A/N: I welcome you to Redemption, the darker and more pessimistic companion to Resurrection. Man, I need shorter names for these fics. Or multiple words so I can have an abbreviation of some sort.
I finally got Dawn of the Dead, so now I know a little more of what I'm writing about. It's a shame what happened to Roger. He was definitely my favourite. Steven was just a jerk.
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The wind whispered through the sea of people, a hollow echo of everyone watching as she stood. Nobody had expected this. They knew her, knew some of what she had been through. For her to want to do what was being done… it was completely unlike her. She'd never known how to offer sympathy to another soul.
It had been a month since the arrival of the survivors: a month filled with stories passed from person to person about murder, deceit, and undead beings called Rots. No matter what the topic of discussion was, though, there was always a mention of her bizarre behaviour. Most didn't dwell on it.
"An untold number of people have died since I arrived here. Most succumbed to the plague, but a few were killed either by the other living, or by their own stupidity," she said loudly as she made her way to the podium. Every eye followed her progress. The tall blonde woman who had been speaking at the memorial service gulped nervously but stepped back to let her fellow refugee continue the odd eulogy. "Those who are walking around, brainless and violent, they're dead. No heartbeat, no body temperature: they just aren't alive anymore. They're not your family, your friends… your lovers. They're dead."
A murmur went through the crowd, but no single voice could be distinguished except for hers. Deceptively innocent, the blue-sky overhead showed no reflection of the turmoil of the people below.
"However, something tells me that those who are dead, really dead, are far better off. They don't have to deal with the bullshit that we do: the asinine comments about how crazy the bald chick is. When you talk, I do listen. Don't piss me off. I get angry, and then I get violent. People get hurt that way."
"You should probably stop now," the blonde woman told the shorter one as she tried to resume her position in front of the dais.
"No!" the other screamed angrily. She turned around and pushed the other speaker to the ground before readdressing the audience angrily. "Fuck you, bastards! You think I'm losing it, but I'm more together than the rest of you. I lived the epidemic, escaped two cities full of Rots. A giant corporation created it in some sick attempt to replace the SOLDIER program."
Then the crowd began to boo. Rather than become discouraged, though, she just became more insistent.
"Would you damn fuckers just listen to me? If you're not prepared, then you're going to die. You need to know what the fuck is going on here before you end up like the damn idiots you're here to mourn! This isn't some judgement from some god."
"Then what is it?" a heckler shouted angrily.
"Get off the stage, you stupid bitch!" another screamed.
Three men in full SeeD regalia stormed the stage and began grabbing at the woman. She fought back, like everyone had expected. One of her fists met with a chin while her left foot crashed into one of the SeeD's gut. The third man tackled her and pinned her to the ground, and she began cursing at the top of her lungs. The crowd responded in kind, throwing insults at her with the same spite that she had towards the dead, or, rather, the undead.
"You're all acting like dumbasses! Grow the fuck up!" she cried at the top of her voice as she struggled against the three men dragging her away. "You have to listen to me. They told me. The dead told me!"
After she was gone and everyone had settled down, the blonde woman returned to the podium. "I apologize for that. Please allow me to reread from the beginning the names of those lost so far:
"Almasy, Seifer; Arae, Julize; Berna, Adette…"
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A/N: There will be many obvious differences between this and Resurrection. One is the level of horror, but that won't come about until later in the fic. Another is the length of the chapters. I hope to make them about three to four thousand words each. The most noticeable will be the time between the postings of the chapters. Again, I have irregular access to the internet and a job to deal with.
I wish I had more to say, but since this is only the beginning of the fic, I don't. Well, nothing other than check out TCBT. It's a FFIX SI fic. Obviously, there is a link in my profile.