Maizen: Return of the Zombies

Chapter 17

(Still recovering from that gnarly voice change. If they keep that new voice actor permanently I don't know what I'll do. He's not bad at voice acting, he's just not JJ. I prefer Scott Roberts because he's goofy silly zesty gay ahh and has been since Maizen started two years ago. Why would you change it now. Why would you. Why. Scott Roberts is the only real JJ, and I will never accept anyone else)

JJ sat with his thoughts while Mikey zoned out on cake. It was hard to do anything when he had this many thoughts running through his head, but at the same time, he really needed a distraction. But at the same same time, he needed to keep a guard up in case that stranger tried pulling anything. JJ groaned in frustration and fell on the ground. Why couldn't things just be easy?

"You want some cake? I've got plenty!" Mikey started throwing cakes at JJ. He didn't even react when they landed right next to him. They definetely smelled good, but JJ wasn't the type to down multiple cakes at once, so he ultimately decided to pass. He needed real food, not all this junk. And unfortunetly, finding that kind of thing would require searching, and JJ didn't want to leave Mikey alone in here with a stranger on the loose and enough cakes to put him in a month long sugar coma. In fact, JJ drew the line just about here.

"That's enough junk for today," JJ said, and started dragging Mikey away from the cakes and cookies. Mikey instantly started protesting, but it was no use. When it came to food moderation, JJ was annoyingly strict about it. Specifically, there had been a time where Mikey had straight up gained a lot of weight from this habit, and JJ had spent quite some time getting Mikey back in shape by enforcing exercise and confiscating all of his unhealthy food until he lost enough weight. It was pretty bad, but it had been fixed, and all's been good since then. And JJ was not about to go through all that again during the literal zombie apocolapse inside of a stranger's base. No way in hell. If he could keep Mikey away from all that, he would. Even if he complained constantly. "You don't want to gain too much weight, like last time."

"Last time?" Mikey said, and started thinking hard again. That also happened a long time ago, and JJ didn't want to pressure him into remembering something of the past, so he just dropped it, but kept the cake restriction. Thankfully, Mikey didn't argue anymore, but he still looked pretty bummed about it.

"Let's go exploring." JJ suggested. As long as he was able to keep an eye on Mikey, it would be alright. Plus, he'd be able to search for some actually good food. Mikey agreed, and they began walking, only for him to go into a room seconds later. JJ didn't see which one, so he started checking all of the ones that were nearby. When he ended up not finding him, he started to panic.

How did he already manage to get lost? This was bad; without JJ by his side, Mikey could be in serious danger! Splitting up always led to someone getting killed, based off of every cliché horror movie ever. But, given the circumstances, it was just as likely to happen now as it was in any kind of fiction. JJ turned tail and started heading in the opposite direction, but he stopped when he heard a noise coming from one of the rooms.

It sounded like... someone eating? JJ opened the door, and he saw Mikey huddled in a corner, munching on cookies.

"Mikey!" JJ exclaimed, going straight to angry instead of annoyed. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, nothing!" Mikey made a futile attempt to hide the cookies, but it was no use because JJ had already seen them.

"Well, it looks more like a something to me." JJ pointed out. "Why did you hide from me? I was worried about you!"

"You always are." Mikey said casually. "But I'm fine! Nothing's gonna hurt me in here, anyway. You're such a worrisome, JJ. It's just like that guy said, we're safe down here!"

"Like I'm going to take his word for it." JJ thought, still standing by his suspicions. But he knew expressing them was pretty much useless, because he'd either get called a worrisome, or "cranky." Pft. As if.

"I guess. Let's keep exploring. And give me those cookies!"

"Fine..." Mikey said, and dropped them at JJ's feet. "You're no fun sometimes."

"You know how I am. I just want to keep you safe. And eating too much unhealthy foods can lead to health problems, Mikey."

"I know, I know..." Mikey admitted. "But I just can't help it! They're so good! And I'm sorry for hiding from you, I just wanted to sneak a few more snacks in..."

"It's fine." JJ said, and they continued their walk. The entire time, JJ kept an eye out for suspicious items. There was nothing to see though, with the security all being somewhere. In this part of the base, it seemed more liveable. JJ wished he could find something, anything that he could label suspicious, but there truly nothing wrong with this place. All of the doors were unlocked, and all the rooms had uninteresting things inside of them.

That's when JJ realized something. Maybe it wasn't a thing he was supposed to find, but a screw up in the stranger's act. If he could find at least one thing, then he would grab Mikey and high tail it out of there, despite the weather. Who knows? Maybe the heat had gotten more mild, and he was only lying to keep them here.

He would do it now, but JJ could hardly navigate in this complicated place. So many rooms, so many directions and hallways... he'd have to find a way to get it out of the guy himself.

Suddenly, JJ heard a voice coming from the other side of one of the doors. Upon inspection, it turned out to be that same guy. He sounded like he was talking to someone.

"What are you doing, JJ?" Mikey asked, but JJ instantly shushed him. This might be the moment he finally caught him out of his act.

"Well, even if they're stationed outside of the desert, we could still take them in. They are awfully close, after all." He still sounded calm and used that sophisticated wording, and was presumably talking to one of his "friends" that he mentioned earlier on a radio of some sort, due to some additional static in the background. "The heat would still apply to them. Plus, it would be great to have some extra guests here."

JJ couldn't hear what the response was.

"If they don't comply, just reason with them. I really do want our new guests to have some company, and it would be a real shame if they refused a safety as great as this. Plus, they said that... JJ and Mikey were their teammates? They could be reunited, like one of them said earlier. Do take them here. I feel as though they would like it here very much."

"It's the team!" JJ realized. "His friends found our team, and they're going to kidnap them too!"