[1014] Not my fault
I totally blame askerian's absolutely lovely zombie apocalypse AU with Sakura. I have tried and tried to tempt her to write a sequel.
But alas, my normally epic tempting powers have backfired. With her gracious permission, I have written an accompanying drabble, from Sasuke's POV.
Please note: unbeta'd like crazy, and I'm far past my bedtime. Also, why is it I can write 1,600 words in a few hours on this and only manage six sentences on my original story?
The front door to the house was wide open, the flimsy screen door half off its hinges. Sasuke readied his bloodstained baseball bat, lifting it up high as if he were up to the plate. As he crept toward the front porch, he slid his hands up the length of the bat. Choking up reduced the power in a swing, but his house’s entranceway was little more than a narrow hallway, and Taiichi had messily shown them why it was crucial to be able to swing without hitting a wall.
Beside him, Naruto swore quietly and prodded at a severed forearm with his cleats. “You got a sister? Mom?”
Sasuke glanced over, giving the remains a closer look. It was a right hand, and had belonged to a female if the delicate fingers and purple nail polish were any indication. “No.”
“Good.” He made a face and kicked it off the bottom porch step and into the nearby scraggly hedges. Naruto took a deep breath and looked up, forcing a grin that showed too many teeth. “Ready for more whack-a-mole?”
It was either smash his nose in with the bat or ignore him, and knocking out his blond teammate would take out his only back up. Not that he needed backup, but while baseballs had been too small a target for Naruto, a human head was just the right size for him to finally make contact consistently.
The Uchiha house was empty, if he ignored the female body with its skull flattened against the kitchen linoleum, blocking access to the basement door. At least it wiped the annoying grin off Naruto’s face.
But the body meant someone had been here. Been here and walked away. But how long ago?
Sasuke edged closer to the mangled body and prodded it once, twice, with the end of his bat. Nothing. He crouched down beside it and pressed his fingertips against a relatively clean stretch of skin.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s started to cool.” Sasuke wiped his hand on his pants and slung his baseball bat over his shoulder. “We’ve missed them--” Itachi. Dad. “--probably by an hour or two.”
“How do you know shit like that?”
“We go deer hunting every year during the season.” He stood up and surveyed the kitchen. Naruto started babbling, but Sasuke tuned him out so he could think. If his dad or brother had been here, why hadn’t they used one of the rifles instead of bashing that thing’s skull in? Had they been taken by surprise? Had the rifles already been stolen? But aside from the broken screen, the front door left ajar, and a few smashed windows and torn curtains, the inside of the house seemed relatively intact.
The outside was too perfect. From the outside it looked like a house looted, infested with creatures. The severed arm on the porch steps, without an accompanying puddle of blood, the wound too clean for a life-or-death struggle--
Sasuke lunged for the basement door, his cleats slipping slightly in the gore. He grasped the knob, turned it, and tried to force it open. It was locked. It was never locked normally.
“Sasuke?”
“Itachi, or Dad--maybe both--they were here.” Sasuke spun around, his gaze traveling from space to space around the kitchen. “The basement door is locked. That’s where our hunting and camping supplies are. If they--or anyone else--had been here and taken everything, there would be no point to locking the door.”
“Or blocking the door with this nasty thing.” Naruto made a face at it. “So where’s the key?”
“Somewhere you wouldn’t think to look.”
“That,” Naruto said, “is not helpful.”
“Shut up, idiot.”
“Can’t think and search at the same time?” And then Naruto just laughed when Sasuke swore at him in response.
For someone who had flipped out upon finding out Sakura had not waited for them to return but had, instead, gone off in search of her friend, he was handling everything far too well now, Sasuke thought darkly. Or maybe not, if the white-knuckled grip on his bat and conspicuous humor was anything to go by.
They had come to his house in the hopes of finding more survivors, supplies, and a car in which they could chase down that note-leaving-idiot Sakura. When they found her, he was going to make sure she didn’t do anything so stupid again.
The car he could take care of. “You look for the key. I’m going to check on the car.”
