I woke to the sound of the alarm horn from a sentry. Diane was instantly on her feet and grabbed her backpack and weapons. I swiftly scrambled out of bed and grabbed my backpack as I rode an adrenaline high.

Diane ran out the door, still in her night shirt and sleeping shorts. I pushed myself faster as I tried to keep up with her. She kept her speed to something I could just barely keep up with. A dozen people were already running around and shouting, but most were heading towards a certain gate while more on the palisade were raining down arrows on whatever was on the other side of the wall. More people were coming out, their reactions slower than ours.

Diane gestured to a nearby massive spruce tree. I darted over to it and swiftly started climbing. She wanted me in a safe spot for whatever was going on. Voices reached my ears as I climbed.

"The door is breaking! Hurry up and kill it!"

"The arrows aren't doing anything!"

"Get more bracing for the door!"

I stopped climbing once I was most of the way up. No one would spot me up here, other than Diane of course. Especially in the middle of the night. I had quite the vantage point from up here. Something was trying to break through one of the access doors in the palisade wall.

Considering that arrows weren't stopping it, I had an awful feeling I knew what it was. Some people were trying to bring pieces of 2x4's, but there were half a dozen simply trying to keep the door from swinging inwards, and they couldn't move to let the others secure the pieces.

The sound of splintering wood sent chills up my back. That door was not going to hold up much longer. I glanced over to see that Diane had reached the top of the palisade as she swiftly analyzed the problem.

She looked at some of the people milling around below on the inside of the fence and shouted, "Get that picnic table close and wait for it to be distracted!"

I could see that a couple of people were already bringing a wooden table closer to the breaking door. More went to help them haul it over. Diane hefted her glaive before throwing it like a spear. Right into the grass outside the fence. I could see it from this angle, and there was clearly nothing there. I knew she had a plan though, she wouldn't throw away a weapon lightly.

Some of the bowmen beside her started insulting her aim. She ignored them as she ran down the palisade a bit before vaulting over the waist high ledge to the other side. I held my breath in suspense, I couldn't see her due to the palisade. The wall was at least three times as tall as she was, that was a huge drop, even for her.

I knew she wasn't in danger from a Swift. The ground around the fence had been cleared of trees so the sentries could see anything approaching. However, there were a couple of large trees left standing here and there. Their lower branches had been cut away and pieces of wood like ladder rungs had been nailed on instead, in case a zombie caught someone in the open.

It would give her a place to retreat if something went bad. I doubted that she would use them.

One of the bowmen on the wall thought she was insane, "What the hell do you think you are doing?!"

I saw her appear in my view as she ran towards where her glaive was lodged in the grass. A shrill whistle came from Diane as she waved her arms to catch the attention of the unseen foe. She whistled again, just before she fired her bow.

Her eyes started shimmering as she fired five more arrows while sidestepping closer to her glaive. I gasped as I recognized the fast zombie. It was the same Swift that Diane had tied up in the forest months ago for Ninette.

She quickly put her bow back in its holder even as she grabbed her glaive in her other hand, and yanked it out of the dirt. The Swift was blind as an arrow stuck out of each eye socket, the sight made my stomach turn. I was glad that it was night and my vision was not good enough yet to see it clearly.

Diane's eyes were closer to a glow now as she focused on the approaching Swift. It had marked her location before it had been blinded and was still heading in her direction. Diane swiftly grabbed a rock and threw it a few feet to the side of her.

The Swift focused on the noise of the rock and Diane swung the glaive in a fast move I couldn't see. Its knee buckled and... split at the knee. I shuddered as the Swift's leg had been sliced clean through at the knee joint from behind. I made a mental note to myself to cross fighter off of my list of possible career paths. This was sickening, even if I understood the need for it.

The people inside had almost secured the table over the door with frantic hammering. Shouts came from at least fifty people who were trying to figure out what was going on. A couple dozen were on the boardwalk on top of the palisade watching what they could see of the fight.

