A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 10

Diane headed over to a desk and started talking to the lady behind it. Diane was going to get me a name tag. I spelled my name for them and told them that June 30th was my birthday when they asked. The lady was typing on the computer in front of her. She asked Diane, The lady looked at me, "Shall I put your name on the tag as her guardian?"

Diane thought about it, "Yes, we can do that for now. We can always change it later if we need to."

I inhaled in surprise. Guardian? As in guardian angel? Surely this could not be coincidence. And she was going to be my guardian! I wasn't too sure what she meant by they could change it later if they needed to. Perhaps it had been like when Auntie had lent me her guardian angel.

The lady behind the desk nodded, "Easily done, just let us know if it changes. I will have that ready in a few moments." She clicked a few buttons on her mouse and I heard a printer kicking in. Shortly afterwards she held out a white object out to me, "Here you go dear. Welcome to the Wainwright Fort."

I slowly came forward to take it. I looked at it, it was a white name tag in a plastic holder. It had my name in the middle in big printing, underneath that it read "Guardian: Forager Diane (Matthew's Group)" and some small numbers in the corner. I wasn't sure what some of the words meant, but it was quite clear that Diane was now my guardian. It was an amazing feeling.

Diane gently took the name tag from my hands and knelt down in front of me to pin it on my shirt. She grinned at me, "There we go, now you have a name tag just like everyone else has."

I glanced at her shirt, she had a tree green badge with her name on it. I realized that everyone I had seen had some sort of name tag. The ones on the bus had been green, Nancy's was been pink, the lady behind the desk had a pale yellow color. My eyes went back to my white paper name tag and back to Diane's metal green one, "Why does yours look different?"

She smiled at me, "Mine used to be white like yours. I got a green metal badge when I graduated from my training last year."

Training? Could I get training like she had? I looked at her with growing excitement, "Can I have training too?"

She chuckled, "Yes, there are different classes to choose from. If you like, I can show you some of the classes later on and you can talk with the trainers if they are around."

I nodded enthusiastically. I wondered what kind of training she had taken in the past. Was there training to be a guardian angel?

She turned to start walking again, "Let's go get you some more clothes and a winter jacket, okay?"

I nodded and eagerly followed, "Okay."

A kind old lady in a big room full of clothing guided us to things that would fit me. I got two jackets, some shirts, pants, and underthings. I also got gloves, boots and other outdoor clothing.

We left there and Diane looked at me, "Let's see if we can get a bunk bed. Perhaps we can see if there is a spare dresser for your clothes as well."

I nodded enthusiastically. She led me down another hallway. A lot of people must live here, we passed dozens of them in the hallways. Now that I was looking, I could see everyone had a name tag of some sort. Diane said that the fancy metal ones were called badges. I saw lots of badges and also quite a few paper ones like I had.

We entered an area that had all sorts of furniture stacked up in towers. Diane managed to find someone who worked here and he led us down a veritable maze of furniture until we reached a section that had dressers of various sizes. The man looked at me, "You can pick out any of the smaller ones. Go take a look."