The Virus Within: Blood Moon (Book 3)

Chapter 2

The truck slowed down, and I glared at the intersection as if demanding that it hand over a list of all those who had traversed through it and which way they'd gone. The three possible roads gave no clues and remained silent.

"I can't see if there are any tracks in the dust from here," Daniel said, frustration lacing his voice. "I'll have to get out for a better look."

As the truck came to a hard stop in the middle of the intersection, I jumped out and raced down one road, hoping for a whiff of Jess, Nicky, or one of the injured men. Finding mostly undamaged twigs, I went to the road that would have led straight.

Daniel scoured the pavement, although the wind had removed most of the dust that might have shown us the way. Both of us were now analyzing the twigs and other objects that might have been damaged by three vehicles recently passing through. This close to the Stronghold, a lot of the broken branches were likely due to the passage of our own people.

My nostrils flared, and I quickly backtracked, scanning the pavement twice as hard for something other than the sticks and dust I'd been examining. I followed my nose and crouched down to pick up a small tuft of red hair.

"They went this way!" I called out to Daniel as I ran back to the truck.

He made it to the truck and was already driving by the time I caught up. I vaulted into the back, almost moving too fast to land in the small area behind the cab without stepping on some of our supplies.

"What'd you find?" Daniel asked as he accelerated down the road.

I held the pinch of inch-long strands where he'd be able to see them in the rearview mirror. "Nicky's hair. She must have torn some tips off and dropped them." I lifted them to my nose for a quick sniff. "She was the only one who touched them, and that was about two hours ago."

"At least we know we're on the right track," Daniel said grimly. "Let's hope she does that at every intersection."

It was the strangest trail of breadcrumbs I'd ever imagined, but at least the birds wouldn't eat the strands of hair. And it would leave her scent behind in a tangible fashion.

~

       By the time we reached the fourth intersection, Daniel didn't even bother getting out of the truck since Nicky had been leaving clues just a bit farther down whichever road they took.

As he slowed down again, I jumped out of the still-moving vehicle and ran ahead to determine which way they had gone. I slowed, then turned back and followed my nose back to the middle of the intersection.

"Drive ahead a bit," I told Daniel, who obliged.

As the truck moved ahead, a few hairs fluttered in the gentle breeze. I held them up with a frown. This was the first time we'd found something right in the middle of an intersection. They were usually about a hundred feet away.

"That doesn't give me much to go on," Daniel observed from the driver's window. "Can you track where the wind rolled it across the ground? All of these roads have broken branches and signs of recent travel."

I inhaled deeply and growled a negative. "Maybe some of the hairs remained where they fell..."

I darted to the left since the gentle breeze was currently coming from that direction. Moments later, I leaned down to grab a couple of strands of hair off the ground. Daniel saw the movement and began driving toward me. As he went by, I jumped into the back, but continued to frown at the hairs as my instincts focused on one critical detail that stood out.

"Is something wrong?" Logan asked quietly.

"They're different lengths..." I murmured, staring at the long hairs I had picked up in the middle of the intersection and the short pieces I had just found. I sniffed them to make sure that Nicky had been the only one to handle them.