J. Knoll - Zoe, Undead

She had seen how this worked in the movies and on TV shows. There were dressing rooms and showers on the lady's side adjoining the bathrooms and stacks of towels for both the pool and sauna. She entered one of the dressing rooms and undressed, neatly folding her clothes and putting them in a stack on the bench within, her vest, belt and gun on top of them. Wrapping herself in a towel, she draped another around her neck and left the dressing room, and she strode right to the closest sauna. A dial to the right of the door would set the temperature, and she turned it all the way up. There was another dial beside it, a timer, and she turned it as far over as it would go as well. Drawing a deep breath, she opened the sauna door and stepped inside, closing the door beside her.

This one was smaller inside and looked like it would accommodate a group of six or so on the two wooden benches on both sides of the stones that were in a cedar trimmed cauldron in the middle, and this is where the heat was coming from. An ornate bucket of some kind with a metal ladle laying in it was right beside this, and it was still full of water. Dipping some of the water out, she poured it over the rocks as she had seen done on TV, and she backed away from the steam that rose up. This done, she backed up and sat down on one of the benches that was built into the wall.

Zoe drew a deep breath, watching the steam continue to rise from the stones as she said aloud to herself, "Well, I guess this will end today, one way or another."

CHAPTER 13

Lunchtime had ended and the San Antonio ZRT had returned.

All Morgan could think about was a shower. They found few zombies and they had made quick work of them. The police station they stormed was now secure, weapons and ammunition were taken and the short mission returned in success. It was time to relax.

With the door to the room closed, she pulled off her vest and belt, setting her weapons on her bed one by one. The ponytail she wore her hair in for this mission was taken down and she shook her hair out as she threw the scrunchie down with her weapons. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she unlaced and removed her boots, then her socks, setting them down by the nightstand. With a quick rub of her eyes, she stood and walked toward the bathroom for that shower, pulling her shirt off as she approached.

The door to the room burst open and Morgan, who was just wearing her trousers and sport bra now, was quick to cover her chest with her shirt as she barked, "Hey! A little privacy?"

Doctor Caswell stormed in, her wide eyes scanning the room before she found Morgan, and she asked with a desperate tone, "Have you seen Zoe? Did she go on the mission with you?"

Raising her chin slightly, Morgan replied, "No, we just got back. I thought she was with you."

With a shake of her head, Rachel assured, "I haven't seen her since early this morning. She was supposed to come to the lab but she never showed up. Nobody's seen her most of the day! We've searched the whole hospital and she's nowhere to be found."

Morgan turned and returned to her bed, tossing her shirt onto it as she reached for her belt, the radio clipped to it. Raising it to her mouth, she called, "Josh, Morgan here. Have any of you seen Zoe?"

There was a pause, then he responded, "No, we thought she was with Doctor Caswell."

"Not good," Morgan mumbled, then she said into the radio, "No, she isn't in the hospital. Everybody's been looking for her all day."

"Meet us in the rally area," he ordered.

Morgan combed her hair back and reached for her shirt. "Okay, no problem. We'll find her."

Word spread quickly and in short order there were more than fifty people, most of them zombie fighters, in the rally area to search for her outside of the hospital.

Rachel and Morgan strode to the San Antonio ZRT, who stood closest to the door checking their weapons, and the Doctor was as calm as she could be as she said, "Okay, you guys were the last ones with her. I need to know what was said, if she said anything that might clue us in as to where she went."

"We talked about a lot of things," Josh informed. "She was only half listening most of the time and didn't say much."

"Oh my God," Eric said absently, staring blankly forward. All attention turned to him and his eyes darted about as he went on, "We talked about zombies dying in the heat in Texas." He looked to Doctor Caswell. "We were talking about how the virus can't survive in a high temperature environment."

Her eyes widening, Rachel raised her chin and was unable to speak.

"I'm sorry," he offered, turning his eyes down. "I'm so sorry."

The Doctor looked away, then she shook her head and countered, "You don't need to be sorry." She shook her head. "Okay, we need to just concentrate on where she would have gone."

"The gym," Donny declared. "She was interested in the gym."

"The sauna," Dan clarified. He looked to Morgan and insisted, "We need to get there. Now!"

Zachary's eyes widened a little and he asked in a desperate tone, "You don't think she would try something like that, do you? I mean, if she sets that sauna too high and stays in there too long it could…"

All exchanged glances.

They wasted no more time, grabbing their weapons and heading out the door. Others who saw their rapid departure did the same, following them out the door with weapons held ready.

They did not take time to mount vehicles and instead ran the whole way to the gym that was only two blocks away. Behind the nine zombie fighters and the doctor were some forty heavily armed military and civilian volunteers who were determined to find their wayward zombie girl.

Inside the gym, Morgan, Josh and Rachel stopped halfway between the front counter and the door to get their bearings. All of the others stormed in behind them and stopped behind them, holding their weapons at the ready.

"The pool's downstairs," someone announced.

At a hurried pace, they negotiated their way through the gym and down the stairs where they found the pool area and fanned out to find the saunas, the dressing rooms, anywhere she might have gone.

The sauna doors were opened one by one, and the last was opened by Morgan, who drew a loud gasp and took a step back, her wide eyes on the form that was sprawled on the floor. Hearing this, the rest of her team crowded around the doorway.

Zachary pushed his way through them and into the unbearably hot sauna, stopping right inside as he looked down to the girl who lay on her side on the wooden floor where she had fallen.

Zoe's hair was soaked with sweat and steam and lay around her head in long tentacles. She lay on her side, her legs pulled halfway to her and her right laying ahead of her left. One arm was stretched out under her head, the other was behind her, and she was not moving, not at all.

"Oh, no!" he breathed. Keeling down, Zachary gently scooped the limp girl into his arms and picked her up, standing with her as he cradled her in his arms.

The people at the door stepped away as he turned to leave the room, but Doctor Caswell hurried to the girl and placed a hand across her forehead, then her neck.

"She's burning up," Rachel declared. "We need to get her cooled off."

"Is she still alive?" Eric asked desperately.

"She's a zombie," Dan pointed out. "How would you tell?"

"Get her into the pool," the Doctor ordered. "We need to get her cooled down quickly. If she's still with us then getting her cooled off will be her only chance of staying with us."

Zachary did not respond and instead turned toward the shallow end of the swimming pool, walking right through the people around him as they moved quickly out of his way. When he got to the pool, he simply jumped in with her, and he held her in the water and kept her head right above the surface.