I woke up and the first thing I realized was that I was not cuddled up with Diane. I sat up in a partial panic. Was she okay? Where was she?

Ninette spoke from behind me, "Diane left to run a while ago. I told her that I would watch you until she returned."

I jumped at her voice, I hadn't realized that she had been sitting there. Ninette had just let Diane wander off in that condition while she sat here? I turned to face her, "She can barely move when the pain gets that bad. Why did you let her go alone?"

Ninette smiled kindly, "I escorted her outside the palisade and stayed with her until the actual pain had subsided. By the time she left me, she was only feeling the afterburn and was moving faster than I could. She does have her walkie talkie if you want to check on her."

I breathed a sigh of relief, Ninette hadn't left her until she was back on her feet. I knew that Diane's muscles would ache a bit today, so I would have to keep an eye on her once she came back. I shook my head, "No, if she was moving that well, then she will be fine. She will come back when she is feeling better."

I could barely believe that Diane had left me in the settlement, but deep down I knew that she couldn't have carried me when she left. It was another strike against Ninette's experiments – but this one affected both Diane and me. It had left Diane in pain. I was beginning to dislike this scientist.

Ninette shrugged, "It might be best if we stay here. Diane will probably check here first when she returns and I can't see her being too much longer. She started moving around 1am and it is almost 6am now."

I knew from Diane's stories and past experiences that the pain disappeared within minutes and she really only needed an hour or so of running to get everything back under control. I bet that she was trying to avoid Ninette.

My thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. I tensed up in case it was a stranger, but jumped off the bed once I saw that it was Diane. I gave her a big hug, which she returned. Her voice held no traces of pain or discomfort, "I am fine Laura. I am sorry that I had to leave you. I did run close to the walls so that I could hear you if you called."

That was a relief. I looked up, her eyes had a faint shimmer, but that was simply because she wasn't hiding it. "I know you had no choice, but you came back and that is all that counts."

Ninette stretched as she got to her feet, "Let's head back to the lab. I am out of vials and I want to grab another blood sample to see if anything changed."

This lady was worse than a vampire. At this rate, Diane wasn't going to have any blood left. Diane nodded, "Sure, let's go. It will be a few hours before breakfast is ready."

I grabbed Diane's hand and walked with her. I had no idea how she was handling this considering that she didn't like needles. We entered the main lab room and Ninette pulled a drawer open to bring out more of those tiny little vials. Diane made a face but held out her arm for Ninette to get her blood sample. I seriously hoped that it was the last one for several days.

Ninette put the vial on a test tube rack, "Are you currently feeling that afterburn you mentioned previously?"

Diane nodded, "Yes, although it should fade by noon."

Ninette held up that evil metal skin sampler again, "Mind if I get another sample? I was to see what is happening in the skin and muscle to cause that effect."

With the amount of skin samples she was taking, I was being to wonder if Ninette was actually a zombie who was stealing flesh in the name of science. Diane was silent for a few seconds before sighing and holding out her other arm. Ninette went to put the evil contraption against the side of her arm.

My eyes widened at the sight of six pink marks in the same area. Those were the rapidly healing wounds from that same machine. Ninette must have taken more samples while I was asleep. This was like a slap in the face, did she not care about the injuries or pain?! Why was Diane so willing to go along with it? It was official, I now had a grudge against that scientist.

I turned to dig in my backpack. I knew the answer to my one question though, Diane wanted to know what was happening to her body. She also hoped to help make a cure. I dug out one of the bandaids that Diane had given me. I got up and jumped as the machine made that clanking noise.

Diane watched in amusement as I put the bandaid over the slowly bleeding injury. I was very careful not to touch her silver blood since I knew it would burn me. I gave Ninette an accusing look before climbing into Diane's lap.

Ninette noticed and looked confused, as if she didn't understand why I had given her that look. I cuddled against Diane as Ninette kept glancing back at me. The look I had given her was obviously bothering her. Realization crossed her face as she figured out that she had upset me by hurting Diane.

Ninette cleared her throat awkwardly, "Hey Laura, do you know what a tornado's favorite game is?"

I remained silent. I had never played with a tornado before. Ace had once referred to Diane as a tornado when she was guarding me in our practice sessions, but at those times she wasn't playing around and anyone who came close ended up with bruises.

My silence had Ninette uncomfortable. She shuffled her feet, "They like to play twister."

Had Diane cracked that joke, I would have giggled or at least smiled. I did neither for Ninette. This evidently bothered her. "How can you tell a tree is a dogwood tree?"

A dogwood tree was actually a shrub, and quite a unique one at that. Its red bark and leaves were distinctive even for those not that familiar with plants. Diane glanced down at me in amusement. She knew that I knew the answer to this joke.

Ninette once more answered her bad joke, "By its bark. Do you get it? Dogwood?"

Oh, I got it all right. She really needed better jokes. I kept my face blank as Ninette glanced at me again. She fiddled with a syringe and one of the vials of blood while muttering, "I have hundreds of jokes about the periodic table and molecules, but almost none of my jokes involve things that a kid could understand..."

Diane grinned silently at Ninette's muttering and failed attempts to make me laugh. Ninette tried again, "The teacher asked her student, 'Tell me why the law of gravity is useful.' The student replied, 'If we drop something, it's much easier to get it off of the floor than off the ceiling.'"

