Chylum's heart did not pulsate, and her skin had an icy, clay-like feel. The color of her flesh was the same as the dull-gray dress she wore, and her eyes were two lumps of amber that regarded Touji with cold indifference. Her hair was the gray of old linen, and hung limply over her shoulders, giving her the appearance of a sleeping wraith.

Touji wrapped his hands around her, resting her chin on his shoulder. He rubbed his cheek against her neck but could feel no warmth or pulse.

"What's the matter?"

Touji squeezed her harder as if trying to wring something out of her. "I... don't know."

An estranged tingling over his right shoulder abruptly interrupted his thoughts. He turned. His eyes darted to see a morphed and deformed hand grabbing hold of him. Touji tried to free himself but felt paralyzed by the arm's iron grip.

"What's the matta?" A low voice mocked him.

"Let go of me." He jumped up and backed away, a loud yelp escaping his lips.

There stood the shriveled remains of what was once Emar. It began to make a series of hiccup noises as it attempted to laugh. Emar's face had become the color and texture of parchment. Her eyes were two yellow orbs that had sunk back into their sockets, and the skin on her forehead and cheeks had begun to crack and peel.

Touji did not hesitate. He swung a punch at him, but he caught his wrist with ease, holding him in a vice-like grip.

"Ho, Ho. That is quite the reaction."

Touji struggled against Emar's bony fingers. They felt as cold as stone. "Let go of me, you freak!"

He grinned maliciously, and his eyes glittered like twin flames.

Emar let out a croaking cackle.

Touji kicked Emar square in the stomach, pushing him back. He released his grip. Touji then gave him a sharp slap to the face, and a stinging sensation traveled across his palm.

"What the hell is going on?! You were dead." Touji yelled out in a panic.

"Was I now? You mean this?" Emar pointed a twisted finger at his face. He brought his hands up and pushed out his solen cheeks. The skin around his lips had peeled, revealing blackened flesh.

"Oh, but I still am, it seems. The same as that girl standing beside you."

Touji's gaze fell upon Chylum, who remained motionless, staring ahead blankly.

"She is nothing more than a corpse. Neither alive nor dead."

Touji grabbed hold of her, his head whipping around, darting about in the darkened village square.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?"

"You make it sound so dreadful. And it wasn't exclusive to her. Not even myself was spared. Though the whole point of this was to spar myself from death. Kind of ironic, don't you think?"

"What kind of sick joke is this? Fix it now!"

Emar began to hack and cough. "I'm afraid that's impossible. And let me correct one notion you seem to have. I am not responsible for their deaths. I am only responsible for their continuation."

"Then who is?!!" Touji growled, biting his lips till they bled.

Emar grinned, exposing the blackness of his rotting gums.

"Those plants growing out of us obviously. We were infected with an airborne seed. Quite a curious little plant. Wasn't here yesterday."

His face contorted into an eerie smile and he tilted his head, stretching his neck. "Do you want to know what it's like?"

"Get back to the point."

"Fine, fine. But honestly, you're missing out on something wonderful. Nothing short of what the uneducated call a miracle."

"..."

"I have my theories." He said with a light grunt. "But what matters is that I am dead and yet at the same time somehow alive. You fail to recognize the importance of this discovery. I have procured a way of keeping the soul attached to one's own body long after death. Immortality is what it is commonly known as. This has been in the making for years, but healthy human subjects were needed and that's where these separationists came in."

"Separationists? The hell?"

"Why, yes. People are so easily deceived by the role of a physician. They just can't seem to fathom that the medication could be anything other than what they were proscribed. Accepting our word as gospel as if we practitioners of science would never possibly hide our own agendas. We are a cult. The cult of science. We wear our white cult outfits with pride and yet not a single person makes the connection. Quite naïve, but it's the staple."

-What is he rambling on about? I don't give a damn.

"Explain how turning yourself into a zombie is somehow classified under the immortality tag. And who are the separationists?"

"Just a term my seniors coined. One of many groups infiltrated, yes. By the way, you have already contracted the illness, so I don't mind spilling some beans. The villagers were injected with Gimsula stone fragments and some other delectables that I threw into the mix. It was still in the development phase, but my theory was to keep the arclight in the body from dispersing after one's death. Effectively, your life force never leaves the compounds of your body but gravitates to the stone fragments which have become trapped in your system. Not until your body has fully decomposed, can you be considered medically dead. Now all that's left is preservation through healing magic to prevent that from ever occurring. You will not age as your body does not grow. It's simply worked far too well."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Moans began to spring up all over the village.

"Oh, but I might add that you may or may not retain your consciousness. Unfortunately, I was only able to inject the final versions into a select few individuals as I just recently finished its production, so most will not retain their minds."

"You are disgusting." Touji spat.

"As if the one who was just kicking a corpse has any say."

The surrounding bodies began to rise and stand as if a graveyard had come to life.

"Ahh, there. All awake and rearing to go."

"What's happening? Have you seen my papa?" The girl asked almost inquisitively.

Touji stared at her incredulously.

He realized that Chylum's fate was fast approaching. Her body would soon start to rot off of her bones in a couple of days, and he was unsure of what pain it would cause to be in such a state. He needed to get help somehow.

"What a shame, though. Her old man tried to stop her from inhaling the seeds and pollen in the air but only succeeded in strangling her the pour thing. As I said, naive creatures, they are."

"Do you get off on talking?"

Touji brought the girl up close and inspected her neck. A sprout had already begun to take root and the surrounding skin was already turning blue and green.

Touji clenched his jaw, fighting back his anger. "...Her father, you say?"

