"What do you mean he's not transforming?" scoffed Joel, clearly just moments away from a freakout and barely struggling to keep it together.
"It means that the virus doesn't appear to be progressing," stated Doctor Wolf clearly transfixed by the phenomena in front of her in the form of an unconscious teenage boy as she placed the tissue sample under the microscope.
"So he's stuck like this?" asked Abby terrified of what was in store for Eric and devastated by the thought that Eric may never be alright and even if he did snap out of it, her parents may not take well to a half-zombie, should he prove uncontrollable.
"I'm saying that he's fighting it. Somehow the antibodies in his blood appear to not only be fighting off the infection but destroying it. I'm not sure how, but he's curing himself," stammered Doctor Wolf, unsure of what this data means for everyone involved.
"How is that even possible?" gasped Sheila, gazing at the boy who'd risked everything to protect her and family, and may just be the key to fixing everything.
"That Serbian book! It mentioned a cure, maybe the serum isn't the only option, maybe there is an actual cure!" cheered Joel practically jumping off the couch in excitement, but pausing when he saw how overwhelmed Abby was.
"After I left the last time I did find another page that mentioned a cure but it didn't work," sighed Doctor Wolf, genuinely puzzled as she looked down at the slumbering teen.
"What do you mean it didn't work?" asked Sheila as shed picked at her nails nervously.
"Turn to page six sixty-one, it's all there," muttered the scientist, pointing toward the briefcase by the door before running her fingers through her blonde hair. Sheila walked over to the bag, quickly grabbing the book and walking back to set it down on the coffee table. As soon as the book touched the table Abby quickly opened the ancient book before flipping through the ancient yellow pages until she reached the correct page.
"Abby, honey, you don't have to-," started Sheila before being abruptly cut off by her daughter.
"No. Don't say that 'I don't have to', that's utter bullshit!" snarled Abby, slamming her fist onto the coffee table, causing Joel to pause and even Doctor Wolf to pause and look up from her equipment, as they gawked at the teen's sudden outburst. "This has to do with helping Eric and curing you, so I want in!" she growled causing even Sheila to back down, the zombie knowing that she wouldn't be able to change her daughter's mind.
"Fine you can help, but we don't want you doing anything dangerous," replied Sheila, trying to meet her daughter halfway, but the teen wasn't having any of it.
"Oh dangerous like hunting people, blowing up a clam farm, and joining the Knights of Serbia?" huffed Abby, stunning both Joel and Sheila into silence. Sheila snapped out of her stunned stupor first and opened her mouth to retort before another look from her daughter caused her to shut her mouth with a "snap" when she realized that Abby had definitely given the shortend list.
"Wait, you guys know the Nights of Serbia?" asked Doctor Wolf her interest suddenly perking at the mention of the ancient organization.
"Yeah, dad's one and I'm his heir, but we don't really go to meetings with him being a zombie and all," said Abby, casually dropping the news that her father was now afflicted with the same condition as Sheila.
"Wait Joel, you're undead too? Why didn't you inform me!" scoffed Doctor Wolf with mock offense. "Wait are there others?" asked the doctor, her interest at its peak, her excitement clearly visible.
"There are three others that we know of," responded Sheila, still not willing to reveal their names.
"Two of which are closely monitored by us and the third checks in occasionally," chimed in Joel, making sure the scientist understood that they weren't being careless.
"What am I chopped liver?" called a voice echoing from down in the basement.
"Chopped something," muttered Joel to himself.
"What was that?" asked the scientist, shocked by the presence of another individual in the house.
"That'd be the talking severed head in our basement, who's also dad's new best friend," mocked Abby.
"Gary, shut up! We're doing something! And you don't even have a liver!" shouted Sheila.
"And whose fault is that?" called the mutilated zombie, causing Sheila to growl in annoyance.
"Found it!" called Abby, slamming the book onto the table with anticipation as she pointed to the page.
"What's it say?" asked Sheila, staring at the ancient text, unable to understand a single word on the yellowed pages.
"Something about a heart being both the key or the cure," murmured Joel, earning curious looks from the women. "What? Eric and I may have learned a little Serbian, it's nothing big," scoffed Joel. Sheila was prepared to comment but was cut off by Doctor Wolf's more complete translation.
"It says 'The heart of the enemy holds both the key and the cure,'" sighed Doctor Wolf. "I've looked further in the book but nothing mentioned anything about the enemy of the knights or the zombies,".
"What about those things?" asked Abby, pointing at the image beneath the text depicting a knight of Serbia in full armor, brandishing a large sharpened lance, a burning city in the background. But it wasn't the knight that drew her attention, it was the large snarling beast her finger was resting on, one of three in the image.
"I'm not quite sure what they are. They are far too large to be dogs, yet even the largest wolves in Serbia were never that large.
"Wait, I've seen something like this before!" shouted Joel rushing over to the bookshelf that he finally built a few weeks ago. Rushing back to the table he revealed what was on the page. The page depicted two Knights of Serbia fighting beside two large wolves and several humans with canine fangs and claws as they attack some zombies. "It's a history of the Knights of Serbia, and this was called the Battle of Prokleta.
"The battle of the damned," muttered Doctor Wolf, "What could they mean by that?"
"Supposedly the Knights had to team up with their enemies, these creatures, to destroy the Zombies, but not much is mentioned about them after that," sighed Joel.
"What are those things?" asked Abby, touching her hand along the faded ink of the fanged beast, it's yellow eyes seemingly staring back at her.
"It says was that these beasts were the enemies of Knights and all men, vicious beasts" murmured Doctor Wolf.
"And they called them, Vukodlak," said Joel locking eyes with those around the table as they stared at the image, it's yellow eyes glinting in the light.