Aurora 1/6

[moon_catcher]

Title: Aurora

Pairing: Akanishi/Kamenashi
Character(s): Nishikido Ryo (obviously), Kuroki Meisa, Yamashita Tomohisa
Rating: pg-13
Genre: sci-fi
Words count: 53.872
Warning(s): nada
Summary: Jin and Ryo roam about the streets of a world that has ended years ago.

A/N: Written for dori_liv in winter Troll!Ryo Challenge @amigo_santa (and also as my NaNoWriMo 2015 project #proudwinner). I'm dumping all 50k here at once in case someone outside the a_s comm wants to read it. Comments are the chocolate for my plot bunnies :3

wintersdancer made this beautiful Aurora Aesthetic post @Tumblr and everyone should go take a look <3




A short straw. Of course he was the one to draw that fucker of half the length of the other one. The long one that was now sticking out between Ryo’s thumb and index finger. At least four inches. Jin should know, he was the one who had torn them off a rotten plank lying on a heap by the wall. Drawing straws was such a bad idea to begin with. He should have known better. He was like a fucking magnet for short straws.

Jin groaned and let the wood splinter, not longer than two inches or so, fall down and land on the dirty ground under his feet. He blinked and the next moment he lost it from his sight. It didn’t matter. It had been decided.

“Fuck it, this is the third time in row. I’m either doomed, or you’ve found a way to cheat in this.”

Ryo slipped his straw in the corner of his lips, pretending to chew on it. “Look at the bright side-”

“There is one?”

“-you already have a knack for sneaking around.”

For a moment, Jin didn’t look convinced.

“Also, we haven’t seen a single Mummy for days,” Ryo went on, trying to cheer Jin up. “And we’re really close. It’s nothing like the gas station two weeks ago.”

That had been really bad. Like, fifteen-Mummies-bad. They had cornered Jin, fifteen zombie-like bodies closing up on him inside the station shop and he had hardly managed to get out of there with little of the much needed supplies he had gathered before they had appeared. He had made it back to Ryo, they had jumped in the car and driven as fast and as far as the remaining gas in the tank allowed.

They had run out of gas eventually; that was five days ago, and now they were screwed.

Jin more than Ryo, apparently.

Inside the walls of abandoned buildings, dilapidated and crumbly, yet still sort of holding together, they were as safe as they could be. Not safe enough to enjoy a peaceful, all-night sleep, or to forget about the horrors awaiting, lurking outside, sometimes just on the other side of those ruined walls, but relatively safe nevertheless. It was a feeble protection, but it was better than nothing.

With drawing the shorter straw, however, Jin was now expected to leave the illusory safety. He would have to go out, cross the street and a small lawn behind it, and get inside the opposite building. The old factory used to provide employment to a big part of the neighborhood years ago. Neither Jin nor Ryo was old enough to remember though. In their memories, Tokyo had always been a deserted wasteland. The factory had been like this, locked and abandoned, its treasures buried behind a big metal gate, for years. Instead of torrents of people flowing in from all directions every morning, they remembered only occasional Mummies, individuals or small groups, wandering around with no big interest in getting inside the factory.

There was nothing they might care about inside.

Jin and Ryo, on the other hand, were very much interested in getting behind the walls. They were quickly running out of options. Supplies were thinning.

Jin ran a hand through his hair, then pulled a hood over his head and made sure to tug it deep down into his face.

“Fine, I’m going,” he muttered, looking around and quickly considering picking up a piece of wood or looking around for a metal rod to use as a crowbar. In case he found a tough lock.

Months ago, he used to have a gun, but now without any ammo left, it was useless, forgotten at the very bottom of his bag. No more shooting locks up. He hoped to find munition inside the factory. From the surveillance they had done on the place, there was a big chance it hadn’t been looted yet. This part of the city had been evacuated a long time ago, after all, and not many people would willingly go back to areas the government declared lost. That was, of course, all the way back when there still had been a central government. Now the neighborhood was located too deep in the Mummy territory.

“I’ll go next time,” Ryo said, his voice a little breathy, like he was forcing the words out, like he was fighting with himself whether to be brave, or stay alive. In spite of his fears, though, he didn’t like seeing Jin risk all the time. “No more drawing straws. We can take turns again.” He might’ve felt a bit guilty, even though the way they did it now seemed pretty fair.

At least for now when the result would send Jin outside while Ryo would be waiting and, as the last resort, covering Jin’s back.

Jin gave him a doubting look.

“Hey, don’t try that shit on me. It’s not my fault I’m practically a half Mole, okay.” Ryo shrugged, like he often did when the topic of his aversion to go outside came up. He liked his life, as crappy as it was, and risking it by tempting his luck and promenading his sorry ass outside wasn’t on the top of his bucket list.

At that, Jin snorted. “Bite me. You’ve never seen a single Mole in your life.”

“Maybe I just didn’t tell you.”

“Yeah, right.”

Jin had known Ryo his whole life, ever since the day they had met at the foot of a scrap metal hill on the outskirts of the Central Tokyo Zone. They couldn’t have been older than five years then. They had crawled up the hill and watched the ruined wasteland that used to be a lively city all around until it had been time to hide for the night.

Logically, Ryo couldn’t be a Mole. Moles, as one of the legends surrounding them went, were a folk living underground. They had turned the sewers and abandoned train tunnels into a shelter providing protection from whatever was going on outside. In only a couple of years, supposedly, they had adapted the underground into their home and were now mostly self-sufficient. They never left to see the daylight, too afraid of the Mummies roaming freely in the now empty streets. Jin had only heard about them, a tale people in the Zone sometimes told each other, but Jin had never actually met or heard of anyone who would have personally dared searching for the underground camps. It was easy to get lost in the tunnels. Almost as easy as to cross path with the Mummies and not make it out.

For a supposed Mole, Ryo spent way too much time outside and above the ground.

Without dragging the silly argument on any longer, Jin patted Ryo’s shoulder and walked over to the door barricaded with a dust covered cabinet.

He didn’t feel like going out, but what other choice he had. They needed a car with a full tank, food, warm clothes would be nice, too, as the summer was quickly slipping into a chilly fall and neither Ryo’s sweater, nor Jin’s thick hoodie was good enough for the winter that was coming.

Jin tugged on his hood again, by now it was nothing but a nervous twitch. As if hiding his face could protect him from what might be lurking around the streets.

