Beyond the Barrier: Zombie Town One-shots

Z Day - Part 2

(Get ready for a lot of BG zombie cameos!

Sorry this took so long, I spent the end of 2020 re-reading my entire main ZOMBIES fic series to do some writer's commentary on Tumblr, but I made a New Year's resolution to post at least 2 one-shots on the timeline per month! I posted 2 new Limelights in January, and there's more to come, but those one-shots could also include BtB, and maybe even AGAZ or History Lessons, who knows~

Anyway, part 2 of Z Day ended up way longer than I expected, and I've been really excited about this...! I did a little bit of research into Jewish customs surrounding visiting graves to include in Zed's scene, I hope I did ok with it~

(Azim will get a proper introduction in Limelight ASAP...))

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Zed woke up that morning to Zoey's wide eyes staring at him from barely two inches away from his face. He almost jumped.

"Come on, get up!" she said with that excited urgency little kids always seemed to talk with, "We're visiting Mommy today, remember?"

Zed grinned through his sleepy daze as she shook him, "Alright, alright, I'm going...!"

Zoey finally let go and ran back to the door, "We need to go right after breakfast, so hurry up!"

"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying," Zed yawned and stretched, kicking off the covers. He heard Zoey thundering down the stairs as he rushed to get ready. It was the same routine every year.

Z Day; one of the most important events on Zombie Town's calendar. Everyone would be busy, and the Necrodopolous family was no different. Since the year their mom, Zana, died, Zed, Zoey and their dad had spent the morning of every Z Day at the cemetery. The Reiligs would usually join them, as well. They would stay there for a short while, talking about Zana, and about Z, and each other, before they would close with Z's prayer and head back home. By the time they finished lunch, the march would usually have started, and they'd be right back out to walk to the barrier with the rest of the zombies.

But this year, Zed reminded himself, was going to be different. The main gate of the barrier was open now, and they'd continue marching through Seabrook. Addison had promised to meet them as they left Zombie Town, along with Bree. He knew of a few other humans planning to come – Bonzo's friend, Rachel, from music class, Roz's girlfriend, Keira, and her friend Teddy from the cheer squad. He was eager to get going. But of course, before all that, there was the cemetery.

Zoey skipped along ahead of Zed and Zevon, scouring the sidewalk as she went.

The Necrodopolous kids were half Jewish on their mother's side, and were raised practicing Jewish customs that they still observed now, including placing a stone or pebble on Zana's grave whenever they visited, rather than flowers. Stones were more permanent and resilient, after all. They lasted as long as their memories. Although, they wouldn't really have been able to bring flowers before now anyway; very little actually grew in Zombie Town after the outbreak. Zoey always enjoyed looking for stones she deemed good enough for her mom on the way there.

"Zed!" she came running back towards them and Zed held his hand out for her to give him the two round stones she had picked up, "Look how smooth they are! It's a special Z Day, so we should leave extra special stones, right? So we'll remember it."

"Yeah, these are perfect," he said, rubbing his thumb over one, "Great job! And just in time."

They had reached the cemetery, and on entering the rusted and dented gate, they spotted three familiar faces inside.

"Paizley!" Zoey ran up to greet the Reiligs and Paizley scooped her up into her arms, "Look at the stone I found."

Paizley touched it, "Oh, wow, that is really smooth...!" she said, genuinely impressed, and Zoey smiled.