A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 107

The next six days fairly flew by in a flurry of work. I had never had so much fun in my life. There was constant work, but everyone was in a good mood. They wouldn't let me do lots of the heavier tasks, but I still got to do important things.

My speed and inexhaustible energy meant that I was one of the first people they looked for if they needed something brought to them. I also got to help add rocks to the cement mix that we used to build the walls of the barn and various animal shelters.

"Come on Boven. I know you are safe in here, but you really can't be wandering off like that."

The big dairy bull snorted, but was happy that I was talking to him. He was so mild mannered that he freely roamed the meadow since he acted more like a dog. He was also easily distracted by clover and butterflies. I didn't even need a lead line for him to follow me.

Roland had taken the trucks and half of our people the other day to go grab fencing supplies to help contain the cows, horses, and goats. We now had coops with huge chicken wire runs for the poultry. We had plenty of space, so we gave them massive enclosures larger than a soccer field. It would also delay any need for expansion later.

We had even given each type of animal a separate coop. The meat hens were separate from the laying hens, and the other birds were also segregated by species. The chickens knew I brought them food and I was their favorite, but the big white geese just wanted to chase me. I didn't so much as poke a toe into the goose pen unless there was an adult with a stick with me.

Boven stopped to munch on a big patch of clover. That bull really had a short attention span. I went back to gently scratch behind his ears, he loved that. I started walking and he lumbered after me in hopes of more scratches or pets. I stopped occasionally to give him a quick scratch before I kept leading him closer to big barn.

One of the women grinned at me, "Thanks for bringing Boven back."

I felt no shyness around the blue-eyed folk of Sanctuary. I wasn't sure how or when it had disappeared, but it had. I still felt some shyness around the other traders, but those with blue eyes didn't bother me. I could still play shy around those who were fired, but that crippling shyness that I couldn't overcome never appeared with them.

I smiled at her, "No problem. He will probably wander off again before long."

She laughed and nodded, "Most likely, but we don't want him near that gate since the trucks could come back at any point."

I grinned in agreement before going to track down Diane. Not that she was hard to find. She had been working on the same thing for the past hour. It was late afternoon and the work was officially over, although many chose to do lower-priority things that they wanted to do to help build Sanctuary faster.

Diane was building a ladder out of rope with thick branches for the rungs. She had been working on it on and off for a few days. I came over just as she started rolling it up into six big bundles. She glanced over as I walked closer, "I think I have it done, we just need to get it to the top of the cliff. Feel like putting Todd to work?"

I giggled as I ran off to locate Todd. I had to ask two people, but I eventually found him with a group that was widening the ledge where the houses were going to be built. We had already widened two ledges sufficiently and were working on a third. Noise and dust poured out of an opening as a three man team inside drilled out a home into the rock itself.

"Todd! We have a fun task to do!"

He straightened up and wiped sweat off of his forehead. He must have been working pretty hard to sweat with the slowly building Heartfire. He grinned at me, "A fun task, huh? If this is another attempt to lure me into that pen with the geese, then I am not buying it."