or so after my arrival- I didn't know for sure exactly how long I had been in Barracks 10- I had been fully emerged into the life of a soldier.

We followed the same strict schedule each day, consisting of hand to hand combat, P&D, shooting practice, field work, and hardly enough time to eat or sleep.

Not to mention, the lack of proper free time. If we got lucky (and Reznik decided not to be an ass), we got a small rest before and after dinner.

Nugget and I took full advantage of our free time each day, using it for some hand to hand combat practice (yes, more training). I looked forward to it each day, knowing I'd have a small moment of peace from Ringer's anger issues and Zombie's irritating nonchalance.

"Canary, you still haven't shown me how to do that punch that you did to Zombie," Nugget said, a small whine tinging his voice.

I gave him a slight smile. I'd been putting off teaching Nugget how to do the punch because I still didn't know how I had done it. The previous practices I had done with Nugget had mainly consisted of him teaching me how to do some push and side kicks.

"Um yes, ok," I said, pulling myself together.

Nugget's face lit up as he jumped up and down in excitement. "Yay!"

"So, before I punched Zombie, he threw me to the ground," I said, adding a light cough at the end. "Zombie kept me on the floor by holding me down with his body weight," I continued, "So this will be a good option when you can't resort to one of your awesome kicks."

Nugget nodded, concentrating on my words. "Yeah, I remember him holding down your legs," he said.

I nodded in agreement. "The punch I gave is what's called 'a right hook'," I said, recalling what Dumbo had called my punch after I'd asked him about it that first day. "It's very effective if you can throw your weight with it; In other words, you need to punch with as much strength as you can muster. By doing that, you can throw your opponent off balance."

"And that's why Zombie fell off you?" Nugget asked.

"Yes," I said, a wave of pride rushing over me again.

I wouldn't say it was my strength that had knocked Zombie off me. It was definitely more anger than anything.

I was still beyond pissed about the little incident we had had at the shooting range earlier on in my stay here. As a result, Zombie and I had barely talked. There had been a couple small exchanges but overall our relationship was nonexistent.

"Zombie's face was so funny!" Nugget said, laughter erupting from his tiny body.

"What's this about my face looking funny?"

I froze, my smile dissipating within seconds. Nugget and I had never been interrupted during one of our training sessions.

"Oh, Zombie! Do you remember when Canary punched you?! That was so awesome!" Nugget said excitedly.

My eyes widened, afraid Zombie would get upset. Instead, Zombie let out a heart warming laugh.

"How could I forget? I had a bruise for weeks," he said, glancing at Nugget momentarily before letting his eyes drift over to me.

An uncontrollable flush of heat crept up my cheeks and I gave him a grim smile.

I was still mad at him. One of his now rare laughs couldn't even change that.

"Canary was going to teach me how she did that- how she made you fall over!" Nugget said.

Zombie smiled.

What was up with him smiling?

"I can help," Zombie said, looking towards me. "It might be easier with a partner."

I hesitated, my breath locking my throat.

"Sure! That sounds great!" Nugget said.

I mentally face palmed. Obviously, Nugget looked up to Zombie- it was blatantly apparent by the way he shadowed Zombie 24/7. Before this moment I had thought it was cute, but now? Now it was just a little annoying.

I gave them both a small nod, defeated.

Zombie came to stand on the mat, facing opposite of me, his hands raised.

"Ok, I'll show the flip first and then Canary will show the punch," Zombie said.

Can we not show the flip again? I could still feel the reminisce of pain and discomfort from the first go around.

"Fine," I said, letting out a small huff.

Zombie smirked softly before settling in the fighting stance. "Ok, Now I'm going to reach out and grab Canary's arm and pull her towards me," he said, looking over at Nugget.

Nugget nodded eagerly, watching Zombie closely as he took my arm in his strong hand and pulled me towards him. The whole movement was in slow motion and wasn't as painful as it had been the first time; it seemed that Zombie was paying more attention to not harming me.

At the end of the sequence, I was inches away from Zombie and my stomach did a somersault. I tried to slow my breathing, hoping I wasn't giving any indication that our current predicament was making me nervous.

Zombie looked down at me quickly before back at Nugget. "Now I'm going to flip her with this hand," he said, raising his hand for Nugget to see.

My mouth ran dry and I offered Nugget a smile. "We don't expect you to be able to do this," I butted in, "I'm pretty sure Zombie is the only one here with the strength to do this."

"Ringer can do it to," Nugget squeaked.

I nodded. "Bloody 'course," I muttered. "Anyway, don't feel bad if you can't flip your opponent."

Nugget just nodded eagerly.

"I won't flip you hard," Zombie reassured.

I sent him a small glare. "Good."

