Following Roy’s advice to find an estranged zombie I managed to track down the zombie I had come across earlier in the mall. Unfortunately I had found where it had been hiding out and living and also where it had died. It had bled out of the hole I had made in the back of its neck until it had simply passed away. I couldn’t really curse myself for shooting it as it was better to have killed it then to have let it break into the pod before. But I was left trying to find a zombie while the sun was quickly setting.

Night was certainly not peak zombie hunting time. Since they could barely see in the dark the zombies rarely came out at night unless the moonlight was very strong or they were in an area well lit by lights. Rumour had it Las Vegas was one of their favoured hideouts because of all the working lights there. But I was too far from Nevada at this point and my teleporter only seemed to like taking me to stations around LA. It was just a personal teleporter, not some massive one that could take me around the country.

I sat atop one of the only intact roofs in LA and stared out at the setting sun. I hadn’t watched it set since I had first come out here to the surface. For me it was where my life now began and my old one ended. My first night out here watching the sun set. What was my old life? I tried to recall what had really happened before I came out here. I had been in a fallout shelter underneath an office building. I had been born in there and had been completely raised there. My parents had taught me everything they knew, one of them teaching while the other one watched the television screens that showed the security cameras outside the fallout shelter. They were always waiting for something, probably the day that everything would be cleaned up and it would be safe to come out again. Sometimes they left too. I could remember them leaving the shelter and going up the office building. They seemed to know of some source of food that kept us going for nearly ten years. But of course we were just three people after all so it wasn’t too hard.

But then something changed one day. They both left together for something. Something I couldn’t quite remember. And something about that operation Giacomo had been performing. In all my memories the sun had passed away for the moment and left me under the moon’s protecting light. Less zombies but at the same time less zombies. Boon and burden. Where would I find one now?

From my vantage point I could see some movement going on two blocks away. If I looked further I could see the edge of the Ravine, the only place the zombies seemed to live in. Right now they were probably all heading back there for the night, or at least the ones who lived there would be. But no, it seemed the movement two blocks away was coming towards me instead of away. It looked like a rather large group of zombies moving up the street my way. I looked between my legs down below me and saw a couple of people standing in front of my building talking to each other. I was about to shout to them and warn them when the moonlight caught their armour as they moved. Pariahs. And zombies approaching fast. Perhaps this would be worth watching. But did the zombies know the Pariahs were here? Were they actually hunting them down? They weren’t supposed to collaborate so well like this. They did like to form up into hordes but they never hunted down something they couldn’t see. Only some of the scavengers had gotten good at doing that and only because they worked alone. These zombies had intention.

I watched the zombies disperse into the buildings and begin spreading themselves across as many as they could. Only a few continued forward along the street before stopping a block away from my building. Fifteen stories up I heard the screech of metal on metal and a very loud stomping. I looked around and spotted a large mechanical...something moving towards the two Pariahs. For my guess it was travelling along the east-west street while the zombies were heading along the north-south one. What it was that was moving appeared to be a very large metal cylinder standing on two metal legs. It was complete with two mechanical arms at its side. Its right one ended in an enormous machine gun of some sort while its left one ended in a bulky forearm section with two pincers at the tip. Along the back of the cylinder were large vents for heat and emissions and on the very top was a glass dome. It looked like there was a Pariah sitting in the machine making the whole thing work. But this monstrosity wouldn’t make it to the Pariahs before the zombies. Close, but not quite.

Well provided the zombies started moving again. They had simply stopped one block away. It was as if they had completely forgotten why they had come out this far. They weren’t turning around but just appeared to be looking for something that had suddenly gone missing. There was a whine from the cylindrical machine and the roof of the building began to vibrate lightly. The air around me seemed to be vibrating too very lightly in response to the whining of the machine and the zombies noticed it too. They all perked up from their looking and began dashing towards my building again. I could only assume the ones spread out throughout all the buildings were doing the exact same and the zombies in the open broke out into the intersection where the Pariahs were talking.

It looked to be about six zombies versus two Pariahs. Where were all the rest? Taking their time moving through all the buildings’ doors? The Pariahs stopped their chatting and withdrew their weapons before firing on the zombies. In a matter of seconds three zombies had hit the ground and didn’t appear to be moving forwards while the other three closed the ground between themselves and the Pariahs. Another one of them was gunned down while another latched itself onto one of the Pariahs. The Pariah pulled it off and beat it down with the butt of his gun while the other Pariah withdrew a knife and began fervently stabbing the last zombie.

And just like that it was over. The walking cylinder had caught up to the Pariahs and its rhythmic stomping came to an end. Other than the vibrations in the air there was nothing. There could not be a stillness to the air so long as it was vibrating but it was lacking an expected movement. All those zombies that had gone into the buildings were nowhere to be seen. The cylinder turned to face those buildings and its machine gun began to whir. In unison the zombies came pouring out from the buildings and flooded the Pariahs en masse. The Pariahs withdrew grenades from their belts and emptied round after round into the zombies but they continued forth. The machine gun on the machine began to spit out burning shots of hot metal that tore through the bodies in front of it and split some of them apart in flowery displays of blood and gore. Its pincers came around and swept zombies away before picking one of them up and hurling it through the building beside mine. I watched it smash through a wall before disappearing inside the depths of the building.

When I looked back the zombies had crushed one of the Pariahs. I assumed it was dead since it was nowhere to be seen and the other one was amidst a sea of bodies, its knife the only thing keeping it from submerging. I watched it spin around and stab a leaping zombie out of the air while another one jumped onto the Pariahs back. The Pariah had to pause for a moment to wrench the zombie off its back and in that moment a light bulb seemed to go off for every zombie and in a flash the Pariah’s armour was gone underneath the crashing waves of zombie ocean. There had been perhaps thirty zombies to begin with and now they were cut in half. It was almost all in part to the machine that continued to fend them off. Some of them had gotten closer than the pincers could reach and were scaling the metal in search of something living. A few of the zombies I had counted as dead rose back up off the ground, even with missing limbs or parts of their faces gone and continued forth, their bloodlust driving them past their pain. They wrapped themselves around the machines feet or were crushed under them, creating a slippery mess of wet organs. The cylinder took another step down but the foot gave out from under it and it came crashing down to the ground, killing some zombies that had been clinging to the back. I heard the glass shatter and the zombies must have dragged the Pariah out from the insides of the machine.

But at the same time the machine hit the ground and broke down the vibrations died down. Its engine had apparently been working overtime and had been shaking the neighbourhood. Lucky for the Pariahs they enforce the noise regulations for the neighbourhood so they could get away with breaking their own laws. Unlucky for them the zombies didn’t like being disturbed. All of the remaining zombies feasted on every body part they could find before they walked back up the street and disappeared. All that remained was the husk of the machine and the pieces of armour that had been torn from the Pariahs. And a zombie.

I turned to look at the building beside mine. There was the hole in the wall where a zombie had been tossed. It had never come back out. Would it have survived that throw? Maybe it was just crippled now and couldn’t get back out. That was a perfect candidate for my needs. On the other hand, bringing back Pariah armour and weapons that had been left behind by the zombies might be worth something. And bringing Roy out to see their big weapon might impress him enough to let me in.

I kicked myself mentally at letting such a rare weapons cache pass by while I scampered down the stairs of my building and ran across the street to the next one. There were only five floors to this one and the zombie should be either on the third of fourth, depending on angles and trajectories and complex math I did not understand and provided that the floor to the building was still intact and the thing hadn’t just dropped down to the lowest level.

