Chapter 28: I've Got A Theory

"Runner Five and I are going to begin the testing now, Sam," Veronica says, her hand inches away from the lock that keeps the gate closed, the gate that keeps the zombies and us separated.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" He asks skeptically. "I know you've had your dad's old New Canton research notes for a few days now, but shouldn't you be starting out with smaller tests? Ones that don't put you and Five in a field with two dozen zoms right off the bat?"

"It wouldn't have taken this long if I had anyone left to research with. I want to get in that Comansys base just as badly as Abel Township. Dad never managed to protect humans from zoms, but he did work out some things about how to draw zombies away. Between his research and mine, I think we can get us past the zoms and into the Comansys base. If it works, then we can be in that lab by tomorrow."

I grin at hearing that. If we get into that base tomorrow, then we'll most likely get to leave either that day or the next. That sounds amazing. I've been gone two weeks and three days, if I count the five day trip up here, and it's beginning to weigh down on me. I miss Abel. I miss my kids.

I got to talk to them yesterday. Sam snuck them into the coms room while Janine was on some pathetic little assignment for Amelia. I missed hearing Penelope's rambles, and Milo's talk on his drawings. This is the longest I've ever been away from them, and I don't like it.

"And if this doesn't work?" Sam questions.

"If it doesn't work... that'll be interesting data." She shrugs, before casting a look at the zombies behind the wood gates. She pulled these zoms from the calming field last night, using a long stick so she wouldn't have to get too close, since zoms can still be unpredictable even with the effects of the plant. She put them in the pen, and the time from nightfall until now has let some of the effects wear off.

That's what she told us, at least.

"But if it doesn't work, you'll be eaten."

"No, the effects of the calming plant hasn't completely worn off; They're still a little dopey," She explains, pushing up her glasses. "Runner Five and I can get away from them no problem if we need to. That's how science works, Sam. No experiment is a failure. Even no results is information."

Sam's quiet for a few moments, as if trying to let her words sink in. I myself am more than a bit worried, but I know this is for Caleb, so I'll do it with courage. I just have to hope I don't mess any of this up and end up dying early, if I can do that... I'm not too sure.

Best not to test my luck.

"In that case, open the gates." He doesn't sound at all convinced, but Veronica either doesn't notice or doesn't care as she unlocks the gate. She starts running, and I quickly follow.

"We'll lead then into open ground, Runner Five. It'll be easier for Sam to keep track of their movements when they're away from the trees."

I nod. Yes, that makes sense. I can hear the zombies moaning as they exit the gates, shambling after us. This is the first time they've felt the flesh hunger in weeks, I'm guessing. We have to keep in sight of them so they'll continue following us, so I slow down just a bit.

"What am I going to be looking for?" Sam questions. "I tried reading some of the files we sent over, but it all seemed a bit... really science-y. All those numbers and um, something about zombie ants?"

I blink, then I blink again, wondering if I heard him correctly. "What?"

"It's camouflage via scent markers," The teenager explains, frowning when she sees my confused look and hears nothing but silence on coms. "Hiding using smells? Didn't you listen to my dad's voice files?"

"What? All five hours of them?"

She rolls her eyes. "Sam, why don't you cue up File 0034 from Folder C while Runner Five and I get the test subjects into formation?"

"Can do. I've got his recorder right in..." He pauses. "It's around here somewhere."

"You lost it, didn't you?" I guess, smirking.

"N-no... maybe, but I'll find it. Don't worry. But uh, yeah, those zoms are looking perkier than expected. Make sure you stay out of reach of them. I'm just gonna-I'm just gonna try looking under the desk."

"I suggest looking under that pile of curly-wurly wrappers in the corner," I mock, and I grin widely when I hear a grunt of frustration.

"Shut up."

"Never." My grin stays, but I do quiet down. Then I notice Veronica's deadpan look, and send her a raised brow. "What?"

She places her hand over her mic. "You're very lucky your coms operator is so oblivious, because I've seen you talk to him only a handful of times, and even I can see just how strong your feelings are for him."

I groan. "Not you too."

"What?" Sam mutters, and I cringe.

