I passed Amber my basket again and waited while she dumped it into the big basket she had attached to her saddle.
"You should really take a break Laura, you have been going steady."
I shook my head and took my basket back, "I am still good. If I get tired, I will climb onto one of the trailers."
Most of my time was spent crouched over picking plants while also keeping up with the caravan that was making the best speed it could. It was a jogging speed, but I often had to sprint for short distances since I stopped to collect plants so often.
I was actually starting to breathe somewhat hard from my efforts. Diane had been gone almost five hours, and I had managed to collect an impressive amount of salad for supper. I also paused to dig up dandelion roots. They would be roasted and ground up for coffee. Once roasted, they would keep for days, unlike most of the green leafy stuff I had collected.
My radio crackled into life, "Laura, please have a dozen bored people ride ahead. I am right beside the highway quite a long ways ahead. I managed to get Roland's deer and a few other critters. Over."
I grabbed my radio and pressed the transmitter button, "Ok, I will send them ahead. Over."
"Copy. Out."
It sounded like she had a decent hunt. I ran back to the highway and headed towards Roland, "Roland, Diane is asking for a dozen bored people to ride ahead and help her with a deer and some other things."
Todd grabbed his horse, "I'll go. I wouldn't mind a fast ride."
I looked up at Todd with a serious expression, "She said she was quite a long way ahead, so she is likely much further than you will likely think. Honest, she would know if she was behind or ahead of us and she said she was ahead, so don't turn back."
He nodded in surprise, unsure of what to make of my comment. "Okay, we will keep riding ahead until we find her."
Quite a few others were bored and ready for a change of scenery. Some just wanted to let their horse stretch its legs. The entire group took off at a canter, twice as many people as Diane had requested, but all had been bored.
I may have energy to spare, but Diane had much more than me. If she said she was a long ways ahead, then she was likely a very long ways ahead. These people would likely underestimate how far she could have gone. If I could outrun these horses, I didn't even want to contemplate how far ahead Diane might be if she had been sprinting the entire time.
I went back to collecting greens, eager to show Diane how diligently I had worked. I almost had enough for supper, enough to feed over 70 people. Everything had been collected tiny handful by tiny handful of newly sprouted plants.
It took us about half an hour before we saw figures in the distance. Diane must have carefully scoured the forest instead of just going straight. There was quite a pile of chopped up meat in the middle of the road.
Roland's jaw dropped as he looked at the pile that the group immediately started packing onto the now-stopped trailers. "Did you find a moose the size of a small elephant?"
I gave Roland an odd look, unless the moose had eight legs, I highly doubted that all of this came from just one animal. Those loading the cut-up sections laughed at his reaction. Diane laughed and shook her head, "No, but I did manage to get both an elk and a mule deer. We will have to stop early to make camp so we can smoke the majority of it. Will this suffice for a while?"
He started laughing, "Remind me never to make a bet with you. I have a sinking feeling that I will lose."
Diane grinned, "Good, because I only make bets when I know I will win."
It didn't take long to pack the meat and for the trailers to start rolling again. Diane jogged beside me, "You are somewhat out of breath."
I grinned up at her, "I collected lots of greens. Come see."
I led her over to the main baskets that Amber had been unloading her basket into. Diane grinned as she scanned the big Rubbermaid containers, "Well, you were certainly busy. Good job!"
She reached out to ruffle up my hair and I grinned at her compliment and praise.
The thirteen new people were watching Diane and me uneasily. We had made camp and the sun had mostly set. The traders had no problem with our eyes as they slowly started to glow, but the newcomers had just noticed it.
Diane was seemingly ignoring their spooked reaction, but I knew that she was aware of both their looks and occasional whispers. Even the one woman who been ceaselessly trying to hug me earlier no longer tried coaxing me. She watched with wide nervous eyes.
The newcomers kept glancing at the relaxed traders as if they couldn't figure out how they were unconcerned. Roland had partially emptied one of the trailers so they could sleep inside, some were too scared to even sleep on top of the trailers.
I was relieved that we had nice hammocks above the ground and didn't have to try and cram ourselves onto the top of those three crowded trailers. A few of the traders were contemplating hammocks as well, now that the trailers were so packed. They just weren't sure they could get into the hammock while it was high up in a tree. They were also scared of falling out.
The newcomers were very tired and went to bed early, so they didn't see Diane or me leave for our pre-bedtime run. We ran silently through the trees, although we didn't see a single zombie. I looked up at Diane, "Are we going to try staying at that last settlement we bypassed at the end?"
Diane nodded, "Yes. Roland is planning to stop there to drop off the newcomers. Roland told me that he will happily give me a reference letter for all of our hard work and to vouch that we have never hurt anyone."
I nodded, "That was nice of him. Do you think the new people will stop staring at us so much by the time we get there?"
Diane exhaled in a sigh, "They have been living in terror the last four days. It will take them a long time to fully recover. They will likely relax around us in a few days, they are just really jumpy and cautious right now."
I did feel bad for them, most had nasty burns and even the word zombie had them panicking.
It had taken me quite some time, but two days later I enlisted Todd's help and managed to get a couple of the newcomers to play a boardgame with us. They had gotten used to our glowing eyes, but tried to avoid us as much as possible.
Things improved with most of them from that point as they realized that I was just a kid, albeit with more energy than was believable. They began to relax around Diane as well, although many were nervous about the number of weapons she always packed around.
Most of the day, I was busily collecting greens, ensuring my foraging pattern zig zagged across the wide grassy ditch in case I might flush something out. Diane was also busy collecting greens, but usually managed to shoot anything I spooked. A few rather quick rabbits did escape into the dense underbrush before Diane managed to grab her bow and fire an arrow.
