We quickly returned to the store, and I climbed up the ladder and waited impatiently for Luke to make it onto the roof. Once he was up, I went over to Nina, who was sitting by the fire with Nicky and Daniel.
"Louise was here," I said tersely, holding out the plastic bag as proof.
A growl immediately came from the side, courtesy of Daniel, which had Luke taking an uneasy step back.
"Are you sure it was-" Nina broke off her question and shook her head. "Nevermind. Where did you find this?" She pulled a pair of plastic gloves out of her pockets and began putting them on.
"Luke found it just inside the forest beside a chained-up zombie," I replied, trying to keep the growl out of my voice – how I wanted to throttle that woman! "Her scent is all over those objects, although it's about two weeks old."
"Which would line up with when she disappeared," Nina said with a faint frown. "And these were beside a zombie that's chained up?"
"Yes. As far as I can tell, it's a normal zombie, but only one vial was missing from the racks when she fled, so where did these come from?"
With her gloves now on, Nina pulled out one of the three vials and peered at the mostly faded label. Then she looked at the bottom and inspected the small numbers stamped into the glass.
"These definitely came from the lab," she finally said, "but we haven't used anything with the G sequence since you arrived at Ironwind. I'll have to check when we get back, but I think these came from the barn. There's a cupboard where we store the promising mixtures, although it hasn't been cleaned out for a few months."
"What did these vials do?"
Nina made a face. "I'd need the sequencing records in the lab to be certain. As a best guess, it was our previous version of the sanity serum because we had to mix three chemicals right before injecting it."
"So the drug didn't work?" Luke asked quietly.
"Not this one. It's an older version from before we met Trinity." She thought for a moment. "Daniel, would you mind pinning the zombie so I can get a blood sample just to make sure she didn't change something? We can leave the zombie where it is. It can't exactly get into any trouble out in the forest."
"I can." As often as he did this for Nina, the faint traces of reluctance in his voice betrayed his dislike of such tasks. At least she wasn't asking me to pin a zombie for her.
"I'll put these in a safe place," she said, getting to her feet, "especially that needle. I can test the residues when we get back." She disappeared into the tent, presumably to put them in her bag of lab supplies.
She came back out with a different bag and asked Daniel, "Shall we go before or after we eat?"
"Let's go now. We have at least fifteen minutes before the spaghetti is done."
She nodded, and the two went to find the zombie, which would be simple with Daniel following my scent trail.
Luke watched them go, and once Nina had reached the ground, he said, "I think I'll wait until after dinner to collect more wood."
"Probably a good plan." I went to sit down and keep an eye on the gently bubbling pot of spaghetti noodles, although I didn't know what to do with the small loaf of bread Nina had made.
Luke checked the wind's direction and moved his chair beside mine, which also put him upwind of the other seats.
"And here I was hoping a zombie ate Louise," Nicky muttered, stretching out her legs. "Perhaps the ferals had better success over the last two weeks."
I growled in agreement but didn't reply. I'd only rile myself up if I kept thinking about the unscrupulous assistant. Even Louise was smart enough to know that remaining within a week's journey of Ironwind was a suicide mission. Her vehicle would have run out of gas by now, and unless she had something to trade for fuel, she was probably hopping between Strongholds in the same fashion Jess had.
Why was it so hard to focus on something other than the thing that was annoying you? To distract myself, I stirred the spaghetti noodles and dug through the bag of supplies to locate the sauce and powdered cheese. Both had been made in the Stronghold, as had the dried noodles. The noodles kept trying to stick to the bottom of the pot, so I slid my chair closer to keep stirring them.
About the time the noodles were done, Daniel and Nina were on their way back. I drained the water into an empty bucket and added the sauce to the pasta. Predictably, Daniel jumped right up onto the roof, letting Nina climb the ladder at her own pace.
"The spaghetti is ready," I told them, moving my chair back to its original place. "Nina, I'll let you check the bread."
The scientist came over and examined it. "It needs a few more minutes, but we can start eating the spaghetti. I'll put these vials in the solar cooler and be right back."
Nicky looked around. "Well, if no one else is going to dish up, I'm not shy."
Following her own words, she got up and filled a bowl with spaghetti. "I'd offer you some," she told Luke, "but I'm pretty sure you'd rather get it yourself than have me waltzing up to you."
With a sheepish smile, he inclined his head at the truthfulness in her words. "Thank you, although I'll pass this time. I had plenty to eat at breakfast and lunch."
Nina came back, and after checking the bread, which still wasn't fully cooked, she took a bowl of spaghetti. Daniel also took a small portion as the others all began eating.
"Drat," Nicky said, wiping at a spot of sauce on her pants. "Where did those napkins go..."
She put her bowl on the ground and began digging through her backpack. Muttering under her breath, she finally began pulling out items in her search for a napkin. A light rain jacket appeared first, followed by a flashlight, then four small cans of tomato juice.
A smirk appeared on my face when a bottle of liquid dish soap made its appearance, not just because of its presence, but because Nicky had colored the paper label with blue and green swirls and added bold, black words that proclaimed "For use on zombies only".
Luke stilled when he saw the soap, then swung his head in my direction, his eyes wide in disbelief. "You did not tell her that secret."
My smirk only grew wider.
