It was a strange thing for Brie to feel the sun on her naked skin for the first time in a long, long while. It wasn’t amazingly bright, and clouds were looming ominously in the sky, but sunlight took the edge off the atmosphere a little bit. Brie was a little concerned about those clouds though-she wasn’t sure if heavy rain would agree with her brain. It was one more reason to find new shelter as soon as possible. Maybe leaving that warehouse wasn’t such a good idea. Her impulsiveness could really land her in trouble at times, even if it did grant her moment of inspiration.
For example, there was the stroke of genius of sticking that combat knife into her back, leaving the handle jutting out. It looked nasty, but she had been careful to guide the blade in with her other hand so that it avoided cutting any organs, and wrapped the blade in bandages just in case it started slipping. Now she looked even more dead, and at the same time managed to subtly conceal a weapon/tool for future use. That brain wasn’t just for display.

Brie had been out for a few hours now, and had been meticulously scouting areas that she thought her friends might be found. She had passed by a few apartment areas where she knew Michelle had uni friends staying, but judging from the zombies hanging lazily out of the windows, it seemed incredibly unlikely that they would be sitting around in there. Scratching that off her metaphorical list, Brie shambled on down to the more central areas of town. She knew that Becky had a part time cashier job down at a video game shop; maybe the goofy redhead and stowed herself away there, somehow. Brie had been wary of this part of her search-it was crowded, which meant more chance of something unexpected happening. Her disguise was still fooling them for now however.

Most of the shops around here-hardware stores, fast food joints, convenience stores and so on-were visibly compromised. Brie inspected each one with a sideways look as she passed them, feeling a little sad at seeing such familiar haunts in such a sorry state. Worse than that, Brie was recognizing people she had seen around town. She was sure she recognised Ramon, the affable shopkeeper, wandering aimlessly around his little store, covered in blood and missing an arm. Old Ms Whittaker the teacher passed her by in the street, her eyes dangling from their sockets. Would she eventually see Michelle as an undead abomination, mindlessly walking the streets? Had Becky succumbed too, or perhaps even have simply been torn limb from limb like a piece of meat?

Lost in her own thoughts whilst expecting a tool shop to her right, Brie stopped mid moan as she bumped into something fleshy. Looking slowly back, she started into a leering, eyeless skull of a naked woman. A week ago this would have caused Brie to scream and cover her eyes. Now she barely even blinked, maintaining perfect composure. She would still rather get away before the woman realised that Brie was in fact still alive. Moaning a goodbye, Brie slunk to the side and continued on her way.

Or rather, she tried too. She felt something catch in her midsection as she moved away. Looking back, Brie saw what had happened. Her new friend had a thin metal pole sticking through her torso. That same pole had accidentally become caught up with Brie’s exposed intestines. Shit. She couldn’t well go back and untangle herself from the pole. Her new adversary was already moving away. As she moved, Brie’s guts were getting pulled out of her own body. If they were pulled out all the way, she would lose her medicine!

Thinking fast, Brie moved to the side, and after crossing the street she had essentially created a leg-high tripwire made from her own entrails. It wasn’t long before a pair of unlucky zombies stumbled into it. As they tripped, the loop caught around the pole tightened, spinning the woman around. With a discreet tug, Brie managed to free herself from the pole. After the pratfalling zombies crawled away, Brie now had about three metres of intestine dragging along. She walked on with the long ropes of flesh trailing behind her, before sidestepping into the nearest alley to fix herself up. As she did so, she couldn’t help but notice that her abdominal wound had gotten a little wider since her original cut, leaving more of her insides exposed than she had intended. It might be wise to keep an eye on that in future.

Finding Beckie’s workplace, Brie was disappointed. It had been thoroughly trashed, with boxes and hardware strewn everywhere, as well as a few bodies. Beckie’s was not amongst them. The door to backstage had been left swinging open, and inside it was the same story. There wasn’t even anything useful to take-perhaps it had been raided already by some opportunistic survivor. Still, her venture into the middle of town had been a disappointment. Wherever her friends were, they weren’t here.
The next logical place to look would be the medical building down at the university. On paper it was a great hiding place-full of supplies and fairly secure. The only problem Brie had with the plan was that she was fairly sure other survivors would have had the same idea as her. If Michelle was with some of them then maybe she could vouch for her, but if Brie was walking down a corridor and met a survivor with an itchy trigger finger…she would have to be careful.

