The fresh infected (meaning the ones that don't have that many visible fungi growing in them yet) can go up to a few months before developing into clickers iirc, could be wrong tho. Considering that they're running around the snow with little regard for their well being attacking anything that moves, and that snowstorms seem to be common place, I'd give them one day at most before they succumbed to the cold were they real people.
So unless they JUST got infected right as you find them (which I doubt, seeing as there were a few clickers with them) it still wouldn't make a lot of sense
I see. In the first game it was kinda logical why you found the infected at different places, some dank cellar death trap for scavengers, or just some wanderers getting attacked, I mean there was always some kind of story explaining why and how. Just got the impression there might not be much of a focus on that part in the sequel. Shame.