"Canary, I want it like Zombie's," Nugget whined, looking over his shoulder at me.

I carefully cut the ends of his curly locks, nearly slicing my finger in two every time he'd make a sudden movement.

"Nugget," I said, for what ought've been the hundredth time. "I've already told you, that's not how haircuts work."

Nugget wanted his hair to look exactly like Zombie's, which posed as an issue because Zombie's straight hair was nearly down to his shoulders, whereas Nugget's curly hair only reached to the bottom of his ears.

"I can't make your hair grow longer," I stated, rolling my eyes.

Nugget let out a loud, dramatic sigh. "Well I don't wanna get my hair cut then," he said, swatting my hands away.

The scissors clattered to the ground and I crossed my arms.

"We had a deal, Nugget," I said. "I'm not playing around with you." 

Nugget had promised me that I could cut his hair if, in return, I taught him how to do a choke hold. After an hour of me training him, he had finally sat down for his haircut and now he was trying to pull this shit. 

"Well, I've changed my mind," Nugget grumbled, crossing his arms in a defiant manner. 

"Nugget, you made a deal. You need to honor it," Zombie said from the door way. 

We were on the porch, overlooking the thicket of trees outside. It wasn't as cold anymore, the bitterness of winter was starting to ebb away to the warmer days of spring. 

Zombie moved out of the door way towards us, his limp almost entirely gone. 

It had appeared that I'd been right - all Zombie needed was some rest and then he'd feel better. 

After nearly six weeks without any encounters with the Others, he'd been able to recover at Grace's old house. I was even starting to see the old Ben back. After a good shave and a new set of clothes that weren't covered in blood, he was starting to sport the old high school football star, swoon-worthy Ben Parish look. 

And after all the time of getting to know him as rugged Zombie, it made me slightly uncomfortable to see him so refined again. 

I even found it harder to talk to him now that I didn't have his wound to fuss over. As a result, we'd talked less in the past couple weeks. 

On top of it all, everyone knew that Zombie and I had a thing for one another now, so it was almost impossible to be within five feet from one another without getting suggestive looks from the entire squad. 

Zombie walked around to Nugget, crouching down so he was eye-level with him. 

"Listen bud, if you get your hair cut, I'll get mine cut, deal?" Zombie said. 

Nugget nodded eagerly. "Deal," he said. 

I picked the scissors up from the ground just as Zombie ruffled Nugget's hair, standing up. 

I rolled my eyes, slightly irritated. Nugget had been giving me shit for the past however many weeks but whenever Zombie stepped in, he'd do whatever the hell came out of his savior's mouth.  

After much deducing, I'd come to the conclusion that he was jealous of how Zombie spent more time with me than him. 

I took the scissors in my right hand and resumed cutting his hair.

Zombie then came up beside me and pressed his lips softly against my temple. 

"I need to talk to you later," he said softly. 

I gave him a small nod, just as Nugget burst out in song. 

"Canary and Zombie, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G-" 

"Nugget," I started. 

"First comes love-" 

I felt heat rush to my cheeks and my eyes widened slightly. Love.

"Hey Nugget," Zombie said. "Turn around." 

I let my scissors fall from his hair once again and Nugget turned around in his chair to face Zombie. 

"What?" he asked, a mischievous look on his face. 

Zombie took my face in his hands and kissed me hard. 

"Bleh!" Nugget said, sticking out his tongue. "Gross!" 

Zombie pulled away and smiled at me before turning to Nugget. "Now sit down and behave while Canary cuts your hair," he said. 

I bit my lip softly, trying to contain a smile. 

"Fine," Nugget huffed, crossing his arms and pouting his lips as he turned back around in his chair. 

Zombie ruffled his hair and then planted a soft kiss on my lips. "Tonight, ok?" he murmured. "It's important." 

I nodded. "mhmm," I said, pursing my lips. 

What could he possible want to talk about? We'd already had many conversations on how to defeat the Others, with little to no results. And our relationship was at an ok place. I guess. We hadn't talked about us in awhile, but we certainly weren't having any problems. 

"Are you going to cut my hair or what?" Nugget asked, swinging around again. 

I blinked twice and nodded. "Yeah, yeah," I said, bringing my hands up to his hair again. 

~*~*~*~

"So..." I said to Cassie, searching for something to say. "How are you and Evan doing?" 

We were both waiting in Grace's family room, in front of the fire. I was waiting for Zombie, who, at the moment, was reading Nugget a bedtime story. And Cassie was waiting for Evan, who was outside doing who knows what. 

Cassie shrugged, bringing her blanket up over her shoulders. "Good, I guess," she said. "I'm angry at him...I mean Sam can't even remember the alphabet...and I guess he's the only one around here I can really blame for that. But it pains me because I can't even stay mad at him for very long." 

I nodded slowly. "We'll work with Nugget, all of us," I said. "As for Evan, I get why you'd blame him." 

I stared into the fire, letting its moving twists and turns hold my attention. 