I slipped in through the doorway into a world of darkness. The windows to this place were very small and poorly angled. Only some of them cast light on the floor and that light was too weak or scattered to help me see. I felt my throat seal up and my blood flow sped up. My heartbeat had tripled in seconds and hairs I didn’t even know I had began raising together. I pulled my revolver out so as to not take any chances and checked around the first floor. Since the ceiling was still there the zombie had to be up a level. The stairs were easy to find and I crept up them in near silence. The whole building held its breath for me.

Dead zombie. Crippled zombie. Live zombie. Thirty-three percent. Sixty-six percent left it alive but that also meant it could still hurt me or even kill me if I wasn’t careful. As I reached floor number two I heard rustling on the floor above. The zombie must be lying amidst old office papers and was simply rolling around in pain. It couldn’t just be moving towards me.

I gulped down my rational fears and headed up the next flight of stairs. More rustling. Each time I had to stop on the stairs. And wait. I checked my revolver. Two bullets. Shit. Should’ve reloaded. Too late now. Idiot. There was a noisier rustling than before. The zombie made a snarling sound. In my shock I snapped the gun back together too quickly. Click.

Everything stopped. My heart froze. My hands trembled. The zombie made no sounds. Nothing happened. Both of us waited for the next move. But only one of us knew how injured the zombie was. I pressed myself against the furthest wall and moved up the stairs. My head was now above the next floor. I could see across the floor to where a dark mass lay. And I could see eyes glinting in moonlight. Staring back at me. With a ferocity I could not match.

It rolled over to more rustling. I continued up the stairs. But I kept myself against the wall. I brought my revolver in front of me. No chances. No wasted moments. I unlocked my teleporter. Warming up was important. The zombie still hadn’t made a move. A trap? Was this one smart? Did it want me to get close? To leap at me with my guard down?

Last step. I pulled myself onto the same floor as the zombie. Its eyes followed me. Another snarl. More rustling. This was it. Brace for impact. I nearly pulled the trigger on my gun. But the zombie remained in place. I approached slowly. The light came through for me. It shone upon a leg at a skewed angle. And a chest compression from the pincers. Crippled. But not out. The eyes still stared at me with anger. Not hunger. Just anger. The air around us almost felt like it was still vibrating. It ebbed away as we continued to stare. The zombie’s eyes softened in front of me. And just like that it was gone. Angry eyes turned docile. Regular. Normal. Like a person’s.

I breathed out a little in relief. In response the zombie seemed to recognize its pain. And scream. I had never heard a zombie in pain before. It sounded. Natural. The zombie thrashed on the ground and cried out in agony. One of its arms must have been broken since it wasn’t moving during the thrashing and the zombie hadn’t picked itself up off the ground. I watched in fascination at the zombie’s suffering. These creatures had earned it. I watched the zombie pass out from the pain and go motionless on the floor.

Now I didn’t know what to do. I could get close and that thing could wake up and take a bite out of my ankle. Still I had a weapon. It should help a little. And it was either death now or home for awhile. I choose home. I inched closer to the zombie lying there on the floor. It looked like a passed out person to me, if not for its slightly hollow appearance. I tapped it quickly with my foot and withdrew. Nothing. Again. Still no response. I took my revolver and smashed it against the zombie’s head, near the temple, just to be safe. I checked the pulse and was satisfied with the resulting blood flow passing through. Now how to carry it. I couldn’t drag it by its foot; that would tear its skin off and kill it. I checked around and found the zombie had smashed through an office desk and left it in pieces when it crashed through here. I slid the longest board I could find under the zombie and then wondered what to do next. The zombie was still wearing some very tattered clothing from when it had once been human so I ripped some long strips off and tied them together to make a rope. I slipped the rope through a hole at the top of the piece of wood where something had gone through before and then wrapped the whole thing around my waist. First challenge: stairs. Downwards.

After some clattering and replacements of the zombie back onto the board I got out into the open and pulled the zombie across back towards the metro station. I dragged it down the crater and hauled it up into the tracks. The cover of night was incredibly advantageous against the zombies and finding the subway still proved to be just as easy provided the landmarks stayed the same. I pulled it up to the door and pushed around until the same rectangle popped out and took a drop of my blood. I would have to ask Roy about that one. The door opened for me and nearly closed on the zombie trailing behind. Just as Roy predicted I had to chase off shopkeepers throughout the Black Market who tried to grab a piece of the zombie and when I reached the pub everyone in it attempted to kill me for bringing a zombie down there but I mentioned the Pariahs, again like Roy suggested, and watched the ensuing bar fight.

Giacomo’s door was left slightly ajar and I pulled it open the rest of the way and pulled the body within. I gave the zombie another kick to the head to ensure it was out cold and turned around right into Giacomo. He shook his hands from the bathroom water and looked around me at the zombie, completely forgetting how I had rudely bumped into him. “Oh goody! Is it living?”

“Yeah just knocked out. I don’t know how long it will live though. It took some heavy damage.”

Giacomo slinked around me and examined the body closer. “Did you throw it in a trash compactor? What happened?”

“Pariahs got it first. And something big they brought along with them.”

“Fine fine, so long as it’s alive I’m happy. Grab a keycard from the counter over there and get to your room. Furnish it however you like with whatever you want. There’s already a bed and some basic stuff in there. Oooh a live one. How exciting.”

I snatched the keycard off the counter and backed away to the door as quickly as possible before an odd realisation struck my mind. “Giacomo, where’s your stutter?’

“I only stutter with a personality shift.” He flashed me a wild crooked grin and turned back to his zombie.

“Oh. Sorry I asked then.” I closed the door behind me and turned around into Roy. Two for two.

“You got the zombie for Giacomo?”

“Yeah but there were some...other things.”

“What other things?”

“Pariahs. They were out in the night. And so were a group of zombies. Like I’ve never seen before. They massed together and travelled blocks to get to the Pariahswithout seeing them. And then they stopped and sort of lost the trail I guess. The Pariahs had this big machine too, like a big walking trash can with weapons on it and its noise attracted the zombies and they attacked and killed the Pariahs and the machine. I picked up the zombie from the remains.”

“Hmm sounds like the Sentinels are coming out then. I wonder why they would have those things on patrol at night. Still you said the zombies killed them?”

“Yes.”

“So then the Pariah armour, it’s still out there?”

“I think.”

“And the Sentinel?”

“If that’s what the trash can is called then yes it should still be there.”

“Then take me to it. You can move in later. We need to reclaim whatever we can from that wreckage.” He signalled to a couple of other people who were in the station, a man about Roy’s age and a girl closer to mine. “James, Fiona, this is our new resident.” He turned to me in expectance of a name but I shook my head.

“Never had one.”

“Then pick one.”

“I like having no name.”

“Great, No-name it is then. No-name here came across Pariahs with a Sentinel and the zombies finished them off. Time to be pack rats. How far is it from here?’

“I don’t know. A few miles. I dragged a zombie all the way back here so it can’t be too far.”

“Right. James you’re with No-name. Fiona you’re with me. If we get split up now you know our groups. James what weapons do you have on hand?’

“An ancient Uzi I found in the Black Market. Still seems to be in working condition though. I’ve got a couple of grenades on me but I think they’re flash.”

“Better than nothing. Fiona?”

“Standard shotgun. My personal favourite.’

“That’s it?”

“That’s all I need, Roy.”

