Dead Run-Revival (Chapter 2)
Title: Dead Run-Revival
Rating: R
Genre: AU, horror, action, angst, drama
Characters: OT5
Disclaimer: Inspired from Resident Evil game. Some similar parts are purely coincidence. Neither RE and Arashi are mine!
Summary: When a city is suddenly being attacked by endless living dead, 5 people without any connection were left behind who ended up to either save themselves or fulfill their given responsibility. Will they manage? Or will they find out something they would never expect to know?
Warning : Bloody and brutal scenes, swearing(in this chapter) & long chapter(6912/14 pages) *facepalm*
(Chapter 2 : Related)
Droplets of red liquid wet Ohno’s trail. A sharp breath taken for every step forward he makes due to the injuries he had on his left thigh. Although he fortunately landed on dozens of boxes in a pile of dumping area that he noticed it before, he totally miscalculated the chance of a sharp material might exist there until a sticking out sharp wood cut deeply the side of his left thigh. The barely manageable wound he got there forced him to tie a cloth around his leg so he can avoid from worse bleeding and infection, though not without several resisted painful whines. Since he now can’t move freely anymore, he expects a rough struggle will happen between him and the zombies. Yet, the moment he returns to the road, what he found is an unbelievable opposite situation.
“…Where’re they?”
Ohno frowningly looks at his surroundings when see no living dead anywhere. The area is totally empty. He is more than sure not all of the zombies before were following him to the building top, so the area is not supposed to be THAT empty.
Still puzzled, the captain of the special defensive team continues to move with a painful limping. Soon, he hears a helicopter reappears above him again. A beeping sound suddenly enters his earpiece which makes him press the answer button immediately.
-“Wow, you’re still alive! That’s amazing!”
Ohno doesn’t say anything. Panting tiredly, he stops and glares at Kazama who is watching him from the cockpit.
-“Well, not without a scratch, I guess.”
“What the hell you want?”
Kazama seems startled by his harsh tone before suddenly laugh. His reaction however gains no response from Ohno who just firmly stare him while enduring the bleeding pain he feels.
-“This is the first time ever I see you angry. About the question, well, I’m just coming back to see how my best friend is doing.”
“So it’s true you’re holding a grudge against me.”
Ohno can see the annoying man smirks from the bulletproof cockpit.
-“Sometimes, the person we trusted the most will be the one who betrayed us the first.”
That’s it. What just the arrogant man said enough to make Ohno forgets about his pain and reaches for his gun. Yet, something suddenly bothers his mind midway and makes the rage he feels overtaken by concern. The angry looks he has dropped less in a second.
“If you want to leave me, then just go. You still have that boy with you, right? He needs immediate treatment.”
This time Kazama can’t hide his frown anymore. Rather than think about himself, the fact that Ohno still has time to think about other people even in this kind of situation somehow makes him pissed off. With a cynical chuckle, he pulls something up from the helicopter floor and shows it to the other man. A familiar memory also plays before his eyes at the same time - the memory when their supervisor telling him that
Ohno deserves the captain title more because the ‘slow-pace’ man has ‘something’ that he hasn’t.
Meanwhile, Ohno on the road below freezes. The painful expression he has suddenly disappears by what he found. As the helicopter flies lower, the pale face of the boy he saved becomes clearer in his eyes. He can see there is a bleeding on the right side of the now lifeless little boy’s head, probably due to a short range shoot from the only one person he can think of.
“What…w-why?”
-“He’s too noisy screaming at me to go back and get you. I would bother to save him if not because of that. This is your fault.”
Ohno’s hand trembles with anger by the answer. To him who always put the victim’s life on top priority than his, this kind of tragedy is not supposed to happen. It is unforgivable, especially when it is done by the man from his team and under his command, even if the man himself is his long time best friend. Swiftly, he shoves out his gun.
“Die.” He said as he furiously aims it to Kazama’s head. The man on target on the other hand surprise with the action, but snickers
nevertheless.
-“You know it yourself, right? You can’t kill me with that. If I were you, I won’t do that.”
Ohno however doesn’t say anything and tightens his hold. Suddenly, the usually calm man gives a shot to the helicopter tank, surprising both the driver and Kazama. When another shoot is given to them less than second after, Kazama angrily tells the driver to finish up the injured man with a machine gun or anything. Ohno who notices it is ready to flee when he suddenly hears something windy-like is coming closer in a swift motion. Immediately, he put his gun lower to ensure it.
Out of a sudden something metallic and big hit the helicopter from behind, startling Ohno who then hurriedly drags his leg to a nearby building, barely hides himself on time when the helicopter crash into the ground with fire sparks. A huge explosion occurs a second later, changing the gloomy place into a bright area as the fire goes high into the sky. Still shock by the sudden accident, Ohno just watches the helicopter burns from his standing place. Later, he sees a tall figure walks out from the direction of the metallic huge thing came. The captain’s eyes open wider as the figure gets clearer, revealing a tall creature wraps by dirty bandage with creepy groans. He even feels himself shakes a little when that thing stops in front of the crashed helicopter with blaze burning high in the air like it is a demon that comes out from hell.
‘An…axe? Did that thing threw it before?!’
He frowns when realizes what the metallic thing is as the tall creature takes it out of the fire. The axe already had a slight bent and cover by fire, but it seems doesn’t bother the ‘owner’ at all. That thing even lets its hand being burned and observes the huge blaze for a moment, only to start walking away while dragging the heavy axe along after it seems satisfied with something. That is when Ohno notices a barcode on its neck.
’78? Is it a fail bio-weapon or something? But what with that red blood bandages then? And it seems…like it can’t feel heat.’
For a while, Ohno stands still and watches it leaves. Only when there is no more shifting metal sound or heavy footsteps can be heard, he finally dare to give out a relief sigh. Now, he finally remembers about his bleeding wound.
‘It would be a bad idea to call for help now with that creature around. I better look for a clinic or pharmacy for the mean time.’
Hissing, he begins to walk away from his hiding place. However, only after a few minutes walking, his pace had already grown slower due to the sharp pain he feels. The moment he found an empty clinic, his eyes have already started to blur. After pushing anything he found to hold the glass entrance, Ohno stops for a while to catch his breaths. His face and body already damp with sweat when he manages to grab for some bandages and medicine from the medicine room before collapsing on the surgery room floor, extremely exhausted.
‘The rest stuff...I guess…I can find it here.’
Gritting his teeth, he forces himself to look for the surgery equipment to open his wound. The thought of cutting, cleaning and stitching his thigh skin is really disturbing, but he doesn’t have any other choice. No matter how strong his will to live he is still going to die if he loses too much blood. At least, he needs to take out a piece of wood that still stuck in his wound or the bleeding and wound will get worse.
Once finish prepares everything, Ohno turns on the surgery light and sits under it. Sweats flow down to his face when he slowly unwraps the cloth he uses to close his wound and tears a part of his trouser that will cover his view. He then ties his leg a few inches above the wound to slow down the blood flow, cleans his hands and injured thigh with antiseptic before wearing the latex gloves his found there. As he bites a folded bandage between his teeth, he takes a deep breath and reaches tremblingly for a scalpel on the tray beside.
‘1…2…3!’ A first painful grunt fills the clinic, going straight to the winding road in front the moment he pushes the scalpel down into his leg.
Somewhere outside, a group of living dead dogs smells a faint scent of human blood on the road. The moment they found the first dried droplet of it, the whole group begins to bark and follow the trail, ignoring the burning helicopter they pass by a minute after.
X-X-X-X-X
The entire area resounds with horror scream when Sakurai instinctively manages to save his life by jumping aside. Cover shootings from the soldiers for him makes the survived man clumsily pushes himself up from the road to get away.
“RUN!!! RUN FROM THERE NOW!!!!”
Sakurai startles by a policeman’s shout. He doesn’t need to be told twice to run with all his might what more after seeing the giant monster is planning for its second ambush. When the giant explodes with another eerie scream for the third time that night, Sakurai tries to ignore his fear and just keep on moving. The thought of a suffering dead in the monster’s hand really freaks him out.
As he feels he has run far enough, he finally storms into a nearest convenience store and gasp desperately for breath. Screams, inhuman loud groans and gazillions of shootings echo all over the area and force him to close his ears with his shaking palms tightly, trying to shut the frightening sounds out. The sound of glass breaking and pain cries which follow a second after makes him shout in frustration before running to hide under the cashier counter he found. The craziness however doesn’t stop there. Soon, a loud explosion comes from one of the buildings there and shakes the store displaying window. Sakurai really thought he was going to die and the creepy giant will appear from somewhere when the place suddenly falls into silence.
