The Virus Within (Original rough draft)

Chapter 113

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The bathrooms also had showers. We managed to linger in the shower and still beat Nina and Daniel to the dining hall. I hadn't heard any commotion, so I assumed that Daniel hadn't lost his cool. We were halfway done eating when the other two finally made an appearance.

Daniel didn't look like he was in a good mood and the locals gave him a wide berth. Nina ignored his mood as she grabbed a plate. Daniel took a seat across from me instead of in the further seat like he usually did. Drat. This means that he clearly wants to talk with me and chose that seat for some reason.

I took a long drink of water as he took his first bite of scrambled eggs. His eyes never left me. I exhaled in annoyance, "Just get it off your chest without causing a scene."

"Are you sure that they were dead?"

"If someone has no heartbeat and isn't a zombie, then I am safe in saying that they are dead."

He growled faintly at my ambiguous answer, "I want a plain answer. Are all three of them dead?"

Nina wouldn't have known if anything happened to the third man and Daniel was bothered by this lack of knowledge. I let my breath out slowly, "Two are unquestionably dead. I am not sure of the fate of the third."

He narrowed his eyes, "How can you not be sure?"

I huffed lightly, "Because I was escorting these two to safety and he left on a motorbike or dirt bike. There is no way I can catch something like that unless it passes fairly close to me. Considering he left in the dark, he may very well have run afoul of mechanical problems or zombies."

I had also given my word and had not even attempted to go after him. He never had wielded a gun in any of our encounters, so I reluctantly concluded that he may have been more of a follower than a leader and he might finally give up attempting to kill people or zombies now that his friends were gone. That was about the limit of my optimistic side. My pessimistic side recalled the baseball bat he carried the first two times and hoped that a zombie had eaten him.

Daniel grumbled, but turned his attention to his plate and continued eating. It wasn't as if he could do anything about it at this point. We were some of the very first in here to eat, so the lack of a crowd made things easier. It didn't take us long to finish and pack the truck up.

Jim met us at the gate to bid us farewell. I nodded politely while hoping that they never wondered why three men were gone when only one had been seen leaving. It certainly couldn't have been due to a Nightstalker who had been roaming the area outside of the fence...

Daniel drove down the road as our second day began. I dug around in my backpack for something I had found when checking out an abandoned house last night. Anything edible was long gone, but there were all sorts of other odds and ends that people hadn't cared about when looting it.

I spoke to Nicky, "You wondered where your gift was last night? Catch."

Her eyes lit up even before she had any clue what I had managed to locate in my backpack. I gently tossed the item to her. A grin spread across her face as she caught the rubik's cube, "Thanks!"

I figured it was a safe gift to help pass the time. I had rummaged around a few rooms looking for something appropriate. Nicky rolled it around in her hands a few times before twisting the orderly colors into a jumble. If Nicky could pass hours simply coloring, then she should be able to also pass hours playing with this. Or that was my hope at any rate. It seemed to be working.