A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 102

We reached a camping spot in a baseball diamond during late afternoon and set up camp. Julian seemed to gravitate towards the dozen who had been on the trailer we rode on since he was more familiar with them.

The newcomers were being shown the ropes, although there was less to do than normal since we were inside of a baseball diamond and didn't need to put the fence panels up. Once the initial rush was over, I let the chickens out.

Julian's double take of the rooster collar on the rooster made me giggle. It was quite apparent that he didn't know what it was anymore than we had known when we first saw it. Just wait until the rooster tried to crow...

I left the baseball diamond with Diane and a dozen others to gather wood for a campfire. Others would bring out the bigger axes and saws later on to restock our supply of wood for the boilers. Any with blue eyes were working double time as they tried to burn off energy after sitting most of the day.

We had a good supply of wood and had gathered quite a few common edible plants by the time that supper was ready. It was an early supper and would allow Diane a bit more time for training. The rooster attempted to crow somewhere behind a trailer and the noise led to snickering from quite a few people. That hilarious noise never got old. The newcomers had heard it earlier on, but still found it funny.

After supper, Diane headed to an open section of the field with a staff in her hand. It looked like she was in the mood for fighting training tonight. Although sometimes she used a staff in zombie training as well.

Diane kept going past the middle of the field and a coil of rope appeared in her hands as she headed for the fence. Well, it was apparently zombie training after all. Probably a good thing with the three new people we had just picked up. A refresher or new tricks never hurt anyone either.

I always loved Diane's training. I grabbed both Todd's and Julian's hand, "Come on, let's go! It's zombie night!"

Others perked up as they got up and started heading towards the field. Julian was rather pale and looked quite nervous, "Uh... Zombie night?"

I grinned at him, "Every evening Diane teaches something. Tonight we are doing zombie evasion."

My words didn't ease his concern, but I still dragged Julian and an amused Todd towards the field. Todd didn't like zombies, but he always joined the training in case he ended up in a similar situation. Most people joined the training since it was new and often interesting. It was a welcome change from just sitting by the fire and gossiping.

"Is she walking that zombie on a leash?!" One of the other new men was staring with an open mouth as Diane returned with one zombie in tow. She was overly cautious in case of an accident, and usually looped a rope around the zombies neck in case she needed to immediately gain control of the situation. In this case, it really did look like she was walking a zombie on a really long leash.

One of the traders stretched, "Consider it more of a safety line." He was unconcerned by the slow zombie's approach. His blue eyes said that his apparent lack of attention was just an act.

Diane dropped the zombie's leash for a moment and jogged towards us, "Todd, can you and Laura please take our three new companions to the far side and go over zombie evasion basics?"

Todd easily agreed, "Sure." I nodded and tagged behind Todd as he went to track down the other two newbies who were lingering nervously near the back of the crowd. I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't get to help in whatever Diane was doing, but training I was about to do was very important for these three.

We all went to the far side of the trailers so they weren't distracted by the zombie. Todd explained about the behavior of zombies as well as basic evasion techniques. All three listened carefully, knowing that being on the road meant that they would be using this knowledge sooner rather than later.