A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 37

I giggled at the lady's expression as I easily identified a plant in her hands. Another Foraging Group Leader had asked Matthew if he could borrow Diane to help train his own fairly new members. Both Matthew and Diane had agreed. I tagged along by default.

These group members knew they had more to learn, but they were shocked at how much I knew. Diane found it humorous. They couldn't even ID some plants and I knew its name, where it preferred to grow, and often if it had any medicinal value.

The lady looked over at Diane, "Is she right?"

Diane barely even glanced at the plant and nodded, "Yes."

The Group Leader, Brett, chuckled at the lady's expression. Many plants were small and they were hard to identify if you didn't know what you were looking for. That was why we were temporarily helping out this group. I just didn't think that Brett had realized that he was getting two experts instead of one when he asked to borrow Diane for a week.

I kept my eyes open as I worked. The treeline wasn't that far away, although I was positive that Diane would notice any zombie before I did. I carried my new two-way radio, Diane had the other one and had shown me how to use it. I found it comical that I had to say over at the end of my message.

I doubted I would need it during the day, but Diane was more worried about when she left at night in case I got scared. She had promised to stay close by and had reassured me that she could get to the treehouse in under five minutes if I needed her.

After helping to unload the horse-drawn wagon I went for more Raider training with Rick while Diane headed off for that big workout that Ace and the others had planned. I hoped that they wore extra padding since Diane hadn't moved that much today. She had energy to burn.

Rick showed me the raised floor in some commercial buildings, how to lift a tile, and drop it back down once I was under the floor. I was small enough to crawl through fairly quickly. The best part was that zombies couldn't get to me. He had warned me that a Swift might be able to hit the floor tile hard enough to break it if it scented me though. I hoped that it never came to that point though.

There was lots of running, climbing, and lifting things today. It was exhausting. I was breathing hard as I jogged around an island counter to lose the zombie after me. A flicker of a unique shade of blue caught my attention.

I changed course to go into a full run towards Diane. She intercepted my hug to swing me around in a circle, I laughed in delight. I heard Rick's disbelieving voice, "Where did that burst of energy come from?!"

I glanced back to see him shaking his head with a grin, "Here I thought that she was getting tired and I wasn't going as fast. I will have to rectify that tomorrow..."

"Uh oh."

Rick laughed at my comment, "All right, I will see you tomorrow." He grinned at Diane, "She should be pretty mellow for Trish at the playground this evening."

We headed off for a shower and supper. I managed to convince Trish to play a game of Connect Four with me. Diane had given me the small game this morning and I always carried it in my backpack. I usually lost, so I really needed practice. I figured that it would be much easier to beat Trish than Diane. It was so much easier to distract Trish.

Diane went off for a lighter fighting practice in the public gym since Ace wanted her there to practice with other people. Trish and Nathan took me to the playground. Rick had been wrong though, supper had reenergized me.

I had the advantage in tag even against those much older than me. Moving all day meant that I was in better shape than even the 12 year olds. All of my training with Rick and Diane had made me much harder to catch as well. If I tried hard, almost no one was able to catch me. I guess that meant that Rick's training was paying off.