It was hard not to look bored. Very hard. I wasn't sure who the woman leading the tour was, but her voice was so monotone that even I – a Nightstalker – was tempted to yawn. Thankfully, we were almost done.

"Oh. Hello, ladies," a familiar voice said from behind the group.

What was it about new women that always made Ben show up like a mosquito to a campfire? When I turned around, sure enough, Ben's eyes were semi-glazed in adoration as he examined the group, admiring each possibly eligible lady.

When his gaze lingered on Jess, I stepped between them and flashed a tooth in warning, accompanying it with a growl. He immediately paled and took a step back. Chloe was smarter and darted off to the side, disappearing into a nearby shed.

"Uh, that would be your sister, then?"

"Yes." I didn't look away, making sure Ben knew I was serious. "I didn't like your flirting before, and I'm less inclined to tolerate it now."

Everyone was staring at us, and if the handful of newcomers hadn't known of Ben's reputation before, they did now.

With cringed shoulders, he shuffled backward. "Ah, duly noted. In that case, I think I'll take my leave."

"You're one of those protective sisters, huh?" Nicky commented. She grinned at Ben's hasty departure even though most of the bystanders were still somewhat taken aback by my growl.

"Yeah," Jess said, "she never liked flirters, although I've never seen her chase someone away so fast before."

"Oh, trust me," Nicky said, shaking her head. "You should be relieved she sent Ben packing. All he ever wants to talk about is how beautiful someone's eyes or hair is, and that gets insanely boring after hearing it fifty times!"

Her words made me comment, "I don't think I've ever seen him try to charm you."

She shrugged. "After his first attempt, he said he'd rather use nettles for toilet paper than flirt with me. I even brought him an entire armful of nettles just to make him choose!" She paused with a sudden frown. "Now that I think of it, he must not have used them because he never had problems sitting or walking. I believe I have to go have a talk with him."

The look of determination on her face almost made me feel sorry for Ben. Almost. Perhaps this would show him how the women he pursued felt. It wasn't anything I was going to intervene in.

Ben may have left, but the furball hadn't come out of the shed yet. Since Jess had always loved dogs, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce them to each other. Chloe wasn't the only dog in this place, but if my sister was around me much, this canine was one of the few who'd let her near.

"Want to say hi to the mutt in the shed?" I asked her. "Her name is Chloe."

"Umm." Jess hesitated, looking between the group and the shed, conflicted.

"The only thing in this direction is the archery lanes, and I can show you those later tonight."

The woman leading the group piped up, "After this, all that's left is discussing which tasks she wants to try and getting her in touch with the right people."

"I can handle that," I told both of them.

"In that case, sure. I'd love to meet Chloe." Jess perked up at the thought of meeting a dog.

"Go to the shed door and call her name. She might take a bit of coaxing."

She readily followed my instructions, although she had barely called Chloe's name before the husky immediately came to greet her new friend, already having forgotten about my growl.

The group continued to the archery lanes while I watched Jess get on her knees to pet and ruffle Chloe's fur. The dog reveled in the attention and occasionally tried licking my sister's face while prancing in place like a barely-contained ball of energy.

Eventually, Jess got up and dusted her pants off before coming over. With no one else around, Chloe trotted after her, craning her neck as she looked around for Ben, who had disappeared with her bone.

"Hey, Chloe," I greeted her.

With a doggy grin, she wagged her tail at me from where she stood, making no move to come closer, but not scared of me at the moment. Apparently, she still had canine amnesia as far as zombies were concerned, but wasn't so far gone that she had completely forgotten what I was.

"So, what kind of jobs do you want to try?" I asked Jess, although I was positive she'd choose something with plants. "Is there a particular group you want to talk to or join? Once I have an idea, we can go track down someone to discuss your skills."

"What do you usually do?"

"At this time of the day, I chop wood until four o'clock, then do a quick lap of the border before coming back for dinner." I knew chopping wood wouldn't appeal to her. She wasn't fond of swinging big sharp objects around. Pruning shears, yes; axes, not so much.

