My leg burned and hampered my stride. Every bullet hole in my chest was on fire as my heavy breathing tore the wounds open.
Behind me, the distant clang of a small access door being thrown open hard enough to hit the fence was followed by the sound of the quad accelerating. My time was rapidly running out. They'd caught me like this the last time – out in the open when I had been running for shelter.
I was over halfway to the trees.
I tried pushing for more speed, hoping to reach them before the quad caught up, but my injuries were sapping my speed and strength quite noticeably. I was barely running as fast as most humans, and I simply couldn't go any faster. Warm dampness spread out from around the wounds. The scent of my blood was far too easy to pick up.
The cool shadows of the trees engulfed me as I reached the forest, although I didn't dare slow down yet. Not when one of them had a quad. As I ran through the sheltering underbrush, several branches struck my leg, and I snarled at the flares of pain but kept going.
When I ducked below some low-hanging vines, the bullet wound on my leg struck something. The explosion of pain made me gasp and sent me sprawling into the leaf litter. It was so bad that I couldn't even make a sound.
Breathing heavily, I struggled to sit up, only now seeing the arm-thick branch that I had knocked out of its hiding place in the long grass.
The revving of the rapidly approaching quad engine forced me to my feet, although it took several tries before my leg would hold my weight, and quite a few heavily limping steps before I could manage a faster pace.
The quad suddenly slowed down, so he had likely reached the edge of the forest. I tried to move faster, without much success. Not even a minute later, I heard swift footsteps coming up behind me, although they weren't the ones I'd been worried about.
Daniel clearly had no problems following the heavy scent of my blood as it escaped from the re-opened wounds. He remained hidden in the trees as he circled around me before darting out to block my path.
I slid to a stop as my chest heaved for breath. My heart pounded so hard it was painful, forcefully reminding me that my injuries were barely healed enough to keep my heart and lungs working. If I wasn't careful, they could give out again. I stepped back with a frustrated snarl, so out of breath that it sounded pretty pathetic.
My mind was hazed with exhaustion; that run had taken a huge toll on my recovering body. Even my instincts didn't try to push me for First Strike. They knew he was a Terror, as well as that I was far too injured to even attempt it. I took another step back, instinctively turning sideways with a low growl. Any feral zombie would know from my stance that I wanted no part of a challenge.
Daniel slowly walked toward me with no hint of threat in his body language. Still in flight mode, I barely noticed his concerned expression while I tried to spot an escape route.
My wounds felt like they were on fire, and I knew I wouldn't be able to go much farther. I wasn't thinking clearly, and I just wanted to get away from any human or zombie at this point. With another breathless growl, I took another step back.
Daniel must have realized I wasn't exactly in control at the moment and stopped. He hesitated, uncertain of exactly how to approach me.
"Relax, Trinity," he said softly. "I'm not going to attack you. Your injuries are bleeding."
He took slow steps forward, and the haze in my vision reddened as the powerful zombie approached. I had no chance of outrunning him on a good day, but in my current state, most humans could catch up to me. My head pounded in time with my heartbeat.
He reached out to touch my shoulder, and I stepped back with a faint growl, my mind too hazy to analyze his behavior.
With a sigh, he took another slow step forward. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure you didn't injure yourself too badly. If zombies could collapse from blood loss, you probably wouldn't be standing."
I finally glanced down at my clothing, only now seeing huge splotches of red covering half of my shirt. The left leg of my shorts was soaked from the thigh down, and more blood ran down my leg in tiny trickles.
No wonder I wasn't thinking straight. Not only had I managed to run myself into near exhaustion, but I was also dealing with major blood loss. My body's energy had been channeled into healing ever since I had been injured – it had nothing in reserve for strenuous activity – and losing so much blood wouldn't exactly be helping.
Seeing some reason return to my expression, Daniel slowly reached out again. I growled faintly at his proximity but didn't move. He ignored the sound and carefully lifted the blood-soaked sleeve of my tank top and shifted it to the side. The gauze and square bandages slid down, too wet to stick. Blood seeped out of the large cracks in the scab.
"If this one is this bad, I can only imagine what the others look like," Daniel murmured, stepping away to put a first aid kit on the ground and open it up.
I blinked a few times, trying to figure out where the first aid kit had come from. It was too large to fit in his pockets. Had he been carrying it in his hand the entire time?
He pulled out something that looked like an oversized pepper shaker, and I narrowed my eyes at it.
"This is cayenne powder. It'll help stop the bleeding. I can do this wound, but I'm pretty sure you'll take a swipe at me if I try to patch up your other injuries."
I growled a light warning. If he tried to take my shirt off, I would take a swipe at him, regardless of how injured I was. It was bad enough letting Nina change the bandages; Daniel didn't need to see my bra. No man did. I had always valued my privacy as a human, and it had become far more pronounced as a Nightstalker.
