Hysteric

“He likes me because I’m pretty… but that’s stupid,” Teric entered her new room and flipped the light switch. Noia had spared no expense decorating the room. It was almost a little girls room, but somehow felt grown up. Blue was theme, light powder blue to colored every square inch of the room. Her canopy bed she had been woken up in had been moved into the bedroom, where it probably should have been the entire time.

Everything was fluffy, trimmed, and lacey. Noia meant to spoil her.

“Part of me is in awe…” Teric thought as she looked about, “part of me doesn’t quite get it. I’ve been put into an elaborate children’s room…”

Her bed had a matching sheet set to the sheer blue curtains; in the middle was a fluffy brown teddy bear wearing a vivid blue bow.

“Well, at least you’re not blue entirely,” Teric muttered grabbing the brown fur coated item. “For the end of the world zombie apocalypse… I am living surprisingly well.”

When Teric thought hard enough about the zombie apocalypse in general it was the closest she could get to her human memories. She had preconceived ideas about the situation, all of them now shattered, but still each idea came from her mortal self. She liked to think about the general situation with a human mindset.

“Let’s see, I get electricity, food whenever I want… though I suppose I really can’t live off of canned beans. Oh, and a pristine teddy bear that isn’t covered in soot and mud with blood rubbed into his fur. Looks like you were robbed right out of a store front… I can only assume this is all stolen if it did not come with the home… that was stolen.” She sighed, “It’s when you’re the monster things work in your favor. I don’t think our human victims have been so lucky…”

She thought about dinner and chills crawled down her spine. She clutched the teddy bear close to her chest whilst she examined the rest of the room. There were in fact toys and doll houses strewn about the shelves, but as decoration rather than toys to be played with. Little Lolita dolls stared down from the shelves. She used to be frightened by the glass dolls, but how much more terrifying were dolls in comparison to herself? A blue room for a little monster doll. Teric looked down at her hands and suddenly a strange idea crossed her mind, “Do I age?...”

“No, you don’t,” Noia had stealthily entered the room with a few of the servants surprising Teric. Teric jumped up on the bed and quickly moved to a defensive stance.

Noia looked around at her decorations, “Do you like it? The room that is.”

Teric gulped anxiously afraid to hurt Noia's feelings, “Yes, I do… but, I’m stuck? Like this, at whatever age I might be?”

Noia shrugged, “To be fair you could almost pass as 18, it’s just… we’ve dressed you young. It would take some effort to look older than a teenager but I think you could pull it off.”

Teric spoke softly, “Almost 18 maybe… hard to say when you’re dead.” She sighed, “How does this work Noia, I don’t age… do we die then? Do our bodies grow old though while our surface appearance remains the same?”

“I don’t know,” Noia answered, “None of us have lived long enough to be considered conditioned for old age. The King himself is only 80, a normal human male with the proper medical treatments could reach that age easily but not look nearly as young as our king does. If he lives past 150, I shall question his mortality. As I have seen it we are much like the zombie’s we derived from. They dry out and crack eventually. The cells run on high and go until they are destroyed. Perhaps we keep going since we keep refueling, who knows. Questions for our Dr. Sado I suppose.” Noia walked over and sat on the ledge of the bed next to Teric, “Kira has confirmed you are the priest’s daughter, by make and by founder. He is not just the first to discover you; he is the one who created you.”

“Yeah,” Teric muttered, “he told me that much too, but nothing past that.”

Noia bent her head down looking away from Teric, “its best you let things come back to you naturally and slowly. It will make the pain more bearable. You are my niece now you know, my own daughter was a bit of a failure… fractured by her own mind.” Noia stared out with bright pink eyes, the same eyes as Phran had.

“We do what we must to survive… this means we must increase our population. 7 is not enough to conquer the colonies of humans out there, and the zombie population must be controlled,” Noia spoke.

Teric noted that Noia who seemed to be in a world all her own at the moment. “Yes, that is right. Zombies are mindless feeders, if not watched they’ll eat up all our food. We need humans… to keep living ourselves, all seven of us. This is something our good Father Joseph does not understand. He lives with them all the time, he takes more joy in killing humans than saving them…. And they don’t reproduce fast enough to keep up with his killing. When it comes to the time where you meet your maker, perhaps you will find a way to convince him to… calm down.”

