Living Among the Dead

Ezekiel - A Sheep in a Growing Flock

Day 5

"Excited for another day of gatekeeping Graves?"

"Is calling me Ezekiel so hard?" Ezekiel Graves asked, smirking under his mask as he walked towards the large fence that separated the living and the dead, despite the large amount of living people on the other side of the fence. The soldier who had first spoken was walking right behind Ezekiel as the two held their large assault rifles and approached the two doorways that allowed people to enter.

"How's Harper doing? You two adjusting to everything well enough?" the soldier asked.

"We're getting by." Ezekiel said, smiling to himself.

"Shit's weird man. I prefer being overseas much more than dealing with... zombies." the soldier continued to converse. Ezekiel nodded his head as the two arrived at the doorway and entered a code on a panel that was on their side of things. The conversation ended there as the doorway opened and the two got to work, scanning people and checking for bites over and over.

An hour or two went by before a person stepped through the doorway and Ezekiel went to scan his head. The man was bald, had green eyes, and seemed to be smiling while everyone else was clearly down in the dumps.

"You're good to go." Ezekiel said to him. The man's smile seemed to grow as he walked through the doorway and proceeded to get patted down and was cleared for that. His bag was checked and after that he was sent on his way.

"You see how big his smile was?" the soldier asked Ezekiel.

"Some people are just happy to be alive." Ezekiel said with a shrug. He motioned for the next person to step forward. The man who stepped forward smiled at his wife and kids who were in line behind him, and Ezekiel couldn't help but smile at the sight under his mask.

"Cute family." Ezekiel spoke up, pressing the thermometer against the man's forehead. The man let out a small chuckle and nodded his head.

"Thanks." the man said, coughing slightly. The thermometer beeped after a moment and Ezekiel felt his stomach drop.

"W...why did it beep?" the man asked nervously.

"Grab him." Ezekiel weakly ordered. He grabbed a hold of the man's one arm while the soldier with him grabbed the other arm. They pulled him through the doorway and towards one of the abandoned buildings in the safezone's domain.

"No! Please! You can't! It's just a cold I swear!" the man pleaded, shouted, and begged for the soldiers to let him go. Ezekiel gritted his teeth, feeling sick to the stomach as he dragged the man who let his legs drag behind him in attempt to slow them down. The combined strength of Ezekiel and the other soldier easily foiled the mans plan though. Ezekiel looked back at the other doorway, seeing Harper standing there on duty and staring right back at him.

"Let's go! Inside!" the soldier said, pushing the man into the building. He and Ezekiel walked in right behind the man and slammed the doors shut. Ezekiel stared at the ground while the soldier lifted his assault rifle and cocked it, aiming it right at the man's head.

"Stop! No!" the man screamed, pleading for his life. The soldier instantly fired the gun, killing the sick man right then and there. Ezekiel jumped when the bullet was fired, and then closed his eyes to not look at the now dead body.

"Shit happens huh?" the soldier said, having no remorse over his actions. The soldier left the building right after, leaving Ezekiel to deal with clean up.

"Jesus." Ezekiel whispered to himself.

* * *

Ezekiel sat on a chair, staring at himself in a mirror. Instead of the usual all black outfit the soldiers were supposed to wear, he had on grey hoodie with the sleeves cut off of it. The hood was up, and he took a good long look at himself. His usual dark skin looked paler, which was probably due to the fact that he still felt sick after what happened earlier in the day. His facial hair was beginning to grow out, and he numbly ran his hand over it.

"You wanna talk about it?" Harper asked, drying off her long and bright red hair with a towel. She was also out of her soldier uniform, wearing a black tank top with baggy grey sweatpants.

"No." Ezekiel coldly spoke, standing up abruptly from his chair.

"We all go through with it, it's okay to feel what you're feeling." Harper tried to reason, putting a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder.

"Not with that. Not at all." Ezekiel said, shrugging the hand off and walking towards the front door of their quarters. He opened it and quickly closed it behind him as he made his way back out to the streets.

Once outside, he could hear the conversations going on among the newly brought in survivors. A group was being escorted over to the south side, probably to work on adding additional fencing to make it safer. He looked back at the apartment building that was labelled as the "Soldier Quarters" by Frank Brown, the man who ran the safezone.

Ezekiel shook his head, taking a deep breath and pulling the hood of his hoodie onto his head. In an attempt to take his mind off of the recent events he went for a jog around the safezone.

* * *

The moon sat in the night sky, illuminating the quiet safezone. Ezekiel walked down one of the streets, making his way back to his quarters after spending the whole afternoon away from his new home.

"Long day Ezekiel?" a man asked, startling the off duty soldier. Ezekiel looked over to see a man who was making himself well known throughout the safezone. People had been referring to him as "The Preacher". Word had even caught on with some of the soldiers how influential the man could be.

"You know me?" Ezekiel asked, stopping in his tracks to turn and look at the man who was wearing a wide brimmed black hat, long sleeve black dress shirt, and a white priest's collar.

"I do my best to know all of the sheep in the growing flock." the Preacher said with a small smirk.

"So I'm a sheep?" Ezekiel asked, narrowing his eyes on the man.

"At the moment yes. However your potential far succeeds that of a sheep. Tell me, have you heard of the prophet Ezekiel?" the Preacher asked, putting his arms behind his back and straightening up his stance. Ezekiel squinted at the man now and couldn't help but scoff.

"Forgive me Father, but this isn't the conversation I'm looking to have tonight. I'm sure there are some women and children that could use your helpful words much more than I could." Ezekiel said. He gave a slight head nod and began to walk towards his apartment again, while he could feel the eyes of the Preacher staring daggers into his back.

"You are meant for greater things Ezekiel. Keep that in mind." the Preacher said, not attempting to shout out to the soldier, knowing he would be heard. Ezekiel looked back out of the corner of his eye and felt a weird uneasy feeling growing inside of him after the encounter. He turned his head around and saw that the Preacher was already gone. Ezekiel shook his head, walking up to the front door of the apartment complex and entering it.