Sally was a new and happy addition to their group, one that they deeply enjoyed. Having a child around did bring up the mood, and brought out the inner parents within Sans and Jane, and the inner brother within Ben. She was a joy, playing with Charlie and overall being a positive person. It was another light in their life, and Sans quickly became attached to her.

Why wouldn't he? She was small and adorable! For some reason he found himself wanting to take care of her, it made a bubbly feeling of nostalgia flash throughout his soul. When he went to hold her hand, sometimes he pictured a red glove instead, or he felt that her hand was too fleshy. Those moments were fleeting, though, and he never could grasp why he felt like that.

Either way, Sally was adorable, and Sans loved taking care of her. He'd tuck her in, read a bedtime story, and generally just treat her like a little sibling. Sometimes messing with her, but overall looking out for her. Ben liked to play with games, and he considered her like his little sister, but Sans was easiest the closest to her.

"(Did you like how Jane made you a fairy Princess?)" Sans asked as they walked down the sidewalk and over a corpse, his hand holding Sally's as they walked back from a nearby toy store.

"(Mhm!)" Sally hummed, skipping as her frilly pink skirt jumped with each movement. "(Now I have fairy wings! Charlie likes how I look too! He's a pretty princess!)"

"(You both are pretty princesses,)" Sans said, adjusting the bookbag on his shoulders. "(I hope Ben likes these video games we found. One of them is a zombie game, which is funny, because he can just walk outside and experience one.)"

"(Are you going to be making spaghetti again?)" Sally asked him, stepping into a puddle of blood.

Sans thought for a moment. Jane had banned him from the stove for making spaghetti, and admittedly he deserved it. For some reason, when he cooked it, his urges took over, and he never followed the instructions. When they said to lightly crush the tomato, he'd smash it. When it said medium heat, Sans would turn it up until the entire pot was practically consumed by the flames. Which was weird, because Sans only did that for spaghetti. Every other meal he followed the basic instructions, but this specific meal that he always felt like he should make turned out horrible every time. Sans didn't know why, he just made it that way.

"(Excuse me,)" A zombie gurgled next to them, making Sans perk up.

"(Yeah?)" He asked.

Zombies were easy to trust for him. They were all on the same playing field, having no memories, no lives, no purpose but to wonder and eat. Not to mention they were slower than Sans, so he had a natural advantage for never eating what they ate.

The zombie, slow and sloppy in his movements, pulled out a piece of paper. "(Um... the human survivor scares us.)"

"(Heh, yeah,)" Sans said, taking the offered piece of paper. "(But what's this for?)"

"(Since she's kinda running the town already, and a lot of us haven't gotten to eat in awhile since she's the only survivor in this town, we wanted to um... well, kind of do this. Most of us are on board, and we want to feel normal again. She's already practically in charge of us.)"

Was this a petition?

Yup, it was. Sans looked down at the paper, reading through the scrawled and horrible handwriting. Guess their little group weren't the only people who were trying to live a comfortable life again.

That was the nature of the zombie apocalypse. Life was risky, scary, uncontrolled. Small groups banded together to try and survive, but it was always a guess of who would be killed next. Jane, frankly, was the only sense of control and security nowadays. Her unmatched strength and speed, not to mention accuracy with weapons, practically guaranteed their survival. No zombie could stand against her, much less a survivor. And with the over abundance of slow moving zombies, and the lack of armed survivors, Jane had practically established her claim over the town.

And this paper contained an agreement that the zombies wanted to make. They wanted a leader, they wanted to try and be normal again. Jane already had authority over them, and now they wanted to make it official. It wasn't very organized, and not everything was settled out, but it was clear what they wanted. Order. Some type of leader. In exchange for her protection and leadership, they'd follow her and try to make this town a safe haven for zombies.

Odd, wasn't it. It wasn't just survivors who were trying to get a grasp on life. Sans had watched a lot of zombie movies over the last month, obviously because of the life going on around them, and the survivors always seemed to make little towns and declare leadership again to survive against the zombies. Funny how it was the zombies doing it this time.

"(And a lot of you are on board with this?)" Sans asked.

The zombie nodded. "(I went around and talked to a lot of people. The last few survivors from the only group in town died over a month ago, Jane's the only one in town, and no one wants to eat her anymore, so a lot of people want to try and be normal again. Try to get a functioning town. Live.)"

