Beyond the Barrier: Zombie Town One-shots

Why Eliza Hates Humans

(Wow. It's been forever since I updated BtB... This idea has been floating around in my head for months and I've been writing it for maybe a couple of weeks? Idk, but I've been giving more attention to my BG zombies stuff so the canon zombies have been neglected. In fact, this one doesn't actually involve much of canon characters, but it's a backstory for Eliza's family so it's going in BtB

But if you are reading Limelight and all the BGZ stuff as well, that's making a big comeback atm, and Tattooed Mistakes' sequel will be coming... at... some point... I've written like 8k words and it's getting a bit out of control. Anyway, here's some Scythes family angst~ (Have I used the surname "Scythes" here yet? In case I haven't, I borrowed it from kokinu09~))

Everyone knew that Eliza Scythes hated humans with a passion. Or at least she did before the integration, when she met Addison and Bree and the few other humans willing to accept and help the zombies. It didn't change everything, of course. The humans had done far too much damage for her to fully forgive them, and there were so many who weren't going to give up the old ways without a fight. It was a good thing Eliza was up for a fight. But there was another, more personal reason why Eliza held so much bitterness towards the humans of Seabrook.

Her parents and sister never talked about it when she was a child, so she hadn't ever thought to ask, but while she knew about her father's parents, she had only ever heard about her mother's mother. If her grandfather had died somehow since the outbreak, she would've heard about it. Zinnia and Zigmund were very open to their daughters about serious things; they wanted to make sure they understood the ways of the world and how it would treat them.

Azalea and Eliza knew the story of Z, they knew that Zinnia had been born only a year or so before the outbreak, meaning she was once human herself, and Zigmund was among the first born zombies only a couple of years later, they knew that Zigmund's father had been one of the first zombies to die during a Z-band maintenance check, and they knew of all the protests and riots that had broken out since the day Z was killed. But Zinnia never said a word about her father. Not until she and her big sister worked up the collective nerve to ask.

Yes, Eliza already hated humans, but this story made her despise them with every fiber of her being.

When the accident at the Seabrook Energy Plant occurred all those years ago, Zinnia's mother was unfortunately on the west side of town, and with her baby daughter, at that, while her husband was at work on the east side. Unaware of the coming danger, she went about her business like she did every day, until the sound of screaming alerted her. She turned around only to see a crowd of people running from a thick mass of green fog. For a moment, she couldn't do anything, she was so shocked. There was no telling what the fog was or where it came from, but she could see dark shapes within it that could only be the bodies of those who had already fallen victim to its poison.

It was impossible to escape, especially weighed down as she was with Zinnia in her arms, and eventually she collapsed as the toxic gas filled her lungs. There was no saving Zinnia, either, and both of them were engulfed.

For so long after it happened, all she knew was an overwhelming hunger and a fierce need to protect her child. By the time she and Zinnia were both issued the standard shock collars, weeks had passed, probably months. With her own and her daughter's human names forgotten, she joined the others in starting the tradition of Z names. She couldn't remember her husband's name, either, and the zombie patrol were of no help to her; even if they had wanted to, they couldn't – they didn't understand what she was saying to them.

He wasn't in Zombie Town. He wasn't a zombie. He hadn't been anywhere near the plant at the time of the accident. He was outside of the barrier, so she had no chance of ever seeing him again. Or so she thought, until the zombies were finally deemed safe to work for the humans. In only the smallest, most menial positions, of course, but in all the loss and suffering she had endured in the years since the outbreak, she wanted to believe there could be something good. She could at least try to look on the bright side.

The day she actually saw him changed her mind, though.

She worked as a cleaner – of course she did, there wasn't much else a zombie could do in Seabrook – and one day when she was taking out the trash, she thought she spotted him. Seeing the nearest zombie patrol guard was turned away, she took the chance to slip round the corner and get a better look.

And he stopped.

They both stood staring at each other in shock, but when she took a step towards him, he took a step back, his jaw set.

"You're dead."

It wasn't "You're dead" in the "I thought I'd never see you again!" way. It was a cold, unfeeling statement.

"But I'm-"

"You might as well be dead."

Her face fell, "What?"

"You're a zombie," he said plainly, "No longer a person."

She frowned, "We aren't dead. We're not those kinds of zombies."

He wasn't listening, though, "As far as Seabrook's laws are concerned, you are dead. Which means our marriage is over, and I've moved on."

She was struck speechless. How could he let her go so easily? And what about their daughter? Zinnia was a teenager now, and her father had missed seeing her grow up.

It got worse in a matter of seconds. He turned and walked away without another word, directly towards a human woman who smiled warmly at him. Her last scrap of hope disintegrated when they kissed and she saw a ring on the hand that held his arm. Something in her unbeating heart hardened as she watched them disappear around a corner. Her lips pressed into a fine line, she pulled the ring off her own finger, threw it unceremoniously to the ground, and went back to work.

The Scythes sisters were well aware of the fact that somewhere in Seabrook, their mother had a step-mother. She could even have half-siblings. Or other relatives. But they didn't want to know.

Eliza didn't have human friends.

And, as far as she saw it, she did not have human family.