Outbreak (Book 2): The Mutation by Scott Shoyer Read Free Book Online Page B

and I don’t know why.”
    “I’m with you, ” Cheryl said. “I was actually going to ask you if you were okay with me sending out extra bodies.”
    It always made Walt uneasy when the people in the center referred to him or looked to him as the leader. He’d never served so much as a day in the military. Hell, he’d never even watched any of those survivalist shows that had been popular at the time of the outbreak.
    “Survival, ” Walt said out loud.
    “What? ” Cheryl asked around a bite of oatmeal.
    “Dennis said these things are occupying the top of the food chain, right? ” he asked. “What if they adapted a new strategy in order to survive?”
    “I’m not following, ” Cheryl said, putting down her spoon.
    “We’ve really tightened up around here over the last two years, ” Walt said. “We haven’t lost anyone to the infected in over eight months.”
    “Okay, ” Cheryl said as she sipped her bitter coffee.
    “So what if they’ve changed their strategy? ” Walt asked. “I know, I know, ” he continued before Cheryl could interrupt. “I know these things don’t have a ‘strategy, ’ per se , but what if they somehow adapted to their surroundings?”
    “I’m still not following, ” Cheryl said.
    “When this shit-storm first occurred, the infected picked us off left and right, ” Walt explained. “They were getting plenty of meals before we established out current system of patrols and other safety measures.”
    “Aahhh, ” Cheryl said, her eyes lighting up. “I see what you’re getting at. They know there’s a food source in here, but since it dried up by us being more cautious, you think they might have adapted to ensure their own survival. Right?”
    “Exactly! ” Walt almost shouted. As he thought more about it, a serious look settled across his face.
    “What’s wrong? ” Cheryl asked. “I think we’re on the right line of thinking about these things.”
    “So do I, ” Walt said with less enthusiasm. “But if we’re right, then these things are getting smarter.”
    Walt and Cheryl looked at each other as they put their spoons down.
    “That’s not good, is it? ” Cheryl asked.
    Walt just looked at her.
     
    5
     
    The rest of the day, Walt’s head was filled with the conversation he had with Cheryl.
    They can’t be getting smarter, can they ? he asked himself. That doesn’t seem possible. They’re just mindless hosts carrying around some kind of virus, right ?
    Walt had no answers to those big questions. The outbreak had hit the world so hard and fast that there had been no time to contemplate what it might be. Survival had been the only thing on everyone’s mind.
    Everyone had just assumed it was some kind of virus that was infecting people. It made sense, considering that if one of those things bit or scratched you, you became infected. It was basic virology. Right?
    Walt knew he was out of his depth thinking about such things. He didn’t know the first thing about virology. He’d exclusively studied and taught himself about neurotransmitters and how they might play a role in addiction. He’d studied the various aspects of the brain and the numerous functions that occurred in each lobe. There was something that had bothered him since the initial outbreak and the first reports that the dead were reanimating. The ‘reanimated dead ’ that ran around and bit humans were called “the infected, ” but they were actually more than that. ‘Infected ’ implied that those things were at one point healthy, got infected by some kind of pathogen, and then became the creatures they were now.
    But that doesn’t make sense! screamed the voice in his head, and he agreed.
    He had seen those things up close, and they were more than just infected humans. They were dead. Or had been dead … were still dead. He still had trouble wrapping his head around it.
    But he’d seen first-hand what happened when someone became infected. They didn’t suddenly turn into those