We left KC guarding the unhinged doors as we delved into the hospital. We were tied to each other with Jared in the lead, then Benji, then me, and finally Lydia taking up the rear. There had been some debate about putting the young child at the exposed end of our chain, but we had finally agreed on the fact that she was most likely to feel the tug of the rope if KC were to pull on it. While I had been on Benji's side - feeling rather uncomfortable with Lydia in the back, I also secretly (and guiltily) was glad that it wouldn't have to be me.

We walked in silence until we came to a three-way fork. "Anyone know where we're going?" I asked.

Jared glanced at the signs above each hallway and saw they were so thickly coated in dust that their labels were concealed. Being the only one of us tall enough to reach them, he did so and brushed them off. The left sign read "ICU." The right sign said "Emergency Room." The hallway leading straight down wasn't labeled.

I pulled out my journal as everyone looked expectantly at me. I had removed it from our makeshift planning board just in case we would need it - and now, we did. Although I had been the one to ask if we knew where we were going, I now realized that the little book held the answers to all of our questions. It knew exactly where we needed to go.

"Crap," I muttered, flipping hurriedly through the pages and taking back my previous thoughts. "She doesn't say where Patient 0 was kept."

"ICU," Benji said decidedly. "Disease that bad? She would have been in the ICU."

"But who says the cure is where the woman was?" Jared argued. "The journal entry said that it's with the refrigerated medicine."

"But where is that?" Benji shot back. "We should start with the place where we know something significant happened and work our way around the hospital from there."

As their disagreement turned into a full-on argument, I felt a slight shift in the rope. I turned to see Lydia staring wide-eyed at the rope.

"Lydia? Are you okay?" A frightening thought crossed my mind. "Did the rope tug?"

She stared up at me, eyes glazed. Finally, she shook her head in the negative, calming my wildly beating heart.

"Then are you okay?" I asked tentatively, not sure how to be therapeutic to a young child but willing to try all the same.

"We should go straight," she said abruptly instead, and I jumped. I had almost forgotten what her voice sounded like.

"How do you know?" Benji asked gently, not at all challenging but merely curious, doubling back to kneel down and look into his sister's eyes.

"I spent some time here," she said quietly, not blinking. I wasn't sure how she knew about the zombie cure, even if she had lived in the hospital, but what reason did she have to lie to us?

"Well, then, I think we should go straight," Jared decided, smiling fondly down at Benji's little sister. "Lydia knows what she's doing."

I wasn't sure we should hinge our entire plan on such an obviously unstable little girl, but Jared had a point. Lydia did seem wise far beyond her years after her time alone.

We started down the straight-leading hallway. After a little bit, Lydia untied herself from the rope and came up the line to hold Benji's hand and give instructions, leaving me in back. I tried to pay attention for any yanks on the rope, but none came. In fact, it was rather slack. KC was probably relaxing. She deserved it.

"Turn left," Lydia suddenly ordered, her voice taking on a strange tone.

Jared peered into the pitch black room uncertainly. "You sure, Lydia?"

"Turn left," she said again, that same strange, tightened, distracted quality in her voice.

We did as she commanded and filed into the room, one after the other.

The door slammed shut behind us.

I shrieked. Benji let out a cry of surprise at realizing it wasn't me. I felt a yank on the rope but from down the line and realized that Jared was trying to pull us all closer to him. Then he let out a strangled cry and the rope went slack.

"Jared!" I screamed.

Something hard slammed into my skull, and darkness engulfed me.