Daniel shook the red powder onto the wound until it was completely covered. The smell burned my nose, but as if by magic, the bleeding completely stopped. Stepping back, he bent down to grab more bandages and a pair of scissors out of the kit.
He passed me the shaker and the bandages. "You'll probably want to stop the bleeding on your leg. I know you won't be able to put the bandages on your back or chest, but those can wait until we get back and Nina helps."
I took the items with a reluctant grumble and went behind a clump of trees. Now that I had slowed down, I could feel each step, and my body realized just how much it hurt. Once I was out of sight, I lifted up the leg of my shorts and sat down in the leaf litter.
Everything was crimson. The smell of blood saturated the air as I used the scissors to cut through the soaked bandages and carefully peeled them off. The scab on my leg stuck to the bandages, having torn completely free.
I grimaced at the gaping wound beneath it. The big branch I'd collided with had ripped the injury even wider than before. Blood still leaked out, albeit slowly. I pulled the mangled scab off the gauze and gingerly placed it on the wound since it would hold back some of the blood flow.
With a sigh, I started applying the cayenne powder to try and control the bleeding. It took most of the container to accomplish that task.
I winced as I lifted my shirt high enough to check the bandages around my chest. They were completely soaked through, but it looked like they had stopped bleeding on their own. Removing the bandages right now would probably be counterproductive.
Despite taking my time, I still hadn't caught my breath. If the metallic tang on my breath was any indication, my lung was partially filled with blood from the re-opened bullet wound. It would slow me, but thankfully, it wasn't dangerous for a zombie.
I pulled my shirt back down and grimaced at the sticky, wet feeling. I could clearly pick up Daniel's scent, so he was still waiting for me. My head had cleared some, but I knew my control wasn't good enough to be around humans.
In truth, I had burned a lot of energy and lost a lot of blood. Human food wasn't going to help me in this situation. In other words, I needed to hunt. Trying to catch an animal was the last thing I felt like doing at the moment, but there wasn't any way around it.
I wandered back to where Daniel was patiently waiting.
He watched my slow walk. "Ready to head back?"
I had regained enough control that my voice and sarcasm had also returned. I snorted at that idea, although the action made my chest ache.
"I have no desire to go into a place where several people are just waiting to kill me."
Daniel sighed as he leaned against a tree. "They were new and had arrived after Nina and I left on our trip. No one knew they intended to harm you. They have already been exiled from the Stronghold."
My eyes flickered over to him in surprise. I hadn't expected a Stronghold to exile humans because they threatened a zombie.
My tone was still flat. "Any who came from their original Stronghold will be more than willing to finish the job they started."
Daniel didn't seem to be affected by my worsening mood. "There were only two other people who came in with that group, and they won't attempt anything."
This guy reminded me of Google; he had an answer for everything, even if it was wrong. My head may not be up to full speed, but it still had a few working brain cells capable of doing math.
"You caught up to me in less than five minutes. There's no way you could possibly know how they'll behave."
He growled lightly at my accusing tone before responding, "Nina went off with a dozen fighters to locate them and lay down the rules. Not many will dare cross her."
"Let me guess, because of her bodyguard?" I rubbed my forehead, trying to massage the headache away.
He grinned, flashing his sharp teeth. "Exactly. No one wants a pissed-off Terror coming after them."
I knew exactly how they felt. "All the more reason for me to remain out here. My general constant state of irritation tends to annoy most people."
"Then it's a good thing it doesn't annoy her. I can tell your injuries are paining you more than you're letting on. Let's go back so you can get some rest. I'll make sure no one bothers you."
Blast it. This guy had a one-track mind and he was convinced the Stronghold was the best place to rest and heal. He was probably hoping I'd give in gracefully, but unfortunately for him, my Nightstalker instincts made me as stubborn as a cat faced with a swimming pool.
But even stubbornness wasn't enough some days. Yes, I could take injuries that would kill any human, but they took a serious toll on me until they healed. I was tired – tired enough that being irritated and stubborn felt like too much work. That was quite a feat for a Nightstalker.
"My control isn't up for being anywhere near humans at the moment," I admitted reluctantly.
I raised my nose to the air and sniffed lightly before turning and slowly walking off.
"Where are you going?"
"Hunting."
"You can barely walk," he pointed out with a look of confusion on his face. "Anything more will open up those wounds again."
"I've hunted with worse and managed." This time I could at least run for a few steps or jump out of an ambush, unlike the previous time I had been shot.
Nightstalker ambush abilities counted for a lot when sneaking up on something. It was much easier at night, but it could be done in the day if you were okay with some failed attempts. The reek of fresh blood from my clothing would make things difficult though.
Daniel shook his head. "Wait here."
He took off, running easily and effortlessly between the trees. I narrowed my eyes at his retreating figure, unsure of exactly what he was up to. Since I didn't stand a chance of keeping up to him, I sat down on a log and waited, half expecting him to show up with a petrified rabbit.