“Alright. Back in an hour.” And with that, Jin pulled the cabinet a little off the door, enough to get through but not to give Ryo troubles while putting it back. It was always better to be overly safe than not have a chance to be sorry later in case the Mummies caught a whiff of someone inside the building.

Outside, the early afternoon was slowly throwing shadows over the length of the wide street, once upon a time likely a pulsing vein of the neighborhood, nowadays nothing but an abandoned trough stretched between ruined skyscrapers with their holes of windows and vegetation reclaiming what people had once taken and made theirs. They didn’t need it anymore.

On Jin’s left, the street ran as far as the ocean, even though Jin couldn’t see the water from where he was standing; while on the right it was cut short by a hastily piled up barricade of cars, metal plates, rusty garbage cans, and anything that could have been found close around when the makeshift road block had been built. Possibly a decade ago, judging by the level of corrosion and mass of weed growing all over the pile, and also through it, quickly spreading all around and finding its way into cracks in the asphalt of the road. Nature was winning where humans had failed.

Jin looked around with caution, taking in every corner, every shadow, every sign of a movement, even if it turned out to be nothing but a bird or a stray page of old newspaper carried by wind. Being jumpy all the time was a part of venturing outside the high walls of Central Tokyo Zone.

For a moment, as he was moving fast across the street, Jin wondered if it hadn’t been for the better to simply go and live inside the Zone-they would be safe from the Mummies, they would have a safe place to sleep, and appropriation of food; everything they didn’t have now. They had talked about the Zone a lot at first, usually when they hadn’t been able to find a place to spend a night or had come across an already looted shop and had to take from their tiny reserves instead of adding into them. However, there was one thing the Zone couldn’t offer, a thing that, in the end, prevailed over the idea of beds and regular meals-freedom. People living in the Zone were everything but free. Everyone who walked in had become a part of a corpus; they gained a relatively safe life in exchange of their individual selves.

Both Jin and Ryo had grown up in the Zone, had lived there until they had found their way out. Neither of them was too eager to go back. It was just at moments like this, exposed to Mummies with nowhere to run, when Jin would allow his mind to even tackle the idea of the Zone and the life there.

His steps quickened, and it was only when Jin reached the small side door on the right of the gate that Jin turned over his shoulder and zeroed in on the building he knew Ryo was, with no doubt, watching him from, all nervous and twitchy at the tiniest sound coming from the outside.

After a quick examination of a corroded lock, Jin grabbed a rock lying nearby and hit the door just right to get it open. It was almost funny how easy the action was now after years of breaking into various places all around the city. Nothing outside the Zone was personal property anymore. It had been left to the Mummies, and to those who dared living in the streets.

Jin reached into the front pocket of his hoodie and grabbed a flashlight. Electricity was a long time out and all windows in the ground floor were covered with laths, drowning the space in darkness in the middle of a day.

Once inside and with the door closed behind him so nothing would give signs of his presence inside the factory, Jin started to explore. He moved with expertise, going from one room to another, scanning each with eyes following the faint beam of the flashlight. The batteries were running low; another thing he needed to find. The mental list was becoming longer: time resilient supplies, warm clothes, batteries, a portable generator would be great, too. They could’ve had everything already by now had there not been the incident at the gas station. Fucking Mummies.

Shaking his head, Jin forced himself to focus on the task at hand again. He couldn’t waste time, because Ryo was waiting for him, and Ryo might go crazy if Jin were late on his return.

Something cracked in the dark hallway behind Jin’s back.

Jin froze for a span of a heartbeat, the light coming from the flashlight quivered, then snapped and turned around after the sound. Being jumpy was something deeply rooted in human nature these days.

Nothing else happened, no more sounds coming from the hallway, and Jin returned to his work.

In the following half an hour he found a box of matches, some frozen, canned food that didn’t yet show the usual signs of being bad inside, a bottle of whisky hidden in a far corner of a metal cabinet behind a mass of rotten files. Jin put everything in a bag and moved on. The silence in the hallway was unnerving; Jin’s fingers clenched around the rough canvas of the bag. In theory, he’d already found most of what he’d hoped to find and he could turn around and go back to Ryo.

In the next room, which looked like it used to be another office, Jin halted at the threshold. The flashlight flickered around through the darkness, illuminating specks of dust soaring around-and then the beam fell on a makeshift bed in a corner. An old, shabby mattress was lying on the dirty floor. There was a pillow and a blanket, both looking like someone had been recently sleeping on them. A half burnt down candle and used dishes nearby only confirmed the thought of the place serving as a shelter.

A memory of the sound Jin had heard before made the fine hair at the back of his neck stand in alert.

Some people weren’t particularly thrilled about the concept sharing the little supplies they managed to gather. Right now it was like Jin had broken in and was stealing what wasn’t his to take. Which was, in a way, always true, but if someone really lived inside the factory, they had claimed the equipment stored there.

Jin hissed out a curse, but didn’t let go of the bag.

He had made it too far to just leave the things there. If he had to fight someone, then so be it.

The beam of light rolled over another stretch of darkness. The push to explore and find useful things was stronger than Jin’s instinct to run before whoever slept on the mattress came back and caught Jin with a bag full of essentials. At second look the room did look different from those Jin had inspected before. Dust still covered most surfaces, but the place gave obvious signs of being lived-in. The bed, candle, a simple fireplace made of a metal bucket standing in a corner. Jin noticed a book half hidden underneath the mattress. He hadn’t seen a real book in years; other than the old one Ryo always carried in his pocket and read over and over again.

Maybe whoever lived in the factory wouldn’t attack Jin. People who still cared about things like reading couldn’t be hostile to those in need…

“What are you doing?”

A low voice startled Jin; deep and just a little rough, probably due to lack of use. Different from Ryo’s-the only voice Jin was used to hearing on a regular basis.

Jin lowered the flashlight and slowly turned after the voice, his mind spinning around as he was trying to come up with a smart answer that wouldn’t start a needless fight. He wasn’t much of a fighter, just good enough to survive in abandoned streets, which wasn’t saying much. With Mummies, it was always better to run than stay and face them, and one didn’t encounter other humans often, so it was hard to tell how good Jin’s right hook might be.

“How did you get inside?”

The guy was partly standing in the shadow and Jin didn’t want to be rude and point the flashlight directly at him.

“The door.”

