The Virus Within (Original rough draft)

Chapter 37

Nina watched in surprise as I accepted a bowl of stew for breakfast. This was the third meal in a row I had eaten with the group. I usually only ate one meal a day so the change likely had her curiosity piqued. Great. A curious and bored Nina in the back of a truck is not how I want to spend my day.

I glanced over at Daniel, "Where are my belt knife and sickle?" I really hoped that they had recovered my weapons.

"In my backpack. For the safety of anyone within throwing range, we think it is best if you don't carry weapons. Your temper was a bit unpredictable before and I trust it even less right now. You can have them back once those wounds have healed."

I gritted my teeth with a low growl of frustration – how dare he take my weapons! I needed the advantage they gave me if I ended up having to fight while injured. Daniel growled back as his eyes flashed red in a light warning. I turned my head away from him while I silently fumed, conceding defeat. I was no match for him in a fight and he was likely more than willing to keep me in line.

Daniel stood up with a huffing noise, "I had better go hunt. Can you possibly stay out of trouble for at least 20 minutes?"

I snorted, "I have no plans on getting out of this chair anytime soon unless I have to."

He faintly growled at my cynical tone before he left the room. I was not looking forward to the rest of today considering how growly the two of us were already. I leaned back in the chair and stretched my sore leg in an attempt to ease the throbbing. It was a pity that I had never found anything that was capable of easing pain. I listened to the others as they were packing up.

Ben came over, "We should be packed in another 15 minutes and ready to roll once Daniel comes back. If you need anything, speak up now or forever hold your peace."

My backpack still had all of the food I had stashed in it, so I was good on that front. I highly doubted that they would hand me any weapons. That may be a good thing though, at least if they wanted to arrive alive. I shook my head and Ben grabbed some sleeping bags to haul out to the truck.

I watched as Liz gazed around at the bustle of activity and looked at me. I was the only one sitting down. She wandered over and I shifted my injured leg out of the way. I didn't really feel like having the child near me, but let her approach.

She carefully climbed up on my good knee and sat to watch the others working. She leaned back against me and I put one arm lightly around her to prevent her from shifting to the side and brushing against any of my injuries.

Her voice was quiet, "I am glad that you are okay. They were worried that you wouldn't wake up."

That had never been my doubt. If my head was on my shoulders, I would eventually come to. My worry had been what I would have been like when I woke up. I replied quietly, "I will be healing for some time, but I will eventually recover."

I was waiting to see how long it would take the adults to realize that the child was with me. Their reaction could be entertaining. They were all uneasy about my control, but it was back to normal even if I was grumpier than usual. My throat burned lightly from her smell as it always did, but Liz was in no danger.

Marissa paused as she looked around and finally spotted Liz on my lap. She froze in shock. Tom noticed her and followed her gaze as he began to look quite uneasy. Liz finally noticed the look on Marissa's face, "Is something wrong Marissa?"

Hank and Ben walked in and paused at her question. Ben hesitated, "Uh... Trinity, are you sure that is wise?"

Nicky snorted as she kept packing and ignored the reactions of the others, "I am pretty sure if she was having problems with control that she wouldn't be sitting there so calmly."

I bared my teeth in a silent grin at the unconcerned woman, "I managed to put up with you that one morning. Liz has never yet pushed my patience to its limit."

Nicky chuckled, "Oh, I know. Daniel practically blew a gasket when he had to deal with me. He actually tied me up so I couldn't chase Ben around!"

Daniel chose that moment to walk in. He sent a glare my way as he noticed Liz perched on my leg, "Can't you even stay out of trouble for ten minutes? Is that truly too much to ask?"

I snorted and sarcastically responded, "I said that I had no intention of getting out of this chair. My lazy ass has been parked here all this time while I watched everyone else industriously packing."

Daniel growled in frustration. Nicky groaned, "You two are worse than a couple of 4 year olds! You two aren't even in the vehicle yet and you two are tormenting each other."

Both of us sent Nicky a dirty look. As if she had any room to talk. Nicky grabbed a bag of food and packed it out to the truck. Ben sighed as he ruffled up Chloe's fur, "You have no idea how lucky you are to ride in the front, girl."

Chloe wagged her tail happily as if to rub it in. Ben stood up, "Well, the truck is now packed."

I exhaled gustily, I was not looking forward to this. I gently put Liz on her feet and stood up. Marissa held out her hand to Liz and Liz crossed the floor to take her hand. I went outside and eyed up the big jacked-up truck as I approached it. No matter how I did this, getting in or out was going to hurt.

My Nightstalker instincts hated showing weakness or pain. Stepping onto the bumper before swinging my leg up and over into the truck involved three steps that would be sure to cause some decent pain in my leg.

There was nothing wrong with my left arm though, so I jumped and used my arm to vault into the back of the truck. I carefully bent my knees slightly as I landed while letting my uninjured leg take most of my weight. It hurt, but not as badly as it could have.

I took my usual seat and got comfy as the others climbed into the back of the truck. We took up the seating we usually did. Nina was not impressed with how I had gotten into the truck, "Stuff like that is what you shouldn't be doing if you want those injuries to heal anytime soon."

I raised my eyebrow, "This truck isn't exactly low to the ground. How else did you expect me to get in?"

"Certainly not by pretending to be a kangaroo. I am sure that Daniel could have lifted you in."

Daniel gave Nina a startled and disbelieving look, he clearly had not expected that suggestion. I gave Nina a look of pure disbelief, "Not likely. In case you haven't noticed, we haven't even come into direct contact yet."

We could barely stand being in the same vicinity with each other. Nina needed her head checked with ideas like that. Nina looked a bit disgruntled, but let it slide as she noticed Daniel's apparent aversion to that idea.

Now that I thought about it, it had likely been Daniel who had packed me into that room while I had been out cold. It would have been far too dangerous for a human to attempt it. Had I woken up, I probably would have attacked whomever was carrying me as an instinctive reaction. Also, any of my blood was quite dangerous for humans.

The thought of someone touching me while I was unaware of it didn't make this any easier. Zombies were not much for contact. Liz may keep coming back to me and I had interacted with Nicky somewhat, but other than that, I hadn't come into direct contact with any other person here unless you counted when Nina had changed my bandages.

I pulled the hood of my sweater over my head and looked at the road as Hank started the truck. This was going to be a long drive...