“Love the attitude Fiona. No-name, what do you have?”

I had been content watching Roy check over everyone else and forgot I was now included as a part of this group and had to comply to his orders. I nearly jumped when he addressed me. “A, uh, I have a, umm, an old revolver.”

“That’s it?” I held up my right hand wordlessly and put it back down. “Fuck kid, that can’t be the only thing keeping you alive this long.” I shrugged and looked at the other two members of our group. James was a carbon copy Roy. He dressed similar, his face was slightly less scarred, his hair was the same short trim, and his demeanour was only a little bit softer. In front of Roy he was a follower but I could see underneath it that, given the chance, he could be just as fierce at giving orders. Fiona was a girl covered in white cloth. How it remained so clean was beyond my comprehension but it seemed like most of her outfit was made from the stuff. On top of it she wore an old bulletproof vest that had multiple rips and holes in it but still seemed to be intact enough for her. Her face was serious and hard and her eyes had become a cloudy grey over time. The end of her mouth had a small cut running up her cheek that extended her mouth on her right side. Her hair was cut short unevenly. Hairstyles had disappeared when the zombies had shown up.

Roy took us up through the tunnel and out the door. I lead us the rest of the way to where the Pariahs had battled. The ground was saturated in the blood of the zombies and the few Pariahs and on top of it lay...nothing. The Pariah armour was gone, the weapons had been retrieved and the Sentinel had been taken away. All that remained were a few nuts and bolts and scrap pieces of metal that couldn’t be recycled. The four of us circled the area but found no other traces. James pointed out tire tracks from where they loaded the Sentinel onto a truck and drove it away. They hadn’t dragged it since it would have shed more pieces as it scraped along the ground and there were none of those to be found.

“They couldn’t have been so fast. That’s unbelievable.” James shook his head at the situation.

“We don’t know the Pariahs too well. They might have some sort of distress signal they send out when they’re attacked.” Roy’s justification didn’t seem to resonate with the rest of us and even he seemed doubtful.

“Come on Roy, they brought a truck straight here. There’s no way they could come here from the signal, call for a truck, and haul everything out of here so quickly.” James was pacing back and forth angrily in thought. “Imagine what we could’ve done with the weapons of a Sentinel. The defence system we could have set it. It would be amazing.”

“We’re aware. But this is how it happened. The Pariahs are a step ahead of us. This wasn’t part of any goal though, just a sidestep No-name pointed out. Yes it would have been a lucky find but it turned out to be nothing. Let’s just get back and we’ll move No-name in. It’s nobody’s fault, alright James?” I was surprised to see Roy being so thoughtful and rational. I had expected him to have been just as frustrated as James since they were so alike. Perhaps that was why only one of them was the leader. Fiona simply turned and headed back. She had been wordless the entire trip out and seemed in the mindset to be wordless the whole way back. James and Roy began bickering over the Pariahs and I was left alone to walk back and think.

The Pariahs were an interesting group and they certainly had more tricks than we gave them credit for. Better to go move in to the Black Road than deal with them and the zombies up here. Too much confusion. The Black Road may have been dangerous too but at least it was simpler. Perhaps that was how I would decorate my room too. Simple. I wouldn’t add much to it. Just like my shelter had been before.

It had just been a barren room with food supplies in one corner and my family in the middle. It could have fit so many more people but nobody else ever came. Maybe we had been in an area surrounded by zombies, constantly. Maybe that had been before the Ravine opened up. Had I come from the old Ravine? Had the zombies been living there far before it became a giant cut in the earth? My memories of old were too foggy to help me answer my questions now. The four of us returned to the Black Road and dispersed into our rooms. The day had gone on long enough for most of us. We all closed our doors tight and a buzz went off, the same one I had heard when I first arrived here. My door had locked when I closed it but now it sounded like another lock snapped into place for security. I flicked off the light and lay down upon a very stiff old mattress that lay in the middle of the floor.

I was in my shelter. Not my new one. My old. And...my parents. One of them was by the monitors while the other was beside me. Just like I remembered. I looked over at the monitors over my father’s shoulder. Nobody was outside. There was the odd zombie who shambled past a camera every few minutes but otherwise there was nothing. It was empty. The world looked unfamiliar though. Untouched by the wars. Unscathed. There were no trees of course from all the radiation from nearby bombs but this actual area had not been hit by anything. Buildings were intact, streets were still functional, and power still flowed throughout most of it. A generator or substation must have been nearby and was still connected to the grid. Perhaps there was even communication to the outside world here. But where was this?

There was no place like this in LA. Anywhere. Since the end of the wars and the rise of the zombies no more bombs had gone off so no more destruction could have taken place. So really, where could a utopia like this be hiding in the city? On one of the cameras was even the entrance to a metro station, the subway system waiting just below. Could it be working too? Could someone use the subway here? How far this haven stretched was unknown to me though. It wasn’t part of this memory of mine.

There was one place that had changed over all these years. The only place that had slowly opened up and shifted was the Ravine. The ground had split years after the wars and sunk down. Perhaps this was the Ravine before it became that. It had been a paradise at one point but it had always been filled with zombies. But why here? Why would the zombies want to hang around here? What could they gain from this place? There were so many of them that they would’ve eaten all the humans in the area, my family excluded, so what was left? Attachment? Memories of their humans selves? Too strange to believe. These were zombies not regular people. They had no minds. Not anymore. Except for the two brothers in on the Black Road.

My vault swam into view and I sat up in bed. I lost my dream. Started to think rather than to follow what my mind was emitting. And once I thought I thought about this place. This place was my home now, not my old memories of the ancient Ravine. I would have to ask around if anyone knew about the old Ravine. Maybe even those two brothers, Edward and Alex, if I could deal with talking to zombies. My door was locked but not by the third bolt which meant the buzzer had already gone off. I stepped out into the flickering fluorescent lighting and checked around. The bathroom line-up was almost gone so I got in with minimal waiting time. Within was an ancient sink with its bottom pipes coated in rust and grime while the shower head to the right of it didn’t look much better. There was no shower area. There was simply a shower head and a small drain on the floor. I spun around and found the toilet, the only thing that looked clean in the whole room, though only by comparison.

I used the bathroom in record time, not enjoying the usage of actual facilities rather than whatever pools of water I could find, and avoiding the oxymoron of a dirty bathroom. I went back into my room and found Giacomo hauling a charger into my room.”Look s-see. I f-found t-this ch-ch-charger sitting out in t-the m-market.”

“Thanks Giacomo. What you changing to this time?”

“Back to the doctor it would seem. Also you owe me for that charger.”

“But you gave it to me.”

“And now I want something in payment for it. All I did was reserve it for you. Otherwise I’ll break it down for spare parts.”

“Thanks a lot Giacomo. What do you need this time?”

“Two things. I need a Screamer cap and I need a Hound pup.”

“I don’t know what either of those things are or where to find them.”

“Great, then you’ll be learning at the same time. Screamers are inhabitants of the Black Road down further. We don’t know where they live exactly but we know they send out hunting parties and scouting groups over here to bug us once in awhile. They wear strange helmets with big circular mouth pieces. Very unique. You kill one, you take off the helmet and you’ve got yourself a Screamer cap.”

“So you have no idea where to find them though?”

“No but as far as we know the Black Road is straight so it can’t exactly be very hard. Just keep going down until you find them.”

“Didn’t Roy say nobody goes down there?”

