Over the next few weeks, I learned more about the laws of being a zombie. Don't get me wrong, these laws are not like human laws. They are not something you rationally think about. They are not something you write down on a piece of paper and teach people about. They are instinct. Rules set in stone by the disease itself.
Most of these laws are in regards to how zombies interact with one another. They seem to work relatively like a wolf pack. A zombie would display their dominance with their body language. The more you looked like you knew what you were doing, the more others thought you did. Weak body language meant a weak zombie.
Of course, body language wasn't the only factor in this. Occasionally, a zombie would challenge another. There was nothing formal about this, it would just be a primal rage. Whoever won the fight was clearly the stronger zombie. And I, being myself, had to learn this the hard way...
Deku was getting used to his new zombified body. Or, more like his zombified mind. Strange pulls to do things. Instincts to sniff the air here, and to snarl at an aggressive zombie there. Usually these instincts were easily ignored, but when it came to other zombies, they seemed to grow stronger.
Which is probably why he was so reluctant to go into the infested building. "Kacchan! They'll tear me apart!"
"They won't. And even if they do, you need to practice defending yourself." Kacchan retorted.
"I don't think this is a recommended was to learn how to fight!" Deku protested nervously.
"You'll be fine! You're practically immortal now!" Kacchan growled.
"Yeah, but they can still stop my heart! Or give me brain damage! And that doesn't mean I WANT to get injured! It will still hurt!"
"Get over it, you wimp. You need to be able to be near other zombies without getting beaten to a pulp, and, if you haven't noticed, there are't any sane zombies around that can help us with that right now. Besides, there's only four in there. If you're in trouble, I can jump in and save your sorry ass."
"Is it depressing that that's the most friendly thing you have ever said to me?"
"Not from my perspective."
Deku sighed in defeat. "Fine, I'll go in." He grumbled. As he headed towards the door he muttered, "If I get killed, I'm blaming you." under his breath.
"I heard that!" Kacchan roared.
"Good!" Deku shot back, throwing open the door to the building. "Hey zombozos, look who's here!" He called.
"Probably not the best way to introduce yourself." Kacchan observed.
"Shut up before I bite you." Deku snarled, his eyes flashing red for a moment.
"Tch, alright Moody." Kacchan growled.
Taking a deep breath, Deku entered the building. He sniffed the air, and smelled the sharp tang of other zombies. Immediately his instincts flared up. Deku's eyes shone bright red, and the flash was answered by the glowing pairs of eyes from four more zombies. All of them were snarling.
This set Deku's instincts spinning out of control. These zombies were challenging him. They thought they were stronger then him. Instinct made him return their snarl, and his lip lifted involuntarily to show one of his fangs.
The other zombies did not take kindly to this. They began to advance towards Deku, snarling loudly. Instinct once again kicked in to help Deku. His posture straightened and he held his head higher. His lip rose, baring his teeth threateningly. It set a clear message. Back off, or else.
This made the zombies hesitate. They paused, staying a few feet away from Deku. One zombie advanced forward, baring his teeth and snarling even louder than before. Deku snarled back.
Before he could react, the zombie leapt towards him. Deku's instincts shot through him, telling him to fight back. He had no qualms about this. The zombie grabbed his arm and began to scratch it mercilessly. Growling, Deku wrenched his arm out of the zombie's grip. He dove forward and bit down into it's leg. As his teeth sunk in, he pressed as hard as he could, and tore his head away from the zombie, ripping a large chunk out of it's leg.
The zombie roared in anger as inky black blood poured from the wound. It tried to stand, but it's leg refused to support it. Deku backed away from the creature, watching as it struggled to stand up with no avail. The other three zombies scrambled away from Deku, who was clearly not someone to be trifled with.
Deku panted, feeling himself slowly come down from the adrenaline high. Slowly his eyes turned from glowing red back to emerald green. His arm was throbbing with pain. Scowling, Deku took some deep breaths, trying to calm his instincts. A few minutes later he strode towards the door, snarling at any zombies that got within a few feet of him.
