Diane carried me on her shoulders as we passed an abandoned bus along the side of the road. It was one of ours, but it refused to start. The old gas and diesel were hard on the motors. Most of the other buses were working, but there was no guarantee on their reliability.
Diane's easy lope showed no sign of last night's training session. Her energy levels knew few bounds. We had attended several training sessions this week. Last night's session had six people against Diane and she hadn't been able to block them all. She came close, but people had tapped the floor near me with a weapon almost a dozen times.
The oddest part was that all of her training partners were either trainers or Group Leaders. All were fast and good fighters. Diane slowed to a jog as we rounded the corner and headed towards the fence. The gate sentry waved at us as we passed through the gate.
Trish was standing guard by the main entryway and waved to us as we went past. I grinned at the ring on her finger. Nathan had proposed to her yesterday and I didn't think she had taken it off for anything yet. I was happy for them. I just wished that they wouldn't kiss so... intensely. I had a feeling that I wasn't old enough to see that kind of a kiss.
Diane put me on the ground and I skipped along behind her. She may have moved most of the day, but I had sat. Besides, we had more joint training tonight and I was eager. It was odd training. Rick helped me figure out what I should and should not do in various situations, but mostly it was Diane being trained to keep others away from me in different scenarios. Their sparring was always full tilt unless they had to slow down to show me something, which was rare.
After supper we headed down to the training room that Ace used. It was at the end of the hallway and people almost never came down here. I paused inside the door, the normally empty room had two scaffolding towers in the middle with a big wood plank connecting the tops.
Ace grinned at our entrance and Diane examined the newly found obstacles, "What are you up to?"
Ace chuckled, "We are going to practice sending Laura up an obstacle while you keep us away from the one tower. After a while we will change it so we can climb both towers and you have to prevent us from getting to her."
There were climbing rungs on every side of each tower. I didn't see how Diane was going to be able to stop more than a couple of people from getting to two sets of scaffolding.
Diane crossed her arms and grinned, "Who did you manage to convince to join us this time?"
Ace shrugged, "Our two regular Guard Group Leaders and the two Raider Group Leaders who were here on Friday. They should be here shortly."
Diane shook her head in amusement, "One of these days I am going to trade places with you and see how much you enjoy being outnumbered."
He chuckled and shook his head as well, "Nope, that is not the point of our training here. We are here to show you how to defend yourself and others when outnumbered, not for you to help gang up on some poor victim."
We all laughed, against wildly uneven odds Diane usually either held her own or came out on top. I doubted that Ace or anyone else would do nearly as well if they had to take Diane's place in the training.
I joined their warmup exercises as the other fighters joined us. I didn't really need the warmup, but it did limber up my muscles and help reduce my giddy energy. With a hand signal I scrambled swiftly up the ladder while Diane slowly backed up to it as the others started to fan out.
It simply wasn't possible for Diane to guard both towers at once. She spent most of her time on the ground making the others jump off of the towers that they had started to climb. Occasionally she had to climb up to chase them down. She was a very quick climber. I began to wonder if she was part squirrel.
Diane climbed to the top of my tower to run down the plank to the far tower to swing her practice sword at a Guard Group Leader. He dropped back down to the mat to avoid the blow. She grinned, "You know, it would be much easier for me if you would allow me to use my bow."
I grinned silently, if they allowed her bow to come into use they would be pin cushions within moments. I refused the desire to laugh, had this been real, it could give away where I was. Obviously they knew, but we were pretending that they weren't sure what was up here. I was curled up so that those on the ground couldn't see me as I 'hid'.
I heard Ace comment from below, "No, I am pretty sure that we broke the bow or it got lost somewhere before we got to this tower."
Diane shook her head as she lashed out at someone I couldn't see climbing up this tower, "Of course. Silly me to have forgotten that little detail."
I grinned silently once more at their impromptu show. A Guard Group Leader managed to finally get on top of the far tower and Diane sized him up from this tower. Diane's head suddenly spun towards the door, "Someone is coming. You four drop down and spar with one another." She turned to the Guard, "Get on the plank, quickly! Laura please curl up in the middle of that floor so they can't see you."
I curled up and scooted a bit further away from the edge closest to the door. If I couldn't see the door, they shouldn't be able to see me. Diane jumped onto the plank with the Guard as both started to lightly trade blows. I heard several sets of boots drop heavily to the floor before the whacking noises of practice sounded from below.
No one doubted Diane's word. She always heard people coming first. She had occasionally given warning previously and we always pretended to be doing something else. I usually ran to sit on the bench and pretend that Rick was showing me hand signals.
I heard the door creak open. One of the Guard Group Leaders below called out, "Jackson, Daniel, is everything okay?"
It was silent for a bit before the same Group Leader called out, "You can say anything you have to, it won't leave this room."
A voice I didn't recognize replied, "There has been another murder."
The Guard Group Leader didn't sound impressed, "Report."
I peeked through the tiny joint between the boards that made up the top of the tower. Two guards were facing the Guard Group Leader, he must have been their Group Leader since they came looking for him.
The one Guard replied, "One of the mechanics from Darrel's group was killed outside the fifth building. His throat was slashed. They found him a little while ago and we came to find you."
"Ok, let's go." He glanced at us, "I will see you later."
I heard Ace quietly comment, "Looks like our slasher is still around."
What? Someone else had died? That was so sad. What was a slasher? I had never heard that word before. Was it a different type of zombie? I kind of doubted it though since Diane had gone over zombies in great detail. There were normal zombies and swifts. That was it.
Besides, it had happened outside of one of the buildings and the sentries would have sounded the alarm if a zombie got inside of the fence. My thoughts were interrupted by Diane's accusation, "You changed their boots."
The Guard Group Leader on the wooden plank simply chuckled, "About a quarter of the groups did, just to see if it made any difference."
Diane sounded amused, "When did they do that?"
He laughed, "They just started today. I am looking forward to the meeting in three days to discuss the results, especially judging by your reaction."
Diane jumped up and the wooden plank flexed scarily when she landed on it. The Guard Group Leader's eyes widened in alarm, "Hey!" He swiftly backed up until he was back on the tower behind him. Diane danced backwards towards me in skipping jumps.
The guard narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Diane. She suddenly bent down and shoved the plank free so it fell to the ground. Ace objected, "That's cheating!"
Diane grinned down at where he must be standing, "No, that is just common sense."
She turned to swing her padded sword at someone who had tried climbing up the tower in her distraction. The training session continued.