The Virus Within (Original rough draft)

Chapter 94

The sun was mostly set and I was finding it quite difficult to sit so close to the fire with the way my instincts were rousing. Nicky and Nina were yawning. I stood up and lightly shook myself as if it would remove the restlessness. I was not so fortunate.

I looked at Luke, "I tend to patrol around the area a good chunk of the night. Feel free to sleep here. Give me a holler if anything nasty shows up."

He glanced at Daniel as if uncertain what may show up that a Terror couldn't take on, but he nodded, "Will do. If you need any help, just call."

I nodded and jumped off the roof. I circled the camp several times in the growing darkness as my instincts fully roused with the night. It would be interesting to have another zombie around, and at least I knew that Luke wasn't the kind to drive me crazy or piss me off. He was the most courteous zombie I had ever met.

It would be much harder for him to travel with us though, mostly because of Nicky and Nina triggering his bloodlust. I slowed in thought and took a deep breath, was there anything around that might make our traveling easier?

I bared my teeth in a grin and darted off into the undergrowth. It took me almost an hour to find all of the proper plants. It took me another fifteen minutes to squeeze all of their juices into a small jar. I was careful to breathe through my mouth in case the resulting concoction dulled my sense of smell for a short time.

I continued searching the forest for anything else it might provide, but came up empty handed. With the lack of results in that pursuit, I turned my attention to the local wildlife. A rabbit allowed me to doctor my wounds and took the edge off my appetite. The blood was sweet, but I was once more tiring of rabbit considering I had it almost every day for weeks.

I took a deep breath to locate something that wasn't a rabbit. I wasn't hungry enough for a deer. I exhaled slowly in annoyance. It irked me that there were so few mid-sized creatures out there. A faint earthier smell caught my interest.

I didn't mind a bit of work if it meant that I got some variety in my meals. The night was silent as I followed my nose to the open fields that looked empty of life at the first glance. My nose told me otherwise though.

I watched as one of the cat-sized rodents nibbled on grasses. Some called them gophers, others called them prairie dogs. I called them a welcome change from rabbits. Both may be rodents and have a veggie diet, but they tasted quite different.

They rarely ventured far from their burrows and if one gave an alarm call, the others would hide for a very long time. They preferred to be active during the day, but they would also come out at night. The grass was very short from their incessant eating and there was no cover whatsoever on the open ground.

That made it a challenge and my instincts rose higher as they tried to direct me. I didn't need my instincts for this hunt though, I already knew the best way to hunt these furry critters. Their noses were pretty good so I had to remain downwind as I slowly crept up on them.

Slow and steady movements were key. Like a cat carefully creeping forward, I had to keep my movements slow enough that I wasn't noticeable in the dark. Two would be plenty for me. The hardest part would be catching the first one without it alerting the others. Any noise or scuffle would have any others within hearing distance crying an alarm and pulling a disappearing act.

I put my sunglasses on to hide my eyes and slowly started working my way across the open grass to where a couple of the chubby critters were having their midnight snack. It was times like this that I was glad I was a Nightstalker. No human, Runner or Terror could replicate what I was doing.

My footsteps were silent as my eyes were locked onto my prey. My ears kept a vigil on my surroundings just in case of trouble. Just a bit closer... There! The sharp crack of the gopher's spine snapping caused the other animals to scatter. They would probably come out in fifteen minutes since none of their kin had sounded an alarm and there was no sound of a scuffle.