We decided to stop for lunch so we could stretch our legs. I welcomed the return of my personal space and suspected that Daniel did too. He didn't seem to mind Nina in the least, but no one else had been immune to his watching.

Tom was starting a fire at the side of the road, presumably for more soup. I inhaled deeply as I watched him. I could smell a small flock of partridge nearby. It wouldn't take long for them to roast and the meat would tide the group over better until supper than just soup. "There is a flock of partridge nearby. Shouldn't take me more than ten minutes to catch most of them if you want them."

Tom looked up in surprise, although Marissa was the one who answered, "If you could, that would be great. It has been a while since we had any kind of poultry that didn't come from a can."

I nodded and headed into the forest. If nothing else, it was a good excuse to get away from them for a while. I easily traced the scent of the birds and snuck up on them. It would have been much easier if it was night, but I would just have to plan my attack carefully.

I came up behind them and drew my sickle. It would give me the edge I needed to take down so many birds. I darted out at full speed and managed to behead three birds before they realized that they were being attacked. In the end, five birds escaped while sixteen headless birds lay on the ground.

I quickly cleaned them and headed back. It hadn't even taken me the full ten minutes. I took a deep breath and took note of a few lingering scents as I approached the edge of the tree line. I walked over and passed the small birds to Marissa who started laying them out in a frying pan.

My Nightstalker instincts shifted and I was pretty sure I knew the cause. I subtly scanned the tree line as the familiar scent once more reached me. They had to be nearby. I was amazed that Daniel hadn't picked up their scent yet. I left my backpack by the truck and casually headed back toward the trees. A few watched me go, but made no comment.

Once I entered the trees I switched to my soundless Nightstalker crouch as I skulked through the shrubs further back along the road. I could now see the familiar Nightstalker woman at the edge of the tree line peeking out at the group having lunch up the road.

I bared my teeth in a silent grin as I slowly stalked up behind her. The wind was in my favor. I was mere feet from her when she must have finally caught my scent. She started to turn as I launched myself at her with a snarl. We went rolling out of the trees onto the grass as we both snarled at each other.

I heard the others shouting in alarm up the road. I grabbed her shoulder so I could roll over, it was easier to fight if your back was on the ground. It gave you much more leverage if you were a zombie. I was careful to keep my nails from breaking her skin as we tussled, growled, and snarled at each other.

To the others it would probably look like a fierce dog fight, but in reality, this was just a friendly, if rough, wrestling match between old friends. Neither of us was doing any damage to the other as we kept rolling around on the grass.

I took a quick glance over to see Daniel in front of the humans in a defensive fighting crouch. Good, because even a Terror can't win against three Nightstalkers, even if he didn't know about the third one yet. Kelly took advantage of my second-long distraction to grab both of my wrists in her hands. I brought up my knee and knocked her off me.

She fell to the side with a thud that jarred her sunglasses loose. She hissed in pain as light hit her unprotected eyes. I immediately let go and rolled to my knees, "Sorry." I grabbed her glasses off the grass as she tightly squeezed her eyes shut against the light, "Here you go."

She held out her hand and I handed her the sunglasses. She swiftly put them on before shaking her head, she was probably trying to blink her eyes clear as they would be watering from the painful exposure to light. I heard faint footsteps coming up behind me and recognized them as her brother. I heard murmuring from the human group as the third Nightstalker made his presence known.

I remained kneeling beside Kelly as Travis crouched down beside her, "You okay?"

Kelly exhaled gustily, "That hurt like hell, but it happens."

Both Travis and I nodded. My sunglasses had come off a few times in previous bouts of play. All of us had them come loose at one time or another. We always immediately stopped and handed the other their sunglasses. At night we didn't bother wearing them, so those wrestling matches could get really interesting.

Her eyes would be sore for a couple hours as they recovered. I tilted my head, "I am quite surprised to see you here. Although it was nice to meet up again. There isn't much friendly company near the mountains."

Travis chuckled, "We were quite surprised when we picked up your scent. We crossed the road just a few kilometers down the road shortly after you passed by and saw the truck parked here."

