Chapter 3

He felt like a ninja as he crept from one hiding place to another across the amusement park. On the way to find the zombie, he had found a store that had clothes. He had taken the opportunity to exchange his dirty clothes for newer ones. He now wore a black long-sleeved shirt with a drawing of a cat on it and long cargo trousers with lots of pockets. He had also found a big black bag that he stuffed with all the clothes he could. Further rummaging had yielded to a first aid box that he had gladly stuffed into his bag. On the way out, he had nabbed a black cloth lying around and wrapped it around his head so that only his eyes could be seen. Fortunately, no poor soul was around to witness a weird dunderhead creeping around the amusement park.

When he finally reached the place where he woke up, he hid behind a tree to observe his surroundings. After a quick perusal, he deemed it safe to come out of his hiding place.

"The zombie is not here. Did he go back inside the horror house?"

In thinking so, he crept slowly to the door of the horror house and peered through the door. His vision adjusted quickly to the dark.

'Another discovery, great night vision. I wonder if my eyes shine like a cat's does in the dark. That would be so cool !'

He was busy fantasising about his eyes that he completely forgot his surroundings. So when he came back to reality to continue his initial purpose, he nearly had a heart attack, even though he was already dead, to find the zombie a few inches from his face.

"Ahhh zombie!" He cried as he jumped back.

"Wait I am a zombie too! Maybe....Whatever."

He turned his attention to the zombie and observed it a little more closely. Its silver hair was caked with dubious things and was shoulder-length. It was quite tall, his head only reached to its shoulders. Yea laugh it up! He was short, so what? In fact if you ignored its grey-tinted skin , its bloodshot eyes and its gory injury, it would be labelled as handsome. After a shower to get rid of the smell and blood of course.

Like he thought, the zombie didn't move to attack him. It stared at him.

'I should probably stop referring to him as 'it'.' He thought to himself.

"Um hi. I came in peace. Can you understand me?" He tried asking.

So here was a dunderhead with a cloth wrapped around his head, asking an undead if it could understand him. Said dunderhead looked around to find something to poke the zombie. He found a long piece of cylindrical pipe a few metres away so he ran to get it.

' It could be used for self-defense too! Great!'

Happy with his find, he ran back to the zombie. He cautiously extended the piece of metal and poked the zombie. The zombie's eye moved to follow his actions, but apart from that it didn't move.

"Hey are you stupid? Can you understand me?" He asked as he poked the poor zombie a few more times.

This time he got a response. He excitedly watched as the zombie opened his mouth and let out a groan. His mouth flapped open and closed like a fish out of water as he stared at the zombie. He kind of understood what it said right now with that zombie-groan.

"Did you just call me stupid weirdo?!" He shouted as he glared at the zombie.

He took off the cloth around his face so that he could be heard better.

"Granted I am not the brightest crayon in the box, have a short attention span and can be quite dumb sometimes......But that doesn't give you the right to insult me! Take it back you big stinky undead!" He menaced with his pipe pointed towards the zombie.

The zombie certainly didn't look impressed. In fact it seemed like he could detect a hint of mockery in its gaze.

'Weren't zombies supposed to be brain-dead and stupid? How come this one was so aware? And how can it stand the sun? Is he abnormal like me?'

"Hmmm.....You don't seem like a normal zombie. Well at least like those in the books. I'll have to see another zombie to compare. Now that I think about it, isn't it strange that there are no other zombies around?.....Well whatever!" He shrugged.

"Now, I can't keep calling you stinky undead in my head so I am going to give you a name." He said while pointing his weapon at the zombie.

"I probably should find a name for myself . Can't remember mine." He muttered to himself.

With that thought, he crossed his arms and put a finger to his chin.

"Hmmm what should I call you? Stupid, idiot, dunderhead, baka....?" He trailed off as the zombie let out a menacing groan and took a step towards him.

"Okay, okay! No need to get angry! Jeez, it was just a joke!" He put up his hands in surrender.

"I know! How about Alphonse? It's a nice name and has a nice ring to it. What do you think?"

The zombie didn't react and just stared.

"I'll take your silence as an affirmative. So now your name is Alphonse. Nice to meet you and please treat me well !" He said with a slight bow. He then smiled widely at the newly named zombie.