Disclaimer - I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios. Names of BG zombies are mine, characters themselves aren't.

Well, things are going downhill... Not much more to say

Don't forget, krut09 has a trailer for this fic on her YouTube, Kreatable23, if you want to see what else is coming in this story and there's a playlist of theme songs I can give you a link for, new songs are added the day before an update so you can get an idea of what will happen~

Chapter 4

By the time Zephyr reached Alonzo's street, a crowd had gathered. He froze at the sight of so many zombies huddled together, a few members of the zombie patrol trying to keep them under control. Rizzo had followed him out of the house and was only a few steps behind him. She came to a stop beside him and they both watched in dismay as Alonzo was escorted out of his home by two more patrol officers. Even from a distance, Zephyr could see the tear stains on Al's cheeks. He was in handcuffs and wasn't resisting at all. Everything about the scene before him left Zephyr feeling overwhelmed with fear. He was standing there for merely seconds but it felt like hours before he could urge himself forward. He made his way towards the mass of zombies with Rizzo close behind. Meanwhile, Roz and Zach were blocking the officers' path.

"Wait, no, he couldn't have done it," Roz was saying, "I know Al, he wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"Move aside, please."

Zach frowned, gesturing at Alonzo, "You can't seriously think he really killed a guy?"

"His DNA was found on the body."

"He had to have been framed, then."

"We tested saliva and teeth marks," the officer holding him explained and Alonzo flinched at the words, unable to even look at his friends, "The results were irrefutable."

Neither of them could accept this. Roz shook their head, "This doesn't make any sense! Al, come on, say something!" they grabbed his arm and he bit his lip, "You can't just take the bla-"

"Roz..." Al started, finally looking back at them, then at Zach. He tried to speak but couldn't find the words. Roz's hand slowly dropped and their face fell, as did Zach's. Zephyr, watching from just a short distance away now, could only silently mouth 'No...'.

"A-Al...?" Roz stammered, "Tell me you didn't do it..."

The officer tried to move past them again but this time, Alonzo planted his feet firmly on the ground, looked from Roz to Zach, and took a breath, "I took off my band."

Everyone went quiet, the whispers and chatter coming to a stop instantly, and every zombie present was staring at him. Zephyr took a step closer, ready to run to him, but Rizzo held him back. Roz and Zach shared a look of confusion and shock, then turned back to Alonzo.

"You what?"

As far as he knew, that was the sound of betrayal in Zach's voice and Alonzo felt tears pricking his eyes again, "He attacked Zephyr. He said he wanted to eradicate the zombies, a-and he tried to kill Zephyr first," he turned to the officer holding him in defeat, the first time he had admitted exactly what he had done out loud to them, "He tried to kill my boyfriend and I panicked. I took off my Z-band."

The officers glanced at one another. With Roz and Zach too shocked to protest anymore, they carried on leading him away. Somewhere in the crowd, Alonzo's dad had his hands clamped around Lindzey's shoulders, keeping her from running to her brother. His mom gently pushed Roz and Zach aside to confront the officers.

"You can't do this. He wasn't wearing his Z-band, he wasn't in his right mind, he didn't know wh-"

She was interrupted, "He just confessed to making the conscious decision to remove his Z-band, and that alone is an offence."

Alonzo locked eyes with his mother and his voice came out in a choked sob, "I'm sorry...!"

She reached out her hands to him but he was already being pulled away from her and she was left crying. The crowd of zombies swarmed Al as he was escorted to the van in the middle of the street and as he passed, their words hammered away at him. Some were rightfully, in his mind, angry but it seemed it hurt more to hear people trying to defend him.

"Do you have any idea what I went through because of you?" Inez shouted, storming along beside Al, "They don't treat us 'repeat offenders' so nice, y'know, and you're tellin' me it was you all along? You know how much trouble you got us into? Me, Riza, Topaz-"

"Don't bring me into this, Inez, I'm on his side!" Topaz grabbed Inez by the shoulder and turned her around, "Besides, didn't you hear what he said? Somebody tried to kill us! Look at the bigger picture, here, that should be the least of your worries."

Zeke stepped in the officer's way as the girls continued to argue, "She's right, he's not some criminal, he was defending himself and his boyfriend, and all of us! You can't take him away for that!"

