chapter three
Title: Holding On (Call My Name)
Author: hotfruits
Beta: dreamweavernyx ♥
Rating: R for violence and swearing
Characters: JUMP - Okajima. Chiitaro.
Summary: AU!Zombies. Yuto had been at school when it all happened, and now, he and the other survivors are just trying to stay alive.
prequel
chapter one
chapter two
After some debate, it was decided that the five of them would travel north towards Nikko, a small town Ryosuke remembered visiting with his family as a kid. A few days after that, Keito and Yuto had gotten all of their supplies ready, while Ryosuke stayed back and attended to the two injured boys.
Yuri was doing well, much to everyone’s surprise, although his chest gave him great pain; Keito figured he had probably broken his ribs during the accident, and tried wrapping up Yuri’s chest with some gauze, but the boy had thrown up a large amount of blood after that, so they left it alone.
Ryutaro, on the other hand, looked like he could drop dead any second. The cut on the side of his head wasn’t healing well, and he kept passing out a lot, sleeping for lengthy periods at a time. Ryosuke was worried he might have a concussion, and that if he did, it was possible he could go into a coma and then, without a doubt (due to their lack of medical expertise and equipment), die.
Yuri stayed with Ryutaro the most, holding his hand and whispering soothing words into the air, trying to hide his sobs. According to Ryosuke, who knew Yuri in middle school before the boy had moved away, Ryutaro was his closest friend, maybe even more.
This struck something within Yuto, for he felt that he could emphasize with Yuri’s distress; if something like this, or worse, happened to Keito, he didn’t know what he’d do. The two had grown even more dependent on each other, and every time they went out to get food and water, they stuck obsessively together, watching each others backs and making sure that they were safe.
Shaking his head of such thoughts, Yuto loaded the last of the petrol containers and closed the trunk, coming around to the other side of the car. Keito was fast asleep in the passenger seat, having been up all night checking that they had everything they needed. Ryosuke sat comfortably in his lap, although he kept glancing over his shoulder at Yuri and Ryutaro, who were both awake and cuddling in the backseat, Ryutaro shivering fiercely and Yuri wiping the sweat off his brow.
Getting into the driver’s seat, Yuto started the car and pulled away from their home, driving down the eerily quiet streets.
“Hey look, there’s where we crashed,” Ryutaro mumbled weakly, pointing out the window and towards a house with a large truck tipped on its side in the living room. “Seems like forever ago,” he said, leaning back over and resting his head on Yuri’s shoulder.
Yuri began to stroke the boy’s hair, gently kissing the bandaged that Yuto had re-dressed that morning; there was already a spot of blood leaking through, and as the spot grew thicker, Ryutaro’s eyes began to droop. When they had reached the freeway, the boy was unconscious, his breathing coming out in wheezy gasps.
“Don’t worry Yuri,” Ryosuke tried to smile for the younger boy, “We’re going to find a doctor, and Ryutaro will be okay. Maybe you should try and get some rest, we’ve got another two hours until we get there.”
Nodding, Yuri closed his eyes, and after a short while fell asleep, the dark circles under his eyes looking more prominent.
“Poor thing,” Ryosuke shook his head sadly, “He’s too scared to fall asleep.”
“Can’t blame him,” Yuto replied, keeping his eyes on the road; there was that feeling again, like someone had just punched him in the stomach and knocked all the air out of him.
“You keep thinking about what would happen if this was Keito, huh,” Yamada stated, rather than asked, “It’s a horrible feeling, isn’t it?”
“You know from experience?” Yuto asked, trying not to look too closely at the mutilated corpses on the highway.
“My sisters and I managed to stick together pretty well, after all of this happened. We even found some other survivors, and were living together down in Shibuya,” Ryosuke looked down at his lap, sniffling a little, “They found us though, and I realize now it was such a stupid idea to have so many people living together. We all went out to fight, but there was so many, on both sides, and my sisters ended up getting caught in the crossfire.”
“They were shot?” Yuto gasped, eyes widening in surprise.