"Nothing. Just uh, talking to Veronica... about some stuff."

"Stuff. Very descriptive," She mocks, in which she receives a glare in return. "And since you're too forgetful to remember to cover your mic when you say something that you don't want your operator to hear, I suggest you use that BSL you used while you were mute. I had to learn sign language while I was with the Guides."

'There's really no need,' I sign with a frown. 'I mean, there is literally no reason to bring this up.'

'Oh, but there is,' She replies back with quick fingers. 'You see, I need you focused on this test. It is already bad enough that your health isn't exactly grand in the fact that you possibly could faint with a pack of zombies around you; I don't need you becoming distracted by the man you wish was your boyfriend.'

I flinch at her harsh words. 'I do not get distracted.'

She gives me a tight lipped smile. 'Then we'll have no problems.'

We keep running, not saying a word while we both hear Sam rummaging around, looking for that audio recording. Sometimes we'll hear a crash and a bitten-off curse, probably from him slipping on one of his papers that talk about the missions he'll be sending some runners on.

I try not to laugh at his misfortune, mostly because 'Judgey McJudgePants' keeps sending me a knowing look. It's already bad enough I get judged by people older than me (which is almost everyone since I'm sixteen) because of my recklessness, but getting judged by a fourteen-year-old too? I can't ever catch a break, can I?

"Nice work," Sam says after a few more slips, thuds, and curses. "The zoms are still following you, but you've got some clear space between you and them."

"The field should be a good place to start the test," Veronica states. "Plenty of room for maneuver. Five, let's get them to the far end of the field to get started."

I nod, craning my neck to look back at the zombies following us. Sam is right on the fact that there's some distance between us, which means we don't have to speed up or sprint to get to the far end of the field like Veronica wants.

"Right. I've found the tape. I really do need to tidy this place up."

"What made you come to that conclusion?" I ask. "Was it the fact that you can barely see the floor, or that you nearly slipped and killed yourself about a half a dozen times in a three minute window?"

"Very funny," He says dryly. "It's just every time Janine nags me about it, I don't, because then she'd have won. And she gets this smug expression-"

"The tape, Sam," Veronica interrupts, sending me an unamused look.

'What?'

'You know what,' She answers.

"Yeah. Yeah. Right," He says awkwardly. "There ya go. Have a listen while you're running."

There's a little click of a button being pressed, and then a voice.

"Pack observation 12B. Weather today is sunny with a slight breeze, no clouds."

I watch Veronica's face contort at the sound of her dad's voice. She's listened to these tapes before, but still. This must be terribly painful for her to listen to.

But she manages to keep too much emotion from showing, holding her head high and relaxing her shoulders until her face goes back to holding its neutral look.

"I'm tracking a swarm of fifteen undead. About eighty percent displaying moderate decay," He says. "Few crawlers. No children today. They're following a westward trajectory, as planned. Target appears to be Runner Forty-eight. No sign they've noticed I'm here.

"As in previous observations, subjects seem to be staying between zero point five and four feet apart while in pursuit, with distances increasing towards the back of the swarm. Runner Forty-eight, switch over to the route we discussed." Silence fills the air for a few moments, before Chris gasps. "Look at that. They're doing it again!

"As predicted. The subjects toward the back of the pack are still heading west, while those nearest the front are beginning to follow Forty-eight along a southerly course. But if we observe the zoms in the middle of the pack, it appears we've got some headed for both new and original trajectories. Now, either they'll begin to collide with each other as the two streams cross or... yes! West moving subjects are turning within the four foot window, avoiding the collision.

"Test 12B is a success. Runner Forty-eight, maintain your current course. We'll repeat the maneuver in ten minutes. McShell, over and out."

I hum once that tape ends, wondering what the hell he was going on about. I mean, it's not like anything he said was really confusing, but I just have no idea how zombies not bumping into each other like bumper cars has anything to do with this test now. I know science wasn't really my thing, but I wasn't that stupid in school.

But Veronica will probably tell us what his notes mean, because she probably already knows me and Sam are lost on all this. If she can't tell by my furrowed brows and slight frown, then she'll know when Sam asks about it, which I'm guessing will be soon since we've nearly reached the far end of the field.

