Friggin Zombies by N.C. Reed Page A

occurring or it's an accidental release. Either way, it's too spread out now to contain,” she sighed, tossing her steno pad onto the table. “They can try a nuke, I guess. Or maybe carpet the areas with napalm. But otherwise, it's out there .”
    “What?” she had my undivided attention now. Well, okay, she always had my undivided attention but now I was listening to what she was saying instead of just. . .anyway.
    “Those are the only two sure fire ways to kill a virus,” she shrugged. “Burn them up. I suppose there are some other napalm like mixtures they can use, but essentially it's all about the fire now. The only way to be sure is to hit it with high temperature flames.”
    I honestly didn't know what to say at that point. A nuke? Thermite maybe instead of napalm? I didn't know. I didn't think I wanted to know, either.
    “Well, I guess now all our actions the last few days are justified,” I sighed. “We're ahead of the crowd at least.”
    “I'm glad you came to see me,” Connie nodded. “And that you trusted me,” she added, leaning back on the couch against my shoulder. “I'd be running scared about now at best.”
    “I doubt it,” I snorted, placing an arm around her shoulder. “You're too smart for that. You might be in a rush, but there's no way you'd be in a panic.” She smiled up at me and kissed my cheek.
    “I appreciate that. What do we do now?” she asked.
    “Hell if I know,” I admitted, and it was true. We were as ready as we could possibly be at this point. All we could do now was wait and see what happened. “It's Saturday, so I guess we'll see how things develop. Maybe there won't be any problems here, but. . .I get the feeling there's already a problem here. In America, I mean,” I added.
    “Why?”
    “That speech sounded more like an ass covering stance than anything else,” I pointed out, and it had. “It's almost as if they know they can't contain the problem and this was a way to hold off as much of the inevitable panic as possible. See what I mean?” She nodded thoughtfully at that.
    “What do we do, though?” she asked again. “I mean, do we go to work Monday? Do we just hole up here from now on and wait and see? We've made about all the preparations we can make that I know of.”
    “I think so too,” I admitted. “The only thing I know is to make sure we're always thinking. Looking around us, considering what we may need and the like. For instance, I had the idea. . .wow, maybe it was just yesterday. Anyway, I had the idea that we should get some chickens. Just a few, for eggs and for meat too, if things go on like we're afraid they will. I did get some feed and laying mash when I was in town.”
    “Well, let's go see if we can find some chickens, then,” Connie got to her feet and held out a hand. “We're not getting any younger.”
    “No, I suppose not,” I agreed and got to my feet as well. “Let's take some precautions, though. Things will be crazy now.”
    *****
    Crazy indeed. Man it was like watching a Chinese fire drill in conjunction with a Keystone Cops convention and throwing in one of those Shriner groups that did the crazy driving stunts in parades.
    Cars were everywhere, running and gunning all over town as people scrambled to get this and that and whatever they could think of. There was a line at least twenty cars long at the local bank drive-through since the lobby was closed on Saturday.
    “What a mess,” Connie was shaking her head. “I didn't think it would be this bad this quick.” Truthfully I hadn't either. I guess more people had been watching than I had thought. Or else word had traveled fast, I didn't know.
    We rolled into the Co-op to a fairly calm scene. I used their pumps to fill up Big Baby, just in case. Meanwhile Connie was taking notes from their 'For Sale or Trade' board. When I got inside I noted that the young guy behind the counter was paying close attention to her. I didn't blame him of course, but I couldn't help