The Virus Within (Original rough draft)

Chapter 88

I checked the scabs on my arms from the fight with the Nightstalkers. The shallowest ones had fallen off a bit earlier. The rest would likely come off in a day or so with the amount of doctoring I had done to my injuries. Even the bigger cut was much further along than anticipated.

I was healing leaps and bounds faster than Daniel was due to my cheating. He hadn't noticed the difference yesterday, but I couldn't see him missing it today. Especially if some of the bigger scabs came off.

The night was quiet as I roamed the fields and checked out the small stand of trees near the gas station. To call it a forest would have been an understatement since it would fit into a baseball diamond. The endless fields of grasses were almost waist high on me. I could only imagine what kind of game of hide and go seek someone could have if they crouched down.

Other creatures were playing that very game as well. My nose easily picked up the scent of numerous rabbits, mice, quail, as well as several foxes and a few other predators. One scent seemed a bit different, it smelled like rabbit, but not quite.

I tracked it out of curiosity. It didn't take me long to find the creature napping under a clump of grass. I blinked slowly at its huge ears and long legs. I had not seen a jackrabbit since I had been human, possibly because they didn't like the hilly forested areas further north along the mountains.

I left the jackrabbit alone and continued circling the gas station. Toward dawn a rabbit hopped directly in front of me and sealed its fate. I was hunting more after that drug had taken effect, although I wasn't eating normal food, so it was probably balancing out somehow.

Back in the mountains I only hunted a larger animal every three or four days and it was sufficient. Once the humans were around, I had hunted a smaller creature every night just to help with my control. After the controlex drug tweaked the virus in my blood I was hunting at least one rabbit a night and every few days I also went after something larger or hunted a couple of times in one night.

The rabbits around here weren't very bright. Another one was hopping around in front of me. I hadn't tended my wounds yet tonight and the opportunity was too good to pass up. My instincts were all for having these pesky wounds healed so it didn't look like I had lost so many First Strike matches. I was surprised that Daniel never noticed his own instincts given the amount of scratches that criss-crossed his arms.

I trickled the blood over the various small scratches before turning to the larger knife wound that still sported a bandage. I peeled back the bandage and shook my head at the amount of salve Nina had put onto it this morning.

The salve had kept the wound from forming a proper scab, so I used a tissue to carefully wipe the gel and sticky half-congealed blood away. I carefully dripped the rabbit blood into the rather ugly wound. It disappeared like water hitting sand and I felt the wound heat up from the blood application.

The heat was soon almost painful and I stopped doctoring the wound. I drained the last of the rabbit blood into the small apricot-sized jar that I had pilfered from the last stop. I stashed it away in my backpack. No sense wasting it.

The night was oddly quiet. I didn't even come across any zombies. Normally the regular zombies were guaranteed to show up and I would have to lure them away. We hadn't even dodged any on the road the last fifteen minutes of our drive. It was distinctly odd.

I slowed my pace and carefully tested the air. I could smell zombies, so they had passed through, but the traces were old and faint. My instincts stirred and I agreed with them. We were along a road that saw weekly traffic, zombies should be roaming up and down as they were lured in by the scent of humans.

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. If I hadn't been circling this area for most of the night to know that there was no immediate danger, I would have been alarmed enough to warn Daniel. I was more surprised that I hadn't noticed it until now. I must be slipping, but the lack of roaming zombies wasn't exactly something I had been on the lookout for. I had been watching for trouble, not its absence.

I had scented one regular zombie when we first pulled up though. I tested the air again, but didn't detect it. With large fields sprawling around us, it wasn't exactly easy for a zombie to hide. Other than Nightstalkers, no zombie cared about remaining out of sight. It certainly hadn't been a Nightstalker, so where on earth had it gotten to? With a huff, I picked up speed as I headed downwind to find the blasted creature.

~

I was seriously confused by this point. The sky was starting to lighten and I still hadn't located a single zombie. I had gone a long way downwind, but that search had come up empty. That thing didn't just turn into a butterfly and flutter away, so where the hell did it go? I was getting frustrated to say the least.

I gave up looking further away. It wouldn't have gone so far unless it was actively chasing something. I decided to make a huge circle of the gas station and see if that would turn up anything. I was breathing hard. Running had never been my thing and I wasn't built for long distance trips.

I paused as I took a deep breath and turned to face upwind. The zombie was somewhere upwind. I was further east than I had been before, so I hadn't noticed it until now. I could also smell rotting human remains that the zombie had undoubtedly gone to find. I went to investigate.

My instincts flared and I snarled in alarm as I jumped sideways mid-run. I came to a stop and did a quick check around me before focusing on what I had just dodged. That had been a close one. A growl still rumbled through my chest as I bent down to carefully inspect the trap. Just the barest hint of steel poked through the long grasses. I picked up a rock and took a few steps back before throwing it at the grass.

With a loud clang the steel jaws of the bear trap closed. That would have been nasty if I had stepped on it, but one tooth of the jaws had given it away. I was thankful for my lucky break, but pissed at whoever had left it out here. If I had been wearing my glasses, I might have missed it.

I picked up the trap and took a sniff of it. It had been out here for so long that no trace of scent clung to it. I dropped it to the ground with a faint growl. My mind was in deep thought. Why would someone set up a bear trap in the middle of a field? This makes no sense.

When someone took the time to do something that lacked any traces of logic, it made me suspicious. People like that didn't live long in this world, so it often meant that something was up. I exhaled in irritation, but continued in the same direction. This time I was going more slowly and watching where I stepped. My instincts were up in arms over my close call and were also helping me keep watch.

I set off a few other traps as I traveled. Two more bear traps, half a dozen foot snares, and even a pitfall trap. The pitfall trap had been clearly marked with signs so humans could avoid it. I set it off anyway. I was uneasy. Someone had put a lot of effort into putting these traps up considering I had found so many when I was just traveling in a mostly straight line.

The smell of rot was much stronger now and unpleasant. A normal zombie would be lured in like a bear to honey. I moved slowly and carefully as my glowing red eyes inspected everything around me.

I came to the edge of a large pit that was the source of the smell. A dead human had been tied up to a stake on a platform. Considering he had been beheaded, it was clear that someone thought he had been infected. The pit was so deep that the platform was still below the ground I stood on. That was why I hadn't been able to see it at a distance.

The bottom of the pit caught my interest though. Someone had put a lot of thought into this. The bottom must have had a water spring in it since it was covered in a thick mud that almost certainly acted like quicksand. I could smell that a zombie had stumbled into this pit just before sunset, but it was buried so far beneath the mud that no trace of its scent escaped now.

My instincts twisted in warning and I stepped back with narrowed eyes as I examined my surroundings. I was surrounded by long meadow grass that was waist high, but didn't see anything else. I took a deep breath, but didn't pick up much other than the rotting human and traces of the submerged zombie's passage.

My instincts rose even higher and I inhaled with a faint growl. I wasn't picking up many of the smaller and fainter scents. They were missing. Cloaked.

In a smooth and fluid movement I backed into the tall grass and ducked out of sight.