Melissa sat quietly and listened as Dacs, Emily and Tyler added their input into the investigation of the zombie epidemic. She was waiting for Elinor to present her findings first, just in case she had already solved the case...which would therefore had eliminated Melissa's hypothesis. But Melissa decided that she needed to share what she had discovered....even if it may end up making her the laughing stock of the MLE and the Ministry.

Melissa raised her hand...wait should she have raised her hand? Did the others raise their hands before speaking? Melissa quickly put her hand down and coughed discreetly into her hand, hoping that the cough caught somebody's attention, before speaking up.

"Sir, I've been assisting Esme in the collection of the food and drink samples at the Food Court. It was there when I got to thinking. Almost everyone who went to the Food Court came into contact, ate or drank something there. Yet not all of us have been infected. I got to thinking that it may not be something they consumed but rather something they breathed in . Something airborne." Melissa paused hoping that she had not lost anyone yet.

Then she took a deep breath, slowly let it out and continued with her report.

"I found something in the Food Court, that I'm sure everyone noticed but didn't think much about it." Melissa held up the petridish containing the sample that she had collected of the plant found in the Dessert Bar. Exhibit A.

"This is a sample of a plant I found in the Food Court. I saw baskets of it hanging in the air everywhere there. I did some research on it. " Melissa held up the book entitled 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi'...Exhibit B..."and identified it as a Scottish Silver Fern."

"The plant in itself is benign. It is used to boost one's immunity. But then I remembered someone mentioning that there was a flu epidemic here in the Ministry a year ago, and some people got really sick."

"It was then that it dawned on me. Breathing in the spores of this plant would be safe for someone who hasn't been sick. But what if....what if the person's immunity had already been compromised because they were still recovering from a bad viral infection." Melissa paused to allow the others the chance to grasp what she was trying to say. She just hoped that she was making sense right now.

"I've discovered that if a person's immunity system has already been compromised, exposing that person to something that is supposed to boost one's immune system just creates more complications." Melissa looked around at everyone.

"Breathing in the spores of the Scottish Silver Fern, may have caused a mutation in their genetic system, which may have resulted in these zombie like characteristics."

"Granted there may have been others who had caught the flu bug too and they haven't ended up being zombie like. Maybe they weren't as sick as the others...or maybe their immune system is a lot stronger....or maybe the mutation hasn't completed its cycle. Who knows." Melissa shrugged.

"Sir is there any way we can find out whether those infected right now, did at one point in time last year get sick or get exposed to something viral?" Melissa asked Mr. Bossman.

There she had said what had to say. Melissa slid down lower in her chair waiting for someone to scoff at her conclusions.