Luffy was frozen, his eyes latched onto the grotesque scene in front of him, his palms sweaty and his eyes heavily lidded, bags underneath his eyes and a scarred cheek. The boy was frozen in fear, everything that would occur to him could never prepare him for this. For this monster, this hideous monster. This flesh eating, skin crumbling monster. This ghastly person, ugly and sick looking pale skin, for underneath the falling rotting skin was the muscles that had laid there, bloody butintact, and something that Luffy couldn't─ didn't want to believe. Bones, white pearly bones that constranted through the green dim colour.
Luffy shifted his eyes, his posture frozen as the slow footsteps gotten closer, and closer to him; he looked at the used to be human in front of him; his mouth hanging open and his eyes unfocused. He felt like he was about to churn at the sight, the foul unsightly human, he wouldn't call anything that resembled that a human, the unfocused eyes that seemed to be heading towards him. The scene seemed all too familiar, all too predatory. The man wanted something, he craved something, he wanted him, he wanted Luffy.
For a second, his legs twitched before they finally hopped of the ground and started to run, he looked back to see the erratic horde of zombies chasing after him, he ran, ran till his legs never stopped. Once he stopped, his breath shortening as he slumped to the ground, he looked around him in worry; glanced at the bathroom stall that he intended to hide in. He slipped his fingers through the knob, lightly and soundlessly, he escaped inside. If Luffy had seen enough movies, he knew that he reeked of smelling alive, they would bang on his door in no time.
The raven looked disgustingly at the floor, he quickly covered his mouth before spilling a hint of puke on his fingers, he was about to wipe it away, when he quickly thought of a less disgusting─ if not disgusting, method. He looked at his vomit covered fingers before wiping it on his face. He then closed his eyes, and proceeded to slip a finger through the bathroom that was second to his, and took a very large bloody organ that sat on the corners of the toilet seat, very obvious to the others.
He locked his nostrils before taking a huge bite, he chewed on the organ before swallowing and then wiped himself with the nasty scent, the rotting organ had changed from a delicious red to a dark yellow, covered with stains of blood, Luffy felt the metallic taste on his tongue, and another taste; a taste that engrossed him very much.
Luffy wanted to puke, if not for the fact he had so little space to crawl in, sighing in relief he plopped himself down on the dirty stained floor tile, and laid down to rest. His eyes were nearly closed, his relief was short lived as he found cracked finger joints, bloodied nails, he swore to God that if he hadn't shit his pants already, he was sure he had now.
The zombie looked at him from underneath the stall, he tilted his head while his hanging open mouth reeked of vomit, an all too familiar scent wafted through the air, blood. Luffy couldn't help but shriek, he stood up and immediately tried to stand up on the sides of the door before the zombie would crawl through it, but the zombie only looked at him in confusion before a face that seemed too humane.
The zombie replied in an 'oh', as in realisation before quickly shrugging off the fact he was, an actual zombie!
"Don't worry, I'm just using this to disguise myself, I know you're doing that too, from the looks of it. No zombie would resist eating the rest of that flesh," he pointed his index finger disturbingly at the flesh he had left, before a small smile found it's way on Luffys' face, there were survivo─ no, there are survivors. He calmed down before leaving the seat he stood up on, he then held out his hand and the man gladly took it.
But this was no man, this was a teen. He looked to be about three years older then Luffy, he grinned widely before offering his rotten vomit covered hand, that had the stench of blood reeking from it to Luffy. The shorter teen stared disgustingly at the hand before picking up his own and shaking it with the older raven.
"I'm Portgas D. Ace," the curly haired teen paused.
"Monkey D. Luffy.." the raven looked surprised at the name, he had known that the letter D would origin from all around the world, it was easy to comprehend that he had a familiar feeling too, the feeling of being incredibly nervous. "nice to meet you, Luffy." the man continued.
