I quietly tiptoed behind Diane. Other than her faintly glowing eyes, she was a mere shadow in the darkness. It was intriguing to see her eyes dim and brighten as she either tried to see better, or hid their glow. She knelt down and I took the two steps to lean against her shoulder.
She whispered, "Sentries normally watch the gates more closely since that is how they themselves would get through the wall. If needed, it is possible to scale the fence since this place only guards two of the gates at night. That one and the one by the horse barn are unguarded."
I nodded and she continued her stealthy silent walk. I followed on her heels, trying to mimic how she was walking. It was our third day here and both of us needed a midnight run. I could no longer go all night without some sort of exercise. It had been much easier on the road since we would run late in the evening and first thing in the morning.
Such runs would have raised questions here, so we ran between 8-9pm and had to sneak out in the middle of the night like Diane had always done. She had been showing me the ropes. She knew a lot of tricks for getting in and out of the palisade unnoticed, and also had several excuses if she was spotted inside the fence.
Most people didn't mind if people wandered inside the fence during the night, but Diane warned me that if someone spotted either of us outside the fence, that someone would throw a fit. I hoped it never came to that point. Diane had done this for almost two years, so she was a pro at sneaking around at night.
My eyes may not glow, but my vision was sharper. My hearing was surprisingly helpful too. We quietly snuck out of the gate and swiftly headed for the cover of the trees. With Diane present, the trees held no fear for me.
Diane glanced back in her jog and blinked, "Huh, your eyes are actually starting to shimmer in the darkness. Within a month or so they will be able to actually glow."
I blinked in surprise, they were starting to shimmer already? I grinned, happy that they were progressing so fast. At least I wasn't quite tripping over tree roots, I could see well enough for that. It was only going to get better. I was looking forward to it.
After about two hours, we headed back. Diane helped me sneak back inside our guest house, then she left to go for a hard run. There was no chance of me keeping up with the pace that she needed to keep the burning at bay. She would take me out for a run just after breakfast.
I used a net to catch a large fish before dragging it to the shore. A man picked it up and knocked it out, before putting it in the cart with the rest of the fish. Diane and a dozen other adults were manning a large gill net.
Before long, the adults had deemed we had enough fish and we started heading back. Their plodding walk was much too slow for my tastes. I had no idea how Diane put up with it and showed no signs of impatience or restlessness. I wanted to run and jump with the liquid energy that seemed to fill my body.
I decided to see how many cartwheels I could do.
"Laura, what on earth are you doing?" I glanced over to see one of the ladies watching me with a quizzical expression.
I grinned as I did another cartwheel, "I am seeing how many cartwheels I can do! 24, 25..."
The lady looked amused and counted out loud for me, "26, 27, 28..."
Her expression took slowly became one of disbelief as she kept counting. She was more out of breath from a slow walk while counting than I was doing endless cartwheels. "421, 422, 423... My goodness Laura, where do you get all of this energy?"
I was currently upside down in the middle of a cartwheel. I used my hands to push myself onto my feet to skip for a few steps as I grinned at the lady, "I am trying to keep up with Diane's energy."
The lady glanced over at Diane who was helping push the cart with a look of amusement. Diane had dropped a few hints about how we were used to traveling all day, so they wouldn't think too much about our stamina.
My energy seemed to increase every day. The only time I felt challenged was when I was alone with Diane and trying to keep up with her. I didn't feel bad though, she had Heartfire for two years, I only had it for several weeks. I knew she would always be faster and stronger than me.
I went back to do cartwheels. One of the older guys pushing the cart shook his head, "Oh, to be young again..."
Diane chuckled, and I grinned at them as I did another cartwheel. The gates came into sight and I stopped doing cartwheels at Diane's subtle hand signal. I grinned at her as I went to walk beside her. I had done cartwheels the entire three-kilometer trip. She smiled back down at me in amusement.
We passed through the gates and headed down the path to drop the fish off with another group who had promised to clean them earlier. I glanced at Diane as I noticed her tense up slightly. No one would have been able to notice, but the subtle tension was visible to me. My Heartfire was also letting me pick up more subtle signals than I had before.
I looked around and saw there were several people leading dirty horses into the stable. I eyed up the newcomers and their dusty clothing with slight suspicion. I didn't recall seeing anyone here wearing cowboy hats in that color before.
Diane didn't seem at all concerned as she brushed some invisible dirt off the side of her shirt. Her hand told a different story though. Stay close. I hoped that these were not some of the bandits that burnt down Bethany Fort.
Soon we were out of sight as we got to the place where we were to unload the fish. An occasional fish had not been sufficiently stunned and flopped around a bit. I refused to touch the floppy slimy things. Picking them up didn't bother me when they were fresh out of the water or completely still, but those half dead and weakly flopping things reminded me too much of zombies.
We went for a shower since we smelled like fish. After that, it was time for supper. Elizabeth came to join us. "In case you were not aware of it, it sounds like all of those pigeons managed to get back to wherever they called home. We had some friends from a few towns over arrive today full of news and were looking for any update since we are the closest location to Bethany Fort.
"Apparently that bandit group had hit and destroyed quite a few small towns to the south. The fact that the bandits managed to use both fire and guns has many places uneasy, since our walls are mostly wood and most places have no more ammo left. They were worried that they would be next. Our guests were quite relieved when Phil told them about the sudden increase of unrecognized zombies after the attack. Most people would take an average zombie over a crazy gun wielding bandit any day of the week. However, they are all hoping that the Swift you saw falls into a cave and never comes out."
