Chapter I: What The Job Demands

Olivia Moore removed her winter coat and took the opportunity to stretch before putting on her lab coat and leaving the small office towards the main room of the county morgue. "Hey, Ravi, I was thinking we could hang out at that new bar on Fifth tonight, check it out and see—"

"Liv."

"Well, fine, a simple 'no' would suffice."

Her boss didn't look up at her. "No, Liv, I mean look at the slab."

"Oh." Liv looked and immediately understood Ravi's sentiment. "I'd say 'he's just a kid', but at this point, I'm starting to get jaded about that. Does that make me a monster?"

"No, but being a zombie might."

"True. What happened to him?"

"Dunno. Haven't done the post mortem yet, have we? Report says 'Jacob Roscoe, deceased due to possible suicide', but cops think there was some foul play."

Liv hesitated. "Suicide? So...you want me on some potentially suicidal brains?"

"Hey, it's not what I want, it's what the job demands. But maybe you're right about this one; risk isn't worth it. Time to go old-fashioned for once?" He glanced at his friend hopefully.

Just then, Detective Clive Babineaux walked through the morgue doors, swiftly as always. "I see you've got the latest guest of Hotel Morgue. Find out anything yet?"

Ravi spoke up exasperatedly. "Clive, he just arrived. Like two minutes ago."

The detective was not impressed. "And? Any zombie brain visions that could help us? I'm...still not used to saying things like that." A recent initiate into Club Z, Clive understood how important the zombie world was to crime-solving, but even that thought weirded him out at times.

"I haven't eaten yet," Liv answered. "I don't think I want to. We might just do this the normal way."

"Why? Your visions are the reason we're partners, Liv."

"Okay, firstly, thanks for invalidating all my years of medical school," she replied in mock offense. "And secondly, potential suicide? Let's say it was a suicide—I don't want that brain inside mine."

"I mean...it's not like you can kill yourself, right? Being a zombie and everything."

"Tell that to the hoard you killed at the Supermax party," Ravi reminded him.

"Good point."

"And 'gee, Liv, you're our friend and we don't want you to have to go through that ordeal', right?" Liv looked from Clive to Ravi, wide-eyed.

They replied in unison, "Yeah, sure." "Whatever."

Liv scoffed. "Such great friends you guys are."

"We're kidding, Liv," Clive chuckled. "We won't make you do anything you don't want, if you're really worried about it. Just do your doctory thing, you two, and hope we don't hit a brick wall."

One brick wall later, Liv found herself staring again at the corpse of Jacob Roscoe. "So I'm actually doing this, then? Eating a suicidal kid's brain?"

"Seems so," her boss unhelpfully confirmed. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"'It's not what I want, it's what the job demands,' remember?" She didn't mean that to sound as sarcastic as it did, but she was content with its ultimate tone.

"Hey, don't use my own words against me with your painful accuracy and valid points."

Liv sighed. "Let's just get this over with. I'm thinking chicken brain soup today."

Ravi watched his colleague carefully as she slurped up the last of the organ-infused soup. "So...how do you feel?"

"I mean, I just ate, but I feel fine, I guess. I don't feel sad or anything. Maybe he wasn't suicidal after all?"

Ravi wasn't so sure. "Well, I'll keep an eye on you just in case. And don't get mad if I check up on you at home, either."

"Jeeze, stalker."

"I meant over the phone," he replied playfully.

Liv didn't seem to be playing. "I know, I'm just kidding. No need to get so defensive."

"I...wasn't defensive?" he clarified. "I was teasing you right back."

"Uh-huh. Anyway, I'm going to head to the station. Hopefully I'll get a helpful vision on my way there. Probably not, but I may as well try."

"Well, you never know. Could just be a slow brain day." He tried to sound encouraging.

"Like every day. Later."

As Liv walked out of the morgue, Ravi furrowed his brow. "That was weird," he said to himself. Then he remembered that Liv had just eaten human brain soup, and weird was a relative term, so he shook off the odd feeling and returned to work.