A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 54

Smokey mellowed out as we travelled. By lunchtime, Diane no longer had to hold his lead line. Diane showed me some of her speed and strength. It was quite impressive really, in short bursts of speed she almost blurred since she moved so fast. She said that the really high speeds burned her muscles though, so she didn't do it very often.

We made a camp in a baseball diamond and hung up a pair of hammocks from the tall backdrop. Good thing that I had learned to nap in a hammock in basic Forager training. I gathered firewood as that had become my routine while Diane prepped our supper. Diane always managed to find a huge selection of greens and I stuffed lots of them onto my plate with some smoked rabbit and flatbread.

Diane pulled out her map again and gazed at it while eating. I took a sip of my tea to clear my throat, "What are you thinking about?"

She continued to stare at the map, "If we travel at the same speed we did yesterday then we should be able reach a village about mid-afternoon."

A village? As in a place with people? I was really enjoying our traveling the last three days, I didn't want a bunch of strangers to disturb this newfound peace. I frowned slightly in concern, "Are we running out of something?"

Diane glanced over at me idly, "Not really, unless you want something in particular. We can probably trade pretty easily for it."

In that case, I really didn't want to stop. I remembered the village we stopped at with the Traders where several locals had tried to convince me to stay there. I didn't want to go through that again in case someone tried to force me to stay. I didn't think that Diane would allow that to happen, but I didn't want to take any chances. Besides, if we stopped anywhere, Diane wouldn't be so relaxed and open around strangers. That didn't take my shyness and nervousness around strangers into account either.

I fiddled with a piece of flatbread, "If we don't need anything, can we just keep going without stopping?"

She turned her head as her bright blue eyes examined me in curiosity. After a few moments, she spoke softly, "You don't want to stop there for the night?"

I nodded, unsure of how to explain why I would rather camp above zombies instead of inside of a zombie-proofed village.

Her eyes never left me. I had a feeling that she somehow understood my unspoken concern. She tilted her head slightly in inquiry, "Can I ask why?"

I dropped my gaze to my plate as I struggled to explain my feelings. I didn't like strangers and didn't trust them. I didn't want to see her carefree manner disappear after only seeing it for three days. I knew she would be more concerned for my safety than anything else.

I spoke slowly, tentatively feeling my way through my explanation while watching her reaction, "We don't need anything and we don't have anything that we are trying to trade. I don't want to stay inside those walls alone when you have to leave to run. I would rather camp out here with you than sleep in one of those places."

I watched her hopefully as she considered my words. She slowly nodded, "If we don't need anything and you don't want to sleep there, then we can bypass the villages. Our journey will go faster as well. If we meet someone on the road and they welcome us in for a meal, then it is only polite to visit for a bit. I can take you outside of the walls when I leave, if you want. When we get closer, we will have to approach a few places, especially to see if we can get directions."

Yes! It worked! I did not want to be in any village if she was outside of the walls. I nodded happily, "Thank you. I would like you to take me outside of the walls when you go out. We can always camp not far from a village and visit them in the morning and continue on later."