Shakin All Over

The room was quiet for a few seconds. How had things gone so badly in such a short time?

The only good news, apparently, was that the Sheriff had killed the annoyingly perky blonde (yeah, yeah, too soon, whatever). So Rome took charge.

"Um. Okay. Everyone--remain calm."

Rome had some cataloging to do. It was a long list of how much their lives sucked right now.

"This man was very sick, so I need everyone to step away from the body for me, okay? In fact, it would probably be safer if everyone waited on that side of the room."

They were looking for someone to take charge, so no one put up a fight. Small favors.

"Thank you," he said. "Anyone with injuries, let's go into this office here and look after those, okay?"

Lenna was bleeding. Shit. Had the Sheriff bled on her? The look of terror in her eyes was enough to confirm that. Double shit.

Rome lowered his voice as the hunters huddled around him. "Okay, so this--disease, is that what we're calling it? This is Croatoan?"

Richard shrugged. "Looks like it."

"Okay, we'll go with that. So we need to get these bodies out of here, and we've got to keep an eye on who's infected until we can figure out a cure. Morrigan, that's you and me, okay? We start triage. Chica, you hit the books. I know we're kinda limited right now, but let me know if you can dig up some, I dunno, some healing spells, or some intel at least." He forced a smile at her, touching her cheek to let her know it would be all right.

"Second problem, Georgie is running around out there being all crazy and probably freezing to death. So Richard, Callum, I'm sending you after that. Take plenty of rock salt and try and figure out what the hell these ghosts are up to. Yeah?"

Richard and Callum nodded. "Okay, people, happy hunting." Rome clapped his hands and the circle broke. Damn, he should have been captain of the football team in another life. Or a frakking politician.

Rome looked at the room. Three dead bodies: Sheriff, Maria, and some other civvie.

He pointed at two men. One of them was the guy he'd taken the rifle from before, and the other looked like a huge lob of grease. "You two, can you give us a hand here? Let's get these bodies out into the snow, okay? Gloves and masks on the table, there. Thank you..."

Next problem.

Two more people injured: a grad-student-type with beard and glasses, and an older woman. Not bad injuries, but enough, probably. They waited patiently in the office, where Elenna and Morrigan hesitated outside the door.

He stepped over to them. "Morrigan, it's okay, honey. You and me, we're okay, we've got this, we've got to help these people, yeah? Can I count on you?" Morrigan nodded and stepped inside, armed with a first aid kit. Rome turned to Elenna. "Chica, baby? You okay? Did he get you?"

After Georgie had been running for a while she spotted a small wooden shack outside the forest. Her shoulder was still bleeding from the bullet but she didn’t pay attention to it. She was more occupied fighting herself or whatever was inside of her, and she felt she was losing. She had not recognized Rome and Elenna, and on top of that attacked them. She had to get away from people. She knew she was a danger to others, and she knew that she was capable of everything right now. At least she felt more human than she did earlier.
But it didn’t last.
After Georgie entered the shack and sat down on the floor she heard a rustling in the other corner of the little building. Normally it would have been too dark for any normal person to see what was there, but she suddenly had the ability to see perfectly in the darkness, like an owl watching its prey. There was a girl about sixteen, trying to hide behind a wheelbarrow.
Again, Georgie felt how she lost anything human left of her, got her knife out, jumped up and pushed the wheelbarrow aside. This time nobody would interrupt her.

Lenna wanted to laugh, tell him that was fine, but she couldn’t. She shook her head, putting pressure on the cut of her arm to stop the bleeding. “Romeo, I… I think this is not all my blood.”

She closed her eyes and tried very hard not to freak out. “Let’ me see.” Rome took her left arm and had a closer look at the cut. “It is not very deep.”

“I know, but all the blood. Rome I don’t wanna end up like Georgie or the Sheriff or all the other crazies.”

“You won’t because you will find a cure for this and then we find G. Okay?”

Lenna nodded. “Okay. Go on help the others I’m gonna be fine. I have to try to and find as much information I can.” She was wrapping a bandage around her arm to stop the bleeding. Just before Rome went to help the others she held him back. “Rome? When there is no cure, then…”

“You find it!” Rome didn’t even want to think about what happened in the worst case.

