Souvenir photograph folder from the Club Zombie located at 8825 Oakland in Detroit. Folder does not contain photograph. Printed on front: "Club Zombie, 8825 Oakland. For reservations call TR 2-8913. Wine, liquor, dancing. Buy War bonds, speed up victory. Open nightly 9-2. Cocktail Sundays 6 o'clock." Printed on back cover: "Gene Wilson, 286 Alfred. CA. 9104."
Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library
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zombie au intro post time!!
So Mob was a zombie for a hot minute. (a few months). Ritsu gets Mob all the way to Salt Township, a community in the process of perfecting a zombie cure. Salt doesn't cure every zombie in the world—they do as much as they can but it's a question of limited time and resources. Besides, cured zombies need taken care of after the fact, too. But perhaps the single most important value the community collectively holds is protecting their kids, and Ritsu and Mob are from here, originally, back before their parents moved them away from the epicenter of the zombie apocalypse. So of course they're eager to cure Mob. The adults in charge of the curing process are very impressed with Mob's health and lifespan, which was Ritsu's doing, but they warn Ritsu that the cure doesn't always work 100% and it's a long process, and Mob's having lived for so long with zombie disease will make his reaction to the cure unpredictable.
Ritsu swings between overprotective paranoia and brief bouts of simple shell-shocked relief to be back in a human community with adults to take care of things. He allows them to give Shigeo the cure (regularly, it requires innumerable hospital visits)—provided Ritsu gets to monitor his recovery, provided Ritsu gets final say on whether to continue with it or not, provided Ritsu gets a house to himself to take care of Shige in. Given that Ritsu is extremely mentally unwell but has a strong sense of responsibility that will hopefully keep him stable as long as his brother relies on him, Salt Township authorities agree to his demands. There aren't really enough adults to go around, after all. So Ritsu and Shigeo live alone.
Mob recovers, slowly, painfully, but he recovers. The main thing Ritsu was hoping for was that Shige would get his clarity back, and he does, mostly! Shigeo remembers things, slowly putting his neural connections back into place. He grieves his parents very quietly. After about a month, he starts speaking again.
(The first thing he says is daijoubu. I'm fine.)
(Ritsu finds his gaze flinching away from his brother's sharpening red eyes sometimes, at first, overwhelmed by Shigeo's new presence. There's a hot tight ball of pain in Ritsu's chest and he doesn't understand why he's reacting like this while Shigeo is objectively getting better. Ritsu is too terrified to admit it out loud to anyone, but he misses his brother as a zombie. the simplicity of it, he thinks, sickened by himself; he misses the simplicity. but anyway.)
Mob's still slower than he used to be. It takes him a while to think things over. He reacts slowly to things. It takes patience to hold a conversation with Mob. Also, his strength doesn't seem to be fading with the cure; if anything, he seems to be getting stronger as the cure works its way through his system, purging the milky, vague fog it wove through his brain and organs. Mob is left with raw strength he doesn't remember how to control, and the more aware he becomes, the closer to the surface of his mind he rises, the more he grows to fear his new body. the potential he has to hurt someone—the way his numb fingers feel metal door handles as soft, malleable, the way he absentmindedly bites through the rims of glasses—he tries to hide it as much as possible.
Mob's still got zombie-style insomnia, by the time he's declared officially human again. He refuses to show his strength, even when the doctors plead with him, so no one knows exactly how strong he is. He's probably still inhumanly resilient to injuries, but that doesn't get tested. His pain sense is still dangerously dull, although he gets flashes of agonizing sensitivity every so often—is the cause of his numbness psychological or physical? does the distinction even matter?
Mob was docile as a zombie, and he's docile while he's being cured. The remembering process takes a lot out of him. And some of the things he remembers—
flashes of light. uncomfortably loud popping sounds. salty taste, crunchy. salty taste, wet. little brother's eyes. walking. walking. flowers. flashing lights. little brother screaming. vague alarm. rain. being pulled, refusing to move. plants. fluffy animal moving in front of him. little brother's voice singing. little brother's head on his shoulder. little brother holding his hand.
Some of the things he remembers are—
little brother screaming. himself growling.
something between his teeth. hunger.
Some of the things he remembers, he forces himself to un-remember. Some of the emotions he feels about it, he forces himself to un-feel. Keeping Shigeo safe cost Ritsu too much. He can't make his little brother take care of him again. He has to get better faster so he can be a good big brother again.
Daijoubu. Mob is fine.
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