“My older sister died immediately, gun shot to the head. My younger sister though, was hit in the leg, and so I picked her up and ran for it. When we got somewhere deserted, I tried to stop the blood flow, but there was so much. She was really weak, and in a lot of pain, but I couldn’t let myself give up. She stayed alive, barely, for three days before she died. I buried her near a pond she liked as a child,” Ryosuke’s voice had gone quiet as he said this, tears falling down his cheeks.
“I’m so sorry,” Yuto said, reaching over and giving Ryosuke’s hand a squeeze. “I can’t even imagine what that must feel like.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to,” Ryosuke wiped away his tears and sighed, looking out the window. “We can’t be too far now.”
Yuto looked down at the clock on the dashboard and saw that an hour and a half had gone by. Only one more hour to go, it seemed, and they’d be at Nikko.
“Do you have any siblings, Yuto?” Ryosuke asked suddenly, still looking out the window.
“I have a little brother, Raiya. He’s twelve, and the coolest kid I,” Yuto broke off, a cold feeling sweeping over his chest. He had almost said knew, as if Raiya was some figure of the past now. “He’s the coolest I know,” Yuto said fiercely, his hands gripping the steering wheel a little tighter.
“I know how you feel,” Ryosuke nodded, “Even though my sisters are dead, talking about them in the past-tense just seems wrong.”
“Yeah,” Yuto replied, loosening his grip and trying to force away the thoughts of a dead Raiya and Keito.
The last hour passed by in silence, until they arrived in Nikko. Ryosuke quietly woke up Keito, who helped the other boy in keeping watch for anything suspicious, or for any signs of human life; as Keito had predicted, there weren’t many of the bodies walking around, although they saw a fairly large group of them hiding out in a grocery store.
On the other hand, there weren’t much signs of human life. There was no movement in any of the houses, no indication that anyone had lived in them for months. As their first hour in the town passed by, Yuto grew more and more worried that they had come out here all the way for nothing, wasting the last of their gas and-
“There!” Keito shouted, pointing a house to the left, “I saw someone upstairs!”
Pulling over onto the curb, Keito and Yuto grabbed their guns and ran out of the car and towards the front door. Cocking his gun, Yuto took a deep breath and watched as Keito knocked on the door. A tense silence filled the air, and then they heard it, a quiet voice behind the door.
“Who’s there?”
“My name is Okamoto Keito,” Keito quickly responded, “We have two injured boys with us, one of them very serious. We drove here from Chiba hoping to find some help.”
It grew quiet again, the silence lasting longer than before.
The door creaked open, and a skinny boy, around Yuto’s height, looked at them in apprehension. “Alright,” he said, and Yuto and Keito ran back to the car, helping the now awake Yuri into the house while Keito carried Ryutaro, Ryosuke following behind them. The door shut behind them and they were ushered up stairs, where they found four other boys, all sitting around on the floor and looking up at them curiously.
After they got a good look at Ryutaro though, one of the boys, with messy brown hair and tanned skin, stood up and gestured for Keito to lay him on the floor.
“My name is Yuya,” the boy said, as he began to take off the bloody gauze around Ryutaro’s head, “I was studying to be a nurse before this shit happened. Daiki,” he turned around, addressing a short boy with chubby cheeks, “I need some alcohol, thread, needle and gauze. Kei,” he turned to the next boy, who had wavy hair and was exceptionally pretty, “I need you to help me while I stitch this cut, by wiping away any excess blood.” Kei nodded and moved to sit beside Yuya, looking down at Ryutaro’s cut with a grimace.
“What about me?” the third boy asked, his arms crossed over his chest as he frowned.
Yuya snickered as Daiki came running back into the room, carrying the items he had requested. “Hikaru, the last time I let you help me, you dropped the bottle of alcohol on my head. No offense, but you’re a ditz when it comes to these things.”
“Damnit,” Hikaru muttered, looking put out as the boy who had let them in sat down. The four youngest boys sat down as well, staring at Yuya as he worked slowly on Ryutaro’s cut, applying a liberal amount of alcohol to the wound, before removing the stitches Yuto had done. While he did this, Daiki threaded the needle and handed it to Yuya when he was ready, who immediately began to stitch up the cut, Kei wiping away the blood as he went. It took no more than fifteen minutes, and when he was done, he gently wrapped the bandage around Ryutaro’s head, securing it with a few metal clips.
