It had not been easy, convincing Mama V that is.
Convincing her not to kill them on the spot.
After the little unnatural display by Lesley, she had been really scared, mad and ready to kill.
She'd threatened to chop off their legs, dragged them out of the warehouse and leave them to a horde of zombies.
Of course with Mel, the zombies would not attack them, but Lesley had been in no mood to become legless.
So he'd struck a deal.
A cruel, regrettable deal that would probably come back to bite him in the butt.
But, what could he do?
Of course Mama V had also come up with certain conditions for the deal.
They had been outrageous and he swatted alot of them down. It would have been better to be disabled than give her what she wanted.
In the end they had found some middle ground and Lesley and Mel were allowed to stay. Mama V had talked to her people, convincing them that the sounds and explosions had been her testing out her ' new zombie'.
The people had believed it. Surprisingly or otherwise, they readily listened to Mama V like followers to a prophetess.
Lesley had to admit, it was unsettling and he made an agreement to never bad mouth Mama V around any of her people. Who knew, they might try to burn him on a stake for blasphemy.
So Lesley and Mel could stay, and everything should have been right with the world.
But it wasn't.
Lesley soon found out that his nights had turned for the worst.
Sights and sounds of horror assaulted him for days whenever he slept. He'd lost count of the times he'd screamed himself awake, drenched in sweat and heart racing for dear life.
Forget nightmares, these were night-terrors.
A week of fitful and agonizing dreams was all it took and Lesley decided to just... take a break from sleeping.
It had been over three days now, without any sleep.
...
"Hey."
A guy wearing a bright yellow shirt and a half burnt jacket jumped up in shock. He turned to the voice with a sharp machete in his hand but stopped when he saw who it was.
A red haired teenager, wearing a white vest, a blue and red jacket tied around his waist and an exhausted look on his face. He stood in front of him, not even looking threatened by the machete in his hand, or maybe he was but was hiding it.
Never trust a Red Cross, his mother always says.
"What you want?" He asked the Red Cross with a frown.
"Can I walk around there?" Lesley asked, he ignored the man's tone, feeling too tired to deal with it.
"There?!" The man asked in surprise.
He had good reason to be shocked, since Lesley was pointing at the crate. The one outside by the entrance to the warehouse.
Right then they stood on the roof of said warehouse, since the man was one of the six guards posted around to watch for any trouble that would, or could, come for them. His spot was close to the crate and that's why he could easily see it.
"Yeah. Just a few minutes, until the sun comes up." Lesley said slowly, his voice sounded like a straining instrument begging for a breath.
"What about zombies? The crate's not that tall. If they come, they'd get up there and rip your sweet biscuits apart." He said and Lesley frowned.
"I am going to act like I didn't hear you say my 'biscuits'. Also forget I asked you anything." Lesley said with a bit of his usual spunk and before the guard could say anything, he was gone and had jumped onto the crate.
He wasn't sure about this but something said this was a bad idea.
Just as he was about to call Lesley back, a body bumped into him and he glared.
"Hey! Watch where you're going you...you...," he couldn't finish his sentence as two pair of dead blue eyes looked at him.
"Where is... human?" Mel asked the guard, who although not the sharpest tool in the shed, knew who the zombie was talking about.
"He's over there." He said pointing to the red head on the crate,"I tried telling him not to go. He didn't listen see? I said to myself 'hes not thinking straight'. He looks awful tired and I think...oh, he's gone."
The guard turned to see that Mel had left during his speech.
The zombie had no interest in listening to the thoughts of the living. Unless Lesley showed some interest, he would not care. It was the same with Veranda, Mama V and any other human.
He just couldn't care.
Or could he?
...
Lesley sat cross-legged on the red crate, or was it brown? He couldn't tell in this dark night. The stars barely illuminated anything and the moon wasn't looking their way today, instead she gave a small wink of light.
"Huhgghh." Lesley groaned in tiredness, frustration and pain.
His head was killing him, feeling like his brain had grown a hand and got a hammer before going insane in his skull. His skin felt hot, unnaturally so and he felt woozy as if he had diarrhoea.
He gazed quietly at the street infront of the warehouse and the buildings beyond that street.
There was a bakery, something like a shop with windows but it was empty now, a few brick buildings and -
"Are you alright?"
"What are you doing here?" Lesley asked without turning around, he had expected the zombie to follow him. It actually would have been weird if it hadn't.
"I wanted to know if human is alright. " Mel said and Lesley almost laughed.
"Why human happy?" Mel's voice brought Lesley to focus and he realised he had laughed.
"No reason. None at all." Lesley said shutting his eyes so they can rest.
"Is human... tired?" Mel asked, he may have left the guard talking but he still heard him.
"Yes, now can you just be quiet? I am trying to focus on not falling asleep here." Lesley said turning his head with a glare.
Mel saw that face even in the low light and knew he should be quiet. So he became as quiet as a corpse. It came pretty naturally.
As soon as he was quiet, Lesley sighed and shut his eyes again. For a while neither of them said anything.
The silence dragged on and on and on and on and on and then-
"Ahhhh!" Lesley jolted, his body falling back as if in fear from something. Mel moved quickly and came infront of him.
But he didn't see anything.
"Gosh darn it!" Lesley shouted and he placed his hands on his head.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it," Lesley cursed as his eyes grew moist.
Mel watched as Lesley, for the second time since they met, became teary eyed.
"Are you alright?" Mel asked him.
