"William? What happened? Where are we?"

"Everything is fine, I'll explain later. How you are feeling, Grandpa?"

"I feel wonderful." Grandpa said as he stood up.

"That's your grandpa!?" Karen exclaimed from the side.

Will was busy trying to calm down an excited Broski, who was struggling to break away in his arms. "Broski, calm down."

"Little B, sit." Grandpa said, and Broski finally settled down.

"Maybe you should get him something to wear before he pokes someone's eyes out." Karen said, turning her head away.

Will went over to the helicopter to retrieve a towel and his grandpa's clothes.

"What's going on here?" Karen asked once Grandpa was all dressed up. "Why did he come out of that thing, and covered in goop, like a newborn? Why does your grandpa look like he could be your dad?"

Will shrugged.

"William, who is this?"

"A passerby."

"That medical equipment from early...was he sick? If I bring my friend here, will it make her better?" Karen eyed the pit where all the bodies had disappeared and only scattered bits of bones and clothing remained. Seemingly coming to a decision, she turned around and ran down the trail.

"There's food in the helicopter if you're hungry. Don't let Broski eat anything you put in your mouth, and be careful where you spit. And don't let him lick you."

"I understand. I heard when you explained it to Little Donny."

"I'll be right back." Will ran off down the trail after Karen. By the time he reached the bend of the trail, he spotted her crossing the street into the construction yard across the street.

He found her operating an excavator once he caught up. Will watched as she dug into a dirt patch, and soon a large ditch filled was revealed. Inside the ditch was a massive amount of bodies.

This must be where the entire neighbourhood dumped all the bodies. If it's this much, I can evolve Broski too.

Karen climbed down from the excavator and approached Will while she put a pair of work gloves on.

"Why are here? I thought you didn't want to tell me anything."

"It looked like a stupid idea was running through your head and you're about to act on that stupid idea."

"Maybe if you tell me what you did, I won't have to do anything stupid."

There was a pause before Will let out a sigh. "Fine, go get your friend and bring her to the park."

Karen's face brightened up. "Thank you, thank you. You don't know what this means. You just saved someone's life."

Will waved her off and went back to the park to tell his grandpa and Donny they would be staying longer. He returned to the construction yard with his gloves and started pulling bodies out and loading them onto a nearby flatbed truck. As he was doing so, Will noticed that most of the bodies seemed to have died from a puncture wound around the top of their heads.

Will was reminded of how Karen immediately climbed up a tree at the first sign of danger. He could imagine the people of this neighbourhood standing high up somewhere, perhaps from their second floor, and stabbing downwards with the long metal spear they all carried.

Once he had enough to keep the Metamorphosis Pod fed for a while, Will backed the flatbed truck slowly into the park and down the trail. He noticed a few heads peeking out their windows to check out where the loud beeping was coming from but perhaps because the sky was already beginning to darken, no one came to investigate.

A hatchback was already there when he arrived, and Karen's friend was sitting in the passenger seat. She was wrapped up in layers of blankets and perspiring all over. Although, she was asleep, breathing seemed incredibly difficult for her. Even from behind the mask she was wearing, Will could tell she was in pain.

"Do I just put her inside?" Karen pointed at the pod.

"Yes." Will nodded and began transferring bodies into the pit.

"Do I have to take off her clothes?"

"Yes."

"Now what?" Karen asked after she finished placing her friend inside.

"She'll probably need more nutrients."

Karen made a face. "And that means..."

"What you think it means."

"How do you even know about this?" She asked as they entered the flatbed truck and drove back to the construction yard.

"We found another one."

"You're talking about that egg thing? What does it do exactly?"

"Changes anything inside into a half-zombie?" Will gave a simple explanation.

"Then are you also..."

"Yes."

"That's why you were fighting like that. You almost gave me a heart-attack. What about Broski?"

"Not him."

Karen sat back, contemplating about the revelation that had just been dropped on her.

