My eyes scanned the shrubs as I paced around the mostly dried-out human remains. Like the bodies in the trailer, almost nothing remained but the bones. Runner blood saturated the ground in several spots. Even though rain had washed the red liquid away, it had barely weakened the smell.
I found two empty shells not far from the body and followed my nose to some sort of rifle. The chamber was empty, but the blood streaking the sides showed it had been turned into a melee weapon in the last desperate moments.
The grasses were trampled, evidence of the Runner's long stay. The last man's trail continued onward. He had escaped. Runners normally abandoned a kill if more prey was around, so the man must have ducked below the shrubs or somehow got out of its line of sight and kept running.
I sniffed at his trail, but it was too old to determine if there had been weaker traces of infection in his blood. It could take up to a week for someone to turn, sometimes longer. Most turned within a day or two.
The night wasn't even half over, so I kept going northward, determined to locate the Runner. The human's trail veered away, and I didn't bother following it. If he had been infected and hadn't gotten the cure, he'd be a zombie or had been killed by one. If he had received the cure, then he'd reached some sort of safety.
Hours passed as I jogged across the terrain, tracking the Runner's scent on the air itself. Sometimes I even crossed the human's trail, although the Runner's scent was present every time, but older by several days.
Soon enough, I no longer crossed their trails and homed in on the Runner's current location. I saw the zombie long before he saw me, which was to be expected with my ability to see in the dark as if it were day.
The scent confirmed it was the same Runner who had broken into the bandit camp and chased the survivors. His missing shirt made it easy to see two large scabs on his chest that looked suspiciously like bullet wounds.
He noticed my glowing eyes and turned to face me with a growl, which I returned. Even though my eyes and growl would have informed him which rank I was, he circled closer, testing the boundaries.
I took a deeper breath, but the Runner smelled like a normal Runner, albeit one with several afterscents of human blood on him. It was one thing for a Runner to not believe my warning growl during the day when they couldn't see my eyes, but it was very rare for one to test me when I was glaring at it.
My hands shifted away from my sides in warning, which the Runner mirrored as we closed in for a First Strike match. The moment he came within range, I lunged forward with a snarl, slashing my fingernails across the back of his arm. I skipped out of range before he had a chance to retaliate.
His muscles trembled with the desire to fight as he angled his head downward and shuffled away with bared teeth. Blood dripped down his arm as he turned and grudgingly left, ungracefully accepting the loss. His path headed north, which would keep him from returning to the Stronghold anytime soon.
I shrugged out of my backpack and took out a small plastic vial. Fragments of flesh sat unpleasantly under my nails, and I used a cotton swab to flick them into a vial, then wiped the cotton over a few bloody leaves. Nina could examine them later and confirm if it was just a regular Runner. I couldn't detect any metallic undertone, but it wouldn't hurt to doublecheck.
Once I washed my hands with some water from my water bottle, I glanced at the star-laden sky. As much as I would have rather stayed out here, it was time to head back if I wanted to reach the Graydon Stronghold around dawn. With a sigh, I began jogging back the way I'd come.
~
The badger hide and carcass dangled from one hand as I waited for the guard to unbar the gate. The sun was peeking over the horizon, and people were starting to stir in the Stronghold.
The guard kept giving the badger strange looks, but I didn't bother enlightening him. I was going to have enough fun convincing the cooks that it was fit for human consumption.
I leaned through the kitchen's back door, where various cooks were already hard at work, and asked, "Can you use some badger meat for your soup?"
Those near me turned and stared blankly. A woman cutting up vegetables wiped her hands clean and came over. "I won't turn down extra meat. The land here isn't as generous as it is near the mountains."
I held up the skin and let one corner fall down to reveal the meat wrapped inside. "You can have this, but you'll have to bring the soup to a boil to kill any lingering traces of the zombie virus."
The woman paused. "Why would the zombie virus be on it?"
"I'm not exactly raiding the garden for my meals," I dryly replied. "Ironwind welcomes the leftovers from our kills, although it has to be boiled or completely dried into jerky."
"Uh..."
I set the bundle on a nearby counter. "Think about it. Nina can confirm it's safe. If nothing else, you can feed it to the dogs."
