A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 92

It didn't take long to pack the meat and for the trailers to start rolling again. Diane jogged beside me, "You are somewhat out of breath."

I grinned up at her, "I collected lots of greens. Come see."

I led her over to the main baskets that Amber had been unloading her basket into. Diane grinned as she scanned the big Rubbermaid containers, "Well, you were certainly busy. Good job!"

She reached out to ruffle up my hair and I grinned at her compliment and praise.

The thirteen new people were watching Diane and me uneasily. We had made camp and the sun had mostly set. The traders had no problem with our eyes as they slowly started to glow, but the newcomers had just noticed it.

Diane was seemingly ignoring their spooked reaction, but I knew that she was aware of both their looks and occasional whispers. Even the one woman who been ceaselessly trying to hug me earlier no longer tried coaxing me. She watched with wide nervous eyes.

The newcomers kept glancing at the relaxed traders as if they couldn't figure out how they were unconcerned. Roland had partially emptied one of the trailers so they could sleep inside, some were too scared to even sleep on top of the trailers.

I was relieved that we had nice hammocks above the ground and didn't have to try and cram ourselves onto the top of those three crowded trailers. A few of the traders were contemplating hammocks as well, now that the trailers were so packed. They just weren't sure they could get into the hammock while it was high up in a tree. They were also scared of falling out.

The newcomers were very tired and went to bed early, so they didn't see Diane or me leave for our pre-bedtime run. We ran silently through the trees, although we didn't see a single zombie. I looked up at Diane, "Are we going to try staying at that last settlement we bypassed at the end?"

Diane nodded, "Yes. Roland is planning to stop there to drop off the newcomers. Roland told me that he will happily give me a reference letter for all of our hard work and to vouch that we have never hurt anyone."

I nodded, "That was nice of him. Do you think the new people will stop staring at us so much by the time we get there?"

Diane exhaled in a sigh, "They have been living in terror the last four days. It will take them a long time to fully recover. They will likely relax around us in a few days, they are just really jumpy and cautious right now."

I did feel bad for them, most had nasty burns and even the word zombie had them panicking.

It had taken me quite some time, but two days later I enlisted Todd's help and managed to get a couple of the newcomers to play a boardgame with us. They had gotten used to our glowing eyes, but tried to avoid us as much as possible.

Things improved with most of them from that point as they realized that I was just a kid, albeit with more energy than was believable. They began to relax around Diane as well, although many were nervous about the number of weapons she always packed around.

Most of the day, I was busily collecting greens, ensuring my foraging pattern zig zagged across the wide grassy ditch in case I might flush something out. Diane was also busy collecting greens, but usually managed to shoot anything I spooked. A few rather quick rabbits did escape into the dense underbrush before Diane managed to grab her bow and fire an arrow.

More of the traders were trying to help out, but they simply couldn't keep up on foot for long. The salad was mostly dandelions and clover, but at least we had enough to go around.

I woke to the sound of banging as the panel fencing was being rocked. I rolled over to look down, eight zombies were pushing on one section of the fence hard enough that it was in danger of toppling. A flash of blue showed that Diane was already heading for the gate a bit further away.