A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 45

Apparently your legs would hurt after three days of riding a horse almost nonstop. I was now sitting on top of one of the trailers to give my legs a break. It was about 9am and although the solar trucks were moving, the horses were barely even doing a fast walk. Diane was only jogging lightly.

The 12 group members seemed surprised at her stamina and they were constantly putting bets on when she would run out of energy and either get on a horse or climb onto a trailer. So far, only those who said she wouldn't tire had won.

I examined the height of the sun. There were no clouds, so in another hour the trucks would hit their top speed, forcing the horses into a trot. All three trailers were loaded and heavy, so our slow speed wasn't really that surprising.

I watched as Diane jogged ahead to lure yet another zombie off of the road. The others let her since they were waiting for her to tire and take a break. I grinned silently, that wasn't about to happen any time soon.

I pointed to the side of the road and spoke to the lady who was sitting beside me, "That plant there is good for burns and bug bites."

She took a long hard look at the unique leaves below us and nodded. Diane often collected plants on the side of the road and handed them to others to help teach them about edible and medicinal plants. I occasionally got down and helped, but I could only run for a short time before tiring and getting back on the horse or trailer.

I watched as Diane returned and I climbed down the ladder to carefully jump onto the ground. Diane was lightly jogging beside me before my feet even got on the ground. "Have to use the washroom?"

I nodded and followed her as she jogged towards the treeline. People would just go into the trees a bit for some privacy. We just had to be careful about zombies. Diane always checked an area for me. Soon enough we were jogging back to the slowly moving caravan.

Four grouse burst into the air with a flurry of loud wing beats. In a lightning fast move Diane had her bow in her hands and four arrows in the air. The four big birds fell to the ground. I watched with a grin as she ran over to grab them.

Diane swiftly cleaned them before returning to the group. I looked forward to having roast bird for supper. We had some dry foods, but we hunted and gathered most of our meals. We ate lunch on the road since it would be a waste of good sunlight to stop.

Dave was grinning at Diane's feat and several others looked impressed. Nick shook his head with a grin, "At least we know you can use that bow of yours." Nick was more of a joker and had a good sense of humor.

Diane quickly sprinted over to his horse and dumped the four cleaned carcasses in his lap. "For that comment, you get to carry these."

He protested, "Hey! No fair, you bagged them, you should carry them!"

"But you were so kind as to pack the collapsible cooler." Diane had already backed out of reach, so he couldn't just hand them back.

He looked at Diane in confusion, "No, I didn't."

One of the girls chuckled, "You better check your rear saddle bag."

He turned about to dig in the saddle bag and pulled out the blue object. He blinked at it in shock, "I didn't put that there!"

I giggled as several others laughed. He had obviously not seen Diane subtly stash it there earlier. He turned to the girl, "How did that get in there? This bag has been beside me all morning." He looked seriously confused.

One of his friends took pity on him, "When you had your eyes closed singing, Diane stuck it in there."

He looked at Diane in shock, "I thought that you liked me!"