"I'm going to see if I can track down this Cynthia lady," I said as we left the dining hall.
Jess looked torn. "I'd offer to come, but I want to show Nina what we've done in the lab. It shouldn't take me long."
I also knew how much Nina could talk if she was curious, so I said, "After I drop Liz off, I'm going for a nap. I'll come find you once I wake up. How's that sound?"
A smile spread across her face. "That'll work perfectly. Thank you!"
When she took a step forward, I shook my head. "No more hugs today. Although if you know where Cynthia can be found, I'd appreciate that information."
Jess scratched her head sheepishly.
With a smile, Nina replied, "Cynthia is usually at the daycare. That's the small house with the picket fence and all the toys in the backyard."
Now I knew which place she was referring to. "Thanks."
"Well, that was easy," Nicky said. "I'll come with you two. Let's go."
I refrained from rolling my eyes as she skipped ahead. How hard would it be to convince this daycare lady that Nicky was just an oversized child and leave her there for a while?
"Unless someone needs something," Daniel told the others, "I'll go for a quick patrol, then come see how you're doing in the lab. Luke, I assume you're fine with giving John and Logan a tour?"
"I'd be delighted," Luke replied.
"Come on, Liz," I said as the gang broke into smaller groups. "We're going to introduce you to someone."
The child grabbed my hand and walked beside me. Almost everyone who saw her did a double-take, startled to see me holding hands with a child, then blinked in shock when they recognized her.
"Look at the kitty!" Liz pointed. "Can we go pet it?"
"I don't think you'll get close."
"Why not?"
Nicky stopped beside her. "Kitties don't like zombies. In fact, most animals don't. People who hang out with zombies usually can't pet many animals."
"Can I try?" Liz looked at her pleadingly.
Nicky easily caved beneath her big, brown eyes. "I don't see why not, but if I can't get close to a cat, then I doubt you will be able to."
Taking that as permission, Liz let go of my hand and walked over to the cat. The cat calmly watched her approach, but when she got closer, it sniffed the air. The ears flattened, and with a suspicious look, the cat darted under a truck and out of sight.
Liz slowly came back. "Animals won't like me anymore?" She was having a hard time accepting this latest change.
"You aren't a zombie, so some will let you get close," Nicky said thoughtfully. "Let me think for a moment. Horses and sheep are a no-go. Goats don't seem to care. Chickens and turkeys are oblivious to smell, although turkeys are just evil... Hmmm..."
Liz watched Nicky with a hopeful expression.
Nicky perked up. "Oh! I know! You played with Chloe on our first trip, so she'll probably let you pet her again. Most dogs won't let you close, but some will, and Chloe traveled with Trinity for a long time." Nicky turned to me. "The hunting and gathering groups often return to drop off whatever they collected at lunch. Can you smell if Chloe is still around?"
I sighed in resignation before taking a deep breath. "She's nearby. Probably with Ben, if I had to guess."
"Which direction?"
When I pointed, Nicky grabbed Liz's hand. "Let's go!"
They took off at a jog, eager to locate the nose-dead fluffball. I followed at a more sedate pace. It had been several weeks since I had last seen Chloe close up, so I wasn't sure if time had made her warier around zombies or not.
She had never really let me get super close, not that such a thing surprised me. I was a zombie, and she had been a random stray that had stuck around and kept her distance. Still, she had followed me around and had been my only company for months on end in the wilderness.
I eventually caught up but kept my distance as Liz hugged Chloe and ruffled up her fur. Just like during our first trip, Chloe was thrilled with the attention and the chance to play with a child. Assuming her memory was better than her nose, she would also remember Liz.
Ben and several people unloaded baskets from a truck and passed them to others, often glancing at the dog and child with a grin. Once they finished, most of them lingered, although some headed for the dining area.
Two of them wandered over to me. Their scents weren't familiar, so they must have arrived here while I was being dragged between Strongholds. They stopped farther away than what most humans did, so they must have known I was a zombie or touchy about my personal space. Not that anyone who'd seen Jess greet me would believe it.