Yet, after a full 10 minutes pass without any sound Sakurai slowly drops his hands. He waits expectantly for a scream or shot to surprise him again, but it doesn’t come. At last, he forces himself to stand up.
‘What…happened? Did they kill it?’
Cautiously, he peeks from behind the store displaying window. Only after sure enough there is nothing dangerous to be found anywhere, he finally dares to step out of the store. It however only takes him a few steps forward until he suddenly stops in abrupt with very shocked eyes.
There are bloods everywhere. Some of it even is still flowing smoothly on the road. Cold sweats start to flow down to Sakurai’s face when finally realizes that he is actually surrounded by bodies with the limbs scatter randomly on the ground, probably done by the previous giant. Couldn’t stand with the horror smell and sight anymore, Sakurai throws up terribly on the spot. He almost collapses if not because he still has enough conscious to run from there as fast as he can. The journalist later stops at the place where the rescuing trucks previously gathered,
but only to find it is empty.
‘They’d left...’
Sakurai is now by himself. No weapon, alone and, probably, the sole survivor in that area.
Soon, a sudden metal rustling sound from far comes into his sense. Without wasting any time, the journalist dashes away without knowing where he should go. The moment he stops to catch his breath his scenery already changed to a new residential area. A short circuit then suddenly happens and drags the place into a very dark state, gaining a small heavy sigh from Sakurai due to the endless misfortune.
“. . .p.“
Weak panting enters his ears. Unsure with what he just heard, Sakurai immediately sharpens his hearing sense.
“H-he-lp...”
A gasp unconsciously escapes the journalist’s mouth.
“Where are you?!!” Though that person couldn’t raise his voice anymore, he still can hear the latter’s tone changes as he desperately calls for help. Eventually found another survivor other than him, Sakurai runs as fast as he can into one of the houses there. He knows he shouldn’t smile in this kind of situation, but he can’t help for it when think there is still someone else aside of him in the dead city.
Later, he enters a dark living room where the previous voice comes from. He surprises when found a bloody dead body on the floor before his eyes caught a figure of panting man is leaning on the wall not far. After making sure the dead body no longer able to ‘wake up’ Sakurai swiftly makes his way toward the other survivor there, only to freeze for a while once notices the man’s neck has a severe bleeding. Since the place only brightens by a window, he doesn’t realize about it earlier. Nevertheless, he still approaches the latter.
“L-Let me help you.” He then moves to look for any cloth to stop the man’s bleeding. The man however stops him by grab for his hand.
“H-He-lp…”
“I will. Just let me-”
“K-K-ill-me…”
Sakurai widens his eyes immediately. He is just about to object it when the man tremblingly raises his hand and points at something.
“T-th-e-b-at-o-ov-er-t-th-e-r-re...” He said between his breathe. “P-ple-as-e-k-ki-ll-m-me-wi-th-tha-”
“No! You still can survive! Don’t give up easily!”
The desperate man tightens his grip around the journalist’s wrist as he continues to beg to no avail. Sakurai however refuses to listen to him and try to persuade him until the man finally blown.
“I-I-DO-N’T-WA-N-T-TO-DI-E-TH-I-S-WA-Y!!!!”
The man shouts, startling the other man with him. For a while after that, the house falls into silence. Only a moment later the injured man finally looks at Sakurai again with his pleading eyes.
“I-I-b-be-g-y-ou…I-w-wa-n-nt-t-o-d-di-e-a-as…a-hu-ma-n.”
What the man said makes Sakurai completely speechless. The journalist bitterly grits his teeth as his eyes stop at the man’s bleeding wound and realizes the man is probably going to transform into a zombie as well soon. Yet, it is still not enough to make him kill that man. The thought of becoming all alone again is too unbearable for him even if it means he is being selfish.
“K-ki-l-l-m-me-p-pl-e-a-s-e...I-I-be-g-y-yo-u…”
When tears flow down from the man’s eyes, Sakurai was taken aback. His humanity emerges. Despite his negative thought, deep inside him he realizes he will also ask for the same thing if he is in the man’s position. Who wants to become a living dead after all? Besides, there is a huge chance that man would attack the person he loves once he changes into that form and maybe that’s what he want to avoid the most.
Slowly, the journalist moves toward the mentioned baseball bat. He hopes by taking his time the injured man will suddenly want to change his mind, but when nothing like that happens, Sakurai tremblingly grabs for it. The moment he returns to the same man again, he watches the other one smile at him before closing his eyes.
“T-T-ha-n-nk-y-y-o-u...” Sakurai only can swallow hardly. Before he will start to change his mind again, he immediately raises the bat he holds high, breathing deeply as he looks at the man with a mix of scared and hesitant. Yet, when hearing the man’s reassuring voice, Sakurai finally tightens grip.
“I’m so sorry.”
Closing his eyes tight, Sakurai strongly swings the steel bat. Spurts of blood dirty his hands and face by instant the moment the steel bat touches its target with a loud bang. Several seconds elapse in silence after that.
Once the single father opens his eyes, he is left stunned. His brain suddenly turns to pitch blank as he releases the bloody bat from his trembling hands to the floor below.
“N..no…”
The journalist immediately falls on knees, clearly pale. The smell of the dead finally caught him a second later. His breath turns uneven as he slowly brings his dirty hands closer to his face, gasping when seeing the wet red liquid start dripping to the floor below.
Regret scream breaks the silence area a moment later.
X-X-X-X-X
Sudden repeating hits on the door behind make Aiba’s face turns pale. Panic, he just stays motionless and hopes the thing on the other side will leave. Yet, the moment a familiar voice of his senior comes from there, Aiba clumsily looks at the door.
“Hajime-san? Is that you?” His question replies by a fearful request which asking him to unlock the door for them. Feel a slight relief to find someone he knows, Aiba almost gets up and does as he was told before he notices there is someone’s shirt and trouser hanging on the storeroom wall. Telling the older scientist to wait, he then changes into the clothes as fast as his exhaustion let him. Three middle age scientists immediately storm in there and push him back inside once he opens the door for them.
“Give us your blood…”
The old man named Hajime begs with a syringe tight in his shaking grip. The other two pale scientists with him meanwhile are panting hardly as they try to press either their bleeding neck or abdomen using their hands.
Still dumbstruck by the horrid condition of his seniors, Aiba however couldn’t process what he was asked to. He instead worriedly dash to approach the injured men who suddenly grabbed and hold him from the side and back until the young scientist almost can’t move at all. Seeing Hajime is taking that chance to insert the needle syringe into his neck, Aiba panicky struggle and unintentionally kicks the other man’s hard on stomach.
“What are you trying to do Hajime-san?!” Aiba looks at the wincing man in front of him in disbelieve. Yet, realizing it doesn’t manage to stop the older man, he continues his struggle to free himself from the tight grip. His attempt unfortunately worthless since the previous bite and ‘burning’ he through has already cost so much energy from him. Soon, he hears a terrified whisper comes from the man behind him.
“…I have a family. I don’t want to die…”
Scared and worry, cold sweat goes down to the man’s face as he repeats the same thing again and again. Assuming the man is probably in fear due to his severe wound Aiba tries to persuade him by gently says that he will try his best to help them if he let him go. However, what he gets is a pair of reddish eyes immediately staring at him with a mix of fear and anger.
“Your blood… I won’t die…with your blood.”
Confusion shows on Aiba’s face.
“What-What do you mean, Kurosawa-san? Why? Hajime-san also-”
“Your blood can cure us.”
Hajime’s sudden voice forces Aiba to look at his front again. Frowning, he then watches the older man comes closer before stopping right in front him to pick up the syringe that he drops previously on the floor due to Aiba’s strong kick. Upon seeing him shoves out a few more packs of empty syringe from his lab coat, Aiba couldn’t contain his bewilderment anymore.
“I-I still don’t get it, Hajime-san. Why do you want to do this? What blood? Why mine? We should call for help instead now, aren’t we? We have injured peopl-.”
“THEY’RE THE ONE WHO STARTED THIS!!! NOW SHUT UP AND GIVE US YOUR BLOOD ALREADY!!!” The sudden scream from Kurosawa sends the entire room into shock. Pain gasp immediately escapes from Aiba’s mouth when the man suddenly strangles him from behind with another hand while his wrists being forced down by another injured scientist there so his blood can be collected. Even if he wants to cry his lung out the moment his skin is pierced with the sharp needle, Aiba only can let a few restricted grunts out due to Kurosawa’s strong strangle.
By the time the third syringe almost being injected into him, his head already felt like spinning because of short of oxygen. His whole body becomes powerless. The new scientist was already in half-dead state when he tries to beg for mercy from the man behind before something suddenly snaps in his head, making him freezes.
