21 DAYS BEFORE THE REMATCH IN HALLOWSVILLE

  “You realize this is the third time, right?” Angela asked me, sitting in her office chair, leg swinging calmly. “This is the third time you tried to eat your daughter. And that’s not even mentioning the bite that started everything.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said melancholically, sitting in front of her, looking at the shiny floor. Angela had given me a devastating uppercut after she found out about Sunshine and I’s argument. And all that commotion had woken her up, so she was already pissed by the time she saw me restrained on the ground.

  My friend crossed her arms. “Honestly, Jerome, I know zombies can’t help themselves, but I thought you were better than that. I thought… there was still hope for you.”

  I gripped my right hand, and then looked at the doctor. “Angie, are you scared of me?”

  Angie didn’t respond for a moment. “I’m not scared of you. I’m scared of what you’re capable of.” She came closer and placed her hand on my head. “Me being worried about you doesn’t mean I think you’re weak. In my mind, it means the opposite. I know you’re strong, but there’s so many things in this new world that can change you for the worse, and I don’t want you jumping into things that’ll help that change. The apocalypse has that effect on people, and especially on a zombie like you. I believe it’s already affecting Sunshine.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  At first, I thought my reasoning for going to Underground City was clear: negotiate with Daemon and recruit Lyra. But after what happened last night, the cold truth froze me over like a blizzard. I wanted to get away from my daughter. I wanted some peace and had assumed that the one pulling me away from that was her, and those thoughts scared me.

  “Why do you sound so accepting of it?” she asked, concerned. “I mean, combine her unique brain functions and the zombie essence, and you’ll have a world of trouble on your hands. Are you sure you want that? Even when you still have her disease to worry about?”

  “Angela, I don't think it's the zombie. I think I was always destined to be a bad person. Something in my genes.” A bad feeling began to rise within me. “Oh no. What if my daughter’s slowly inheriting it?”

  She sat back in her chair, sighing.“I don't think being a bad person is a genetic trait. And if it was, that's all the more reason you should stay away from this Jason guy and focus on finding a cure. Why do y'all even want to defeat him anyway? From what I understand, he's not with the Underground Radius anymore.”

  “As long as that psycho exists, then we can't find a cure peacefully. Besides… it wouldn't sit right with me if I let him freely kill all those people without any consequences.”

  Which was exactly why I needed to go over to Hallowsville, find out what Jason’s doing over there, and ease Lyra’s worries. Maybe I could rescue Emmy in the process.

  “You seriously will never change, will you, Je-” Angela paused, turning her attention to something behind me. “Hey, Sunshine. You doing ok?”

  I turned my head slowly to her. It impressed me how fearless Sunshine still was in my presence. Any other kid would’ve been holed up in their room, and after what happened, the katana in her hand caught me off guard.

  “Jerome, you’re planning on going to Hallowsville, aren’t you?” Sunshine asked with a steely expression.

  “Aren’t we all?” I answered.

  “I don’t mean in February. I mean today.”

  “What makes you think I’d be going today?” I asked, preparing to lie.

  “Kofi told me. He said you’re gonna be doing some kind of recon out there.” She pointed the sword at me. “Don’t lie to me this time. Just come out with it.”

  Damn. I was gonna tell that boy to keep his mouth shut about my plans, but it looked like she got to him first. Although, he probably would’ve told her anyway. “Well, there’s no use in lying if he already snitched.”

  “I knew it! So you really are that stupid!?” Sunshine exclaimed angrily.

  “Wait, but Kofi’s been outside with the Resource Adventurers since last night,” Angela cut in. “How would you’ve been able to talk to him?”

  I scoffed, standing up. “She didn’t. She tricked me.”

  “You’d rather go there alone and get yourself hurt instead of just trusting me to go with you?” My daughter’s teeth clenched. “Am I really… that horrible?”

  “It’s… complicated,” I said.

  “That’s the problem!” she shouted back. “Everything is always so complex. The right solution in my head is the wrong solution in everyone else’s. Apologies don’t get me forgiveness. And risking your life in a losing battle is something you just ‘want’ to do?”