"Thank you again for bringing the cure to us."
They must have been part of the group we cured and directed here. I shrugged. "You're welcome, although Nina did most of the work." I had simply sat there and watched.
They nodded, and the man glanced at the girl and dog and commented, "Well, those two are certainly playing well together. I didn't realize Chloe liked kids so much."
The alert guard dog had turned into a furry rug with a happily wagging tail as Liz sprawled across Chloe's side. Every once in a while, Chloe sneaked a lick in, which only made Liz laugh harder.
"After how long we were crowded together in the truck, it's probably a good thing she's nose-dead, or Liz wouldn't be able to get near her."
Liz patted Chloe's shoulder. "Chloe, come see Trinity!"
The dog got up and trotted after the child. People suddenly watched with far more interest, waiting to see the outcome. It was one thing for a child like Liz – who was human – to play with Chloe, but she kept a lookout for zombies every day with this hunting and gathering group. Her nose might be a mere decoration, but her eyesight and ability to identify zombies was well-known.
Chloe suddenly paused and stared at me, tilting her head as her mouth closed.
I held out a hand. "Hey, Chloe. Remember me?"
Slowly, her tail began waving from side to side again. Nowhere near as exuberantly as with Liz, but it was wagging. She bobbed her head as she took a few tentative steps closer, far warier than she had ever been in the past.
Eventually, she was within reach, and I gently scratched her behind her ears. After a few seconds, she stepped back and shook herself off, promptly turning around and giving Liz a big, wet kiss.
"You knew Chloe from before?" the man asked.
"She found me several months before I came here," I replied. Most of my focus was still on the mutt, who was currently trying to clean Liz's face and hands of any possible food residue that she might have missed the first dozen times.
The two nodded, and with the show now over, most of the group drifted away for lunch. Ben lingered since he had Chloe's bone, and if he left, she'd follow.
After a while, I said, "I think that's enough for now. You can play with Chloe another time. Let's go find Cynthia."
Liz reluctantly pried herself away from the dog and came over. With a welcome-back nod, Ben and Chloe left, and we continued our trip to the daycare. The children in the backyard were remarkably quiet, with soft laughter and giggling while racing around in a lively game of tag. There were only five young children present, so I suspected some parents took their children with them during the day.
A woman, whom I assumed was Cynthia, came to the door when Nicky knocked. Recognition flashed in her eyes when she saw Liz, but she wasn't surprised, so the local gossip vine hadn't wilted any in our absence.
"Hello, how can I help you today?"
Nicky said, "We somehow stumbled across Liz on our travels and brought her back with us. Someone mentioned you might be able to find someone to look after her."
"I can think of several people, although we'll have to see how well they get along. I don't want to pry, but what are the odds of Marissa or Tom showing up?"
"Next to zero." Nicky winced slightly. "If they somehow stumble their way back here, they'll have red eyes."
Cynthia took the subtle hint that Liz was truly an orphan and nodded. "I can look after her until she picks a foster. It isn't any problem at all."
"Thanks."
I quietly added, "You'll have to remind Nina that Liz was exposed to the airborne virus, so she'll need the cure at some point."
"Thank you for that detail. If she doesn't show up in a day or two, I might ask Luke if he minds bringing a dose of the cure over."
Nicky gently pushed Liz forward. "Liz, this is Cynthia. She has all sorts of toys for children. She'll also help you with anything you need. There are even other kids here to play with! Do you want to go play with them?"
"Yes, please!"
Cynthia smiled tenderly at the child. "Just go through the back door. They're all outside."
Liz obediently trotted off, eager to play with others her own age.
"Have fun, Liz!" Nicky called after her.
"Okay! You too!"
"Thanks, Cynthia," Nicky said cheerfully.
"You're welcome. I'll go introduce her to the others. Do you want to come?"
"Nah, but thanks for asking."
Cynthia followed her new charge, letting the door slowly swing closed on its own. With our task completed, Nicky and I started walking away.
