Limelight

Azalea and Azim: Progress

(Back to Limelight! Don't forget, I'm currently posting 2 one-shots every month, which could be in Limelight, Beyond the Barrier, Another Girl Another Zombie OR A Zombie History Lesson! These are all part of the same overarching series so I highly recommend keeping up with all of them, though it isn't 100% necessary~

I don't usually say this on here, but please do leave reviews if you enjoy these fics! I've been struggling a lot with motivation and inspiration and hearing from readers, even the smallest thing, really helps! I'd love to actually discuss my stories and characters with anyone who's interested so feel free to message me as well with questions or suggestions or whatever else~!

Also, because I already had some locations in Zombie Town established in my fics before we saw more of it in ZOMBIES 2, I made my own map incorporating a few places seen in Z2 shuffled around to fit my fic world, plus some pf my own creations, which you can find on my Tumblr, unusual-ly!

Azim was briefly mentioned in the BtB chapter Z Day part 2 but this his first appearance in Limelight so...)

AZIM: the other zombie with Zed and Alonzo at the start of Fired Up (Competition), later has a solo as the contortionist(?) zombie before Zoey talks to Bucky. Also seen in the blacklight section of BAMM with Zed and Izabelle

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With the zombies' integration into Seabrook came renovations across Zombie Town. After so many years of neglect, the council finally decided it was worth fixing up the old, decrepit buildings. The zombies had always made do with what they had, and there was no doubt they'd prefer some things to stay the same, things that they had become accustomed to, but the town was buzzing with excitement for the changes to come.

Back before the outbreak, the old plaza had been home to various businesses, including Seabrook's movie theatre, but in the years following the accident at the power plant, the whole place had been abandoned and left to rot. When zombies started stabilising, the town gradually started to rebuild and over time, new zombie-owned businesses had sprung up. A few of the spaces inside were vandalised by human teenagers who snuck over the barrier on occasion, though, and one of them was the movie theatre.

The plaza was currently home to Zita Dolores' Trash-Fired Pizza restaurant, Zelda De Kay's Third Hand Boutique and the one and only takeout place in Zombie Town, Dead On Delivery, as well as a small light garden somewhere in a back corner, but the theatre remained empty. Not only was it in ruins, but for the longest time, zombies' access to any sort of media had been limited. And besides, it hadn't been used since the late sixties and was stuck in a bygone era, frozen in time.

There was an appeal for that, though. Old movies. The old library was being cleared out and renovated as well, and somewhere in the archives, some lost film reels had been found. It was time to get the theatre up and running again, and thus the Z-Nema was soon open to the public.

– LIMELIGHT –

Azim had been planning this since the announcement of the Z-Nema. So much progress had been made in only a few short months and he'd felt so lucky to be a part of it, even if his only moment to shine had been a brief solo at the cheer championship. His girlfriend's little sister had been at the very centre of things and that made him proud enough. And now the early signs that their work was paying off were showing and it was time to celebrate. Azalea might always be looking to the future, but she was still fascinated by the past, so what could be a better date than taking her to the opening night of an old-school movie theatre?

The past few months had gone by in a blur. After the integration kicked off, it was like everything happened at once. The zombie mash was going so well until the patrol raided it. Luckily, Azim and Azalea had managed to get out, and found Eliza outside with Zed's little sister – she has left to take her home before the patrol arrived. Azim could still see the look on Azalea's face as she hugged her sister close. It wasn't like that had been the first zombie mash to be crashed by the humans, but things were supposed to be changing now. They still had a long way to go. And then the homecoming game had been a disaster. Eliza and her friends ended up in containment, and when she wanted to get back at the cheer squad by sabotaging them at the competition, even Azalea thought it was a bad idea. But she was stopped, and Azim jumped at the chance to perform with the Mighty Shrimp. He got his own moment in the spotlight and the only thing he could think of as it was happening was how badly they needed this to work. How much they needed to prove themselves to Seabrook. And they made a real breakthrough then.

The block party sparked the process of Seabrook gradually opening up to zombies, and humans being allowed into Zombie Town. The pet ban was lifted, zombie products would soon appear in human stores, teenaged zombies were allowed to work in Seabrook... This was what they had been fighting for. Azalea had been advocating and campaigning for this kind of change for so long, and Azim relished not only in the satisfaction of zombies finally moving forward, but the sight of his girlfriend's years of hard work paying off and her excitement.

They were both so proud of Eliza for being such a huge driving force in all of it.

– LIMELIGHT –

They went to the Z-Nema on its opening night, where they'd be showing some old black-and-white classic zombie horror movie, which, admittedly, seemed like a strange choice but it drew in the crowds, zombie and human alike. The rest of the world had such an odd idea of what a zombie outbreak would be like; this sort of thing was likely the origin for the humans' misconceptions about zombies, but that might just be what made it so fascinating.

Humans feared this fantasy they had created, and that fear bled into real life when they came face-to-face with the mutants who bore a striking resemblance to the monsters of the screen. But ultimately, they had been wrong. They had let these works of fiction influence them for so long, and now they were beginning to understand their mistakes. As Azalea watched the film, she felt she was starting to understand where the humans' fear came from, what their culture taught them about zombies, and that was opening up her mind to what they most needed to unlearn, what they needed to be more educated about. As much as she enjoyed that night as a date, it was inspiring her, too. Which Azim couldn't help but feel proud of himself for. This might be one of his best date night ideas yet.