"If you plan on beating me for it, then please be my guest, but you don't have much time left yourself. The seed will dig into your brain before sunrise."

Touji shook his head. He pushed Chylum's limp body into his chest.

"Emar! Let me ask you one thing. Did you kill Claria?!"

"Huh? No, no, no. Her death was untimely and unexpected. I was under the impression that you were responsible."

"Don't play dumb with me-"

"I'm not. In fact, I still don't know who you are. But something about you seems to have changed-"

Suddenly, a loud tearing sound was heard as a brown spike emerged from the doctor's stomach and suspended him in mid-air. Touji stumbled back and held Chylum tightly, his eyes following the long vine-like root up and into the night sky.

Emar gasped and coughed, spraying out a mouthful of a thick black liquid. "...Well, now, this is new."

More roots began to spring forth and began piercing the remaining bodies, suspending them like puppets.

A root the size of an elephant's trunk wrapped around his head, crushing it like an egg, while more roots appeared, tearing him limb from limb and piece by piece. The sound of grinding meat and bone rattled through Touji's ears, causing intense nausea.

Moans and wails began to multiply in volume as the villagers awoke.

Touji peered around him. The zombies were slowly approaching him, their hobbles unsteady and unbalanced. They began to surround him in a semi-circle. Their hands extended forward slowly. It was made clear that these things were not the same as Emar and Chylum. These were proper zombies.

-You stupid doctor. Your damn experiment didn't even work.

Touji pulled the girl close as her eyes rolled back into her skull and foam began to pour out from her mouth. The roots were encroaching around her neck.

He squeezed her only more tightly. The surrounding ground began to crack. Roots shot out from the earth like tentacles, slashing about and grabbing hold of anything nearby. One shot out of the earth beside Touji and wrapped around his ankle. He kicked at it with his free leg as it pulled him away towards the forest.

-This is the end of this round.

He held on tight to Chylum, refusing to let go. Touji bit his lower lip, blood dripping down his chin.

-You're not going yet Chylum. Not on my watch.

He was dragged farther and farther into the forest, snapping tree branches and smashing into boulders.

The screams and shouts of the villagers' bodies polluted the air as they were subjected to the same fate as Emar. Touji was unable to witness it as he was taken further away and deep into the woods. The large hunk of wood continued to drag him along the ground.

-I will not let her go here.

With all his strength, he lodged his feet onto a passing tree's trunk and pushed hard, stopping his movement.

The root let go without warning, sending the pair flying back. As he hit the ground, Touji lost his grip on Chylum landing on the other side of a small clearing and rolling into a patch of wildflowers.

-Where is she?

He crawled to his feet and found her lying a few feet away in the grass.

Touji hastily scrambled after her when suddenly his feet refused to move.

He looked down. They were shaking and yet somehow glued to the ground. He placed all of his willpower into his legs, but not one muscle responded as if something else had ordered them to stay put. Something was approaching from behind. The trees began to move and separate as if to make way for this entity.

Touji clenched his jaw.

The plants swayed as a gust of wind blew against him. His mind raced as the surrounding ground cracked and shook.

A large oval shape emerged from within the forest depths. An enormous flower bud appeared, rising up into the sky. Its petals unfurled, revealing a purple and pink interior. It was the size of a house. A yellowish mist flowed out from inside.

A human figure had emerged from the inside and stepped out onto the nearest petal.

"The hell!"

"Why did you wake me?" The thing's voice was deep and powerful, causing the air to vibrate.

Touji was unable to respond, only gawking.

"Hmmm. Weak. Bow."

Touji fell to his knees. In a blink of an eye, the man's hand had transformed into a root that extended, piercing the ground behind him and impaling the air in which he had stood moments earlier.

The man descended and landed on the flower's open petal. He was tall and muscular. His topless chest was laced with tattoos of flowers linked together by thorn branches, and he wore what appeared to be brown shorts made of bark. His hair was short and stood on its ends, and his ears were pointy, resembling those of an elf. The figure smiled a wide and terrible smile. Touji glanced up at the creature, his whole body shaking from head to toe.

The root retracted itself, returning his hand to a natural form. Touji's eyes followed its movements carefully.

"Tell me human. Why was wakened?"

Touji swallowed his tongue and coughed.

"I-I don't n-know."

The man frowned. His eyes began to glow a deep emerald green.

"YOU LIE."

Touji collapsed face-first into the grass, his body contorting in an unnatural position.

"I-I d-don't. I-I swear."

"Human. You dare lie to me?"

"N-no. N-never. I-I swear."

A root sprung up from the ground, holding him by the scruff of the neck and lifting him up in the air.

The man was silent for a moment and then broke into a wide smirk.

"You believe the lie you are telling. What an odd creature."

Touji shivered in the root's grasp, his eyes bulging out of his sockets as it squeezed tighter.

"You are not my concern. Remove yourself and the girl before I do it myself."

Touji struggled for breath as his feet dangled uselessly.

"One last time. TELL ME!"

Touji's head fell back and his arms swung like rag dolls.

The man let out a frustrated grunt and flicked his hand.

The root flung Touji away.

He landed with a thud on the other side of the clearing, crashing through a cluster of branches and vines.

"Leave. Or next time I will not be so generous."

Touji crawled to his feet and, without question, ran.

-I don't want to die. I don't want to die. Please don't.

A thud rang out and a gust of wind blew past him, followed by a loud tearing noise. The body of Chylum lay sprawled on the ground at his feet. Touji frantically scooped her up and heaved her over his shoulder.

-We can't die. Not yet.