I dont know how long Ive been kept here. The prey bound with ropes, prevented from moving. Put in a building. The sa prey, Chris, cos in, feeds the at from my bag, talks to . It seed to have known from before, when I was still a prey. It calls Kaitlyn, my na. My na is Kaitlyn. Every day, it has drink a cup of poison. Its killing slowly. But I cant refuse. The prey tells if I refuse, the other prey will co to kill . I dont understand. Why kill slowly, but threaten to kill quickly if I refuse?
The prey calls the poison the cure; I know its a lie. The drink weakens . But it tastes familiar. Perhaps its not poison to prey. However, to , it is. My limbs are less responsive. My vision is blurry. My sense of sll, sense of hearing, both are dull. Even my sense of taste is waning. at doesnt taste as good. It doesnt hold back the hunger as well as it used to. I need brains. But the prey wont feed them. In the first place, I cant communicate with it. It tried to get to write words like in the openable bricksbooks, the prey calls them. It shouldve been possible. But I cant. Reading is easy. Writing, I dont know how to formulate my thoughts, formulate words. Its similar to speaking. I cant do it.
The prey is trying to teach . Im trying to learn. But it doesnt make sense. I learn one character one day. And I forget it the next. Its the poison. Its corroding my mind. I dont understand. Why does the prey want to communicate with while Im dying? Why is it investing ti in when its killing ? Doesnt it have better things to do? I dont know. The prey cares for . We mustve been close. It tells stories about myself. We lived together in a group with two other prey, Mom and Dad. But I died. And it didnt. It hasnt told how. I cant ask. I cant do anything. Im wasting ti. But is there really anything I can do when my ti of death is dictated by the prey?
Sotis, another prey cos too. Jen, the one that stopped from breaking out of the encirclent. It doesnt talk much with . It only stays in the room, on the other side of the tal cage, watching, making sure I dont do anything Im not allowed to do. Which is anything. Im lucky the prey feed . But I dont know why theyre prolonging my death. If I had a prey captive, the only reason Id keep it alive longer is to preserve its flesh. Is that it? The prey are going to eat . After they eat all the bodies from the failed attack, theyre going to eat . But why try to talk to in that ti? Perhaps they think they can learn from .
The door opened. Chris ca in. But today was different. Theres another prey with him, not Jen.
Hmm, not a lot of progress, huh?
That voice, its the chiefs. The leader of the prey.
Thats not true. Theres been plenty of progress.
Youre deluding yourself. The chief ca closer. It took off its do, crouched in front of the tal fence. I dont want to say I told you so, but I told you so. Shes too far gone. Theres no way for the cure to remove the fungus faster than the fungus can reproduce without killing her. Just looking at her arm shouldve been enough to tell you that. If she wasnt infected, the whole thing wouldve fallen off by now.
But shes sane. Shes rational. She can understand when I speak. She even knows how to read.
Isnt that why we called her the smart infected? Shes still infected. Maybe she maintained a bit of rationality, but she still eats people. Shes eaten people, Chris. Butchered them, salted them, and smoked them. If your sister turns back into a human and realizes that, do you think she could live with herself?
Yes. I could. Prey kill other prey. Itd be a waste not to eat the dead.
Weve all killed people, Chief.
But you didnt eat them.
Does it matter? Dead is dead. What happens to the deads body after they die is none of their business.
Theres so religions out there thatd disagree with you.
And those people who follow those religions are dead too.
A gust of air ca out of the chiefs mouth. Look. Were running low on the antifungal dication. As the leader of the group, you know I have choices to make. Prioritizing our safety or using the cure on soone that cant be cured. Its an obvious choice for , but I know you dont want to hear it. People are getting angry, Chris. The smart infected that lead the invasion is being kept alive, using up the cure. If she was actually cured, then I could keep them calm, but this, theres no progress here. Theyll want her dead.
Was the prey really trying to cure ? The poison was actually a cure? Maybe. But it doesnt matter if the chiefs words are true. If the cure worked, the prey would let live as prey. Since it hasnt worked, the prey want dead. Dying. I wanted to survive to find out who I was. And I figured it out: Im Kaitlyn. I was a mathematician. I have a brother nad Chris. My parents, the ones who brought into the world, are dead. Theyre answers. But theyre not what I was looking for. Why am I alive? I dont know. Perhaps dying wouldnt be so bad. Surviving for the sake of surviving, with no purpose, doesnt that make an other? They live to eat. And they eat to live. A constant cycle that involves nothing else. How am I any different from them? Because I can think? Because I can obtain food more efficiently? In the end, that only makes better at finding food to eat to live to eat more to live to eat. Its pointless. Dying makes the most sense. Living is irrational. How did I not see that earlier?
Then Ill leave the garrison, take her away. Ill raid pharmacies myself to get more dication. Im not going to give up on her.
And what about Jen?
Ill ask her if she wants to co. If she does, she does. If she doesnt, well, I cant bla her.
Is that how it is? If thats your choice, Im not going to stop you, but Im certainly not going to help you either. Quite frankly, I wish youd co to your senses, but things always get a little heated when family is involved. You were quite level-headed too.
Chief, you probably already know this and dont need to be told, but you know how it is, everyone whos survived this long, were all a littleor a lotoff in the head. Chris turned to stare at . All of us.
I, Kaitlyn, stared back.
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