The next morning, Bren awoke; he stepped outside of the mayor's house and blinked a few times, noticing something strange.
A chest in the middle of town, with four lit torches around it.
Bren blinked a few more times and then rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't drunk again, nope, it was real.
He walked across the grass to the chest and opened it up. Inside he found a stone hoe that looked like it was recently used, some freshly picked apples, chopped wood, along with wooden planks, he finally pulled out some grain, he looked it over, it looked fresh and he had enough to bake some basic wheat bread.
"Now who would do this?" He thought looking around, and then he saw in the tree line around the town a figure. He went to his side and drew his blade.
"Come out now!" He called out to the figure but the figure disappeared in the trees and Bren let out a sigh.
"Got to be careful" He thought when he noticed Gale walking out of his house and smacking his lips and running his hand through his hair, muttering to himself, "Never eat spider again"
Bren walked to Gale and then pointed to the chest, "Hey Gale got an idea about this chest?" He asked and Gale looked at the chest and put his hand up to his chin in thought
"Nothing" He said looking in the chest, "It doesn't look like something that we would make…the chest itself looks old, nearly rotten" He said moving some stuff away to see the bottom, "In fact the items here look like they were put in last night while we slept" he told Bren
"Should we tell the guys?" Bren asked looking at the houses that the rest of the people stayed in
"No, not right now, Bren did you see anyone who would have done this?" Gale asked
"I saw a figure that way" Bren said pointing, "I held my sword and called out to him and he took off" Bren said
"Allow me" Gale said walking to the spot Bren pointed to, he muttered some words and his wand began to glow, and he could see in the grass yellow steps.
"Got him" Gale said, Bren nodded his head and drew his sword, following Gale and the footsteps into the woods.
They walked for 10 minutes following the glowing trail that Gale set up, it took them a while to stay on the trail, but they wanted to be stealthy as to not alert the figure. After a few more minutes they found a clearing in the woods…and found a broken wooden house, but that's not what surprised them, they saw freshly tilled land with grain growing.
"Ok this doesn't make any sense" Bren said looking at the tilled soil
"The tracks lead into the house, be ready" Gale said disabling the spell.
Bren nodded his head and held his sword in his right hand as he used his left to open the door; he looked into the room and then shut the door quickly.
"Damn it, a zombie…a large one at that, at least 6 feet tall" Bren hissed he was panicked; zombies retained all strength they had in their life, but without the problem of endurance or pain.
"So what do we do?" Gale asked
"Give me a muffle spell or something, I'll sneak up on it and stab it in the head" Bren said and Gale nodded his head and began to mutter more words and Bren slowly open the door and walked in, his footsteps silent now, the zombie was on the floor, his back to Bren as he silently held his sword up.
"…leave…"
Bren jumped back, he heard a low growl, but the word was clear.
The zombie turned his head to Bren
"Leave…me….alone…."
It was clear the zombie was talking to him…and not attacking him?
Bren didn't know what to say to the zombie.
"Uh you speak?" Bren asked
The zombie let out a smile…even with the rotten flesh, Bren could see it was a smile.
"Friend…likes….gift?" It asked in a slow growl
"Friend like gift?" Bren asked and then it clicked, "You left the chest?" Bren asked, "With the food and wood?" He asked
The zombie stood up and pointed to a large hoe on the ground, it was muddy
"I…farm." He said
"Uh Gale…could you come in?" Bren called out; he needed to make sure he wasn't in a drunken dream
Gale walked in and held his wand up, "Bren why didn't you kill it?" Gale asked about to send a minor fireball spell into its head
"It can talk" Bren asked and Gale dropped his wand in shock…
"You…friend?" The zombie asked
Gale went to his knees, this was impossible, in all his studies ever since the discovery of portals to the nether, the undead roamed the world, along with creepers, giant spiders, silver fish in abandoned strongholds, never has there been an account of a zombie that spoke, it was impossible, zombies couldn't speak in anything but a growl, and they couldn't think therefore they couldn't do anything but attack, let alone speak.