"I wouldn't mind joining whoever's doing the weeding today. Most gardeners love to gossip, and it's an easy chore compared to most."

"Then let's go find the three who were tending the garden to the west. They were just outside the fence, so it isn't far."

She walked beside me as we headed to our new destination. "What about zombies? The feral ones?"

"There's normally a couple of people on horseback that lure them away. If there are too many zombies for them to lure away at once, you temporarily retreat inside the fence, but that's rare. They do a good job of keeping ferals away during the day."

"That's a relief." She patted Chloe's head as the dog walked beside her and tried to mooch any possible attention she could.

The three gardeners were thrilled to have company, although it took a few attempts before Chloe figured out she had to lay in the dirt and not on the plants.

"I'm going to chop some wood, and I'll probably come find you in a few hours to see how you're doing. In the meantime, have fun."

Jess's reply was interrupted as one of the women stood up and peered past us, asking, "Why is Ben running toward the northern forest?"

"He's probably in a hurry to fetch some nettles," I muttered, which had Jess covering her mouth to try and contain her snickers. Much to the perplexity of the other three.

"The bigger question is," I continued, watching the gate intently, "where is Nicky?"

The guards were quickly closing the gates, possibly to delay something. Right on cue, the short redhead came into sight, struggling to push the heavy doors open herself. Without assistance from the strong guards – who climbed back up to the towers to observe – it took Nicky half a minute to unlatch and open the gate.

She stomped past the doors and crossed her arms as she glared at the distant forest Ben had disappeared into. With a visible sigh that moved her shoulders, she began looking around. Much to our immense fortune, she spotted us almost immediately and began walking in our direction.

The dingbat dog happily wagged her tail in the damp dirt at the prospect of a new friend, but she remained where we had told her to lay.

"Since when do you weed?" Nicky asked when she got closer.

"Do you see any plants in my hands?" I retorted. "Plants are her hobby, not mine. I'm dropping her off and leaving."

"I guess I can join them for a while," Nicky said. "It's been a while since I weeded."

"I'll see you later, Jess." I waved and began heading back to the gate.

"Okay. Have fun chopping wood!"

"Now that she's gone," Nicky began, "we can have girl gossip!"

If Jess needed an opening to ask questions about sane zombies, she had just hit the jackpot. I really hoped the other three people would balance out anything Nicky might over-exaggerate.

~

       The axe slammed through another section of wood, splitting it in half. I put one of the halves back on the stump and swung again, splitting it into two pieces. The other section got the same treatment as its predecessor, then I tossed all four quarters onto the pile for someone else to cart away.

Since it was time for my afternoon patrol, I put my axe in the shed and went to collect the side-by-side. Daniel had done a few laps earlier, so I expected this trip to be uneventful.

I drove out the west gate and pulled up to the side of the road without driving on the crops. After turning the side-by-side off, I wandered over to where the five people were slaughtering weeds.

"Did they talk your ears off yet?" I asked Jess.

"Nah," Nicky replied, pointing at Jess. "They're still attached."

"We had a good discussion," Jess clarified.

"So, now you know everything about zombies?"

Jess flushed, still unsure about where the limits were around this subject. She glanced at Nicky as if seeking input. "I know a lot more, but even Nicky didn't know the answers to some of my questions."

"Like what?" It was a dangerous question with my sister's imagination, but I was curious which thoughts were going through her head. Thankfully, she wasn't the type to take things into the twilight zone.

"Ummm... What-"

"She wanted to know which guy you thought was the cutest here," Nicky interjected.

"I did not!" Jess's face went red, and she threw a handful of weeds at Nicky.

I crossed my arms and watched as a small weed-tossing competition broke out between the two, with occasional clumps of dirt coming free from the roots and taking flight. Okay, maybe leaving Jess with Nicky wasn't such a good idea.

"What I meant to ask," Jess finally said, panting, "was how you caught the animals and drained their blood."

I considered it for a moment. "My hunting method has a lot in common with a cougar. Nightstalkers are primarily ambush predators, whereas Terrors like Daniel are faster and tend to run down their prey like wolves. We both make clean kills by breaking the necks, and as for drinking the blood, well, it's a lot like drinking a milkshake without a straw."

