We pushed the horses on the way back. Diane kept close tabs on Don, probably in case he went into seizures. Once we made it to the base, Ninette grabbed a second sample of blood from Don before ushering him into her lab. He was put into an empty cell in case he turned before we were ready. Ninette wanted to grab a blood sample every hour to keep tabs on him.

His friends eventually found a football helmet so he could come out of the cell as long as he wore it. Ninette found some numbing salve and passed it to him. He was still quite worried, but at least the bite mark wasn't paining him as badly as before.

We all sat in the one room watching Ninette peer through the eyepiece of the powerful microscope as she slid slide after slide under it. Ninette was trying to track the zombie virus in Don's blood to see if she could see any difference between his infection and others she had similarly followed. The zombie virus was present and swiftly multiplying, but she hadn't seen any trace of the Heartfire virus. It was discouraging to say the least.

It had been three hours already, but none of us wanted to leave in case something happened. I was sitting on Diane's knees and leaning against her. I was still worried about her. She seemed very tired. She had even yawned! I had never seen her yawn before.

Ninette gasped, and we all turned our heads to look at her. She lifted her wide eyes up at us, before posting a picture on the computer screen. I blinked at the blue rectangular object on the screen. Diane looked at Ninette, "Is that what I think it is?"

Ninette nodded slowly, "Yes, it looks like the Heartfire virus managed to infect Don."

Diane furrowed her eyebrows, "Why is it blue?"

Ninette shrugged, "I am not sure. It could be the dyes I used to see it more easily, but it has the exact same shape." She zoomed in a bit more to examine it in detail. "It also has all of the same characteristics." She glanced over at Don who was looking at the screen in confusion, but with traces of growing hope. "I guess we will have to see how it progresses," Ninette looked back at the microscope.

Could the virus have somehow transferred when it was glowing? I didn't see any other way that particular shape would have appeared in a sample of Don's blood. Diane was eyeing up Don as he rubbed his arms, "Your muscles are getting achy, aren't they?"

Don looked surprised at her comment, "My arms are a bit sore, like I was at the gym for too long. Was that picture the same type of virus that you have?"

"Yes, it looks like the same virus. Hopefully it can take out the zombie virus swiftly. Although I do advise that you start jogging on the spot and alternating with pushups."

He looked at Diane in surprise, "What? Why?"

Diane sighed, "The Heartfire virus got that name for a reason. Remember our talk on the way out? What was the main symptom of the Heartfire virus?"

He furrowed his brows in thought, before realization crossed his face, "Discomfort or pain if the person has not had enough exercise."

Diane glanced the other way with suspicion, "That evil thing again?"

I looked over to see that Ninette had that metal skin sampler in her hands. She grinned as she brandished the spring loaded needle that took samples of the skin layers. She had a second insert tube in her hand, "I want one sample from you and one from Don."

Don looked at the shiny silver contraption with worry. Diane eyed it up before sighing and turning the chair so Ninette could get to her arm. I was really glad that I was not in her shoes. The needles were bad enough in my books at this point, but there was simply no comparison for that device of torture.

The snap of the spring still made me jump even though I expected it. Ninette pressed a gauze pad against the small wound and put a piece of medical tape across it. She glanced over at me and I stuck my tongue out at her. She chuckled at my reaction before turning to Don.

Don gulped with wide eyes as she turned to face him. I grinned as Diane chuckled, Don's friends had started shifting away from him just in case Ninette decided she wanted another sample for control purposes. Ninette grinned at him, "Relax, it isn't that bad. Just loud. I have a bandaid here, but I want to see if the Heartfire virus is taking hold in the muscle layers."

That seemed to convince him as he took a deep breath and nodded. Ninette took her sample from the same spot as she had with Diane. Don gingerly rubbed his arm where the bandaid was, "I thought you said it wasn't that bad."

Ninette didn't bother replying, she was already putting the samples into machines. Don started rubbing his arms as if they ached. Diane moved me off of her lap as she stood up. She walked over and knocked on Don's helmet, "Come on, I can see what you are doing and it looks like the beginning of a Heartfire flareup. Start jogging on the spot, by the way, it is going to get worse before it gets better. You may start regretting your decision over the next 48 hours. It should settle down by the third day if we can get it under control right away."

