A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 132

I woke up and remembered to be quiet. I had heard Diane come in sometime in the middle of the night and her footsteps had sounded like she was still tired. Ace had gone to his room with his nearly silent footsteps.

My eyes glowed in the dark room as I looked around. Diane was still sleeping. I slowly wiggled out of my blankets and took my clothes to the office to change out of my nightgown. I heard the faintest rustle of cloth from further down the hallway.

Ace must be getting up. I went outside to wait for him. It didn't take him long to appear outside and give the meadow a lookover. Such surveillance checks were habit and I had already looked over the meadow to see if anything had changed.

I grinned at him, "That is the first time we have gotten outside without her waking up. I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to lose those bets today."

Ace chuckled, "I believe you could be correct."

A soft voice called down, "We wondered about that. We already went for our run and can make sure that no one disturbs her." We looked up to see Trevor and two other Messengers lounging on their usual deck.

Ace nodded, "Thank you." He looked down at me, "Feel like a run?"

I grinned and skipped around wordlessly to show that even if Diane was breaking some sleeping records, I had more than enough energy to compensate. He chuckled and shook his head as he started walking along the path to the nearest slide. I followed and knew that he was walking because jogging was louder.

Soon enough, we were on the ground and jogging towards the gate. Even at a jog it took some time to get there. It never failed to surprise me how large the meadow was. It simply wasn't something you could quite get used to.

The sentries above gave no warnings so we knew the area on the other side of the access door was clear of zombies or animals. The door was just big enough for one person to pass through, but we didn't really like leaving the massive gates open all day. That kind of defeated the purpose of having gates. We did open them several times throughout the day for the trader caravans and livestock, but we closed them afterwards.

Ace passed through the access door ahead of me as a precaution. He didn't pause in his jogging though and I didn't wait either. I saw a few returning from their early runs and a few others in the distance. It looked like we were some of the earlier ones up and about.

"So, did those Messengers talk your ears off last night?"

I grinned at Ace, "They had lots of jokes and even more energy. I don't know how they manage to sleep."

He was amused, "They have gotten used to running all day, so if they don't get as much exercise, it tends to express itself in other ways."

I giggled, "Is that why they seem to act like my friend did when she stole an energy drink?"

He chuckled, "That is one way of putting it, but yes, they tend to be almost hyperactive unless they are working or running. They can contain it if they try, but most of the time they don't bother."

I nodded, "I can understand that. I feel it too sometimes. Diane once said that Heartfire combined with youthful energy was something she never wanted to face without her own Heartfire energy."

Ace laughed, "I think I can agree with that one. I rarely see you ever sit still. A few of Roland's original crew told me about their reaction to the amount of energy you had before they found out about the Heartfire virus."

I grinned at him and glanced at the dense forest around me. I darted off, "Catch me if you can!"

This was one of the few sections of the vast forest where I had a chance at evading Ace. I could go places he couldn't. I didn't hear anything behind me and knew I had to double back since he would already be ahead of me to cut me off.