Chapter 6 continued still... Finishing talking to the DR.

“How come it lasted so long? Why wasn’t it nipped in the bud?”

“Well, there were different stages of the infection. As I told you, Mary-Anne didn’t know she was infected, but she gave the infection to Jennifer-Dawn whos body metabolized the infection completely, but not for a few weeks. If she infected anyone else—which she did—their time before they turned varied on each individual. But, the ones that were out feeding on people were the ones that were passing the infection quickly. Katrina, you told him about the café?”

She nodded. “As much as he needed to know, but he’s going to speak with Mary-Jo and Gary day after tomorrow.”

“Okay good. Well, that’s a case of quick transformation. If everyone turned as quickly as they did in the café, then maybe, yes we could have controlled it better because everyone would be visibly infected all at once.” The Doctor nodded as if to end his speech.

“Okay, next question: What was the hardest part of this for you personally?”

“That’s a rhetorical question Christopher.” Chris wished he would stop calling him that. “I had to deal with people dying all around me and you might understand that me, being a Doctor, it is my profession and passion to help people and do everything in my power to keep them alive. Not only was I not helping them, I was practically killing them with my hands.” He looked over at a picture he had on the corner of his desk by Katrina. He picked it up as gently as you’d lift a dying flower. “This was my daughter Karen. She was the same age as Jennifer-dawn. Jennifer-Dawn infected her and a few others at school and Karen died shortly after Jennifer-Dawn.”

“I’m sorry.” Chris could tell the Doctor was upset and would most likely not want to talk about this anymore but he had one more question: “If you don’t mind me asking: what do you do with the bodies?”

Doctor Stevensen’s head shot up at Chris as if he forgot there were people in his office. Chris jumped a little. “Oh, Um, I have a morgue in the building behind this one, where we burned the bodies. That was safest because of the infection. Do you mind if we end this now? I’m a very busy man as I’m the only Doctor in town.”

As if Chris had a choice: before he knew it, Doctor Stevensen was behind him opening the door.

“Oh, okay, well thank you for your time Doctor. I’m sorry if I caused you any grief. “

The Doctor shook his head at the ground. “No, it’s fine.”

“Ya’ll have a great day.” Lucy said with a smile. “Oh, I forgot: Katrina, are you and your friend comin’ to the party tonight at Stumps? They’re havin’ a big welcome back for y’all that were gone for so long.”

Katrina wasn’t surprised that she hadn’t heard about this. “I don’t know maybe. Who’s going?” As if that matters she thought.

“Oh, I think like most of the town. I know a lot of people said they’d come but you know how people are funny around here. But I’ll be there.” She directed the last part to Chris.

“Um, maybe. We’ll see what we’re up to. Maybe we’ll see ya.”

“That would be great!” She smiled.

Chris waved and was half-way out the door when Doctor Stevensen called: “Uh, Katrina can I speak with you a minute?”

Chris could see the Doctor’s eyes directing him out the door. “I’ll meet you outside.” he said to Katrina as he shut the door behind him.

Katrina waited until the door clicked in place. “Yes Doctor?”

“I just wanted to see how your treatment went in Colorado? I assume you’re not cured?”

“No, it’s not cured. It’s the same but it’s being kept under control. I take a shot everyday twice a day. I can’t infect anyone else, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Oh, I’m not worried.” He smiled at her. “And did you bring the extra back for…you know.”

“Yes of course! Plus I have to go back in two years for my check-up, I’ll get more then.”

“Great, that’s amazing. Let me know how it goes!”

“I will, of course.”

The Doctor gave Katrina a proper hug as they said their good-byes. Katrina waved at Lucy on her way out.

Chapter 6 continued... Talking to the DR.

......Katrina and Chris looked at each other with raised eyebrows. They both laughed.

After only a few moments, Lucy guided the other woman waiting through the door and not long after that Doctor Stevensen shuffled her out.

“It was just a migraine Mrs. Langley, you didn’t have a stroke.”

The woman dropped her head and looked at Chris and Katrina through the corner of her eye as she left the office.

