"End of Days"
By: Suna Rei
Chapter One The Puppy
"Are you ready to rock?"
The crowd around the small stage of the 13th Bar erupted in screams and cheers as the new band in town prepared to play. It was their first performance at this particular location. Never the less, many loyal fans had turned up to see the performance of A.D.H.D. The leader and head singer of the band was a teen named Demyx. He was a dirty blond with blue-green eyes and a wild personality. Playing on bass was a tall man named Saix, aka the Puppy. He had long blue hair accompanied by an x-shaped scar between his piercing yellow eyes. No one was sure how he acquired said scar. On electric was Vexen. He came off as a bit crazy, but he had mad skills with his axe. He had long blond hair and brilliant green eyes. Last but not least was Luxord on the drums. He was a cocky Brit with really short blond hair and blue eyes.
"This… is…my… last… BREATH!" Demyx was singing. "As I stand back and watch the end of days…"
The crowd roared with excitement. The song "End of Days" was a big hit with the fans. A.D.H.D. had yet to become an official band and did local gigs for money. Basically they sang what ever they felt like singing once they got on stage. Demyx wrote the songs, but they usually were mindless and really out there. As always, when they were finished playing they hung out and got drunk off their asses. Demyx was still under age, but no one seemed to care.
"D-duuuuude… I have like… six fingers… This is crazy wicked…" Luxord said to no one in particular, far drunker than the rest of them.
"Pfffffft… No you don't silly…" Demyx said to him, and then started to laugh for no reason in particular.
"That's… impossible! But I clearly see six fingers on your hands… I must study you…" Vexen slurred, holding up one of Luxord's hands.
"Back off, ya bloody nerd…" Luxord laughed, pulling his hand away and causing Vexen to fall over.
"Morons…" Saix muttered.
"Hey! Hey Puppy! Wassat? Huh? Wassat?" Demyx laughed, pointing a laser light at the wall.
"Damn light's back!" Saix jumped up and tried to attack it, failing epically.
Demyx fell out of his seat from laughing.
Saix looked over to him, pouting. "Meanie…"
"Oh, don't cry…" Demyx wiped the tears from his own eyes as he said this. "Come 'ere…"
Saix pouted again but obeyed. Demyx gave him a bear hug. With a sneaky smile he ruined the moment by grabbing the man's ass.
"H-hey!" Saix jumped back, looking bewildered.
"Ah, lighten up, dude!" Luxord said, laughing.
The four had been friends since they were in diapers. The band just kinda started up as they got older. Demyx was pretty good with the electric but he'd been voted for lead singer. Next week the group had an interview with some big shot producers. They all wanted to be known for their talent.
"Could you be any more gay?" Vexen snorted, taking a large gulp from his drink.
"I don't care… I'm gay and I'm proud!" Demyx said loudly.
"That's the spirit!" Luxord cheered.
Their songs were every bit as mindless as their conversations. After a while the four called it a night and headed for home. As Demyx walked down the street, he noticed a strange bright green glow on the horizon. He didn't really think much of it, assuming that it was a hallucination. A young blond boy was sitting on the side of the street, examining a dead cat. Its fur was solid black, and its guts were spread out over the road. The boy looked up as he came near, his blue eyes full of a strange fascination with what he was doing.
"Gross…" Demyx muttered as he walked by. "You shouldn't play with things like that, kid."
He could have sworn the boy was humming "End of Days". Demyx reached his apartment, cursing to himself as he fumbled to unlock the front door. Too tired to worry about hygiene, the teen plopped down in his bed and passed out. Not too long after that there was a massive explosion within the city.
. . .
Demyx opened his eyes slowly, wondering why he was in so much pain. He could see the sky, but it was clouded and gray. He sat up, looking around with a horrified expression on his face. The tall buildings that once made up the city were in ruins. Some had been reduced to rubble. There were no sounds at all, no cars, no people, no nothing.
He soon found he wasn't alone and nearly jumped out of his skin. A strange looking blond boy was staring at him with deep blue eyes from atop a pile of rubble. His skin was a pale green color and his tattered clothes had bloodstains on them. A deep gash ran across his left cheek, but the blood seemed to have already dried.
"Jeeze, scare me to death, why don't ya?" Demyx said, holding his chest.
The kid merely gave him a confused look, as if he couldn't understand him. Demyx frowned slightly. This kid was starting to creep him out. He stood up, brushing rocks and dirt from his pants and looked around one more time. The boy remained seated, but watched his every movement.
"What the hell happened…" Demyx muttered to himself.