Meanwhile, noticing the man he is strangling suddenly stop moving, Kurosawa immediately takes a look over the latter’s shoulder. He really thought he just kill the young scientist when feels there is no breathing anymore until he sees Aiba’s eyes pupil slowly turn to lime green. The moment the colour fully change to yellow, he surprises when the strangled man looks at him sharply with a glow.
And all of a sudden, the entire building falls into pitch darkness.
“HIS EYES CHANGED!” The strangler screams and immediately jumps aback. The other two men follow his action to move away immediately, but more to shock by the sudden blackout. Later, they feel a pair of hands strongly push them aside follow by hasty steps which makes them clumsily reach out into the darkness to prevent their ‘curer’ from leaving.
At the same time, Aiba has already arrives at the previous white corridor where he has been attacked. After found the stairs to upper floor, he forces himself to climb it as fast as he can while ignoring his still uneven breath and the burning pain around neck. He later found an emergency exit sign and follows it until he reaches an empty lobby where a realization finally hit him.
‘Wait. Isn’t it…supposed to be blackout? H-How come I still can see my surroundings?’
Several spotlights suddenly have been switched on. Bright light stab into Aiba’s eyes instantly as each of it are directed at him. Soon, he hears someone is coming toward him from in front with a clap. Still puzzled, he tries to observe the person’s face in the midst of blinding light, but only to be surprised by the scene of troupe of armed men are standing surrounding him, all wearing a mask and protection equipment with rifle in their hand.
“You impressed me, Aiba-san.”
Aiba’s attention immediately goes back to the clapping man. He was startled when the man suddenly reaches for his arm and pulls the sleeve up to see his previous bitten wound. However, he doesn’t dare to protest it when seeing the armed men are watching him intensely.
“Like I thought before, you are a successful one.”
A frown appears on Aiba’s face when the man then lets him go and walk away with a joyful giggle.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re the only one who fits this serum perfectly without changing physically. You’re the only successful human experiment we have so far!”
Eventually remembering the papers he read, Aiba immediately stomps forward. “What do you mean the serum fits me? The serum not even qualified to be used, let alone to be put in a human’s body! Who the hell do you think you are?! What have you done to my body?!!!”
Aiba’s angry shout echoes in the entire building. For a while after that the building falls into silence. The moment the mysterious man comes to approach the young scientist again, a sly grin already appeared on his face as he signals something to the two armed men behind him.
“Well, since I’m kind of in a good mood now, I’m going to answer it here. First, your body was actually in perfect health. We faked your result so you would agree to undergo a treatment, or more exactly to be our experiment subject.”
Aiba takes a sharp breath. He almost stomps forward to the man when two muscular armed men rush to his sides and twist his arms harshly to his back.
“Second, well, I’m the infamous mystery owner of this institution and also the one who approved you to join this organisation. I have a right to use any kind of ways to achieve the result I wanted. And last but not least-” Moving closer to the struggling Aiba’s ear, he then smirks “-you’re not a human anymore. You’re our living weapon. A living monster.”
With that, the man gives a signal to put Aiba into the awaiting truck outside. It of course results a strong struggle from Aiba who still mad by the truth he just been told. The young scientist immediately fights the hold around him with all his might until the minute he realizes he is going to be tied.
“YOU BASTARDS! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!”
A sarcastic chuckle comes from the institution owner.
Mad by it, Aiba angrily scream at the armed men. This time, it unintentionally comes out really hoarse and frightening, sending horror shiver to the armed people. Soon, everything glassy in the building unexpectedly vibrates. The entire spotlights and lamps in there then suddenly crack before crashing into pieces which turn the entire building into pitch darkness less than a second. All windows and automatic doors as well break at the same time out of a sudden, sending countless of fragments to all over the lobby space. In the midst of panic, the armed men who stand close with Aiba feel something cold flows down from their ear. Touching their skin there, they finally hit by a strong pain that come from now their burst eardrums.
The moment armed people in there manage to calm down from the horror, they quickly reach for their flashlight. Each of them however change into pale when found their ‘living’ weapon’ already nowhere to be found.
X-X-X-X-X
“You better put down your gun. There’s no way you’re going to shoot. You can’t even hold that thing without shaking.”
There is a long silence between Ninomiya and 5 mask men in front him after that.
Refusing to listen, Ninomiya however just tightens his hold around the gun that he is aiming at the murderer of his girlfriend while bringing closer the cold body of his lover to his chest with his other hand. His hands indeed shaking just like the other man said, but more because of rage than fear. Even his eyes are still glaring angrily at the 5 heartless men from his kneeling spot.
“Dude, seriously-” A shoot was given to the spoken man immediately. It hit the bulletproof vase that the man wears like Ninomiya expects, but enough to make it clear that he is dead serious to kill them.
Meanwhile, seeing their friend just has been attacked, the other 4 armed men immediately unlock their weapon. They couldn’t done anything yet when a loud explosion from somewhere nearby startling them and makes them panicky trying to contact someone through their earpiece. However, before they manage to, all of the lamps in the area suddenly flicker before switching off, dragging the place by instant into pitch darkness.
“D*mn! Don’t tell me No. 23 is close already!”
Ninomiya could hear their continuous panic curses in the midst of the dimness. Though, it is actually the chance he is waiting for. Cautiously then the professional gamer lifts his lover’s body in his arms and try to escape from there. His footsteps were not left unnoticed, but since he is one of the residents in that area, it doesn’t take so much time before his figure successfully disappears between the dark buildings far from there. He could hear several footsteps are stalking him from behind, but thankfully only for the first few minutes. Soon, he arrives in an isolate alleyway where he finally slows down and leans on the building beside to catch his breath. As he clutches his girlfriend’s cold body, a sudden pain struck his chest.
‘It hurts…’ A gasp leaves his mouth before he slips down to the ground. Panting, a teardrop falls from his eye. The young man breaks into
tears immediately when his left hand drops the gun he has to clutch for his chest due to the pain he feels there which is definitely not because of out of breath. By the time he pulls his dead lover’s head closer and rests his forehead against it, Ninomiya already choked with sobs and restrain himself from crying all out until his hands trembling hard. Only God knows how torturing the heartbroken he must bear with now.
“…Why’re they doing this to you?”
He mutters between his gritting teeth. Tears stream down his face nonstop while he hugs the motionless body as close as possible. His shirt damp with blood from the previous shooting wound that left on his lover’s chest, but he doesn’t even bother with it and just sink in his sadness.
Later, several suffering screams suddenly come from the end of the alley in front him.
“They’re seriously unreliable, huh?”
A sudden rough voice from above startles him. Ninomiya immediately looks up, only to turn to pale when found there is a smiling man in a same uniform like the 5 previous ruthless murderers is crouching on the 3rd floor windowsill of the building there. When the man jumps and lands a few meters away from him, Ninomiya swiftly pulls his lover’s body closer and shifts aback. As the man walks toward him, he startles by numbers of shootings suddenly echo from the road behind.
“5 people can’t stop you alone. I honestly impressed.”
Ninomiya doesn’t respond to the man’s words. Instead, he just stares the man cautiously while tightening his embrace until the latter stops right in front of him. The man still beams him with a sincere smile though the professional gamer knows better than takes it lightly.
“Wanna join us?”
The question makes the still heartbroken gamer frowns.
“What?”
“You know, the organisation that we’re working for is doing an experiment to ‘recreate’ a human without any flaw. There must be a time when you feel annoyed because you could easily fall sick or can’t memorize certain things at one time, right? Our experiment is held for that purpose. We want to destroy the limitations that occur because of the human’s inability and weakness since that’s what avoids us from becomes the greatest living thing in this planet. Don’t you think so?”
Grinning excitedly, he then continues. “I work hard for long to overcome that flaw by training myself every day and night. Yet, no matter, it’s still not enough for me. There’s still thing I can’t do. There’re a lot more things my body can’t afford to do. I guess that’s why we are always on the top of the food chain if we’re thrown into a wild jungle or something-”
“What the hell are you talking about, you demon?”
Ninomiya cut the other man in abrupt. Still keeping a disbelieving look, the professional gamer could feel his anger almost reach its peak especially when seeing the babbling man is now throwing him a stare like he just said something great. Even though he realizes anyone who is wearing the black uniform just like this man must be the most cold-blooded people on earth, he never expects him to be THIS heartless.
