A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 92

I passed Amber my basket again and waited while she dumped it into the big basket she had attached to her saddle.

"You should really take a break Laura, you have been going steady."

I shook my head and took my basket back, "I am still good. If I get tired, I will climb onto one of the trailers."

Most of my time was spent crouched over picking plants while also keeping up with the caravan that was making the best speed it could. It was a jogging speed, but I often had to sprint for short distances since I stopped to collect plants so often.

I was actually starting to breathe somewhat hard from my efforts. Diane had been gone almost five hours, and I had managed to collect an impressive amount of salad for supper. I also paused to dig up dandelion roots. They would be roasted and ground up for coffee. Once roasted, they would keep for days, unlike most of the green leafy stuff I had collected.

My radio crackled into life, "Laura, please have a dozen bored people ride ahead. I am right beside the highway quite a long ways ahead. I managed to get Roland's deer and a few other critters. Over."

I grabbed my radio and pressed the transmitter button, "Ok, I will send them ahead. Over."

"Copy. Out."

It sounded like she had a decent hunt. I ran back to the highway and headed towards Roland, "Roland, Diane is asking for a dozen bored people to ride ahead and help her with a deer and some other things."

Todd grabbed his horse, "I'll go. I wouldn't mind a fast ride."

I looked up at Todd with a serious expression, "She said she was quite a long way ahead, so she is likely much further than you will likely think. Honest, she would know if she was behind or ahead of us and she said she was ahead, so don't turn back."

He nodded in surprise, unsure of what to make of my comment. "Okay, we will keep riding ahead until we find her."

Quite a few others were bored and ready for a change of scenery. Some just wanted to let their horse stretch its legs. The entire group took off at a canter, twice as many people as Diane had requested, but all had been bored.

I may have energy to spare, but Diane had much more than me. If she said she was a long ways ahead, then she was likely a very long ways ahead. These people would likely underestimate how far she could have gone. If I could outrun these horses, I didn't even want to contemplate how far ahead Diane might be if she had been sprinting the entire time.

I went back to collecting greens, eager to show Diane how diligently I had worked. I almost had enough for supper, enough to feed over 70 people. Everything had been collected tiny handful by tiny handful of newly sprouted plants.

It took us about half an hour before we saw figures in the distance. Diane must have carefully scoured the forest instead of just going straight. There was quite a pile of chopped up meat in the middle of the road.

Roland's jaw dropped as he looked at the pile that the group immediately started packing onto the now-stopped trailers. "Did you find a moose the size of a small elephant?"

I gave Roland an odd look, unless the moose had eight legs, I highly doubted that all of this came from just one animal. Those loading the cut-up sections laughed at his reaction. Diane laughed and shook her head, "No, but I did manage to get both an elk and a mule deer. We will have to stop early to make camp so we can smoke the majority of it. Will this suffice for a while?"

He started laughing, "Remind me never to make a bet with you. I have a sinking feeling that I will lose."

Diane grinned, "Good, because I only make bets when I know I will win."