That meant that the visitors had been from another settlement and were known here. I had a feeling that Diane had told them much more than what she had told me about the attack. The Swift that bit me was dead and I knew that Diane would never tell anyone that I had been bitten. What Swift was she talking about?
Diane inquired, "Where are they heading next?"
She replied, "Tomorrow morning they will start heading back home. Planting will start soon and they have to be back to help. They just came to see if we had any news on where the bandits might be heading next. They weren't even sure that our place would be standing since we were the closest town to Bethany Fort."
They had come to see if Toga Place was okay. It was often groups like these that transported letters and small trade goods. They would hop from town to town visiting friends and spreading news. Not exactly traders, but they would carry small things between places. Mostly adventurous young adults wanting to see other people after a long winter of not traveling. They usually didn't go too far from their home town though, generally just a small circuit of nearby locations before returning home to work.
Our letters had gone out almost two weeks ago and it would probably be a month or more before we got a reply back. Someone called Elizabeth and she headed off to see them.
Diane took me out for a jog later in the evening. Once we were out of sight of the wall, we picked up speed. That was Diane's rule, don't make the locals uneasy with things that can easily be avoided. Such as running full tilt towards trees for no reason...
I followed in her tracks as we ran through the forest. The trail wasn't wide enough for us to run side by side. It was a hard pace for me, but I needed it to tire me out so I could sleep later on. I would still need a midnight run as well. This pace was nothing for Diane to maintain.
"Diane, what Swift was Elizabeth talking about?"
She glanced back over her shoulder at me and slowed down a bit, "When you were sleeping on the ridge, I had gone further down to another lookout point. Most of Bethany Fort was just ashes at that point, but I saw several zombies in the ruins. One of which was a Swift."
I hadn't seen the Fort since that first glimpse on the ridge earlier in the evening, so I hadn't been aware that it had completely burnt down. If zombies were in ruins, then the people had either died or scattered. Things could change so quickly....
"Are we going to stay here? Do you ever plan to go back to Wainwright Fort?"
We came onto a wider trail and I jogged quickly as I came up beside her. Diane gazed thoughtfully down at me, "I have thought about it quite a bit. But the last letter I got from Ace and Matthew said that things still have not settled down, so it wouldn't be wise to return there. We will probably return in a couple of years just to visit. Perhaps then we can re-evaluate it, but it wouldn't be safe this year from what I was told. I have no ties to any other settlement either, so Toga Place is probably the best we will find without risking coming across more places like Eagle Holding."
I shivered at the name of the settlement where they wanted to kidnap Diane and me. Going to strange settlements and meeting strangers did not appeal to me in the least. I knew a few faces here, so it wasn't too bad. My shyness still kept me as close to Diane as possible.
"I really don't want to meet more strangers. It is easier with fewer people here than it was at Wainwright Fort."
Diane nodded in understanding. She knew that my shyness was something that I had a hard time overcoming. I noticed a small trail up ahead, it was narrow and twisted with lots of low branches. I quickly darted off down it with a grin, "Try and catch me!"
My reflexes were just good enough to duck below branches I saw at the last second. I ran full tilt while laughing. Many of the branches were too low for Diane to easily duck under. I glanced back over my shoulder, but there was no sign of her blue eyes.
I slowed and listened hard. Silence. I ducked down and slinked to the cover of some bushes. My game of catch me if you can had just turned into a game of hide and go seek. Her hearing and sight were leagues better than mine, so I was at an extreme disadvantage. How did she just disappear into thin air?!
I moved silently through the bushes, the Heartfire had advanced enough to make me silent if I tried. Crack. Oops. I didn't see that twig under the leaves. If Diane didn't know where I was before, she did now. Although I was positive that she was perfectly aware of my precise location the entire time.
I crouched down and looked under the majority of the branches and leaves. Nothing. To the best of my knowledge, Heartfire did not allow one to become invisible. The growing Heartfire in my own blood should allow me to see any movement if it was in my line of sight. Apparently she was not within my line of sight, or she was craftier than I had expected. I voted for the latter option...
I slowly crept through the undergrowth, practically expecting her to launch out of her hiding spot to scare me. It had me on edge, but in a fun way. It had been a long time since we played this game, and we hadn't done it for over a month now. Diane was letting me hone my abilities while keeping me in suspense.
It had been ten minutes and I had covered a fair bit of ground. There had been no sign of her. If I didn't know her so well, I would have thought that someone had ambushed her. That would have been a severe their mistake on their part though, such an action would be like trying to grab a wildcat with a pair of BBQ tongs.
I knew she was still following me. There weren't words for it, but I knew she was watching me. How she was managing it without me being able to spot her was giving me a headache. A magpie started scolding me from its perch in the tree above me, and I glanced up automatically.
Sitting on a large branch and calmly watching me was Diane. My jaw dropped, she had been following me in the trees the entire time! I hadn't even realized it! The magpie clearly did not know what to do about her.
She threw the magpie an irritated glance before dropping down. In five insanely fast strides that I could barely see, she was beside me. I squeaked and tried to roll to the side under a rose bush, but she was far too quick. Seconds later, she was spinning around with me in her arms, "Caught you!"
I laughed in delight and joy. Being around her was so fun if there wasn't anyone around causing her to keep her guard up. It was times like this where she completely loosened up and was herself. Her eyes were softly glowing in mirth and amusement. Her stance was completely relaxed as she swung me in a circle.
I wished it could always be like this.