First 12 Chapters - How I Became A Crazy Cat Lady To Survive A Zombpocalyse

9

Chapter 9

Babs discovered Mrs. Thorpe made scones for breakfast. They were lovely and Babs appreciated that the elderly woman had made an attempt to keep the cats out of the kitchen so they could eat in peace after she had an allergy attack in the middle of dinner and spilled potato soup everywhere.

"Mrs. Thorpe. I need to get back to the library. I haven't finished binding the information I printed from the online descriptions of the pandemic." Babs insisted as she sniffed and blew her nose into a tissue. She wanted to scrub her face, but she didn't know if the fur on her face was real or just a phantom sensation because of her allergies.

"Oh? How much time do you need?" Mrs. Thorpe demanded in an imperious tone as she added grumpily, "Because we need to leave before the snow covers the roads in the upper Midwest. It is the shortest route and I doubt there will be any snowplows to clear Interstate 80."

"I understand," Babs retorted, then refused. "But I have to preserve the written record. I can't just leave to drive you and your cats to Washington state. I have a job to do."

"What job?" Theodora scoffed. "The world has ended. There is no one else to want books on the latest political scandal or that damned written-for-market crap that passes for literature now."

Shocked by the elderly woman's use of profanity, Babs refuted her, "Mrs. Thorpe! It is my job as a librarian to make sure none of the information posted on the internet about Pandemic Five is lost."

"I was a Cambridge librarian... And an Egyptologist... And a fungal biologist... There are more important things to consider than dealing with the virtual whining of a bunch of young people over the internet who couldn't go to their trendy, overpriced coffee houses," huffed Mrs. Thorpe indignantly. "If they didn't have a cat, didn't pay attention to what the cats refused to eat, then they deserved what they got."

Babs stood up and pulled her mask over her face. "They weren't whining; they were terrified because no one knew what this was, and they were sick. Their loved ones were dying. Why didn't you call the CDC and warn them? Why didn't you tell the local doctors what you knew? They could have taken it out of the food before it killed everyone. There are medications for internal fungal infections that might have worked. You could have stopped the end of the world, but then your cats would no longer be special, you crazy old bat!" She sneezed violently as she opened the door to the kitchen allowing several cats to rush in around her feet. Stomping to the front door, she grabbed her coat, shook out the fur in one violent motion, then went out uncaring if the zombies were waiting for her or not.

Mrs. Thorpe didn't call after her. Babs shoved several of the cats off of her car, but saw no zombies when she glanced around. In a fit of pique, she left the bags of cat food on the stoop. Then she got in and drove back to the library without looking back. She ignored the dead people wandering in the streets. Stopping to let some cross in front of her, she noticed they didn't even look at her almost silent car. She drove around the block that held the library twice to make sure none were close to where she had to park. The only zombies she saw were across the street in the shadow the white marble basilica and, on a different side, four standing under the trees of the Unity Baptist church behind a metal gate. Satisfied it was safe for her to park, she pulled into the back of the library.

Worried that some of the undead might come up the drive like the man who tried to bite her did, Babs parked her car sideways across the entry. She would have to move it to plug it in. The city was eerily quiet without the sounds of traffic and commuting. The bells of the church across the street from the library rang for the 9:00 o'clock service, and it made her sad that no one would be going to mass that day or maybe ever again. She filled the cat food bowls on the back of the loading dock from the bag inside the door. Then went downstairs to her little apartment.