A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Epilogue

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I opened up my heart-shaped locket and spread the 7 pictures that were hidden inside across the rock in front of us. Tyler reached over and slid the pictures of my parents over for a closer look. The three-year-old looked up at me with his brilliant blue eyes, "Who are they? I have never seen them before."

I smiled at the two old pictures, "They are my parents."

Tyler looked at the pictures for a long time. He knew I had been adopted. Beside him, Sarah was stacking rocks into a pyramid while listening. She was only one year old, but we all knew that she understood far more than she ever let on. The Heartfire that they had been born with had accelerated both their mental and physical development.

Tyler picked up the pictures to examine them closer. "You met Mom and Dad before they were married, right?"

Sarah furrowed her eyebrows in concentration as she stacked the rocks, "What happened to your parents?" Tact was not her strong point, although the fact that a one-year-old could manage a complete sentence with effort was mindboggling.

I nodded slowly as my mind drifted to the past, "My parents were bitten when the zombies first appeared. I had locked myself upstairs. Nine months later, I was sitting in a window and saw a person with glowing blue eyes running through the street shadows. I wasn't sure what to make of her."

Tyler interrupted, "Only those with Heartfire have glowing blue eyes." His voice made it sound like it was obvious. For anyone in Sanctuary, that fact was a well-known part of life.

I grinned at him. "Yes, but this was back when Diane was still the only one with Heartfire. At that time no one even knew that it was a different virus, not even Diane."

Tyler thought about that for a moment, "Okay, what happened then?"

I slid the heart-shaped picture of Diane closer, "At the time, I only had facts from my family and from the old tv stations to work with. My Aunt strongly believed in guardian angels, and the news stations had warned of fast zombies called Swifts. When I saw her, I was figured that she was either my guardian angel or that she was more dangerous than the zombies that had roamed the streets for months."

Tyler chuckled. "The answer is kind of obvious..."

I grinned at him. "Yep. She was both."

He had not expected that answer and gave me an odd look. It was my turn to chuckle. 

"She was my guardian angel as she protected me from anything that threatened me, and you have to admit that she is more dangerous than a Swift if you get her mad."

He had pushed her patience a few too many times when he had hit the terrible two stage. He grinned as he caught on, "You're right. Although the chances of anyone laying a hand on Mom before Dad sent them face-first into the dust is slim to none."

I chuckled, he was right. Ace was fiercely protective of Diane, which complicated her role as a fighting trainer if she got injured, which occasionally happened. Bruises were one thing, but for some reason, any decent cut that bled freely had Ace intervening. 

Within the first year, Diane had given up trying to teach the more advanced fighters. For all of her tricks and experience, she just wasn't as fast as most with Heartfire and couldn't keep up.

I clearly remembered the event that caused her to stick with training beginners. She had been training a rather fast and enthusiastic person with established Heartfire. He had previous training with a fencing sabre before the Collapse and used several moves that were unfamiliar to Diane. Somehow, she had slipped or tripped, and his sword had connected. Against all odds, the padding around his sword had come undone, and his sword had cut deep into Diane's arm.