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Coming home from Liv's, Major couldn't quite get a handle on how he felt. Whatever it was—sorrow, loss, relief, anger, disappointment, fear, the whole jumble—felt far away. It would have been an effort to reach for any particular emotion, so he didn't bother. Time enough in the morning to figure out what life looked like without Liv. Not that he hadn't already experienced that, but it had been unwilling the first time. He'd been lost and confused and angry and hadn't understood anything that was going on. Now he knew, and he could imagine her feelings of reluctance about their relationship, and even in some part share them. He was leaving her with his eyes open this time, and that had to make a difference.

Or so he told himself.

The first day went fine—work, zombie list, food, games. Not exciting, but normal. At least, until Ravi came home with a face as long as a dental appointment. "Have you seen Liv? I've been texting her, but she's not answering."

"Why are you asking me?" Major immediately felt guilty for snapping.

There was unmistakable concern on Ravi's face as he looked Major over. "You're feeling all right?"

"Yeah? I mean, it was leg day, so that's gonna hurt tomorrow, but otherwise fine."

Ravi opened his mouth, looked at Major, hesitated, then shut his mouth again.

"Something up?"

"Yeah. Kind of. I mean … I'd rather wait until Liv was here, so we could all talk together."

Hope flared bright in Major's chest. "Is this about a cure?"

Ravi winced. So clearly, Liv wasn't about to be cured. Major couldn't imagine what else might be going on that he and Liv would need to be there for. "Are you all right?" he asked Ravi. What if Ravi had been infected? What were the signs of zombieism, anyway? Major looked his roommate over, but couldn't see anything different about him.

"I—have to look some things over. I'll come down when Liv gets here and explain everything." And Ravi disappeared upstairs into his room.

Major considered worrying about whatever had Ravi so agitated, but decided there was time to worry later when Ravi told him what was going on, and returned to his video game.

Liv was going to come over for whatever this was, he thought. That was a thing that was happening. Not that he hadn't expected to run into her, but the very next day? He was sure it would be fine … but he had kind of hoped for a few more days before he had to decide how to react to her, how to be around her. Were they still friends, the kind of good friends, best friends, they had once been? Or were they acquaintances who said hey occasionally? Or what?

They didn't hear from Liv until the morning, when she showed up at the door. Ravi hurried to open it, still wearing the same clothes he'd been in last night.

"Hey, I just got your message. I came as soon as I could," Liv said, shutting the door behind her.

"I texted you last night. Several times. Where were you?" Ravi asked her.

"Out thinking." She looked down at his muddy shoes. "Where were you, big guy?"

"Out digging."

For the tainted utopium. So Ravi was still searching for a cure. That was good news. Whatever was going on, it didn't mean the cure was a lost cause.

Ravi came into the living room, where Major was sitting on the couch. "You should probably have a seat," he told Liv.

"Why? What happened?" She glanced at Major.

It took a moment for them to get past that initial first look at each other, the immediate jump of the heart and then the reminder that there was no more reason for the heart to do calisthenics in her presence—and from the frozen look on her face, she was telling herself the same thing. Lack of love had never been the problem for them. Clearly it never would be.

Shaking his head slightly to clear it, Major remembered Liv's question. "He wouldn't tell me, either."

Ravi was standing, clearly too agitated to sit, staring down at his muddy boots and frowning. "I, uh … think you should both hear this at the same time."

"Oh, no. Are you and Mom getting divorced?"

Liv glanced at him with her "isn't this serious time?" face, and Ravi frowned, clearly too focused on whatever was going on to be prepared for Major's flippancy.

Major and Liv both stared at him expectantly, and finally Ravi managed to get started.

"Last night, our cured rat New Hope reverted back to her previous state as a zombie." When neither Liv or Major reacted, Ravi continued, "Which means that the cure was only temporary."

"In rats, temporary," Major said slowly, trying to avoid letting the implications of that particular statement sink in.

"Likely humans, too, I'm afraid."

Well, that blew.

Ravi went on, "It appears a latent form of the virus was lurking in New Hope and … somehow reactivated. There's no reason to think it won't do the same in you."

Yep, that pretty much blew. Major was trying to hold back the panic that wanted to set in, trying to be logical about this. Liv put her hand on his knee, a reminder that she was a zombie, at least he'd have someone to teach him the ropes. "How long do I have?"

"Could be a day, six months, a year … I should know more after I run some tests." Pulling a pair of latex gloves out of his pocket, Ravi sat down on the arm of the couch. "Silver lining, you two finally get to have hot zombie sex. Right?" His chuckle turned nervous when both Major and Liv looked away, wincing. "Room temperature zombie sex?"

"Yeah, about that …"

"We broke up," Liv said.

Major turned his head so Liv couldn't see and mouthed to Ravi "She dumped me."

"Ah. Right." Ravi looked at Liv. "I see why you were out all night thinking."

"The digging," Liv said. "Were you—?"

"Searching for the tainted utopium. We need it to make more cure," he explained unnecessarily. He grabbed Major's arm and began tying an elastic around it, preparatory to taking a blood sample.

"So where do you think it is?"

"In the stomach of a dead drug dealer with a prosthetic leg."

Before Major could react to that particular oddity, Ravi added, "The good news is that we've managed to narrow the location of his unmarked grave to a single hundred-acre field."

Major blanched. "You really need to work on the whole 'good news' concept."

They were silent as Ravi inserted the needle into Major's vein and pumped a vial full of blood. "I'll run some tests on this, let you know if I can clarify anything."

"Great. I'll just … be here, waiting for the brain cravings to settle in."

Ravi got to his feet. "We need to go see our other cure subject," he said to Liv.

"A trip to see Blaine. Just when you think a day can't get any better."

"Right. Let me grab my gear and we'll go."

He left Major and Liv sitting there on the couch together. Between the break-up and this news, Major was too numb to speak. He had kind of hoped Liv would be, too, but she turned to him, hesitated a moment, then said, "I am so sorry this is happening. But—I'm still not sorry I saved you. No matter what, I would do it all over again. I … I don't know how to live in a world without you in it."

Major turned his head to look at her. It hadn't occurred to him—yet—to blame her for this current predicament. It probably would have later. He wondered, would it really have been worse to have died at Meat Cute? But he couldn't help remembering her these last weeks together, and playing games with Ravi, and saving Natalie from whoever du Clark would have sent after her if Major hadn't been around … He reached out and squeezed Liv's shoulder. "I don't much like the idea of a world without me in it, either. I'm … okay with you saving me the way you did—even if this is what it means."

"Good. You'll—you'll let me know if you need anything?"

"Yeah. I will."

"Okay."

Ravi came back down, bag in hand. "Ready, Liv?"

"Ready."

And they left Major there to listen to his breathing and feel his heart beat and wonder how long he had.