"That would be true," Kathy murmured. "The cops were pretty much gone by that point. Most of 'em bitten in the early days, you know? Same with EMTs. Firefighters a little less, but the 911 switchboards were down and the cell towers overloaded and everything. It was chaos out there. So much chaos. You never knew which shelters were safe to send people and half the National Guard were Reservists who just wanted to get home to their families..." She shook her head. "Society broke down those last few weeks and sometimes it felt we were the only ones trying to keep it together."

Then she looked at him, expression sheepish. "Sorry," she added. "I know you hate hearing about this stuff."