Chapter Text
Galinda Arduenna Upland once had a beating heart.
It used to pump at least ninety beats per minute even at rest, and her momsie worried she had tachycardia. Momsie was wrong, however. Galinda believed it was just her interminable excitement over anything existing seeing as popsicle had once told her, she was something of a multipotentialite.
Or maybe, it’d been anxiety. It could be both, really.
Still. Galinda once had a healthy, functioning heart: one that loved her parents. One that adored her friends, her studies, sports, and pink. Oh, did Galinda miss being thoroughly pink. It was hard to maintain her erstwhile level of pinkness these days—especially now that she was just… eternally pale. Depressingly muddy. Disastrously sluggish.
And ridiculociously, a zombie.
Which was such an inconvenience, if she were to be frank. Her arms were all lanky and gangly now. She couldn't make them do anything. Couldn't even toss-toss! Really! Who even came up with that zombie rule? She couldn't even walk in heels anymore without her ankles twisting into thirty different angles! It was gross, and annoying, and sad, and—oh, don't even get her started with her hair. Lurline! Her beautiful, precious hair!
What used to be a golden, perfectly flowy stream of tresses was now a blood-matted birds’ nest.
Correction: dead birds’ nest.
Because Galinda ate them.
With enough motivation, she was quite quick with her hands, you see. Lazy arms and rusty cervical spine notwithstanding.
Didn't make the whole thing any less disgusticifying, though.
Back when her heart functioned normally, Galinda had loved birds. She used to sing with them all the time when she was little, and they loved being around her just as well because they trusted her. Apart from her former circle at school, the birds were her very first real, and earnest friends.
Until Galinda went ahead and started grabbing at them by their wings and tearing their throats apart with her teeth.
Now, now Galinda was lonely.
Oh, what she wouldn't give for some company right now.
And by that, she meant an actual human to human (zombie?) interaction without her suddenly getting the urge to eat their brains out of the blue because that was never not embarrassing. She couldn't remember the last time she came across a living, breathing, and actually functioning person, which was probably for the best. Perhaps her brain — or whatever cell was left of it — was merciful enough to erase those memories for her because the chances of that interaction being just Galinda’s supper was through the roof.
‘Oz, I beg you to bring a human to me, and I shall not eat them again. I swear it!’ Galinda shouted at the sky, which naturally just came out as a really sad prolonged groan.
Sighing for the forty-eighth time today, Galinda limped out of that despondiary-worth forest and into an open path she could vaguely recognize. Did she ponder too much that she ended up at Shiz? Who knew at this point? Did zombies even ponder? Galinda for sure did. She’d been doing it since she lost her ability to speak. Ah, what a thinker she was.
Just as she stopped shy of the cobble covered path walk, her bare feet having to bear pain she’d learned to acclimatize herself to over the last years, Galinda caught a flash of movement with the tail of her eye. She cocked her head to the side as she took a curious step forward. Nothing. Nothing happened. The trees remained unmoving, the rocks still stuck in concrete, and— there it was again! A verdant streak rushing past her sight and into one of the in-campus establishments so shabby that Galinda easily distinguished to be within her former college back when she was a student here at Shiz. Galinda hurried (or dragged her limbs as fast as her decayed bones would let her) to Crage Hall, limping past all the lesser zombies trudging aimlessly around her. They used to scare Galinda a ton on account of their disgustifying lineaments, but she was quick to learn that zombies didn't actually care about her so long as she stayed dead.
As a student, Galinda rarely ever frequented the book place. She'd long decided that going there to tend to her studies was merely a waste of her time when she could just study in the comfort of her private dorm room where there were no distraction to distractify her. No irritating noises, no fellow students cosplaying as lackeys kissing the ground she'd walk on, and most especially, no boys with unwarranted courting proposals. She swore she'd never be caught dead stepping foot in here.
Yet, here she was, caught dead stepping foot in here, only quite literally.
