A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 126

I peered at the baby in Diane's arms. Her brilliant blue eyes managed to lock onto my own with some difficulty. This was the baby who was responsible for Roland kicking his building plan immediately into action. She had been born three days ago. They had named her Hope and her eyes shimmered in the dim light showing that she had inherited her Mother's Heartfire.

She had caused concern when her mother had went into labor a month early, but at seven pounds, the bouncing baby girl seemed quite healthy. Other expectant parents were relieved to see that she seemed unaffected by the Heartfire's inactivity pain as that had been a major cause for concern. According to other parents, Hope was awake more than the average newborn baby and squirmed more than usual, so maybe she was getting what counted as a full workout at her age.

I was surprised that she could focus on me. I didn't recall any other baby managing that. They usually just kind of stared vacantly at those around them. I bet it had something to do with the Heartfire. This mother was in for a ride since she had the first child to be born with Heartfire.

My presence and health had also helped reassure them somewhat that the Heartfire virus wouldn't kill children outright, but most were still waiting to see how little Hope would do. Diane passed the baby back to her mother.

I climbed up the jungle gym as Diane once more headed to help Ace with the fighting training. Most people only came to practice occasionally since they had no interest in being professional fighters. They just wanted to be able to defend themselves if something happened. But even taking turns going to training, there were enough people to keep both Ace and Diane busy when they were there.

I stretched as I examined the new snow. The big snowfall had finally finished dumping the white stuff on us and had left knee high snow everywhere. It looked like Diane and Ace were planning another session of training on how to fight in deep snow.

Judging from the small group waiting, most people had opted to skip this class. I didn't blame them. Diane wasn't slowed by the snow and neither was Ace. Others weren't quite as coordinated, even if they did have most of the grace that came with the Heartfire virus.

Ace was giving a lecture on one side of the field to one group while Diane was overseeing some people just learning the basics. One unfired teenager fell backwards in the snow and Diane went over to her. Ace suddenly turned and threw a stick at Diane before turning back to the stunned new trainees.

Diane dodged it even though she couldn't see it behind her. She narrowed her eyes at Ace's back, clearly knowing who was responsible. She bent down to pack a handful of the fluffy snow into a hard ball before whipping it at Ace's back. Ace could sense incoming objects just as easily as Diane could and simply sidestepped the missile.

Diane scowled and shook her head before chuckling. Ace had likely been lecturing about either keeping an eye out for unexpected missiles or some other thing, and that stick had been part of the lecture. He knew that Diane would dodge it. She easily dodged snowballs and could even dodge arrows.

Needless to say, Ace now had their undivided attention after that little display.

I helped Sandy pack a boxful of stuff up to the fourth ledge. She had agreed to marry Nick from Dave's group and she was now moving in with him. I hoped that he had enough rooms for all of her stuff. She had been collecting a lot since she now had a place she could leave it when she went out with the caravan.

The seven bells rang again, but I kept helping Sandy pack. It would be some time before the truck made it to the palisade and then to the truck shelter. The trucks had just parked when I handed the last bag to Sandy.