The university campus was on the edges of the town. It was modestly sized and fairly new-it would normally be a shiny, modern looking place, had society not collapsed. Now it just looked dull and lifeless. As Brie shuffled around, trying to remember where the medical building was, she thought it looked a lot quieter than she would have assumed. Then she saw the union building. Dozens of undead bodies lay by the entrance, riddled with bullets. The union building itself had been heavily fortified-it seemed like there were survivors here after all, and they had made the union their headquarters. If she had looked normal, Brie would have jumped for joy. Now she just hid herself behind the nearest corner, not wanting to join the corpses by the front.

Passing on by, Brie finally came to the medical building. It was relatively large for the size of the campus, and had about 4 or 5 floors. The front doors were also locked. How very rude. Frowning, Brie looked for an alternate way in. Circling round to the back of the building, which faced a medium-sized wall, Brie found a side door…that was also locked. She briefly considered knocking, just in the off chance that Michelle was standing by the door. That would have been nice. Then again, maybe someone else would answer and blow her head off. Not so nice.

Walking round to the side again, Brie was coming to the conclusion that if she wanted in, she would have to climb in through a window or something. It might draw attention to her, but it was looking like the only way in. She would need a brick to throw, although it was amusing to think about throwing her own skullcap through a window like a frisbee. She managed to find a reasonably heavy stone with which to smash her way inside. Before getting on with it, Brie had a quick look around to see if she was being watched. The coast was surprisingly clear for once. She looked up to check the windows in case there was someone there, and found Michelle.

Their eyes locked for only a second, and it sent a jolt of electricity down Brie’s spine. The face behind the window gasped and ducked away, but it was definitely Michelle-golden hair, ice blue eyes, angular cheeks. A little dirtier, a little more tired, but still the same face she had shared a room with for the last year. She was always the smartest of the roommates. A little shy perhaps. Not someone who was suited to situations such as these. She had survived though, somehow. The question that Brie had to ponder now was-did Michelle even recognise her anymore?

After about 30 seconds of waiting, Brie seen Michelle peek her head back up again, only to immediately pop down again after seeing the “zombie” still standing outside. Brie placed the top of her head back on, holding it there with her good hand, and waited. This time, when Michelle took another look, Brie took care to strike a casual pose, smile widely, and wave her 3 fingered left hand up at the student. Michelle stared blankly for a second before a look of shocked comprehension dawned on her fair features, her jaw almost unhinging. She went to open the window, but Brie gestured for her to be quiet, still wary of being spotted. Instead, Brie silently motioned to the side door. Michelle kept on staring. Brie couldn’t blame her for not exactly springing to unlock the door. If the roles were reversed, she would have hesitated herself. Brie made a praying motion towards the girl in the window, making sure to clearly mouth “please, Michelle, please”. After a tense few seconds, Michelle disappeared from view. After a few even tenser minutes, the door opened.

There she was, tall frame looking down at Brie, clad in her tattered medical student jacket and skirt, incredulous expression still etched on her face. It dawned on the dead-looking woman that she had not said a word in a very long time now, and now she had to pick her words very carefully.

“Hey” she said.

Michelle kept staring. Brie could see her eyes wandering. She was aware that she should feel embarrassed at being naked in front of her friend. The events of the past few days had desensitised her somewhat.

“Uh…could I come in please?”

“…” 

“Michelle? Eyes up her, missy”

“Huh? Oh. Uh…sure…” said Michelle. She sounded in a daze. They both walked inside, shutting and locking the door behind them. The blonde girl was now looking Brie right in the eyes. Brie sighed.

“It’s me, Michelle, really. No trick here. I know that…all this…must be a bit shocking, but-“

Brie was cut off suddenly by a tight hug. Michelle shook as she placed her cheek into Brie’s shoulder, sobbing, and Brie wrapped a supportive arm around her friend’s back. She felt herself tear up a bit as a week’s worth of emotional duress got hugged out. After a few minutes of mental healing, Michelle pulled out of the hug, looking a bit embarrassed as she wiped her tears away.

“That felt good. It’s been…tough”. She smiled weakly, then faltered, staring up at something. Brie realised that her skullcap had fallen off during their hug. Laughing awkwardly, she squatted down, picking it up and balancing it on her head again.

“Heh, sorry. Weird, huh? I must look like one of your cadavers.”

“Uh…yeah. Brie, what…how did-I mean, why are you…”

“Do you have anywhere a bit more private we could talk? Are we alone in here?”

“No, it’s just me. The others have all been leaving over the course of the week. I tried to tell them we were safe here, but they wanted to join the other survivors at the union.” She beckoned Brie to follow her up the nearby staircase. They talked as they went.

“Why didn’t you join the others?” asked Brie, genuinely curious.

“I know this building better than anyone else. Even if it got breached, I can think of 5 escape routes just off the top of my head, and I have supplied. Well…"

“Well?”