Galinda had no idea whether or not the place changed at all — considering she'd been here once — but the difference in the air was almost palpable.
Perhaps it was all the dead laying deadly dead on the ground.
Or the lack thereof.
There were only about four or five dead-dead zombies sprawled all over the floor which Galinda found not to be surprising. She figured no one had been actually hanging out here when the outbreak happened (who in their right mind would?) and zombies today didn't really care to go here to read for obvious reasons.
‘You probably died by accidentally swallowing your own tongue after trying to pronouncify the word isosceles,’ Galinda said to the one near her as it was hugging a thick Geometry book againts its hollow chest.
Which, again, came out as a groan.
Which, consequently, drew the attention of a person (a living one!) revealing themself from the shelf close to the blood-stained windows.
At first, Galinda was startled because of what suddenly stood across from her. A woman whose posture was almost as stiff as the shelf behind her and skin so green the prettiest emeralds Galinda had seen couldn’t compare, was pointing a rifle at her. Now, Galinda was startled for a completely different reason.
Galinda tried to raise her arms in surrender as a knee-jerk reaction—only it was taking her an eternity to do so.
By then, the woman already pulled the trigger. Galinda instinctively closed her eyes, waiting for the the bullet to tear through her skull as she replayed all her happy memories in her head as a desperate plea for a peaceful death, but a second passed, and then nothing.
The only sound that broke the silence didn’t come from the sound of a gun going off but from the woman’s voice that forced Galinda to open her eyes.
“Oz, damn it!” the woman threw the gun on the floor, now of no use to her that it ran out of ammo.
Galinda decided it was fate.
She wanted to speak, to tell this person that she meant no harm and that she wouldn’t hurt her, but Galinda physically couldn’t use her voice without sounding like a dehydrated goat.
So, Galinda stood there.
She didn’t move a muscle, her hands still up in the air as a way to let this green girl know what Galinda was incapable of.
She’d been incapable of a lot things lately.
The infection had taken a lot from her. It took everything from her. All her good qualities, all the little quirks, her singularity, her mannerisms, her parents and Ama Clutch, her space on the tiny nook in her bedroom, the notes and academic essays she'd written back at Shiz, her clothes, dresses, coats, shoes, and everything pink—all the things that made Galinda Galinda were gone now.
Except perhaps, the golden necklace hanging from her neck and the pendant that came with it. An elegant swirl of the letter 'G' rested over the pale skin of her chest.
“Why aren't you…” the woman frowned as her shoulders sagged. Galinda waited and waited as she took a cautious step closer, seemingly having a hard time grasping the fact that a zombie wasn’t immediately foaming at the mouth at the sight of a living thing. “Huh. Interesting.”
And because Galinda had the endurance of a corpse, she let her arms fall back to her sides. The woman flinched and backed away out of instinct, yet it didn’t take long before she was walking forward again. Galinda was proud of herself for being such a very approachable zombie.
“You’re different,” the woman murmured, the sound of it briefly tickling what was left of Galinda’s senses. “You’re not so eager to eat me.”
If she could still roll her eyes, Galinda would’ve had them stuck behind their lids by now. Not all zombies eat humans, alright? Well—at least not her!
“Ah, what am I saying,” retreating completely, Galinda could only watch as the woman chuckled to herself and looked at Galinda’s body from head to toe. “You’re probably just full.”
How she wished that were true. Galinda hadn't felt full in years. She was constantly hungry and grumbly, always craving for the nearest living flesh she could hardly find nowadays. Galinda was pretty sure the infection had already wiped out the better part of the world, leaving her with scraps if not birds for sustenance.
“Best not to waste my energy on you, then.”
And just like that, the oddly interesting green thing turned her back on Galinda and walked away.
The audacity! In what world was Galinda ever a waste of energy? Certainly not this zombie-infested one!
