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We didn't bother to clean up the bodies after all of that. They didn't deserve to rest in peace; that was something we all agreed on. We happily celebrated with rabbit jerky and happy vibes all around our house. I had never seen Jack smile before tonight, and I had definitely never seen Damien look so embarrassed when Marge started to talk about her life before the Catastrophe (I don't remember much of what it was, but I do recall that she frequented the red light district of her city for her job). All I could really remember was watching Cynthia walk upstairs with a smile on her face. I was curious about it and headed upstairs, and just stood in front of the bedroom door with my jaw agape. Cynthia just sat on the window looking out into the night sky. She almost looked like a marble statue in the light, regal with an air of elegance around her. It took me a few minutes to stop gaping like an idiot and knocked on the wooden door to signal my presence. She turned her head and saw me, her smile only growing wider.
"How do you feel?" I asked her, walking over to lean against the wall.
"Lighter. Like I've been carrying something for so long and it's finally gone," she softly replied, eyes returning to the night sky. It was a clear night with a full moon. I looked out and nearly forgot that we were in an apocalyptic time. The scenery reminded me of the times I would watch the stars with my family in the summer, back when I wasn't shunned from my home and survived off of thieving from my own family. Cynthia must have noticed what I was thinking, because she stood up from her seat on the window and walked closer to me.
"Zee? Are you okay?" she asked me, placing a hand on my left arm, "Your crying."
"Huh?" I was surprised to hear a croak rather than my normal voice. To think that I was crying after so long for something so long ago was rather embarrassing. I quickly tried to rub away my tears, and flashed her a smile to show I was alright. Cynthia sadly smiled back, but changed into a more playful mood moments later.
"You don't have to act so tough all the time, 'boss'," Cynthia cooed with a mischievous smile, "You know that all of us don't expect you to do that."
"I know," I replied, unfazed and composed, "But at the same time, I gotta start acting like a leader for the times I have to be. I don't know if something like that will happen to you guys again. And I don't want anything to happen to any of you. At all." Cynthia smiled at my statement, as if I had managed to ease her worry about my mental state. The two of us talked alone together for a few more minutes and were eventually dragged back downstairs by a very flustered Damien.

I woke up early the next day, feeling more relaxed than usual. Marge, who took last shift this time around, greeted me as I got up and went outside to take in the morning air. I am usually the second one to rise when I am not on last shift, and I always scout out our surroundings to make sure we were safe to move. And as usual, I did my daily rounds alone with my knives at hand. I cut through a few old hedges to cut through the block where our base house was located and patrolled around the block for any hints of reams roaming about. It was during my search that I found a fresh splatter of blood near one of the houses on the left side of the block. It looked recent and still liquid, which instantly made me alert. The blood wasn't that of a ream's, which were a blackened red; it was bright crimson - blood from a living being. It could be anything, but I should be wary just in case, I mentally noted, drawing my bayonet and kitchen knife. I didn't think it would be too serious since the splatter was relatively small, so I paid no other mind to it.

That is, until a ream horde caught me by surprise and ambushed me.

It was fast and unexpected. They swarmed me as if I were a lovely steak to a pride of hungry lions. Had I not been prepared the horde would have gotten to me. There were so many that I couldn't keep up, and forced myself to run away before I got even more injured. I ran into one of the large buildings across the block and barricaded myself on the roof. With no where else to go and the horde searching for me, I decided I had no choice but to jump down. I clamored up to one of the ledges when I heard the roof door behind me break open, their groans and moaning following up soon after. I quickly scanned the ground for an escape route and jumped off. I landed on a nearby tree and crashed onto the floor, groaning through the pain. With no time to rest, I gathered the rest of my strength to run away.
After running for what seemed to be a long time I returned back to the street where the home base was. I looked up towards the sky and found that the sun had long since risen from the horizon from when I first got up. They must be worried, I thought. I looked over myself to make sure I was fine. I noticed a few bloodstains and I felt really beat up from the reams tackling me a whole lot, but other than that I looked like I was fine. I guess they didn't think the same when I came back though; Cynthia was the one who found me first.
"Zee?! What happened?! Where were you?!" she cried out in relief when I came through the door. She tackled me right at the door and I tried my best to hide the pain. A majority of my bruises were around my torso area from the initial ambush so I was very sensitive to pain around that part of my body.
"H-hey now, Cynthia. I'm fine," I grunted from the tackle, "I got ambushed by a horde. Got by with a few scratches and bruises, that's all."
"That don't seem like a few scratches to me," Damien retorted, "That bloodstain on your pant leg signals a gash to me."
"What gash?" I asked curiously, looking down. Sure enough, as Damien said, a pool of blood formed underneath me where I stood. That was when I felt the pain. It shot up my body like fire, burning through my skin. I immediately keeled to the ground in pain, clutching my leg as the blood continued to flow. Whatever happened during that time became a blur to me, and the next thing I knew, I was lying down on the bed upstairs with bandages wrapped all over my body as Marge and Cynthia sat nearby washing bloody cloths that they must have used to clean up the blood I had lost.

I had no recollection of falling asleep, but when I awoke it was already nearing evening. The only person I noticed was Cynthia, who sat nearby washing off some rags. She looked exhausted and weary, and it hurt me to see that there were remnants of crying that stained the blankets that covered me. I slowly sat up, my muscles aching from being still for so long. The pain was still there, but I tried to hold it in to no avail. I ended up coughing loudly and alerted Cynthia to my wakefulness.
"Zee! You're up!" She cried out in relief, rushing towards the bed. I smiled weakly and nodded, feeling worn out despite resting for so long.
"How long was I out for?" I asked meekly, unable to raise my voice. Cynthia frowned.
"You were out for two weeks, Zee. You scared us all," Cynthia replied, looking away with tears welling up in her eyes, "We thought that you had died on us." My mouth opened slightly in awe as I let her words sink in. I was out for two weeks? I couldn't believe what I heard. It still felt as if I had just slept for a day, but I was out for two weeks!
"I-I see," I stuttered miserably. I didn't think my injuries were that severe. More importantly, I felt the need to apologize to everyone for what happened. "Why don't you head downstairs and let everyone know that I'm awake again? I'm sure they're worried," I asked Cynthia. She gave me a sad smile and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. I smiled, and contorted into pain. Suddenly, I began coughing violently, and it hurt every time I coughed. I covered my mouth by reflex, and when my coughing fit ended, I examined my hand and found out about something very disturbing about myself.

I saw blood. That, and a weird black substance that began mixing itself into the blood in my hand, giving the bright crimson liquid a more tainted look.