New Death, New Life
Prologue, or something Like It
Jill Valentine: '2 years. 2 years and 5 months that is, since the death of Matthew Persons. He was my lover, my protector. The one I needed. He was my wings, he was my strings, he was my support system. He was pretty much my life. He was the reason why my heart would beat, the whole reason why I kept myself breathing.'
'He died a so-so bad death, if you know what I mean. Deaths are always awful, no matter if it's painful or not. But judging by his pain, it was so-so. He got caught up in an alley by a restaurant by 11 zombies, the walking dead, I was fighting; what he told me to do. We were both fighting. But somehow, one got their grimy teeth on him and sank them in, right on the leg. He struggled. Until it took another. It gave him 6 bites before he let go, according to what I saw when I found him. Though he wasn't killed by the murderous zombies, he was killed by something else, a man or a woman. A man or a woman with a very strong gun.'
'I didn't see this man or woman. I just found the very big, strong bullets in his sternum and cranium. Of course he didn't stand any chance against this person. No chance at all, just the little hope that I may come to the rescue, or at least that's what it looked liked. I mean, what else would you do when someone walks up to you and pulls out this huge gun. Although he might of rather die from bullets in his chest and head then from flesh-eating zombies or by me when he turns into one. I think that night; the gun was the way to go for a death.'
'I found him lying in the alleyway. But I always had one question. Why didn't the zombies eat him after that? It seems that whoever it was who shot him had control over them. Because it they did eat the shooter, they would still go back for more of Matthew, but how did this person stop them?'
'There is a good side to this story, or at least as good as it's gonna get. Leon, one of my best friends, got hooked up with me. We started dating, and it ended up in marriage. Wonderful wedding, I know that Matthew was looking down with a smile, not a revengeful frown or jealous one. He would have wanted the best for me. Not for me to sit home and mourn all the time.'
'Anyway, after this wedding, on our honeymoon, I got pregnant. And we had a beautiful baby boy. And we named him Matthew. His real middle name is Patrick, but we added Matthew's last name to it, also. It's Matthew Persons Patrick Kennedy. And my name was changed to Jill Kennedy. I like the sound of it. Of course it's not Persons, I always imagined it would be Persons, but this one makes me just as happy. I'll never forget Matthew, but I'll always have someone that I can move onto and love, but never a replacement.'
'And you know what they say, new death, new life.'