Faint footsteps woke me as the Terror left the motel and quietly closed the front door behind him, likely heading out to hunt.

I had no desire to cross paths with him, so I remained where I was. Idly, I listened to the nighttime noises, which mostly consisted of Ben and Hank's snoring from the room beside us.

An odd shuffling noise down the hall caught my attention as someone left their room. Only one person was in the room that close to the door, but why would Nina go outside at night?

Her friend had been gone for at least fifteen minutes, and her scent had definitely been human. No human should go outside at night – especially in a place with no protective fence.

I got up and parted the blinds to look out the window. A low snarl escaped my throat when I saw someone forcibly dragging Nina away from the motel. I swiftly and silently ran to the front door while taking off my sunglasses and putting them in my pocket. My Nightstalker abilities and camouflaged eyes were perfect for swiftly catching up without either of them spotting me.

The scruffy man dragged Nina into the trees, and I stifled a growl when I noticed his hand was clamped over her mouth. He smelled like sour cooking oil, which he must have been using to cover his scent. This was the same man I'd smelled earlier.

I slipped soundlessly through the underbrush – a stark contrast to Nina's thrashing and the man's determined attempts to drag her deep into the forest.

It didn't take me long to catch up. Nina struggled wildly, but she couldn't escape the filthy, burly man. The sharp scent of her fear and the tang of her blood saturated the air. The red haze in my sight got more intense in my rapidly building anger.

His hand began to go under her shirt, and I charged forward with an enraged snarl, letting my eyes glow bright red. He jumped and spun around, completely forgetting about Nina. He barely had time to turn in my direction before I grabbed his throat with one hand and pinned him against a tree with another vicious snarl.

Nina dropped to the ground and scrambled backward, holding her hand above her heart as she tried to catch her breath.

In a shaking voice, she said, "Thanks, Daniel. I was worried that-"

Her voice cut off suddenly, realizing that my smaller shadowy form wasn't Daniel. The man in my grasp squirmed wildly as he stared at my brightly glowing eyes in terror. I dug my nails lightly into his neck and felt them pierce his skin with ease. The smell of his blood had my muscles tensing at this close range.

"Run," I growled at him. "If I catch you anywhere near us again, your life will be forfeit."

Gurgling came from his throat as he tried to breathe past my tight grip. I threw him to the side, and he landed in some shrubs. Even one-handed, I had enough strength to throw him quite some distance from us. It probably did a fair bit of damage to the muscles in his neck, but I didn't particularly care. I was letting him escape with his life.

He scrambled out of the bushes, regained his feet, and crashed through the underbrush as he fled. He was probably terrified of being killed right now, but soon that worry would turn to paranoia while he wondered if he'd been infected. Fortunately for him, the virus ran in my saliva and blood and didn't cling to my skin.

I took a deep breath and exhaled as I tried to rein in my temper. He wouldn't be back for days, and with the amount of noise he was making as he hurtled through the forest, he'd better hope another zombie didn't hear him. Or smell the blood from the dozens of scratches he acquired during his crash landing.

I straightened out of my crouch and gave Nina a sideways look. I didn't look at her full on, since those familiar with zombies knew such a thing was often a threat or a challenge.

She remained motionless in the leaf litter and watched me cautiously. That alone said how familiar she was with zombies. Staying on the ground prevented me from considering her as a threat. Sitting still wouldn't trigger my hunting instincts if I was having problems with control.

"How badly are you hurt?" My voice was rough from how high my instincts were running. I could smell her blood in the air; then again, the scent of the man's blood on my nails didn't exactly help with the bloodlust boiling through my veins.

"Thanks for helping me. I'm okay. Not even a scratch."

I snorted in disbelief. "I could smell your blood from the motel. As faint as it is, it's probably only small scratches. Let's head back before that friend of yours picks up the scent of your blood on the breeze and thinks I'm responsible."

She stood up shakily. I tested the air, but the Terror must have been downwind since I wasn't picking up any trace of him. Hopefully, he was far enough away that he wouldn't catch her scent until we got back to the motel. If I was even luckier, he'd be off to the side and the breeze would miss him completely.

Nina took two steps and promptly stumbled over a branch. I caught her elbow before she could fall and held her weight as she regained her balance.

"Thanks." She seemed a bit uneasy with the contact but didn't pull away.

I dug around in my pocket for the small flashlight I had put there in case Nicky needed to borrow it. It only had three weak LED lights, which was bright enough to let someone see the ground, but dim enough to avoid being painfully bright. I pointed it at the ground and narrowed my eyes to mere slits before turning it on.

I held it out to her. "Here. Just stay behind me and don't point it at my face."

She took it and followed me as I started walking back. She must have known that Nightstalkers were light sensitive since she kept the dim light right in front of her feet instead of using it to scan the forest around her like most humans would have.

I listened hard, but the man had either stopped running and gone into hiding or he was too far away for me to hear him. To my relief, I didn't hear any other footsteps besides Nina's, so I didn't have to worry about Daniel smelling his companion's fear just yet.

While keeping an eye out for the Terror, I opened a small ziplock bag in my pocket and pulled out a lemon-scented wet hand wipe. I carefully cleaned the blood off my hand and out from under my fingernails. Once we were inside the motel, Nina turned the light off and passed it back to me.

"Thank you," she said gratefully.

"You're welcome," I replied gruffly while mentally adding, Now stay in your room because I don't want to have Daniel barging into mine looking for an explanation if you go missing again.

I retreated to my room as Nina closed her door. I sat on the bed and crossed my legs, listening carefully. Daniel was sure to catch the scent of her blood and fear as he approached the town, and he would know I had been with her from the way my scent mingled with hers. I hoped he would stop to check on her and get her story before breaking down the door and coming for my hide in a rage.

