Swimming With the Stars

One - Go Fish

April 29th 2023

Fear.

Fear is the only thing Pezzy feels these days. It's never stopped, never gone away ever since that phone call from nearly 2 months ago, but he wouldn't dare tell anyone that. Don't show weakness. Remain strong. Keep your damn head up or you're going to get killed. Typical, right?

Yeah. Pezzy scoffed. Right.

Sure, it was probably easy enough if he'd just stop running and let the physical proof of the lab-test-gone-wrong get him. But where's the fun in that?

That's how he found himself in a tree, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath, glaring at the groaning lumps of flesh and deterioration below. It was slightly amusing how stupid they seemed, now that they weren't human beings anymore. Just someone who used to exist, but one bite and their lives were stolen. While their souls carried on, their bodies stayed to suffer the rot.

Pezzy settled down on the branch he had reached.  The sudden adrenaline had left his movements shaky, he wondered how he even managed to climb high enough out of reach without falling back down on his ass.

He had been on his way back from scavenging for food, which he'd gotten lucky by coming across a small store. It wasn't much, but it was something.

He knew he couldn't stay on this tree for long, he only scrambled up the first one he saw that was stable enough, to have a little extra time to think. Scanning his surroundings, Pezzy took in the possible escapes. There were only two zombies, he'll most likely make it out alive if he just jumped and made a run for it.

Pezzy breathed in, "Ok."

He shook out his arms, steadying himself on his feet. The zombies below him watched curiously.

He breathed out, slowly inching himself down the branch, carefully checking for any weak points as he went. Once he had gotten as far as he could, he tightened the straps on his backpack, and then took out the switchblade from his sweatpants pocket and kept the blade tucked in its place.

If they reach him, he'll stab. Easy peasy.

Bouncing himself slightly in anticipation, he quickly sucked in a breath and lept with everything in what strength his legs supplied him with, holding his breath until his feet roughly hit the ground, scraping his palm, knees and knuckles. Once he recovered, he bolted. Never looking back.

Zombies were fast, as he's learned over the past couple months. But they weren't faster.

—

Pezzy's jogging came to a stall as he neared the base, lowering his head for a moment as he put his hands on his bent knees and caught his breath. He'd lost the zombies several minutes ago, but didn't want to take the chance of them catching up, so whenever his body allowed it, he ran.

He looked back up at the treehouse that he and Droid had thankfully come across while looking for a place to rest. It was tucked in the dense part of the forest, where most of the thicker trees stood. Once upon a time, they assumed it had been used for camping. Or a "secret" place that kids snuck off to for play dates. Pretending to be pirates, sailing the intense sea. Or knights, saving the princess from the villain. Or pretending to survive an apocalypse from bloodthirsty zombies.

It's crazy how much has changed.

Pezzy walked just underneath the opening that led to the main floor of the structure, giving quick raps to the wood supports, signaling his arrival. He looked up.

"'Bout time you came back, I was seriously thinking about going out to look for you if you took another five minutes."

Pezzy chose to scoff with an eye roll in reply. "Repunzel, Repunzel, let down your hair."