The Virus Within: The Unranked (Book 4)

Ch. 3: Bad News Travels Fast

I relaxed in a chair on the secondary building roof while the others arrived with their dinner.

"Where are my handcuffs?" Nicky asked.

"No idea. Why would I need handcuffs?" I asked, watching her in amusement.

"You might not need them, but that wouldn't stop you from taking the ones I pilfered. By the way, I'm keeping the notebook as a souvenir."

"You'll have to keep looking."

"I already tried that. I even tried retracing your steps to figure out where you left them, but that didn't work because I couldn't find you. Where were you hiding all day?"

"I was out collecting samples for Nina."

"You brought those vials back shortly after lunch," Nicky stated, once more proving her observation skills.

"The handcuffs are no longer in my possession, and I assume they have been returned to their rightful owners."

"Drat. That explains why the guards hid the lockbox again," Nicky muttered.

Jess asked, "Did you ever try telling them it was just for a zombie break-in drill?"

"Actually, no. That might be an idea..." Nicky mused, picking up a piece of cheese. She held it up to the light and asked Nina, "Doesn't cheese have some types of yeast?"

"Some, yes. They didn't work well for what I was trying," the scientist replied.

"Yeast is used to make cheese, and yeast is used to make bread," Nicky mused. "Does that mean cheese is really just a loaf of milk?"

"I think the fumes from the felts went to your head," I told her. "I should have saved them for your birthday instead of giving them to you before I left."

She flashed a grin at me. "I didn't even open the package yet. I'm saving it for a special occasion."

"Lucky us," I muttered. "I wasn't supposed to be in the fallout zone when those things came out."

"You gave her felts?" Daniel asked, frowning at that news and probably doing a mental tally of any white clothing he might not have seen in a while.

"I couldn't find another boomerang to add to her collection. You could leave a random white shirt where she can find it."

"As if I'd fall for that," Nicky quipped. "Besides, I need some sort of coloring implement for rainy days."

"You don't care if you get rained on," I pointed out.

"That's beside the point- Hey! That guy is running faster now than when I chased him earlier!" Nicky exclaimed, glaring daggers at the man running out of the main building.

"He's coming this way." Jess set her plate on the flat roof and walked to the railing for a better look.

"Don't you dare lean over that railing," I warned her. "I'd probably break a leg if I jumped off the roof of a three-story building, so you sure as hell won't land gracefully."

Daniel went over. "He can see me, and he's not calling out, so it's not an emergency."

"If it were an emergency, he'd be running away from me, not toward me," Nicky muttered.

"He works in the radio relay room," Nina said. "I hope Nessian Stronghold's insulin cultures didn't crash again. They almost lost someone last time."

"They were fine two days ago," Jess reassured her as she sat down. "If it was important, he would have called out instead of coming up here."