Chapter 10

Babette woke before the sun rose and checking the security cameras, she quickly realized that it had rained all night. Absently, she wondered if Mr. Smith's zombie had found a place out of the rain as she watched the water running into the storm sewers in the curbs. She ate breakfast quickly and went out to refill the cat bowls under the overhang in the delivery/loading dock area as the sun began glowing on the horizon. A large yellow tabby mewled from the top of her car as she unplugged it. She stared at the Hieroglyph-printed collar and the tag that said King with Mrs. Thorpe's phone number on it and his city pet tags.

"Stay," she told the cat then went back inside.

From her little medicine cabinet, she pulled out two bottles of allergy medicine and put some pills in her pocket with her inhaler. She stopped at her laundry room and got her pepper spray and keys out of her basket. It was going to be a long day and she would need to stop at a pharmacy for more tablets, but she had no idea where to get more of the self-defense spray or if it worked on the zombies. Making herself a travel cup of tea, she put on gloves then carried the cup and her keys out to the car with white knuckles. She really didn't want to leave but she felt like she had no choice now. She needed to take Mrs. Thorpe's cat home. King was still sitting on the roof, so she pulled up her mask and He purred and headbutted her hand as she reached out to pick him up.

"That won't work on me," Babs scolded the cat as she set it in the passenger seat. It sat like a prince in a carriage while she drove to the pet store for more cat food.

Pulling into the same space, Babs parked and went inside, carrying King over the broken glass of the door. Looking around she noticed there were many missing bags of kibble and no canned cat food at all. Shaking her head, she took the two last bags of dry cat food and went back inside for the cat who was keenly interested in the cat toys. He was chewing on a bag with realistic looking fur mice in it.

"Alright, you can have it if you be a good kitty while I check the back." Babs scowled at him. She went into the back of the store and saw that all the cat food was missing from there too. Turning around she stared at the piles of dog kibble bags. She thought she remembered something about cats weren't supposed to eat dog food or was it the other way around? Puzzling, she heard a meow and turned to scold King, but it was a different cat.

"Hello Kitty? Are you all alone?"

No, he isn't." A voice announced as a man stepped from behind a stack of boxes.

She was so shocked to see someone else who was healthy, she almost forgot to breathe. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought Mrs. Thorpe and I were the last ones... I'm Babette Bland from..."

"I don't care to know your name," He interrupted with a malevolent sneer. "You're pretty, you'll do."

Stepping back, Babs held out her hands, insisting, "I don't want any trouble, I'm just looking for cat food." She edged toward the door to the front of the store.

He grinned at her taking a step forward. Suddenly, King shot into the backroom yowling and arched his back in threat. The man backed up as the cat jumped down hissing at King. While holding her breath, Babs yanked her pepper spray out of her pocket and sprayed the distracted man, then she bolted out, shouting, "King! Come."

The man shouted profanities as he coughed, staggering after her. When he tried to grab her, she pulled a fish tank display over on him as she shrieked, "Leave me alone!"

Clawing at the shelves, she threw everything she could at him. King ran after her and jumped into her lap as she climbed into the car and slammed the door. Terrified, she reversed so fast she hit the car parked on the other side of the street. Panting, she froze as a dozen zombies staggered into the store where the cursing man was. She watched in horror as they began pulling at him and biting him. The cat ran out the door and climbed a tree. She put the car in gear and crawled forward, then sped away. She drove randomly then found herself parking in front of Lerling's Grocery Basket. She sat there shaking then she sneezed violently. Looking down, she realized King was still in her lap. He seemed unhurt so she pushed him into the passenger seat.

"Fuk!" She snarled and began beating on the steering wheel as she cursed. Getting out and leaving the door open, she stomped inside. King followed her to the pet food section. She righted a cart and filled it with cat kibble then stopped and pulled all the mice toys off a hook and threw them in the cart before pushing it out. She couldn't open the trunk because of the damage so she struggled to put it in the back seat around the front one.

"Get in, King, you're going home." She looked at the store, thinking about the pallet with her name in the overhead of the storage room. Instead of going back inside, she drove the shortest route to Mrs. Thorpe's house even though it meant going the wrong way down two streets. She parked on Madeira, out of sight of the park and carefully crept around to the front door carrying King. Knocking as quietly as she could, she waited for the elderly cat lady to open the door with one eye on the park.

Mrs. Thorpe opened the door with a scowl that quickly changed to surprise. "So that's where he got off too. King, you are such a poorly behaved puss," the centenarian scolded the cat as she stepped aside to let Babs inside.

"I have more cat food," Babs announced, "I need to park inside the fence next to the RV. I can't open my trunk anymore. I had an accident."

