J. Knoll - Zoe, Undead

He nodded again and agreed, "Sounds good." Looking to the big soldier, he raised his brow and asked, "Would you mind taking her to get something to eat?"

Tex did not seem very enthusiastic about the assignment, but he looked into the girl's hopeful green eyes and nodded, assuring, "Yeah, I'll take care of her. You mind calling the Colonel and letting him know?"

"Will do," Kavorski assured.

The hospital cafeteria was about half filled with survivors and soldiers who were having dinner, and all conversation suddenly stopped as Tex escorted his little zombie ward into the dining area. This was a spacious room with seating for over a hundred. The brightly colored carpet was in intricate designs, the wallpaper was bright and cheery and the lighting was not too bright, setting the perfect mood for an evening meal.

Zoe did not notice the looks people gave her, and was really not even interested. She carried her tray to the table the big soldier directed her to and set it down, then sat down and looked to the meal that was prepared for her. As she saw him sit down and pick up his fork, she insisted, "We have to say grace before we can eat."

He froze and locked his gaze on her, then he raised his brow.

It was decided to move her to a hospital suite on the second floor and away from more sensitive parts of the resistance operation. This was a spacious room with a full bath and a window that overlooked one of the carefully landscaped gardens right outside. The bed was perfectly made and the girl's scrubs lay neatly folded where she had left them. The two doctors waited by the bed. Kavorski still scribbled in his note pad and Rachel leaned on the bed with her arms folded and watched the half open bathroom door. The sounds of a shower were coming from there, a lot of splashing.

Doctor Kavorski looked up from his note pad toward the bathroom, asking, "So how long is she going to stay in there?"

Caswell shrugged. "She's a teenage girl, so God only knows."

Sergeant Tex entered with his weapon slung over his shoulder and Zoe's clothes neatly folded in his hand, and he stopped right inside the door, which was only a few feet from the bathroom door. Glancing at the bathroom, he looked to the doctors and asked, "She's still in there?"

They both just nodded.

As if responding to his voice, the shower turned off and the curtain was loudly opened, and all eyes went that way. No more sound could be heard for long seconds, then a sniff and what sounded like the girl sobbing.

With no clothing or towel to cover her, Zoe pulled the door all the way open, her eyes finding Tex right away. She rushed to him and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest as she wept. She was still wet from her shower and her body quaked with sobs as she cried.

He looked bewildered and embarrassed as he looked back to the doctors with uncharacteristically wide eyes, holding his hands away from the gray, naked girl who clung stubbornly to him.

"It won't come off!" she cried. "I washed as hard as I could and it won't come off!"

"Wha… Um…" he stammered. "What won't come off?"

"The gray on me!" she shouted. "It's all over me and it won't come off!"

He placed his free hand hesitantly on her back and looked to Doctor Caswell, clearly not knowing what to do.

The Doctor huffed a deep breath and shook her head, pushing off of the bed as she made her way to the bathroom. "I think it's medication time."

The colonel strode into the room, dressed in his camouflage field attire with a pistol at his side, and stopped just inside the doorway and barked, "Sergeant, what the hell are you doing?"

Getting Zoe calmed down and into bed was something of an undertaking, but she was finally dressed in the scrubs they had found for her and tucked in beneath the sheet and blanket. Her medication seemed to be working and her hysterics faded away. With the lights out and only the light from the hallway illuminating the room, everything seemed peaceful as Sergeant Tex and Doctor Kavorski stood by the door and awaited Doctor Caswell, who stood by the bed with her elbow leaning on it.

As she combed her fingers through the girl's hair, Rachel soothed, "Shh. Just close your eyes and try to get some sleep, okay?"

Zoe stared back at her and just nodded. The expression she wore was one that could often be found on a little girl, not a teenager of seventeen years. She was clearly frightened and confused and in a slight voice she asked, "Can we go to my house tomorrow and get my parents and my brother?"

Nodding hesitantly, Rachel assured, "We'll look into that, okay? You just get some sleep tonight and we'll talk about what we're going to do tomorrow."

"Okay," the girl whispered. As she watched Doctor Caswell turn and stride for the door, she suddenly barked, out, "Can you leave a light on?"

Rachel and the two men exchanged looks, then she glanced at the girl, reached into the bathroom and turned the light on, then she closed the door nearly all the way, leaving it open about a foot before she waggled her fingers at the girl and left the room behind the men, leaving the door to the room open about a foot as well.

The conference room was clearly designed to be comfortable with padded chairs surrounding the oval table, paintings on the walls and thin carpet on the floor. There were two doors, one into the room and one that was closed and led into an office at the back of the room. Two windows on one wall gave a good few of the outside and the fluorescent lights overhead illuminated it well.

Sitting at the head of the conference table was the Colonel, who flipped through reports as the others got settled. Doctor Caswell sat beside him, Doctor Kavorski across from her, a lieutenant beside Kavorski and Sergeant Tex beside Caswell.

Looking up from the reports, the Colonel swept his gaze from left to right and started, "Okay, boys and girls, here's the situation: We have a lot of movement from the local zombies here in the city and we're sure that about eighty percent of the population is either dead or infected. Word from the Pentagon is that most of the world is infected and those of us who aren't are being hunted by those who are. We also know that if they don't feed regularly they tend to starve and can't continue for more than about thirty days without food. That's the good news."

Doctor Kavorski continued for him, "We know they are kept going by a high protein diet and that they can get it almost anywhere. They don't just eat us, but animals as well, fish and cattle and whatever they can get their hands on. Bovine creatures and other vegetarians are not affected, only meat eaters. Thankfully, we don't have reports that rodents are affected at all and the virus does not appear to be transmitted by mosquitoes or fleas or other parasites of that nature. It seems to be only transmitted through the bite of an infected subject." He looked to Doctor Caswell.

Rachel had her reading glasses in her hand as she stared down at her own reports, and she drew a deep breath before she spoke. "Here's what we know: The virus attacks the brain first, and we also know that the infected tend to want to eat the brain of their victim first. We have theories about why, but the bottom line is that is where the virus wants to go first. Anyone who is attacked and bitten is already doomed, even if they get away from the zombies.

"It works by going right to the brain, and once there it begins to reorganize the brain and rewrite the cerebellum to make the victim do what it needs for it to do. It completely destroys all cognitive ability and conscious thought within a few hours, and once the brain is under control then it quickly reproduces using brain tissue that it doesn't need, like the cerebral cortex, and this produces a new virus, one that goes down into the body following the spinal cord, spinal nerves and such. The heart and other vital organs are taken over, metabolism is virtually shut down and the virus controls the body from its central command."