"Do your lips touch the animal's fur?" Her eyebrows were furrowed, trying to imagine the fine details.

"I shave the fur or feathers away before slicing through the artery."

"What about my question?" Nicky whined.

I frowned at her before reluctantly replying, "Toby."

"Toby, Toby... Have I met a Toby?" she muttered, before pausing and giving me an incredulous look. "The border collie puppy?"

"Yes. He's clearly the cutest guy around, even if he won't let me close to him. The two calico kittens are cuter, but they're female and stay even farther away from me."

"But he isn't human!" Nicky protested.

"You said nothing about species. Who feels like behaving and joining me on my afternoon patrol?"

"Why do you always put conditions on our excursions?" Nicky asked, dusting off her hands as she headed for the side-by-side.

"Because they're needed," I replied shortly. In a softer tone, I asked, "Coming for a run, Chloe?"

The husky sat up and looked at me, hesitating.

Jess started jogging toward the side-by-side. "Come on, Chloe!"

That did it. The dog jumped to her feet and bounded after her, tongue lolling out the side of her mouth.

"How is this going to work?" Jess asked, slowing as she reached the side-by-side, which only had two seats. Nicky was already sliding behind the wheel, taking advantage of my sister's hesitation.

"You get the passenger seat," I told her, "Nicky is going to drive in a fashion Hank would approve of, and Chloe and I are going to be on foot."

Jess looked dubious but climbed in and put her seatbelt on.

"It's been a while since we ran together, huh, girl?" I asked Chloe as I started a steady jog that looked much more graceful with my Nightstalker skills behind it. It was more energy efficient as well.

By the time we had managed half a lap, I began wondering if Daniel had ever located earplugs that worked with keen zombie hearing. There probably wasn't anything readily available that could block out the bantering and laughter coming from the two beside me, but even something capable of toning it down would be welcome.

"How long can you keep going like that?" Jess inquired, changing the topic to include me again.

"At this pace, quite a while." The easy jog was something the average jogger would be able to maintain for hours on end. As a Nightstalker, this was our usual traveling speed, and we could hold it most of the night if needed. From the way Chloe was huffing and puffing, she had gotten out of shape since arriving two months ago.

"What are we going to do about that zombie ahead?" Jess asked, nervously glancing at the thick forest on either side of the trail that prevented Nicky from evading it like she had previously done.

Nicky sized up the dirty man blocking her path. "Well, we can either run him over or have Trinity push him into the bushes as we go past."

"Neither of those sound very safe," she replied dubiously.

The zombie was at least six feet tall, so he was bigger than me. Jess knew I wasn't afraid of getting into a fight – I never had been – but this was a zombie, not an annoying kid in high school.

"Slow down while I clear the path." I picked up my pace to pull ahead of the side-by-side.

This zombie wasn't going to willingly cooperate with prey in sight, so Jess was going to get to observe me in another scuffle. This was beginning to feel far too much like high school for my liking.

The man growled at me as I approached, still not realizing what I was, and that enraged my instincts. Did a mere normal zombie really think he was going to stop me? Baring my teeth, I snarled at him and darted forward, shoving his shoulders hard enough that his feet left the ground.

He landed almost five feet off the trail, and the bushes rustled violently as the zombie thrashed and tried to get back up. Without waiting for me to wave her forward, Nicky drove past without a care. Chloe's panting came from the other side of the side-by-side as she slunk by, trying to remain hidden.

Reassured that the zombie was going to take some time extracting himself from the greenery, I caught up to my companions and jogged beside them once more.

Still sporting a big grin, Nicky finally noticed Jess was a tad bit pale. "That can't be the first time you've heard a zombie snarl. The feral ones do it all the time. Or is it because that sound came from Trinity?"

"I wasn't expecting it. It sounded different from the zombies I've seen so far."

"The ferals might be hungry, but your sister has attitude. Just wait until her and Daniel start butting heads. You'd think they were raised by lawless wolves or something."

