The Med Wing was nearly empty when they stepped inside, and the patients that remained were asleep or close to it. Louie moved to the back of the Wing and stopped by the doctor's cot, Peyton beside her.

"Hello John, how are you feeling?" Louie asked.

In the past week she had been the person that oversaw his care. She found he was open and eager to trust the people around him. He had started talking the second day and was surprised when he mentioned the maps and Louie was clueless to what he was referring to. He told her he had expected Peyton to have filled her in. Louie had merely brushed off the fact, and hid her annoyance well.

The man who had been reading, looked up, his gray eyes meeting Louie's then shifting to Peyton's, a quiet smile sliding across his face.

"I'm good, headaches are gone," he said.

"Good, are you up for some movement and a conversation?"

John nodded and closed the book. Louie moved to his side as he stood, her hands at the ready to balance him as he got his bearings. Once certain he wasn't going to fall over head first when she stepped away, Louie started walking, gesturing for Peyton and the doctor to follow. Peyton settled beside his friend.

"Hey Peyton, I'm surprised you're still here," the doctor said.

"Still healing."

"Ah, of course."

"I'm glad to see you up and about."

John placed a steady hand on Peyton's shoulder and gave him a warm, friendly smile.

"Me too. Thank you for making it happen."

Louie glanced back as Peyton merely nodded the gratitude away. They made it out of the Med Wing and over to the second set of offices, without being stopped, the majority of the Compound at lunch. Louie opened the door to her office and ushered the two men inside. She gestured for the doctor to take the larger of the two chairs and then refused to sit.

"Peyton, sit," Louie said, after he had argued with her and tried to make her take it.

John's smiled at the exchange, amused by Louie's command over the man he had watched lead a group of nine people across five states. Peyton reluctantly sat and Louie turned her attention to John. There was something about the way he looked at her that made her relax around him. It was as if he knew the weight the fell on her shoulders and did not pity her it, but instead admired her for it.

"So John, what's this valuable information you care to share with me," Louie said.

The doctor settled back in the chair, his energy, though better than it had been was still far from being sufficient.

"Louie, is there another chair, what I have to tell you might take a while and I prefer not to have to look up for the extent of it."

Louie nodded and disappeared for a second before returning with another chair, which she placed between the two men, and sat, though her body was far from relaxed. John leveled Louie with a steady gaze.

"Louie, how much do you and your Compound know about the Soulless?"

"We call them Crawlers," Louie said. "But our information is very limited. We know that they were born from a disease that started in New Zealand. The disease is transmitted by bites. The change takes up to about two hours and there is no cure. They have taken over the majority of the world. Other then that there are rumors we have heard, like they can never die but nothing concrete."

John nodded in approval.

"Most of that is true. I want to explain to you exactly what they are. You should know that more than a doctor, I'm a scientist. I have been working to understand and study, we'll call them Crawlers for your sake, for the last fifteen years of my life. Believe me, it hasn't been the easiest of tasks."

Louie nodded understandably.

"What I know is this," the doctor said. "The Crawlers are still human, but their instincts for pain and self preservation have been removed. They can die," John mentioned to Peyton. "Peyton can attest to this fact. Though most of their mental faculties are offline, they still have the tendencies that normal humans have. Such as living in communities and eating whatever they can find. Though they no longer care whether it is human or animal that they eat. They settle in places for long periods of time until they have eaten everything in reach and are forced to move on."

"And you have tracked them?" Louie asked.

Both Peyton and John nodded.

"Yes," John said. "It has been our main focus for the last year, scouting out the main groups. We have been focusing mainly on the West coast. That's also how we heard about your Compound here. Peyton you have the maps?"

Peyton stood and pulled his pack off his shoulder, settling it on the desk between them. Louie's eyes narrowed on it and realized that's why it had been so important, it was years of his work. Peyton opened it and pulled out a thick pile of worn and slightly torn looking paper. John stood, holding the table to steady himself, as his eyes racked over the collection. Peyton shifted through the stack and took out one of the large folded pages.

With a quick motion he unfolded the map, laying it on the desk. Louie rose slowly from her chair and moved closer. All over the map of the U.S. were marks and small scribbled notes dictating patterns and clusters of Crawlers. Arrows moved across the patchwork land, the paths lazy and uncoordinated.

"How many groups have you been tracking?" Louie asked, looking at Peyton.

He ran a hand through his hair, as if now remembering every day that he had spent out moving behind the pack of wild humans that would in an instant kill him.

"About eight major groups. There were smaller ones that I was able to destroy before they got close to towns."

Louie's mind flashed back to the scars that covered Peyton's body and felt maybe he did deserve the title of hero. Peyton pointed to a large group that was moving to the coast and towards the Compound.

"I was tracking this group for awhile, until they settled and then I returned to our Compound in Canada. We were attacked a few weeks later and I managed to get our group out."

Louie's head shoot up.

"Just your group survived?"

"No, I was just in charge of the people you see here. Other groups were formed and lead to different locations. Whether they made it, I don't know. We had the plan in place in case something did happen, then there was a higher hope that one group would make it alive. I took my group here because I knew the way the best."

"You must have been traveling for weeks?"

"Months and yes, but now they are safe and that's all that matters."

Louie's gaze fell back to the maps and the large group of Crawlers that had been making their way towards the Compound. She pointed to the group.

"Do you know where this group is now?"

"No, I took us out of their range," Peyton said. "I didn't have those type of people with me, ones that would be able to defend themselves."

Louie nodded.

"How long have you two been working together?" Louie asked, looking between the two.

John settled back into the chair, his body heavy with the energy spent needing to stand.

"About three years. Peyton is the main reason we know so much."

Louie looked to Peyton and understood the fire that she had seen the first day. He met her gaze with an even passive expression, and the merest hint of pride. Louie looked back to John.

"You said something early on about their lack of self preservation, what did you mean by that?"

"Ah, yes," John said. "Well, you see that without attacking someone and changing them, they can't produce more Crawlers. So how ever many groups there are right now, are as many will be, unless they chance upon more people and infect them."

"Do you know how they attack?" Louie asked.

Peyton spoke up before John could.

"Yes, since they have no brainpower to form plans their usual course is to keep moving until they run into someone and attack. They have no sense of direction as where to go to find people. Their instincts are more of that of a wild animal, except a lot more aggressive. Though that hasn't really been a problem since the world is covered with people, they have been well fed for a while."

"Are you saying that they aren't now?"

"That's exactly what we are saying," John said. "The Crawlers have been able to live for years by just wondering around and stumbling onto people, but now that is not as much the case. The human race has grown smart and we have hidden ourselves away, built places." He mentioned around him. "Such as this to keep them out, to prevent them from ever having the chance to get to us. Even though they are mindless to pain, they still need to eat to survive."

"What does this mean?" Louie asked.

"They are dying out," Peyton said.

*******************

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