Maizen: Return of the Zombies

Chapter 44

"There's no way! There's no way that's what happened!" JJ told himself, wiping sweat from his brow and dried tears from his face. It was definitely the middle of the night now, but that was the least of his worries. Though, something about the elements of the dream told him that maybe it was true.

He'd been so wrapped up in his new morals and following them, that he'd managed to distract himself from the guilt he felt about the incident of Mikey's death. At least, up until now. As new tears started to build up, his emotions started to spike, and when they both started to boil over, he took it out by grabbing a nearby chest and hauling it across the room.

Along the way, it hit JJ's whiteboard, causing it to fall down and send a few papers flying. Once it did, he saw one of the rules written on it:

Two: Mikey is weak, incapable, and does nothing but hold me back. He's only a distraction; his death was needed. My decision was beneficial and required for the mission; that's always more important.

"But... that isn't wrong." JJ mumbled to himself. "As much as Mikey used to be important to me, and how I sometimes feel like I regret it, it really was necessary. I shouldn't be feeling bad. Saving everyone else; humanity, is far more important than saving just one person."

After that, JJ was able to calm himself down.

"Besides, it was only a dream. It was probably no more than that. It's not like I'm some sort of prophet that can see into the past, that kind of thing is impossible."

Getting better.

"Emotions make people weak. I can't let that stop me. I just need to get to the top floor, find the cure, and be done with all this apocalypse bullshit. Once everyone is saved, everything will go back to normal."

And with that, JJ went back to sleep, without any more worries; nothing to fret about. Meanwhile, his chest started to feel unnaturally cold as he felt cool air come over him, but he ignored that too.

"A trick of the mind." He told himself, and dozed off. All the while, the air settled down, and the room was warm again.

-

At the brink of dawn, JJ decided it was time.

Time to head to the final floor. To find the cure, save everyone, and finally end this madness. Soon enough, he wouldn't have to worry about zombies anymore.

Since he didn't want to carry around an entire body, JJ decided to leave Will's body behind. Maybe if he needed it again, he could come back, but as of now it was unnecessary.

"Besides," JJ said to himself. "I doubt I'd like the taste of that animal."

"Let's see how quickly I get this done, now that I'm by myself." JJ wondered if he should time himself, just for fun. Kind of like a speedrun. "Ha, speedruns; the things I used to do before all of this. You know, I can do as many as I want when all of this is over."

Since Mikey was dead, it would just be JJ running the YouTube channel from now on.

"Oh well, it's not like any of the dumb kids that watch me will notice. They've always liked me more than Mikey, anyways."

If he ran into any zombies along the way, he'd have his sword to protect him. That, his wits, and his strategic abilities. It would be really hard to stop him; in all honesty, it's always been hard to stop him. Everytime he'd done a challenge, a fight or duel of some sort, or just anything in general - he'd always won. He hasn't lost before, and he certainly wasn't about to now.

He was on the third floor right now, so all he had to do was get to the fourth and last one. Then, it would be be one step closer to being over. Taking only his sword, JJ left the two dead bodies of Mary and Will behind. He just needed to clear and move on from the third floor. It shouldn't be too hard, right?

-

And it wasn't, surprisingly. After finding the stairwell leading upwards, JJ reflected one something he'd observed during his time in total here: The zombies were usually gathered below platforms in hoards, rather than being individually around the building itself. The time that him, Mikey, and everyone else had encountered a zombie while first entering the tower seemed to be the only instance otherwise. So naturally, JJ assumed it would be the same way with the fourth floor. And if that was the case, it would make his job twice as easier.

But something about this floor was different. When JJ got up the stairs, he noticed the walls were made of a darker metal, and there were significantly less rooms. And, each one was labelled with a sign above that had a random name and an assigned number.

"These must be offices of some sort," JJ concluded. "Like the one that I originally found the first cure in."

The letter had said that the pink potion was the right one, so all JJ had to do now was find it. This was the floor it was on, guaranteed, because there were no other floors left to search.

And, considering how these were all offices, he just might be able to find it. Then, there had to be some sort of recipe somewhere, and he could make as many as he needed to cure humanity.

But before he could start searching, something caught JJ's eye. A sign, larger than the ones labelling the rooms, was plastered on the wall in the not-so-far distance, reading: "POTION CREATION, TESTING, AND STORAGE LAB."

"This is it!" JJ thought, following the arrow that was on the sign. He was so close, this close to finally completing the mission; the potions were all going to be in this lab!

JJ found an open space, presumably where some doors used to be. When he went inside, he found a spacious room with a table streching across one whole side, along with cabinets above. Along the table where potion bottles, empty and filled. But there was an issue, just one.

None of them were pink.

"Maybe they're in these cabinets?" JJ checked the above cabinets, only to be met with random herbs, food dyes and ingredients, and other substances he didn't know the name of.

"No, no no no, the cure, it's supposed to be here-" He started to panic slightly, his breathing beginning to increase he took a couple steps back, looking at the array of different items here, none of them in which being what he needed.

Just then, JJ pieced something together.

The sign had said "creation" as well as storage and testing lab. This was also a place for making potions, and the ingredients to do so were all right here.

If JJ wanted the cure, he'd have to craft it himself.

"But I don't know the recipe for it! What am I supposed to do?"

The cure had been created using things in this very room, and that was a given. The doctor who had made it had worked here, clearly, so he couldn't have used anything else.

If he didn't know the recipe, then he'd have to figure out the recipe of his own.

He'd have to try every ingredient in this room.

Every possible combination.

This might take longer than JJ had originally anticipated.