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"Man. Life is good! I mean, here I am, a zombie, but I'm alive, and you—you're a great guy, you know that, Ravi?"
"Yeah, I've been told it once or twice." His roommate had a grin that Major thought he should find suspicious—but really, why go around suspecting people? Life was better if you took them at face value.
"You keep a really neat morgue, too. I've always admired your—" Major caught himself halfway through gushing about the cleanliness of the morgue. What was he doing? Who even was this person talking?
Then it hit him. Brain. He was on a brain. Well, at last he really, truly understood how hard it must have been for Liv to fight the influence of the brains she was on. He was still himself, but he felt … bubbly. Effervescent. Absolutely certain everything would turn out for the best. Except for the part of him that hated it because it was fake and he was a zombie, he could really kind of like this brain.
"Major, why don't you go take a rest? You've had kind of a long day," Ravi suggested.
"Yeah. That sounds good. A nap. Why don't people take more naps? They're refreshing little bites in the middle of a hectic day. This is gonna be a great nap!"
"I bet it will be."
Ravi turned back to his work and Major settled down on the lumpy couch in Ravi's office, letting the power of the positive lull him to sleep.
He woke up feeling refreshed and just really high on life. Taking a deep breath, he took in the formaldehyde smell of the morgue. It was a great day to be alive. "'Oh, what a beautiful morning!'" he chorused. "'Oh, what a beautiful day!'" Still singing, he left the office to find that Liv was in the morgue, talking to Ravi. They both turned to look at him, and neither of them looked like they understood what a real gift it was just to be alive.
"We're inside," Ravi pointed out, as if a person couldn't enjoy a beautiful day from wherever they were.
"Well, that is where the warmest rays of light come from," Major pointed out to him. He gestured at his heart, smiling at both of them. His wonderful roommate and his beautiful ex-fiance. "Inside."
Liv frowned up at him, and he wanted to reach out and nudge that frown into a smile. Then it occurred to him that maybe she hadn't expected the white streak in his hair and his changed life circumstances.
"You told her, right?" he asked Ravi.
"She would have noticed."
"Well, turns out all I needed was a little disco nap to turn my frown upside down." He smiled at both of them to prove it. "You know, being a zombie ain't so bad."
"Leslie Morgan," Liv said, looking accusingly at Ravi. "You gave him leftover positivity brain?"
Positivity. That was a good word. People should have more positivity. Liv should have more positivity. She was great when she let loose and just had fun. They should have more fun.
Ravi put his hands up in acknowledgement of what he'd done. "I did. But that was the last of it."
Liv turned to Major. "You know that this elevated mood you're experiencing is temporary. Right?" She was wearing her doctor face, that Liv-explains-all look he'd seen so many times before. Usually, he found it annoying. Today, it was kind of cute. Nice of her to be looking out for him.
He reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "Look, let's not worry about tomorrow until we're done enjoying today."
Liv's eyes widened with what looked like trepidation. Surely what tomorrow brought couldn't be that bad. She put a hand on his arm. "Okay," she said hesitantly. "But, when this 'everything is awesome' brain wears off, I want you to know how sorry I am."
"Shh." Major put his finger on her lips. "Sh, sh, sh." He took his finger back and gently explained to her, "Love means never having to say you're sorry." As she processed that bit of wisdom, he smiled at both of them. "I've got some hair to dye and some skin to spray tan. Carpe diem!" On his way out he leaped in the air and clicked his heels together. He'd always wanted to do that and it had always felt corny. But today it was right—a spontaneous expression of happiness. Yes.
He left them both there and headed straight for a drug store, looking through the hair dye aisle. A young woman was there next to him, looking at shades of red. He turned to her with two boxes. "Which one do you think matches better?"
She started to say something sharp to him, then looked him over and decided against it, pointing at one. "Decided that shock lock wasn't the right look for you, huh?"