Naruto was already sticking his head into a cupboard. “Have fun.”
The gas tank was three-quarters filled. Sasuke threw the empty lawnmower gas can into the trunk along with a coil of rope and the last shovel. They’d had at least two in the garage, just further proof that supplies had been both taken and purposefully left behind.
He was in the middle of rolling up an oil-stained tarp when there was a sudden muffled shout from inside the house. But when he burst into the kitchen, baseball bat ready to start splitting skulls, all he saw was Naruto doing a spastic celebration dance on the gory floor. “Found it!” He shoved the dull key in Sasuke’s face, a real grin lighting up his eyes.
Sasuke snatched the key out of his fingers. “Where was it?”
“Bottom of the trash can, under the liner.” Though he tried to sound annoyed, Naruto couldn’t dampen his triumph. “It reeks, by the way.”
Sasuke didn’t answer. It took a few kicks to get the corpse out of the way enough that when he unlocked the door, he could open it. Cool air wafted up the stairs, and he felt along the wall for the light switch. Halfway down the stairs, the light bulb flickered on. He adjusted his grip on the bat and cautiously headed downstairs, the self-congratulatory Naruto right behind him.
At the bottom of the stairs was a final light switch. Sasuke hit it, and the room lit up, revealing not one, but two surprises. The first was his hunting backpack in the middle of the floor, already filled close to bursting.
The second was Itachi’s new mp3 player, sitting directly in front of it, headphones plugged in and waiting.
Something twisted inside of him, but with Naruto there, it wasn’t a good time for him to figure out what that feeling was. Sasuke leaned his bat against his bag and picked up the mp3 player. He stuck one of the buds in an ear but left the other clear so he could still hear.
“Sasuke?” Naruto’s voice was too close--the boy was looking at him, concerned.
The display screen was black. “The shelving over there--” Sasuke jerked his chin in its direction “--still has some MREs. Go put them in the trunk.” He fished out his car keys and tossed them to Naruto, not particularly caring if he caught them. The other boy fumbled with one hand but managed by some miracle to keep them from hitting the ground. “My rifle is probably still in the gun cabinet, and the ammunition, too.”
He couldn’t name the expression on Naruto’s face, but at least the boy didn’t say anything else. Instead he shoved the keys in his pocket and started grabbing as many MREs as he could and still carry his bat.
Once Sasuke could hear Naruto’s footsteps fading above him, he hit the on button. The display flared to life, and with it came a small burst of white noise through the earphones.
The screen was open to the voice memo menu. Only one untitled item was listed, its date and time stamp not two hours before.
Sasuke hit play.
“Sasuke.” It was his brother’s voice. His brother’s calm, unflappable voice. He felt weak with relief, but he knew he had to keep going, keep moving. He moved to the gun cabinet, letting his brother’s voice wash over him as grabbed the rifle and loaded it.
“If you’re still alive, you know the phones aren’t working. Too many people are panicking and trying to make calls, and no one can get through. I am going to call your cell five days from now--today is Saturday, so Thursday--at three a.m. If you still have your cell phone, shut it off until then to preserve the battery. By then, I hope things will have stabilized enough that I can get through to you.”
Or that enough people are dead that the lines are no longer clogged, thought Sasuke as he shoveled boxes of ammunition into his rifle carrying case. He could fill it completely, for he was never going to put the rifle away.
“I’ve loaded your backpack with MREs, a first aid kit, a flashlight, a map, a compass, your canteen, your sleeping bag, and spare batteries. The house should still be full of supplies. Get whatever else you think you will need, but remember that you are going to need to be fast--faster than these things. Get out of the house as soon as you can and get into the forest. Your best chance is going to be away from everyone else.”
Sasuke zipped the carrying bag case and slung it over his shoulder.
“Don’t be stupid and try to be a hero. In five days you need to be in range of a cell phone tower, Sasuke. Remember that. We’ll find each other then.”
The recording ended. Sasuke carefully unplugged the headphones and coiled them up, stuffing them and the mp3 player in his pocket.
