The Virus Within: Secrets Unraveled (Book 5)

Ch 28: A Radio Call

My lips curled back from my teeth as the zombie effortlessly jumped over the canal. Blast it. Why couldn't this zombie make things easy? All it was doing was creating problems for itself.

There was no point in trying to lure it back into the town since it had come from that direction. Even if I pushed it into the canal, I doubted it would stay down there. That left me with just one option. I grabbed my bow and turned to face my latest annoyance.

Controlex might take three long days to work, but a headshot took at least a week to heal from. By the time this zombie woke up, it would have a very different outlook on life and wouldn't be such a serious threat to the locals.

I drew my bow and sent an arrow in its direction to show my appreciation of problematic trespassers. The arrow whistled through the air and struck an eye, piercing through to the brain. The zombie fell unceremoniously to the dirt.

There was no point in dumping it in the canal since the unconscious zombie would give Trent a chance to administer the controlex without too many complications. I just had to figure out where to dump it until then. The horses wouldn't appreciate the body, and I didn't want to cause the riders any more trouble than my scent trails already did, although they probably hadn't realized why their mounts were so fidgety lately.

A clattering alerted me to Wren's return as she dragged a sheet of tin behind the dune buggy on a chain. She stopped when it was beside the zombie. With a murmured thanks, I rolled the zombie onto the tin.

"Let's go into the southern forest," I told her. "The humans aren't going anywhere near there right now, and it will make it easier for Trent to give it the controlex."

She obliged and drove halfway to the town, stopping whenever the unconscious zombie rolled off the tin. Once we reached a good spot, I used some light chains to tie the zombie to a tree. It was a bit excessive, but I wasn't about to take any chances. Not after the last few days.

"Do you mind keeping an eye on the Stronghold?" I asked Wren. "I want to figure out where the zombie got past the fence." The fence didn't stretch the entire length of the forest, so there were many possibilities. It might have even climbed right over the obstacle.

She hesitated, then nodded. "I'd offer to drive you until we find the spot, but the noise would attract more zombies to the fence. I'll blow the horn if we need you."

As she headed back, I went in search of the zombie's trail and the fence. A regular zombie was stumbling along the fence on the town side, being properly diverted. I passed behind her and checked her scent to make sure it was free of the unranked tang before continuing my search.

It didn't take me long to find a jumbled pile of tree trunks. My lips twisted into a frown as I inspected it. The end of the ropes securing the tree trunks were slightly frayed from sharp zombie nails. Instead of the zombie merely climbing over my makeshift fence, it had apparently decided to paw at the human-smelling ropes, inadvertently proving how shabby and inadequate my handiwork was.

Shaking my head, I tied the logs back into place like fence rails. It was only a matter of time until another zombie climbed over or slipped through the gaps between the logs.

With the fence fixed, I went to locate the regular zombie I'd seen earlier and lure it back into town. There was no point in letting her wander back and forth and possibly create a trail that other zombies might follow.

I jumped over the fence not far ahead of the zombie and easily lured her back into town. Once I had gone through a few intersections, I climbed up the side of a brick building and onto the roof to lose the handful of zombies I'd accumulated on my way here.