Teric thought about what was being proposed to her, “I don’t know… Kira makes him out to be the greatest monster here…”

“No, Sado is the greatest monster here. You saw what he did to Cutter, which is his child by accident. Cutter is a pristine example of Stockholm syndrome. That boy gets slightly crazier the longer he is away from Sado. The problem is the closer he is to Sado the more injuries he gets. Ugh, all my children are failures. Well, goodnight Teric, I hope you enjoy your new settings… and your new family.” Noia mussed up Teric’s hair before leaving her with the servants.

The staff set out some pajamas very similar to the one’s Teric wore in the morning which she was promptly changed into. Her clothes from the day were taken away, and she was left in the solitude of her room.

“No more scary monsters for me…” Teric looked about her, “because I am the scary monster.”

She closed her eyes and fell asleep. Her dreams were a gate to her vague and fuzzy memories. She could remember the white halls of a hospital, or that they were supposed to be white, but instead they were rotted like everything else in that hospital. She was dragged through the halls, she tried speaking but only silence and a slight ringing could really be heard. Everywhere there were screams that filled the halls, Teric was horrified but laughed to protect herself from all the pain… so much pain… She woke up sweating in her bed starring out.

A new person had calmly walked into her room. Blue hair and blue eyes stared back at Teric. “Good morning, it’s 6 am and my time is extremely limited.”

“Nic… I didn’t expect you to just… come in…” Teric sputtered.

“And I expected you to be awake. It’s not often I find someone who has an interest in me, I make time to visit my adoring fans.” She spoke with bitter resentment in her voice.

“Forgive me Nic, I know I made an engagement to you… it’s just… my dream… I think, I think it was my memory playing back to me… I believe I’ve met Doctor Sado before…”

Nic’s eyes widened and a sneer graced her lips momentarily, “Oh? That is rather unfortunate. He is nasty business; no one wants to be around him… except for Cutter. He likes the pain, no puns intended of course.”

Teric looked at Nic who moved over to her window sill, “Ah, come here my darling. I think the whole house has taken a liking to you for Noia to do this. Look.”

Nic pointed outward, through the window and Teric walked over. “Look, see that glowing light in the back?”

Teric looked out through the vast expanse of land and focused on the faint glow of light the bobbed out from the trees. “Yes, barely… it’s so far away. What is it?”

“It’s the power plant my dear,” Nic replied, “Father Joseph is getting ready to restore light back to the human colonies and cities; even though they decay. Noia has told him something… that or he is ready to start another hunt. He does so very much enjoy infiltrating before hunting. He’s almost worst than Sado himself once he starts killing. I wonder if you’ll be the same.”

Teric looked at Nic with sad eyes, “I hope not…” she whispered, “I still feel… human morality… I think that’s how Noia would state it.”

Nic kept her somber appearance when addressing Teric, “it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’d rather you take direction from Noia. She may see humans as cattle and live stock, but at least she means to keep them alive. Sado sees them as rats and a source for experimentation, Father Joseph sees them as game where only a few humans should be saved to be exploited. Your creator is a cruel man, though… you would be his first child. None who he has struck down have returned quiet as intelligent as you, and certainly none of them would have been so pretty should he have had his way.”

“What about you? How were you… created?” Teric asked examining Nic.

“I was destroyed by my vanity. Life seemed to be going back to normal in my city again. The zombie population was decreasing and work seemed to be picking back to the way it was. I wanted to be a model… what I walked into was a feeding frenzy. Noia and the priest found away to sucker in willing, and poor humans to feed off of. They fed their zombie pets with the human bodies that would not be missed when they disappeared.

‘Noia was attracted to my beauty, so she fed from me, rather carefully since she did not want to damage me. She thought I would make a lovely zombie. Rather I came back just like her… and could not bear it. The suffering that took me caused me to fracture. The pain those two put me through…” Nic sighed, “they will be nicer to you. You were not made in a time where all of our lives were threatened by the humans. You’ve come practically at the start of a golden age for us lords and ladies.” Nic was so sad. She was quiet literally torn.

