The Virus Within: Third Wave (Book 2)

Chapter 11

"I don't really need anything, although I'd appreciate it if someone would be kind enough to bring me some food each day. My cooking skills over a campfire don't usually result in appetizing meals."

Luke's attempts to not be a burden meant he'd try to avoid asking for anything. I tilted my head in consideration and chimed in, "The cave I found is better than any tent, although I might be biased since I'm a Nightstalker. The ceiling is low enough that he'd have to duck, but he can chisel the rock if he wants. We can give him those live traps as well."

That covered shelter and food. Luke had lived rough ever since he turned, so he didn't really care about where he slept. His top priority would be the ability to catch the local wildlife consistently and easily, which the live traps and all those rabbits should take care of.

"How big is that cave?" Nina asked, opening up her notebook. "We can bring a bed and other things over."

"It's big enough for a single bed, although it would need waterproof legs since there's a tiny creek. It's also quite dark in there, so a couple of solar lights wouldn't go amiss."

"Easily done." Nina obviously had no problems ensuring Luke was comfortable, and if a Nightstalker said it was dark, then any other person out there was going to want additional lighting. I just hoped she didn't go overboard, which was a very real possibility.

"Thank you," Luke murmured. "Please don't trouble yourselves too much."

"It isn't any trouble," Nina reassured him with a friendly smile. "We have extra beds in storage, and it's nothing to drive a truck out there."

What road was she looking at? I wondered. She must not know where the cave was, or she'd have known we'd have to clear a trail just for Daniel to carry the bed to the cave's entrance. I kept quiet since it eased Luke's conscience for now. There were going to be bigger problems to overcome before we even reached Ironwind Stronghold, such as having Luke in the back of the truck with Nicky.

Nodding slowly, but looking quite optimistic, Luke glanced at each of his new traveling companions. The scratches on Daniel's arms caught his attention, which had him checking mine again.

"You're both sporting injuries," Luke commented, focusing on Daniel again. "How did that happen?"

His words were polite, but from the slight edge in his tone, Luke seemed to think we had gotten into a spat and was subtly blaming the higher-ranking zombie for letting the fight deteriorate to the point where we both had numerous wounds.

"I got ambushed by three Nightstalkers," Daniel told him, making a bit of a face at that admission, "and Trinity came to help me. We won, but neither of us came away unscathed."

"Three Nightstalkers? At once?" Luke asked in incredulous disbelief.

"During the daytime too," I added. "They were in control, but hated humans, and you can smell how heavily the scent of humans clings to us."

"That is... unexpected." He shook his head, not in denial, but at how unlikely such a thing was.

That was my luck though. The chances of finding a Nightstalker were low, finding a pair was even rarer, but to find three traveling together? You would have better luck locating a Terror. In the last month and a half, I'd managed to find a Terror, a feral Terror, the Nightstalker siblings, and a hostile trio of Nightstalkers. I think if we could bottle my luck, we would have a weapon of mass destruction. Provided we could keep it from targeting the one wielding it.

Luke regarded the numerous scratches on Daniel's arms, and finally asked, "Why haven't you tended your wounds? I apologize if my words offend."

I started snickering at the shock on Daniel's face. Of course, Luke had unintentionally made it sound like such tending was the most natural thing in the world – which it should have been for a zombie – although Daniel's surprise was partially due to how easily Luke could tell he hadn't "tended his wounds".