"(This... might actually be a good idea,)" Sans said, adjusting his grip on it. "(If we could make this a town for zombies, we could start a new system. Granted, it wouldn't be perfect, but we could organize fixing some buildings, and even get some people to garden and get some food... make this a safe haven for zombies from survivors. I'll tell Jane, maybe we can organize some kind of meeting or something.)"

~~~~~~

Jane agreed with Sans. It was a good idea.

After the zombies had been starved from eating for awhile, most of them had regained their senses, and overcame their hunger. Those who didn't were too scared of Jane to even risk trying to eat her, so overall it was a good idea for Jane to become their leader of the town. If they could organize materials, buildings, and such, then she could start a new system of government. Start a new life for all of them.

Jane was on board. Very on board. Able to control an entire town to make sure no one was doing anything stupid was a good mental image for her, not to mention how she'd be able to get a system of control going to make sure none of her teammates were hurt. She was sitting down at the table the moment Sans said it, already sketching up ideas on how to properly run the town. It'd be a dictatorship, but really, as long as the governed consented to it instead of being forced, it was a good idea. Jane didn't use a knife to threaten them to this idea, it was the zombies who asked Jane to become their leader. As long as they were all cool with it, it could work.

Sans settled down Sally on the couch to watch a movie while he went to grab Ben from the bathroom, checking his phone. As he suspected, his newly posted memes got no likes, but it would have been more worrying if someone did like it. Either way, he'd keep making memes. Jane and Ben enjoyed them.

The situation Sans found Ben inside of was rather odd. He was standing next to the bathtub, having filled it to the edge with water, but wasn't trying to get inside or do anything with it. Instead, he was just staring down at it, unmoving.

"(Uh... Ben?)"

Sans' voice seemed to startle him from whatever trance he was thrown into, snapping his head up so fast it looked almost painful. "(Oh, hi Sans.)"

"(Are you okay?)" Sans asked.

"(No, I was just um... I was trying to get into the bathtub.)"

Sans looked down at the tub full of water. "(You were trying to get into the bathtub?)"

"(Yes.)"

"(The bathtub full of water?)"

"(Yes.)"

"(With your clothes on?)"

"(Yes.)"

"(How come?)"

Ben hugged his arms together, looking nervously at the tub. "(I'm just... When we are at Walmart, I had saw a pool, and for some reason I got really scared. Extremely scared. So I'm trying to climb into the bathtub and sit inside of it.)"

"(So you're scared of water? Ben, it's okay, we can all help you work on that,)" Sans said.

"(I don't get it! I don't remember anything, but whenever I look at water that I could drown inside of I get really scared and I feel like I'm going to drown!)" Ben said, running a hand through his blond hair. "(I-I don't get it. I'm so scared of it that I can't even sit inside of a bathtub.)"

"(Ben, have you considered that you might have almost drowned before?)" Sans asked, "(Or had some bad experience with water?)"

"(I...)" Ben fell silent, looking down at the water.

"(I had a moment like that before. It was brief, but... I saw a needle and I got scared. Real scared.)" Sans looked off to the side. "(It was terrifying. I can't remember any bad experiences with needles, but seeing one made me feel like something bad was going to happen. I think it might have been a response from my past life. And I think that's why you're so scared of water, and why Sally's scared of us leaving her.)"

Ben stayed silent for a moment before he dragged his eyes back up. "(Geez, you're like some freaky smart scientist. I don't like how observant you're becoming.)"

Before Sans could reply, a crash came from downstairs, followed by Sally screaming. Sans' brotherly instincts kicked in and he was out of the bathroom in a moment, rushing down the short hall into the main room to observe the sight.

Sally was tucked beneath a table, hugging her knees close to her chest with Jane standing in front of her, a knife in hand. There, on the floor in front of her, was a zombie who must have snuck in, burn marks thrown across his body with tangled black hair cascading down over his white hoodie. He was trying to crawl away, gurgling for mercy as Jane moved forward to deliver the killing blow.

Sans didn't know what happened. He couldn't explain it. He just knew one moment, he was standing in the doorway, and the next he was in front of the other zombie, before any time passed, blocking him from Jane's murderous stare.

"(I can't,)" Sans said, knowing Jane couldn't understand him, "(I can't let you kill him.)"