The Virus Within: Secrets Unraveled (Book 5)

Ch 15: Body By The Road

"There are several unranked zombies around," I murmured as I stood in the back of the truck and leaned on the roof.

"I noticed that. We should reach Dayton Stronghold in another hour, but I'm not sure if they will still be standing."

A sharp cry from the side identified one of the zombies as a screamer. The truck slowed and swerved off the road into the ditch.

"Where are we going?" I asked. Surely he didn't intend to lead these zombies away from the road. We were so far away from our destination they didn't have a chance of following us along these dirt side roads.

"I've never seen a feral zombie lay on the ground before. I want to check it out," Daniel replied.

I peered at the long grasses ahead and finally spotted a prone figure that looked decidedly out of place. Daniel slowed down as he got closer, leaving a healthy amount of space between us and the facedown woman. If feral zombies started playing dead, I was going to have some serious words with those scientists whenever we caught up with them.

I jumped out of the truck and got closer, checking the air. "I don't smell any blood or anything like an illness, but she's been dead for a couple of days. Rot is setting in, so she's truly dead, not just unconscious."

Daniel stopped the truck and got out. "I don't see any injuries. The metallic undertone in her scent seems different than the other unranked."

"It's more of an afterscent, not a true scent. Could the loss of a trigger have unbalanced something?" I asked, glancing back at him.

He put on a pair of gloves. "At this point, I'd say anything is possible. Do you mind opening the rifle case? Nina might be able to determine more. As a general rule, zombies don't die unless their heads are cut off, so something happened to this one."

I held the door open while he shoved the zombie inside. There was something about seeing a dead zombie that left me unsettled. Zombies were supposed to be nearly impossible to kill, not just fall over in a field and die. Was this possibly Wren's fate? And what if those scientists were still circulating that airborne chemical mixture?

A worried silence surrounded us as we got back in the truck and resumed our journey.

~

"Did they build a big enough wall?" I asked as I stared at the tall walls covered in roofing tin. I'd never seen a fence higher than Ironwind's, which had been built using telephone poles for posts, but this one was at least fifteen feet higher, and the tops slanted outward for additional protection. Dayton Stronghold had clearly decided their protection was a priority.

"There must be a walkway along the entire length, and unless I'm mistaken, the guard towers have concrete walls behind the metal covering."

I wasn't about to doubt Daniel's eyesight. "The farmers went inside pretty quickly. They probably won't let us in if they're being overly cautious."

"As long as they come out and talk, I'll be content," Daniel replied.

The guards held guns and bows, although none were pointed in our direction as we approached the closed gate. Daniel stopped and waited. Soon, the gate creaked open enough to let two men and a woman out.

"Hello, how can we help you?"

Daniel replied, "We're helping several Strongholds track down the source of the strange zombies. All of the clues we have currently point to four vehicles and twelve people who went in this direction about a month ago. Have you seen such a group or know where they might have gone?"

It clearly was not the reply they had been expecting, and they looked at each other.

"There was a group who stayed here overnight that matches that description," one man slowly said. "You're saying they're responsible for these unpredictable zombies?"