Veronica looks back, a small smile stretching on her face. "This is perfect. The horde is definitely pursuing us, but we've put enough distance between us for the moment. We can begin the experiment now."

"You sure?" Sam asks, his voice shaking slightly from nervousness. "The calming effect seems to have worn off completely. Those zoms look hungry."

She huffs. "Didn't you listen to Dad's recording?"

"Yeah, but I didn't really get it. So the zoms are all just playing follow the leader. How's that going to stop you from getting eaten?"

I have to bite my lip to keep from smiling. Called it.

"Not quite." She reaches back into her backpack and pulls out a small bottle of liquid and hands it to me. She pulls out another one for herself. "Runner Five, douse as much of yourself as you can. Clothes and hair as well as your skin."

I open the bottle and cough at the sudden, strong smell that permeates the air. It's like cow poo and a stale fart get married, moved to Texas and had a baby in the summer. I hold my breath as I start putting the stuff on me.

"Insect repellent?" Sam guesses. I can picture his head tilting to the side like a little puppy. "Oh, God. I thought he was joking about the zombie ants."

"There's no zombie ants," Veronica says, coughing at the strong smelling liquid we both keep dousing ourselves with. "Ants and zombies share behaviors. That's what Dad was looking at. If you have a group of ants or zoms, they'll move together intelligently, but there aren't any leaders. They're just following food and trying not to bump into each other. My dad and I used to make schematic models of ant behavior. If you do it right, you can predict what the whole pack will do under certain conditions. Theoretically, you could do the same with zombies."

"You know, when you says the two of you did experiments, I thought you meant mixing baking soda and vinegar to make volcanos," He responds.

She smiles, her eyes staring ahead. "I had an ant farm when I was little. My dad thought it would be a good introduction to analytics." Her face scrunches up. "Oh, this smells worse than I thought."

"Glad I'm not the only one who noticed the smell," I mutter. "But still, how did you come up with this, uh, liquid here?"

"Ants follow each other using chemical markers. Dad thought zombies did the same, so he and some of the other researchers at New Canton were trying to brew up a synthetic version of their smell. I've been trying to do the same here for nearly a year, but most of us in the base were biologists, not chemists."

I smile, remembering how Caleb said he was planning on going to college to become a chemist before the apocalypse started. He would've liked it here. He'd probably enjoy working with Veronica too... If we find him alive, he might actually get the chance to do so.

"I've put in an extract from the calming plant though," She continues, "in the hope that it will give us the reaction we want."

"So, you douse yourself up with Eau de Zombie, and these zoms start thinking you're one of them?" Sam guesses.

"That's the theory, but there's only one way to test it."

We stop, and turn around towards the zoms who've been stumbling after us for the past twenty minutes.

"By running straight for a horde of zombies," Sam says. His voice cracks at the end, and it's not hard to see that he's terrified for our lives.

He's not the only one.

"That's the idea," She replies. "Ready, Five?"

I breath in quickly. "Not really, no."

"Good. Let's go."

•

"They're not chasing you."

"I know."

"But they're not even really moving."

"I know."

Sam laughs as the zombies stand around, not making a single move toward us as we pass them. Their steps are slow and have no meaning, like they would when they haven't spotted any fresh meat.

"It's like you're not even there. They're like they were when they were standing in the calming field. You ran right past them and they didn't react."

Veronica sighs. "I know, Sam."

"But this is huge! This is massive! I need to get someone-Janine or Paula. Someone should see this."

"Don't get excited yet. There's a range. Effectiveness seems to drop off about twenty meters out and the compound's very volatile. It took me days to make even this quantity. Burns off very quickly in human body heat."

Sam humphs. "Guess I should've known there's be a catch. Still, that's a good piece of intel. Not bad for a day's work."

"We're not finished yet." Veronica reaches back into her backpack, feeling around for something as she starts to turn back towards the zoms. "Just let me find it."

I look up, grabbing Veronica's arm to stop her from moving. She glances up, immediately taking a step back.