Jin dared moving the flashlight a bit up, revealing legs in heavy boots, tight dark pants, slender hips drowned under a thick sweater that was too big for the slim body underneath. The sweater, in spite of looking as shabby as the mattress on the floor, must have been warmer than anything Jin owned himself at the moment.

“Locked door,” the voice pointed out matter-of-factly. Jin realized he was still staring when the illuminated legs moved forward, then stopped after a couple of steps. “The front door was locked.”

“About that-”

“You broke in?” The statement came out with a gasp. “Tell me you didn’t do that.”

Jin swallowed, half expecting a first punch to come in any moment. “Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t know someone was here. We-my friend and I have been watching this place and it looked abandoned. Just like the rest of the neighborhood. We are miles away from the Zone, you might as well be the only person still alive around here. We couldn’t have possibly expect to find someone here.”

“You are here too. And your friend.”

“Yeah, but we move around a lot. We just, like, get stuff and move on.” Jin thought about the last time they had stayed somewhere for longer than two, three nights. Staying at one place wasn’t safe, or practical. There was always only so many supplies and resources one could gather while limited by location. Running into an old factory had looked like winning a jackpot. Only now it felt more like a waste of time, because the place wasn’t as abandoned as they had expected.

Jin’s eyes wandered down to the bag filled with supplies. The matches. The food. He and Ryo needed them.

“You took my stuff.”

“I didn’t know it was yours.” Jin’s hold on the bag was so tight his knuckles must have been white by then. “I just… we need it, really. I didn’t take much and you can walk me back to the door to make sure I won’t take anything else. I wouldn’t be doing this, but we ran into Mummies the last time we tried, and we’re out of almost everything. This neighborhood sucks big time. The factory was the only place worth checking.”

The stranger tugged at the ends of his too long sleeves in a nervous gesture as he seemed to be considering Jin’s words. The flashlight reached high enough to offer a faint outline of his jaw and chin, both partially hidden under a massive scarf wrapped around his neck.

“You ran into… them? Does it happen often?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious, and bordering horrified. Like one of the kids back in the Zone when Jin was little and growing up there, always waiting for adults to find a moment to sit down and tell horror stories about the stuff happening on the other side of the wall. Later, when he had found himself out there, Jin had learnt not everything was true and that most of the stories had been just that, made up stories to scare kids and stop them from leaving the Zone. Not even the most gory ones had stopped Jin, though.

“Not really. If you know your way around, you can stay away from them.”

Jin’s words met with a raised eyebrow, but then the guy’s expression turned back to the previous mix of wonder and worry. “But they found you. Before.”

“Bad luck,” Jin said, going for nonchalant but failing, or at least judging by the look he got. “We haven’t seen any Mummies around here though, so I’m not worried. Well, not about them.”

“But you are worried about something.”

“I need to get back to Ryo. I’ve been out for too long.” That earned him another tilt of head as a reaction. “When we part our ways, we do it only for a limited time. I should be going back soon.”

A nod. “Or your friend will worry.”

Jin nodded, too. It was strange to talk to someone other than Ryo. There weren’t many chances for that.

Strange, but also nice, in a way.

Opposite to what he was saying, a part of Jin wanted to stay a little longer. To start over, to meet the guy properly and hopefully give a better first impression than the one that made him a burglar. They could-maybe-get to know each other even. Or Jin could bring Ryo over and they would spend a night in the factory, keep the stranger company.

Jin shook his head. “I’m really sorry.”

“You need the stuff.” Another move, a step closer, and Jin’s flashlight finally gave the whole picture. The guy was thin, would fit in the sweater three times. His hair was dark, overgrown bangs falling down his pretty face, his dark eyes narrowed against the bright light. “You should take it. It’s alright.”

“Thank you, um-” They were standing close enough to reach out and touch. Instead, Jin raised a hand and ran fingers through his hair, forgetting about the hood and pushing it back and down. His hair was a mess, with nothing to hold it in place, thick strands sprang free and stuck out in all directions. “I just… I’m Jin.”

“I… Kame.”

“Kame.” Jin rolled the name-was it a name?-on his tongue and smiled. Kame was tugging at his sleeves again, head lowered but eyes flicking up to study Jin through fluttering eyelashes. “Nice to meet you.”

Kame offered Jin a seat in a clumsy attempt of being friendly, or at least polite, and in spite of the itchy voice at the back of his mind telling him to get back to Ryo, Jin sat down on the edge of the old mattress. Kame lit some of the candles, filling the room with a faint, fluttery light. It allowed Jin to turn off the flashlight and save batteries. He silently thanked with a smile.

Kame looked at him, but before their eyes could meet, he lowered his head, busy studying his own hands.

Jin looked around, taking the room in in a bigger picture than what had been offered the beam of the flashlight. Unlike most of the ruins Jin and Ryo usually sought as their very temporary hideouts, the old factory office looked lived-in, almost warm. Like a home. Jin would’ve never thought to find a place like that outside the Zone, let alone tenanted by a single person. According to everything Jin had been taught and told to believe, an individual couldn’t survive outside the protective walls of the Zone.

And yet, there was Kame.

“You… live alone?” Jin asked. “It’s nice here. And safe.”

Kame shrugged. “Not safe enough. You got inside.”

“I’m not a Mummy, though.”

“No, you’re not.” Kame took a seat next to Jin, leaving enough space between them for at least another person.

When Kame didn’t say anything else, Jin waited a few breaths before speaking up again. “How long have you been here?”

“A while.” Kame gave another shrug. “The factory was intact when I came here. It has-had-” he shot Jin a sharp glance, “a lock on the door and mostly everything I need.”

Jin was glad the light wasn’t bright enough to show the little blush creeping in his cheeks when his inbreak was brought back, even though Kame didn’t sound accusing.

“Must be nice to have a place-”

Jin was cut off by a sound coming from outside the room, a sound echoing in the otherwise silent, empty hallways of the factory. A dull, cracking sound of something heavy being dragged on rough surface. Not unlike the sound that had accompanied Jin’s own entry.

Kame was immediately set on alert.

He was on his feet and moving around before Jin could’ve reacted. Jin grabbed his bag, holding on to the only valuable possession he could’ve thought of. Meanwhile, Kame stifled all candles but one, and fished out his own bag out of nowhere, obviously prepared in case of the need to leave in rush.

“We need to move,” Kame commanded.

“What-? Who is it?”

Jin tried to listen, waiting for more sounds, but with Kame moving around and his own heart banging in his chest and blood rushing in his ears, any sounds in the hallway were lost.

