A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 115

They all gaped at the huge area behind the gate.

"Wow, this place is huge!"

"No kidding, I have never seen a safe area this big."

"I see barns, but no houses... Am I blind?"

"No, they built them into the cliffs, remember? See you can see doors along those ridges and behind that deck."

"These look better than the condo I lived in when I was growing up."

The newcomers were getting more and more excited as we drove across the meadow. Those interested in weaving were gazing at the sheep in longing. Others simply didn't know where to look first as they kept turning their heads to try and take everything in.

The residents of Sanctuary were heading towards the truck shelter to help unload and to get the latest gossip as to why there were so many people on the trailers.

"Look! They turned a ski lift into a zipline!"

"Shit. I really have to try going on that later. I wonder how they got it up there."

Heads turned as most watched in shock as the modified zipline ski lift swiftly took two people to ground level. Diane grinned at Ace's surprised expression, "I will take you on it later, if you want."

Ace nodded while watching it in curiosity. We pulled into the shelter and I could see that most, if not all, of the remaining population was waiting for us. They had likely been alerted the moment the sentries had spotted us.

There were a couple of big bells hanging here and there, as well as two on the main gate. We had made up codes for various things and someone on the gate would have rung "traders return" so everyone had come over to help. Many hands made for light work and everyone was always eager to chip in.

The trucks rolled to a stop inside the big shelter and the people manning the boilers let the pressure out so they could cool off to be cleaned later. The doors were all open and people were waiting. The sound of over a hundred people talking was loud.

Roland blew a whistle around his neck. Those with Heartfire winced at the shrill noise, but everyone fell silent. "Okay people. We have some newcomers and there are too many for just one person to show them the ropes."

He looked around, "Phil and Rob, we have a new blacksmith here, please help him pack his stuff to the blacksmith room and help him set up. Rodger, please guide the newcomers on the first truck as you unload the fifth trailer and please show them around afterwards." Roland took another breath and continued assigning small groups of newcomers to certain people.

The newcomers would shadow that person in whatever they did for the day and would get a tour of the place and how things worked. Amber would track them down later to figure out what particular interests they had and what type of work would best suit them.

Roland finished and went to touch base with Amber. I blinked as I realized that Roland had managed to skip Ace. I glanced at him, but considering he was already following Diane's lead as we started to unpack, I had a pretty good guess that Roland didn't have to assign Ace since he already had a guide.

Roland and Amber were looking at the packed crowd and towards the cliffs. Amber would assign the new people their homes once she got the details on how many newcomers we had with us and how many were couples.

I didn't think we had quite enough homes for everyone though. We hadn't expected to bring back over 80 people. It would almost double our population. I did a quick count of the doors and came up short by quite a few homes.

Many homes had 2 rooms in them, so if everyone shared their home, then there might be just enough bedroom to handle the influx of people. Some who had been bored in their spare time had carved out extra rooms, but most hadn't bothered. Diane had carved out a total of four rooms in our home though. I wondered if we would be having someone stay in our spare rooms.