Cephore set the full bucket on a ledge and climbed down, hoping to not accidentally spill any of the contents. He was almost home and the sky was getting dark, unnerving him and causing him to worry about leaving Ezekiel at home alone. "Better hurry up..." he muttered. His front door wasn't the sturdiest thing in the world, so zombies could easily knock it down.
Cephore shook his head, hopefully the zombies would ignore Ezekiel due to the fact that he already looked like one. He looked up across the lake and saw the faint glow from the torch mounted above the door of his sub-terranean shack of a home. He sighed in relief, seeing that nothing was banging on his door... yet. He picked up the bucket of milk and began quickly and carefully trotting toward the light. Around him, he heard faint rattling- the uneasy clacking of a nearby skeleton archer. He kept his head low and picked up the pace. The milk began to slosh around in the bucket, spilling down the sides. He was closer to his door now. His heart pounding in his ears, his breaths heavy and giving away his location and his back aching from hunching over. As he climbed over the final hill, his heart sank into his stomach as he heard several hands slamming against his door, cries of the undead howled and moaned, begging to be let into the shack for the shriveled and dying villager inside.
Cephore set the bucket down and drew an iron blade, creeping around the corner to see four zombies trying to maul his door. Casting aside any thoughts of preexisting danger, he ran out into the open and screamed, swinging the blade and beheading only one, but lodging his blade into the head of another.
The remaining two turned and looked at him blankly, then they snarled as they reached for him. Cephore pulled at the sword, trying to retrieve it without the head of teeth attached to the other end. As the remaining two zombies drew close, Cephore brought up a foot and planted it square into the chest of the creature that held his weapon hostage, the sword was freed, and the now fully dead zombie fell back, crashing into the door behind him.
Cephore ducked under the reaches of the two zombies and swung upward, gutting one of the zombies from his stomach to his jaw. He then spun around and kicked backwards into the zombie's face, knocking his head backwards and slamming into a stone wall. Cephore took a few deep breaths and straightened up. He sheathed the sword and looked around for anything else looking forward to spilling his blood. With a huff of relief, he went to retrieve the bucket. With the milk in hand, he was finally able to make it over to the door. After stepping over the zombie bodies, he pushed the door open with ease, only the have it fall apart in his hand. He rolled his eyes and set the bucket down on top of the crafting table.
Ezekiel laid peacefully on the bed at the far side of the room, completely unaware of everything that had just happened outside. Cephore sighed and picked up the pieces of the door that had fallen at his feet and on top of a zombie corpse. As he picked up the last piece of the door, the zombie that had the sword lodged into his head, dressed in a blue-green shirt and jeans, brunette with dead blue eyes, made Cephore pause and stare for a moment on horror.
Flashbacks cluttered his mind, a zombie dressed the same way stood by his side, either with a long stick or a handful of mushrooms. A zombie that struggled to function, a zombie who relearned to speak (albeit slowly and great difficulty), a zombie who was there whenever Cephore needed a friend. A person that everyone had seen as a monster. His best friend. His brother in bond. Cadbury Tombstone.
Cephore gasped and choked up for a moment, seeing the gash that gouged halfway through the zombie's skull, "Cad...?" he called out weakly.
Then Cephore blinked, taking a deep breath, Cad wouldn't beat down a door. He was more civilized than that. Cephore sighed, Cad had red eyes, not blue.
This wasn't Cad.
Cephore straightened up and picked up the remaining pieces of the door, stepping around the 'Cad' impostor.
After throwing the pieces out the door and shoving the bodies away from the shack, Cephore sighed and rested his eyes on the pile of scrap wood that he had sitting against the wall. The pile alone was larger than the shack. He then looked over at the hill beside the shack and had a vision of a birch house overlooking the lake. He smiled and found himself a new project.
For now it'd be wise to just settle with a new, temporary door for the shack and to go inside and wait until morning.
He dug himself a small pit in the side wall for a temporary place to sleep until he was able to make a second bed. While he laid in the small pit, he watched Ezekiel as he slept. He tried to figure out how old he was. Not too old, he figured. But considering his facial features, not too young either. Certainly older than twenty. Mid-thirties possibly.
Wait... was Ezekiel even asleep?
Cephore sat up and studied him, watching for any movement. "Ezekiel?" he called.
Silence. Not even a twitch.
Cephore stepped over and pat his shoulder, "Ezekiel? Hey, you alright?" he asked.
Ezekiel gasped heavily, as though he'd been holding his breath. His eyes opened, but appeared vacant.
Cephore let out a breath of relief, "Thank Notch... You scared me..." he said.
Ezekiel's eyes drifted shut, "Apologies..."
