Better off Undead

Chapter 31: The Truth is Down There

Marshall was having an interesting morning. Dreams filled with armies of zombies got him up extra early in the morning, despite having been up late. That was when he ran into Jay, who was acting unusual even for Jay, next to Paul's bed. Marshall considered asking the young man a few more questions – questions such as "how do you know about Paul's birthday?" and "why aren't you wearing a shirt?" – but decided in the end that he probably did not want to know. Besides, he probably had more than enough to worry about as things currently stood.

When he arrived in the cafeteria he found Amber and Elaine talking and laughing. The moment seemed almost surreal, especially to see Amber in such good mood after everything they had learned. Even more than that, he could not think of a single other time where the two ladies had gotten along at all. Mostly they were at odds with each other, a couple of times it almost seemed like they were about to come to blows. Marshall had been through enough to realize they were both attracted to him, and that this was the source of their consternation, but he did his best to stay out of it completely. It was not as though he found them unattractive. Quite the contrary, they were both extremely attractive to him for very different reasons. For Marshall, though, none of that mattered. There was simply too much pain in his recent past and too much fear for his impending future to even consider such matters.

So he simply took their sudden companionship as a good sign and continued on past them to the smorgasbord of breakfast foods that had been laid out. He glanced through the various offerings with a particular dissatisfaction. For some reason, he could not get Jay's comment about Paul's birthday out of his head. Since the outbreak, Marshall had not thought about anyone's birthday, not even his own. Maybe it was time to start making them important again. Considering everything he had learned, there potentially could be very few chances remaining to celebrate anything.

With that in mind, he rounded the counter and headed for the food storage. There was not much back there, but he really had not been sure what he had expected to find, anyway. It was not like there would conveniently be a pre-made cake just sitting there, waiting for the perfect occasion to be eaten while magically refusing to spoil. There might have been ingredients for a cake, but asking someone to make one did not seem appropriate somehow. The best he could find was a prepackaged, double chocolate muffin.

Returning to the front, he discovered Paul was already up and helping himself to a plate of food. He stepped up to the quiet man. "Hey Paul," he greeted warmly.

Paul eyed him suspiciously. "Uh, hey. You're... Marshall? Right?"

Marshall nodded his head and smiled. He then held up the muffin. "Here," he said, "this is for you."

For a moment Paul did not move, except to lean a little away from the muffin as he looked it over. He appeared to be expecting it to leap out of Marshall's hand and bite him. When it instead remained motionless, he slowly reached for it and took it. "Thanks?" he responded.

"I know it's not much," Marshall admitted, "but I just wanted you to have something. Because, you know, of today."

"Today?"

"Yeah. 'Cuz it's a special day. Right?"

Paul seemed to be growing more and more afraid as each second ticked by. He shifted uneasily from foot to foot, constantly glancing around as if plotting the most efficient escape route. "Yeah," he said in as calming a voice as he could manage. "It's... real special."

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Marshall waved a dismissive hand in the air like he was simply brushing all of Paul's concerns away.

"Yeah, please don't," Paul agreed hurriedly. He had no clue what Marshall was talking about, but he was not about to let the giant of a man know that.