The Virus Within (Original rough draft)

Chapter 82

I ignored the chess game as I leaned against the wall and let my temper slowly cool off. Nicky had taken over my pieces and was soundly getting her ass kicked in the game. She kept thinking that the queen could teleport anywhere on the board.

No one disturbed me. They probably realized that I wasn't in the mood for idle chit chat. So much for them keeping me out of the way of the traders. They were lucky that I only growled at them. I was still tempted to track down that Kane guy and chase him through the forest while I stalked him.

"This isn't a game. This is a carefully disguised method of torture."

That would be the third game in a row Nicky lost now. The lady across from her wasn't very good at chess either. Nicky groaned and glanced over at me, "Your turn. I have been humiliated enough for one day by this crazy game. You are the one who asked them to dig up this thing anyway."

I didn't really feel like it, but she did have a point. With a sigh I moved to the empty chair beside Nicky as she reset the board. My mind switched gears from dwelling on irritable people to trying to plan several moves ahead while making allowances for the other player's strategy.

One of the men spoke quietly, "I hope you aren't too mad that we hauled that guy off. It didn't occur to us that it could upset you."

I could tell that this had been weighing heavily on his mind. I exhaled slowly, "This time it wasn't too bad. Mostly because you were defending Nicky and I didn't actually want to kill anyone. I advise caution in the future though. Most zombies do not react well if people try to remove someone they are mad at if they aren't done with them yet. Even Daniel or I could easily snap if our instincts are high enough."

"I am really sorry."

I shrugged, "It is done and over with. Let the matter be forgotten."

He nodded in relief. Now I just hoped that I could truly let the matter rest and not dwell on possibilities for revenge. Scaring the crap out of Kane while stalking him in a dark forest still sounded awfully good to my mind...

Nicky yawned, "Supper is in an hour and they will leave as soon as they finish eating."

That was the best news I had heard all day.

~

Nina sighed as she sat down with her breakfast, "That feral Nightstalker is dead."

I glanced at Daniel with narrowed eyes. He shook his head, "I am innocent."

I raised an eyebrow at Nina. How could a Nightstalker just die? A feral couldn't even starve to death and it had been just fine two days ago.

Nina made a face, "We were checking to see if the cure would work with the controlex drug. Good news is that it still works and the human body is unaffected. The problem arose when we tried to infect the body with the zombie virus again."

She took a sip of tea and sighed, "The virus must leave some sort of marker in the body somewhere and if you try to re-infect a person to make them a different zombie rank, that marker prevents the change. We tried to change her human body into a Runner and once the body went into the seizures that mark the turning point, she never recovered. She wasn't breathing and her heart wasn't beating."

Nicky was as confused as I was. She shook her head, "Trinity was like that when she got injured, but she recovered. Are you sure it is truly dead?"

Nina nodded, "We have seen this a few times before when we tried to turn a Runner into a Nightstalker. They are well and truly dead. No drug works on them at all and they start rotting within hours."

I furrowed my eyebrows in concentration, "So you can control a human's first change, but they can't change their rank after they turn?"

Nina nodded, "Pretty much. We would be able to turn you back into a Nightstalker, but you wouldn't be able to turn into a Runner or a Terror. We did a bit of testing and those markers mean that you wouldn't even need any intervention if you became human and got bitten. Even if a normal zombie bit you, those existing markers would control the change and you would end up as a Nightstalker."