From The Ashes - Chapter 4
title: From the Ashes
author: draelynn aka oracle_dreams
fandom: WK / Saiyuki (in later chapters)
rating: R - for horrorshow violence
summary: The end of the world has arrived and it is not the one anybody could have anticipated. But assassins are uniquely qualified at surviving a zombie apocolypse. Can they overcome their differences long enough to save what little is left of the world?
Because you know you want to see Weiss and Schwarz get together...
The streets were no longer obstacle courses but full on warzones. Some were so congested with shambling bodies that Manx needed to slam the SUV into a hard skid to get them going back in the opposite direction. As if the normal challenges weren’t bad enough, they had picked up pirates.
Raiders. Scavangers. Whatever this particular band of scum were calling themselves.
Surely a cooler urban acronym would emerge for the loosely gathered bands of survivors gone feral.
They had run into their like before. They had all hoped that other survivors would be motivated to band together, the last vestiges of humanity all helping one another survive. Instead, the two factions they had run into so far were bitterly divided, assimilating other survivors into makeshift work camps with one goal; to absorb each other into their collective or to die trying. It was crazy. As if the world weren’t already pure unadulterated chaos…
Aya turned that word over in his mind, disturbed by his own train of thought.
Chaos.
That was the stated goal of four particular individuals that he would much sooner forget. It was a much more comfortable place to be, assuming that those four had not survived the collapse of the museum. But Aya knew that they just weren’t that lucky. He had purposely forced himself to not think about the implications of this apocalypse. But something this unbelievably evil just seemed as if it would be child’s play for Schwarz.
Chaos and survival of the fittest was the plan Oracle taunted the old man with as Farfarello gutted him. These pirates were the very kinds of people Schwarz had questioned saving as they faced off that final time. Mastermind might be capable of pushing people to this primal state of mind but Aya just knew that this was simply the truth of human nature. Mankind, as a species, was corrupt, fallible and fatally flawed. Even the end of the world couldn’t change that.
He stared blankly at the bandage wrapped around his arm and with a big breath, forced his attention out the window. He couldn’t dwell on it. He still had a job to do, a responsibility to fulfill. Nothing else mattered.
Aya secured his katana to the back of Manx’s seat, keeping it within easy reach. It wouldn’t help in this situation. They all had a crash course on firearms courtesy of the Special Defense Forces just months ago. Omi passed an AK 47 to the redhead along with a half empty box of ammunition. None of them had any intention of joining either side in this pointless city turf war.
A day glo yellow Hummer was fast on their tail. Ad hock armor plating protected vulnerable sections of the vehicle. A cow catcher jutted from the front to ram through bodies or barriers or other vehicles they may pursue. A makeshift shooters cage with mounted mini gun replaced the sunroof and, perhaps worst of all, external speakers blared Flight of the Valkyrie, Apocalypse Now style, ringing the dinner bell for every corpse within a half mile.
“We can’t lead them back to the Koneko!” Omi yelled from the backseat as he dug more ammunition out of the rear seat, loading an assault rifle before handing it forward to Ken.
“I’m well aware…” Manx sniped back as she swerved hard around a charred tanker blocking three quarters of an intersection.
“Why aren’t they shooting?” Yohji peered back over his seat.
“They either want us alive or just want whatever we’re carrying in one piece.” Aya added.
“Shit. Spoke too soon… they’re going up top.” Yohji handed the clips back to Omi as he reached for the latches in the sunroof overhead.
The SUV bounced hard tossing them all around the interior.
“They’re getting too thick… we can’t plow through a wall of bodies…” Manx was finally starting to sound stressed.
“Keep moving or we’re dead!” Ken reminded her.
From behind, a loud ‘THOOOM’ reverberated through the music as the shooter fired a single shot from a bazooka.
The explosion close on their right forced Manx to make a hard left at the next intersection. Strangely enough the street was fairly clear ahead. She watched the rearview mirror, as the guys all scanned the street behind them for signs of their pursuers. The music suddenly cut off and their pursuers were gone.