Comments/critiques/etc. welcome!
Now with a Shikamaru POV companion piece.
But alas, my normally epic tempting powers have backfired. With her gracious permission, I have written an accompanying drabble, from Sasuke's POV.
Please note: unbeta'd like crazy, and I'm far past my bedtime. Also, why is it I can write 1,600 words in a few hours on this and only manage six sentences on my original story?
The front door to the house was wide open, the flimsy screen door half off its hinges. Sasuke readied his bloodstained baseball bat, lifting it up high as if he were up to the plate. As he crept toward the front porch, he slid his hands up the length of the bat. Choking up reduced the power in a swing, but his house’s entranceway was little more than a narrow hallway, and Taiichi had messily shown them why it was crucial to be able to swing without hitting a wall.
Beside him, Naruto swore quietly and prodded at a severed forearm with his cleats. “You got a sister? Mom?”
Sasuke glanced over, giving the remains a closer look. It was a right hand, and had belonged to a female if the delicate fingers and purple nail polish were any indication. “No.”
“Good.” He made a face and kicked it off the bottom porch step and into the nearby scraggly hedges. Naruto took a deep breath and looked up, forcing a grin that showed too many teeth. “Ready for more whack-a-mole?”
It was either smash his nose in with the bat or ignore him, and knocking out his blond teammate would take out his only back up. Not that he needed backup, but while baseballs had been too small a target for Naruto, a human head was just the right size for him to finally make contact consistently.
The Uchiha house was empty, if he ignored the female body with its skull flattened against the kitchen linoleum, blocking access to the basement door. At least it wiped the annoying grin off Naruto’s face.
But the body meant someone had been here. Been here and walked away. But how long ago?
Sasuke edged closer to the mangled body and prodded it once, twice, with the end of his bat. Nothing. He crouched down beside it and pressed his fingertips against a relatively clean stretch of skin.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s started to cool.” Sasuke wiped his hand on his pants and slung his baseball bat over his shoulder. “We’ve missed them--” Itachi. Dad. “--probably by an hour or two.”
“How do you know shit like that?”
“We go deer hunting every year during the season.” He stood up and surveyed the kitchen. Naruto started babbling, but Sasuke tuned him out so he could think. If his dad or brother had been here, why hadn’t they used one of the rifles instead of bashing that thing’s skull in? Had they been taken by surprise? Had the rifles already been stolen? But aside from the broken screen, the front door left ajar, and a few smashed windows and torn curtains, the inside of the house seemed relatively intact.
The outside was too perfect. From the outside it looked like a house looted, infested with creatures. The severed arm on the porch steps, without an accompanying puddle of blood, the wound too clean for a life-or-death struggle--
Sasuke lunged for the basement door, his cleats slipping slightly in the gore. He grasped the knob, turned it, and tried to force it open. It was locked. It was never locked normally.
“Sasuke?”
“Itachi, or Dad--maybe both--they were here.” Sasuke spun around, his gaze traveling from space to space around the kitchen. “The basement door is locked. That’s where our hunting and camping supplies are. If they--or anyone else--had been here and taken everything, there would be no point to locking the door.”
“Or blocking the door with this nasty thing.” Naruto made a face at it. “So where’s the key?”
“Somewhere you wouldn’t think to look.”
“That,” Naruto said, “is not helpful.”
“Shut up, idiot.”
“Can’t think and search at the same time?” And then Naruto just laughed when Sasuke swore at him in response.
For someone who had flipped out upon finding out Sakura had not waited for them to return but had, instead, gone off in search of her friend, he was handling everything far too well now, Sasuke thought darkly. Or maybe not, if the white-knuckled grip on his bat and conspicuous humor was anything to go by.
They had come to his house in the hopes of finding more survivors, supplies, and a car in which they could chase down that note-leaving-idiot Sakura. When they found her, he was going to make sure she didn’t do anything so stupid again.
The car he could take care of. “You look for the key. I’m going to check on the car.”
Naruto was already sticking his head into a cupboard. “Have fun.”
