Much to Noah’s disappointment, they did not come across any more people before they reached the end of the trail.

“You’re just delaying the inevitable,” Noah said as they started walking along the sidewalk. “I’m going to eat someone at some point.”

“After you were injured last night, you could barely walk,” Brian reminded him. “But you seem to be doing just fine now. I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but from our perspective, you just seem really eager to eat people despite there being nothing actually wrong with you. You can’t expect sympathy from us about that.”

Noah couldn’t even put into words how unfair he felt his friends were being. What was so wrong about wanting to eat people, anyway?

“Is the road closed today?” May asked, interrupting his thoughts. “Where are all the cars?”

The four of them peered back down the road. There was no sign of any kind of roadblock, but there wasn’t a single car in view either. The section of the road they were currently on cut through the middle of the woods that encompassed the cemetery nature trail, which meant there were no houses, either. It was one long, empty stretch of space.

“Is it our fault, you think?” Leah wondered. “Is the whole community in lockdown?”

“This doesn’t look good,” Brian said.

“No, not at all,” Noah agreed. “Who am I going to eat now?”

“You could at least pretend that you’re normal,” Leah sighed. “Instead of reminding us every five seconds that you’ve gone completely crazy.”

Noah gave her a hurt expression.

“What? May got hurt yesterday, and I don’t hear her wondering where the closest human snack is.”

“I only got a little cut,” she spoke up quickly. “Noah has it plenty worse than I do.”

“Thank you,” he said, feeling pleased that someone was finally understanding his plight.

“But that doesn’t excuse your actions,” she suddenly continued. He glanced at her in surprise and flinched at the hard look in her eyes. “If I were you, I’d refuse to go near anyone before I was one hundred percent sure it would be safe for everyone involved. I would consume whatever animals I needed to so I could assure myself that I wouldn’t pose a threat to other humans. You should be ashamed of the way you’ve been behaving, putting yourself above others.”

“He can’t help himself,” Brian said hesitantly. “He obviously doesn’t really want to eat people. That’s not who he is. It’s whatever the sickness is doing to him.”

May glanced at him. “You and your sister are acting like it’s no big deal for some reason, but it’s not okay, Noah. You’re not trying hard enough, and sooner or later, it’s going to cost someone their life. You can’t just treat this like a bad cough that you have to soldier through until it goes away, not when so much is at stake. I just want everyone to be safe, can you understand that?”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Noah recoiled. “Easy for you to say,” he spat out. “You might have gotten a little cut or two, but you obviously have no idea what it’s like. I can barely hold this conversation with you just because all of my willpower is being spent on not sprinting towards the nearest house I can find. I know you think I’m crazy, and it doesn’t really feel like I am, but maybe you’re right. I can’t even remember what it was like to look at a person without feeling hungry. It feels normal, you know? And I bet you’ll feel exactly the same when you’re in my place.”

“The only reason you’re having so much difficulty controlling yourself is because you’re not taking the alternatives you know are available to you. We’ve already established that animals are a viable substitute, and you’re completely ignoring it as an option.”

“Yeah, because people taste better,” Noah said, rolling his eyes that he had to voice the obvious. “Which again, you would understand if you were injured like I was. Want to see if you can hold yourself to your words? Let’s take off a couple fingers and see what happens.”

“Stop it, Noah,” Brian muttered.

“Tell her to stop first,” he retorted. “I’m only defending myself.”

“No, you’re not. You just told her to cut off her fingers. Everybody needs to calm down.”

Leah nodded. “We have more important things to worry about. How bad do things have to be for the roads to be shut down? We’re concerned about Noah, but there could be another dozen or more people just like him wandering around causing chaos. The town wouldn’t close the streets for just anything.”

Even before she even finished speaking, a low rumble filled the air, heralding the approach of vehicles from around the corner. A moment later the source of the noise emerged into view, and a line of heavy armored-looking trucks came trundling down the center of the road with no regard for traffic lines. Noah’s mouth fell open as he recognized one of the vehicles as an honest-to-goodness tank. The rest weren’t far off, ranging from massive utility vehicles to armored cargo trucks. Is the whole military coming to pay Oakridge a visit?

He tensed as the convoy got closer and closer, but not a single driver slowed down or acknowledged them in the slightest. Soon the trucks were thundering right in front of them, so close Noah could almost imagine the ground trembling beneath his feet. He could see the drivers wearing bulky black gas masks through the open windows.

“Hey, that one’s from Insight!” Leah yelled over the noise. She pointed at one of the trucks near the middle of the procession. It was only slightly smaller than the tank and boasted six massive wheels. If it didn’t have Insight’s bright blue logo plastered across its side, it would have blended right in with the rest of the envoy.

“Who let them join in?” Brian shouted in dismay. “I didn’t think they were with the government!”

“They’re not,” May said.

They watched the vehicles turn one-by-one around the corner towards the Oakridge campus.

“Well, that doesn’t bode well,” Leah muttered.

“Imagine if all that is to pick us up,” Brian said with a dark chuckle.

“No way,” Noah replied. “Something’s happening on campus. And if it’s not related to our sickness, I’ll eat my foot.”

“Please don’t,” Leah said.

“I doubt any stores will be open around Oakridge,” Brian said.

“Then why are we still walking that way?” Noah asked.

“Don’t you want to see what’s happening?”

“We’re on the run, Brian! We all saw the Insight logo drive by. Call me crazy, but I don’t want to head towards the people who are trying to lock us up in a lab!”

“Things have obviously gotten out of hand since Dr. Jansen called Insight yesterday. I don’t think anyone will be overly concerned about us peeking around a little.”

“You don’t know that.”

“All these people that just drove by probably aren’t infected.”

Noah stared at him for a moment. “Excellent point. Very excellent point. Guys, I think we should check out the campus.”