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Things had changed so much for Roman in the past year and a half.
He still struggled with many of his own memories. There were horrifically vivid ones that he wanted so badly to forget. There was also the increasingly forgetful grief for what he would never experience again.
He wasn’t alone. Remus was there for him. Patton and Virgil kept his head above water. Logan tried to teach him about his reality. Janus ensured his safety, in many respects. They helped him feel human again.
The Dead Enders had splintered into a few different groups that threatened him and those he cared about. He had a couple run-ins with these people and found out that whatever he did in rescuing his brother garnered him a special kind of notoriety. His memories of it remained thankfully fragmented.
It was during that state of uneasy peace, when Remus crashed into the safe house shouting for Roman. “I got some real shitty news, Robro!”
Roman hesitated, “What is it?”
“Wanna guess what mangled carcasses the rabies-infested cat dragged in?”
Roman knew he was going to regret it, but, “W-who are we talking about?”
“Who else? Our over-hyped sperm donor and overpriced baby factory!”
Roman cringed, “… our parents are here?”
“Yep!”
Roman’s stomach dropped, “Where... are they?”
“Apparently, they shacked up next to one of Janny’s condos.”
“But… why?”
Remus shrugged. The two of them stared at each other, unsure of what to do with the information. After a few moments, they spoke simultaneously.
“Wanna actually talk to ‘em and find out?”
“Wanna kick ‘em down a flight of stairs?”
Roman blinked at his brother, “What!? NO! We are NOT going to-”
Remus rolled his eyes, “… party pooper. I GUESS I wanna see how they’d react about us being-”, he gestured at himself.
Roman gulped, “I-I’m having second thoughts here…”
“NOPE! If I’m gonna go piss them off, I ain’t doing it alone!”
Roman didn’t want to admit that his curiosity got the best of him, “… fiiine.”
-
Janus elected not to be present when the twins paid his unwelcome neighbors a visit. He had other business to attend, perhaps a wise decision.
Roman rang the doorbell to their unit a few times and fidgeted. No response. He wanted to leave.
Remus went ahead and punched a hole through the door and let the two of them in. The racket elicited a familiar startled yelp from their mom and a clipped shout from their dad. Their dad stomped his way toward them from another room, their mom cautiously behind him. Despite how long it had been for the twins, they recognized them as one Rómulo Amós and Mara Ortiz.
Their dad held a pistol, one of those flintlock replicas, ready to shoot whoever broke in, “I don’t know who-”
Roman backed away, looking down and fidgeted with his arm, suddenly feeling a lump in his throat. Remus stood his ground, with a menacing grin, “Aw, how could you of all people forget THIS mug?”
Their parents stared back at them, puzzling them for far too long. The sound of some news broadcast playing on the big screen TV nearby, filling the room. Roman thought about how they looked different because they were z- their mom squinted at them, “Do I kn-?”
Before Roman could open his mouth, Mara launched into a tirade, “Sei brutto come la fame! Qual'è il significato di questo!?”
Remus hated how Roman flinched at that. Remus fired back, “Well, fuck you too, Signora Stronza!”
Rómulo snapped back before he lowered his weapon, “WATCH. YOUR. MOUTH... mancha de mierda.”
Roman couldn’t take this anymore. When he interrupted them, he didn’t realize his eyes had flashed red from anger, “Can you all just STOP!?”
Everyone clamped their mouths shut and Roman took a breath. He timidly continued, “Mom? Dad? You DO recognize us? Right?”
Their parents huffed and begrudgingly nodded. Their mom flattened out her blouse unnecessarily and asked, “Okay. Why did your eyes do that – that thing?”
Remus cackled, his words dripping venom, “NOW. You’re getting a clue. But do you really want to know? ¿Madre Más Querida?”
Rómulo scowled, “Out with it.”
Remus leisurely pointed at the damaged door behind him, and smiled back, “A threat.”
Their dad looked at Remus, “I will not hesitate to send you to prison again.”
Rómulo gave Roman a distinctly hateful and icy stare,“And your leash is shortening as we speak, son.”
It was the look that had only been reserved for Remus, before. The esteem Roman thought he had built with him evaporating before his eyes. He knew he was forgetting something… something he talked about with Patton. But things were going blank against the overwhelming regret for coming along.
Remus obliged, “¡Sorpresa! We’re zombies. Non morti. ¡El muerto viviente!”
Rómulo’s expression rapidly went from appalled to stony, “Prove it.”
Remus taunted him, “Why dontcha shoot me and find out!?”
Roman shook his head at Remus, alarmed, “The hell are you-?”
Their dad fired a shot into Remus’s arm, shocking both the twins. Roman flinched with more exaggeration than he intended to at the bang. Remus laughed after the surprise wore off, “Didn’t know you had it in you, sir! I could need a hospital! I could press charges! And I really, really liked this jacket…”
Remus shook his jacket off and revealed the wound to everyone. More of his unnatural skin color became apparent. It damaged his sleeve of blackwork underneath, but there wasn’t any significant bleeding. He unflinchingly dug into the wound with his free hand. He pulled out the bullet and flung it toward his dad’s feet. Rómulo didn’t bother to avoid the blood staining his Louis Vuitton dress shoes, but he did scowl at the filth. The desecration of Mara’s prized product disgusted her far more so.
