It was like I had an obsession. I was determined to learn as much as I could to ensure that I could pass those zombie classes easily. Those three days Diane showed me more tricks and told me more about zombies. I eagerly listened to every word and committed it to memory. She showed me more demonstrations as well.

At supper, I even managed to ask Matthew, John, Nathan and Trish about what they knew about zombies or any stories they had. I learned that there had been a zombie outbreak last summer inside the Fort, which surprised me. They gave me some advice, but Diane had already covered all of those tips with me. I politely thanked them anyways.

It all centered around one common theme. Run and get out of their reach. Climbing was the main choice until help arrived. I had asked why they didn't kill the zombies if they were so dangerous and was told that attacking zombies was a huge risk. It was generally considered a suicide mission.

To kill a zombie, you had to cut off the head. To do that you had to get close with a melee weapon. If you were that close, the zombie could usually reach you, and even if it couldn't, the blood splatter was a huge concern. To the best of their knowledge, anyone who had tried to go around killing zombies on a regular basis didn't live past a few weeks with that career choice.

There was a group of people called Raiders who entered stores for supplies. They had special outfits and weapons in case they encountered a zombie and couldn't get away, but even that didn't always save them. It turned out that Nathan was a Raider. He had lost a few friends, mostly in the beginning, when they were still learning about how to detect and avoid zombies when inside of a building.

I quickly ate my supper, taking care to ensure that I wasn't too full. A full stomach made you slow and I didn't want to be slow tonight. I waited eagerly for Diane to finish and thankfully she seemed to sense my haste. We finally left the mess hall.

I was so excited that I could barely contain it. Our walking pace seemed far too slow for me. Instead of walking beside Diane, I started to run ahead. I glanced back and jumped a bit as I noticed that Diane was easily jogging along behind me with a grin. I still couldn't hear her footsteps.

I smiled back and picked up my pace since my excitement was building. I knew she would be able to keep up no matter how fast I ran, but at least I could now hear her footsteps. It was oddly fun just running down the hall. No one else was in this hallway, so I didn't have to worry about bumping into anyone.

We ran through the open door of the obstacle course room and Rick looked up in surprise. Diane grinned as we slowed to a stop in front of him, "Laura was so excited that we ran the whole way."

He chuckled, "I wish everyone else was so excited for my classes. I assume you have gone over the basics with her?"

She nodded, "Yes, I went over anything I could think of for a beginner, but I may have missed something. It has been a long time since I had this level of training."

He nodded and looked at me, "Okay, I will start with the basics, if I touch on something you didn't cover please let me know and I will go into it in depth. Feel free to ask any questions as I go along."

I nodded eagerly and sat on the bench he gestured to. Diane sat beside me and watched. He talked about zombies, their habits, actions, limitations, unusual features and more. Diane had already told me all of this, but I listened carefully anyways. He worded some things differently so it wasn't boring.

His son came in and the two of them went through a bunch of demonstrations. This room had hundreds of obstacles and props. Everything from pieces of fences to fake hedges. It did make it much more realistic. He occasionally checked if I had questions, but I shook my head each time.

Rick waved me over, "Okay, it is your turn to practice."

His son, Donovan, put on an ugly green mask and pretended to be a zombie. I easily outran him. I giggled at the way he lurched and staggered. If he had been a zombie, then he obviously required medical attention. I was sent back to the bench to watch more demonstrations.

Rick was chasing Donovan. Donovan ran towards a section of fence that was flanked by two fake hedges. He put a hand on top and easily vaulted over it. He kept running straight. That was not what Diane had showed me to do. I was surprised that his father didn't correct his mistake.

I shook my head, "You did that wrong."

The lanky teenager slowed to a stop and looked at me in confusion, "What do you mean?"

I pointed the hedge, "Once you jumped the fence, you should have angled so that the hedge prevented the zombie from seeing you. You would have more time to get away as opposed to running straight. The bottom fence rail is pretty high, if the zombie fell down it could easily crawl under it while trying to get back up."

Rick burst out laughing at Donovan's expression, "She has you there Donovan. Indeed, Laura, what you mentioned was smarter. It is also a bit more advanced that what this class has in mind. We will get to that kind of stuff in a bit. Feel free to point out anything else he does wrong."

It felt good to be praised. Diane seemed quite amused as well. They continued the lesson, but they were going over things much faster now. I was glad that it was all things that I knew or else I could have missed an important piece of information. By the time they finished I was yawning. I was surprised that the clock said it was 9:00, I had stayed up much later than Diane normally let me.

"That was our very first session and you passed it with flying colors."

I passed the first lesson! I bounced to my feet with new energy, "Thank you Rick! When is our next lesson?"

He scratched his head, "How about the evening after tomorrow, same time?"