"But he's different than the rest of them, and you know that," I said, finally looking sideways at her. "I mean, he did turn on his entire kind. I wouldn't do that unless it was for someone I really cared about." 

"Like Ben," Cassie offered. 

I nodded, lowering my eyes to my own blanket, tracing its pattern with my finger. "Yeah, like Ben," I said, the word feeling foreign in my mouth. 

Zombie looked like Ben, but he wasn't Ben anymore to me. 

Cassie gave me a half smile. "You really like him, don't you?" she said. "Love him, even?" 

I dipped my head, uncomfortable. "I don't know about love," I said, "But I what I feel for him is different than anything I've felt for anyone before."

"You'll know it when you feel it," she said. "It just kind of hit me...when Evan came walking up to us after the hotel exploded, It was as if everything about us finally made sense...and I knew then that I loved him." 

She leaned her head back against the chair's headrest. "I know it sounds cheesy and lame, but it's the truth."

I smiled. "I don't think it's cheesy or lame," I said. 

Ok, lie. It sounded a bit cheesy. But I'd never been in love before, so I couldn't judge. 

She gave a small snort of laughter, which led me to believe that she knew I wasn't telling the truth. 

Neither one of us said a word for a little while, until Cassie spoke up again. 

"You should see the way Ben looks at you," she said, her eyes still trained on the fire. "Only a little while ago I would've killed for that." 

Previously, when Cassie would bring up her crush on Zombie, I'd feel really uncomfortable and out of place. But something about the way she said it this time made me feel much more at ease. 

"I'm over him, 100%," Cassie said quickly, turning to look at me. "It's just hard not to remember what everything was like before the waves." 

I nodded, playing with the edges of the blanket. "Yeah, I get it," I said. 

Images of Lizbeth flashed into my mind and I was momentarily transported back to the party the night before everything began. 

I thought of how Lizbeth had told me not to talk to Zombie, even though every part of me was aching just to say 'hi'. 

The emotions I'd felt that night were some I never wanted to return to. Helplessness and loneliness. 

Although the presence of the Others didn't help much with the helplessness, Zombie and the rest of the squad made it so I wasn't entirely alone. 

A small smile took place on my lips as I thought about the sad little girl before the Others, who was too scared to talk to a boy because her step sister told her not to. I thought about how Lucy hadn't in a thousand years thought it was possible a boy like Ben Parish could like her. 

And now, the smiles Zombie wore were all for me, and it felt like a dream come true. 

"You know," I started, my eyes darting to Cassie. "Something good did come out of the Others," I said. 

Cassie started to nod along to words, a thoughtful look on her face. 

"I'm not saying this still doesn't suck, and I'd do anything to bring back the people I lost, but you wouldn't have met Evan, and I wouldn't have the type of relationship I do with Zombie." 

Cassie nodded. "I wouldn't have met Evan for sure," she said.  "But you and Ben-Zombie," she said, correcting herself before continuing, "You and Zombie would've found your way to one another sooner or later." 

"Maybe," I said, cocking my head slightly to the side, thinking. 

Would we have? I wasn't so sure. 

Cassie hadn't been the only one who was head over heels for Ben Parish. He'd had his entire fan club at his beck and call. 

But even more important than that, I had the feeling that Lucy Morgan never would've stopped being scared long enough to have any real connection with Ben Parish. 

"Hey Cassie, you ready?" Evan called as the front door slammed shut. 

"Yeah, only been waiting for a few hours," Cassie called back.

A small laugh escaped my lips as Evan came into the room, crossing his arms. He rolled his eyes slowly. 

"Oh hey, Canary," he said, peering around Cassie to give me a small wave. 

I gave him a small wave back, right before Cassie scrammbled out from underneath her blanket to go join Evan. 

"I'll talk to you tomorrow, ok?" Canary asked over her shoulder as they began to walk away. 

I nodded. "Yeah, tomorrow." 

I heard Cassie giggle at something Evan said, their voices growing softer the farther they walked down the hall. 

I brought my knees up to my chest, hugging my legs as I waited for Zombie. 

Everything seemed to be playing out alright- the squad was healing, I'd almost forgotten how a gun felt in my hands, and I was with Zombie in more than a 'just friends' kind of way. 

But the Others were still out there, no doubt planning something new. And we needed to stop them. 

I didn't know what Zombie wanted to talk to me about, but I had a feeling it had something to do with our next move. 

And if by some chance he wasn't going to bring it up, I would. 

<><><>

And so we begin the last part of Perish! Please let me know what you think in the comments and what you hope to happen in part 3! 

I also wanted to thank everyone for helping Perish reach almost 100,000 reads! It's absolutely crazy to think about how many people have read Canary's story! 

Anyway, updated will be coming out more regularly now, and will be done by the end of the summer. I'm thinking Perish should be wrapped up by the latest, end of September. I'm hoping to finish sooner than that though.

As always, comment and vote if you love Ben Parish!