• Alystir eventually had to move. He could hear footsteps outside of Liam's still-open bedroom door, and the scent wasn't human. As he slowly dislodged himself from the beautiful boy and climbed out of bed, he found himself face-to-face with Nathan, who he wasn't surprised to see.

    "It's time." Nathan looked grim as he gripped Alystir's arm and pulled him out of the room. Alystir barely managed to grab his boots on the way out, and didn't have time to pull them on as he was tugged down the hall at an urgent pace.

    "Nathan, where are we going?" Alystir pleaded, trying to wrench his arm free but the older zombie was a little too strong for him. "Let go of me, would you? Do you want to damage my other arm?"

    Nathan didn't appear to listen and Alystir was dragged through a few more halls and down a long set of stairs. He looked around this lower level with curiosity, as he'd never been down there before. The hall was dark, pale lights just barely illuminating doors they passed hurriedly, Nathan's boots sounding loudly off of the walls as Alystir's socked feet barely made a sound.

    Alystir realized what they were doing down there upon reaching their destination. Nathan yanked open a door and thrust him into a dimly-lit room, lined with cages. Alystir shuddered. The cages were filled with Zombies. Some of them ravenous, reaching through the bars at Alystir as if they had no idea he wasn't food. Most were huddled in corners, looking up at Alystir with their sickly yellow eyes upon his entrance.

    A fairly large zombie approached the bars of his cage, looking rather fat and slovenly, yet in his eyes there was that spark of recognition. Alystir knew before he spoke that he was aware, he was conscious like him.

    "Hey you, could you help me out here? I'm just so hungry, man. You're one of us, can you get me out of here, man?"

    Alystir recoiled.

    "The devices didn't work on these guys.. Liam says their brains can't take another attempt at putting the device in without destroying them, like those guys." Nathan jerked his head to the ravenous zombies. Some still knew language and screamed and raved as they tore at their bars. As Alystir walked slowly through the large warehouse-sized room, he just barely dodged the hand of a woman zombie shrieking profanities. Then again, she could have just been really angry. Alystir sympathized. He would have been angry too, had that happened to him. He felt a little choke coming as he saw children pleading to be fed, one promising that he would be good if only someone would feed him.

    Alystir looked up at Nathan with wide eyes. "How could they do this? They're not like Quentin, they're intelligent! They know how to feel this torment!" Alystir felt the urge to throw the only things in his hand in disgust, but he thought better of it at the last moment. He didn't have any other pair of boots.

    "And you were up there snuggling with him. He does this to our kind and you have -feelings- for the bloke." Nathan curled his upper lip as he glared at Alystir. "He doesn't care about us, he doesn't see us as humans, we're just test subjects to him. Him and his father."

    Alystir couldn't take it anymore. The voices, the screaming, the pleading and cries. Darting out of the room, he tossed his boots to the floor as he ran through the basement hall and up the stairs. He could hear Nathan shout after him but he ignored it. His feet were moving of their own accord, carrying him back to Liam's room. He hadn't a breath to lose or a heartbeat to pace, so he didn't slow down until he slammed Liam's bedroom door behind him, leaning back against it, eyes narrowed upon the boy who'd sat up with a start.

    "How could you! I saw them! I saw them in the basement! How could you treat them like animals!"

    Liam looked blearily at Alystir for a long moment, confused and disheveled. Finally he seemed to regain his bearings and shook his head with a small smile. "Silly, we treat our animals better."