“Did the humans ever find a cure?” The question came from nowhere, but Teric felt like she should ask it all the same.

“Sweet girl, we are the cure. By natural evolution, we are the closest thing to a cure.”
Teric swallowed on a dry throat, “oh…”

Nic turned her gaze away from the power plant back to Teric, “you seemed so hopeful.”

“I suppose I don’t want to look like a little doll all my life, or feed off of people. What if I ever find myself starving and I run into an old friend from my human life?” Teric asked.

“This is why its better your memory is gone, your pain is bearable,” responded Nic. “There is no cure for us. A bullet through the head maybe… though Noia managed to recover from even that. I’ve decided that the best way to kill us is fire. Just to incinerate every cell and prevent it from re-growing. Poor humans… don’t even know we exist yet. Well, not the wild one’s at least.” Nic carefully lifted Teric’s arms resting her hands into the girls, “regardless of how old you feel like you should be, you are a child Necrolord. You don’t understand much. We ourselves are still trying to figure out much of our own benefits and disadvantages as we go along. Come, let’s get you prepared for the day. I think it will be nice to have someone up as early as me.”

They walked down the halls together and Nic whispered something into the ear of a nearby servant as they neared the bath.

“We all bath in the same place, the original owners removed all the showers from this place long before we arrived. It had been made into one big swimming pool to clean all the people that were trapped here back when this place was a sanctuary for humans. It’s the only thing the King has fixed up, though he does have his own bathroom. I fear Phran will be very upset if I don’t wash out all the crap Skitz puts into our hair.”

Teric nodded.

Nic started up the stream jets in the water and removed her clothing before diving in. Teric followed her and for once didn’t feel so shy or embarrassed. Nic emerged from the water and took a defensive tone with Teric, “Privacy is a luxury we aren’t often granted. You are going to have to get over your body issues. I can tell by the way you blush… you were religious before you died?”

Teric shrugged, “maybe… I can’t help but feel like I’m doing something wrong.”

Nic laughed, “yup, you were a religious being... probably a Christian due to the area demographic we have around here. Had to have been, a white girl located in the South, I call a Christian when I see one.”

Teric smiled at the idea of being a religious person, but the idea was nearly lost on her because she didn’t know what a Christian was anymore.

“You have no idea what I’m talking about… interesting… one of the world’s most popular religions has been wiped from your memory…”

Teric gave a wayward glance to her companion, “am I supposed to know this? These religions…?”

“No,” responded Nic, “we’re all damned anyway. No point in re-teaching you salvation, you’ve become a demon now in the eyes of humans.”

“Oh…” Teric stood still in the water trying to remember what a demon was exactly. As far as her mind could reach she could only figure it was something with a negative connotation. Often times the zombies could be compared to demons and were called such, but they were not the definition of a demon. “A demon must be something very bad…”

“Right, we the Necrolords are a higher evolved form of zombies, and that is undoubtedly the truth. The leaders of the Necrolords claim we are the higher beings compared to humans, and yet we keep finding ourselves relying on humans. We don’t have engineers, or doctors like they do. We aren’t capable of communicating among varying languages. Humans are sophisticated creatures overlooked by our Necrolords. To enjoy the modern luxuries of life, we need humans. Noia knows this, Father Joseph accepts it, and the King… Come to think of it, what do you know about our proud ruler?”
Teric took a step back moving toward the ledge of the pool not sure where this lecture was coming from, “Nothing really… just that he fled with a girl named Zagura.”

Nic scoffed, “oh… you don’t know our history yet. I wonder if it should be left to me to spoil it for you… well no doubt Noia will rave about her father when the time comes, but I will not. He is currently in reclusion, sort of just plotting I think, that or pouting. See, what he likes to do is send Father Joseph out into human colonies to infiltrate them. The priest gains the trust of the people, and then he sends some sort of signal to the King himself. The king reads the sign then leads his troops of zombies… which he just sort of gathers as he goes to the colonies. Zombies are a plentiful resource for us and work great for shock wave attacks.’

