Chapter 10; talking to Glen O'Toole at the police department.

...“So, what happened in the forest?”

Chris told her every detail he could remember down to how squished the truck was with all the men. She didn’t seem surprised, but interested. The only question she asked at the end was if he had fun.

“Yes. I think I did. It was exhilarating I suppose. Gets your adrenaline going, you know?”

Katrina’s smile dropped of her face and she nodded towards the door; “Incoming.”

Chris looked in that direction and saw Mary-Jo in a sleeveless, yellow, flower-print dressing weaving through tables to get to them.

“Good. I caught you. I heard you were here.”

“Ho—“

“Can you come over tonight for dinner, something came up and the dinner has been bumped to tonight,” She paused for a moment, looking between Chris as Katrina. “Oh, please tell me you’ll come.” She leaned on the table, pushing her chest forward as if to use her overly large breasts as a bargaining chip. The look on her face was sincerely concerned.

“Um, yeah, sure.”

“Oh goody.” She bounced and clapped her hands. For a moment, Chris thought he felt the café shake. “Shall we say between five and six?”

“That sounds…good.”

“Great. Don’t forget your note-pad.”

“Oh, I won’t.” Chris said condescendingly.

Mary-Jo gave a wave and made her way out. Everyone in the Café was looking in their direction; intrigued at what just took place.

“What was that about?”

“I don’t know. But should we get out of here?”

“Yes, I suppose.” They got up and moved through the tables of gawking people.

Chris lead the way out of the café, eyes following them like a Victorian portrait. He was feeling much more calm now, Katrina seemed to have brought him down to her level.

“Let’s go to the church’s park and talk; we won’t be disturbed there.”

“I would love to but I have to meet Glen. Can we meet in an hour?”

“Can I come?”

Chris smiled, “Even better.”

They walked around the block--the long way to the police station.

When they got inside it smelled of stale coffee and peppermint gum.

Glen was the only person to be seen; sitting behind a generic desk with a mound of neglected papers and a small bushel of mail in the corner. When he saw them, he looked as if he had just won the Publisher’s Clearing House grand prize.

“Hey guys, I was hoping you’d come in soon. There’s not much going on in the town right now.” He patted the stack of papers.

“So now would be a good time to talk to you?” Chris asked.

“Better than any.” He pointed towards the empty seats across the desk.

Katrina sat next to the wall and Chris next to her. “Great. Do you mind if I borrow a piece of paper and a pen?”

Glen looked at him with a furrowed brow.

“I kinda forgot my notepad. I’m new at this whole journalism thing.”

“No problem,” Glen dug around in his desk while Chris and Katrina stole a glance from each other.

Glen pushed a pad of paper and a pen towards him. “You can keep the pen.” He winked at Chris.

Chris twisted the pen between his fingers. Forest Hills Police Dept. “Couldn’t afford the whole word ‘Department’?” Chris asked.

“No, it just didn’t fit.”

“I was just kidding. Nevermind.” Chris swallowed uncomfortably and marked Glen O’Toole interview at the top of the page. “How long have you lived in Forest hills?”

“Born and raised.”

“And, how old are you?”

“Twenty four.”

“How long have you worked for the police department?”

“I started training about three and half to four years ago.”

“So you were an officer when the infection started to spread? Tell me about that.”

“I came after they banned the department from fighting.”

“What do you mean?”

“Too many officers died or something, so it was left up to those two bearded cavemen.”

“Glen,” Katrina shook her head.

“Sorry,” Glen glared at Katrina. “Forgot they were your best friends.” He searched the roof for something to look at.

“Jerrid and Gregory you mean?” Chris asked.

“Yeah.”

“What do you have against them?”

“I just don’t see why they should be allowed to continue to fight and guard the town while the police department are taking care of old Mrs. Mortgensen’s cat. I’d prefer the tree top too, if I was the cat.” Glen rolled his eyes.

“Okay, So, tell me about the first encounter you had.”

“Most of it was when I was a rookie; before they force was restricted to town duty. We were called to a spot over in the neighborhood—by Katrina’s house—where a group of dogs and cats were taunting an old shiatsu. By the time we got there, both of its ears were missing, bits of flesh were either hanging off or gone and the animals continued attacking.”

“Why do you think it was the only one being attacked?”

