Maizen: Return of the Zombies

Chapter 21

It was truly a miracle. It had been that hallway in particular, that led to what looked like an exit. Thank god all those hours searching had been saved.

It was a vault. When JJ opened it, it had all sorts of gold in it. That wasn't the important thing though; JJ already has tons of gold, the important thing was a ladder that led to the outside.

At last, they were getting out of this god damn place.

Knowing Mikey was right behind him, JJ wasted no time in going outside. He pushed open the entrance and took in a deep breath of relief as he felt the suprisingly mild air of the night desert swarm around him. He helped Mikey out too, and he encouraged him to run and get as far away from the base as possible. He calculated which way they'd been travelling prior to getting kidnapped, and they ran in that direction.

As expected, they both soon lost their energy. Now it was down to walking. Oh well, it was better than nothing.

JJ noticed that Mikey was physically keeping his distance from him. He had no idea why; after all, he'd just rescued from a genital obsessed creep. Why did he look so scared of him?

"Mikey..." JJ asked, and Mikey flinched at the mention of his name. "What's wrong? Why do you look so scared of me, and why did you say for me to not hurt you back in the base?"

"I-I thought... since you were mad at me, that you were gonna s-stab me too," Mikey said, choosing his words carefully. "B-But I'm sorry-"

"What? No!" JJ started stressing. He knew for certain Mikey thought this because of what he'd said during their argument. Now, he was trying to tiptoe around him in order not to send him over the edge again. To get yelled at again. "No, no! This isn't what I wanted at all! Mikey, I'm so-"

Before he could get into it, he noticed that Mikey was cowered down and on the verge of crying. He probably thought he was about to experience another lecture right now.

"I'm so sorry..." He continued, before Mikey could continue getting the wrong idea. He got down to his level, and grabbed his shoulders before he could flinch away from him. "Listen, buddy, I didn't mean anything I said before. I would never leave you to die or kill you; please don't think I would, because I could never let someone as important as you be in harm's way when I'm around. Okay? Please don't be scared of me... I promise, I'll never yell at you ever again."

Mikey took in his apology. "Okay..." He started to calm down, and leaned into JJ. They made sure to make the embrace last as long as possible, before finally breaking apart to start travelling. But before they could get very far, Mikey suddenly lurched forward in pain. JJ instantly went to see what was wrong, but he easily put together what it really was.

"Another side effect of so much unhealthy food... bellyaches." JJ said, and tried helping Mikey up. He had to carry him for a little bit, before Mikey insisted he could try walking on his own. It was only then that they ended up travelling at a decent pace again. "And that's good, because come morning..."

-

By the time it was day, the weather was signifigantly better than it was the day they'd been kidnapped. It was still hot, however, and they were starting to lose their energy rather quickly. But just as JJ's vision was starting to blurr, he noticed something in the sky.

It was smoke. And where there was smoke, there was people. No doubt, it was the team waiting for them.

"And it'd been said they were at the end of the desert! We're so close!" JJ told Mikey about the smoke signal, and they started running again. This was the final stretch, and they couldn't let weakness claim them now.

"Guys!" JJ shouted as they got closer. He almost passed out just from relief when he finally started seeing grass and trees, and the small camp everyone else had set up while they waited for him and Mikey to catch up.

Mary noticed them first, and ran up to meet them. "Oh my gosh, the boyfriends are alive!"

In that instant, JJ stopped to grab some sand. The moment she got close, JJ whipped it right at her. The attack seemed to be super effective, and she stumbled back, learning her lesson for now. But as soon as she recovered, she attacked right back, and her and JJ engaged in a gnarly sand battle. Meanwhile, Bob went to get Mikey, who had collapsed at this point.

"Wait, wait! I just remembered!" Mary said, and JJ stopped assaulting her for a minute. "I have the best news. Come in the shade for a minute; you seem to be more attracted to the heat than you are to Mikey!"

"Do you want to get attacked, or what?" JJ said, threatning her with another handful of sand. She finally stopped for now, and started pushing JJ to the camp. "Get inside, you heatsexual!"

JJ used the sand he had to throw it at her face. But still, she didn't back down. "Sorry, I should have said homosexual! My bad!"

JJ had truly had it until now, and used both of his hands to grab as much sand as possible. When he threw it at her again, it finally unbalanced her, and she fell down.

"You guys need to chill-" Bob said, having witnessed the whole thing. "How did this even start?"

"She called me gay again." JJ said, and started kicking sand on top of Mary.

(I was just watching Mary on a Cross and it was kind of funny because I forgot Mary existed while I was doing it)

"Okay well, get in the shade before you lose your cool entirely-" Bob said. "Oh, and, she meant to tell you that the ancient tower is not too far from where we're at right now. We're going there tomorrow."

"We are?" JJ thought, and tried looking for it past the trees. He'd gathered from the map that it was tall, but he still didn't see it. Perhaps it would take some more travelling to find it.

Well, at least JJ would be doing it in decent weather, and everyone would be back together again. It was just like he wanted; the mission was back on.