Walking down the street, you mindlessly wandered about the middle of the road with an empty shopping cart, it was a little busted and slightly rusted from previous rainfall, however, it was larger than an average cart and that mattered more to you than the quality of it.

Wasn't that a living saying? Quantity over quality? 

Throughout the whole street, all you could hear was the rattling of the cart and the occasional groan of a zombie, perhaps one would growl at the sight of you, recognizing your movements as belonging to that of prey, but a good growl of your own was enough to dissuade them from approaching.

It has now been a few months since you've come to terms with your death.

Sure, you still kinda wished you were alive sometimes but- after a couple of weeks you found that being.. whatever you were, had some perks, and was a little bit better than being alive in some aspects.

Like, you still got hungry as one would guess, but you still had the appetite for regular food, and didn't need to prey on other people, so that was a major pro right there.

Plus, your body seemed to have adapted as well, a few days after you woke up, the numbness in your legs disappeared, and you no longer drooled as much, however, the lack of control in your fingertips and jaw was still present, so you couldn't speak like you used to anymore, that was permanent, probably..?

At least you could walk around and do other general things like a normal living person.

The best changes had to be the immunity to most pain, the super abnormal strength and the whole fact that none of the zombies saw you as an optional meal.

True, some of the more hungry ones would try to approach you out of curiosity, something like a shark bumping into a boat, but for some reason whenever you growled at them they would immediately keep their distance- as if they could understand you and know you weren't food, hell, you couldn't even understand yourself!

Hissing in a gurgle-sounding manner, you pushed the cart through the parking lot and stared up at the banged up supermarket.

The automatic doors were long since destroyed, and much of the nonperishable foods were already taken by scattered survivors, but there were still certain foods that has long outlived their demand scattered about inside.

Strolling in as if you were out doing chores- which you were, you just casually scanned the aisles for things that caught your eye or appetite.

Getting deeper and deeper into the store, your cart was around halfway full when you heard noise arise from the entrance, and your body became clammy at the sound of a living human voice.

"Yosh! Look at all this food!" The shout was quickly silenced by a stressed hiss, and on instinct, you hid behind a stack of cereals and faced the direction they were coming from carefully.

There was a group- which means if they saw you, the chances of you getting away were slim.

Not wanting your brains to be scrambled on the floor by a panicked human, you decided it was best to ditch the cart for today and leave with your half-life.

You certainly weren't in the mood to finally see if you could make it without a head or not.

So whilst keeping yourself as far away from the voices as possible, you tiptoed and sometimes crawled towards the entrance as they ventured deeper into the aisles.

"Hey! There's a super huge shopping cart here! And it's already full of food!"

Damn, there goes your convenient food transport.

"Hmm, that's strange, it looks like this was being used recently, look it's all rusted, so it must have been left outside before.."

A sharp, excited gasp echoed throughout the store, "you mean there could be someone else around here?!"

At that moment, you finally had the entrance in your sight, and with a well timed dash, you'd be out of there before any of them could know a thing- "hey! I found them!"

Literally jolting at the voice coming right from behind you, you turned around in alarm and immediately regretted it, seeing the recognition and the horror rise on the child's face- fuck you.

"Zombie!" Your death sentence rang out and you promptly choked.

Standing up as fast as you've ever known yourself in this form, you barely dodged the hatchet thrown your way from over the boy's head, however, with dodging it, you clumsily tripped over a rotten apple and fell into a row of cooled vegetables and meats that have long passed their prime.

Shit, the group was fast, and by the time you reoriented yourself and sat up, you were surrounded by a strange collection of living people.

"Chopper! You alright?!" A teenage woman with orange dyed hair bent down to the brunette boy, looking him over for injury.

"N-No.." She deflated in relief at his response, "jeez, don't scare us like that"

Seeing someone take a threatening step towards you at the corner of your eye, you turned to a green haired man wielding two hatchets that looked similar to the one that was hurled at you a moment ago.

"Move, I got this one.." marching towards you, you felt frozen.

This was it.

He raised one of the hatchets over his shoulder with a firm scowl.

You were gonna die.

Before you even realized how alarmed you were, just like on the day you woke up, your nose began to run, tears sprung up from nowhere and overflowed, the grocery store was soon haunted by your woeful howls, and you ashamedly hid your face with your arms, not wanting your final moments to look so pathetic.

