Blood Virus

Chapter 1

I stalk forward on silent feet darting around trees. Despite the dark night, my blue tinted sight allows me to see every blade of grass and ant as if it was noon. The wind was tying my long hair into knots behind me.

I could smell hundreds of scents and identify each one with ease. I catch the scent of a young buck rabbit. That would be perfect for tonight. My eyes glance towards the pond that I am racing past as a short grey blur with glowing blue eyes stare right back at me.

My eyes focus on the unknowing buck right in front of me. My blade slices cleanly through the neck after I pounce. I clear away part of the fur with my blade so I can drink the blood. 
   
I race back towards my house with the meat. As I run I whistle for my dog Callie. Callie is the Saint Brenard I got for my birthday this past year right before the virus hit. Callie comes out of the woods right before I run into the clearing my house is in.
   
My house was a mansion that my family has owned my entire life. The mansion sits in a clearing surrounded by cedar trees. The mansion has over a hundred rooms. In my bedroom there are two beds. One is in a hidden loft area and another is on the ground.

When I get there I decide to go to the town that our other house is in. It is so far away that it would take about a week or longer for a human to get there and I will arrive in about a day. I am going there to see if a group of survivors is coming through town to either get to a stronghold or collect supplies for their stronghold.
   
The reason I am looking for survivors is that my instincts want a horde. My instincts mark people as part of my horde or as humans call it my family. My instincts also don't want people crossing into my territory.

When Callie and I enter the town, the sun is rising so I pull out the specially designed glasses I made and put them on. They are welding glasses molded to my face so no light gets through.

I jumped up onto the roof of our house. The staircase was destroyed from a heavy chair landing on it and would be too dangerous for my small body to head down stairs if I was still human.
   
I sit and wait with Callie knowing that there will be a group traveling through here very soon as I can already smell them. A little while later a truck travels through the town leading all the zombies away so they can stay here for the night. When some come to the house I am on top of I call down softly.

"Hello?" I hear exclamations of surprise as they hear my soft call.

"Who's there?" a woman calls out.

"Up above you, the stairs broke and I'm stuck" I say as I stick my head over the wall on the roof.

A boy says in disbelief "A child?"

"My parents left me on the roof so I would not get hurt. Then they destroyed the stairs. All of this happened right before they were bitten."

They started heading inside to figure out how broken the stairs were. They found that they could pull themselves up and down the gap but it was too big for my six year old body. The boy pulls himself up and asks if he could pass me down to the woman, who I now noticed that she was a nightstalker, below.

"Sure."

"How old are you?" the woman asks me as she puts me down before helping the boy get Callie and himself down.

"I'm six." I responded.

"Ok let's head in the store, eat some food, and introduce ourselves." the boy says.

We all head down to the convenience store where the other group member is. There is a red headed girl balancing on a shelf. The two who came to get me were a brunette boy, and a black haired nightstalker who was the woman.

As the brunette boy walks inside the redhead jumps down on him.

"Will you please stop playing around and come here. We found someone." the boy says in an exasperated tone. The redhead pops up and comes over to where I was.

"A child?" she asks, shocked.

I turn my head into the nightstalkers stomach acting shy. The nightstalker growls so lightly there would not be any way for a human to hear.

"My name is Indra, and his name is Benj.." as the redhead tries to tell me the boy's name, he covers her mouth then turns to me.

"My name is Ben," he says "Not Benjamin or Benji no matter how many times Indra calls me that."

"Finally, my name is Katrina, please call me Kat." the nightstalker says.

I turn around and put each name to a face. Surprisingly my instincts decide that Indra and Kat are part of my horde. As I puzzle over the fact Indra, a human, is part of my horde I respond.

"My name is Sapphire." I say as I push my glasses further up my face.

"Sapphire, did you live in that house we found you in?" Kat asks me.

"No. I live in a house in the woods very far away. We came to that house to grab a friend but she was a zombie. Why are you traveling?"

"We are trying to find a stronghold to live in." Ben says as he gestures to Indra.

"I am going with them because they are too young to be traveling alone." Kat says in a teasing tone.

"I am not too young! How many times must I tell you this Kat."

Kat grins at Indra's exclamation, Ben shakes his head, and I laugh before asking "Exactly how old are you?"

Kat responds with "I'm 20, he is 18, and she is 19. So technically the only reason I am with them is because I know how to take out zombies.

"Well that makes sense." I say before turning to Kat and asking "Do they know?" while unlocking my zombie scent so she understands.

She stares at me in shock before saying "No should I tell them? Also if I do will you?"

"Of course I would tell them if you did." I say in such a tone like 'is that not obvious'

Indra exclaims "Tell us what?" Kat and I stare down to figure out who talks first to explain. Finally she turns to explain.

"What do you know about zombies?" Ben stares at her in confusion. Indra on the other hand starts to explain what she knows.

"There are 4 ranks of zombies. The first rank are the mindless and those are what they sound like. The second rank are the runners who are faster than the mindless zombies and have impressive stamina. The third rank are the nightstalkers who only come out at night. The fourth rank are the terrors; they are the ultimate zombie. Right?"

"There are supposedly 5 ranks of zombies. The first four are what you said they were but the last rank is only speculation from the scientists who have broken down the virus. The last rank is unnamed because we have no idea of what these zombies can do." Kat decides to walk us to one of the open areas in the store so that we can sit down while we talk.

"I call them Chaos zombies."