It was an awkward moment or two of silence, before Luffy propped on the toilet with Ace kneeling in front of him. For some reason, Luffy felt incredibly safe. Safe from the monsters outside, safe from the crawling fingers bloodied themselves upon clinging onto him, safe from the devouring teeth that might latch on to him if he had stopped even for a second, for a moment to think that he could look back to find no one there, to find the darkness; he half expected that, before it crumbled, the whole thoughts was a fantasy. To walk without needing to glance to your shoulder every few seconds, to sleep without feeling the need to wake up with cold sweat pouring over you like a fountain.
To wake up, freely. To live freely, he had never known he had lived such a gracious life, such a good life, something so good to be taken away from him. His freedom to be taken away from him by the hands of a mere virus, a mere virus; something that happened in movies. A virus outbreak, it wasn't even funny, it was horrifying. Scary, and not in the least bit thrilling was it when he found Zombies to be sniffing him, and then sharing glances with each other.
And when he held his gun out, or when he had ran out of ammo and had his spiked bat latched onto their brain, when he felt helpless, his newfound brother would come and find him, he would trace every dead being and the bullets would shoot right through their heart. Ace found the thrill of it, what's more is he was insane, these lone two survivors had found grenades and lighters, flares to light up the whole city.
Explosive Kunais', everything that ranged from fire to an insane arsonist like Ace. Ace loves the fire, he carved it more then zombies had carved out for their flesh, what was ironic is that Ace would die of fire, he was weak and he was ageing, the fact they had survived for 20 more years would make them amazing, they had expected for some fast running zombies, but it was only cornering slow zombies. Nothing exciting, and so very terrifying if they had froze you on the spot.
Nothing like in the movies, nothing like the tales where they had huge zombie bosses that you had to defeat, the only thing fast was the tanned athletic runners, they had a beautiful colour to them, not green but much more then humane. Their white teeth, clean nails, long jaw and huge white pearly teeth that will soon try to come and suck on his flesh. Biting and chewing, they were the only things that would alert them to move from their position, they were fast. Incredibly fast, not to mention.
Once they were cornered with a horde of numbered athletes, Ace lit up his grenade before throwing it, the zombies looked hungrily at it before chasing it and have it exploding on their face, Ace then continued to light up a fire around him and Luffy, Luffy looked worriedly at the older man, he squirmed once the fire had gotten close to his feet, he bumped into Ace.
And then he found it, his fangs, he never asked why Ace had wounds that would never heal, or bones that would stick out if he hadn't covered up a leg. He never asked why zombies hadn't dare sniffed Ace, he never even asked or noticed why Ace would use powder to conceal his wounds, or why he wore long sleeves shirts. For 20 years, he had never asked why his eyes had started to turn into a shade of red, or why his skin started to grow much more pale, much more sickly.
Why he would have his mouth hanging open sometimes, whenever he would stare at Luffy. Why he would release choked noises at the back of his throat and pretend to never have made them, why he would sometimes hold closely on to Luffy, why his gaze lingers at the cuts, why his eyes never stop glancing at his neck, or most of all, why his jaw is hanging opening right now with a hungry look in his eyes.
It's not like he didn't notice, he just wanted to avoid the thought, he never asked why his brother seemed to be turning into a zombie by the year. He never asked why the raven didn't look like a teen before, never asked why when he met him the first time and wiped his face, washed off, he didn't even look different. He thought it was the vomit, the blood, the flesh, but it was none of that. Not even the half finished organ he left, that he knew Ace must have eaten at this point.
And then he gazes, his eyes shift to the bloody fangs his brother have on his neck. He looks at the fire that loom upon them, and before it can touch him, before it can burn him; he feels the instinct thriving. He feels the virus spreading through his veins, and in an instant he bites his arm, bites the living flesh, he chews on it before releasing it from his mouths' hold.
He can't think, all he can feel is a command, a direct order telling him to find it. To find the blood, the living beating hearts of humans, he can't speak, he's asleep. And in his sleep he's crying, he's crying to find himself eating the hell out of his arm, he thought he would live, live to see himself tormented by this image he's watching, but the fire doesn't escape him. It comes over and devours him and his Brother, and before dying, before everything turns to black; he turns his head to see the humane sad face of his brother.
And he dies.