Mercy ~ Z Nation Fanfic

-5-

One thousand fifty-nine," Gina calls out watching as 10k does another shot. Shes come to awe at his impeccable aim.

"One thousand sixty! Nice sh*t, kid," Doc praises.

  He shoots again before giving them a confused look. "Amish zombies. Really? Really?" Addy asks noticing his look.

"They tried to quarantine themselves from the rest of society. Keep the Zs from spreading the infection. That was before we knew Romero had it right. We were all carrying the virus. Didn't matter who you were or how you died. Night of the Living Dead," Garnett explains. That was always a downside, no matter how you died unless the brain was destroyed you would always come back.

"Great movie, sucky reality. You know what I don't get, If the Zs didn't spread the virus, how did we all get infected?" Addy finally asks.

"Best guess I heard, it was spread by birds. Some kind of parasite piggybacked on the bird flu. Stays dormant 'till you die."

"You know take it from somebody who knows first hand. Other than the fact that they find brains delicious, when it comes to zombies nobody knows nothin'. My turn," Murphy says grabbing at Addy for toilet paper. "Have we just met? Thank you."

"Hey, hurry up. I want to get past DC before dark."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

"I'm tellin' ya, there ain't nothin' there. No thoughts, no memories. No soul. Nothin'," Doc says shaking his head.

"Well they're not dead. They want something," Cassandra adds, her fingers skillfully moving through Gina's light red knotty hair pulling it into two dutch braids. She's been working on her hair since they've stopped.

"Yeah. Brains."

"You can't want something if you're not conscious," Gina counters. "So maybe to a degree they are. The nuns used to tell us that demons were possessing the corpses to raise an undead army for Lucifer."

There's an awkward pause, Cassandra's hands slowing in their speed. "Obviously that's a lie," Gina snorts. "According to my father If Lucifer wanted an army I'd be apart of it." There's another pause, Gina glances up to see looks of pity. Before she can snap at them 10k cuts her off.

"When my pa was wounded, he told me to tie him up before he turned. Made me promise to show him mercy when he died. k*ll the brain, you know?" 10k looks down, showing more the most emotion he ever has since joining them. Well besides when Gina ran to him but no one noticed that one. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't hurt my pa, no matter what he'd become. I stared into his eyes for the longest time, just looking for some sign he was still in there."

Guilt starts wedging its way into her chest. If it hadn't had been for Doc Mack would still be apart of the soulless undead.

"Did you see anything? What did you do?"

"I k*ll it." Her chest tightens as it brings of memories of her friend. She isn't sure if she could've killed a zombie of her dad, sure they didn't get along but that's her dad. She doesn't think she could have ever killed any of her family, hell, other than possibly Murphy she isn't sure she could kill anyone of this group.

"Damn, kid. You had to put down your own dad?"

"Didn't k*ll him. Kill it," 10k stresses bitterly.

"But if it's not alive, how did you k*ll it?" Cassandra asks finishes the last braid and dropping it.

"Piked it. Right here," he aggressively taps his own forehead, "My first k*ll. I always wish he knew, you know, somehow knew that I kept my promise," he snaps. His tone filled with sadness and anger. His face filled with heavy regret.