“Your mad friends just killed my girlfriend for God’s sake! And now you’re here inviting me to join your sick fantasy?! THE HELL WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR HEAD?!!!” His last outburst re-echo all over the place. It might grab the attention of the other twisted men just like in front of him to come there, but he doesn’t care about it anymore. Yet, the next unexpected thing that comes out of the latter’s mouth is more than enough to break his patience wall.
“What do you mean by killed? Sacrifice is needed to gain something much worthier. That’s why we shot your girlfriend on heart so her body will stay undamaged before the zombies got her first.”
Extremely furious, Ninomiya immediately reaches for his gun. Before he manages to target it at the heartless man however his wrist has been grabbed and twists hard. A few painful whimpers leave Ninomya’s mouth as he struggles to make the standing man to let go of him until he suddenly being pulled forward, a strong knee strike landed right on his head. Pain and dizziness storm into his brain by instant which makes him fall on his back with a loud thud.
“Moron.”
The gamer then feels the weight of his lover slowly disappears from his lap. Half-conscious, Ninomiya weakly tries to stop his girlfriend from
being taken away, but a hard stomp on stomach send him immobilize on the spot. The moment he heard an unlocking gun sound above him, a sudden voice through a speaker slips into his senses.
“NO. 23 IS COMING! WE MUST LEAVE NOW!”
Everything is so unclear in Ninomiya’s sight after that. He still could catch a grunt comes from the blurry image of standing man before him, but when he is painfully being dragged out of the dark alley by hair, only a last short conversation after that can be digested by his mind.
“Sir, we must leave by now. The radar shows he is coming to this way.”
“Take this body into the truck then. If it’s not because of the quota we’re told before I would rather us to take this man along. It’s hard to find other survivors anymore after this.”
“Just kill him then.”
“Nah. We’ll have No. 23 do that for us. Just leave him here with these weaklings to be chopped-”
Ninomiya blinks when a strong wave of dizziness overpowering him again. Later, he hears a distant vroom, following by subsiding desperate pleads and cries come from around him.
Soon, a faint shake can be felt on the road he is laying on. A distant sound of fast running enters his ears a second after before everything turns out blur, an eerie squeak and sharp teeth clanks then suddenly come from just a few more blocks away.
X-X-X-X-X
Blood smears in the air when Matsumoto jumps high forward and slashes three heads at once. The successor never thought it would require him to use both swords that previously given by the priests just to open an escape way for him from there. The flood of dead bodies hasn’t stopped yet, but for now he is not going to worry about it. That is not what he was told to take care of after all.
Once he successfully gets away from the hundreds attack, Matsumoto runs into a dark building to hide for a while. After making sure the zombies are not following him, he lets his relief sigh out and takes his time to regulate his breath while put back his sword in its place. He had faced a lot of dead or alive situation since he was a teenager, but nothing of those shocks him as much as what he just through. Feel worry with his subordinates’ safety, he tries to contact them through his earpiece. The successor however gives up when not even a single sound can be heard from the other line.
“Unconnected. There must be a line interruption here.”
Dropping his tracking device so people in the household know his current position is, he then leaves a sign on the wall to tell the direction he is heading to. That is when he feels a presence of someone else and turns to the door immediately to find it has been slightly opened and a figure of a man peeking inside. Yet, upon the man realizing that he has been caught, he quickly flees from there.
“Wait!” Wanting to stop the latter, Matsumoto swiftly barge out. He is about to chase the other one, but only to find nobody can be seen anywhere anymore. Now he lost his chance to understand what is actually going on with the city.
Just then he notices a piece of paper was left on the doorstep. As he picks it up, he frowns by what is written on it.
“Come to ‘Green Superstore’ on the 3rd district. All survivors are gathering there. Seriously, why that person didn’t tell me directly instead?”
Sighing, he shoves the paper into his pocket and follows the road ahead. If he has the GPS device with him it will be much easier, but he doesn’t take it along before since he believes it will be unnecessary. Thankfully, the moonlight is bright enough to show his way despite the fact that it seems the area is black out. Now all what he can rely on is the address that written at some of the shops and mail boxes he found there to ensure he is on the right direction to the mentioned superstore in the note.
After a while, the successor found an apartment area which stating it is a second district area based on the address mail box. He hasn’t manage to take any few steps further at all when several shootings sound out of a sudden break the silence place and immediately raises his guard. Just when he is about to go to the place where the sound comes from, he hears noises of vehicles’ engine are approaching and quickly hide under the building shade.
A view of a truck and car come into his eyes from far after a while. The moment he recognizes the familiar uniform that wear by those armed people in there, his sharp eyes instantly detect a familiar face on the front seat.
“I’m tired of this family.”
The sudden remembrance makes an old scar on Matsumoto’s stomach suddenly hurts. Gritting his teeth hard, the successor just locks his glare at the small convoy until it finally disappears under the night. The second he rushes to the place where he heard the previous shootings sound, he found a few men are already laying weakly on stomach with traces of shoots on their both thighs and arms. It makes him frown when realize these men are wearing the same uniform like those in the truck before, but somehow, he is not surprised.
On the other hand, once notice Matsumoto’s existence there, some of the injured men pathetically try to crawl toward him while begging.
“H-Help us! P-Please take us away from here! That-that thing is c-coming!”
Matsumoto raises his eyebrow suspiciously. Soon, a weird shaking can be felt through the road below him. It feels like human stomps, but much stronger and quicker. Right when an eerie squeak suddenly enters his ears, Matsumoto swiftly reaches for his sword again. Using a gun at a time like this will only waste his bullet after all.
“Y-You won’t win against it! No. 23 is t-the fastest out of all!” Ignoring what those injured people said, Matsumoto just walks forward until he sees a figure of human is running to their place at full speed without arms. It immediately opens its mouth wide when meet his eyes, showing a row of sharp teeth which give the successor a clue of how dangerous it might be to be bitten by that thing.
A few metres before that creature reaches his place, Matsumoto immediately raises his sword. Nobody there will expect it takes only two swings from him; one on knees and another on neck to take that thing’s life in a blink of eyes, all smooth and instant. The place falls into silence for a while after that as the 5 injured men try to overcome the sight of Matsumoto wiping away the dead creature’s blood from his face, completely calm and unaffected.
“Now, now. I demand you guys’ explanation about what’s going on here. And what do you mean with No. 23?”
Those men face change to pale. Yet, knowing that this man is the only chance for them to survive, they decide to make a deal with him.
“A-Alright i-if you insist. B-But firstly, t-take us to safer-”
“Mur…derers.”
Another voice suddenly comes from one of the men on the road. That is when the successor finally realizes the presence of a man in his casual clothes among them. The trembling man has an obvious bruise on his forehead as he tries to turn his body so he can lie down with his stomach. Matsumoto can see a teardrop falls from the other one’s eye while he forces himself to keep on talking.
“You kill her…You kill Saki…She’s supposed to be alive…I won’t let you…get away…”
Hearing what the man says, a smirk unexpectedly appears on Matsumoto’s face.
“That is more than enough for me then. Now, unfortunately, none of you can leave this place alive. That was THE TASK I have been told to do.”
A strong dark aura all of a sudden comes from the successor. Upon hearing his words, all the bleeding men immediately widen their eyes due to fear. The half-unconscious man who becomes their ruthlessness’s victim meanwhile blinks his eyes by those words before he hears
someone’s footsteps are coming to him.
Later, the in-pain victim feels someone stops next to him. As he lifts his blurry gaze above, he greets by the successor’s pair of cold eyes which content neither sympathy nor feelings at all.
Screams and blood spurting sound after that noising the quiet area.
X-X-X-X-X
>I am really, really sorry for the delay. No excuses for it. Just my deep apologize (_ _")
>Since I still want to tell you about the difference between the real and changed plot...et's make it short so it'll be enough for the journal words' limit. 1)When I wrote this before I actually planned to add a 'little bit' romance. They all suppose to have partner, but I change my mind(romance is not my genre anyway. Total FAIL). 2)In real plot Ohno is supposed to be save by a mystery sniper when he was attacked by Kazama. 3)In previous chapter, Sho returned to pick his dropped dried-four leaves clover necklace. The real one it was his wedding ring that chained with the necklace. 4)Aiba was supposed to have a family and wife. In the 'modified' plot however I try to make his emotions are much disturbed by the fact he was becoming a 'white rat' than his fear that he might harm his family. 5)Nino's part where he escaped from the 5 men and he met the mystery man with 'rough voice' wasn't actually came from the real plot! 6)Jun's is much sadistic here. He is supposed to be much warm-heart man in real plot and he is supposed to coincidentally save Aiba instead of meeting Nino in this chapter.,
>Btw, I still plan to finish one-shot stories that I wrote for fundraise4paws. Still not have any new idea yet, but I'll try to continue it one day :)
Rating: R
Genre: AU, horror, action, angst, drama
Characters: OT5
Disclaimer: Inspired from Resident Evil game. Some similar parts are purely coincidence. Neither RE and Arashi are mine!