"Zeke, don't..." Al mumbled.

And then there was Izabelle, muttering in disbelief, "You did it. You actually did it. For real."

In desperation, Zephyr broke free of Rizzo's grasp and pushed past the others to get to Al, right as the officers were opening the doors.

"Zephyr?"

"Al!" tears were streaming down Zephyr's face, "I'm sorry, I said I wouldn't let this happen, I said I was gonna keep you safe...!"

"Zeph, you couldn't have done anything to stop this."

Somehow, he kept his tone calm and level. Zephyr stood there, looking up at him for a second or two, then closed the gap between them and brought a hand to his face. But before their lips could meet, Alonzo was torn away from Zephyr and shoved into the van. The doors were slammed shut behind him.

"Wait, no...! No, Alonzo!" Zephyr banged against the door but was quickly pulled away by another officer. Rizzo hurried over and took hold of his arm. They watched, along with the other zombies, while the officers climbed into the front seats of the vehicle and began to drive away with Alonzo locked up in the back. Then he heard Inez's condescending voice coming from behind him and, though he didn't realise it, something in Zephyr's heart began to harden.

"And you knew about this. You knew he did it and you never said anything. In fact, I bet you been covering for him, haven't you?"

Zephyr refused to even face her, but his jaw was set and his hands balled into fists. Rizzo kept her hands on his shoulder and her eyes on Inez. When Zephyr didn't respond, Inez turned her attention to Rizzo.

"What about you, Riz? You been in on this, too?"

Rizzo's expression was cold and fierce, steadily meeting Inez's accusing gaze. She opened her mouth to speak but another voice from within the crowd suddenly made her lose focus, and made Zephyr turn around.

"Rizzo? Did you know about this?"

"Zane, I-"

"That's why you were so out of it yesterday. You knew about this, and you never told me? I'm your best friend, we're supposed to tell each other everything! And you'd keep something this big from me?"

It was rare to see Zane so upset over anything and it hit Rizzo hard.

"This isn't about me, it's about Zephyr and Al, I couldn't do that to them...!" she tried to defend herself but Zane only shook his head and looked away, "Zane, I'm sorry, but this was way too serious, I couldn't tell anybody!"

He didn't answer. Instead, Inez threw up her arms, getting the attention of the whole crowd.

"So, what now? 'Cause you all know this is gonna change things. If one zombie can do it, any zombie can do it. The integration was all for nothing and now we're headed right back where we started."

Alonzo's voice echoed in Zephyr's head.

"How much longer is it gonna be before everything goes back to the way it used to be?"

He took one step closer to Inez and spat through gritted teeth, "Shut your mouth."

"Or what? You're gonna make me? You know I'm right," Inez shot him an almost cruel smile, "Imagine if Z himself was here to see this. Everything he stood for, and everything we fought for, down the drain. All 'cause of your drakka garzi'ka-"

Zephyr snapped. Calling a human 'drakska' was one thing, but calling a zombie 'drakka' was enough to make anyone's blood boil.

"He saved us!"

"He ruined us!"

Rizzo interrupted, trying not to let Zane get to her, "Hey, we don't know that yet. We don't know anything yet."

"Oh, I can think of one thing," Inez said, slowly looking from Rizzo to Zephyr, "Alonzo's not gonna last one week in containment."

"What do you know?"

"I know what goes down in there. Hell, the place is practically my second home! But I've only ever been there for minor offences. Breaking curfew, leaving Zombie Town before we were allowed to, stirring up a little trouble from time to time, I never stayed for more than a day, but that boy just broke the golden rule," she stopped, obviously enjoying how Zephyr was seething, "He's gonna be in there for a long time, and you know better than anyone that he's too weak to-"

Zephyr flew towards her in a rage, startling the other zombies.

"You'll stop right there if you know what's good for you!"

Inez stepped up, ready for a fight, but Rizzo stood in between them and blocked their paths, her hand on her brother's chest.

"Zephyr, stop!"

"She has no right talking about him like that!"

"No, she doesn't," she shot Inez a harsh glare but she wasn't fazed in the slightest, "But you don't need to stoop to her level."

