It was late in the afternoon by the time Tommy started waking up. She had a pounding headache and no idea where she was. She heard voices from the other side of the curtain blocking the bunk she was lying in. Her bladder was pressing her to relieve it.

She slowly moved the curtain aside and saw more bunks across from the one she was in. She swung her feet over the edge and stuck her head out. She spots the ladies from Zombie Girls and two older gentlemen sitting in the common area. She tries to remember how she got aboard the Zombie Girls tour bus.

“How are you feeling, Tommy?” Olivia came from the back of the bus when she spotted Tommy sitting on the bunk, they found her in.

Tommy turned her head toward Olivia’s voice. “I need to pee, and my head hurts.”

“Well, the bathroom is right there. And when you come out, I’ll give you some aspirin for your headache.” Olivia pointed towards the bathroom door on the other side of the bunks.

“Thank you.” Tommy couldn’t believe she was face-to-face with Olivia (aka: Lady Death).

Tommy climbed down from the top bunk and knocked on the door of the bathroom before opening the door. She enters the bathroom and locks it. That way, people will know it's occupied.

She hurries to get her pants off before she pees herself. Her bladder hasn’t been right ever since the botched operation to repair her penis and testes. The doctor who operated on her ended up removing her testes and damaging her penis. She thinks her stepmother had something to do with the removal, because later on, while she was recovering in the hospital. She overheard the doctor tell her stepmother that he completed the task.

She relaxes her bladder muscles and feels the urine shoot out from between her legs. It took her some practice to be able to pee like a girl after she got out of the hospital. The doctor had made her bottom look like a girl, but with no vaginal opening.

Her birth certificate and state ID card still said she was male. However, her bottom looked like it was, and her body was developing like a girl. She knew her outer appearance and her ID didn’t match.

Olivia stood nearby, waiting for Tommy to come out. Zane had managed to power up the dead cellphone, but the phone was locked. She did manage to access the thumb drive. Zane found a single picture of a man in a white lab coat standing next to a blurry whiteboard.

The picture looked like it was taken somewhere in the jungle. Zane wrote an AI algorithm to clear up the picture and bring the blurry whiteboard into focus. She figured it wouldn’t hurt to see what was written on the whiteboard and why it was blurred.

Tommy finally exited the bathroom. She spotted Olivia and Beverly waiting for her.

“Feel better, Tommy?” Olivia looked at the young girl standing in front of her.

Tommy was shorter than all of them and couldn’t be more than four feet, five inches tall. She could be considered a dwarf. She thinks her stepmother had something to do with her short stature. She looks at Olivia. “Yes, much better.”

“Here’s the aspirin I promise to you.” Olivia hands Tommy the two white pills.

Tommy accepts and examines them. She's learned to be cautious about putting anything into her body that she didn’t get herself.

“What’s wrong, Tommy? Don’t you trust me?” Olivia wonders why Tommy was hesitating.

Tommy looks up at Olivia and Beverly. “I’ve learned to be a little cautious about accepting medicine from adults.”

“Fair enough.” Beverly could see the weariness in Tommy’s hazel eyes.

Tommy pops the pills into her mouth and swallows them. It was habit for her to swallow any pills given to her. Her stepmother used to crush up pills she was secretly giving her into her food and drinks. Sometimes she would use a needle on her when she was asleep.

“It might take some time for the pills to take effect.” Beverly had given Olivia some of the pills she takes for her headaches.

“As long as they work, it's fine with me.” Tommy wonders why her head hurts so much.

“Tommy, we would like to know why you were on the tour bus?” Chyna looks at Tommy as they her, Olivia, and Beverly came walking where everyone else was sitting.

“I was trying to get away from two men chasing me.” Tommy looks at the other Zombie Girls and their managers.

“Why were they chasing you?” Kevin was curious why they were chasing Tommy.

“Because they killed a drag queen. They got into some argument with her. When they didn’t like what she said, they shot her.” Tommy was sitting
next to Raven on the sofa.

“And you witnessed this?” Zane looked at Tommy with her cop eyes.

“Yes, I was hiding nearby when they killed her and searched her body.” Tommy could still recall everything that happened.

“Do you know what they were looking for?” Zane was watching Tommy’s facial expressions.

“Yes.” Tommy was feeling nervous around her idols.

“Does it have anything to do with the cellphone and thumb drive in your backpack?” Zane showed Tommy that she had them.

