A conscious zombie scavenging in a ruined apartment hears a baby crying and finds six-month-old Ivy Hull, a reborn empress, fainting from hunger. He decides to raise her, searches the building at night, and recovers canned formula to feed her. Ivy awakens, recognizes the zombie's deliberate care, and accepts him as her zombie father. They move to the ninth floor and barricade it. Under a blood moon both bodies change: the narrator regains agility and discovers a mental thread to nearby zombies, learning he can command two at once but with limited range, and its scope remains unresolved.