Stepping outside, Richard regretted throwing his jacket away. It was damn cold. So the best thing to do was to push on quickly.

“First order of business, we need to find all the salt we can. With luck they have some kind of storage bins for the stuff on the island. A shame none of the staff a here to tell us where the damn bins are.”

“Why salt?” asked Callum.

“Of course, sorry. You haven’t done any ghost hunting before have you? Best we go over the basics quickly.” Richard began telling Callum what he could over the wind. About using salt against them, about salting and burning the bodies, as well as a few tips in combating them.

“And the most important thing, almost all ghosts want something. Something strong enough to keep them behind. If you find out what that is, you can use it against them. Sometimes it can give you another way to banish them.”

“And are all ghosts… bad? Do you ever find friendly ghosts.” Callum asked slightly embarrassedly.

“Maybe not when they start off. But sooner or later the call of the afterlife drives them mad. Then they won’t be so friendly.” Richards voice held a twinge of sadness to it.

It seemed to Callum that Richard knew just a bit too much about ghosts. But before he could say for think anything else, a scream cut through the night. Both men began running towards the sound. Or as close to running as they could in the snow.

She had just cut deep into the girl’s arm who started to cry hysterically, when Georgie felt a strong force pushing her against the wooden wall. She was up on her feet in no time and saw the blurred shape of a woman in a strange dress. The girl was ducking in the corner, unable to make any sound at the sight of the pale figure that had suddenly appeared in front of her.
Georgie picked up her knife and drew closer to the girl, but the ghost threw her back again, giving the girl the chance to escape. She jumped up, wrenched open the door and ran outside. Georgie wanted to follow her, but the woman put her hands around her throat, lifted her up and threw her across the room until she hit the wall and fell to the ground.
This time Georgie didn’t get up again, she was losing her unnatural strength. Every inch of her body began to hurt. Finally. She knew that feeling physical pain was a sign for being human, and she felt more human than she did earlier. She slowly started to faint. She saw the ghost appearing right in front of her, but at the same moment she lost consciousness.

Lenna was going through the few books of the park history that were here. But something was wrong.

“Rome?” She yelled sounding a little panicked. Within no time he was next to her.

“Yes did you find something?”

Lenna shook her head, she quickly looked where everyone was in the room.

“I… Rome I feel funny. I’m freezing but um I think I’m rather warm. And it is difficult for me to read.”

Rome felt her forehead, it was feverish hot.

“What if that’s how it starts?” She asked worried not looking at Rome. She felt silly of so stupid to get infected by Croatoan. After a long pause she looked at Rome and for a brief moment Rome could have sworn that something was wrong with her eyes. But that was not possible.

"Whoa, chica, um."

Rome had never seen himself when he had a vision. But everyone told him his eyes turned weird when it happened. That they went gray.

Was this a vision?

Second thought was demon: but they were already pretty sure that this Croatoan thing wasn't any kind of possession, and Rome was confident that even God didn't hate them quite that much.

"Okay, um, chica, why don't you just sit down, okay?" Without waiting for a response, Rome scooped her into his arms and brought her to a cot, which he then slid over to be near the office. The "safe" (uninfected) civilians were in one half of the bunker, with Rome, Morrigan, and Elenna in the other half with the potential Crazies. They were separated by a few rows of supply shelves and a bend in the room, but it wasn't much if anyone else snapped. Of which Elenna was now a prime potential.

Not that they had seen any changes in eye color in any of the Crazies. Maybe it was a witch thing.

Rome brushed his fingers along her hair. She was really warm. "I'll get you some water," he said, and straightened up.

Only to stare right into the face of a ghost. A female ghost, this time. Again with the old clothes.

Before Rome could cry out or find some salt, "Don't let her hurt anyone!" the ghost said, and then flickered out of existence.

Rome looked around, but the ghost was gone. The chill accompanying its presence was so brief it could hardly be told apart from the general chill from the fact that they were stranded on a deserted island in the middle of the perfect friggen storm. And Elenna hadn't seemed to notice it. No one had.

As Rome got a bottle of water and brought it back to Elenna, the thing that bothered him the most was knowing who the ghost was talking about.

