A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 82

I woke to the sound of the alarm horn from a sentry. Diane was instantly on her feet and grabbed her backpack and weapons. I swiftly scrambled out of bed and grabbed my backpack as I rode an adrenaline high.

Diane ran out the door, still in her night shirt and sleeping shorts. I pushed myself faster as I tried to keep up with her. She kept her speed to something I could just barely keep up with. A dozen people were already running around and shouting, but most were heading towards a certain gate while more on the palisade were raining down arrows on whatever was on the other side of the wall. More people were coming out, their reactions slower than ours.

Diane gestured to a nearby massive spruce tree. I darted over to it and swiftly started climbing. She wanted me in a safe spot for whatever was going on. Voices reached my ears as I climbed.

"The door is breaking! Hurry up and kill it!"

"The arrows aren't doing anything!"

"Get more bracing for the door!"

I stopped climbing once I was most of the way up. No one would spot me up here, other than Diane of course. Especially in the middle of the night. I had quite the vantage point from up here. Something was trying to break through one of the access doors in the palisade wall.

Considering that arrows weren't stopping it, I had an awful feeling I knew what it was. Some people were trying to bring pieces of 2x4's, but there were half a dozen simply trying to keep the door from swinging inwards, and they couldn't move to let the others secure the pieces.

The sound of splintering wood sent chills up my back. That door was not going to hold up much longer. I glanced over to see that Diane had reached the top of the palisade as she swiftly analyzed the problem.

She looked at some of the people milling around below on the inside of the fence and shouted, "Get that picnic table close and wait for it to be distracted!"

I could see that a couple of people were already bringing a wooden table closer to the breaking door. More went to help them haul it over. Diane hefted her glaive before throwing it like a spear. Right into the grass outside the fence. I could see it from this angle, and there was clearly nothing there. I knew she had a plan though, she wouldn't throw away a weapon lightly.

Some of the bowmen beside her started insulting her aim. She ignored them as she ran down the palisade a bit before vaulting over the waist high ledge to the other side. I held my breath in suspense, I couldn't see her due to the palisade. The wall was at least three times as tall as she was, that was a huge drop, even for her.

I knew she wasn't in danger from a Swift. The ground around the fence had been cleared of trees so the sentries could see anything approaching. However, there were a couple of large trees left standing here and there. Their lower branches had been cut away and pieces of wood like ladder rungs had been nailed on instead, in case a zombie caught someone in the open.

It would give her a place to retreat if something went bad. I doubted that she would use them.

One of the bowmen on the wall thought she was insane, "What the hell do you think you are doing?!"

I saw her appear in my view as she ran towards where her glaive was lodged in the grass. A shrill whistle came from Diane as she waved her arms to catch the attention of the unseen foe. She whistled again, just before she fired her bow.

Her eyes started shimmering as she fired five more arrows while sidestepping closer to her glaive. I gasped as I recognized the fast zombie. It was the same Swift that Diane had tied up in the forest months ago for Ninette.