“Bullshit. We go down there all the time for stuff. He wants to map out the Black Road but the rest of the people here want to leave it alone. It’s a straight metro line, where could it go? If you don’t feel safe just take someone along with you, like Chris.”

“Who’s Chris?”

“He’s a young boy, few years less than you got. He’s been here a couple of months and was lucky to get in without having to do much work. If you want to grab him go ahead. He owes me for some medical treatment. If he goes with you his debt will be paid too.”

“What’s he look like?”

“He looks like you, only younger.”

“Gee thanks.” Considering I didn’t look like much in any unique way didn’t help. Sure, my nose was a little on the large side and my cheeks were coated in tiny cut marks and my hair cut itself from being torn and shredded in my travels so I didn’t even know what it looked like day to day but really there wasn’t much special about my looks. “What about Hounds? They’re like dogs right?”

“Precisely. Just a little bit more...muscular and...umm...aggressive? Especially around their young. Which is exactly why you are going to steal one of the young puppies.”

“Because you want me dead?”

“No because they’re tough to get so nobody has ever tried to capture one and train it. And if that fails I‘ll cut it open and study it.” He clapped his hands together and smiled at the idea of another autopsy. I wondered if he was switching personalities again but he didn’t seem to be stuttering. “Also you’ll be doing me one more favour.”

“I owe you for a charger that might not even work and isn’t plugged into anything and the payment is three favours?!”

“Uhh on second thought if you do this third favour I’ll throw in a portable generator!”

I stared at him bleakly for a little before rolling my eyes. What was it? One night and I too was annoyed with him? Now I knew why Roy was so frosty. He had to deal with Giacomo longer than the rest of us. “What’s the last one?”

“I need you to test out an experimental sort of weapon I’ve been building.” He left my room and I supposed he wanted me following so I went down the couple of doors to his and peeked inside. He was opening up a large cabinet and from within he withdrew a very large metal backpack and dragged it over to me. Then he went to one of his counters and grabbed a long rapier off of it and handed it to me. The rapier’s handle had been altered and was a little bulkier with a couple of light and buttons added and on the bottom it looked like there was a hole for a power cable. “There you go.”

“You want me to test it without the explanation or do you just not even know what it does?”

“It is my Vortex Blade.”

“Why’d you call it that?”

“Sounded better than Magnetic Conductor Rapier.”

“That’s very true.”

“Now, what you hold is just a regular rapier actually. Until you go and plug it in to this lovely backpack.” He pun it around and showed me what the strapless side looked like. It was a mess of tiny lights and dials with a glass circle near the top. Through it I could see a coil of metal bathed in a blue light. On the right of it was the power cable to attach to the blade and on the left there seemed to be something sticking out of the side a little. I reached to pull on it but Giacomo hit my hand away. “I thought you wanted an explanation?”

“Right. Sorry about that. Cat and curiosity and such.”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

“Anyways this backpack is that magnetic conducting part I was telling you about. Within it is a small power generator and magnetic coil, as you can see. But what you could not see was this.” He flicked open a small hatch on the top left portion of the metal sack and pulled out another power cable. He attached it to a small mechanical gauntlet he was wearing on his left hand, one that looked very similar in design to my teleporter. There was a very low buzzing sound before he pointed the palm of the gauntlet at the rapier in my hands. My grasp was loose at best and the rapier slipped right out of it from the sudden magnetic attraction being generated by the glove and was held up in the air just in front of Giacomo’s hand.

“Why won’t it connect to the magnet?”

“Because this thing is a...well it’s...look the science behind it is very complex. Not even I fully understand these magnetic properties. It can attract metals to it but then repels them one they get close and thus holds them in place.” He turned off the magnetic flow from his hand in a way I could not see and snatched the rapier out of the air. He then plugged it in to the cable on the right side and it began to make the same low hum from the glove. “And now the rapier has the same magnetic qualities. But some different effects. With the rapier I can either repel metals which means it won’t draw blood anymore but it will certainly send someone, or thing, flying. Or I could stab someone and then turn on the magnetic frequency, scrambling their brain waves and iron and if they’re wearing metal it might just rip them apart from being repelled in different directions.”

“So it’s the most twisted weapon you’ve ever made?”

“No no no. You haven’t been here long enough to see some of the things I’ve made over the years. This whole thing though is both your sword and shield, in one backpack.”

“And two accessories.”

“Right. But you’ll need to take off your teleporter. The magnetic field would disrupt its circuit boards.”

“So now, what’s the catch to this weapon? It has to have a flaw otherwise Roy would have you stockpiling them.”

“Well you see the whole thing runs on a very unstable power source that I haven’t really studied much. I’ve only made about five power packs for it.” He motioned to a counter where four small cassette-shaped boxes sat. I say cassettes roughly because I saw a picture of them once and just assumed they were about this size. Each one was made of glass except for the two smallest sides which seemed to be made of black rubber. The glass revealed some sort of blue liquid that gave off the same glow as the glass in the backpack. “Now each one of those goes in the side here.” He pointed to the bottom left corner at the piece I had first tried to touch. “And after they’re empty they pop out on their own. I would prefer it if you didn’t let them drop and smash on the ground and brought them back to me. Those cases were hard to find. The backpack is always consuming power so long as the main switch is on, which it should always be because you’re not going to touch any buttons on this thing, understand?”

“Sure.”

“Ok so it takes up almost no power running on standby all the time. But once you call upon some of the magnetic properties in the sword or warm up the gauntlet you’re looking at about ten minutes of power.”

“Ten minutes? That’s it?! That’s crazy! I can’t last that long if I start getting attacked by Screamers and Hounds.”

“I never said you’d fight them all at once. Anyways you’ve got five of these things so it’s not all bad. However once you start attracting and repelling things with the gauntlet you’re power timer drops to about two minutes.” He paused and stared at me. And I stared back. He seemed to be waiting for my next outburst but I didn’t have anything. After I had made my first one I had remembered that the thing that had kept me alive thus far, my teleporter, was a power hog and that really this backpack was a godsend comparatively.

“Ok. Two minutes. Gotcha.”

“Right then. You know for the guy with split personalities you’re looking like the crazy one here. But what do I know about crazy?”

“Can it stop bullets?”

“Pardon?” Giacomo had been too busy laughing at his last joke to fully hear my question, or maybe he had heard it and was just giving me a hard time. Couldn’t tell with him.

“Can the magnetic field stop bullets?”

“Well see that’s why you’re field testing it. I expect it to and you’re going to tell me. Screamers are human looking things with funny masks on and they carry guns too so I hope they use them against you. Would love to hear about it when you get back.”

“What if I don’t?”

“Then I activate the remote self-destruct and the backpack, and you, explode. Can’t let someone else get their hands on my weapon and I can’t let you just run off with it. If you’re not back in twenty-four hours then you explode, dead or alive.”

“But I don’t have a watch.”

“The glove does though. Besides it shouldn’t take you that long. Now get out of here, we’ve been talking too much. And remember to take Chris with you.”

“Right let me just do all your chores for you while I’m at it.” I shouldered the backpack and nearly collapsed under its weight. It wasn’t unbearable, just surprising, and it would take some time to get used to it, especially fighting. And especially since I had never wielded a sword before. Considering I was going up against creatures that had probably never used one either I didn’t have to worry about much technique and could just swing it around until I chopped off an arm or something.

