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There’s a long silence while I come to ter to reot less than two years to live, and by the way, you’ve been feasting on human brains for the pastto get a handle on myself

"Where do the brains come from?" I ask

Burke says, "I told you - hu people in order to feed us?"

"Don’t be ridiculous," Dr Cerveris snorts

"The casualties have been horrendous," Josh explains "We can’t put an exact figure on how htered, but in London alone we reckon it must run into thethe hundreds of thousands who have been turned," Dr Cerveris points out "Just those ere killed, whose heads were cracked open, so that they couldn’t revive"

"We’ve mopped up a lot of the corpses," Josh continues "Reviveds rarely clean out a skull - they almost always leave bits of brain behind Ever since we realized what revitalizeds need, we’ve been collecting brain ain I stare at the wall above Burke’s head This wasn’t how I saw reat career plans, but cannibalism was very far down my list of options

I chuckle drily and lower rin crookedly "Sod it I alanted to go on a TV show and eat things like bugs, snakes, roadkill This is a drea it on I’ll eat whatever the hell you chuck at me" I rub my stomach slowly "Yum"

Burke slances at Josh "I bet you’re glad now that you listened to me"

"We’ll see," Josh reed to cooperate yet"

I frown, thinking back a few minutes, then turn to Burke "Josh said it was thanks to you that I wasn’t still a zo to that before you sidetracked me" Burke crosses his hands on the table and looks at me seriously "Revitalizeds need brains to thrive If we don’t feed theress In most cases, the staff here let that happen"

I cock e of reviveds who revitalize is minuscule," Dr Cerveris says defensively "But if you take a group of hundreds of thousands, even a fraction of a percent is significant"

"I figured there er kids were being held elsewhere"

"Of course," Dr Cerveris says "We keep a saroups, races, both sexes"

"A sa for theress," Burke says His gaze hasn’t wavered "They separate the conscious zombies, hold theeneral holding pens once they’ve - "

" - lost their bloody minds!" I roar I try to jump to my feet but the chains around my ankles hold me in place

"There are limits to the numbers we can maintain," Dr Cerveris says calmly

"Bullshit!" I retort "You just don’t want the hassle"

"We only need a few to study and help us with our experi the others?"

"They can think!" I screahts?" Josh sneers "Only the living have rights, and they’re not alive, not really You aren’t either You’re a freak revived, nothing more, a threat to any normal person, never ery We keep you because we need you, but you have no rights You lost those when you died and became a killer"

"Is that how you think too?" I ask Burke, tree

"No," he says "To me it’s abhorrent"

"Then how can you ith them?" I snarl "Why do you put up with this crap? Why not walk away, like anyone halfway human would?"

Burke shakes his head and doesn’t reply

"I wouldn’t be so quick to criticize your old teacher if I were you," Dr Cerveris says s with the reviveds if it weren’t for Billy Burke"

"We run a background check on every revitalized," Josh says "We like to knoho they are, where they caather ashow to process theive priority to family members or people related to politicians or powerful business if I said that wasn’t a consideration, but that’s the way the world has alorked Nepotism is rampant everywhere But if it’s any consolation, very few revitalizeds fall into that bracket, so it’s rare that someone is sacrificed at the expense of a hter"

"When they ran a check on you," Burke says, "they discovered your connection to me I’ with the ar it hard to cope Most are distraught at having lost family and friends They don’t all adjust as swiftly as you have"