Penny's feet were heavy. With each step, she felt like Anchors were pulling her back down to the grassy hillside. She pushed onward, not daring to stop. It was essential that she keep up with her three companions, even though fire flourished in her lungs and thighs. At last, just when Penny thought she would collapse, Zora stopped.

"I think-we've thrown him-off the trail," Zora said breathily. She gulped water from a canteen around her neck, then offered it to Penny.

Penny took a few desperate swallows. She gasped for air and finally found words. "We'll never outrun him. He doesn't get tired. . . ." Not like they were. Penny saw Zora heaving chest, the way her shirt faded from light to dark grey dampness at her chest. Penny felt her own soaked top and saw the tell-tale signs on the fellas who'd come to a halt next to them.

"We don't have to outrun him forever. Just until he forgets."

Zora took the canteen back and passed it to Leon, who wiped his dripping face before lifting it to his lips. If penny's face wasn't already red from exertion and scared of what monstrous creatures could be near, she might have blushed, knowing Leon's lips were only a few seconds behind hers. He may even still feel the warmth hers left behind. But this was no time for silly crushes, she decided. Much like Leon's lips were on her trail, Darwin could very well be only moments away on her foot trail. It would be ridiculous for her to gaze at the sensual way his throat worked as he took in the refreshing drink. He handed the canteen to Steve.

"Although...it doesn't smell very safe here," Zora said.

She was right. Now that Penny had time to catch her breath and could focus more on scent rather than life's air, she could smell an unmistakable stench of death nearby.

"It's not the infected," Leon said surely.

"How can you tell?" Zora asked.

"Just can." He shaded his eyes with his palm, and scanned the surroundings. He pointed to the sky. "Look."

Penny squinted. A mile away, big dark birds flew in a circle.

"They're circling prey, and they don't prey on the infected," Zora said, a smile spreading. "Come on, we should check this out."

And they were walking again, only this time on a trail not so inclined. The wind blew in their faces, and although the smell was terrible, the gusts cooled their skin.

Out in a field, flies were swarming. A vulture perched atop a large mass, twisting it's neck and then throwing its head back for a swallow of its rotten meal. They were close enough to see that the caracas was cow. As the group approached, the vultures spooked and took flight, flapping their great black wings, reluctantly leaving behind an entire herd of ripened, dead cattle.

"Ugh," said Steve, holding his hand over his nose.

"This is bad," Said Zora.

"Remind me why we came over here," said Penny, trying and failing not to look at a cow with its eyes covered in maggots.

"To learn," said Leon. "You see these marks?" He pointed somewhere along the cow's side. "These aren't natural deaths. Not from the infected either."

Penny couldn't make heads nor tails of the wounds, but she took his word for it. "All of them?" she asked. "Why?"

Leon inspected a few more quietly. Shrugged. "Any ideas Zor-ra?" He looked up and didn't see Zora. "Zora? Where did she go?"

"I-I don't know," Penny said. "She was just right here."

Zora's boot impression was still in the soft dirt where she was standing, but she was nowhere in sight.

"Maybe she went ahead?" Penny suggested, feeling unsure.

"Maybe," said Leon doubtfully.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Are we done wasting time? Its just a bunch of dead cows. She's the smart one, if ya ask me. Got the hell out of here. We should too."

Penny's skin prickled. She was ready to move along also. Something was definitely not right about that place, and she didn't want to stick around to find out what. Zora probably went scouting ahead, as she often does. From the look of those cows, whatever had hurt them was long gone.

"Penny?" Leon said.

Penny startled. Leon and Steve were already far ahead. She'd been zoning out again. Thinking of Zora's safety as well as theirs.

"Zora's tough," Leon said. "Best thing we can do is get to the others. She will be there sooner or later."

Penny knew the risks. The longer they're standing around, the closer Darwin could get. They needed to get back to the hotel, where there were doors and walls. She looked at Zora's boot print again, then looked around her. There was nothing. Dead cows, a few trees, grass, but no caramel skinned blondes. There was nothing to lead the group to think that Zora hadn't simply wandered onward. No blood. She hadn't screamed. It was all very normal. And so Penny followed Leon and Steve, even though something in her was sending up red flags.