Chris looked back at Doctor Stevensen just as Lucy was pointing at Chris with her pencil. The Doctor was just as tall as Chris, if not taller. He had thin dirty blond hair that hadn’t been done in any certain manner but somewhat disheveled. He looked like a Doctor with his grey slacks, white short-sleeved button-up and red skinny tie. He looked over his glasses at Chris and then at Katrina.

“So you brought this young man to me Katrina?”

“Yes sir.” She wasn’t sure if Dr. Stevensen was in a playful mood or serious. It was hard to tell with him.

He smiled and started walking towards them. Chris and Katrina stood up to shake his hand. He gave Katrina an awkward side-hug like you do with someone you barely know, he grabbed Chris’ hand firmly. “So Lucy says that you want to ask some questions about the infection? No one really asks questions about that.”

“So I hear. I’m trying to write a story on it since no one else has.”

“I see. Where are you from son?”

“New York, but originally from Virginia.”

“Ok, well come on back and lets see if I can’t answer any of your questions.”

They followed the Doctor through the secret door. Lucy watched them all the way.

Once behind the door, there was a short hallway with two doors on each side for the patient rooms. Straight ahead, Chris could see sterile white cupboards that held supplies (a door was open showing boxes of gloves and cotton buds). Beside the storage cupboards was a light green door. it was dingy and old and looked like it could be a janitor's closet. They turned into the first door on the left. It was painted white but had a green tinge from the horrible lighting. The only furniture in the room was a cluttered wood desk pushed into the corner and metal filing cabinet beside it.

Dr. Stevensen motioned for them to take a seat in the chairs available.

Katrina felt a little uneasy being back in that room, remembering what she went through with the medications and shots she got on a regular basis-- before being taken to Colorado. She took a seat in the chair, reminding herself that she was here for Chris, this had nothing to do with her-- really.

“Okay Chris, you have my utmost attention.” He demonstrated this by clasping his long fingers together and leaning on the desk to stare intently into Chris’ face.

“Great.” Chris opened his notebook. He was feeling slightly nervous with sweaty palms; this was going to be his first official interview. “I guess my first question is to determine what happens in the body once it’s contracted the full infection?”

“Of course. The infection—if intrusive enough—attaches to the cells in the body, it starts destroying them and begins to affect the nervous system; the body become tolerant to extreme pain and eventually, when the nerves start dying they can’t feel anything at all. Once it spreads even farther—which it will—it can reach the brain in less than an hour-- or sooner. The brain will start to swell and pockets of fluid will form. This slowly creates madness and the inability to function normally. The heart rate will rise, pumping extra adrenaline through the body.

“Once the infection progresses in killing the cells, it will cause discoloration of the skin until it starts to die, then that’s when flaking and peeling begin. It’s kind of like an extreme case of mercury poisoning with extra side-effects.”

Chris quickly jotted points down as fast as he could, along with a note to stop eating sushi and sashimi. He was receiving the information so fast he wasn’t taking in any of the information; it was like reading a book while listening to the conversation beside you. This helped his nerves.

Katrina knew most of this all ready but it was still morbidly fascinating to her.

Chris finished while Dr. Stevensen waited patiently. “What happens after a person is completely infected, or has been for awhile?”

“They lose most of their sight becoming legally and color blind but their smell increases and they develop some kind of mental radar for the difference between humans and their kind. For some reason, their craving for meat—raw in particular and human— increases and their taste is pretty much demolished. I’m not sure why this craving has become part of their new lifestyle. They also don’t have a sensor to tell them when their full, so this along with the normal human sensibility to not eat raw meat or human flesh is overwhelming to their stomachs, which is what causes them to vomit up blood. But that also has to do with their organs falling apart inside them.”

Chris stared at the doctor and then glanced at Katrina until returning his pen to his journal.

“Is this too overwhelming for you Mr...”

“oh, um, Phyles—that’s my last name but call me Chris, and no, this is just fine. My mouth is just a little dry. Is it possible to get a glass of water?”

“Of course.” Doctor Stevensen picked up the telephone and called Lucy at the front desk. Chris and Katrina could hear the phone ringing on the other side of the wall until Lucy picked up. “Lucy, can you get Christopher a glass of water please. Thank you.”

“Thanks. Please continue.”

Katrina was still patiently listening to the Doctor. Like a puzzle in her mind, she was fitting each of the symptoms with the few infected she had seen and even some of the symptoms with herself.