“What the fuck was that?!” Ken turned in his seat to scan the street in front of them.
“I don’t like this…” Omi scanned all around the vehicle peering as far around and above as the windows allowed.
“Neither do I.” Manx added as they reached a suspiciously clear intersection. As they drove through it, the SUV passed over the pedestrian crosswalk and suddenly dropped hard into a camouflaged ravine, the axle snapping with a vicious metallic crunch.
Both Ken and Manx were nearly pitched through the windshield stopped only by the instant deployment of the airbags and everyone else was slammed hard into the seats in front of them.
“Is everybody alright?” Omi called from the floor, a trickle of blood seeping from his broken nose.
Aya just nodded in response as Yohji hauled himself off of the floor with a deep and sudden hacking cough. The rifle in his hands felt as if it had crushed his entire ribcage. He wheezed hard, seeing little white fireworks each time he breathed in.
“FUCK!” Ken pounded at the airbag, the frustration finally overwhelming him as he screamed into the cushion.
They were all just righting themselves as a loud squeal reverberated off of the buildings around them.
“You, in the car…” A PA address system blared from overhead. “You have two choices. Join us - we’ll protect you. Keep you safe. Or you can refuse and we’ll leave you to die.” The speaker cut out with a static whine.
“They’ve got guns of the roofs.” Yohji’s gravel voice was nothing but a stunted whisper as he pointed through the skylight. “At least three that I can see.”
“If you want to live, toss your weapons out of the car. You have sixty seconds to comply.”
“Let’s just join them…” Ken glared from the front seat.”… we can kill them in their sleep.”
“It’s the end of humanity as we know it. We can’t just go around killing those that are left alive.” Manx argued as she battled to get the airbag out of her way.
“This isn’t a fucking mission, Manx. They made it pretty fucking clear that humanity isn’t their priority.” Ken spit back as he fumbled to pull his gun free of the airbag.
“We don’t know how many people they might have saved. Nothing is so black or white anymore. They could have just killed us.” Omi argued back with an adamant agreement from Yohji.
“We’ve seen what they do to each other. I want no part of it.” Aya decreed, his tone final. “I won’t hand the girls over to them and we are not leaving them on their own…”
“Ten seconds!”
They all looked between each other. Those leading these rogue groups were from the same cesspools they had been tasked in cleaning up as Weiss. There really wasn’t much in the way of options. With a nod, they all took up defensive positions, locked and loaded.
“That is unfortunate.” The PA squealed one last time.
They all braced for gunfire, but it didn’t come. After a few seconds, the groan of metal echoed through the streets. They looked up and around… down the side streets of the intersection large, makeshift barriers had been erected. Parts of them were now swinging open with the assistance of overhead manual winces. Behind those barriers, a solid writhing mass of undead. This had been a well-orchestrated trap.
A loud thump came from the roof as a large string of fireworks bounced down to the pavement as its string of explosions crackled loudly to life.
Almost as a single mass, the undead from either side of the intersection lurched forward toward the sound and motion.
Yohji slumped back in his seat with a big sigh. “I am so tired of this shit.”
Omi dipped his head. “Yeah.”
“I’m not dying like this!” Ken wheeled in his seat assessing the corpses shuffling in their direction. “They’re long dead. We can outrun them…”
“That is probably what the guns are for…” Aya added. He wasn’t content to die here and now either and definitely not like this. “…but that doesn’t mean we give up. Manx, try and get us out of here. Omi, we need to torch them…”
“On it!” Omi dove into the trunk digging for supplies just as the first corpses flattened themselves to the back window of the SUV.
A horrible grinding emanated from below them along with the acrid smell of something burning that probably shouldn’t be. Manx dropped into overdrive and the vehicle lurched backwards. She tried over and over gaining inches as the body count around them grew. The few bodies that dropped under the rear wheels actually provided momentary traction which was lost as the sheer weight of the number of bodies overwhelmed them.
“We should have run for it. I would rather have died trying.” Ken glared back at them all.
“Giving up so soon? That’s not like you…”
Ken’s eyes went wide as did everyone else’s as they all looked to each, confirming that they all had heard the same voice.
