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“Well done!” a voice spoke over the intercom. I recognized it as Fred Peppard’s. “As a reward you can eat your fill of our very special Miracle Cure Pat? Delight.” And to show us he meant what he said, a hatch opened in the wall and a tray emerged carrying two cans filled to the rim withpat?.

Brutus and I shared a look, then shrugged.

“I guess it can’t hurt to have a bite,” he said.

So we approached the pat?, but even before we got there the tray suddenly slid into the wall again, and the hatch closed.

“What a dirty trick!” Brutus cried.

A set of lights had switched on above the hatch. They flickered at constant intervals. Soon I discovered there was a logic to the intervals, and so before a light switched on, I put my paw on it.

“What are you doing?” asked Brutus.

“Don’t you see? This place is one big test lab. They’re testing us all the time, and either rewarding us or punishing us. Now you do the same, and the food will reappear.”

“Oh, fine,” said Brutus. “Just tell me when.”

I studied the sequence, then said,“Now!” and Brutus put his paw on the light just before it flashed on.

“Excellent!” said the voice of Fred Peppard. “Now you can have your reward.”

And the pat? reappeared, this time sticking around long enough for us to enjoy a good helping. It tasted pretty good. Not the best pat? I’d ever had, but not bad either.

“I think they’re saving the really good stuff for later,” I said.

Behind us, a siren blared, and Harriet and Dooley came walking through their respective holes.“It was mice this time,” said Harriet.

“Mice and butterflies,” said Dooley happily. “I wanted to go after the butterflies but Harriet said we should probably choose the mice instead.”

“Prejudices,” said Brutus. “This Fred Peppard guy is full of cat prejudices.”

Dooley and Harriet proceeded to play the flashing lights game, and were rewarded with pat?, just like Brutus and me.

And just when we thought that maybe this was it, and they’d finally let us go now, another hatch slid open and another toy mouse appeared.

“I think the idea is to follow the mouse,” I said.

“What did I tell you?” said Brutus. “Prejudices. As if all cats like to chase mice.”

“I like to chase mice,” said Dooley. “I just don’t like to catch them.”

“I don’t like mice,” said Harriet. “Mice are nasty.”

“Let’s just do what the man expects,” I said.

And so we followed the mouse into the mouse hole.

I just hoped there wouldn’t be a mousetrap on the other side.

Chapter 32

Odelia and Chase walked up to the camp commander, who stood bent over a folding table, studying a map. They’d asked one of the soldiers to be taken to his commander, a colonel named Brett Spear, as they had important information on the zombies to share, and the soldier had complied.

“Yes?” Colonel Spear said without looking up. He was a large man with a perpetual scowl, a fleshy face and short bristly hair. “You have information about the creatures?”

“Yeah, first off, they’re not creatures,” said Odelia. “They’re simply humans suffering from some kind of disease. And if you can locate my father and ask him, I’m sure he’ll be able to tell you a whole lot more.”

“Your father is…”

“Tex Poole. Doctor Tex Poole. He was at the hospital before, where we brought one of these so-called zombies, but he’s gone missing since, and he’s not at the camp either.”

She was frankly worried about her dad, and also about her grandmother and uncle, who’d all gone missing and hadn’t shown up at the camp so far.

“I’m Chase Kingsley,” said Chase. “Chief of police. I would like to know what’s going on here.”

“Chief Kingsley, of course,” said the colonel, for the first time showing a modicum of civility. “Well, the moment we got the call we locked down the town, and started picking up civilians for quarantining purposes. We also picked up all the zombies we could find, and have them in a separate facility, being examined as we speak. As far as we can tell they’ve all been affected by some type of zombie virus, and until we know how fast the virus spreads, we’re going to keep your town on lockdown.”

“Are you sure this is a zombie virus we’re talking about?” asked Chase.

“Oh, yes,” said the military commander. “Just look at them. They’re zombies for sure. Now if you’ll excuse me…” He resumed his study of the map. Odelia saw it was a map of Hampton Cove and surrounding towns, and she assumed soon Happy Bays and Hampton Keys would be on lockdown, too, and then maybe the entire island of Long Island!

“Do you have any idea where my father could be?” she asked now. “He’s gone missing, and so have my grandmother and my uncle.”

“If they’re not here at the camp, they’ve managed to escape Hampton Cove before it was locked down,” said Colonel Spear. “Let’s hope they’re not carrying the disease, otherwise they’ll face some serious consequences.” And with these words of warning, the interview was over.

They were led out again by two soldiers, and Chase dragged a hand through his hair.“Do you think your dad, Vesta and Alec managed to get out of town?”