The Virus Within: The Unranked (Book 4)

Ch. 21: The Mall, The Sleeping Bag, And The Tricycle. Oh My.

The zombie's eyes flickered back and forth, searching the pitch-black room. I remained motionless, watching her intently. She circled the area as she searched for the source of the sound, giving no indication that she could smell me, nor taking any deeper breaths to show an attempt to track by scent.

Her arms brushed against any hanging clothes in her way, although she was navigating between the racks easily enough. When her back was turned, I grabbed another watch and threw it past her shoulder.

She immediately ran after it, and I frowned at her speed, hastily reassessing a few of my previous plans. She was faster than Luke, but not as fast as me. There was no easy way to judge her strength in this store, but I was going to assume it followed the same trend.

The watch stopped rolling, and after a cursory inspection, she ignored it. I threw another watch, which she glanced at, then ignored. Unlike the zombie in Ironwind's barn that chased anything that moved, this one had no interest in inanimate objects.

Her reaction was perfectly in line with how Runners behaved, although a Nightstalker would have checked the area more thoroughly to see why a "rock" had been knocked loose.

I was seeing far more Runner traits than Nightstalker ones, but did she have any new tricks or abilities up her sleeve? Considering how well tonight had gone so far, this was just about the right time for her to start climbing the walls like a spider.

I took a deep breath, carefully examining her scent for any details I might possibly pick up. She had the typical zombie musk, although there wasn't an identifiable rank. It was reminiscent of a Runner, which matched what I was seeing.

There was also a faint metallic undertone that was vaguely familiar, as if I had smelled it recently. My instincts stirred, oddly focused on that detail. I narrowed my eyes as I tried to remember where I had encountered it.

Then I remembered. The screaming zombie had the same metallic undertone. I dug through my memories but couldn't remember if the unconscious one in the shed had it as well. I'd have to check later. I had bigger priorities at the moment, like getting this zombie to a place where Daniel didn't need a flashlight.

I grabbed the light stool from behind the till, crept closer to the door, and waited until the zombie was on the far side of the store but within sight.

"Over here!" I shouted as I ran out the door, going just slow enough that she had time to turn around and spot me.

A sharp snarl was immediately followed by the rapid slapping of worn-out sneakers on the linoleum flooring. I kept my footsteps silent to avoid the numerous regular zombies heading this way.

As I ran down the hallway, I glanced over my shoulder to see the zombie charge out of the store and chase after me. Since she could obviously see me, I headed for the nearest exit.

I shoulder-checked the door open and twisted around to drop the stool in the gap, preventing the door from closing. The zombie wasn't far behind, so I darted across the street to the police van, only to see that the other door was too damaged to close properly. I wouldn't be able to lock her inside like I had planned.

I bit back a growl and hastily looked around for something else I could lock her in. Almost everything in sight had windows that she'd easily break through or was otherwise unsuitable. She was almost as fast as me, so it stood to reason that she'd be nearly as strong, and that put a lot of limitations on my options.

A bang and the sound of the stool skittering across the pavement informed me that time was running out.

"Bloody hell," I muttered as I raced down the street to keep ahead of her, my own footsteps becoming audible.