Chapter 87

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"This isn't a game," Nicky declared, glaring at the chessboard after having lost her third game in a row. "This is a carefully disguised method of torture."

Despite watching for some time, I simply couldn't fathom how Nicky kept moving her pieces in such a way that the lady was forced to take one of them in order to make any move. It shouldn't have been possible.

With a groan of defeat, Nicky slid her chair back. "Your turn. This crazy game has humiliated me enough for one day. Besides, you're the one who asked them to dig up this thing."

I didn't really feel like it, but she had a point. With a sigh, I moved my chair closer while the archer lady patiently reset the board.

After a few moves, my mind gradually switched gears from dwelling on irritable people to planning several moves ahead while making allowances for the other player's strategy.

One of the men spoke quietly. "I hope you aren't too mad about us hauling that guy off. It didn't occur to us that it might upset you."

This had likely been weighing heavily on his mind for some time. He and the other two archers had returned some time ago, and their friends had brought them up to speed, including my earlier words and warning.

After a few moments, I said, "It wasn't too bad this time. Mostly because you were defending Nicky, and I didn't actually want to kill anyone. I advise caution in the future though. Most zombies don't react well to others intervening, especially if they aren't done with whoever antagonized them. Even Daniel or I could snap if our instincts are high enough."

"I'm really sorry. We thought we were removing someone who shouldn't be in the Stronghold. We didn't realize it might offend you."

"What's done is done. Let the matter be forgotten."

He nodded in relief. Now I just hoped I could truly let the matter rest and not dwell on the possibilities for revenge. Scaring the crap out of Kane while stalking him through a dark forest still sounded awfully good to me. And possibly a murder attempt while I was at it, just so he knew how it felt.

"In an hour or so, we can go on an early patrol and stay out late," Nicky said. "I'm sure we can have a late meal, and I doubt you'd object to helping Jess and me find some berries to tide us over."

"I'll go ask the kitchen if they can send something with you," one of the archers volunteered, getting up and disappearing down the stairs.

"Speaking of Jess," I said, "did she ever finish gawking at all the stuff the traders set up?"

"Maybe," a man replied dubiously. "I'll go check."

He also opted to use the stairway.

~

       "Wow! They even have deviled eggs in here!" Jess exclaimed, pulling container after container of food out of the picnic basket.

A picnic. In the zombie apocalypse. And, against all odds, they had even found a red and white checkered blanket for us to sit on.

I was not going to mention the spider crawling along the edge behind Jess. As I expected, it soon disappeared back into the grass. She wasn't the type to scream and run away, but she'd be on edge, and it would ruin the fun she and Nicky were having.

"Are you sure you don't want some of this?" Jess asked me, still trying to figure out what to put on her plate first.

"I'm fine." I pulled up my knee and rested my arm on it, watching the two while listening to the forest around us, although I had already checked the immediate area before letting them unpack the basket.

"Oh, here," Jess said, digging in her pocket. "I got something for both of you."

She held out her hand to me, palm down, hiding whatever she was holding. Curious, somewhat touched, and kind of wary, I put my hand under hers. When her hand opened, a silver crescent moon landed in my palm.

As she handed something else over to Nicky, I held up the moon. The walnut-sized trinket had likely been a keychain charm at one time and still had a four-inch section of chain on it, just lacking the larger end ring.

Nicky's eyes sparkled as she beheld the silver flame-shaped charm that Jess had given her. "Thank you!" The redhead leaned over and gave my sister a big hug.

Once they were sitting properly, I also said, "Thank you."

Luckily, I was on the other corner of the blanket, so a hug was impractical. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the trinket yet, but I'd figure something out. Maybe hang it on my wall or from the ceiling.

"You can thread a ribbon through the chain and hang it on your doorknob!" Jess replied excitedly. "That way we can all have something on our doors!"

I fought the urge to gaze at her in dismay. These were metal tokens, and they had some decent weight to them. Whenever our doors opened or closed, they would bang against the wood, especially with the long chains.

Daniel was going to have a heyday being able to track our comings and goings.

Not that he wasn't already able to hear the main door every time it opened or closed, but this was a bit closer to home, so to speak. It was a thoughtful gesture when I knew she didn't have much, and I would still hang it like she had requested, but that chain was definitely getting shortened. Maybe I could tape a few pieces of fabric on the door to muffle any sound.

"Sorry, I didn't get you anything," I told Jess.

"Well, if that's a request," she replied with a grin, "I get to start a big herb garden, so I'm going to need someone to find a number of uncommon plants once it's built."

"Lovely. Make sure you give me some good drawings or show me what you're looking for, because I don't know the names of half of the greenery out here," I said. Just because I knew what they looked like and how they smelled, that didn't mean I knew their names.

