I pointed at the car. "That's where we parked," I said after trying to get used to wearing the night vision goggles. It was one of the two PVS-14 optics left in the armory. I thought it would be useful to traversing across campus in the dark.

"That's hella far for a parking job," Armas said. I could not leave him with the others, so I brought him along --just the two of us. I didn't fully trust him yet, but he had more experience with firearms than anyone in the group. He tilted his head to the parking lot ahead. "Um, we're gonna be too exposed."

"There's no way around it."

We approached the parking lot next to the Buffalo Soldier Field. We could check the handful of vehicles surrounding Washington Hall to use for distraction, but most of them didn't have the keys. I was tempted to break the windows, but I was afraid the alarms would draw the vectors to our position. I don't even know how to hotwire a car. There weren't many cars sitting on the lot, and I didn't like how exposed we were. Every vector within a thousand feet would spot us.

"So, who taught you?" Armas asked suddenly.

"Taught me what?"

"How to shoot. You carry it like a second limb."

"My dad. Navy SEALs. It comes with the territory, I guess. My family had a long history in the service."

"You want to become a soldier like him, too?"

"I want to become a biologist. He wants me to become a soldier. But look where I am now."

Hey, dad, look at me, wearing this bulky thing. Funny, huh? Here I thought I swore I would never become a soldier, but I think you secretly wished this entire pandemic to happen. I chuckled, imagining my dad would probably do backflips if he could see me now.

I fiddled with the radio attached to my vest. I specifically told the others to keep radio silence until the vectors were out of sight (or after the distraction worked), then they could contact me, or I contacted them first. I didn't want to give away our location if there was a vector nearby.

"You should give me one of the keys," Armas said.

"Why? We're only taking one car, remember? We still need to walk back to Washington Hall after we abandon the Jeep somewhere west of here."

"I can distract them for you."

I stopped mid-stride. "You're going to leave us," I said. It wasn't a question.

Armas sighed. "Look, you have your weapons and your humvee. I'm going to head out to Georgia. My dad still lives there with his girlfriend, and my sisters are there, too."

"We need you to get us into Albany."

"And what do you think they'll do to me when I get back? You said it yourself. I've gone AWOL. Do you know what they do to men like me? I still have family left, and I need to know that they are okay."

"They already put the entire region under quarantine. You can't just waltz out of here."

"I'll figure it out."

"You're not taking our weapons."

"You can keep them. I have what I need with me." He looked down at his rifle, vest, and the ammo he had in his pouches.

I looked at the hotel and back to the campus up the hill. "You know it's best if we all stick together. Safety in numbers," I said.

"You killed my mom," he said.

"Oh, don't put that on me! Are you seriously blaming me for that? She's one of them."

"We should have waited for a cure. You owe me."

"But there won't be a cure for a long time. Once we do, there will be millions of infected around your little hill. You'd be dead."

"And my mom can get better! You owe me!"

"I don't owe you shit."

My blood was curdling, and I wanted to drag him by the ear. I tried to breathe in through my nostrils, letting myself calm down because a brawl in the dark with vectors nearby was a stupid idea. Still, I was tempted with his plan, and he already volunteered to lead the vectors away. I didn't need to do it myself. No harm, no foul.

"Fine. If that's really what you want to do, you can have the Jeep. I'll take the BMW back to campus. But I would like it if you help us get into Albany."

"No. Sorry. I already abandoned my friends one time. They won't let me do it again."

Coward, I wanted to say, but I held my tongue. There was nothing to convince him of the matter, and I realized he was dead-set on pushing with his plan. When it came to family, all bets were off.

I handed him the Jeep's keys. "Good luck," I said.

Armas let out a small smile. "Thanks. You, too. I'm sure you'll be fine without my help."

I sighed. "I could really use another marksman. You might even be able to trick the soldiers into letting us pass through the city if we get into trouble."

"There are going to be checkpoints."

I groaned. "Yeah. That's what I was afraid of."

Someone laughed, but it didn't come from Armas or my lips; we froze.

