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

Chapter 90

I slowed down and stood up to take a deeper breath.

"What's up?" Nicky asked.

"Blood," I said shortly, sitting down and driving faster than before, "and it belongs to a child I've never smelled before."

"In the Stronghold?"

"I'm assuming so. That's the direction the wind is coming from, at any rate."

We were finally close enough to see the Stronghold, although nothing seemed out of the ordinary from a distance. My nose told me a different story.

"There are some other people here I've never met," I added. The scents of the Ironwind citizens were so familiar to me now that the newcomers stood out.

"We'll find out shortly. I bet the guards will know."

When we reached the gate, I asked the guard, "What's going on?"

"I haven't heard much yet," he replied calmly as he closed the gate behind me. "Just that someone brought an infected child here. Marie might know-"

"Trinity!" Jess called out in the distance. "Can you come over here?"

I turned my head, looking for her.

"She's in a window in the secondary building," Nicky murmured, somehow noticing her before I did.

It took me a second to spot her. She could have at least waved or done something to make herself more visible.

"Thanks," I told the guard as I started driving away.

I stopped the side-by-side outside the door and asked Nicky, "Are you going to put this away or come inside?"

"If there's an infected child around, I highly doubt Nina wants to be graced with my presence. I'll park this thing in the garage and find something to do that won't tempt Daniel to tie me up."

"Wise idea. For that, you get this." I pulled a package of nuts out of my backpack and tossed them at her as I slid out of my seat.

"Awesome! Thanks!"

I was already climbing the three stairs to the door, although it opened before I got there.

Without waiting for me to ask, Jess said, "Shortly after you left, some people drove up with a boy who'd been injured by a feral Nightstalker. They heard rumors about Ironwind working on a cure, so they came here."

"A Nightstalker?" I asked in disbelief.

The odds of surviving a Nightstalker attack were next to zero. Heck, most of the time our quarry never even knew they were in trouble before they died. How had a child managed to get away?

"Somewhere to the south. It attacked at night while a group of travelers were sleeping in a hotel. They drove it off with light, but one person was killed, and several others were injured. Let's go." She waved me forward.

I followed her inside. "Go where?"

"To the room they're in. It took them two days to get here, and the infected people have such a high virus count in their blood they could turn any second. Daniel can't easily watch three people at once."

"Didn't Nina offer them the cure?"

"Yes, but there's still a chance they'll turn before the cure can reverse the infection. The risk is so great Nina gave them the sanity serum and the cure, just in case. They're in here."

She opened the door to what I now saw was a meeting room. Daniel stood against the wall while two adults sat in chairs and watched Nina hold a stethoscope to the boy's chest as he lay on the table.