Chapter 39 Mutations

Another horrible dream made me almost scream as I woke up. I am bathed with sweat, my hair is so frizzy and I feel so sticky all over my body.
I took off my tank top and pulled a fresh white shirt from my rucksack. When I got out of the tent, the sun was already high and blinding to the eyes. My eyes searched for Jayson as soon as I stepped outside our little corner and saw him fixing something on the engine of the car. His hands are messy of black greases and oil and he was too focused to notice that I"m almost near him.
"Hmm... any problem with the engine?" I asked while I was behind him.
He was startled by my voice and hit his head on the elevated hood. His head gave a loud bang on the metal and he grunted in pain. "Awww!"
I almost burst into laughter but I suppressed it and pretended I didn"t see him hit his head. His face wincing from the pain, he turned around and faced me, a little surprised by my presence.
Mona came walking towards us and gave us both a cup of steaming coffee. Having coffee in the middle of this heat? What time is it anyway?
"You seem to sleep a lot since we got to the bunker." Jayson commented. "You always wake up late."
"It must be the medicine Dr. Peterson gave me to heal the injuries I got from that d*mn gorilla." I answered, pertaining to Cdr. Leo. I walked closer to him and leaned my hips against the front of the car as I watched him continue fixing something to it. "What"s wrong anyway?"
"Nothing... I"m just making sure the engine"s toned well since our next destination may take over one and half days." He answered, grunting as he wrenched something inside of it that made me a bit nervous. Does he really know what he"s doing?
"Maybe you should seek help with Li. He"s a mechanical engineer right? He must know what"s wrong here." I suggested it to him because it is so obvious that he"s having a hard time fixing it.
"Nahhh... I can do it. It. Just.Need—"
We both were baffled when the engine suddenly spurted a thin black smoke, straight to his face. My eyes widened, thinking that instead of him fixing it, he probably made it worse!
"That"s it! I"ll tell Li to look at it!" I gave him a warning look to not touch anything again in the machine and was about to walk away to look for Li when I remember I haven"t seen Timothy around since I woke up.
"Where"s Tim by the way?" I asked him.
His face suddenly looked annoyed. "I don"t know Harriet. He must be somewhere around the store." He sighed in exasperation, feeling exhausted by the heat of the sun.
"You worry too much about him."
"Of course I worry about you all. It"s just Tim can"t handle himself well yet and I"m scared he gets into trouble without us knowing..." I told him; a little vexed that Timothy might have tried venturing too far from this place.
"He"s not a baby anymore, Harriet. Actually he just told me he wants to look for any vehicle that we can use. An electric powered one since this car looks a little too old to handle such a long journey." He looked at me a little frustrated. I wonder what makes Jayson a little too impatient these days. He"s losing his cool and I have a notion that it"s his irrational hate towards Timothy. "I am trying to tone the engine to prove to him we don"t need the upgraded ones."
I stared at Jayson with an incredulous look on my face. "Why is there a feeling in me that you have hatred against Timothy? Any explanation you want to share, Jayson?" I put my hands on my waist and waited for his answer. He lowered his face looking embarrassed and thinking deeply about what to say.
He wiped the greases on his hand with the towel he took from his shoulder and averted his eyes from me. "He"s too close to you." He murmured.
Too what?
I gazed at him, puzzled by what he said. He still refuses to look at my face and just stares down on his hand as he wipes it. There"s a part of me that assumes he"s indirectly trying to convey his feelings to me but I don"t want to hope for that thing. If he likes me, then he must say it directly or I won"t entertain this fuzzy sensation that"s bothering my mind.
We both went silent for a few minutes, not knowing what to say to each other when Li"s troubled face gave me a wrenching feeling on my stomach. He approached us; his face looked as if he had seen a ghost or something... Creepers?
Jayson and I looked at each other, alarmed of what made Li behave like that. His hands were trembling when I held it, Mona rushed behind him with the same expression.
"Get inside. Quick!" Li pulled me and ran inside the store. Jayson followed us and a scary feeling emerged on my chest, accompanied by the sound of heavy feet, rumbling the tiled floor of the building.
"What"s that?!" I asked, baffled. Dusts fell from the ceiling of the building as the heavy thumping continued; the sound reverberated on the walls.
"Shh!" Li hissed at me and he pulled me down on the ground. He led us to the exit door of the store. A different kind of fear crawled on my skin when I saw a bull... but it"s not actually a normal bull because its hide was reddish, as if it"s rotting. The four of us quickly hid beside the glass door and watched the horrifying beast walk to and fro behind the building as if it"s waiting for something... or smelling something?
Then I realized Timothy"s not here!
I automatically stood but Jayson quickly pulled me down. The Creeper bull must have sensed my sudden movement because it glanced in our direction; its eyes were glowing red.
"Where"s Timothy?! We must find him!" I feel so scared. I can"t let this thing roaming around this place when Timothy"s not aware of it. We must do something!
"Hey! Hey, calm down, Harriet. We"re not sure yet where Timothy is. We must not attack when we have no idea how to kill that beast. It"s not an ordinary bull anymore. I think it"s mutated into something." Jayson explained to me, he tried to steady his voice.
I tried to shove his hand away from me but he"s too strong. Where"s Timothy? I must find a way to save him. Once that bull sees him, I"m afraid it won"t waste a second to attack my friend. I can"t let that happen... we"ve been surviving this since the airport. I don"t want any of us to die...
My eyes welled tears.
What should we do...