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  Angela ran up to Sunshine and gently grabbed her shoulders. “Sunshine, just breathe, alright? How about we go and eat? Huh? Go out for a walk maybe?”

  “No!” my daughter refused, pushing the doctor off of her. “Maybe I should start doing what I want to do! And what I want is for you — Jerome — to stay here and survive. And I want me — Sunshine — to risk my life instead. I’m going to Hallowsville!”

  A fire began to roar in my stomach, the hole in my pec throbbing like a bruise. The thought of her going there sent my feet into overdrive, and the next thing I knew, my hands were gripping Sunshine’s sides. Aura exploded from her body. My body reeled back. She kicked forward, sending me further backwards.

  “Dr. Hazel, activate the defense systems! Now! Stop these two at once!”

  I didn’t worry about what Angela just said. My child was on the move, and my legs needed to too. Running out the door, I noticed the girl rush to the left. My speed brought me there in a second, but there wasn’t anyone there. How fast was she now? Faster than me?

  The blunt object hitting my back answered those questions. Sunshine had struck me with the katana, and the little holes in the ceiling revealed her second trick of the day. However, the time for tricks was over. If she was gonna misuse the gift I gave her, then she didn’t need it for now.

  Sunshine backstepped, though I closed the distance, grabbing the wrist holding the sword. I twisted her hand, and the weapon dropped to the floor.

  “Why don’t you just break it instead!?” Sunshine snarled, trying to pull my hand off.

  “Break the gift I gave you? No thanks,” I replied, causing her brows to raise.

  Without warning, a crushing sensation enveloped both of our bodies as something lifted us into the air. A part of the white tile floor had somehow materialized into a giant hand, and we were stuck in its grasp.

  [My apologies, guys. This is just for the safety of our scientists. I can’t have you two endangering the lives of anyone here or each other.]

  The voice came from the speaker on the walls. It sounded like Angela.

  [Calm down, or the facility will have to use force against you.]

  I wanted to comply, but Sunshine made that difficult.

  Her aura came out like a volcanic burst, reducing the giant hand to rubble. Our feet hit the floor, my daughter took off with the katana without even pausing first. I ran after her. I didn’t expect my legs to send me crashing into a wall, but that's exactly what happened. The smoke coming off my back told me the speed wasn’t the culprit.

  The wall-mounted and ceiling-mounted turrets were. And they were all aimed at me.

  I blitzed forward, but red beams of light sent me back to where I was. Going left and right only brought the same outcome, and now my shirt was just torn fabric clinging on to me. I didn’t understand what was happening. I got used to Kofi’s lightning gradually, but these lasers were too much for me.

  Were lasers faster than lightning? If that was the case, then a different approach was needed.

  I steadied myself, increasing my sturdiness, blocking my face. Then, I stepped forward once more. The beams hit, but I remained strong. As I retraced Sunshine’s steps, my speed started to increase more and more. Until the lasers became nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

  With a hardened fist, I ravaged through the facility’s turrets, the worried screams of scientists echoing through the hallways. When I went to destroy the rest, I realized my daughter had already handled it. Before she could turn her attention to me, my arms were already coiled tightly around her waist.

  Sunshine thrashed, punched, and slapped. None of it got rid of me. “Get off of me! I’m trying to protect you!”

  Since when was trying to beat me up considered protecting? “Look, Sunshine, even if I did let you go, you wouldn’t be able to save Emmy. Only I know where she is, and I made up this plan with her that probably ended up backfiring. It’s only right that I go there.”

  Her brows furrowed. “Emmy? That KB? So… you’re only risking your life just to save her? What’s wrong with you!? Caring so much about people you barely know!? That KB’s been in your life for how long? A week? I’ve been there for nine fucking years!”

  “It’s just in my nature, so either accept it or deal with it,” I responded bluntly.

  “Those phrases are synonymous!”

  “Would you two stop fighting!?” I felt a hand grip my back and turned my head. It was Sunflower. “I already lost my other family. I don’t want to lose this one too. Not when everything was finally feeling fine…”

  Her words and her shaky whimpers hit the fire in my body like rain. My grip loosened, and the kid dropped back down.