“They don’t normally go after their own kind, even though it has happened, it’s rare. They can tell if they are near one of their own and they are not attracted to them. They also become affected by the sun; Their eyes become ultra sensitive and a tan to them would be like getting a third degree sun burn. They will go out in the sun, but not if they don't have to.”

“How do you think it started?”

Katrina cleared her throat and shifted in her chair to put her sweater over her shoulders.

“I think it started with an animal. Possibly someone was scratched or bitten and then infected others and from there it would have spread.”

“What’s the first case you saw?”

Doctor Stevensen glanced at Katrina and looked back at Chris. “It was a child at my daughter’s school. The Dawes’ youngest girl.”

Chris remembered that The Dawes were the family that now owned the lumber company Katrina’s family built.

Lucy brought in three waters and set them on the desk. Everyone simultaneously thanked her and she left.

“Her parents brought her to me when she had gotten into a fight with her older sister,Mary-Anne. Without thinking like a normal nineteen year old, Mary-Anne bit her very hard and punctured the skin with three of her teeth while bruising with the rest.”

Katrina shook her head in disbelief and Chris raised his eyebrows. “Bit her? Like…” Chris bit his finger to demonstrate that he understood correctly. The Doctor nodded.

Chris looked at Katrina in disbelief at the actions of a nineteen year old. She just shrugged her shoulders and nodded.

“At this time we didn’t know that Mary-Anne was infected—she didn’t even know. “The child was brought in after the bite mark started to fester and swell up until it split open, forcing puss, blood and plasma out of the wound and through the skin around it. I think I…have…a…” The Doctor got up to dig through the filing cabinet to his left. He returned to the desk with a green folder labeled “Dawes, Jennifer-Dawn”. He flipped it open and wet his thumb with his tongue for traction. After finding the page he exclaimed: “Ah, here.” He spun the picture around so it was right side up to Chris.

Chris almost gagged when he took in the details of the picture—he never did have a strong stomach, which he seemed to only remember now. When he brought himself to look at the picture again, he could see the bite mark perfectly on the arm of the girl; there were only three punctures, which were just as wide as they were long due to the swelling splitting of the wound. The entire site of the bite was bruised and the skin around that was red and shiny. There was indeed greenish pus being excreted from the openings and beads of a clear liquid being pushed out of the skin around the wound through the pores.

“The mother tried to do everything she could to help her heal, but when the child’s pain became unbearable she was brought to me.”

“Do you think I can get a copy of this?” Chris didn’t know exactly what he’d do with it; if he’d put it in his article or not, but he wanted it. Bad.

“Sure. I’ll go make one.” Dr. Stevensen got up and left the room with the picture.

Chris looked at Katrina and she was looking back with her head in one hand as if she was bored.

“Are you serious with all this?” He asked

“What do you mean?”

“That was disgusting.”

“That was nothing!”

“Good lord.” Chris looked towards the ceiling as if delivering the message to God.

The Doctor walked back in and set the copy on the desk in front of Chris. It was in color, which Chris didn’t know if he was appreciative about. Dr. Stevensen sat back down at the desk, slipping the picture back into the folder and closing it.

“Where were we? Oh yes, so we tried to treat her with medications for an extreme case of a staph infection, but as it got worse, That’s when I took the picture and I became unsure of what to do. Around the same time more cases started popping up, and the first person in Forest Hills was murdered.”

“When you say first person?“

“I mean first person ever-- to be murdered.”

Chris nodded and wrote that down.

“Then another was murdered and another. When they were brought to the morgue, assumed to be dead, they transformed and escaped. More infected people came to me scared out of their wits and I wanted to help. We put together a special building for the infected and Jennifer-Dawn was the first one to turn within the building, everyone was doomed after she attacked them. Long story short, that’s when we realized it was contagious and the police stopped hunting for the ‘serial killer’.”

“What did you do?”

“We started quarantining each one that came in for treatment. If or when they turned, they were alone and we—as a town—decided that the best way to treat them was not to feed them.

“That’s starvation Doctor.”

