Turning the knob, the door swings open effortlessly.

There I see a small office. With a pudgy man, humming along to the music as he sits behind a desk. Typing away he doesn't even look up.

"The school was evacuated weeks ago young man. I assure you, you have no business here."

"I uh... I'm not a student here."

He cuts me off.

"Then you have even less reason to be interrupting my work.

Again I try and use sympathy to my advantage.

"I was walking somewhere. I need to get there fast to save my friends. But it got too snowy, so I ducked in here to wait it out."

"Very well, but please wait it out in some other room. I am far too busy for this."

I'm surprised he didn't ask me any questions. Where I'm going. What I'm saving my friends from. Nothing. I turn around to leave when he starts talking again.

"Wait, on second thought. It's been a very long time since I've seen, let alone spoken to another person. Perhaps a few minutes of conversation would do me good. So, would you like to begin or shall I?"

Before giving me a chance to reply he continued.

"Well, you said something about going to help your friend. Care to elaborate on that? Also, I don't believe you've given me your name yet. Mine is Professor Choren"

With a kettle in his office. Powered by a small generator, he made us each a tea as I told him most of what has happened so far. Leaving out a fair amount of the details about back in the community. Instead just how it started with Susanna and slowly spread around. Then how I came to meet up with Germaine and Courtney.

Out of politeness he didn't ask too many questions, though I could tell the communities response and handling was the part he was most interested in.

I got to the part about Germaine's theory on what lead to all this happening in the first place.

"Ah, a smart girl, no doubt about that. I just so happen to share that exact theory. and what does this woman believe to be the solution? If she thinks there is any solution to be found at all."

"My understanding was the solution is to simply wait it out. They likely need a power source. Any day now they should all run out of power and die."

"Interesting. Very interesting. I had considered the very same thing. I wonder though. Had she run into the same problem I had. When being so hopeful in believing they may just run out of power. That is to say, we do not know what power source they use. And I fear it very well may be generated via kinetic energy."

"I'm embarrassed to admit it sir. But I do not understand what any of that means. Nor do I know if she had taken that into consideration or not."

"All the same young man. I have been working on an even better solution myself. For weeks I've been cramped in this office working night and day to get it done."

"So you don't know how bad things have gotten?"

"Well I certainly do now, based on the stories you've told me. Though I had my suspicions from the start. Not about the horrible zombie rampage that's been going on. But about the bugs desire to spread. Which is Why I got my hands on the coding and all the related files. From a former student of mine, who just so happened to be an understudy on this experiment."

"What's your solution? Do you really think it will work? That's amazing news! How long will it take?"

"I worry it's still quite a ways from being finished. On top of that, I'd need to travel a great distance. To ground zero so to speak. And even then I would need some sort of power source there. And I doubt my little generator here will be enough."

"I'm sorry, I'm still not clear on what the solution is. And is there any way I can help?"

"Ah yes, sorry, getting a bit ahead of myself there. I propose a simple and elegant solution. The basic idea of which is to create an update. These bugs are simply doing what the software has told them to do. So, with an update that tells them to stop. Well that should be problem solved. They should all just shut down and everything should go back to normal. If it works that is. Although again, I need to finish making it, Then get to the lab where they created it. Upload it to their computer and send it out too all the bugs. Very little you could do to help me in that endeavour I'd imagine."

I understood very little of what he said.

"So everyone that's a zombie now, will go back to normal?"

"In theory yes."

My stomach drops.

"So any one that has died as a zombie?"

interrupting Choren says.

"They will remain dead yes. If the brain needs to be damaged, or disconnected from the rest of the body. As you've said, there is nothing we can do to fix that."

The faces of the first few zombies I killed flash through my mind. After that the rest all blend together. I think of that baby stuck in the high chair. And everyone back in the community who would have been okay, if not for Amos.

A small part of me begins to hope his solution doesn't work. Of course I want everything to go back to normal. But even if it does, Life will never be the same. Not for me at least.

Professor Choren then insists he must get back to work. He suggest that I hunker down in the library and read about cars. Explaining to me something called "Hot wiring". And how There is simply no way Pharaoh and his men have siphoned every car in the six cities and beyond. That I was only walking along the main road. Where they'd have done the same looking for gas stations and hitting cars along the way. And if I had searched a little harder I would find plenty of cars with more than enough gas to get me home.

The snow continued to fall. After the first night, it was so deep it went half way up the door. I couldn't leave if I tried. It was three days before it stopped. And fortunately only another four before it melted enough to leave.

During that time I had read all I could about cars. Feeling confident I should be able to use one no problem. I feel like I could probably build one at this point.

Choren and I had been meeting twice a day in the cafeteria during his breaks. We'd eat and discuss the progress we were making. He told me something I didn't understand. About how his update would not take much longer if he could get the source code he was missing. But he had to go to the original lab for that.

There was underground parking for the school that had remained untouched by Pharaoh's men. So once the snow melted enough Choren packed up his stuff and was hitting the road for a sixteen hour drive. Though he thinks without traffic he can do it in ten.

We wished each other luck in the parking lot. He showed me first hand to hot wire a car, and we both went our separate ways.