Maizen: Return of the Zombies

Chapter 27

JJ stumbled back up the walkway, constaintly having to wipe blood from his eyes and readjust his vision as it threatened to give out due to the damage he had taken. He felt like he was about to fall over, when he suddenly heard footsteps echoing from outside the room. Then, uncontrollable sobbing.

It was Mikey. And he'd made it there just in time too, because JJ was hurting pretty much everywhere, and he felt like collapsing entirely. Thankfully, Mikey was there to give him such a hug that JJ didn't even have to put in the effort of standing up anymore.

"JJ- I-I thought-" It took a while for him to even form a sentence over his own crying. "I thought you were gonna die! I tried getting up, but my back hurt so much that when I moved even a little, it stung really bad! It took so long for me to be able to move, and I thought you were going to be dead by the time I got there! I'm so sorry!"

"There's nothing for you to be sorry for," It hurt for JJ to talk due to the throat damage he'd recieved earlier. "You were just trying to help. It's Bob's fault for-"

"Why did he act like that? You said you were sorry!"

"I don't know..."

For a moment, they both took a moment to appreciate the fact that they were both alive and okay. But then, there was a question.

"Where is Bob?" Mikey suddenly looked over JJ's shoulder fearfully, as if he expected Bob to just come barging straight through the doors. "Why isn't he chasing you anymore?"

"Because he's dead."

"What?" Considering the things Bob had just done, JJ was suprised to see how horrified Mikey looked. "What happened? How'd it happen? There's no way!"

"There was a ledge out there," JJ planned his lie for this very carefully. "He slipped and fell off-"

"Fell?" Mikey raced out of the doors, and leaned over the edge, too dangerously in JJ's opinion. But before he could warn him to be careful, Mikey gasped horrifically once he saw, and heard, the zombie horde that was below. "He fell into that?"

He leaned even further off the edge, and that was when JJ stepped in and pulled him back.

"Oh no no no, that must've been super painful!" Mikey exclaimed, teary-eyed and practically hyperventilating. "First the impact, and then getting mauled and torn apart by zombies? I can't even imagine! I just can't! JJ, are you sure there was nothing you could have done to save him?"

"Positive-" Before JJ could come up with another detailed lie, Mikey started sobbing into his shirt. JJ led him away from the scene of Bob's death in hopes of easing his emotions, but it didn't seem to work.

"I hate it when people die!" Mikey burst out. "It's awful! Nobody deserves to!"

"Nobody?" JJ couldn't help but ask. "Not even the worst people?"

"No," The question seemed to distract Mikey from his out of control emotions for the time being. "I believe everybody deserves a second chance. I feel like if they're made aware if what they're doing is wrong, then they can change for the better. Don't you?"

"Uh..." JJ didn't think so, but he didn't want to be contradicting during a moment like this, but at the same time, he didn't want to lie more than he already had.

Mikey sighed. "I know you might not agree, because of how you've hurt people in the past. I know it was for good reasons, but it scares me sometimes. How you resort straight to it. I feel like, maybe it's something you should work on. Because," He leaned into JJ again, but this time, more collected. "During all this, the world needs more people alive, than dead."