A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 16

It was like I had an obsession. I was determined to learn as much as I could to ensure that I could pass those zombie classes easily. Those three days Diane showed me more tricks and told me more about zombies. I eagerly listened to every word and committed it to memory. She showed me more demonstrations as well.

At supper, I even managed to ask Matthew, John, Nathan and Trish about what they knew about zombies or any stories they had. I learned that there had been a zombie outbreak last summer inside the Fort, which surprised me. They gave me some advice, but Diane had already covered all of those tips with me. I politely thanked them anyways.

It all centered around one common theme. Run and get out of their reach. Climbing was the main choice until help arrived. I had asked why they didn't kill the zombies if they were so dangerous and was told that attacking zombies was a huge risk. It was generally considered a suicide mission.

To kill a zombie, you had to cut off the head. To do that you had to get close with a melee weapon. If you were that close, the zombie could usually reach you, and even if it couldn't, the blood splatter was a huge concern. To the best of their knowledge, anyone who had tried to go around killing zombies on a regular basis didn't live past a few weeks with that career choice.

There was a group of people called Raiders who entered stores for supplies. They had special outfits and weapons in case they encountered a zombie and couldn't get away, but even that didn't always save them. It turned out that Nathan was a Raider. He had lost a few friends, mostly in the beginning, when they were still learning about how to detect and avoid zombies when inside of a building.

I quickly ate my supper, taking care to ensure that I wasn't too full. A full stomach made you slow and I didn't want to be slow tonight. I waited eagerly for Diane to finish and thankfully she seemed to sense my haste. We finally left the mess hall.

I was so excited that I could barely contain it. Our walking pace seemed far too slow for me. Instead of walking beside Diane, I started to run ahead. I glanced back and jumped a bit as I noticed that Diane was easily jogging along behind me with a grin. I still couldn't hear her footsteps.

I smiled back and picked up my pace since my excitement was building. I knew she would be able to keep up no matter how fast I ran, but at least I could now hear her footsteps. It was oddly fun just running down the hall. No one else was in this hallway, so I didn't have to worry about bumping into anyone.

We ran through the open door of the obstacle course room and Rick looked up in surprise. Diane grinned as we slowed to a stop in front of him, "Laura was so excited that we ran the whole way."

He chuckled, "I wish everyone else was so excited for my classes. I assume you have gone over the basics with her?"

She nodded, "Yes, I went over anything I could think of for a beginner, but I may have missed something. It has been a long time since I had this level of training."

He nodded and looked at me, "Okay, I will start with the basics, if I touch on something you didn't cover please let me know and I will go into it in depth. Feel free to ask any questions as I go along."

I nodded eagerly and sat on the bench he gestured to. Diane sat beside me and watched. He talked about zombies, their habits, actions, limitations, unusual features and more. Diane had already told me all of this, but I listened carefully anyways. He worded some things differently so it wasn't boring.

His son came in and the two of them went through a bunch of demonstrations. This room had hundreds of obstacles and props. Everything from pieces of fences to fake hedges. It did make it much more realistic. He occasionally checked if I had questions, but I shook my head each time.