“You have GOT to be fucking kidding me…” Ken looked around, hoping he was somehow just hallucinating.
Yohji dipped his head, put his fingers to the bridge of his nose and began to wheeze out a laugh.
“Is that…” Manx began to question.
Suddenly, the bodies packed around the SUV were just swept away. Their groaning and clamboring quickly grew fainter as they were dragged backwards away from the vehicle just as it seemed to lift smoothly into the air and out of the crater, hovering just above the ground until it was on level with the street once again. It touched down on level ground without so much as a bump.
“Guys… I…I…” Omi stuttered. “…fuck.”
They all turned in their seats to confirm what they already knew. In the middle of the intersection, a familiar teenage boy stood rod straight and still, eyes locked on the SUV with a hint of a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. A wall of corpses was steadily being shoved back down the street where they came from. Casually stepping around him, a much too familiar pair. Perhaps only familiar in the sense that their appearance was cause for anxiety and a much too familiar sense of dread.
Aya stowed his gun and reached for his sword just as Yohji instinctively reached for the watch he wasn’t even wearing. Omi and Ken, though, readied their guns with a quick glance in each other’s direction.
“Oh please… it’s fairly obvious we’re not here for THAT…”
The doors of the SUV all swung open just as Oracle and Mastermind reached the vehicle.
“I assure you, we could have just left you for dead.” Oracle stopped just steps away from Manx’s driver side door. The effortless condescension in his tone wormed its way under Aya’s skin, dissolving his self-control like fast acting acid. Aya bolted from his seat with a snarl, sword half drawn, eyes fixed on the American.
Just inches from the man’s side, he was frozen in place, unable to move.
“Isn’t that sweet? He remembers you Crawford…” Mastermind chuckled as he wrapped an arm over Aya’s shoulders, a hand tracing down his arm to resheath his sword with a click. Schuldig cast a salacious glance over his shoulder in Yohji’s direction.
Yohji launched himself towards the open door only to meet Mastermind’s foot which seemed to be strategically placed right in the center of his cracked ribs. The redhead chuckled down on him as he dropped with a choked exhale.
“Relax, Balinese. We didn’t come all this way so I could hit on your boyfriend.” Schuldig turned to slip the sword from Aya’s grasp and resume a place at Crawford’s side.
Omi and Ken caught each other’s attention just as Oracle began to chuckle to himself.
“Gentlemen, we all know how useless this is.” The safety’s on both of their rifles slipped on as if on cue and refused to budge. “It will be dark fairly soon. We do not have time to reminisce.”
“What do you want then?” Manx slipped from the driver’s seat. “It’s safe to assume our rescue will not come without a price.”
“It’s really a pity that Kritiker has made you sooooo cynical. You are too pretty to be such a pessimist.” Schuldig smiled as his eyes wandered her curves.
“The petty schemes of our collective predecessors are now irrelevant. What makes you believe we have an ulterior motive?’ Crawford cast a skeptical glance in her direction.
“Because the end of the world was on your ‘To Do’ list last we met. I have a difficult time believing that anything you do is done from the goodness of your heart.” Manx crossed her arms defiantly as Ken cautiously slipped out of the SUV behind her.
Crawford reached to push his glasses to the bridge of his nose, the action more habit than necessary.
“Point taken.” Again he chuckled to himself. “Gather what you have - we can discuss details after we all find shelter for the night.”
Aya’s frozen stance was released with a sharp intake of breath.
Schuldig raised a finger, waggling it in the swordman’s face. “Don’t EVEN. You don’t get it back until to stop fantasizing about running us through with it.”
“I won’t help you.” Ayas spit back in defiance.
“Aya, they’re here to help us.” Omi called out from the floor of the SUV as he helped Yohji out of the vehicle.
“You know that’s a lie!”
“Aya…” Yohji coughed “ Let’s just get safe. We can argue about it later.”
“Idiots.” Prodigy muttered emphatically from his place in the intersection.
