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The doctor asks about my sense of taste and smell I tell him I can s

"Is that strange?" I ask

"No," he says "The others are the same We’re not sure why What about your ears? Have you noticed any difference where sounds are concerned?"

"I dunno There hasn’t been much for me to listen to"

AHe puts headphones on h-pitched noise in either ear

"How’d I do?" I ask when he takes them off

"Admirably," he says "Every revitalized has an i The reviveds do too Your sense of smell is probably sharper as well, as you have noted We’ll test that sohoulishly "So I’ve turned into a big bad wolf All the better to see, hear and smell you with, my dear"

"Not see, I think," he mutters, and lo and behold, an eye chart is duly carried in by a soldier The test tells ht has deteriorated It’s not as bad as I feared I can still make out most of the letters, even on the lower lines, but they’re o blind if I didn’t put the drops in every day?" I ask

"No," Dr Cerveris says as he jots down the results "We haven’t observed any of the reviveds losing their sight coets so annoying in some that they scratch their eyes out"

I wince and ilad I can’t sleep because I’hte can be a dangerous thing," Josh chuckles "That’s another reason we prefer not to tell you too much about yourself"

"I’d rather know than live in ignorance" I lean forward Josh pats his gun and I stop and raiseto freak you out"

"Like I said before, I won’t take any chances" The light tone is gone frogressive gesture, so just hold on the way you were and everything will be fine"

I ease back, hands still raised "I just wanted to ask if you knehat caused the attacks, how this is happening, why the dead came back to life"

"That’s classified," Josh says shortly

"I figured as much, but if you don’t ask"

There’s silence while Dr Cerveris writes up his findings A couple of soldiers enter and reh, except the TV and DVD player

"What now?" I ask, trying to sound chirpy but failing

Josh raises an eyebrow at Dr Cerveris The doctor stares at his notes, hands flat on the table Then he looks at me "I think it will be safe to introduce you to the other revitalizeds soon"

"The kids I saw dressed in leather?"

"Yes"

"The ones ere torturing the zoht he’d deny the charge and say that wasn’t what they were doing But all he says is, "Yes"

"But don’t refer to them as revitalizeds," Josh warns me "They prefer to call the," I ly "What happens after I’ve joined the o from there?"

Josh frowns "I don’t understand what you’re asking"

"What’s an average day like for a zom head? Do we tor cool in our leathers?" I start to lean forward, recall Josh’s warning and stop myself "What does the future hold? Do I have any chance of being set free?"

Dr Cerveris and Josh share a s for me to ask that question Without a word, Dr Cerveris turns to the TV and switches it on

As the TV flickers to life, Josh turns on the DVD player and presses play A grainy black-and-white ie comes into focus It’s a corridor in my old school Kids in uniform run past what h these look the same as the first lot, I can tell that they’re zo like zombies in movies, but move intently, swiftly, surely, like hunters

Josh rewinds He lets it play again, then pauses as the pack of zombies comes into view "Spot anyone you know?"

"I didn’t realize ere playing Where’s Waldo?" I snap

"Actually it’s Where’s Becky Smith?" he corrects me, and points to the lower left of the screen

I stare hard, but with ht I can’t be sure It looks like reat and I’ myself in black-and-white

"This next clip is from a helmet camera," Josh informs me "I wasn’t one of those who stormed your school, but I was part of the control teauys captured this charain and the black-and-white clip gives way to a shaky color shot The person with the ca his head frolies Blood sprayed across walls Limbs and corpses scattered across the floor There’s a blur The rifle kicks in the soldier’s hand The caain, I findat a kid whose head has been blown apart Hard to tell if it was a boy or a girl It’s just scraps of meat now

The soldier pushes on, then pauses He focuses on a nuht they were all corpses, but so the dead The soldier takes a few steps forward, stops and adjusts the camera It zooms in on the face of a zombie hunched over the remains of a dead boy

The zo out bits of his brain, spooning theers It looks like a drug addict on a happy high The boy’s ar - he must be alive, at least technically The zonorant of the tre except the slivers of brain

The zoirl

The zombie is me

"We don’t kno many you killed that day," Josh says softly, "but by the variety of flesh and blood we picked out of youryou down later, we’re pretty sure that boy wasn’t the first"

"We can never release you, Becky," Dr Cerveris says with just a hint of gloomy satisfaction "You’re a monster"

I don’t respond I can’t All I can do is keep irl - the monster - on the screen And stare