Chapter 4

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I slowly made my way back to the house, taking my time as the sun peeled back the darkness that kept me hidden. It was easier for me to go into denser trees instead of being plagued by the restlessness that occurred when I wasn't being inconspicuous enough.

It's a right pain in the ass, although I should be thankful it only happens at night. If this occurred all day, I'd be asking Nina to look for something to reverse the controlex. Thankfully, it was rapidly fading as my instincts retreated with the dawning of the new day.

As I got closer, I could smell the soup cooking, so Daniel must have put it on the fire. That was a wise decision; the last thing we needed was for Nicky to cross to the dark side on this road trip. If that happened, I was tempted to walk all the way back.

My footsteps became audible as I approached the door so I didn't catch Daniel off-guard. He should know who it was simply because he didn't hear my approach, but that guy didn't always handle surprises well. Zombies, as a general rule, usually didn't.

Upon opening the door, I was greeted by the sleepy gazes of Nina and Nicky, who were sitting in their sleeping bags with a bowl of soup in their hands. I didn't feel like sitting when we had a long truck ride ahead of us, so I wandered over to the kitchen window. Even though I had just come inside, my instincts always wanted to know what was going on, and it wasn't as if I had anything else to do.

The women slowly ate their soup, still trying to wake up. Daniel watched me absently, clearly bored after spending all night inside. Well, if he's bored, then I may have a cure for that.

With a sideways glance at the Terror, I shifted my body language to something more dynamic and instigating, yet less defensive. The last time he had seen this stance was back when I had been messing with his head on the roof.

Daniel immediately blinked and focused on me as a combination of confusion, suspicion, and curiosity crossed his face. He still didn't see the invitation for a playful wrestling match for what it was. And I found that endlessly entertaining. A bit disappointing and inconceivable, but entertaining.

With a slight smirk, I shook my head at his cluelessness and dropped the intentional body language. I gazed out the window while watching Daniel in my peripheral vision.

He continued studying me, trying to figure out the puzzle and just as clearly not having any success in that endeavor. If nothing else, he would have something to think about while driving today. The best part was that Nina still hadn't noticed, so he couldn't even ask her for her thoughts.

I gazed idly at the scenery while our human companions ate their breakfast. Under the smell of the soup, other scents lingered, mostly from the various people who had stopped in this house for the night. I took a slow, deep breath as I checked if I recognized any of them.

Time had faded the scents too much for me to pick most of them apart, but I was pretty sure at least two were from Ironwind Stronghold. My instincts shifted as they detected something else – something out of place.

Closing my eyes to better focus on the world of scent, I took another deep breath as I tried to figure out what had tipped off my suspicious instincts. It wasn't anything outside, or I would have noticed it during my patrol. That narrowed down the possibilities by a decent margin.

Several more breaths didn't yield any other details or results. I exhaled slowly in my growing frustration. Considering how annoyingly persistent my instincts could be, they could sure be vague and unhelpful some days.

Perhaps this was one of those times when the easiest way to find the answer was to actually let my mind wander without trying to focus. Opening my eyes, I deliberately relaxed any tense muscles and tried to loosen my concentration while taking another breath. The scents rolled across my mind.

The soup was prominent, as was the rather sharp undertone of the Terror who was still watching me from the armchair. The ammonia-like musk originated from the mice in the walls and a few bats in the attic. The faint scent of honey and wax belonged to a bee's nest.

The lingering residue of Nina's odd flowery perfume still partially masked her human scent. Nicky hadn't changed out of the socks she had worn yesterday. A bag of beans in our supplies had gotten damp at some point and had a faint hint of mold.

My instincts flared, and my mind honed in with sudden suspicion. We hadn't packed any beans.

I turned and slowly crossed the kitchen floor while testing the air. The smell got stronger as I walked, then faded. Pausing, I peeked in a nearby cupboard, but as I had expected, there was no food to be found.

It might have just been a bag of beans, but I wanted to know where they were hidden. So many people had passed through here that anything edible should have been found by now, especially if the bag was as big as it smelled.

