A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 40

I woke at the morning bell and went out of the bedroom to see Diane lounging on a floor cushion. There was no way to get furniture up here so Diane had brought in several big floor cushions in lieu of chairs. I plopped down beside her, "What are you reading?"

She closed the book and showed me the cover. It was about bird watching and the names of many local birds. I loved it when Diane pointed out animals to me. I clapped my hands in excitement, "Can we go bird watching later on?"

She grinned at me, "Sure we can go before supper, or we can take a few minutes tomorrow if I see something interesting."

I tilted my head as I picked up her wording. Then it dawned on me. I wrinkled my nose, "I have to go to class today, don't I?"

She nodded, "It is Monday."

I now had an official reason to hate Mondays. I sighed, I was not looking forward to today.

Diane smiled kindly, "It shouldn't be too bad, I hear the other two kids told their parents and they also had a talk with the teacher. If she gives you any trouble just take note of it and let me know later. Okay?"

That was good to know. I think if the teacher gave me problems that I would go find Trish and sit with her wherever her post happened to be today. I could work on my schoolwork while sitting on the floor beside her. I nodded slowly without voicing my backup plan, "Okay."

In the end it wasn't as bad as I had feared. The teacher had actually apologized, although it sounded as forced as Lilly's had been to Diane, but I would still take it. She promised to never speak of it unless I brought it up first. I made a mental note to avoid saying anything like that.

It was a 'field trip' day and we got to go to various areas and see what they did. I was amazed at how much of the Fort was still dependant on gas and diesel despite how much trouble they had with anything that ran on it. Many places were rigging things to run off of electricity, which was taxing the solar panels and batteries more. They were planning on installing more solar panels as soon as possible.

We had barely returned to the classroom when Diane got back. She was happy that my day had gone well. The mechanic had never returned and I didn't mention him to Diane. I would let sleeping dogs lie.

We had our usual training and decided to retire to the treehouse for some boardgames after supper. I had a dozen board games on a shelf at this point and pulled down the snakes and ladders. Games of chance gave me much higher odds of winning.

We laughed as our tokens climbed ladders and slid down snakes. Diane held up her hand with the signal for silence. I sat on my cushion and watched her as she tilted her head and listened hard. She closed her eyes and looked as if she was trying to pick up every sound in the night.

I could only hear crickets, an owl, and some distant zombies. I wondered what she could hear. I knew her hearing was much sharper than mine. For all I knew she was listening to the man on the moon telling a bad joke.

Her eyes opened and she stood up before heading over to the trapdoor. She opened and knelt down to hang her head upside down out of it, peering at something outside.

"Ace, there is nothing that can catch you before you get to the ladder if you start jogging. There are three zombies heading for you, but none are between you and the ladder."

Ace was outside the fence after dark? Was he crazy? Even I wouldn't do that if I had a choice. Several moments later Diane sat up and moved back a bit. Ace's head poked inside as he glanced around.

Diane regarded him as if she thought he was crazy as well, "What on earth are you doing running around in the dark? I know I do it all the time, but I can at least see clearly enough to avoid the zombies."