Chapter 8

They ended up finding a big trailer truck after walking for half of the day. It had crashed into a traffic railing but was relatively in good condition.

“Look Alphonse! We finally found one! It’s big too. We can carry so many things.” Tsuki exclaimed as he ran to the truck.

Alphonse called out, “Tsuki.”

Tsuki stopped and looked at him. Alphonse dropped the bags on the road and walked towards him. He was also sniffing the air. Tsuki imitated him and sniffed the air too.

‘Just what is he sniffing? Huh? There is a slight smell!...It stinks!’ Tsuki thought as he pinched his nose.

Just to be sure he sniffed himself, ‘Okay it’s not me.’

“Alphonse there is a bad smell… It’s not you,is it? Let me sniff you.”

Alphonse had reached him so he took the opportunity to sniff him. He even lifted his arms to sniff. Alphonse had no reaction and let him do whatever he wanted. He was fixing the truck with great concentration.

“It’s not you,” Tsuki concluded. “Why are you fixing the truck like this?”

He turned around and squinted his eyes at the truck, “is the bad smell coming from it? Is there a zombie in there?”

Alphonse grunted, “Yes.”

“What?! There really is a zombie in there?!” Tsuki exclaimed.

He quickly hid behind Alphonse and clutched at his shirt, “Alphonse be careful… Wait a minute, where is my weapon?”

He ran to the bags and quickly rummaged inside, “here it is!”

With that, he quickly ran back to Alphonse and proudly presented the metal pipe to him, “here take this. You can smack the zombie with this.”

Alphonse glanced at the ‘weapon’ with annoyance and gave him a bland look. He could clearly remember a certain someone poking him many times with it. He turned his head away in distaste and walked towards the door of the truck.

Tsuki pouted at his back then went to hide behind a nearby car. He poked his head out and anxiously watched as Alphonse opened the door to the truck. He expected a bloodthirsty zombie to rush out at Alphonse’s throat but all he got was a zombie cowering in a corner.

The zombie looked like it was trying to fuse with the door in order to stay away from Alphonse. Tsuki sweatdropped at the scene and automatically hunched his neck at the gush of air near his neck.

‘That zombie sure stinks. Even from this far away, I can still smell it as if it was standing right behind me.’ Tsuki thought as he covered the back of his neck with hands, ‘Anyway, there really is a difference between Alphonse and regular zombies in terms of awareness. Even before he bit me, he could still understand me to a certain extent. That one looks like a typical zombie with not much brain activity. Hmmm, seems like the skin, nails, eyes and teeth comes in the regular zombie package. When Alphonse went vampire on me, his regular package got upgraded…..My blood is like a tool with the capability to upgrade the regular package to a rare one!....... Why in the creator’s name do I keep getting gushes of air at my neck?!!!’

He turned around with an annoyed expression on his face only to freeze. There was another zombie standing behind him and it was sniffing at him since god knows when.

‘Oh….. so that’s why I kept feeling gushes of air on my neck.’ Tsuki whimpered in his mind.

The two zombies stood still and stared at each other for a few moments. As the zombie took the initiative to sniff him again, Tsuki took a deep breath and turned to run like hell towards Alphonse.

“Kyaaaa zombie!!! Alphonse!!!!”

Alphonse turned around just in time to catch the small zombie as he jumped on him. Tsuki clung to Alphonse’s body like a koala and refused to get down.

“Alphonse, I got sniffed at by the creepy zombie! Where did it even come from?!” Tsuki whimpered pathetically with tears in his eyes.

Alphonse narrowed his eyes at the zombie in question and growled at it. It was funny thing to see it slowly try to hide behind the car.

“Alphonse why are those zombies looking at me like I am a delicious little snack? Bizarrely, it did not attack me. It just sniffed me. Come to think of it, you didn’t attack me either you just sucked my blood later on…..” His words trailed off and he squeezed Alphonse’s body even tighter, “don’t tell me those creepies want to bite me and suck my blood too?! No way! Absolutely not! What is wrong with those zombies?! Don’t they know that only vampires suck blood? Can’t they stick to the script and be normal zombies?!”

Just thinking about other lowly zombies trying to bite what was his made Alphonse angry. He forcefully unglued Tsuki from his person, gently put him down and disappeared only to reappear near the car. He was so fast that in happened in fractions of a second. The next thing you knew, a head flying before landing with a disgusting sound.

Tsuki stood there with his mouth hanging open before clicking it shut. Wouldn’t want to inadvertently swallow a bug now, would he? He watched Alphonse calmly shake the blood from his hand before turning to walk back to him.

“Isn’t that kind of cheating? The poor thing didn’t even see you coming. How can you be so fast? I am sure that you are faster than me.” He inched away from Alphonse as the other tried to hold him, “no way am I allowing you to touch me with yucky blood on your hand! It stinks! Go wash your hand first please.”

Alphonse glanced at his hand before a noise attracted his attention. He fixed his eyes on the zombie lying on the ground. It was trying to escape via the open door but fell down because it couldn’t control its limbs well.

Tsuki sweatdropped at the stupid zombie and winced as Alphonse mercilessly killed it.

“May your soul rest in peace pitiful zombie.” Tsuki said with a slight bow. He then turned to Alphonse and said, “you sure are without mercy.”

Alphonse glanced up from the bottle of water he was using to wash his hand and said only one word, “trash.”

“You are looking down on them? But you know, nobody starts up perfect. Weren’t you like him before you bit me?” Tsuki said softly.

“Not the same.” Alphonse said resolutely.

He then walked towards Tsuki and held his chin. “Sad?” He asked softly.

Tsuki looked into his eyes, “not really. It’s just that it is pitiful to see them being so unaware. We could have ended up to be like this too.”

“No. Never.” Alphonse refuted.

Tsuki laughed softly, “okay, if you are so sure. On another note, it’s good that we got to know how regular zombies are. They pose no threat no us…. Well at least to you. Poor me look like a bottle of rare vintage wine to them. I’ll have to keep a healthy distance from them. Now, shall we go?”

Alphonse silently picked him up and deposited him in the passenger seat of the truck. Tsuki watched as Alphonse got in with the bags and started the truck. He turned on his side, leaned his head against the seat and stared at Alphonse’s profile.

‘Never huh…You are right. We don’t have the time or leisure to dwell on what ifs anyway.’ Was Tsuki’s last thought as the slight swaying of the truck lulled him to sleep.

Alphonse glanced at him with a gentleness in his eyes then went back to concentrating on the road.