The Virus Within (Original rough draft)

Chapter 4

I was able to actually travel on this abandoned road since there were no zombies around. I had slowed to a pace that a human jogger could keep up with shortly after leaving the town. Chloe panted lightly as she trotted beside me.

I moved toward the trees and slowed to a slow walk as I saw the first buildings in the distance. Chloe seemed to like the break, and truth be told, I appreciated it too after traveling nonstop for four hours. We may be unable to starve to death, but zombies still had limits. I wasn't panting hard or desperate for a rest, but our steady jogging pace had me breathing heavily. Nightstalkers were built for an ambush or slower paces, not long-distance traveling.

I slunk through the undergrowth and Chloe gave me more space as my Nightstalker habits became more prominent. I was a motionless shadow among the trees as I examined the tiny town, although the word hamlet or village would have suited it better. Nine tiny stores and twenty houses were present, all of them could have comfortably fit inside of any Walmart out there with room for a bonfire.

I examined the local residents, three zombies who wandered back and forth aimlessly. I glanced back at a cautious looking Chloe, "Stay here Chloe." I left the trees and dropped into my slight crouch as I approached the buildings. All three zombies ignored me as I wandered into the town. Regular zombies rarely bothered me if I acted like a zombie.

These stores were smaller than many houses I had seen and carried only the bare essentials. I entered the grocery store, it held nine small aisles of shelving filled with food. A zombie wandered up one aisle and growled at me. I snarled at the shop keeper's welcome.

With another low growl, he wandered down another aisle. With an attitude like that it is no wonder he has no customers today. Then again, I am a terrible customer. I never pay for what I take. He wouldn't complain though, he was a mindless zombie and long past caring about something as trivial as the fancy printed paper that resided in the cashier's till.

I grabbed a basket and went over to the first aisle. There were a lot of choices and my backpack would only hold so much. I would have to make several trips to this town and stash the food in various locations in the forest. I mostly grabbed stuff like canned fruit, juice, trail bars, and some noodles. Stuff that I couldn't find in the forest. I grabbed Chloe a few dog treats as well.

Once my backpack was full I went outside and glanced through the windows of the other small shops. Most didn't interest me. The electronics store was useless without power and cell phones hadn't worked for months. I barely glanced into the furniture store. I ignored the houses for now, if I used up most of the food in the store then I would check them out.

I watched some odd whirligigs dancing in the light breeze. Whoever made them obviously had too much time on their hands considering how complex a few of them looked. The one made an entire small scene of wooden people work or wave as it was powered by the wind. Bizarre.

I paused and took a deep breath of air. The heat in my blood stirred at the faint scent of human blood in the air. I hesitated, my original human inclination was to help out, but the darker side of me was far too tempted by that scent. If the person was armed, he or she may very well strike first and ask questions later. I took a second breath to test the air.

The scent was very faint. Far too weak for the other zombies to notice it. The injured person was probably miles away, it could take me some time to get close even if I ran. The breeze picked up a bit, there must be a lot of blood otherwise I wouldn't be able to pick up details from the scent like this. The scent was that of a child. That decided me.

I turned and ran down the road whistling for Chloe. She bounded out of the bushes and quickly followed me. Runners may come close to matching a human's speed, but Nightstalkers were faster. I pushed for speed until Chloe was almost running full tilt. I was glad I had hunted last night, my control should be good enough even around spilt human blood. Or so I hope.