+A B N O R M A L I T Y+

A B E R R A T I O N

Roy couldn't forget the zombie. He couldn't forget its golden eyes, filled with all that hurt and betrayal from Roy's actions. He wanted to see it again. He wanted to make sure that it was alright. Every time he thought that though, he shook his head and mentally scolded himself for worrying about a zombie.

This was a bad idea. He strapped his gun to his back and snuck out of the camp through a hole in the fence that encircled it. He quickly made his way to the shop, wondering if the zom would still be there or if it had moved on.

He entered the shop, pulling his gun from his back and pointing it towards the ground as he stepped silently through the shop. As he did he heard a scuffle and he whipped towards the sound. He stalked towards it. Another scuffle then the shifting of broken glass then a small cry of surprise and a thump as a body hit the floor. As he got closer and closer to the sounds, Roy came up to a corner where he waited, listening to the auditory pattern of scuffles, cries and thumps for a moment longer before swiftly flying around the corner, gun trained on the figure in the middle of the room. Roy lowered his weapon when he saw that it was only the abnormal zombie. He watched it and quickly realized that it was trying to stand. Roy noticed that he hadn't just blasted the foot off the creature but most of his left leg. Now it seemed that it couldn't figure out why it couldn't stand properly anymore.

Roy stepped into the room, accidently kicking a glass bottle as he did and the zom whipped around to face him. It panicked and with a cry of fear, scrabbled back into on of the back corners of the room. It watched Roy with fear filling its single golden eye. It seemed that the thing hadn't forgotten that Roy was the one that had handicapped him. Roy strapped his gun back over his back and slowly approached the zom, who in turn, shied further away from him, pressing itself as close to the wall as possible.

The thing made no move to attack Roy, it only watched him. Roy kneeled down before it, marveling at it with a fascinated gaze.

"Weird," he murmured to himself and the zom now watched him with a curious expression. Not thinking, Roy reached out and took a gentle hold on the zombie's long hair. He'd never seen this much hair on a zom before. In fact he'd never seen hair this long on anyone. All the girls at the camp cut their hair short to keep it out of the way. There had only been one person in the camp that kept his hair so long. Ed.

The hair slid out of his hand when the creature pushed it behind its ear. Such a human gesture it was almost unbelievable. Then the zom reached his hands behind his back and fiddled with his hair. Roy could recognize it's attempts at braiding and after so many failed attempts on the zombie's part he grabbed the zom by the waist, causing it to yelp, as he turned it so that the thing's back was facing him.

"Let me do it," he said and began braiding the zombie's hair. The creature sat unnervingly still as he did, but when he had finished and tied the hair at the end. The zom lifted it's hand and ran it over its hair, feeling the braid. He turned to Roy, eyes blazing with joy and mouth quirked into an attempted smile. The breathy grunting sound that Roy had decided was laughter, sounded from its lips. This time Roy smiled along with the creature. The zombie's eye shone with delight and it reached up curiously to touch Roy's hair. When it did though, Roy's smile disappeared and he slapped the zom's hand away, face cold. The joy reflecting in the zombie's single eye vanished, replaced with sadness and it retreated back into the corner. It curled up into itself trying to find comfort in it's own tough.

"Hush, hush," it whispered to itself, "hush, hush." Roy's eyes softened. This zombie really meant no harm to him. It seemed like... Like all he wanted was attention...

"Hey," Roy whispered and the zom looked up at him, it's eye filled with hurt and confusion.

"What did I do wrong?" It seemed to ask. Roy lifted the thing's hand to his hair.

'You want to touch my hair?" He asked and the creature shakily brought it's hand to Roy's head, resting it there, stroking the black hair beneath his hand. The smile and laugh reappeared and Roy smiled, "there we go..." He whispered. When it pulled it's hand away, Roy looked back up and saw the zom staring at him with a sort of longing. It reached it's hand out to cup Roy's face, staring at him sadly, longingly.

It leaned in, resting it's forehead against Roy's, staring into the depths of the zombie hunter's eyes. It mouthed something. Roy couldn't tell what the words were though. Tears filled the zom's eyes, anothering thing that Roy had ever seen a zom do was cry. The creature shut it's eye and mouthed the words again. Roy saw clearly what the zom was mouthing this time but the words didn't make any sense to him...

"I miss you..."