The Swift was snarling loudly enough for me to hear it up here. Diane had backed up a bit while she watched to see how it acted while it was down. Some zombies were very dangerous when on the ground. This one was no exception, it lunged wildly in odd twisting angles. It was unpredictable at best, deadly at worst.

Diane backed up a bit more before taking off her backpack to dig through it. She put her backpack back on as she held something in her hands. It was too dark out for me to see what it was. Diane carefully advanced from the side before throwing an object in front of the feral creature.

The Swift lunged at the object, and Diane moved like lightning to dart in before backing up. Her eyes were truly glowing now, she was using her Heartfire abilities to increase her speed to jaw-dropping levels.

Diane started backing up and the Swift was suddenly moving as well. I narrowed my eyes and blinked as I finally saw the rope she had looped around its neck. She tied the end of the rope to a tree before backing out of range.

I heard her quiet whistle and the Swift headed blindly in her direction. Once it reached the end of the rope, it strained against it uselessly. She tossed something else in front of it again. It went after whatever it was, probably a piece of wood, and the moment it was distracted Diane struck with her glaive.

The Swift's head rolled away as its body finally went limp. I sighed in relief, glad to know that Diane was immune to the zombie virus. We didn't have to worry about blood splatter like everyone else did.

"Shit. Look at her eyes. Is she infected?"

"Her eyes are blue, not red. I don't know."

"Eyes aren't supposed to glow. Don't let her back in."

"She is probably infected. She got way too close, there will be blood on her clothing."

"Quick! Board the other gates!"

"What the hell is she? How are her eyes glowing?"

Whispers from below caught my attention. They had seen her glowing eyes. I inhaled in sudden apprehension. I quickly looked back at Diane, but she had already dimmed her eyes so they no longer glowed. Perhaps she had heard the whispers.

Diane slowly walked back towards the wall, testing to see how they would react now that she had gotten so close to a zombie. There were about twenty on the wall watching her. Most had bows in their hands, although they weren't pointed at Diane. They did have an arrow nocked though.

Diane called out, "I am not injured. May I come back inside? Or should I stay out here until the morning?" My eyes widened, I was not going back to that room alone.

One guy called out, "And we are supposed to believe that?"

Someone else shouted, "Your eyes were glowing earlier. What is wrong with you?"

The leader, Phil, called out, "Everyone here has just had a big scare and all of the doors have been nailed shut just in case. If you don't mind, could you please camp out there until dawn?"

He was obviously trying to suppress any panic. My heart fluttered, sure I had slept here while Diane went out running after I grew tired, but never had she been forced to remain outside.

Diane was ever the level-headed mediator, "Sure. I can camp out here. I have a hammock for the trees and I am used to using it. See you in the morning."

She turned and walked towards the distant treeline. I squinted, it was hard to see where she was going. It was so dark out and she was quite some distance away. Eventually I lost sight of her, but it looked as if she was walking in a gradual curve towards the north.

"What are we going to do?"

"I thought you said her eyes were glowing. I didn't see anything."

"They were glowing earlier, when she was close to the zombie."

"I think you better go easy on the moonshine pal. Eyes can't glow."

What was moonshine? Diane had never warned me about the moonlight before...

"No, he is right. I saw it too."

"Me three."

"As close as she got to that zombie, she will have been infected. We can't let her back in."

Phil sighed, "I agree. Diane is probably infected."

"What about that girl? What's her name again?"

"Uh... Laura, that's it. Diane isn't going to leave easily without her, and if that kid is crying, she might use that pigsticker on us."

"Easy fix. Tell the kid she died in the attack defending this place. Let her consider her a hero."

"And her guardian?"

"Tell Diane that the kid doesn't want to see her. If they don't talk, we can keep the girl, and Diane will leave."

"Just don't let them hear or see each other, and we will be fine. I am sure that Jack and Leanne would love to adopt her, they have been trying for kids for years now."

"Sounds good. When should we tell the kid?"

"Let her sleep. Hopefully Diane will be gone before Laura wakes and starts looking for her."