I looked at Diane with big pleading eyes. She found it entertaining that I wanted training so badly, "We are free that day, you can take it if you want."

I spun around to face Rick, "Thank you! We will be here!"

We got dressed for the wedding. I was startled to see Diane in jeans and a fancy green top. I had never seen her wear anything other than her leathers yet. She looked really pretty. She dug in her dresser and pulled out a small purple box. She passed it to me and I looked at the small object in confusion.

"A small gift for you, for being so well behaved. I think it will go nicely with that shirt,"

I gasped in surprise, she had bought me a present?! I quickly unwrapped it and opened the small box. A small butterfly hair clip rested inside. It wasn't much bigger than my thumbnail, it had purple enamel and gold plating on it in the pattern of a monarch butterfly. How did she know that I loved purple so much?

I carefully picked it up as I admired it, "It's so beautiful!"

Diane knelt down beside me and I gave her a big hug, "Thank you!"

She smiled and showed me in the mirror how to use it to pin my bangs to the side so that they stopped coming out from behind my ear. We left our room and Trish was waiting for us. We went over to a building I hadn't been in before. It was massive and had so many decorations hanging on the walls.

There were so many people that I didn't have a chance of counting them. I thought that I recalled someone saying that there were around a thousand people here. If there were that many, then it looked like they were all in this big open building.

I looked around, but couldn't see anything with so many people around. I was just too short and that made me kind of sad. Diane somehow noticed and put me on her shoulders. I was thrilled. Part of it was that I could see everything now, but mostly because I was sitting on her shoulders. Her hands held my ankles to keep me from falling backwards.

There were several people getting married. I watched with interest as they said their vows. I quickly covered my eyes as they kissed and felt Diane chuckle. I wasn't too sure what she found so funny though – they were kissing! In front of everyone!

The crowd broke in whistles, cheers, and applause. I jumped at the noise. I had never heard anything so loud in my life. The newlyweds went into an open area as music started playing. They began to dance before others also went onto the dancefloor. This seemed to be some sort of sign as other people started talking or moving about.

Diane put me on the ground and followed Trish into the crowd. My heart started beating faster as I followed. I kept close behind her, but people didn't seem to notice me and occasionally bumped into me. There were so many people and they were so close together. I was so close to Diane that our clothing brushed, but it didn't help as another person brushed against me and I stumbled into Diane.

Diane glanced at the person. Her gaze was sharp, as if her eyes alone could reprimand the person. They had an odd fierce look to them. The man mumbled an apology as he kept going. Another stranger brushed close enough that our shirts touched and I leaned against Diane as I trembled from nerves. There were just too many people and they were all crowded around us.

Diane grabbed my arms and put me back up on her shoulders. I sighed in relief. She quickly caught up to Trish. I now saw what they had been heading towards. There were over a dozen tables full of food. Diane held two plates and I pointed out things I wanted.

Nathan and Trish went to visit a group of people I didn't recognize. Diane headed over in a different direction. It took me a bit, but I realized that she was heading towards an empty corner. It had several sections of rope to keep most people out. Diane put the plates down on a tiny table and put me down.

I glanced around and realized that it was set up for kids. The table and chairs were a perfect size for me. I sat down in one chair and watched Diane. I wasn't sure how she was going to sit at this small table. She pulled a chair back and pushed it to the side before simply sitting on the ground. The table was the right height for her like that. I grinned, I had not expected her to do that.

We finished eating as more kids showed up. I knew several from the playground. Elisa from the classroom pulled me to my feet and led me over to three others as we tried to dance. It was fun. Someone turned the dance into a game of tag. We ran around in the roped off corner that had been reserved for us.

I did notice that Diane left with the dirty plates and disappeared into the crowd. I was nervous, but remained with the other kids. If I tried to follow now, I would get lost in the crowd. I kept playing tag while watching for her to return.

I relaxed as I saw Diane smoothly slip through the crowd as she returned. She stood with the other parents and guardians as she talked with them. I laughed as I tagged a blonde hair girl. She darted after a boy with brown hair. At one point Diane who beckoned me over and I quickly ran over.

"Will you be okay here for a bit? I am going to go dance for a while. I will come back before too long."

I glanced at the crowded dance floor with all of the moving people and couldn't for the life of me figure out why she would want to go into that mass of people. She was watching me, so I nodded. She ruffled up my hair as I squeaked in surprise and jumped backwards. She grinned and her eyes seemed to brighten for a moment, "I'll be back in a while. I won't be far away."

"Okay." I was somewhat happy to remain here and play with the other kids. I didn't want to go into that crowd again. I was tagged as 'it' and quickly rejoined the game as I ran around to try and catch a larger black haired girl.

About half an hour later, Trish and Nathan wandered over to visit with the other adults. Somehow, Diane managed to appear out of the crowd almost at the same instant. With a grin I tagged Diane as 'it'. She dropped into a crouch and started chasing the other kids who squealed as they tried to avoid her.

