Mutation (Twenty-Five Percent Book 1) by Nerys Wheatley

sustained were long, but shallow, the bleeding all but stopped.  He sat down on the bed, dropped his supplies, and began to apply the cream.
    “How are we going to get out of here?” Micah said.
    “Haven’t we had this conversation before?”
    He leaned against the windowsill and looked at Alex.  “Oh what, you’d be happy to go out there with that lot?”
    Alex shrugged in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner.  In truth, the prospect of going outside made him more than a little nervous when he wasn’t sure he smelled sufficiently like the new eaters to get away with it.  Although even if he did, he still didn’t want to go out.
    Micah took his silence, accurately, for reluctance.  “Yeah, didn’t think so.”
    “We may be safe here for tonight,” Alex said, ripping open a pack of sterile gauze with his teeth and pressing the square of material to his left palm.  “Things may be different in the morning.”
    “Yes, or they may be worse.”
    “That is a possibility.”
    “I think we should try to get out tonight,” Micah said.
    “Why?  Do you have family in the city?”
    “No.”  Micah turned back to the window.  “I just think we should, that’s all.  We’re near the centre of town here.  More people here, so more eaters.”
    Alex finished the finicky process of bandaging his left palm one handed and started on the right.  “I do have one idea.”
    Micah looked back at him and frowned.  “Will it end in my gory death?”
    Alex shrugged.  “I’d give it a thirty, thirty-five percent chance that it won’t.”
    “Wow, that high?”  He walked over to sit on the bed.  “What is it?”
    Alex looked at his hand as he wound the bandage around his palm, not wanting to look at Micah.  “Well, if we can convince the eaters you aren’t a potential food source, we can both just walk out.”
    “And how do you intend to do that?”
    “By disguising your smell with mine.”
    “I’m afraid to ask, but how?”
    Alex cleared his throat.  “By rubbing my skin over you.”
    “You want to what ?!” 
    If he hadn’t been so uncomfortable with the idea himself, Micah’s look of sheer horror would have been enough to make Alex burst into laughter.
    “It’s that or die, your choice,” he said.  “Don’t think I’m thrilled about it myself.”
    Micah pursed his lips.  “Hm.  Yeah, how do I know you don’t just want to cop a feel?”
    “Don’t flatter yourself,” Alex said, “you’re not my type.”
    “Oh, what, you like brunettes?”
    Alex snorted.  “Yes.  I’m also partial to boobs and vaginas.”
    The hint of a smile flitted across Micah’s face before vanishing again.  “Fine, just get it over with.”
    “Um, there’s just one problem.”
    “Only one?”
    Alex kept staring at his hand.  “Thing is, I’m not absolutely certain that they won’t attack me .”
    Micah stared at him.  “What?”
    “If this is a different virus, or at least sufficiently different, the way I smell may mean nothing to these new eaters.  They might go after me as much as you.”  Alex cleared his throat again.
    “But at the station, you said...”
    “Yeah, I just wanted to make you suffer.”
    Micah narrowed his eyes.  “You know, I didn’t think it was possible you could be any more annoying, but here we are.”
    “If you’re looking for an apology, you’re barking up the wrong tree.  You led a mob onto my street, remember?”
    “Oh what, so that means I deserve to be eaten alive?”
    “I can hardly be expected to cut you any slack...”
    “Cut me any slack?  When have you ever cut me any slack?  The whole day you’ve got me into disaster after disaster.  It’s a wonder I’m still alive.”
    “I’ve got you into disaster after disaster?  If it wasn’t for me having to drag you along, I’d be home by now.”
    “How on earth did you work that out?  You don’t even know if they’ll attack you or not.”
    “They might not.”  Alex wondered why he was