You couldn't believe you came back just to die again so soon like this.

How embarrassing.

Not being able to stop, or even knowing how to, you let your body instinctively howl out in distress, knowing you were going to cry right up to when he sent your head flying.

"I-.. Is it... crying..?"

Peeking through your fingers with blurred vision, you saw the greenie slightly lower his hatchet in hesitation, and the group behind him gawk at you in clear confusion and discomfort.

The orangette turned to an older, raven haired woman with a worried frown, "Robin, sh- should it be doing that?" The other woman pursed her lips unsurely, staring back hard into your eye, "I- I don't think so.."

Another raven haired teen with olive skin peered at you fearfully from over the raven named Robin's shoulders, "what is it doing?! Is it calling out to it's fellow zombies for help?! Zoro kill it!" The young brunette from before shrieked along with him in panic.

The group continued to malfunction in uncertainty until a new teen approached you and passed the greenie, now well within your reach.

This caused the group to stop and stare in horror at his actions, "Luffy!"

Once again the greenie raised his hatchet in alarm and gritted his teeth, "Luffy! What are you doing?! Get back here before that thing bites!"

Completely ignoring his companions in favor of staring you down, you stared back and felt the tears dry on your cheeks, for some reason you felt more at ease with this one, and his expression held no malice.

Only curiosity.

"Hey" he spoke, "are you alive..?"

The silence afterwards was heavy, really heavy, and you almost couldn't bring yourself to say anything, but feeling as if you'd be killed if you didn't respond, you tried your best to nod your head without drooling and attempted to say something he could understand, "eeee- aauuhh eeaaeteh.."

Unfortunately, you were still as decipherable as you have been for the past few weeks, but it seemed the intentions of your actions made it across, as they all froze with semi-horrified, shocked expressions.

"Oh my.." The raven woman touched the tip of her lips in surprise.

"I- It- she, she's alive in there?!" The orangette cupped her mouth and fell onto her knees.

"Wah! Oww! That's suuuper sad!" An older man with blue shaved hair began to sob uncontrollably.

Seeing them all finally realize that you weren't technically dead anymore, you glanced to the open entrance and took your chance in case they would change their minds.

Darting out of the aisle and jogging for the exit, the olive skinned teen from before shrieked in surprise and fell over, "waah-! She- She can run!"

"Wait!"

Recognizing the voice belonging to the calming raven teen from before, you felt obliged to hear him out and stopped in front of the exit, joints tense and ready to go if something went wrong.

Turning around to face him, your body relaxed seeing him give you a short up-down before grinning widely, like a child.

"Hey! Join my group!"

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How did this happen?

"Do.. Do you eat only food like us too..?" Turning to the orangette that you now knew was named Nami, she leaned over your shoulder undauntedly and eyed the foods you rolled around in the cart, now seeming to have thrown away all of her previous caution to the winds.

You nodded your head and she hummed with a small smile.

Walking lazily down the street back towards your apartment, you spotted a dog you rescued once dart by and felt a warmth bloom in your chest when the little boy- Chopper giggled happily at the sight of it.

Hearing a laugh ahead of you, you turned to the teenager named Luffy who was leaning on the edge of your cart, his weight made it harder to pull, but with your undead strength the difference wasn't as taxing as it would for the living, he smiled at you cheerfully, "just wait until you taste Sanji's cooking! It's super good! He used to be a chef in an amazing restaurant!"

Groaning half-heartedly in response, you glanced at the blonde and felt your lips slightly curve upwards when he smiled back.

"Hey.." immediately hearing your inner alarms set off at the rugged voice, you turned to the greenie named Zoro, the one who nearly beheaded you and choked under a new coat of cold sweat, the scowl on his face told you he didn't like this at all.

Was he gonna threaten you?

"Uh, sorry.. about earlier.." Blinking incredulously, you tilted your head to the side, trying to get a better look at the flare on his cheeks as he refused to look you in the eye, still scowling, "sorry about making you cry like that.."

Wow, for some reason you just assumed he wasn't the kind of person who'd easily apologize?

Finally glancing your way, the older man sidestepped back in surprise to see your eye slightly watering and your mouth gaping wide in a- what must have been a grin?

"A- Ahhh!"

Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing?