I had barely sat down for lunch with a fresh dinner roll when Nina and Daniel appeared. Either word spread in this place faster than a wildfire or someone had managed to get a phone to work. I suspected the former reason.

Nina sat down with a tray of food while Daniel just had a bottle of water. Nina smiled, "I see you survived the morning. What are your plans for this afternoon?"

I shrugged, "I was going to see if I could find a quiet place outdoors for a while. I thought I saw someone on the roof of the secondary building the other day. Later this afternoon I might dig up Nicky and go hunting."

Nina nodded sympathetically, "Need a bit of fresh air and solitude, huh? Well, I can show you where the stairs are to get onto the roof. No one else will be up there at this time of day."

I watched her eat her lunch silently. I was surprised that she had realized what I was really after so easily. I had never used the excuse of getting fresh air during our trip, so I wasn't sure how she had arrived at that correct conclusion. She was always watching and taking notes though, not to mention that she was almost always around Daniel.

Nina wasted no time in cleaning her plate. We headed toward the secondary building. A dozen people were chopping wood. I picked up a faint odor and took a deep breath to verify it. I knew that scent, although I hadn't smelled it since my first days as a zombie.

I spoke quietly knowing that Daniel would hear it, "Do you smell that? I think one of those men is infected."

Daniel stopped dead in his tracks as he glanced at me and tested the air. He turned to face the busy group. "Now that you mention it, I can smell it too."

Nina was watching Daniel with a puzzled expression, "Smell what?" She had not heard my comment.

The group was slowly becoming aware of his scrutiny as they paused in their work with confused expressions. Confused or perplexed, but not scared. Daniel crossed the small distance between us and the wood splitters, "Was anyone here bitten by a zombie? I can smell that someone is infected."

The people looked at one another in worry, wondering which of their friends they might be losing. Nina gasped and quickly followed Daniel as she looked between the faces in concern. No one replied to Daniel and it was apparent that none of them thought that they were the one infected.

They watched as Daniel walked among them sniffing. He huffed in annoyance, "The smell is so faint that I can't detect which direction it is stronger in." He turned to face me, "Trinity, you detected it before I did. Can you track it down?"

I slowly started walking toward the group and all eyes watched me silently. He may have said the smell was faint, but this close to the group it was quite noticeable. I took several deep breaths as I walked through the loose group. This entire place reeked of humans, the faint tang of zombie stood out.

I stopped and looked right at one man. A shocked expression crossed his face. I went toward him and paused once I was about an arm length away. I took another deep breath for confirmation, but it really wasn't needed. He was definitely the source.

He was nervous about my proximity. I exhaled gustily, "Toss your bandana to Daniel." I backed up a few steps to give the poor guy some room.

The man looked confused, but did as he was told. Daniel lifted it to nose as he inhaled, his eyes flashed red for a second as his instincts surged with such a close proximity to the source of a zombie scent. Daniel looked at the man, "How did you get infected? Is there any chance that you might have passed it to someone else?"

The man looked like he was having a hard time coping with Daniel's way of breaking the news to him. He shook his head as if in a daze, "I didn't go anywhere near any zombies. How could I have been infected?"

A second man inhaled sharply, "The creek!"

The infected man's eyes grew wide as he realized something before putting his head in his hands, "We went swimming in the creek yesterday. We thought it was a log floating toward us, but as it passed by we realized that it was a zombie. We panicked a bit as we tried to get away. I swallowed some water as I tried to warn the others. It must have been contaminated and I was quite close to it."

Nina approached him as Daniel watched both of them like a hawk. Her eyes were full of pity, "Come on, let's go to the hospital."

The man started following Nina. Daniel glanced back at me and hesitated before looking at a blonde haired guy, "Ty, Can you show Trinity how to get to the top of the secondary building?"

Ty nodded and Daniel quickly caught up to Nina and the infected man. The rest of us watched them until they rounded a corner and went out of sight. Ty seemed unsure of how to address me, "Uhh... It is this way."

No shit Sherlock. Even I knew that the stairs to get on the roof would be in or around the building in question. We could see the building from here. I silently walked beside him, we were going faster than Nina had and my leg was telling me about it. I hid my pain lest it attract unwanted attention or questions. My silence seemed to make him uneasy, but he didn't comment.

We entered the main entrance and he headed to what I had previously assumed was a linen closet. He pulled the door open and I now saw stairs, "Here you go, Miss. It leads right to the roof."

"Thanks."

I started going up the stairs as he went back to split wood. My room was on the second floor and I had assumed that the staircase I had previously used kept going, but apparently that was not the case. I had not expected that there would be a separate staircase connecting the main floor right to the rooftop. The design made no sense to me and I wondered if the architect had been drunk while he drew out the blueprints.

This building was only three stories tall, but that was still a lot of stairs if you had a bullet hole in your thigh. I had to pause a few times to let the fire in my leg die down. I finally made it to the top and looked around. The roof was flat and half a dozen campfire chairs were scattered about. The air up here smelled less of humans as the faint breeze brought me scents from the forest beyond the fence.

I took a seat in one as I gazed at the view below. I could see the couple of areas that Nina hadn't shown me. One was an old hotel that must have housed most of the population. The big bathhouse beside it made me glad for the shower room just down the hall from my room.

I could see the rows of solar panels outside of the fence. So that is how they still have electricity... My eyes kept scanning everything below and committing the paths and buildings to memory. From my high vantage point it was clearer as to what each group of people was doing. Most were outside of the fence working in huge gardens or keeping an eye on herds of animals.

