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Major's second session with the kids started off better. Like any teenagers, they wanted to talk about themselves—they had things to say, grievances to air. Whether they had any interest in listening to Major's advice or not was another question, but he would start off by letting them talk and go from there.

The brain tubes had been handed out before he got there and he watched as the kids relaxed once the brains hit their systems.

"Man, I was this close to raging out," one of the boys said. "This stuff is the bomb."

"Yeah, hangry's one thing, but hungry for brains? We should have a word for that."

Everyone chuckled at that.

Captain Seattle leaned back in his chair. "The first time I raged out it freaked me out so bad. It was like my first, um, uh … nocturnal emission. I was like, what just happened?" He winked at the aggressive kid from the last meeting while everyone in the circle giggled like little kids.

Major watched, bemused. Zombie teenagers were really just like all other kinds of teenagers. It was nice to see that some things didn't change.

The aggressive kid leaned forward. "My first time—my dad was whalin' away on me, as usual, and then, suddenly, I'm like—AAAAAHHHH! Scared the hell out of him," he continued, as the rest of the circle jumped and laughed. "I chased the son of a bitch around the block."

The girl from the last time, the one with the brother and sister she was taking care of, was looking much brighter today, even wearing a headband with a pink bobble thing that stuck up into the air, a little brain on the end of it bouncing just over her forehead. "So, at my school, there's this stuck-up bitch named Gretchen Nelson, who kinda knew I was a zombie, but I hadn't come out yet."

Major was trying to pay attention to what she was saying, but he was distracted watching Captain Seattle sucking on his empty brain tube, as though somehow he needed every last trace of what it contained. It looked—concerning. And he could have sworn the kid had already finished his tube. "Captain Seattle," he said, interrupting the girl's story, which he regretted having to do. "How many brain tubes is that for you?"

There was a pause before the kid answered. "Uh, two."

"Dude," said the aggressive kid. "Lie."

"Where'd you get two?" Major asked him. "You were only supposed to get one for showing up." Looking around the room, he could see the others awkwardly shifting in their chairs, hands moving to cover their concealed extra tubes. "Looks like everyone got extra tubes."

"Oh, well, the lady handing them out said she had extra," the girl told him.

The aggressive kid added, "And she made us promise not to tell, so … don't be a dick and get her in trouble."

The girl looked at Major, her gaze direct and challenging. "So, this is what you well-fed Fillmore Graves soldiers feel like all the time. Happy. Ready to kick ass."

All the kids were looking at him now, waiting for his response. Major didn't have one. It was how the well-fed Fillmore Graves soldier was supposed to feel … and he knew how hungry the rest of Seattle's zombies were, and he couldn't fix it sitting here. "We were talking about, uh, our first times raging out," he said lamely, pointing to the girl to indicate she should resume the story he'd interrupted.

Behind him, the door opened. "Lilywhite." He turned to see a fellow soldier standing there. "You know why the machines are out of tubes?"

Major glanced around the circle. None of the kids could meet his eyes. So, as he had half suspected, the "lady" handing out extra tubes was just a lie, and one of them had broken into the vending machine. He should have expected it. He turned back to his fellow soldier. "Uh-uh."

"Ugh. Sucks, man." The guy let himself out of the room, and Major pointed again at the girl to resume her story.

"Jordan?"

"Yeah." She tried to pick up the dropped thread of her story, as Major got to his feet and paced around the edge of the circle. "So, Gretchen … is saying stuff like 'You look pale, Jordan', 'do you need to borrow some of my makeup, Jordan?'. Uh, 'is that a streak in your hair? It's so punk rock'. And … I'll be honest, I was kind of dreaming of cracking her head open." Major stopped next to Jordan, nudging her backpack with his toe. She paused, looking up at him with an unmistakably guilty face. "But I wasn't sure there'd be a brain inside," she finished. No one laughed, too focused on Major leaning down to open her backpack. As he'd suspected, it was full of brain tubes, right next to the screwdriver she'd used to open the vending machine. Major looked at her, and she met his gaze unapologetically. "My family's starving. No lie."

Before he could respond, the door opened again and Chase Graves called out his name.

Major put the backpack down. Softly he said to Jordan, "Don't touch that. We'll talk."

"How's it coming along?" Chase Graves asked as Major approached.

"Uh … it's a bit of a mixed bag."

"Any standouts?"

"Standouts in what way?"

"In a 'I'd want this zombie in a foxhole with me' way."

For a moment, Major thought he was joking, but Chase Graves never joked. "Ah. So, that's what this is about."

"In case you missed it, Major, we're hanging on by a very thin thread. There aren't enough trained soldiers to control this city."

"These kids aren't trained," Major argued. He felt betrayed. Graves wasn't wrong; they did have too few soldiers. But that wasn't what this had been supposed to be about.

"Well, then, they're going to have to learn on the job. So, who's in a foxhole with you?"

Major didn't want to name anyone. It was sure to be a death sentence, sending an untrained teenager into combat. But there was not going to be any getting out of this, so he looked over his shoulder, weighing the options. "Captain Seattle. Jordan. Over here!"

Confused, uncertain, wary, they both got up and came toward him.

Chase Graves frowned slightly. "You sure?"

"Not really. Sir." Turning to the kids, he said, "Jordan Gladwell, Fisher Webb, this is Chase Graves."

Jordan smiled. "The Big Kahuna."

"Sir," Captain Seattle said, as Chase Graves reached out to shake both their hands.

"I just asked Lilywhite here who he thought had the right stuff to be a soldier at Fillmore Graves. For whatever reason, he sees something in the two of you." They both looked at him, surprised and, surprisingly, pleased. "So, until you wash out, get killed, or usurp me, you're working for us. You'll be in charge of keeping the peace in this experimental city. Can I count on you?"

Both of them nodded. "Yes, sir."

"You'll be in Major's squad. He'll teach you everything you need to know to survive out there." He looked at the two kids. "Don't screw up."

And then he was gone, leaving Major to hope to hell he hadn't just signed both kids' death sentences.