In the kitchen

Following from the back, Lucy takes the lead out off your room. The rain lashes against the windows in the hallway even harder than it has been. Perfect time for a storm really. Sam tenses at every flash outside. No rumbling of thunder follows so the worst is thankfully still far away.

You quickly send a text to Bella letting her know that your going to the kitchen. She promptly responds with an 'okay' finger and thumb emoji. Upon arriving you smell the salty aroma of bacon being fried as well as hearing laughter from an all too familiar voice.

"Hey roomie." Charlie says too cheerfully, one arm wrapped tightly around Heather who are both dressed this time. He's put on the clothes you gave him, albeit they're a little tight around his upper body, and she's wear a black pair of yoga pants and a red crop top that shows of her toned stomach nicely. That is if you were paying attention to her and not the arm that softly caresses her shoulder.

They sit on the closest side of a counter which is flanked by a row of five stools on opposite sides. Bella stands by the counter against the wall, with an oven open and the sizzling of bacon being cooked inside under the grill.

"You guys have been gone a while, anything fun happen?" Heather asks, her face forming a larger smile.

"Cause we sure did." He laughs loudly again. You grit your teeth and hope he's messing, but the heavy thud in your chest makes it difficult not to dwell on it.

"Actually we did. We've been looking up the virus online and found a lot of details about it." Sam interjects for you. Charlie's gaze scrolls over her body, taking particular interest in her bare thighs, she strides around to the other side of the counter where her thighs are out of view from his eyes. The other two girls move to join her.

"Yep, sounds interesting." He fakes a yawn, "for a geek." She scrunches her face and is about to let out a retort when Heather steps in.

"Those facts could save our lives, you've already been face to face and almost lost. For a geek she'll do better than you." You can't tell if there was any spite in her words or if it was your imagination hoping there was. Either way his arm slowly retracts from her shoulder. She turns back to Sam. "So what did you guys find?"

"Most of what we knew came from Bella." You begin as you walk in between the two rows of chairs so you can look at everyone. "But to clarify for everyone. These infected bite to infect, every documented case shows that it only takes one bite to be infected, they **** their saliva into a person's bloodstream as that's were the infection is carried. The infection changes the persons mind and makes them really aggressive, to the point they'll attack anyone even if they once knew them. The time it takes seems to vary randomly between each person though so it could take anywhere between a minute to a day before someone changes. Their bodies also change as well and they get stronger, how much stronger varies again."

"Great but how does any of that help." Charlie sighs. "All you've told us is they get harder to stop and there's no way to predict it."

"Well, a lot of the videos showing them seem to show them being drawn to sound more than people. It could mean they can be distracted easily which means we won't have to face them head on."

"What about the sexual ones? Did you find anything about them?" Bella finally speaks after being so quiet.

Sam takes over. "Not exactly, the government couldn't really test any theories around them due to risks and also human lives. So they think it's possibly just another random factor in the infection."

A quiet ringing breaks the silence.