The Virus Within (Original rough draft)

Chapter 98

Bonus Chapter! Trinity has no interest in Valentine's Day, so she insisted it bother someone else.

*   *   *

Nina, Daniel, and Nicky looked surprised as they entered the clearing that we had created just in front of the cave. Two bored zombies could do a lot in five hours. Well, Luke had been quite enthusiastic, but this resembled gardening far too much for my tastes.

There was a nice path wide enough for two humans to walk side by side. It led to the clearing that now held a wooden picnic table and a few stump seats. It really was remarkable what our hard and razor sharp nails could do to wood. The cave entrance was now visible and framed by the recently trimmed bushes. It would take a while for the grass to grow in and cover areas where small trees and shrubs had previously grown.

Nina looked around, "Wow. I can't believe how much you two managed to do." We had also managed to haul everything inside and make sure that it was set up so that the tiny creek wouldn't damage anything.

Luke grinned, "Thank you. Credit for the picnic table goes to Trinity though. I still can't figure out how she managed to split those logs so straight."

"How are you feeling?" Nina had asked earlier if he could track the symptoms and Luke had agreed.

He shrugged, "My muscles have a slight ache, but I am not sure if it is the controlex or the fact that I have been hauling heavy things around for a few hours. I haven't noticed any muscle tremors or anything with my vision."

Nina nodded and held up an insulated cooler, "I brought us some supper." She proceeded to lay out the bowls on the table and set some plates beside it so we could dish up our own food.

The two men let the women go first and Luke motioned for Daniel to go ahead of him. Part of it was courtesy, part of it was that his instincts didn't want the more powerful zombie behind his back. I took a seat on one of the stumps, although calling it a stump at this point was an understatement.

I had broken off the top of the tree and used my nails to carve a seat with a back out of the soft wood. I glanced at the ground, "I think we have to build a proper firepit next since the ground here isn't something you want to build a fire on." I looked at Daniel, "Think you can dig up one of those large standing firepits? I think I saw a few spares behind the one garage."

Daniel nodded as he made a sandwich from the stuff he had taken. Luke took a seat on one of the stumps. The other three were at the picnic table.

Nicky grinned at me and held up a massive turkey drumstick, "Look at what I got! Can you guess which foul-tempered bird this came from?"

"I guess you did manage to get your revenge on it, huh?"

Nicky grinned, "Oh, yeah. The cooks promised to BBQ the other drumstick for me tomorrow if they could have the white meat. There is no way I can eat that much turkey, so I agreed."

Luke suddenly growled in surprise and shook his head. We all looked at him, but he remained sitting. He quickly blinked several times and glanced at me, "Sorry for the growl. My sight blacked out for a second and it caught me off guard. That is creepy as hell."

I nodded in understanding, "Been there, done that. The first two times I snarled and it was probably a good thing that no one was near me."

Luke shook his head again and pulled out the small notebook Nina had provided. He noted down the time before turning back to his food. I noticed that his plate barely had anything on it. He had eaten breakfast and nibbled a bit at lunch though, so he probably wasn't that hungry. The drug might also be responsible for some of it.