Summary: When a city is suddenly being attacked by endless living dead, 5 people without any connection were left behind who ended up to either save themselves or fulfill their given responsibility. Will they manage? Or will they find out something they would never expect to know?
Warning : Bloody and brutal scenes, swearing(in this chapter) & long chapter(6912/14 pages) *facepalm*
(Chapter 2 : Related)
Droplets of red liquid wet Ohno’s trail. A sharp breath taken for every step forward he makes due to the injuries he had on his left thigh. Although he fortunately landed on dozens of boxes in a pile of dumping area that he noticed it before, he totally miscalculated the chance of a sharp material might exist there until a sticking out sharp wood cut deeply the side of his left thigh. The barely manageable wound he got there forced him to tie a cloth around his leg so he can avoid from worse bleeding and infection, though not without several resisted painful whines. Since he now can’t move freely anymore, he expects a rough struggle will happen between him and the zombies. Yet, the moment he returns to the road, what he found is an unbelievable opposite situation.
“…Where’re they?”
Ohno frowningly looks at his surroundings when see no living dead anywhere. The area is totally empty. He is more than sure not all of the zombies before were following him to the building top, so the area is not supposed to be THAT empty.
Still puzzled, the captain of the special defensive team continues to move with a painful limping. Soon, he hears a helicopter reappears above him again. A beeping sound suddenly enters his earpiece which makes him press the answer button immediately.
-“Wow, you’re still alive! That’s amazing!”
Ohno doesn’t say anything. Panting tiredly, he stops and glares at Kazama who is watching him from the cockpit.
-“Well, not without a scratch, I guess.”
“What the hell you want?”
Kazama seems startled by his harsh tone before suddenly laugh. His reaction however gains no response from Ohno who just firmly stare him while enduring the bleeding pain he feels.
-“This is the first time ever I see you angry. About the question, well, I’m just coming back to see how my best friend is doing.”
“So it’s true you’re holding a grudge against me.”
Ohno can see the annoying man smirks from the bulletproof cockpit.
-“Sometimes, the person we trusted the most will be the one who betrayed us the first.”
That’s it. What just the arrogant man said enough to make Ohno forgets about his pain and reaches for his gun. Yet, something suddenly bothers his mind midway and makes the rage he feels overtaken by concern. The angry looks he has dropped less in a second.
“If you want to leave me, then just go. You still have that boy with you, right? He needs immediate treatment.”
This time Kazama can’t hide his frown anymore. Rather than think about himself, the fact that Ohno still has time to think about other people even in this kind of situation somehow makes him pissed off. With a cynical chuckle, he pulls something up from the helicopter floor and shows it to the other man. A familiar memory also plays before his eyes at the same time - the memory when their supervisor telling him that
Ohno deserves the captain title more because the ‘slow-pace’ man has ‘something’ that he hasn’t.
Meanwhile, Ohno on the road below freezes. The painful expression he has suddenly disappears by what he found. As the helicopter flies lower, the pale face of the boy he saved becomes clearer in his eyes. He can see there is a bleeding on the right side of the now lifeless little boy’s head, probably due to a short range shoot from the only one person he can think of.
“What…w-why?”
-“He’s too noisy screaming at me to go back and get you. I would bother to save him if not because of that. This is your fault.”
Ohno’s hand trembles with anger by the answer. To him who always put the victim’s life on top priority than his, this kind of tragedy is not supposed to happen. It is unforgivable, especially when it is done by the man from his team and under his command, even if the man himself is his long time best friend. Swiftly, he shoves out his gun.
“Die.” He said as he furiously aims it to Kazama’s head. The man on target on the other hand surprise with the action, but snickers
nevertheless.
-“You know it yourself, right? You can’t kill me with that. If I were you, I won’t do that.”
Ohno however doesn’t say anything and tightens his hold. Suddenly, the usually calm man gives a shot to the helicopter tank, surprising both the driver and Kazama. When another shoot is given to them less than second after, Kazama angrily tells the driver to finish up the injured man with a machine gun or anything. Ohno who notices it is ready to flee when he suddenly hears something windy-like is coming closer in a swift motion. Immediately, he put his gun lower to ensure it.
Out of a sudden something metallic and big hit the helicopter from behind, startling Ohno who then hurriedly drags his leg to a nearby building, barely hides himself on time when the helicopter crash into the ground with fire sparks. A huge explosion occurs a second later, changing the gloomy place into a bright area as the fire goes high into the sky. Still shock by the sudden accident, Ohno just watches the helicopter burns from his standing place. Later, he sees a tall figure walks out from the direction of the metallic huge thing came. The captain’s eyes open wider as the figure gets clearer, revealing a tall creature wraps by dirty bandage with creepy groans. He even feels himself shakes a little when that thing stops in front of the crashed helicopter with blaze burning high in the air like it is a demon that comes out from hell.
‘An…axe? Did that thing threw it before?!’
He frowns when realizes what the metallic thing is as the tall creature takes it out of the fire. The axe already had a slight bent and cover by fire, but it seems doesn’t bother the ‘owner’ at all. That thing even lets its hand being burned and observes the huge blaze for a moment, only to start walking away while dragging the heavy axe along after it seems satisfied with something. That is when Ohno notices a barcode on its neck.
’78? Is it a fail bio-weapon or something? But what with that red blood bandages then? And it seems…like it can’t feel heat.’
For a while, Ohno stands still and watches it leaves. Only when there is no more shifting metal sound or heavy footsteps can be heard, he finally dare to give out a relief sigh. Now, he finally remembers about his bleeding wound.
‘It would be a bad idea to call for help now with that creature around. I better look for a clinic or pharmacy for the mean time.’
Hissing, he begins to walk away from his hiding place. However, only after a few minutes walking, his pace had already grown slower due to the sharp pain he feels. The moment he found an empty clinic, his eyes have already started to blur. After pushing anything he found to hold the glass entrance, Ohno stops for a while to catch his breaths. His face and body already damp with sweat when he manages to grab for some bandages and medicine from the medicine room before collapsing on the surgery room floor, extremely exhausted.
‘The rest stuff...I guess…I can find it here.’
Gritting his teeth, he forces himself to look for the surgery equipment to open his wound. The thought of cutting, cleaning and stitching his thigh skin is really disturbing, but he doesn’t have any other choice. No matter how strong his will to live he is still going to die if he loses too much blood. At least, he needs to take out a piece of wood that still stuck in his wound or the bleeding and wound will get worse.
Once finish prepares everything, Ohno turns on the surgery light and sits under it. Sweats flow down to his face when he slowly unwraps the cloth he uses to close his wound and tears a part of his trouser that will cover his view. He then ties his leg a few inches above the wound to slow down the blood flow, cleans his hands and injured thigh with antiseptic before wearing the latex gloves his found there. As he bites a folded bandage between his teeth, he takes a deep breath and reaches tremblingly for a scalpel on the tray beside.
‘1…2…3!’ A first painful grunt fills the clinic, going straight to the winding road in front the moment he pushes the scalpel down into his leg.
Somewhere outside, a group of living dead dogs smells a faint scent of human blood on the road. The moment they found the first dried droplet of it, the whole group begins to bark and follow the trail, ignoring the burning helicopter they pass by a minute after.
X-X-X-X-X
The entire area resounds with horror scream when Sakurai instinctively manages to save his life by jumping aside. Cover shootings from the soldiers for him makes the survived man clumsily pushes himself up from the road to get away.
“RUN!!! RUN FROM THERE NOW!!!!”
Sakurai startles by a policeman’s shout. He doesn’t need to be told twice to run with all his might what more after seeing the giant monster is planning for its second ambush. When the giant explodes with another eerie scream for the third time that night, Sakurai tries to ignore his fear and just keep on moving. The thought of a suffering dead in the monster’s hand really freaks him out.
As he feels he has run far enough, he finally storms into a nearest convenience store and gasp desperately for breath. Screams, inhuman loud groans and gazillions of shootings echo all over the area and force him to close his ears with his shaking palms tightly, trying to shut the frightening sounds out. The sound of glass breaking and pain cries which follow a second after makes him shout in frustration before running to hide under the cashier counter he found. The craziness however doesn’t stop there. Soon, a loud explosion comes from one of the buildings there and shakes the store displaying window. Sakurai really thought he was going to die and the creepy giant will appear from somewhere when the place suddenly falls into silence.