"That sounded like it went well." Kacchan commented sarcastically.
"Could've been worse." Deku panted, still feeling tired. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kacchan toss him something. Instincts made his hand shoot out and snatch it from the air. A roll of gauze.
"Well, at least your reactions have improved." Kacchan observed. "You're gonna have to patch yourself up though. I don't really want to get infected."
Deku nodded solemnly. He tore of a long strip of gauze and wrapped it around his scratched arm. The scratched didn't go very deep, but he didn't want to get any blood on anything and risk infecting Kacchan. He wasn't sure he could deal with a zombified Kacchan.
"Your mouth is covered in blood to. What were you doing in there, eating eachother?" Kacchan growled.
"Close. One of them attacked me and I tore a chunk out of it's leg. The thing couldn't get up after that." Deku explained.
"Can you go ONE day without getting in a fight with a zombie?" Kacchan complained.
Deku scowled. "Apparently not." He grumbled, glancing down at his legs, which were bandaged up similarly to his arm. He had gotten them injured in multiple different fights earlier that week when he yawned and pissed off some zombies because they could see his fangs.
"Hey, at least didn't all attack you today. That's improvement."
"Yeah.. I guess."
Heh. The first month was the worst. I had to learn the laws, and how to ignore my instincts. And even then, there were times I needed to pay attention to my instincts for my own safety.
And the sleeping was pretty annoying to. You see, zombies get their energy from blood, which is why we drink it. The only problem is, blood doesn't provide as much energy as the human body is used to getting, so we get tired faster than most humans. I could've just drank more blood, but animals were a bit hard to come by in the city. I couldn't even count how many times I passed out in the first few months. Eventually my body got used to it, but it was pretty rough for a long time.
Of course, being on the road really didn't give me much time to hunt. In fact, I never really hunted. Kacchan usually would end up finding a rat or a raccoon and he would kill it and give it to me. I did learn to hunt eventually, but it took practice. A lot of practice.
Why were we on the road? I thought it was obvious. We were heading to the stronghold. We set off a few days after the big bite. Though, it didn't go smoothly. Nothing goes smoothly when Kacchan and I are involved...
Kacchan scowled. Deku was snoozing away in the seat next to him, as he did quite often these days. He was leaning against the window, a small trail of drool coming out of his mouth.
Ugh. He's gonna get someone infected sleeping like that. Kacchan thought grumpily to himself. It was getting dark out, meaning the zombies would be more active. He pulled over into a gas station, clumsily parking in front of the building.
"Ey, sleeping beauty. Wake up." Kacchan growled, shaking Deku's shoulder.
Deku stirred drowsily. He blinked blearily, glancing around confusedly. "Ngh. My head hurts..." Deku groaned.
"Yeah. I know. Didn't you store some blood in that water bottle?" Kacchan asked, gesturing to a water bottle that was sitting in the cupholder in the car.
"I think so..." Deku mumbled tiredly. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and he pushed himself upwards from his sitting position. Yawning, he grabbed the water bottle and gulped in some of the blood within it. His headache disappeared quickly, though the blood didn't taste as sweet as usual. "Ugh jeez, it tastes stale."
Kacchan snorted. "And what does stale blood taste like?"
Deku paused for a moment, considering the question. "Dusty lollipops." He stated in a matter of fact voice.
"Yeah, yeah. Would you mind going in there and checking for zombies?" Kacchan asked.
Deku sniffed the air, taking in the scents around him. There was the sweetness coming from Kacchan, along with the sting of nitroglycerin. There was also a gassy tang in the air, and the savory smell of beef jerky inside the store. "There aren't any zombies. I would be able to scent them if there were."
"Alright. You set up inside, I'll go get your.. er, meal. Though, you seriously need to learn how to hunt by yourself." Kacchan grumbled.
Deku sighed. "I mean, I could try to-"
"No. If you fail miserably, then we'll have to stay extra long at this rest stop." Kacchan growled. "I can do it myself."
