A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 63

They hung their heads in shame. They must be referring to that massive bluff on the other side of the town. I wondered how they had gotten the bike back to town. It couldn't have been easy since that was a nearly vertical slope.

Diane took a deep breath and her voice sounded much calmer, but had an edge to it, "I am happy that none of you were hurt. However, I am very disappointed that you took my bike without asking for permission."

The father of the one teen spoke up, "It was your property that they damaged, so their punishment is in your hands. Within reason, of course. We don't want them dead or bedridden when we could be getting extra chores out of them."

I wrinkled my nose. Diane wasn't the sort to punish someone to the point of death or severe injury. No, that wasn't her style at all. She had never spanked me, and even if she had raised her voice, it was usually in training. She had never yelled at me.

Diane was silent for some time, "Did they unload my supplies before taking my bike?"

The father nodded, "Yes, everything else is undamaged."

Her eyes half closed as she thought, "Are there any working bikes in town?"

The two boys slowly shook their heads no. Even I knew that this town wouldn't sell a horse, they were too valuable now. Besides, even with all of the stuff Diane had collected, it wasn't equal to the price of a horse.

I caught sight of Taver at the back of the crowd and grew worried. Without a bike or horse, he assumed that we couldn't keep up. He could readily back out of our deal at this point and return the supplies.

Diane spoke slowly, "Rack your brains for any type of transportation that we might find. Even if we found an old bike in the river that we could fix up quickly. Other than that, you saw my trade supplies. I want you to arrange for fair trades taking the large objects and trading them for smaller and lighter objects of the same value. Leave the medications and bug spray, those are light and valuable.

"I want everything to fit in a small backpack when you are done. Once we are gone, as your main punishment, you will spend one day with every person in this base, helping them with whatever chore they would have otherwise helped with. You will gain an appreciation for all of the work that goes on in this place."

Their expressions were an odd combination of relief and suspense. Relief that she had not ordered a beating for them, although their fathers might also have something reserved as punishment. Suspense as they had an inkling of what kind of work they would be having to do.

People loved to offload the most demanding or worst tasks and a year could be a very long time to get stuck with such tasks. I was glad that I was not in their shoes. Yet, even as Diane had pointed out, it would also teach them all about what kept this place running.

One of the mothers poked one of the brothers in the back, "Well, what do you say? She has been quite generous, most here would have given you several stripes with a willow switch on top of even worse chores."

The boy jumped as she managed to hit the kidney in her jab. Either she had uncannily good luck or she knew the best spot to prod for an immediate reaction. "Uh, thank you miss."

The one father scowled at his two boys, "You two go arrange those trades, and they better be fair or I will have your hide. Get going."

All three teens took off. The way their fathers were looking at them, I didn't blame them.

The father sighed as he stepped towards Diane, "I am very sorry for what happened. They have never done anything like this in the past and have never bothered any guests or traders."

Diane nodded, "We will figure something out. All else fails, it won't be the first time we have traveled on foot. With luck there is another bike in decent shape hiding somewhere and we will find it."

The man shook his head, "No such luck, or the boys would have brought it home long ago. If you ever pass through or need a place to stay we have a guest room in our place and you are welcome to it as long as you may need it."

Diane replied, "Thank you. I will keep your offer in mind. At the moment, I think I need to reassure Taver that I still won't be slowing him down and then go supervise those teenagers."

So she had noticed him back there and had the same thoughts I had. People started breaking up and leaving now that the boys had their deeds revealed and the punishments assigned. Taver had a frown as he headed for us.

"Without that bike you aren't going to be able to keep up. They ain't going to give up one of their horses, they need all of the nags they have to get the crops in."

Diane shrugged, playing it cool, "I probably can keep up and I am used to traveling. I was out all day and I am not even tired. I may arrive exhausted, but we will keep up."

He raised an eyebrow skeptically, "And that little girl of yours? There is no way she can keep up."

I wrung my hands in front of me nervously. Diane remained calm, "I will carry her on my shoulders. I saw your pile of goods, so I know your horses won't be moving that fast. I can give more supplies to you as part of our previous trade, to both lighten my load and slow your horse down a bit."

It sounded very reasonable to me, but I knew that she was capable of covering more ground in a day than any horse. I tried to look at it from a normal person's perspective. Most people would not be able to keep up to a horse on foot, and that didn't take the zombies into consideration. Okay, I could see where Taver was coming from.

He slowly shook his head, "You two won't be able to keep up one day, let alone over a week."

Diane took a deep breath, "Then just let us try. If we can't, then we will turn back and you can keep your supplies as it was our inability to keep up. We know how to camp on the road and you know that from the simple fact that we got here. Just let us try."

He looked dubious, "Alright... But I will not be slowing down for you, so do not even ask."

Diane nodded slowly, "That is all we are asking. A chance to prove that we can keep up."

He nodded reluctantly and left. I could hardly believe my ears. Diane had somehow talked him into letting us try to keep up on foot. He still looked doubtful, like he could change his mind at any second, but he had agreed to try.

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