"No," Kevin replied, "You can barely stand." "I'll fix her up," Omar cut in, "My medical marvels were not solely constrained to genetic splicing." Eileen fixed Kevin with a hard stare, "I'm coming." A few seconds later, the door opened again and a short man in a dark brown pants and a stained gray shirt walked in. Kevin looked at him for a moment and then asked, "Dr. Omar?" Omar glanced at him and nodded, "It's nice to finally talk to you face to face." His attention turned to Eileen and he said firmly, "Sit down on that table." Eileen obeyed and Omar pulled her shirt open then drew a syringe and, before she could protest, jabbed it into her heart. Kevin yelled in surprise and Eileen gasped as the syrum entered her heart and was pumped into her blood stream. "What did you do to her?" Kevin demanded. "I gave her a heavily modified dose of adrenaline," Omar replied as Eileen clutched her chest, still gasping. "It speeds up the healing process, causing her tissue to mend itself in less than an hour. We don't have time to waste though, so you'll have to carry her to your car and hope she's ready to fight when the time comes." "I can walk," Eileen said between heavy breaths. Omar shook his head, "No, it's important that you don't stress your body while it heals, otherwise you could suffer some pretty terrible deformities." "Define deformities," Kevin said dryly. Omar shrugged, "If she's doing any heavy activity her skin could heal in a pretty weird way due to the increased healing process. Also, any bones she may have broken could heal wrong if she puts pressure on them which is my biggest concern." Eileen shook her head, "I don't have any broken bones, and I don't care about scars." Omar nodded, "Regardless, I must ask you to be very careful." Kevin nodded, "I'll take care of her...but where do we go from here?" Omar smacked himself in the forehead, "Right, I nearly forgot! There are three creatures. The vampire who has named himself Dracula...although believe me, he looks nothing like the man. The werewolf...who no longer has a human mouth, but I have affectionately named Spike. And then there's the queen...the only female of the three." "What do you mean by queen?" Kevin asked. Omar sighed, "She was the mistake...the one responsible for the zombies. She was assisting me with my gene splicing experiments and somehow she got into the test chamber. I wasn't there at the time but when I came back to the lab, she was gone. The video recording which I kept showed her in the chamber working on Spike. Spike woke up and knocked her back into the splicing machine...along with a small ant that been crawling on his fur. "The combination of her brain and the ants drone-like instincts gave her the ability of mind control...but left her an unspeakable, unrecognizable creature." "Wait," Kevin said, holding up a hand, "Mind control?" Omar nodded, "That's why the zombies do not portray the same increased strength and senses, and are also slower to react. She uses them to bring her food. Not just humans, but animals too. Anything within the reach of her hive is under her control." "And how are we supposed to stop her?" Eileen asked. Omar shook his head, "I don't know. I believe that your heightened abilities will give you the ability to withstand her attacks for a little while. However, if you give me some time, I might be able to come up with a way to neutralize her from afar and let you get in close enough to stop her. It's up to you, however. I will prepare you as best as I can for your encounters and keep you updated from here." Kevin nodded, "Alright, we're going after the Werewolf." Omar nodded, "Good, you'll find him in--" "I know where to find him," Eileen cut in, grimacing as she spoke. Omar grunted, "Of course you do." He turned to Kevin and said formally, "I took the liberty of breaking into your car so I could leave you something that I think might help you." Kevin laughed, fogging up the glass between them, "What if I took the cure instead?" Omar shrugged, "It would have made a nice parting gift for tranquilizing you and chaining you to a wall." "Right," Kevin muttered as he crossed the threshold from his room to theirs and approached Eileen. "Are you sure you're up to this?" Eileen smiled, "By the time we get there I will be." Kevin nodded and then gently lifted her off the table in both arms. "We'll let you know when it's finished," he called back to Omar. Omar nodded, "As will I. Good luck." When they reached the car, Kevin pulled the door open and gently slid Eileen into the seat. He strapped the seat belt across her waist, causing her to wince as the belt rubbed the open wound on her rib