“Once they’ve broken into the human settlement the people that weren’t devoured or killed are rounded up, and the king has the zombies start killing each other off as a display of power. He has a rather unique ability to control those bastards and he likes to use it as an intimidation factor. He doesn’t want a bunch of zombies sticking around to eat off his own food supply, and the humans then get to watch their re-risen loved ones maul one another for sport. Two birds with one stone. The king treats it like a gladiator arena, and just celebrates with his priest during the time they vanquish yet another human colony. The two will snack on the remaining living people casually, and sometimes throw a human in to see if he or she can fight off the massive swarms of zombies sticking around us. The rest of the survivors are dealt with by Noia who keeps them in a protected home, or ‘feed house’ as I like to call it.’

“The guards are all zombies, but their mouths have been sewn shut and stomachs removed. They can’t attack the people inside, but the outside zombies just one wall over, are normal zombies that can harm those who try to escape. Makes the humans stick around when your security system is stay and live or leave and die. The king now scopes the area for the next big colony, but the problem is there just isn’t any. His goal is to get that power plant to turn the lights back on in the city. He hopes to set a barrier around the city, zombie built of course, then wait for humans to push into the new home we are about to create. Every now and then he will force a zombie breach, where we can enjoy ourselves, but the overall goal is to build a safe haven for humans so they can trap themselves within his grasp It would be a safe haven made by him and controlled by him. Dinner would be on the menu for us whenever we’d like.”

Teric marveled at what she was being told almost to the point of admiring the king she had yet to meet, but she did get the sensation that Nic did not agree with their ruler. Teric said, “who is Zagura then? Noia mentioned her as the first?”

Nic nodded, “Our queen I guess. She fled… vanished mysteriously. The king was upset by that… I think he liked her. She was a human sympathizer, couldn’t live with what she had become. She had arrived at nearby colony thinking she was a human, but a human immune to the zombies. She had no idea that her body was actually dying after she was bitten, which is why the zombies avoided her. She lived happily among the people, then on one outing a man was bit… and well, you’re familiar with bloodlust now. She attacked everyone there, including our king who at the time was married with children.’

“The king woke up the same being as Zagura, but the only one of his party to wake up as such. The others were all zombies. From that moment forward he stuck with her. Stuck by her side as they tried to figure out what they were. Father Joseph was supposedly created during that time; he actually got to meet our supposed queen. Then one day she ran away, who knows why. She just vanished. During the time our King came across Noia, and later went back to his colony with the two of them. Heh… I doubt Noia will divulge any further detail in the matter; that was a rough time for her.”

Teric’s eyes widened, “what happened when he went back to the colony he and Zagura came from?”

Nic looked at Teric sadly, “he went to find his wife of course. He brought his undead children to accompany him on his journey. Along the way Noia found Doctor Sado in this colony. He was almost completely eaten away by the zombies when she saw him reciting the basics to his profession shaking uncontrollably. The king left the Noia and Father Joseph to figure out how to salvage Sado and he found his wife. She had moved on, and was with child from a new man. Painful thing to see, but even sadder was seeing his biological son all grown up. Kira had become a young adult now. He was an audacious man with the courage to mouth off to his real father, an undead man in emotional turmoil. Bloodlust is an inaccurate term to describe how the situation was handled. The King lost it, he chewed away the man who took his wife, and drained his wife.'

“When his own son fought back, well the king pinned him to the wall and bit into the upper side of his shoulder. The wife and baby were back as zombies, and the son returned as a Necrolord. The king had Kira kill both the mother zombie and baby, it wasn’t right. Kira from that point forward was an uncontrolled killer. He couldn’t harm a hair on our heads, the Necrolords, but humans and zombies are treated equally in his eyes. The King liked to use Kira as an executer when the zombie population became uncontrolled, and technically he still does.’

“Then one day, Kira runs off in the hopes he can find this Zagura woman. God knows why he wants to meet her, but it’s the Priest who discovers Kire amidst one of his latest invasion schemes. Seeing the young prince out in a human colony the Father calls the the take over early and the Prince is forced to return to us, but he comes back changed. He no longer has the same appetite for killing, and seemed to be incapable of it, until you walked in. Last night was the first time in a long time he’s raised a hand to a human. Whew, a lot to take in huh?”

