We Attack Fort Hollow... Tomorrow

That Psycho Popper really drained you: there were nights you did not need sleep, but this was not one of those nights.

“It was a Cordyceps bouquet.” Sarai had explained once you had managed to indicate your curiosity of it. “Some of us discovered that brain parasites cause violent damage to the undead, but by then, the world had all but fallen: all of the advanced bioweapon delivery systems mankind had built were inoperable or inaccessible.”

“A number of brain parasites and other such organisms exist, so we just call anything that uses them 'Psycho'. Psycho Poppers, Psycho Bombs - things like that. A rare and expensive commodity, these days.”

Tomorrow you would attack Fort Hollow, but tonight, the girls went back to their camp while you stayed here at yours, the tension of your uneasy alliance put momentarily on hold.

Outside, the Summer nights were slowly giving way to Fall, a light drizzle pattering down on your tent from a slightly overcast sky. If you were outside, you’d notice that the moon cast a purplish light tonight and bathed the balmy forest in enchanting hues, but here in your tent, it was quiet and warm.

...Quiet, that is, until you heard tiny footsteps crunching on the leaves, and saw a shadow fall over your zipped-up “door”.

“Nemesis?” Ana whispered, pulling your zipper down a little and peeking through. “Are you awake?”

Oh shit... how to reply? You’d been living alone ever since your voice had been taken, so indicating your presence from the dark was totally new to you.

You reached for one of your many pouches that you’d shucked off for the night, and produced a dented and worn steel lighter. It flicked on with a click, and cast your sexy body in moody lighting as you lay on your side.

“holy shit...”

“Um! I’ll take that as a yes.”

While she zipped your tent flap all the way open and stepped inside, you took your flame over to an old gas lantern and lit the wick, flicking your lighter closed. When you turned back, Ana was standing there awkwardly: she had on purple pajamas with cute cartoon animals printed all over them - cuddly buddies faded with time - and clutched in her arms a battered and beaten stuffed kangaroo with an eye patch and stitches all over as if it had torn and lost body parts many, many times.

“Do you... w-wanna cuddle? I fucking love to cuddle.”

You chuckled softly.

How long had it been since you’d cuddled? Since you’d even touched another person? Not since the fall... not a human, at least. There had been times, in the Citadel, when you had tried to mimic parts of your old life, form relationships, connections with your fellow undead... but you had only been fooling yourself.

“You’ve got a faraway look.” Ana whispered solemnly, still standing there. “What are you thinking about?”

You held out your arms to her. She knelt down, placed her plushie down off to the side, and wrapped herself in your embrace. You sighed, feeling her soft, warm body against yours, her head resting on your ample chest, tinted locks set free and mingling with yours in the pillows.

Reaching for another of your belts, you pulled another tarot from a deck where it was holstered.

“The... Citadel?” Ana asked, absorbing every detail of the scratchy black drawing. At the top, a forest burst through buildings and skyscrapers, then layers of the city fell down, down, down, darker and more disturbingly abstract until at the very bottom, only an inky black pit remained.

“This is... where you came from?”

You nodded.

“...What were you doing there?”

You retrieved the Nemesis card, and put it in her hands.

“You were fighting them?” She pointed at the hordes; you nodded. “Not just the hordes, but these... figures, at the top.”

You gave her a serious look, and nodded again.

“When all of this began, we realized every horde had an Alpha leading and commanding them, but there were also... super zombies...” she glanced at you, “that even the Alphas would bow to. Zombie bosses so strong, they took out our most powerful weapons and defenses. Nukes, armies, experimental weapons from Area 51...”

You took out one last card: this one was black, with abstract symbols in a variety of vibrant colors splashed upon the page. And at the bottom, in scratchy red lettering:

“The Red Lords.”

You gave her another serious look, as if to say “they are dangerous”.

You put your hands over hers, and put the Nemesis card with The Red Lords.

“You... want to fight the Red Lords?” Ana’s eyes went wide.

You nodded, determined.

“Shit…”

She gave the cards one last look, then gave them back. As you put them away, she began to absent-mindedly trace a finger over your rock hard abs. It was oddly relaxing, in a way.

“I have so many questions, but I have to keep reminding myself that you can’t talk. It would take an eternity to get through them all, even if you could. ‘Who were you?’. ‘What are you?’.”

She chuckled.

“...why are you so damn hot?...”

“But I’m sure you’ve asked yourself those same questions, sometimes.”

“Maybe...”

She looked up at you, bright blue eyes shining.

“...Maybe you could find a way to tell me, somehow?”

“You are... the greatest mystery I have ever seen. Ever touched.”

She looked back down. You both watched her finger continue to trace the contours of your body.

Who... were you, before the fall? It all seems like such a distant memory now: like a different person had inhabited your body, lived a normal life, with normal friends, normal hopes and normal fears. This new you, this... silent, vengeful creature bent on the destruction of the Red Lords... it’s all you were now. The world had died and been reborn - and you were with it.

“I saw it in your eyes, you know.”

“The moment we met?”

“That you were a good person. That I could trust you.”

She looked up at you again, pleading in her eyes.

“Do you believe in love at first sight?”

She rested her tiny palm on your stomach now, warmth radiating through you. There was conflict in those eyes, too: a rictus upon her face that just made you wish you could take her troubles away.

“I must be crazy, right? You’re a zombie! You’re a super zombie! I don’t even know what kind of... junk... you’ve got down there, and I don’t care!”

“Not that you, necessarily, know what junk I’ve got...” She blushed, crossing her legs and drawing attention to a little bulge between her thighs. “Then again... oh shit, I was wearing that dress, wasn’t I?.”

“There’s just... something about you, you know?”

She looked up at you again, ****. Hopeful.

“Do you... feel the same way?”