“The lock is gone. They- The things.” Kame’s voice trembled. “There’s nothing to stop them now.” He was halfway to the door, moving like a cat through the shadows, led by the candle in his hand. Jin added light from his flashlight. Kame was tense and nervous, shuffling his feet and straining his neck to hear more sounds, to get confirmation of his fear.

Jin knew the kind of paranoia, had seen people going crazy from expecting Mummies to break through the wall and invade the Zone, spread like the plague they were and destroy the little of humanity that had been left. It was the deep rooted anxiety of people who had lived a relatively safe life that was, abruptly, torn apart. He had been through this, too. Both Jin and Ryo had suffered nightmares for months. Ryo wouldn’t say a word, putting on a tough face, but there were still nights when he would wake up drenched in sweat, and Jin would pretend he hadn’t seen or heard anything in the morning, but would keep an extra eye on his friend for the rest of the day.

Sometimes, their roles reversed.

Now Jin did the same for Kame, watching carefully for any sign of distress.

“They don’t enter buildings,” Jin said, keeping his voice quiet, and the flashlight pointed to the floor, making sure its light wouldn’t illuminate the door. Just in case. One less detail for Kame to stress about.

But Kame was shaking his head. He clearly didn’t believe Jin’s words, and every new sound coming from the hallway made him all jumpy.

“Fine, let’s get out of here. You can spend the night with us.” Inviting a stranger to join him and Ryo wasn’t something Jin had planned, and he wasn’t sure Ryo would be fine with it, but there was no way he could leave Kame there. Jin tossed his bag over his shoulder and set off towards the door, feeling Kame following close behind him.

Jin waited before stepping outside; he leaned forward a bit, peeking out around the corner, half expecting to spot a faint light of a flashlight. Maybe Ryo had been worried enough to leave the safety of their hideout and had gone searching for Jin.

Unlikely.

Ryo might have been Jin’s best friend, as well as the only person in the whole fallen-apart world who Jin would trust with his own life, but at the same time, Ryo could be pretty skittish and fearful to voluntarily do something as bold and precarious as going out when Jin still had a couple of minutes to return in time. Ryo was, most likely, nervous and giddy right now, bouncing behind the windows, eyes glued to the factory gate across the street, waiting impatiently to see Jin.

And Jin didn’t mean to keep Ryo waiting any longer.

They would deal with Kame’s unplanned presence later. Though considering the fact that Kame hadn’t made a big deal out of Jin stealing his stuff, Jin hoped Ryo wouldn’t be too hostile. It was thanks to Kame’s kindness that they had some precious supplies now, after all.

Jin squinted his eyes in attempt to see through the darkness.

No sign of light anywhere.

Just like Jin expected.

“We need to get to the front door. It’s the shortest way,” Jin said over his shoulder. “My friend is most likely watching the street and can cover for us if necessary.”

“You said there were no…” Kame bit his lip and didn’t finish, then changed his mind. “You said you didn’t see anything dangerous around here.”

“Yeah, well, one can never be too careful, right?” With that Jin finally left the door, moving into the hallway and flashing the light around to see what was in front of him. Good thing he had a decent sense for navigation and remembered the way he had used for getting so deep into the building. The factory was a damn maze and they really needed to resurface at the side door close to the main gate.

The dull sounds were getting closer.

Kame was practically breathing at the nape of Jin’s neck, his breath ragged and hot, changing its pattern every time they heard something.

Jin forced himself not to jump on the train of fear and growing panic as well.

For someone who had grown up in the world where light was luxury and potentially dangerous, Jin sure did miss the idea of everything being illuminated, of neons shining bright at every corner, of lamps in every room, of all the ways that people used to use to tame nights and darkness but that didn’t have enough energy to sustain them anymore. Hell, it was difficult to get hands on a working flashlight outside the Zone. A lamp would have been a fucking miracle.

And miracles didn’t happen.

“Kame?” Jin stopped and listened to Kame’s heavy breaths, so close to his ear that Jin could practically feel it. “Alright?”

Kame nodded into Jin’s back.

It wasn’t convincing. Not a bit.

Something was moving in the hallway ahead of them, slow, shuffling steps that were getting closer. Jin waved the flashlight, its beam seeping through the darkness but giving no answer to what was out there.

Jin didn’t wait any longer. He took the candle Kame was holding in his shaking hand, put it down on a low cabinet on his right, and grabbing Kame’s now free hand, pulled the other forward.

“Is there a backdoor?” Jin asked.

It was clear that Kame was in no shape to go down the hallway to the main gate when that was the direction of the dull sounds. It didn’t matter what the source was-most likely just wind whooshing through a broken window and hitting a metal surface under a weird angle. An old factory like this one must have had plenty of sources of scary noises. It was a wonder Kame hadn’t gotten used to them yet, or that he had made himself a home there in the first place. But then again, what was a couple of suspicious sounds compared to relatively firm walls and a lock on the door? What was wind occasionally moaning in empty hallways and halls and distracting one’s sleep compared to cabinets filled with supplies that one didn’t have to fight for on daily basis?

Kame’s fingers tightened around Jin’s, and there was just enough light for Jin to catch the rapid twitching of Kame’s bright eyes as Kame tried to concentrate on where they were and what their options could be.

“I think… this way.”

They moved in the direction opposite to the way leading to the gate. It wasn’t a surprise.

As they holed up deeper and deeper into the maze of the factory, Jin really hoped Kame knew where they were going. Because he was pretty lost by then. Their retreat was framed by what seemed like an endless dark tunnel of walls with dilapidating paint torn off in long shreds, doors in various states of falling off the hinges, and turns with stairs leading either up or down. Jin knew the factory was quite a big complex from the outside look, but right now he was quickly getting a feeling it was too big for them to ever make it to the fading daylight again.

In addition, Kame wasn’t much of a help. He did his best at navigating Jin, but he was tense and jumpy, and every time a suspicious noise resonated through the hallway behind their back, he was heartbeats away from freezing on Jin completely.

Jin squeezed Kame’s hand.

“Here. We’re almost there.” Kame quickened his steps as they entered a door on the left. “This is the main cargo space. It has a gate leading to the loading ramp and a side door. I never use it, but it’s there.”

Jin waved the flashlight to get a sense of the space. The hall was big and empty, with racks leaning against one of the far walls. The beam followed the surface until it reached the metal gate. A faded, corroded logo of a shipping firm from a long ago was only a half readable; not many letters left to form actual words. Might have been the name of the company that used to run the factory, or maybe the carrier distributing whatever used to be made in there.

