The Virus Within: Third Wave (Book 2)

Chapter 47

There was a small mobile home just outside the fence. At least five people were looking out the windows, two of which sneezed at the same time.

"You better make sure your masks are on properly," I murmured, glad I didn't have to worry about the risk of infection.

Both Nina and Nicky double-checked the fit of theirs as we approached the door.

"I think I'll stay out here. It'll be crowded enough inside."

"Actually, while we help these people," Daniel said, "you, Nicky, and Justin could head back and start tracking down anyone who's infected. That will make our search go faster."

Nicky stared at him. "You plan to send Trinity and me with Justin? I thought you would've heard about what happened the last time these two interacted."

Daniel sighed heavily. "Can you three please act like adults for two hours? Right now, my patience is about as short as Trinity's usually is."

Justin paled. "I can be civil as long as everyone else is."

"I guess I can try this thing called adulting," Nicky said, scratching her head. "I don't recall seeing the manual, although that might be the thing I set on fire."

"If anyone pisses me off, I'm spending the night outside the fence," I added serenely, as if I wasn't already planning on doing so.

Nicky rolled her eyes, opened her mouth, paused, then muttered, "This adulting thing is way too hard. That means no smart-ass remarks. Why did I agree to this?"

"Because we don't need to scare the locals any more than we already have," I told her, turning to go back the way we'd come. "Let's go see how many people we can find."

"Probably a good idea," she muttered. "Who knows how they'd react if they saw Daniel prowling around."

Justin trailed behind us, furrowing his eyebrows in thought. I slowed down until he caught up.

"As much as I'd rather avoid it, the fastest way is for me to go through the sleeping areas and point out beds. That way we can't miss anyone. Do you have a pen and paper to make a list?"

"I'll grab one. Mind waiting by the door?"

"Fine."

"I'll be right back." He ducked inside a large building and came back with a pen and pad of paper. Two other men our age accompanied him.

I raised an eyebrow at Justin, who shrugged and said, "Once we're a third of the way done, I'll send Misha off with the names we've collected so far, then Anthony can take the next batch of names. By the time we finish, Misha should be back, or I can flag someone else down to locate the rest of the people on the list. That should keep a pretty steady stream of people going over to Nina and Daniel."

"Hmmm... Should work. Just make sure that he-" I jerked my chin to one of the two, "gets the cure as well."

The man I indicated blanched. "I'm infected?"

"I've been told to adult," Nicky told him solemnly, "so please don't make such open-ended remarks that are practically begging for a sarcastic reply. If someone feels like questioning Trinity, have them ask Daniel for a second opinion."

"Let's get going," I told them. "It isn't going to take long for Nina to finish if she only has to give a short explanation to those inside the trailer." If Daniel admitted he was out of patience, he wouldn't want to be in a narrow hallway with me.

"We can start in that building," Justin said, pointing.

Entering this building was almost as bad as the last place I had gone into. Was it really too hard to open a window to air things out? The smell of the infection was so strong it would have been easy to assume a zombie was in here, but there was nothing to denote the rank attached to the zombie undertone.