Rome wasn’t gone long but it was enough time for a ghost to sit down next to her. “You shouldn’t fight it, you will enjoy it.” And then she disappeared again.

Lenna felt another rush of heat over her. She desperately grabbed the water from Rome. She was heavily breathing.

“I think we’ve got a problem Rome.” Lenna whispered.

Rome checked her temperature again. She was just getting hotter.

“I saw another ghost. She… she told me not to fight it, I will enjoy it. Maybe Georgie likes being crazy, she is super strong, fast and doesn’t care how she looks. It must be a relief for her to stop being such a girl.” Lenna’s voice was low, calm and not normal for her in this situation. She suddenly looked at Rome. “What if the ghosts somehow are related with the Croatoan? No that doesn’t make any sense.” The young girl shook her head.”I think it is starting Rome. Don’t let me hurt anyone. Promise me that this won’t happen.”

Lenna took Rome’s hand with her hot hands and looked desperate at him. “Promise me Rome.”

Rome tried laughing at her teasingly as he took her hand. "As if I could let you do anything fun," he joked. "Anyway, you're talking crazy, chica. Georgie isn't enjoying this, and neither will you." He was serious now. "You just gotta keep fighting it. Maybe it...wears off, or something."

Rome checked his phone. It was really frigging annoying that Richard and Callum were still gone. Had they found Georgie? It was taking them long enough!

Which, okay, wasn't fair, it had been less than an hour, and the island was bigger than that, but still.

"Okay, chica, you stay cool. We can have you sit nearer the door if it's too warm here, okay? I need to go talk to Morrigan."

Rome stood, squeezing her hand again, and crossed over to the office where Morrigan was. "Hey, Mor, can I talk at you for a second?"

"Um, sure," she said.

"Hey, why are you keeping us in here?" one of the injured people, the grad-student looking one, asked. "Why can't I go lay down?"

"I'll bring a cot over here for you, but we need to make sure you're not infected before we let you go over to where everyone else is," Rome said, firm and calm. The guy didn't seem convinced, but he stayed quiet.

Awesome, now they hand an impending riot on their hands.

He pulled Morrigan gently by the elbow until they were in a corner, out of earshot if they whispered.

"How you holding up, Mor?" He asked, pulling her in for a chaste hug. She had already made it clear that she wasn't sleeping with him, and despite popular belief Rome did have restraint, so he hadn't tried coming on to her in a long time (although--horror movie setting, being trapped on death island had to be the greatest place to have sex, just saying).

She drew in a shaky breath and shrugged against his chest--either okay, or didn't want to talk about it, or a little of both. Fair enough.

"Because I need you to do me a favor. I need you to trade me jobs. I'll crowd control, and I need you to hit the books. Lenna's not looking good--" Morrigan looked up sharply, "but it's not like the others, I don't know what to make of it. Georgie, too, I mean, we saw her, she fought it. The others just...when they snapped, they snapped, no turning back. Lenna has a few books, and they probably have some records here that would tell us why this island seems to be a breeding ground for ghosts and Crazies. I need you to use that hunter lore you learned growing up and tell us everything you can about Croatoan. Who it effects, who it doesn't effect, and why, and dear God in heaven tell us if there's a cure, okay? Can you do that for me, chica?"

Rome was right. Things were not looking good for the team.
"My dad thinks he ran across Croatoan virus back when he was doing a job in with another hunter from Kansas.

Rome nodded and let her out of the hug. She rubbed Rome's arm. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine." For a minute she finally allowed herself to realize what a good looking guy he was... but now wasn't the time to be thinking like that, and she knew that they were way too different for her to have more than a fleeting attraction.

"From what Dad told me, it sounds like our culprit is definitely our little demon virus. It seems to work kind of like a plague, which we've unfortunately already figured out. From what I understand, the original Croatoan, or what we think might have been the start of the virus, is thought to have wiped out Roanoke Colony completely- without leaving a trace. What doesn't make sense is why some people are affected differently. I'm going to hit the books for a bit longer and hopefully I'll find out the last bit."

"There might be a reason why its affecting some people differently?"

