J. Knoll - Zoe, Undead

Outside, the jeeps had formed a semicircular perimeter around the door. Each one was about twenty feet away with one parked against each wall beside the door and one directly in front of the door with its flank turned toward the front. The other members of the San Antonio team were already in position in the jeeps.

Corporal Anderson stopped and looked around him, and with a nod he commended, "Nice!"

"Yeah," Adrian confirmed. "We got it going on."

Beyond the jeeps was a second wave of zombies, a sea of undead marauders moving in on them relentlessly at that horrifying slow, steady walk.

"Oy!" Matt barked, drawing everyone's attention. "Who wants some ammo and what flavor do you like?"

Zoe strode forward with slow, hesitant steps, her wide eyes fixed on the zombie hoard that slowly closed in on them. She could only wonder where they were coming from or how so many kept coming at them. It seemed like the whole city was zombies now. Seeing them all and remembering what she had just experienced put doubt into her, doubt that they could make any difference even if they killed a thousand of these things. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the people who meant to receive them, people who fought as relentlessly as the zombies came.

A distant sound caught her attention and she looked toward the approaching zombies again. This was a familiar sound, a powerful engine. Movement to the right drew her eyes that way and a little smile found her as she saw one of the Strykers charging ahead of the bus, over the fallen fence, into the parking area and right at the hoards of approaching zombies. Every window in the bus had the muzzle of a weapon pointing out of it. The Stryker was also bristling with firepower. Both turned their flanks toward the zombies and hundreds of sharp cracks belched forth with the flashes of firing muzzles. Louder cracks announced the fifty caliber machine guns had joined the fray and a hail of lead tore into the zombies from one side, dropping them in a wave from right to left.

"Let's get some!" Dan shouted as he strode forward with the SAW. Holding the weapon at waist level, he aimed from there at the hoard that was less than a hundred yards away and loosed a barrage of his own, sweeping from one side to the other and back.

"Quit wasting ammo!" Adrian shouted as he stepped in front of Zoe and aimed his own weapon.

This fight lasted only a few minutes. A few of the zombies that were not in the main group continued to advance, only to be confronted by the Stryker and cut down, and others were seen by those near the door and dealt with.

With the zombies no longer a threat, the Stryker and bus pulled up to the brick building and stopped about twenty feet from the jeeps, and both opened up to disgorge the men who had come to relieve those who had stayed overnight.

Among them was Colonel Halstead, who came out of the Stryker puffing on a cigar and looking around him, and the first one he approached was Zoe.

She just looked up at him with no discernible expression.

He took the cigar from his mouth and nodded to her, then he informed, "Doctor Caswell wants you back at the hospital. We're taking you and your team home." His eyes shifted behind her.

Morgan approached with her M-4 over her shoulder and stood beside the girl, looking up at the Colonel as she asked, "So, would you guys like a hand?"

Before entering the hospital, Colonel Halstead took the remaining stump of his cigar from his mouth and tossed it aside, his eyes on the door as he strode with purposeful steps. Zoe was beside and a little behind him and the San Antonio team walked behind them.

As they got into the rally area, the Colonel looked over his shoulder and barked, "Corporal, I want to see you and Private Higgins in the conference room in thirty minutes."

"Yes, Sir," the Corporal confirmed.

Halstead stopped and looked down to Zoe, looking her up and down as he loudly said, "Private Princess, you stink. Go get showered and changed and get some chow. I'll see you in the conference room in an hour."

"Yes, Sir," she complied.

"We've had more people join us here," he informed, "so there's been another bed moved into your room. We haven't selected a roommate for you yet, thought you'd like to throw some input our way."

She nodded, then looked around her, and her eyes fixed on the new zombie fighters. Looking back to the Colonel, she suggested, "How about Morgan?"

His eyes shifted to Morgan, then he nodded. "Sounds fine. Get your gear and follow Princess."

They watched him turn and stride toward the stairs.

Morgan took Zoe's shoulder and leaned to her, asking, "Is he always so uptight?"

Private Higgins patted Morgan's shoulder as she walked by and replied, "That's pretty mellow for him."

Zoe emerged from her bathroom with a towel wrapped around her as she violently dried her hair with another.

Lying on the bed that was closest to the window, Morgan had kicked her boots off, removed her vest and hat and lay there with her hands folded behind her head, and she looked to the girl as she observed, "You were in there forever. Feel better?"

Zoe took the towel from her head and looked to the floor with much of her hair dangling down into her face, and she shook her head. "No, I still feel icky. I had someone's brains all over me."

"You had more than brains all over you," Morgan laughed. Sitting up, she watched the girl comb the wet locks from her face, and her eyes narrowed. "You're pale all over. Are you sure you weren't bitten by one of those things?"

Crawling up on her bed, Zoe reported, "It wouldn't matter if I was. I'm already kind of a zombie."

Morgan's eyes widened and her whole body tensed. Planting her hands beside her as she swung her feet over the side of her bed, she mumbled, "What?"

Cross-legged on her bed, Zoe took her teddy bear from the pillow and set it down in her lap, gently stroking her fingers over the soft hair on its head as she mumbled, "It's kind of a long story. They came in and killed my family and one of them tried to get me."

Half turning her head, Morgan confirmed, "And you were bitten." She seemed braced for flight, though her hand moved slowly toward the gun that lay on the night table between the beds.

Zoe nodded. "Doctor Caswell thinks I didn't turn into a zombie all the way because I'm autistic. She said the germ that gets into your brain wasn't able to do something in mine and so I'm still just who I was, but it still made my body a zombie." She huffed a hard breath. "I wish I was still normal, but most of the zombies don't bother me anymore, so I guess it's okay."

"And nobody around here is worried about you?" Morgan asked suspiciously, leaning a little more toward the gun.

Zoe would not look at her and just continued to pet her bear. "Everybody seems to worry about me."

"So," Morgan started hesitantly, "you don't try to eat people."

"That's gross," Zoe countered. "I'd rather eat Spaghetti-O's and pizza and stuff."

Hesitantly, Morgan nodded. "Um, do you mind if… You don't bite, do you?"

"I bit my brother once," Zoe confirmed. "I think I was ten and he was just being a meanie."

"So, you're an autistic zombie who only bites your brother." Morgan crooked her jaw and straightened on her bed, grasping the edges of the mattress with both hands. "Just when I thought the weirdness couldn't get any…"

"Weirder?" Zoe finished for her.

"Yeah, weirder." Morgan looked to the teddy bear and asked, "So, what's your bear's name? Oh, don't tell me. Teddy, right?"

Zoe's eyes slid to her and she shook her head. "His name's Snowflake. Why would I call him Teddy?" When someone knocked on the door, she looked over her shoulder and bade, "Come in."

"Um," Morgan stammered, "you're only wearing a towel."