Yet, after a full 10 minutes pass without any sound Sakurai slowly drops his hands. He waits expectantly for a scream or shot to surprise him again, but it doesn’t come. At last, he forces himself to stand up.
‘What…happened? Did they kill it?’
Cautiously, he peeks from behind the store displaying window. Only after sure enough there is nothing dangerous to be found anywhere, he finally dares to step out of the store. It however only takes him a few steps forward until he suddenly stops in abrupt with very shocked eyes.
There are bloods everywhere. Some of it even is still flowing smoothly on the road. Cold sweats start to flow down to Sakurai’s face when finally realizes that he is actually surrounded by bodies with the limbs scatter randomly on the ground, probably done by the previous giant. Couldn’t stand with the horror smell and sight anymore, Sakurai throws up terribly on the spot. He almost collapses if not because he still has enough conscious to run from there as fast as he can. The journalist later stops at the place where the rescuing trucks previously gathered,
but only to find it is empty.
‘They’d left...’
Sakurai is now by himself. No weapon, alone and, probably, the sole survivor in that area.
Soon, a sudden metal rustling sound from far comes into his sense. Without wasting any time, the journalist dashes away without knowing where he should go. The moment he stops to catch his breath his scenery already changed to a new residential area. A short circuit then suddenly happens and drags the place into a very dark state, gaining a small heavy sigh from Sakurai due to the endless misfortune.
“. . .p.“
Weak panting enters his ears. Unsure with what he just heard, Sakurai immediately sharpens his hearing sense.
“H-he-lp...”
A gasp unconsciously escapes the journalist’s mouth.
“Where are you?!!” Though that person couldn’t raise his voice anymore, he still can hear the latter’s tone changes as he desperately calls for help. Eventually found another survivor other than him, Sakurai runs as fast as he can into one of the houses there. He knows he shouldn’t smile in this kind of situation, but he can’t help for it when think there is still someone else aside of him in the dead city.
Later, he enters a dark living room where the previous voice comes from. He surprises when found a bloody dead body on the floor before his eyes caught a figure of panting man is leaning on the wall not far. After making sure the dead body no longer able to ‘wake up’ Sakurai swiftly makes his way toward the other survivor there, only to freeze for a while once notices the man’s neck has a severe bleeding. Since the place only brightens by a window, he doesn’t realize about it earlier. Nevertheless, he still approaches the latter.
“L-Let me help you.” He then moves to look for any cloth to stop the man’s bleeding. The man however stops him by grab for his hand.
“H-He-lp…”
“I will. Just let me-”
“K-K-ill-me…”
Sakurai widens his eyes immediately. He is just about to object it when the man tremblingly raises his hand and points at something.
“T-th-e-b-at-o-ov-er-t-th-e-r-re...” He said between his breathe. “P-ple-as-e-k-ki-ll-m-me-wi-th-tha-”
“No! You still can survive! Don’t give up easily!”
The desperate man tightens his grip around the journalist’s wrist as he continues to beg to no avail. Sakurai however refuses to listen to him and try to persuade him until the man finally blown.
“I-I-DO-N’T-WA-N-T-TO-DI-E-TH-I-S-WA-Y!!!!”
The man shouts, startling the other man with him. For a while after that, the house falls into silence. Only a moment later the injured man finally looks at Sakurai again with his pleading eyes.
“I-I-b-be-g-y-ou…I-w-wa-n-nt-t-o-d-di-e-a-as…a-hu-ma-n.”
What the man said makes Sakurai completely speechless. The journalist bitterly grits his teeth as his eyes stop at the man’s bleeding wound and realizes the man is probably going to transform into a zombie as well soon. Yet, it is still not enough to make him kill that man. The thought of becoming all alone again is too unbearable for him even if it means he is being selfish.
“K-ki-l-l-m-me-p-pl-e-a-s-e...I-I-be-g-y-yo-u…”
When tears flow down from the man’s eyes, Sakurai was taken aback. His humanity emerges. Despite his negative thought, deep inside him he realizes he will also ask for the same thing if he is in the man’s position. Who wants to become a living dead after all? Besides, there is a huge chance that man would attack the person he loves once he changes into that form and maybe that’s what he want to avoid the most.
Slowly, the journalist moves toward the mentioned baseball bat. He hopes by taking his time the injured man will suddenly want to change his mind, but when nothing like that happens, Sakurai tremblingly grabs for it. The moment he returns to the same man again, he watches the other one smile at him before closing his eyes.
“T-T-ha-n-nk-y-y-o-u...” Sakurai only can swallow hardly. Before he will start to change his mind again, he immediately raises the bat he holds high, breathing deeply as he looks at the man with a mix of scared and hesitant. Yet, when hearing the man’s reassuring voice, Sakurai finally tightens grip.
“I’m so sorry.”
Closing his eyes tight, Sakurai strongly swings the steel bat. Spurts of blood dirty his hands and face by instant the moment the steel bat touches its target with a loud bang. Several seconds elapse in silence after that.
Once the single father opens his eyes, he is left stunned. His brain suddenly turns to pitch blank as he releases the bloody bat from his trembling hands to the floor below.
“N..no…”
The journalist immediately falls on knees, clearly pale. The smell of the dead finally caught him a second later. His breath turns uneven as he slowly brings his dirty hands closer to his face, gasping when seeing the wet red liquid start dripping to the floor below.
Regret scream breaks the silence area a moment later.
X-X-X-X-X
Sudden repeating hits on the door behind make Aiba’s face turns pale. Panic, he just stays motionless and hopes the thing on the other side will leave. Yet, the moment a familiar voice of his senior comes from there, Aiba clumsily looks at the door.
“Hajime-san? Is that you?” His question replies by a fearful request which asking him to unlock the door for them. Feel a slight relief to find someone he knows, Aiba almost gets up and does as he was told before he notices there is someone’s shirt and trouser hanging on the storeroom wall. Telling the older scientist to wait, he then changes into the clothes as fast as his exhaustion let him. Three middle age scientists immediately storm in there and push him back inside once he opens the door for them.
“Give us your blood…”
The old man named Hajime begs with a syringe tight in his shaking grip. The other two pale scientists with him meanwhile are panting hardly as they try to press either their bleeding neck or abdomen using their hands.
Still dumbstruck by the horrid condition of his seniors, Aiba however couldn’t process what he was asked to. He instead worriedly dash to approach the injured men who suddenly grabbed and hold him from the side and back until the young scientist almost can’t move at all. Seeing Hajime is taking that chance to insert the needle syringe into his neck, Aiba panicky struggle and unintentionally kicks the other man’s hard on stomach.
“What are you trying to do Hajime-san?!” Aiba looks at the wincing man in front of him in disbelieve. Yet, realizing it doesn’t manage to stop the older man, he continues his struggle to free himself from the tight grip. His attempt unfortunately worthless since the previous bite and ‘burning’ he through has already cost so much energy from him. Soon, he hears a terrified whisper comes from the man behind him.
“…I have a family. I don’t want to die…”
Scared and worry, cold sweat goes down to the man’s face as he repeats the same thing again and again. Assuming the man is probably in fear due to his severe wound Aiba tries to persuade him by gently says that he will try his best to help them if he let him go. However, what he gets is a pair of reddish eyes immediately staring at him with a mix of fear and anger.
“Your blood… I won’t die…with your blood.”
Confusion shows on Aiba’s face.
“What-What do you mean, Kurosawa-san? Why? Hajime-san also-”
“Your blood can cure us.”
Hajime’s sudden voice forces Aiba to look at his front again. Frowning, he then watches the older man comes closer before stopping right in front him to pick up the syringe that he drops previously on the floor due to Aiba’s strong kick. Upon seeing him shoves out a few more packs of empty syringe from his lab coat, Aiba couldn’t contain his bewilderment anymore.
“I-I still don’t get it, Hajime-san. Why do you want to do this? What blood? Why mine? We should call for help instead now, aren’t we? We have injured peopl-.”
“THEY’RE THE ONE WHO STARTED THIS!!! NOW SHUT UP AND GIVE US YOUR BLOOD ALREADY!!!” The sudden scream from Kurosawa sends the entire room into shock. Pain gasp immediately escapes from Aiba’s mouth when the man suddenly strangles him from behind with another hand while his wrists being forced down by another injured scientist there so his blood can be collected. Even if he wants to cry his lung out the moment his skin is pierced with the sharp needle, Aiba only can let a few restricted grunts out due to Kurosawa’s strong strangle.
By the time the third syringe almost being injected into him, his head already felt like spinning because of short of oxygen. His whole body becomes powerless. The new scientist was already in half-dead state when he tries to beg for mercy from the man behind before something suddenly snaps in his head, making him freezes.