"…if my teachers could see this, they would have to take me back" He thought and he looked at the zombie
"Bren, we need to capture it" He said
"What?" Bren asked
"If I can bring a zombie who can talk and think, I can return to the academy" He said, he began to reach for his wand but then he was knocked to the wall, the zombie seemed to understand what he said and had sent a right hook into his chest.
"It…can fight?" Gale asked before he passed out.
Bren drew his sword he was terrified but the zombie stood back
"Please…leave….I…want….peace." He said to Bren
Bren looked down and then dropped his sword to the ground
"Listen, I want to know something, how come you aren't like other zombies, others want to kill me and anyone who comes near" He asked, the zombie shook his head
"Don't…know….just….thought….why….fight" He slowly said, "…like…to….farm"
"You like to farm huh…well if you want you can come to my town and be our farmer" He said, he had a feeling that the others would call him crazy
The zombie was silent and then pointed to a cracked mirror, "But…I….am…a…monster" He frowned and looked close to crying
"Oh come on, cheer up, my grandfather was friends with a monster, and because of it he saved the world….because of him I learned that not everyone is a monster" He said extending his hand to the zombie.
"So come on friend" Bren said smiling
The zombie didn't know what to say…this human, thought he wasn't a monster?
The zombie slowly extended his hand to Bren's and they shook.
Bren quickly wiped his hand on his pant leg and picked up Gale, "Come to town this even, bring your stuff you want to keep" He said and the zombie nodded his head
"Hey question, what is your name?" He said
"…too…long….forgot." The zombie said
"…how about Chad" Bren suggested
The zombie was silent, as if to say, "You're kidding right?"
"Well better then bob" Bren said shrugging his shoulders
"…agreed." The newly named Chad said.
Bren carried Gale out of the abandoned house and brought him back to town, setting him in his house, coming out just in time for everyone else to come out for the morning routine.
"Hey guys, good news, we are getting a new member of our happy little town" Bren said, everyone didn't know what to say, Nick spoke first, "So where is he?" he asked
"He will come in tonight…he doesn't like daytime that much" Bren said rubbing the back of his head
"Uh huh" Nick said not quite believing him.
The day was simple, they chopped down trees to burn into usable charcoals for smelling ores they were sure to find, but as the sun began to set Bren looked up to see Gale coming out of his house groaning
"Took ya long enough magic boy" Ryan called out to him, "Been out for at least 12 hours" He said
Gale clutched his head and said, "Well I was attacked" He groaned and the nearby bushes began to shuffle and who poked his head out, why Chad of course…what expect Herobrine?
"Damn it, it's the zombie!" Gale said about to form his magic on the hoe wielding zombie
Bren got in front of Gale and extended his arms in a shield fashion, he began to glare at Gale
"Boy what are you doing, that's a zombie!" Ryan said, Nick and AJ were silent, Mike was surprised to see the zombie not attacking them so he had a look of curiosity of Chad
As Bren and Gale began to argue they heard something, hissing, two creepers came into town
"Damn it" Nick said drawing his blade, but he couldn't move, two creepers were hard to face together, kill one, the other blows up.
The group knew this and began to move back away from the hissing creepers but then they heard a loud growl.
The creepers turned around to see the hulking zombie behind them, one let out a meek hiss but Chad swung the hoe to the side of the creeper's head, it cried out now dead and Chad let out a loud growl and sent a right hook into the last creeper's face with speed that was surprising in an undead's body. Everyone heard a sickening crack of the creeper's face as it fell onto its back.
"Hey Gale, question, would a zombie fight a creeper?" Bren asked
"…no, zombies never fought creepers or zombies, skeletons and creepers sometimes fight for unknown reasons but never zombies" He said
"Friends?" Chad asked pulling the bloodied hoe from the dead zombie
"Boy…is this new member of the town?" Ran asked nervously, Nick and AJ held their blades up defensively .
"Yes" Bren said
Mike looked over the zombie, "No way…it couldn't be" He thought, "No way a zombie would ally themselves with humans…let alone talk"
"Friends?" Chad asked once more
"Friends" Bren said smiling; everyone gave a nervous smile as well…either Bren picked a great ally…or picked their mode of death tonight.