The whole country, and in general the whole world, was now full of places like this. Places that once had pulsated with life, like big manmade anthills where workers had rushed around everyday, but now lay empty and abandoned.

They followed the flashlight across the hall. A thin creak at the bottom of the gate door let in the faint afternoon light outside, and Jin breathed out in relief.

Soon he was hitting the lock with a piece of metal Kame had found lying nearby, and Kame was pointing the flashlight at it so Jin knew what he was doing. Each strike sounded like a deafening explosion in the empty hall. The lock shook and creaked with every hit. Jin missed a few times, too, shaky, as Kame’s closeness and obvious anxiety were bringing out Jin’s own bad feeling about the situation.

In between the sharp clinking of metal against metal and Jin’s quiet cursing whenever he missed the padlock, the place was quiet. Awfully so. There was no wind scratching the metal door from the outside-which kind of disproved Jin’s previous guess the sounds might have been caused by wind finding way inside the factory.

“When was the last time you went outside?” Jin asked, trying to sound casual and distract Kame from whatever he was hearing, or thinking he was hearing.

Kame swallowed. “Been a while. I- It’s not safe for me to be there.”

“High-five to that,” Jin scoffed, though his poignant tone was mostly directed to the resistant lock. “Dammit, this whole place could fall into pieces and this fucking thing would still hold together.” He hit his fingers with the next attempt and had to bite down on his lip to stop himself from crying out.

Kame must have picked up on his pain anyway, somehow. He twitched, swinging the flashlight closer to where Jin needed it.

“I told you it was a good place.”

“And it will be again.” Jin didn’t sound nearly as reassuring as he wished, but it had to do for now.

Kame’s nervousness was quickly rubbing off on Jin, and by the time the sounds that had been following them ever since Kame’s quarters were back, groaning from the dark behind their back, Jin was about as jumpy as his companion.

Kame swung the flashlight after the noise. “They are here.” His voice hitched and he bumped into Jin, who just hit the padlock one more time. Metal scraped against metal, Jin cursed some more as the piece of junk he used instead of a hammer dropped to the floor. It missed both his and Kame’s feet, luckily.

That was, however, as much luck as they were getting.

“Kame what-?”

Jin turned around. His eyes naturally followed the beam of light across the space of the hall, and his legs took a wary step backwards.

There was nothing more but silhouettes. Dark bodies moving slowly forward, their stiff legs shuffling on the dirty floor. They seemed clumsy, lumpish, like lifting their feet off the floor would require strength or will they didn’t possess. But Jin knew better. He had seen them in action. Just because their usual, almost calm, stride had given them the name-Mummies-it was just an illusion, a trick. They could be fast.

When hunting, they could be fast.

Jin cursed again, grabbed the padlock, and tugged, then again. He had heard a small crack just before the Mummies had appeared, it couldn’t take much anymore to break it.

“J-jin, I can’t-”

“Light! I can’t see what I’m doing, dammit!”

Something in Jin’s harsh tone snapped Kame back into the reality of what was important and necessary, and with the flashlight once again pointed exactly where Jin needed the light the most, it was just a matter of seconds to get the lock undone.

It also, hopefully, took Kame’s mind off the threat behind them.

They worked together to pull the door open. The opening mechanism had corroded and was tough due to the long time of no use. Who knew when was the last time someone had opened the door to load or unload a truck. Decades, possibly. The whole neighborhood looked pretty abandoned, and it might have been that way for a while now.

Just when something finally gave in and the metal moved up under their push, with an awful creaking noise that made Jin grit his teeth, Kame cried and struggled to roll outside through the small space between the door and floor their joined effort opened.

Jin followed.

He hit his knee and something had touched his shoulder, but he made it outside into the fading afternoon light. The day was cloudy

“That was close,” Jin said, standing up and watching the cranny under the door. “You alright?” He turned to Kame.

In daylight, it was the first time Jin had a chance to take a good look at the stranger he had so unexpectedly met-and who now didn’t feel like a stranger at all. That’s what an experience of a run for life in dark does to people; it brings them together. Jin frowned at the thought. He might have preferred to get to know Kame the old way. The way that wouldn’t have put their lives in danger.

Kame was pale and still a little shaky. His bag was slumped on the ground at his feet, he was hugging his torso with both arms, and couldn’t tear his eyes of the heavy metal door.

“Kame?” Jin worriedly touched Kame’s shoulder.

When he got no reply, he followed the direction that seemed to steal all Kame’s attention. From the outside, the door had the same company logo painted on as they had seen inside, only due to weather the paint looked even more battered. Jin didn’t dare to guess what the name once could have been. Probably some big company that later on had ended in dust, just like everything else.

A brand or no, things like that didn’t matter inside the Zone-and held even less significance outside.

Mummies didn’t care about brands, after all.

“Shit!”

Jin actually jumped when he registered a movement in the cranny. Something flicked in the space, and then the door resonated with another dull blow. It sounded awfully close to what a body knocking against the metal would sound. Next to Jin, Kame took a few steps backwards. Without thinking, Jin reached out and took Kame’s hand. It seemed to work before as a mean of comfort.

“We need to go. Whatever is in there is clearly trying to get us.”

“It’s them,” Kame whispered.

“It’s not the Mummies. I told you, they don’t go inside.” Or at least that was what Jin had been taught as a kid. He still remembered the lessons the adults, or older kids, had given them. And the one about hiding from Mummies inside was one of them. Later, after leaving the Zone, Jin and Ryo had made it a rule to always stop only after entering a building, never in the middle of a street.

“Look!” Kame shot a hand up to point sharply at the door again.

Jin looked up just in time to see the first Mummy crawl clumsily under the door, its clawed hands scraping over the paved surface of the loading ramp.

“Run!” Jin cried out, dragging Kame away, and Kame had just enough time to snatch his bag with his free hand before they were jumping off the platform and running to the torn fence and broken gate leading to the street. At least there was no more locks between them and the open area where it would be easier to escape.

Jin had seen a few Mummies up close in his life, but the sight would unlikely ever help him keep calm. They still looked too human to dismiss them as monsters and not care. They used to be people, with families and lives, they used to live and work in the buildings around. They used to be more than numb bodies crippling along the desolated neighborhood, their clothes shabby, their physique changed.