With a slow consensus consisting of gestures, expressions and snarled concessions, the members of Weiss conceded to the situation and began gathering anything of value from the SUV.
“How are you keeping the gunmen on the roof from shooting us?” Ken questioned as he shoved two dufflebags out onto the street.
Just then a body landed with a sickening splat on the sidewalk behind them. Schuldig smiled wide.
“Come to me… come… to… me…” The redhead gestured with arms wide, looking up to the other rooftops in the intersection. Five men came into view and one by one, each dove off of the roof to meet the sidewalk below.
“Stop it!” Manx stepped up to Crawford. “Call him off!”
“What for?” He looked down on her, unimpressed. “Because human life is precious? Because there are so few of us left… hope for mankind…”
“YES! What good is the world to you if everyone is dead?!”
Across the street, a shop door flew open with a crash of glass. A large bloodied man was shoved through the doorway, behind him the last familiar yet most loathed face of this quartet. Once on the street, Farfarello set about tying his captive to a light pole.
“That is the leader of this pack of rabid dogs. You would like to save him? Why exactly? Because he is a credit to his species?’ He nodded to Schuldig.
Instantly all of them were treated to a vertigo inducing trip through the last few days of the man’s life. The pirates camp was nothing but a horror show of brutality - survivors treated as near slaves in return for protection and basic necessities of life. Women were nothing but objects with this scum keeping his own personal harem, raping them at his whim on a daily basis, some as young as twelve years old.
He fit the profile of every dark beast they had ever hunted under Persia’s command.
The man pleaded and promised all the while, rifling through every appeal in his book of tricks, trying desperately to find the hook that would guilt them into enough pity to release him. When none of those worked he finally resorted to threats of eternal damnation. Farfarello’s eyes flared but he stilled himself as Crawford laid a heavy hand on his shoulder.
“I think he would have enjoyed adding you to his collection. Should we free him and find out? Or maybe we should just return him to his harem…” Crawford offered as the vision played out.
Manx narrowed her eyes, her lips twitching as her thoughts coalesced. “I see why Abyssinian hates you so much…”
Schuldig barked out a laugh as he gathered up a single backpack, tossing it in Farfarello’s direction. “We’re not so bad you know… once you get to know us.” He tossed an arm around Omi’s shoulder with a wide smile.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” Omi shoved the redhead off. “There is nothing you can do to make up for misery you have already caused!” Omi balled up a fist, intent to throw it smack in the middle of that wide toothy grin only to find himself invisibly shoved back into the side of the SUV.
“Look who’s talking. Is it only a crime when you are personally hurt then?” Nagi quipped as he slowly approached
‘Enough.” Crawford flatly stated as Nagi joined them with no further comment.
“Is it so hard to believe that now, at the end of the world, we are just happy to see some familiar faces?” Schuldig grabbed another bag, only to have Siberian yank it from his grasp with a snarl.
“YES.” Weiss answered nearly in unison.
Farfarello chuckled darkly as his eyes scanned each of them clinically. “You have all survived this long therefore you are worthy. We have no interest in carrying dead weight.” With a final glance, the Irishman turned and headed for their vehicles, Nagi following close behind him.
“Can you blame us for not trusting you?” Manx struggled to hoist a large dufflebag to her shoulder only to have Crawford grasp the strap, taking its weight, then relieve her of the burden.
“Who said anything about trust?” The American gestured Manx ahead of him, as the group of them rounded the corner to the vehicles parked there.
Crawford took the large dark SUV, offering the passenger seat to Manx. Omi stayed close to her, climbing into the back seat with Nagi at his side. Farfarello took the drivers position in the armored vehicle, slipping an earpiece into place as Aya and Yohji tentatively climbed in. Schuldig opened the passenger side door of the day glo yellow Hummer for Ken.
“Why am I not surprise?” Ken just shook his head as he climbed inside.
Once they were all safely secured in their vehicles, Nagi released his hold on the scores of undead at either end of the intersection. As they pulled away, they could barely hear the screams as the undead feasted on the flesh of just another dark beast.