I didn't see anyone outside of the fence apart from the gardeners or animal tenders, although that didn't surprise me. The pain in my leg was slowly fading. I was tired despite not doing much today, although I knew it was a side effect from how swiftly my body was healing my injuries. I closed my eyes and let myself fall into a light doze.

~

I gave up my attempts at a nap once I felt rested. I watched the people below, but it looked as if they had mostly finished working and were doing their own thing. Some voices floated up to me, I ignored most, but one particular discussion caught my attention.

"Did you hear that Joe was infected?"

"Thankfully we discovered it before he turned. Nina got him to the hospital pretty quickly, hopefully he will remain in control when he turns."

The voices faded as the people kept walking. They were hoping he would remain in control. That explained why they took him to the hospital instead of ushering him outside of the fence as fast as possible. Unfortunately, chances of him turning into a normal zombie were very high. If he had been infected by a normal zombie, it was a guarantee.

For some reason, if a person was bitten by a zombie, they could turn into that rank or lower. Getting a higher rank than the zombie that infected you was unheard of. Runners, Nightstalkers, and Terrors were either originals, infected by a sneeze of an infectious person, or bitten by an equivalent or a higher-ranking zombie.

Even if Daniel were to bite someone, the person would almost certainly change into a regular zombie. The odds of becoming a Runner were less than 1 in 10,000. Nightstalkers were much rarer, about 1 in a million. A person had a better chance at winning the lottery jackpot three times than becoming a Terror. I would be shocked if there were more than 50 Terrors worldwide. The fact that I had encountered two Terrors in under two weeks just went to show how bad my luck was.

My gaze shifted to the side. Some people were still at the archery range and I recognized the redhead as Nicky. Really? Who gave her a ranged weapon? They were obviously not debriefed properly.

Even from here I could tell that her aim was terrible. She hadn't hit the target once. I sighed and got to my feet. I had better get that bow out of her hands. Not one of her fifty arrows had even come close to that target. At this rate she stood a better chance of hitting someone behind her instead of the target in front of her.

I slowly made my way to the archery area and walked up silently behind Nicky. Odd as it was, she was the only one who wouldn't freak out or get nervous regardless of what I did. Quite a few others were watching me, unsure of what I was doing when Nicky was clearly unaware of my presence.

She drew her bow again. I was right behind her and gave a faint sigh, "Your posture is wrong. You will never hit the target firing like that."

She jumped a bit at my voice and glanced over her shoulder, "Give me some warning next time! At this rate I am going to stick some bells on you so you can't sneak up on me."

It was bizarre to realize that I had actually missed her humor and complete lack of fear. I chuckled, "Bells won't help with a Nightstalker." I reached out and gently put my hands on her shoulders as I turned her a bit, "Stand sideways like this. Point your foot at your target. Angle the other one at a 90 degree angle. Yes, like that."

Several were watching in shock as I actually touched Nicky's shoulders. They were even more shocked that it didn't bother Nicky in the least. It was kind of amusing really. In general it wasn't wise to get close enough to touch a zombie, so even though Daniel may call this place home, I highly doubted that anyone other than Nina would dare to so much as touch his arm or pat him on the back.

I examined Nicky's posture, "That bow is a bit too long for someone as short as you or me. Draw the string so that your thumb knuckle is behind your ear lobe, it will help keep you consistent as well as help with your aim."

Nicky made a face, "I am not short. Things only grow until they are perfect. Some of us clearly didn't take as long as others."

I actually laughed at that. Considering that I barely stood over 5 feet tall, Nicky was one of the very few people out there who were shorter than me. I took a step away from Nicky, "Keep your bow vertical. Now take aim, you generally have to aim above and to the right of your target when firing like this. Don't forget to hold your breath when you release the string."

Her bow string twanged as she released it, and with a thud, the arrow actually hit the target. She didn't hit the center of course, but the fact that she finally hit the shoulder target was a huge improvement. She whooped as she punched the air above her head in victory.

She turned to me with a grin, "So where did you learn archery?"

"I can't really remember. Girl Scouts, I think."

She made a face, "You were a Girl Scout? I can't really see you running around selling cookies regardless of how old you were."

I bared my teeth in a light grin, "I only managed a year before my parents moved to a new town. Who let you pick up a bow anyway?"

Nicky chuckled as she examined the recurve bow in her hands, "I made sure that Ben and Hank weren't around to warn them when I asked if I could try it out." She raised her head to look at me, "But I am sure that you didn't come all the way over here just to save innocent bystanders from my questionable aim."

I raised an eyebrow in amusement at her perceptiveness, "Do you still have the keys for that side by side?"

She grinned widely, "Yep. Let me just put this bow away before Hank or Ben see it in my hands."

It didn't take her long to come skipping back. I sighed as she slowed to a walk beside me, "You do remember that you promised to drive like Hank, correct?"

She cackled and rubbed her hands together gleefully, "Oh, but I crossed my fingers and added 'if he was completely and utterly drunk' to the end of my promise!"

Someone please save me... I growled a light rebuke at Nicky, which caused two nearby people to look at us in shock. "If you don't drive like a sane person, then I will take over driving and you can sit in the passenger seat. If I can walk, I can manage the gas pedal."

She sighed gustily, which was a remarkably good impression of my own irritated sighs, "All right, all right. I will drive like my driving trainer wanted me to, but I want that bag of peanuts in your backpack in exchange."

I didn't even hesitate, "Deal."