The infection first attacked skin, turning it rough and itchy so the infected people couldn’t help it but scratch all over. No balm would help, not beyond temporary anyway. As the infection seeped deeper, it clotted internal organs that, brain included, slowly degenerated. Once the second stage was completed, there was nothing much human left in the bodies that continued to change further. The third, final, stage started when the infection reached bones. The whole skeletal structure morphed and hardened, giving the infected claws and a visible hunch. Their new bodies could work up strength and speed while chasing a prey, but the extra effort would also exhaust them pretty fast.

The lack of stamina had become the only weakness the remaining humans could use as an advantage in the first weeks after the infection had spread worldwide and brought down most of the population. Hunting Mummies and killing them had turned out to be too much of a risk, and people had rather used their limited resources and manpower to build walls and secure themselves inside.

That was the raise of the Zones.

It was said that every big city had one, though their sizes and the number of clean population living in each differed widely.

Central Tokyo Zone, the place Jin had grown up in, was told to be one of the bigger ones. The walls had sprung up around a couple of blocks, enclosing a whole district. What once used to be a high class shopping area now housed thousands of people, most of them had never seen the other side of the wall. The Zone offered safety, and in the times like these, safety was everything most people wanted.

Jin wasn’t one of them.

And apparently, Kame wasn’t one either. Unlike anyone Jin had ever met, Kame had probably never been inside the Zone. That alone was quite strange.

How could he manage to survive outside all alone and live long enough to reach his twenties, was a mystery. One Jin hoped to solve eventually-if they got back to Ryo fast enough.

To Jin’s surprise, and relief, Kame was a fast runner. Or maybe he was just really good at following orders. Or, having a bunch of Mummies chase after them was a hell of a motivation.

They made it across the street and around a corner until Jin’s lungs burnt with the need of air. Kame didn’t particularly protest switching to a slower pace either, catching a few gasps himself.

“Fucking hell,” Jin groaned, shooting a few glances over his shoulder to see how much headstart had they managed to get. No Mummies anywhere in sight yet. A relief washed over him. And as soon as the initial, pressing instinct to save his ass, and Kame’s too, partially faded, another issue came up. Jin looked at Kame, studying him. “How did you know it was the Mummies inside the factory? Did they ever get inside before?”

Kame shook his head.

Jin waited.

“No, not really,” Kame said quietly, eventually giving up and answering Jin’s questions. A previous internal struggle clear in his face. “But they are after me, so they probably watched the factory and saw you enter. You showed them the way.”

“I’m pretty sure I closed the damn door behind myself.”

Jin refused to believe he would have made such a basic mistake.

Kame was shaking his head again. “It doesn’t matter. They just needed to know where to open it.”

“Are you telling me they are-intelligent?”

The thought alone was ridiculous and went against everything Jin had ever heard about Mummies.

Kame shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s just- Shit!” He glanced up over Jin’s shoulder and saw a move at the nearest corner. Their pursuers might have not been fast, but they sure were relentless, driven by the instinct to follow and catch. Kame was freezing again, his eyes big and dilated, his breathing hard. He probably didn’t even realize he reached for Jin’s hand again, squeezing it tight. Like their connected hands meant they were going to be fine.

Fine. That was exactly Jin’s plan.

Stopping in the middle of the street had been a bad move anyway. A mistake that could cost them much more than time for conversation if the Mummies had been in the full chasing mode.

“Come on,” Jin ordered and got moving.

By now it wasn’t a surprise that Kame followed without a word, doing his best to keep up with Jin.

Then everything moved in a blur. They ran down the street, their steps heavy on the cracked concrete that used to be a busy street. Somewhere on the outskirts, long traffics of abandoned, corroding cars lined up in both directions; cars left to rot the day the infection spread in the air in the biggest blow and people understood with terrifying finality that vehicles couldn’t have taken them far enough to save them from the unknown poison. They had left the car where they had stopped, some of them already carrying the first signs of infection on their skin.

The street wound around the factory wall. From the outside, Jin knew the close surroundings pretty well after days of observation.

He had been prepared for almost every eventuality-though ending up encountering Mummies and being chased by them wasn’t anywhere near the top of the list of possible scenarios. Where the hell had they been hiding all that time?

And hiding they must have been. Really well so.

Because now the street led Jin and Kame back to the front of the factory complex, there was already the lawn visible on the right-and Kame froze. The free space in front of the factory gate wasn’t empty anymore. On the grass, at least a dozen Mummies were swaying at the spot, none of them moved forward when Jin and Kame got in sight, but from the way the rhythm of their moves changed, it was clear the two humans weren’t unnoticed.

“Oh fuck me,” Jin groaned.

It was like the fucking gas station all over again.

“Jin, I can’t do this. They know. They… have been waiting for me.” Kame was in shock, staring at the Mummies and clutching Jin’s hand so hard it was almost painful, but he probably wasn’t aware of his strength at the moment.

Slowly, not to draw attention, Jin tugged on Kame’s hand. “We’re almost there,” he whispered.

There was only one way out, and even that could easily lead them into a trap. The Mummies were acting strangely, like nothing Jin had ever seen or heard of. They seemed-organized. Behavior that was unheard of in the whole history since the infection had spread. They must have been capable of some kind of communication, too. Usually, Mummies operated alone, or moved in random groups of three to ten heads, but they never showed focused intention to hunt and corner.

Now, however, Jin sensed their stare and felt very much like the prey he most probably was.

“Kame?”

“Jin?” Kame turned to face Jin, and for the first time in maybe months, maybe longer, Jin saw what dread looked like. Kame was paler than before, his bottom lip trembling when he spoke. “Jin, get out of here. It’s me they want.”

“Like hell am I leaving you here,” Jin hissed.

He just needed a plan. A good one. A quick one.

“Jin, please.”

“Not happening. You can say I feel responsible, okay? It’s my fault they found you.” He could reason with Kame later, explain to him that Mummies didn’t make differences between humans, or anything with a beating heart inside its chest. They smelled blood; at least that was the generally accepted theory about their behavior. No one really knew for sure, because no one ever got close enough for a long period of time to research them. People didn’t risk their lives to catch Mummies-if they encountered one, they either killed it, or died.

Jin didn’t want to think too much about which of those options was waiting for him and Kame in the following minutes.

“They knew I was inside the factory,” Kame protested, but in spite of his pouty words, he wasn’t letting go of Jin’s hand.