"It's a thought." Morrigan pulled out one of the thick volumes and started leafing through it. "In most people, it seems that Croatoan causes a blood rage causing people to murder each other until the entire population wipes itself off the map- kind of like what happened in the Colony. It's a really scary thought if you start to think about use on a large scale. As far as I know, there isn't a cure to this thing, all the people infected just..."

"Just what?" Rome asked impatiently.

"They disappear. Just like Roanoke. Maybe they go on to spread the virus, maybe they die? There isn't a record about anyone having found a Croatoan survivor."

"So we're screwed?"

"You're asking the wrong girl, I'm afraid that without more reference material, I'm just guessing. Maybe if we got a blood sample and ran some tests? I'd just started working in the lab before all this, I could give it a shot? We might be able to see how the virus is affecting its victims on a basic level. But then again, I'm not really that good yet...Rome?" Morrigan noticed his gaze wander to Lenna. "Are you listening?" She knew it must be hard watching his friends, his family, go through something like this.

They saw the shack ahead of them through the storm. The next second they saw a figure charge out. Both men braced themselves, in case it was Georgie or another infected, but when the figure got closer they saw it was a terrified teenage girl. She stumbled in the snow and toppled over.

“Ghosts!” the girl stammered as they moved up, “ghosts and a crazy pink girl.” Although hysterical both Callum and Richard knew what she meant.

“The girl, did she bleed on you?” asked Richard.

“Wha.. no?”

“Callum, stay with the girl. I’m going to get Georgie.”

“Are you crazy?” Callum exclaimed.

“No, just family.”

Richard moved cautiously into the shack, and through the door was surprised to see Georgie lying unconscious. There was also a rope in the shack. Tying Georgie up didn’t feel like the right thing to do, but it was his only option now. He reached for the rope when suddenly a voice spoke.

“Run or kill her.”

Richard’s head snapped up, and he looked at the apparition between him and Georgie. She was dressed in old fashioned settler clothes, and as her image flickered Richard saw the sad look on her face.

“Leave her, servant of Hades, you cannot help her.”

“You know who I am?” Richard was mildly surprised. First, most spirits weren’t this talkative, lucid, or personal. Second, only a handful had the awareness of what he was, and those tended to attack all the more viciously because of it.

“Croatoan gives us knowledge, as Croatoan keeps us trapped. I welcome your presence, but the others will not.”

“You want to move on?” That was almost unheard of. Not just being forced to stay behind against her will, but also remaining sane for such a long length of time.

“Not until the curse is lifted. Then I shall gladly follow your guidance into Erebus.”

Richard heard movement behind and saw that Callum had joined him. Damn, how much had he heard?

Georgie didn’t open her eyes although she was awake now. She wasn’t sure if it was the fact that she got thrown around and hit her head, or if it was still that something inside of her that made her go crazy, but there was no way she was actually hearing those things. Richard and the ghost talking like that…and what did she mean by servant of Hades?
Georgie’s head hurt, just as the rest of her body. At least she could think straight…for the moment. Those thoughts were her own, and she finally felt more in control of her body, but she didn’t know how long it would last.

“What’s going on?”, she recognized Callum’s voice. She was tempted to open her eyes to see what was happening but she was afraid the ghost would start attacking her again as soon as she moved.

“In order for the ghosts to move on we have to break a curse first”, Richard explained to Callum.

“And how do we do that?”

“We have to-“

“Damn!” Georgie opened her eyes, her heart was racing. She felt it coming back, taking control over her body again and influencing her thoughts. She jumped up and backed away from the ghost who immediately turned towards her. “You do not put your dirty hands on me again!”, she yelled at the ghost. Richard and Callum looked surprised, she definitely sounded like Georgie again. But she knew it wouldn’t be for much longer. She looked at Richard.
“You just go, I can manage it…” It wasn’t true, she really needed help, but she was scared that she might hurt them if they stayed close to her. Suddenly she felt the ghost’s hand again, throwing her against the wall.

“You leave her alone!”, Richard shouted, then ran to Georgie to see if she was okay, but to his surprise she pushed him away.

“I don’t know how long I can hold it back! Go away, please!”

