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.”