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| - The monster that had been Ernest Jackson ran farther into the woods. He knew he couldn't face the large crowd of people, all armed with guns. The human part of him realized that it would be instantly killed. So he decided to wait further up the mountain and kill any who came by. Suddenly, it could see a human nearby. It was a tall, dark-haired man who was wearing a white shirt and jeans. The monster went into a crouch, but then suddenly he heard a noise behind him. Turning, he saw a large buck, which was a lot closer than the man was. Turning his sights away from Blake Jones, he went after the deer instead. But, just as it was about to pounce, its sensitive ears picked up an extrememly high-pitched scream—one that was too high for human ears. The Wolf looked up to see a monstrous Bat fly overhead. The deer saw it too, and took off running. "Estimated cost of a standard vaccine...a hundred dollars. Not too bad, I suppose. The government definitely will have the supplies for that," declared Henry after reading it for only a few minutes. "That is, if we don't consider the availability of the resources. We have produced around a thousand vaccines, and can currently produce three hundred of them daily. The questions now are, one, do we tell the public about it; two, what price we place it at; and three, should we produce the maximum, the trade-off being reduced ability to provide cures for the infected." "What do the economists say?" asked Henry. Carol turned to another of the scientists. "The ones working on this project stated that we should inform the others that both the cure and the vaccine are available, and make a demonstration of the effects of the cure--which takes only two hours to finish--on live television, so that there can be no doubt of it, as the public has difficulty believing that it works. They also say that the optimal apportioning is one part cure per nine parts vaccination, and that the vaccines should cost thirty thousand dollars." "THAT MUCH?" "Yeah, that's what they said," the scientist replied. "But WHY?" "I don't know... the economists are weird when it comes to things like that..." The group ran farther into the woods, with Margaret Harper puffing behind. She had been an avid athlete in her day, but hadn't done any strenuous excerise for a while. Montgomery stopped and turned around. "Hey," he exclaimed, "Where's the mob?" "They've probably split up," said McPherson. "I'll bet that they're waiting in strategic places to kill us." "Hold on a minute," said Montgomery. "There's a man back there, but he doesn't look hostile." "Hey!" said Audrey. "That's my biology teacher, Mr. Jones. He'd never hurt anyone!" "Except the occasional frog, of course," quipped Brain, but Audrey ignored the comment. "What's he doing here?" she asked. "I'm sure it's just a trick," said Brian. "I'll bet he's in on the whole thing. Let's go!" "Hold up a minute!" called Mr. Jones. "The mob isn't after you all any more. They've given up. I just thought I'd tell you." "Why are you interested in telling us that?" asked Dr. Harper. "I'll bet you're with them!" "I'm a friend," said Jones. "I disagree with what they're doing, and didn't want to see you all killed. So I distracted them by making them think there was a were-animal over to the south. They're leaving that way now." "Well, even if that's true, we're still trapped in a forest filled with were-beasts," said McPherson, but James froze suddenly. "I'm hearing something," he said urgently. "I don't hear anything," Jones said skeptically and neither did anyone else, although they strained their ears as hard as they could. "It's a high-pitched noise," James said slowly, "a high-pitched noise that sounds almost like...giggling?"
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