Wayne was in utter shock. With the mindless nature observed in every zombie since the initial outbreak, he'd never considered the possibility the person's mind might still be intact. It made him wonder how many had been killed that might've been saved. A multitude of additional questions swirled in his consciousness, threatening to sweep him away in a confusing rush of ideas and untested possibilities.

"Wayne," Anna said forcefully to bring his thoughts back to the present.

"Sorry," Wayne apologized.

"I know," she accepted. "You were thinking of what this ultimately means and what you can do with it."

Wayne smiled. "You do know me."

"After six years of marriage, I ought to," Anna commented. "I would say the first question is what do we do now? My mind may be restored, but I'm still inside this decayed form."

"We'll need to determine how much of your mind is still intact, memories, feelings and things of that nature," Wayne decided, hesitating before saying what was also on his mind. "We also need to find out if the restoration is permanent."

"You mean it might not last?" Anna questioned.

"I don't know," Wayne admitted. "We've never revived the mind of a zombie before. We're in completely uncharted waters. There's no way to tell what we can or should expect. Records will need to be taken of everything, and it may be necessary to capture another zombie to test out if it can be repeated. You might have something different in your genetics that allowed you to come back while others don't. Again, I don't know. It's all speculation."

"Well then, let's stop speculating and find out," Anna suggested. She stepped away from the glass wall and sat down on the narrow medical bed in her isolated room. "Ask me a few questions and test my memory."

"Alright," Wayne said, retrieving a chair and sitting in it directly in front of the transparent containment shield. "Where did we first meet?"

"Right here," Anna answered before correcting it. "Not exactly here, but in the work room two doors down. My group had made it through the city, a few of them anyway, and we'd reached the safe zone here. After a week in quarantine to be certain we weren't infected, we were let in. I'd had some basic medical knowledge from being a volunteer at the hospital, so they assigned me as your assistant in the hopes you could train me and they've have more than one person they could count on in this vital field."

"Very good," Wayne praised. "Let's see what else you can remember."

***

One Week Later...

"Motor skills remain steady," Wayne mentioned while checking off items on his computerized pad. "Memory content and recall is still excellent. Hunger intensity hasn't increased beyond standard human levels since restoration. Everything seems to be doing well."

"I know there's still a concern about my current mental state being temporary," Anna told him. "But, how long are you going to keep me locked in here while trying to find out?"

Wayne hesitated to answer, his mind racing. "I need to check with Councilman Kirby. Give me a minute."

Departing swiftly from the room, Wayne closed the lab door behind him before accessing the computer terminal next to the door. The keyboard was located on a platform installed flush with the wall, and Wayne tilted the platform down into a horizontal position so he could use the computer. When the platform the keyboard was attached to was dropped into the active position, the monitor mounted at eye level engaged.

"We've been watching what's going on," Councilman Kirby said from the computer monitor when the communication link was established. The bearded city leader looked with concern at Wayne. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," Wayne admitted. "There is the possibility I've managed to restore Anna and everything will be fine when I let her out. There is also the chance her condition will deteriorate again, and she'll try and make a meal of out me. And, uh..."

"What is it?" Kirby prompted.

"There's a third option I'd rather not consider, but I think we have to," Wayne explained. "It's possible I didn't restore her mind and I simply made a smarter zombie. It might be playing along in order to get me to drop my guard and let it out so it can kill me."

"You did a number of experiments to test her responses when she was a zombie," Kirby pointed out. "Can't any of those help?"

"No," Wayne denied. "She has Anna's memories; that much is certain, but I don't know if it's really her, or the zombie using those memories to its advantage. If the latter is the case, she'll continue playing along, giving the responses I'd expect in order to make me trust her until I lower the containment wall."

"Is there any kind of definitive test?" Kirby used a cloth to remove the perspiration on his bald head as he asked the question.

"I'm afraid I can only think of one way to be sure," Wayne admitted, scratching the beard that had slowly materialized on his face over the last few days. "Keep watching, and you'll find out when I do."

Wayne ended the call and pushed the keyboard back up into its storage position, powering down the computer. Reentering the room where Anna was currently housed, Wayne marched straight toward the appropriate terminal and began entering the commands into the system.

"Why did you talk to the Councilman outside?" Anna asked. She pointed across the room. "The computer over there has a link."

"I didn't know if I should say anything in front of you," Wayne admitted.

"Why?" Anna questioned before answering it herself. "You don't know if I'm really me. If that's the case, how can you be certain one way or the other?"

"Like this," Wayne answered, pressing the final key.

With a hiss of pressurized mechanisms engaging, the transparent isolation door was drawn back up into the ceiling, removing the barrier between Anna and Wayne.