A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 84

I darted off the road to pick a flower and bring it back for Diane's inspection. It was an early spring flower. Diane smiled as her bright blue eyes flashed a bit in happiness, "That is a pretty flower. What are you going to do with it?"

With a grin, I ran to a large rock on the edge of the road and put the flower on it. I placed a smaller stone on the stem so it couldn't blow away. I jogged back to Diane's side as she jogged along at a slow pace for me.

I smiled at her cheerfully, "I left it on the rock to dry so that any who travel this way can see it."

She grinned at me and nodded. Her eyes went back to the map in her hands. Dave had originally helped her make that map, and Taver had added his knowledge to it. Each settlement seemed to be perfectly marked onto the piece of paper.

It had been several weeks since we left Toga Place, and we had stopped at several places already. None of them had our letter yet. We had encountered another difficulty though, my eyes were getting brighter at night and, for some reason, I couldn't dim my eyes like Diane could.

I had spent almost every night staring into a hand mirror trying to dim my eyes. Diane tried to coax me through it, but I couldn't quite sense the heat in my blood well enough to control it yet. A couple of times I had been reduced to tears of frustration and grief as Diane comforted me. She helped me sneak around at night so no one could see my shimmering eyes.

They weren't quite truly glowing yet, but it wasn't far off at this point. If I hadn't been trying to hide it for Diane's and my sake, I would have been delighted. I could see much better at night now, although from what Diane said, it was going to get clearer yet.

My stamina, speed and strength had also improved. The progress wasn't slowing down yet either. I could jog most of the day and not be exhausted. Tired, but not exhausted. I snuck a sideways glance at Diane, but she was looking in the other direction.

I took off full tilt towards the nearby trees, "Catch me if you can!"

A faint chuckle close behind me told me that Diane had been onto my ploy even before I had said anything. I couldn't even hear her footsteps even though I knew she was behind me, I really had to tie bells to her backpack or something. A glance back showed that she was right on my heels.

I squeaked and put on another burst of speed. A heat rose up in my blood, it wasn't the heat that came with the pain of inactivity, but a different type of heat. My speed went up a few notches and my sight became clearer as more details became readily obvious.

Diane scooped me up in her arms, "You have to be faster than that!"

She grinned down at me and I grinned back, "I felt the heat again!"

She blinked in surprise and smiled as she put me back on my feet, "That is good. I hope the afterburn doesn't hurt too badly."

I stretched my arms and legs before shaking my head, "Nope, a bit of a tiny ache, but it won't slow me down."

This wasn't my first encounter with the heat. I had pushed myself in our impromptu races a few times and felt it. Due to Diane's stories, I knew what it was and immediately slowed down to avoid that so-called 'afterburn'. The few brushes I had with it had been bad enough. The first time I hadn't quite realized what was going on and Diane had to carry me for a few hours. I was wiser after that.

The fact that the heat was appearing more and more often meant that the Heartfire virus was getting more established. The more I could push myself like this, with small brushes against my limits, the easier it would be in the future as my body learnt to handle the afterburn from the virus.