I left Giacomo to his continued psychotic works and wondered why Roy really kept him here. His medical skills were so unused that he really wasn’t the town doctor. Still magnetic weapons were somewhat rare so it was a nice benefit. Other than my door each door had a small piece of paper with a name or two written on it for the residents of each room. I located Chris’ with two names also written on the paper to represent his parents. I knocked lightly and marvelled at the metallic echo. I enjoyed whatever reminders I could get of the fact that I had a home down here.

The locks clicked inside and Chris pushed the door open. Giacomo was right he did look an awful lot like me in a younger version. Except he was shorter than me by about half a head. And for that I was proud because I wasn’t that tall myself. Roy had looked down on me slightly, and Giacomo was at my level which was more disturbing than him being taller because I was always at eye level so it was nice to find somebody I could hold my own head over. He also wasn’t as beaten up and scarred as I was but that was probably because he had found this place much sooner in his life.

“Umm hi there?” I sighed a little mentally. At least his voice was different than mine and was a little higher in pitch.

“Hi. Uhh I’m new here and I owe Giacomo a favour and he told me that you owe him one too so if you come along with me both our favours are cleared.”

“Oh alright. What’s your name?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Oh...” He stood in the doorway for a moment before shrugging off his wonders and rooted through a cabinet in the corner of the room. He came back out and handed me a hard plastic helmet with a light attached to the front and a crank sticking out the side. He also was now wearing a new shirt over his old tattered one that was woven out of the rubber from spare tires, except for along the creases so that he could still move in it. Along his waist were clips to go along with the miniature Uzi he was holding.

“I didn’t even tell you we had to kill anything.”

“Giacomo’s favours are always about killing something. Besides you look like you’re dressed to kill.” He looked me up and down and marvelled at the machine strapped to my back, poking and pulling at it until I shooed him away. “Say where’s your teleporter? I heard the new guy had one.”

“I do but I left it with Giacomo. It would disrupt this machine.” I shuddered a little at the realization of leaving crazy Giacomo with my teleporter and not keeping it in my room. There was no doubt it would either be dismantled or I would have to do another favour in order to get it back.

Chris started walking towards the dark end of the tunnel where the lights ended alongside the subway station. I had to struggle with my new weight to catch up with him. “So what’s the favour?”

“We need to get a Screamer mask and a Hound pup.”

Chris stopped in his tracks for a little bit before continuing forward. “Giacomo does know those are tough things to do right? Especially the Hound pup. Where are we even going to find one of those?”

“Well I’ve never been down this way. I know nothing about it.” I flicked on my light on my head and watched as it could hardly pierce through the perfect darkness enveloping the subway. I learned very quickly just how large a metro could be across and my light couldn’t spread out wide enough to cover it all. Even combined with Chris’ we only just stretched from one side to the other.

“The Screamers live way down this tunnel, further than anyone has ever explored so I wouldn’t know if we could even find them but if we just keep going I’m sure we can come across a hunting party of some sort. How about we just go as far as we can until we find some Screamers and then we come back until we discover a house for Hounds and steal a puppy. That way we can just carry the puppy back instead of having to carry a puppy around until we find some Screamers.”

“Sounds good. So I guess you’ll lead the way?”

“Oh no I’ve never been down here either. Not just that but there are no maps here. This line goes straight down as far as we explore with some turns in it so we never had a reason to make a map for a straight path. You can’t get lost. Besides you’re bigger and I’m sure you’ve done more fighting than I have. My mom doesn’t really let me go out from the shelters. She’s too protective.”

“With good reason of course. I lived up on the surface for a while and I know how fun zombies can be.”

“Why only for awhile? You’re really old, shouldn’t you always be living on the surface?”

“Well...” I stopped for a bit and thought back to my shelter, to my parents, my dreams. What did happen? I shivered even though the metro was fairly warm since heat couldn’t escape. “I lived in a shelter before for a long time, ten of which were with my parents and then I don’t know how many on my own. I think eight maybe only seven maybe just five and I’ve forgotten everything that’s happened in between. But my parents left when I was ten and then I just stayed there until my food ran out so I came out and found food. And so I know from experience that living in a nice little shelter home is so much better than wandering around aimlessly. Enjoy it while it lasts.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you lost your parents.”

“Everyone loses their parents one day or another. You only have to apologize if I wasn’t ready for it.”

“Were you?”

“No.”

“Then I apologize.”

“I accepted that they’re gone. It’s easy when you can’t remember why they left.”

“So maybe they’re alive?”

“Perhaps but I gave up looking for them. What they do and what I do are now independent and if they’re dead then they’re dead and that’s just how it is. If they’re zombies then they’re zombies. Maybe I’ve even killed them by accident, I don’t know. But they’re gone and I’m here so that’s all that matters.”

“That seems kind of-”

“Insensitive? I’m aware. I can’t remember why they left so I just don’t concern myself with it.”

“Don’t you miss them?”

I kept walking and ignored the question, turning it over in my head. I missed a home and now I had one. Did I miss the parents that had been in the home or just the home? I was having dreams about my parents now that I had a home so was that because I missed the parents and not the home? Or was it just that repression came at coincidental times? Bubbles surfaced and popped whenever they wanted.

“Don’t stop talking.”

“What?”

“If you stop talking then the Hounds will get you. That’s survival. If you keep talking they think there are more of you than there really are. When you stop they attack because they think there is only one.”

“Fine we’ll keep talking just, parents don’t matter. For ten years they’ve been out of my life so I don’t think they’ll come back in now.”

“Then we don’t have anything to talk about. My parents are alive and overprotective. There isn’t anything else to say.”

“Why are they called Screamers? How about that?”

“Well the last time there was a Screamer attack I had to hide inside so all I know is what I’ve been told about them. They’re kind of like us and they’re all human shaped and everything but they seem to speak a different language we don’t recognize and they wear these strange masks. They’ve got regular guns though and they die just like we do so we’re not quite sure why they’re so different. Maybe they’re just a like another gang of people or something and we’re on their territory. I heard that used to happen in the old world.”

“I’ve seen it happen in this world. People lay stakes to different portions of LA and make their own factions and beliefs and then they fight each other. It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. We already got blown up then we got invaded by zombies and yet even in this world where zombies kill with no divisions we like to stop for a moment and fight one another instead of the zombies. Instead of fighting common enemies we would much prefer to make new ones amongst each other.”

“That does sound dumb.”

“But it doesn’t answer my original question. Why are they called Screamers?”

“Oh right, that. Well because they scream. And when they scream it generates some sort of invisible sonic wave or something and pushes everyone away and makes it hard to focus from the noise. I’m not quite sure, Giacomo is tough to understand sometimes. I suppose we’ll just find out when we kill one.”

“Have you ever killed something before?”

“Nothing big.”

“Shot the gun before?”

“A few times. Roy likes everyone to be able to use a gun so they can defend themselves.”

“That’s better than nothing.”

“What about you?”

“Yeah I’ve shot a lot of stuff a lot of times but I’m afraid I don’t have a gun and I’ve never really used a sword before so this might be awkward.” The two of us stopped as sound trickled down the tunnel. It sounded like combinations of chewing and grunting with a little whimper and a hiss once in awhile. We aimed our lights up the path slowly until it shone upon a sparkling splatter of blood. The blood had come from a small puddle beside it which had formed from a little trickle running down from further up the tunnel. As we went higher the light came across the back ends of a few hounds that had found something to eat and were thus swarmed around it.  They snapped at each other over food portions and fought over whatever it was they were eating.

