After disembarking from the ship, Kevin led the way toward the tree line. Originally in neat rows, the trees had grown wild and untended during the years since the zombies arrived, constricting some of the previously existing pathways and completely choking off others.

Old leaves covered the ground in a crackling blanket of brown. The expedition force Kevin led created a considerable amount of noise because of the brittleness of the dry leaves they walked over.

The disruption they caused while trudging through the leaves made Kevin even more nervous than the silence as it would surely give away their position if anyone or anything were around to hear them. Something was decidedly wrong in this place, and it was starting to wear on Kevin's nerves.

A hundred feet into the thick growth of trees, Kevin caught sight of a medium sized building in the distance. He pointed it out to Isabella.

"Is that what you're looking for?" he whispered.

Isabella squinted her eyes as she looked hard through the foliage. After a moment, she turned her gaze toward Kevin and nodded silently.

Motioning to his people, Kevin instructed them to follow him. The team trailed behind, the nervousness and fear Kevin felt inside showing plainly on each face. The only ones who were able to hide it like Kevin were Isabella and George as the three of them had lived with the threat of imminent death for some time now.

Stationed in what was left of a clearing, having become overgrown like the rest of the orchard, was the gray concrete structure they'd seen from a distance. The glass skylights had been broken years ago by the trees growing inside and pushing their branches up through the clear partitions. Vines draped the walls, and leaves covered the sidewalk encircling the building.

Kevin approached the front door and found it partially open. He waited beside the suspiciously unprotected entry. His heart beat loudly in his ears, and sweat made the grip on his gun tenuous.

In spite of his police training and the years he'd spend fighting the undead, Kevin had never managed to totally overcome his fear when entering an unknown and possibly threatening situation. He'd managed to control it enough to function, but it remained a struggle.

He took a few slow breaths to try and calm down before pushing the door open the rest of the way. The old hinges, unused for so long, squeaked loudly, causing Kevin to wince. He hesitated for a few seconds while listening for any sign the noise had attracted unwanted attention. When he heard nothing, Kevin carefully peaked inside.

A tall and majestic oak resided in the middle of the centrally located lobby, directly behind the front desk where a secretary would greet visitors. The glass top of the desk was covered in dirt and old leaves. The oak, having broken through the skylight allowed in the fresh air from outside, but the thick canopy of leaves blocked all by the occasional shaft of light from reaching the floor.

Carefully moving into the lobby, Kevin kept his bow ready as he approached the front desk. He maintained a safe distance as he circled around to the side where a waist high swinging door blocked the only way in or out from behind the desk. He breathed a slight sigh of relief when he found the space behind the desk empty. No scavengers jumped out with knives, and no zombies came staggering toward him with their arms outstretched.

George had gone around the other way to provide cover from a flanking position. His eyes darted around the room, especially toward the tree in the center. The size of the massive trunk allowed for possible ambushes behind it.

Isabella remained at the desk, brushing off some of the dirt and leaves so she could lean on the glass top. Perspiration glistened on her forehead, and her breathing was faster than normal. Still recovering from her injuries, Isabella hadn't really been ready for this excursion, but she wouldn't let weakness keep her from doing her part.

George and Kevin proceeded on either side of the central oak tree and approached the dual stairways on the far end of the circular room. Kevin held up a hand, indicating the volunteer group should wait while George and Kevin cleared the upper floors alone.

Kevin climbed the right hand stairway while George took the left. The curving stairways joined at the second level, and the two men met to cover each other while searching the building. They'd brought Isabella to tell them what to look for, but until they made certain the structure was free of threats, they didn't dare bring her up.

George stood back from the first door, gun held ready, and Kevin crept over to the first office and slowly turned the handle. Due to the pressure against the interior surface, the door swung open fast and deposited a corpse at their feet.

Kevin jumped back, and George pointed his gun at the withered remains in case it wasn't entirely dead. Based on the extensive level of decomposition, the body had been dead for a considerable amount of time. It's flesh, what was left of it, was desiccated and stretched, similar to old parchment. By the field hand overalls it wore, George and Kevin assumed it was one of the people who previously worked in the orchard before the zombies arrived. A knife lay on the floor beside the body, and a quick inspection of the surrounding area found a sizable bloodstain on the carpet of the office.

"Shut himself in the office and slit his wrists," George theorized. "Can't tell you have many times I've seen this."

"Me too," Kevin agreed. "It still bothers me."

"Good," George said. "You should start to worry if it ever fails to bother you."

They checked the office, but it was clear of any more bodies, living or otherwise. One by one, the two men carefully checked every office, closet, and room they could find, even going so far as to look under the desks. No zombies or corpses were found. With the profound relief of both men, they completed their examination of the second floor and headed for the stairs to rejoin the others.

"It's clear up here," George informed Isabella while coming down the stairs. "Watch out for the body by the first office. It's dead, but you'll need to step over it to get in the room."

"I'll check that room last," Isabella said with a cheery smile. Taking two of the recruits with her, she climbed the steps with no small degree of difficulty and began looking for the items they'd need to take back with them.

