A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 65

The smells of fish roasting, fresh flatbread, tea, and freshly roasted dandelion coffee woke me up. I headed down to help myself to breakfast. Taver came down and looked at the food longingly. Diane smiled at him, "I am not that mean, come get some."

He wasted no time in taking a bit of everything, adding it to his own portion of smoked meat. He hadn't even collected any greens yesterday for himself, although he seemed to enjoy the ones we had gathered. I was amused, apparently he mostly ate smoked meat while on the road. What a boring diet.

We packed up all of our stuff. Needless to say, we were done way before he was. Diane climbed up the fence to ensure nothing lurked on the other side before opening up the gate to allow Taver out. Once the horse and mule were clear, I headed over to Diane. She quickly put me on her shoulders as Taver watched us with an odd look on his face.

Diane and Taver discussed potential camping spots as we traveled along the road.

Taver sighed, "There is a really good camping spot further along, but I would have to trot the horses for some distance in order to reach it by nightfall."

Diane nodded, "You set the pace. We should be able to keep up or catch up as long as you don't gallop. We kept up with the trotting yesterday."

He nodded, with a bit of a face. He was likely remembering the pace he had set yesterday. We should not have been able to keep up, especially while trying to remain unseen. Diane spoke up and distracted his train of thought, "Can you tell me about Bethany Fort? What kind of research are they doing?"

He thought for a moment, "Quite a bit bigger than Toga Place. About 500 people call it home. Pretty decent and easy going crowd for the most part. They are trying to research anything to do with zombies, hoping for a cure or at least a vaccine. A lady is in charge of the research, although they have tested almost every option they can think of."

I listened attentively. This sounded quite interesting, at least the zombie part. I wasn't so thrilled about having 500 people around. I considered even 50 far too many. Diane tilted her head, "What is she like? I have some knowledge of some unusual medicinal herbs, does she accept volunteers?"

He scratched his head, "Nice lady, uses far too many complex terms for the common man. She accepts volunteers if she has something to test, she is mostly working alone at the moment hoping for a new lead."

Diane chuckled lightly, "She isn't going to take my offer to help as an invitation to pin me down and try to infect me, is she?"

So Diane was somewhat worried about that possibility. The thought of someone trying to tie up Diane upset me in ways I simply didn't have words for.

Taver thought she was joking, "Nay, she ain't that kind of person. She would not let you try to infect yourself any road. She saw too many turn during the collapse, says she prefers listening to the complaints of the living over the moans of the dead any day. She may ask for a blood sample to play with, but that is the extent of it."

Well, that was good, as long as Taver was right and she wasn't a wolf in sheep's clothing. Diane shook her head as if distracted and refocused on Taver, "That is good to know. Anything else that you know of?" I wondered what was going through Diane's mind. I had felt her muscles tense momentarily, as if she had been uneasy, but I had no clue why.

He tilted his head in thought, "She has some fancy equipment in that lab of hers that is powered by both solar and wind generators. She can take a drop of blood and see the virus in it if a person is halfway infected or has turned. She occasionally helps the medical clinic as well with diagnostic testing."