"The tomato juice secret or the soap secret?" Nicky asked with a mischievous grin, nudging the objects with her shoe as she finally pulled out a handful of napkins.
There was no way she was unaware of how intently Daniel and Nina were focused on this conversation. Luke turned his head and narrowed his eyes at me, which were now glowing red, although he didn't look upset. There were traces of amusement in his scent. And caution. Lots of caution.
"I can't believe you shared the soap secret," he said. "Speaking of which, you still owe me a mountain lion for what you did."
"No mountain lions in the area," I said, pulling back my lips in a dark grin. "You'll have to take a raincheck. At least you didn't forget how well soap works."
"How could anyone possibly forget something like that? That was an underhanded trick."
I grinned at the memory of how I had taught Luke about distracting a zombie by getting soap in its mouth. When I had asked him why he was so polite, he said his mother was overly fond of putting soap in her kids' mouths if they said anything bad, but that he'd been more scared of his dad's big leather belt.
When I told him the soap was the scarier option for a zombie, he didn't believe me, so I dared him to stick half a spoonful of it in his mouth. Of course, he had declined the dare, but then I said I would catch three bears and a mountain lion for him if he did it. That convinced him. A Runner wasn't able to take down the larger predators, and they were quite food motivated. The temptation of the rare and otherwise unobtainable treat had him agreeing to the deal.
He completely regretted it.
Getting a mouthful of soap as a human was bad enough, but as a zombie, it was unimaginably disgusting. Even worse than fish blood, as impossible as that seemed. We had traveled together long enough for Luke to collect his three bears, but the mountain lions must have had ESP since they completely avoided us.
Luke growled wordlessly at my grin. Even after all this time, he still hadn't completely forgiven me for tricking him like that. That showed how bad it had been. The most polite person I had ever met still held a grudge when he had freely agreed to the bargain, and I had been willing to uphold my end of the deal.
"Does that event count as one of the good old times?" I inquired impishly.
Luke shifted in his chair and leaned over to take a swipe at my arm. His fingers were curled, so they wouldn't do any damage even if I let them connect. My reflexes were much faster than his; I easily dodged his half-hearted strike and landed a harmless swat on his arm. My knuckles skimmed his arm, and he growled at me before leaning back in his chair with a sigh.
Our little display was close to a couple of friends gently punching one another in the shoulder in jest. Daniel was now eyeing up the soap with even more disfavor than before. Luke didn't seem inclined to enlighten Daniel or Nina about the soap secret, which made it even better.
"I gotta know what you did to make Trinity go after you with soap," Nicky proclaimed, staring at Luke with bright eyes. "You can't just leave us hanging like that!"
"It was a bet," Luke said, sending me a half glare while trying not to grin. "Needless to say, I lost that one. Her bets are dangerous things, and I don't think I'm ever going to agree to any more of them."
"I know that feeling. I lost my last bet with her too." Nicky sighed, then perked up and looked at me. "Do you know I've gone ten days without coffee?"
"That number should be much higher," I retorted.
"What were you expecting?" Nicky asked. "A miracle?"
"You made a bet around coffee?" Luke asked, carefully sliding the question into the conversation before I could reply.
"Yeah, she bet she could go longer than I could without coffee. It didn't last long." Nicky shrugged and changed the topic. "Trinity told me about the soap, but I'd never do that to her. Besides, as you said, she's faster and stronger than me, and I really don't want to see what she'd do in the name of revenge. I pack it and a few cans of tomato juice in case a feral zombie corners me."
Luke nodded solemnly, as if he knew what she was talking about. Considering I had taught him about the soap, he wouldn't dismiss the tomato juice theory lightly.
"Did Trinity tell you about rutabagas?" Nicky asked in excitement.
Luke blinked in obvious confusion before glancing at me. "No, she didn't."
"If you can find a rutabaga, I'll show you!" She was almost bouncing with hyper energy.
I gave Nicky a long look; her current energy levels were a warning sign that we needed to get her under control before it escalated into something that wasn't wise to let come to life.
"Luke, even if you find a rutabaga, don't give it to her. You could regret it." I turned to Nina. "By the way, the bread is starting to burn."
No longer distracted by a conversation she undoubtedly found fascinating, Nina swiftly pulled the bread pan away from the fire. It wasn't exactly burnt yet, but the first hints of black could be seen along the edges.
Nina ruefully gazed at the first bit of charcoal to grace anything she had cooked on this trip. "Well, the bread is done if anyone wants a slice."
She proceeded to cut the small loaf into slices and passed them around with a small container of butter.
"Thanks, but I'll pass," Luke said. "I believe I'm going to go collect more wood and stretch my legs."
As he headed to the ladder, I also stood up and began rummaging through our supplies to find another plastic bag to replace the one Luke had lent me. It had to be big enough to hold all his snares, and I knew he had more than what I had seen earlier. It also had to be small enough to fit in his pocket comfortably. It took me a bit, but I found one and left it on his chair.
I sat back down and closed my eyes, halfway hoping I could get a few seconds of sleep, but I knew it was a futile effort. Even the quiet scraping of the forks against the plates was enough to foil any attempt at a doze. There was less than an hour until the sun set; if I disappeared into the forest for a nap, I wouldn't know when Luke made his final firewood trip or if he needed help hunting.
The naps I'd snagged this morning and at lunch were going to have to tide me over until tomorrow.