"So, what do you feel like doing now?"
I snorted faintly. "I plan on relaxing in my room in solitude."
"I guess that means that I'm not invited?" Nicky replied with a chuckle.
"Solitude does not include company."
"I think someone once told me that. In that case, I think I'll have to figure out which group missed me the most and bless them with my presence."
I somehow doubted we were about to see any volunteers jumping up and down and waving her over. That's their problem. They were the ones who originally tried to keep her here so I would stay.
Nicky peered through an open garage door as we passed by. "Hank! We're back!"
The large man stood up from where he had been working under the hood of a truck. "I see that. How was your trip?"
"Oh, you know. The usual. Did you miss us?"
"Indeed," he replied solemnly. "The other mechanics have gotten sloppy. They keep leaving their tools lying around instead of putting them away."
"I will definitely have to rectify that tomorrow morning. In the meantime, do you need any other type of help?"
"If you're up for a challenge," he said thoughtfully, "there are a few trucks out back that need the spark plugs replaced, and my arms won't fit in those narrow gaps."
"Can I use a hacksaw?" Nicky asked eagerly.
"On the trucks, no. But if you want to cut some bolts to the proper lengths, then yes."
"Awesome! Hacksaw, it is! See you later, Trinity!"
She darted into the garage, heading right for a hacksaw on the workbench. I decided to leave the area before she got too carried away with it. Hank had given her that tool, so he was now responsible for supervising her.
I quickly vacated the area and went to the secondary building. Some paint fumes still emanated from the sun and moon paint job on my door as I unlocked it and went in. Unsurprisingly, no one had entered my room in my absence. It was a bit dusty, but not as bad as I feared, nor so bad that I needed to dust, although Jess might disagree with that last part.
I put my backpack on the floor and lowered the blackout blind. For the first time in days, I could finally take my sunglasses off. After cleaning them, I sat on the bed and shuffled back until my shoulders rested against the wall.
Closing my eyes, I let my muscles relax and waited for sleep to come.
~
The sound of footsteps and voices woke me as two people walked down the hallway.
"There are several spare rooms on this floor," Luke said. "My door is the turquoise one on the end. The fancy moon and sun scene belongs to Trinity. Jess and Nicky have the two doors with charms hanging on the doorknobs."
"I can take a room closer to yours, if you don't mind," John replied, passing by my door.
"Not at all. If you want your door painted a certain color, we can ask Nicky, but such a request might have unexpected consequences. It isn't exactly easy to keep her focused unless it's her idea."
That pretty much summed up Nicky's occasional obsession with art and the risks involved.
"I don't need anything special. It can stay as it is."
"This room is empty. Let's take a look."
A door creaked open at the far end of the hallway. I stood up and stretched, mildly surprised to see the clock on the wall said it was late afternoon already. I had managed to sleep for four hours, although I felt much better after the rest. In fact, I felt good enough that tormenting Luke sounded like fun.
I unlocked the precautionary locks on my door and wandered down the hallway. The open door gave away their location, and as I peered into the room, I saw they were both looking out the window. With a faint smirk that I quickly hid, I leaned against the door frame and waited.
Luke pointed out a few buildings from the vantage point. "You can also have a room in the main building if you want. Or you're welcome to have this one since you're my brother."
"This will work fine," John reassured him. "Is that why Logan had to get a room in the main building?"
"Yes. Most people sleep over there. With Daniel, Trinity, and myself in here, it's pretty much limited to family and close friends right now. Once they finish the fence expansion, it wouldn't surprise me if they build another building with more rooms."
"This room will work. If they want me to move, that isn't a problem. I'm just happy to have finally found you. I'm also looking forward to helping you and Nina in the lab."
Apparently, Nina had inherited a couple of new lab assistants.
Luke turned around, and my presence must have startled him pretty badly since he instinctively dropped into a crouch and snarled at me. I bared my teeth with a deep growl of warning. Even though I had expected such a reaction, my instincts were insulted by the Runner snarling at me.