cage. "Sorry," Kevin muttered and quickly adjusted the seat belt. "No," Eileen said, touching his hand briefly, "Thank you." Kevin looked at her for a moment and then coughed uncomfortably before hurrying to the driver's seat. At the bottom of the seat he found a large box and opened it. Inside were two pistols, one of which he handed to Eileen, along with several clips. "Where are we going?" he asked as the engine roared to life. "The forest," Eileen replied, "Just outside the city." Kevin nodded and flipped the car into a u-turn. As he drove, he found it hard to ignore the mindless zombies roaming the streets. To distract his thoughts he asked, "So why do you have such a big vendetta against these things?" Eileen shrugged uncomfortably, "Why shouldn't I? They're killing people!" Kevin shook his head, "That's not the whole story though. What happened?" Eileen was about to speak when something slammed into the front of the car. Kevin jerked his eyes back to the road in surprise to see a zombie roll across the hood of the car. "What the--" Before he could finish, countless zombies began pouring into the streets, coming out of buildings, sewers, everywhere imaginable. "The queen must be controlling every person in Los Angelas!" Eileen shouted. "So why doesn't she just eat them?" Kevin asked as he drove straight into the mass of zombies. Eileen rolled down her window and poked her gun out the side as she started shooting into the ranks of the zombies. "Don't waste your ammo on the ones on the side," Kevin shouted as the bodies crumpled beneath his car, "It's the ones in front of us that are slowing us down!" Eileen nodded and took careful aim in front of them, which was difficult considering how bumpy the ride became with the bodies falling beneath them. "This is what Omar expects us to save the world with?" she muttered with disgust as she loaded another clip into her pistol. "We'll be out of ammo before we leave the city!" "Then stop shooting and hold on," Kevin said through clenched teeth as he made a sharp turn, throwing several zombies off the top of the car. Eileen grunted and clutched her side, "So much for taking it easy." Kevin laughed, "You'll have some gnarly scars after this." "How can you make jokes at a time like this?" "I don't know!" Kevin yelled back, "I'm eccentric, it's what I do!" "I guess that's why you went to bed with me last night," Eileen muttered. Kevin's eyes widened and he nearly crashed into a lamp post before swerving out of the way. "I did what with you?" he asked incredulously. Eileen rolled her eyes, "Oh forget it, now is really not the time." "No, I think now is the perfect time! I mean, we might not live through the next ten seconds, so now might be the best time in the world!" Eileen glared at him and then turned her gaze on the road. Leveling her gun with a steady hand, she pulled the trigger four times and four zombies suddenly found themselves lying on the ground with holes in their heads. Kevin glanced at her, his eyes showing a touch of fear as she calmly ejected the clip and placed the gun on her lap. "Right," he muttered, "I guess we'll talk later." They had broken through the main concentration of zombies and Kevin suddenly felt a vibration in his pocket. He reached his hand in and, to his surprise, found a phone. He'd left his at his house and so, was not expecting a call. He flipped it open and said, "Hello?" "Hey Kevin, it's Omar." "Oh right," Kevin said with relief, "I was just starting to wonder how we'd keep in touch." "Right, no time for chit-chat though, how goes your search?" "Umm...we haven't even left the city yet." "What?" Omar said with surprise, "What's taking you so long?" "We had to take a detour," Kevin muttered dryly, "There's a lot of hub-bub on the main road. Speaking of which, make sure you fortify that place...I think those zombies might be getting close to finding you." "Don't worry about me, just hurry!" And with that, the phone call ended. "What did he say?" Eileen asked. Kevin shook his head, "Nothing important." "Oh," Eileen muttered and they both fell silent. Kevin looked at the road for several minutes and then said quietly, "So...what happened last night?" Eileen let out a low sigh, "You got drunk and stuff happened, that's all." Kevin nodded slowly and then said, "But you didn't get drunk? Listen, I've had hangovers before and I know for a fact that they don't cause that kind of amnesia." Eileen closed her eyes and then said quietly, "Alright, here's the truth. Three days ago, before anyone knew about the outbreak...I was bitten by the werewolf. Now I'm trying to find a cure." Kevin persisted, "But what does that have to do with me?"