Don glanced at Ninette, "Won't that speed up the zombie virus?"

Ninette shrugged, "No idea. You are on untrod ground, but considering that muscle aches are more in line with the Heartfire virus than the zombie virus her advice may be the best."

Don sighed and stood up to start jogging on the spot. It didn't take long for his breathing to become heavy. He switched to doing push ups with a groan, "What else should I know about the Heartfire virus?"

Diane chuckled, "Exercise is going to be your new best friend. There are two main reasons that your muscles will ache or burn, 99% of the time it is due to the lack of exercise. 1% of the time it is from over-exertion when you are trying to push the limits of your body.

"Once the ache from lack of exercise sets in the only way to get the pain to go away is to start running, and to be honest, it hurts much worse when you start moving, but within minutes the actual pain will fade. It really isn't possible to get too much exercise. Oh, and say good bye to sleeping for more than six hours without waking up to go for a long hard run."

Don flopped on his stomach to stare at Diane in shock, "What?!"

I grinned at his reaction. Diane chuckled, "Believe it or not, after the first few minutes you won't even be tired when you wake up."

Don shook his head clearly not believing her as he started doing more push ups. Ninette took Don's temperature and a small blood sample as he panted. His temperature was higher than normal. Hours later he was exhausted, and went to an empty cell meant to hold a zombie to get some sleep.

It was just Diane, Ninette and me here now. I was tired, but trying to stay awake. Diane didn't look much better than I felt. She was clearly still tired. Ninette picked up a vial of glowing blood, "Any idea how this happened?"

Diane shrugged, "I was hoping that you could tell me. I got a splitting headache as the heat rose up in my blood. For some reason I was unable to control it and I have never had that problem before. It suddenly shifted and became cold. I had goosebumps everywhere. I felt like I was out of breath and at the end my head was feeling fuzzy as if I was about to black out. I felt the heat suddenly return and overtake the chill. The goosebumps disappeared and I managed to catch my breath, but I was pretty exhausted until after supper. Now I am just tired. I think I am going to skip my run until the Heartfire starts giving me those warnings."

Ninette nodded slowly while scribbling notes down, "I noticed that you didn't have your usual show of energy and I don't recall ever seeing you ride a horse before. I was also surprised when you managed to eat all the food that you took. Well, let's see what secrets this little vial is holding."

I leaned against Diane as we waited patiently. After some time Ninette looked up, "Well, this is interesting."

She pulled up a picture of the Heartfire virus. Or at least that is what I was pretty sure it was. The flat rounded rectangular shape was the same. It had a couple of the same short tentacles, but fewer of them. I didn't see any of the prongs or spurs.

I listened to them talk. Most of it was gibberish to my ears, but somehow Diane had caused the viruses in her blood to change their shape and use a certain kind of energy inside. The energy had caused the glow and also got cold, like when you used a can of compressed air.

The change in shape prevented cells from absorbing the virus. Between the cold and the cells being unable to absorb the viruses, she had been light headed. She was still tired because she had depleted that certain chemical in the viruses. She would recover as her body slowly used them and replaced them with new viruses.

Diane was thoughtful, "So, what caused it in the first place? Did that odd change mean that it was contagious at that point?"

Ninette leaned back in her chair and looked at her notes thoughtfully, "I am not sure what caused it. I suspect stress or strong emotion, as that has caused some side effects in the past. How often do you feel extremely strong emotions?"

Diane thought for a few moments and shook her head, "Not that often and I don't think I have ever felt these particular emotions that strongly since being bitten."

Ninette tilted her head, "Which emotions? Can you describe them?"

"Other times strong anger, fear, or the desire to protect caused my blood to turn silver and the heat to rise. I am familiar with those. This time it was an overpowering desire to help, but there was nothing I could do. I felt powerless to help and the answer lay within my own blood. I wanted to help so badly... I seem to recall the heat surging in response to those emotions and the intense desire to help, which caused the headache. It seemed... to twist... I can't describe it any better than that. Then it became cold and spread rapidly. The rest you know..."