Kelly glanced back at the rather shocked looking group behind us, "Well, I think we managed to scare the crap out of them with that little bit of wrestling. I bet they thought it was an all-out death match."

I chuckled, "Very likely."

Kelly looked over at me, "If you don't mind me asking, why are you traveling with a group of humans so far from home? I have to admit that I have never seen a Terror before though."

I sighed heavily, "To make a very long story short, I came across two defenseless adults and two kids trying to reach a Stronghold. I offered to escort them since they had no chance of surviving otherwise. One thing led to another and I somehow ended up stuck with this rag-tag group."

Travis looked a bit confused, "It can't be easy traveling with a Terror. If he is here, then there is no reason for you to continue with them."

They must not have known about a Terror's lack of sight at night. I stood up with a sigh, "The fact that you two got so close without him picking up your scent should tell you why I am still with them."

They also stood up. Travis shook his head, "Well, I sure couldn't do it. I can now guess what a Runner feels like when they are around us."

I shrugged, "Once they are safely at the Stronghold, I am heading back north. Where are you two headed?"

Travis bared his teeth in a grin, "We are heading back toward the ocean. We loved it so much when we were growing up that we are going to see if we can find the old summer cottage that our parents built."

Kelly shook herself off with a sigh, "Well, we are going to continue on our way before your friends burn that food to complete charcoal. Nice to see you again. We will have to visit again one day."

I nodded and watched as they easily disappeared into the trees with a Nightstalker's deadly grace. They didn't bother to hide it like I had been doing this entire trip. I had known that they wouldn't hang around more than a few minutes with the humans so close. Travis had a hard time with control around humans so both siblings just avoided humans as a rule.

The wind had been blowing very lightly toward us, which was why Daniel hadn't picked up their scent. It had also been blowing the burning smell of the humans at us the entire time. Travis would have wanted to get out of the downwind area. I dusted myself off and headed back to the slowly relaxing group.

Daniel still seemed suspicious and on edge, "Who were they and why did you attack them?"

I leaned against the truck. The appearance of my friends had brightened my mood momentarily, but it was already fading with the distrustful Terror. "Those were the two Nightstalker friends I mentioned previously. I didn't attack her, that was just a rough wrestling game between two Nightstalkers."

Nina had her old notepad out and was rapidly filling up another page. Most of the others seemed uneasy and kept glancing at the trees. Daniel frowned, but didn't comment. He seemed to think that my actions were odd. He obviously had not interacted with sane zombies enough while ignoring his higher rank.

Marissa hadn't burnt the strips of partridge too badly, but I had no desire to taste it. They rushed through their meal in their haste to get back on the road in case the Nightstalkers had lingered around in hopes of a straggler.

We dumped another jerrycan of diesel into the tank and resumed our drive. I resumed my watch of the scenery while keeping tabs on the scents flowing by. No wonder my dog had always enjoyed having his head out the window, the smells could change so fast. In an odd fashion, it was like listening to music.

~

We made it the rest of the day with nothing else happening. We found a small town with about fifty buildings. Daniel and I lured off the zombies, although it took us several trips. Some would undoubtedly return by morning so we decided to camp on another flat roof for the night. This house had a staircase on the inside that went to the roof, which made things easier.

I went to gather wood for a fire while Daniel went in search of a firepit and other supplies. I didn't pick up any recent human scents. That was a relief, if we kept picking up strays every single evening we were going to have an entire circus by the time we reached that Stronghold.

We already had the crazy lady, Hank could be the strong man, Ben could tell jokes, and Nina might be able to convince Daniel to walk a tightrope while juggling. I would be escaping out the back while pretending that I didn't know any of these people.

A rabbit made the mistake of running out in front of me. I caught it before it had gotten very far. It didn't take me long to drain it. I wouldn't have to hunt tonight and Chloe could have the rabbit for her supper.

I headed back to the house and went up to the roof. I tossed the rabbit in front of Chloe who immediately picked it up and went to a corner to enjoy it. I put the armloads of wood by the firepit and went to help set up the big tents that Daniel had scavenged.

