After yet another sleepless night, Wayne scavenged supplies from different areas and storage rooms in the lab complex. Currently, he had a square sheet of metal the width of a computer keyboard but only the thickness of a piece of cardboard, making it light enough to lift but solid enough not to easily bend. Attached to the metal plank were to long poles Wayne had found in a janitorial closet.

He placed a piece of meat retrieved from food storage on the metal sheet. Using the poles as long handles, he positioned the raw material near the airlock into Anna's containment area. He tilted the tray upward to cause the meat to slide off and into the clear box of the airlock. Carefully pressing the switch with the edge of the improvised spatula, Wayne triggered the cycle to seal the airlock's outer door and open the inner door for Anna to have access to the meat.

Anna approached when the airlock opened on her side, but she took no notice of the offered food.

"Introduction of the meat was done from a distance to avoid my body heat from being detected," Wayne recorded after setting aside his makeshift equipment. "She shows no interest in the meat itself, apparently only responding to the sound of the airlock as expected. I have an idea; one moment."

Wayne paused the device he held and moved over to place his free hand on his side of the airlock. Anna's reaction was immediate and violent. She shrieked as she clawed at the airlock in an attempt to reach him. Wayne stepped back, and her demeanor returned to a lifeless stupor.

"Although attracted to the warmth of my hand," Wayne continued, "she didn't mistake the meat for it, accidentally clawing it out and throwing it across the room in her haste to reach me. For the next test, we will try something of a more human temperature."

A small kitchen unit existed in the lab complex for scientists to utilize when they didn't wish to leave their experiments too long. Wayne made use of it to cook a second piece of meat to ninety-eight degrees. He brought it back to Anna and passed it through the airlock.

She attacked the instant the warm steak arrived, snatching it from the airlock and biting into it with savage abandon until it was gone. She pawed at the base of the airlock momentarily before returning to her usual state of indifference.

"It would seem," Wayne said, "she was also attracted to the residual warmth passed onto the material of the airlock, perhaps thinking it to be food as well."

Wayne sat down at a desk, setting up a small metal frame to hold the recorder and free up his hands.

"During the initial outbreak, I'd seen several incidents of a zombie leaving a body that still had a significant quantity of meat on the bones in order to pursue a living human," Wayne stated. "It made me wonder because zombies always appeared ravenous, so why leave a meal to slowly chase another? Since it has now been confirmed the zombies are attracted to body heat, the explanation is clear. As a zombie attacks, multiple bites make the disease spread faster from numerous contamination points and progresses the victim to the third phase when they become cold. Once the body temperature begins to drop, the zombie loses interest, leaving the mortally wounded victim to die and return as a new member of the undead."

Wayne drummed his fingers idly on the desk while thinking about an idea that drifted through his mind, wanting to consider it carefully before it slipped past him. When he'd examined it, he added it to the recording.

"If some manner could be found to suppress all heat signatures from a person, they would be essentially invisible to the zombies," Wayne suggested. "However, since this is only a theory, great care should be taken in testing it as death or infection may occur if this proves to be an inaccurate hypothesis."

Another idea crossed his consciousness, and he paused the recording, departing swiftly from the room and returning ten minutes later with a pile of steaming hot food. Piece by piece, he added them to the airlock. Anna savagely attacked each offered morsel as if on the brink of starvation. After delivering the last piece, Wayne returned to his desk and his report.

"Since zombies seem to be hungry all the time, I intend to test this," Wayne declared. "I want to see if it's possible for a zombie to become full and if their attraction to the living will fade at that point. I will be feeding Anna on a regular basis in order to..."

While speaking, he'd looked toward the containment unit; his words trailed off as Anna sat down on the medical bed in her isolation room for the first time since being restricted inside. She turned her hands over in front of her, looking at the decayed and gray flesh as if seeing it for the first time.

Wayne stood and moved over to the glass wall. Anna looked up as if sensing him. He placed a hand on the barrier between them, but instead of attacking as she'd done all the times previously, Anna calmly put her hand against the partition on her side.

After the initial shock wore off, Wayne decided to see what was truly going on. He left the containment area for a moment and keyed in the commands on the computer to switch off the reflective interior and allow Anna to see him again.

She watched him approach but remained otherwise motionless. Wayne put his hand on the glass again, and she mimicked the gesture, placing her palm over his from the inside. Hesitantly, he switched on the intercom.

"Anna?" he asked in a tentative whisper.

"Hello Wayne," she replied.