A stumble in Brother Courage's adjacent room startled me. A yawn escaped my mouth as I rubbed my forehead, a hand fumbling to find the light switch. I opened a reluctant eye, straining to focus on the little clock on my bedside.

"5:56. Geez, dude. You robbed me of four minutes of sleep, what the..." My voice trailed off as I remembered to not let myself feel annoyed by puny details.

"I'm calm. Nothing gets under my skin," I whispered softly with my eyes closed, inhaling a deep breath. "I'm strong and resilient."

Once I reached inner peace, I smiled, happy that yesterday's mantra had been put to use so quickly. I got up, my linen pajamas shuffling nicely against my skin, and wet a sponge glove with warm water to wash my face, before brushing my teeth and adorning fresh clothes. When I was done with my morning routine, I sat on the bed and waited for Mistress Serenity to call.

I stared down at my hands, counting the days since I joined this Breathe and Release meditation retreat in the middle of nowhere. A week, already? Gosh, I missed Mikhail. Since we first met seven years ago during an internship, we had never been apart for more than two consecutive days.

The eve of my coming here, we had stayed in, ordering pizzas and cuddling on our couch while binging on horror movies. I had fallen asleep on his chest and woken up to him gently placing a stray hair strand behind my ear.

"Good morning, sunshine." He had kissed my forehead, then my lips. "Time to get up. Your shuttle leaves in an hour."

"Mmh... Maybe I'll choose this name for the duration of the retreat. How does Sister Sunshine sound?"

Mikhail had answered pecking on my nose tip. "Wonderful."

At the bus station, he had waved goodbye as the coach slowly started its journey, running by its side and blowing me kisses until it reached an intersection.

I fiddled with a loose thread of the futon mat, my empty stomach groaning and growing impatient. The most difficult part of this retreat, except for the separation, was neither the early wake ups, nor the tasteless and succinct meals. It was the absence of technology. How I longed to hear the news channel in the background. And my phone. Urgh. What I would give to spend five minutes swiping candies to prevent virtual soda from flooding my screen.

My thumbs found my middle fingers as I pushed these blasphemous thoughts to the back of my mind.

"My company can keep going without its project manager for two weeks. I'm here to relax and take care of myself."

Mistress Serenity started chanting from afar to gather all pupils, interrupting my train of thoughts. I looked around my ascetic bedroom and ensured everything was clean and tidy. I opened my door and joined the stream of students pouring from the corridor and into the main room.

As we each grabbed a mat and sat down on lotus position, Mistress Serenity kept singing, her head nodding left and right in rhythm. She stood on the far side of the room, near the zen autel and its collection of Buddha statues, her copper red curls beating the tempo. Once we were all installed and quietly waiting, she brought the melody to an end and greeted us warmly.

"Namaste, my dear students. Welcome to Week 2 of this Breathe and Release retreat. Today we will meditate about the following mantra: Be a warrior, not a worrier." She paused, her gaze flickering amongst us until she found the person she was looking for. "Sister Wellness? Before we start, may I remind you to shorten your evening ablutions? This is the third time I'm asking you. I am afraid people using the bathroom after you continue to experiment icy showers."

"I apologize, Mistress, but my hair takes a long time to wash," Sister Wellness replied, pointing to the long chocolate mane flowing to her lower back.

"Vulnerability is easier to wear than vanity." A pause, heavy with annoyance. "Shorten your showers." Her eyes fluttered, and back were her amiability and gentleness. "Shall we start on today's mantra, everyone?"

"Umh, Mistress?" I raised a timid hand. "Shouldn't we wait for Brother Courage to join us?" I asked, gesturing towards the empty corridor.

"Brother Courage came to me yesterday, after his evening walk around the compound. He wasn't feeling good, but couldn't take a shower to get warm." She pointedly eyed Sister Wellness, who lowered her face and muttered something under her breath. "He'll be resting in bed until he gets better, Sister Sunshine," Mistress Serenity concluded. She turned towards the rest of the students. "Be a warrior, not a worrier? Omm..."

Humming in unison, we all pondered on the impact of bad thoughts on inner balance, the clock above Mistress Serenity's head ticking the hours away.

A sudden clatter arose from the corridor. Heavy steps announced the arrival of someone running. A disheveled man strudded into the main room, his face so distorted by fear it took me a moment to recognize him.

"Mikhail?"

His eyes spotted me in the crowd, and he shoved my neighbours abruptly, before engulfing me in his embrace.

A few seconds later, Brother Smile appeared at the door, his reddened face clearly not matching his chosen name. "I am sorry, Mistress. He came to the welcoming hut demanding to see his girlfriend. I told him she was in a meditation session, and he simply dashed away. I couldn't stop him."

"Young man, what is going on?"

Mikhail snapped from his shuddering daze. He got up slowly, raising me with him, and answered, "Zombies."

Silence stretched in the room, everyone digesting the word. Then a soft chuckle started spreading between the students, growing louder and louder, until breaking in full laughter. I stared at Mikhail expectantly, wondering if he had watched too many horror movies while I was gone.

A snarling sound jolted everyone around. Brother Courage's silhouette appeared in the corridor, wobbling and staggering towards us. As he came closer, I noticed the paleness of his skin, next the purple veins marbling his face, and finally his bloodshot eyes. Mikhail did too. He hugged me tightly, taking my breath away.

Time seemed suspended until Brother Courage reached the group. We all stood, frozen, deer caught in the headlights, waiting for something to happen. He glanced left and right, flicking his tongue like a snake, and suddenly darted towards Sister Wellness.

Before anyone could react, he bit off a piece of her hand and started gnawing on it while she fell to the ground, screaming in terror and pain. Brother Smile swiftly grabbed him by the collar and threw him out in the corridor, locking the doors from the inside. Panic spread in the main room while two people rushed to stop the bleeding on Sister Wellness' hand, but she wouldn't let them touch her, sobbing and trashing in fetal position.

"It all started four days ago." Mikhail's voice, though close to a whisper, resounded in the main room. "People attacking each other. Creating more zombies. Who attacked more people." He sucked in a sharp breath. "The official advice is to stay locked inside until the army comes." He glanced at me with teary eyes. "But I couldn't not know if you were safe, so I took the car at sunrise, and drove here."

I cupped his face and was about to declare my undying love for him when Sister Wellness rose, now eerily quiet, her veins slowly turning to purple. Her reddened eyes roamed the room, before focusing on Mistress Serenity.

In an instant, she was on her, slamming the slender body against the autel, and trying to bite off her face. Mistress Serenity strained to keep her opponent at bay, her hands scrabbling behind herself to find a weapon. At last, her fingers encountered a bronze Buddha statue. She grabbed it and repeatedly whacked Sister Wellness' head until the latter fell to the floor, immobile.

The room was quiet again as we contemplated the bloodied corpse in front of us. Mikhail held my elbow, his fingers digging painfully into my arm.

"I think she is dead, now, Mistress Serenity," I murmured.

She glared at me with annoyance. "Stop calling me Mistress, for fuck's sake. My name's Eliza."

Eliza raised the statue one last time before crashing it on Sister Wellness' head, the skull exploding with a sickening crack, sending brain bits on everyone. She got up slowly, her breath shuddering, and blood leaving a crimson trail from her temple to her jaw.

"I fucking told you to fucking shorten your fucking showers, bitch!"