The Virus Within (Original rough draft)

Chapter 64

I sighed as I reclined in the lawn chair. Nicky snorted, "I don't know why you are sighing. All you did was run around outside the fence. I was the one who was stooped over all afternoon picking rocks. You have sure been spending a lot of time outside of the fence lately. You aren't planning on running without me are you?"

Running was getting a bit more tempting, but running away went against my instincts as it was tantamount to giving in. Besides, they had made one breakthrough already... I exhaled gustily as I recalled the main source of my irritation, "I am spending more time out there because Louise is scared of being outside the fence without guards."

Nicky gave me an incredulous look, "Is she still trying to get you to try that new cure? I thought Nina and Daniel told her to leave you alone."

I frowned, "They did, but she keeps coming when they are elsewhere. She is getting seriously annoying and I am tired of it."

It had been three days since Nina had told us about the cure and Louise had been a royal pain in my ass ever since. I had growled at her several times, but she just didn't take the hint. Nina had caught her annoying me once and told Louise to leave me alone. Daniel had backed Nina as he bared his teeth at the young woman. They had worked hard to convince me to stay, having a lab assistant annoying me wasn't something that they were going to tolerate.

Daniel had relaxed a bit the last few days, but dealing with ferals day in and day out was putting him in a perpetual slightly irritable mood. I stayed clear of that barn. Once the ex-zombies had been close to having their bodies shut down, they had re-infected them. Their triggers still needed some work, but they could reliably turn someone into a Runner.

Not one of the zombies regained control or were sane. Each and every one remained completely feral. They refused to try the trigger for a Terror outside of small blood samples. The potential consequences of a feral Terror getting loose were not to be contemplated. They were cautious when trying the Nightstalker trigger. The one attempt they made in turning a Runner into a Nightstalker had failed though.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear..." Nicky's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I followed her gaze as a low growl built in my throat at the sight of the annoying woman in question. Louise had her plate as she was heading toward our building. She was likely planning to eat supper with us. Nina and Daniel had also been joining us for supper the last few days, although they had not arrived yet.

My anger built simply knowing that Louise was on her way. I had taken a dislike to her. Louise appeared on the roof far too quickly for my tastes. I disliked how she smelled and detested how she kept hinting that I should help out in their research more. If I never saw her again, that would be fine by me.

She sat down in a chair and put her plate on her knees as she started to eat. She wasted no time in bringing up the undesirable subject, "It turns out that the cure removes the zombie virus, but it does not act as a vaccine. We have run numerous tests and it works perfectly with the ferals and in the blood samples from the humans."

I growled lowly in warning as I knew what she was trying to hint at, "I am not volunteering. I am here as a blood donor and that is it. I quite enjoy being a Nightstalker and I have no desire to go back to being human with the illnesses and slow healing injuries."

I was getting quite upset at Louise. Her mere presence irritated me, so it wasn't that big of a step for my mood to worsen. Nicky glanced at me in concern, she could see I was getting worked up. Louise shrugged, "We have the triggers worked out, so you could always turn back into a Nightstalker."

I bared my teeth as my chest vibrated with the force of my growl, "No. I will not be a test subject. If you want to see the results so badly, then turn yourself into a Nightstalker and see if you can reverse it." My vision was going redder as my temper reared its head.