In one rapid movement, Zombie flipped me onto my back, sending me sailing into the mat.

Thankfully Zombie kept true to his promise; As far as I knew, I was unscathed.

"Cool!" Nugget said, moving his head to take a look at me. "Now the punch!"

I looked up at Zombie, taking a moment to let my eyes seep into his brown ones.

Under different circumstances, I might have been feeling a little daring and would've taken my chances with kissing him. But I, Canary, was not weak. I wasn't going to get drawn in by his charms and smiles. I wasn't going to set myself up to getting hurt...again. Not that he even knew how he'd hurt me...or that he'd even hurt me to begin with.

"Lucy-"

My breath locked in my throat.

Lucy? So he did know who I was? How dare he let me believe I was crazy for thinking about him this whole time, believing that I had meant nothing to Ben Parish- that he couldn't even remember who I was?

My lips parted, about to retort something back to him.

"Did you forget how to do the punch?" Nugget asked innocently.

I let out a small sigh and threw my fist at the side of his face, a tiny ounce of regret filling me when he grimaced.

"Wow! Even better the second time!" Nugget said.

I smiled, brushing myself off as I stood up. "Do you want to try?" I asked him.

Nugget nodded. "Yeah! I'll try the punch on Zombie!"

Zombie rubbed the side of his face slowly and I frowned when his lips pressed into a thin line. "Let me see what you've got, bud."

I shouldn't have punched him that hard. He'd taken it easy on me; I should've done the same. But it wasn't entirely my fault, I mean he had caught me off guard.

Nugget ran over to the mat and I watched as Zombie instructed him on each move. It didn't take long for me to break past the wall separating me from Lucy Morgan and silently swoon over how cute Zombie was with little kids.

~*~*~*~

"Damn, like we haven't already survived an alien apocalypse," Flintstone grumbled.

For the first time since I'd arrived, I agreed with Flintstone. If surviving an alien apocalypse wasn't enough, we now had to run laps around the perimeter of Wright Patterson...for an hour. It was like high school gym class all over again.

"We haven't survived the alien apocalypse yet," Ringer snapped, keeping her eyes staring forward.

I rolled my eyes. The gift of optimism was a rare one with Ringer. That and being remotely nice.

I allowed myself to fall behind, not wanting to get into a race with Ringer again. The last time I had *apparently* provoked her and the dispute had ended with the two of us sprinting around the track. I hadn't lasted long- dropping out within sixty seconds. I had looked back at the rest of the squad to see everyone laughing, all save Zombie (obviously, laughing was an oddity with him).

"Canary," Zombie addressed, falling into line with me, our feet hitting the ground in synchronization.

"Zombie," I rasped.

We'd been running for five minutes but I was already panting. In my defense, I hadn't been trained as long as the rest of Squad 53. Not to mention, my stamina was non existent.

"About earlier-"

My mind flashed back to the previous day, during our training in hand to hand combat. I had wanted to forget my moment of weakness.

I held my hand up to him. "Please, Zombie," I said.

Zombie pursed his lips, puffing air in and out of his lungs in an almost robotic motion. "Listen, Lucy-"

I almost tripped over myself. There it was again.

Lucy. He had called me Lucy.

"I thought you didn't remember me," I said quietly.

Ben looked over at me, his eyes shining with something close to sorrow, before returning his gaze to the backs of Squad 53 in front of us.

"I couldn't have forgotten you if I'd wanted to," he said faintly. "I thought it'd be better to just try and put the past behind me by not acknowledging the people we used to be," he continued.

I nodded slowly, understanding more of why he'd been so withdrawn.

"I don't want to remember who I was," he muttered.

Something about the way he spoke chilled me. True, he'd survived the plague...but there was something else-something else that happened to him before arriving at Camp Haven.

"But I went around it the wrong way," he continued, snapping out of the daze. "I thought it was best to shut you out, that'd it'd make the squad and myself stronger. But you're right," he said, eyeing me again. "Ringer can't carry the squad by herself. We need everyone."

A waterfall of emotions came rushing over me: joy, pride, nervousness. "I'm glad you think that," I said, choosing my words carefully.

What was I supposed to say? That I had been right? That his confession made me want to loop my arms around his neck and hug him for the rest of our short and depressing lives?

Zombie nodded, flashing me a desired smile.

I returned his smile, relieved that my response had been enough to properly close the conversation.

As I had previously discovered, Ben Parish was gone- there was no changing that. But from the ashes of the fallen quarterback rose Zombie. And Zombie was far from gone. He was fully alive.

<><><>

I so excited. The next few chapters of 'Perish' are going to be intense! Prepare yourselves.

Let me know what you thought of this chapter in the comments!

Love always for all my readers, voters, and commenters! You make my day!