Meanwhile, noticing the man he is strangling suddenly stop moving, Kurosawa immediately takes a look over the latter’s shoulder. He really thought he just kill the young scientist when feels there is no breathing anymore until he sees Aiba’s eyes pupil slowly turn to lime green. The moment the colour fully change to yellow, he surprises when the strangled man looks at him sharply with a glow.
And all of a sudden, the entire building falls into pitch darkness.
“HIS EYES CHANGED!” The strangler screams and immediately jumps aback. The other two men follow his action to move away immediately, but more to shock by the sudden blackout. Later, they feel a pair of hands strongly push them aside follow by hasty steps which makes them clumsily reach out into the darkness to prevent their ‘curer’ from leaving.
At the same time, Aiba has already arrives at the previous white corridor where he has been attacked. After found the stairs to upper floor, he forces himself to climb it as fast as he can while ignoring his still uneven breath and the burning pain around neck. He later found an emergency exit sign and follows it until he reaches an empty lobby where a realization finally hit him.
‘Wait. Isn’t it…supposed to be blackout? H-How come I still can see my surroundings?’
Several spotlights suddenly have been switched on. Bright light stab into Aiba’s eyes instantly as each of it are directed at him. Soon, he hears someone is coming toward him from in front with a clap. Still puzzled, he tries to observe the person’s face in the midst of blinding light, but only to be surprised by the scene of troupe of armed men are standing surrounding him, all wearing a mask and protection equipment with rifle in their hand.
“You impressed me, Aiba-san.”
Aiba’s attention immediately goes back to the clapping man. He was startled when the man suddenly reaches for his arm and pulls the sleeve up to see his previous bitten wound. However, he doesn’t dare to protest it when seeing the armed men are watching him intensely.
“Like I thought before, you are a successful one.”
A frown appears on Aiba’s face when the man then lets him go and walk away with a joyful giggle.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re the only one who fits this serum perfectly without changing physically. You’re the only successful human experiment we have so far!”
Eventually remembering the papers he read, Aiba immediately stomps forward. “What do you mean the serum fits me? The serum not even qualified to be used, let alone to be put in a human’s body! Who the hell do you think you are?! What have you done to my body?!!!”
Aiba’s angry shout echoes in the entire building. For a while after that the building falls into silence. The moment the mysterious man comes to approach the young scientist again, a sly grin already appeared on his face as he signals something to the two armed men behind him.
“Well, since I’m kind of in a good mood now, I’m going to answer it here. First, your body was actually in perfect health. We faked your result so you would agree to undergo a treatment, or more exactly to be our experiment subject.”
Aiba takes a sharp breath. He almost stomps forward to the man when two muscular armed men rush to his sides and twist his arms harshly to his back.
“Second, well, I’m the infamous mystery owner of this institution and also the one who approved you to join this organisation. I have a right to use any kind of ways to achieve the result I wanted. And last but not least-” Moving closer to the struggling Aiba’s ear, he then smirks “-you’re not a human anymore. You’re our living weapon. A living monster.”
With that, the man gives a signal to put Aiba into the awaiting truck outside. It of course results a strong struggle from Aiba who still mad by the truth he just been told. The young scientist immediately fights the hold around him with all his might until the minute he realizes he is going to be tied.
“YOU BASTARDS! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!”
A sarcastic chuckle comes from the institution owner.
Mad by it, Aiba angrily scream at the armed men. This time, it unintentionally comes out really hoarse and frightening, sending horror shiver to the armed people. Soon, everything glassy in the building unexpectedly vibrates. The entire spotlights and lamps in there then suddenly crack before crashing into pieces which turn the entire building into pitch darkness less than a second. All windows and automatic doors as well break at the same time out of a sudden, sending countless of fragments to all over the lobby space. In the midst of panic, the armed men who stand close with Aiba feel something cold flows down from their ear. Touching their skin there, they finally hit by a strong pain that come from now their burst eardrums.
The moment armed people in there manage to calm down from the horror, they quickly reach for their flashlight. Each of them however change into pale when found their ‘living’ weapon’ already nowhere to be found.
X-X-X-X-X
“You better put down your gun. There’s no way you’re going to shoot. You can’t even hold that thing without shaking.”
There is a long silence between Ninomiya and 5 mask men in front him after that.
Refusing to listen, Ninomiya however just tightens his hold around the gun that he is aiming at the murderer of his girlfriend while bringing closer the cold body of his lover to his chest with his other hand. His hands indeed shaking just like the other man said, but more because of rage than fear. Even his eyes are still glaring angrily at the 5 heartless men from his kneeling spot.
“Dude, seriously-” A shoot was given to the spoken man immediately. It hit the bulletproof vase that the man wears like Ninomiya expects, but enough to make it clear that he is dead serious to kill them.
Meanwhile, seeing their friend just has been attacked, the other 4 armed men immediately unlock their weapon. They couldn’t done anything yet when a loud explosion from somewhere nearby startling them and makes them panicky trying to contact someone through their earpiece. However, before they manage to, all of the lamps in the area suddenly flicker before switching off, dragging the place by instant into pitch darkness.
“D*mn! Don’t tell me No. 23 is close already!”
Ninomiya could hear their continuous panic curses in the midst of the dimness. Though, it is actually the chance he is waiting for. Cautiously then the professional gamer lifts his lover’s body in his arms and try to escape from there. His footsteps were not left unnoticed, but since he is one of the residents in that area, it doesn’t take so much time before his figure successfully disappears between the dark buildings far from there. He could hear several footsteps are stalking him from behind, but thankfully only for the first few minutes. Soon, he arrives in an isolate alleyway where he finally slows down and leans on the building beside to catch his breath. As he clutches his girlfriend’s cold body, a sudden pain struck his chest.
‘It hurts…’ A gasp leaves his mouth before he slips down to the ground. Panting, a teardrop falls from his eye. The young man breaks into
tears immediately when his left hand drops the gun he has to clutch for his chest due to the pain he feels there which is definitely not because of out of breath. By the time he pulls his dead lover’s head closer and rests his forehead against it, Ninomiya already choked with sobs and restrain himself from crying all out until his hands trembling hard. Only God knows how torturing the heartbroken he must bear with now.
“…Why’re they doing this to you?”
He mutters between his gritting teeth. Tears stream down his face nonstop while he hugs the motionless body as close as possible. His shirt damp with blood from the previous shooting wound that left on his lover’s chest, but he doesn’t even bother with it and just sink in his sadness.
Later, several suffering screams suddenly come from the end of the alley in front him.
“They’re seriously unreliable, huh?”
A sudden rough voice from above startles him. Ninomiya immediately looks up, only to turn to pale when found there is a smiling man in a same uniform like the 5 previous ruthless murderers is crouching on the 3rd floor windowsill of the building there. When the man jumps and lands a few meters away from him, Ninomiya swiftly pulls his lover’s body closer and shifts aback. As the man walks toward him, he startles by numbers of shootings suddenly echo from the road behind.
“5 people can’t stop you alone. I honestly impressed.”
Ninomiya doesn’t respond to the man’s words. Instead, he just stares the man cautiously while tightening his embrace until the latter stops right in front of him. The man still beams him with a sincere smile though the professional gamer knows better than takes it lightly.
“Wanna join us?”
The question makes the still heartbroken gamer frowns.
“What?”
“You know, the organisation that we’re working for is doing an experiment to ‘recreate’ a human without any flaw. There must be a time when you feel annoyed because you could easily fall sick or can’t memorize certain things at one time, right? Our experiment is held for that purpose. We want to destroy the limitations that occur because of the human’s inability and weakness since that’s what avoids us from becomes the greatest living thing in this planet. Don’t you think so?”
Grinning excitedly, he then continues. “I work hard for long to overcome that flaw by training myself every day and night. Yet, no matter, it’s still not enough for me. There’s still thing I can’t do. There’re a lot more things my body can’t afford to do. I guess that’s why we are always on the top of the food chain if we’re thrown into a wild jungle or something-”
“What the hell are you talking about, you demon?”
Ninomiya cut the other man in abrupt. Still keeping a disbelieving look, the professional gamer could feel his anger almost reach its peak especially when seeing the babbling man is now throwing him a stare like he just said something great. Even though he realizes anyone who is wearing the black uniform just like this man must be the most cold-blooded people on earth, he never expects him to be THIS heartless.
“Your mad friends just killed my girlfriend for God’s sake! And now you’re here inviting me to join your sick fantasy?! THE HELL WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR HEAD?!!!” His last outburst re-echo all over the place. It might grab the attention of the other twisted men just like in front of him to come there, but he doesn’t care about it anymore. Yet, the next unexpected thing that comes out of the latter’s mouth is more than enough to break his patience wall.