[ Chapter 3 ] [ Chapter 2 ] [ Chapter 1 ]
author: draelynn aka oracle_dreams
fandom: WK / Saiyuki (in later chapters)
rating: R - for horrorshow violence
summary: The end of the world has arrived and it is not the one anybody could have anticipated. But assassins are uniquely qualified at surviving a zombie apocolypse. Can they overcome their differences long enough to save what little is left of the world?
Because you know you want to see Weiss and Schwarz get together...
The streets were no longer obstacle courses but full on warzones. Some were so congested with shambling bodies that Manx needed to slam the SUV into a hard skid to get them going back in the opposite direction. As if the normal challenges weren’t bad enough, they had picked up pirates.
Raiders. Scavangers. Whatever this particular band of scum were calling themselves.
Surely a cooler urban acronym would emerge for the loosely gathered bands of survivors gone feral.
They had run into their like before. They had all hoped that other survivors would be motivated to band together, the last vestiges of humanity all helping one another survive. Instead, the two factions they had run into so far were bitterly divided, assimilating other survivors into makeshift work camps with one goal; to absorb each other into their collective or to die trying. It was crazy. As if the world weren’t already pure unadulterated chaos…
Aya turned that word over in his mind, disturbed by his own train of thought.
Chaos.
That was the stated goal of four particular individuals that he would much sooner forget. It was a much more comfortable place to be, assuming that those four had not survived the collapse of the museum. But Aya knew that they just weren’t that lucky. He had purposely forced himself to not think about the implications of this apocalypse. But something this unbelievably evil just seemed as if it would be child’s play for Schwarz.
Chaos and survival of the fittest was the plan Oracle taunted the old man with as Farfarello gutted him. These pirates were the very kinds of people Schwarz had questioned saving as they faced off that final time. Mastermind might be capable of pushing people to this primal state of mind but Aya just knew that this was simply the truth of human nature. Mankind, as a species, was corrupt, fallible and fatally flawed. Even the end of the world couldn’t change that.
He stared blankly at the bandage wrapped around his arm and with a big breath, forced his attention out the window. He couldn’t dwell on it. He still had a job to do, a responsibility to fulfill. Nothing else mattered.
Aya secured his katana to the back of Manx’s seat, keeping it within easy reach. It wouldn’t help in this situation. They all had a crash course on firearms courtesy of the Special Defense Forces just months ago. Omi passed an AK 47 to the redhead along with a half empty box of ammunition. None of them had any intention of joining either side in this pointless city turf war.
A day glo yellow Hummer was fast on their tail. Ad hock armor plating protected vulnerable sections of the vehicle. A cow catcher jutted from the front to ram through bodies or barriers or other vehicles they may pursue. A makeshift shooters cage with mounted mini gun replaced the sunroof and, perhaps worst of all, external speakers blared Flight of the Valkyrie, Apocalypse Now style, ringing the dinner bell for every corpse within a half mile.
“We can’t lead them back to the Koneko!” Omi yelled from the backseat as he dug more ammunition out of the rear seat, loading an assault rifle before handing it forward to Ken.
“I’m well aware…” Manx sniped back as she swerved hard around a charred tanker blocking three quarters of an intersection.
“Why aren’t they shooting?” Yohji peered back over his seat.
“They either want us alive or just want whatever we’re carrying in one piece.” Aya added.
“Shit. Spoke too soon… they’re going up top.” Yohji handed the clips back to Omi as he reached for the latches in the sunroof overhead.
The SUV bounced hard tossing them all around the interior.
“They’re getting too thick… we can’t plow through a wall of bodies…” Manx was finally starting to sound stressed.
“Keep moving or we’re dead!” Ken reminded her.
From behind, a loud ‘THOOOM’ reverberated through the music as the shooter fired a single shot from a bazooka.
The explosion close on their right forced Manx to make a hard left at the next intersection. Strangely enough the street was fairly clear ahead. She watched the rearview mirror, as the guys all scanned the street behind them for signs of their pursuers. The music suddenly cut off and their pursuers were gone.
“What the fuck was that?!” Ken turned in his seat to scan the street in front of them.