Diane chuckled at that joke, but I remained studiously silent. Ninette was obviously not used to being the 'bad guy' and it ate at her like a worm in an apple now that she realized it. She kept trying out various jokes in vain to make me at least smile. I silently thanked Rick for his training, I was able to keep a straight face the entire time.

I would have thought that Diane would have been somewhat irritated by the cold shoulder I was giving Ninette, but she seemed faintly amused by it. Diane reached over to peel off the bright pink bandaid. I looked up at her, "Is your arm better now?"

I pointedly did not look at Ninette. Diane twisted her arm a bit so I could see the angry red mark and a bit of dried blood, "See? No bleeding and it is almost healed up already."

Ninette's pleading voice came from the side, "I said I was sorry!"

Diane chuckled, "And I said that I forgave you."

Diane glanced down at me and grinned at my unconvinced expression, "Honest Laura, I did volunteer. She did not tie me up for that one. Besides, if she can figure out a trick to allow me to sleep painlessly all night, then I will consider the pain to have been well worth it."

I carefully considered Diane's opinion. If this really could lead to a cure for the pain, then that would be a huge thing. Maybe I should forgive Ninette. She was trying to patch up the bit of friendship that we had started the last few days.

Perhaps I could get one last bit of revenge with a bad joke of my own. I looked up at Ninette with a mischievous expression, "Ninette, where do most zombies live?"

Ninette looked confused at the question and did not realize that it was actually the opening for a joke, "Uh, their highest concentrations are found in cities although they are drawn in by the scent of the remaining human settlements if they come near, why?"

I giggled, "No, they are usually found on dead end streets."

Diane put her hand over her mouth as she tried to stop snickering. Ninette looked like I had hit her over the head with that bad joke. Her mouth was open and she was stunned into silence at the terrible joke. I tried to hold a straight face, but her expression was priceless. Seconds later I lost the battle and started giggling uncontrollably at finally leaving Ninette completely and utterly speechless.

Diane gave up her attempt and started laughing as well. Someone else started chuckling and my head whipped around. I hadn't known that someone had entered the room, my back was mostly towards the door. Diane grinned at Taver, "Liked that one, huh?" Diane must have known he was there since she didn't seem at all surprised by his appearance.

He chuckled and nodded as he took a seat in an open chair. He turned to look at me, "I will have to remember that one. Figured I would stop in to see you. I only caught a glimpse of you here and there since Ninette has been holding you hostage."

Diane chuckled, "Yeah, she has been keeping me pretty busy."

Taver looked interested, "A few people mentioned that Ninette had been unusually busy and excited since you came, did you find anything?"

Diane rubbed the back of her neck, I knew she usually didn't want to talk about something when she did that, "Turns out she managed to find a different virus in my blood that has one or two similarities to the zombie virus, including being only transmitted by body fluids. So, yeah, she is quite excited. She is trying to see if she can get my body to create different antibodies that may also be able to take on the zombie virus."

Taver looked surprised, "Any success yet?"

Diane chuckled, "Well, I succeeded in losing a gallon or so of blood to her testing. The antibodies attacked Ninette's cells as readily as they attacked everything else."

I grinned as Ninette looked a bit embarrassed at Diane's comment. Taver winced, "Ah." He looked at Diane, "Well, I am heading out tomorrow again."

Diane tilted her head, "Where are you heading?"

He shrugged, "Clive wants me and some others to head up to that fort in Wainwright that you were talking about to see what systems they have in place that we can copy or what they might be willing to trade."

Diane sat up straighter in sudden interest, "Would you be willing to take a letter from me and give it to a friend I have up there?"

He grinned at her, "Do you still have that extra large can of bug spray?"

Diane grinned back at him, "I will bring it to you later tonight along with my letter."

Taver chuckled and nodded. He visited for a while longer before leaving to pack. Ninette went back to examining her samples and Diane passed me some paper and a pen. I could write a letter as well! Who did I want to write to? I decided to write a letter to a few kids that I really liked at Wainwright, Rick, Donovan, and Trish. Diane was already writing her own letters.

I followed Diane as she went to track down Taver. We found him packing his saddlebags. Diane lightly tossed the bug spray at him. He caught it and stood up with a grin, "Ah, just what I needed to make my trip easier!"

Diane chuckled as she handed him a big padded envelope, "Here are the letters as well, I did label it and he will distribute the others inside for me. Please deliver it to him quietly without telling him who it was from. He will know once he opens it."

We had put each letter into its own addressed envelope and put them all in a big one that Matthew could distribute. Taver raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

Diane chuckled at his caution, "I just say to do it quietly because there are a couple of hotheads in that place who were convinced that I am infected with the zombie virus. Matthew will probably track you down later for a friendly visit, but considering the hotheads had a gun or two, keeping things on the quiet side might be the safest option. Unless they learned tolerance, which isn't likely."

Taver shrugged as he dismissed his concern, "Thanks for the warning, I will keep it low key. Just a letter that happened to be left at a random place addressed to him for anyone to take who happened to be heading in that direction."

I think Taver was as good at playing along as Rick could be. It was a really good cover story that no one would even bother to question. Diane left him to finish packing as we went to find some supper. I hoped that Taver would bring letters back for us as well.