"Hey, you got no business getting in the way!" Inez protested, "You keep babying him like that, he's never gonna learn to stand up for himself! Look what happened when he couldn't protect himself from a human."

Now Rizzo was mad.

"Alright, you know what Inez?"

Her voice was drowned out as the crowd of zombies began to buzz with more arguments and accusations, pointing fingers and placing the blame on whoever they saw fit. Zephyr was breathing hard, tears threatening to fall again, and he looked down the street. The patrol was gone. Alonzo was gone.

Alonzo was gone.

Everyone else was too distracted with the fight to notice him slip away. Everyone else, that is, but Roz and Zach. Zephyr was about to turn the corner onto the next block when Roz saw him and nudged Zach. With a single look at one another, they followed him, but neither one said a word until they were out of earshot of the others. He was hurting and it wouldn't do him any good if they attracted anymore unwanted attention.

"Zephyr!" Roz cried out once they were far enough away but he ignored them. They sighed and kept running after him with Zach right behind.

"Zeph, come on, just talk to us!" Zach tried.

"I don't want to talk!" Zephyr yelled back, not even turning around. His voice was shaking. He was almost at his house.

Roz softened, "You need to, though."

"No, I don't."

He skipped the steps and jumped straight into the porch.

"We just wanna he-"

Zach cut himself off when Zephyr swung around to face them and he and Roz both stopped. They'd never seen him crying like this. They'd never seen him look so angry. Or sound so angry, either.

"I promised him I wouldn't let this happen!"

And with that, he flung open the front door and went inside, slamming it in their faces. Zach was on the porch in a flash but Zephyr had already locked them out. Roz joined him and they banged on the door.

"Zephyr, you can't just shut us out here!"

"We're on your side, Zeph. Please, we can talk about this!"

Zephyr didn't respond. He heard every word, though. He was curled up on the floor on the other side, his back to the door as he wept. He was alone. His friends were right there, only a couple of feet away from him, but he felt completely alone.

Roz and Zach eventually gave up on banging and shouting but they didn't leave. If Zephyr did come out, they'd be there for him. But soon Rizzo was there and they stood aside to let her through. She leaned her forehead against the door.

"Zephyr? Baby? It's Riz, let me in."

Zach whispered to Roz, "How does she know if he's still there?"

"Twin telepathy?" Roz shrugged.

"That's not a thi-" the door creaked open and Zephyr practically threw himself at his sister, crying into her shoulder, "I stand corrected, it's a thing."

Rizzo glanced back at them, "I'm sorry, guys," she said, hugging Zephyr close, "He needs some time."

– TATTOOED MISTAKES –

There was no question. The DNA found on the body was definitely his, and the patrol had already been suspicious of the warning on his Z-band when the timing didn't match up to when Zephyr had claimed they saw the human. His confession to removing his Z-band was the last piece of the puzzle they needed. But there were still factors; he had removed his Z-band of his own accord and killed someone as a result, and had even started to eat the body. But it was in self-defence, and a recent change to the law decreed a zombie could not be held completely responsible for their actions without a functioning Z-band. On top of all that, he was still a minor at 16 years old. It all came back to his band, though, and the intent behind taking it off.

His sentence was a year in containment; six months in high security, six in low security. He was going to miss the entirety of his second year at Seabrook High.

The punishment went beyond that, though. His Z-band was locked – completely locked. Physically locked onto his wrist, which was to be expected, but also technologically. He had virtually no use of the Z-band himself: no way to make calls or text, no internet connection, and he couldn't even operate it as normal himself. And what was worse was the shocks. The electromagnetic pulses were turned way up to electric shocks at regular intervals. He found it hard to move around freely or even just to think for the first few days until he got a little more used to it. But that didn't stop the pain of it. And, he was told, each of the zombies would also have their bands locked during their next mandatory Z-band check.

Alonzo knew for a fact Zephyr's Z-band check was coming up. They would be in the same building, and they both knew they wouldn't be able to see each other. On the day, Alonzo sat alone in his cell unable to think of anything but the fact that his boyfriend was somewhere in the facility, so near and yet so far away. He clenched his teeth through the shocks jolting him and tried to remember it wouldn't be much longer.

Zephyr would be able to come visit him soon. But that didn't feel soon enough.