"He seemed nice enough earlier," Jess commented, ever optimistic and trying to think the best of everyone.

Nicky started to speak, before pausing, then saying, "You know, I'll let you be your own judge. People sometimes say I annoy him more than Trinity does, so he might just be jealous of my hair color or curls or something."

"If you remain polite, you'll be fine," I told Jess.

"And never get between them if they start getting riled up," Nicky added grimly. "I'm amazed they've made it this long without clashing."

I remained silent on that topic. If only she knew...

In another fashion, she was also correct. It had been some time since our last brawl, and with our zombie instincts practically having a built-in countdown, it was only a matter of time until something happened.

~

       "-and that is most of what I do in the lab," Nina concluded, dipping a piece of bread in her soup. Her guests had already left with several cases of the cure, controlex, and sanity serum, or so rumor said.

"That's cool," Jess replied. "I can use the basic microscopes, but most of my classes revolved around growing crops, although I took a few about identifying edible and medicinal plants, their uses, and such. While in Alaska, I read almost any guide I could get my hands on. I even brought three about tinctures, salves, and distilling with me."

"I wouldn't mind reading those," Nina mused. "Most of the chemicals I work with aren't something we can make here. We usually pay the traders for them, and it passes through several sets of hands to get here. I think the original group secretly asks a sane Runner on their team to raid the shops in the big cities like Seattle or Vancouver."

"Sure. They're just in my room. I can bring them by later."

"After archery practice," Nicky piped up. "Nina is also in the secondary building, so it isn't as if she's hard to find."

"My room is the eighth on the left," Nina said helpfully. "Trinity can point it out to you later. When you stop by, I can also take you for a quick tour of the lab, if you like."

"I'd love that!"

The offer surprised me, and I tried to figure out Nina's angle, although two big reasons stood out. One of the rooms in the lab could easily be set up for tinctures, salves, and whatever else might be in Jess's books. That might help Nina's research, or at the very least, provide some medicinal supplies for when the salvaged ones ran out.

For the second reason, Jess had used a microscope before, and presumably, could be trained to do more fairly easily. And she could almost certainly be trusted not to follow in Louise's footsteps.

With her knowledge of edible and medicinal plants, Jess could easily fit into this place, and it wouldn't take much to make herself indispensable. Depending on what aspects interested her and how much learning she was willing to do, she had quite a few options. In a way, it was reassuring that I didn't have to worry about her fitting in or struggling to find work she didn't hate.

On the other hand, it made me feel like the odd person out yet again. I didn't really have a niche here. I donated blood and saliva, chopped wood, and did a few patrols Daniel could have easily done.

Overall, I wasn't contributing much to this place, although I didn't require much. Mostly just a room, a hot shower, and laundry. The somber I'm-not-good-enough mood was a rare one, and I rolled my shoulders, dismissing it.

I was a Nightstalker, and half the people in this place considered that to be sufficient. It wasn't as if I was sitting around idly anymore; I worked most of the day and patrolled all night.

Admittedly, other than the one group of strays – which Daniel would have discovered on his morning patrol – those patrols had been pointless so far. But the peace of mind those patrols gave the inhabitants was something that simply couldn't be bought or bartered for.

The reason I didn't fit in like other people was because I was a grouch who demanded her space. I had my place here; an odd one, admittedly, with all aspects of it bowing to my preferences and requirements, but it was mine.

Some memories came back, reminding me about a handful of occasions when I hadn't shown up like I usually did, and people had come to check on me. They didn't care if I did the task or not – they had just wanted to make sure I was okay.

Perhaps I did fit in more than I realized...

~

       Jess eagerly strung her bow. "I can't wait to try this out!"

That made me look up, suddenly wary. "You have shot a bow before, right?"

If we had two Nickys on our hands, I was vacating the archery field.

"A couple of times, but they didn't let us practice in Tolsona Stronghold because they had a hard time finding straight sticks and proper rocks for arrowheads. They didn't want to waste the arrows since they were so hard to replace."

I decided to let her take a few shots before deciding if her aim was better or worse than Nicky's. I prudently stood behind both