"That's what I don't understand," Chris said. "If you got three blue lines, your blood has to be more than half honey at this point. I thought something was up with you yesterday, the way you confronted that ranger kid and shot him like that. The pathogen is affecting your behavior, obviously. It's turning on your genes for confidence, and even pleasure. I can tell. It's doing everything it can to make you more physically attractive. And, honestly, now I understand why I've been so turned on by you ever since picking you up at the fairgrounds. It's been killing me. Seriously. I haven't even been able to think straight. And now I get it. Now I know why."

"You didn't assume it was just my natural sexy charm?" I couldn't believe I was joking.

Chris let himself laugh. "Well yeah," he said. "Your natural sexy charm, and the fact that your pores are oozing with pheromones."

Even knowing I was dead, I felt strangely indifferent about it. Ever since robbing the pharmacy, I was feeling oddly invincible. It was true. The pathogen must have been giving me some weird natural high. But the disease seemed to be affecting me differently than other people. Maybe I was dead, but I wasn't deteriorating.

"So maybe I have little more confidence," I said. "Fine. But how come I'm not like Morgan was, at the end? I don't understand."

"Honestly," Chris said, "I don't understand either. Maybe you have some kind of different pathogen strain. I'd love to give you a blood test, but it's not like that's going to happen any time soon, way out here. So I have no idea why. But, Ashley, you're definitely infected. I have no doubt about it."

I thought about this. It was strange that I wasn't more concerned.

"Do you think this could last?" I whispered. "Is it possible I could just go on like this? Like maybe the disease is somehow different for me? And it won't turn me into a total sex zombie?"

Chris sighed.

"I have no idea," he said. "I sure hope so. But I have no way of knowing."

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