32: Somewhere in the outskirts of Marble Cliffs, a man who had once been a pizza delivery driver staggered along in the desert. He was carrying an insulated red pizza bag with deliveries which retained more heat than his body did. His gray skin was cracked and peeling in the Arizona heat. The skin of his belly ruptured, spilling his intestines onto the dry desert floor. They were dragging behind him as he lurched. Occasionally, a bit of it would snag on a cactus and cause him to slow down and lose his balance until it ripped off and freed him to once again wander around in search of something to eat.
Nearby, a lizard was doing little push ups on a hot desert rock. The zombie noticed it and hungrily snatched it up, eating the entire thing, bones and all. Without a working digestive system, the chewed-up lizard just sat in the back of his throat. If he was alive, he would be choking on it, but his gagging reflex was just another dead part of his past. Since he didn't have to breathe, the obstruction in his throat was not a problem at all. Even if he could swallow it, he couldn't digest it and would gain no sustenance from it. So it just sat uselessly and would eventually decompose. For now, with the primal instinct to eat temporarily satisfied, he looked off into the distance and saw the lights of the city. Something deep inside him knew there would be more food to be found there.
Behind him, all of the bodily fluids he had spilled onto the ground dried up quickly and powderized, mixing with the dust of the desert. This same process was going on at hundreds of different locations all over Marble Cliffs. Everywhere one of the Revenant stood, they were spilling their filth upon the land. Dust devils here and there kicked up this mixture of sand and human refuse and thus the Scathing became an airborne pathogen heading any which way the wind blows.
At the hotel that night, the Untaken finally got their first glimpse of the Revenant. It was a woman dressed in what had once been a nice business suit. It was now soiled with dark stains and bits of rotted flesh. She came toward the windows and banged on the glass. Another, a small boy joined on the other side of the building.
"These zombie fuckers are rising from their graves, man!" shouted Alexander.
"Uh, yeah. I don't think these people broke through the wood of a coffin, then dug through six feet of dirt. Look, they can't even break through these damn windows. These are the infected Defectors that dude was telling us about," said Jeffrey.
"Oh yeah, that too," said Alexander.
"These damn things are like flies trying to get in. You know, I never thought about it, but flies have some degree of individuality. I mean, not like personalities or anything, but each one starts out as an egg, becomes a maggot, then eventually they reach adulthood. I never think of a fly as being one week old, one month old, male, female. You know? They're all just flies. It's only because these zombies used to be people that we're able to think of them as individuals. We might even have known some of them, but basically, they're just like flies. Or maybe it's the other way around and flies are just like zombies," said Lowe Freq.
"Dude, what the fuck are you talking about?" asked Alexander.
"Shit, I don't know, man. When the hell is lunch?"
"We just had breakfast!" exclaimed Carrionette.
"And besides, how can you eat, knowing those zombie schmucks are out there?" asked Alexander.
"I'm a growing boy," said Lowe with a self-satisfied grin on his face.
Nearby, a lizard was doing little push ups on a hot desert rock. The zombie noticed it and hungrily snatched it up, eating the entire thing, bones and all. Without a working digestive system, the chewed-up lizard just sat in the back of his throat. If he was alive, he would be choking on it, but his gagging reflex was just another dead part of his past. Since he didn't have to breathe, the obstruction in his throat was not a problem at all. Even if he could swallow it, he couldn't digest it and would gain no sustenance from it. So it just sat uselessly and would eventually decompose. For now, with the primal instinct to eat temporarily satisfied, he looked off into the distance and saw the lights of the city. Something deep inside him knew there would be more food to be found there.
Behind him, all of the bodily fluids he had spilled onto the ground dried up quickly and powderized, mixing with the dust of the desert. This same process was going on at hundreds of different locations all over Marble Cliffs. Everywhere one of the Revenant stood, they were spilling their filth upon the land. Dust devils here and there kicked up this mixture of sand and human refuse and thus the Scathing became an airborne pathogen heading any which way the wind blows.
At the hotel that night, the Untaken finally got their first glimpse of the Revenant. It was a woman dressed in what had once been a nice business suit. It was now soiled with dark stains and bits of rotted flesh. She came toward the windows and banged on the glass. Another, a small boy joined on the other side of the building.
"These zombie fuckers are rising from their graves, man!" shouted Alexander.
"Uh, yeah. I don't think these people broke through the wood of a coffin, then dug through six feet of dirt. Look, they can't even break through these damn windows. These are the infected Defectors that dude was telling us about," said Jeffrey.
"Oh yeah, that too," said Alexander.
"These damn things are like flies trying to get in. You know, I never thought about it, but flies have some degree of individuality. I mean, not like personalities or anything, but each one starts out as an egg, becomes a maggot, then eventually they reach adulthood. I never think of a fly as being one week old, one month old, male, female. You know? They're all just flies. It's only because these zombies used to be people that we're able to think of them as individuals. We might even have known some of them, but basically, they're just like flies. Or maybe it's the other way around and flies are just like zombies," said Lowe Freq.
"Dude, what the fuck are you talking about?" asked Alexander.
"Shit, I don't know, man. When the hell is lunch?"
"We just had breakfast!" exclaimed Carrionette.
"And besides, how can you eat, knowing those zombie schmucks are out there?" asked Alexander.
"I'm a growing boy," said Lowe with a self-satisfied grin on his face.
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