All the zombies are staring at us. Their dead eyes are looking straight at us, but they make no move, not a step. They only stare. Not that that makes me feel much better.

"We're getting too close," She says, and we both instantly step away. "They're detecting our human scent with the liquid masking it. Sam, Runner Five, did you trust my dad?"

I nod. "I didn't talk to him much, but I believe he knew what he was doing."

"Yeah," Sam says. "He took a big risk coming from New Canton."

"Then I want you to trust me like that too," She says confidently, reaching back into her backpack and pulling out a small remote-like device.

"Why do I not like the sound of that?" Sam gulps, and I feel my stomach churn.

"I'm going to press a button on this remote and then Five and I are headed into the center of the pack."

I pale. This girl is going to get us both killed.

"That's even worse than I thought."

"Trust us. In we go. Quickly."

I follow her, but I find it hard for me to agree with Veronica in her telling Sam to trust us when I don't even trust us.

But still, I follow, watching Veronica press the button on the device. When she does, I see we lose some of the other zombies' attention. Some still stare at us, as if they think we're there but can't see anything, but there are a few that seem to be looking elsewhere, even as we get into the middle of the pack.

"Sam, can you play me File 7 Folder K?" She asks.

"What did you do? It looks like they're-they're starting to run away from you," Sam says in awe.

"Not away from us. They're going for that zombie on the opposite side of the pack-the one in the green dress."

"I see her-it," I say, grimacing at the fact that most of it's brown hair has fallen out of its skull, and what's left is matted and gross. But there's something around its neck, and it's flashing. Sam notices it as well and asks Veronica about it.

"Pheromone collar," She answers with a half shrug. "Kind of. Our neighbors had one for their dog. That's where I got the idea."

"What kind of pheromones?"

"Lots of people's. I borrowed samples from nearly everyone in the base. The additional extract from the calming plant seems to be the key to keep the zombies responding consistently though. Can you play the tape now? I... I want him to be a part of this. He should explain it."

"Yep. I've got it ready."

I hear a click through my headset.

"Attractant Test Twenty, supplementary report. Three test subjects today. One doused with the human chemical marker, two without. I told the two unmarked runners no more than a slow jog, but even with the two right next to them, the pack all went for Runner Five."

My heart lurches. Chrysalis.

"New Canton council sent someone to watch the trails again today. A bit odd since Runner Five is a part of the Permanent Advisory Council, but it appears that she's refused to tell them anything about these tests. Said something about it's not her place to say since she's only out here as bait. Her not telling them anything has been a great help in keeping this secret. Even so, it's hard to say how much longer I can keep the results 'uncertain'. They're going to realize they've gotten the weapon they wanted soon."

The clip ends, and I blink. Weapon? Why would New Canton have wanted something like that?

They weren't... they weren't planning on using anything like that on Abel Township, were they?

And if that's what they wanted, why would Chrys not tell them what was going on? I mean, she was from New Canton. She didn't like Abel Township at the time. No one from New Canton did...

Unless she didn't. Unless she knew something no one else did-something no one else could possibly know.

My eyes slightly widen as a thought passed through my mind.

What if she started having visions before I did?

It makes sense. She would have been... sixteen or seventeen at the time. How she managed to become a part of the Permanent Advisory Council is beyond me, but then again, I'm Abel's Head of Runners and I'm only sixteen, soon to be seventeen.

I started getting my visions at fifteen, so it would make sense if Chrys started having dreams at a young age as well.

Maybe she knew about me before I became her.

"Okay, Okay," Sam says, forcing out a nervous laugh. "You've proved your point. You don't need to run through the pack again. You're giving me hives."

Veronica rolls her eyes at his dramatics. "But we're perfectly safe. It's simple really. Zombies want to eat humans. Whatever the most man smelling thing on the menu is, that's dinner! Right now Five and I could-we could do a pirouette! Look at them. They don't care. They don't care at all."

"Uh, what about the zombie you turned them onto?" He asks, and we watch as the other zombies surround the one in the stained green dress. "What happens when one of them-"

His words stop abruptly when one of them lunges for the collared one, biting a chunk out of its shoulder. The collared zom lets out a sound almost like a scream-not from pain, but from the sudden motion. Zombies can't feel pain.