We were in the middle of Soldier Field, surrounded by darkness. There was no moon and barely any stars, so the visibility was poor. I used my night vision optics again. It could only cover one eye, so I had to close my left eye to look through the port. Darkness switched to a haze of green, reaching out to at least a hundred meters, flat surface abound, but I did not see anyone standing in the field with us. I turned to look at Armas, and he surmised the same.

We put our weapons at the ready.

Another laugh, coming from our right. We turned there, but all we saw was space and darkness beyond. I was sure it didn't come from a living human. It sounded like a maniacal laugh, guttural below the throat as if it was a hacking dog who had fur inside its lungs. Maybe it was a vector, a new sound I had never heard before, sneaking around and trying to stay away from our line of sight. I shivered when I realized a vector child might be among us.

The laugh came again, but it wasn't alone; heard at least three of them, maybe more, scurrying around us.

I pushed my feet into a jog, abandoning our stealth. Tables had turned, and whoever these people laughing were, they now had the advantage of surprise. I didn't want to get caught in the open, wanting to have a wall behind my back.

I looked through my optics again, and something dashed past in front of me, thirty feet ahead.

I stopped. It was a four-legged creature. I definitely saw four legs, and they were not human. Glowing eyes greeted my vision for a second, like those of a cat. It might be a dog with a spotted fur, but I had never heard a dog laugh before.

"Armas, keep an eye out. It's not them. It's an animal—"

Something slammed on my back, and I went down onto the ground. Teeth clamped around my right arm and dropped my rifle as I wrestled out of the creature's grip.

All over me was the smell of a wet dog, a huff, and a grunt, laughing as it dragged me across the field. It sounded exciting, celebrating the catch of its meal, and I felt its eyes were glued to me.

I didn't know where my rifle was. I punched its snout, but it didn't let go. Luckily, the blouse jacket was strong enough not to pierce its teeth into my flesh, but it still hurt. I quickly grabbed for my knife sheathed on my belt, and without hesitating, stabbed a spot in the darkness where I thought its neck might have been.

A whined yelp pierced two inches on my ear. I felt its jaws slacked, whining as it retreated into the darkness, alive and kicking. I had jammed a shallow stab, but I made sure the next time would be deeper.

I heard scurrying beyond the darkness, more of them waiting for the kill.

I watched through my night vision and found my rifle ten feet away, crawling toward it. Just beyond that, Armas was down on the ground, screaming as he tried to wrestle out of their jaws, two of them swarming him, cackling at the soldier's thwarted attempts. I saw dozens of spots on their hide, and I knew then what we were dealing with.

Hyenas.

Pop! Pop! Armas tried shooting it with his rifle, but the barrel was too long to maneuver, and he ended up aiming it to the sky. I flinched. If a vector heard that,

I got up and ran over to Armas. "Scram!" I shouted, kicking one on its hind legs. It had a weak grip on Armas's leg, which I could tell was already bleeding. It took off into the dark. The second hyena got Armas by the collar of his jacket, close enough to his neck, but thankfully, it didn't pierce his flesh. It tried to drag him to its pack.

I swung the butt of my rifle around, felt the contact on its skull, and it quickly let go, running away where the other had gone.

I helped Armas back to his feet. He yelped, catching the weight of his injured leg with a slew of curses. They'd be cautious now, their surprise was gone, but it would only hold them back for seconds before they would try again. The second time would be their last attack, and they wouldn't let go until one of us was dead.

"Back to back!" I said. "Don't crouch. Appear bigger."

I glanced around us, and I saw glinting eyes watching in the darkness, gauging our weakness. I squinted and peered through my night vision, and counted six, maybe seven, of them wandering around us (there were eight). It circled us, standing just beyond our peripheral vision, so I had to shift my stance to face them. Armas and I began walking in circles, never losing "eye contact" with the hyenas if they could see our eyes.