“Uh…well, I might be running a little low. Especially now that you’re here. No offense.”

“None taken. Wouldn’t you be safer staying in a group?”

“Did you see the bodies outside the union building? They’re firing on anything that moves. Sooner or later they’re going to attract more than they can handle. I’m just fine here.”

Michelle eventually led her friend down some hallways and through a few double doors, and into an all-white, medium sized room. There was a long table in the middle, as well as benches, a whiteboard and plenty of medical equipment. There was also a pile of what liked sofa cushions piled onto a floor in the corner. Shuttered windows lined the left wall. Michelle explained that this was her “base of operations” so to speak-from here she could reach 3 sets of stairs relatively quickly, have a good view of the campus, feel relatively secure with several obstacles to be overcome before reaching this room. Or so she said-Brie had her doubts about Michelle’s plan, but she stayed quiet for the moment.

Now that they were secure, Brie explained the events of the previous week, and how she had came up with the idea to create the ultimate disguise. Michelle was, typically, fascinated.

“Brie, I’ve no idea how you managed to pull this off. I’m really impressed.” She said, circling around to the back of Brie, gasping slightly at the sight of her carved up ass. “You must have nerves of steel.” Brie glowed at the compliments-she was proud of her work. Michelle circled back round to the front.

“It’s a shame you had to resort to it though. You always looked pretty cute.”

“Well, you do what you have to do. Desperate times, and all that.” Replied Brie with a shrug. “Besides, I wasn’t that good looking. I mean, compared to you and Becky…”

“Now that’s not true, and you know it. Stop being so modest.” Michelle huffed, “If you thought that you wouldn’t have kept your hair.” She lightly ruffled Brie’s hair, making sure not to move the skull piece around too much. “And your clothes on…”

Brie mimed shock outrage. “Yeah, I’m really flaunting the goods here” she said, pointing to where her breast used to be. “I’m really giving those zombies what they want out there.” They both laughed. It was good that they were finding the funny side to Brie’s condition-she had worried that Michelle would have freaked out or fainted or something. Probably the upside to being a medical student-less grossed out at seeing dead things. Or dead-looking things in this case.

After a happy hour or two of chatting, reminiscing about the good times and generally just hanging out like they used to, they got to the question that had been on Brie’s mind for a while now.

“So…what now?”

Michelle had taken her lab coat off, revealing the smart black shirt underneath. Brie had sat down on one of the benches-her butt felt weird, but it was better than having to lean with her arms all the time so support her broken foot. She twirled her skullcap around in her hands absentmindedly, apparently unaware at the view her spread legs were giving her friend. As Brie asked the big question of the evening, Michelle crossed her arms and furrowed her brow, thinking hard.

“Well…we’ll need more food. There’s a cafeteria not far from here, but I don’t know what sort of condition it’s in. I’ve not left the building since the outbreak.”

“I could check it out, but bringing stuff back might be hard. We might have to relocate. I’m not sure staying here is a great idea anyway.”

“Why not?”

“All it takes is one enterprising zombie to smash a window in, or find another way in or something, and then you’ll be swarmed. I mean it’s no biggie for me, because…well, you can see why. You’d be dead meat. And with those chuckleheads in the campus attracting attention, that’s only going to be a matter of time.”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true. But I don’t think there’s anywhere in the whole campus-the whole town probably-that’s 100% safe.”

“I agree completely” said Brie, looking Michelle in the eye. She looked away. Brie pressed on.

“There’s something else. Michelle…I want to find Becky.” The blonde perked back up.

“She’s alive?”

“I don’t know. I checked her work, but she wasn’t there. Place was trashed. But I didn’t give up on you, and you’re hardly Jill Valentine. I won’t give up on Becky.”

“I want to find her too, but…well, it just seems so risky. I’m not a risk-taker like you, Brie.”

“I took a gamble and it paid off. I took more than one actually. Maybe it’s time you did the same.”

Michelle paled somewhat.

“Brie…you’re not suggesting…”

Brie stood up, placing the top of her head on the bench behind her. She walked forward, intestines swaying as she went.

“I don’t regret what I’ve done. I survived because of it. More than that-I’m not afraid anymore. You’re cooped up in here, waiting for…what, rescue? You think the army’s gonna blow through any day now? You could be dead by then. Maybe they’re never coming. I think you’re the one taking a risk.”

Brie spoke with hard authority. She really believed in what she was saying, and Michelle seemed to recognise this. She slowly nodded.

“O…O.k. It worked for you, I suppose.”

“That’s the spirit. Besides, you’re a medical student. This should be a pinch for you.”

“…”

“Right?”