Daniel came back with several bags of food supplies. He looked over at me, "Would you mind checking the buildings on the east side of Main Street while I check the other half?"

I nodded and vaulted over the edge of the one story building. Some places had zombies inside and these tended to be the ones that were untouched by looters. We didn't have much room for food and we should have enough to reach the Stronghold, so I packed some into my backpack and took note of the better stuff. I could come back if they wanted something specific.

I growled lightly as I entered another house. I silently stalked down the hallway. I got about halfway down it before a small body rapidly staggered out of a room with a snarl. I snarled back at the small boy. As per usual, the child zombie didn't take the hint. I ended up grabbing him by the back of his neck and pinning his hands before shoving him into a bathroom and closing the door.

His strength hadn't been a match for mine, but his attempts soured my mood. I checked the house, but there wasn't much here besides a few food items. I moved on to the attached garage. No vehicle was present, but I did find a lawnmower and two jerrycans of gas. I emptied the tank from the lawnmower into an empty ice cream pail. It would have to work until I found an empty jerrycan.

I moved on to the next place. I wrinkled my nose against the foul odor. Either they had a huge freezer full of meat that was slowly decomposing in here or something had died. I bet it was the latter scenario. I cautiously checked out each room.

I quietly looked at the sad scene in the one bedroom. A child and mother lay dead on the bed. Both had died of gunshot wounds to the head and the gun still resided in the mother's hands. Judging from the hundreds of tissuees on the floor, they had been sneezing.

The mother would have known that they were infected and she had taken matters into her own hands. There had been a chance that they could have turned into something other than a regular zombie and retained control, but they had ignored that slim chance at life. I still had a grudge against firearms from what had occurred four months ago. I closed the door and moved on.

It took me a couple of hours to thoroughly check out each house, garage, and shed. My keen sense of smell helped me find things that other looters had missed. In the end, I had a decent haul. I had also found another diesel truck that refused to start and drained the tank, so we had ten jerrycans of diesel. We had more than enough now to get to that Stronghold.

Nicky was cheering from above as she spied me pulling a wagon loaded with red jerrycans. I emptied as much of the diesel into the truck's gas tank as I could. That was four jerrycans less that we had to try to pack into the back of the truck. I left the wagon just inside the front door and went up to the rooftop.

There was an empty chair beside Nicky waiting for me. Everyone else was already sitting. Ben looked up, "So, what did you find?"

I dropped the three big bags of food by Marissa and went to take my seat, "Some food, there is more if you want me to get it, but we don't have much room. Two jerrycans of gas. Found a truck that refused to start, so I drained it and we have ten more small jerrycans of diesel. I dumped four of those into the tank and left the empties against the house."

I growled lightly, "I am positive that a bunch of sabotagers came through at some point, because not one vehicle would start. Most already had their gas siphoned out. I got lucky with that truck. Probably because there was a zombie in the garage."

Ben shrugged, "It is more than what we had. Daniel found five jerrycans of gas."

Daniel nodded, "I tried every vehicle and they were either out of gas or wouldn't start. Several groups of people probably came through this town looking for supplies. They likely took any working vehicle."

I sighed, "We should have enough to make it to the Stronghold now, so that is the main thing."

They all nodded and the mood seemed to lighten with that knowledge. Liz climbed into my lap as we watched Marissa insist on cooking. She didn't trust Ben's ability to cook. Liz started fiddling with my fingers. "Careful, my nails are sharp."

She paused to examine my slightly pointed nails. It was just how they grew now and I had given up trying to trim the tips with fingernail clippers long ago. The entire edge of my fingernails were very sharp. Liz dug in her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper before lightly pushing my fingernail against it. My nail sliced through it without much resistance.

Liz's little informal demonstration clearly startled Marissa. She called the child, "Liz, can you come help me make some bread?"

Liz slid off my lap and went over to her. It slightly irritated me that Marissa still didn't trust me with the child even after so many days. It was almost like a slap in the face considering I had never so much as growled at the child. I clamped down on the irritation and tried to force it down.

We had found this place pretty late and it was going to be dark soon. I tilted my head back to watch the sky as it started to darken.