Jason’s POV

“To be frank, I just woke up in an alleyway, learned that people are zombies, and then had survivors that tried to kill me for being one of them.” I stated what I know giving about my situation.

“Are you stupid, Jason? Of course, they would kill you because you are one of us!” The young woman in question must not like me very much. “And ding-dong! You were wandering around Sandy just to look for your memories was a pretty stupid idea, anyway! And if we weren’t in the area at the time-”

“Enough, Jenny! He didn’t know! And you hear him…” She turned to me. “He doesn’t have memories of who he is or why he was by the trash bins there.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “I assumed someone tried to take out the trash and did a sloppy job at it.”

“I am not trash! For god’s sake, I may have not had my memories but I sure as hell…” I took a sniff of my armpits, god…

“You’ll get plenty of chances to bathe, freeloader!” The young woman let a slight smile, making a joke about my predicament.

“And since then you ever took a bath yourself?” I shot right back in response. She crossed her arms at me.

“Okay, guys enough! Jason, let me introduce ourselves. I am Brad Hernick, a sentient like you!” I shook hands with him, I know since he saved my life back at the city.

“Samatha Doggins.” The woman said her name without prompt, much to our surprise. “You may call me Sam.” I nod at her. “The pipsqueak is Jenny Hopeland, over there.”

“Yeah, yeah!” We laughed.

“Hopeland, huh? You believe in hope, Ms. Hopeland?” She scowls at me to mention her last name “Jenny, then?”

“Oh yes, Freeloader. Just Jenny!” I took a deep breath and decide not to push her further.

“Brad, I would like to continue traveling you with guys. Plus, there is nothing for me, here.” I stated my intentions. “I also want to regain my memories while I’m it.”

Jenny then gets up and goes straight to my face.

“Oh, really? What can you do aside from nearing getting killed?” Samantha blocks her way to me.

“I need to know what is going with this world.” 

“Do you want the long or short version of the story?” Brad asked on which version of the story that I would like to hear.

“The long version, there are no second chances in this world. So, I need to know as much as I can.”

Finally, I learned of the zombie apocalypse

As Brad explained about the current situation we live in, he pointed out that we are Sentients. Zombies that keep their free will and personality, even if the zombie virus goes through their system. He actually came from Los Angeles, California, before the apocalypse began, left because of a systemic collapse from the state government.

He was a regular human survivor back then, fended off zombies, looters and other survivors that may seek to do them harm. After a zombie bite into his right arm and the looters killed and violated his family, he waged a one-man war to avenge their deaths. He got shot up full of lead upon entering their hideout where his family killers lived.

Next thing he knew, he animated into a sentient inside a black body bag. They had intended to carve him up to his pieces, learned he can read into their minds and influence it. With that he got his revenge of his killers using his newfound powers, but the memories of those events were raw in his mind. He eventually left California, he chose not to go more into details on that.

Samantha met him while they were in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was trying to drink the painful memories away but couldn’t because his digestive system stopped working after his reanimation. There she explained:

• The zombie apocalypse begun 10 years ago, infecting or killing anyone in its vicinity. The governments of the world remain either functional, in process of rebuilding or collapsed entirely. They can only do so much for a time until they stretched its resources to the limits.

• Should the infected bite or give you even a scratch, the infection will take within 24 hours, the victim will become a Sentient or a mindless zombie with an endless craving for the flesh of the living. Being a Sentient however is no guarantee most victims end up as  monsters.

“I understand.” It makes sense to me on why the world is like what it is now.

“Then you should know this, freeloader.” Jenny speaks up. “Even if you are a Sentient who wants to help others in this world. Most survivors would rather kill you than to let you help them.” I understood where she came from.

“Since we can still infect people, intentionally or not. They still think we are the threat instead of friends.”

“Correct!” Jenny used some sort of power to bring a cooler to her. She took out a human heart…

“Don’t eat that!” She swatted my hand the moment I tried to reach out for it. She took a bite… God…

“Look, I know you might think…” I trailed off into the distance.

A memory: Mental Preparation

“This is a training session: Developed to develop a solider’s powerful will & fortitude…” A man given a lecture about… how we… “I will make this simple… Line up!”

What is this? That…

“Jason!” He… I stood in position.

“Show me your focus, solider!” I raised my arms in front of me. My assignment is to focus straight ahead for 5 minutes each. Then repeat until we can do it no more.

“Given up, Solider?” He asked when he saw my arms were being heavy after being pushed for 30 minutes straight.

“No, Sir!” I raise them back up.

“Remain calm and focus, Solider. You will win the battle if you do! And if you lose your calm, you lose.” He gave me a firm look to signify he is expecting me to give it all that I got. “Let’s go, Soldier!”

A memory resurfaced

“Hey… hey!” Someone snapped me out of my trance. “Serious, freeloader! Do you even heard what Sam said?”

I shook my head… was it a dream or…. I was a solider?

“Hey, Jason, are you all right?” Brad noticed I was trailing off from a memory that resurfaced.

“I’m all right.” I shook it off.

“You went off into a trance the moment that Sam spoke. That ain’t all right to me.” Brad can see through my act, I don’t mean to worry him though. “You forget I can read your mind still!” Oh great, now he’s talking to me inside my mind.

“You gotta learn privacy, Brad. I can’t have you getting inside my head all the time.” I warn him not to make a habit of invading people’s heads.

“I gotta sometimes in most situations that we go through, I would not have time to ask for permission. Although, I would prefer not to unless I need to.”

“Fair enough!” I let the matter drop… for now.