"Hey, let's not rush it! We need to survive now! Making harsh decisions will not help!" Max yelled, getting in the way between the two girls about to murder each other.
"Are you defending them?!" Cat barked, her spear just an inch away from touching the man's face.
"No! I am defending myself! I want to live!" He exclaimed, making it clear that this was just an egoist reaction for his own survival.
While all of this was happening, Ange took the more logical option: she just shut the fuck up and let other people talk. She knew full well that each word she muttered was only adding fuel to the fire. Did the woman feel guilty for what she had to do to Cat? Of course not, she was unable to do it. It would be like asking a fish to fly.
Those words made Cat take a step back; hurting another innocent person was the last thing she wanted to do again. "I . . ." she mumbled, still extremely angry but not second-guessing her actions.
"Also, Olivia, put down the fucking gun and stop talking!" Max yelled to Olivia, showing his clear frustration with her.
"Sorry! I say idiot shit when I am nervous!" The blonde girl admitted.
"You said idiot shit all the time!" Cat screamed at her.
"Ok, it's fine that you hate them. But Ange is the only one who can make the vaccine for the zombie virus, and Olivia can hack any computer on this base. Not only you, but if any of us wants to survive, we need to work together," Max said with a firm tone. He tried to put out a house fire with a water gun.
Cat looked at him with serious eyes and then stopped for a second. Anger built up inside her, but then the therapy she got in jail kicked in.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10." She counted as the girl tried to breathe in a regulated way.
"Aye, you have a point," Cat finally said, giving up her revenge for now.
"I will not let my feelings get out of control and hurt another person." The girl proclaimed with an iron resolution.
"I've found slapping her ass every time her mouth annoys me helps," Max said jokingly.
"I want to grope her neck instead . . . with a rope," Cat glared at Olivia while lowering her spear.
"Yeah! She joined the group!" Ange made a small victory jump.
Cat let out a small sigh, memories from her past rushing down her mind, and the reason why she didn't fight the second the police knocked on her door. "If Max wasn't here, I would have left you two to rot. But I will not let an innocent person die because of this shit," the woman spat with pure vitriol in her voice.
She made a small pause. "But the second we are out of this mess, I don't want to see you two again. Are we clear?!" Cat yelled. Killing them was not one of her priorities.
"The feeling is mutual," Olivia added with a forceful smile.
"Maybe you will change your opinion later!" Ange exclaimed, giving her a wide smile and opening her arms to the healer. After all, she always wanted a big sister, and Cat was the perfect candidate for that . . . even if Ange was older.
"Not a chance," Cat said, and Max got out of the way and sat on a side, letting out a small sigh of relief that the situation had calmed down.
Out of nowhere, Cat gave a headbutt to Olivia. The girl's head just smashed against her nose, making some blood ooze from it as she recoiled back.
"What was that for?!" Olivia yelled as she made a step back, covering her almost broken nose with her hand and hiding her smile with the same hand.
She lifted her other hand and pointed an accusatory finger toward Cat. "See?! She is a violent lunatic!" the woman screamed.
"You could have dodged that; you can read my movements," Cat said, her tone calm and to the point. She was not smiling even if her plan worked, and Olivia in pain gave her a lot of satisfaction; this was not for her, it was for him.
Olivia just rolled her eyes, clearly not looking forward to keeping the act going as Max watched the situation with a mixture of confusion and frustration. He honestly thought there would not be any more problems.
"Ah . . ." the man mumbled and then realized that this at least was a nonlethal attack and she had done him a favor.
"You let yourself get hit on the noggin to buy some sympathy points. Remember, lad, this is the kind of lass you are dealing with," Cat finally said and just spat on Olivia's face; this time, she dodged the attack without problems.
"Oh . . . right . . ." Max mumbled as an uncomfortable silence filled the monorail.
After this little demonstration, Max got permission to touch Cat's suit as she took it off to put some Kevlar armor under it.
Max realized that Cat had managed to cure the virus on that flesh, making it 100% healthy and without a single trace of the disease on it. Sadly, that made her own powers unable to work to cure the virus again; however, as it was shown with the barricade, molding the flesh was not a problem for her.
It was a double layer of protection with the Kevlar under it, then a layer of muscles to give her an extra bonus on strength and speed, connected by long bands of bones and sinew around her limbs. It was similar to an exoskeleton where the engine was on her back, just a minimized version of a human torso without the digestive system. All of that was wrapped in the thick layer of callous, pinkish skin.
Even after all of this, Max found her cute, a little bit chubby, but that was just more meat for him to grab. Sadly, she was not on her team, so from now on, he needed to have enough with just being friends.
Cat took a deep breath and looked at the trio. "So, why are you guys here?" the woman asked.
"The air of the base is getting messed up; we are here to fix it," Olivia said.
"Getting more food would be nice for the long run," Ange added.
"Also, I wanted to touch some grass and learn a thing or two to apply to my body," Max muttered with a joking tone.
"Sorry, it is my fault. I was trying to kill something really dangerous that was stalking me," Cat finally confessed as she had blocked the air ducts in the zone with more flesh barricades.
Cat made sure to put her double layer of armor back. It should be a little hot for her with so much protection over her body, but nothing she couldn't withstand.
"We can deal with some zombies," the boy said. Normal ones, unless they were a huge group, were no problem for them.
"It is not a normal zombie, and it is in the air ducts," Cat said and let out a tired sigh.
"Another Black Goat's Children?" Ange asked curiously if her plague had evolved into something fancier or not.
The woman nodded; she was just taking a piss after killing some infected when she saw it. "I think so; I didn't see it directly," she answered, remembering well the sudden chemical smell that was poured into the room.
"How many of them could be in this place?" Max asked. There were a lot of horror stories about the Black Goat.
"A lot of people wanted superpowers, even if, as you can see, the secondary effects are horrible. But . . . jailbreaking the compass of a corpse and shoving it on another person gets messy and takes time . . ." Ange mumbled and started to count with her 30 fingers and then made a small nod.
"Judging by the size of these installations . . . from six to ten, take it or leave it," she finally muttered, as the hard part was always keeping them together after making them.
"Hmmmm, what did you see?" Olivia said, trying to get each sliver information as possible.
"Black and almost . . . liquid?" Cat answered. She saw just a few drops oozing from the vents, nothing more.
She made a small pause. "I didn't stay to see what it was. I ran and closed the door behind me," the healer finally said.