  I was doing exactly what my dad used to do. This wasn’t just about Sunshine and I. There was another family member now — someone whose feelings weren't treated with the importance they deserved.

  I looked back at my first daughter. “Hey, kid, why don’t we just-”

  A punch to my jaw sent me flying through the ceiling. My body pierced through metal, then concrete, and then eventually the nuclear energy-infested water that the research facility was under. I couldn’t even enjoy the beautiful orange sky before Sunshine brought her katana down on me.

  I caught it with the soles of my feet, and luckily, I was able to keep us from falling by clinging onto one of the huge floating rocks above the Nuclear Pool.

  “Did you just try to kill me!?” I exclaimed.

  “If I don’t infuse too much aura into the katana, then it’s pretty much a blunt object when used against you.”

  Sunshine swung herself up, landed on the blade, and sent out an onslaught of strikes on me. In the middle of it, I threw her upwards — straight for the rock above. I climbed up, standing on the platform while she was still falling.

  “Let’s just stop this!” I threw my arms out and she landed in them. “This isn’t helping anyone, Sunshine.”

  “But I’m trying to help y-”

  A boom reverberated in the air and dust followed right after. I held my daughter tight, backing away from the smokescreen. The tilting platform changed that plan, so I jumped onto another rock.

  There, I realized a group of the scientists on the ground had a cannon pointed at us, and they had another one coming. Judging by Sunshine’s shaking hands and gritted teeth, something bad was about to happen.

  I squeezed tight. Only air was present. She had already left my embrace, flying straight for the scientists. The cannon fired as I followed my kid down. But the missile became victim to her sword swing. And that wasn’t gonna be the only victim as Sunshine was about to cut the scientists too.

  Grabbing one half of the missile, I hurled it at her. The broken bomb crashed into Sunshine’s back, slamming her into the concrete.

  I touched down on top of my daughter and pulled her up by her shirt. “The hell is the matter with you!? You wanna hit someone? Hit me. Don’t you ever-”

  Sunshine uppercut me for the second time.

  That was the final straw.

  My grip switched to her face, lifting her up, anger flowing through my veins. I lifted my fist up slowly, arm trembling, as if some part of me wanted to pull my body away from what was about to happen. However, I allowed the other part to take over. If this was gonna protect her, snap her out of this nonsense, then screw it.

  “I’m sorry, Sunshine.”

  I launched the punch.

  But I couldn't go through with it.

  My fist stopped mere inches away from her face, although the shockwave alone was enough to knock her curly hair back, leaving it stiff like wood. Shock and fear was written all over my child’s face — emotions that I was responsible for, emotions I should’ve never been responsible for. But I was, and all I could think of to fix it was gently placing her back down.

  It didn’t work.

  I stepped back a couple inches. “I’m sorry, honey… but you left me no choice. Let’s just go back inside, yeah?”

  Sunshine collapsed to her knees, sliding a finger across the bottom of her nose. No blood. She then checked the inside of her mouth. No missing teeth, and once again, no blood. The girl flinched, like something invisible had slapped her. Somehow, that prompted her to turn around.

  It was only then that I saw the huge crater behind her.

  “Sheesh. And I thought I was holding back there,” I muttered as the lab coats went to investigate the crater in excitement.

  Sunshine turned back to me. “Holding back? You were holding back this entire time? You think I'm weak. You don't think I'm good enough.” Her voice was eerily calm, and it made my skin crawl.

  “That's not-”

  Dread slammed into me, clawing at my muscles, chaining up my resolve. Fear enveloped my legs, and I jumped back. Sunshine rose, and her aura did as well, covering up the space like flames on gasoline.

  I wanted to move forward to stop her, to talk to her, to do anything to end the red-hot malice surrounding her body. But my legs wouldn't listen to my pleas.

  I was stuck there – forced to watch my daughter's aura encase her body with something sinister, something animalistic, something undead.

  Sunshine’s face wasn't there anymore. Only a crimson, wicked grin remained.