Author's Note:

Thank you, thank you, thankyou, thankyou Malenkaya, you rule! To reviewer #197, how could I add substance to Rain's return? I'm not being sarcastic, I promise, just trying to get an idea...

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

I was lying on a cold, hard, metal examining table. I was naked. Only a thin, white sheet separated my body from the cold, sterile room. And the people. There were always people. They watched me, watched the monitors, made sure the needles stayed in, the bags dripped liquid, I stayed under. I couldn't see the people's faces because they had surgical scrubs and masks covering their faces. But I knew they weren't anything good. One of them turned towards me. It was a man. I had memorized his eyes, the only part of him I ever saw. He was smiling. Don't ask me how I knew, I just did. The man held a scalpel. I felt him cut into my neck, close to the collar bone.

"Don't worry, Alice. This will take care of everything..."

"Alice...?"

"Alice!"

I sat straight up and looked around, grabbing for the gun that wasn't there.

"Alice, calm down, its me, its Claire."

She sat on the edge of the bed that I didn't remember getting into. The bed was comfy and still warm from my body being buried underneath the goose-down comforter. I sat up straighter, leaning against soft pillows. Now, I could see her face, pale against the darkness.

"Claire, what's going on? Where's everyone? Where's Rain? Is Sherry okay?" I felt a stab of fear when I thought about the zombies attacking the little girl.

Claire held up a hand, in a calming gesture. "Sherry's fine. Rain's in her room. Everyone else is in different parts of the building. I was waking you up so that you could eat." She looked carefully at me. "Are you okay? Did you...did you have a nightmare? Because that would be understandable."

"Yeah, something like that," I said, running a hand through my long hair, pulling it away from my face. "Uh, you mentioned food?" I looked at her hands. She was holding a bowl of something.

"Chicken noodle soup okay with you?" Claire asked, holding the bowl out to me.

I took it quickly. "I'm so hungry I could eat this pillow." About a minute later, the food was gone.

Claire smiled. "Good thing you weren't hungry."

She made me smile, too.

"You want to talk about that dream? It looks like it scared the shi-"

Claire was cut off by screams from the room next to us.

Dun, dun, duh! So, what do ya think? I know, the "chapters" are short, but I'm just trying to keep you hooked.  Please review. I'm telling you the more reviews the quicker I update Hint Hint

Have a wonderful day/night!

Jelena