John sat on an examining table, wearing a thin sort of bathrobe over his medical gown. He stared around the room- noting the posters that talked about PTSD and the lists of disability benefits offered to soldiers who had been injured in combat. He was in the middle of reading a poster on the left side of the room that went over the steps to identify if someone is having a heart attack when the Doctor from earlier walked through the doorway.

"Hi, John. I don't think we were formally introduced- I'm Doctor Dawson."

He offered a hand to John, who shook it weakly.

"Uh…Nice to meet you."

John sat back on the table, crossing his ankles and resuming his observations of the less-than-interesting décor choices in the medical office. Minutes ago, he'd been fighting for his life in the middle of a zombie apocalypse- and he didn't know how to even begin to process the fact that the last two days of his life had indeed just been a computer-generated simulation. A computer generated simulation where he had died.

"So, John. Tell me what the last two days were like for you."

He looked up at Doctor Dawson, who was sitting in a chair across from him; a clipboard and pen in his hands.

"Um… Pretty shit, to be honest."

John looked down at his feet.

"I mean, we all thought that the world was ending. None of us knew where our parents were, and the zombies were everywhere, and..."

He stopped, hands gripping the edge of the exam table. Instantly, the memories of the past forty-eight hours replayed through his mind in crystal-clear detail.

"Stay there."

"YOU stay there!"

John planted his feet on the rubber tarmac of the playground, eyes locked on the zombified snowman lumbering towards them.

Anna ran behind him, and just when the zombie was within reaching distance from him Anna pushed the see-saw down- the seat making contact with the zombie's head and sending it flying; blood splattering. John stood there, blood spurting from the newly-decapitated zombie as he screamed.

"THEY'RE INSIDE!" Anna and Steph screamed, tearing out of the bathrooms. A fully-zombified stag party followed behind them, and the four of them spread out to the far ends of the bowling alley. Chris, before realizing that he was heading towards a dead end, started backing up across the alleys; trainers slipping on the polished wood. Steph ducked behind the rental counter, and John ran to Anna- who was fighting off one of the zombies with a push broom.

"Get behind the table!" John yelled, and Anna complied; the two of them picking up a table and holding it up to shield themselves. The zombie lunged for them, and John turned to Anna.

"We'll go on three. Three-"

Anna let go, and John felt his heart stop. Holding his side of the table, he flung it back- sending the zombie tumbling backwards into the ball pit.

Dropping the table, John turned to Anna.

"I said AFTER three!"

"You said ON three! Think about your words!"

"John. John! JOHN!"

Anna yelled, fighting as John held her fast, making sure that he was shielding her from the zombies that were closing in on them from all sides. He kept walking until he reached the other side of the massive group of zombies- throwing Anna as far as he could as he felt himself being pulled into the horde of zombies.

"No, no no NO! JOHN!"

He watched as Nick pulled Anna to her feet; hearing her call out to him as the zombies attempted to rip him apart.

"John?"

The voice of Doctor Dawson brought John back to reality. He relaxed his grip on the edge of the table, looking up at him.

"What happens to Anna and the others? Now that I'm out here, and they're…"

"They're still in the middle of the simulation." Doctor Dawson made a note of something on his clipboard.

"When you… when you died in the simulation, you were immediately brought out of the artificial REM state you'd been placed in, and to make the transition less… jarring to your companions, a digital duplicate was swapped out for your body so you didn't just up and disappear completely from the scenario."

"So… everyone thinks I'm dead?"

"Until the scenario is completed, yes."

John nodded, brows knit. He didn't understand a lot of what had happened- why he and the others had been chosen to take part in this project in the first place, why no one told them what was going on, why zombies of all things. He didn't understand why he'd had to die; why he'd had to make the choice to sacrifice himself for Anna. Thinking back, it was a choice he'd made readily. If he had to make it again, he knew he would.

He was more than happy to be alive, overwhelmingly relieved that there was no zombie apocalypse actually happening. But he was also angry- a feeling that John couldn't remember feeling this strongly ever. He was angry that he'd been forced into the simulation, angry at whoever had decided to volunteer him for it in the first place, angry at the fact that he'd lost two whole days of his life. He was angry that Anna and the others were forced to watch him die, angry that he'd had to die; and the anger beginning to fester inside of him was something he had no idea what to do with.

Doctor Dawson looked up at him.

"Well, John. We'll set you up with a room at the base and get you some clothes, so you'll be a little more comfortable while you wait for your friends to finish the simulation." A beat, and Doctor Dawson cracked a joke.

"And hey, congratulations on finishing first place."

John looked up, giving a forced smile in return while fighting the urge to snap Doctor Dawson's clipboard in half.