“And I showed them the damn door. Now, would you please shut up and let me think?”

There must have been something he could do.

All he needed was something to distract their attention long enough for him and Kame to get across the street and inside the nearest building. Then they would find a way through to find Ryo in the next block.

“But-” Kame took a breath, but never had a chance to say anything.

The distraction Jin had wished for was right there.

“HEY YOU ASSHOLES, COME AND GET ME!”

With a war cry, Ryo bolted out of the door, hands above his head and across the distance Jin couldn’t see the thing Ryo was holding. Something small and shiny when the faint sun licked its surface.

“COME ON! FUCKING MUMMIES!”

The pack on the lawn turned after the voice. Some of them moved forward, taking clumsy steps towards Ryo, grunting and groaning. Sounds Jin had never paid attention to, but now couldn’t but wonder if it really could be a form of communication between the Mummies.

Ryo put his hands down, fumbling with something out of Jin’s sight, but when Jin did get to see what was going on, he would fucking kiss Ryo if he was standing closer.

“Kame, run!”

Jin pulled Kame into a run. Better to get out of there. They were still chased by the group that had gone after them in the factory, but those were posing no real harm compared to the bigger group that was now, however, distracted by Ryo and the Molotov cocktail in his hand, a now burning piece of cloth flapping around the bottle mouth.

Ryo kept shouting at the Mummies, teasing them and luring them closer. Jin could understand his friend’s aversion to leave a spot that allowed him a fast retreat in case of need. The door behind Ryo’s back was open, and Ryo didn’t walk too far from there.

From a corner of his eye Jin noticed Ryo’s throw, the bottle drew the perfect arch through the air and landed in the middle of the gathered Mummies. The glass crashed, alcohol spilled out and soaked into the ground-everything caught fire. Flames spread around, devouring grass, sending sparks that hungrily bit down on every shred of clothing, every rag hanging on the clumsy bodies gathered around.

Low grunts filled the site, Mummies stumbled one over another in vain tries to get away. Their jerky movements were only spreading the fire further.

Jin would have stopped and watched the scene with something close to amazement, if it hadn’t been for Kame.

Jin didn’t look back then.

It didn’t matter that Ryo must have used the last bottle of alcohol they had, it didn’t matter that Ryo just set on fire the whole neighborhood and the only thing to put down the flames now would be rain. No one cared what would happen to the world outside the Zones. For most people, the world could burn down to the ground and they wouldn’t as much as blink an eye. In fact, most of them might even celebrate, since the fire would take the Mummies down as well.

“HURRY UP, AKANISHI, WE DON’T HAVE ALL DAY!” Ryo cried out, impatiently shuffling his feet on the dusty ground. He wanted to be inside. Wanted to hide and close the door to put a barrier between himself and the things writhing in fire. Their grunts and cries were only bound to call up more Mummies.

Just like Jin before, Ryo remembered the gas station, remembered Jin cornered by a horde of Mummies, their clawed feet scratching the floor as they had chased Jin around the shop and then also outside, around empty gas tanks and abandoned vehicles, and when Jin had finally slipped in the passenger seat and shouted at Ryo breathlessly to get them the fuck away, Ryo had never in his life stepped on the gas pedal faster. The old engine had roared and the car had taken them away. In the rear mirror, Jin had seen some of the Mummies breaking into run, but their stamina could never lasted long enough to match a car.

With Ryo’s croaked voice cheering for them, Jin and Kame eventually found themselves inside the corner building. Jin grabbed the first big enough object to block the broken window they used as an access point, and Kame helped push an old, rusty bathtub to the place to hold the board against the wall.

“I can’t believe Ryo did that,” Jin said, taking a minute to catch his breath after the run. His legs were shaky and his whole body was tingling with the lack of oxygen, his heart was pounding hard up in his throat. For someone who was always on the run, he was awfully out of shape. Not really the type to join a marathon, or a sprint competition.

He bent forward, hugging his middle with both hands, and closed his eyes. The need to gasp for air was slowly fading and his breathing pattern was returning to normal.

Kame was quiet, and after a moment Jin glanced up to check on the other.

Kame stood a couple steps aside, staring at the board that now served as a barrier between in and out. It was hardly a match to the sturdy walls of the factory, or its metal doors and gates, or heavy shutters covering the windows.

But it had to do for now, anyway.

Sensing Jin’s eyes on him, Kame turned around. “Was that your friend? Is he going to be alright?”

“Of course. He’s probably already inside, cursing me, because to save me-us, he had to use what was left of our booze. Good thing I took some in the factory.” Jin grinned. He felt much better now.

Of course, spending the night anywhere around here was no longer an option. The pungent smell of fire and burning bodies found its way also inside, and it was only a matter of minutes until the flames jumped on the trees and then also walls. The sky might be steel gray and hanging low, but that didn’t mean rain would come any time soon. The sky was rarely different these days, after all.

Kame gave him a wry smile, but then surprised Jin by moving to gather both their bags and handing one to Jin.

“We should go check on him. And bring him some booze. He may need it.”

Jin grinned.

“He will like you.”

They picked up their bags and Jin carefully tucked the flashlight into a pocket. After having left the factory in hurry, there hadn’t been time to take care of it, and with a line of windows on the front wall now, there was enough light for them to see where they were heading. The floor was covered with garbage, dust, and even some moss and weed growing out of the rotten, wooden floor and damp carpet. The glass in the windows had dirt stuck all over, but only a few panels seemed to be broken.

Taking careful steps, Jin was making his way across the hall to a kicked-out door at the other end. Kame followed right behind him, occasionally making small hissing sounds, probably when he stepped on something extra moist or spongy.

“You don’t sleep at places like this, do you?” Kame asked eventually.

The sheer disgust in his voice made Jin chuckle. “Not everyone hits the jackpot with a luxurious, well-preserved factory building, you know? The rest of us must improvise.”

Kame was quiet for a moment. Jin imagined him imagining spending a night at a place like this.

“But no, we’re not sleeping here tonight. Or any other night.” Jin took a pity of Kame in the end. “It’s dangerous, and also gross. The higher floors might be better, if the roof didn’t cave in yet, but we can’t stay here anyway.”

Kame nodded, more to himself. “The fire.”

“Exactly.

“I’m sorry you can’t stay here. If they hadn’t caught my scent, your friend wouldn’t have needed to start the fire.”

“Hey, none of that,” Jin cut him short.

