I had never realized that science was so boring. It was now past lunch and these two had been sitting here almost all morning simply talking. Diane was getting noticeably restless though.
Ninette must have noticed it too, "Looks like you are ready to stretch your legs. I have a thought, do you mind if I accompany you on horseback and occasionally take a small sample of blood? I am curious if the exercise changes the composition of your blood."
Diane made a bit of a face, but nodded anyways, "Sure."
I suspected that she was not looking forward to more needles. I didn't blame her either. I didn't want a bunch of needles poked into my skin. Besides, I had never seen any character in any Disney book or movie ever play with needles...
I followed them out to the stable. Ninette swiftly saddled a bay mare, "Laura can sit behind me if you want, and I will let you set your own pace. Here, put this on, it is a heart rate monitor that is worn on the upper arm. Let me grab a small control sample before we begin."
Ninette filled a tiny thumbnail sized vial of blood and mounted. Diane looked at me, she knew I was often very uncomfortable with people I didn't know well. Well, if Diane was putting up with needles, the least I could do would to try being brave around Ninette. I had a feeling that I would be seeing her a lot for the foreseeable future. I reassured Diane, "I can ride with her as long as you don't leave."
Diane seemed surprised, "No worries, I am not about to leave you behind."
I scrambled up behind Ninette before we followed Diane out of the palisade. Diane glanced over at Ninette, "That horse won't be able to keep up."
She replied, "Then we will just head over to the highway and you can run back and forth while we rest on the side of the road."
Diane nodded, "No offense, but I think it might be best if no one else learns that I was bitten by a zombie. Most people do not react well."
Ninette nodded thoughtfully, "You are correct. I think a better cover story is that we found a different virus in your blood, which also happens to be a type transmitted by fluids. We would have found it when you donated some blood and are trying to see if we can convince your body to create different antibodies in hopes that they may also be able to knock out the zombie virus. The side effects of this virus would be that your muscles stiffen easily and need a lot of exercise, which will explain all the running."
Seemed like a good cover story to me. People might be a bit uneasy about a different virus, but they were paranoid about the zombie virus. Diane seemed to find no fault or better excuse and didn't reply.
We headed towards the highway, Ninette could see the heart rate monitor from the saddle and occasionally jotted down numbers. We stopped occasionally for Ninette to fill another tiny blood vial. I wasn't particularly scared of needles, but I was really glad that I was not in Diane's shoes. The horse was sweating pretty good by the time we hit the highway and we had slowed so the horse could trot. Diane wasn't even breathing hard.
Ninette dismounted, "We will wait here to cool the horse off and let it graze a bit. If you could run back and forth on this road while staying within sight that would be great. I will wave you over occasionally for more blood samples."
I dismounted and sat on a rock while keeping an eye out for zombies. If Ninette was hoping to tire Diane out just by running, we could be here a while. Diane ran back and forth along the long stretch of visible road. Ninette occasionally waved her over to check the heart rate monitor and grab another sample of blood.
I really didn't like how many times Ninette stuck that needle into Diane's skin. It was starting to bother me since I knew Diane didn't like needles. It was weird to feel protective for someone who was older, larger, and stronger, but I was still concerned for her safety and well-being.
She took good care of me, but there wasn't much that I could do in return, although she had told me several times that she greatly appreciated my good behavior. Diane was letting her do it, so I remained silent even though I didn't like it.
Ninette took another blood sample, "I have no idea how you are still going."
Diane shrugged, she was breathing somewhat heavily, but not that hard, "I can probably run like this for another half hour, unless I really push myself, but that will stir up the heat quite a bit."
She nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, please try pushing yourself slightly and I will get a sample with each pass."
Diane made several passes running at speeds that didn't seem possible for humans. She stopped each time for Ninette's assault with the needle. Ninette shook her head, "Can you try to really push yourself, but not stop for two passes? Your breathing and heartrate are slowing quite noticeably even in the 20 seconds it takes me to get a blood sample."
I blinked at Ninette's request. I knew that if she really pushed herself that her muscles would hurt. She had told Ninette that as well. I didn't like that Ninette didn't seem to take her pain into consideration in her testing, although she may have forgotten. Diane nodded and took off again.
Diane's eyes started glowing slightly as she hit speeds that should have been impossible. I couldn't figure out how she could move her feet so quickly, they seemed to blur. She passed by us in a fraction of the time it had taken her previously. Ninette looked astounded as she watched with her mouth slightly open in shock.
By the time Diane stopped beside Ninette, she was breathing heavily and sweating. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen Diane sweat. Ninette held up a small vial of pure silver blood in triumph, "Look what we have. Why don't we head back so we can analyze this further? Sorry Diane, but there really isn't room for three on this horse. We can alternate who gets to ride."
Diane shook her head, "Nah, we can walk a ways and I should be able to jog the rest of the way back unless the horse wants to slow down."
She nodded, "Alright, set the pace you want."
I chose to walk beside Diane since I could keep up at this speed. I also didn't really want to sit by Ninette since I was somewhat upset at her actions. Ninette kept glancing at Diane's heart rate monitor and noting it down. It didn't take long before Diane gestured for me to get up behind Ninette. I climbed up as Diane picked up speed once more.
Ninette went back to the lab to look at the blood samples, so Diane and I were free for a while. Diane led me around as she took a quick self-tour of the settlement. She used hand gestures to point out guards, weak spots, and possible ways to get out once night fell. I took note of them just in case I needed it in the future.
Diane spotted a playground with about a dozen children and headed over. She had some odd idea in her head that it was important for me to play with other children. I wasn't sure why she thought that, but I wasn't going to argue since it was one of the few things that she was firm about. Truth be told, playing with other children once a day wasn't exactly a terrible thing. It was fun once I could get over my shyness.
