J. Knoll - Zoe, Undead

In a meek voice, one of a frightened little girl, Zoe whimpered, "I don't want to become one of them."

Rachel nodded as she finished freeing the girl's wrist, and she assured, "I know, Zoe. We'll figure something out."

Closing her eyes as the Doctor freed the rest of her, Zoe asked, "If it happens, will you have to kill me?"

"If it happens," Rachel informed, "You'll already be dead."

Hearing that sent a chill through the girl and a childish whine escaped her.

"It's all right," Doctor Caswell assured. "We're going to do everything we can to prevent it from happening."

"More tests?" Zoe asked. "I don't mind so much now. If you need to do more then it's okay. I won't complain about it anymore."

Seeing Zoe enter the cafeteria dining room with a tray of pastries and a bowl of cereal was not that uncommon. This time of the morning it was mostly soldiers who were eating and most of them had grown accustomed to a zombie girl wandering about.

One person had been waiting for her, and as she paused to look around her and find a place to sit, he came up behind her and bumped her with his tray, and she turned with a little surprise on her face.

Zachary was smiling and actually looking into her eyes, something he rarely did. When she turned fully to him, he asked, "You want to eat breakfast with me?"

Distracted from horrible thoughts, she nodded and said, "Okay."

They found an empty table that would accommodate about eight people and Zachary set his tray down and pulled her chair out for her, something else he had not done before. She had her brow high over her eyes as she sat down and placed her tray on the table. He pushed her chair in a little and then sat down beside her.

Breakfast began in silence, again, but this day he would shatter that silence with, "So, how did you sleep?"

Zoe shrugged and replied, "Pretty good, I guess."

He nodded and took a big bite of his oatmeal.

She glanced at him. He was tense and acting a little strange and she was not sure how to feel about it.

"The guys from Texas are going to let me go out with them today," he informed. "They said they could use an extra gun out there and my Dad said it's okay. There's this place they've been talking about where there is a lot of zombie activity and they want to go take it out."

With another nod, Zoe confirmed, "That sounds like it'll be fun."

"Do you think they'll let you go with us this time?" he asked.

"I don't know," was her answer. "There is a lot of stuff going on with me right now, but I guess I can ask."

"It just isn't the same if you aren't out there with us," he said.

That touched her and a little smile overpowered her lips. Shrugging her shoulders up slightly, she looked away from him and offered, "Thanks."

"Hey, guys," came from behind them.

They both turned to see most of the San Antonio Zombie Response Team approaching with their breakfasts.

Josh sat down beside Zachary and asked, "Mind if we join you? Thanks."

All of them sat down with them, Morgan right across from Zoe.

"It was way too quiet in that room last night," Morgan told her.

Zoe looked down to her tray and nodded, confirming, "It was pretty quiet where they moved me."

Eric raised his chin to the zombie girl and asked, "So you coming with us today?"

Shaking her head, Zoe replied, "No. Rachel has a bunch of stuff she wants to do with me here." She was tempted to just tell them the truth, to tell them why, but she really did not want them to know that she could become their enemy at any time. Not yet. "But I can ask."

"When are we going?" Zachary asked in a clear attempt to be part of the team.

"Going to hit them a little after noon," Josh replied as he picked at his eggs with his fork. "Zombies don't like heat and if we hit them when they're the weakest then we can do some serious damage."

Donny added, "A couple of months ago we were helping out in Austin. The temperature pegged out at like a hundred and five and when we found zombies in the open they were dropping dead from the heat."

"That was weird," Morgan said. "You'd be taking aim at one and it would just drop."

"We saved a lot of ammo that day," Matt reminded. "All we had to do was watch them fry."

Zoe finally looked up from her tray and asked, "So they die if they get too hot?"

"Looks like it," Eric confirmed. "I talked with Caswell and Kavorski about it and they said the virus has kind of a low temperature threshold. That's why they don't produce body heat. They get too hot and the virus will die. That means the zombie will die."

"What if someone gets really hot and they're not all the way a zombie yet?" she prodded.

He shrugged. "Don't know for sure. It seems like a lot of heat would kill the virus, but too much heat can kill the patient, too."

Turning her eyes down to her tray again, Zoe nodded, but her eyes darted about as she thought.

"There's been talk about seeing if the whole thing can be reversed using heat," Eric went on, "but right now it's just talk. Until we hear differently we'll just keep shooting them."

"But not you," Morgan added with a smile. "We like ya too much."

Zoe offered her a glance and a little smile back.

Conversation shifted from this to that and eventually everyone was done. Zoe only ate about half her food, and was really not that interested in eating or the conversation, but something caught her ear and drew her attention to Donny.

"I'm just saying that we should take over that gym that's a couple of blocks from here," he was saying. "From what I saw last time we went by it, it's got everything: Swimming pool, sauna, weight room… whole nine yards!"

"Sauna?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah," he confirmed. "Jacuzzis, too. I think they may even have massage tables."

Morgan snickered and asked, "So who is going to give you a massage?"

He smiled and said, "You know you want to touch me, Morgan."

"How hot do those saunas get?" Zoe asked suddenly.

Everyone glanced around, and most just shrugged.

"I'm sure not danger hot," Eric replied. "You're really just supposed to go in there and sweat. It helps detox the body and you can come out feeling great!"

"I've never been in one of those," she said.

"They don't often allow kids in them," Donny informed.

"I'm eighteen in two months," she advised almost proudly.

Dan looked to her and asked, "Two more months, huh?"

"Down, boy," Morgan growled.

Zoe pushed away from the table and stood, picking her tray up as she announced, "I have to go see Doctor Caswell about something. I'll see you guys later." As she turned, she bumped Zachary with her hip and said, "See you later, Zach."

With her ZRT vest over her pink shirt and Sergeant Morris' hat on her head, she approached the gym with slow steps, looking up to the sign that was near the top of the two level building. It was illuminated and this told her the electricity here was still working, and that was a good sign.

Pulling the glass door open, her hand found her revolver as she quietly entered and looked around her. It was an open space with a counter ahead of her, a glass wall behind it and workout equipment on both sides. This place was very big, very inviting, and very open. The ceiling was high and it was very well lit within.

She passed by the office area and negotiated the weight systems, the treadmills, the exercise bike stations, lined up along the wall and facing big screen TV's that were all off. It was a maze within, but she finally happened across a sign at the back near the bathrooms, a sign she had been looking for. It directed her downstairs where the men's and women's showers were on opposite sides, and in the middle was the big, Olympic sized swimming pool, partitioned off by walls that were glass half way up. There were lockers, hot tubs, and finally she found what she was looking for on the other side of the pool: The saunas!