The Messengers of Sanctuary

8 - Chicory

Chicory stared at the glowing red eyes, they stared back at her.

The zombie had growled a few times before, but now it was just staring at her. Chicory wasn't sure what to do, she'd never met a zombie that didn't immediately try to kill her. It felt wrong to even contemplate killing the thing for existing, even though it had to be a swift. Regular zombies didn't have glowing eyes after all.

Suddenly, the swift straightened its posture. Chicory hadn't even noticed that it had crouched slightly, knees bent for stability. Now it was standing straight and tall. Chicory narrowed her eyes as the zombie let out a long breath and they continued their staring match.

Somehow, Chicory could be more surprised by the thing. Its head tilted to the side and it spoke. "What are you?" confusion laced its voice, confusion with a small spark of fear.

"ACK IT'S SMART-" Chicory fumbled with the blade at her side unsheathing it and screaming as she skipped backward several steps. Falling into a defensive stance.

The zombie blinked at her, having frozen in place, her eyes wide, her mouth still open. "SORRY SORRY! I'm not going to hurt you! I uh- I don't know what's happening ANY MORE THAN YOU DO?!?"

Chicory stared at the zombie for a moment longer, and finally sheathed her blade, forcing herself to relax. She felt the heat in her blood as it continued to spike and shudder. They stood at a stalemate for a long tense moment.

Chicory watched the other woman, looking the zombie up and down. She was clearly a zombie, she had the right bearing and the red eyes for it, but she'd spoken. Perhaps she was some type of mutant? Chicory peered closer. Noticing the well-tended clothing and the small bag at her side. "Are you...a zombie? A smart zombie?"

The zombie, surprisingly, nodded, "I'd assume the glowing red eyes would have given me away?"

Chicory just kept staring, "Uh, yeah... How are you still smart? Are you some type of mutant?"

The zombie, still rather jumpy, shook her head, "No, I'm a sane runner, we're pretty common.You've never heard of us before?"

Chicory sighed, "Nope. but there's a lot of weird stuff happening on this side of the rockies..."

"I'm Loretta." She folded her arms, "You still haven't answered my first question. What are you."

Chicory blinked, "I'm Chicory, I have heartfire. I...It's this other virus and it's...complicated."

She muttered incoherently for a moment as Loretta stared at her. "...Alright?"

Chicory let out a long breath, "Yep, it's a whole thing. Anyway, what are you doing out here?"

Loretta shrugged, "Watching the stars. And you? You're clearly human, I can smell it from here, you aren't exactly safe from being attacked by ferals."

Chicory smiled, "I'm a messenger, I plan on taking over the world with postage." she winced, "Though I haven't delivered a single message in weeks..."

The sane zombie nodded slowly, unfolding her arms and resting them at her sides, "I was freaked out terribly hard when I spotted you, but I suppose you don't plan on murdering me in my sleep?"

Chicory looked at her like she was crazy, feeling slightly offended that Loretta would even think that. Although to be fair, she'd thought the exact same thing when she spotted the glowing red eyes. "Of course not! I don't murder people in their sleep. But uh, I should probably move on now then, it was nice to meet you!"

Loretta took a step closer, "at the very least let me write a few letters for you to take. You said you're a messenger? Well, I'll definitely pay for that."

Chicory stilled, realizing that yeah, this was probably a better idea. "Yes! Of course! I can take letters anywhere. It might take a bit longer if I don't know the way but I'll get it there within a year!"

Loretta grinned, "That's definitely a deal then, come on I have some friends that probably want to write people too."

Meeting three sane zombies was odd, especially since before that night, she hadn't even known they existed. Raven and Jeren were nice enough folks, but they were clearly bothered by her presence. They each wrote a handful of short letters and left, leaving Loretta to labor over her stack of fifteen.

Chicory waited patiently, and an hour or so later she packed all the letters into a bag. "You'll still be at this address when I get a return letter, right?"

Loretta smiled sadly and nodded, "For now yeah, I will be."

---

To the southwest, taking up most of habitable California, the group called the Alliance laid claim to almost everything. Most people tended to avoid the Alliance if at all possible. It was powerful, widespread, and generally one of the only powers besides Sanctuary that anyone knew of.

Chicory wasn't one of those people who avoided anything, having figured out that they had absolutely zero effective communication network. Chicory was also the type of person who saw a possible gain and took it without a second thought.

And so, as Chicory entered the Alliance territory, clutching the letters from Loretta, Jeren, and Raven, she reflected that she really ought to return to Sanctuary after this.

But first, she had some letters to deliver!

It didn't seem odd at first that all three of them had friends to contact down here, but the more that Chicory thought about it, the more she couldn't help but remember the cocoa beans incident.

Going halfway across the world just for one person wasn't logical by any means. But Chicory couldn't say for sure if she would do it again if given a request.

One of these days she should really put a distance restriction on her messages. Or at the very least she should charge extra for something further away. Chicory wasn't sure if that would ever happen though, so she simply entered Alliance territory and did her sparking best to claim them for her postage empire.

---

Chicory sat across from the man who was, as far as she could tell, Loretta's brother. The letter addressed to him was labeled Samuel Burgess at the very least, and it was the longest letter that any of the three sane zombies had written, taking up almost a dozen pages.

He stared at the unopened letter for several heartbeats and finally looked back up at Chicory. "So...she's alive then?"

Chicory nodded, "she was fine a couple of weeks ago when I last saw her."

Samuel finally smiled a little bit, setting the letter down on the table between them. "Thank you for the letter. It must've taken you a while just to bring it to me."

Chicory grinned, "You weren't the only one who she wrote to, I still need to find a couple more around here." 

------

Vote to support good communication skills!