“Not like you actually care, but that didn’t hurt.”
Rómulo turned contemplative and holstered his pistol, “Huh.”
Roman, restless, “Y-you’re not scared?”
He only looked at Roman, “Scared? No. BUT, you just might earn my respect if you answer my next question. Favorably.”
Remus rolled his eyes and his dad continued, “Tell me. Do you believe this condition would increase productivity in my company?”
“I-I don’t know- uh…”
“The lack of pain and increased strength would make some costly red tape trivial. I believe I could downsize the workforce without losing my margins and render certain... measures obsolete, such as those pesky safety regulations. Don’t you agree, Roman?”
Roman’s guts twisted in knots. It would be almost perfect if not for- he answered, “Are you forgetting something?”
Their dad grit his teeth, “I’m sensing some insolence. Child.”
Remus stepped in, “Brains. We need to eat brains… or else.”
Mara looked green thinking about that, she deliberately ignored Remus too, “Ha. Looks like a certain something has been a bad influence for you. Just like we always knew it would be. But cannibalism is a whole new low!”
Roman didn’t know what he was expecting and he felt stupid for hoping to be seen as anything but a monster. It wore at the resolve he painstakingly built to accept that he may never be fully human again. The thought of desperate people being forced into this existence, and people like his friends, getting fed into a meat grinder revolted him. He had so many questions about what his dad would do with this information. Answers to which, he dreaded to know.
His dad was getting impatient, “What happens when you don’t?”
Remus shuddered and held an almost vacant look, one brought back to being starved to nearly nothing. It also reminded Roman of the state he found him in, in far too much vivid detail.
Their parents’ faces showed nothing, not even a hint of concern.
Roman winced and tried to nudge Remus out of it, “H-hey… earth to Rem?”
Rómulo gave a short laugh, “Ha! How many drugs DID you scramble your brain with? ¿Es solo natillas ahí?”
Remus grunted and shook his head, “… let’s see, then! Lots of booze, SO much booze. Oh and-”
Remus cleared his throat and went heavy with the sarcasm, “I think YOU would get a kick out of the killer cocktail of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone. Add some rituximab for a little spice. It’s the new krokadil! Not even half the fun!”
Remus dragged the collar of his soiled shirt down to show some weird implant along his collarbone to his dad. Roman was confused, but their dad was in the industry and knew exactly what Remus was talking about. Their father was unimpressed, “Maybe Roman wouldn’t be in this mess if you’d only just-”
“Oh, just SAY it!”
“If that killed you instead.”
Roman looked at his brother with concern, “What... are you talking about?”
Remus sighed, momentarily looking vulnerable with his brother before putting on a dissonant blasé attitude for their parents, “They say it’s a pretty isolating disease, you know that? It eats you away from the inside and no one gets it? I laughed, you know? I fucking laughed, thinking about how much I wouldn’t be missed. It’s great getting that confirmation, old man. I REALLY appreciate knowing I was right about you ALL along.”
Roman winced and realized there was still so much more to his brother’s story.
The room dived a few degrees as they stood in silence. Remus mirrored their dad’s scowl, it would be a spitting image if not for their dad’s clean-shaven look and prim business attire. Their mom was exhausted and frankly bored. Roman was also tired, reminded of why he chose to move away in the first place.
They always would find a way to steer the conversation towards whether Roman was going to work for his Dad or his business partners. Or his Mom would try to wrap him up into one of her schemes that Roman had a bad gut feeling for – but he’d rather die again than to pretend to be an economist to figure out why. The older he became, the harder it was to talk about anything to them. The moment he ever actually so much hinted at his passions, he was...
Mara broke into the conversation again, “I suppose you’re wondering why we decided to stroll into town?”
In spite of himself, Roman was a little curious, “… sort of?”
Remus rolled his eyes as she went on, “Imagine our surprise when we heard that a certain someone had drained their trust fund. Our auditors pinned the suspicious activity happening over here.”
Roman was too focused on just trying to handle his life being upturned to think about his finances – to think about the terms of the trust fund. They could see everything and had all the power to revoke it, it was another reason he kept his distance and his mouth shut.
His memory was somewhat muddled from going between brains – some way more impulsive than others. He was confused, “W-when did it happen?”
Rómulo answered, “The fact you have to ask such an insipid- it was NOT an act of charity. We raised you smarter than that. Hijo.”
Remus got melodramatic, “Somebody check this fucker for hives! He just said the Ch Word!”
Their dad straightened up, “What do you think we saw, less than a week into 2019?”
Roman gulped, that was before he- “Uh… Well. I guess you could say it was an organization… of sorts. Help with the overhead, you know how it is?”
Remus pointedly eyed his Dad’s pistol and looked at Roman. Rómulo was unimpressed, “Stop. Dodging. The question.”
Roman squirmed, “It was for a freelance security… contractor? Yeah! That.”
