A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 55

We eventually reached their 'village'. They were hiding behind bison fencing instead of a wooden palisade. I had never heard of any settlements doing that before. Other than Wainwright Fort, every other place supposedly had just a wooden palisade for protection.

The elderly couple who met us by the gate where also shocked to hear of other surviving settlements. The old lady was happy to trade flour for an afternoon of us helping point out edible plants. The old lady didn't plan on going, but got four other younger women to go instead.

The bison fence covered a huge area and we were able to walk inside of it. I followed Diane closely, afraid to get separated from her even with only 13 people inside the fence. I occasionally spoke to point out some plants, but Diane did most of the talking. They quite often eyed me up in curiosity and confusion, as if they couldn't figure out why I was here.

Some plants we pointed out they knew about, but most were new to them as an edible. They knew most of the plants on sight and had thought that it was a weed in their gardens and fields. One lady had a huge garden with dozens of herbs. Diane went through it and rattled off dozens of different ways to cook with them or use them.

Before long it was time for supper. I took a big helping of the salad, although there was stew and some bread. We had barely dished up our plates before several people tried asking us questions at the same time.

The old man we first met, Mike, took over and apologized, "Sorry about that, we haven't had any guests since fall. Could you possible tell us about your travels and other groups of survivors?"

Diane started talking about the various settlements, their sizes, and where they were located. Mike was quite interested about Wainwright Fort.

Mike sighed tiredly, "Do you think that they might welcome us if we went to join them? Last winter was tough, not sure how we are going to get through this one."

Small groups often did not have enough skills or hands to do the amount of work needed to handle the long cold winters that were guaranteed in Alberta.

Diane nodded, "Yes, most settlements will be very happy to invite you in. Just as you invited me in. Most will also allow you to stay and work with them while waiting for some of their group to head to a neighboring village for some trade or while waiting for one of the trading groups themselves to stop by. If you want, I can help you draw their locations on a map."

He sent someone for a map and Diane marked the villages on it. She also noted the good camping spots that Dave had also put on her map. A safe camping spot was essential when traveling.

One woman glumly sighed, "But how are we going to avoid the zombies? Even getting to the closest place will take two days of traveling."

I blinked as I realized that they wouldn't have had any of the zombie training that was mandatory back at Wainwright Fort. For them, this trip was the equivalent of a non-swimmer wishing to swim across a lake with no lifejacket or floatation device. They wouldn't make it.

Diane furrowed her eyebrows, "Exactly how much are you going to be transporting?"

Mike had been making notes of things to take like livestock, food, and valuable supplies that could be used to trade for a place to stay or for passage to the next village with a guide.

They had chickens, a few sheep, dairy cows, meat cows, and twelve horses. Only four of the horses were trained to a harness. They also had a fair bit of grain and food supplies. Diane talked a bit with them before it was decided that if everything was carefully loaded, all but the cattle could fit into one enclosed horse trailer that they had out back.