It was normally a 45 minute drive from Espanola to Manitoulin Island’s Little Current Bridge. Even with a few weeks until the official start of summer, tourist season was off to a good start this year. Katie expected the traffic to be more congested than usual, but she had never seen so many people on the roads. She hoped that most of the travelers weren’t headed her way. Even at peak season, the island’s population only reached about fifteen or sixteen thousand, which sounded like a lot until you remembered that Manitoulin Island is the largest island on a lake in the entire world. About twelve thousand people called it home year round—sturdy, industrious, creative people who understood that they inhabited a little piece of Canadian paradise. Or Anishnabek paradise. Or both.
It took almost half an hour to travel the first ten kilometers, but after that Highway 6 south was flowing fairly well. The single lane swing bridge to the island was usually a lesson in patience, and Katie prayed that they would be blessed with fortunate timing and miss the hourly swing for the boats. She normally would not talk on the phone while driving, but she needed to speak to her husband. Chances were about 50/50 that he’d answer—Walleye and Northern Pike season was just getting started, and he was known to “forget” his phone. To her surprise, he answered on the first ring.
“Katie, where are you?”
“On the road back from Espanola. Do you know what’s going on?”
“About what? Are you talking about the zombie virus all over the news?”
“The what?”
“Yeah, it’s ridiculous, I know. Larry and Al told me all about it. Those guys are taking it pretty seriously though; they wouldn’t even go out on the lake today. Both of them are at home preparing their rifles and hunting gear. Zombie season, I suppose.”
Katie lowered her voice and almost whispered into the phone, “Michael, did you say zombie virus?”
“I think we have a bad connection, babe. I can barely hear you.”
“Meet me at home. I’m bringing some guests. There was a . . a . . an incident at the rink. I can’t go into it right now, but find out everything you can about what Larry and Al were talking about.”
Michael tried not to sound condescending, but he wasn’t particularly successful, “Anything else, dear?”
Katie was quiet for a moment, then replied, “Load the guns.”