“You’re a smart fellow Christopher. However, when given normal foods, they wouldn’t eat it anyways, so they were essentially killing themselves. When we found that there was no cure, that’s when we decided to let them perish.” The look on the Doctor’s face said that he didn’t like the way he explained that, or the reality of it; his brow was furrowed as he examined his clasped hands.

“Right. Katrina did tell me that they could be killed like normal humans; drowned or whatever—not like actual Zombies that just keep coming back from the dead.”

“I don’t really like that term: ‘Zombie’ I see the resemblance, but I like to call it The Ante Mortem infection or disease.”

Chris could tell that the Doctor made that up himself; not because of Katrina rolling her eyes and yawning, but he knew it was something Latin about ‘before death’ and he didn’t think it was clever. He wrote it down anyways.

ending chapter 6 (part 1): the doctor's office.

......Luckily Chris was already holding onto his notebook.

They got out of the apartment and heard the lock click into place. Chris glanced to his left down the long dark hallway. There was a long, dust wooden railing on the right side of the hall which, if anyone had tripped just a little they would probably tumble over the side, landing on the switchback of stairs. At the end was a lilac colored door. Chris knew that Jerrid’s wife must have picked that color and he felt a wave of sadness for Jerrid sweep through his body.

Katrina lead the way down the steps and out onto the street. She made a swift right turn out of the building and walked towards the forest. “So how do you like this place so far?” She knew that Chris had barely seen any of the town but she just wanted to make small talk.

“Um, it’s hard to tell. It’s a cute little town. Seems like a good place to grow up. Especially if you had friends to go exploring with…or siblings.” He hadn’t forgotten about the birth announcement he found.

“Mmmm.” Katrina took off her thin jacket revealing her small figure. There was not much fat on her body at all Chris noticed, giving her the once over from behind. He admired the softness and even tone of her skin.

“The sun is definitely up!” He said glancing up at the sky shading his eyes with his hand. It was becoming extremely hot and muggy outside. “Glad I wore a T-shirt.”

Katrina didn’t acknowledge him. “We’re almost there. It’s just on the corner there by the forest.” She continued leading the way down the large sidewalk. The passing buildings all seemed unoccupied. If they weren't, someone was doing a poor job of keeping them clean; the cream colored brick was streaked with dark lines of dirt reaching the ground.

Chris hadn’t even noticed that any of the buildings were occupied when he drove by earlier. Now he saw the unmistakable Red Cross next to old ‘Stevenson Family Practice. Est. 1925.’ painted above the door. “So, tell me a little about the Doctor so I can be prepared.”

“Lets see. His father and father’s father were Doctors in this office. He prides himself in his work and has been trying to develop a cure for the infection in his spare time. He loves this town and the town loves him. He’s very warm-hearted and truly cares about the well-being of the town’s people. We don’t have a shrink here but he’ll gladly talk to people about their problems-- especially after the infection hit. OH, and he’s also the mortician, there’s a crematorium in the building next door to his. Just be polite and respectful. ”

“Okay. Good.” They were on the doorstep of the office and Katrina put a hand on Chris’ back to guide him through first. Chris took a minute to look at the brick building. The windowsills on each side of the door were wood, painted the same red as the lettering for the name. The blinds were closed so it would be easy for anyone not familiar with the building to think it was closed—or drive right past.

The door lead into the middle of a square waiting room painted a plain eggshell color. The reception desk was planted straight ahead guarding another closed door, which Chris assumed lead to the doctor and his patients.

“Why hello, how can we help you today?” The receptionist was a perky blonde and looked about twenty-two. Her breasts were bubbling over the rim of her pink shirt like a glass of soda that had been filled too high. In a last-ditch attempt to make her outfit business-casual, she threw a pink unbuttoned cardigan over her shoulders. Chris was immediately attracted to her.

“Umm, well, you see…”

Katrina came around from behind Chris to give him a hand. The receptionist recognized Katrina immediately. “Katrina! You’re back. Everyone said you were in Forest Hills, but I didn’t believe them.” Her smile stayed glued in the same position as she came around from behind the desk to give Katrina a hug.