Remus shook his head, but didn’t say anything. Roman had no doubt that he was the one who paid for the very shotgun used to kill him. He wanted to leave before he had a breakdown in front of his parents, but he couldn’t leave Remus with them either.
Their dad’s expression didn’t change, “Does the name, Diane White, sound familiar?”
Roman froze and it told him enough, “Imagine our surprise when the rest of those funds were withdrawn before she was reported missing, the next year. You did better to scrub that money trail, too.”
Roman was sure Janus was responsible for that. He wasn’t sure if he should be grateful for it.
Remus got defensive, “The fuck are you insinuating?”
“I have a deal. You inoculate a few of my laborers and I will not pursue… criminal litigation. Against both of you. I may even offer legal shelter, to further incentivize you.”
“W-wait. Why did you wait this long after Diane… disappeared. To-to-”
Mara sighed, “Diane was a top seller for one of my competitors. I had some birdies fly over there, and heard something about another pie she shoved her hand into. She wrapped up some of her down-line into it, and the rest of them were chomping at the bit, too. It’s that kind of behavior that gets you fired. I was beginning to lose interest until I saw her name in your transaction history!”
Remus was getting bored and mockingly pantomimed her speech.
“It was quite the scandal when she went missing – her company underlings speculated endlessly! Through all the noise, they realized some of her ‘legs’ were mysteriously chopped off around the same time. They did the arduous work of sniffing out a certain bombshell at the wharf. It all lined up a little TOO well, we just needed to know what part YOU played.”
Her gaze into Roman was piercing, it made him start to hyperventilate. Memories of that night threatening to be pulled forward, despite everything in him wanting to resist. Low red light washing out the scene. The screams. The bodies…
Remus’s eyes reddened as he growled at his parents, noticing Roman’s distress. He lunged for Mara first, incensed with all her prodding. It was too fast for Roman to react in time, still too dazed from his own panic episode.
Rómulo managed to get in between them, barring Remus’s attack with his arm. Rómulo grunted as Remus sunk his teeth into his forearm. He then tried to wrestle Remus off. There was a brief moment where his dad almost looked scared, not helped by his enhanced strength threatening to overpower the bastard.
Mara tried in vain to pull him off – only to get raked across the face from Remus. Roman finally reacted and gripped Remus’s shoulders hard and yanked him away, “REMUS. STOP!”
Remus seethed for a good while, staring through Roman, before he came back to his senses. Remus grunted, “… they deserve so much worse.”
Mara was in a state of shock, while Rómulo pressed his own wound, wincing. After sucking in a breath, their dad spoke to Remus, “Roman was at least salvageable. You? You’re no son of mine.”
Roman found himself torn, because seeing his parents looking actually vulnerable made him have second thoughts about how he felt for them. Any response he could make died in his throat. Remus snapped back, “You just wanted a fucking trophy to trot around! A sick sycophant. Don’t act like it was anything else.”
After another long silence, Roman was about to muster some courage to speak for himself, about how broken he really was. The TV was interrupted by an emergency broadcast, before he could.
“We interrupt this program with a special news bulletin. The CDC discovered a major outbreak of a new disease in Seattle, they’re dubbing it ζvCJD-21. Please call your doctor or local health department if you are experiencing the following symptoms: losses in sense of taste, smell, and pain; increased aggression; and strange cravings. This is not an exhaustive list. It has not been found transmissible by air, but other vectors are being investigated. The government has ordered a lock down to contain its spread, until more is understood. Your patience is greatly appreciated.”
It was news Roman had dreaded to hear, as he met many more new zombies since he became one of them. Janus’s tension had grown more palpable, despite his best efforts to minimize the problem. Roman’s mind was growing muddled and his stomach grumbled at him, he needed to get out of there and fast.
Remus glanced at Roman before saying one last thing, “You want to turn your cogs into one of us? Do it yourself. C’mon, Robro… you need to eat.”
Remus grabbed Roman’s wrist and pulled him out of the condo. Even though the parents remained in the condo, the twins knew that they weren’t going to let any of this slide. They knew they made some powerful enemies.
Roman had a sinking feeling as he followed Remus out.
-
The twins were back at the safe house, eating what was ready for them in the fridge.
Roman’s mind was getting less hazy as he swallowed the offal down. Maybe it was because of how emotional and stressful his meeting with his parents was, but he was having another one of those days where he was more squirmy about his appetite again. It had subdued somewhat, but it was always there in the background.
Remus broke the silence, “Robro?”
“Hm?”
“Ug, I hate this emotional shit. But… I need to tell you one of the reasons I signed up for Team Z.”
“You didn’t want to d-?”
“Existing was a lot of pain between all the plates and screws and the Big C. I wondered a lot about whether it was worth it to keep kicking. Well, I kept going back to wondering about how you were holding up over the years. Wanted to stick around, if only to know that much...”
Roman’s eyes started to water, too overwhelmed to form a coherent response, “I-”
“Looks like you needed me around, after all.”
“I-I think the feeling’s mutual.”
“Maybe.”