I heard Dave's alarm clock go off. This was the first time this trip that the smell of Diane's cooking didn't wake us up. We hadn't set up the tents last night, so I sat up and looked around. I sighed with relief as I saw Diane below.
It looked as if she had just started cooking. I started climbing down the ladder and noticed some odd flat square shapes leaning against the second trailer. I sat beside Diane and helped to flip the very first pancakes.
I heard Joel's surprised voice, "Where did those come from?!" I looked over to see him staring in shock at the odd squares. From this angle I could see that they were actually solar panels. Others were also looking his way, they had not noticed the solar panels yet. Then again, most hadn't even gotten out of their sleeping bags yet.
Diane chuckled at Joel's expression, "A present for you. I hauled them, but you have to set them up and connect them." Joel was our main tech when it came to electricity or the solar panels. He shook his head and went over to inspect the solar panels with excitement.
Dave looked surprised, "Where did you find those?"
Diane shrugged, "A small specialty shop I once saw when we drove through that town."
Dave turned to look at the decent sized town that was below the ridge we had camped on. I had looked at the town from on top of the trailers yesterday and it had been crawling with dozens of zombies. Dave commented, "A lot of zombies down there."
Diane chuckled, "Tell me about it, I noticed as I was packing those things back."
I eyed up the solar panels. There were at least thirty of them and each of them was longer than Diane was tall. I doubted that even she could have carried more than four at a time. That was a lot of trips through a town riddled with zombies.
Dave glanced at Diane, "We never even drive through towns that large due to the zombie infestation. We just don't move fast enough and we can't lure that many zombies away at once."
Diane was all too well aware of how slowly these trailers moved and glanced over at Joel. "Well, perhaps once Joel gets those things hooked up we might travel faster."
I grinned, she was probably tired of traveling so slowly. Dave chuckled and wandered over to steal the first pancake. He sat down to watch Joel excitedly moving the panels this way and that as he looked at the specs on the back. Dave called over, "So Joel, think you can rig those things up?"
Joel looked up, "Oh yeah, most solar panels use the same wiring so hooking them up will be a cinch once we secure them. We can probably attach a few to the sides of the trailers permanently, but most of them can be laid on top of the trailers and it will greatly improve the power coming in. We will just have to be careful if we have to climb to safety. I just have to splice a few wires and reset the converter to allow for greater power flow."
Dave looked interested as he munched on his stolen pancake, "Do you think you can have them up and ready by the time we break camp?"
Joel nodded as he dragged his electrical bag out of a trailer, "Sure, give me three or four helpers to get some of these things secured to sides and I can do the ones on top as we travel."
I helped pack up the camp as Joel conscripted three others to help him secure some of the panels to the side. They stored the rest on top of the trailers and Joel would work on them as we traveled.
I sat on my horse and watched as Joel hooked up the last of the wires. All three trailers now had all of the solar panels hooked up. Joel jumped down and closed the truck hood, "That was the last one, let's see how she goes."
Sandy was sitting in the driver's seat and pushed the acceleration lever all the way up. Dave burst out laughing at her face as the truck lunged against the trailer hookups before slowing as it started to pull the weight. We had a lot more power. The horses were going to be tired tonight.
Dave was chuckling, "Joel, you didn't tell me you were hooking up nitrous boosters."
Joel was grinning as he rushed over to mount his horse while the other two drivers quickly followed to test out their new speed, "What do you expect when you triple the power coming in? Those were a much higher efficiency than the ones we already had. They will even work pretty good on cloudy days."
Nick grinned over at Diane, "I want to see you lure all zombies away and still have energy to go for a run at 10pm this night!"
I shook my head in disbelief. I knew Nick was going to lose this bet. Diane grinned at his challenge, "Oh, and if I still go for my usual hour long run what are you willing to put on the line? How about you have to get up early to cook the food I collect?"
Jake snickered, "You should make him join you for your morning run."
Diane chuckled, "No way, he would slow me down too much on foot or tire out his horse if he rode."
"Hey!" We chuckled at Nick's indignant response. Nick continued, "Sure, you can wake me up when you want me to start cooking as long as you run from ten until eleven."
Diane chuckled, "It's a deal. Be prepared to be woken up early, and no grumbling or waking anyone else up."
Nick sealed his own fate as he grinned at her, "Deal, but you have to lure all those zombies well out of the way."
He was going to lose. It wasn't even questionable. There was no way that those trucks could go as fast as Diane did when scouting in winter. She wasn't fighting through knee deep snow this time either. I giggled, "Is he aware that the barley bread mix takes thirty minutes to rise before he can even begin cooking it?"
Nick blinked in surprise that I didn't even consider that he might win. Diane chuckled as she played along, "I suspect that he was not aware of that. He might be going to bed early."
One of the other ladies shook her head, "Just ensure that there is a strong pot of dandelion coffee on so he is bearable when we wake up."
I hoped that Diane stuck around to supervise Nick while he cooked. I had seen his one attempt at toast and it had been darker than Joel's black horse. If he couldn't toast bread, I wasn't sure he was capable of actually cooking a loaf of it.
We were moving faster now. We alternated the horses between a lope and a trot, slowing to walk when the sun hid behind a cloud and killed our momentum. Diane easily loped and jogged as she lured every zombie off of the road.
I climbed onto a trailer and pulled out my textbooks. With no class, I really had to ensure that I studied. If I fell behind the class back at the Fort, neither Diane nor my teacher would be impressed. If that happened, I might have to spend more days with that teacher. Studying on a long boring road trip was far preferable to that potential fate.
I occasionally called down a question and the others helped me. It wasn't long before one of the ladies got tired of her saddle and came to sit beside me. They always seemed to enjoy helping me. I had mostly gotten over the worst of my shyness with them.
I was trying hard for Diane's sake since we would be guests with this group for at least another week. Every one of them was preferable to the teacher at the Fort. I worked out a math question and gazed at the horizon for a while.
I actually really liked traveling with this group. I always had done better with smaller groups and had always been uneasy with the hundreds of strangers in the Fort. I was really glad that Diane hadn't left me behind at the Fort. I did somewhat miss Trish, Nathan, Rick, and Donovan, but seeing Diane so much more relaxed was more than worth it.
In truth, I was kind of hoping that Diane would make our temporary stint with the Traders a permanent change. I got to move around or sit as much as I wanted. It was mostly my choice on when I wanted to study and which textbook I grabbed.
But most of all, no one was trying to hurt Diane or myself. Neither harsh words nor blows or arrows ever came our way. I had gotten nervous and suspicious back at the base where I only trusted a handful of people. Out here, I knew I could trust Dave and his 12 group members. I got to relax and unwind.
Diane was as alert as ever, but even she seemed more relaxed and laidback. I could tell that this lifestyle was easier on her than the one at the Fort. Yet, even now, she kept many things hidden from those we travelled with.
She still wore her archery guard and it hid the scar of the bite mark on her wrist. She took it off when washing dishes and stuff, so the others had seen it. They didn't care though.
I suspected that unless she went into seizures or suddenly got red eyes that they would never care.