Every fiber in Sarah’s body screamed at her to put her hands up. The crackle of the bonfire behind her faded out of mind as she went into hyper-focus. She wished she could just lay down and hope for the best, she really did.

Sadly, reality wouldn’t wait for her.

The Colony flooded Sarah’s legs with speed ki simultaneously with Sarah’s charge. Immediately, all the soldiers fired at her. Twenty-two bullets missed, passing through the space she occupied half a second ago. Two bullets slammed into her body. One from behind, and the other from the soldier directly in front of her- both bullets luckily angled so that Sarah’s movement kept her in the line of fire.

Sarah’s left thigh and right shoulder exploded with pain, which The Colony helped her suppress. Before the soldiers could react further, Sarah arrived in front of Arthur, one of the two soldiers to shoot her.

Kick him in the chest, The Colony whispered into her head, somehow without using any words. Already, the manipulative mold was flooding her legs with a type of ki she wasn’t familiar with.

I’ll use my hand, so I don’t damage him, Sarah responded. Whether the mold could hear her, or it just responded to her body posture, the mold moved its ki into her right hand. Instead of slipping the handcuffs out of the military belt buckle, the ki in her arm ripped the belt buckle apart.

Sarah’s thought process was that she would keep pretending to follow The Colony’s agenda until the very last moment, after which hopefully she would be restrained. It was a huge gamble, and luckily it seemed to be working; when Sarah clamped a handcuff around her right wrist, The Colony bought her excuse of clamping a soldier to her.

Then The Colony took over her body and Sarah panicked. Her body ducked just in time to avoid another spray of bullets, and then rolled to avoid a knife stab that Sarah didn’t even see. Sarah regained control in the middle of a speed ki infused dash, that conveniently led her to another soldier.

Oh my gosh, it was just helping me, I’m still in control, I have to keep going.

She reached for the handcuffs on the new soldier’s belt, but then pain lanced up her right foot. Sarah tripped and fell to the floor, a bear trap digging its teeth into her ankle, and tying her to the floor.

In a split second decision, Sarah reached behind her back and clamped the other handcuff around her left wrist, restraining her upper body. “Don’t kill me!” she yelled, before The Colony reacted in anger and wiped her unconscious.

***

Arthur didn’t stop to question why the zombie handcuffed herself.

“Throw the net!” he yelled, and quickly a weighted net meant to be used on lions in a zoo was cast over her. The zombie looked at him calmly from beneath the net.

“Why must we fight? Join The Colony and you’ll be granted immeasurable power,” the zombie said. The realization that the zombie was capable of intelligent thought and speech spooked more of Arthur’s men than it did not.

“Who are you?” the Colonel asked, ignoring the question.

“I am the one hundred forty-third host in service to The Colony. You may refer to me as H143. Now, release me at once, and The Colony will repay you.”

Arthur scanned over Sarah’s body, paying special attention to her handcuffed hands behind her back, the bear trap around her right ankle, and the bullet wound in her left thigh. While it would be safer to kill the zombie, the fact that it could talk made it an important study subject for the scientists back at base.

Plus, Arthur was unnerved by the strange, self-destructive actions the zombie took during the course of the fight. Rather than make a choice that couldn’t be reversed, he opted to take the zombie prisoner.

“Peter, Marilee. Restrain the zombie’s legs with handcuffs and truck her back to base.”

The two soldiers swiftly moved to action. Marilee put her knee on the zombie’s back, while Peter tried to get both of her legs into handcuffs. Peter got one ring clamped, and was moments from getting the second ring when green light burst out of the zombie’s upper back. The weighted net restraining the zombie was cut into pieces by the green light, and Marilee was blasted back, sporting many lacerations across her upper body.

Freed from restraint, the zombie sprung to her feet like a gymnast. She kicked with her free leg, hitting Peter in the chest and breaking his ribs.

Arthur shot twice, both bullets tearing into the zombie’s free leg. Finally, the zombie slumped to the ground, unable to fight back with all limbs out for the count.