Cephore shook his head, "No, don't apologize, it's okay." he smiled, "Uh... You should probably eat some more." he said. "I got the milk. Let me just mix it in, okay?"
"Sounds good..."
Cephore dumped the bucket of milk into the cauldron of simmering mushroom soup and stirred it in. The soup looked a little thinner, a little more edible. Cephore was glad Ezekiel didn't mind mushrooms, at least the creamy brown concoction would get eaten and not go to waste. "Still awake?"
Ezekiel mumbled something unintelligible.
Cephore nodded and filled the bowl and sat by his side, "Ezekiel, come on..." he propped his head up in the bend of his elbow, "You have to eat..." he held the bowl to his lips.
Ezekiel hadn't responded and his breathing was too faint.
Cephore shook his head and set the bowl down. He reached up and felt Ezekiel's forehead. "Man, you're cold..." he muttered and pulled the blanket over him. "Hey- wake up!"
Ezekiel didn't flinch, but he barely forced his eyes open.
"Hey, you need to eat this." Cephore picked the bowl back up, he paused seeing the withering villager's eyes drifting shut. "Hey! Can you hear me?"
The emerald eyes reopened and traveled to meet Cephore's inverted red eyes. "So tired..." he whispered.
"I know, Zeke, I know, but I need you to eat this so you can get better." Cephore took the bowl and held it to Ezekiel's mouth. "Here..." he tipped it and let Ezekiel drink only a small amount of the soup. As soon as Ezekiel stopped drinking and his eyes shut again, Cephore tipped the bowl back to make sure it didn't spill.
"S'tired..." he mumbled again.
Cephore sighed and set the bowl down. "You can't eat any more?" he asked
"No..."
Cephore nodded and carefully laid Ezekiel back down. "Get some rest then..." he said and felt Ezekiel's forehead again, "I'm going to turn the furnace towards you so you can warm up, okay?" he offered, "You're really cold." he grunted as he began turning the stone furnace to to face the villager.
Ezekiel was asleep before Cephore was finished.
Cephore brushed his blonde hair back and sighed, one hand resting on his hip. Peace had finally settled around him and the shack. Silence that was only cut by the rippling water outside flooded the air. Cephore's body began to ache. His feet burned, his shoulders were tensed, his eyelids began to sting and he was beginning to yawn.
He dropped his hand to his side, "Yeah... definitely time for bed..." he breathed and sat back into the pit in the wall. He lifted his left foot onto his knee and pried his boot off, sighing in relief and rotating his ankle. He dropped that leg back down and did the same with his right. After tossing his boots toward the door, he laid back and sighed. His back popped in several places as he settled himself. The pit in the wall wasn't comfortable in the least, but it was only temporary until he made himself a new bed.
No matter.
He was asleep just about instantly anyway.
"Ender! Ender, help!" Cephore screamed, having cornered himself between a large tree and a cliffside. His sword had snapped and he had run out of arrows. Three zombies and a skeleton kept him cornered.
His heart pounded in his throat and his blood was running cold for about five minutes when he was first getting chased.
One of the zombies clawed at his green trenchcoat and another gripped his throat, nails digging at the sides of his neck as they pressed him against the wall. The third zombie was wrestling the zombie gripping his coat.
The skeleton drew back an arrow and aimed for his head.
A boulder from overhead dropped down and crashed down on top of the commotion, sending dirt, rotten flesh and bones in every direction. Only Cephore and a zombie and a half were spared. A new zombie dropped down afterwards. The new zombie clumsily -but quickly- tore the other zombies away from Cephore, standing between them. He growled lowly and shoved them against the boulder.
Cephore coughed and looked up at the zombie in horror. The zombie turned his head to look at him, staggering as he did so. "Run..." he gurgled.
Cephore's eyes opened wide at the sound of the zombie's voice. He hadn't thought about the night he met Cad in a long time. He took a deep breath a sat up, looking over at Ezekiel, who -unsurprisingly- hasn't moved at all. He took a deep breath and sat up, cracking his back and stretching. He leaned over to look at the door, seeing a clear blue sky on the outside of the window. "Oh good, I woke up on time for once." he muttered to himself.
"Morning..." a quiet voice greeted him.
Cephore looked back at Ezekiel, "Hey, you're up." he smiled, "Before me, even, I'm impressed."
Ezekiel cracked a small smile, "I've been awake for a while now..." he said softly. "Thought I heard someone calling for help."
So... yeah. These chapters will be short. But I hope they're somewhat enjoyable. I'm doing whatever will fit on these via mobile app and running with that since I write these while on break at work. So... read and review! Stay awesome folks*