“Yes, when I went over to see if I could help her. She gave them to me and told me to keep them safe.”

“Did she tell you how to access the cellphone?” Zane had tried every combination she could. She didn’t have all her equipment to crack the password.

“Yes, and she also gave me a key as well.” Tommy knew she could trust her idols with the information the dying woman gave her.

“Do you know what the key is too?” Zane wondered how much Tommy knew.

“No, ma’am.” Tommy had relaxed a bit, but still felt nervous.

“Here’s the big question for you, Tommy. Why are you on the streets? According to everything we found out about you, you come from a well-to-do family.” Kevin was concerned about Tommy and the band.

Tommy looks at everyone sitting or standing near her. She wonders if they will take her back to her stepmother. She takes a breath before speaking, “My stepmother wants to send me to an overseas boys’ school.”

“Why would she do that?” Juniper asked because she was curious.

“Because if something happens to me, she gets everything my mother left me. She already spent the money my father left me, and now she wants my mother’s money. The school she wants to send me to has a bad reputation for boys dying. For every boy who attends the school, one or two die unexpectedly from either accidents or unknown causes. I researched the school when I heard my stepmother talking to someone on her cellphone in my father’s office.” Tears leaked from Tommy's eyes.

“So, you are a boy?” Raven looked at Tommy as she sat next to her.

“Not anymore. A doctor made sure of that.” Tommy knew her looks would cause her to be raped by the boys in the school.

“What do you mean, Tommy?” Chyna was curious, and so were Kevin and Thomas.

Tommy stands up and drops her pants and underwear. She wanted her idols to know what had happened to her. “My stepmother did this to me and other things that I can’t prove, but I know she was responsible for.”

All the girls, Thomas, and Kevin had seen what Tommy was talking about. If she had been a boy, she should have had a penis and testes. But instead, she had a girl’s bottom from what they could see. Her groin area looked like a normal girl’s with inner and outer labia.

“Sweety, you didn’t have to do that.” Raven pulled Tommy’s pants back up and held her.

“You said she did other things to you? Can you tell us what she did to you?” Raven was curious because she wanted to know everything
Tommy’s mother did to her.

“She kept sneaking medicine into my food and had me taking some vitamin pills that she said were supposed to help me grow taller. When I used to get my physical for school, the doctor would inject me with additional medicine and place some implant into my body.”

Chyna looked around and wondered if they were thinking what she was. Juniper and Olivia saw Chyna’s thoughtful look.

“Well, we need to determine what we are going to do with you, Tommy. How old are you?” Kevin was curious.

“Fourteen, going on fifteen years old. I don’t mind working hard if you let me stay and travel with you.” Tommy wanted to stay with the Zombies.

“We’ll have to talk about that, Tommy. In the meantime, can you give me the code to the cellphone and the key you have, please?” Zane wanted to know what was on the cellphone.

Tommy gets up off the sofa and walks over to the bunk she was sleeping in. She digs into one of the pockets of her old army jacket, then into the torn inner pocket, and retrieves the key. She turns around, walks back to Zane, and hands her the key.

Tommy looks at Zane as she hands it over. “The code is 2262.”

Zane accepts the key. “Thank you, Tommy.”

“Tommy, not to sound rude or anything. But do you have any clean clothes you can wear? And when was the last time you had a proper bath?”
Juniper didn’t want to be rude, but Tommy did smell.

Tommy’s cheeks turned red because she hadn't bathed lately and didn’t have any clean clothes to wear. She looked at Juniper. “Sorry about the
smell. As for a bath, I haven’t had a proper bath since I ran away from home. I’ve been taking bird baths whenever I could.”

“Well, young lady. Before you do anything else, you’re taking a proper shower, and we’ll scrounge up some clean clothes for you to wear until we can wash the ones you’re wearing.” Juniper figures they could use the time to talk about what they'd do with her.

“Now, why don’t we put some food into you before you take a shower?” Juniper figures Tommy might be hungry.

“She can use my herbal shampoo, conditioner, and soap. It will make you feel better, Tommy.” Raven looks at Tommy when she offers.

“Thank you, Raven.” Tommy will be happy to take a shower.

Olivia feeds Tommy first, before showing her how to use the shower. Just before Tommy walks into the bathroom to take a shower, Olivia says,
“Feel free to use all the soap, shampoo, and conditioner you want to, Tommy.”

A smile appears on Raven’s cute face.