“Because it was the oldest, of course. It was most vulnerable.”

“Of course,” Chris said under his breath. “Has any of your family been affected by this?”

“Not my direct family, but when Katrina’s parents were…you know. They were like my family too.” Glen looked at Katrina like a puppy needing a home. She rolled her eyes. He turned his gaze back towards Chris, with quick flickers towards the door. “You do know what happened, don’t you?”

Katrina was appalled that he would use her dead family to try and one-up Chris.

“Yes, I do.” Chris gave him a warning glance; telling him not to continue on that subject.”

“So, what have you had to deal with in ways of human victims of the infection?”

“None really. I’ve been lucky that way.”

“You’ve never seen a human infected?” Chris had the feeling that this was a wasteful interview.

“I had to kill an infected baby once.”

Chris regretfully perked up in his seat.

“Just ‘bout bit the mother’s nipple right off.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Serious as a heart attack. I thought it was weird that a baby that was that old was still breast-feeding too. The only reason we knew the baby had the infection. The mother tried to cover it up, but Doctor Stevensen made us privy to that info when she came in claiming to have a serious infection. By the time we got to her, the baby was irate and his veins looked purple. When we tried to hold him. He would try and scratch and bite. We had to put him down.”

Going into Chapter 10; Cafe after the forest

“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?”

Ending Chapter 9: in the forest Cont...

....It only ate until it was full.”

“What does that mean?” Chris asked.

“That they’re changing kid. They’re evolving to something smarter. It stopped when it was full.” Jerrid repeated.

Gregory and Jerrid chuckled.

“Well, we can take care of this later, let me take you to the other one. It’s more… normal.” Gregory started towards the car.

Chris quickly leaned in to snap a picture of the empty ribcage as his camera was focusing, that’s when he noticed a spotty, half-circle imprint on the bottom of the ribcage. A human bite mark, he thought. He snapped a picture of that just as Jerrid was calling after him.

When they got back into the cramped quarters of the truck, Chris mentioned the teeth marks and Jerrid explained to him that that’s normal; they’ve seen that a lot when the infected gets carried away while feeding.

They made it back out to the main path that Chris was familiar with and Gregory continued up towards the farm. He took a right through the trees again. Chris assumed they had already passed the farm at this point. Gregory drove the truck as smoothly as he could while dodging trees and bouncing over broken tree-limbs. Chris couldn't help but contemplate how often the truck’s suspension had to be tuned.

“We’re just about there, it’s just over—“

“Stop.” Jerrid yelled.

Gregory hit the brakes and the truck slid through some of the underbrush. Chris was thankful he had his lap belt on.

“What the hell?” Gregory put the truck in park and glared at jerrid.

Jerrid pointed to the trees in the distance. Chris followed his finger but couldn’t see anything. He skimmed the trees with his eyes, looking for another animal corpse. Then he saw it.

About thirty feet away, there was a man in his late twenties. He had long, dark, dirty hair; his jeans were worn out like an old potato sack and his navy t-shirt was barely being held together by the threads. He was standing, but his whole body--including his face were rested against the tree. Chris couldn’t tell if his eyes were closed or just heavy. His tongue was hanging out the side of his face, lapping something off the bark at the pace of a small child eating an ice cream cone. His hand was pressed against the tree at stomach height to keep him steady.

“Well, that’s new.” Jerrid commented.

Gregory grabbed the binoculars hanging from a hook behind him.

Chris knew that in any other city in the US, this would probably be just some kid high on methamphetamines, come to the forest to ‘connect with nature’. Here in Forest Hills, it was the infection coursing through his veins.

“He’s licking blood off the tree,” Gregory concluded. “That’s where the wolf is.

”Was,” Jerrid added.

“What?” Gregory asked

“Well, if this guy is licking the blood off a tree, he’s probably finished off the wolf.”

Chris found his voice: “How did blood get on the tree?”

“Could have been anything. He could have been violent with the animal, which got the blood there, or it could be his own.”

“What do we do?” Chris asked. Surprisingly, he wasn’t as nervous as he thought he would be around an infected. He assumed it was because he was in a truck with two rifles and two large men who knew how to use them.

“Just wait a minute.”

