen. And if they try and come, they will be killed before they can get close to our home." Jeremy's voice crackled with anger, teeth baring as his eyes flitted over the ruins.

My own mind flitted to the guns that the rogues had brandished and worry gnawed at my stomach. The rogues wouldn't fight fair; they'd try and keep as much distance as possible, picking us off one by one.

Just like how they had shot Shireen before Elijah had managed to get her out of range from the rogues.

Elijah growled at the reminder, taking a step closer to Shireen as his eyes scanned the surroundings. Jeremy pressed against my back, keeping a close eye on any motion in the woods, reacting to the smallest sound as I sniffed at the tracks once more before sighing.

"Well, we wasted our time coming here. Everything that I had is gone, either found by Eric or by those rogues. And I really hope it's the former, as I don't want to think what those bastards would do with all my resources."

Jeremy's nose nuzzled against my jaw before he pulled me up from my crouched position.

"We could follow the tracks to see where they go..." Jeremy suggested, scowling as I could follow his train of thought and shook my head.

"No. Tracking them down would only bring more attention to us and put the Hive at risk of getting exposed. I don't even know how Eric would respond if he found out that I'm no longer..."

Jeremy huffed, pulling me closer as the rest of the Hive gathered around. "His loss." He grunted, barking once to get the attention of the Hive.

We didn't even try to scavenge anything from my base. It was clear that Eric and his allies had picked the rubble apart and taken anything useful with them.

There was nothing worth rummaging through in an attempt to take it back to the Hive. All that I had was stored away in my memories. But, with my knowledge, I could share possible upgrades to the cave.

Jeremy grinned at that, nuzzling against my temple before the Hive ventured out as one. I had a slightly unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach, but perhaps it lied in the fact that last time I had left my home, was as a human.

Now, I was leaving it as an infected. But for once since the outbreak, I wasn't feeling worried for my life. This time I was looking forwards to the future, knowing that the worst was behind me.

"We'll go back home and see what we need for improvements. Perhaps we can even visit one of the cities to get what we need." Jethro stated as we roamed through the forest.

I blinked, stunned that he'd even consider going anywhere near the cities. Then again, the Hive was strong and could easily defend themselves against the various infected out there.

The only risk we'd take with going to the city, was that quite possibly, we'd encounter some humans.

A soft, amused snort escaped me and the rest of the Hive glanced my way before amusement filtered through the shared link.

How ironic that now, the riskiest thing we'd encounter and should be wary of, are humans.

"It is ironic, isn't it?" Jeremy huffed, watching as the Hive roamed through the woods, taking a detour just in case the rogues would follow our tracks.

He smirked, eyes flitting to Elijah, who grinned as well with a dark fire sparking in his eyes.

"Do not worry Queen. Let them come to us; while they have weapons, they are still only human." Elijah smirked wickedly and I relaxed, knowing exactly what he meant.

True, the rogues and even the humans from Eric's facility had guns and were more than capable of using them. But they had to be able to see in order to shoot.

They needed time to react.

We would already hear them coming, no matter how quiet they were. Hell, even know while we were standing in the seemingly quiet forest with not an animal in sight, I could hear them.

Could hear the small wheezy breaths of the birds high up in the branches while they ruffled through their feathers. I could even hear the deer panting between each audible gulp of water that they drank from the river.

A bunch of humans that would sneak closer to the Hive, no matter the time of day, would be instantly discovered. And while they wouldn't want to make a sound in order to remain "hidden", we had the Hive Mind.

We would be able to hear everything.

I blushed as my stomach chose that moment to release a deafening growl, drawing the amused attention of the rest of the Hive.

Everything, including that...

They snickered and huffed, scanning the forest once more, but this time with the intent to go out and hunt for food.

We would be able to go to the city after we had a filling meal in our stomach.

---Eric's POV---

The lab was in a state of elevated attention as mostly every scientist in the room was in awe with all the research we brought back from Ash's base.

As soon as we arrived with the books and brought them downstairs, the researchers has descended upon the box as if it was a gift from the heavens.

Each page was cleaned meticulously and instantly copied both by hand and on the computers. The drawings were traced, books restored to the best of our abilities before each page was turned over and over again by different people.

Both in awe and elated of what we found, what Ash had discovered... and also feeling down. With what we saw in his notes, the notes he found from scientists and researchers all over, the proof against a potential cure was staggering.

Many scientists have tried and horribly failed, often making different mutated strands instead of a cure.

A knock sounded on the door before Bryce popped his head in, scanning the room before his eyes locked with mine.

"Eric.... One of the trail cams went off..."

My eyes widened as I dropped my pencil, my seat screeching over the floor with a high-pitched sound as I rushed towards Bryce.

"Which one? Did you see Ash? Is he okay?!" I asked, already estatic that Bryce's plan to hang out trail cameras around Ash's former base, proved to work to our benefit.

"Yes... and no... You won't like this at all, Eric. Prepare yourself."

....What?...