Biohazard

3

Although we found no vehicle that day, we caught a woman for The Shape. Carl got her while out scouting on foot. She was hiding in a building. As he passed by, she threw a rock at him. So he went after her, beat her into submission, bound and gagged her and brought her back.

Janie wasn’t real cool with that.

The woman was barely human, that’s all I can say. She wasn’t infected like a Scab, not yet, but from the look in her eyes that wasn’t too far off. She looked like she wanted to tear out somebody’s throat.

Janie pulled the whole sympathetic thing and told us how that woman was a human being with rights like everyone else. “I want to talk to her, Nash.”

“She’s fucking whacko,” I said.

“Please.”

“Well,” Carl said. “She wasn’t acting real human or ladylike when I found her, Janie. But you can give it a try if you want.”

Carl pulled the duct tape from her mouth.

She watched us with beady, metallic eyes.

Janie put a hand on her shoulder. “Honey…” she said.

The woman flinched, screamed full in Janie’s face, then lunged forward trying to bite her. Carl knocked her to the floor, crouched on her back, and taped her mouth shut again.

“So much for that,” I said.

“She’s nuts,” Janie said. “Absolutely fucking nuts.”

Carl and I laughed our asses off.