Annoyed at the lack of enthusiasm this woman was having at the presence of one—albeit zombified—presence of Galinda Arduenna Upland of the Upper Uplands, Galinda ran (it was more of a wobbly hopping) after her, her calves twisting like a towel needing to be dried. Fortunately, the woman didn’t seem to be in a rush to get out of the book place. She didn’t even walk to the exit when she turned away from Galinda. Instead, Galinda found her in the space somewhere in between two comically large bookshelves.
“Stop following me,” said the woman, and in an instant, she was centimeters away from shoving a knife down Galinda’s throat. “Or I will stab you. You understand?”
Okay. That was enough to make Galinda stop. Surely. She was just a sad, pliant, and muddy little zombie, after all. Who was she to disobey a woman with a knife? Galinda didn't want to die so early on in her zombie-life when she hadn't even reached the absolute zombie maturity just yet. She'd seen plenty of those as she was mindlessly wandering from Old Pastoria back to The Emerald City (how she ended up in Munchkinland in the first place? Galinda did not have the faintest), and Lurline, were they exceptionally terrifying.
Hence she backed away slowly, the sharpness of the knife edge leaving her skin.
The action must have taken the woman by surprise. She hesitantly put her knife back to its sheath attached to her belt, and blinked in astonishment. “Oh. Do you… do you really understand me?”
‘Yes!’ Galinda huffed. ‘Thank you for eventually noticing!’
Then, the green thing laughed. She laughed, and Galinda was seriously offended, and she kept laughing, and Galinda wanted to eat her. She wouldn’t actually, though. Galinda promised not to eat the next human she’d meet so long as they keep her company, and Galinda was really good at keeping her promises.
“What a funny little thing,” said the woman after she was done laughing like a witch. “Strange, too.”
Galinda had been called a lot of things by a lot of people. Pretty by her momsie, charming by her popsicle, smart by Ama Clutch. All her friends thought she was perfect, cunning as what all the boys she'd rejected said, and her most of her professors had claimed she was remarkable at her studies. Never in her life had Galinda been called strange.
As if reading Galinda's thoughts, the woman continued. “Strange for a zombie, at least.”
‘I believe you meant to say "unique",’ Galinda replied.
“You keep groaning,” stranger pointed out. “Are you trying to speak?”
Galinda groaned, purposely not saying an actual word this time just because. What was the point, anyway?
“You are, aren't you?”
Another groan.
“You really are odd,” the woman affirmed. She brought her gaze back to the books on the shelf, scanning aimlessly. “Why aren't you trying to eat me?”
‘I'd be delighted to!’ Galinda exclaimed. ‘But I'm slowly succumbing to insanity the longer I am by myself, you see. So, I'm trying very hard to play nice at the moment so that you will allow me to tag along with you.’
To nobody's surprise, the woman did an excellent job at failing to catch Galinda's attempt at communication. “That was a long one.”
‘And you understood none of it,’ Galinda huffed.
“Now, that's a little shorter,” the woman's mouth curved into a smirk, then she let her gaze stray from the books she'd been contemplating with in favor of giving Galinda a once over. “Do you know how to write?”
‘Of course, I know how to write! What do you take me for?’ Galinda answered just for the sake of answering. It's how she'd normally respond when someone posed the same question to her back when she was still a human, so her answer was a knee-jerk. Obviously, Galinda knew how to write.
“Right. Of course, you don't.”
Galinda so wanted to eat this woman. Well. Alright. Loathe as she was to fully admit it, the woman's guess was not entirely wrong. Taking into account the whole undead situation she had going on, Galinda had lost even the smallest vestige of her dexterity that even tracing a wobbly line had been an uphill battle. So, yes, technically, she no longer had the ability to write write, but this stranger didn't have to sound so condescending about it!
(Did she really sound as condescending? Not quite, but Galinda was beginning to feel very infuriated, and she decided to alter the tone the woman used with her so she could feel justified. She'd reflect on it later.)
“Oz, I can't believe I'm talking to a zombie right now,” the woman whispered, mostly to herself.
Galinda had exceptional hearing, though. Perhaps it was the only upside of being a flesh-eating creature after it had taken all her other good qualities.
