I find myself now sitting in the living room quietly trying to understand the situation. My college professor is very knowledgeable about zombies, sure, but he’s involved with intelligent zombie people? Perhaps he’s the one who’s keeping them alive? That’s the only thing that makes sense to me. Mr. Vice steps out of the kitchen with two cups of tea. “Sorry for these guys. They’re not used to eating or drinking anything regularly, so they wouldn’t think to offer anything.” Mr. Vice sits the drink on the small table in front of me.

I look at the drink for a moment, lost in thought. “Don’t worry. It’s not contaminated.” Mr. Vice assures me of this. Although, I wasn’t considering that it was, but now that he mentions it, it makes me nervous if he’s telling the truth. I look up to him, trying to think of how to ask about this. “So… how’s it going, Mr. Vice?” Mr. Vice doesn’t respond to me. He looks away from me. He clearly has something he wants to say, but he’s trying to figure out how to say it. Maybe I’ll push him a little.

“I seen some zombies today...” Mr. Vice continues to look away. “I-I know.” He responds with a nervous behavior. He was never like this back in class. Why is he acting like this? I’m curious about this, so I’m not gonna let up! “Why are you here?” I asked directly. I’m done being subtle with my approach. Mr. Vice turns to me and bows his head to me. “I’m sorry, Leah! I-I didn’t think... it would turn out this way!” His sudden outburst is more like him, but what does he mean? “What? You mean… teaching me about zombies?”

Mr. Vice keeps his head down as he speaks, like he’s avoiding eye contact. “I taught you something… That’s why… they chose you…” What? Who? What could he have taught me and who chose me? Wait… “Are you… talking about the medical offer?” Mr. Vice stays silent for a moment. I still don’t fully grasp the situation. Is he apologizing for the medical offer? How is that his fault? Even if he did know, what difference would it make? He’d have no idea there’d be wild zombies… right?”

I hear the door to the basement close and footsteps approach from the kitchen. Styx enters the room wearing his shirt and mask again. He walks in and sits down on the couch next to me, leaning his head back on the sofa. “Damn! New stitches are so stiff!” Styx lifts his head, looking over at Mr. Vice. “Hey, Doc. You tell her you sent her to the woods yet?” Mr. Vice springs to life after sitting quietly for so long. “Damn it, Styx! I was trying to find a delicate way to apologize for it!” Hold on… so… Mr. Vice… sent me to the woods? He… knew that would happen? T-that can’t be true… can it?

Mr. vice leaps forward, putting his hands on the table. You could clearly see he’s panicking. “I-I didn’t want to send you to anything dangerous! You had potential! My best student, by far!” Mr. Vice sits back down. “However, we were running out of test subjects, and we needed to get The Angels moving again!” I could feel my blood pressure climbing. I was starting to shake. Mr. Vice must have taken notice in this. “Now, Leah! Calm down! Deep breaths!” I begin breathing erratically, unable to hold back this fear. I was supposed to die! I was bait for the zombies!

Panicking, I jump up, hyperventilating as I walk away from everyone. Tears swelling in my eyes as I try to quickly think of a way to escape. “I-I can’t stay here!” Mr. Vice stands up, trying to walk around the table between us. “Hold on, Leah! Just calm down and let’s talk about this!” I get frustrated as he tries to undermine what he just said. “You want me to calm down after that?! You sent me to die!” Mr. Vice quickly walks around the table. “No! I mean, we expected you to, but that wasn’t the goal!”

He quickly looks down at Styx. “Come on! You screwed this up! Explain to her what happened!” Styx puts his hands behind his head as he gets comfortable. “There ain’t nothing to explain. She gets the gist of it. You want me to lie?” Mr. Vice looks back at me. “Come on! I’m sorry, okay?! I’ll do whatever you want to make it up to you, but you can’t leave!” I turn to run from the house, but Bliss is standing in my way! “Move! I’m not staying here!” I shout out of fear for my safety. Bliss simply shakes her head. I turn to find another exit. The back door! There’s one in the kitchen!

I sprint through the room around the opposite side of the table and couch to avoid Mr. Vice. As I arrive at the back door, I’m stopped by a short foreign-looking girl. She grabs me, squeezing me so tight that I can barely breathe. “Let go of me, you monster!!!” I shout loudly as my panic attack increases. The girl lifts me up and walks me back into the living room. I continue to freak out the whole time. I continue kicking and screaming like a child, hoping they’d at least get annoyed enough to kick me out.

Styx stands up and walks over to me. He grabs my head and Hit his head against mine. “WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP?!!!” These were the last words I remembered before being knocked out. I wake up on the couch to the sound of people shouting. Styx, Mr. Vice, and a higher-pitched voice that I haven’t heard before. I open my eyes, looking up at Bliss’ large chest hanging over my face. I guess I’m laying on her lap. I turn to see Styx, Mr. Vice, and the foreign girl arguing.

“Arguing with you two is so pointless! Neither of you listen, anyway!” Mr. Vice yells. “Come on! I didn’t even know what was going on when I walked in! I just stopped her from leaving!” the foreign girl said. She seems to take offense to this, but Styx is sitting down in a chair. He looks relaxed. “Shit, I won’t lie. I don’t like listening to a wuss who won’t join us on the field.” Mr. Vice turns away from them. “I-I make money and work in the city!”

Styx puts his feet up on the table. “You keep saying that, but you know you’re just a coward.” Mr. Vice turns around, slapping Styx’s feet off of the table, then pointing at him. “You wanna see me in action, punk!” Styx chuckles as he stands up. His body begins swelling up. “I’d KILL to see you do something!” he says as he takes his glasses off. “Would you two stop!” Bliss says with an irritated tone. “You both do important stuff! Styx is going to break his stitches open!” Mr. Vice turns away, walking into the kitchen. I’ve never seen him get mad like this before. I guess… even these guys suffer living together…

I sit up and turn to sit normally on the couch. My head still hurts from Styx’s head-butt. Styx looks back at me. “You cooled down now, kid?” I rub my head, feeling the bump he left on me. “Yeah… I’m calm.” Styx sits back down. “I told you, kid. You’re in too deep to just leave now.” Styx kicks his feet back up. “As soon as geek boy is done pouting, we can explain everything.” Mr. Vice walks back into the room, leaning against the doorframe. “I’m fine. Let’s get this over with.” Styx pulls the picture of the guy that gave me the invitation out of his pocket and throws it on the table. “So, then let’s get to it.”