It was easy to tell that she was letting them escape her, but she was moving quickly enough that they didn't get a chance to stop and catch their breath. A few minutes later she tagged a boy who looked to be around ten years old. He promptly tagged a lady on the side who looked a lot like him. She was probably his mother, but she quickly joined in.

It had been a long time since I played with so many people at once, but it was fun. A lot of the guardians and parents had joined in the game. I spent a fair bit of time watching Diane and noting how she moved around objects and people as she easily avoided getting tagged again.

She often moved behind someone else or changed direction just as they got close and they would choose an easier target instead. Oddly enough, many of the things she did were things she had taught me in how to avoid a zombie in a crowd of people. She simply ensured that she was not the easiest target.

The group slowly thinned out as kids left with their guardians. Soon it was just a couple of kids dancing. After a while Diane came over, she wanted to go to the room with the exercise bike. I had my fill of people for a while and readily agreed. She led me to a different door that didn't require us to cross the still-bustling dance floor.

We walked down unfamiliar hallways. I walked beside her on her right hand side, just behind her elbow. It was a good spot to walk. I could see her face and she was still in the lead. We reached the room and she started pedaling the bike. I couldn't figure out how she could pedal that bike so fast.

We occasionally came to this room and, as per usual, I grabbed a book and sat beside her as we went over it. We almost finished the book on birds before Diane had enough of the bike and we headed to our room for bed.

I got into my pajamas. "Hey Laura, come look at this." I glanced over to see Diane looking out of the window with a grin as she brushed her hair out. She didn't seem that amused despite grinning. I came over and looked out, but I wasn't sure what she wanted me to see. The sun had set and it was pretty dark out.

She pointed ahead towards the fence, "Can you see anything wrong with this picture?"

I peered into the darkness, the lights from the Fort gave some light. There wasn't much in the direction she had pointed though, just a guard post and the perimeter fence. The sentry was looking at the stars and didn't seem to be watching the ground. I didn't see any zombies in sight though.

My response was hesitant, "The only thing I see that might be wrong is that the sentry on that post is watching the stars."

I wasn't sure if that was the right answer. Diane pulled a set of binoculars out of her backpack and passed them to me. I had used binoculars with my dad, so I took off the protective end caps and put the device to my eyes.

I gasped in shock and alarm, "Is he asleep on duty?!" That sentry was supposed to be watching for trouble, why was he asleep?!

Diane grinned with a sly look on her face, "Yes, he is. What do you say we teach him that it is wrong to do that?"

I recognized her expression from when she was about to play a prank on Trish that she wouldn't appreciate. There had been a couple of times that the lock on Diane's door had kept Trish at bay until she calmed down. I grinned back at her, "Yes!"

Diane chuckled, "Let's finish getting changed and turn the lights off. I have an idea and it will work from here."

I quickly brushed out my hair in anticipation. What would she do? I knew she wasn't about to go outside in her pjs, but I didn't know what she planned to do. She took out a pen and a small strip of paper and started writing on it. She showed it to me. I read it aloud, "The zombies are not in the stars. Perhaps try watching the ground instead."

I thought it was funny and gave her the thumbs up sign. She grinned at me as she grabbed her bow and examined a couple of arrows before choosing one. She wrapped the paper around the middle of the arrow shaft and tied it there with a spiral of thread. She turned off the lights and opened up the window slightly.

The cool air flowed into the room as I watched her eyes start to glow in the dark shadows. She aimed her bow out of the window and released the string. She swiftly closed the window and we held still in the shadows. I noticed her eyes no longer glowed, in fact, it was hard to make her out in the darkness despite the fact that she was standing beside me.

The sentry had jumped out of his chair as the arrow thudded into the post above him and almost tripped over his own feet. I giggled at his antics and Diane was snickering. He saw the arrow and looked around, but we were invisible in the shadows of our room. Even standing, he had to reach up to pull the arrow down.

There was a yard light above the post, so we could see him quite well. It took him a bit, but he got the paper off of the arrow. I giggled, "The zombies are not in the stars. Perhaps try watching the ground instead." Diane chuckled. Most people would have said that it was an obvious fact, but I still couldn't believe he had fallen asleep on the job!

"I somehow suspect that he is not going to fall asleep on duty again." Diane sounded satisfied. We watched the guy pocket the note as he took a seat and scanned the ground that he could see. It looked like he wasn't going to take another nap.

I wonder if he was worried that the next arrow might end up closer? I knew Diane's arrow wouldn't miss her target and I also knew that she wouldn't have actually shot him. She just wanted to scare him into being a bit more responsible.

I yawned and climbed up the ladder to get into bed. Diane stood at the window for a while before heading to bed herself.