Kevin and George took a few breaths to relax momentarily before starting their search of the lower level. They found a mess hall with the remains of fruit gone bad and rotted away years ago. The long tables of bare steel were littered by old plates, glasses, and silverware. The food was gone as the native life and insects had plenty of time to clear it away while the humans ran for their lives.

The chairs were an obstacle course as practically none of them were pushed under their tables. The people who'd left had been in too much of a hurry to care. George and Kevin negotiated the tight and twisting pathway between the jumble of chairs, occasionally having to push one out of the way in order to continue toward the kitchen.

Stainless steel dominated the kitchen in appliances and counters. The tile floor was smooth and slightly sloped toward the floor drains for easy cleanup, but no one had cleaned the bloodstains near the door.

Stepping carefully over the old stain, the two explorers entered the kitchen. The bloodstain had dried years ago, but Kevin and George didn't know if the blood was contaminated with whatever turned people into the undead, so they erred on the side of caution and avoided getting any of it on them.

George nodded toward the heavy door of the walk-in freezer. A series of bloody handprints smudged the stainless steel as if zombies had tried to get inside but had been unable to work the handle latch.

Kevin stood guard while George used a knife from a nearby table to open the door without touching the handle.

Rancid air blasted them in the face, nearly causing both of them to gag. Huddled together in the middle of the freezer floor were five people. They had frozen to death, but when the power had failed, the dead bodies had decomposed in a completely sealed room. The stench was overpowering.

"They took shelter inside and never made it out," George said softly, shielding his nose as he took a step back.

"This is wrong," Kevin added, quickly moving away and pulling the collar of his shirt over his nose.

"I'll say it is," George agreed. "If they'd wanted to stay warm, they should have kept moving."

"Not that," Kevin corrected. "The undead tried to get at them in here as evidenced by the door. The guy upstairs shut himself in a room and slit his wrists because there was no escape."

"So, where are the zombies now?" George finished as he realized where Kevin was going.

"Exactly," Kevin agreed. "Where did they all go?"

"Perhaps they joined one of the hordes," George suggested.

"Possibly," Kevin accepted. "Let's get moving before they decide to come home."

Leaving the north wing of the facility, they checked out the south portion. Composed of laboratories, work tables were cluttered with cell culture dishes, beakers, and test tubes. Jars holding seeds of various plants were lined up in shelves along the walls. Charts showing the interior structure of the different types of fruits, key areas being pointed out and designated in writing, hung between the shelves.

"They can't just accept fruit the way it is," George muttered. "Always trying to make improvements."

"Aren't improvements a good thing?" Kevin questioned.

"Not always," George denied. "Did you know florists altered flowers to make the colors more vibrant, but because of it, the fragrance has been reduced?"

"No, I didn't," Kevin admitted.

"Corn was also modified to contain a built in pesticide," George went on as he checked under one of the lab tables to be sure it was clear of threats. "Called GMO, or genetically modified organism, the corn would fatally damage the internal organs of a corn parasite and kill it."

"Interesting," Kevin commented.

"The only down side was it affected humans in a similar manner," George finished. "It created small tears in the digestion system, allowing food to leak out into the body. Antibodies would attack it as they would any other foreign substance, thus creating an immune system designed to reject food. This caused of a number of food allergies."

"My goodness," Kevin breathed. The fact it had caused such a large problem was not as surprising as to why it had been allowed to continue.

"Makes you wonder, doesn't it?" George asked as he completed his sweep. "Perhaps the zombies were caused by people tinkering around with humans."

"Who knows?" Kevin replied. "It's certainly possible."

"Let's get out of here," George suggested. "This place makes me uncomfortable."

"You're not alone there," Kevin agreed, and the two of them made haste for the door.

***

Razor scanned the forested terrain for any sign of movement. It was proving a difficult task as every breath of wind sent the leaves quivering on the trees or drifting along the ground. For the best possible vantage point, Razor and Red lay on their stomachs on top of the bridge of their ship. The elevated position gave them a clear line of fire in all directions as well as a bird's eye view of the overgrown orchard.

It had been over an hour since the expedition team had vanished into the building Razor could barely see through his rifle scope. He was beginning to wonder if something had gone wrong.

He glimpsed something out of the corner of his left eye and swung his rifle around for a better look. Throwing out a hand, Razor snared the flare gun beside him and fired it into the sky. He checked trough the scope, but no one had come out of the building.

"Come on," Razor growled. He suddenly realized why no one had responded to the warning flare. "They're all inside. They can't see the flare."

Red swiveled her powerful rifle and fired a single round at the broken skylights of the building's dome. The bullet shattered what was left of the glass, causing it to rain down inside the building.

Kevin looked up when the skylight broke, and he noticed the flare burning in the sky, leaving a trail of orange smoke. Razor had told him the flare would be fired if a threat was coming they couldn't deal with, so the artificial light in the sky meant big trouble.

"Grab what you can!" Kevin ordered. "We're leaving right now!"