The Virus Within (Original rough draft)

Chapter 26

We pulled up in front of a shabby-looking house. It was the only thing resembling shelter we had seen for over an hour and it was already 7pm. I sniffed the air, "There is another human around here somewhere. Been here for a while from the smell of it."

Kal gave me an odd look as he climbed out, as if he hadn't realized that zombies could actually smell. How did he survive this long? Ben stood up and called out, "Is anyone here? We are just looking for shelter for the night."

Silence greeted our ears. Perhaps the man was too scared to approach or respond to such a large group. Then again, highway bandits weren't exactly unheard of and the man might think we were one of those groups. Ben shrugged, "I guess we make ourselves at home. Does anyone care to check that place for zombies?"

Daniel jumped out of the truck with ease and headed for the beat-up house. I stood and jumped off of the truck and stretched, grateful for more space. It didn't take Daniel long to return, "It is clear. Pretty secure too, so we won't have to overly worry about zombies breaking in."

Nicky snickered, obviously finding his comment hilarious. I chuckled and saw Nina grin as well. Daniel gave her a look before half-way grinning at his own unwitting joke. Most of those with us were looking at us as if we were crazy.

We hauled everything inside. Marissa promptly claimed one of the rooms for herself, Tom, and the kids. Our five newest companions chose the second room, leaving the rest of us with the living room and kitchen.

Hank went out to start a cooking fire and I headed off to find him more wood. Whatever guy was hanging around here, he clearly had no problems walking through the forest. His scent was all over the place. I came back with two big armloads of wood, it would be more than enough for supper.

I picked up an unfamiliar voice talking with Ben as I approached. I dumped the wood by the fire that Hank was tending and looked around. A rather shabbily dressed man was just inside the door talking to Ben and some of the other guys.

The others eventually came to sit around the fire. Ben was still talking, "It is a pretty tight squeeze, but we have room if you want to join us as we head to a Stronghold."

I reined in my temper before I growled. He was trying to pick up another stray?! What gives? I almost never saw humans in the foothills, but apparently out here, the land is just riddled with them. And, true to my luck, all of them seem to be on foot and in need of help.

The man's gruff voice replied, "I'll think about it and let you know come morning. I can't believe how this world went to shit after those zombies showed up. Bloody zombies, wish we could push them all into a giant pit and dump gasoline over 'em before throwing a match in."

I kept a straight face and watched the soup start to bubble. Daniel had his poker face on as well. I hoped that this man declined to take Ben's offer. Although the expression on his face if he learned he traveled with two zombies for days would be priceless. Who am I fooling? If Daniel and I can keep from growling at each other for 4 hours in that truck I will be amazed. With our luck, the fool would jump right off of the truck to get away from us.

Nicky opened up a bottle of water and I turned my head as something caught my attention, "Can I see that for a second?"

She made a face at me, "Promise me that you won't drink out of it, because I don't want whatever germs you might have. The last thing I need on this trip is the stomach flu. Ben might kill me if I puke on his shoes."

I sighed in exasperation, "I won't drink out of it."

She passed it over reluctantly. I held it up to my nose and took a careful sniff before glancing at the expiration date. The expiration date proclaimed that it was still good. I passed it back, "It's gone bad, I wouldn't drink that if I were you."

Others were watching and glancing at their own unopened bottles of water. Nicky blinked at me in shock, "What? Are you sure?"

I nodded, "Quite sure, where did you find that?"

Nicky pointed toward the store, "There are several cartons of water bottles inside."

It wasn't a brand we had picked up earlier. I was suspicious. The water hadn't simply gone stale and developed bacteria growth, there was some sort of drug in it. Which was odd since I had heard her crack the safety seal on the bottle as she opened it. I subtly glanced over at our new guest, but he was frowning at his own water bottle in his hands. It looked like all of the others.

Daniel cracked his own water bottle open and sniffed before making a face. He did the lid back up and threw it over his shoulder toward the forest. He held out his hand to Nina and she passed him hers as well. He opened it and it likewise took a flight after a quick sniff. That was enough for the others to abandon their bottles. I guess if a zombie won't drink it, then you know it is bad for your health.

Marissa was watching some sort of odd stew while it cooked. A dozen empty cans were nearby and I recognized them from our supplies. Tomato soup, vegetable soup, beef stew, and alphabet soup had all been dumped into one pot since we only had a few cans of each type. This was going to be an interesting meal.

In the end, it actually tasted pretty good if you didn't mind tomato-flavored soups. Everyone downed their bowl and the humans went back for seconds. Our latest guest managed to eat two bowls, "Thanks for the meal. Been a long time since I had something that good. Bloody zombies had to wreck everything..."

This could be a long evening if everything he said blamed the zombies. Nicky glanced at me with a smirk, obviously aware that such comments would slowly annoy me. At least this time I was not trapped in a grocery store with a group of humans. Our recent five additions kept glancing at Daniel and me, they seemed a bit pale as if they were waiting for us to blow up and attack the man.

The others talked a bit and the man kept blaming all of the world's problems on the zombies. Daniel was ignoring it fairly well, although Nina kept watching me to observe my reaction. The man's indirect comments against zombies were nowhere near as annoying as Ben's previous teasing about my sunglasses.

Most were yawning nonstop as the sun started to set and decided to head inside. Those who had claimed rooms went to them. Hank and Ben rolled out their sleeping bags on the kitchen floor. I sat on the floor in one corner with a thick blanket. Nicky put her sleeping bag beside me.

Nina got the couch and Daniel claimed the chair beside it. Our mystery man went to the cabinets and pulled out some bedding to make a bed in the other empty corner. I laid down and pretended to sleep, although it was easy to watch the darkening room from behind my sunglasses with no one else the wiser.

My instincts shifted in suspicion. I inhaled slowly and deeply, trying to figure out what was out of place. I had carefully scented the air when I had been outside, and I had come up empty. I hadn't picked up any other human scents and there had been no wind to blow scents away from me while I was outside. I wasn't sure why my instincts were slightly restless.

It was getting dark out though, and my instincts were strengthening with the approaching night. Nightstalker instincts were notoriously suspicious, and this wouldn't be the first false alarm I had received from them. After an hour of trying to figure it out, I simply gave up and tried to relax a bit. This night was going to be long enough as it was. It would feel much longer if I was being paranoid.

Nicky started snoring like a trucker and I sighed in faint annoyance. I wasn't going to be able to hear anything over that kind of racket. I rolled over and pushed her shoulder until she rolled onto her side and her snoring subsided. Since when does Nicky snore like that? Usually you had a hard time telling if she was actually asleep or just resting while ignoring everyone.

My muscles tensed as I realized that almost everyone was snoring.