She chewed on a carrot stick and watched me with a puzzled expression. "I'm surprised you didn't object more to that plan."

"And miss a chance to run around the forest and meadows? Hardly. I'll locate these things for you and bring you back so you can dig them up."

"You'd make your sister do all the work?"

"If you want to reverse those roles, I'm more than willing to see how this plays out."

"Uh, on second thought, I can dig them up. That way I can be sure I get a lot of their roots."

I smirked slightly at the minor victory.

~

       I jogged next to the side-by-side as Nicky drove through the gate. The streets were just as empty as they had been this morning, and no traces of the traders remained. I decided that I preferred it when Ironwind Stronghold sent its own traders out as opposed to them coming to us.

I opened the garage door for Nicky and Jess and followed them inside. The back of the vehicle was fuller now than when we left.

Jess got out and examined our haul, scratching her head. "I have no idea where to take half of this stuff."

"The mushrooms can probably be taken right to the kitchen," I said. "The leaf samples are yours to take care of. We can probably convince Nicky to find a couple of flowerpots for the plants and gently plant them. And I'm still not sure why you made me haul that tree trunk back..."

"Just leave the tree trunk there for now," Jess replied. "It has at least two kinds of edible mushrooms on it, and we can use bits of the wood from that area to inoculate other logs for easy mushroom harvesting. I'll have to ask Nina where I can set such a thing up. The best place is in the forest where it's out of the way."

"I'll go find some flowerpots," Nicky volunteered, darting for the door before we could volunteer her for something else.

As she exited the door, she skipped to the side. "Whoops! Didn't see you there! Good timing. Jess was looking for you." Nicky kept going, not even looking back.

A somewhat bemused Nina walked through the doorway, followed by Daniel.

"Why was she in such a hurry to leave?" she asked.

"Probably because she's tired of hauling mushrooms around," I said.

"That's quite an impressive pile. Are they all edible?" Nina inquired, coming closer to examine the various types heaped on the picnic blanket, hedged in by the basket and log.

"They should be," Jess said. "I have to take a closer look at this type since it has a common poisonous lookalike, but Trinity says it didn't smell poisonous. The rest are ones I've picked before and know are safe to eat."

"And this pile of leaves?"

"Samples of plants with medicinal properties. I want to preserve them so I can show them to Trinity if I ever need more."

"Good plan. Help yourself to anything in the C to G lab rooms." Nina said. Her attention shifted to me. "Did you know the trader was actually carrying the sneezing strain responsible for the waves?"

"I kind of figured. The smell was slightly different."

Daniel joined the conversation. "I could smell the infection as soon as we got close, even before he said anything, although I didn't realize it was the sneezing type until he walked past me."

"It hadn't spread enough to show up in the bloodwork," Nina added, "although we noticed that with the last wave too. It isn't detectable until just days before they start sneezing, but since both you and Daniel could smell it, he was definitely infected. He opted for the cure, of course, and he's going to make sure he stops by at some point before the next wave."

"Why don't your blood tests show the airborne strain?" Jess asked, organizing all the leaves so she could carry them in one trip.

"I think it's because the airborne version tends to infect the nearest cell it can find as opposed to traveling in the bloodstream, so the concentration in the blood itself doesn't build up until the infection has pretty much taken over. That's also about the time they start sneezing."

"It's different if they're bitten?"

"Yes. At its core, it's the same virus, but whatever allows it to be airborne also seems to make it replicate much slower. Once the sneezing stage is done, the triggers start activating simultaneously, which is when they go into seizures. The airborne trait is lost at that point. When someone is bitten, they're dealing with the post-turning strain, which spreads throughout the body in just a couple of days."

This led to a question that had always perplexed me. "Why do some people turn when they're killed, and others don't? And some turn half a day later?"

"That's a good question," Nina said, "and the real answer is that I'm not entirely certain, but if the infection is widely spread, the person turns minutes after dying. If the infection is new or hasn't spread far, it can't turn its host in time. And if the person was infected with the airborne stage, that also has an effect since the infection was already underway. The virus seems to be able to survive about twenty-four hours after its host dies, and if it can infect enough cells to turn, you end up with a zombie. If not, the person stays dead. There's a lot of grey areas and unknowns in there, so it's hard to say."

"So... in other words, if they turn, they turn, and if they don't turn within a day, they usually stay dead?" I asked, hoping for something simpler to try and remember.

"Pretty much."

"In that case, I think I'll take these mushrooms to the kitchen before they evolve into something smellier."

Following my own suggestion, I grabbed the four corners of the blanket and turned it into an impromptu bag, leaving the five dubious mushrooms for Jess to examine later. I carried it out of the garage and vacated the area.