Mrs. Thorpe's aloof demeanor changed immediately as she took King from Babs. "Are you hurt? What happened?"

Babs swallowed as she walked through the house to the back door. The scent of cat permeated the air and squeezed her throat as much as her anxiety. "A man tried to attack me while I was getting cat food. He wasn't sick, just a criminal... He... He was going to rape... and kill me, I think... King attacked the cat in the pet store with him, but I don't think it was his cat because it ran away and left him when the zombies came. I backed out too fast and hit a car across the street... I left him." Babs unlocked the gate and opened it. Looking carefully in both directions, before she pulled her little electric car inside the fence. She sat there with her hands shaking as Mrs. Thorpe closed the gate and relocked it.

The elderly woman opened the door and gently guided Babs out of the car and into the RV, making sure all the cats stayed outside except King. "Oh dearest, come and tell me about it." She sat Babs down at the table and put on a kettle for hot water. "Babette, poppet?"

"I left him." Babs repeated, hugging King who purred loudly in her lap. "They were biting him, and I left him because I didn't want to get eaten." She looked at her, "Why do they do that?"

Theodora shrugged as she put two mugs and a tea box on the table. "I don't know. The ancient papyrus said the infected became like wolves and bit anything with blood. There must be something they need from the living." When the kettle whistled, she poured the hot water. "You did nothing wrong leaving that horrid man to his fate. He was a criminal."

Nodding, Babs responded, "I think you are right that we should leave the city. We need to go somewhere it freezes."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because Bill... Bill's body wasn't preserved after it was frozen for over three weeks... And there were reports in the blogs and threads that bodies which were frozen didn't revive." Babs bounced the string of her tea bag. "I can't talk to your grandson anymore; the internet is down. I finished binding the information into books so we can leave when you want." Babs sounded defeated. She didn't want to leave the security of her library, but she knew there was no choice. There were too many zombies in the city, even if most of them hadn't figured out how to get out of their homes. And the threat wasn't only the undead. If there were others like the man at the pet store, she and Mrs. Thorpe would be in trouble.

"I know you don't want to go, but we must. I am sorry that man attacked you."

Babs sneezed again then announced, "I'm fine... I have to be fine. We have to stay safe so we can tell the Navy doctors what you know."

"What we know," Theodora insisted firmly. "I will teach you everything I know and we will take the information you found and hopefully they can sort out how to keep everyone safe."

"Mrs. Thorpe, we could travel easier if we drove something other than this," Babs encouraged but she wasn't having any of it.

"Poppet, please call me Theodora. I am sorry about our spat, I can be overbearing," admitting fault, she shook her head and with a patronizing tone added, "We need it for the cats and for ourselves. I don't think we'll be finding very many open restaurants or bathrooms on the road these days."

Babs sipped her tea to not refute her. Theodora wasn't wrong, but Babs worried about the RV getting stuck someplace.

Theodora stood up, and insisted firmly, "We need to pack tonight, and we will leave first thing tomorrow. We have all day to prepare. Let's go out and see what we can find for the road."

"I don't think that's a good idea... I can go alone."

"Nonsense, you can't manage the cats and get the things we need." Theodora insisted, "I just need to do a few things here and pick up a few things there, then we can drive the RV over to the library." She left Babs sitting in the RV with King and the growing sense of futility in resisting the old cat lady's whims. Outside, the clouds began to breakup and sunshine was streaming down in brilliant shafts.

Pulling a few allergy tablets out of her pocket, Babs swallowed two with her tea. "Well, King, looks like we are going on a road trip with your family."

The large yellow tabby purred and meowed, then headbutted her chin, making her sneeze. "Ohlord, I am gonna die."

^..^

The first place Theodora wanted to go was Lerling's because she was fascinated by the idea that Bill's body had been frozen solid and then began to decay normally. She was also fascinated that the zombies seemed to ignore the quiet electric car as they drove through the neighborhoods. As the sun came out more, the zombies retreated into buildings to hide from it. By the time they arrived at Lerling's, there were none to be seen.

As Babs untied a ladder from the top of her car, Mrs. Thorpe went inside with half a dozen cats.

"Theodora, wait!" Babs called after her then dragged the ladder inside.

"Tut, tut, you don't need to worry about me. My cats will protect me. Do you have the keys to the delivery panel truck outside? I can drive it back to the house and then once we get out of the city, I can teach you to drive it."

Rolling her eyes, Babs stood up the ladder against the racks as she revealed, "I can drive large vehicles. My father was a semi-truck driver and I could drive his rig since I was twelve. I even have a CDL."

"Then why don't you want to drive the RV?"

