Here’s what I have:
This is a Zombie story told from the point of view of the infected, all the way from the beginning. They’re not quite zombies; they’re parasitic aliens who survive mainly in water and are harmed by extreme cold and large quantities of salt. It breeds by budding, then the bud survives in water until it can drown someone and reanimate them, then slowly permeate their system over the course of a month. I call it “the Ink”. The Ink can control brain chemistry, so you can’t actually hate being infected with it (but you can feel scared). It likes heat, so people who are infected tend to wear warmer clothes, start straightening/curling their hair or using blow-dryers, eat and drink warm foods (as well as eating more since they constantly feel chilly). It also likes to “slip” some of itself out of your mouth and into foods like soup or drinks like coffee or tea. It likes being close to other “buds”, so cuddling with others who are infected is usually a give-in. The infection also makes them crave human flesh because certain vitamins available widely in humans are needed by the Ink for survival, but I haven’t figured out the science behind that yet.

The two main characters are Tomiko Satou and Emery “Remy” Acosta, both girls. Emery is the Source, the original one infected. She infects Tomiko during the winter because the Ink (which can “talk” into her head) is afraid of dying, as they are in Aurora, Illinois. Except for the prologue and the epilogue, the whole thing will be told from Tomiko’s point of view. It starts with her infection and ends with her and Remy infecting one of her (community college) classmates, Kaz Ziven before Remy leaves for Florida to start the full-on infection. I wanted to center the book around Tomiko’s transformation and her adjustment to the Ink, but that’s background noise, and nothing worth making a story out of. (It’s like making Sorcerer’s Stone about Harry’s adjustment to the Wizarding World. Background noise.)

So I need ideas for plot and subplots. One would be Remy and Tomiko’s mentor/student relationship as well as Remy’s restlessness and devotion to the Ink, but that’s all I really have.