"No, I'm not fucking alright! I can't sleep, I can't rest, I can't close my eyes for five fucking minutes without seeing... huhg I can't fucking take it anymore!" Lesley said in distress, digging his nails into his skull and drawing blood.
The red liquid flowed down his temple, as his eyes dropped their tears and they fell down his cheeks.
"I can't...I can't anymore...I just can't," Lesley mumbled and then he used a hand to wipe the tears from his eyes, smearing a bit of blood across his face.
"Zombie," Lesley said and he looked at Mel with a face of hopelessness.
"I want you to do something for me."he said softly,"I want you... to kill me. Right now."
"But I am supposed to tend to you as Death wishes." He responded,"She will be angry if I hurt you again."
"You're not hurting me. I'm hurting me!" Lesley shouted and wiped the blood from his face and then he showed it to the zombie.
"I'm losing my mind. I am scared I'm going to do something, hurt someone or lose control. I don't want that, anything but that." He said and made his hands into fists,"I am trying so hard to stop the... feeling from drowning me but I can't anymore. I'm tired... of just fighting. I wish Liam was here."
"Who Liam?" The blonde brunette asked.
"My cousin. More like my brother. He always helped when I had nightmares." Lesley said, not caring about sharing," He'd always hold me, especially back then...after mom and grandma."
"Who mom and grandma?" Mel asked that seemed to snap Lesley back to his senses.
"That doesn't matter. Now are you going to come here and kill me or should I jump? I'll run until I meet a zombie horde and let them kill me if I have to." He said, but it wasn't true.
Mel looked at Lesley's face for a moment and then finally he moved closer. Lesley instinctively flinched from Mel as he neared him. Even after nearly two months, he couldn't say that he was comfortable around zombies.
But truth be told this was a better reaction than before. Lesley would have flinched and then attacked with intent to kill.
He treated Mel differently from most zombies.
But why?
Mel went down his knees and then he reached out, Lesley closed his eyes.
I'm sorry Liam, he thought as his end came.
But it never arrived.
"Mel doesn't know that much."
Huh? Lesley opened his eyes.
"Mel doesn't why human is always so sad or mad."
Lesley swallowed as his eyes took in what was happening.
"Human wants to die but Death would be mad." The zombie continued.
"I don't care if she's mad, i-" Lesley was cut off.
"Mel would be sad if human dies." The blue eyed cadaver said and Lesley froze.
"Sad?" He asked after a moment,"Do you think, no, do you KNOW what being sad is?"
"No, Mel doesn't know much. Doesn't know what being sad is like but Mel knows... me not want human to die." He said and Lesley was perplexed by that sentence.
"'i don't care, now let me go!" Lesley shouted.
"I'll die for you. I'll protect you."
"You can't protect me from this! And why are you holding me?!" Lesley said pushing Mel away from the embrace that the zombie had just trapped them in.
"I don't know." Mel said holding Lesley by the waist and Lesley laughed disbelief.
"You are insane. I think your brain has started to rot. Now let me go." Lesley said looking at the other's dead eyes.
Mel didn't answer or let Lesley go and after a minute, the red head was about to blow when Mel said something that struck him like thunder and lightning.
"Can I sleep with you?" Mel asked and Lesley's eyes widened in shock.
"What do you mean?" Lesley asked slowly. He did not have a clue on what was going through this thing's head.
"Little human girl said when she scared, mother come to sleep with her." Mel explainen in a zombie fashion, "It made her feel safe. So I want to make you safe. Can I sleep with you?"
"No,no,no,no,no- aghhh " Lesley shut his eyes as a strong feeling of dizzynes and nausea hit him like a brick.
Lesley just gritted his teeth, riding the pain and waiting until it subsided.
What have I got to lose? The question popped into Lesley's head but he just mentally glared it down.
What had he got to lose? The question was adamant and he had to answer.
Lesley shook his head slowly in despair. He had what little was left of his sanity and a body on the brink of collapse. But that was no reason to lay down on the same bed with a walking dead body.
And he wasn't a baby that couldn't sleep by himself!
"You're not going to kill me are you?" Lesley asked instead.
"No. Never hurt human again." Mel said looking at the pair of green eyes giving him a thoughtful look.
"You will sleep on your side and if you move to mine, I can cut your limbs off and set them on fire. Deal?" Lesley said with a resigned sigh.
He knew he'd probably argue more if he could but right now he didn't have the strength. His eyes were starting to hurt as he blinked and kept them open.
Besides, if it did nothing, he could just kill himself, he thought.
"Human?"
"What?" Lesley asked with a raised brow.
Mel leaned in and put his lips on Lesley's head, shocking the red head intoa brief moment of paralysis.
"Mel protect you tonight. Mel is happy." The zombie said and Lesley's eyes moved until they were on the cadaver holding him.
With a upward thrust of his palm, Lesley shot the zombies head back and with a thrust of his arms, he broke free from the embrace.
"Veranda! Where are you!?" Lesley shouted as he stormed back to the warehouse, completely not caring about drawing a zombie horde.
"Where are you!? I know you told him to do this and by gosh, I'm so getting you." Lesley said looking at the roof suspiciously.
"No, I didn't. He thought it himself." A voice called out from somewhere on the roof and Lesley grew furious.
He'd thought something was wrong with the zombie but to think that little minx told it to do this... that girl needed a good butt whopping.
Unfortunately Lesley took a mistep and fell off the crate.
His head broke his fall, as did his neck. When Mel got down, Lesley was bleeding and his neck had snapped.
But he was still alive.