The sun was mostly set and I was finding it quite difficult to sit so close to the fire with the way my instincts were rousing. Nicky and Nina were yawning. I stood up and lightly shook myself as if it would remove the restlessness. I was not so fortunate.

I looked at Luke, "I tend to patrol around the area a good chunk of the night. Feel free to sleep here. Give me a holler if anything nasty shows up."

He glanced at Daniel as if uncertain what may show up that a Terror couldn't take on, but he nodded, "Will do. If you need any help, just call."

I nodded and jumped off the roof. I circled the camp several times in the growing darkness as my instincts fully roused with the night. It would be interesting to have another zombie around, and at least I knew that Luke wasn't the kind to drive me crazy or piss me off. He was the most courteous zombie I had ever met.

It would be much harder for him to travel with us though, mostly because of Nicky and Nina triggering his bloodlust. I slowed in thought and took a deep breath, was there anything around that might make our traveling easier?

I bared my teeth in a grin and darted off into the undergrowth. It took me almost an hour to find all of the proper plants. It took me another fifteen minutes to squeeze all of their juices into a small jar. I was careful to breathe through my mouth in case the resulting concoction dulled my sense of smell for a short time.

I continued searching the forest for anything else it might provide, but came up empty handed. With the lack of results in that pursuit, I turned my attention to the local wildlife. A rabbit allowed me to doctor my wounds and took the edge off my appetite. The blood was sweet, but I was once more tiring of rabbit considering I had it almost every day for weeks.

I took a deep breath to locate something that wasn't a rabbit. I wasn't hungry enough for a deer. I exhaled slowly in annoyance. It irked me that there were so few mid-sized creatures out there. A faint earthier smell caught my interest.

I didn't mind a bit of work if it meant that I got some variety in my meals. The night was silent as I followed my nose to the open fields that looked empty of life at the first glance. My nose told me otherwise though.

I watched as one of the cat-sized rodents nibbled on grasses. Some called them gophers, others called them prairie dogs. I called them a welcome change from rabbits. Both may be rodents and have a veggie diet, but they tasted quite different.

They rarely ventured far from their burrows and if one gave an alarm call, the others would hide for a very long time. They preferred to be active during the day, but they would also come out at night. The grass was very short from their incessant eating and there was no cover whatsoever on the open ground.

That made it a challenge and my instincts rose higher as they tried to direct me. I didn't need my instincts for this hunt though, I already knew the best way to hunt these furry critters. Their noses were pretty good so I had to remain downwind as I slowly crept up on them.

Slow and steady movements were key. Like a cat carefully creeping forward, I had to keep my movements slow enough that I wasn't noticeable in the dark. Two would be plenty for me. The hardest part would be catching the first one without it alerting the others. Any noise or scuffle would have any others within hearing distance crying an alarm and pulling a disappearing act.

I put my sunglasses on to hide my eyes and slowly started working my way across the open grass to where a couple of the chubby critters were having their midnight snack. It was times like this that I was glad I was a Nightstalker. No human, Runner or Terror could replicate what I was doing.

My footsteps were silent as my eyes were locked onto my prey. My ears kept a vigil on my surroundings just in case of trouble. Just a bit closer... There! The sharp crack of the gopher's spine snapping caused the other animals to scatter. They would probably come out in fifteen minutes since none of their kin had sounded an alarm and there was no sound of a scuffle.

It had been a very long time since I had enjoyed this blood. The controlex made all blood taste sweeter, but this had an almost nutty flavor to it which was normal for a prairie dog. I tilted my head as I noticed that some gophers were already coming out.

I once more started my leisurely stalk toward my next unsuspecting victim. It didn't take me long to get the second one. I doctored my wounds once more and drank the rest. I took one prairie dog with me. I could fry up some of the meat for breakfast. During my short stint in the kitchen, I had overheard more than a few conversations on how well cooked anything had to be to kill the zombie virus that may be on the meat.

The night was more than half over now, so I started heading back. I paused by a creek to carve the meat off the gopher. I put the meat in a baggie and headed toward the building. My footsteps once more became louder as I approached.

Runners had a tendency to snarl when surprised and I had accidently startled Luke a few times in the past. He had apologized for snarling, but I had told him not to bother since it was technically my fault. If I didn't pay attention, my footsteps were silent. It was something that was easy to forget if your mind was on something else.

Luke was watching the ladder as I climbed up and he growled a low greeting. I growled my own greeting in return. Daniel had tensed up, but seemed to realize that the sounds were not aggressive. His eyes still tried to penetrate the darkness without success. I somehow doubted that Daniel had told Luke about his lack of sight at night. I think he had only told me because he had no other way of convincing me to remain with the group.

I dragged the cooler away from the fire before sitting down. Luke was able to see me but returned his gaze to the fire, trusting that I had done a thorough check of the area. He closed his eyes, and I was pretty sure he planned to get some sleep. Runners usually slept about five hours every day.

Runners could go several days without sleep if required, just like Nightstalkers could. Sleep felt a million miles away from me with my instincts being elevated with the night, despite the fact that I had barely managed to get any sleep the last few days. I was simply unable to sleep at night and sleeping in the back of the truck was almost as impossible.

I had been managing to nap between suppertime and sunset as well as a few other quiet moments when I was not in the moving truck. It was enough to get me by without getting too grouchy.

I watched as the sky slowly lightened and eventually got up to start breakfast. Luke watched me, "I thought you said you didn't eat human food anymore?"