Resisting the instinctual urge to step forward in challenge, I remained where I was. It only took Luke a few seconds to recover and stand straight once more. John's eyes were wide with shock, still trying to reconcile the snarl as having come from his brother.
That was another reason I hadn't alerted Luke to my presence in a more courteous manner. John had to remember a bloodthirsty and vicious virus lurked in his brother's body and mind. This way, if Luke ever started to lose control, John would realize it and be able to get away.
Luke exhaled heavily and apologized to me. "Sorry about that." His scent reflected his irritation, although no sign of it came through his polite and carefully controlled tone.
I shrugged. "No worries. I thought you had caught my scent." That was mostly a lie. The air had been coming in through the window, so he wouldn't have noticed my scent strengthening. Otherwise, he'd be able to smell my lie right now.
"Your scent didn't fade much in your absence. It lingers throughout the entire hallway. I didn't notice your approach."
I inclined my head to give the point to him. A Nightstalker's scent lingered, and even though a Runner had a good sense of smell, it wasn't anything like mine. Nor was it even comparable to Daniel's. Neither of those ranks were skilled in telling a fresher scent apart from an older one.
"I hope my presence up here won't be too troublesome," John tentatively said, his voice still uncertain from his earlier shock.
"I don't have any problem with it," I replied, "although there is one hazard on this floor Luke failed to mention."
"May I ask what that would be?"
I snorted faintly. "Nicky."
John crinkled his eyebrows in confusion. "She has some... interesting replies at times, but I don't see how she's a hazard?"
Luke made a face. "There isn't a good way to explain it. Some days she just goes a bit overboard."
John looked no wiser and shrugged. "We traveled in the truck for several days, so I don't think it'll be too bad."
I snorted in faint amusement and backed into the hallway so Luke wouldn't feel so cornered. I didn't have the energy to try explaining the dangers to John. He'd learn. Eventually. Judging by Nicky's earlier comments to Hank, that day might even come as early as tomorrow morning.
Luke exited the room ahead of his brother, asking me, "What are you going to do for the rest of the day? I don't think anyone planned to ask you for help, or no one mentioned it to me, at any rate."
"I'll go say hi to Jess, then I plan to make myself scarce. After being stuck in a crowded truck for so long, I need some space. I'll probably head into the forest early and just wander around until dawn."
He nodded, not surprised in the least. "Feel free to raid any of my traps. There's more than enough rabbits to go around. And the trap to the west has been catching the same silly fox every single night."
"Thanks, although I doubt I'll take you up on your offer. If you feel like a deer, let me know, and we can track one down."
"Thanks, but I'm good for now. Maybe next week."
"I'll let you and your brother settle in then. My sister will come looking for me if I don't show up soon."
"See you later."
I waved as I went down the hallway. I'd known Luke wouldn't accept my offer today, regardless of how tempting it might be. He was far too polite to do such a thing when I had just returned from a long trip. If he had released a fox so many times, then he was probably catching a variety of wildlife and was full by the time he got to that trap.
The other reason I'd asked was to once more subtly hammer home the fact that Luke was no longer human. John's slow blinks proved I had managed that task to my satisfaction. To make things even better, Luke hadn't noticed his brother's reaction.
I descended the stairs to the lab, where the air had a bitter undertone from the amount of the cure they'd been making. I was almost at the end of the hallway before I finally located Jess.
She was concentrating on straining some clear green liquid through cheesecloth and didn't realize I was in the doorway. The air in here smelled like herbs, vinegar, some sort of vegetable oil, and a few other things. A few minutes later, she finished and put the cloth and herbs to the side.
"And what's that going to be?" I asked.
She jumped, then turned around with a grin. "This will help anyone with a stomachache. Although if you keep sneaking up behind me like that, I'm going to have to collect some aspen bark to make some aspirin for the heart attack you're going to give me one of these days."
"Hmmm... A few people might need that aspen bark thing. Especially if they don't pay attention to their surroundings."