More of the traders were trying to help out, but they simply couldn't keep up on foot for long. The salad was mostly dandelions and clover, but at least we had enough to go around.
I woke to the sound of banging as the panel fencing was being rocked. I rolled over to look down, eight zombies were pushing on one section of the fence hard enough that it was in danger of toppling. A flash of blue showed that Diane was already heading for the gate a bit further away.
The zombies stopped pushing the fence as they tried to shamble along after her. She exited the gate and started luring them deep into the forest. Quite a few people had woken up with the noise and were watching uneasily from their safe sleeping spot on top of the trailers. It was dark enough that all they had seen was Diane's eyes.
I called down softly, "Diane is leading all of them away. There are no more zombies pushing against the fence."
Most of those awake turned to look at my glowing eyes high in the tree. Several calls of thanks came as they tried to go back to sleep. That was the second time zombies had almost pushed the fence over this night.
The tarp above me kept the rain off. It had been lightly raining for three days, so there wasn't enough light for the solar panels to work. We had been here long enough that our scent was luring in quite a few zombies. Diane said that we weren't that far from the big city of Edmonton, which was part of the problem.
I wasn't tired, so I got dressed and put my rain jacket on before climbing down. The fire was barely smoldering, but I managed to find some red coals and get it burning again. It was easier to keep it burning than to let it go out.
It was burning nicely when Diane returned. This was about the usual time for our morning run, so she led me on our run. The occasional drop fell out of the sky, so I couldn't really call it rain. It was just so overcast that the clouds occasionally leaked.
We were only a few days away from the settlement, so the clouds were not welcome. Our food supplies were dangerously low even with all of the hunting and gathering we had been doing. Our supplies of flour had run out yesterday. It had taken us two weeks to get this far.
Diane had gone out hunting while we were stuck here, but only managed to find a few rabbits and grouse. That wasn't enough to feed all of us. We finished our run and picked more greens before heading back to make a soup or stew for breakfast.
The occasional rain didn't let up all day, but being stationary meant that we could scour the nearby forest again for anything edible. The traders did try to help, but the number of zombies around meant that it really wasn't safe for them to be outside the fence. There wasn't a river nearby to fish from either.
The clouds started to break up just as the sun started to set once more. We had lured off the zombies less than an hour ago, but there were already three zombies moaning against the fence. Diane glanced at Roland, "Are they normally this bad around here?"
He had been watching our unwelcome company and didn't look away from their red eyes, "No, I haven't seen them this bad in this location before."
Diane narrowed her eyes at the zombies speculatively, "You camped here on your way up?"
He nodded, "Yes, that might be why they are so bad. We were stuck here with heavy rain for three days last time as well. They probably hung around since our scent was strongest here."
Diane commented, "Well, I will have my work cut out for me in the morning luring those things off."
Roland turned to grin at her, "I fail to see how you find that fun."
Diane grinned back, "It is a talent. Doesn't hurt that I know I can outrun them easily without tiring."
He chuckled before making a face as he found a particularly bitter dandelion in his pile of greens. I finished the last of my salad and cleaned my plate in the hot water. Diane washed her plate and put it away before grabbing her pack and standing up.
Todd stared at her in disbelief, "The forest is loaded with zombies and you still plan on going for a run in the dark?"
Diane grinned at him, her glowing blue eyes were impossible to miss in this low light, "Well, when you put it that way, doesn't it sound like fun? Want to join us? We can warn you if anything gets too close."
I could see others listening in shamelessly. Todd was always our comic relief who made long road trips more entertaining. Todd shook his head violently, "No way. You would have to physically pick me up and drag me outside of this fence."
I giggled at his reaction, "That can be arranged..." I was also certain that Diane and me could keep him safe as long as he kept jogging, which probably wouldn't be for long.
Todd's eyes widened and he scrambled behind Roland, "They are insane I tell you! Hide me!"
One of the survivors sitting on the back of the truck was watching him with a grin. She dropped a blanket on top of him and he yelped in surprise as he didn't see her above him. I quickly tiptoed up behind him before jumping onto the moving blanket and tried to tickle his sides through the heavy material.
"Ack! Hey, what do you - hehehe - think you are - ah! that tickles! doing?"
Todd was so ticklish. I had found that out a few days ago accidently in one of our games when he had tried to tickle me and I had returned the favor. His arms escaped the blanket as he started to free himself.
I squeaked as I darted under the trailer beside us. Moving as fast as I could, I used the heat to increase my speed to get out the far side and climb up the ladder.
"Come on out, I know I have you cornered."
There was a pause and I stuck my head over the top of the trailer to see Todd peering under the trailer, "Where did she go? I know I saw her go under there..." He sounded confused.
The others spotted me above and started snickering. Todd sat back up and looked at them with a baffled expression, "What is so funny? We just had a kid disappear into thin air. Honest, she ain't under there."
I giggled and rolled around on the trailer with my head hanging over the edge. Todd looked up and blinked as his eyes went wide in shock, "How did you get up there so quickly?"
I grinned down at him, "Practice."
He sat down with crossed legs and tilted his head up at me, "Who did you practice with? I can't see anyone managing to catch you. It would be like trying to catch a squirrel with bare hands in a field of long grass."
He had a point, only one person was capable of catching me. I giggled in amusement, "You have obviously never seen Diane when she is determined to catch me."
Todd turned to face Diane with his entire face a question, "And how do you catch her?"
Diane grinned at him, "Practice."
He slapped his hand against his forehead in a face palm. I laughed at his reaction. This was part of what made Todd so fun to travel with. Diane snuck out of the fence to lure the zombies off. Once she had them moving, I also went out to follow them. The zombies weren't bright enough to turn around and notice me following them.