“I don’t like this…” Omi scanned all around the vehicle peering as far around and above as the windows allowed.
“Neither do I.” Manx added as they reached a suspiciously clear intersection. As they drove through it, the SUV passed over the pedestrian crosswalk and suddenly dropped hard into a camouflaged ravine, the axle snapping with a vicious metallic crunch.
Both Ken and Manx were nearly pitched through the windshield stopped only by the instant deployment of the airbags and everyone else was slammed hard into the seats in front of them.
“Is everybody alright?” Omi called from the floor, a trickle of blood seeping from his broken nose.
Aya just nodded in response as Yohji hauled himself off of the floor with a deep and sudden hacking cough. The rifle in his hands felt as if it had crushed his entire ribcage. He wheezed hard, seeing little white fireworks each time he breathed in.
“FUCK!” Ken pounded at the airbag, the frustration finally overwhelming him as he screamed into the cushion.
They were all just righting themselves as a loud squeal reverberated off of the buildings around them.
“You, in the car…” A PA address system blared from overhead. “You have two choices. Join us - we’ll protect you. Keep you safe. Or you can refuse and we’ll leave you to die.” The speaker cut out with a static whine.
“They’ve got guns of the roofs.” Yohji’s gravel voice was nothing but a stunted whisper as he pointed through the skylight. “At least three that I can see.”
“If you want to live, toss your weapons out of the car. You have sixty seconds to comply.”
“Let’s just join them…” Ken glared from the front seat.”… we can kill them in their sleep.”
“It’s the end of humanity as we know it. We can’t just go around killing those that are left alive.” Manx argued as she battled to get the airbag out of her way.
“This isn’t a fucking mission, Manx. They made it pretty fucking clear that humanity isn’t their priority.” Ken spit back as he fumbled to pull his gun free of the airbag.
“We don’t know how many people they might have saved. Nothing is so black or white anymore. They could have just killed us.” Omi argued back with an adamant agreement from Yohji.
“We’ve seen what they do to each other. I want no part of it.” Aya decreed, his tone final. “I won’t hand the girls over to them and we are not leaving them on their own…”
“Ten seconds!”
They all looked between each other. Those leading these rogue groups were from the same cesspools they had been tasked in cleaning up as Weiss. There really wasn’t much in the way of options. With a nod, they all took up defensive positions, locked and loaded.
“That is unfortunate.” The PA squealed one last time.
They all braced for gunfire, but it didn’t come. After a few seconds, the groan of metal echoed through the streets. They looked up and around… down the side streets of the intersection large, makeshift barriers had been erected. Parts of them were now swinging open with the assistance of overhead manual winces. Behind those barriers, a solid writhing mass of undead. This had been a well-orchestrated trap.
A loud thump came from the roof as a large string of fireworks bounced down to the pavement as its string of explosions crackled loudly to life.
Almost as a single mass, the undead from either side of the intersection lurched forward toward the sound and motion.
Yohji slumped back in his seat with a big sigh. “I am so tired of this shit.”
Omi dipped his head. “Yeah.”
“I’m not dying like this!” Ken wheeled in his seat assessing the corpses shuffling in their direction. “They’re long dead. We can outrun them…”
“That is probably what the guns are for…” Aya added. He wasn’t content to die here and now either and definitely not like this. “…but that doesn’t mean we give up. Manx, try and get us out of here. Omi, we need to torch them…”
“On it!” Omi dove into the trunk digging for supplies just as the first corpses flattened themselves to the back window of the SUV.
A horrible grinding emanated from below them along with the acrid smell of something burning that probably shouldn’t be. Manx dropped into overdrive and the vehicle lurched backwards. She tried over and over gaining inches as the body count around them grew. The few bodies that dropped under the rear wheels actually provided momentary traction which was lost as the sheer weight of the number of bodies overwhelmed them.
“We should have run for it. I would rather have died trying.” Ken glared back at them all.
“Giving up so soon? That’s not like you…”
Ken’s eyes went wide as did everyone else’s as they all looked to each, confirming that they all had heard the same voice.