“The cut was pretty badly infected,” Yuya said as he cleaned his hands off, using the alcohol and a bit of gauze, “Hopefully the alcohol cleaned it out though. I’ll have to check tomorrow to see if its healing properly this time.”
“Thank you so much,” Yuri said tearfully, bowing low to the ground as he cried, “Will he, will he be okay then?” he asked, looking at Yuya with hopeful eyes.
“It’s too early to tell, but he’s definitely concussed, which is not good,” Yuri began to cry harder at this, his head hanging low. “Don’t give up hope though, alright? If your friend has lasted this long, that definitely means he’s a fighter, and I’m sure he’s trying his hardest to survive.”
Yuri nodded, using his sleeve to wipe away his tears. Ryosuke rubbed his back, smiling at him reassuringly, the gesture genuine this time.
“So,” the boy who let them in interrupted the moment, and Yuto realized they still didn’t know his name. “You say you came here from Chiba?”
“That’s right, after Yuri and Ryutaro showed up, we knew they needed help,” Keito answered, “We thought the best place to go would be away from the cities, since the infestation is so bad there.”
“That’s why we came here,” Kei spoke up, a bit of blood still under his nails, “I was in Saitama, Yuya in Osaka, Daiki in Chiba, and Hikaru and Kota in Tokyo. After the five us met, we drove out here and found this place, and have been here ever since. We’ve gotten rid of most of the problem, but there’s still a few large groups roaming around the area.”
“We saw some in a grocery store, not too far from here,” Ryosuke said, “By the way, I’m Yamada, but call me Ryosuke. This is Yuri, that’s Ryutaro, over next to Hikaru is Yuto and next to him is Keito.”
“Hey,” everyone said at once, and then chuckled a little, except Yuri, who was now holding Ryutaro’s hand and muffling his tears with his fist.
“How did you guys get by, living near the city?” Hikaru asked, brows pulled together.
In turn, Keito, Yuto and Ryosuke recounted the last few months of their lives; where they were when it happened, what they did in order to survive, and how they managed to find each other. The only one who didn’t speak was Yuri, his attention focused solely on Ryutaro.
“That’s like us, too,” Kei started, looking around the group. “Kota and Hikaru ran into each other the day it happened, and ended up sticking together. They found me not too long after that, driving out to Saitama in hopes that it wasn’t too bad. Then Yuya came along, who left Osaka after his family,” Yuya coughed, looking at Kei sternly, “Er, and last there was Daiki, who we met after trying to find some gas, since he was looking for it too. It was actually Daiki’s idea to come out here, since he figured the small towns wouldn’t be too infested.”
The three nodded, quiet after Kei had finished his story, until Ryosuke let out a small yawn. Glancing outside, Yuto could see that the sun was setting now, and following Ryosuke, began to yawn as well.
“You must be tired from driving,” Kota said, standing as he led the three down a small hallway. There were four rooms, pretty small, and two of them were already occupied. “You guys can stay here,” he pushed open the door to one of the rooms, where they saw a bunk bed, “And your friends can stay in the other room. Sleep well,” Kota began to walk away, but Ryosuke stopped him, saying in a nervous voice, “By staying, do you mean…?”
Kota shrugged, “If you want. You should definitely stay until your friend gets better, at least,” with that, Kota left, and Keito closed the door behind him as they entered the bedroom.
“Mind if I take top bunk?” Ryosuke grinned, looking up at them brightly.
“Sure,” Keito laughed, and Ryosuke bounced over to the bed and up the ladder, snuggling under the blankets. Keito and Yuto climbed into the bottom bunk, the space a bit cramped, but they couldn’t complain; they had a new home now, a safer home, where Yuto already felt that he wouldn’t have to worry so much over Keito, or anyone else.
Closing his eyes, Yuto kissed Keito goodnight and fell asleep, his breathing easy as he slept peacefully in Keito’s arms.
