SmackDown: MadMike's Revenge!

Round 4, Hermaphrodeity: The Living Mountain - @sigrist

The Living Mountain: A Zombie Prophecy

by sigrist

((A/N: This story is official TZP canon, if you wanna read more check out my profile. Also, I took some liberties with the prompt about the 45th president))

The first night was difficult but Yul knew it would be. He had a lamp with him but it was tucked away in his bag. The Sentinels wouldn't let James go freely and the foothills had no cover so any guards on duty up in the mountain would see the light. Aside from the fact that Yul couldn't see anything, James' coordination wasn't what it used to be so he kept falling. At first Yul tried to help him back up but that was a mistake. James wasn't interested in help, he only wanted flesh.

As the sun was rising, Yul heard a river. He found it and followed its bank until he decided they'd reached a narrow enough bend that James would be able to cross, then he waded into the cold water. In the thirty two years that Yul had been alive, he had only left the mountains three times. He had a comfortable life in the Sentinel's base and his job allowed him to stay in relative safety, James had always been the risk taker. He volunteered at a very young age to join the exploratory teams and proved himself to be a very adept warrior and diplomat. Yul couldn't help but wonder how the situation would be different if their roles were reversed. James probably understood what happened to rocks in a river bed when they accumulated algae. He would have known that a zombie might not be able to keep its footing on such a slippery surface. That wasn't how things were, though. No, Yul was leading James in a world he didn't understand, across a river he couldn't have known would be so treacherous. James was the knowledgeable one, the brave one, and he was reduced to a clumsy undead oaf who barely had enough balance to walk on dry land let alone find secure footing on the green rocks at the bottom of the river.

As James splashed down into the water, Yul felt the chain between them grow tight. James was also the heavier one and as the water rushed his body away it pulled Yul along. He struggled to swim against the current but with James in tow it was impossible. He was dragged under the surface of the river and splashed up just long enough to get a breath of air before being dragged back down again. He felt James' fingers on his feet and he kicked them away. He tried to break free of the suffocating water but the chain that secured him to James kept him under the surface. His hands stretched up over his head and he could feel the air but he couldn't reach it. Darkness started to creep into his vision and as he decided that it might just be easier to give up, he felt a hand grab hold of his and pull him up onto dry ground. He coughed and spit up water, surprised at how badly the liquid could burn if it was misdirected through the body.

It was hard to stay conscious, he had such a long night, but when he managed to open his eyes he could see the person who saved him hauling James out of the river. "Please, don't hurt him." The person looked back at Yul and he saw their green eyes. "You're... you're a beast..." The world was spinning as his body finally refused to operate and he slipped into an anxious, fitful sleep. Sleep that was filled with dreams of the undead, the angry Sentinels who may well be hunting them, and beasts. The last one scared him the most. Beasts lived on the other side of the mountains, in the Deadlands. Yul never expected to find one in the Greenlands where the humans formed their colonies and sacrificed any child born with the eyes of the beast.

When Yul woke up, it took him a moment to remember what was happening. The sun was filtering through green leaves and he had so rarely seen such a sight that it put him into a panic. He wasn't in the base, he was outside. Why? He looked around and saw James, his eyes were pale and his skin was sunken. Yul was quick to back away from James and he realized they were no longer chained together.