Nathan glanced around nervously, keeping his attention alert for any others.

"How many have you seen recently?"

Stephanie took a second before lifting her bat,
"More than usual, they're changing course. Argh!-"

Her ear was dripping blood, a hole in the skin as she rubbed around it. Nathan quickly reached into his backpack for a spray,

"How bad is it?"
"Small, I can still hear so I should be fine..."

He lifted the spray and circling the small camp started to cover the scent of blood, anything would work as long as you used enough.
Stephanie took the chance to examine the Blackblood,

"He's old, probably a month or so...around thirty."
"Should we bring the body back to base?"

Stephanie checked the pockets on the ripped clothes and shook her head.
"Nothing to tell us who he is...yeah we should see what we can learn, been a while since we've caught one in good condition."

The two started bringing down the camp and lifted the Blackblood, huffing as they made the trek back to the base.
It was difficult with the mud making every step slippery, and the sun lowering behind them but by sunset, they made it back.

"Scott!"

Nathan called out as soon as they were inside, a crowd around them already as whispers grew. Scott notices the Blackblood and shaking his head,

"Nathan, what were you thinking? Blackbloods are dangerous."

Nathan lifted its limp arms and shook them lightly, Scott grimacing at the view.
"It's double dead, we figured we could learn more about them."

Scott sighed heavily and started to make their way to a tent with a table, Nathan and Stephanie following with the body.

"You do realize none of us are doctors right? The closest we have is a non-complete vet and teens with knowledge of zombie games."

Nathan nodded, he was one of the teens with zombie knowledge.
"We could at least try, you never know."

Without another word, just a deep sigh, Scott left the tent and ordered the rest of the camp to stay away. Nathan glanced at Stephanie, smiling a little.

"Guess you're stuck here for the night huh? Guess Roy won't be able to avoid ya now."

She groaned lightly before Nathan started paying close attention to the Blackblood, its eyes were completely clouded with black tiny veins.
Its arms were thin and covered in black bulging veins, they were abnormally long compared to humans.

In the first days, Nathan recalled how they figured out the Blackbloods were blind, running on all fours and using their long arms to propel forward.

Going down from the arms he noticed the way its spine was curved slightly, probably changing from being on all fours.
The blood around its stab wound from Nathan's knife was smeared like charcoal, as black as a starless sky.

Nathan lifted two pencils and started prying its mouth open, causing Stephanie to jump from her seat.

"Uhh, what are you doing?!"
"We won't learn anything new if we don't actually look inside it, the bodies never last long."

She raised her hands,
"Be careful is all I'm saying, we don't know if the saliva still burns after it dies."

Nathan nodded and looked at the saliva, it was black but had a silver sheen.
It didn't burn the pencils but he was still careful not to touch it, using a flashlight to get a better look inside the mouth. 

The teeth were sharp, like fangs but still had a human shape. The gums were charred probably from the saliva, the tongue had a slit at the tip like a fork in a snake's tongue but smaller.
Nathan started looking down its neck noticing the bite that possibly turned it, just about to open the chest when it started to move.

"No, not yet!"

As he stopped speaking the body collapsed into ashes covering the table, Nathan kicking a trashcan over.

"Dammit!"

Stephanie reached out and rubbed his shoulder,
"I know you wanna find out what happened Nate, I do, but I think it's time we accept that we just can't."

Nathan slammed his fist onto the table.

"I have to find out Steph, my dad-"

Nathan turned his face away and took a deep breath, his shoulders trembling.

"My dad was called the day this happened and he left to find out, he never came back and I owe it to him to find out."

Stephanie nodded and just as she opened her mouth to speak there was a screech rising from the outside, the sun had set.

The Nightlings were awake.