Since Nick's death, things haven't been the same. But the truth about Nick's death seems to have popped up recently. Will Karen be able to avenge Nick? Or will she find that maybe things have gone too far?
Warning: If you have not read the last book, then please do so before you read this one! -MarcusM
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Things haven't been the same for Karen since the passing of Nick. It hasn't really been the same for anyone as a matter of fact. It's been quite different at the Anderson house. There hasn't been anything going on. No one really talked to each other. It was as if all life had been drained. Nick was Tim and Karen's life. He meant everything to them. And they never thought that he would be gone so quickly, just like everyone else never anticipated. But all good things have to come to an end though right? But why so fast? That's one of the questions that never left their minds.
But then there's another question that arises: is it ever really over?
That's the one question that Karen thought as she lay in her bed, alone. She felt a sense of guilt as if this was all her fault. If that wasn't true, she thought, then she had to have had something to do with the outcome. This guilt haunted Karen every single second after Nick died.
“Could I have done something?”, Karen thought, feeling that guilt pulsated through her body again. It was a horrible feeling. Sick to your stomach kind of feeling. “Don't feel like doing anything” kind of feeling.
Nick's funeral was supposedly 8 days away, which has been one of the most dreaded days to come as of recently.
The gloom never seemed to fade.
Tim, Karen's husband, also felt the same way. They would both lay in bed together whenever he wasn't at work, saving lives from the hands of blazing heat. They very well might have possibly shared the same thoughts as one another.
But there was this one day that arose something that nobody ever saw coming.
Karen was on the couch, and Tim was in the other room making lunch for them. She was watching this documentary about anthrax and the effects it has on the body before it kills you.
“So what are the symptoms of anthrax being inside your body?”, the interviewer asked.
“Fever and chills, chest discomfort, shortness of breath, confusion or dizziness, coughing, nausea, vomiting, or stomach pains, things like that.”
Once the man said that it got Karen's attention. Those sounded like some of the symptoms that Nick had about 2-3 days before he died. Can it be? No, no way. How would he get it anyway? Karen thought about it for a minute as the man explained more.
“So how long does it take for anthrax to kill you?”
“Left untreated, it would take 3-4 days to kill you.”
Now she was really concerned. But then the house phone sitting right beside her started ringing, which made her jump because it happened so suddenly.
She extended her arm out and picked it up, and looked at the screen to see who it was. It was their local hospital.
“There's no way. There's just no...way”, she said as she slowly worked up the nerve to push the button. Eventually, she did.
“Hello?”, she said nervously.
“Hi, is this Karen or Tim Anderson?”, the man on the phone asked.
“Um, this is Karen”
“Oh, hi Karen. So we've found something that has brought our attention. So do you have the time to come down to the hospital today?”, he asked.
“Ummm…”, she said as she looked at her watch.
“Yeah, what time?”
“Whenever you can. Thank you and we'll see you soon”, the man said as he hung up the phone.
Karen slowly moved the phone away from her ear and sat it down.
“Who was that?”, Tim asked from the other room.
“The hospital. They said they want us to come down there. They said they found something.”, she replied.
“Ok, well, you go down there because I've gotta go to work in ten minutes”, he said as he looked at his watch.
She nodded her head as she walked over to the table to eat lunch.
Then they both sat down and started slowly eating their ham and melted cheese sandwich.
But Karen was still lost in thought about everything and bit the burning hot melted cheese without thinking.
“Ahhhhhh”, she said in pain as she put the sandwich back down.
Tim looked at her for a few seconds.
“Do you think everything's alright?”, he asked in concern.
“Umm, what do you think? My mouth just got burned!”, she said in a sharp voice.
“No, I mean do you think everything's alright at the hospital? Because that seemed pretty concerning if they want you to come down there”
“I don't know…but I hope it is”, she replied.
A few minutes later they finished their lunch, and Tim went up and got dressed for work.
After that, he came downstairs and both of them walked out the front door.
Like every day, Karen throws her arms around Tim and kisses him goodbye.
Karen fixes her husband's crooked badge and sends him on his way.
Tim waves from his car window as he drives away.
As soon as he was gone, Karen looked at her watch and decided that she should go.
So she gets the keys to the other car and drives off to the hospital.
