Dead Land Journal March 10th 2028

I think Katherine is dying.

We found her this morning on the floor of the motorhome. She was unconscious and running a fever of 103. She had been locked in there for few days and was refusing to see anyone unless it was a life or death emergency. When she didn't answer this morning I had Billy open up the RV.
The place was a mess. The normally pristine clinic was littered with food wrappers and other trash. Medicine bottles were everywhere. There was a horrible rotten meat smell coming from the back section of the RV. Katherine had closed that off some time ago when she had dissected that first wraith. Back there we found several dead animals in cages and five living juvenile wraiths in cages and one dead one. Stacy shot two of them and Billy shot the other three.

It only took us a few minutes to determine what was wrong with Katherine. A tell tale puncture wound and severe abdominal distension indicated that she had infected herself with at least one wraith embryo. Aside from Katherine the only one of us that has had any medical training at all is Pastor Tom. I assisted Katherine while she removed the buggers from Dee back in August but really neither of us is qualified to perform surgery. We hauled her up onto the exam table and Tom operated the ultrasound. What we found was a bit a surprise. There were several wraith embryos all right, but they were all dead. There were eight of them, each one was about 4 centimeters long and looked shriveled up.

What the Hell was she thinking?! How did she plan to get them out by herself?

Tom said that due to the placement of them no vital organs were in danger, so they could be removed. It was really risky, but between the two of us we were able to remove them. I was only there because I had watched her remove them from Dee and was able to tell him what to expect. It was that or she would die from the infection. We carefully preserved each one as we removed it. As much as we disapproved of what she did we both knew it would be a shame to waste the opportunity to learn something from this if Katherine survives.

She is still running a high fever and has not yet regained consciousness. We found some instructions typed out on Katherine's Underwood. She was very specific on the dosage of the antibiotics and post operative care. We think she passed out sooner than she anticipated, she planning on calling us over with the walkie talkie but it was just out of her reach when we found her.

I had a bit of a talk with Billy a few minutes ago. He has been closer to Katherine than anyone these last couple of weeks. He says he knew something was wrong with what she was doing, but Katherine was so persuasive. Billy will do just about anything for her too and she took advantage of that. I have instructed him not to bring anything to her from now on without clearing it with me or Tom first. If she lives that is.

Damn her!

© 2009 R. Keith McBride