Jerrid slowly pulled his rifle up from between his legs. He had to swing it over Chris’ leg briefly to get it above the dash. Chris flinched a little. He rolled down the window and maneuvered the barrel of the truck and rested it on the side mirror. Just as he was taking aim, the infected jerked his body towards them, sniffing the air. He was alert and aware of their presence.

“Quick,” Gregory shouted from behind the binoculars “He smelled us when you rolled down the window.”

“I got it. I got it.” Jerrid yelled.

The infected started bounding towards them in large lengths and Chris was becoming more nervous with each leap until he was shaken by a thunderous bang and the infected didn’t get back up again.

“See kid, that’s how you do it.” Jerrid said proudly. He brought the gun back inside; Gregory put the truck in drive and continued on through the trees until they got to the newly deceased.

Once again they were out of the truck gaping at something dead on the ground. The infected’s head was mostly missing and only held together by the flesh on his left temple. like a dog, it’s tongue was hanging out of what was left of his face. Chris took out his camera and tried to take picture of anything but its missing face. He took pictures of the fingernails that hand been bent back; partially ripped off, along with shots of the skin that was so deteriorated and diseased; it looked like it was melting off of hiss hands and arms. While Jerrid and Gregory were talking about what to do with the body, Chris took some more pictures of the infected’s bare feet. They were cut up from running around in the forest. He remembered Katrina saying something about their amazing tolerance for pain.

“What do you normally do with the bodies?” Chris asked.

“Burn them, but that was when we had more than two per week.” Gregory leaned down by the dead man. “Look at this: his wallet.” He reached in his front pocket to pull it out and opened it up revealing a Kentucky driver’s license. “He’s from Winchester.”

“Where’s that?” Chris asked.

“Up by Lexington.”

“What’s he doing all the way over here?” Jerrid leaned down to join Gregory. Chris snapped pictures of Gregory holding the open wallet, with the ID showing through a plastic screen.

“That’s a good question, my friend. And how did he get down here?”

“Well, keep the wallet, but we gotta start looking for some dry brush to cover him with,” Jerrid got up and started looking around. “Is there any bus tickets or anything in it?”

“No, just forty bucks.” Gregory got to his feet and tucked the money into his front pocket. “Come on kid, start searching.”

Chapter 9 Cont. Found Something!!

Greg’s going to pick us up at the edge of the forest.”

They crossed the street and snuck between two buildings, ending up on Roseberry Street. As they crossed Roseberry, Chris heard his name called. He turned around to see Glen running towards him. He didn’t realize they had come out beside the police station. Jerrid didn’t stop walking so neither did Chris; he yelled back towards Glen: “I’m in a bit of a hurry, I’ll come see you in a couple hours.” Glen stopped and watched them disappear through a door beside the hardware store.

Jerrid’s apartment was small and empty. There was stained-wood wainscoting along the bottom of walls and the windows were framed in the same light brown color. Across from the door was one ratty brown sofa pushed up against the window. To the right, next to the bedroom was a shelf half occupied with a few books above a fireplace and the kitchen to the left was empty except for a garbage can overflowing with pizza boxes and restaurant take-out bags which--judging by the smell—had been there awhile.
Jerrid came out of the bedroom with his rifle. “Okay, lets go.” They were out of the apartment and down the stairs in a flash. They took a left on Roseberry Street towards the forest. A few ladies were sitting on their chairs outside their stores and only a handful of people walking up and down the street. None of them seemed to notice Jerrid or Chris. Jerrid took out his phone and made a call that only required him to listen and reply “Okay.”

“Greg’s at the edge of the forest with the truck now. We have to hurry.”

“Why are we in such a rush if the thing’s already dead?”

“Because, Greg just found a mutilated bear—with it’s eyes missing and it’s fresh. There’s something out there.”

Chris’ adrenaline was starting to go into overdrive. He could feel his heart pick up speed the closer they got to the forest’s edge. “Should I have a gun or something?”
“Do you know how to use a gun?”

“No.”

“Then, no, you shouldn’t have a gun.”

Chris took a couple of quick steps to get closer to Jerrid. “Are you going to protect me then?”

“I’ll do my best. But I’ll always protect myself first.”

“That’s comforting.”

“That’s the facts kid. There’s Greg.”

Chris could barely make out an army green truck idling in the trees. They started jogging towards the truck. Jerrid opened the door and motioned for Chris to get in first and slide in to the middle. It was a tight squeeze for three men over six feet tall. Gregory started to drive before Jerrid had the door closed.

