"Do you have to?" the girl whined, tears welling up in her eyes again.
Turning to the foot of the bed, the doctor took another restraint and buckled it around the girl's ankle. "I'm afraid so, Sweetie."
Zoe watched the doctor work, and when she stood on the other side of the bed and reached for the restraint, she offered Rachel her other arm and assured, "It'll be okay."
"Yeah," Rachel whispered as she buckled the last restraint into place. She withdrew a strap and locked it around a D-ring on the wrist restraint, then she reached over and locked it onto the other, pulling it snugly across the girl's waist when it was secure. "Too tight?" she asked.
Barely keeping her eyes open, Zoe shook her head and assured, "I don't think I'll be falling out of the bed tonight."
With a smile, Rachel repeated this with the ankle restraints, then she laid a thin blanket over the girl, bent over her and kissed her forehead. "Get some sleep, Sweetie. I'll be in the next room if you wake up and need anything, okay?"
Her eyes closing one more time, the girl whispered back, "Okay. Good night."
Morning meant new misery and awakening from one nightmare to another. A horrifying dream woke Zoe with a start and a breath shrieked into her as her eyes opened wide and were filled with the bland white ceiling overhead that was illuminated by the dim light from the outside. Breaths continued to shriek into her one after another as she slowly got her bearings. Trying to raise a hand to her head, she realized she was bound to the bed she lay on and she struggled to pull her hands free of the soft restraints that held her firmly in place. Another was across her chest, right under her shoulders and had clearly been put there in the night. Her legs were similarly bound as well as her ankles and there was a strap across her knees. Whimpering like a frightened child, she looked down at herself, seeing that only the blanket covered her, and it was held in place by the straps that held her down to the bed. She struggled violently for a few seconds, trying to wrench her way out, but finally fell back to the bed, her head slamming into the pillow as she fought to catch her breath.
Something moaned outside the door.
Her eyes opened wide again.
A shuffling of many feet across the floor outside alerted her further and she looked to the door, seeing a rotted dark gray hand, a bony hand, grasp the inside of the door and slowly push it open.
Slowly shaking her head, Zoe breathed, "No," as the half decayed zombie in the tattered and blood stained medical scrubs opened the door fully and locked its empty eye sockets on her. Its lips had rotted away at some point and yellow and ivory teeth laughed at her as it slowly drew closer. Others were behind it and they followed the first one into the room. Looking around her with frantic movements, she realized that they surrounded her, that her bed was amid a sea of zombies, the very bed she was bound to, and all of the zombies had her in their sights.
Shrinking away from the first as it reached for her, she shook her head and pled, "Please. Just leave me alone. Please!"
It grabbed her arm, another grabbed her, another, another… Their mouths opened and they descended on her like ravenous dogs at a fresh kill.
Zoe screamed and struggled anew, trying in vain to get away. They all began sinking their teeth into her flesh, biting into her arms. She could feel it, but not the pain of what they were doing to her. Others clawed the blanket from her, the gown from her to expose her body. More descended on her and began to bite her flesh away, and tear it away with their powerful, decayed hands. Her intestines were pulled out, her hair torn from her scalp, her skin split open at her chest and belly and thighs.
They were eating her alive!
Zoe sat up, screaming in primal hysterics. Her wrists were still securely bound and the images of the zombies eating her were very fresh, so fresh she could still see them!
The guards stormed into her room with their weapons drawn and she panicked further, wrenching her body back and forth to pull herself free of the restraints, but unable to. Finally falling back to the bed, she turned her head to one side and closed her eyes, crying hysterically, and finally she managed, "Please don't eat me! Please! Go away!"
"Zoe!" Rachel's voice beckoned. "Zoe!"
The girl felt someone grasp her hand, then felt another hand gently stroke through her hair.
"Zoe, it's all right," the doctor assured. "It was only a bad dream. You're okay now."
Dream and reality slowly went their separate ways and Zoe drew deep breaths to calm herself, and finally opened her eyes. Turning her head toward Doctor Caswell, her vision was blurred by tears, but she did recognize who she was looking at. Swallowing hard, she finally relaxed, and squeezed the Doctor's hand in an unspoken sign that she was okay.
Raising her brow, Rachel asked, "Better?"
Zoe nodded.
"Must have been a really bad one," the Doctor observed. With one last stroke of the girl's hair, she pulled the blanket off of Zoe and went about unbuckling her wrist. "I think we can let you up now. It's almost breakfast time, anyway."
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.