He sat in his small apartment, reading his manga by the light of a single lamp. The windows were boarded up and the door was locked and barred. There were canned foods and ramen in his kitchen and a cell phone on one side of his big chair and a M16 rifle on the other. All of this was a precaution against the infection.
He had first heard about the infection by watching the news and seeing some attacks. He had been scared at first but now he was okay with it. He just sat in his house, occasionally being visited by one of his friends. All day he sat in the same chair, reading old Naruto manga and listening to the sounds of the city gradually succumbing to the infection.
A knock came on his door. He automatically unbarred it, unlocked it and yanked it open. He knew it wasn't one of the infected, they didn't knock. He pulled the person inside and quickly barred the door again. He turned to look at his guest. His guest looked back. After a tense couple of moments they both smiled and stepped forward to hug each other. His best friend, who he had gone to many anime conventions with when the infection hadn't begun, had braved the forest of infected to visit him.
She was a tall, thin girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. The perfect girl to cosplay SNJ Naruto. She was wearing faded jeans and a shirt with Kakashi using chidori on it. Over it she wore her Naruto jacket and good, sturdy tennis shoes on her small feet. She carried an AK47 and dual-wield Magnum pistols. She had lots of things strapped onto her belt like nightvision binoculars, a morphine shot, ammo, pain pills, and a couple of pipe bombs just in case. At the moment she was holding the Naruto manga that he had dropped.
"You still read these with all this stuff going on?" she asked, smirking at him.
He laughed. "Of course, once a Narutard, always a Narutard, right?" he shot back at her, smiling. She was his very best friend and she shared his absolute love of manga and cosplaying. Their current obsession was Naruto, well, not really current anymore. They had first fallen in love with the ninja manga just before the infection. They had gone to a convention in Naruto cosplay for the first time only to have it cut short by a small pack of zombies getting in the building. Apparently they were mistaken for some sort of zombie cosplayers. The two best friends had some good laughs about cosplaying when they killed zombies. Surely, if they survived, they thought, they would get an awesome reputation among the survivors as the cosplaying killers.
"Why didn't you call me and tell me you were coming?" he asked, "I'd have met you halfway." She shrugged.
"I can deal with the zombies on this street... you realize that you live on a street full of old people right? And old zombies are almost lame to kill. They wobble at you, holding their backs. Feh." She said, laughing at the thought. He burst out laughing and she joined in after a second.
"You sounded so confident it was almost snobbish." He said after they calmed down. Before the infection she wasn't exactly shy, but she never had much confidence. Apparently having to fight for your life every day can really change someone. She picked up his gun and weighed it in her hand for a minute before putting it back down and staring around.
"What?" he asked, looking around too.
"Where's the rest of your ammo?" she asked, now walking into his bedroom and looking under his small bed. He followed her and sat down cross-legged on his bed.
"Used it all. I've been meaning to make a run down to the gun store and steal some." He said, scratching his head.
"Well, come on then, let's go." She said. "You'll need it sooner or later and two is better than one, right?" She got up and walked out to the kitchen. 'Could use some fruits or veggies too.' She thought, looking at all the cans.
He smiled and walked into the living room, picking up things they would need. He grabbed his tunic [that was an exact copy of the winter tunics they wore in Naruto], his last magazine of bullets, a 22 caliber pistol, a bag of manga, gloves that matched the ones Kakashi wore, and one of his first aid kits that he had made. He unbarred the door and poked his head out.
"Come on." He said, quietly walking out onto his driveway. She followed, locking the door with the key he handed her. They crept down the dark street, going only by moonlight. They didn't use flashlights because they only attracted more infected. They got to the end of the street without meeting one zombie. At the corner she stopped and crouched, turning on her nightvision binoculars and scanning the street. Two zombies fought each other halfway down but it was otherwise clear. He shot the two down quickly and together they ran down the street to the highway.
The highway was a problem. Cars littered the sides and intersections, and zombies usually liked to hang around the bright neon lights hanging on the buildings. They dashed across the highway and straight down another street. Unfortunately, this road was full of zombies. She shot down several in a few seconds, but the noise had attracted the ones on the highway. They stood back to back, mowing down infected as they ran at them. Heh. Running zombies. Weren't zombies supposed to hobble slowly and moan? Not run and jump and yell. He shot the last shot from his M16 and pulled out his pistol, fired a shot, reloaded, fired another.
"Ugh!" he said, frustrated. He elbowed a zombie in the face, knocking it back as he reloaded. The girl knocked down a couple zombies who had dodged her bullets and pulled out one of her homemade pipe bombs, praying it would work. She activated it and chunked it as hard as she could.
"Yes!" they said together as all the zombies ran towards the shiny, noisy thing. They ran the rest of the way down the street and into the gun shop. They locked it behind them and flipped on the lights.
"Jackpot!" she yelled, dashing over to the big guns in the display case. He walked around the counter and started rifling through the boxes of ammo. He heard her start coughing from the other side of the store and looked up. She was doubled over, holding her throat. He rushed over to her and smacked her on the back. After a minute she was able to catch her breath.
"Haha choking on air is the stupidest thing ever." She said, laughing. "Is there any water?" she said, looking towards the back of the store for a restroom or breakroom.
"Dunno, hold on." He said, heading to the back. He looked in a couple of rooms and then found a nice breakroom that seemed quite clean. He went over to the sink and looked around in the cabinets for a cup. He found a mug with a small crack in it and filled it up and took it back to the front of the store. She took it and drank it, smiling gratefully when she was done.