Online donations to Japan through the Red Cross - er apparently Red Cross sucks and all of the donations don't actually go the cause Global Giving --> here
Author: hotfruits
Beta: dreamweavernyx ♥
Rating: R for violence and swearing
Characters: JUMP - Okajima. Chiitaro.
Summary: AU!Zombies. Yuto had been at school when it all happened, and now, he and the other survivors are just trying to stay alive.
prequel
chapter one
chapter two
After some debate, it was decided that the five of them would travel north towards Nikko, a small town Ryosuke remembered visiting with his family as a kid. A few days after that, Keito and Yuto had gotten all of their supplies ready, while Ryosuke stayed back and attended to the two injured boys.
Yuri was doing well, much to everyone’s surprise, although his chest gave him great pain; Keito figured he had probably broken his ribs during the accident, and tried wrapping up Yuri’s chest with some gauze, but the boy had thrown up a large amount of blood after that, so they left it alone.
Ryutaro, on the other hand, looked like he could drop dead any second. The cut on the side of his head wasn’t healing well, and he kept passing out a lot, sleeping for lengthy periods at a time. Ryosuke was worried he might have a concussion, and that if he did, it was possible he could go into a coma and then, without a doubt (due to their lack of medical expertise and equipment), die.
Yuri stayed with Ryutaro the most, holding his hand and whispering soothing words into the air, trying to hide his sobs. According to Ryosuke, who knew Yuri in middle school before the boy had moved away, Ryutaro was his closest friend, maybe even more.
This struck something within Yuto, for he felt that he could emphasize with Yuri’s distress; if something like this, or worse, happened to Keito, he didn’t know what he’d do. The two had grown even more dependent on each other, and every time they went out to get food and water, they stuck obsessively together, watching each others backs and making sure that they were safe.
Shaking his head of such thoughts, Yuto loaded the last of the petrol containers and closed the trunk, coming around to the other side of the car. Keito was fast asleep in the passenger seat, having been up all night checking that they had everything they needed. Ryosuke sat comfortably in his lap, although he kept glancing over his shoulder at Yuri and Ryutaro, who were both awake and cuddling in the backseat, Ryutaro shivering fiercely and Yuri wiping the sweat off his brow.
Getting into the driver’s seat, Yuto started the car and pulled away from their home, driving down the eerily quiet streets.
“Hey look, there’s where we crashed,” Ryutaro mumbled weakly, pointing out the window and towards a house with a large truck tipped on its side in the living room. “Seems like forever ago,” he said, leaning back over and resting his head on Yuri’s shoulder.
Yuri began to stroke the boy’s hair, gently kissing the bandaged that Yuto had re-dressed that morning; there was already a spot of blood leaking through, and as the spot grew thicker, Ryutaro’s eyes began to droop. When they had reached the freeway, the boy was unconscious, his breathing coming out in wheezy gasps.
“Don’t worry Yuri,” Ryosuke tried to smile for the younger boy, “We’re going to find a doctor, and Ryutaro will be okay. Maybe you should try and get some rest, we’ve got another two hours until we get there.”
Nodding, Yuri closed his eyes, and after a short while fell asleep, the dark circles under his eyes looking more prominent.
“Poor thing,” Ryosuke shook his head sadly, “He’s too scared to fall asleep.”
“Can’t blame him,” Yuto replied, keeping his eyes on the road; there was that feeling again, like someone had just punched him in the stomach and knocked all the air out of him.
“You keep thinking about what would happen if this was Keito, huh,” Yamada stated, rather than asked, “It’s a horrible feeling, isn’t it?”
“You know from experience?” Yuto asked, trying not to look too closely at the mutilated corpses on the highway.
“My sisters and I managed to stick together pretty well, after all of this happened. We even found some other survivors, and were living together down in Shibuya,” Ryosuke looked down at his lap, sniffling a little, “They found us though, and I realize now it was such a stupid idea to have so many people living together. We all went out to fight, but there was so many, on both sides, and my sisters ended up getting caught in the crossfire.”
“They were shot?” Yuto gasped, eyes widening in surprise.
