“Come on kid, start searching.”
Chris jumped in to action at the thought of helping, kicking the brush with his feet looking for anything that might be dry. The matted leaves seemed to only be more damp underneath.
Covering the body with dried up grass wasn’t as lengthy of a process as Chris had thought. Jerrid took a lighter out of his pocket and set the pile on fire in six different places. They watched the flames flicker and spread leaf to leaf until they engulfed the entire body. Jerrid announced their departure: “We better get going before it starts to smell.”
“What about that wolf that you saw?” Chris asked Gregory.
“Well, I can only imagine it’s been eaten since it used to be right over there,” Gregory pointed to a spot to the right of where they were standing. “And it doesn’t seem to be there anymore.”
Jerrid and Gregory turned to walk back towards the truck and Chris followed. He was thinking of the events of the morning and it was only— Eleven O’clock? Shit, Katrina. He started to pick up speed, taking the lead of the group.
“Why in such a hurry kid?”
“You scared?” Jerrid and Gregory chuckled at each other.
“Not that this encounter wasn’t an event in my life that I’ll forget, but I was supposed to meet Katrina about an hour ago.
“You mean, you just saw the evidence of a bear that had been devoured by a zombie, and you’re worried about a coffee date?” Gregory opened his door and jumped in.
“Well, I just like to be punctual, that’s all. Beside, movies prepared us for things like this.” He said, making excuses for himself.
“Sure.” Jerrid laughed.
10.
Gregory drove Chris to the Café’s door. Jerrid jumped out, letting Chris through.
“Thanks for the ride-along. What are you guys going to do now?”
“Probably grab a burger.”
Chris nodded, and Jerrid hopped back into the truck.
The café door swept open and two children ran out in front of their mother, she gave Chris a sincere look of apology for her misbehavior. Chris smiled at her to show he felt impartial.
Katrina was sat in the same corner they sat on the first day. She was looking out the window towards the church at nothing in particular. Mary-Jo and Gerry weren’t anywhere to be seen; in the case of them being in the back kitchen, Chris hurried over to the table. The bell on the door would have already annoyingly given away his presence like a cough in the best hiding spot.
Chris pulled out the chair to sit, which gave Katrina a fright. She clutched at her heart for a moment and closed her eyes. “You scared me.” She let out a long breath through her nose.
“Sorry. Sorry I took so long. You wont believe what happened.”
“I figured something interesting must’ve gone on. Tell me.”
“First you tell me what happened at Clints.” Chris was tapping his fingers on the table and bouncing his knee as if playing with an invisible baby.
Katrina started but was interrupted by a young girl asking if they wanted anything.
“Do you have anything with the opposite effect of Caffeine; like a vicoden?”
“Excuse me?” panic and confusion washed over her face.
“Um, warm milk; that’s suppose to make you sleepy or something, right?” Chris looked at Katrina for confirmation. The girl opened her mouth to reply but Chris interrupted “Yeah, I’ll just have some warm milk.” The stunned girl nodded and started to walk away, “No,” Chris yelled; making heads turn in his direction. “Never mind, I won’t have anything.” He watched her turn again and disappear behind the counter. Katrina put her hand over his vibrating knuckles.
“Are you Okay?” Katrina knew that something had gone down in the woods. Whether it was between the boys or non-humans, she didn’t know.
Chris stared into her eyes, “Yes, I’m just a little amped up from the forest. It just hit me know.”
“I can see that.”
“Okay, tell me what happened.”
“Well, I went over there and Mama was arriving at the same time with Doctor Stevensen. We all went in and Clint was kind of surprised; he didn’t like having all these people in his house making a spectacle of his daughter.”
“But you’re family— except for the Doctor.”
“Yeah, I know.” She paused to take a sip of her cold coffee. “Emily was in the basement. Clint didn’t sleep all night-- aside from little naps against the basement door. We knew that in order to give her another shot, we would have to get her secured. Clint and Doctor Stevensen came up with a plan: something like using the Doctor as bait and then Clint jumped out and used his blanket-wrapping technique again. Then they both got hold of her and tied her to the bed.”
“How did she like that?”
“She didn’t. I came down while they were tying her feet, I think part of her recognized me because she softened her features and stopped fighting.”
“How did that make you feel?” Chris’ knee was slowing down to a reasonable rate.
“I don’t know. If she recognizes me, it means that the infection hasn’t completely taken over and started eating away her brain. Anyways, I gave her the second shot. She just laid there, staring at the ceiling. It was sad. But she passed out—or fell asleep--shortly after. Clint asked us to leave for a little while. I think he wanted a private moment with her; she’s as close to normal when she sleeps now. You know what the weird thing was?”
“What?”
“She still looked like she did three years ago, I don’t know if it’s just the infection or the lack of needing to grow. The Doctor is very impressed with her progress after just the one shot. He thinks that she should definitely make a full recovery.” Katrina smiled into her cup.
“That’s fantastic.” Chris looked at her longingly; he wanted her to look at him; he wanted to feel like they were sharing the moment.
“Yeah, it really is.” She smiled at him for a split second before turning towards the window; sharing her happiness with the open world.
“What else did the Doctor say?”
“Nothing really, he’s just amazed at the healing properties of the medication. He wants me to bring some to him so he can maybe find out what’s in it, or how it’s working.”
“Well, that’s very exciting. I’m happy for you. I hope that I will be able to meet Emily.”
Katrina looked at him, Chris could see she was looking at each of his eyes and he let her look until she looked away again. “So, what happened in the forest?”
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