A small blonde boy stood by the front door of the apartment , as if he'd appeared out of thin air. He was very scrawny looking and his clothes were almost as dirty as his face. A green hoody and baggy blue pants was what he wore on his meager frame and it made him look even smaller.
Lesley froze and for a moment they both looked at each other.
Then the boy rushed in and looked up at Lesley with wide blue eyes.
" You...are alright? " the boy said , his voice was like the feel of mint leaves .
" Who are you ? " Lesley asked him and the boy smiled , showing oddly white teeth.
His arms rose up and he suddenly hugged Lesley fondly , his face beaming with a warmth. Unfortunately it was the exact opposite for Lesley.
As the boy's arms held his waist, his mind drew a familiar situation and it made his heart freeze. The last time he'd been hugged like this was at Crossview Hospital and that was by -
Lesley shoved the child away from him in fear and his legs raced back to the bedroom. A Crux was soon in his hand and he glared at the door, ready for the zombie toddler to come. A few seconds passed but no one came .
Lesley waited patiently, his nerves strung like rubber bands . Unfortunately no threat came, not in the first minute or the second, not even the third. Finally, Lesley moved , with his Crux at the ready , he went back to the kitchen.
No one was there and it was when Lesley turned that he saw that the child was in the living room. He was on his knees , looking down at the floor with a frown on his face and when Lesley saw him , he looked up and quickly glanced down. His fingers twiddled with his sleeves and he shut his eyes hard as Lesley moved closer to him , the Crux was pointed like an arrow to a target.
" What...are you ? " Lesley asked the...thing . Because Lesley was sure it couldn't be human , the zombie toddler looked just like the child infront of him, albeit more alive looking. No zombie could turn back to human and Lesley knew that could only mean one thing ; a mutation.
It was not unheard of for zombies to mutate , some theories claimed upper rank zombies were mutations themselves. Because of the various differences that sometimes appear in upper rank zombies, Lesley would not be surprised if the toddler was a upper rank zombie then. After all , who would suspect such a innocent looking little thing ?
" What are you !? I know you can talk and are conscious, so talk before I cut of your head. " Lesley threatened the child who still looked down at the floor.
" Hey! " Lesley stomped his foot on the floor harshly and the boy looked up at him. His eyes were holding an emotion that made Lesley completely confused; fear.
Lesley tool one step closer and the boy grew visibly more tense. What the hell , Lesley thought, it's afraid of me ?
" You... won't tell her...I was here...will you ? " The boy said in a scared voice that almost quivered in the air , " She didn't want me to talk to you. I would say something wrong. She said you... should be left alone. But I saw you're sad and...I wanted to play...but now you're mad... like she will be."
The boy was making little sense to Lesley and this meant he had more questions now than ever. From the look of it , the child was a bit sensitive and also , this was discouraging, he wasn't afraid of Lesley's Crux. Even though he'd tensed up after Lesley took a step , he wasn't looking at the weapon in his hand but at Lesley's eyes. It was unnerving having those blue spheres gaze at him with such terror and Lesley suspected that's how this upper rank got it's victims.
He wouldn't let his guard down , but he would get answers.
" Why aren't you allowed to talk to me? Am I a bad person? " Lesley asked the question as if he was having an ordinary chat with a scared child , which he kind of was.
" No , no , no , Lesley isn't bad...he did not kill me , or the Mel and only kills the gone ones to stay alive. You want to live and don't want to die , so you don't . You won't die. " The child said looking at him meaningfully .
Lesley on the other hand got his confirmation, the zombie child was the one infront of him. It had just said ; ' you didn't kill me . ' and although it could be talking about now , Lesley knew it meant back at the hospital. He could feel it.
Also , he noted , the thing knew his name.
" Who is Mel? " Lesley asked it , " Is she the one you're afraid of ? " Lesley did not remember sparing any female zombies. Was it that time he'd walked through that zombie horde ? Had the toddler zombie been there too? Was he the upper rank he'd been waiting for ? Was the apartment his and the zombie teen his slave ?
Lesley was pulled out of his thoughts by the child's laughter. It started low but soon turned into fits of giggles as he kneeled on the floor and Lesley became confused. Had he said a joke ?
" What is funny ? " He asked the zombie child.
" You said...is Mel...her !? That is funny. " The child said breathlessly, " Mel is not her. He is the one you liked when you were dying. "
" What ? " Lesley frowned upon hearing that , someone he'd liked when he was dying...
Nope his mind drew a blank.
" Who ? " He asked the child and the toddler got up from the floor , making Lesley tense up. The Crux was at the ready and Lesley's eyes zeroed in on the zombie , ready to slice through limbs and torso. But the child did not move , he looked at Lesley.
" He is here , he has always been here. Would you like to see him? Mother hurt him but - " the boy gasped as he covered his mouth quickly.
His eyes grew wide and petrified with reborn fear and Lesley felt the hair on his neck stand up. The boy dropped his hands from his mouth and his mouth was quivering, as if he was about to start crying.
" I'm sorry mother...he was lonely and I - "
The child didn't get to finish his sentence before his feet left the ground. His small body was raised as if by the very air itself. Lesley wasn't sure who had the more terrified expression, him or the zombie child , but it was evidently for different reasons;
Lesley was feeling a chill , cold like an ice cube and it was moving through his spine and across his skin , making him have goosebumps. For the child however it was because he knew where that chill was coming from and he was afraid of what it meant.
His body became slightly horizontal and Lesley had to jump out off the way as the child flew , or was tossed , out of the kitchen window. The shattered glass barely registered in his mind as he ran to the window screen to see what happened to the zombie child.
It had landed in the middle of the road and it's left leg looked like it was completely broken, hell it was broken, Lesley could see it sticking out of the little thing's baggy pants. Not surprisingly the zombie child hadn't screamed but looked around until his eyes landed on Lesley's , and that's when it happened.
The stagnant zombies who had stayed behind to watch over Lesley all rushed at the zombie child. His dirty clothes were ripped off his small body and the flesh became easy pickings. Blood flowed as his body was torn through, first the stomach and then the limbs were yanked off , leaving behind a torso with barely a bottom.
Lesley watched this with wide eyes , he couldn't believe what he was seeing. An upper rank zombie was being ravaged by lower rank zombies. He didn't know which emotion was winning inside him ; revulsion or confusion.
And all through the tearing , the child had finally screamed something but it was only two sentences. It repeated them over and over again and if Lesley hadn't been aware it was a zombie and not a human down there , he'd had felt heartbroken and angry. Atleast more than a tiny part of him did.
Because the zombie child kept on saying; " I'm sorry mother ! I'm sorry ! "