"Alright. Thanks." Deku called as Kacchan turned and stalked off into the streets. Deku grabbed two sleeping bags that he had stolen at a camping store out of the trunk of the car. He dragged them behind him as he headed towards the store.
Pushing open the door, Deku dragged the two sleeping bags into the store. As he dropped them on the floor, Deku heard something that sounded suspiciously like footsteps. He sniffed the air, and smelled something sweet, but it wasn't accompanied by the sting of nitroglycerin. That's not Kacchan...
As the thought hit him, Deku heard the footsteps behind him. He whirled around, just as someone's hand shot out and slapped his arm. Deku quickly registered that it was a girl, and definitely not a zombie. His instincts screamed at him to attack her, and it took all of his willpower not to leap forward and bite into her throat. Luckily he didn't have to hold in his instincts for too long, because he started flying into the air.
Deku shut his eyes tightly, trying to calm his raging instincts. She's not a threat. Just a human. Just a human. He told himself. Of course his bloodlust wanted him to drink her blood, but he had just had a drink a few minutes earlier, so it was weak.
He opened his eyes. Before him stood a scared looking girl with brown hair. "W-Who are you?!" She yelped.
"I'm Izuku Midoriya! Me and my friend were stopping here for the night because-"
"Where is your friend?!"
"He's searching for food! Please don't hurt me!" Deku yelped, seeming to shrink. 'Or, more like, please don't hurt me and make me go full zombie on you against my will...'
The girl paused for a moment. She sighed and Deku felt himself drop to the floor. "Ow..." Deku groaned, rubbing his head. "Who are you?"
"Ochaco Uraraka." Uraraka replied.
"Are you heading to the stronghold?"
"What stronghold? The nearest one is seventy five hundred miles away."
"No. Recently they constructed on twenty miles up north. Me and my friend are driving there now from Musutafu. We started this morning."
"It took you an entire day to travel five miles?"
"Yeah... we got interrupted by some zombies..." Deku explained. It was half of the truth. They were interrupted by zombies, but were only delayed because Kacchan had asked him to clear them off of the street. He ended up getting in a fight and passing out, and Kacchan had to save him. He had to give Deku first aid, and then replace the tires, since the zombies and managed to break them open. It took most of the day to find replacement tires.
Uraraka nodded. "Zombies can be jerks."
Deku cringed inwardly at those words. "Heh. Yeah."
Uraraka paused for a moment, then asked, "Do you think I could come with you to the stronghold?"
"I'm sure Kacchan won't mind." Deku replied.
"Thanks for agreeing for me." Kacchan growled. Deku jumped, startled. "I need to take my friend for a moment." He hissed, grabbing Deku by the arm and practically dragging him out of the store.
When they exited Deku winced, rubbing his arm. "You could've at least tried to avoid the injured arm." He growled, trying to calm his raging instincts.
"Yeah, yeah. I get it, you're a wimp. Now we need to talk about that girl. Who the heck is she and why did you just agree to bring her with us?"
"She's just a girl! Her name is Ochaco Uraraka and she needs help getting to the stronghold. We're only going to be driving for a day, so it shouldn't be too bad." Deku protested.
"Yeah, but she could find out-"
"Everyone could find out. We're going to a freaking stronghold. It's going to be full of people who can find out! Are we seriously going to leave someone behind just because she could find out?!"
Kacchan sighed. "Fine, she can come along. But your sitting in the front seat with me."
"Sure... but why?" Deku asked, sounding confused.
"You drool in your sleep and I don't want you infecting her." Kacchan growled.
Deku blushed. "Oh god. Are you kidding me?" He asked miserably.
"Nope." Kacchan said, smirking. He threw open the door to the store and shouted, "Hey! We've decided! You can come with us!"
Uraraka's voice called from within the store, "Thanks!"
Deku turned to Kacchan and whispered, "Do you.. uh, have the thing?"
"Yeah. It's in your water bottle." Kacchan answered. Deku nodded.
Deku yawned, feeling tired. He face planted into his sleeping bag, snoring. Kacchan facepalmed. It was going to be a long drive tomorrow, and not distance wise.