“You have GOT to be fucking kidding me…” Ken looked around, hoping he was somehow just hallucinating.
Yohji dipped his head, put his fingers to the bridge of his nose and began to wheeze out a laugh.
“Is that…” Manx began to question.
Suddenly, the bodies packed around the SUV were just swept away. Their groaning and clamboring quickly grew fainter as they were dragged backwards away from the vehicle just as it seemed to lift smoothly into the air and out of the crater, hovering just above the ground until it was on level with the street once again. It touched down on level ground without so much as a bump.
“Guys… I…I…” Omi stuttered. “…fuck.”
They all turned in their seats to confirm what they already knew. In the middle of the intersection, a familiar teenage boy stood rod straight and still, eyes locked on the SUV with a hint of a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. A wall of corpses was steadily being shoved back down the street where they came from. Casually stepping around him, a much too familiar pair. Perhaps only familiar in the sense that their appearance was cause for anxiety and a much too familiar sense of dread.
Aya stowed his gun and reached for his sword just as Yohji instinctively reached for the watch he wasn’t even wearing. Omi and Ken, though, readied their guns with a quick glance in each other’s direction.
“Oh please… it’s fairly obvious we’re not here for THAT…”
The doors of the SUV all swung open just as Oracle and Mastermind reached the vehicle.
“I assure you, we could have just left you for dead.” Oracle stopped just steps away from Manx’s driver side door. The effortless condescension in his tone wormed its way under Aya’s skin, dissolving his self-control like fast acting acid. Aya bolted from his seat with a snarl, sword half drawn, eyes fixed on the American.
Just inches from the man’s side, he was frozen in place, unable to move.
“Isn’t that sweet? He remembers you Crawford…” Mastermind chuckled as he wrapped an arm over Aya’s shoulders, a hand tracing down his arm to resheath his sword with a click. Schuldig cast a salacious glance over his shoulder in Yohji’s direction.
Yohji launched himself towards the open door only to meet Mastermind’s foot which seemed to be strategically placed right in the center of his cracked ribs. The redhead chuckled down on him as he dropped with a choked exhale.
“Relax, Balinese. We didn’t come all this way so I could hit on your boyfriend.” Schuldig turned to slip the sword from Aya’s grasp and resume a place at Crawford’s side.
Omi and Ken caught each other’s attention just as Oracle began to chuckle to himself.
“Gentlemen, we all know how useless this is.” The safety’s on both of their rifles slipped on as if on cue and refused to budge. “It will be dark fairly soon. We do not have time to reminisce.”
“What do you want then?” Manx slipped from the driver’s seat. “It’s safe to assume our rescue will not come without a price.”
“It’s really a pity that Kritiker has made you sooooo cynical. You are too pretty to be such a pessimist.” Schuldig smiled as his eyes wandered her curves.
“The petty schemes of our collective predecessors are now irrelevant. What makes you believe we have an ulterior motive?’ Crawford cast a skeptical glance in her direction.
“Because the end of the world was on your ‘To Do’ list last we met. I have a difficult time believing that anything you do is done from the goodness of your heart.” Manx crossed her arms defiantly as Ken cautiously slipped out of the SUV behind her.
Crawford reached to push his glasses to the bridge of his nose, the action more habit than necessary.
“Point taken.” Again he chuckled to himself. “Gather what you have - we can discuss details after we all find shelter for the night.”
Aya’s frozen stance was released with a sharp intake of breath.
Schuldig raised a finger, waggling it in the swordman’s face. “Don’t EVEN. You don’t get it back until to stop fantasizing about running us through with it.”
“I won’t help you.” Ayas spit back in defiance.
“Aya, they’re here to help us.” Omi called out from the floor of the SUV as he helped Yohji out of the vehicle.
“You know that’s a lie!”
“Aya…” Yohji coughed “ Let’s just get safe. We can argue about it later.”
“Idiots.” Prodigy muttered emphatically from his place in the intersection.
With a slow consensus consisting of gestures, expressions and snarled concessions, the members of Weiss conceded to the situation and began gathering anything of value from the SUV.
