"All right... Issy, are you ready?" The young girl gives a thumbs-up raising her arms over her head so we all can see it, she's sitting at a table with keyboards and cables piled up everywhere at the back of the common living room and her face is hidden behind the computer screens. "Great. The big screen and the projector are ready too, Kat?" Doctor Xian ('Jin, please, a zombie apocalypse is no time to be formal') asks nervously while General Adams comes into the room and sits down on the last empty seat. We've gathered all together here, not only soldiers but computer techs and the whole family too, for the sake of discretion. We've been living here in this refuge for two days but we haven't left this floor and just a small group of people know who we're and what we're doing here. Gathering in a meeting room of the British army or in a communication room would draw too much attention and that's why we chose the common living room in our corridor... of course that means that our wives refused to be left out in the cold and even the kids are here on the condition of being calm and quiet. The twins are behaving exceptionally well, above all because they don't want to disturb their mother, but that won't last... there's no way Gabriel can lock them up in this small area without them going on one of their adventures without adult supervision: it's in their blood.
Ruby is sitting on the couch next to me, holding my hand, and looks around excited despite the problem that bring us here today is really serious. This isn't one of her movies and the equipment is real, from screens and computers to satellite photos that we got in a folder a minute ago and videoconferences with Spain and Belgium. I told her that the scenes from her movies were much more exciting than what she's going to see here today probably but she doesn't seem to care.
"The projector is ready," Kat states before rushing to sit down on the arm of the couch next to the Sergeant, who giggles when the hacker whispers something in her ear. They've been spending lot of time together lately and the young Moroccan has taken good care of Nougat , walking him every morning and evening through areas that are forbidden to us, trying to impress my comrade, no doubt... and she's succeeding, I think: my good friend seems happier in the middle of this zombie war than in the lasts years from what I's seeing.
"They're so cute together..." Ruby whispers hiding a smile. "Even their names rhyme: Kat and Nat..."
"Our names don't rhyme... but we're cute together too..." I answer frowning with a hint of jealousy.
"We're hot together..." my girl winks at me and I fidget on the couch. This is the reason why I think it's not wise to bring your extremely beautiful wife to a work meeting.
"All right, we can start then... where are my notes?" Jin looks around bewildered.
"Here Doctor Xian," a short and dark haired young girl runs into the room holding a folder in her hand and leaves it on the table before sitting down in a corner and taking a notepad in order to write down the results of this meeting. She smiles, blushing slightly when she realizes that we're all looking at her and taps on the cover of the notepad with her pen, waiting nervously...
"Thank you, Rose. I don't know what I'd do without you. Okay... we're gathered here to try to bring some light on the situation we're living and draw up an action plan. General Carter from Rota Naval Base in Spain and Colonel Leroy from the Antwerp refuge are here with us through satellite uplink, you both can ask for the floor whenever you want." Jin smiles at the screens on one side of the room where our allies are following the meeting. "Issy, the first picture, please..." The computer tech hits a key with a dramatic gesture and a satellite image from a forest area appears on the big screen hanging on the wall. "The Carpathians consist of a chain of mountain ranges that stretch in an arc from the Czech Republic in the northwest through Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia and Romania... in other words, this is a huge area and it's impossible to monitor it all. Luckily, Kat and Sergeant Gómez found a good clue..."
