The Virus Within: The Unranked (Book 4)

Ch. 1: The Calm Before The Storm

The sun slowly rose above the horizon as I walked down the dusty road. A zombie half-jogged toward me, thinking I was an easy target. I gave a sharp growl, which made it stumble to a stop and rethink its decision. Now that it knew I was also a zombie, it lost interest and turned around.

It finally spotted the horseback rider trotting toward us, and it took off at a shuffling jog. The rider already had a dozen zombies trailing behind him, and he ignored the incoming one in favor of waving at me.

I waved once in reply, not ambitious enough for anything more elaborate, but he seemed happy to get more than my typical nod.

"Welcome back, Trinity," he said as he got closer, guiding his horse casually around the regular zombie I had just rebuked.

"Thanks. Leading the morning horde away, I presume?"

"There are a few on the far side of Ironwind, but this is most of them. I'll return for the others once I leave this group in the ravine." With the zombies chasing him, he wasn't able to stop for a longer conversation. "Have a good day!"

"You too." Turning my head, I bestowed a frown on the clueless zombies who now thought I was the closest target, with the exception of the one I had just growled at. Another growl had them detouring around me as they continued down the road.

As I rounded a bend, the trees ended, revealing Ironwind in the middle of a meadow. The main fence was impressive, standing over thirty feet in the air with power poles as posts.

Small sections of four-foot chain-link fence dotted the grass here and there, remnants of a perimeter fence system that hadn't worked out, but parts had been left up in case someone was running from a zombie and needed an obstacle to slow them down.

As I got closer to the gate, a flurry of activity erupted inside as people ran like feral zombies were chasing them. The guards weren't sounding the alarm, which meant it wasn't a real emergency, although some of those running might disagree.

One of the guards came over and opened the gate for me. "Welcome back."

"Uh-huh. What did I just come back to?"

"Good question. I'm not sure."

"I think I'll sit in the guard tower until things calm down." Without waiting for a reply, I quickly scaled the ladder.

The female guard on the platform gave me a brief nod and turned her attention to the center of the Stronghold. I walked to the opposite corner and leaned on the railing as I followed her gaze. It didn't take long to spot the redhead pelting after three teens who had been a bit too slow to hide.

"Perhaps I should have stayed in the mountains for an extra day," I muttered, wondering if Nicky was psychic or if the timing was purely coincidental.

"The weather has been so nice we weren't expecting you back for a couple more days," the female guard murmured, mostly focused on the people running around and hiding.

"It was tempting. Huh. She almost caught that one. He's lucky she stumbled." I regarded the chase scene below more closely. "She's definitely out of practice. Half a year ago, she would have caught two or three of them by now."

"Now that you mention it, I think Nicky only had one insanity blitz so far this year. We used to have zombie drills every month until she came along and rendered such things unnecessary."

"They're getting complacent," I stated with a frown. "We either need to bring those drills back or get Nicky wound up more frequently."

"No coffee," the guard immediately said, bringing a smirk to my lips.