Day 8

[notursalvation]

[WHO] Nagi and Yuri
[WHERE] Msida
[WHEN] Day 8, morning
[STYLE] Prose
[RATING] PG?
[STATUS] Closed (if you want in, IM/PM me)

Comments

[wheresurgodnow]

As if on cue, Yuri emerged, stepping through the broken frames of what used to be the front door of the store; she tiptoed through shattered glass carefully, as if the sound of glass cracking under her feet would attract unwanted attention that her rummaging inside did not. It didn't seem like it had, and despite Nagi guarding the front all this time, the girl still prepared the handgun in her hand in case anything would have tried to come for them. In the other was a plastic bag, which barely had anything in it at all.

"No luck here," Yuri announced, and somehow she managed to keep disappointment out of her voice. They couldn't be successful every time, she knew, so she simply jerked a thumb behind her where she came. "Barren shelves and spoiled food. Looks like this place got ransacked pretty good."

Taking one more cautionary glance around them, Yuri approached the car Nagi sat upon, staring up at the large sheet of paper he held curiously. "What did you find there?"

[notursalvation]

Nagi slid down from the roof of the car and held out the map to show her.

"It was in the car. I can't read most of it, but I think we're about here." He pointed to Msida on the map, having guessed based on street signs and the location of the church where he'd originally shown up. "I've been looking at it, and I think it might be a good idea to move to another location now that we've stashed some things here."

[wheresurgodnow]

Yuri leaned over, scanning her eyes across the map, although she couldn't make out what most of it was, either. Was this in English? No, maybe it wasn't; her proficiency in the language was nothing short of awful, but she knew just enough to tell this had to be something else. Nonetheless, she attempted to make heads or tails of the map, though with little success. It was a good thing Nagi had been able to make it out, because Yuri knew she hadn't traveled around enough to make an accurate guess.

"Yeah," Yuri agreed without hesitation, nodding. "We'll be secure on that front, at least for a little while, and there's nothing in this town. Some other place has got to be better than the mess here."

[notursalvation]

He was glad she agreed and smiled slightly. "I'm not sure what the best destination is. Towns will have the most supplies, but a rural area may have less of those things."

Fingers playing idly in the edge of his scarf, he looked over the map again, then glanced up and down the street to make sure they were still alone.

"It might be a good idea to set up multiple stashes of supplies in different locations, especially the larger towns." He couldn't readily tell from the map which towns would most quickly yield up supplies, but there was no harm in exploration.

[wheresurgodnow]

Different locations, huh? Yuri lifted her head a few moments after Nagi did, leaning back against the car with crossed arms; she thought the idea through, and when she concluded it may benefit them, she nodded again.

"We'll have to make sure to hide it carefully, otherwise anyone else might try to take it," she added, looking off at nothing in particular. This town was way creepy knowing a bunch of freaky undead people were lurking everywhere, but somehow when it was empty like this, it was even creepier. Yuri had gotten used to this by now, however, so she was far from losing her composure over it.

"Well," Yuri continued on, stepping away from the car with a wave of her hand. "No use standing around here and mulling on ideas. If we're gonna be walking anywhere, we better get a move on it before it gets any later."

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Nagi nodded, folding the map and tucking it into his pocket, before pulling his bag up over his shoulder. He'd gotten into the habit of always carrying it with him now, though he made sure to travel lightly.

"I suppose it doesn't really matter where we go first--I'm sure it's all more of the same." He looks around, getting his bearings, then points toward the coast and Valetta. "I came from that direction. There's not much there. So I suppose we should head that way." He nods in the opposite direction, further inland, toward Qormi.

[wheresurgodnow]

Even if it wasn't all the same, Yuri thought, neither of them knew any better to know it wouldn't be. They sure had a lot ahead of them, and it was almost dreadful to think about; she didn't even know where to begin. Right now it was all about just trying to survive while she still didn't know what the hell was causing all this and why she was here-- much less how. And oh, did that bother her, in a way that felt as though something were quite literally grinding upon her very nerves; Yuri had come across a few strange things in the afterlife, but her very existence in the world of the living simply took the cake. Someone out there was capable of such impossible feats, and the girl could not begin to figure out who it could have been

[notursalvation]

During his time with Scar Chain, Nagi had learned to read people relatively well. Back then, it had been his responsibility as the leader: if there was a problem, even one unrelated to Scar Chain's work, he would do what he could to fix it. Though he didn't believe in prying into another's personal business, he liked to make sure his comrades always knew he was there to help insofar as he could.