"I don't. This keeps Nicky halfway sane. We are still three days away from Ironwind Stronghold and having Nicky go off the deep end isn't something I want to endure."

Luke looked perplexed, but being the gentleman he was, he didn't want to dig into someone's personal stuff even if that person wasn't around. Daniel clarified, "Nicky will occasionally go somewhat insane and practically bounces off the walls. This happens often enough that we have even named those episodes insanity blitzes."

Luke scratched his head and shrugged, "Everyone has their own little quirks."

Daniel snorted, "There is nothing little about this. Half of the population in the Stronghold can disappear within seconds if they realize she is loose."

Luke shrugged, unsure of what to make of the Terror's opinion. My instincts were finally starting to fade. I put the finished spaghetti to the side and took a seat on the cooler. I closed my eyes and tried to take a catnap. I would only have about half an hour before the women woke up.

~

I opened up my eyes as movement in the tent alerted me to our first riser. Luke also took a slightly deeper breath as he turned his head; the sound had likely woken him as well. Nina emerged from the tent and looked relieved to see Luke still here.

Nina had barely taken a bowl of spaghetti when Nicky also exited the tent. Several days of no coffee finally had her back to being halfway civil in the morning. Luke watched the two humans and I knew that his bloodlust was bothering him since they were sitting upwind.

Once Nicky had dished up, Daniel went to grab a bowlful and offered some to Luke, "Want some?"

Luke nodded, "Thank you, it has been a long time since I had spaghetti."

Daniel filled up another bowl and passed it to him. Luke was a bit leery about being so close to Daniel to take the bowl, but did remarkably well. I pulled a small jar out of my backpack, "Hey Nicky, catch."

I gently lobbed the jar toward her and she caught it. She looked at the oily contents before raising an eyebrow at me, "I somehow doubt that this contains caffeine."

I snorted lightly, "Unless I was trying to cause an entire army to run away in fear, I would never give you anything with caffeine in it. Once you are done eating, rub that over your skin. It will minimize your scent."

Nicky looked at it in curiosity, "Cool. Does this mean I will win a game of hide and go seek with you?"

I shook my head, "No, but if you apply it properly Daniel and Luke probably won't pick up your scent easily unless you are fairly close to them."

Now that I thought about it, I should have asked that crazy guy how he had cloaked his scent so well. I had never seen something work so well before. It was one thing for a Nightstalker to be able to find something to cover up a scent we could smell, but the man had no way of knowing that his scent had been covered so thoroughly.

He had also been perceptive enough to wear that mask to hide the smell of his breath. Only a handful of humans ever even considered that aspect of things. The smell of human breath dissipated quite quickly though, so it wasn't really a concern for situations.

It was the sweat and body oils that really carried the scent. And blood. The scent of blood was insanely potent and carried far too well on the air. I seriously hoped that no one got a scratch or papercut close to Luke.

Nicky finished her food and set the bowl down before opening up the jar. She tentatively dipped her fingers in the mixture and rubbed them together to get a feel of the slightly oily liquid. With a sigh she started rubbing it on her arms and legs.

I murmured, "Do your armpits, neck and face as well."

Daniel was watching Nicky in curiosity while sniffing the air. His expression slowly became one of disbelief as Nicky's scent disappeared with the oils, "What is that stuff? I can't even smell her anymore."

I could still pick up Nicky's scent without overly trying, but it was much fainter now. I shrugged, "Certain plant oils that cut through any sweat or oils. I can still pick up her scent, but that should make our ride easier for Luke. It will only last several hours before it needs to be reapplied."

Luke tilted his head and took a cautious sniff, "Well, I can't pick up her current scent, just her previous scent that stuck to objects around her. How is it that Trinity can smell it and you can't?"

Nicky snickered as she rubbed the oils into the back of her neck, "Turns out that Nightstalkers have a better sense of smell than Terrors."

Luke looked surprised, "Really? I wouldn't have thought that."

I nodded, "My sense of smell is better than his, and I can move silently. All other aspects are what you would normally expect between different ranked zombies."

"That is quite interesting. I suspect it is an adaptation thing and has something to do with you being a night owl, since most nocturnal creatures tend to rely more on scent in the dark."

Some days Luke was far too rational, and at times like this, he reminded me of Nina the way he analyzed things. Nina had already pulled out her notepad and was writing things down. Luke turned back to his food and was managing to put away a surprising amount of pasta.

I looked at Nina again, "You might want to put on more of that perfume. I am not sure where you found it, but it actually does quite a number on your scent."

Nina nodded, "Yeah, Daniel helped me pick it out in hopes it would keep feral zombies from scenting me so easily when we travel. I will go put more on." She got up and went back to the tent. I heard more spritzing noises and suspected that she was also rubbing it across her skin like she had just seen Nicky do.

I glanced toward the tent as I kept hearing the perfume bottle spraying. Did she intend to bathe in it? I wrinkled my nose as the smell started to reach me. It was a good thing that the perfume had a more mild scent or it would not have been pleasant. It smelled like she was opening up a flower shop in that tent.

It was probably ongraining itself into the tent and I doubted that it would wear off anytime soon. If nothing else, it would keep their scent down when they slept in there in the future. Eventually Nina came back out. I lifted my head and took a deeper breath, but her scent was almost completely obscured by the faintly floral perfume.

Luke took a careful sniff, but relaxed a bit now that he couldn't pick up their fresh personal scent so easily. It wouldn't do anything to the smells that clung to all of our supplies, but scents that rubbed off didn't affect the bloodlust as strongly.

This trip was still not going to be a walk in the park for Luke.