Soon, the team was back at their forward outpost, the assortment of civilian buildings evacuated and requisitioned for a temporary base closest to the mold and goblin incursions. Arthur had decided after the zombie’s last stunt to call the expedition to a temporary halt, with the aim of gathering information from the captured zombie.

The zombie in question was now locked in a prison cell, with all four limbs restrained by steel manacles. Two soldiers with guns were guarding it at all times; Arthur would not underestimate it again. He now stood in front of her cell with Erica, the CDC scientist, to observe.

The zombie took the form of a young woman, around her mid-twenties he estimated. She had reddish-brown hair, hazel eyes, and mold growing out of her ears. A diamond patch on her skin glowed neon green, although it didn’t seem to emit actual light. Her wounds, on the other hand, were squirming with snakes of green light guiding the flesh to regenerate. Already, the bullets had been ejected from her body, and the smaller scratches vanished without a scar.

***

Sarah slowly regained consciousness. In front of her was the first soldier she had charged, and a blond woman in blue robes to the side. It took a second for Sarah to come to her senses, after which she realized she was in a cell, and the other humans were on the opposite side of the bars.

Another human’s first instinct might have been to panic. Sarah, however, had lost her memories, and so didn’t have the same understanding of jail cells as others.

Sarah’s first instinct was to feel relief at seeing other humans.

Erica spoke up. “Hi, my name is Erica Robitaille. Could you tell me who you are?”

Arthur snorted. “She already called herself H143.” Erica glared at him before turning back to Sarah.

“My name is Sarah, Sarah-” Sarah felt a profound sense of wrongness, as she couldn’t figure out the next word to say. “My name is Sarah, Sarah Clay,” had been the way she introduced herself to everyone before her memory was wiped, but now Sarah was confronted face to face with the fact that she didn’t remember her last name.

Sarah burst out crying.

It was silly, and Sarah knew it was silly. She had seen lots of death in the past few weeks, and had just risked her life. Yet, here she was, breaking down over a mere name. Except it wasn’t just a name, to her. Her last name was one of the few things she had left that tied her to the past.

Once someone starts crying, it’s impossible to stop. Sarah tried, but the brief pauses only allowed her tears to build up in greater strength for another wracking heave.

Arthur was dumfounded at the sight of a cold-blooded zombie crying her heart out. Erica promptly shoved him through the exit door, leaving her alone with Sarah.

“It’s okay,” the scientist soothed. “You’re safe now. Nothing will hurt you.” Erica wasn’t quite on the ball with her guess, but her intent helped calm Sarah down nonetheless.

Eventually, Sarah’s tears ran dry, and she had a long talk with Erica. Sarah told her everything: her confusion when waking up that first day, her moral anguish when she had to kill the soldier, and even the pain and despair that enveloped her in those long hours sitting in the cave.

Erica’s chest clenched, and instantly made a resolution to help this girl recover.

When Sarah got around to describing her ki, Erica exclaimed, “You know how to use magic? Oh my gosh, you’re one of the mages!”

“Uh, I guess? My ki seems less fantastical than magic should be, and more like surplus life energy.”

“You know what? I think I can convince headquarters to send a mage down here to check you out! It’s gonna be great!” The grown woman squealing in excitement was a strange sight, but everything was strange to Sarah’s blank slate of a mind.

The tone of the conversation took a darker turn with Sarah’s revelation of Emma’s fate in the mold pillar. Erica shivered, reliving the memory of the mold pillar that she and Arthur had found, and of the horrifically powerful monster inside of it.

“I… I need to go record this down,” the scientist said. Sarah sighed, and looked so pitiful that Erica almost decided to stay another hour to comfort her.

“I really can’t stay, and I can’t let you out until you’re cleared. I’ll make sure to come back and visit, okay?” Sarah nodded reluctantly. “There’ll be two soldiers right behind that door. Just yell if you need anything.”

With that, Erica left, leaving Sarah alone in her cell.