The next several days saw a pattern develop. I patrolled all night, relaxed in my room or on the roof until about 10am, and patrolled until lunch. I usually chopped wood until midafternoon before patrolling until supper. Nicky tagged along on a quad during the last patrol.

I had only seen glimpses of Nina or Daniel the last week, other than two times where she had come for more blood. I was beginning to wonder if she was actually a vampire in disguise, although I made no such comment with her sullen guard at hand. The bonus part was that Nina hadn't cornered me for another interrogation session.

I left my room and paused in the hallway as I waited for two people to move the dresser into the room next door. More people carried boxes or items behind them. There was a pretty good crowd of people in this hallway carrying stuff, which was odd since this hallway only had ten rooms and two of them were empty.

My nostrils flared as I picked one particular scent apart from the twenty other humans present in the hallway. No... Please tell me that I am mistaken...

Nicky bounced around the corner and immediately spied me. "Trinity! You'll never guess what happened!"

The overenthusiastic lady somehow managed to squeeze between all of the people moving boxes and furniture with a speed that left me wondering if she had gotten infected. I wasn't sure how she managed to get through that traffic jam either, it shouldn't have been possible.

I used my hands to grab her shoulders to prevent her from hugging me. She groaned as she gave up, "You're no fun..."

Others were watching her with disbelief, unable to figure out how she was still alive after that attempt. I let go of her shoulders, and as I halfway expected, she tried to hug me again. I faintly growled, but let her since this was a toned down hug compared to her last attempt. I rolled my shoulders as my growl deepened, "All right, let go."

She stepped back with a grin, "Guess what!"

"The sun is shining and for some reason you are up here instead of in the mess hall."

She chuckled, "That too, but I get the room next to yours! They are moving my stuff in already! Isn't that great?!"

I was afraid of that. I sighed, "And to what do I owe this honor?"

Nicky was hyper and could barely stand still in her excitement, "This morning my neighbor asked me if I would like having a room closer to yours, and of course I said yes. Less than ten minutes later she arrived with people offering to carry everything for me!"

By this time, the group of people carrying the original occupant's stuff away were gone and all of Nicky's stuff was in the room. It had taken these determined people a whole 5 minutes to empty a room and fill it with another person's stuff. They had been in such a rush that both moving groups had crossed paths.

I started walking down the now mostly empty hallway, "I am surprised that they moved you after all of this time. We have been here almost three weeks already."

Nicky grinned at me, "They said that if zombies broke in, that I would be safer in a room close to yours."

With two resident zombies and numerous guards on duty, that particular scenario was not on the top of our worry list. "I patrol all night, and during the day you aren't in your room. If zombies did get in, your best bet is to get onto a roof, particularly on this building if you make sure the stairwell door is closed."

Nicky walked beside me, "I will keep that in mind. I also get to use the showers here, the downside is that there are no people to hear me serenading them first thing in the morning as I wash my hair."

This sounded a little closer to the real reason. Nicky's singing voice was something best left unheard. It sounded like something you might get if you crossed a toad with a cockatiel. The other likely reason was that Nicky had gone off the deep end two mornings ago.

I had ended up tracking her down and dragging her away from where Ben had locked himself into the janitor's closet. Her current neighbors must be tired of her. If they thought I was going to babysit her, they were sadly mistaken.

I only intervened when it was completely necessary – except if Ben instigated it. At that point, I tended to sit back and watch the show at his expense.

Nicky sat down beside me at the table with a heaping plate of food, "I bet you didn't know that they leave this table open even at supper just in case you decide to join us."

I snorted, "I am not trying that again, although I was not aware that they left it open."

It didn't surprise me though. This table was still in the corner and set apart a bit from the others. I always sat in the corner seat so my back was protected by the two joining walls. It made this room more tolerable for my Nightstalker instincts.

I glanced up as Nina and Daniel entered the room. I hadn't seen them here for breakfast for a week now. Daniel was a bit more relaxed today, but there was still an edge to his posture. I wasn't sure why dealing with feral Runners always set him on edge. Then again, he was probably pinning them to let Nina get blood samples.

Nina sat down with a plate across from me, "Good morning. Sorry I haven't been around much."

I shrugged, "No worries."

Nicky snickered, knowing that I had no problem with Nina's absence. Daniel eyed up the redhead across the table from him with a faint growl. I barely heard it, so I doubted the two women did. That was a bit uncalled for. I growled just as faintly in return.

He looked slightly surprised as his eyes flickered to me. Daniel narrowed his eyes as they shifted to a red color. If he thought that a mere warning by making his eyes go redder was going to make me roll over in submission, then he was obviously too used to dealing with feral Runners. This guy really needs to get the stick out of his ass.

I tilted my head slightly in insolence, still not looking directly at him, but not looking away in defeat either. I hated to break it to him, but if anyone here had a license to be a jerk, then a Nightstalker above ground during the day was entitled to it.

My actions had him gritting his teeth as his muscles tensed up a bit at my disrespect to his Terror rank. I had known the effect it would have when I did it. After an entire week I was tired of his behavior, even if I had only seen him a few times.

I now had to deal with Nicky as a new neighbor, I did not also need to deal with a prissy Terror who had a superiority complex. I was going to ignore the fact that I often went out of my way to antagonize him.

