Chapter 10

Tsuki blearily opened his eyes and stretched like a lazy cat. After shaking the last vestiges of sleep, he looked beside him only to find that he was alone.

“Where did Alphonse go?” he asked himself aloud while scratching his head.

He stared blankly outside for a few moments before his growling stomach distracted him. He couldn’t see his surroundings well, so he decided to climb on top of the trailer to scan the horizon for Alphonse.

“Alphonse where are you~? I am hungry~” He singsonged as he scanned all around him. Silence was his only answer.

“Just where the hell is this place anyway?” he asked aloud as he crossed his arms.

The view in front of him was that of a deserted village. A very small one at that. It was pretty isolated too. Surrounding the village was a dense canopy of trees spreading as far as the eyes could see. It painted a pretty etheral picture. There were a good amount of small houses around, some with the doors left open.

He sat on the trailer and pondered what to do, “Hmmm should I stay and wait for Alphonse or go explore a little?”

He could hear some zombies roaming around, but after encountering those two pitiful zombies he was not afraid anymore. The gurgle of his stomach made his decision, “explore for food it is. But first, let me look for my weapon. Just in case.”

So armored with his pipe, he jauntily skipped into the village. He entered the first house he found along the way to search for something to munch on, but came out hands empty. The other houses yielded the same result.

“Seems like people has already been here and took away all the edible food…. But anyway, why are those stupid zombies making a such a ruckus? They have been growling about meat for a while. It’s getting annoying and making me more hungry!” Tsuki huffed out.

Tsuki: “Let’s go see what they are up to.”

With that thought, he carefully crept towards where the noise was coming from. After steadily walking deeper into the forest, he finally reached where the noise was coming from. He hid behind a big tree and observed the situation.

Many zombies had surrounded a tree and were growling at it. They were quite frantic. Some were even clawing at the tree. Tsuki squinted his eyes and tried to see what had them in such a frenzy.

Tsuki: ‘The leaves are too dense, I can’t see anything.’

He tried sniffing the air like he saw Alphonse do and was assaulted with the smell of decomposing flesh and rancid blood.

Tsuki gagged, ‘Ugh bad idea! Yuck they stink.’

Just as Tsuki was about to turn around and go back, he heard a whimper and a small faint voice whisper ‘someone help me please’.

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Tsuki stopped in place and turned back abruptly, ‘that was the voice of a child. He didn’t sound good.’

Tsuki frowned, gripped his pipe harder and walked towards the cluster of zombies.

Tsuki: “Hey you! Leave that child alone! Go away, shoo!”

As one, the zombies turned towards him.

Tsuki sweatdropped, ‘okay that was creepy.’

****

On the other hand, back at the trailer, Alphonse had come back with hands full of food. He had found some humans camping further away and killed them. He had eaten his fill before grilling the rest of the meat. He had also taken the opportunity to take all their food, water and camping gear.

He stood and stared at the empty trailer for a few minutes before dumping all the things on the seat and entering the village. He had a small fool to find.

****

Said fool was currently facing a little crisis. Some of the zombies were slowly approaching him to sniff him. At first the zombies had just stared at him and sniffed the air. They looked completely baffled but it seemed like they did not have the intention to attack him.

But now some had gained the courage to come near him to inspect the ‘ smell good zombie’. That was what they were seriously growling in ‘zombie language’.

Tsuki sweatdropped at their description of him and sniffed himself, “I don’t smell that good. Granted, compared to them I smell like heaven.”

“Hey stay away you stinky zombies! Shoo go away! Stop sniffing me and don’t you dare come closer!” Tsuki menaced while brandishing his pipe.

Some zombies had taken the opportunity to come closer during his small moment of inattention. They stopped and dumbly stared at him waving his pipe.

One zombie tentatively growled out ‘play?’. The other zombies looked like they had an epiphany and started growling out ‘play’ too.

Tsuki: “Who the hell wants to play with you?! I am menacing you, you dunderheads! And you! Yes you! Don’t think that I can’t see you slowly inching towards me!”

The zombies ignored him and continued growling ‘play’ and ‘smell good zombie’. Tsuki’s eyes twitched and he opened his mouth to shout at them again when all of the zombies suddenly fell silent.

The zombie that was slowly inching forward slowly started backtracking and even collided with another zombie. Tsuki looked at them puzzled. The zombies looked kinda scared. They looked like they wanted to run away.

“Am I that scary?......So you are finally taking me seriously huh.” Tsuki said satisfied.

The zombies all ignored him and continued to fix their eyes in his direction. More precisely. They were fixing something behind him. Tsuki started to have a small doubt in his heart. He slowly turned around to look behind him only to come face to chest with Alphonse.

He timidly raised his head to look Alphonse in the eyes, “Uh, hey you are back!”

Alphonse just continued to stare silently at him. The other zombies looked at the ‘smell good zombie’ with pity in their eyes. At the same time they were discreetly trying to get away.

Tsuki tried to hold his own against Alphonse but cracked a few minutes later, “Okay okay I am sorry! I woke up alone and I was hungry! I just wanted to find some food.”

Alphonse pointedly looked at the surrounding zombies. Said zombies froze under the eyes of the ‘dangerous zombie’.

“That was just an accident. They were making so much noise that I decided to come see what it was about….That’s right! I forgot about the child! Alphonse there is a child in that tree. Those dunderheads distracted me!”

With that Tsuki turned around to go towards the tree. They keyword being ‘try’ because Alphonse held him by his collar and lifted him like a naughty kitten.

Tsuki struggled for a moment before giving up and grumbling, “you are lucky that I no longer need to breathe.”

He looked at Alphonse with a worried face, “ Can we, please, go look at the child? He sounded really bad. I truly am worried.”

Alphonse glanced at him before growling at the surrounding zombies, telling them to scram. The zombies took this opportunity to stagger away as fast as they could. He then walked towards the tree and put Tsuki down.

Tsuki immediately raised his head up and his eyes connected with beautiful green eyes. Those eyes were filled with hate, desperation and revenge.