Zane looked through his field glasses. He blinked.

“He just shot his finger off.”

“He was bit?”

Zane nodded. “Do you think he’ll make it, Dr Chang?” he asked his companion.

The small Chinese woman looked up at Zane. She radiated an unflappable serenity, which Zane found alien during times of strife. “The cards will fall where they may,” was her reply.

It was a lucky bit of business, the stranger coming up at the time he did. He would make excellent bait. That way, they could observe the large scale results of Dr Chang’s experimental substance. He knew it was terrible to think so, but the times were a-changing, and morality was one of the first things to adjust.

“Do you really think shooting the finger off will help? The Zombie Survival Guide states—”

“Only assholes read the Guide. That book was just padding for someone’s wallet.” Dr Chang glared at Zane. " Everything we thought we knew goes out of the window. This is the real she-bang! We deal only in empirical data."

Zane nodded, squinting.