Dr. Lucian Kael walked through the ruins of downtown New Havenburg as if he were strolling through his own private garden. The infected, his children, his flock, parted before him. They did not see him as prey. They did not see him as a threat. They did not see him at all. To them, he was simply an extension of the same force that now animated their limbs, the same signal that had replaced their thoughts. He was the source of the music they all danced to.
He moved with a strange, newfound confidence. The stooped, anxious posture of the scientist was gone, replaced by the upright, steady gait of a leader. He had established a new laboratory, a new nexus, in the penthouse suite of the city's tallest skyscraper. From there, he could see everything. He could feel everything.