Teric stood calmly in the water mulling through Nic’s information, “oh…”

“So now the question for me is what makes you so special, because you are special. You got the Prince back to killing, you’ve gotten Noia to calm down, and just the fact that you were spawned from Father Joseph is amazing in itself. And from what I gather, you also managed to survive Sado, which is again, is its own magical feat. You dear, you have a back story worth learning. Everyone tells you to take your time, but… since meeting you I’ve never felt stronger. I can penetrate Phran and Skitz’s thoughts a little better, and look, I’m still out and about and it’s not even 8am yet! You are a new strength for us.”

Teric lifted her arms up to the ledge of the pool, “I’m just a kid… a kid without her memory.”

“You’re hope, hope for me, and hope for a few others… though Cutter hates your guts which isn’t that surprising. He hates everyone. All he likes is his self inflicted pain, and the pain the doctor inflicts upon him. It’s amazing he’s still in one piece, he’s had to be stitched back together so many times.”

Teric smiled nervously not sure where Nic’s mind was wandering. She didn’t like what this personality was trying to imply.

“Well,” Nic turned to Teric, “It’s been fun talking with you. I hope you visit me this evening… I’m going to prepare something special for you.” Nic smiled then hulled her body off the side leaving Teric alone in the water. “Phran will be coming shortly, she’s not as fond of water. It’s best I get dried off, enjoy the day Teric.”

Nic winked then grabbed a towel from a servant. When Nic walked out Ires walked in.

“Kira…” Teric whispered under her breathe. Apparently he heard her whisper his name and turned his attention to where she was located. He smiled and waved at her. Another set of servants came in to wait on him next to the ones that had come for Teric. He stripped down much as Nic had done and dove in to get next to a very blushing Teric.

“Relax, I’m not going to bother you,” he laughed. “You are so shy about stuff. It’s no big deal, really. If this was a lake and we were trying to keep the smell of rot off our bodies we’d bath together where ever we could find the chance to. You really should get over that human modesty… actually, not even human. Modesty is a luxury.”

“Nic says it’s because I might have been religious, embedded with ideas of modesty… whatever that is.”

He laughed, “she’s doesn’t know what she’s talking about. But that might explain how you were snared by the Priest.” His smile wavered as his eyes looked past the present to a different time.

Teric responded with bitterness in her tone, “You would know. You knew me as a human.”

He decided to move closer to her, “don’t worry about it Teric. You’re here now with me again, it’s really all you need to worry about. Phran has a hunting trip planned for the evening. She wants to go out and find some wild humans, do you want to come along?”

“Nic says you stopped killing, completely, until I came back. Why have you started again?”

Kira looked away, “because, the people I respected were killed. So now instead of wasting my time giving respect to those who died, I’ll resume life as it was. It will be easier for me to cope, I suppose.”

Teric shrugged indifferent to his pained expression, “why must every history lesson or conversation I have around here occur in the bath tub… or swimming pool as this may be?”

Kira pushed out from the wall laughing, “Hahaha, you just have impeccable timing is all. Nic and I are morning goers, though if we get enough blood on our bodies we all return back here eventually. Noia has us wash all the time. I swear, Phran would just live in her own filth if she could. Noia won’t have it.”

Teric gazed away from Kira focusing her attention to the fountain positioned at the back right of the pool, “so… why the hunting expedition?”

“I dunno, I think Phran just wants to break the ice with you. It’s been so long since I’ve gone out with her, and there’s a small human pack moving in close to us again. They probably think we’re a safe haven of some sort… poor fools. Better we kill them before they reach our zombie hoard gathered at the front gate don’t you think?”

“I don’t know…” Teric still felt conflicted about how to handle her new appetites for humanity. One could argue it was a more ethical decision to have her kill them rather than the zombies, but one could still argue that killing was wrong all together.

“Oh come on Teric dear,” Kira swam back up close to Teric making her feel uncomfortable again. He was too close.

“I want to see what you can do. We all have our own unique strengths, and they only come out when we kill, I want to see what yours is… that and I want to know if you can lose any of that self control you cling to so dearly. I want to see you wild, like the animalistic predator that the rest of us are. Noia thinks you’re just the greatest thing ever, she wants to send you straight to Father Joseph to work with him.”