Daniel noticed something had caught my attention and watched me as I walked across the kitchen to where I had previously been standing. Once again, the smell was more prominent in the middle of the floor.

My hunch grew stronger, and I turned around and scrutinized the floor with suspicion.

The old black and white vinyl tiles were scuffed up and had plenty of dirt ground into the cracks between them. The gaps between several tiles happened to be wider than the rest. I walked over to that part of the floor, and a faint creak beneath my feet told me that my intuition was likely correct.

If I was right, this wasn't just a squeaky board, but rather, a well-hidden trapdoor. My eyes scanned the dirt-filled gap, searching for some sort of handle to open it. This house wasn't fancy or expensive, so it likely relied on a physical latch and not something requiring electronics or technology. I just needed to figure out which end lifted up and how to do so.

A glint of metal caught my attention, and I crouched down to get a better look at it. The motion caught the attention of both Nicky and Nina, who watched me in confusion. I probably looked like an idiot the way I was staring at a floor tile.

Ignoring the self-conscious feeling, I blew some of the dirt away, revealing a paperclip wedged into the gap. Had it not been folded in half, I might have dismissed it as just garbage. But not here, and not now.

Using the tip of my fingernail, I lifted it halfway out before encountering resistance. A firm pull yielded a click as the floor in front of me lifted slightly, revealing a thin cord attached to the paper clip.

With the latch no longer holding the trapdoor down, the outline of the well-hidden door was now visible. My fingernails easily found purchase on the edge and lifted it up, letting stale air and various scents waft up from below.

Three sets of footsteps quickly approached as the others came to investigate my unexpected find. I opened the trapdoor until it stopped at an upright angle and refused to go further. When I let go, it remained open on its own. 

Daniel eyed up the dark hole in the floor in distaste while Nicky and Nina peered down into the shadowy abyss.

"Any idea what's down there?" Nina asked. "I can't even see the bottom of the ladder."

"There's one way to find out," I said. Ignoring the ladder's eight rungs, I stepped off the edge and dropped down to the wood plank floor below. I quickly spun around as I checked my surroundings.

This was one of the shoddiest basements I'd ever seen. Tree trunks had been used as support beams, and pipes and wires ran in haphazard fashions that would have made a safety inspector cringe. Even as short as I was, I wouldn't be able to walk around without ducking in some spots.

Reassured there was no immediate risk, I looked back up at the three waiting faces and said, "It looks like they used this area to store things they rarely needed. I'll take a quick peek."

I ducked under some pipes and went to see what was on the shelves along the nearest wall. It was here that I finally located the elusive beans. One bag had fallen to the floor and gotten damp, although more bags still sat on the warped board that served as a shelf.

With nothing besides empty jars and various canned goods on the other shelves, I continued checking the rest of the area. On the other side of the basement, I found three closed doors.

I took a precautionary sniff before opening the first one. Spare bedding, some holiday decorations, and miscellaneous boxes of junk lined the shelves in this room. I didn't see anything immediately useful and closed the door.

The second room was deeper than the rest of the basement and had two stairs going down to what resembled a carpentry shop. Dozens of small barrels in various stages of construction were scattered across the workbenches and floor. No other wood projects were present – just the small, knee-high barrels.

When I opened the third door, I paused and did a double-take at the large, pristine room that was unlike anything else I had seen in this house yet.

Did we just find a moonshine factory? I went farther inside to look at the dozen stainless steel stills and the variety of stuff on the metal counters. This looks more like a lab than a rural beer shop. I wonder if Nina could use any of this equipment?

I went back to the trapdoor where the three were still waiting. "Nina, would you possibly be able to use anything from a moonshine lab? Some stuff in one of the rooms looks kind of sciencey."

"Can I borrow your flashlight?" Nina asked Daniel, who already had it in his hand.

"I'll come down too."