Daniel could have the fun of moving that log wherever they decided it should go. I had done the hard work of breaking that section off, so he might as well get his hands dirty too.

Jess would be busy with her leaves for at least an hour, so I probably wouldn't see her until later tonight.

~

       I slung my backpack over my shoulder as I got ready for my nightly patrol. As I checked to make sure I had everything I might need, quiet knocking came from my door.

"Come in, Jess."

She opened the door and lingered hesitantly in the doorway.

"What's up?"

"Could I see your eyes?" she tentatively asked. "You were gone by the time I remembered last night."

I regarded her for a few moments before finally telling her, "Close the door behind you."

Turning to the window, I pulled down the blackout blind, blocking the dwindling daylight. The clicking of the metal moon against my door – even though there were four layers of blue jean fabric taped there – only highlighted how quickly she closed it.

"Whenever you're ready, turn off the lights."

With almost no hesitance on her part, she flicked the light switch and the room plunged into darkness. I reached up and removed my sunglasses, blinking slowly as I watched Jess's reaction. She looked at my eyes from where she stood, more curious than scared, but still cautious.

"Are they supposed to glow like that? I don't recall seeing that before."

"A Nightstalker's eyes glow at night. The eyes in the other ranks, both sane and feral, can glow if they get really riled up, but that's about it. Those of us in control can also camouflage our eyes and stop the glow, although ferals can't do that."

To emphasize my point, I camouflaged my eyes and took several steps to the side. Silently, of course.

Then I let them glow again. She jumped slightly and took a step back, bumping into the wall as her eyes darted between where I was and where I had been. Her scent revealed her growing anxiety and alarm.

As much as it pained me to intentionally make her slightly nervous around me, it was – unfortunately – best if she didn't fall into the trap of complacency around zombies. I doubted she would ever do it with Daniel, but she and I had been fairly close as siblings, and all those memories and habits blurred a lot of lines that existed now.

Boundaries designed to keep her safe if my control ever slipped.

"Uh, do zombies... teleport?"

That had me chuckling. "Not quite, but our ability to move silently could certainly lead people to wonder."

Her muscles relaxed when she heard my voice, once more reassured it was just me.

"From what the others were saying, you can see me fairly well, even in the dark."

"I can see you just as well now as I could before we turned the lights off. So stop sticking your tongue out at me."

Just like a typical sister, she was already testing her limits. So much for thinking she'd remain cautious. There wasn't any point in mentioning the rules when others had undoubtedly gone over the usual things to be careful of around sane zombies. This very subtle show was just to prove that at least some things had changed. To remind her that I was a zombie, even if I still looked like the sister she had known all her life.

Some of her past unease would linger and leave tiny doubts in her subconscious, which might be her first warning if she ever came across a dicey situation or pushed me too far – which was a typical thing for siblings to do. It was astounding just how well the human mind remembered potential dangers it had encountered in the past, so this was my way of trying to ensure she was prepared.

"Can I turn the lights on?"

I put my sunglasses back on. "Now you can."

She turned the lights back on, fumbling rather hurriedly for the switch.

"Have you already had your fill of having glowing red zombie eyes stare at you?" I teased her.

"For now. I'll probably ask again at some point, but it does make you seem more like... well, a zombie."

Perhaps my tactic had worked.

I shrugged. "Well, I am a zombie. Nina can certainly verify that little detail, especially after how many blood and saliva samples I've donated. I might still be mostly me, but the virus does affect some of my behavior."

"Like growling? Or snarling?" she guessed.

"Yes. If I get really mad, I also have a high tendency to lash out, and zombie nails are sharp."

Her eyes flickered down to my hands before returning to my face. "Like the drywall downstairs in the old house when we were kids?"

"More like a slash than an actual punch, but remember that I'm stronger. I don't need a baseball bat to cause damage. You saw how I broke the tree trunk apart so you could bring that piece back."

"Huh. I still can't visualize it, but that's probably a good thing since it's almost time for bed. Wait, when do you sleep if you're out all night?"

This was turning into another game of a hundred questions...

"I come back early and sleep before breakfast. I don't need much sleep."

"You zombies are weird..."

I snorted and made a shooing motion with my hands. "Right. If you want weird, just go two doors down the hallway."

She grinned as she obediently retreated. "You know, Nicky is far more intelligent than most people give her credit for. Equally as crazy, maybe, but she's smart."

Oh, believe me, I know.

"Anyway," she continued. "Good night."

"Good night. I'll see you in the morning."

The door clicked as she closed it behind her. This time, the token's clicking was mostly muffled by the fabric.


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