"Because semi-trucks without trailers are a lot more versatile than RVs and are easier to get in and out of places. If we take a rig with a sleeper cab, we can go straight through to Washington in less than a week," Babs said as she climbed the ladder. Using a powerful LED flashlight, she could see the pallet contained several things from her grocery orders. She needed to find the forklift and get it down. It made her heart break that Bill had gone to such an effort to provide for her while he was dying. She wiped her eyes then climbed down.

"I need to find the keys to the truck and a forklift. Bill left me enough food for the winter, I think."

"Where is he, dear?" Theodora demanded softly.

Babs pointed at the walk-in freezer as she pulled the ladder down. Walking away, she dragged it back outside, then came in to search Bill's desk for the Market Truck's Keys. They weren't in any of the drawers.

"They aren't here... Where in the heck are they?" She suddenly feared the keys were still in Bill's pocket. Walking over to the freezer, she braced herself then peeked around the corner. Theodora was poking Bill's corpse with her cane.

Babs snapped at her, "Don't do that."

"I have to make certain he's dead."

"His face is slumping off! He's not like the others, he's dead!" Babs stomped over and pushed her aside then carefully patted his pockets," muttering to herself, "Fuk! He doesn't have the keys either."

Standing, she glared at Theodora, with tears leaking from her eyes. "Leave him alone. Go get what you want from the store." Then Babs went out to search the truck to see if the keys were there. She wasn't very hopeful because no one left keys in a vehicle unless they wanted it stolen. The doors were locked. Groaning at her bad luck, she went inside and searched for the forklift. Frustrated, she walked to the store just down the street and took their forklift. It was labeled Lexington Marketplace and she wondered if all the stores shared their equipment. She drove it back with King following her. She was so glad her father taught her how to drive one as she brought the pallet down. On top was a lumpy card with her name on it. Her hands trembled as she opened it. The truck keys fell in her hand. Opening the card, she read the note.

My Beautiful Babette,

I hope you find this. I know you will live.

I'm sorry I lied about going to the hospital.

I didn't want to become a zombie like the rumors claim.

Those things freak me out. Here is the address to my

grandfather's farm in upstate New York.

No one lives there or near it. You should be safe there.

Love, Bill.

With the card was a deed with her name written next to Bill's. Wiping her eyes, she used the forklift to carry the pallet outside then she put it in the truck. She also took the pallets of pet food and one that was nothing but boxes of alcohol and mixers. She knew drinking was a toxic coping mechanism, but she didn't care anymore. She hated the world; she hated her life. Parking the forklift, she walked to the Finer Imports Food Market at the corner and filled two carts with the things she knew she could eat. The sunlight was so bright it hurt her eyes as they itched and burned from her allergies and her need to cry. When she pushed and pulled her two carts back to Lerling's, she found Mrs. Thorpe scolding her cats to come out of the stinking seafood store. Ignoring them, she began dumping the groceries into the back of her car. King ran inside and came back out dragging a fish toward her then he tried to climb in the car with it.

"No... no! Bad cat." Scolding and shaking her head, she shut the door, then Babs went back inside the grocery to say goodbye to Bill. Opening the freezer door, she screamed at what she saw. His head was sitting in his lap.

Staggering away from the freezer, Babs pressed her hand over her mouth to stifle her cries. Stumbling backwards, she fell on her backside. Then she jumped to her feet and slammed the door on the horrifying sight of Bill's decapitated corpse.

"It had to be done," Theodora announced calmly.

"He was dead as in dead. Dead as in decaying. He wasn't a zombie," Babs argued. "You didn't need to..."

"Now, Poppet. We can't know that for certain," Theodore chided. "And there is no way to burn the body to ash or this building without risking the fire spreading and eventually reaching the library." Then she turned to walk out, insisting over her shoulder, "We need to leave soon, it's getting late in the afternoon. And we still have to go by the library to get your things and all those bound notebooks you made for the Pandemic Five witness statements and medical journals."

"You had no right to do that. He was my friend, and you defiled his body," Bab shouted at her, as she followed the 100-year-old woman outside.

"Shush or you'll draw the infected. The cats can only do so much to protect us if you start screaming. Every one of them that is outside will show up here." Theodore scolded Then she got into Babette's car and called the cats. "Puss... Puss... Puss." Then she blew on her silent silver whistle.

All the felines except King got into the electric car and Theodora shut the door. She Stopped next to Babs then rolled the window down, demanding imperiously, "Bring the truck. We'll go to the library first. Then back to my house and load the RV." She drove away without looking back.

Staring after her, Babs resisted the urge to shriek three words.

I hate you.