Diane occasionally joined in a few games. She had to hold her knees up since she was tall enough to touch the ground, but she had no problems doing the monkey bars backwards. I hid a grin as she broke up two minor fights between boys. The stubborn boys hadn't wanted to listen to her, but the moment they spotted her bright blue eyes, they lost their train of thought. They were unsure about the blue eyed stranger that told them to play nicely, but they listened to her. It was kind of funny.
Parents started coming to take their kids to supper. Once the last child left, I wandered back over to Diane. She looked at me, her bright blue eyes were always a surprise – it just wasn't a color you could get used to. I had been around her enough that I had gotten accustomed to their color. Diane spoke, "Feel like waiting a bit before braving the supper rush? We can take our plates and one for Ninette and go find her to eat in peace."
I loved her ideas. I nodded happily, glad I wouldn't have to brave entering a room with hundreds of strangers. I was more than happy to wait, even if it meant the best stuff was all gone. Diane showed me some tricks on the monkey bars while we waited.
By the time we braved the mess hall most people had already left. Diane found a carry tray with a cover large enough for three plates. Once we filled them, we went in search of Ninette. She was not exactly hard to find.
Ninette looked up in surprise, "Oh, thank you!"
Ninette rolled her chair over so she could eat without getting any food in the keyboard, "Well, we got some interesting results. You will be relieved to know that you are immune to the zombie virus."
Diane tilted her head in confusion and curiosity, "How am I immune?"
Ninette grabbed the computer mouse and pulled up several pictures, arranging them on the computer screen. They were weird pictures. In a way, they resembled the space and galaxy pictures I had seen, but they were still quite different. Circles. Lots of circles with some dots. Diane raised an eyebrow, she looked a bit confused too.
"The first set is a raw blood sample from you and one from me. The second set is the same slides 24 hours after I introduced the zombie virus."
Diane examined the pictures, apparently she was picking up more than I was from them. "Okay... Why do I have some black dots in both of my sets, while you have none in your first one and thousands in the second?"
Ninette pointed to the screen, "In this type of image, most viruses show up as black dots. In yours the virus count increased by about ten percent. In mine, the zombie virus took over."
Diane sounded disappointed, "You mean I am a carrier?"
Ninette shook her head, "For the zombie virus, no. For a different virus, yes."
Diane looked confused and skeptical as she gave Ninette an odd look, "So what virus do I have?"
Ninette shrugged, "That is a very good question."
She pulled up a few images of shapes up on the screen, "This is a closeup of the zombie virus." It had hundreds of long twisting tentacles surrounding it, like someone had crossed a porcupine with a jellyfish. That was actually the zombie virus?
She opened up another image, "This is what is what is in your blood." It looked nothing like the zombie virus. It looked like a very flat rectangle with rounded corners and it had a bunch of small odd short spurs or spines on it. I stared at it in fascination.
Diane looked at Ninette, "So what is that? It looks completely different."
Ninette looked back at the screen, "That is the odd part, I have gone through all of my books and I can find no record whatsoever of a flat virus that looks anything like that. But take a look at this."
She clicked the zoom in button until she brought several of the spurs into high magnification. They weren't actually spurs, they looked like weird curled up tentacles. Diane sounded surprised, "What on earth is that?"
Ninette opened up two more pictures, one showed a similar curved blunt tentacle and the other showed a shorter two tipped prong that resembled a robot arm.
Ninette pointed to the tentacle in the new image, "This actually belongs to a white blood cell." She pointed to the double prong, "This is the receptor on a T Cell and they both look very similar to the ones on the virus you have. Take another look at the original larger samples of our blood. Do you see anything in mine that is not in yours?"
Diane turned to regard the first two pictures. I could now see that they were cells too, but much more zoomed out. This actually made science look interesting if I could make head or tails of some of the words they were using.
Diane tilted her head, "What are those round white objects in your blood?"
Ninette looked at Diane, "Those are white blood cells."
Diane looked at her quizzically, "Okay... I had a blood test done 3 years ago and my white blood cell count was normal."
She shrugged, "I did a thorough check, you do not have a single white blood cell in any of the samples I took. You also do not have any T cells left either."
Diane had a faint look of disbelief, "So if I have no immune system left, why have I not died from the common cold or flu yet?"
I blinked, people could die from a cold or flu? I thought those were things that people caught every year.
Ninette silently brought up a series of pictures. I watched as she lined them up side by side. The first was one of those rectangular viruses and a zombie virus side by side. The rectangular virus was less than quarter the size of the zombie virus. Ninette lined up more and more pictures. I inhaled in surprise as I realized that she was making a small picture story. This I might be able to understand.
The zombie virus brushed one of its tentacles against the other much smaller rectangular one. The rectangular one swiftly extended its tentacle to latch onto it and pull them together. The rectangular virus somehow stretched out and wrapped itself completely around the zombie virus.
The rectangular virus kept squirming around while the zombie virus was completely wrapped up. A few pictures later, the zombie virus was a shredded mess. Several pictures later the rectangular virus finally unwrapped itself and the zombie virus had been completely absorbed.
Diane looked stunned. Ninette looked at her, "This virus somehow wiped out your immune system and replaced it."
Diane turned her eyes back to the screen in surprise, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing and hearing. I was stunned too. Did this really mean that Diane wasn't an angel? My theory had been a bit shaky lately, but this was almost too much. I doubted that angels would have a virus in their blood.
It didn't bother me in the least that Diane was carrying a virus. I hadn't gotten sick from it, so I doubted that I ever would. It probably wasn't something that anyone could catch. The thought that she wasn't an angel was much harder for me to wrap my head around after everything I had seen.
It was going to take a while for this to sink in.