“What do you mean by killed? Sacrifice is needed to gain something much worthier. That’s why we shot your girlfriend on heart so her body will stay undamaged before the zombies got her first.”
Extremely furious, Ninomiya immediately reaches for his gun. Before he manages to target it at the heartless man however his wrist has been grabbed and twists hard. A few painful whimpers leave Ninomya’s mouth as he struggles to make the standing man to let go of him until he suddenly being pulled forward, a strong knee strike landed right on his head. Pain and dizziness storm into his brain by instant which makes him fall on his back with a loud thud.
“Moron.”
The gamer then feels the weight of his lover slowly disappears from his lap. Half-conscious, Ninomiya weakly tries to stop his girlfriend from
being taken away, but a hard stomp on stomach send him immobilize on the spot. The moment he heard an unlocking gun sound above him, a sudden voice through a speaker slips into his senses.
“NO. 23 IS COMING! WE MUST LEAVE NOW!”
Everything is so unclear in Ninomiya’s sight after that. He still could catch a grunt comes from the blurry image of standing man before him, but when he is painfully being dragged out of the dark alley by hair, only a last short conversation after that can be digested by his mind.
“Sir, we must leave by now. The radar shows he is coming to this way.”
“Take this body into the truck then. If it’s not because of the quota we’re told before I would rather us to take this man along. It’s hard to find other survivors anymore after this.”
“Just kill him then.”
“Nah. We’ll have No. 23 do that for us. Just leave him here with these weaklings to be chopped-”
Ninomiya blinks when a strong wave of dizziness overpowering him again. Later, he hears a distant vroom, following by subsiding desperate pleads and cries come from around him.
Soon, a faint shake can be felt on the road he is laying on. A distant sound of fast running enters his ears a second after before everything turns out blur, an eerie squeak and sharp teeth clanks then suddenly come from just a few more blocks away.
X-X-X-X-X
Blood smears in the air when Matsumoto jumps high forward and slashes three heads at once. The successor never thought it would require him to use both swords that previously given by the priests just to open an escape way for him from there. The flood of dead bodies hasn’t stopped yet, but for now he is not going to worry about it. That is not what he was told to take care of after all.
Once he successfully gets away from the hundreds attack, Matsumoto runs into a dark building to hide for a while. After making sure the zombies are not following him, he lets his relief sigh out and takes his time to regulate his breath while put back his sword in its place. He had faced a lot of dead or alive situation since he was a teenager, but nothing of those shocks him as much as what he just through. Feel worry with his subordinates’ safety, he tries to contact them through his earpiece. The successor however gives up when not even a single sound can be heard from the other line.
“Unconnected. There must be a line interruption here.”
Dropping his tracking device so people in the household know his current position is, he then leaves a sign on the wall to tell the direction he is heading to. That is when he feels a presence of someone else and turns to the door immediately to find it has been slightly opened and a figure of a man peeking inside. Yet, upon the man realizing that he has been caught, he quickly flees from there.
“Wait!” Wanting to stop the latter, Matsumoto swiftly barge out. He is about to chase the other one, but only to find nobody can be seen anywhere anymore. Now he lost his chance to understand what is actually going on with the city.
Just then he notices a piece of paper was left on the doorstep. As he picks it up, he frowns by what is written on it.
“Come to ‘Green Superstore’ on the 3rd district. All survivors are gathering there. Seriously, why that person didn’t tell me directly instead?”
Sighing, he shoves the paper into his pocket and follows the road ahead. If he has the GPS device with him it will be much easier, but he doesn’t take it along before since he believes it will be unnecessary. Thankfully, the moonlight is bright enough to show his way despite the fact that it seems the area is black out. Now all what he can rely on is the address that written at some of the shops and mail boxes he found there to ensure he is on the right direction to the mentioned superstore in the note.
After a while, the successor found an apartment area which stating it is a second district area based on the address mail box. He hasn’t manage to take any few steps further at all when several shootings sound out of a sudden break the silence place and immediately raises his guard. Just when he is about to go to the place where the sound comes from, he hears noises of vehicles’ engine are approaching and quickly hide under the building shade.
A view of a truck and car come into his eyes from far after a while. The moment he recognizes the familiar uniform that wear by those armed people in there, his sharp eyes instantly detect a familiar face on the front seat.
“I’m tired of this family.”
The sudden remembrance makes an old scar on Matsumoto’s stomach suddenly hurts. Gritting his teeth hard, the successor just locks his glare at the small convoy until it finally disappears under the night. The second he rushes to the place where he heard the previous shootings sound, he found a few men are already laying weakly on stomach with traces of shoots on their both thighs and arms. It makes him frown when realize these men are wearing the same uniform like those in the truck before, but somehow, he is not surprised.
On the other hand, once notice Matsumoto’s existence there, some of the injured men pathetically try to crawl toward him while begging.
“H-Help us! P-Please take us away from here! That-that thing is c-coming!”
Matsumoto raises his eyebrow suspiciously. Soon, a weird shaking can be felt through the road below him. It feels like human stomps, but much stronger and quicker. Right when an eerie squeak suddenly enters his ears, Matsumoto swiftly reaches for his sword again. Using a gun at a time like this will only waste his bullet after all.
“Y-You won’t win against it! No. 23 is t-the fastest out of all!” Ignoring what those injured people said, Matsumoto just walks forward until he sees a figure of human is running to their place at full speed without arms. It immediately opens its mouth wide when meet his eyes, showing a row of sharp teeth which give the successor a clue of how dangerous it might be to be bitten by that thing.
A few metres before that creature reaches his place, Matsumoto immediately raises his sword. Nobody there will expect it takes only two swings from him; one on knees and another on neck to take that thing’s life in a blink of eyes, all smooth and instant. The place falls into silence for a while after that as the 5 injured men try to overcome the sight of Matsumoto wiping away the dead creature’s blood from his face, completely calm and unaffected.
“Now, now. I demand you guys’ explanation about what’s going on here. And what do you mean with No. 23?”
Those men face change to pale. Yet, knowing that this man is the only chance for them to survive, they decide to make a deal with him.
“A-Alright i-if you insist. B-But firstly, t-take us to safer-”
“Mur…derers.”
Another voice suddenly comes from one of the men on the road. That is when the successor finally realizes the presence of a man in his casual clothes among them. The trembling man has an obvious bruise on his forehead as he tries to turn his body so he can lie down with his stomach. Matsumoto can see a teardrop falls from the other one’s eye while he forces himself to keep on talking.
“You kill her…You kill Saki…She’s supposed to be alive…I won’t let you…get away…”
Hearing what the man says, a smirk unexpectedly appears on Matsumoto’s face.
“That is more than enough for me then. Now, unfortunately, none of you can leave this place alive. That was THE TASK I have been told to do.”
A strong dark aura all of a sudden comes from the successor. Upon hearing his words, all the bleeding men immediately widen their eyes due to fear. The half-unconscious man who becomes their ruthlessness’s victim meanwhile blinks his eyes by those words before he hears
someone’s footsteps are coming to him.
Later, the in-pain victim feels someone stops next to him. As he lifts his blurry gaze above, he greets by the successor’s pair of cold eyes which content neither sympathy nor feelings at all.
Screams and blood spurting sound after that noising the quiet area.
X-X-X-X-X
>I am really, really sorry for the delay. No excuses for it. Just my deep apologize (_ _")
>Since I still want to tell you about the difference between the real and changed plot...et's make it short so it'll be enough for the journal words' limit. 1)When I wrote this before I actually planned to add a 'little bit' romance. They all suppose to have partner, but I change my mind(romance is not my genre anyway. Total FAIL). 2)In real plot Ohno is supposed to be save by a mystery sniper when he was attacked by Kazama. 3)In previous chapter, Sho returned to pick his dropped dried-four leaves clover necklace. The real one it was his wedding ring that chained with the necklace. 4)Aiba was supposed to have a family and wife. In the 'modified' plot however I try to make his emotions are much disturbed by the fact he was becoming a 'white rat' than his fear that he might harm his family. 5)Nino's part where he escaped from the 5 men and he met the mystery man with 'rough voice' wasn't actually came from the real plot! 6)Jun's is much sadistic here. He is supposed to be much warm-heart man in real plot and he is supposed to coincidentally save Aiba instead of meeting Nino in this chapter.,
>Btw, I still plan to finish one-shot stories that I wrote for fundraise4paws. Still not have any new idea yet, but I'll try to continue it one day :)