Zom-B Underground by Darren Shan

races, both sexes.”
    “A
sample
,” I repeat, knowing what that must mean but waiting for them to confirm it.
    “They let most revitalizeds regress,” Burke says. His gaze hasn’t wavered. “They separate the conscious zombies, hold them in a cell, don’t feed them, then return them to the general 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 experiments,” Josh says. “What would we gain by keeping the others?”
    “They can think!” I scream. “They’re people. They have rights.”
    “Rights?”
Josh sneers. “Only the living have rights, and they’re notalive, not really. You aren’t either. You’re a freak revived, nothing more, a threat to any normal person, never more than a few skipped feeds away from insane savagery. 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, trembling with rage.
    “No,” he says. “To me it’s abhorrent.”
    “Then how can you work with 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 smoothly. “You’d be back stewing with the reviveds if it weren’t for Billy Burke.”
    “We run a background check on every revitalized,” Josh says. “We like to know who they are, where they came from. We gather as much information as we can before deciding how to process them.”
    “I bet that’s so you can give priority to family members or people related to politicians or powerful businessmen,” I sneer.
    Josh shrugs. “I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a consideration, but that’s the way the world has always worked. 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 minister’s son or a billionaire’s daughter.”
    “When they ran a check on you,” Burke says, “they discovered your connection to me. I’m a consultant, like I told you. I’ve beenworking with the army, helping deal with undead children who are finding it hard to cope. Most are distraught at having lost family and friends. They don’t all adjust as swiftly as you have.”
    “More’s the pity,” Dr. Cerveris murmurs. “Our lives would be a lot simpler if every revitalized were as cold and uncaring as Becky Smith.”
    I look at the doctor with contempt. “Screw you, numbnuts. I care. You don’t understand me at all, do you?”
    “That’s why I’ve been kept busy,” Burke says as Dr. Cerveris scowls at me. “I
do
understand, or at least I have a good idea. I never thought of it as a gift, being able to relate to teenagers, but it seems that talent is rarer than I believed. If it weren’t for me and a few others, you guys would have been branded as cattle and treated the same way.”
    “I don’t think we’d have gone quite that far,” Josh smiles frostily. “Anyway, we realized you were one of Billy’s ex-students, so we asked him if he wanted us to approve you for sustained revitalization.”
    “And you said yes.” I flash my teeth at Burke in a mock smile. “Thanks. You’re my hero.”
    “It wasn’t as simple as that,” Burke says quietly. “I had to pitch for you. I told them you were tough, smart, determined, that you’d be an asset.”
    “In short,” Josh snaps, “he told us you’d fit in perfectly with the zom heads, that if we wanted someone to carry out harsh but essential tests on reviveds, you were our girl. That’s why we spared