• They'd waited until Alystir was ravenous before Liam stepped into the room with the zombie finally, along with a taller dark-haired man in a lab coat. Instantly Alystir lunged, only to receive a thousand volt charge from a cattle prod in the taller man's hand. Alystir screamed and fell to the floor. He watched the ceiling slowly turn black.

    When Alystir regained consciousness, he was strapped to a table with his head split open. That wouldn't have hurt, but his head was already killing him. Above him were bright white lights. Sitting at his side he saw Liam. He could smell flesh everywhere. He tried to reach for him, however his bonds were too strong. Liam settled his warm hand over the cold, tense one on the table. "Father is giving you something special to help with your pain, Alystir.. You know why you eat brains, right?"

    Alystir blinked.. He'd never thought of that before. "Because they're delicious and nutritious and taste somewhat like chicken?" He arched his brows with a smile.

    Chuckling, Liam shook his head, patting his hand. "No.. Undead creatures.. Zombies like you crave brains to sustain what little nervous system you've got. To sustain just enough of it for your instinctive process.. For the rare few like you, to also maintain memory, conscious thought.. haven't you ever wondered why the other zombies seemed so unnaturally dumb compared to you?"

    "I just thought it was queer power." Alystir shrugged, and Liam laughed again.

    "All set. I'm turning it on, now." The older man spoke. He seemed to have a very boisterous tone of voice. Alystir felt a switch being flipped, a jolt which made him twitch hard, and then the pain was suddenly gone. And yet..

    "The hunger is still there." Alystir looked up at Liam with disappointment.

    "It will be. The hunger is instinct, which can be trained into submission. Your nervous system is now being boosted by the device father implanted into your brain." Liam looked up at the older man with a bright smile as he closed up Alystir's skull, riveting a metal plate in place and stitching the skin back together.

    "We will let you up now." The older man leaned over Alystir, showing a band strapped to his wrist with a button attached. "If you lunge, I will press this and the device will send a shock through your body like before. It won't be pleasant." Alystir nodded.

    As soon as he was unstrapped however, Alystir leapt from the table at the older man, and with a press of that button ended up a shrieking writhing mess on the floor.

    As the weeks went on the training continued as thus. Alystir was kept in that white room deprived of food. Liam would come in to keep him company and whenever Alystir's hunger got the better of him and he went for him, he would be reprimanded instantly. Eventually he learned to control himself, and the hunger became something he could tolerate and ignore.

    Six months into his stay in that hellish lab, he was finally allowed a bath. He was cleansed inside and out. Being cleansed inside was no picnic, but afterward he felt much lighter. He was also given a new wardrobe, one he actually liked. Emerging from his new room with a bed and a dresser fit for a human being, he wore a pair of faded blue jeans with a black polo shirt, his hair clean and brushed, clean bandages around his dog-ravaged arm. He smiled as he saw Liam waiting for him in the hall.

    "Welcome to the first day of the rest of your unlife."