Chapter 13

I got to visit Louis again and he brought us to the chicken farm to show us the recently hatched chicks.

I was currently in the middle of a swarm of yellow fluff and loving it.

My eyes shone as I stared down at all the jumping and tumbling balls of puffy cuteness.

Henry was smiling at me from across the barn as I walked around with my army of baby chicks.

“Oh my god the chicks imprinted on him!” Louis howled.

I looked down at them.

I don't think they exactly imprinted on me, I think they just thought I was going to feed them.

But it was adorable nonetheless.

I bent down and poked one gently.

It let out an annoyed peep and I grinned.

Best fucking day ever, I thought and looked over at Henry who was trying to not laugh at me.

I fed the chicks and eventually they dispersed. 

Henry and I left along with our wonderful guard friends, I dubbed them sarcastically.

He started showing me around town and I was kind of remembering places.

It had been roughly a month since I started doing better and memories had started coming in waves while I slept.

Some nights nearly nothing and then others were constant dreams of many different things.

After a few minutes of pointing things out I noticed a path that I remembered leading to the mess hall Henry used to hang out at.

He would get free meals because of his work there and I started pulling him in that direction.

He hadn't eaten today from what I knew.

He seemed to be forgetting to eat a lot lately, mostly from wanting to hang out with me and I was starting to get a bit worried.

I used to cook when we lived together because while Henry could skin and butcher a whole deer he could not be trusted to cook it on a stove without causing a fire.

We walked in and the chatter stopped.

I didn't really pay much attention to it as I dragged Henry up to the line and pointed at him then it.

He rolled his eyes but grabbed himself some food.

We were getting some weird glances as we sat down towards the back of the room but I didn't pay it any mind.

Though…. The sooner he ate and we could leave the better, I noted, noticing some eyes were almost hostile.

………..Gay and hanging out with your zombie ex boyfriend…..

I looked over at Henry feeling a bit scared.

I hoped that no one was saying anything to him whenever he wasn't with me.

But they probably were…..

I paled.

Henry had always been a bit more confrontational about things so I was scared of him getting into trouble if he started a fight over something one of them would say.

I realllllly hoped coming in here wasn't a problem.

A man across the room stood up and started walking towards us.

I could not recognize him and tensed as he sat down.

He looked me up and down for a second.

“What's wrong Spencer?” Henry asked after finishing a bit of food.

“Ah Henry there's a small breech at the west wall and Jay wanted you to head over to help out.” Spencer said and looked over at Henry.

Henry nodded.

Spencer looked back at me and nodded a greeting.

“You…..remember me at all?”

I shook my head.

It was odd because by now I could recognize everyone's faces and voices that I saw unless they were new.

“Well it's good to see you're doing alright Max.”

He turned back to Henry.

“Anyways when you're done eating can you head over with me? You can bring Max.”

Henry frowned.

“No he's not coming, I don't want him near anything dangerous.”

Spencer rolled his eyes.

“If it was dangerous I wouldn't be sitting here while you finish your stew. I would be screaming and dragging you over there instead.”

Henry paused and then shook his head.

“Again no.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Honestly it would be good for him to go, you said he knows alot about engineering stuff, maybe he could help figure out a better way for wall building or something. Then we wouldn't have all these holes in the wall all the time.” Spencer said with a grin.

Henry sighed.

“....If it gets dangerous he's leaving right away.” He grumbled and put his spoon down.

I rolled my eyes again as I stood up to follow them.

I didn't enjoy being controlled but I did understand he was scared of me dying or getting hurt.

Especially since I had already done that before.

We eventually made it to the wall where there were several men standing around the area.

I noticed some holes that seemed as if someone had punched or dug through the stone.

Jay waved us over. 

“Hey Henry we might need to go outside and clear around the area where the damage is.” He sighed.

I wanted to ask why but was startled by a loud hissing sound.

I looked back by the holes and saw several faces poking through.

Ah…..

The zombies growled and hissed angrily towards the men.

“We can't really patch up the area and it seems the damage is mostly from outside, if we don't repair it more holes will pop up later.” Jay sighed.

Henry walked over to the holes, looking them over and I followed behind him.

I looked at the zombies, listening to their groans.

I knew what they meant.

Food, hunger, many here, eat eat eat.

None of the zombies were looking at me but they all seemed to be focused on Henry.

They seemed to completely ignore my presence.

Odd.

I don't think I smelled like a zombie anymore, maybe my eyes caused it? 

Or was it the remains of the infection in me?

My eyes had healed a little over the course of the month, appearing a bit less cloudy.

But still had a greyish white to my irises.

I looked around at the men and decided to try something.

I pointed and shooed everyone away from the zombies field of view.

Everyone stared at me in utter confusion as I put a finger against my mask, signaling to be quiet.

After a few minutes the zombies growls and moans turned to confused groans and gurgles.

Zombies had bad memories and couldn't realize the humans had moved just on the other side of the walls.

But they could smell them like I could.

I walked up to the holes and the zombies focused on me as I started waving my hand slowly back and forth in front of their faces.

They quieted entirely and started turning their heads to follow the movement until I made a motion like I threw something to the side.

All their heads wiped to follow the direction and stopped before they began stumbling that way.

Their groans turned to hisses of hunting mode as they thought food was in the direction I stopped moving my hand.

I honestly felt a bit bad since I knew what it was like to be starving outside like that.

But I was more worried about Henry having to go outside and be in danger.

After several minutes of me listening to the sounds of the zombies go quiet I nodded and stepped back from the holes.

“They just...left?” Jay said, sounding stunned as he stepped over to investigate.

I nodded again, grinning.

The men were looking around and at me, appearing hesitant and shocked.

“Well I’ll be, not only can he farm, build water pumps, and do electrical work, he can hypnotize zombies!” Spencer said with a grin, looking me up and down.

I gave him a hesitant smile.

Henry put an arm around me, pulling me away.

I looked at him in confusion as he led me back to the hospital.

Henry let out a sigh as we made it back inside and I raised an eyebrow at him.

He shook his head and pulled me down on the bed.

I felt my face grow hot as he pulled me onto his chest and held me there.

The embarrassment made me forget why he seemed upset as I enjoyed being held by him.