I slowly woke up as I felt slight jouncing. I opened my eyes to see that Diane was carrying me through the forest. Or I assumed I was in the forest by the smell of the spruce trees. It was so dark that the only thing I could see was Diane's glowing eyes.
I yawned, "Are we running away already?"
I knew that wasn't the case, she always took me outside a settlement at night while she went for her run. Diane chuckled, "No, just my usual run. I somehow doubted that you would want to stay there while I went out."
I yawned again, "You are correct."
It didn't take Diane long to setup a hammock for me. It was easy to fall asleep again while slightly swaying in the high branches.
Closer to dawn, Diane snuck us back inside unseen. It always amazed me that she never got caught. We went back to our room to sleep a bit more until others started to rise.
I stretched as I woke up and looked around. Diane was already up and apparently she had decided to pass the time by doing some really bizarre contortionist yoga moves and stretches. Once I got changed, we headed out to the mess hall.
I didn't see Taver or Ninette. The lack of familiar faces had me sitting quite close to Diane. She looked completely relaxed, as if she wasn't concerned about the strangers in the room, but I knew that her keen eyesight was probably watching and evaluating everyone around us.
Once we finished our food, we headed back to the lab. Ninette was scrolling through a bunch of weird pictures on a computer. She smiled over her shoulder as we came in, "Oh, you are here already. Glad you didn't run away last night. Mind if I ask you some questions?"
Diane chuckled and took a nearby chair, "Sure."
Ninette readied her hands over her keyboard, "Can you tell me everything from start to finish? Try to be specific about timelines and the changes if you can."
Diane leaned back in her chair, "Originally I had an overactive immune system. Exercise had helped me keep the symptoms in control. If it got out of control, my muscles would start to ache. In early June I was bitten in the middle of the night when there was a zombie outbreak in Wainwright Fort. I ran away, I had been trained as a Forager so living off the land for several days wouldn't be an ordeal."
She made a face, "That night and the next day were absolute hell. I had never been in that much pain before. My muscles and bones ached so badly that I could barely move. I didn't want to move, but there were no big trees and a zombie appeared. I barely managed to get through a barbed wire fence before it caught up to me.
"It seemed that if I moved, the pain eased up a bit. After that first day, I used exercise to prevent the pain. After 3 or 4 days the pain mostly disappeared and only appeared if I didn't move enough. There was an odd heat that preceded the pain, so I did have an hour's warning. You can imagine my surprise when I woke up on day 8. I had no clue what was happening, so I kept moving away from the Fort to put as much distance between me and them for when I turned."
Diane tilted her head as she thought, "My vision started changing about a week after I was bitten, although I don't know when my eyes changed color since I wasn't aware that they had turned blue until I was back in the base. They were originally a very dark brown and I needed glasses back then too. If I recall correctly, it was around day ten or so that my vision was about the level as it had been with my glasses. My vision kept slowly improving for months afterwards though."
"Two weeks after being bitten, I was unable to sit still for more than four hours. I had to run hard before bed to sleep for six hours. I wasn't overly tired though. I had noticed that I was getting faster and my endurance was increasing with all of the extra jogging I was doing to keep the pain from appearing. About that same time I noticed that my blood had a very slight silver discoloration when I got a few scratches from thorns. Any scratches healed within days and my old scars started fading, although the zombie one is the only one that has never disappeared."
Ninette was typing swiftly. I had heard Diane's story, but hadn't quite grasped the timelines. This was quite interesting. Diane continued, "About a month after I was bitten I returned to the Fort. I kind of doubted that I would turn at that point and since I was with Foragers most of the day, they would know exactly what to do if I did turn. The next few weeks saw my speed and strength increase noticeably, I had to start hiding the extent of my abilities."
Diane paused to think, "Just over two months after being bitten I tried pushing myself past my abilities to save a groupmate from a zombie. I somehow managed to run about 60 meters in about 6 seconds. I paid for that stunt though, my muscles burned at those speeds and even walking was painful for about 12 hours.
"About that same time I started to notice that if I got really upset, I felt an odd heat in my blood. It didn't hurt, and it felt like a weird kind of adrenaline. It was days later that I passed a mirror in the dark and noticed that my eyes were glimmering if it was very dark, like at night. If I got upset and felt that odd heat, then they did glow a bit."
She snorted lightly in amusement, "Imagine having to try and keep your eyes from glowing. Not the easiest thing in the world. About a week after that I ended up fighting a Swift. I had previously tried to suppress the heat in fear of it bringing the pain, but this time I didn't since I needed to push my limits to win that fight. I discovered that this heat was different from the warning heat. It noticeably improved my speed, strength and reflexes. I still paid for it with muscle pain, although it wasn't as bad this time as the first time. The pain mostly faded within 5 hours."
She shrugged, "The changes kept slowly occurring as months passed. By Christmas I could feel the heat as a steady presence that laid dormant unless it was provoked or I tried to use it. I saw my blood turn solid silver around this time. A crossbow had exploded and a shard the size of a pencil buried itself in my arm. By the time I got back to the Nursing station, which was about five hours later, the wound had almost completely healed. Only a tender pink spot remained.
"I could jog most of a day and not feel tired. My stamina was nearly inexhaustible at a jog. By this time, my eyes glowed about as much as they do now. The changes were so slow at this point that I could only notice them if I looked back over a span of weeks. As of right now, I have no idea if I am still slowly changing or not."
Diane hesitated, "Just before leaving the Fort two months ago some of my pure silver blood got on a man I was fighting and it burned him. It burned him so badly within seconds that his skin was red and one of his eyes had turned milky white. Until then, I had no idea that my silver blood could harm someone. That is about all I can think of at the moment. I have no idea if I am infectious or what happened."
Ninette examined her notes and glanced up, "Your blood burned him?"
Diane nodded, "Yes, we found out that the more silver it is, the more it burns."
Ninette scribbled away, "Have you slept with any guys since being bitten?"
I was confused. Why would that matter? I had slept with her in her sleeping bags many times and I was fine. Oddly enough, Diane turned a bit red, "No, I was worried about being a carrier for the virus."
Ninette mumbled under her breath, "Probably a good precaution..." I felt completely lost with their discussion.
Ninette moved on to Diane's inability to sit still for long, "So exactly how far and long can you run?"
Diane shrugged, "I am not entirely sure, but I can outlast any horse. I can be on the move all day at a jog and still need a solid run before bed and first thing in the morning."
Ninette glanced over speculatively at Diane, "How did you manage last night?"
Diane admitted, "I snuck out of the base for a midnight run instead."
Ninette chuckled and noted that down as well. She didn't seem to care that Diane ran around outside the fence at night. That was certainly a first. Everyone else was terrified of the dark and refused to step outside the fence once the sun set.
Ninette passed me a small chalk board. I shyly thanked her as I started doodling on it. I was glad for it, since Ninette kept peppering Diane with dozens of questions for a couple of hours. I didn't understand half of them.
I eventually got so bored that I lay down for a nap.