The two worked in silence as they transferred bodies from the ditch to the flatbed truck. When it turned dark outside and Will estimated that they had enough for both Karen's friend and Broski, he noticed something about the corpse Karen was in the middle of moving when they passed by each other.

"Wait a moment." He said.

"What?" Karen glanced over in confusion.

"Put that body down."

Karen placed it down on the ramp they were using to move the bodies. Will came over and had a closer look. He had been using his infrared vision while they worked to look out for any zeroes that may try to attack them in the dark. He noticed something moving inside this corpse with erratic movement.

"Leave this one here, I'll be back."

Will returned momentarily, after he retrieved a kit from the helicopter. He brought out a scalpel and cut into the corpses intestinal tract.

"What are you doing?" Karen's face scrunched up in disgust from the side.

Soon, Will pulled out a barely visible 3 mm hookworm with a pair of tweezers. The moment the hookworm detected Will—a potential host, its movement grew even more erratic. This let him confirm that it was a Parasite.

Pleased at unexpectedly finding a healing Parasite already, Will stored it away in a tube he had prepared for situations like these.

"What was that for?" Karen asked in a tone that indicated she already knew she was not going to receive any answers.

"Come on, we're done here." Will said, packing away the kit.

Karen let out a sigh as the two entered the truck and drove back to the park. About an hour after they finished tossing everything into the pit, there was movement from the Metamorphosis Pod, followed by a frightened voice.

"Care!? Are you there? Where am I?"

"Monica? I'm here!" Karen slid down from the roof of her car and approached the Metamorphosis Pod. "Can you get out?"

After a bit of difficulty, Monica finally found her way out of the pod. A young woman with wavy dark brown hair and tanned skin crawled out, looking much less pale than before she had gone in.

"What's...going...on?" She coughed and sputtered.

"Careful where you touch her." Will grabbed Karen by the shoulder, stopping her.

"Right, half-zombie..." Karen grabbed some towels and a change of clothes for her friend before going over to Broski. "I guess it's just you and me, Broski."

"Woof."

"I hate to break it to you, but it is Broski's turn now." Will picked up Broski and brought him over to the pod.

Karen looked at Broski like he had betrayed her.

"Come on, buddy, get inside." Will said, placing Broski in front of the pod and holding it open for him.

Broski looked at Will with a look of confusion.

"Sleepy time, go on."

"Little B, go sleep." Grandpa said and Broski finally reluctantly entered the pod.

Broski let out a small whine and gave Will puppy dog eyes when he laid down in some slime.

"Deal with it." Will said, moving his hands away and letting the pod close on its own. He turned around to find Karen explaining the situation to her friend, who still threw a coughing fit from time to time.

I guess the evolution didn't completely fix her problem.

While she was listening to Karen, Monica was staring intently at Will and Grandpa. She suddenly interrupted her friend. "I'm sorry, but do we know each other? I feel like the both of you are very familiar. Especially..." She looked over at Grandpa.

Will's attention was immediately caught when he heard that. "I don't think we've met before."

"That's strange, I could have sworn we did." She let out a cough again.

Is this the attraction of a Parasite to a Host? Did she awaken as a Parasite? If she did, then I'll need to keep an eye on her. She could be useful, especially if she turns out to be a symbiote.

"I don't think she is fully cured." Will said, while Monica drank out of a bottle and Karen rubbed her friend's back.

"Then what should we do?" Karen asked. "Would any doctor know how to help a half-zombie?"

Monica feigned a look of taking offense. "Call me half-human, at least."

"You wanted us to take her in, right? I think I might know of a way to heal her if she comes with us."

"You can help her?" Karen asked, hopeful.

"She's right here, you know."

"What do you think?" Karen turned to her friend.

"I'm not going unless Karen is going too."

"That's fine, she can come." Will agreed to their condition, but he put forward his own. "But you two might have to do some chores for the rent."

"Of course!"

The two friends exchanged smiles.

