Once Bitten

Nightmares (14)

When Macaque finally came back, finding MK with newfound invigoration, he set down dinner, more soup, on the counter, pausing when MK looked at him judgmentally. 

"What? There's only a microwave here kid and I'm not going out to cook something for you." He scoffed and MK huffed out a cut-off laugh, picking up the bowl and digging in without complaint as Macaque did the same with his.

"So... Macaque. That's not your real name, is it? You know that's supposed to be the code name of one of the members of the Brotherhood, right? Or is that why you picked that? To scare people?" MK asked, curiosity in his tone as he mentioned something he'd been researching for an insurmountable amount of hours, absolutely obsessed with the Monkey King and his work infiltrating the infamous mafia gang known as 'the brotherhood'. Macaque laughed awkwardly. 

"Aren't you a little young to know about that kind of stuff?" He asked and MK shook his head rather stubbornly.

"No! I want- or well, wanted to be a cop when I was older so I know everything there is to know about the best cop of all time! Monkey King! He worked on that case you know, infiltrated them, and helped get most of them arrested!" MK info-dumped, a spark coming back to his eyes as he talked about his interest while the older man winced at his words and rolled his eyes.

"You shouldn't believe everything you read, kid." Was all he said and it was MK's turn to roll his eyes, wondering why the guy spent so much of his energy being edgy and annoyed.    

"Moving on, where are you headed to, kid? I don't think you mentioned. Got any plans?" The guy asked, changing their conversation completely and MK pouted for a second before nodding, sitting cross-legged on the futon with his bowl in his lap. 

"M-hm, I'm heading west. My Dadsy said there was an evacuation sight there, so I'm going to go and find them." He explained, homesick at just the mention of his parents. 

"I wouldn't get your hopes up. Big groups of people won't last long. They rely on sound." MK leaned forwards in curiosity, suddenly listening a lot harder. 

"They what?" Macaque laughed at his question and snickered to himself in amusement at MK's clueless question. 

"Did you seriously not know? How have you even survived this long?" He cackled out, making MK pout a little because he'd been doing a great job surviving thank you very much! Then he remembered Bai He and her cat and the car accident and winced, mind flicking through every scenario that had been a close call with death. 

"Haven't you noticed that they're blind? The bacteria eats at their eye tissue first so they rely on sound to find their prey." 

"Like a T-Rex?" MK asked, blinking at the bewildered but amused look on Macaque's face at his comparison. 

"Not really, kid. And standing still might not work just in case you're thinking of trying it. If they don't hear your breathing they'll probably be able to smell you." The older shrugged and MK slumped unhappily at this knowledge, wondering why he'd never actually noticed that the zombies always chased after him after he'd made noise. I mean.. he had known in a way, but just subconsciously, and hadn't correlated their milky eyes with blindness for some odd reason.

"Wait, how do you know this stuff?" MK asked suddenly and Macaque rolled his eyes. 

"Maybe 'cause I'm not stupid." He laughed out and MK gasped in offense, pointing a finger at the guy. 

"Hey! I'm not stupid!" He cried out indignantly and, Macaque, the sarcastic meany he was, just raised an eyebrow at him skeptically.          

"Sure kid."