A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 116

We managed to get in and out of the storage room without Sandy seeing a spider. I saw several, but I declined to mention them to her, even when she stepped on one. Getting Sandy's huge hockey bag up the ladder required Diane's help.

What did she have in there? It looked heavy, even for Diane. We could have stuck three of me in there and still had room to spare for a tea party. We stopped in front of our door and Diane grabbed two solar lights that had been hanging outside our door in the sun, "There we go. Let me just put a few solar lights up so you can see and you can pick an empty room."

We kept the solar lights there in case company came over on a rainy day. Not everyone here was fired after all and sometimes we liked light too. It didn't take long for Diane to come back. It was really interesting to see her eyes glowing strongly at the end of the hall and slowly dim as she approached the open door.

"The two rooms closest to the door are full, so you can pick either of the back ones."

Ace hadn't put anything down yet, so he simply wandered in. Diane helped Sandy by grabbing that massive hockey bag again. I followed them in as I carried the rug to go over Sandy's door. Ace already had the room on the left, which was right beside ours.

That left the one across the small hallway for Sandy. The small solar light was already hanging on a hook meant for it. Sandy had been carrying a small cot and placed it in a corner. Diane put the big bag nearby. I unrolled the dark yellow rug with orange swirls that Sandy had chosen. Diane helped me hang it since I was too short to reach.

Ace was much more efficient and his rug was already hung and neatly pinned back. I went to help Sandy unpack her bags as Diane went to help Ace carry back a wooden bed frame and mattress. Apparently he had a dislike of things that moved if he sat up too fast and a cot was on that list. Luckily there was a wooden bed frame in the storage, but Ace had said that he would have been fine with just a bed on the floor if needed.

I looked around at the piles of stuff I had pulled out of Sandy's bag. This was beginning to feel a lot like watching Diane empty her backpack. This bag was massive, but there was no way that all of this should have been able to fit inside.

Clothing, shoes, makeup, hair accessories, and much more slowly piled up around me as Sandy moved them to a shelf unit we had moved up earlier. She was clearly going to have to get a big dresser or three.

Diane and Ace made one trip with the frame and mattress and went back for bedding. I took a peek at the odd frame. It was so low to the ground that even a cat wouldn't be able to crawl under it. Ace had carefully put most of his weapons and fighting gear in the corner until he had a chance to put it away.

I returned to help Sandy unpack. By the time Diane and Ace made their second trip, I was ready to escape Sandy. I vowed that I would never have that much stuff. If I didn't count my boardgames and textbooks, everything I owned could fit in my backpack. Now I realized just how easy that made my life.

I couldn't imagine trying to haul this much stuff around constantly. Diane dropped a pile of folded blankets and sheets on the mattress, "You may have blankets, but you are on your own for a pillow until Roland returns. I did overhear that extra bed sheets, pillows, toothbrushes and the like are all on his shopping list. He should have them within the week."

Ace nodded, "That is no problem. I had expected to be sleeping in a tree or on a foam pad on the ground."

Diane chuckled, "We aren't quite that barbaric. We may have hung a hammock in the room if we ran out of cots and beds, but we had a lot of those in stock from last week. Apparently a big box store was advertising a big blowout and Roland had to check it out."