"Takes a bite," Sam finishes. "Ew. Five, can you-can you point that head cam somewhere else?"

"Yeah, yeah," I say, cringing when another zom bites into the other's arm. I quickly look away, but from the corner of my eye, I see Veronica absolutely beaming.

"We can make them smell like us," She says with a wide smile. "I put collars on most of the zombies last night when we brought them out of the field."

I don't ask her how she managed that. She presses another button on the remote, and another collar on a zom in a ripped, red T-shirt starts to flash.

"I knew it would work. As soon as Dad said they liked human smells best, I knew it would work."

"The pack's breaking up," Sam gasps. Some of the zombies are still gnawing on green dress zombie, while others are starting to go after red shirt zombie. "Man, can you imagine what your dad would've said seeing this?"

Veronica smiles softly, her eyes glancing upwards for a split second. "I think I can. Feels like he's here, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it does. So, I guess that's it. We can get into that Comansys base now, right?"

She nods, and I smile widely. "We can, but first, Runner Five, have you ever wanted to chase a zombie?"

I open my mouth to tell her no, and that I want to start getting ready to go into that Comansys base, but I see how excited she is. This is the first time I've truly seen her look like a happy fourteen-year-old, so I nod.

"Okay. Ready, steady, go!"

We sprint off, following the stumbling zombies. They take no notice to us; They're too focused on the collared zombies. Veronica's turned on more of the collars, and we watch as the zombies start to turn on each other.

I kick one as I run by it, the force causing it to fall on its face. It's a collared zom, so some of the other zombies pounce on it, clawing at it.

"Ha!" I say obnoxiously.

"Havin' fun there, Five?" Sam laughs.

"You know it!" I kick another one down, but this one doesn't have a collar on. Still, it's funny to watch, especially since it's arm cracks when it falls.

"You did not just-Ha! I can't believe you just pantsed a zombie," Sam laughs, and I look over at Veronica, who has a wallet in her hand. There's a zombie on the ground, its pants now down at its ankles, which is probably why it fell.

"I was trying to get its wallet for I.D.," She replies, holding up the wallet, but still smiling.

"Likely story," He scoffs.

The dark haired girl looks around, her smile disappearing and her brows knitting together. "I wonder why those two zombies in the other end are attacking more followers than the others. There shouldn't be anything different about the collars. Can you get me an aerial view, Sam? I want to get some pictures of the swarm formation."

"One bird's eye view coming up," He answers cheerily.

But then his tone changes.

"Oh, God. How many zoms did you bring into the field today?"

"Twenty-four."

"Uh, that-that can't be right," He stammers, and my chest tightens. I don't like the sound of that. "I'm counting-I'm not counting. I can't count that fast. You must have triple that amount."

The color drains from my face as Veronica frowns. "No, that can't be right."

"Let me check the other cameras." He types a few things on the monitor, and then lets out a panicked noise.

"What is it, Sam?" I ask worriedly.

"It looks like they're coming in from everywhere," He answers. "There's a horde coming from up country. Got to be at least a whole village worth. Same thing from the east, and the west. It's like-God, it's like the whole country's coming in."

Veronica's face falls, and she smacks her forehead again and again. "Oh, no. Oh, no. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. How could I be so-ugh!"

"What?" Sam and I ask in unison,

She look me with large eyes. "It's in Dad's notes. They can sense when humans gather in large groups. Large gatherings attract them, and what do I do? I make a group of zoms smell like a group of humans. Five, this way. We've got to get to that base while we still can."

"The base?" I repeat, running beside her. "I thought we weren't going to do that until t-"

"There's been a change of plans."

"As fast as you can, guys. Gonna put Nadia on coms. We'll find a way to get you out," Sam says, gulping nervously. "Uh, Veronica, I'm looking at the zombies and uh, I think some of them are running."

She breathes in sharply, her nostrils flaring as she struggles to remain calm. "Five, with me. Now."

A/N: Hey, guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!