Chapter 7: How Crazy is Crazy, Part 1

Constable Dan Pabst knocked on the hospital door and peeked in. Ever since he'd walked in on a sponge bath, he'd been very careful about entering hospital rooms. It didn't help that it was a ninety-year old man getting the bath. Being just finished with his rookie year, he still got the most meaningless assignments. The full suit, mask and gloves the Center for Disease Control people were making everyone wear didn't add to his confidence.

This room held one Pranthi Chopra who'd photographed the incident at the zombie walk and handed the pictures to the sergeant at the investigation. He'd seen the pictures on the front page of the Journal a week ago and didn't want to imagine what it would have been like to have almost died there.

"Come in," a weak voice called from in the room.

Dan walked in with his usual speech prepared, but his mind went blank when he saw Pranthi. He'd been expecting a hardened photographer, this girl barely looked out of her teens. In the tent-like hospital gown she might not even have been twelve. Pranthi sat on the bed with twisted, impossibly thin legs dangling from the side. They were more scar than skin.

"Well, at least you aren't my sister," Pranthi said. Her brown eyes summed him up, slotted him into 'harmless' and dismissed him before he could pull up a chair and sit down.

"I'm here to ask you a few questions," Dan's words puffed against his mask. "I'm Constable Dan Pabst." He waited for the inevitable joke, but she lifted her shoulders slightly. Dan took that as an invitation to continue. "Your photographs have been immensely useful, but I'd like to get some context for them." He opened his notebook and looked at the list of questions he'd printed there to ask her. Lame, she's going to think I'm lame. Dan took a deep breath. It didn't matter if she thought he was stupid, he had a job to do.

"How long have you been shooting zombies?" he asked. The burn of red crawled up his neck as she laughed. Her speaking voice was flat, but that laugh was musical.

"I'm guessing you mean with a camera," Pranthi said. "Though, after this year, I'm thinking of adding a shotgun to my gear bag." She looked up at the ceiling. "This Walk was the fifth I've shot for Kevin. He's the organizer of the events. That's four years. He tried two one year, but the second one didn't go well. People aren't thinking zombie in springtime."

"And you didn't have any trouble at any of the others?"

"If you mean someone chewing the neck of another walker, then no." She coughed, and her whole body shook.

Dan winced in sympathy.

"This walk is a fundraising thing, right?"

"Yeah, the first year it was to bring something for the food bank, but Kevin added prizes and a fee as well as the food. Nobody's getting rich over it, but it is a good event for him."

"Someone said that you arrived in Kevin's car just before the incident."

"My legs got tired," Pranthi said. "They've just never been the same since my mother arranged for a truck to run over my legs. My dear sister swept in to rescue me after the fact. A bit of too little, too late."

Dan stared at her. He couldn't understand the casual way she described the injury to her legs.

"You wear braces to walk?" Back to business.

"Yup, infernal devices of torture," Pranthi said. "The only thing worse would be living in a wheelchair. If I walk too far, my legs cramp up. If I walk too fast, they cramp up."

"So you stopped to rest."

"No wonder you're a police officer," Pranthi said, her hands kneading her legs. "Yes, I stopped in a coffee shop on the route. Kevin came and picked me up to shoot the winners. I never did get that done. Kevin will be wanting some money back."

"You won't have to worry about that," Dan said then snapped his mouth shut. He sighed and lowered his notebook. "You won't have heard that you weren't the only person infected with this fungus thing. Kevin was one of the ones who didn't make it."

"I think I saw him come into my hospital room."

Pranthi scrubbed at her eyes with her hands.

"Tell anyone I cried, and I'll tell them you fixed a parking ticket for me."

"You drive?" Dan asked.

"No, but my sister does, and she's a menace, never got out of the habits she learned in India."

"Your secret is safe with me," Dan nudged a box of tissues over to her. "The hospital staff say that you told them the infection was fungal, not viral."

"Some crazy woman talked to me at the coffee shop. She ranted about zombie ants and fungus and other stuff," Pranthi's eyes widened. "Suggested I skip the close of the walk." Her already dark skin grew darker and she touched her lips. "She kissed me before she left. Then told me to forget her. All thought of her vanished before I got to the park."

"What did this woman look like?"

"She had these beautiful blue eyes, like the ocean where I was a kid. Blonde hair, might have been real."

"You think she was trying to infect you?"

"Maybe. She never gave me her name, didn't ask for mine. Just mentioned that she made the costume for the guy who would have been the winner if he hadn't gone nuts. His girlfriend too."