"The bark can also be used to make a tea that's good for headaches, although it tastes terrible," Jess said cheerfully. "It sure cut down on the number of headache complaints when the doctor started handing that stuff out."
"Because it worked, or because they didn't want to drink it?"
"Both, probably. But I assume zombies can't get headaches, so you're safe."
"Not normally. So, what else have you been playing with in here?" Jugs and jars of liquids were lined up on every shelf. Most had writing on them, although my sister's handwriting was something only a pharmacist would be able to decipher.
"Mostly just working on the cure in the other rooms, and reading about how to make various tinctures and salves. How was your trip? Nina talked about the waves getting shorter and stuff, but I knew she wanted to start processing that strange zombie's blood, so I didn't ask many questions."
"I'll leave the sciencey details for your dinner conversation with her. Someone has to make sure she eats. Otherwise, as Nicky so put it, our trip went like usual." Gunshots and all.
She sighed. "You used to always tell me about your trips and all the small details, and now I have to practically pull them out of you. Is that a Nightstalker thing? Or was the trip so bad you're hiding things from me?"
"Eighty percent of it is a Nightstalker trait," I said after a moment of thought. "As for the rest, we were mostly driving. I had to scare off a few Runners and move a dozen or so trees off the road, but other than that, the only other stuff tended to happen at the Strongholds, like finding Luke's brother."
"Where'd Logan come in? Nina kind of mumbled something I couldn't make out, then changed the topic."
"That guy is a long story, although he did help us get into one Stronghold, then decided to accompany us to Ironwind."
The sad look Jess gave me spoke louder than any words she could have mustered at evading her questions again. I closed my eyes and bowed my head slightly in apology. She was my sister. And my reluctance to speak was mostly due to the zombie virus.
With a sigh, I said, "Fine. I'll tell you everything, but you can't freak out or start crying until I completely finish. Deal?"
"Deal," she said resolutely. There was determination in her eyes, but I knew it was only going to last until I reached the events at the second Stronghold.
"You'd better take a seat. This could take a while."
~
Jess sat silently, still hugging her knees against her chest, which had been her way of coping and not interrupting me as I told her everything about our trip. I waited in the unusual silence. She would eventually organize her thoughts and speak, although she had fared better during my tale than I had anticipated.
"That... was quite some road trip," she finally said.
I snorted. "That is an understatement."
"No wonder you don't like road trips," she muttered under her breath. Then she shook her head and lowered her feet back to the floor. "On one hand, I wish I'd been there to help, but on the other hand... Traveling – especially with events like those – really isn't my thing."
"Not mine either," I retorted lightly. "And I'm not doing that again for the next wave. They can send boxes of the cure and letters telling them to try hugging a cat. But it's getting close to dinner, so let's head up to my room. I can grab my backpack and give you your gift before I disappear into the forest."
"A gift?" She scrambled to her feet. "Sure, let's go. Oh, and while you're out in the forest," she paused to give me a sidelong look with a grin, "try not to get shot or anything."
I chucked a pen at her and left the room without dignifying that with a response. Her laughter rang through the hallway as she jogged to catch up.
~
My footsteps were silent as the forest slowly grew darker with the approaching sunset. No one was expecting me back before dawn, nor were they expecting me to do much besides a lap or two, so there was no pressure with tonight's outing.
The air beneath the crowded trees was sharp and damp, smelling like leaves and moss. There was no breeze, just the utter calm that let the crisp humidity rise in the air. I paused in the shadows and gazed around the silent forest as the shadows grew darker.
This was one of those rare evenings where there was a unique stillness. Not even the crickets chirped. I could literally feel the air getting colder as the first dredges of fog began drifting around me. It was... peaceful.
I felt the sun touch the horizon. It was like an invisible shiver as my instincts stirred and started to strengthen. I remained where I was, watching the fog slowly drift up from the ground as the sun descended.
My instincts picked through every scent they could locate. They were particularly interested in the wildlife after riding in the truck all last night.
Now that the sun had set, I began moving through the trees silently.
The night belonged to me.