The Next Day

As I walked past Indigo's lab the next day I heard the girl talking loudly to herself, her voice was high pitched and frantic and I could hear her pen scratching the paper as she wrote quickly.

"Everything alright Indigo?" I asked, pushing open the door to the lab without even knocking. On her operating table sat the dog, it was asleep by the looks of things and Indigo was rubbing her eyes. She had obviously got no sleep, I could see the dark eye bags that hung under her eyes.

"No, to be honest," she huffed, looking at the dog intently,"As you can see its not a normal dog but I didn't realise how dangerous it was until now."

"Why? What's wrong with it?" I asked, looking over at the dog which I had previously thought to be harmless.

"It must have been exposed to severe radiation which has affected it in ways I didn't think were possible," her eyes moved erratically around the room and I suddenly became worried about the scientist's mental state.

"Indigo what's wrong with the dog?" I asked in a more stern voice, ready to shake the girl to her senses.

"Its a medical mystery to me as to why but it seems to me that this dog is dead. Or at least dead in some respects. The blood that flows round its veins is months old and seems to not be doing anything, it doesn't carry oxygen anywhere. The dog doesn't need to eat, however it seems to want to. When it does eat, it simply just vomits the food back up again," she grabbed the paper sat in front of her and it shook in her trembling hands, "This dog is dangerous, its saliva is toxic to humans. If it bit someone... Well they'd be dead in ten minutes."

Instinctively I backed away from the dog that was still laying peacefully with its eyes closed. It didn't seem possible that the small creature posed such a threat to us but of course appearances can be deceiving.

"Can you please take it outside, far away," Indigo whispered and I nodded slowly, walking over to the animal. I flinched when I tried to touch the animal, worried that it would wake any second and bite me to my grave.

Holding my breath I picked it up and left the lab; I looked straight ahead, refusing to even glance at the potential monster that was in my arms.

"I can't go outside by myself, I'll get some people to come with me," I whispered to myself before heading down a corridor in search of some helpers.

***

Zara, Jack, Coby, Niall, Adam and Azul all joined me outside, standing far away from the dog and I. They were all just as weary as I was but they showed it more on their faces.

Walking away from the house, I watched as the small crowd followed behind. None of them spoke as we shuffled forward into the somewhat alien world, the silence felt so sacred that we couldn't disturb it.

When I was confident that the house was far enough away for the dog to not pose a threat, I placed the animal down on the brittle earth and ran back to the group. Looking around, I noticed how far we had come from the house; it was seemed so small. So long away.

Then a felt a shiver go down my spine, it was the same feeling I had when I felt like I was being watched. Turning around very slowly, the breath was knocked out of me. Standing behind us were around eight men, if you could call them that. All adorning menacing grins.

"RUN!" I screamed and suddenly the area around my became a blur of movement and screams. Our intruders looked a lot like the dog, transparent skin meaning I could see all their organs. All their bones. But I didn't have time to stare at them, I was too absorbed in running back to the house as fast as my legs would take me.

The mutant humans shouted in a gruff, alien language and I watched them as they attacked whoever came near them. Whimpers filled the air and screams of pain came from my friends but I couldn't focus on them, I needed to get back inside.

The door was in sight and I ran towards it, finally making it inside the house where I could breathe deeply. Looking out at the scene I saw Niall sprinting towards me, blood dripping from the side of his head and his arm was saturated in the red liquid. Jack followed him in and soon it was only Azul who was fighting for her life. A mutant was hot on her heels and she screamed a bloodcurdling scream.

She slammed the door behind her as she came in and locked it with her shaking hands, I heard the thump of the mutant as it hit the wood and then silence engulfed us. The only noise that could be heard was the heavy panting from everyone around me and the muffled moans of agony from those injured.

"Coby we need to reinforce the door now!" Azul groaned out before falling to the floor, clutching her leg that was oozing blood, creating a crimson lake beside her.

"I would if I could move," he cried out; he was leaning against the wall, nursing his limp arm that was distorted in a strange position. Noticing that I was the only uninjured person, I ran to Coby's workshop where I grabbed the first things I could find- a large aluminum sheet and a nail gun.

Once the door had been strengthened and I had dragged a table in front of it to stop anyone entering, I began to attend to those injured despite the tears that blurred my vision. We were so screwed.

Intense chapter with a bit of explanation about 'mutants'. So what does this mean for our helpless twelve? What can they do now? We'll have to wait and see...

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