They haven't been to many places and the few places that they did see couldn't prepare them for Slim.
On their travels, they did hear about the city. However, it was mentioned just like another unusual city in the place where strange things were a norm.
When they first arrived in Slim, they couldn't really define what they were feeling. If you asked them right then and there, they would've just said that it lacked color and left you even more confused than before you asked the question.
That was how they saw it at first, as well, as a gray little city that seemed to miss something, something crucial.
As they started walking through the city they encountered a lot of normal looking people living their lives, doing their chores, but they could feel there was something wrong there.
Entering deeper into the city, the hairs on the back of their necks started prickling. The air was heavy, difficult to breathe, and they found themselves gasping for air from time to time. The life had been sucked out from not only the people but also the city itself.
Under the calm surface, there was a dead city devoid of any emotions.
There were fairly normal things there, bakeries, coffee shops, a hospital; even the trees and flowers, but they didn't bring any joy. There was no joy left in the gloomy city of Slim.
People were walking slowly and lifelessly, shuffling their feet as they went on. Even the sun that kept on shining couldn't penetrate the grayness of the city,
Upon reaching the city center, they finally could see it as it truly was. They were blinded by all the beautiful things they had seen before going to that city and that was the reason it took them so long to see the true face of Slim.
The city felt dead because it was, as was everyone walking around its streets. As their skin chilled and hearts started beating faster, they realized it was a zombie city.
That was one of the reasons it looked so different from all the other places they saw on the island. That was why it looked so gloomy and lifeless.
Their eyes darted around them wide-open trying to take all that in. When faced with the true face of the city they could feel their hands shaking, and they broke in a cold sweat.
The buildings, which just a few moments ago, looked only a bit old, but livable seemed to change in a flash as their sight cleared.
They could see them for what they truly were; ruins of some old, long forgotten shops, long ago abandoned. From some of them, they could see the dark silhouettes emerging which made it obvious that they were functional.
The trees looked sick and sad; the flowers were as dead as the people surrounding them. Although they were told that no one could hurt them because of The Law, they didn't feel very safe standing in the middle of the zombie-infested city.
The worst of it all was that they were standing in front of a building which displayed the most gruesome sight their eyes had ever seen. There were human legs, hands and other body parts displayed in the shop's window. It was a butcher's shop.
They were appalled by it but did their best not to think about it, to erase those images that seemed to be burned into their retinas for eternity. They couldn't take their eyes off the butcher's shop, it was a gruesome fascination with a grotesque that was beyond their conscious control. Although it made them sick to their stomachs, they were so transfixed by it that they couldn't look away.
Since they were so focused on the sight before them they didn't notice a young man, a zombie, moving awkwardly towards them. He was a tall, dark-haired guy with lost and unfocused eyes, but he was focused enough to keep going towards them.
When they finally saw him, they gasped in surprise and took a few steps back. The moment they did that the zombie said in a slow, muffled voice: "Doon't be... afraid...III mean you... no haarm."
Upon hearing that, they stopped, shocked as they were that a zombie could talk. Their bodies were taut, but they stopped backing off for the time being.
"My...naaame... is Imboz..."
"Eh, hi, I am Alabandite and this is my friend Galaxyite. But our friends usually just call us Ali and Gala." Ali started babbling.
Imboz explained that he came to them because he saw how scared they were. He told them that Slim respected The Law and that no evil would fall upon them while they were there.
The city was created for the zombies to be a haven to live in without being killed by humans.
Their bodies relaxed a bit when he pointed out that the zombies were more afraid of them than Ali and Gala were of the zombies. Although they were relieved by that, they were also surprised.
Also, they didn't fully understand how the zombies even got to the island much less how they were created in the first place.
Imboz explained that they all came from different alternate realities, the ones were the zombie apocalypses did happen and as he explained there were many of those. Some zombies were tired of the constant struggle and wanted to find some peace.
Since they were still zombies, they did have to survive by feeding on human flesh. In consequence, some of the more advanced zombie, such as Imboz, went back to those alternate realities to gather some food, and then they sold it in the butcher's shop.
The girls gagged at the mention of the butcher's shop, but they could understand that the survival instinct was the strongest one for people, so it was not surprising that the same was true for zombies.
Although they could partly understand the zombies, they wanted to leave that dark city as soon as possible.
The relatively friendly zombie Imboz decided to help them leave the city but things didn't go according to plan.
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