A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 89

I kept close to Diane as the sun began to set. We had made camp a few hours ago and people kept glancing over as our eyes started to brighten. Diane's were more noticeable, and she wasn't suppressing the glow at all.

The light kept fading until the glow from our eyes was as prominent as the fire we were sitting in front of. The glow in Diane's eyes was about as bright as a glow stick. Most seemed curious or a bit uneasy, but none were scared. This was a different campfire setup, it was long and narrow so that everyone could sit in front of the fire.

Amber was sitting beside Diane and looked at her bright eyes in fascination, "Wow. You really weren't joking when you said that your eyes glowed."

Diane shrugged, "They may look odd, but I can still see everything as well as I did at noon. It makes it really hard to fit in though."

She nodded in sympathy, "I can see it would be hard to fit in."

I looked up at Diane from her other side, "We can still go for our run before bed, right?"

Amber's jaw dropped, "How are you not tired yet?"

I peered around Diane to grin at the friendly lady shyly, "I have a lot of energy. Diane says that I ate the carrot that was meant for the energizer bunny."

Amber and several others laughed or chuckled at my response. Diane grinned at me, "Sure, we can go for our run. Do you want to go now?"

I nodded eagerly and stood up. Diane glanced over at a mystified looking Amber, "We should be back within an hour."

One of the guys frowned, "You are going to run around in the dark? What about zombies?"

Diane chuckled as she turned her glowing eyes in his direction, "We can see much better than they can at night, and we can easily outrun them. As long as a Swift doesn't appear, we will be fine. We will stay close by though, so don't be surprised if you catch glimpses of our eyes out there."

The guy mulled over what Diane said, but didn't reply. Diane stood and I followed her to the gate as we let ourselves out. The trailers had carried light interlocking fence panels to keep zombies away from the trailers and horses.

I hadn't been strong enough to help with that chore, but I had helped gather wood for the fire. Our hammocks were already hung high in the trees. The rest were sleeping on top of the trailers or inside of them. It was pretty crowded from what Amber told us. She had volunteered to make some room for us, but Diane had declined, for which I was grateful.

I would not have been able to sleep with strangers surrounding me. The hammock sounded much more appealing to me. They had been kind enough to put two big spruce trees inside of the fence, and we had hung our hammocks in them earlier, much to the amusement of those below. Several were convinced that we were going to fall out of them by morning.

I gazed around at the blue tinted forest. I could see clearly even in the really shaded places. Heartfire sight was amazing. I would never need a flashlight again. Each branch and root was easy for me to spot.

We ran for an hour before returning. Most were already in their sleeping bags. I climbed the tree to crawl into my hammock. Diane climbed up silently behind me before getting into her own hammock. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep.

I woke to the cloth on rope sound as Diane got out of her hammock. My eyes blinked in her direction for a few moments while I woke up. She added some wood to a pile of coals that were left from the fire last night. I yawned, although I wasn't tired.

Crawling out of my hammock was easy and soon I had taken down both Diane's hammock and mine. The traders were all sleeping and I silently folded up the hammocks before putting them by the one trailer. Diane finished adding wood and a tiny flicker of flame showed that a piece of kindling had caught.