The Virus Within: The Unranked (Book 4)

Ch. 42: Mistaken Identity

The unranked zombie was in the same place I'd last seen him, looking just as bored and still unaware that his gun had taken a vacation trip. I picked a well-hidden spot downwind, which happened to be in the bushes in front of him. Just as I readied my bow and settled down to wait, I heard Daniel's footsteps.

It took the bored man a lot longer than I expected to hear or react. Shifting to his knees, he twisted around and stared incredulously at the zombie visible between the tree trunks. He lunged for the gun that was no longer there, and his fingers closed around thin air. He snarled and turned back to face Daniel, rising to a fighting crouch and pulling a dagger and belt knife off his belt.

"I just want to talk," Daniel said amiably, still walking closer at a lazy pace.

"Wren!" the man shouted. "One's behind us!"

With a grinding sound, the turret on the tank began turning at a labored turtle's pace. I nocked an arrow onto my bow string and bided my time. It wouldn't take long for the person inside to realize that the tank moved far too slowly to be useful at close range.

Daniel stopped and crossed his arms as he raised an eyebrow at the man. "Really? Is that how you greet someone who comes in peace?"

"And you dare to talk of peace after what you've done?" the man yelled, baring his teeth in anger.

The grinding and turning stopped long before the barrel pointed in our direction. The woman inside must have finally had her light bulb moment and realized that we weren't about to stand here all day waiting for her to aim the barrel at us.

Daniel frowned at the man. "And what have—"

The top of the tank opened as a blonde-haired woman appeared with a handgun. Daniel was moving before she managed to twist around to face him.

I drew the bow and released an arrow, which whistled through the air and struck the handgun with a clink. It didn't knock it out of her hands, but it startled her enough that she dropped inside the tank and closed the top. The turret resumed the grinding as she tried to turn the barrel toward us.

Daniel ran toward the tank, presumably deciding a woman with a gun and a tank was more of an immediate threat than a man with two blades. The man ran after Daniel and pulled an arm back to throw the belt knife.

Dropping my bow, I launched out of my hiding place and tackled the man. I ripped his dagger free and threw it to the side as we skidded through the leaf litter and undergrowth. He snarled, and I returned the greeting as I blocked his knife with my own. His strength wasn't quite a match for mine, but he was strong, stronger than a Runner.

It was surprisingly easy to disarm him, as if he had never wrestled with another zombie. It took more effort to pin him, but since there was clearly more at stake than a friendly wrestling match, his efforts to free himself didn't subside.

The sudden crackling of hundreds of branches had both of us turning our heads to see Daniel flipping the tank and trailer onto their sides. It was a rather unorthodox way of neutralizing a tank, but there was no way to argue about the effectiveness. Daniel crouched behind the trailer deck as a clank announced the hatch opening.

"Let him go!" a woman's voice shouted from the other side of the trailer, out of our sight.

The man's efforts redoubled, and my eyes kept flickering to the trailer. There was no way for me to restrain him without being an easy target for his companion. Our strength was too evenly matched, and I was too short to use him as a shield if I made him stand.

"Why are you attacking us?" I demanded, watching Daniel slip around the far side of the trailer.

The man tried kicking me. "For trying to kill us!"