Rome went to talk to Morrigan and… They were talking about her weren’t they? Lenna felt as if everyone was staring at her, sharpening the pitch forks to hunt her down, they planned how to get her on the stake to burn her alive.
She closed her eyes and lie back on her cot, breathing heavily.

This is not going to happen. I rather shot myself than let anyone get hurt by me.

“Miss? Are you hurt?” A cute teenager boy asked Lenna in an even cuter Irish accent.

“Fuck off boy!” Lenna snapped at him, but she went pale (if she could even get any paler) and without looking at him she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean that, just erm leave me alone”

The boy nodded, he might looked cute but which kid nowadays really got upset when someone swore around them? He left Lenna alone and went to Rome and Morrigan. “Excuse me Sir?”

Rome looked at him, still in a little shock of not having a cure for this.

“Your girlfriend -how many do you have anyway- she spilled water over her and it vaporized as she is hot like an oven. I just thought you might want to know that.” The boy looked a little impressed at Rome for all his girlfriends, and at the same time he was very proud for knowing something no one else apparently knew.

“Listen Georgie. I’m not going to leave you like this. Whatever it is that’s infected you, you’re fighting it. And that’s a lot more than most have been able to do. Don’t give up now.” He paused then muttered, “Did that really sound as cheesy as I think?” He wasn’t sure if it was the pep talk, or the humour, but it seemed to calm Georgie for the moment.

“Oh the other hand, just in case, I’m going to tie you up ok?” Richard couldn’t believe he’d just asked that. Georgie nodded and turned for the rope, notching that the ghost had disappeared for now. Richard bound here arms tight to her, but left her legs free enough to walk, though not run.

They had barely made it out the door when Georgie gave a half enraged cry.

“Fight it Georige. You’re tied up and disarmed. And if things really get bad I’ll knock you out.” Then he looked up. Maybe it had been the virus that had caused Georgie to cry out. Or maybe it was it numerous ghost arrayed ahead of them.

“Oh boy am I going to make my quota tonight,” Richard whispered.

Rome looked at the boy sideways. "Don't go near her, understand?" he said, a quiet warning. "Go on back to...are your parents here?"

"Uh. No," the boy stammered. "I'm here with some school friends. I think they got out in the first ferry..."

Well, dammit.

"Okay, well all these people are very sick, okay, I need you to stay away from them. I think there are some, like, games and books and stuff over there by the beds. Don't let me catch you over here again, huh?" Rome tried to sound mean and threatening, but he was pretty sure it came out tired and dad-like.

The kid nodded, though, and thankfully went away.

He sat down for a minute to collect his thoughts, and while he was at it, to harden his heart. There were some things needed doing, and none of them were pretty options.

He stood, decided, and went out of the bunker in the hopes he might see Richard and Callum coming back with Georgie, but nothing. He found where they had buried Maria Jones in the snow: she was frozen stiff already, so it was annoying but not impossible to find the set of keys in her pocket. He had seen a gun cabinet, dusty, in the corner, and they were likely to need a full compliment. So.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention," he said, striding back into the room with as much authority as he could pretend. "This is what we're going to do..."

Georgie felt rather helpless because she was neither armed not could she move much, so she was actually hiding behind Richard like a little girl. She felt really stupid doing this because she was used to defend herself, and she was really good in that, but this time she couldn’t do anything.
She felt extremely weak after being thrown around by that ghost woman. She had to think about the things she heard earlier. The ghost had mentioned that nobody could help her anymore, and she worried it might be true. Georgie felt sick. She realized that she hadn’t talked to her uncle since she found out about Richard, and if she would end up turning into whatever was inside of her, if this vicious cruel side would win over her, she would never get the chance to make things right between them.

“Okay, I think we’re in some sort of predicament”, Richard mumbled, reaching for his knife.

“No kidding…” Georgie tried to hide the fact that she felt sick, but it didn’t really work. She looked at Callum who got out a gun. He still seemed a bit insecure with it, especially since they were surrounded by more than just one ghost. He aimed for the ghost that was closest to him and pulled the trigger. As soon as he shot, the ghosts started to move quickly and appeared directly in front of them. He didn’t seem to scare them off but actually provoke them.
They were definitely outnumbered. And screwed.

