"Damn," said Justin. "That makes no sense."
"Exactly. What's the mechanism going on here? The mechanism is not visible - or at least I've not clearly seen it. The severed limbs slide together and heal up - no sign of a gluey pus or anything. I pondered alternative methods but nothing makes sense. For example, this isn't something that I'd expect a magnetic field to be able to do. I'm not a scientist, so my knowledge is basically what I'd get from the news, and yet I've never heard of anything that did this."
"It almost sounds like some sort of nanotechnology."
Dave shook his head. "Movie-based fantasies are one thing, but this is reality that we're talking about. Has someone on this planet really perfected something as difficult as nanotechnology? I'm sure that if there was someone about to have a scientific breakthrough like this then they would have been telling the world about it. This is completely out of the blue. It feels like some random bullshit that evolution would throw our way."
"Yeah. If something like this was known about it would completely overturn modern medicine."
"It could easily be the key to immortality."
Justin looked uneasy. "It's not a form of immortality that I want."
"Those dead people don't seem too smart. During the day they mostly just stand there. It's their seeming inactivity during the day that gives me the confidence to move during the day."
"Night is different?" asked Justin.
"Even you've noticed that. When night comes around you stop going outside for supplies and close off access to this roof."
"They mostly seem to come out at night, and ...," Justin couldn't finish his sentence.
Eric looked at Justin and understood Justin's hesitation. "They run."
Dave nodded. "This agrees with what I've been seeing. Except one extra point. And this one seems so crazy that I don't even want to mention it."
A look of complete panic came over Eric who spoke softly: "The whispers."
"What?" asked Dave.
Eric clammed up and clearly wanted to say nothing more about this topic, so Justin took over. "It's faint, but during the night we hear what sounds like whispers."
"Do you think that you're hearing some survivors?" asked Dave trying to clarify their observations.
"No. There's something about the whispers. They are terrifying."
"Have you listened to what is said?"
"No. It's too faint. This roof is pretty high up and during the night we stay away from the roof edges to avoid being noticed. And to be honest, when I notice the whispers I cover my head completely."
"Which implies that you've never seen those that make the noise."
"And you have?" said Justin with a look of shock on his face.
"It's dark at night, so I've not seen them clearly. All that I can really say is that I'm sure that they are also dead."
"How is that possible? The dead shouldn't be able to speak."
"The dead shouldn't be able to rise from the ground and walk. The ones that make the whispering noises are what I call 'talkers' and they seem rather intelligent."
"What are you basing this on?"
"First off. You might be hearing some vague sounds, but I've been close enough to hear them say comprehensible sentences."
"I don't get that. The brains of dead people shouldn't work."
"Talking isn't their only talent. The walking types can barely do that. But the talking types seem to have a larger collection of dexterous skills. I haven't watched them enough but I wouldn't be surprised if they could open doors and do things requiring a similar level of ability."
Justin spun his head to the stairwell leading into the shopping centre. "So that's why you were so insistent on improving the defences around here."
"Yeah. Closing the door might stop a walker, but a talker might be able to stroll right up here without a problem."
"Damn it," cursed Justin. "Now that I know that I would like it if we could close off the entrances to the shopping centre right this very moment."
Dave looked up at the dusky sky. "There's no way we'd be able to secure the shopping centre in the time that we have left before dark. Heck. I don't even know if we can do it in one day."
"We've been safe so far. So let's just hope that we get through another night."
"Let's not push whatever luck that we might have. Keep away from the roof edges and try and be as quiet as possible. I know that people are a bit energetic at the moment, but we should pass around the word to remain very quiet tonight."
"Fuck," said Justin.
Dave and Eric just looked at Justin in agreement.
* * *
After picking a place to stay the night, Dave placed his backpack against the large air duct that wormed in seeming random directions along the roof of the shopping centre. Dave disconnected the sleeping mat from the side of his backpack and unrolled it with the feet end away from the air duct. Dave returned to his backpack to detach his sleeping bag which he unrolled over the sleeping mat.
"It must be rough sleeping up here?" asked Dave as he prepared for the night.
"We typically put down a lot of blankets to get over the hardness," responded Eric.
Justin had his own preparations to do before nightfall and had left them earlier.
Dave looked up at the sky. "We've not had any rain for the last few days, so it's been possible to survive up here in some level of comfort. However the moment that it rains this will turn to a soggy hell."
Eric sat down on a random pile of blankets near to where Dave had set up his sleeping bag. Eric had suggested this spot to Dave because this is where Eric slept. It hadn't been much time, but a certain level of friendliness had grown between the two.
"Maybe we could put up some more tarpaulins?" suggested Eric.
"Even if you stop the rain with a tarp, this roof looks pretty flat so I'm guessing
