[center][h2][color=green]Kate[/color][/h2][/center]

“There’s a problem with the potatoes.”

Kate giggled. Sure, the world had been run over by a horde of flash-eating zombies, but she is dealing with the real problems – the potato problems. [color=green][b]“All right, I’ll take a look.”[/b][/color] She headed over to the field where potatoes were grown this year, she could see an elder couple standing there, clueless. She would always get the old and weak to work her fields, the rest were either out scavenging, training or on guard duties. Kate didn’t mind, older people usually knew their way around gardening and planting things, or at least were willing to learn. It was the young who barely remembered the world before the disaster, who thought there were some mysterious trees which produced bean cans and MREs. Sadly, Mr. and Mrs. Bryant were incredibly rich before the outbreak (the fact that they stated to everyone who was still willing to listen to them), and had servants fulfilling most of their needs. When they joined Parris Security, they seemed deeply offended by the fact that there is some work expected from them, let alone hard manual labor. They have already been positioned on multiple spots like laundry duty or helping out in kitchen, but always managed to complain for so long that the person in charge had them transferred somewhere else. Kate had to put up with them for over four weeks now, and they seemed to produce more damage than actual work.

[color=green][b]“So, show me your potatoes,”[/b][/color] she told them, ignoring their miffed looks.

“We have no idea what happened. Perhaps it is some kind of a disease?” Mrs. Bryant pointed towards the row.

Kate frowned and kneeled beside the plants. Any kind of disease that could spread to the rest of her carefully nurtured crops was very dangerous. The green top of the plant looked fine, it had already started to dry out which was the sign the potatoes are almost ready to harvest. The dirt was dug aside to reveal the tubers. Kate reached for one to examine it up close and then laughed with a bit of relief. [color=green][b]“Yes, this is indeed a dangerous disease. It’s called ‘the mice’.”[/b][/color]

“The what?”

[color=green][b]“The mice. You know, the tiny rodent with teeth,”[/b][/color] Kate used bent her fingers next to her mouth in an attempt to show what a mouse looks like. [color=green][b]“They must be pretty hungry to go after the potatoes, they usually prefer other vegetables. By the holes in the ground it looks like there is just a few of them, seems like they only picked this one plant.”[/b][/color]

“But… what are we supposed to do about it?” Mr. Bryant scratched his badly sunburnt head – he would refuse to wear any kind of hat or a scarf, claiming the he doesn’t want to look ridiculous. 

[color=green][b]“I have no idea, I’m a fucking botanist, not an exterminator. Go file up a requisition for a cat or something.”[/b][/color] She turned to leave, giggling quietly imagining them actually go to the supply officer to ask for a cat. In the normal days, the mice could turn into a problem, but nowadays as the nature slowly took back over the world, the increased numbers of bird of prey and other predators kept the rodent population on a manageable level.

Exhausted by the human interactions, she headed to her safe place. Over the years, her originally tiny private garden grew to several smaller fields and even a small orchard, that should start producing apples and peaches in the next few months. With all that, she needed a place for experimenting and preparing new breeds of plants. After long discussions, Carson allowed her to take one entire floor in the industrial building and even sent a raid to gather the equipment she requested. Now her kingdom had lots of artificial lights shining down on rows of tiny saplings and sprouts, sprinkler bottles with water prepared at each table, lots of mysterious tools lying around - it looked almost like a lab. And, in all honesty, most of the equipment actually did come from a pot growing lab, although it was put to a better purpose nowadays.