“My older sister died immediately, gun shot to the head. My younger sister though, was hit in the leg, and so I picked her up and ran for it. When we got somewhere deserted, I tried to stop the blood flow, but there was so much. She was really weak, and in a lot of pain, but I couldn’t let myself give up. She stayed alive, barely, for three days before she died. I buried her near a pond she liked as a child,” Ryosuke’s voice had gone quiet as he said this, tears falling down his cheeks.
“I’m so sorry,” Yuto said, reaching over and giving Ryosuke’s hand a squeeze. “I can’t even imagine what that must feel like.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to,” Ryosuke wiped away his tears and sighed, looking out the window. “We can’t be too far now.”
Yuto looked down at the clock on the dashboard and saw that an hour and a half had gone by. Only one more hour to go, it seemed, and they’d be at Nikko.
“Do you have any siblings, Yuto?” Ryosuke asked suddenly, still looking out the window.
“I have a little brother, Raiya. He’s twelve, and the coolest kid I,” Yuto broke off, a cold feeling sweeping over his chest. He had almost said knew, as if Raiya was some figure of the past now. “He’s the coolest I know,” Yuto said fiercely, his hands gripping the steering wheel a little tighter.
“I know how you feel,” Ryosuke nodded, “Even though my sisters are dead, talking about them in the past-tense just seems wrong.”
“Yeah,” Yuto replied, loosening his grip and trying to force away the thoughts of a dead Raiya and Keito.
The last hour passed by in silence, until they arrived in Nikko. Ryosuke quietly woke up Keito, who helped the other boy in keeping watch for anything suspicious, or for any signs of human life; as Keito had predicted, there weren’t many of the bodies walking around, although they saw a fairly large group of them hiding out in a grocery store.
On the other hand, there weren’t much signs of human life. There was no movement in any of the houses, no indication that anyone had lived in them for months. As their first hour in the town passed by, Yuto grew more and more worried that they had come out here all the way for nothing, wasting the last of their gas and-
“There!” Keito shouted, pointing a house to the left, “I saw someone upstairs!”
Pulling over onto the curb, Keito and Yuto grabbed their guns and ran out of the car and towards the front door. Cocking his gun, Yuto took a deep breath and watched as Keito knocked on the door. A tense silence filled the air, and then they heard it, a quiet voice behind the door.
“Who’s there?”
“My name is Okamoto Keito,” Keito quickly responded, “We have two injured boys with us, one of them very serious. We drove here from Chiba hoping to find some help.”
It grew quiet again, the silence lasting longer than before.
The door creaked open, and a skinny boy, around Yuto’s height, looked at them in apprehension. “Alright,” he said, and Yuto and Keito ran back to the car, helping the now awake Yuri into the house while Keito carried Ryutaro, Ryosuke following behind them. The door shut behind them and they were ushered up stairs, where they found four other boys, all sitting around on the floor and looking up at them curiously.
After they got a good look at Ryutaro though, one of the boys, with messy brown hair and tanned skin, stood up and gestured for Keito to lay him on the floor.
“My name is Yuya,” the boy said, as he began to take off the bloody gauze around Ryutaro’s head, “I was studying to be a nurse before this shit happened. Daiki,” he turned around, addressing a short boy with chubby cheeks, “I need some alcohol, thread, needle and gauze. Kei,” he turned to the next boy, who had wavy hair and was exceptionally pretty, “I need you to help me while I stitch this cut, by wiping away any excess blood.” Kei nodded and moved to sit beside Yuya, looking down at Ryutaro’s cut with a grimace.
“What about me?” the third boy asked, his arms crossed over his chest as he frowned.
Yuya snickered as Daiki came running back into the room, carrying the items he had requested. “Hikaru, the last time I let you help me, you dropped the bottle of alcohol on my head. No offense, but you’re a ditz when it comes to these things.”
“Damnit,” Hikaru muttered, looking put out as the boy who had let them in sat down. The four youngest boys sat down as well, staring at Yuya as he worked slowly on Ryutaro’s cut, applying a liberal amount of alcohol to the wound, before removing the stitches Yuto had done. While he did this, Daiki threaded the needle and handed it to Yuya when he was ready, who immediately began to stitch up the cut, Kei wiping away the blood as he went. It took no more than fifteen minutes, and when he was done, he gently wrapped the bandage around Ryutaro’s head, securing it with a few metal clips.