Since everyone was gawking at me, I left the room, unwilling to bother convincing them that my kill was edible. If nothing else, I'd enjoyed my meal. Their final decision would probably depend on how desperate they were for food and if they could find a more trusted source to reassure them.
The dilemma was out of my hands, and that was all I cared about. I headed for the cabin, letting my footsteps fall heavy enough for Daniel to hear them. When I opened the door, the scene was similar to the first morning. Daniel was sitting on a bed, Nina was brushing her hair, Logan was in the bathroom, and a mound of blankets was starting to stir.
"Good morning," Daniel greeted me. "How was your evening?"
I shrugged. "It went as it went. If you go hunting, I advise any direction except north. Slim pickings in that direction, although I found the Runner and a bandit camp it ransacked."
Daniel sat up straighter. "You found their camp? The people here weren't sure where they were hiding. Were there any survivors?"
"It was in a ravine to the north. The bones we found and guy near the U-Haul originated from there. One man is unaccounted for, but the rest were caught by zombies or turned."
"I'll let Fred know, just in case more bandits take up residence there," he said.
The blankets on a nearby bed began jostling more rigorously. An arm emerged, then a bedraggled mop of red curls. Nicky blinked into the light owlishly. Several blinks later, she seemed to magically wake up.
"Mornin', Trinity!" she said with far too much energy.
"Uh huh. You look like you're trouble waiting for a place and a time to happen."
"Hey! I'm innocent so far."
"So far? You just woke, and you're still trapped in your bedding."
With a bit more squirming, she got her other arm free and examined the twisted bedding that refused to let her escape. "Sheesh. Did you duct tape me in these or something?"
I snorted faintly. "I'll leave that up to you to figure out." I pulled out the vial and held it up where Nina could see it. "Here. You'll want to wear gloves just in case anything on the outside hasn't completely dried out."
"What is it?" she asked as she pulled a pair of gloves out of her pocket. She took the vial and peered at the blood streaks and small clumps of flesh inside the glass.
"Smells like a Runner," Daniel commented, looking at the vial from where he sat. His pupils shrank as he focused on the vial, then returned to normal as his gaze moved to me.
"I'm pretty sure it was a normal Runner, but I figured there was no harm in bringing that back to Nina."
Nicky struggled harder against the blankets. "She comes back from a night outside the fence with zombie flesh in a jar, and you guys think I'm trouble? I'm trapped in blankets, for crying out loud!"
Reaching over, I grabbed a handful of the blankets and hefted them up. They untwisted midair, sending Nicky rolling across the bed in her sleeping clothes.
"Phew, I thought I was a goner. Thanks!" Nicky sat up, her previously blanket-contained energy now unleashed on whatever poor souls happened to be around.
"What are our plans for today?" I asked. "I somehow doubt we're heading back to Ironwind."
"Not yet," Daniel replied. "Someone created those unranked zombies, and we haven't found them or their lab yet, so there could be more around."
"I think we need to check the area to the south," Nina added. "The zombies all seem to have come from that direction. None of the nearby Strongholds have a lab, so I want to run a few more tests before leaving this place."
Nicky stretched. "If you think I'm trouble, just wait until you hear their latest plans for you."
At the ominous warning, I raised an eyebrow at Daniel and Nina.
"We weren't able to find a replacement motor for the centrifuge, and there are a few other pieces of equipment this place is lacking," Daniel said. "Instead of driving all the way back to Ironwind, then having to come back here, I was going to ask if you'd come with me to Spokane."
I gave him an incredulous stare. "Spokane? Unless I'm severely mistaken, that's not a small town. There'll be hundreds of thousands of zombies there."
"It's smaller than Seattle," he countered calmly, "and it had a few medical and diagnostic facilities that should have what we're looking for. It will also let us make sure nothing suspicious is in that direction."
"There's no way we'll get the truck past the city limits. That many zombies will form a blockade," I pointed out, still convinced he hadn't thought this through.
"In this situation, it'll be easier for us to get as close as we can with the truck and go in on foot." He shrugged. "You can stay here if you want, but that leaves you in charge of Nicky."
The redhead gave me a big grin that boded nothing but mischief.
With a sigh, I asked, "What time are we planning on leaving?"
"How about now?"