In this first chapter, elias tells her lover, Desdemona, that she has written a book about her experiences at the hospital. She tells him that she found herself alone in the hospital and that she had no memory of the events that had occurred there. She had no idea who was there and was shocked when she saw a zombie dressed as a doctor. She was not shocked because she had never been to a hospital before and she was sure that she would never go there again. She says that she was terrified at the beginning of the novel because the world was changing and she had not met a single person who was not "rotten" and "trying to eat" her. Eventually, she had reached "rock bottom" and was starving and bruised. She waited for the day when she would die.