Teric raised her eyebrow, “that may be so… but…”

“You’re still scared,” Kira chuckled. He grabbed her hands from the ledge and held them in his own, “relax, you’ll be with me. It’s just this time, we’re the same.”

He let go and swam off to a ledge where the staff had set out the cleaning implements. Teric felt it was time for her to leave too, before another Necrolord walked in. She swam to the end of the pool and stepped out. Kira was not watching her this time which reduced her anxiety.

The zombies wrapped her up and fitted her into a new blue gown. Noia always seemed to have a pretty blue dress that was perfectly fitted to Teric’s body. It almost amazed her. She walked off in search of Noia herself who was found in a drawing room of sorts sipping on a glass of most likely blood.

“Hey Noia,” Teric peaked her head into the room.

“Teric my dear, I’m not quite ready to give you lessons just yet. I’ve gotten some interesting letters from Sado. It seems I will be busy today.”

Teric said, “That’s okay. Did Kira tell you? Him and Phran have some sort of hunting thing they want to do.”

“Ah, yes. Actually our King pointed out a moving colony to me this morning. I ran it past Phran; she loves to rip through those. It seems Kira is back to his old self again. Though… I’m not sure if you should go.” Noia set the glass down, and placed the letter she was reading flat, “You’re still young, and rather attached to your human emotion.”

“How does one mature past old habits if they are not exposed to the world they need to live in?” Teric asked.

Noia shrugged, “if you think you are brave enough to endure something like this go with them, but I warn you, there are generally children in those groups. Kira and Phran do not kill with a bias, they don’t care.”

“It’s like Kira told me this morning, better us to do the job rather than the zombie horde the humans are about to walk into…”

Noia nodded, “that is almost true. It depends on their mood I suppose… well… this will be good for you then. Go with them.”

Noia’s face took on a more stern appearance as she looked up from her paperwork and gazed over Teric, “oh… the dress I got for you will be ruined…”

Teric held back her laughter, “It’s okay, the servants will wash it. Besides you seem to have hundreds of these things, it shall be nice to wear something new and perhaps not blue.”

Noia picked her paperwork back up off the table and resumed reading the packets, “Off with you then, I have my work cut out for me here.” She glimpsed of the information with an ever growing frown. Whatever those words on the paper said, it must have been disappointing.

Teric skipped down the corridor wondering where she would find Kira. She didn’t actually know where he lived, and she had no desire to return to the cellar. It was lucky for her that as she was walking back to her room when he walked out from the right wing.

“Oh, Kira,” Teric waved at him in order to get his attention. “I have to ask… where do you reside in this manner? I wasn’t sure how I’d find you in this big ol’ house? Please tell me you don’t actually live in the cellars with all those creepy servants.”

“I live in the right wing, near my father. You better stay out of that area for now, he doesn’t want to see any naive youth running about. Plus Noia and her brother get testy about other Necrolords coming near their rooms. It’s a territory issue I guess.”

Teric said, “Okay, well… it seems like Noia believes I should go with you guys… so… would you be willing to take the kid?”

He reached over and mussed up her hair, “but of course. Phran will be ecstatic… and probably angry too… she doesn’t know I invited you just yet. I mean, she was amusing the idea, but I think she wanted to extend the invitation herself.”

“She’ll deal, Noia wants me to go with, so… not much she can say,” Teric retorted.

“Oh trust me; she’ll have something to say. You’re not a killer… at least, as far as we know,” Kira stated.

Teric smiled nervously, “I guess this is where we find out. Last night I was disgusted by your behavior, and then almost fell victim to the same behavior at the dinner table. Who am I to judge the situation?”

“You are trying too hard to be like us,” Kira grabbed Teric’s lower chin and gently held it. Then he turned his head sideways and planted a small kiss on her cheek. Teric blushed.

“See, the reason you’re really coming,” Kira stated, “is because you’ve got a crush on me.”

Teric’s cheeks reddened, “only in your dreams…” she retorted.

“It’s okay Teric, I like you too,” he whispered into her ear. He winked at her then walked past, “Come on, let’s get Phran, no doubt she is trying to sleep in. Nic always tries to be awake during her 8 hours of body ownership.”

