Night Disease

Chapter 27

I mark another tree with a tag. Pulling out my walkie-talkie I press the switch to talk "Kaindra checking in. How are things going over?"

Static comes in for a few seconds before Kevin responds. "Things are going good the patches are full so we should have a good hall later. Lots of dandelions in the salad for dinner over."

I chuckle responding "good to know. Check-in in an hour over."

Kevin gives me a beep before we go silent. Over the past few days of my scouting, we got plenty of greens now. Mostly clover and dandelion. Kevin and I also created a system using beeps. One beep is okay two need to talk three is emergency and four come back immediately.

We never had to use three or four but it is only the first few days, we got the whole winter ahead of us. Scouting has been nice, especially since I am now able to keep the snow from melting on my clothes.

I run to the next destination that I pre-marked on my map. I pre-mark some areas to have a general idea of where I want to go. They take normally an hour to check all of them before I go on checking by random.

The snow is getting close to being knee-high. I swerve off the beaten path into the trees. Trampling through the snow I ignore all the zombies as I run past. I spot them before they spot me, I move too fast for them to catch up anyway.

I stop to check my marked area. Bending down I pull out my extendable shovel. Digging I check the plants, eaten by the mice again. Putting my shovel away I move back to the road.

Coming up to the small town close to the base I run through quickly. Doors are marked with yellow x's for cleared of food. Turning down a road I move back to the trees.

I find two more good patches before turning around. Take a new path back to the base to check any patches this way. Stopping I check, the dandelions with some clover and watercress. Marking that spot I run the rest of the way back.

Taking out my walkie-talkie I contact Kevin. "Back at the base, I found four good patches one with watercress over."

I wait for his response walking through the gate "noted tomorrow we will compare maps over."

"got it over."

I have a few hours to kill before supper. Deciding to stop by to see Jen I head over to the kitchens. Loud managing of pots meets me once I open the doors. Laughter rumbles throughout the room. "Hey Kaindra what brings you here?" Jen asks spotting me at the doors.

I walk over to her pulling out some of the fresh greens I picked. "Thought I could talk and give you guys some of the stuff I picked on my scouting. Possibly help out for a little." She smiles at me grabbing the bag.

"Caren Kaindra brought us a bag of plants." Caren comes over at the call of her name.

Grabbing the bag Caren checks the plants. "Thank you Kaindra. Is that all?"

I smile at Caren. I met her at the start of my scouting bringing some extra plants in. She is the head cook and a nice lady. "If it isn't a bother for you I thought I could help a little."

Caren's face lights up "oh no bother the extra help is always wanted. Have you ever cooked before?"

I nod "with my mother and grandma."

"Good good you can help Jen with the soup." She gives me one last smile before shuffling away.

I turn to Jen expectantly "so what do I do? I am following you for this."

Jen grins making room for me "well you can chop some of these wells I work on balancing the spices." I nod moving to the open space. We talk as we work me cutting her working on the overall soup. There are many soup pots with Jen and me at one.

"Kaindra can you get the paprika, please." I look up to where Jen is pointing. Reaching up I grab the jar of paprika "thanks."

I talk with the other people in the kitchen discussing how to mix different herbs and spices with what. How to make spices and what you can do outside of the fence. It's very interesting and enlightening mixing this knowledge with the knowledge I gained from m foraging cooking class.

Caren comes back to Jen and me after we finished the soup. "Thank you, girls, if you want you can go and clean up everything is almost done now." She shoos us out of the kitchen before we can respond.

"Well, I guess we can go take a shower before supper?" I ask.

"Yea I guess we can." Walking we go to the closest bathroom to the mess hall. Jen doesn't have extra clothes so she just wears what she has again. I pull out my extra clothes from my bag.

Taking a quick shower we head to the mess hall. With our hair down still wet I pull some of the water out till our hair is damp before leaving the bathroom. "Dam that's handy." Jen watches with wounded as the water floats through the air.

"Yep if I wanted I could change right here. I shadow my clothes away and shadow new ones. Took me almost seven months to perfect but it is great for quick changes." She nods absentmindedly still watching the water.

Shaking her head she turns to me cocking her head "wait shadow what's that?"

"Oh, right I call my teleportation shadowing because I turn into shadows and move through them to my destination. I can do it with objects and other people too." Her eyes light up with childish wonder.

"Can you show me please Kain Kain pretty please?" She gives me her big doe eyes clasping her hands together.

Giving up I sigh "sure what do you want me to get."

She jumps in glee squeezing me "can you bring candy I have been craving candy or what's better cookies can you bring cookies." Jen rants about all her favourite sweets a dreamy look in her eyes.

Sometimes I forget Jen is my age thinking of her as a child. Knowing Bella has cookies for the kids at home I shadow one to my hand. "Hey, Jen I thought you wanted a cookie." Jen tunes spotting me eating a cookie.

Her mouth drops open "th-that's a..a coo...cookie I thought...you said...WHERE DID YOU GET THE COOKIE I WANT ONE." I cover my ears at I'm her wail.

I shadow a cookie in front of her face. Instantly she stops pouting reaching for the cookie "thank you." She chirps happily munching on her cookie. I groan at least her spirit has not broken but why couldn't she mature at least a little more? We continue our walk to the mess hall.

I point to a spot on the north side of the base. "I found dandelion and clover here and watercress two miles away closer to the river." Kevin nods marking it down on his map.

"Is that all that was found this week?" He turns to me waiting for my answer. Nodding I show him my map, dots of different colours litter the map.

" It's a start, we will find more every time I go out. I plan to check by the creeks and rivers next week." Kevin nods folding up his map.

"Good job any trouble with the zombies so far?"

"No still staying clear. How are things going with foraging?" I fold up my map before taking a seat.

"Good much better now with you scouting as I've said." Kevin also sits down. We decided to meet in one of the libraries to compare our maps. We stay and chat for some time going over what we have learned and any new tricks in finding good patches under the snow.