"What happened?", Leah said, looking at our faces .
I just turned the computer towards her.
"What the ? ", Leah began, but caught herself mid sentence.
The grainy CCTV footage showed a petite frame of a female with grayish skin and making loud gurgling noises . Despite the tattered xlothing and the decaying body, the face was unmistakable.
Amber Denvers.
She was alive ? After what happened to her ? There was no way somebody could be alive with a body in that condition - it just didn't make sense.
And yet she was walking, her eyes vacant, her arms outstretched and her body still making that weird gurgling noise. The footage was from last night, timestamp 04:47 in one of those eery deserted roads of the city.
"We gotta give the rookies credit this time", said Leah, still shocked ,"THAT IS a zombie ".
"Seriously, that is the closest thing I've seen to the ones in the movies. The same walk, appearance...hell, she's even making the same sounds", Andrew agreed.
"Ok, enough of this zombie nonsense", I said ,"Someone needs to go and inform
Dylan that Amber's alive ".
"I don't think that's possible right now", Leah said ,"He's in a meeting with the higher ups ".
"Remind me, why were you here in the first place ?", I said, looking subjectively at my sister who suddenly realised.
"Oh yeah, Dr Sarah was calling all of us to tell us something about the body", Leah said, remembering.
"You mean that eye ?", I gave a sarcastic smile.
"Whatever ", Leah said, as we got up to leave.....
"You guys take a lot of time ", Dr Sarah, holding up something that looked like a mixture of blood and some clear liquid.
"Doesn't help that your office is on the other end of this building ", I panted.
"So what, you're 16 year olds", She said, nodding dissaprovingly ,"Kids these days..."
There we go again....
"Sorry guys , did I miss somet..", Damien entering ,"What the hell is that ? Some serial killer's on loose again ?"
"Welcome to the real world ", Sarah nodded, upset that someone had cut through her monologue, " That is Amber..or more like,whatever is left of her ."
Damien looked around , confused.
"The entire city's gossiping ", said Leah, annoyed ," How do you not know ?"
Classic Damien. I mean , he sure was an excellent shooter, but aliens could come and invade the earth and he would be surprised to see all humans are gone cause he was sleeping.
"Sorry ", he said , apologetically "Woke up a little late today ".
" It's 1 pm", Andrew rolled his eyes.
"So, what did I miss ?", he asked, smiling foolishly again.
"Amber's dead. Murdered most probably ", said Sarah , "Last night ".
"And she went for a stroll at 4 am yesterday ", Andrew, " Probably bored from all the lying down ".
"What ! ", Now, it was Sarah's turn to look confused.
Leah explained the whole thing.
"How's that even possible ? . The tissue shreds which you found were from her medulla region of brain. There is no way a person can survive without a medulla", Sarah looked both shockef and confused.
"But we just saw her on the tape", Andrew protested, though not entirely convinced.
"Who did you see ?", said a voice behind us.
I spun around. It was Dylan and Daniel. Behind Dylan's broad back, I also spotted a tiny Hannah and a slightly less tinier Liam.
Andrew took out the footage which he had recovered in his phone and showed it to all of us.
"That's definitely not a living person ", Sarah observed, "Look at the angle at which her neck is bent, almost as if the first two cervical bones are missing ."
She was right.
Besides she had to be..... the bone fragments from the neck were currently in a zip lock in a police locker.
"Even her skin is slightly greenish ", Daniel observed.
"Exactly ", Sarah said , "And look at her fingers. Half of them are missing and one is bent in the opposite direction. "
"But she is standing perfectly on her feet and walking", I said, still not convinced, " Is she a ghost or something ? "
"Dunno, looks pretty solid to me ", Hannah commented, staring at the footage.
"So, it is a zombie ?", I accepted defeat.
"I don't think so ", said Sarah, thoughtfully ," Zombie are simply formed when one zombie bites into another. The greenish skin and the weird scars may be there but whoever killed Amber was way too violent. If the intention was just converting her to a zombie, a simple bite was enough. This seems more intentional ."
"What did you find in your report though ? ", Dylan asked.
"Her blood's severely infected by some virus which is very infectious and which I've no idea about ", Sarah said, holding up a vial which had something bluish inside it.
"That resembles the case of the man in Egypt ! ", Dylan declared, shocked.
"What case ?", I and Andrew said together, while others exchanged knowing glances.
Why did it appear that we were the only ones without a clue?
"There was a strange news on the T.V. last month about a man in Egypt who seemed to have gone mad. He kept screaming inhumanely and was convinced something was happening to him. We all thought it was illness anxiety disorder. But when the doctors tested him, they found ample amount of some strange virus which had never been seem before ", Dylan explained.
"And Amber must have gone to Cairo since it was en- route ", I said, remembering Amber's love for strange diseases. She had told me that if she would not have been a hacker, she would have definitely taken a degree in forensic science.
"And the man somehow transferred that virus to Amber ?", I said, connecting the dots.
"That is the best explanation we have ", Hannah nodded along.
"But she arrived safely here, didn't she ?", I asked, surprised by the turn of events ," Or she wouldn't have been able to text me . Whatever it was, it attacked her at the airport ".
"I'm not sure ", Leah said ,"Whoever did this does not sound human to me . "
"Same", Hannah said.
"So, is she alive ?", I asked, in a very final tone.
"Doesn't look alive to me ", Sarah said ," But if SHE IS ALIVE, something is seriously wrong with her . This does not look like a disease to me ."
"The police is looking for her body ", Dylan said ,"Along with Rose and Alyssa ".
So, that's where Rose was. I thought she left the department or something.
Would I leave the department if something happened to Leah ?
" I don't know ", Leah said, musingly ," But if Amber's showing signs of some weird, deadly communicable disease, wouldn't it be best to keep normal people away from her ? ".
Liam's phone buzzed.
"They found Amber in Mulholland Drive", Liam said, checking his phone ,"And she doesn't look quite happy about meeting us ."