Beyond the Barrier: Zombie Town One-shots

Vent Art

(Yea, the upload schedule is definitely done for. If you missed it last time, I've edited We're In Zombieland Part 1 to mention one of the background zombies I named, Izabelle, is Bonzo's cousin and I briefly mention her here. She's the short zombie with dark, curly hair and long green sleeves. I got this idea and really ran with it. It's basically a bunch of my headcanons for Bonzo thrown together. Autism, bad relationship with his parents, staying up late to work on projects and being super groggy/grouchy in the mornings, and the fact he painted at least two of the murals in the power plant. And Izabelle. I had fun with this one. The final chapter of AGAZ will be up soon, btw~

Also the thing about Z, the first zombie, is partly canon. I got it from the production designer, Mark Hofeling's website. Go look it up because there's a lot of cool stuff about the sets and some extra info like that on there (I am completely disregarding his pronunciation guide for the Zombie-tongue alphabet though, it sounds nothing like what is said in the movie))

It was one of the first times he'd try to bring up autism to his parents. They weren't listening. They pretty much never listened to him, but this hit harder than any other time. They just refused to believe him, to understand. They'd scoff and roll their eyes and talk down to him over and over again. As if they knew him better than he knew himself. As if they knew what he was going through. As if they ever even paid attention long enough to know.

But this time, instead of shutting himself in his room, Bonzo left the house.

He was about to go up to his room, he'd picked up his art case with the intension of taking out his frustration in some painting, but then he thought again. He looked at his dad standing in the living room doorway, took the few steps back down and stormed out.

The sun was setting. If not at his own home, he had to be inside somewhere before the curfew started. He'd shown up out of the blue on both Eliza's and Zed's doorsteps on multiple occasions but this wasn't like those times. He was angry, and Bonzo was so rarely angry. It wouldn't do any good to go to Izabelle's house and turn it into some big family matter. Besides, Izabelle would just get angry, too. Either at Bonzo for disturbing her, or at her aunt and uncle for treating him the way they did. And an angry Izabelle was so much worse than an angry Bonzo.

He wasn't going to give in and go back inside, though. Even if the patrol would be driving in soon to enforce curfew. He slung his art case over his shoulder and took off down the street. At this point, he needed some time to himself anyway. He slowed down as the sky grew dark. He still didn't know where to go. He heard a metallic clanging followed by a scraping – the barrier was opening. That meant the zombie patrol was here. He ran for the nearest building that wasn't a house and ducked inside.

The power plant.

He'd been there a handful of times before, for the zombie mashes, and it had been incredible. The loud, pulsing music shaking his bones and almost making it feel like his heart was beating and the bright lights he could stare at for hours. But there was no mash tonight. He crouched in a corner just inside of the entrance, peaking out of a broken window. A jeep rolled by and the street was quiet again. Bonzo shifted his focus to the room he found himself in. Way back when, this could have been considered a foyer but now it was too rundown to be considered anything at all. It was upstairs that the zombies had made their communal second home. With one more glance outside, Bonzo went to the elevator.

This floor was always alive with excitement during a mash but now it was empty, dark and silent. There were a few spots of colour – some Zombie-tongue graffitied on the walls and the plastic light fixtures and decorations, unilluminated now. Finding a lever on the wall, Bonzo turned on the lights and they flickered then burned bright. He walked forward.