Maizen: Return of the Zombies

Chapter 12

JJ suddenly woke up. It was the middle of the night, and he wasn't quite sure why he had been disturbed from his sleep. Based on how tired he had been, he'd assumed he would have slept in late, if anything.

Next to him, Mikey was still snoozing. He was moved around so much to the point where the blanket wasn't on him anymore, and he was practically hanging off the edge of the bed. This wasn't really suprising, though. He did this quite often. Sometimes, JJ would wake up to find him completely on the floor.

JJ turned on the light. Whenever he woke up in the middle of the night, he usually wasn't able to go back to sleep.

"Might as well stay up until dawn." JJ thought, not really looking forward to it. He'd be an absoloute mess in the morning if he ended up actually doing it; which he usually did when he woke up like this.

As he stared at the ceiling, he soon averted his eyes over to Mikey, who was sleeping unusually silent.

"Lucky him." JJ thought. "He gets to sleep a nice, deep sleep. Must be nice, not having tendancies to procrasinate late at night. Dreaming about cake and whatnot..."

JJ kept his eyes on Mikey, and that's when he noticed that his skin looked darker. Not everywhere, just in some places. As in, streaks. The harder he observed, the more strange things he noticed about Mikey. His uneven breathing, and even...

Wait a second.

JJ instantly got up and grabbed Mikey's leg, praying to both the turtle gods and human gods that wasn't what he thought it was.

But it was.

It was a fucking zombie bite.

The moment realization hit him, JJ backed away as fast as he could. He quickly fell off the bed, and he hit the ground rather loudly. He froze as Mikey suddenly twitched at the noise, and sat up slowly.

He'd really done it now.

JJ was certain that Mikey was infected by now. He had noticed over time that it took different amounts of time to turn for each person, and JJ also knew that the only time that Mikey could have possibly been bitten was at the hospital when they were attacked by that zombie. It seemed as though Mikey had been one of the ones that took hours to turn, instead of instantly...

Based on his previous encounters with infected, he expected Mikey to instantly be alert and focused on attacking him right then and there. But, to his suprise, he took his precious time observing his surroundings and taking everything in.

Every single infected JJ had seen were intelligent, fast, and aggressive. But Mikey? He seemed to be different. Just then, JJ put together that the intelligence level of the infected were probably based off of how smart they were as regular people. And, as much as JJ hated to admit it, Mikey didn't nessacarily fall under the "intelligent" category.

Mikey eventually noticed JJ. He curled his lips back and let out a growl so low that JJ could hardly hear it.

"Maybe he won't attack me?" JJ wondered, unable to touch on how he would really feel if that happened. In the back of his mind, he imagined the agony of having an infected best friend, not attacking, and unable to ever listen to anything to JJ said. Just mindless, forever.

"Fuck, fuck, no!" Suddenly, JJ wished he would he would act aggressive. He didn't want to deal with that. Not ever.

Just then, the zomebified Mikey's instincts kicked in, and he launched himself at JJ. He was busy with his thoughts that the attack had majorly caught him off guard, and he certainly wasn't prepared when he felt a fiery pain shoot through him as Mikey clawed ravenously at his chest.

Despite JJ's previous thoughts, he couldn't bear the pain he felt for another second, and without even realizing it, he kicked Mikey away from him.

It was easy to overpower him. Of course it was - every fight they'd ever had, every brawl, or during any kind of practice, JJ had always won. Mikey had never stood a chance... he'd always been weak.

Of course he was weak was a zombie too.

"Because why not! Why not!" JJ's mind screamed, feeling tears starting to stream down his face because of the pain from both his wounds and this realization. Suddenly, JJ noticed his netherite sword proped against his bedstand, and he grabbed it without even thinking. All he knew, was that he didn't want Mikey scoring any part of his body again. The pain, the feeling... he couldn't take it. He couldn't take anything right now.

JJ crawled away from Mikey, cornering himself in between the bedstand and the wall. He felt himself holding back a sob as Mikey took another few long seconds to locate him again, and he growled once he did and prepared to attack once more. But when JJ held the sword in front of him, Mikey did something strange. He completely paused, and just stared at the sword. Stared, and did nothing else. JJ stopped crying, and stared back. What was he doing?

"What is he waiting for?" JJ thought, angry tears starting to return. "Why does this all have to be so fucking hard?"

The math here was rather simple. When Mikey saw JJ, he saw prey. But when he saw that sword, he saw danger. He wouldn't attack him as long as he kept that sword in front of him.

JJ felt his arms become shaky. He didn't want to keep Mikey at bay. He wanted Mikey to kill him... JJ couldn't bear to live without him, nor with him as a mindless creature.

If Mikey was gone, then JJ would go too.

JJ released the sword, and it clanked on the wooden floor. Mikey flinched at the noise, and suddenly noticed JJ was now unarmed. But still, it took him a long time to process it.

JJ started breathing heavily. He wanted this to be over with already.

"Come at me, dumbass!" JJ shouted, causing Mikey to flinch again. All that did was hurt him more, knowing that Mikey always used to flinch at loud noises. "Finish me off! I'm ready for you!"

Mikey growled, before finally leaping at JJ again. His eyes widened as he began to feel that familiar, fiery, agonizing pain consume him again as Mikey began to bite and claw at him, bringing him closer to death in any way he could. It was absolutely horrible, and like nothing JJ had ever felt before. But it would all be worth it, once he was free of the depression of no longer having his best friend with him.

Suddenly, Mikey sank his teeth into JJ's exposed side, and started tearing at the flesh. JJ felt a brand new pain as Mikey started digging deeper than he did before.

"He's eating me!" JJ realized, wanting to sob, scream, and do everything else all at once. "Stop, stop! Wait until I'm dead! Mikey, please!"

Thankfully, he felt his senses fading before the pain could intensify beyond his breaking point.

At last, death had come to claim him.