Bonus chapter! Happy New Year's Eve!

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I was quite bored by the time 10 o'clock rolled around. I headed to the north gate. One of the guards saw me coming. He was waiting by the gate with the walkie talkie, "Are you sure you don't want a quad?"

I nodded, "Unless they need me to make several laps within an hour, then I will go on foot."

The man shook his head, "No, they just want to know if a Runner is in the vicinity and only you or Daniel can pick up their scent. They will probably ask if you will check the perimeter tomorrow as well since Daniel is helping our two scientists."

It was odd how easily they accepted our sense of smell. Even walking a patrol sounded much more fun than dying of boredom on a rooftop. "Sounds good to me." I headed out of the gate.

It was different doing the patrol during the day. Various groups of people were out and about. Unless I was traveling through the forest, I was easy to spot. I kept my smooth flowing pace close to a slow jog when I was in the open. The groups waved as they spotted me, I waved back and kept going.

Most groups were helping with animals, gardening, or collecting wild foods like fruit or nuts. I even spotted the group that had adopted Chloe as they picked mushrooms. She stood by them as a sentry on the lookout for zombies, although I doubted that she saw me since I was quite some distance away.

Quads occasionally drove down the roads as they slowly lured mindless zombies away from the Stronghold. I knew that one or two heavily armed groups were further afield in vehicles as they raided empty towns. I avoided the entire area that the barn was in. If a zombie showed up there, Daniel was more than capable of dealing with it.

I kept circling further out until I hit Daniel's perimeter. From the scent, he had done a couple of loops early this morning and hadn't been back since. He must normally run numerous laps several times a day since his scent wall was starting to fade slightly.

I headed back when it was close to lunch time, having managed two complete loops. The guard took the walkie talkie back for charging and I went to find Nicky. She happened to round a corner and spotted me. She jogged over, "Did you know they have an evil turkey here? That monster chased me around the pen several times!"

I sighed as I rethought my original plan to come back for lunch. Although I was positive that someone would come looking for me if I tried to patrol until supper. "What did you do to annoy the turkey?"

"Nothing! It gobbled at me and I tried to return the greeting, but I must have mispronounced something because it took my words as an insult. It chased other people around as well, so it wasn't just me. Honest, that thing would chase you too."

I snorted, "No it wouldn't. One growl from me and it would be trying to get as far away as possible."

Nicky blinked at my response, "If you ever decide to go after it, I call the drumstick. Just make sure you target the right turkey, this one stands as high as your waist and is missing some tail feathers."

"I am not killing a turkey just because it chased you. If they are keeping it, they probably have a good reason. If it is that mean, then it will appear in the soup pot sooner or later."

Nicky sighed theatrically, "I hope that it is sooner rather than later. Let's go grab some lunch, I'm starving."

I put a handful of fruit slices on a napkin and sat across from Nicky as she attempted to down a huge bowl of soup. "What are you doing this afternoon? Why is it you end up doing different things each day?"

Nicky shrugged, "Apparently no one wants me in their group permanently, so I get to spread my joy around." She took a bite of bread and chewed it thoughtfully. I found it somewhat sad that she accepted that fact so easily. She had been right, she really wasn't accepted anywhere, yet she didn't seem to overly resent that detail.

Nicky swallowed, "I am helping with sheep this afternoon, so that is definitely out for you. Your choices are pretty limited. I am fine dealing with new people every day, but that just doesn't work for you. You really need a task that you do on your own or with only a handful of the same people every time."

I raised an eyebrow, "That pretty much eliminates most tasks in this place."

"Yeah. Now I know why the career counselor hated having to try and place antisocial people with a touchy temper."

I growled at her, "Thanks..."

She shrugged, "It is the truth. Anything to do with animals is out unless you are hunting them. Crowded situations are a no-no. That more or less leaves patrolling, gardening, hunting, or chopping wood when no one else is there."

She had rattled that list off far too easily, "There is no way that you came up with that conclusion on your own."

She grinned at me, "Nope. Others heard you were bored and were tossing ideas around. Since I knew you better than they did, I got to participate in that long discussion. Good thing too, I had to veto several of their absurd ideas."

"And what was the final consensus?"

"To try to get you to patrol all night and two or three times during the day. If you got bored, you could chop wood or help the hunting groups track animals. I know your opinion of weeding is even lower than mine is, but it is an option. Otherwise we could try to find a small group, but they tend to work in fairly crowded areas."

Nicky continued, "But if you do patrol all night, you have put in your hours of work. Relax like a normal person would. It isn't as if you are trying to prove that you can work for your keep. They wouldn't care if you sat and did nothing all day long if you were willing to let Nina take blood samples. They have been trying to find a Nightstalker for months."

I rolled my eyes, "I get so bored just sitting and doing nothing. It is also odd to do nothing when everyone else is working hard. I am sure that I would wear out my welcome before very long if I did nothing all day, every day."

Nicky snorted, "I highly doubt that. They will kick me out long before they will wish that you would move on. I can understand the boredom part, it is why I don't complain about having to work, although I will cheerily complain about work that I don't like doing."

Nicky finished her meal and we parted ways. I decided to chop some wood since no one else was there.

~

A couple of hours later I looked up at the sound of familiar footsteps. Nina and Daniel were heading toward me. I swung my axe and planted it into the chopping block, it was a safer place than letting it sit on the ground.

Daniel didn't seem to be in that good of a mood and my instincts shifted as he approached. I really didn't want to be near him while he was like this. Nina looked tired, but excited, "Good afternoon Trinity, do you mind if I get a blood sample? I would also love a fresh saliva sample."

My stubborn nature didn't really want to, but I had agreed to try. "What do you need me to do?"

"Just sit on one of these stumps while I dig out the blood vials."

I took a seat on one of the larger chopping blocks. Daniel stood nearby like a silent bodyguard, his presence made me uneasy when he was in this mood. It reminded me of the first few days when there had been a lot of tension between us. He was watching me like I was a potential enemy and that put me on edge.

Nina wrapped a plastic band around my arm as she got a needle ready. I watched her as she tapped the vein before inserting the needle. I stifled a faint growl at the prick of pain and watched the blood filling up the vial. Nina swapped out the vials until she had four of them.

She passed me an empty vial, "If you could just spit some saliva into that, it would be a great help."

I had to admit that this was the first time someone wanted me to spit into a vial. I filled the vial up about halfway before handing it back. I wasn't sure what she would find in it, although I might hear about it later. Nina carefully put them into a special holder, "Thank you very much. I probably won't see you at supper, so have a good evening."

"Don't overwork yourself."

She just waved with a chuckle as she left. I was very glad that Daniel followed her. I decided to go patrol for a while to try to get rid of my uneasiness. Whatever Daniel was doing was altering his mood and body language, and it just creeped me out. His current state was quite unstable and unpredictable. No wonder everyone else stayed out of their way.