I passed Diane one last box to be stored away in the trailer. Others were already starting to dismantle the fence.
"I do not think that you have any idea what you are planning on doing." I had never heard Roland speak in such a disapproving tone before. It surprised me. I peeked around the trailer to see him speaking with six young men from the settlement.
I was too far away to hear their reply, but from their hand gestures, they were trying to convince him of something. Roland's voice was loud enough to overhear as he remained firm.
"I somehow suspect that neither your parents nor your leader are aware of what you are doing. I do not wish people to consider me a kidnapper and have people on my trail hunting down my crew because you decided that you wanted a life of adventure."
Who would consider trading a life of adventure? The long road trips often bored even the seasoned traders out of their minds. Sometimes even I found it boring. I looked around and noticed that Diane had gone to help separate the fence panels. I could tell she was also listening, as most were as they worked.
I quickly went to see if I could help her. Diane passed me a handful of pins that held the hinges together. I glanced back to see the six young men heading back to the palisade, most seemed quite dejected and disappointed.
Diane helped a couple of traders remove a stubborn pin from its bracket, "What do you think that was all about?"
These two had been quite close to Roland when they had went to put the previous fence section in the trailer. They had probably overheard what the men had been saying.
The one man shrugged, "Seems like they wanted the virus so that they would be immune. Word has spread that their leader previously turned away someone with it. He must have remembered you since he said that he flatly refused to allow anyone to live in the settlement if they had glowing eyes. He has no problem with us outside of his fence trading, but he doesn't want us staying for any length of time inside the walls."
Another man glanced towards the wall, "Those six were ready to join Roland's group, but they obviously had not talked to anyone else about it. He told them to say goodbye to their friends and family if they were serious, and to return with a written reference letter from them."
Oh. Settlements rarely turned away new people and it would have been easy for the leader to connect the dots between the virus comments and the glowing eyes of the only person he had probably ever turned away. At least he didn't object to us trading here. That was one good thing.
Diane tilted her head in confusion, "How are they going to say goodbye to over fifty people in less than thirty minutes?"
The man chuckled, "That is the point, isn't it? They will only have time to visit those dearest to them, those who won't want to see them leave. So they won't have other young enthusiasts following or supporting their half-baked plan when facing their loved ones. If they are delayed even for a short time, we will be long gone."
Diane was clearly amused, "He is devious."
The guy grinned as he and his friend lifted the fence panel to carry it away. I was quite impressed with Roland's quick thinking. He hadn't just said no and refused them. That could have caused resentment from them later on when we returned to trade. Instead, he put conditions on his acceptance. Very reasonable conditions too. I doubted that any of them would return.
I helped stack pieces of wood for the boiler on the wood stand, taking them from Todd and Diane as I piled them up neatly.
"Well, looks like we have new people to torture."
I looked at Diane before following her gaze. Three of the young men were handing Roland a piece of paper. He read each one before nodding politely to them. He pointed to one of the solar panel trailers and they quickly jogged over and started pedaling.
I blinked in surprise as I recognized one as Julian. If he was shy or uneasy with strangers, what was he doing joining a trading caravan of people he didn't know? I had a hard time with the numerous strangers at each stop, and I knew he wouldn't fare well during those trading stops either. I wondered how he had convinced his father to write that letter for him...
"Laura, pay attention. Todd has been holding that piece of wood for almost 30 seconds now."
I jumped and spun around to see both Diane and Todd grinning at me. Todd was sitting on the step holding out a piece of wood with an amused expression. I flushed in embarrassment as I quickly grabbed the piece of wood.
Todd pulled it back toward himself and managed to grab my wrist before dumping me in his lap and proceeding to tickle me, "How dare you ignore me?! Well! The tables have turned now! I caught you. Let's see you escape from me this time!"
I squealed in laughter as his fingers targeted my ticklish sides. Heads turned as hands dropped to weapons at my loud squeal, before they realized that it was just Todd tormenting me. The others grinned and went back to their tasks, leaving me to Todd's revenge.
"Diane! Help me!" I could barely speak as I squirmed and giggled with Todd's tickle attack.
Diane leaned against the side of the truck and crossed her arms with an amused expression, "I think I will consider this as both punishment for not keeping an eye on your surroundings, as well as practice for escaping a kidnapper."