I tried to remember what I knew about them. I knew they were nocturnal animals, mostly scavengers, and once they went for a hunt, they rarely gave up. They could chase us for miles if they wanted to, waiting to tire us out before aiming for a kill. They were matriarchal, so I tried to find the pack's alpha, which would be larger than the rest, and take her out. It should be there somewhere, standing back and letting the males do the hunting. If one of us were killed, it would reveal itself.

"What are they?" Armas asked, his breathing shallow.

"Hyenas."

"What the fuck are they doing here?"

"Zoo, maybe? Escaped? Can you walk?"

"Yeah. Thank God."

Hyenas were naturally wary of humans, and they rarely hunted one unless it's already a corpse. But if they were starving, then they would hunt anything, including us.

I saw the hotel. We were close, but not quite there.

We took off step by step, going by the speed of a turtle. We couldn't keep this up forever because, soon, one would take the risk, and the others would follow.

I took a shot, but it hit the grass an inch to a hyena's right. It hightailed out of there. Armas caught one on the leg, screamed, and the next bullet took it down by the throat. The hyenas giggled loudly, circling faster now, realizing that we could fight back. Hopefully, that would deter them and move on, but these creatures were starving. They found prey, and they wouldn't abandon it.

They began to circle closer and closer, sometimes feigning an attack, and we'd shoot, only for us to hit empty space where they used to be. They were fast little buggers, and I'm getting irritated trying to predict their movements. Coupled with the laughing, it unnerved me.

I glanced back. We were almost to another parking lot on the southeast of the field. Then, we just had to cross Thayer Road and be on the hotel's parking lot where the cars were.

Eyes shifting, it had found our weakest link.

Armas himself and his injured leg.

Another shriek. I readied myself with the trigger. Armas and I shared a grim look. This time, we recognized right away where the sound came from.

It came from a vector.

A woman ran across the field, a vector that had wandered too far from the main horde. She was skinny, maybe in her late forties, wearing a hospital gown with a thick bandage wrapped around her forehead and right arm. Blood soaked through the clothes, and her eyes were trained at us. She was shrieking, her battle cry ringing across the field. The hyenas parted into the shadows, shocked and curious at the late addition of their menu.

But before I could take the shot, the alpha lunged, taking her down.

The hyena caught her naked arm, clawing down hard until I could hear her bones and flesh break. The vector broke her leg as they rolled to the ground, trying to get away as it pulled her arm hard. I didn't know if the vector had any self-preservation left in them or if it knew what attacked it, but any semblance of survival instinct on her part was cut short when the rest of the pack descended.

More bones broke, the flesh was torn, and the vector's shrieks soon died out.

I grabbed Armas's arm and wrapped it around my shoulders, helping him limp toward the hotel parking lot until we reached the Jeep.

"I thought I was going to die," Armas said.

"Good thing you didn't. I'd die, too." If other vectors heard our gunshots and the woman's cries, they would run to the field. I hoped the hyenas took care of them.

"Crap. My leg's busted!" Armas said.

"We have a nurse with us back in our main camp. She can treat your leg."

He hesitated, trying to come up with an excuse.

"I won't let you drive anywhere with an infected leg. If you do, you will end up having to crawl back to Georgia. At least let our nurse take a look at it. Once you're better, you can have the Jeep."

Armas let out a sigh. "Alright. But I still won't go to Albany. I can join you guys up until there, and we part ways."

"Deal. Now get in before more of those things come of us."

I found it strange that the woman did not attack the animals, caught in its pursuit to get us instead. I wondered what the makeup of an infected brain looked like since the vectors could be considered a new human subspecies, barring pathology. It was changing their physiology and biology how it treated other humans as prey, and their lack of intelligence was a drastic devolution. There was so much of this disease that I could learn from, and my curious brain was swimming with ideas, none of which I could put into practice for a very long time.

It was the first time I had seen the vectors interact with other animals. It was good to know that even though they had become the main predators of humanity, they were still not at the top of the food chain.

I started the Jeep with me behind the wheel. I had stopped Armas's bleeding with a makeshift tourniquet out of the supplies I found at the trunk.

"Let's go get the rest of the vectors, shall we?"