They were too busy eating to notice us two approaching them from behind and Chris pointed his Uzi down at them, though not shakily like I expected. Instead he pulled it out calmly then held it upwards when he was sure the hounds were busy. “Don’t worry they’re very dedicated to their meals. I’ve seen them leap out into the Black Pueblo and take someone down and then eat them in front of everyone. They only start caring if you shoot at them.”

“Oh. Can you see what they’re eating?”

“Somebody. Or they were at once. Look over there.” He nodded to the left and thus his light followed. Lying on the ground against the wall was a Sceamer’s mask and helmet with pieces of meat around it symbolising the head within had been eaten out already. “Exactly what we came here for then.”

“We still need to get a hound puppy though.”

“Well a nest should be nearby if they’re eating here. Let’s just grab this and go on up ahead.” Chris shuffled over to the helmet and bent down to pick it up. From my angle I couldn’t see what he did but he seemed to stop for a moment and look left and right before picking up the helmet and bringing it back over.

“What happened?”

“I know what happened to this guy. Looks like he stumbled upon their nest against that wall over there and paid the price.”

“Then we should leave unless we befall the same fate.”

“Right let me just go grab a puppy from the nest over there. I saw a couple of them sleeping.” Chris returned to the wall and bent over before he scooped something up. Without returning to me he turned and tossed it my way and I caught a small ball of fur with one hand against my chest, barely juggling it while holding the helmet and still balancing with a sword in hand and generator strapped to my back. Chris laughed a little at it before both of us saw the hounds lift their heads from the corpse.

“Shit Chris we got to leave.”

“No no don’t worry about it. They do this all the time while eating, then they go back to their food.” He checked over the puppies again along the wall. “Hmm perhaps I should get a pet for myself...” The Hounds still did not drop their heads back and I watched them intently, shifting my grip on the sword in my hand and preparing to defend myself. One of them moved away from the body towards Chris, sniffing along the wall nearby to check if all of its puppies were still there. When it came to the empty spot where Chris had just taken its pup it raised its muscular head to the air and swung it around until it pointed at me. With a low growl I knew our time was officially over here.

The Hound lunged towards me and I stuck the rapier out in front of me, pointing it at the vicious mutant dog in the hopes it would be scared off. Instead its lap was cut short as it skewered its own head on the end of my sword and slid up a little bit. “Chris forget your fucking puppy and let’s run!” I turned on the magnetic field within the sword and watched Hound, which had previously been growling and thrashing while caught on the sword, suddenly go limp, its eyes pointing away from each other and its tongue lolling out from its mouth. I placed my foot against its skull and pulled the sword out, feeling it vibrate slightly as the metal around it pushed and pulled on the magnetic field.

“Wait I haven’t grabbed any dog yet!”

“Well I’m out of here either way.” Another Hound turned my way and as it jumped up I slashed across its throat and began a sprint down the tunnel back from where we came, though it was fairly awkward with such a strange load on my back and in my hands. Behind me I heard the Hounds begin barking and yipping then howling before Chris’ screams started to tear through the stale air. It shook some dust down around me as I slowed to catch my breath and I watched the little particles fly by in front of me as they passed through my beam of light, wondering if my life could be as carefree as the dust that floats through the air. Or perhaps they were a better metaphor for my shattered memories as they flew past me, with death screaming behind me.

Better him than me...better him than me...better him than me...better his parents...don’t know...have to tell them...like mine never told me...what happened?...where did they go?...where did they...go?

§§§§§

“Mom? Dad? Why did you leave?” I stumbled around the sewer whipping fresh tears from my face over and over and unsure whether the next one I wiped off would be from me or would be from splashing through the murky waters. I couldn’t believe my parents were gone just like that. I was lucky to even escape the fallout shelter without zombies coming by and I could hardly remember how I got into the sewer even though this had all happened merely moments ago. Everything was fading so fast from my memory. Perhaps I should just go back to the shelter. It was warm and nice and safe and it still had food in it. I had enough food to last me a few years if I rationed it well. Now that I was all alone I could live in there for quite a while.

Yes, yes that seemed like the best plan. Yes I should really go back to the shelter. But how? How could I get myself there? How did I even get here? Perhaps if I simply turned around I would get back eventually to where I needed to go.

I looked up around me and saw that the sewer was branching one way while a collapsed wall to the side seemed to branch off into another tunnel. Was that where I came from? Did I only just get into these sewers? Since my parents...disappeared...it was becoming harder and harder to remember. I turned in anyways and found myself in an old subway line and barely able to see. At least the sewers had holes in the ceiling to give me a little light but this was unbearable. Up ahead I could see a little light glowing to the side. I tripped over the tracks until I was near it and bent over to find the glow of a Mark IV personal teleporter. It was a little bit beaten up and was missing the navigation component but otherwise seemed to have a full charge on it. I grabbed at it and it refused to move more than a few inches. Probably stuck on something. I wrapped both my hands around it and tucked until I heard a cack and fell back onto my bum with the teleporter in my grasp. Something fell onto the ground with an eerie clatter, a sound I felt connected too and afraid of so I scrambled back into the sewers and continued to try to find my way back to my shelter...

§§§§§

I woke up in the subway tunnels still with a magnetic backpack weighing me down and a puppy curled up underneath me. I picked myself up off the ground and shook my head clear. What just happened? A little too much over exertion when I ran away? I checked my face to see if I had cut anything or broken my nose when I passed out but thankfully just found dirt and oil, as expected. I wrapped the Screamer mask through my pant’s waist as best I could and tucked the little dog underneath my arm so I could continue down the path.

As I wandered along I saw a piece of track below my feet bend a little of to the side before ending in a rusty nub. I looked over its way and saw there was a hole in the wall that led towards another subway track, one that must have run parallel to this one in the old days. No use to us now then.

I have no concept of time when I’m underground so I can only assume it took me awhile to get back to the Black Road but I managed to step out into the lights to everyone’s surprise. A couple ran up to me in excitement, looked around, then shuffled away to their room wordlessly. I unstrapped the backpack generator and threw the Screamer mask on top of it in the middle of the Road, too tired to take it all the way to Giacomo’s room. A girl I recognized from before, Fiona, came up to me and looked over what I had brought back but before either of us could speak Giacomo scurried up and eyed his prizes.

“Did it work then?”

“More or less.”

“I see you brought me back a mask too!” He could hardly keep the excitement out of his voice and I thought he might start to stutter even without a personality shift. “But what happened to Chris?”

“He wanted a Hound puppy but they attacked us and got him. I still brought this one back.” I showed him the puppy in my hands but he waved it away.

“That’s too bad really. You k-keep the m-mutt. The m-mask is good enough.” Giacomo threw the mask over his shoulder and began to haul the large generator towards his room.

“Wait a minute Giacomo. You’re telling me that Chris came along with me because you wanted a puppy on whim?! And now that he’s dead over it you’re too bored to take it? You sick fucker, I’m going to kill you the same way they killed him!” I grasped for my revolver at my side, fumbling in my anger as I was torn between simply jumping on him and beating him dead or shooting him down. Giacomo jumped and giggled a bit as he dragged away the Vortex Sword’s generator. As I lunged Fiona stepped in front of me and placed a hand on my arm wordlessly, stopping me and silencing me in one gesture. Giacomo continued off to his lab while Roy came out to see what was happening and the rest of the people continued in their usual business.

Fiona spoke to me, something strange and foreign sounding, and incredibly quiet. “Did Chris do what he was supposed to do or did he do the wrong thing.”

