CHAPTER 17: Something not human.

It was late in the night, and it would soon become morning.

Yet the child further down the hallway was still crying. Though it was more of a soft whimpering like the child was trying to be as quiet as possible so he would not wake anyone else.

Theo sighed and made his way over to the door whilst carefully pushing away the bag that he had placed in front of it the day before.

The rattling sound of the loose handle echoed through the hallway as Theo opened the door. Completely locking Theo up would only make it harder for Johan to get him on his side. There was no where he could run to and if he were to do anything his parents would be punished in his place. so, Johan had decided to give him a false sense of freedom by leaving his door unlocked.

He made his way through the now dark hallway. His feet barely made a sound on the hardwood floor.

He stopped in front of the room of the child.

He carefully pushed it open and saw the kid huddled up in one of the corners of the room.

"Are you okay?" Theo asked in a soft voice so he wouldn't startle the child.

The whimpering seemed to stop for a moment and then the child responded. "No..."

While already standing with one foot in the room of the child Theo asked. "Can I come in?"

The child didn't respond. Or maybe he did but it was simply unnoticeable under the sobbing that had started again. Therefore, Theo just walked in and sat next to the child on the bed. Here he placed his wing over the shoulder of the kid.

After a few minutes like this Theo asked the child's name.

With a trembling voice his child said that his name was Mortimer, but everyone just called him Tim.

"Alright then." Theo responded with a calming tone. "My name is Theo. Tim, could you tell me what's wrong? Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to. But maybe I'm able to help."

Tim took a moment to wipe his tears. "I miss my mom." He responded while new tears already formed in the corners of his eyes.

Theo sighed and embraced the child a little stronger with his wing. "I'm sorry. I can't do much about that at the moment. But soon I will go out with your father. And I promise that I will do everything I can to find her."

Theo shifted his weight and immediately the child grabbed his arm. "Please don't go. I don't want to be alone." He cried.

Theo softly smiled. "Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere." Then suddenly something came to his mind. if you did not what to be alone. Why didn't you just go to your father?"

"Dad usually gets really grumpy when I go to him in the middle of the night. He is probably just tired because of looking after me all the time. So, I shouldn't disturb him."

"Yea I guess that is the case." Theo responded. He felt quite bad that the kid was taking responsibility for his emotions at this age.

"I will talk to your father when he is wake. Maybe we can sort things out."

The next day Johan had assembled a hunting party. Consisting of five men next to himself and Theo. Three carried a bow while Johan and the remaining two had long knives.

Theo had asked for a weapon to carry for himself. But his request was denied given that they were running low on such things. Apart from that Johan wanted to see the full extent of the raw strength of the strange creature.

The man placed his hand on Theo's shoulder. "We don't have to worry about you flying off, right?"

Getting annoyed by the very touch of the man, Theo pushed him away with his wing. "No. And don't you dare touch me."

Slowly the gates were opened just wide enough for all of them to pass through one by one. Once outside two of the bowmen shot the few zombies that were scratching the walls in an attempt to get in.

Johan signalled the group to close the gate and move into the woods.

Since this was probably not their first time hunting after the appearance of the zombies none of them showed hesitation and immediately did as ordered.

"Do you hear anything?" Johan asked whilst looking out at the trees in front of them.

But Theo just shook his head. "The zombies smell like death. There are no creatures close by due to that."

"That's bothersome." Johan replied with a deep frown on his face. "I was hoping that we didn't have to go too far. But I am afraid that it might take a while before we find something to bring back."

Theo just rolled his eyes. "Yea fine. Just follow me."

It took a while before they reached a place where the scent of rot was almost completely absent. To everyone's surprise this was somewhere in the direction of the ruins. From here on out they could hunt as they normally would.

"I just happened to remember. I never asked your name." Johan suddenly said while clearly being bored out of his mind after the long walk.

Theo briefly glanced at him from the corner of his eyes "Normally I would say that you don't deserve to know my name. but since I am afraid that you will just give me one if I give you the chance. I will let you know that my name is Theo."

Trying to ignore the following questions of Johan, Theo's ears twitched in several different directions while trying to locate possible prey. "Johan, what kind of creatures can get infected?" Theo suddenly asked.

"That is kind of hard to say." He responded. "It is mostly just mammals and some species of birds. But we have yet to find an infected mutant if that is what you're worried about."

Theo presses his ears flat as he kept staring in one direction. "No that's not it. There's a thing coming towards us. And it's fast."