Zombies Need Love Too!

Greeeehk!

Another zombie bit the dust.

Yoan let out a sharp breath, clearly winded.

I felt a bit guilty about not helping much in emergencies, but come on—zombie combat? Still firmly in my absolutely not column.

Those things were terrifying!

“Is it just me, or are there way more of them today?” Yoan muttered, wiping black blood off his cheek with the back of his hand.

Nope. Not just him. There were definitely more.

Two possibilities: they were migrating in from somewhere, or a whole group of survivors had recently turned.

Either way, we’d barely distributed half our food supplies.

“This is taking longer than expected. I was hoping to dump our stuff and scout a new route today.”

“To the castle?”

“Yeah. This place isn’t defensible or stocked enough for the long haul. Best plan is to gather the survivors and head for the castle.”

His voice dropped at the end, bitter and heavy.

Not that it was his fault, but being in charge clearly wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

His personality might be completely off, but he’s actually pretty admirable.

I gave him a consoling pat on the back.

“Cheer up.”

“Ow. That hurt.”

“Sorry.”

Hey, give me a break. I’m a zombie—strength control isn’t exactly my specialty.

No matter how good Yoan was, moving a bunch of defenseless people through zombie-infested streets was no picnic.

This place really is crawling.

Even in the original story, it took forever to escape the starting zone. Everyone hated that part.

But now that I was actually living it, I had to admit—it made sense.

Thinking through it in theory was one thing. Living it? A whole different beast.

Before we could do anything else, we had to clear this area of zombies for good. 

Otherwise, it’d just be endless whack-a-mole.

“Zombies, definite.”

“Definitely a lot of zombies? That’s what I just said.”

“Ugh. Frustrating.”

“I’m the one who’s frustrated. Can’t you do something about it?”

If I could, I wouldn’t still be like this.

Just in case, I choked down some more zombie blood today. Hated every drop of it. 

At Yoan’s suggestion, I even gnawed on a few chunks of flesh.

Nothing worked.

There had to be some kind of cooldown period. Maybe I needed a new approach.

We need a definite way of killing zombies. And people who can actually fight.
“Need… grghhh! Definite kill… grrrrghl! Zombies. More grrk people… grrrrk fight grrrrlgh…”

My frustration exploded out of me in a garbled zombie snarl.

“Sasha? We need progress, not regression. I can’t understand a word you just said. Honestly, deciphering secret codes would be easier.”

This guy… should I bury him quietly somewhere?

“Let’s work harder moving forward, okay?”

The condescension!

I narrowed my eyes, glaring as hard as I could. He just smiled and patted my head.

I was winding up to swat his hand away when—

“There’s someone.”

“Yeah. I felt it too.”

It was faint, but deliberate. Probably not a zombie—too quiet.

We exchanged a glance and headed toward the source.

“Wait a sec.” Right as we neared, Yoan yanked me back behind him. “Stay behind me.”

Excuse you?

Was he trying to protect me?

I blinked at the back blocking my view, then shook my head. “I’m stronger.”

“But you can’t fight.”

Fair. But still…

“Don’t hurt. Won’t die.”

“So you’re volunteering to be my shield?”

I nodded. Yoan’s expression twisted into something oddly unreadable.

“What now?” I didn’t see the issue.

I mean, I’m already undead. Might as well make myself useful.

Without waiting for an answer, I turned and strode ahead.

“Sasha. Sasha.”

I ignored him.

And then—I saw it.

My eyes widened.

“Hic.”

Apparently zombies can hiccup from shock. Who knew?

GRAAAHK—!

It wasn’t a survivor.

It was a zombie. And surprisingly intact, too. Kinda like me, actually.

Weird. She looks almost… familiar?

But the thought vanished as she lunged at me.

“Sasha!”

“Wah!”

I ducked and covered my head, instincts kicking in.

Yoan appeared out of nowhere, wrapped one arm around me, and fired his gun with the other.

The recoil made both our bodies jolt.

“Shit… Missed.”

A small pistol wasn’t enough to reliably down zombies. Not without a whole blasting barrage of bullets.

The attacker vanished—no idea where it went.

“Fast.”

“Sasha.”

“Mhm?”

“Why don’t you ever listen? Want to get in trouble?”

“It’s not that…”

I twisted out of his hold and stood tall, trying to look confident.

See? Totally fine! Alive-ish and everything.

“You think that went well?”

“Why mad?”

“You ignored me and nearly got your head torn off.”

“I’m a zombie.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

Yoan was actually angry. And for once, I didn’t feel like testing his limits.

If I said, why do you care if I live or die, he just might say, I don’t—go die, then.

So I just pouted and nodded. “Sorry.”

“Right. As you should be.”

“Mhm.”

“Try that again and I’ll tie you up and drag you around. Remember who your guardian is.”

There was a definite touch of madness in his eyes now. All because I disobeyed?

This man is not stable!

“O-okay. Sorry.”

I squeaked out the words. No way was I winning a shouting match with Yoan.

I seized the chance to change the subject. “But weird.”

“What was?”

Thankfully, he let me.

“Just now. Ran off.”

“You think that was strange?”

“Mhm.”

Normal zombies went berserk when attacked. That one had backed off. It was… calm.

An evolved variant, maybe? It shouldn’t have shown up this early in the story.

But since I existed as a mutant, there might be others out there too.

“But didn’t you do the same thing when you saw me? Ran away?”

Really? Did he just say that?

I was scared witless, but this one looked strategic! Totally different situations! Can you not tell the difference, sir?!
“I-was-grrh-grrrrrrr-grghk-totally-grrrhk-can-grrk-tell?!”

“There you go again, getting worked up and babbling. Try saying it calmly. Coherently now.”

Oh, of course. He’s the only reasonable one. The pretense!

I pursed my lips, then tried again. “Totally different!”

“Yeah. I felt it too, actually,” he admitted serenely.

Wait, what? Was he just baiting a reaction?

Talk about insufferable…

“It was like it assessed the situation and retreated.”

“Right.”

“…Is something changing?” Yoan murmured, brow furrowed.

He might be right. Which, frankly, was pretty cliche. Y’know, like how you get pulled into a web novel, and then the plot’s going off the rails…

But this isn’t just any story—it’s a zombie apocalypse survival tale. Deviations here could get everyone killed.

I’d rather that didn’t happen…

“Let’s head back. I need to think this through.”

I nodded and followed him quietly.

When we returned to our meeting point, Derek came running over.

“Did you have a safe trip? Nothing dangerous, right?”

“Hah… kid,” Rob started. “If you’re worried about danger, worry about our lord here. Sasha’s a zombie—”

“Dangerous.” I cut him off.

My neck had nearly been removed by an undead ambusher. That counts.

Derek’s eyes widened, then he glared at Yoan.

His expression said: You were standing right there. What the hell were you doing?

Yoan, as always, was unfazed. “Right, it was dangerous. That’s why I’m considering keeping her on a leash from now on.”

Wait what?! I thought we were done with that conversation!