The gas tank was three-quarters filled. Sasuke threw the empty lawnmower gas can into the trunk along with a coil of rope and the last shovel. They’d had at least two in the garage, just further proof that supplies had been both taken and purposefully left behind.
He was in the middle of rolling up an oil-stained tarp when there was a sudden muffled shout from inside the house. But when he burst into the kitchen, baseball bat ready to start splitting skulls, all he saw was Naruto doing a spastic celebration dance on the gory floor. “Found it!” He shoved the dull key in Sasuke’s face, a real grin lighting up his eyes.
Sasuke snatched the key out of his fingers. “Where was it?”
“Bottom of the trash can, under the liner.” Though he tried to sound annoyed, Naruto couldn’t dampen his triumph. “It reeks, by the way.”
Sasuke didn’t answer. It took a few kicks to get the corpse out of the way enough that when he unlocked the door, he could open it. Cool air wafted up the stairs, and he felt along the wall for the light switch. Halfway down the stairs, the light bulb flickered on. He adjusted his grip on the bat and cautiously headed downstairs, the self-congratulatory Naruto right behind him.
At the bottom of the stairs was a final light switch. Sasuke hit it, and the room lit up, revealing not one, but two surprises. The first was his hunting backpack in the middle of the floor, already filled close to bursting.
The second was Itachi’s new mp3 player, sitting directly in front of it, headphones plugged in and waiting.
Something twisted inside of him, but with Naruto there, it wasn’t a good time for him to figure out what that feeling was. Sasuke leaned his bat against his bag and picked up the mp3 player. He stuck one of the buds in an ear but left the other clear so he could still hear.
“Sasuke?” Naruto’s voice was too close--the boy was looking at him, concerned.
The display screen was black. “The shelving over there--” Sasuke jerked his chin in its direction “--still has some MREs. Go put them in the trunk.” He fished out his car keys and tossed them to Naruto, not particularly caring if he caught them. The other boy fumbled with one hand but managed by some miracle to keep them from hitting the ground. “My rifle is probably still in the gun cabinet, and the ammunition, too.”
He couldn’t name the expression on Naruto’s face, but at least the boy didn’t say anything else. Instead he shoved the keys in his pocket and started grabbing as many MREs as he could and still carry his bat.
Once Sasuke could hear Naruto’s footsteps fading above him, he hit the on button. The display flared to life, and with it came a small burst of white noise through the earphones.
The screen was open to the voice memo menu. Only one untitled item was listed, its date and time stamp not two hours before.
Sasuke hit play.
“Sasuke.” It was his brother’s voice. His brother’s calm, unflappable voice. He felt weak with relief, but he knew he had to keep going, keep moving. He moved to the gun cabinet, letting his brother’s voice wash over him as grabbed the rifle and loaded it.
“If you’re still alive, you know the phones aren’t working. Too many people are panicking and trying to make calls, and no one can get through. I am going to call your cell five days from now--today is Saturday, so Thursday--at three a.m. If you still have your cell phone, shut it off until then to preserve the battery. By then, I hope things will have stabilized enough that I can get through to you.”
Or that enough people are dead that the lines are no longer clogged, thought Sasuke as he shoveled boxes of ammunition into his rifle carrying case. He could fill it completely, for he was never going to put the rifle away.
“I’ve loaded your backpack with MREs, a first aid kit, a flashlight, a map, a compass, your canteen, your sleeping bag, and spare batteries. The house should still be full of supplies. Get whatever else you think you will need, but remember that you are going to need to be fast--faster than these things. Get out of the house as soon as you can and get into the forest. Your best chance is going to be away from everyone else.”
Sasuke zipped the carrying bag case and slung it over his shoulder.
“Don’t be stupid and try to be a hero. In five days you need to be in range of a cell phone tower, Sasuke. Remember that. We’ll find each other then.”
The recording ended. Sasuke carefully unplugged the headphones and coiled them up, stuffing them and the mp3 player in his pocket.
Comments/critiques/etc. welcome!
Now with a Shikamaru POV companion piece.