She blinked in surprise but nodded. It also took me a second to process his words. It hadn't occurred to me that Daniel would willingly go through the small trapdoor with his aversion to dark, narrow places. He might have refused to enter the feral's tiny dwelling, but he had entered one cave to find me, so maybe he just needed enough room to stand.

"Other than the odd mouse or two, it's clear. I left the door to the room open. Do you want me down here or up there?"

"Up here."

That didn't surprise me in the least. He wouldn't want to enter a dark place with a Nightstalker if he could possibly avoid it. I climbed up the ladder and walked over to the kitchen window to give him some space.

He turned his flashlight to the max, letting it light up the area below. After a few seconds, he jumped down, and Nina quickly descended the ladder. I remained where I was since nothing down there interested me.

Nicky yawned and went back for a second bowl of soup. I checked a few more kitchen cupboards in boredom, carefully scenting the air and looking for any hint of another hidey hole.

I pocketed a small jar in case I ended up making a larger kill and couldn't drink or use all the blood in one sitting. Rabbits weren't always plentiful, so carrying a jar of leftover blood might not be a bad idea if I wanted to doctor my injuries regularly.

I gazed out a window, remembering a handful of occasions where I had passed through areas with almost no wildlife. During those times, I had ended up going after much smaller prey, like rats or tiny quail.

I had even tried fish blood once and vowed I would never repeat that experience again. When I had been human, I had loved fried fish, but fish blood was a slimy, musky abomination that left a foul, lingering taste in my mouth. As a zombie, it was the only blood I had hated the taste of, and I certainly wouldn't put such nasty stuff on a wound.

Clinking and clattering came from below, evidence that Nina was having a great time with her unanticipated scavenger hunt. I went to sit by Nicky while we waited for the other two to resurface.

"You didn't bring me any moonshine?"

If I thought Nicky was bad with just a cup of coffee, then I didn't even want to contemplate what an alcoholic beverage might do.

I shook my head and lied, "There was none down there. Just the stills and whatever they were using to check the quality."

"Hmmm.... The best way to check the quality is to drink it. I bet they had some wicked parties in this place with that stuff on tap."

"I can imagine."

The ladder creaked as Nina climbed up with a bucket of items. Daniel waited until she was out of the way and simply jumped straight up. Show off. What does he have against using ladders?

Considering both of his hands were occupied with several bags and boxes, he probably had a good excuse this time. He set them on the floor and went back down for a second load.

"Did you find anything good down there?" I asked.

"That was a very sophisticated setup for a moonshine operation. I found some stuff I'd been running low on, and there were even a few things I didn't have." She glanced at me in curiosity. "How did you find that trapdoor?"

I shrugged. "I picked up a scent that just didn't belong."

"What scent?" She rummaged through a box Daniel had left beside her and pulled out some rags, which she started wrapping around some glass beakers.

"I could smell a bag of beans that was going moldy, and we didn't pack beans. Nor could I see travelers ignoring anything that resembled food. It had to be very well hidden for so many people to miss it, so there might have been other things with it."

"How did you know it was under the floor?" Daniel asked as he jumped up with another armful of items.

"The smell was the strongest there, and one crack was bigger than the others."

He closed the trapdoor and stepped on it; the paperclip slid back into the gap as it latched with a click. He examined it for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"I don't think it would have occurred to me to check for a trapdoor."

"Nightstalkers are quite persistent if we get fixated on something."

"Hmmm..." He carried more items over to Nina, who was trying to arrange them in a fashion that we could easily stack and transport.

Nicky finished her bowl of soup and began washing it in the pail of water, so I took that as my cue to start carrying stuff out to the truck.

~

       I leaned against the tailgate and absently watched the road ahead of us. It looked like almost every other part of the highway, with trees or fields sprawling on either side. At least there weren't any zombies in sight, nor had we seen any for about fifteen minutes.

Nina turned sideways to look through the open window. "Do you smell anything yet?"

I blinked slowly at the stupid question. With my sense of smell, half of my world was made up of scent. I decided to avoid an overly sarcastic response this early in the day.

