Un-Dead World Book One: Dead Men's Game

It's a Wonderful Life

    It had been three months since we had found the Olsen family and we had all settled into a comfortable routine. It was much easier to stay safe with extra hands. We had even been able to secure the gymnasium and another section of the school. Pamela, who we just called Pam, had built a series of garden beds and a chicken coop on the roof and we were patiently waiting for our own sustainable source of food to be ready. The chickens had been an accidental find, we'd barely been able to keep the two of them alive. Fortunately we had found a rooster and a hen, so we were hoping for some fertilized eggs to be laid soon to build the flock. The few eggs we got every week were worth it though.

 The scouting missions had been few and far between at first as the mob of zombies that had almost caught us was too big of a threat. Then one day, they all just left. We weren't sure where they had gone, but we knew they weren't anywhere to be found. They all had congregated into one massive group that seemed to work as a collective and when they couldn't find anymore food sources, they just wandered out of town. At least that was the theory. There had been one car that had driven through town about a month ago. We started a signal fire on the roof, but they didn't see it I guess. Other than that, it was mostly quiet.

    Sometimes we would encounter smaller groups or singular zombies wandering around. After a handful of new scars to add to my collection and plenty of training with Scott I was becoming quite formidable. We would spend hours on different types of self defense and even basic survival training, it was my favorite outlet for all of the pent up emotions I had inside. Most everyone was fine with my quirk, but if I could avoid using my abilities and just be more human, I was going to do just that. I'd been practicing with my abilities though, finding that if I concentrated I could detect zombies and even move faster than the average person. It was slow progress, but I was starting to be able to feel my power like a tangible thing inside of me. Part of me but separate all at once. I had levitated once more but that was when I'd gotten upset and I hadn't been able to replicate it again.

 Jimmy would often come join the training sessions and I could easily take him down. He said it was sexy that I was tougher than most of the men there and after training we would usually sneak off to have some fun. We were in some strange relationship. Not your average friends with benefits situation but also not serious. Everyone knew we had a thing going on and he would sleep in my classroom sometimes. It was a very comfortable kind of relationship. I couldn't help but think of Branson constantly though. I would catch him watching me but when I'd look at him, he would look away.

     Branson had become very solitary, he wouldn't spend any time alone with me and rarely spent time with Scott. He had become a different person. It was like he had flipped a switch. I'd thought he'd accepted my abilities, but the more I displayed signs of being an angel the further he pulled away. He wouldn't open up to anyone and had simply taken on the the role of the brooding leader. The only one he had a soft spot for was Chloe who followed him like a puppy. Scott and I had become friends because of it. 

    I had found that Scott enjoyed the same stupid movies I did, and we would spend hours binging old classics we had salvaged from the town. I had upgraded to a DVD player and had moved in a large flat screen tv and he had a secret stash of junk food he only shared with me. We had discovered that  the emergency generator ran on gas and we had been siphoning from vehicles in town. Scott and I usually went on the gas runs as our excuse to do some cardio and be outdoors. He was actually a lot smarter than I had thought initially and he had been researching angel lore. He was trying to find some kind of answer as to what I was capable of and what Levi was. We had found a few references that seemed promising, but without the original works, that wasn't any help. If only the internet was still up and running, but they had shut that off during the massive quarantines.

     I'd also set the stage room up as a movie room/community meeting place. Pam and Chloe were great cooks and as long as I kept her supplied with food, they kept us fed with better food than I'd had in a long time. We would let Chloe pick a movie and whoever wasn't on watch would watch movies together during dinner. We always had a team of two on watch. Rotating every sixteen hours so there was still time for sleep and some down time. Branson had been adamant that overworking ourselves was going to end up getting someone killed. We set up in opposite corners of the roof and used binoculars and rifles to keep the area around the school clear. I'd found that I enjoyed using bows to take them out at closer distances. The decay usually made it easy to retrieve the arrows from the bodies later on. 

    This morning I had woken up and had a strange feeling. I could tell it was my psychic side trying to tell me something but I hadn't been able to learn how to control it so I wasn't sure if it was good or bad. I just had am impending sense that today was going to be a big day. I showered and got ready for my next shift on watch and I was hyper focused on the little voice in the back of my head. It's like having an itch that you can't scratch, that just keeps getting worse as the minutes tick by. I entered the community room to grab some food before my shift. 

    "Hey Chloe. Hey Pam. What's on the menu today?" I asked them as I went to grab a plate. 

    "We're making Eggs bender!" Chloe said excitedly. I looked at Pam confused. 

    "She means Eggs Benedict." Pam said laughing and stroking a hand over Chloe's hair. "They won't be done for a little while yet, so Chloe will bring plates up when it's finished." She turned back to the little electric stove we had set up and continued to cook. 

    "Alrighty! I'll be waiting, let's hope I don't waste away while I wait." I said being dramatic and bringing a giggle from Chloe as I left. I made my way to the roof, passing Patrick and Wilbur as they came back from their shift. Patrick looked exhausted. I waved to them both and said my good mornings. I quite enjoyed having this family like sense of community with these people. 

    "It's alivveee!" Scott yelled as I joined him on the roof. I stuck my arms in front of me and walked robotically towards my little setup I had in the corner. We both had a nice laugh over it. He was becoming one of my best friends and our inside jokes were almost always based off of movies. 

    "Oh, Dr. Frankenstein, I wonder what gem of a film we are going to be watching after this shift." I said. He always gave me a line as a clue to the next movie he'd picked and I'd always try and top it. 

    "My lips are sealed." He said, miming himself locking his lips shut. 

    "I'm gonna have to pull out all of the stops to beat this one. Maybe a classic teenage murder movie? With all the usual horror tropes in it. Only the sinful teens will die while the pure, nerdy ones survive?" I wondered. We continued to joke as we watched the area. Sometimes standing and walking along the edge of the building just to keep awake. It was as we were doing circles around each other that I saw it.     

    I liked to keep an eye on the block that we had found the Olsen's in. It was, after all, the most strategic place to hide besides the school. If somebody came into town, they were likely to end up in that area. As I scanned the area I noticed movement. Snapping up my binoculars I saw what looked like a woman on top the the roof of a building. On closer inspection it was the same building we had been in. I zoomed my binoculars in even more and my breathing stopped. 

    "Scott. Come look at this!" I shouted, bringing him over to me. I pointed and as he zoomed in and found what I had seen he whistled. 

    "Is it just me or is there a lady on that roof?" He said, obviously being sarcastic. I raised my binoculars to look again and saw her looking back at me with a pair. She dropped hers and waved slightly, before disappearing down into the building. 

    "I think she's coming." I said to Scott. As I said it, I knew that somehow this was what had caused my strange feeling this morning. Now it was time to find out why she made my spidey sense go crazy. 

    "Well, let's go make sure she's got a greeting party."