WHAT CAME AFTER

CHAPTER 8

"Things like that are hard to keep secret," Norah commented.

"It's all my fault," he agonized. "If I hadn't been talking about it on the radio, nobody would even know about it."

"Let's just go inside and figure out what to do about," I replied as Moose finished up with his potty break and started chewing on a stick that he'd found on the ground.

Once inside, I took a seat and waited as Trevor locked and then bolted the door before questioning him on what had happed.

"Well, I didn't think that anyone even listened to me on the radio, but someone must have because a couple of people from the town showed up today and demanded to see Stephanie."

"Two people shouldn't be all that hard to handle," Norah said soothingly to Trevor, who was looking more upset by the minute.

"That's just it; when I refused to let them see her, they said that they would be back with reinforcements."

"Most likely, they won't show up until dark, so we should probably get on with Stephanie's first treatment," I stated.

Norah looked at me, quizzically, "what makes you think that they'll wait until dark?"

I shrugged, "in all of the books that I've ever read, the mob always shows up after dark with lighted pitchforks." I frowned for a minute, "how would you even go about lighting a pitchfork?"

Norah rolled her eyes, " I think that it's torches and pitchforks."

"Oh, that makes a lot more sense," I replied.

When Norah explained the procedure to Trevor, he wasn't thrilled with how it had to go down but was eventually mollified when she said that Stephanie shouldn't be able to remember anything afterward. And despite my earlier fears, things went fairly smoothly when we administered the cure to Stephanie; I'm not saying it was easy, though, because zombies are pretty strong, and it took all of our strength to hold her down while Norah gave her the shot in the back of the neck. Stephanie, who wasn't at all happy with her treatment, protested loudly with snarls and growls.

We left Stephanie alone with her thoughts or whatever it is that zombies do, and I got the idea that she was sulking as she just stood there and stared at us with what looked like silent condemnation as we left the room.

"Well, now that's over, why don't you start doing some damage control," I suggested to Trevor.

"What do you mean?"

"I think that you should get back on the radio and say that your story of Stephanie turning into a zombie was just a stupid joke."

Try to make it as believable as possible just in case they are listening to your show," Norah added.

"Right," I added. "The main thing is that you need to go on with your life as usual and act as if nothing has changed."

"All right," he agreed. "I'll get on it right away."

"I sure hope this works," Norah said to me as we listened to Trevor in the broadcast room. And I have to admit that it did sound believable as he talked about making up a story about his girlfriend turning into a zombie as a joke. But unfortunately, she was really annoyed by the joke, so he came on to set things straight.

"Me too, but, if it doesn't, I do have one more idea," I replied as we listened to the end of the show.

"So you see guys, it was just a silly joke, and I'd appreciate it if nobody mentions it around Stephanie because, well, she's still a little mad about the whole thing. Thanks again, and that's all for tonight."