Chapter 20: They Walk Among Us, Part 3

She was already at the university, why not see what they had to offer? A few seconds later, she had a map of the university on her phone. The research unit was the building she'd found the gargoyles at. Not too far away in a straight line. Before she could change her mind, Pranthi pushed herself to her feet and walked back to the research site.

Just inside the front door a sign directed her to the lab. Fortunately, it was located on the ground floor. Pranthi walked down the hall, passing open doors where people in white coats worked at equipment she didn't recognize. Whiffs of odd smells drifted out the door. As she opened the door to the Fungi Research lab, the scent of fresh coffee wafted through her nose.

"Hello," said a man with a grey ponytail and the ubiquitous white coat. "Can I help you?"

"I would love a coffee and a chair," Pranthi waved at her legs.

The man raised his eyebrows, but pushed an office chair over to her and picked a cup from a pile on the counter.

"This is an odd spot to show up for coffee," the man said. "What do you take in your coffee?"

"Black is good," Pranthi said. "I was told you were researching the zombie fungus and might want to talk to me."

"Okay," he said, "I'll wheel you into the office we use for interviews."

Pranthi clutched her coffee as he carefully pushed her through a door into a room covered with enlargements of her photos. He picked up a clipboard and sat in a chair by a table in the center of the room.

"Name?"

"Pranthi Chopra."

The clipboard fell to the table as the man stared at her, his face pale and mouth open.

"Gwen!" he shouted just as Pranthi started to worry about him. "She's here. Pranthi just walked in our door."

A young woman burst through a door Pranthi hadn't noticed.

"What?" she said. "You're kidding, right? I thought she was dead."

"No such luck," Pranthi put her coffee down and started to push herself to her feet.

"Please," the man said, "you're the closest we've come to patient zero. We need your help."

Pranthi sagged back into the chair. The desperation on their faces pinning her in place.

"Okay," she picked up her coffee and sipped at it. "It isn't like I have anything else to do. I'm a photographer. I took most of these pictures," she pointed at the wall.

"I know," Gwen said, "they're amazing. Not just artistically, but scientifically. You can see the movement of the affected people. Do you have more?"

"Hundreds," Pranthi said. "Even more than that. I can bring them in, if it would be helpful."

"Heavens, yes," the man said. "I should introduce myself. I'm Dr. Carter Soriea. I was Cossette's supervisor. We've been trying to figure out what she did, but none of her notes at the university hint at it. Everything at her house was destroyed. If we can duplicate her process, we should be able to treat it more effectively."

"So, what do you want from me, besides my pictures?"

"We've been taking blood samples from people and comparing the amount of the fungus in their system. There appears to be more than one strain, and people react to them very differently."

"Then if you can describe your emotional and mental state during the incidents that will help us determine how the fungus is affecting your mind."

"Where do you want to start?" Pranthi asked.

***

Gwen and Carter insisted on paying for the cab to take Pranthi home. She didn't protest too much when they insisted on paying her for the rest of her pictures. The check in her pocket was made out in hundreds instead of the thousands that a magazine would have paid, but Pranthi would have given all her photos to them if it helped fight the fungus.

It didn't take long for her to copy all the photos from her drive to a thumb drive. She didn't look at any of them. Let Gwen and Carter deal with that. She packed the drive and her camera to go in the morning.

She spent the day letting them draw blood and helping to arrange pictures on the wall. Some of the time she'd shot bursts. They animated them to study the movement.

"The people on the roof move normally, the man in the park didn't," Carter pointed to the computer screen. "The blood tests confirm there is more than one kind of fungus infecting you, and presumably other parts of the population."

"She only talked about sending people to the rooftops, maybe the zombie thing was a mistake," Pranthi swung in the chair and looked at the wall full of pictures.

"It's possible, but Cossette didn't make many mistakes. If she'd simply adapted cordyceps then it could explain the roofers. I have no idea how she managed the zombie fungus."

"Thirst." Pranthi forced her hands to stay on the arms of the chair and not clutch at her throat. "When I was in the hospital, the first time, I remember a raging thirst. Kevin went for the IV bag, not me."

"Interesting. I'll have to give that some thought. There's something else here, too. I don't know if it's another fungus or an immune response. It's weird. I'll send it on to the CDC labs. Whatever it is may explain why you are here drinking coffee instead of tearing out people's throats."

"How come they aren't here, like they are at the hospitals?" Pranthi didn't want to talk about why she survived and people around her died.

"We don't deal with any live culture. They gave us the standards to work with the blood tests and we give them anything new we learn."

***

She'd been going to see Gwen and Carter for almost a week. Time to offer something in return for the small bit of purpose they'd brought to her life. People who talked to her and had hope of beating the fungus. Pranthi had talked to more people in the months since the Zombie Walk than she had since coming here.

She climbed into the cab and told the driver to take her to the bank; she'd cash the check and treat Gwen and Carter to coffee. She'd bribe the cab driver to carry it in for her. She could buy him one too.

"Wait here," she asked him when she got out.

"Meter's running," the driver said.

"I'll be quick."