I stilled when I heard his swift footsteps approaching the building. The growl that rumbled in his chest was audible even from the far side of the motel. He wrenched Nina's door open, and a few moments later, I heard the faint murmur of their voices. Regardless of how I strained my ears, their discussion was too soft for me to make out the words above the snoring next door. When the door clicked shut, I was unable to hear anything at all.

The night passed slowly, and I knew Daniel was likely as awake as I was. It was an uneasy situation; we were both aware of each other's presence, but we hadn't truly interacted yet. We didn't know where we stood with each other or what our limits were.

It was worse for me since he outranked me, and I knew that I'd end up as the underdog in any fight. It didn't sit well with my Nightstalker mentality and pride. No wonder Runners had never traveled with me for extended periods of time. Life would be a lot easier if our instincts weren't able to influence our mood and reactions so strongly.

I wasn't tired, and just sitting here was boring. I got up and pulled the blinds away from the windows so I could at least see outside. Unfortunately, the view didn't make the time pass any faster.

Dawn was still several hours away when a zombie walked by on the street. It picked up its pace as it crossed the humans' scent trail, although it went the wrong way and disappeared into the corner store our group had scavenged through earlier.

I'd have to lure it away before it tried to break into this place. I really didn't want the Terror following me outside though. Thinking back, his footsteps had been louder than I had expected, much like a really soft-footed human. I wondered if Terrors lacked the silent stalking footsteps that Nightstalkers possessed.

Getting to my feet, I tiptoed across the room – my footsteps weren't audible to me. Even if he had been capable of hearing them, the snoring orchestra was providing a plethora of background noise.

I exited the room and carefully closed the bedroom door behind me before sneaking down the hallway. Much to my relief, the front door also opened silently. After gently closing it, I slunk away from the motel, taking care to avoid going where Daniel might see me through his window.

The zombie spotted me when I paused outside the corner store and gave chase. Still keeping my footsteps silent, I led the zombie to the house with the three inmates. I was sure they wanted more company. Even if they didn't, too bad.

I pushed the door open and ducked behind it. Seconds later, the zombie careened past me. I slipped right back outside and closed the door.

With no more zombies in sight, I went to check the other two houses and their garages. The first garage was a cluttered mess without enough room to even park a bicycle, let alone a car or truck.

The homeowner must have either possessed a Nightstalker's ability to slip through tiny spaces or just never entered the garage. The second reason was more likely since I didn't even bother going inside. With my luck, one of those towering piles of boxes and junk would come crashing down on me.

The next garage had a car. It wasn't big enough for all of us, but Hank might be able to attach a hitch or trailer or something. I noticed several tools by the front bumper and opened the hood with a sinking feeling.

My internal grumbling turned into an audible growl – half of the motor was pulled apart, as if someone had either been attempting to repair it or take parts out to fix a different vehicle. I slammed the hood down with more force than necessary. When I turned around, I paused at the sight of two jerrycans in a corner. Suddenly intent, I walked forward and nudged them with my foot – one was mostly full.

In curiosity, I knelt down to peek under the car, but its gas tank had also taken a walk to the repair shop. Can't siphon the gas from it if the tank isn't even in the garage.

One jerrycan would at least get us a couple of hours down the highway. We could cover more ground in those hours than we would on foot in days. Every other vehicle in this place was out of fuel, so this was all we had.

I narrowed my eyes as a sudden thought struck me. Wait a moment. I used to store gas for the lawn mower in my shed. The looters likely found all of the jerrycans, but would they have thought to drain the lawn mowers?

Taking both the full and empty jerrycan with me, I started searching through every shed I could find. I didn't find a single jerrycan, so looters had already checked. The people who once lived here had some bizarre obsession with electric lawnmowers, but I did find one push mower, and it even had some gasoline left in it. There was barely enough to fill the second jerrycan quarter way, but that was still more than what we had before.

With a faint growl, I went back to the cluttered garage. I stood in the doorway for a long time before reluctantly edging sideways through the narrow spaces that a cat would have been hard-pressed to get through.

There was no way the homeowner ever came inside this garage. I was relying on my Nightstalker abilities, and I was still finding it a challenge. My sleeve brushed along the edge of a shabby cardboard box, and the faint creaking was all the warning I had to dart forward as the roof-high pile toppled over.

In my escape, I nudged several other piles, which also came crashing down in a cacophony of noise. In an attempt to avoid the suddenly hazardous area, I used my Nightstalker strength to jump up and grab the garage door tracks suspended from the ceiling.

I hung there like an overgrown monkey as copious amounts of dust swirled through the air and clogged my nose. The falling piles knocked a few others over and left several more teetering precariously, as if they were just waiting for an excuse to fall over.

It was like booby trap central in here. The empty box of rat traps on one shelf only added to that effect. Nor did I see where its former contents were lying in wait.

I waited for the dust and still-shifting objects to mostly settle. Even from my vantage point, I didn't spot any jerrycans. For that matter, I didn't see anything worth staying in here for one more minute.

I examined the jumbled mess below before cautiously dropping onto the most stable-looking area beneath me. Various objects shifted slightly but held my weight. With a couple of jumps, I made a beeline to the door I had prudently left open.

There was nothing else in here I wanted to check, so I went back to the motel. I left the two jerrycans in the hallway by the front door and quietly headed for the roof, where I started the fire and put the remaining soup near it to warm up. I also put a pot of water beside the fire to heat up and placed a container of instant coffee nearby.

With that done, I went back inside and returned to the room where Nicky still slept. I wasn't tired, so I just gazed out the window.