"Thanks" she said, letting out her biggest smile.
"Heh. No problem." He said, scratching his head and blushing a little. It's true, they were best friends but he had always wanted to be more than friends. She was a very pretty girl, and he had always admired how easygoing she was even in the harshest of times. He brushed her bangs off her forehead.
"Are you sure you're okay? You're kind of pale and you have a slight fever." He said, concerned. She smiled.
"Don't worry, I'm tough as nails." She said, raising her arm and patting her biceps. He gave a low laugh and looked outside the store windows. A few leftover zombies were scattered along the street. He grabbed a sniper and carefully took each one out as quickly as possible. He smiled triumphant and turned back to the girl. She laughed at his proud face and then gave him a quick hug. They quickly let go and got down to business. They grabbed as much ammo as they could carry back with them and grabbed a couple of extra guns. They didn't have much trouble on the return trip; most of the zombies had come at them on the way there and were now lying dead on the streets. Halfway down his street they had to stop because the girl started coughing again.
"Let's hurry..." he said, worried that his best friend had gotten a cold or something. He forbade himself to think about the worst case scenario but it popped into his head anyway. What if she became infected? He quickly shook his head to remove the thought and unlocked the door to his apartment. They unloaded their stuff and he led her into his bedroom.
"Lay down and try to rest. I'll be right back." He said in the most threatening voice he could manage. At first she just stared at him but after a bit she shrugged and climbed under the covers, her clothes, shoes, and bag manga and sketchbooks still on. She cuddled up to her Sai plushie and sighed, closing her eyes. He left the room to grab some medicine and make some ramen for her since he was out of plain chicken noodle soup. Once or twice he heard her cough or shift positions on the bed. He quietly took the soup and medicine into his room. She was facing the wall but she was shaking. She moaned and rolled onto her back.
He set down the medicine and soup and went to wake her. It seemed like she was having a nightmare. He tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder and shook once. Her eyes flew wide open and her hand flashed out, her nails scratching deep into his forearm. She seemed to come to her senses and blinked at what she just did.
"Oh my jashin! I'm sorry!" she said, sitting up and trying to figure out what to do. He just shook his head and left the room. He returned quickly, wrapping his arm with some gauze. He smiled at her, picked up the soup and pills and handed them to her, blushing a little.
"Take them, they'll help..." he said in a quiet voice. Without a word, she took them from him, swallowed the pills and started on the soup. She took the opportunity to examine her best friend. He had hair that was dyed black from the last time he had cosplayed Sasuke and had removed his winter tunic. His cropped hair reached down to touch the top of his blue "Team 7" shirt. He was wearing the tight black pants he used when he cosplayed Sai, the sandals from his Itachi cosplay, and the gloves for when he cosplayed Kakashi. He also had a sand village headband tied around his arm. He hadn't taken off his Sharingan backpack, which she knew was stuffed with notebooks and manga, just like hers. She smiled at his otaku-ness and continued slurping on the soup. He was truly her best friend. She chuckled inwardly, knowing that if some survivor found a cure for the infection and everyone returned to normal, that she would tell him her true feelings and ask him out. Heck, after all the crazy stuff they've been through, they'd probably end up married! She blushed slightly at the thought and quickly finished her soup.
After finishing up dinner, they both sat for a while talking and then decided to go to sleep. She watched as he left the room, turning out the light as he went. She didn't bother getting undressed and clutched her pistol under the pillow. Within moments she was asleep. He quietly got a blanket from the cabinet down the hall and went to go sleep on the couch. As he tried to get comfortable with all his bulky clothes and his bag poking into his back, he heard her cough every now and then in her sleep. He himself seemed to have caught a bad cough. 'Must be too cold in here...' he thought, sitting up and thanking God that his heating system still worked. He made his way down the hall, feeling his way to the thermostat in the dark.
He suddenly felt a cough coming on. He covered his mouth and started coughing like crazy. He felt himself sink to the ground and start to get lightheaded. Through his bizarre coughing fit he saw her walk into the hall and kneel down beside him to pat his back. But she started her own coughing fit and they both collapsed onto the ground in a horrible fit of coughs. Everything soon went dark for them both.
"Do you hear that?" one of the few remaining survivors in the city whispered to his friends.
"Dude, what kinda zombie is that? Never heard anythin' like it!" another said, listening to the odd new noises. It sounded like some sort of chant. None of them could make out any words from it though. It just sounded like someone was whispering to themselves... almost hissing. Unnoticed by any of the survivors in the group, a flash of faded blue and a smear of orange appeared on the rooftops above them. The hissing got louder and one of the survivors glanced up at the roof.
"Up there!" he yelled, aiming his rifle carefully. Right as he decided to take the shot, a horrible screech filled the air, causing everyone to fall to their knees and clutch at their ears. The sound seemed to go on and on. Nobody could even see. The screech had muddled with their brains. One of the survivors felt cold arms wrap around him, almost in a hug... except hugs didn't crush your bones. Within moments the man's spine gave an almighty crack and he fell over, dead. Another survivor met the same fate quickly, his neck snapped in two. The biggest of the survivors felt the arms start to wrap around him and through the fog of his mind, brought his gun around and felt it make contact. The screeching stopped and the arms withdrew. The remaining of the survivors staggered to their feet, trying to regain control of themselves. By the time they could see clearly again, there were no traces of orange or blue to be found. The survivors, mourning the loss of their friends, staggered forward, praying that they wouldn't have to deal with whatever those were ever again.