"Oh, no, it's … just a phase I'm going through. Not as bad as I thought, really. Life is good." He reached out and picked up a box and handed it to her. "With your skin, I think you'd look great in this color."
Taking the box, she frowned at it for a moment, then nodded. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. Have a perfect day."
He headed for the spray tanner, finding his skin tone more easily than he had his hair color, and paid for his purchases … remembering to use cash. The last thing he needed was for his name to show up on one of Vaughn du Clark's lists. Of course, maybe he could find a way to turn du Clark around. After all, what was wrong with a few zombies? Surely everyone would be happier if they lived and let live, Major thought. He whistled happily as he exited the drugstore, enjoying the raindrops on his face and the clean smell of the air.
Later that night, after a truly lovely day, he came back to the morgue, finding Blaine there talking to Ravi. He walked in as Blaine was asking, "How could I have done all these horrible things?"
"My guess?" Major put in, stepping through the office door. "If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to hate."
Blaine frowned at him and then across the desk at Ravi.
"Yeah, um … Remember how I was telling you about that guy whose life you ruined? How you turned his fiance into a zombie and cost him his job, killed a bunch of kids that were close to him, kidnapped him, locked him in a freezer, and tortured him before finally stabbing him to death? This is him."
During Ravi's monologue, Blaine looked increasingly unhappy and Major felt for him. It couldn't be easy to learn you were a sadistic asshole. Maybe it would be good for him in the long run, this memory loss, give him the chance to see what kind of man he could have been under better circumstances.
He gave Blaine a little wave. "Hey."
Blaine nodded back with a little wave of his own, his face twisted with self-loathing. Poor guy.
"I thought the worst part about this whole thing was forgetting the people I loved," Blaine said. "Or the people that loved me. But maybe nobody did."
"You know, who we were, isn't who we are." Major was certainly a poster child for that concept. "It's practice for who we want to become."
"Huh," Blaine said, not sure how to take that wisdom.
Ravi rolled his eyes and sighed.
Major felt for both of them. They really needed to look on the bright side of life more often.
"I should go," Blaine said at last. "Thanks, Doc." He got up and left, giving Major another little awkward nod in passing.
Watching him leave, Major could feel his innate hatred of the man warring with the positive good feelings that were coursing through him. The good feelings won—mostly. "I wouldn't wish that on … well, him," he said, as Ravi got up to join him. "You know, 'cause he's my worst enemy? You get it."
"Listen, Major. What happened to Blaine might not happen to you."
"Oh, I know. He could totally be faking. And even if it is the truth, it's not like I don't have other options. I don't have to take this new cure."
"I'm … sorry, but I think you do. If you don't want to die."
"Whoa, hold on. I mean, New Hope died. She's a rat. Last time I checked, Gepetto, I'm a real boy. So I might be more resilient."
"You might," Ravi conceded. "But I wouldn't bet the farm on it."
"Look, if I take the second cure and I survive, but I have no idea who you are, no idea who Liv is, if I don't even know who I am, what's the point? I mean, whose life is it I'll be saving?"
Ravi couldn't argue with that. "You know what we need? Talking rat. Then we'll know if Blaine's telling the truth."
Major laughed. Then it hit him. "Ravi, you magnificent bastard, that's it."
"I hope whatever's got you excited doesn't require me to build some rat mind-reading device."
"No, no, no. Vaughn can be our talking rat."
"Uh …"
"Look, I scratch him, turn him into a zombie, we give him the cure. If he doesn't lose his memory, we know Blaine's lying. And if he does lose his memory, well, maybe the upside is he becomes a harmless shell of himself. Like Blaine."
Ravi was frowning, liking the plan but clearly not entirely on board. "I mean, there are some ethical hurdles I need to wrap my head around."
"He's planning on killing Liv and me as soon as I'm done with that zombie list."
"Okay. Ethical hurdles cleared. I'll go prepare a syringe."
It was perfect. The right idea, the right way to get them all out of this. Yes, it really was a beautiful day.