The Virus Within: The Road Ahead (Book 1 - SERIES COMPLETED!)

Chapter 72

We pulled up in front of the barn just before noon. I stood up and kept watch while Nicky slid over the side of the truck and stretched.

Daniel dropped the tailgate, and picked up our new guinea pig, who still hadn't woken up from her enforced nap. Nina opened the barn door for him, and I slowly followed them inside, not sure what to expect.

As I crossed the threshold, I examined the space, which looked more like a jail with a science lab at the far end. Other than two zombies moaning against the bars of their holding cells, the rest were currently empty.

The corner across from us held a heavily reinforced cage, far sturdier than any of the others. Nina walked ahead to open the door, using a bungee cord to keep it from swinging closed. She dug around in her supply bag while Daniel went inside and put the Nightstalker on the floor.

Going down to one knee, he held the Nightstalker's arms while Nina took several vials of blood. She passed him a big swab, and he wiped it inside the feral's mouth, collecting saliva, and put it in a plastic vial before handing it back to her.

Once Nina left the cell with her samples, he removed most of the Nightstalker's bindings. Prudently, he left the ankle shackles on, which would hamper it if it somehow got loose. He left the cage and closed the door behind himself.

As I wandered over to see what Nina was doing on the science lab side, I glanced at the jail cells that lined both walls. The empty ones were spotlessly clean, even though I knew they had been in use not that long ago.

"We'll inject the feral with the same drug before she wakes up," Nina murmured to me as she worked with several vials of clear liquid. "Then we can see if she has a similar reaction. Since I'm tired of calling it 'the drug', we really have to give it a name. It removed your bloodlust, so what about controlex? Unless you have any other ideas?"

"Not off the top of my head." Any names I might give it would be a lot less flattering, not to mention people might give her some strange looks if we called it the sabotage drug.

I scanned the room again, slightly uneasy about being in here.

"This place is creepy," Nicky said as she walked up beside me, uncannily echoing my thoughts. "I'm kind of glad Daniel didn't lock me up in here when I got into the coffee."

"We wouldn't have done that," Nina said, still not looking up.

"Hey, I remember helping you and Daniel stick Trinity in that cell. I also recall him threatening to stick me in there with her after he tied me up the third time."

"And he never followed through with that threat, even though you got loose again," Nina said calmly. "Besides, there's a huge difference between a feral zombie that will attack any human and a sane one. Unless we're trying to help them retain control, like we did when Trinity was unconscious, we'd never lock a sane zombie up. I'm sure you recall Trinity's cell wasn't even locked, and once we were sure she was in control, we let her out."

"So, why exactly is there a cage like that in here?" Nicky asked, looking back at the cage that held the barn's newest inhabitant.

Nina started filling a syringe with a clear liquid. "Before meeting Trinity, we spent six months trying to find a Nightstalker. It never even crossed our minds that we might encounter a sane one. That cage was built to contain a feral."

"What exactly did you think that first night when you found our group?" I asked, halfway curious.

Nina glanced over at me in amusement. "We heard your scream first and thought it was very odd since the sun hadn't set yet. The rumors we heard said Nightstalkers never came out until it was very dark. Daniel was hoping to corner the feral while he could still see.