“Well, it's what a year-long loneliness does to a person, I suppose.”
‘Add conspicuous intrapersonal dialogues to that, too.’ Galinda quipped.
Her grumble grabbed the woman from the conversation she was having with herself. “You don't think so?”
‘Oh, you fool. You are so never going to understand me...’
However, Galinda didn't scoff about it this time. In fact, she found herself slightly endeared to this woman's inability to understand her at all. She'd been wrong for about three times now, her affinity for venturing to a completely different direction every time Galinda had tried to say something was beyond ridiculous yet so amusing. It was such an odd turnabout. Not even a minute ago, she'd been so ready to sink her teeth into this woman's skull and have her entirely to herself just because she refused to give Galinda the littlest ounce of attention, and now Galinda was back to her plan to follow this green thing everywhere simply because she was in desperate need of company that even a stranger who could read her the same way a toddler could read an almanac would have to suffice.
“Mhm,” whatever the woman was searching for on the shelves, she seemed to be struggling to find it. “I've no idea what you just said.”
In her mind, Galinda was able to roll her eyes.
“Are you really just going to stand there?” she asked as though she felt the impatience oozing out of Galinda.
‘Yes,’ said Galinda. She tried to cross her arms but gave up halfway when she heard the joint on her elbows squeak. ‘What are you even looking for in those shelves?’
“You're hungry?”
‘That's not what I said.’
“I'm afraid I can't let you eat me,” the woman's nose wrinkled. It'd have been adorable if she wasn't so adamant about putting words in Galinda's mouth.
‘I'm not going to eat you!’ Galinda insisted. Oh, how she'd love to just stomp her feet for a show.
The woman's hands paused just above the spine of a random book for a brief moment while she stared at Galinda. “Oz, it's like I'm talking to a dog.”
‘A dog? Did you just call me a dog?’
Suddenly, the woman spun around and left Galinda alone standing by the aisle, presumably done with speaking to a zombie and receiving nothing in return. Still and all, Galinda was nothing but persistent. She tailed after the stranger by following the sound of her heartbeat and the peculiar scent that came with her, and Galinda was pleased to find her seemingly in no rush. She was close to the exit now but made no move to get out just yet as she was busy double-checking everything on her person.
Green, tired eyes collided with Galinda's bloodshot ones. “Why do you keep following me?”
‘Because I need a companion, and I believe you need one, too.’
“Is it the green skin? Because I promise you, it doesn't taste any different than the normal-looking ones,” the woman stated, uncomfortably shifting on her foot. “Not to mention, it's probably poisonous to your kind. I hope.”
‘Is it, really?’ Galinda wondered for a second before shaking her zombie-brain out of it. ‘Wait- no. Again, I do not want to eat you! If I did, I would've done so by now.’
“No means no. You can't eat me,” the woman decided, her stupid human brain hell bent on believing that Galinda Upland was begging for her to be Galinda's dinner.
Which Galinda definitely wasn't. She just wanted a friend. Was that so difficult to comprehend?
“I'm leaving you here, and you can't follow me. Understand?”
‘No.’
“Good,” the woman stood straight. She didn't turn her back on Galinda, but she did take a step backward slowly.
Naturally, Galinda took a step forward.
“No. Stay.”
The woman took another step.
Galinda did, too.
‘I don't want to.’
“I said stay.”
‘No can do.’
The woman clicked her tongue, then scratched her forehead with her ridiculously long nails. Galinda wondered whether she preferred them that way or she simply did not have the means to cut them. She wanted to know, wanted to hear her talk about it for hours, which gave her more reason to follow this green girl around. She had so many things she wanted to ask her even if most of it would probably just fly over her stupid head.
“You know what? Fine. Suit yourself,” the woman gave up and finally turned on her heel as she went for the door.
Galinda jumped in victory — at least in her mind — as she slowly but surely walked after the stranger who predictably did not wait for her to catch up.