“Lucy. Good to see you.” Katrina had gone to school with the girl. She was much more popular than Katrina but that didn’t seem to affect her ego. Katrina liked her positive attitude and willingness to get to know everyone no matter how ’cool’ they were. She was a good fit for Dr. Stevesen’s office—even if her clothes weren’t. Katrina elbowed Chris to give him one more shot at presenting himself. “This is my friend Chris. He’s from New York.”

“New ‘Yolk’?” Lucy let out a little gasp “I’ve Always wanted to gaw there!”

“Oh, well. You should.” Chris glanced at Katrina then back at Lucy’s full chest. He quickly corrected his gaze to her teeth and continued: “Well, I’m originally from Virginia, but—um, is the Doctor in?” Chris’ mouth was dry and he really hoped the doctor could see him soon.

“Oh.” Lucy bounced back to the desk and tapped her pencil on the appointment book. “Well, he has one person waiting” She pointed the pencil to a woman sitting in the corner trying to look out the window—regardless if the blinds were shut. “but she should go back in a jiff. Can ya’ll wait?”

“Yeah we’ll wait.” Katrina replied for Chris.

“Great. I’ll tell him you’re here. Oh, can you just fill out this form for me?” Lucy pushed a clipboard with an information sheet towards Chris.

“Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary. I’m just here to interview him.”

Lucy’s smile faded a little. “I see. I’ll let him know. Have a seat.” She flashed her teeth at Chris and went through the door behind the desk.

Chris and Katrina went across the room from the waiting woman, next to the coffee table. “ Thanks for coming with me.” Chris wanted Katrina to know that he appreciated and welcomed her presence.

“Don’t mention it. It’s kind of interesting for me to watch.”

“Watch what? Me struggle?”

Katrina laughed, “Well it was interesting watching you try and tear your eyes from Lucy’s bundles of joy. But no, that’s not what I meant.” She was looking right into Chris’ eyes.

“One of your eyes is half green, half brown.” Katrina had a weird feeling take over her emotions. She had felt it before, but didn’t recognize it. Her heart beat a little faster and then she realized she was trying to get Chris’ attention.

“I do? Really? Maybe I should talk to the Dr. after all! Where’d that form go.” Chris smiled to portray his sarcasm.

Katrina smacked him on the arm and looked down to hide her face—now a darker shade of pink. “It’s neat, that’s all.” Katrina smiled and picked up a magazine off the table. ‘National Geographic’; typical Doctor’s office magazine. She looked at the date: March. Only four months behind. Not bad. She flicked through the magazine, looking for the cover story about Wolves. They were her favorite animal regardless if she had never seen one.

Chris looked at her just a moment longer before opening his notebook to jot down a few questions for the doctor. He liked how she was unconcerned that her hair was coming undone, letting little wisps of hair out, sticking to the thin sheen of heat-induced sweat on her neck. He quickly looked away because he felt he shouldn’t be concerning himself with such things.

Lucy came bouncing through the door over to Chris. She bent over to talk to him in a whisper. “Um, sorry Chris but Dr. Stevensen would like to know what business you would like to discuss with him.”

Chris took extra effort not to look at the crease of bosom that had just been thrust in front of his face. Katrina laughed through her nose. “Yeah, sure. I’m here trying to get information about the infection.” Chris said in an equally quiet voice.

“Oh. ‘Kay.” Lucy bounced up and went through the door again.

Katrina and Chris looked at each other with raised eyebrows. They both laughed.

Chapters are getting longer. We're still in 6.

.......“That’s precisely what it is chicken.”

“Would you tell me about it?”

“Sure. Are you going to use this in your story?”

“Yes, probably.”

Mama stared at him for a moment. “Don’t journalists usually have a notepad or something?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Chris got up feeling his face turn red and ran into his bedroom to grab the moleskin out of his backpack. He grabbed a pen off the desk on his way out.

Katrina was becoming more comfortable with Chris and what he was trying to accomplish in Forest Hills. In the beginning she wanted to avoid talking about things that happened to other people; now she just sat back in her chair to listen to Mama tell her story. Katrina had never heard the details of this encounter, only the need to know facts from her parents.

