forward to the past

Chapter 5

So I realized statehouses don't have a second floor, but lets just ignore that.

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Liz POV;

I looked around in the room, the gallery was huge and I still couldn't imagine, how crystal could afford this. My head played back memories of the small shield dorms me and crystal had lived in a few years ago. My room had been two floors below crystals, since I had officially been a trainee.

But I used that to my advantage, I was one floor closer to the directors office, so everytime we got called one a mission, I would run up to her room and knock on her door to tell her before anyone else could. She had asked me many times, if she should talk to Fury about just sending us messages so I wouldn't have to go all the way to her room, but I had secretly enjoyed it. I always waited for crystal to open the door and was ready to start the day with a smile, a coffee and a joke if she needed. Crystal left her base last christmas and Liz shield completely a few weeks after. The next time they wanted to meet in person was the 7. December, Crystals Birthday.

Without noticing I had made my way to the kitchen, where I immediately went to the fridge. Just now I realized I hadn't eaten anything for the past 24 hours and felt a sudden stomach ake. I opened the fridge and let out a gasp. The whole thing was nearly empty. There were drinks and salads, but no snacks. Was my friend now Vegan or something? I turned to open a cupboard and found the answer. No, she was not vegan, just lazy. The whole board was stuffed with microwave ramen noodles. I gigged and grabbed one cup to heat it up. Only crystal could buy a house and then only eat instant food. After I would go to bed, it was only afternoon, but I really needed sleep, but one thing had to be done before that.

No POV

What woke Liz up the next day was a loud shouting from down stairs. Crystals shouting. „Liz! What is this?!" „What is what?" she replied still half asleep. She slowly dragged herself out of the bed and stumbled down the stairs. Crystal had let her use her bedroom since her couch was hard as a rock, but since she didn't have a second pyjama, Liz was now wearing an oversized „I love americas ass" shirt, wich crystal totally „got as a present".

When she noticed that the older one was in the kitchen, she also caught why she was so upset. Crystal stood behind the kitchen counter staring at it in disbelief. The whole thing was covered with plenty bottles and cups of household chemicals like vinegar, spiritus and baking powder. In the middleof the chais layed Liz's previously blood covered clothes, wich were now staining in different colours. „Oh. Yeah sorry I needed a few of your things for tests, bur I can pay you back." Crystal was definetly not statisfied with that answer and grabbed a bleach bottle. „Why would you need bleach and vinegar?!"

„Because I couldn't find lemon juice." Liz responded calmly, took her clothes of the counter and held them in the light.

„If you don't explain yourself in 10 seconds,I swear I will throw you infront of the next car."

„Even with this cool shirt on?" „9...8..."

„Okay okay, don't count." Liz gave in and threw the clothing into the sink before pointing at a yellow stain.

„See I used some of your black tea to make an acid-base indicator." She begun.

„A what?" the other one interrupted her, with a clueless expression on her face. Liz threw her hands in the air before massaging her temples.

„Oh seriously? Crystal this is 8th grade chemie knowledge!" She sighed when her friend just shrugged and contiued explaining. „So there are different types of chemical-indicators, an acid-base indicator shows how acidic a substance is. I used it at the blood and it showed yellow, so it's neutral wich is normal. I then made a redox-indicator and here is where it get's interesting."

She paused briefly for crystal to catch up and when she nodded, pointed at a purple stain.

„A redox indicator shows how high the proportion of oxygen in the blood was. This person was basically dead inside. The-"

„Reletable."

„What?"

„What?"

„So...The oxygen level should be about 53% since I shot my attacker in the face. However this blood has a oxygen-level of zero." She looked back to crystal with a way to hyped up face.

„Well..." The other one spoke up unconvinced, „Couldn't the oxygen just. I don't know..left? The blood is old and the smell was definetly something."

Liz shook her head completly unbothered from her friends lack of exitement.

„I also was a bit unsure and then I remembered these are my surgery clothes right? They are drained with a alcalic-sour base to avoid them to get damaged from the desinfection."

„And?"Crystal got a bottle of water from the fridge and opened it.

„Aaaaand that means the first indicator. The acid one remember? It should have shown that it's alcalic-sour, but instead it showed neutral. That's because the other substance, the blood, has to be acid-sour. It neutralized the alcalic part of my clothes! What means this blood was sour and it was so sour, that I calculated it was dead for atleast ten months!"

Heavily breathing, since she basically scramed the last part, Liz now stared at crystal, who was taking a suspiciously long sip of her water.

„So.." she summed up after putting the bottle back in the fridge, „He was a Zombie?" she knew her crazy science freak-friend would either kill her for this comment or be happy that she was able to translate her information into english.

Turns out it was the second one. „Yes." Liz, sighed, „Yes, if you want to name this scientific wonder after a horror movie figure that eats brains. Yes it's the closest one."

„I can work with that."