Teric followed him staring at the back of his head. She could almost feel her heart pound faster in her chest as her cheeks began to redden and flush, but her heart beating was simply a placebo effect of humanity. She trailed behind Kira until they reached Phran’s room. He had been right about Phran’s current lack of activity. As they opened the door it was easy to spot Phran sleeping on a very messy bed. And from the way she was dressed it appeared Nic had made the decision for what the body would wear.

“Yo, Phranny, wake up!” Kira hollered in.

Phran lifted the lids of her blood shot eyes and peered about the room. “I get 3 hours of sleep and 6 hours of play, Skitz will repeat, and Nic doesn’t sleep. Is there a reason you come to bother me?”

Kira scoffed, “Your dead Phran, you don’t need to sleep. None of you do. Regardless I’m here because we’ve got a hunting trip, oh and Noia wants to take our little lady for a test drive.”

Phran looked over at Teric and moaned, “Damn it… the freaking princess is coming?”

Teric scowled, “I’m not a princess, I’m just like anybody else.”

“You might as well be a princess,” Phran muttered under her breathe, “Little miss perfect here. Right, it’s whatever, give me a minute to get… re-dressed.”

Nic always dressed classy. She like the image of an upper-middle class woman with well tailored business clothes. Phran enjoyed the British punk/ visual kei style of clothing. She seemed to think she was a rock star, and wouldn’t dress any other way.

Kira and Teric stepped out and waited on Phran. She emerged in a small plaid skirt with ripped black leggings, plaid boots, and a rock star top that had been cut apart to reveal cleavage and her midriff. She styled her hair up and again, and was back to having her signature lion’s mane.
“Alright, Noia pointed the group out to me bright and early this morning… well she pointed them out to Skitz, but Skitz was too tired to do much, so we get to great them.”

Teric caste a nervous glance to Kira, and he just smiled at her. “It’ll be fine kid, alright, let’s get going.”

Phran took a large stride and began to move to the exit with Kira at her side. Teric trailed behind the two of them as they walked out of the mansion and to the front gates. Phran and Kira climbed up the lookout point and Teric followed. The top of the lookout was wide and open, large enough to fit a person through.

Phran smiled mischievously as she glimpsed over at Kira, “Alright, let’s see how sturdy the girl is shall we?” She jumped from the peak of the lookout point over the sea of swarming zombies. The creatures backed away the minute she landed and a clearing was made. She waved from at least 50 feet below and Kira repeated her actions. He leapt from the tower and landed on his feet. Neither one of them seemed to be hurt by their fall.

Teric gulped nervously as she moved herself out onto the ledge. She looked down the length and took a deep breath.

“Come on! We don’t have all day, just jump, you won’t get hurt!” Phran hollered up at Teric.
Teric groaned and squeezed her eyes shut, “all or nothing…” then jumped. As she fell she could feel her heart leap to her throat. She was not going to have a graceful landing and this would probably hurt. She braced for impact; perhaps she would break a leg as a minimum to the damage she would take. Two arms reached out and caught her from the air. She peaked an eye open to see Kira holding her.

“You’ve got to get better at that kid. At least jump with your eyes open.”

She smiled weakly as he set her down, “I should probably practice… I’m not as brave or accustomed to such heights as you and Phran.”

Kira scoffed at her, “You’re plenty accustomed to heights. You always have been,” then turned away from her.

“Let’s go!” blurted Phran whose impatience was growing. “I can smell them, they’ve gotten pretty close… we should be able to walk right up to them. We should move quickly, before the zombies figure out what we know.”

Kira sniffed at the air before turning to Teric, “what about you, can you smell them yet?”

Teric flared her nostrils in an attempt to sniff at the air, “No…” she responded.

“This one ain’t a tracker,” Phran cracked, “just our little dainty princess who leaps with her eyes shut. Come on princess, try to keep up.”

Teric followed the two in front of her pouting at the back. The pair moved into the woods and more than once had to slow their speed for her. Kira would occasionally turn back and help her along if she found herself caught on a branch, but the both of them were bent on moving at full speed. Faster than she could keep up with. It wasn’t long until she fell short and lost sight of them.