Once Chris was settled and Mama felt his pen was perched high enough she began: “ I assume you know that I once had neighbors.” Chris nodded. “ Well, one night I was home just reading or baking, or was I painting? No, I was definitely reading.” She swatted the air in front of her face as if to shoo an invisible fly. “Anyways, I heard some commotion in the stairwell so I looked through the peephole to get a better look and it was Jane, my neighbor. She was screaming and chicken, the look on her face...She was terrified. She was being chased. She banged on my door—because it’s the closest from the stairwell—I opened it without taking the chain off and saw that her hands were covered in blood, she had scratches all over her neck and shoulders.” Mama stopped for a moment. It looked like she was going to start to cry, but she was only collecting her thoughts. “I couldn’t let her in, the poor baby, I just couldn’t—for my own safety. I told her ‘I’m sorry baby. Please forgive me. God bless.’ And I shut the door. I moved the vanity in front of the door and made my way towards the emergency roof escape. I heard her scream all the way to her apartment down the hall while running footsteps followed her.”

Chris jotted down random points of Mama’s story that he thought would be crucial to putting the story back together on paper. He didn’t ask any questions because he just wanted to listen to Mama. She had such a soothing voice and manner. It went straight to the heart and filled your whole body as if you were being wrapped in a down comforter from the inside. Without wanting the soup to go cold, everyone took random bites in between pauses in the story.

“She managed to get into her apartment and shut out the infected. But she was now infected and she turned almost immediately after she entered the apartment. I heard a commotion next door followed by one gunshot, then another and another for three in total. She attacked her two children before her husband could make it into the living room with the gun. I think that’s the day that Jerrid lost a part of his soul with his family, but he had no choice. It’s all about self-preservation.”

“You mean Jerrid was your next-door neighbor?”

“Yes chicken. He was such a good kid until that day but after that he became a man. He made it his mission to rid Forest Hills of the infected ones killing all of our loved ones. Don’t get me wrong; he is still a wonderful person, but it’s deep down inside him and only bits of sunshine glimmer out of his eyes sometimes.”

“They didn’t want you? I mean they couldn’t smell you or something?” Chris asked.

“Oh, they probably could have, but once they hone in on their ‘prey’ its pretty much tunnel vision. Besides, Jerrid killed anyo—anything that was in that corridor.”

“And no one has been back in that apartment since?”

“No.” Mama shook her head and took a small bite of bread. “Jerrid removed the bodies and cleaned the place out. No one’s been back but I’m sure in a few months or years I will have neighbors again.”

“So, how do you know that people weren’t murdering other people out of cold blood and saying that they were infected?”

Katrina who had been impartial to the conversation raised her eyebrows at Mama. This question impressed her in a sense. No one had thought to ask that—out loud at least.

“Well, I suppose that would have been possible for the ones that were infected by only a scratch or so. I guess you just have to have faith in the people that you share a town with. I would never think that anyone in Forest Hills would do something like that.”

Chris nodded in satisfaction.

“Well…” Katrina smacked her legs and stood up, pushing the chair out with her calves. “Are we ready to go?”

“Yes, you children go and I’ll take care of these dishes!” Mama exclaimed.

“Are you sure? I can help clean—“ Chris was brought up to always offer a hand in the home he was visiting.

“Go, go gooo.” Mama shooed them out the door, barely giving Katrina a chance to grab her purse off the kitchen counter. Luckily Chris was already holding onto his notebook.

Chapter 6 continued.

.....

Beside the article was a picture of Katrina’s father—cigar in mouth—with a caption underneath that read: “Forest Hills Logging tycoon is new father to twins”.

How come Katrina never mentioned that Emily was her sister? She told me that she was her cousin. Chris could hear the lock of Mama’s apartment starting to turn. He quickly folded up the paper and slipped it back into the secret spot he found it.

“What are you looking at?” Mama asked. Katrina was standing behind her unmoved by what was going on.

“Oh, um I was just looking at this photo album I found. I hope that’s Okay. There’s some really good photos in here!”

Mama took the book out of Chris’ hands and placed it back above the fireplace. “You really shouldn’t go snooping through people’s belongings chicken.”

“I’m sorry, I was looking at the nice framed pictures here and saw the album.”

Chris glanced over at Katrina was oblivious to Mama’s tone of voice and reaction to the album. Chris knew then that there was some sort of secret being kept about Katrina and Emily being sisters.

