Beyond the Barrier: Zombie Town One-shots

Lessons Learned

(Another wait, sorry about that...! I was busy with the con and extremely tired after it, so when I actually had time to write I couldn't stay awake to do it. The con was fun, I bought a ton of ZOMBIES art commissions (take a look at my Tumblr to see them~!) but sadly no-one recognised my Addison or zombie cosplays

I've mentioned Mr Zeck, the janitor/zombie teacher, giving Zombie-tongue classes in fics before but I felt like I needed to take a closer look at him and how he adjusts to it. I also wanted to pair him up in a friendship with the coach cuz I love when characters who are such opposites are friends like that. I have one more one-shot planned out then I'll have to start coming up with more ideas, but I'll most likely focus more on either the Bronzo AU or the Big Project, cuz their plots are coming along nicely now. BtB updates could be few and far between, depending on how things go)

A promotion. An actual, real promotion. Not like when he was practically babysitting Seabrook High's new zombie students down in the basement and calling it "teaching", no, now he really was teaching. And he was no longer the janitor. Although, that job still had gone to another zombie. Baby steps. Progress is progress.

Mr Zeck, as luck would have it, was in fact quite well versed in not only the Zombie language but its history as well, and with the new zombie integration program in place, he could get the basic training he needed to become an actual teacher. He'd never considered the position before but he had to admit, even if he wasn't able to teach them properly, it wasn't all that bad overseeing the zombie class – if he could even call it a class at the time. And for the first time in years, he was feeling hopeful. In the past, Mr Zeck had learned to accept his role in society; a zombie, only good for menial tasks and nothing more. But now, things were looking up. So he was going for it. The school board wanted to introduce a Zombie-tongue class for the human students in order to improve the human-zombie relationships and give them a better understanding of their history and culture. This was his chance, and already being a member of the school's staff, he heard the news fast and was quick to apply.

He was going to teach Zombie-tongue to humans. And he wasn't going to be stuck in the basement anymore. But he was all too aware of the humans who still didn't approve of the integration. He was going to be Seabrook's first zombie teacher and that would inevitably come with an obscene amount of resistance. But he was part of the movement now and he wasn't about to let his cynicism get the better of him.

They weren't all bad, of course. Most of them were certainly making an effort to be more respectful than they may have been before, at the very least. Addison and Bree, in particular, were near model students but he wasn't too surprised about that – he knew about their close relationships with a few zombie students. They had already learned enough from them to know what was and wasn't true. And Bree was quickly reaching the top of the class. He knew he shouldn't play favourites, but if he did, it'd be a solid tie.

There were only a handful of students who weren't so pleased with the change, but they were hard to ignore.

"What do we even need this class for?"

"Yeah, when are we ever gonna talk in Zombie?"

"Talk about a dead language..." Someone snorted at that one. Addison scoffed and Bree rolled her eyes.

Mr Zeck simply folded his arms and gave the kid an unimpressed look.

"Are you finished?"

"I'm just saying, what is the point of learning this? We don't need to speak in Zombie-tongue when you zombies can speak English."

"This class is about more than humans learning to speak the language. It's a matter of understanding zombies," he managed to keep his voice level, "Not just in the sense of understanding what we say, but understanding our history and our culture. Zombie-tongue comes from years of struggle and experimentation after the outbreak. It's a significant part of how we built our society. That is what makes it necessary for you to learn."