"It's dark already, I'd like you two to take my grandpa to your place for now." Will gestured at the sky as he added more branches into the campfire.

The two agreed and moved into the car with Grandpa.

Monica approached Will as they were about to leave. "I'd like to thank you for helping me out and for taking us in..." Her voice started to crack near the end as her eyes began to water. "Oh my god, look at me, I'm starting to break up." She fanned herself with her hand and started coughing again right after. After taking a moment to gather herself, she spoke up again, "Sorry about that, I'm really grateful for everything."

"It's fine."

"Are you sure we've never met before?"

"Yes."

The three left, and about an hour after they returned the next morning, movement could be heard from inside the Metamorphosis Pod. Will climbed out of the truck he was resting in, just as the pod cracked open and Broski emerged.

"You should all take a step back." Will warned, turning to look at Karen. "Especially you."

"WOOF!" Broski let out a powerful bark that seemed to echo into the distance. Birds flew up from their perches in the distance.

"Wow..." Monica uttered.

"I think we need more dog food." Grandpa said.

"I was not expecting that..." Karen stared at the dog that was now the same height as her.

The giant husky shook its body and slime splashed all over the entire area. Will brought a towel over and began the challenging process of cleaning a large dog post-evolution—when it was restless and full of energy after sleeping in a dark pod for a whole night.

"Do want a turn?" Will gestured at the Metamorphosis Pod and asked Karen. "There should still be enough leftover in the ditch for you too."

"Ugh...no thanks. I very much enjoy being a human."

If only she knew...Will shook his head.

The two young women went back home to pack up their things. Will went over to the excavator and covered up the ditch before bringing it over to dig around the Metamorphosis Pod. It was much easier than expected because most of the roots had moved to one side to create the siphoning pit. The soil around the Metamorphosis Pod was also very arid, like it had been sucked completely dry of all its nutrients.

He then backed the flatbed truck up close and worked at dragging the Metamorphosis Pod onto the back of the truck. It was a bit of a struggle and just as he was thinking about hooking the Metamorphosis Pod up to another vehicle to drag it over, Grandpa came over and easily lifted the entire Metamorphosis Pod.

He actually awakened Charlie's bloodline? Will stared in shock for a moment. He had barely given his grandpa half a unit of the blood. With the boost from evolving and that bloodline, his physical capabilities should be off the charts...if were going by just stats and not evolutions, Grandpa should be equivalent to world's first Category 1 human...

"What are you doing? I need some help over here." His grandpa complained, snapping Will out of his daze.

After the two placed the Metamorphosis Pod onto the flatbed and Will tied it down to the truck, Karen and Monica returned to the scene.

"You're bringing that thing with you?" Karen questioned as she alighted from her car.

"You'll be bringing it for me." Will said.

"But it's a truck, it's all big and slow. What if we run into trouble?"

Will handed her and Monica a pair of spare radios. "Call for help if you need."

"Really?" She raised a brow.

"I'll go with the young lady." Grandpa said.

"Are you sure?" Will asked.

"I'll be fine, I feel 60 years younger." Grandpa gave a thumbs up to Karen, who seemed unconvinced.

They were soon on the road with Karen and Grandpa in the truck, Monica in the hatchback, and Broski squeezed into the back cabin of the helicopter. Will was flying low and slowly to avoid any ground radars, and so that Karen and Monica could follow along.

They had to stop a couple of times to clear the road, and during one stop, Will caught his grandpa swinging the Halligan bar that ended up sending a zero's head flying off like a baseball. Karen jumped in surprise when that happened and almost dropped her long spear.

She radioed in right after she returned to her car.

Donny's voice came in soon afterwards.

"You'll meet soon, we'll be back in 10 minutes."

They pulled into the compound shortly after, and once Will landed and went over to the front, Donny approached him.

"Dude, you left me to deal with that whole mess while you went out to pick up girls during a zombie apocalypse?" Donny complained. "And what the hell happened to Broski?"

"Woof, woof!"