“What’d you bring him for?” Gregory asked.

Jerrid didn’t answer. “Where did you find the animals?”

“By the old farm.”

“Again? What’s going on over there? That’s five in six weeks and three in two days.”

“Three in two days? When was the first?” Chris asked.

“Thursday evening,” Gregory answered.

They continued driving through the forest on an unmarked trail, dodging trees in the nick of time and bouncing over buried tree trunk and roots. Branches were whacking the sides of the truck with no remorse and all Chris could think about was the damage they were doing to the paint.

“How do you know where you’re going?” Chris asked.

“I just know.”

“Have you marked the trees or something?”

“We just know, kid,” Jerrid answered. “We’ve been in these trees in the darkest of nights, day after day. We could name each tree and find it on a whim if we wanted to—kinda like parents with identical twins.

“We’ve done it before,” Gregory added, “When we need to remember the location of something, we name the tree and that way we know where to come back.”

“But there’s just so many, how is it possible?”

“We know how to track, kid. We see crushed leaves and broken branches and we could tell you what did it and how long ago.

“Plus, we only have a certain amount of land that we cover, that way it’s limited.”

Chris nodded. Not long after they were driving along a clear path. Chris assumed it was the one he drove down when he found the farm. Gregory leaned over the steering wheel to get a closer look through the trees. Chris could feel Jerrid stiffen.

At a moments notice Gregory veered to the left through a small opening in the trees. He slowed down when they got to a point where the trees were too close together to pass.

“The Bear is there, just under that broken tree.” Gregory pointed to a tree fifteen feet away that had been snapped in half a long time ago. Chris could tell by the moss and vegetation that had already made a home in the jagged edges of the snapped parts of the tree.

“Okay kid, time to get out.” Jerrid opened his door and they all exited the vehicle. “We have to walk from here.”

They all started walking through the trees, snapping twigs and crunching leaves under their feet. As they got closer Chris could see a mound of black fur. It was all wet and matted down in some areas. When they started to approach the bear, Chris noticed its position was odd; it was wedged underneath the tree as if it was the tree that killed it. It was lying on its stomach with its head turned away from them. The arms and legs—-what was left of them—-were spread-eagle.

The men circled around the broken tree and stood at the head of the bear. A few flies circled around the empty eye sockets waiting to get in as others flew out.

Chris covered his mouth with his hand because that’s what he figured people do when they see something disgusting. Jerrid and Gregory were unfazed, like they were looking at little dog taking a nap. “Don’t throw up kid.” Jerrid warned.

“I won’t,” Chris removed his hand. He was lucky it didn’t smell much. “Can I take pictures?” He reached for the camera in his pocket while Gregory and Jerrid exchanged looks. They shrugged and Jerrid replied, “Okay.”

Jerrid lifted the bear’s head as if to pose him for the camera and Chris moved to take a step closer, but caught his foot on some matted down leaves. Just as he was about to go down, Gregory grabbed the back of his shirt to stop him from moving at all. “Careful.” Chris composed himself and snapped a picture.

“Wait,” Gregory knelt down “Look at his neck. Flip him over.”

Gregory and Jerrid rolled the bear towards them, out from the tree.

“Ugh,” Chris choked accidentally.

The bear’s throat was missing and its chest was literally ripped open from the front. All the internal organs were missing and any meat on the ribs and pelvic bones was gone; “sucked clean” Gregory noted.

“How can you tell?” Chris asked, positioning his camera.

“From these tendons and flesh left over,” Gregory pointed, “They look stringy, like the inside of a pumpkin. Something was trying to get as much meat off this thing as they could.”

“I thought they usually ate the whole thing; skin and all.”

Neither Gregory nor Jerrid said anything for a moment. “Yeah, they do.” Jerrid lit a cigarette. “I would say the feeding was interrupted, but—“

“He wouldn’t have covered it up by rolling the bear under the tree.” Gregory finished. “And usually they don’t stop eating until there’s nothing left.” Gregory and Jerrid got up and looked around. “There’s no blood or vomit spewed around here. It only ate until it was full.”

“What does that mean?” Chris asked.

“That they’re changing kid. They’re evolving to something smarter. It stopped when it was full.” Jerrid repeated.