"You're going to have to be more specific."

"Are there any people or Nightstalkers around? We're only a few hours away from where the attack occurred."

I took a deep breath and thoroughly checked the air. "No humans have stopped long enough to leave a noticeable scent. The only Nightstalkers I'm smelling are those three musketeers from yesterday, although it's pretty faint. Other than that, there are a couple of Runners and a dozen or so regular zombies in the area."

"Thanks for checking." Looking somewhat disappointed, Nina turned around to sit properly in her seat.

She had to be the only human out there who was disappointed when she didn't find a feral Nightstalker. I was seriously beginning to wonder if Nicky's questionable judgment was contagious. It could also explain what I was doing in the back of a truck with this group yet again. At least Jess had been smart enough to remain behind.

The smell of permanent felt markers made me wrinkle my nose. Until now, I hadn't been aware Nicky had brought her felts along for the ride. This was the first time she'd taken them out.

I shook my head as I realized how Nicky planned to pass the time today. She had somehow managed to acquire a pair of Daniel's socks and was busily ensuring they would match the shoes he'd left in the lab.

With a faint sigh, I looked the other way. If Daniel didn't want to wear the colorful socks, he'd just have to wear one of his other pairs two days in a row or wash a set in a bucket of water and let them dry.

I didn't have enough ambition to intervene when it was just a pair of socks at stake. It guaranteed us a couple hours of peace and quiet, and that was worth way more than a measly pair of socks. I would even give her a pair of mine if it kept her amused. I wouldn't be wearing them afterward though.

She worked diligently throughout the morning and finished the first sock shortly before we pulled up in front of a large, wooden tree fort with a tall chain-link fence surrounding it.

Whoever had built this had been clever. The rope ladder would stop Runners even if they got over the chain-link fence, and the firepit below was large enough to sustain a fire all night and keep Nightstalkers at bay. My nose told me no one was currently here, but many had passed through this popular rest stop.

"This is where the attack happened," Nina said as she got out of the truck and looked around, giving me a questioning look.

I shook my head, not even bothering to stand up or get out of the truck. "No one is home right now, and the only Nightstalkers that scoped out this place were the ones we already encountered. I don't scent a feral upwind either."

"I was wondering about that. Even if someone else was infected, they've likely turned by now." She turned to Daniel. "Feel like continuing down the road? We can keep going south just to be sure, but I have a feeling we won't find a feral or any infected survivors. Unless we stop and visit another Stronghold, I don't think anything is going to come out of this trip, apart from stopping those three Nightstalkers."

Daniel glanced at Nicky and me. "I don't think it's wise to visit a Stronghold with those two in the back."

As much as I didn't want to stop at a Stronghold, the way Daniel said it "wasn't wise" sounded far too much like we would be the ones to cause trouble. That irritated me since I never caused problems intentionally. I'd probably growl if someone bumped into me, and I didn't like crowds or strangers. Or idle chitchat. Or being stared at. Okay, maybe he did have a point.

Daniel paused and took a noticeable sniff before frowning at Nicky. She had been smart enough to hide the socks and the markers when the truck stopped, but that didn't help with the lingering fumes.

"What are you coloring?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Nicky replied with a confused look.

Her acting was pretty good, but not good enough with the pungent scent of markers lingering in the air. If I could smell the lie in her scent so easily, then it was a guarantee Daniel could also detect it.

His eyes flashed red briefly in warning. "I can smell the felts. What were you coloring?"

"None of your business. Trinity gave the felts to me, so they're mine now. I get plenty of inspiration for coloring whenever I'm around either of you two."

Why did she have to drag me into this? Her words and tone weren't helping with Daniel's mood, although he was already out of sorts for some reason today. After having his shoes tortured, he was probably exasperated by Nicky's obsession with coloring his clothing.

"I love your coloring ability," Nina said, trying a different approach, "although parts of the road were pretty rough to manage the detail you did last time. Did it turn out well?"

The combination of flattery and possible doubt of

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