“…could you do it for me?”. Brie was taken aback slightly, but before she could respond Michelle spoke again.

“You’re clearly good at it. I’ve never performed surgery on a real person before, and…well as I said, I don’t like taking risks. I don't think I have the nerves for it. Doing it to me will be even easier for you. There’s heavy narcotics in the back. I could take it, and then you could just do your thing.”

“Uh…sure.” Brie said, giving her friend a reassuring smile. In her darkest heart, she had to admit that she was looking forward to the opportunity. She was much more of a freak than she thought, it seemed. Deciding that now was as good a time as any, Michelle went to one of the cabinets and retrieved a bottle, before filling an empty syringe with the stuff. Taking some strong anti-bleed medicine as well, she handed the syringe to Brie, walked over to the long table in the middle of the room and lay down on it, looking expectantly over at her soon to be surgeon.

“You should probably take your clothes off for this.” Said Brie, matter of factly.

“Really? Oh, uh…”

“Look, I’m about to get to know your body very well indeed. Being naked is the least of your concerns. It’s only fair after all.” Blushing, Michelle nodded, and started to strip, revealing her toned, fair body. Her breasts were very small, but the nipples were perky and inviting. Still covering herself up with her hands, she lay on the table. Brie came over and, with a little assistance from Michelle, found the vein.

“Any requests before I send you under?”

“Yes, actually. No missing limbs please. I’d like to be as fully functioning as possible. Don’t break my foot either, you move pretty slow.”

“Gotcha.” She pressed down on the syringe, just as Michelle started to speak again.

“And nothing that’s going to leave my major…organs…in danger…or…”

She was soon fast asleep. Brie had work to do. So no limbs off, don’t break anything major and don’t touch her organs. Sheesh. What did that leave? Brie thought about it as she looked down at her naked friend. Some creativity was in order here. She could take her eyes out and leave them hanging by the nerves…nah, she would complain that her vision had been compromised or something. Cut her jaw off? No chance she was giving up the ability to talk…inspiration struck. She wanted to look dead? Oh she would look dead alright.

First, she made sure that Michelle was completely asleep. Holding an eyelid open, she waved her hand in front of the eye-it did not move. Good. She turned her friend around so that she was facing downwards, her face hanging over the edge of the table. Selecting a sharp looking scalpel, which was probably better suited to this delicate task than the combat knife that was now lying on the nearby bench, Brie made a long cut down the centre of Michelle’s back, from just above her ass to the base of the neck, making sure it was only skin deep. Then she slid the scalpel underneath the skin, separating it from the muscles. She went slowly, trying not to damage any of the muscles underneath. She did one side of the back, then the other, until the skin was nice and loose. Her hands then traveled south, over her friends round butt. Feeling a little resistance, she made sure to cut the anus away from the rest of her. Finally, she loosened the skin around Michelle’s shoulders, and peeled the skin away from her back and down their respective sides.

She repeated this process for the sides themselves, exposing more and more of Michelle’s muscles as she went. Gently flipping her back over, Brie started to skin Brie’s stomach area. She had to be careful not to cut too deep and disembowel her, but her steady hand prevailed once more. She moved up the chest, slicing the skin away from the ribcage, and reached her breasts. Good thing they were so small. Soon, most of the torso skin was now hanging loosely in one piece. Brie made we way down to Michelle’s shaved pussy. It was a lovely looking thing, and she was tempted to play with it a little, but needs must-she angled the scalped around the side and separated the clitoris and labia from the rest of her. Michelle would understand.

Brie slowly worked her way down her friends legs, separating a bit at a time, before reaching her feet. Soon her toes are skinless, nails coming with it. Lifting the legs up, she manages to free the skin entirely from her long legs. After some more work, the arms were similarly skinned, leaving only her head and neck skin still attached. Flipping her back over once more, Brie pulled Michelle’s long blond hair to one side. Then, going from her original cut, she made an incision up the back of her head. Stopping around midway up, she got to work peeling the skin of around the head. It was a weird feeling, working her hand around the inside of her own friends face, feeling her cheekbones and forehead, but soon her work was done. A final flip later, and Brie was able to gently pull off the entirety of Michelle’s skin, still in one piece, leaving her completely skinless. She was still sound asleep, eyes closed, breathing deeply, unrecognisable to the woman she had been
before.

Brie held the skin up in front of her by the empty arms, looking at Michelle’s former face, the holes for the eyes and mouth hanging open. Not being able to help herself, Brie kissed the face, slipping a tongue inside and tasting the skin from the inside. She didn’t really need to have kept the skin in one piece, but it seemed right to. And now she had a great idea for when Michelle woke up…