Talio ran tens of simulations inside his head after witnessing what had happened to his right hand.
'Am I infected? I don't feel any different from before. Maybe it's because the cut was too small?'
He lingered on the thought for a moment, then slowly shook his head.
'If I was cut by an infected, they wouldn't have made it so small that I wouldn't get infected. That would defeat the point. But then… what's their game plan?'
His gaze drifted back to his palm.
'Since the cut is too small for others to notice unless they look directly at my hand, their intention definitely wasn't to stir chaos or draw attention.'
He ruffled his hair in frustration, fingers tugging at the strands as he tried to reason it out. After a few seconds, something clicked.
'Maybe they're trying to confirm whether I'm infected or not.'
The thought didn't sit right.
'But if they're all being controlled by the same monster, then whatever's pulling the strings should already know whether I'm infected.'
He searched for another explanation, cycling through possibilities again and again, but none made as much sense as that last conclusion.
'I guess I should operate under the assumption that they think I'm infected. After all, doesn't everyone who gets infected undergo some sort of personality change? Unless…'
Talio forcibly cut off the thought. He didn't want to distrust everyone so easily, but he wasn't naïve enough to dismiss the idea entirely.
He stood up and stretched his arms, joints stiff from the awkward sleeping position he'd been stuck in. A grin crept onto his face as he spoke aloud:
"Well, change of plans. Sorry, Blondie."
He was just about to start explaining to himself his master-pl—
A deafening, agonized scream tore through the cavern from his left.
Talio reacted instantly, drawing his sword and snapping his attention toward the sound. His body moved before his mind fully caught up.
Most of the group had gathered there already. The only ones missing were the man with the eerie mask, standing at a distance, and the archer girl, who was once again calmly polishing her bow as if nothing had happened.
Talio pushed his way closer and was met with a gruesome sight.
The ginger's body was bound tightly with rope. Blood poured from every orifice on his face. The capillaries around his eyes had burst completely, veins on his forehead splitting through the skin and dangling grotesquely across his head.
Some people recoiled. Others stared, frozen. Confusion and disgust blended together as the ginger slowly opened his mouth.
"Entia's as I whom born from you during the dawn, forever mourn our mortem. Clementia we implored, but you left us forlorn against those we were sworn to."
A shrill, deranged laughter echoed through the cavern.
"They protect us no more… the end is nigh."
Crunch crunch. Hmm this popcorn is quite nice. Did you guys forget about me? Of course you haven't right. Well I was thinking of censoring some of the ginger's words but as a gift from me to you I'll leave his words for you to interpret.
Talio, who had been unconsciously holding his breath, exhaled and scanned the group. What he saw, or rather, what he felt, was not what he expected.
Instead of fear they were confused.
"What was he saying?"
"That sounded like a different language."
"More like nonsense."
A deep sense of unease crept up Talio's spine. His body moved on instinct as he turned toward the man with the creepy mask.
The masked figure seemed to notice Talio's attention. He lifted a hand toward his mask as if here were about to remove it, but he then hesitated, then lowered it . Instead, he gave Talio a slow, deliberate wave, without saying a single word.
Talio's thoughts started spiraling. His head throbbed as a sharp headache pierced through his skull. He clenched his jaw and tried to shake it off.
"Are you okay?"
A familiar voice, which belong to the archer girl, came from his left,. Talio turned toward her and nodded, forcing what he hoped resembled a smile.
"Your face looks pale, and you're sweating a lot. There's no way you're fine."
Talio touched his forehead and realized she was right.
'Huh? What's going on? What he said couldn't have affected me that badly… so why does it feel like this?'
Fear crept in, and he shut down his train of thought before it could spiral further.
"Please… give me a second to myself."
He said it while facing her directly. She sighed, clearly unconvinced, but walked away. Talio checked the surroundings to make sure no one else was watching him too closely, then slid down to sit against the cave wall.
'Am I turning into an infected? No… this feels different. It's more like my body is warning me. Warning me about whatever's controlling that ginger.'
He slowed his breathing, trying to steady his heart, but the unease spiked again as a presence approached him.
The man with the eerie mask stopped a few steps away. Talio's muscles tensed.
The masked man bowed slightly.
"Hello, Talio. It's an honor to meet you person to person."
Talio stared at him, confusion flickering beneath his calm exterior.
"Why's it an honor to meet me? I've done nothing worth praising."
The masked man leaned closer to his face, his voice calm, almost reverent.
"It's not a matter of what you've done. It's a matter of what you will do."
'What the hell is that supposed to mean?'
Before Talio could press him further, the man continued, cutting off his thoughts.
"And you were planning to use me in your plan to kill the infected in this group, weren't you?"
Talio's breath hitched. He stared straight at the man's mask, even though it was pointless, between the mask and his own face blindness, he gained nothing from it.
"Don't worry. You may proceed. After all, my only purpose here is to be used by you as an expendable."
The masked man straightened, turned, and began to walk away.
"Oh, I nearly forgot. You should ignore what the ginger said. It's not something you could even hope to grasp at your current strength."
Talio stood there, stunned. His mind struggled to process everything he'd heard in the last ten minutes. After a moment, he slapped his cheeks lightly, bringing himself back to reality.
'One thing at a time. For now… I should start setting my plan in motion.'
His gaze shifted toward Ari and her friend Lexi, then to the archer girl. He walked over and sat beside her, lowering his voice.
"Could you try to get information from Ari and Lexi? Especially Ari. Something's off about that girl."
"You think they're infected?"
Talio nodded. The archer girl sighed.
"First of all, why me? I'm clearly not the most social person here. And second, what makes you think I'd do something just because you asked, even if I have a decent impression of you?"
Talio paused, pretending to think, even though the answer had already formed in his mind.
"You're stronger than me… I think. And don't girls bond faster with other girls than with guys? Maybe that's just my bias. As for the second question..."
He hesitated.
"I think you want to avenge your group. Maybe because of your guilt from watching your friend die whilst you did nothing… who knows."
'After all, you're not that different from me right now.'
The archer girl stared at Talio's face, making him oddly self-conscious. After a moment, she turned away and walked toward Ari and Lexi, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
'I wonder what people see when they look into my eyes. Do they see resentment? A hunger for revenge? Or just… emptiness?'
He let his head rest against the wall and stared up at the ceiling.
"It's not like I can tell from a mirror. I have nothing to compare it to."
His voice dropped to a near whisper.
"I… I'm doing a good job."
He paused, doubt creeping in.
"Right?"
NOPE your doing a shit job. Just thought I'd tell you even if you can't hear me.