She just had to bring logic and training into it... The worst part was that she was right and all three of us knew it. This had been covered in Rick's training and he would have been shaking his head at this point since I hadn't used anything he had taught me.
I curled my arms against my chest and used my legs to spin me before sliding out of his grasp. The move had taken Todd by surprise and I wasted no time in bolting for safety. The heat rose and lightly burned my muscles with my speed.
The three newcomers watched me with surprise and astonishment as I ran faster than should be possible. I scaled the ladder to the top of the trailer with ease before turning to see if Todd was following. He stood on the truck with crossed arms, "Now, how are you going to stack this wood from up there?"
My Heartfire shifted slightly in warning, something wasn't right. I rolled to the side and tried to slide back down the ladder, but Diane was faster than me. She managed to snag my ankle and held me upside down in the air.
"Eeek!" The squeak was involuntary as Diane easily lifted me up with one hand. I took a deep breath before swinging myself up to grab onto her arm like a set of monkey bars. Once I had a good handhold, Diane released my ankle. I dropped down to land lightly on my feet while grinning at her.
Diane's eyes glimmered in her amusement. Quite a few of the traders were also watching as they grinned or chuckled. They knew that the Heartfire could increase our speed, but many also looked surprised at Diane's speed. It was something that she very rarely let others see, and none here had seen her use her extreme speed yet, although I doubted that they had actually seen her moving.
The three newcomers were severely confused as they looked between the truck that Todd was standing on, to the top of the trailer that I was on. They had likely been watching me and hadn't seen Diane sneak around the far side of the trailer. Considering I hadn't seen her, I doubted that most had noticed. Todd would have seen her, but as far as the others were concerned, she would have teleported up here. I guess this was how the teleportation rumors started.
Roland's voice called out, "Let's get this show on the road!"
Everything had been packed and people quickly climbed on top of the trailers as the trucks started slowly moving. Julian followed us up one trailer while the other two ended up on a different trailer. They had not expected to have to clamber up a ladder of a truck that was already moving at a walking speed.
Once we hit the highway, we picked up more speed. This wasn't a pace we could keep up to on foot so everyone rode. There were some clouds, so the boilers would be working if the sun took a short vacation.
To my surprise, Julian chose to sit beside me. He was looking around at the others, clearly uneasy in the presence of strangers. I decided to start a conversation and see if I could find some answers to my questions.
"You are joining the trading group permanently?"
Julian looked at me in surprise and nodded, "Uh, yeah. That is what I am hoping for at least."
"Roland is pretty easy going if you follow the rules."
Julian looked nervous, "That is good. My father would welcome me back, but there really isn't anything for the other two to go back to. They have no family there and no close friends."
Most parents wouldn't want their children to leave, considering that many had lost everything when the zombies appeared. "What does your father think of you joining the traders?"
Julian shyly smiled, "He was actually happy that I had finally found something that I really wanted to do. The traders stop by a couple times a year, so I will get to see him within half a year at most. He wrote me that letter and practically pushed me out the door."
I tilted my head, "What made you suddenly decide to join the traders if they have stopped before?"
He flushed red, "Uh... I, uh... I saw how you lured the zombie away and you weren't scared at all. I hope to learn things like that. Could you tell me more about this virus that can beat the zombie virus?"
Roland had mentioned to keep the details of the Heartfire virus a secret unless someone joined the traders. I looked over at Amber who had been listening. She nodded her permission. I took a deep breath before going over what we knew of the virus, from the terrible pain that first day to the glowing eyes and increased strength.
Julian didn't doubt anything. Diane listened silently as I spoke with my newfound fan. Once he knew everything about the virus, he moved onto zombies and how I had lured that one away so easily. Julian was quite looking forward to the training that Diane offered every evening.
Her training touched on various subjects from zombie evasion, fighting practice, first aid, and many other things that had been taught in the many training sessions at Wainwright Fort.
Julian relaxed a bit as we talked. It looks like his shyness wasn't quite as bad as mine used to be. He was still uneasy with anyone else, but had no qualms about speaking with me. His slight stutter mostly disappeared as the trucks covered distance.
It didn't escape my attention that he kept glancing at Diane with an expression of respect and awe. Diane's earlier handling of the zombie and the canoe without batting an eye had impressed the reticent guy. I grinned silently, it looked like Diane had made a new fan.