"What the…!"
Evan jerked backward as if shocked by electricity. His heart nearly leapt out of his throat.
This girl…
Wasn't she the same zombie woman who had crawled across the floor earlier?
What on earth was she doing… in his bed?
His mind was a mess.
He immediately checked himself, patting down his body from head to toe. Luckily everything was still there. Nothing was missing. He still had all his limbs, and nothing had been bitten clean off.
Well… except for the obvious bite mark on his shoulder. It still oozed a bit of blood.
Evan's scalp tingled.
His shoulder.
That bite mark.
There was no mistaking it.
It had been her.
But… why wasn't he infected?
And more importantly… why did the zombie woman now look… healthy?
Her once pale face now held a faint flush, subtle yet unmistakable. It looked soft and warm instead of corpse-like.
This didn't match any definition of "zombie" he had ever seen.
And no zombie should ever be this cute…
Her features were delicate. Her figure was, frankly, distractingly attractive.
Evan slapped his cheeks lightly.
"Nope. Nope. What am I even thinking? I can't be attracted to a zombie!"
Just then, the long-legged girl climbed out of the blankets.
Evan instinctively grabbed his frying pan and raised it in a defensive stance.
"You…" he started.
"Hello."
She tilted her head, staring at him with wide, blank eyes.
Evan froze.
She could talk?
Did that mean she wasn't a zombie after all?
But no… he had seen her earlier. Crawling out of the bathroom like something straight out of a horror movie. Her eyes had been milky white.
She wasn't cosplaying. No normal human could reenact the infamous "Kayako down the stairs" crawl with such realism.
"Something's off…" Evan muttered to himself.
"Her eyes were white. That was definitely a zombie trait. But now…"
He looked at the tall girl in front of him.
Her eyes were dark again. Normal. Beautiful, even.
Could it be…?
A terrifying yet thrilling thought appeared in his mind.
"My blood… can cure zombies?"
That idea sounded outrageous, but it fit the facts uncomfortably well.
He needed more evidence.
"What are you right now?" Evan asked.
"Me?" The girl blinked. "I don't know… I just know I'm hungry."
She rubbed her stomach, looking almost embarrassed.
Evan's gaze drifted down before he forced himself to look away.
"Uh… could you put on some clothes first?"
Sophie Yu nodded and went to find her clothes. Her movements were surprisingly natural, almost too human.
Evan dressed as well, though his lower back kept aching.
Was that some kind of side effect of being bitten?
Or something else?
When Sophie finished dressing, she walked back with an innocent expression, as if the chaos earlier had never happened.
"Alright," Evan said, sitting across from her. "Tell me what happened. Everything."
"I'm not really sure…" Sophie said, lowering her head. "I remember being very hungry. I kept eating and eating. Then I tasted your shoulder but it stopped bleeding so I went… somewhere else to find something to eat."
Evan's entire back broke out into cold sweat.
Zombies ate human flesh.
This one, apparently, had changed the menu.
If she had lost control for just a moment… he would've ended up in a hospital. Or worse, in a coffin.
"So… are you still a zombie now?" Evan asked carefully.
"I don't know. I just know I'm very hungry." Sophie rubbed her stomach again.
"Stop thinking about whatever you're thinking," Evan warned instinctively.
They needed information, not an accidental repeat of the earlier "meal."
"Do you remember your name? Your past?"
She nodded. "My name is Sophie Yu. I'm an English teacher. I remember calling for help from across the building. Then you threw something over and it hit me. I fainted."
Evan winced. Right. That.
"When I woke up, I was eating something. Then I heard noise outside. When I opened the door, the auntie from next door attacked me." Her voice trembled slightly.
"After that… I went to the bathroom to wash the blood off. But my body felt worse and worse. Everything after that is blurry. I remember hunger. Only hunger."
Her voice grew small.
"My memories before that are… a little fuzzy."
Evan took a deep breath.
Her story confirmed it.
She really had turned into a zombie.
And then his blood had… partially healed her?
She wasn't fully human. But she wasn't fully zombie either. Her pupils were mostly black now, but around the edges… he saw a faint ring of white. Something unnatural.
A transitional state. Something between life and death.
A discovery both exciting and terrifying.
Their stomachs growled at the exact same moment.
"…I'll make food." Evan sighed.
He dug out two packets of instant noodles from his hiking pack. He checked the fridge, hoping to add an egg or two.
Empty.
Completely empty.
He gave Sophie a helpless look.
"Modern women really can't live on their own, huh…"
He cooked a pot of fragrant noodles and set it on the table.
"There weren't any bowls in your kitchen, so we'll eat from the pot together."
Sophie leaned in, took one breath, and gagged.
"I can't… eat that…"
She covered her nose and pulled away.
Evan stared at her.
So she couldn't eat human food?
Did that mean… the only thing she could consume was… him?
That was absolutely not sustainable.
He'd be a dried corpse in less than a week.
His stomach tightened.
He needed to find a solution. Fast.