“How are you keeping the gunmen on the roof from shooting us?” Ken questioned as he shoved two dufflebags out onto the street.
Just then a body landed with a sickening splat on the sidewalk behind them. Schuldig smiled wide.
“Come to me… come… to… me…” The redhead gestured with arms wide, looking up to the other rooftops in the intersection. Five men came into view and one by one, each dove off of the roof to meet the sidewalk below.
“Stop it!” Manx stepped up to Crawford. “Call him off!”
“What for?” He looked down on her, unimpressed. “Because human life is precious? Because there are so few of us left… hope for mankind…”
“YES! What good is the world to you if everyone is dead?!”
Across the street, a shop door flew open with a crash of glass. A large bloodied man was shoved through the doorway, behind him the last familiar yet most loathed face of this quartet. Once on the street, Farfarello set about tying his captive to a light pole.
“That is the leader of this pack of rabid dogs. You would like to save him? Why exactly? Because he is a credit to his species?’ He nodded to Schuldig.
Instantly all of them were treated to a vertigo inducing trip through the last few days of the man’s life. The pirates camp was nothing but a horror show of brutality - survivors treated as near slaves in return for protection and basic necessities of life. Women were nothing but objects with this scum keeping his own personal harem, raping them at his whim on a daily basis, some as young as twelve years old.
He fit the profile of every dark beast they had ever hunted under Persia’s command.
The man pleaded and promised all the while, rifling through every appeal in his book of tricks, trying desperately to find the hook that would guilt them into enough pity to release him. When none of those worked he finally resorted to threats of eternal damnation. Farfarello’s eyes flared but he stilled himself as Crawford laid a heavy hand on his shoulder.
“I think he would have enjoyed adding you to his collection. Should we free him and find out? Or maybe we should just return him to his harem…” Crawford offered as the vision played out.
Manx narrowed her eyes, her lips twitching as her thoughts coalesced. “I see why Abyssinian hates you so much…”
Schuldig barked out a laugh as he gathered up a single backpack, tossing it in Farfarello’s direction. “We’re not so bad you know… once you get to know us.” He tossed an arm around Omi’s shoulder with a wide smile.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” Omi shoved the redhead off. “There is nothing you can do to make up for misery you have already caused!” Omi balled up a fist, intent to throw it smack in the middle of that wide toothy grin only to find himself invisibly shoved back into the side of the SUV.
“Look who’s talking. Is it only a crime when you are personally hurt then?” Nagi quipped as he slowly approached
‘Enough.” Crawford flatly stated as Nagi joined them with no further comment.
“Is it so hard to believe that now, at the end of the world, we are just happy to see some familiar faces?” Schuldig grabbed another bag, only to have Siberian yank it from his grasp with a snarl.
“YES.” Weiss answered nearly in unison.
Farfarello chuckled darkly as his eyes scanned each of them clinically. “You have all survived this long therefore you are worthy. We have no interest in carrying dead weight.” With a final glance, the Irishman turned and headed for their vehicles, Nagi following close behind him.
“Can you blame us for not trusting you?” Manx struggled to hoist a large dufflebag to her shoulder only to have Crawford grasp the strap, taking its weight, then relieve her of the burden.
“Who said anything about trust?” The American gestured Manx ahead of him, as the group of them rounded the corner to the vehicles parked there.
Crawford took the large dark SUV, offering the passenger seat to Manx. Omi stayed close to her, climbing into the back seat with Nagi at his side. Farfarello took the drivers position in the armored vehicle, slipping an earpiece into place as Aya and Yohji tentatively climbed in. Schuldig opened the passenger side door of the day glo yellow Hummer for Ken.
“Why am I not surprise?” Ken just shook his head as he climbed inside.
Once they were all safely secured in their vehicles, Nagi released his hold on the scores of undead at either end of the intersection. As they pulled away, they could barely hear the screams as the undead feasted on the flesh of just another dark beast.
[ Chapter 3 ] [ Chapter 2 ] [ Chapter 1 ]