Kame lowered his head and nodded again.

It took them a while to find a way through the piled up garbage and a collapsed inner wall. Old plastic tables and broken chairs were scattered around, giving an idea that the place used to serve as some sort of business establishment, a restaurant, or a fast-food place. Small plastic balls of faded colors covered a corner of one of the rooms, and Jin was tempted to take one.

“Jesus Christ, Akanishi, what the fuck was that?”

Jin heard Ryo before he saw him. He gave Kame an assuring smile over his shoulder, and then walked into the next room. Now, that looked familiar.

When he had been leaving a little over an hour ago, he had had no idea what had been waiting for him.

“Thanks for saving my ass,” Jin grinned.

Ryo threw himself at Jin, arms flapping and wrapping around Jin’s neck, he held tight like he might never let go. Ryo didn’t say anything else, swallowing back sobs of relief. For a while, he thought he would never see Jin again and it was like a nightmare.

“You,” Ryo sobbed.

The tight grip on Jin gradually morphed into Ryo repeatedly hitting Jin’s back and shoulders with clenched fists.

“You asshole! Don’t you ever dare doing it again!”

“What- I didn’t do anything.” Jin stood there, letting Ryo release the tension and fear. Ryo had been fine after the gas station, as fine as he could have been, considering the nightmares that had plagued his dreams afterwards, but he hadn’t been trying to beat Jin to death back then. “Ryo… Ryo, come on, I’m fine. We are fine.” Jin held Ryo’s shoulders and carefully peeled the other off of himself. Ryo’s face was twisted with anger and pain, his eyes flickered all over Jin before landing on Kame.

“Who-”

Jin stepped back. “That’s Kame. Turned out there was more than supplies inside the factory.”

Ryo groaned. “I should have known you would risk both our lives for a pretty boy someday.” He didn’t say it loud, but Kame probably heard it anyway. Jin didn’t dare looking to make sure.

“Shut up,” he hissed.

With everything that had happened since the moment he had left the hideout, there had been hardly time for Jin to stop and take a good look at Kame. It was either too dark, or too many things happening. To many Mummies going after them.

After Kame.

The thought wasn’t a conscious one. Logically, even in the light of the new findings, like that Mummies might be really able to communicate with each other, Jin still refused to accept that Mummies, generally considered brainless, might have an agenda-and that their agenda, of all things, would be searching for and finding a young man living all alone in the middle of the wasteland that used to be Tokyo.

Ryo nudged Jin, winking at him meaningfully, but finally also pulled away and took a step towards Kame.

“I’m Ryo.”

“Kame.”

“Nice to meet you. I hope you know what you’ve gotten yourself into by joining this idiot.”

Kame did his best to smile, but the sudden attention and Ryo’s easy, friendly act was making him nervous, dragging out his shy side that wasn’t used to social interaction of any kind, the less a friendly one.

“We didn’t really have another choice, Ryo,” Jin explained, saving Kame from having to form answers that would be more than a few words long. “Fucking Mummies got inside the factory.”

“Inside? You kidding!”

“Not in the slightest. Weird, right?” Jin wasn’t really up to mentioning Kame’s theory, but he also knew there was only so much time he could keep that bit secret from Ryo for.

It didn’t make any sense-not to tell Ryo, because the two of them had always talked about everything, but Jin kept quiet about it anyway. So what. Maybe it was a coincidence, an accident that had brought them inside the factory. Or maybe Mummies didn’t mind enclosed spaces at all and people just never saw them entering buildings. If that was the case, Ryo would just laugh at Jin eventually. Nothing but wrong timing. Anything was possible. There was no such thing as exact science concerning Mummies, after all. It was difficult to study them when no one dared getting closer.

And if-the if being big and shiny and almost nonexistent-Kame was right and the Mummies were after him, Ryo might panic. Ryo might want for Kame to go away.

Jin couldn’t allow that.

Jin hoped Kame would stay with them. At least for a while.

“Fucking weird,” Ryo nodded, looking between Jin and Kame, as if one of them could offer an explanation that his brain demanded at the moment. “I don’t think we ever-”

“Nope,” Jin assisted, “we never saw them inside.”

“Nice. Then I hope you understand we’re not staying here another minute. Gotta get the fuck out of here, Jin.”

“Agreed.”

No one moved though. If it had been just the two of them, Ryo would have been already furiously packing his bag and they would have been on the move in a moment. However, they weren’t alone-Jin had brought a stranger along, and so far they all had been too occupied with Mummies to stop and decide on what should happen with Kame.

Kame had said it, if not directly, then everything about his behavior was clearly stating that he liked his settled, safe way of life. He liked walls and locks on doors, liked his store room full of supplies-god, he had a bed and other stuff people considered a home.

And now it was gone. Maybe not yet consumed by flames, but Mummies knew their way inside, and Kame couldn’t go back.

All that was left of his life before Jin had burst into it, was the few things Jin had stolen during his unintentional break-in and the bag Kame had brought along, probably stuffed with a few essentials.

“Kame?” Jin started in a low voice, turning to Kame and trying to read his blank expression. “Do you… Would you like to go with us?”

“Go-where?”

“First of all, away,” Ryo said, impatience kicking in. “Then we’ll see.”

Uncertainly, Kame looked at Jin. He was confused and a little lost, and things had been so much easier when Jin had held his hand and told him what to do and where to go.

“We can’t stay here,” Jin explained calmly. He stepped closer, but didn’t reach out to make any physical contact with Kame. “There’s the fire, and if it didn’t kill all the Mummies around, the rest will be pretty pissed off. I don’t know how about you, but Ryo and I could really do with some shut eye tonight.”

“And some booze,” Ryo threw in, grinning.

“Right. Things like… this,” Jin waved in a general direction of the front windows illuminated by the fire outside, “that doesn’t happen everyday-”

“Luckily.”

“And Ryo is practically a half-Mole, so for him coming outside and attacking the Mummies has been a huge thing-”

Ryo pouted. “You can mock me all you want, Akanishi, but you will see someday. The Moles are our future, not the fucking dictatorship in the Zones. They are as real as you or me, or your pretty boy here.”

Listening to the short exchange, Kame got lost for a completely different reason that had a little to do with the fact that his secure life had been just blown into pieces. He understood about a half of what Jin and Ryo were talking about.

“What do you say?” Jin smiled.

And Kame melted. “You said it yourself, I can’t stay here.”

**

( part 2)