"Sounds good to me."

"I am going to bed. This was far too much excitement for this time of the night."

They continued muttering as the group scattered. Far more sentries were now present on the wall than normal. I shivered as their words rolled around my head. They were trying to trick Diane into leaving me. The thought of her leaving terrified me.

Silence slowly descended on the settlement. Sentries with torches remained at their posts. My fear had turned into determination. There was no way I was going to just sit by and do nothing while they tried to separate us!

I took careful note of all of the sentries. Every gate and door had literally been nailed shut with a board or two. I quietly climbed down and kept to shadows. The sentries were watching outside the fence, not inside of it. Had we been at Wainwright, their Group Leader would have had some sharp words for their carelessness.

But this was not Wainwright Fort, and these were not trained people. I had far more training than twenty of them put together. The ladder going up to the board walk on the palisade didn't even creak under my light body.

I crouched down beside the top of the wall while I pulled out a rope and folded it in half. With a few twists, I had a special knot tied to one of the palisade logs. No sentry patrolled this tiny section and the nearest two sentries were heading away from me.

I grabbed onto one rope and quickly climbed over the top of the logs before using the rope to scale down the palisade wall. The beauty of this knot was that if I tugged the other rope, it would come undone like a shoelace. Once the knot was undone, it all fell to the ground where I caught it, so it didn't make much of a noise.

I quickly tucked it into my pack before glancing around. The sentries were still heading away from me. I took off running into the darkness as fast as my feet could carry me. They wouldn't be able to see far in this darkness, especially when light-blinded by their torches. They should have known better than to have torches if they wanted to see further. I slowed once I was well out of their sight and close to the trees.

I quickly jogged along the treeline, peering into the tree tops as well as deeper into the forest. My footsteps were not silent at the moment, they made the grass rustle quietly. I wasn't aiming for silence now. All else failed, I still had my walkie talkie and Diane had the other one. She had been able to easily find me yesterday, let's see how easily I could find her. I doubted she was hiding.

The hammock was actually easy to spot once I was close enough to see it. It was in a huge spruce tree right along the tree line. As I approached the base of the tree, a pair of glowing blue eyes opened and blinked slowly at me. She had obviously woke up at the light sound of my footsteps.

She chuckled lightly from above as I started climbing up the tree, "Good morning Laura. How did you convince them to let you outside? Did they really nail all of the doors shut?"

I managed to wiggle my way into her hammock and curled up against her. It wasn't often that we got to share a hammock, it was quite rare actually. I would take the chance while I could, especially after tonight's events.

I cuddled up against her, "They nailed all of the doors shut with boards. I used a piece of rope to slide down the far side of the wall from an empty sentry platform."

My throat tightened and I got upset as I recalled the other things they had said, "They were talking there for a long time. They are not going to let you back in because they saw your eyes glowing, and thought that you might be infected from the Swift. They were going to keep me inside the fence and another couple was going to keep me! They were not even going to let us see each other!"

Diane rubbed my back soothingly, "They were just trying to protect you. Although I suspect that they would have put you outside the fence as fast as possible if they had seen how your eyes shine in the dark."

I had not considered that angle. It wouldn't be long before my eyes would actually be glowing. They were able to glimmer faintly already, so if I got really worked up, they would probably get a bit brighter. They would throw me out too then. In a way, it was a relief. Once they realized I was like Diane, they wouldn't want me either. It was kind of odd that I was glad that they didn't want me.

Diane murmured, "Do they know that you were not in your room?"

I grinned at her mischievously. I had climbed over the wall on the other side of the settlement, she wouldn't have seen my escape. "Nope, they were going to wait until I woke in the morning before telling me that you had been killed by a zombie."

Diane's eyes glowed a bit brighter in amusement as she chuckled, "I think that they are going to have a big surprise in the morning, huh?"

I giggled at that thought. Diane fell silent and I managed to sneak under her light blanket. She wrapped her arms around me and I easily fell asleep knowing that she was once more with me.