The Virus Within (Original rough draft)

Chapter 3

As much as I enjoyed the warmth of the sun, I loved the cool of night. I could finally take off my sunglasses. Nightstalkers were built for the night. Our night vision was unparalleled. The moon was only about quarter full, but the forest was as bright as day for me. A red-tinted view, but every detail was clear. My sight always had a red tint. It came with the zombie virus.

I stood in the shadow of a large tree on the edge of a clearing and simply enjoyed the scenery. This was the closest I could come to truly relaxing with the zombie virus running through my veins and putting a short fuse on my temper. I took a deep breath of the cool night air as scents assaulted my nose.

My sense of smell was keener than a bloodhound. I could smell and identify at least twenty different kinds of plants on the breeze. The creek was a cool smell that dampened the air and allowed scent to travel even further.

I could both hear and smell the mice hidden in the long grass, but they didn't have enough blood to be worth the effort of going after them. I could smell other warm-blooded creatures as well. The grassy scent of rabbits, the musky scent of a fox, the pungent odor of a weasel, and the light smell of game birds.

The woodsy scent of a deer brought my deliberation of the menu to a close. A deer would hold me for four or five days before I would have to hunt again. I shifted to face the source of the scent and darted off into the underbrush. I was a darker shadow in the nighttime darkness. My movements were smooth and my passage barely made even the slightest whisper of noise.

I stealthily approached the sleeping deer and regarded it. If I did this right, it wouldn't even wake up. My instincts rang with bloodlust and the desire to attack, but my human heart didn't like to see creatures suffer. My Nightstalker instincts made the hunt easy. The virus had altered my body, making it a honed and deadly weapon.

I crouched down and sprang at the sleeping creature. With a solid blow and a quick twist of its neck I shattered the spinal cord, instantly killing it. I used my knife to shave some of the fur off of its neck. I dug one sharp fingernail into its neck as I cut through hide, flesh and finally sliced through the huge artery. I kneeled on the ground and kissed the injury as I started to drink the liquid red gold that flowed out of the wound.

I resisted the instincts that called for me to bite into the raw meat and enjoy the flavor that was rich from the animal's own body heat. Raw meat was almost as dangerous as human blood. Animal blood allowed me to remain in control of the virus. Raw meat, human blood, and human flesh would reduce me to an out-of-control zombie. If I lost control, I wouldn't be any smarter than a feral Runner.

Part of my mind disliked the thought of drinking blood, but after all of this time I was mostly over it. The virus itself also had a hand in altering my thoughts and making it far too easy to accept this fact. It tasted delicious. The blood also allowed me to remain in control and keep my Nightstalker instincts in check.

I sucked the last of the blood out and pulled out my large belt knife. I started carving up the best cuts of meat. There was no way I could eat all of this meat. I didn't eat much in the way of solid food to start with, but I would cook, dry, or smoke the best stuff.

I twisted around and snarled viciously at the trees behind me. The cougar hissed at my rude greeting. This cougar occasionally came across me as I butchered a kill. I didn't mind it enjoying what I left behind, but if it thought it was going to chase me off my kill before I was done, it had another thing coming. I growled a second warning and the cougar stepped back with a softer hiss. It slunk back into the trees.

I wasn't surprised to see this cougar. I had heard and smelt it approaching seconds after I killed the deer. It often hung around this area to scavenge off my kills and it knew that I almost always left something behind. It would return later when it thought I was gone. It would be wise for the big cat to give me my space. It wouldn't be the first time I had enjoyed cougar blood. In fact, most wild animals refused to let zombies anywhere near them.