Chapter Fifteen

I reached for the book, trying to find an exit. “Did you see?” I asked, hands still trembling. “Favorite?” Nina snapped back to the world in front of her.

“Oh, let me look through it again,” Nina said, flipping through the pages over and over again. She stopped at the page with the scientist. “This person is my favorite. Sometimes I can do what she does, with those tubes in her hand.” I looked at what she was referring to. It was a chemist mixing two different types of liquids with a smile on her face. I turned to Nina.

“You, scientist?” I asked.

“I think I can consider myself one,” she said with a proud voice. I looked down at the papers with scribbles and simple letters and numbers and smiled. “In fact, I have some of those tubes stored away. Some of them were filled before I arrived, but others I made myself.” She got up and pushed one of the shelves to the side, revealing four cabinets. She took out a key and unlocked them, pulling out a number of test tubes and beakers. She placed them in front of small table that was also stored with them.

I reached out and grabbed a few of them, reading the labels on them. Z1, Z2, Z3, and Z4 were all beakers with old, worn-out labels. The test tubes all had handwritten labels, with descriptors rather than titles. Smelly, burning, melting, and water, among others. There was a stack of paper alongside all the tubes and beakers. Looking at the top page, I saw more of Nina’s scribbles. They were more legible than the papers on the floor, and they described what type of liquid was in each tube and beaker. After Nina finished placing everything, her eyes widened, and she began sifting through the stack of papers.

“I can’t believe it! I might be able to use these now!” she said flipping through pages. She pulled out a paper written with a computer’s font. The empty spaces were filled with notes written in neat handwriting. “These were some of the things I found when I settled into this place. They were experiments that focused on zombies.” I stopped and looked at Nina.

“How?” I asked “Apocalypse, long ago.”

“That’s what I thought too, but it’s all right here.” She pointed to the author. “Dr. Sayako, survivor. Whoever this person was, they had enough access to zombies that she was able to run experiments on them. And she left all her notes and results here.”

She pointed to each one of the beakers. “Z1 gives a zombie the feeling of pain but takes away their sense of taste. It made zombies less aggressive at the sight of a living being.” Nina was reading the words on the page, but her face told me that they were bouncing off her face. “Z2 erased the smell of decay from zombies but restored their sense of balance. Zombies that took this formula were incredibly dangerous, able to move quickly and even perform advanced maneuvers. Z3 stopped the decaying process but disintegrated what little brain power they had. The zombies would last longer, but their movements were much slower than other zombies. And Z4 was the opposite, stopping and at times restoring the brain at the cost of the rest of the body. Zombies were reported to stare at different things until their body was too decayed to continue functioning.”

Nina put the paper down, nodding at the words she read. She put her hand on her chin and darted her eyes back and forth.

“The formulas,’ I said picking them up again. “Do they work?”

“I don’t know,” Nina said, sitting next to me. “You’re the first zombie I’ve ever come across.”

“But you said, apocalypse.”

“Yes, but that happened a long time ago. Nobody I’ve talked to was alive when it happened. They only remember what others have told them, and their own experiences.” I turned towards the stack of papers. I didn’t think zombies would ever be a rare occurrence in a world they created. I always thought they’d live forever, ending the human race and all of their accomplishments.

“Zombies, are rare,” I said without changing expression.

“But they’re still dangerous,” Nina continued. The few people who talked to me told me about their encounters, and ever since then I sometimes see them when I’m asleep. I’m always in some unfamiliar place. And they’re always chasing me. No matter how fast I run, or where I choose to hide, they always find me and get me. Before they bite me, I wake up.”

“Nightmares.”

“Yes. It’s why I was so afraid of you when I first saw you. Shoot on sight is what they told me to do. But once you opened that mouth of yours, what I saw wasn’t so scary.” She ended those words with a smile.

I turned back to the beakers and picked up the Z2 formula.

“I want,” I said, holding it closer. “Smell bad.” Nina took it from me and placed it back.

“I already told you that you don’t need to worry about it. Would I really be this close to you if you smelled terrible? In fact, if you want something that’s really bad, you should open ‘smelly’. But not in here though. It took me forever to get rid of it.” She never told me I didn’t smell bad. “Besides, these formulas could be much older than we think. They could end up hurting you.” Those words lowered my hand to my side, and I nodded in agreement. Nina stood up and began putting away the test tubes and beakers back into the cabinets. I did my best to help, though Nina ended up doing the majority of the work without breaking a sweat.

“Oh, not again,” Nina said, putting her hand on her head. “I talked for way too long and I didn’t even let you enter the conversation.”

“No problem, I said, smiling. “Like hearing you talk.”

“Two times teasing today,” Nina said with a laugh. “But I wanted to ask you.” She picked up the blue book and handed it to me. “What’s your favorite here?” I gasped and took the book from her hands. I flipped the pages until I reached the end, pointing to the last three images there.

“Flowers. Beautiful. Food. Looks fun to make. Beach. Relaxing,” I said not noticing the smile forming on my face. “Never done these things. Want to do.” Nina stared back at me.

“You’ve never done your favorite things? How can they be your favorite if you’ve never done them?”

“Difficult,” I said. “Not favorites yet. But love them.” Nina smiled.

“Love them,” she said. “There’s that word again. Does that mean I love to do what that scientist is doing?”

“Can’t answer. You decide, what you love.”

“Now I’m all confused again. But I think I have a way to make me understand it.” Nina stood up and headed to her room. I listened as she changed clothes, stepping out in the same outfit she wore yesterday. “Seeing how excited you got when you showed me your favorite things made me excited as well. I want to help you see and do those three things in that book.” She walked towards me with confident steps. “I remember something that a person told me. They said that ‘In a sea of black, lie a beam of yellow. Delicate, yet powerful. Small, yet blinding. They move with the wind, and sleep with the moon.’ From what I read in these books around us, those sound like flowers.” I turned to her with a small gasp. “And it’s not far off from here. What do you say to us going for a little walk in that general direction.” She couldn’t help her laugh and I couldn’t help my smile.

“Please!” I said, with a new loudness in my voice. “See them! Feel the ground! Smell their fragrance!”

“Okay, I’ll take that as a yes,” Nina said with another laugh. I stood up and walked towards the ladder that headed to the door. Nina followed and we both stepped out back into the world above us.