I stood and pondered why Fiona was saying these things at first until my mind snapped together and I came around with the answer. “He did the wrong thing and got selfish.”

“Then he is dead. While you may not like Giacomo, you’re not alone but he is not worth your bullets. Those things are as valuable as water.” Before I could agree or disagree she turned and walked away into her room. Roy stood behind her smiling at me with some deeper knowledge of events than I had.

You should be honoured she said anything to you at all.” Roy looked over towards Fiona’s room as he spoke to me, seeing past her door into something beyond. “She came here a few years ago with her brother. He was a little bit younger than Chris at the time. Generally speaking here we are free from zombies but we had a very bizarre attack from a couple of zombies who found their way in. They only killed her brother before we got to them and since then she has been fairly silent. She seems to understand better than any of us that this is not a safe haven but simply another dangerous place to live in. People around here seem to be a little bit more accepting of being killed by the guns of the Screamers or the blades of the Stalkers than torn apart at the hands of hungry people. In terms of what happened to Chris, it sounds like he made a naive mistake and thus suffered for it. Even his parents recognized it and have accepted his death. They will mourn for a little I’m sure but they move on, as we all do. It is good to see you return though since you tested a weapon and brought a friend.” He pointed casually at the puppy still in my hands which had scratched itself a little before going back to sleep in my hands. “Be cautious with it though. I spoke with a man in the tavern who had a pet Hound. He said they go from puppy to adult in just a few weeks and can get very aggressive if not watched but they’re generally very loyal to one person. Sounds promising. We’ll see if I cannot put it to use around here. In the meantime go see Fiona. I feel like she has more to tell you than the astonishing first sentence.”

Roy turned and walked away down the tunnel towards the Black Market and I realized how much more I liked Roy than when I initially met him. He was perceivably abrupt and brisk on first contact but with obvious reason. He wanted everyone around to truly be aware of how little comfort this place had to offer and how anyone dies at any time. Now that I was in here though he seemed to make a very good leader figure for us. He knew what he was doing, he knew his people, and he knew how to keep most of us alive. Right now he was probably off buying supplies for the Pueblo.

Following his advice I knocked on Fiona’s door and she hauled it open for me and gestured for me to sit on her bed, the only piece of furniture in the whole room. In fact her room was utterly barren and hollow, a world without pictures, without designs or memories, or any indication of attachments. For a girl who had lost her younger brother you would think there would be a large attempt to keep him alive in memory. Instead there was simply nothing.

As soon as I sat on the bed she pushed the door closed and stood against it. I simply looked at her and she looked right back at me, our eyes awkwardly fixated on one another, each of us wishing to look away from the strange situation but neither wanting to be the first to do it and somehow offend the other. She chose to break first though and glanced over at floor beside her bed where my teleporter was lying. “You should never leave anything with Giacomo. You won’t ever see it again. How do you think he built that sword?”

“Thank you Fiona but that only makes me wonder more about a lot of things around here. Too many things. Everyone seems to give me different answers and views to stuff here or no answer at all. Roy’s gone from total badass to a soft caring soul in only a few days, Giacomo goes crazier each day, Chris comes out and dies with me and nobody bats an eye, and we have two fucking zombies living down here as residents while the Pariahs sit above and terrorize the population. I know you’re the least talkative person around here but you’re the only one I’ve been alone in a closed room with other than Giacomo and he won’t tell me anything that makes sense.”

“Understandable.” Her tone was completely detached and her eyes were back to staring into mine. “What would you like to know first as I cannot possibly explain all of those things to you at once.”

“Well I, umm...” I hadn’t gotten this far in my mind. Everything was an outburst at this point, from my memories welling up inside me and spilling forth since I talked about them with Chris to my furious anger with Giacomo, I just wanted to understand this place and figure out something solid for me to grasp onto. “What about you? Roy told me you came here with your brother and yet I was just in a similar situation and you shut me down. What happened?”

Fiona just stood there for awhile and looked me right in the eye. I kept it up, looking back at her. While my memories of my parents were vague, their teachings weren’t and I remember them telling me a distracting story about how to train a dog by staring into its eyes until it backed down. Would it work on a person? I felt like backing down right now from her gaze to escape it so I knew it was working on me but with someone as soulless as her I couldn’t imagine her ever stepping back. “When the zombie got in here my brother was outside with Giacomo, who had arrived only a few days after us. Roy was the newest leader since the last one had died and was a little late to get everyone out to kill the zombie. Giacomo saw the zombie first and decided to defend himself form it by hurling my brother at it in fear and it worked. Simple as that. Since then Giacomo has been confined to his lab, more or less, and Roy has fallen out of himself. He doesn’t like anyone new because he fears he won’t be able to save them either. When he tells you that people die easily here it’s more to remind himself than to warn you.”

“And how do you know so much about Roy?”

Again another stare. Fiona seemed to process her answers for a long time, carefully selecting the simplest form of explaining it. Not that I was complaining about her last description which, while raising some questions, generally summed everything up for me very simply and made sense, unlike everything else around here. “Roy and I followed an old rule of romance, love at first sight. He’s not as old as you’d think and I’m not as young as you’d guess, perhaps a couple years over you. We had begun getting intimate around the time my brother died. In fact Roy had just entered my room when the zombie attacked and he had been so focused on seeing me he hadn’t noticed the zombie down there. He spiralled after that into my arms, and we spent a lot of nights on this bed talking. He likes to blame himself but still he seemed to pull himself together enough to get back to leading us. Then there was the Stalker attack.”

“The what?”

“Roy tried to make up for the loss of my brother by trying to save as many people as he could. He invited all the refugees he could find down here and packed them into the subway cars and the tunnel between us and the Black Market, almost twice as many as are living there now. By the end of the week it was nearly overflowing with people trying to survive and so he thought he was redeeming himself. Instead the Stalkers attacked that night. Nobody knows what Stalkers are or what they look like entirely. Everything is just half-glimpses and sounds but we know that they can kill better than anything else. There must have been about three hundred people down there and they killed absolutely every one of them. And not just killed them. They butchered most of their heads, chopping them into pieces or turning their faces into bloody artwork. The place was a mess of brains and blood, as though the most macabre dance of death had passed through overnight without waking a soul. After then our relationship was over as Roy broke down into what he is now, trying to shut out all of his emotions and not caring about life or death anymore, simply about surviving to the best of his abilities and we split apart. Roy sort of forgave Giacomo for killing my brother and let him become our doctor and-”

“Wait, he fucking let that psycho go without punishment for murdering your brother? What was wrong with him?!” My blood began to boil in my heart chamber, spreading out through my body and heating me up into a fury.

Fiona on the over hand remained unchanged in her expression. “You’ve never let someone else die so that you could live? Roy understood the way of our new world and let it go. You’re saying you’re a perfect person?”

“I...I...” The department store I had last slept in before coming here. The person who I had let die had been carrying the map that had gotten me here. If I had someone let them live at my own expense they would be here instead of me, just like Giacomo was in that room instead of her brother. And while I could argue that Giacomo was a psychotic waste of space, I could turn out to be just the same after awhile. Who would deny a doctor coming into their shelter? It made more sense for them to turn away someone like me instead. “I’m only here because I let someone else die instead of me.” I hung my head in dramatic shame as it gave me an excuse to finally break the stare down with Fiona.