“That’s Okay honey. I made some chicken noodle soup and more bread this morning. I’ll get us some. I won’t be but five minutes.”

“More bread? And soup? You’re a busy lady Mama.”

“It keeps my hands fresh and mind busy”. She chuckled and skipped into the kitchen. Katrina and Chris moved to the table and sat down.

“How was your uncle’s?” Chris asked to be polite.

“It was good thank you. My uncle had already left for work when I got there. I’ll try again tomorrow.”

Chris wanted to ask why it took her so long if her uncle wasn’t even home, but thought it was none of his business.

“What did you do while I was gone?” Katrina eyes were searching his.

“Well, I drove into the forest, and I found this old farm.” Chris pulled his camera out of his pocket. “I was going to ask you about it.” Before he turned the camera on Katrina replied:

“It belongs to the Dr. It was an inheritance from his uncle. No one goes there. It’s pretty much become abandoned. But the property is huge. It goes from the house all the way to the road that we came in on.”

“I could see that it was abandoned but what’s with the electric fence?”

“Oh, well Mister Stevensen was an old crazy man apparently. RIGHT MAMA?”

“Huh?” Mama popped her head around the corner.

“Mister Stevensen. You knew him didn’t you?”

“Well yes Trinket, he’s the town Doctor.”

“No Mama, his uncle.”

“Oh yeah, he was as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. Kept mostly to himself in that cabin on the edge of town.” Mama disappeared back into the kitchen.

“Huh. So does the Doctor do anything with it?” Chris asked Katrina.

“Oh, I don’t think so. He said that he doesn’t want to tear it down because it was a part of his family, but it’s too old to sell now and since no one in the town goes that way—not even Jerrid—no one’s bothered by it’s being there.”

“Is that the only farm in the area?”

“On that side of town yes, there’s a few more to the west of the town.”

“What’s that round building beside the cabin? It looks like a grain silo, but it seems too short and stubby.” Chris clicked through some of the pictures while Katrina looked on curiously.

Katrina laughed. “Depends who you ask. As kids we thought that’s where mister Stevensen hid little children, the grown-ups thought it was converted into a shelter that went below ground incase the apocalypse came. He was always going on about that to people in town. Scared us kids half to death. It was probably just nothing but an old chicken coop or something.” Katrina looked back at the pictures.

“What happened to him? Old mister Stevensen?”

Katrina leaned back into the chair. “He was one of the first to go through the infection. The forest was the favorite place for the infected so his house was the obvious choice. Jerrid and Gregory used to stay close to there until the infected some how figured that out and stayed farther away.”

“Oh yeah, I saw them today on my way out of the forest.”

“They saw you?” Katrina was looking at him with hard eyes, but a relaxed face. Some pieces of hair around her face had made their way out of her ponytail and she kept batting them away with her fingers.

Chris nodded to confirm that he saw them and they saw him.

“Oh, they’re not going to be happy with you: snooping around in their forest.”

Mama came around the corner carrying a tray with three soups, a basket of bread, butter and three lemonades garnished with a lemon slice and mint sprigs. “Oh baby, were you in the forest today?” She said as if he was a four year old who got into the cookie jar.

“Um, yes. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. There were tire tracks and everything.”

“No one goes in the forest anymore. No one’s allowed to go in; it’s Jerrid and Gregory’s territory—at least until the infection is completely wiped out.” Mama set a bowl in front of each of them.

“Okay, I won’t go in again. I don’t need to be eaten up by any zombies. Knowing my luck, there’d probably be only one zombie left and I’d be its meal; starting the cycle all over again.”

“Don’t say that!” Mama exclaimed. “You’re too skinny for any Zombie.” She winked at Chris and they started on their meals.

“Okay.” Chris laughed. “But after lunch will you take me to the Doctor’s office?” Chris directed his question towards Katrina. “I really need to start interrogating some people.”

Katrina had a mouth full of food so she nodded and looked at Mama for a reaction but Mama was contently eating her food trying to stay out of their business.

“Mama?” Chris asked. “I noticed these markings on the railings downstairs. They look like human fingernail marks—as if someone was trying to hang on.” He got that example from watching too many paranormal shows and horror movies.

Without looking up from her soup, Mama replied, “That’s precisely what it is chicken.”