“The cut was pretty badly infected,” Yuya said as he cleaned his hands off, using the alcohol and a bit of gauze, “Hopefully the alcohol cleaned it out though. I’ll have to check tomorrow to see if its healing properly this time.”
“Thank you so much,” Yuri said tearfully, bowing low to the ground as he cried, “Will he, will he be okay then?” he asked, looking at Yuya with hopeful eyes.
“It’s too early to tell, but he’s definitely concussed, which is not good,” Yuri began to cry harder at this, his head hanging low. “Don’t give up hope though, alright? If your friend has lasted this long, that definitely means he’s a fighter, and I’m sure he’s trying his hardest to survive.”
Yuri nodded, using his sleeve to wipe away his tears. Ryosuke rubbed his back, smiling at him reassuringly, the gesture genuine this time.
“So,” the boy who let them in interrupted the moment, and Yuto realized they still didn’t know his name. “You say you came here from Chiba?”
“That’s right, after Yuri and Ryutaro showed up, we knew they needed help,” Keito answered, “We thought the best place to go would be away from the cities, since the infestation is so bad there.”
“That’s why we came here,” Kei spoke up, a bit of blood still under his nails, “I was in Saitama, Yuya in Osaka, Daiki in Chiba, and Hikaru and Kota in Tokyo. After the five us met, we drove out here and found this place, and have been here ever since. We’ve gotten rid of most of the problem, but there’s still a few large groups roaming around the area.”
“We saw some in a grocery store, not too far from here,” Ryosuke said, “By the way, I’m Yamada, but call me Ryosuke. This is Yuri, that’s Ryutaro, over next to Hikaru is Yuto and next to him is Keito.”
“Hey,” everyone said at once, and then chuckled a little, except Yuri, who was now holding Ryutaro’s hand and muffling his tears with his fist.
“How did you guys get by, living near the city?” Hikaru asked, brows pulled together.
In turn, Keito, Yuto and Ryosuke recounted the last few months of their lives; where they were when it happened, what they did in order to survive, and how they managed to find each other. The only one who didn’t speak was Yuri, his attention focused solely on Ryutaro.
“That’s like us, too,” Kei started, looking around the group. “Kota and Hikaru ran into each other the day it happened, and ended up sticking together. They found me not too long after that, driving out to Saitama in hopes that it wasn’t too bad. Then Yuya came along, who left Osaka after his family,” Yuya coughed, looking at Kei sternly, “Er, and last there was Daiki, who we met after trying to find some gas, since he was looking for it too. It was actually Daiki’s idea to come out here, since he figured the small towns wouldn’t be too infested.”
The three nodded, quiet after Kei had finished his story, until Ryosuke let out a small yawn. Glancing outside, Yuto could see that the sun was setting now, and following Ryosuke, began to yawn as well.
“You must be tired from driving,” Kota said, standing as he led the three down a small hallway. There were four rooms, pretty small, and two of them were already occupied. “You guys can stay here,” he pushed open the door to one of the rooms, where they saw a bunk bed, “And your friends can stay in the other room. Sleep well,” Kota began to walk away, but Ryosuke stopped him, saying in a nervous voice, “By staying, do you mean…?”
Kota shrugged, “If you want. You should definitely stay until your friend gets better, at least,” with that, Kota left, and Keito closed the door behind him as they entered the bedroom.
“Mind if I take top bunk?” Ryosuke grinned, looking up at them brightly.
“Sure,” Keito laughed, and Ryosuke bounced over to the bed and up the ladder, snuggling under the blankets. Keito and Yuto climbed into the bottom bunk, the space a bit cramped, but they couldn’t complain; they had a new home now, a safer home, where Yuto already felt that he wouldn’t have to worry so much over Keito, or anyone else.
Closing his eyes, Yuto kissed Keito goodnight and fell asleep, his breathing easy as he slept peacefully in Keito’s arms.
Online donations to Japan through the Red Cross - er apparently Red Cross sucks and all of the donations don't actually go the cause Global Giving --> here