“That’s just how it happened then. That’s how I saw what happened to my brother and continue to see everything. Being sad, mourning his death and crying over him or trying to keep him alive with mementos only slows down my life, and doesn’t help me in day to day survival.” She truly was a completely emotionless creature. Was it her brother’s death that shut her down or was that just what Roy had been attracted to? Perhaps both of them had been changed by it more than they wanted to admit. “But I do...something else.” What was that? A pause in her careful wording? A break from what she was used to? I could only speculate as to what it was she did but rather than say anything and give her more time to think about what she was saying I decided to let her keep going without interruption. “When we first arrived my brother saw the radio tower and said how he wanted to climb it and I told him we would do it after we got settled at the Black Pueblo. But we never did go out to climb it. I got too busy with Roy to take him up there and so now, each and every day I go out and sit atop it and then I come back in. The day you arrived I had actually only just come in ahead of you.”

“That’s very...thoughtful of you. It’s nice to try to keep a little memento of someone to keep you going.”

“Do you have one?”

I had been ready to ask my next question, to keep moving forward through all my questions at my breakneck pace. In fact I was surprised I had even mentioned the memento thing at all. I was so focused on learning everything I could I was almost not even paying attention to the depth of each answer. The weight of this place’s history started to sink in and mingle with my own history. Three hundred people slaughtered in a single night, only gathered because Roy thought he could make a difference. Fiona’s love distracting enough to cause her brother to die. The old occupant of my room dying and be used as an experiment by the doctor while Stalkers and Hounds performed raids to keep everyone on their toes. That was probably how the last resident of my room had died. And yet I was completely self-centered from my time spent outside on the surface. Was this what my parents had expected of me when they kept me alive through the apocalypse? Had they raised me to go out into the world, guns blazing and thoughts of survival my only raison d’être? And now I was posed with an interesting question against my judgement. I sat here and wondered why Fiona wouldn’t react to the death of her brother but look at me, an orphan who had completely left his parents behind and flushed them out of his mind forever. Why didn’t I have a memento? Why didn’t I carry around a piece of them to remember? “I don’t have anything Fiona. My parents, they disappeared from our shelter one day when they went out looking for something and then I stayed there alone until my food ran out and ended up here.”

“So you wouldn’t even know what it is like to hold onto a memory?” There was almost a touch of disappointment in her voice, as though she had finally found someone who understood and would relate to her.

“I can’t remember what happened to my parents. That whole period is just sort of hazy to me.” I started to shake a little bit and felt little dribbles of sweat oozing out of my body. My vision blurred for a moment before snapping back to Fiona’s face, which looked puzzled and concerned over my sudden change in behaviour. “Woah I lost it here for a second.”

“Are you alright? You look a little paler.”

“No it’s ok, it must be the cold from going out into the sewers.” A complete lie and I knew she could see through it. Underground in a sewer with no immediate exit, heat didn’t go anywhere out there and it was the same as how hot it was here, maybe only a little bit cooler. “I should go back to my room and rest. One last thing though to answer. What’s up with those zombie brothers walking around here?”

Fiona returned to her mode before where she simple transfixed me with her gaze and thought out her response. Then she realized something in her head and looked at me quizzically. “Wait you mean you don’t understand why they are living here or why they aren’t killing people?”

“Both I guess. I mean I understand they’re living here because this place is open to anyone who does a job for them and I’m guessing they did one so they can stay but why aren’t they monsters? Are they just like somewhat immune and only half transformed or something?”

Fiona’s look became blank as she tried to understand what I was saying and something didn’t click with her. “You mean you don’t know about zombies? Roy never explained anytign and you never figured out?”

“That you avoid them and you kill them because they are sick deceased people who cannot feel pain and just travel around in packs murdering us?”

“You don’t know anything about zombies then I guess. Zombies are simply diseased people, that’s true, but they are still people and behave in a very similar manner. They have a culture still, and they are still trying to rebuild. The problem is that they change when they get hungry. A hungry zombie devolves in stages. If they are a little bit hungry they will continue as normal, where as if they get mildly or moderately hungry they will begin to try to scavenge for food and their thought processes diminish, at least rational thought. And so on and so forth. At any point while they are even the slightest bit hungry, if they catch sight of some food their body goes into a frenzy as though they were starved. It works similar to sharks when they catch the scent of blood, if sharks even exist anymore since the bombs dropped. I’ve only ever heard of then. Whenever the zombies enter that frenzy they cannot feel any pain and will simply press onwards in an attempt to get their food. But for Edward and Alex they always have snacks on them to keep them full so they’re basically just regular people with a special condition. Keeping them constantly full is something of a cure but it is only temporary and wouldn’t work en masse so we need those collars on them as well for insurance. It’s also why Giacomo is still around. Roy thought perhaps Giacomo could find a cure to it all down here but Giacomo’s personalities’ have slowly been fusing and he’s losing his mind over time so that hope is lost. Perhaps somebody is working on one somewhere in the world and will get it out there, we’re unsure here. Edward and Alex are nice old guys. They can tell you a lot about the prewar world from when they were young. I think they lost their parents too in the war while in a shelter, just like you did...”

Fiona’s monotone faded off as my vision blurred over and over and shivers ran rampant throughout my body. Thoughts of Giacomo working over that person the first time I had arrived, of losing parents and flushing away memories, thoughts of mementos and holding onto a little fragment and why I have nothing played through my head in an infinite loop while the room gave way around me and shattered, pieces of it flying upwards and away while Fiona melted away into the surrounding darkness.

I turned around to see myself in my shelter from the outside world, still waiting for my parents to come back after having left yesterday and leaving me alone for the night. I had just heard something, a noise from further up the stairs and I checked the television screen that monitored outdoor activity through the security cameras. There was still nothing there and I hadn’t seen my parents pass by it so what could have made that noise? Did something slip in when I had been playing with my scrap metal?

I toyed with the scrap metal again in my hands, bending some of the pieces and trying to make shapes out of it, one of my favourite pastimes whenever my parents left to get more food. As I moulded the old bits of tin and aluminum I heard the noise again, this time much closer, almost like something had banged against the stairs leading down to the shelter. I headed over to the door and leaned up on my toes so that I could peer through the small window on the door.

As I did my mother’s face was smashed against the window, blood gushing from the side of her face to smear across the window while a zombie chewed down on ear and another pulled at her hair. While he face was being dragged back down I saw a small tear come out just under her eye as her eye caught with mine. Now with the window cleared again I could see past to where my father was laying across the stairs with three zombies surrounding him, their heads all dipping into the rent they had torn in his chest as they devoured his insides. I could see his feet and legs squirming underneath as he was still alive and they ate him out.

I scrambled back from the door in horror and pressed myself against the wall, wrapping my arms around my legs and bringing them up tight to my chest. I rocked back and forth lightly with visions of my mother’s tearful face and father twitching and of Giacomo dissecting his corpse in the same manner, while shadowy figures danced among refugees in subway trains, slicing off their heads with a flick of their blades and Fiona crying out as her brother was sacrificed to a zombie for another’s survival, just as I had done so many times.

I was wrapped up in a ball rolling across Fiona’s bed when I ran right into her and snapped out of my dreams. She had sat on the bed and was looking down at me with care in her eyes, somehow understanding what had happened and yet knowing nothing at all. She rest her hand on the side of my face, cool sensation across my sweating skin and I began to breathe slowly and calmly.

My parents had not simply left and never come back.

They had been killed by zombies.

And I watched them die.