That was quite interesting. Did this mean that she could potentially make the virus transmittable for others if they were bitten by a zombie? Ninette was scribbling away furiously, "An interesting occurrence. Maybe in a few days we will see if we can replicate it. But first..." Ninette once more leaned over the microscope.

I was slowly falling asleep and Diane started humming softly. I heard Ninette speak quietly, "By the way when you took off in the clearing she went straight up a tree and nothing I said could convince her to come back down until you returned."

Diane replied equally as softly, "She was supposed to climb the tree and stay up high until I returned. It is the only way I know that she will be safe if I have to leave her suddenly."

Diane kept humming and soon I fell asleep while listening to her soothing heartbeat.

I was coloring in a coloring book Diane had found for me. It was almost time for lunch. I glanced over at Don as he groaned and stretched. It was hard to see his face in the football helmet, but I knew his muscles were aching.

Diane came back with a tray, and started unloading the food onto the counter, "So, any update?"

Ninette smiled, "Actually yes. The sample of my blood where I introduced your glowing blood is now producing normal Heartfire viruses that also attack the zombie virus if I introduce it, without harming my remaining cells. I also have a better idea of what Don is going through."

She pulled up five pictures on the screen, "The one on the left is part of the first sample I got shortly after he was bitten. The second is two hours later, then after five hours, then nine hours, and the last one is from this morning. The first looks normal with no viruses present, the second shows a few zombie viruses, the third shows more zombie viruses and one Heartfire virus, the fourth is mostly Heartfire viruses and few zombie viruses, the last is showing only Heartfire viruses present. As of the fourth picture, his immune system has mostly been destroyed as well."

Don looked surprised and excited, "So I am not going to turn into a zombie?!"

Ninette grinned at him, "Congratulations! No, you won't."

I perked up with a smile, he wasn't going to turn into a zombie! Don jumped up and did a little dance as the three of us chuckled at his high spirits. I didn't blame him, it was huge news. Ninette shook her head in amusement, "Considering you are now carrying the Heartfire virus, you are going to be in for some changes."

Don flopped down in his chair, "Party pooper..."

Diane looked over at Ninette, "So any idea what caused his initial and current pain? It can't be from an overpopulation of the virus since it was still building up."

Don was better this morning, and although his muscles still ached, they didn't cause him actual pain. Not bad for less than 24 hours since being bitten.

Ninette grinned at Diane, "His body simply isn't used to the presence of the virus or the energy that it carries. The pain is because his cells don't know how to efficiently strip the spurs off the virus yet. I suspect that they will adapt in a few days so that he is mostly painfree, although his body will be adapting for a long time as the changes set in. I am curious to see how long it takes for his eyes or blood to change color."

Don looked confused, "When did Diane contract this virus? Since you speak of changes, she didn't always have it."

Diane shrugged dismissively, "Quite a while ago."

I blinked in surprise, even now she wasn't telling him about her bite. It made me wonder how serious it was for her scar to remain hidden. My thoughts were interrupted when Don's six other friends walked in with their own lunches. One of the guys greeted him, "Glad to see you are still with us! Any update?"

Don grinned wildly, "Yeah! The Heartfire virus took! I am free of the zombie virus!"

That started a whole round of cheering and backslaps. Don took off his helmet with a wild grin, realizing that it was no longer needed. Diane made a bit of face. I tilted my head in confusion, unsure why she looked faintly put-out. She glanced at me before smirking and speaking softly enough that only I could hear, "I was waiting to see how he planned on eating his soup in that helmet."

I giggled at the thought of it. He would have been able to slip the sandwiches and stuff in from below, but soup would simply run and the guard mesh in front didn't open.

Diane grinned silently at me before turning back to watch the group of people in their happy reunion. They had avoided physical contact in case they somehow contracted the virus, but now that precaution was no longer needed. From what I heard though, Don was in for a ride as the virus got established.