First Rome left, he mentioned something of a plan but Lenna didn’t pay attention. She was too hot, she had to get out of here and before anyone could stop her she was out of the door. Taking deep breath, this was really not funny. And then she heard shot, a part of her wanted to run back inside and hide but she didn’t. “Rome! There is trouble! I’m going to help.”

And off she went. It was weird she wasn’t scared and she left a, easily visible trace of melted snow. She saw the ghosts surrounding Georgie, Richard and Callum. “Hey!” She yelled as loud as she could. Everyone turned around to her, first her fear kick in but then she knew the ghosts, Georgie and everyone else infected wouldn’t attack her they waited for orders. They waited for her orders.

Think Lenna let them do something that keeps them busy but not suspicious.

“I’m not yet done with the hunters!” Lenna said in an ice cold voice she didn’t sounded at all like herself. Not to mention that she felt a new wave of heat rush over her.

"Okay, hold the phone!" Rome demanded, hoping the universe would be more convinced by his serious than he was.

What the hell just happened?

Okay, Georgie was infected. Richard had found her, and she was--tied up? Fair enough, hope that worked against...Crazy super strength, or whatever this was, this Croatoan thing.

And Elenna was infected. Or sick or something.

And there was, like, an army of friggen ghosts.

And Elenna was controlling them.

"Lenna!" Rome tried to sound more angry than scared, and he put a hand on her shoulder to shake her, maybe snap her out of it. "Jesus!" he cried, reclaiming his hand--she was seriously hot! "Lenna, what the hell? What--"

And now her eyes were different colors?

Okay, regroup time. Rome trudged through the snow over to Richard, Callum and Georgie, with Morrigan behind him. "G, tell me you're with me, huh, chica?"

She had fallen to her knees in the snow, was shaking her head. "Rome, I can't--"

"Hang in there, for me, G," he said, pulling her up and hugging her to him. She was cold. That was comforting, maybe. "Okay, guys, form up. Everyone loaded? Salt rounds. Be ready for anything."

Lenna felt dizzy. This was bad, Georgie looked like a never fed lioness, the ghosts might be gone for the moment but she heard scream from the bunker. She was pretty sure that the few maybe infected were just ripping more innocent people into pieces.

“There is no cure is there? It is just a matter of time that I freak out too. Maybe the other dude was right and you should just shoot us. Oh and I think those ghost they have Croatoan too.”

Lenna sounded defeated. She was kneeling in the snow still hoping it would cool her down.

"I think I can control the ghosts. I have no idea how, and it scares me."

Georgie looked at Elenna. The fact that something was wrong with her friend seemed to give her some normal, human feelings back, at least for the moment.

“You can control the ghosts?”

“I think…I’m not sure.” She still felt hot, and she didn’t know what she could do to make it stop.

The past hours Georgie had constantly feelings that were not her own, feelings that were evoked by that Croatoan thing, but now she seemed to pick up Elenna’s feelings. Just a brief moment ago she was freezing, and now she felt…hot? And there was something else she felt, something that came from Lenna as well. Something dark, and not human…
“Why is it so hot here?”, Georgie mumbled, more to herself.

“Not you too!” Rome looked at her and touched her skin, but it was ice cold, not like Lenna’s.

Elenna got up slowly, and for a second Georgie noticed there was something wrong with her eyes, but the same moment her temperature dropped rapidly and she started to feel cold again first, but then she couldn’t feel anything, neither heat nor cold. Nothing at all. And that was a bad sign. But she needed to control it, she had to. She didn’t want to think how long this would go on, or if this was ever going to stop.

At was a weird sensation to know that Georgie was one of hers again. Lenna’s breathing was unusual fast as if she just sprinted. It was a bizarre state Lenna was in. She knew she should feel cold in the snow somewhere on the way she had lost her jacket, but her increased body temperature made it not just impossible for her to be cold. She was releasing so much heat that all snow around her melted.
It was not the heat that was the knowledge she had without knowing from where she had learned it. Okay maybe it came from the voices she could hear in the wind.

“Croatoan is a gift, it brings us together in a way nothing else ever can do it. You don’t need to be scared to get infected with it. You will see it sets you free forever.”

“Wait it will set us free forever?” Callum asked, thinking about the words. “Didn’t you tell me ghosts are trapped between the afterlife and the living life?”

