J. Knoll - Zoe, Undead

He was concentrating on what he was doing, but finally looked over his shoulder at her, to the full magazine she held, then finally to the cans on the floor. Looking back at her, he barked, "Where did you get those?"

"Colonel Halstead is outside," she answered. "I went out to one of the trucks and asked for some and the guy I talked to said we could have more if we need it."

He took the magazine from her and ordered, "Take the other can to one of the other firing teams, then go for more."

With a quick nod, she replied with a smart, "Yes, Sir!" and went about her task.

The fight lasted a long time and Zoe shuttled ammunition to the soldiers two cans at a time for a couple of hours. Though she felt herself tiring, she was also elated to be included in something so important. She felt as much a part of the team as she ever had in her life and her fear of the zombies that were attacking those in the mall and the Strykers was all but gone. It was clear that they were not interested in her, not interested in stopping her, but it was also clear that the soldiers would occasionally mistake her for one of the bad zombies and shoot at her. She was hit once, but it did not hurt and simply passed through her leg, and she found herself too busy to pay the wound any attention.

At some point, all knew that there were simply too many of the zombies and a rescue effort would eventually have to be made. Everyone was starting to run out of ammunition and the reserves in the Strykers were dwindling.

Almost three hours into the fight, Sergeant Morris backed off of his firing line and took Zoe's arm, leading her into a store behind them where he could talk clearly to her.

"We need to find a secure way out of here," he shouted to her.

She nodded and looked around her, then to the other end where the food court was. Pointing that way, she said, "There is another elevator by the food court and another in that big store over there. The zombies don't seem to know about the elevators."

"They may just all come up this way once we abandon our positions," he concluded. "I'm also sure that those elevators won't hold thirteen of us."

She looked about again, then to him and asked, "Do you think there are any zombies on the Macy's side?"

"Don't know," he replied. "Want to check that out for us?" When she nodded, he gave his radio back to her and ordered, "Give me a shout if it's clear and we'll make our way over there."

"Yes, Sir," she complied.

Running that way, she found the elevator by the food court and took it to the first level, then she ran all the way outside. She found herself becoming fatigued quickly from the running, much faster than she ever had before, but pushed herself as hard as she could.

Arriving outside, she looked around her to see the parking lot relatively abandoned. A few cars were still out there and there were three zombies approaching from the other side of the parking lot, but she was sure they could handle three of them.

"Tex," she called into the radio. "There are only a few of them out here."

"Roger that, Princess," he replied. "Colonel, take the Strykers to the Macy's side in two minutes. We'll meet you over there."

"Macy's side in two minutes," Colonel Halstead's voice confirmed. "We'll see you there, Sergeant."

"Zoe," Tex called on the radio, "wait for us right there, okay?"

"Okay," she complied.

It was a very long couple of minutes, but she waited as patiently as she could, continually scanning the parking lot. More zombies were beginning to appear and she grew more and more nervous as she saw them.

The doors behind her finally burst open and all of the soldiers filed out with their weapons ready. The last two were backing away, training their weapons in the mall as they covered the retreat.

Those zombies that were approaching from across the parking lot, now about ten in number, were cut down by a hail of gunfire by the retreating soldiers.

Still more staggered to them from the right and the soldiers set up a defensive perimeter, firing on them as well as those that followed them from the mall.

As things began to grow tense once again, the roar of the Stryker's engines and the automatic fire from their weapons announced the approach of all three of them and the zombies that closed on Sergeant Morris and his team were cut down by the advancing armor.

Soon, the last of the soldiers boarded, ramps were closed and all three vehicles charged away to their base at the hospital.

Inside the vehicle that Zoe and Tex rode in, a celebration was at hand. Though they had abandoned the mall, it was clear that the soldiers were all jubilant about the day and being able to go home after such a fight. Shouting and slaps on the shoulder, high fives and whoops were exchanged, and despite what had just happened, Zoe felt a little scared by all of this and huddled close to Sergeant Morris.

The same private who had held a gun to Zoe's head hours before now approached her and held his hand out, and when she hesitantly took it, he offered her a big smile and a nod and shouted to her, "You rock, Princess!"

All of the men raised a cheer when he said that, including Tex, and she smiled a nervous smile and cuddled in a little closer to the Sergeant.

CHAPTER 4

They arrived home safely and hours later Zoe sat in her room, cross legged on the middle of the bed with her eyes fixed on the TV that was mounted on the wall. A video was playing, a movie she had told Doctor Caswell was one of her favorites. It had been found on the pediatric ward and it had her full attention. She had changed out of her shorts and pink shirt and was once again wearing colorful hospital scrubs and hugging her teddy bear to her as she watched the movie, laughing and giggling from time to time as she mentally and emotionally detached from what had just happened. It would be mealtime soon and she was waiting for someone to come for her, but in the meantime, she was entertained.

At the nurse's station, Doctor Caswell sat down and laid the clipboard on the counter, bowing her head to rub her eyes.

Sergeant Morris leaned on the other side of the counter, resting his forearms there as he stared down at her, and when she finally looked up at him he raised his brow and informed, "She did really good out there."

Her eyes narrowing slightly, Rachel snapped back, "Allowing her to go sniffing around in the mall is one thing. Getting her involved in a major firefight with the zombies is an entirely different matter!"

"We all have to expect that to happen," he pointed out. "Every possible engagement could turn into that, and like it or not she saved a lot of butts out there."

Caswell just stared up at him for a moment, then she leaned back in her chair and looked away. "Zombie or not, she's still a fragile, seventeen year old autistic girl."

"She's not afraid of the zombies anymore," Tex pointed out. "Don't know when she decided that, but she went after ammo for us right through the middle of 'em."

Setting her jaw, Rachel grumbled, "Why did you allow her to stay there with you to begin with? Why didn't you send her back here?"

"Is this more about her safety," Sergeant Morris barked, "or is it about losing a science experiment?" Then the Doctor's eyes shot to him, filled with daggers, he nodded slightly and added, "You'd better get it through your head that we're in a war for survival here. The bad guys have all the numbers. In fact, I figure we're outnumbered about ten to one around here, so any advantage we can get is one more zombie that won't be trying to eat you later." He pushed off of the counter and turned to walk away. "You might want to think hard about that."

Rachel sprang up and hurried around the counter to catch up to him. "Don't you think I know that? We were supposed to give her a cat scan, a full brain scan to figure out why she hasn't turned completely. For God's sake, she could be the key to stopping this plague!"