It was obvious that Yuri's mind was elsewhere. And under the circumstances, they both very much needed her focus to be on the here and now. It was for this reason as much as out of actual curiosity and concern, that he asked, "Is something troubling you?"

He started walking, moving his arm to gesture her to walk with him. They could speak while they were moving.

[wheresurgodnow]

"It's nothing," Yuri responded in a very casual manner, mentally brushing off her previously ill thoughts. Without haste she caught up to match his pace, striding alongside with his steps.

Then, in an attempt to quickly change the focus off of her (if there was something she disliked to focus on, it was herself; and if she were to be honest now, it would only lead to less pleasant conversation, especially to one who wouldn't have known the context of it all), Yuri quickly pressed on; "How long do you think the walk's gonna be?"

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Nagi shrugged, letting her change the subject without protesting. "If I read the map correctly, the next town should be about two miles. So, providing we run into no difficulties it should take less than an hour." He smiled wryly. "Which means, in reality, we should count on several hours."

Because difficulties always seemed to crop up.

"You know, there is something I've been wondering about. I told you that before I arrived here, I touched an object--a lantern that was out of place. You had a similar experience, correct?"

[wheresurgodnow]

He was right about that; Yuri was hopeful, but she wasn't naive enough to believe the trip would stay trouble free, nor was she holding her breath over it. They were equipped well enough for now, so all they had to do was stay alert. But they made it through this far without sustaining anything too terrible, so if there was one thing she was hopeful about, it's that they wouldn't get seriously injured, at least. She had to admit, they made a pretty good team.

Then Nagi continued with a question of his own-- one she hadn't been expecting, but it wasn't difficult to answer by any means. "Yeah, that's right," Yuri answered, and although she remained expressionless, it made her start thinking about it, too. "It didn't look very out of place to me, but as soon as I picked up some fancy looking pen to write something down, all of a sudden-- this place."

[notursalvation]

"I wonder what happened to those items." He assumed that, like the lantern, the pen she had grabbed had disappeared when she arrived. "Perhaps if we can find them again, we can go back to where we belong."

[wheresurgodnow]

After a beat, Yuri raised a single eyebrow, eying Nagi. "So you think those things might be related to all this, huh?" It was an idea, even if she thought it were an odd one. Calligraphy pens weren't exactly commonplace around campus, but she figured some nice looking one was conjured up somehow for the occasion of their 'graduation'; Yuri didn't think anything of it while she made a grab for it.

"It might be a start," she agreed, if only because Yuri couldn't think of anywhere else to begin. "But that's going to be one hell of a task to go searching for them-- this place is big, and those items? Not so much." The phrase was 'searching for a needle in a haystack', wasn't it? An appropriate one, really.

[notursalvation]

Nagi might not have thought it odd, either, if the object itself hadn't been so out of place in Deadman Wonderland.

"True. But I've found that having a goal helps one keep one's head even in the worst situations." He shrugged, his smile somewhat wistful. "Survival is obviously our first priority. But as it is, we'll be looting through houses and stores. If we keep our eyes open, we may find something."

[wheresurgodnow]

He had a point, and Yuri was a girl whose mind was always filled with a goal. This time, it was definitely figuring out what on earth was going on here and how it all happened; she was, however, still unsure about the 'going back where they belonged' bit. Sure, Nagi had somewhere to be-- he was, presumably, still living and certainly had places to be and people to be with-- but Yuri, on the other hand...

Could she go back to the afterlife? What was the point in going back somewhere where all her friends passed on already? No doubt they had; it had been days and days since then, and the remaining five of them had planned to do so within the next hour or so before Yuri found herself in this zombie wasteland.

So where was she supposed to go after this? Was this her new life?

Uhg, get a hold of yourself, Nakamura, she mentally berated herself, putting more emphasis on walking ahead with her chin up and more focus in an attempt to clear her mind of these thoughts. This was stupid, she decided, to keep mulling on such things.

Survival.

[notursalvation]

"It was certainly not a modern device. However, I don't think it was in the location where I arrived. Assuming it wasn't, I have no idea where to begin looking."

He fingered the top edge of his scarf, feeling the metal collar underneath. Finding the lantern was a more urgent matter than he let on. Though he wanted to return because he had both personal and other matters to attend to there, there was also another, much more immediate reason to leave as soon as possible. He only had two of the four pieces of candy he had arrived with. He'd need to take another tomorrow, and the last three days later. Three days after that, he would die.

He sighed and dropped his hand back to his side. That was all assuming the lantern would return him to where he came from if he managed to find it.