Nina was unaware of the byplay as she spoke again, "How are your injuries? I haven't had a chance to check them for a while."

I shrugged, "They are healing just fine."

In truth, both injuries were fading scars. The scabs had fallen off a day or so ago. Nina grinned, "I take that as a hint that you don't want me to put more salve on and bandage them up?"

My tone was dry, "You would be correct."

Nina was amused and probably suspected that they were mostly healed by now, if not fully healed. Daniel growled at my tone, he was definitely in a touchier mood than normal. Nina turned her head to regard the Terror beside her and attempted to calm him down as she spoke softly, "Relax, she isn't threatening me. I am pretty sure that she would know if the injuries weren't healing properly."

Nina was watching Daniel while she was talking and missed seeing me raise my lip to flash one of my canines in response to Daniel's growl. My immature behavior did not help with his temper, I could smell his anger and irritation clearly. I could also smell someone else approaching.

I wrinkled my nose, "Why does that woman always smell like she fell into a vat of chemicals?"

Nina glanced over her shoulder to see Louise approaching, "Possibly because she doesn't always use gloves like I do when handling chemicals. It is possible that even the fumes are sticking to her skin. I will mention safety to her again later on."

To my displeasure, Louise grabbed a chair and put it at the end of our table. She looked slightly uncomfortable sitting between Daniel and Nicky. She glanced over at me before looking at Nina, "Did you tell them about the breakthrough?"

Nina brightened up, "No, I hadn't yet."

Nina looked over at Nicky and me, "We have a potential cure now. We ended up testing it on four different Runners and over twenty regular zombies. Within six hours the zombie virus is gone, but the human body is left unconscious, possibly because the zombie had not been sane and the human mind within had been wiped out."

Louise sipped her tea, "It is the best lead we have so far. If it was given to a human that was recently bitten, it could prevent them from turning into a zombie altogether. It worked in every blood sample we tried at any rate."

I was surprised that they had discovered a cure so soon. Well, at least sticking around saw some results... Louise looked over at me, "We will do more testing on feral zombies, but the best test would be if we could find a sane zombie to volunteer once we are sure it is reliable."

I bared my teeth at her, "Don't even look at me. I am not a guinea pig."

Nina shook her head at Louise, "It would be better if we could find a sane Runner who would be willing to try it. We need to do a lot more testing first though. Trinity, I don't suppose you would know where a sane Runner might be located?"

I shook my head, "No, it has been at least three months since I have last seen a sane Runner."

Nina sighed, "Too bad. A Runner would have been more likely to try it since their mind is slowed down by the virus. We also normally test on Runners, so that would have also made them the perfect group to work with. We will keep working on the cure, chances are we'll find a sane Runner one day or someone will eventually get infected."

At least Nina didn't seem to think that I should volunteer. Had she pressed the matter, Nicky and I would be a long way away come next sunrise. We still had that gas hidden away in the forest as a backup plan just in case our attempt to try staying here took a sour turn.

Nicky nibbled on a boiled egg, "So what is happening with those unconscious ex-zombies?"

Nina shrugged, "At the moment they are in cells since we are hoping that the human within didn't completely vanish. Their bodies are responsive, but the mind is comatose. Their bodies are slowly breaking down like a normal comatose human would without any life support – which we don't have."

Louise expanded, "We may end up re-introducing the zombie virus if they don't recover. That will at least tell us if the cure can also work as a vaccine as well. If it doesn't work as a vaccine, then we can work on the zombie virus triggers during the infection stage and fine-tune that research. We didn't quite have it perfected when that last guy turned, which is why he didn't remain sane. We have since located the one trigger that we previously missed and it works properly in the blood samples. We just have to test it on one of the ex-zombies."

I could see the logic in re-introducing the virus, but there was something creepy about the way Louise didn't seem bothered about the fact that she planned on continuously re-infecting and curing that person over and over. I truly hoped that if the person was still somewhere in the body, that they were completely unaware. I doubted they were in there though, that was the whole reason I resisted my bloodlust so hard around humans. Once the human mind was truly gone, it never came back.

Her comment also explained why that guy hadn't remained sane. Their research hadn't been tested on a live subject when we had stumbled across the infected woodchopper. That was one more reason to never volunteer for any of their drugs. There were too many unforeseen side effects.

I was glad when the meal was over and everyone went their separate ways. My instincts wanted to snarl at Louise. She had dropped a hint or two that I should volunteer for their newest lead once they did more testing. I ignored her, I was not going to even contemplate it. I let Nina take blood samples, but that was it.

I had no real desire to be human again as long as I could remain in control. My control around humans was easier now than it had been before. The bloodlust was still present and I still desired to taste their blood, but it was easier to overrule now.

I was strong and faster than humans were and I preferred it that way. Part of it was my Nightstalker instincts. As a Nightstalker, I was near the top of the food chain and I was proud of it. I had my own version of a superiority complex, but it wasn't quite as bad as Daniel's was. His attitude annoyed the hell out of me and I was sure that I was not a piece of cake to be around either.

Nightstalkers and Terrors really shouldn't mix, especially if one wasn't in the best mood. It looked as if the virus itself had realized this long ago and purposely tried to separate us using sunlight. It wasn't possible for either of us to control the sun.

Perhaps it was a good thing that we rarely crossed paths lately.