Volume II · The Register - Entry No. 12
The Returned
“Fight Past Your Hunger”
Nobody in this town says "zombie." We say "returned," the way you'd say a package came back. They come back hungry - not the dramatic thing you're picturing, just hungry, the way you are at 4pm when you skipped lunch and started making bad decisions.
The ones who last learned the trick: don't feed it, don't fight it. Walk past it. Keep the appointment. Outlast the hunger the way you outlast everything in this town - stubbornly, on purpose. We buried Halford Vance in '61. He's been past his hunger sixty years. Still opens the hardware store at seven.
Filed by the Keeper. Status: keeping regular hours
Recovered
Fight Past Your Hunger - Unisex t-shirt
Standard issue for the returned who decided to stay useful. Heavy cotton, reinforced seams, the town motto where you'll catch it in the mirror each morning. Not the gym-poster kind of grit - the keep-getting-up kind.