REANIMATION

(25)

     Her handwriting was barely legible due to how shaky and uncontrollable her hands were, but it did do the job.

     'There's no point in being angry. I'm trapped in a cage so yelling and screaming does no good.'

     Bottle read through it before slipping the notepad and pen through the cage again.

     "Doesn't it get annoying though? Listening to me talk all the time...?"

     Fanny shot her a glance before returning back to the notepad and beginning to write again.

     'Sort of. Not too much.'

     "That's... a lot coming from you," Bottle remarked, only to retract it instantly after Fanny began to move the pen to the pad, "—OH, I didn't mean that as like... a bad thing! It's just... y-you're very easily irritated and stuff, so I—"

     Fanny turned it and held it up for her to read.

     'Calm down, you're as paranoid as a mouse.'

     Bottle shrunk backward with a quiet whimper. She watched Fanny turn it back around and begin scribbling more words down as she mumbled a near silent apology.

     'It's not like I even could lash out at you if I was angry. I'm in a cage, what am I gonna do?'

     "I... I don't know..." Bottle straightened upward, "um... I have a question for you. A few, maybe."

     Fanny held up a finger to signal her to pause.

     'Can you answer my question first?'

     "Oh... yeah! What is it?"

     Fanny shot a glance back down at the notepad. She raised the pen to start writing, jotted down a few words, then grunted in irritation. She tore off the note and stuck it outside before beginning to write on the new one.

     'I'm assuming you kicked Liy out.'

     "..." Sorrow spiked in Bottle's heart, "...Yeah, we did."

     'Makes sense. Sucks though, she could've been a translator.'

     "A... translator...?"

     'She was able to understand things I said.'

     "Really? How?"

     Fanny blinked.

     "...Oh. I get it now."

'I warned her this would happen. She insisted you guys wouldn't.'

"...But we did..."

'It was the right thing to do.'

"I guess..." Bottle sighed, "...but she's still out there all alone! The least we could've done was give her a warm farewell!"

Fanny slouched back, shaking her head before returning back to the notepad.

'What did you wanna ask?'

Bottle took a deep, sharp breath, "Okay. Well... cutting to the chase, there is a reason we captured you... and I... guess I'm asking if—y'know—you could help us...!"

Fanny paused.

'With what though.'

    "Getting rid of other zombies!" She explained, "We captured you with the intention of taking you out with us to deal with zombies, y'know?"