“Yes so?” Rome seemed not to understand Callum. He was too worried about Georgie and Lenna, and the army of ghosts that was invisible at the moment but they all knew that was just a matter of time.

“What if those ghosts are not trapped? What if they are free?” Callum wasn’t even sure what he was saying here.
Not far from the group Lenna collapsed unconscious into the snow. Within second Rome was holding her in his arm. “Lennie, come on we need you. Wake up.”

Groggy and slowly Lenna opened her eyes. “I feel funny.”

“Tell me about it, you are burning hot.” Rome smirked.

“You finally see that too.” Lenna grinned up at him. Lenna sighed. “Ghosts, means salt and burn the remains, we are outgunned against them and at some point they will know that I’m not really one of them. We need to find where the first pioneers that were infected went. And after that you gonna lock me in a freezer so that I cool down again. I feel like the Human Torch close to the super nova.”

"I don't think the freezer is the right answer," Morrigan said with what she hoped was a reassuring laugh. "What we need is to send these guys back to where they came from."

I hate ghosts she thought. They remind me too much of the dead. Of Shane and how he died.

"You're just going to have to hang in there, Georgie too. We've got this." Somehow

Lenna shrugged. "Okay, let's see about that salt."

"Seriously, your like a thousand degrees. Can you stand?" Rome asked. "Chica..." His bravado turned to concern instantly.

Lenna nodded. "Let's see what I can do."

Salt and burn.

Beautiful in its simplicity.

That was good, they could handle that.

"Okay. Okay. Callum, you're with me. We'll look after Georgie. Rich, you and Mor keep an eye on Lenna. You get the salt, we'll bring the burn. It might be in--the forest?" Honestly Rome was just guessing at this point. "'Croatoan' kept showing up in the wood. Let's try that. At least if the woods and the buildings start going, most of the rest of the island should go with it--"

"With all of us trapped on it?" Morrigan cried. "Are you insane?"

Rome didn't reply.

"Rome?"

Rome was silent, frozen. He had made the mistake of turning around and looking down the hill at the cluster of buildings. There was blood in the snow. Lots of blood.

And blood on the people. Bodies strewn around, bloody footprints leading away.

Rome shook himself. "And now we have a bunch of homicidal Croatoan-Crazies on the loose. Everyone armed? You're gonna need it."

Rome cut the ropes tying Georgie's hands but took her firmly by the arm. "Chica, G, I need you with me on this. I'm letting you go, but I'll do what I have to if you don't keep fighting it. You hear me?"

He exchanged a meaningful glance with Richard--if it came to it, Rome couldn't kill Lenna and Richard couldn't kill Georgie if their lives depended on it. But the other way around, well, there was at least a chance.

Maybe.

"Okay, team. Salt and burn is the order of the day. Let's go."

Richard grabbed Rome by the arm and pulled him slightly away from the rest of the group.

“We might not need to burn the whole island down, but you aren’t going to like what I have in mind. Damn it, I don’t like it, but it’s better than ending up in Erebus burned to a crisp.” Richard whispered to Rome.

“At this stage I’m open to any suggestion,” Rome replied.

“If Elenna and Gerogie are somehow linked to these ghosts, maybe they can find out where their bodies are?”

Both Rome and Richard turned around to look at Elenna and Georgie, who didn’t seem well at all. Georgie was heavily bruised and just waited for the sickness to kick in again, and Lenna’s temperature didn’t drop, she was still burning hot.

“We might need your help”, Richard said. “Since the ghosts seem to be connected with that Croatoan sickness, you might be a link to the ghosts because you’re both infected. Is there any chance you know where they might be?”

Georgie was tired of ghosts. No, she was fed up with them. She had reached the point where she never wanted to see a ghost again, even though she knew that was very unlikely to happen. But she also knew they had to get to the ghosts in order to get this thing over.
“I’m not sure, I can’t really say my feeling are reliable at the moment…”, she said with a tired voice. “But I had this very strange feeling when I was in the forest…I knew I wasn’t alone. Something was there…”

“I had the same feeling when we went into the forest to look for Georgie”, Elenna said.

Rome nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”