He didn't bother to look back to see if the kid was still there. Instead, he began walking down the streets, which were clogged with what used to be buildings, and lots of crushed cars. He saw no people though, no blood, or any corpses. Demyx was getting more freaked out by the minute. He noticed a drug store that was still partially standing and decided to grab a few things. First things first, he needed something to kill the terrible pain in his back.
After grabbing a backpack from the floor, he made his way to the back where the shelves of pill bottles were. He gulped down a couple of pills and threw the bottle in his bag. He looked around for any other useful things. All he found were some bags of chips, a couple of water bottles, a box of Band-Aids, and a sewing kit. They all were tossed casually into the bag with the meds. It looked like some one else had already cleaned most of this place out. Well, food wise anyways.
Demyx threw the bag over one shoulder and turned to leave. He froze up when he saw that boy again. He was peaking curiously at him from behind one of the shelves.
"Why are you following me…?" Demyx called out to him.
"You're…" he started, coming out from hiding, "How come you're not dead?"
"How could you say something like that? What the hell happened here?"
Instead of answering, the boy snarled, baring his teeth. He tried to attack Demyx, who stumbled backwards and fell over.
"G-get away from me!" He screamed, backing up until he hit a shelf.
The boy watched him as he started to cry a little.
"Ok, ok! Jeeze… I won't eat you, since you're gonna cry about it…" he said in an irritated tone.
"E-eat me?" Demyx said, horrified. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"It's what I do…" the boy sighed.
He walked over and sat down beside the frightened teen. "A nuke was dropped three days ago."
Demyx thought back to that green light he had seen. "So, everything was… destroyed?"
"Yeah… I really had nothing to lose though… So… I guess I'm ok with it."
"H-have you seen any one besides me?" Demyx asked, afraid that the boy had killed his friends.
"You're the first living person I've seen since the bomb dropped. Uh… My name's Roxas," he offered.
Demyx was confused and frustrated, also worried that he was about to get his throat ripped out. "I'm… I'm Demyx. So, uh… did the radiation like… mutate you or something?"
Roxas shared his confusion for a second before laughing. "I have no idea. I guess so... I just kinda woke up like this…"
"Wait… You said I was the first living one you'd seen. Were there others like… you?"
"More zombies? Yeah. But I don't recommend going near them. No one seems to have any sense anymore. They tried attacking me…"
"So you just act the same way?" Demyx asked with a judgmental tone.
"I-I was lost!" Roxas said, suddenly sounding scared. "I thought I was supposed to be like them…"
"Calm down!" Demyx placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I… I don't know what to do…" Roxas said in a small voice.
"I don't either," Demyx agreed.
The wound on Roxas's cheek was really starting to bug him. He remembered he had randomly grabbed a sewing kit and pulled it out of his bag.
"Would you mind if I…?" Demyx motioned towards the boy's cheek.
"H-huh? Oh, this? Go ahead…"
Demyx pulled out a needle and some black colored thread. It was the only color he had, but it would have to do. The boy didn't react in the least bit when he poked the needle through his skin. He used some water from one of the bottles to clean off the dried blood once he finished closing it up.
"Much better…" Demyx said, smiling.
Roxas ran his fingers along the stitching. "I didn't feel a thing… Huh…"
"I'm gonna go see if I can find any survivors…"
Demyx stood up, adjusting the straps on his bag. The boy stood up as well. Apparently he wanted to go with him. Demyx wasn't complaining. Having a little zombie boy for a companion was better than being alone he supposed. The two made their way through the rubble, Demyx desperately searching for some one, any one. Roxas kept looking around like he expected something to jump out at them at any moment. That was making Demyx nervous. The boy had wandered around for three days, so he already knew what to expect.
"Why aren't there any bodies…?" Demyx asked after awhile.
"The monsters ate them," Roxas replied, looking the other way.
"M-monsters?" Demyx exclaimed.
"Yeah. We weren't the only ones who mutated. I saw a freaking wicked dog yesterday. Must have been the size of an RV."
Demyx gulped. "W-was it around here…?"
"Not far from here… Closer to the east side maybe."
Demyx's breath caught in his throat. Saix lived in that area, and he had a dog. He shook the thought from his head. He couldn't let his emotions get the better of him again.
"Y-you don't really feel like… you want to eat me, do you?"
Roxas looked up and met his eyes, a strange smile on his face. "I don't feel. I'm dead."
Demyx watched the boy walk ahead. He had cold chills running down his spine. He seemed to be the only thing around not dead. He stopped thinking and rushed to catch up with Roxas, though the two seemed to be heading nowhere in particular.
"So… uh… You have any idea where you're going?" Demyx asked after a while.
"Yeah! I wanna show you that dog," Roxas said, excited.
"W-WHAT? I'm not going near that thing!" Demyx yelled out, backing up from the confused boy.
"Ah, come on!" Roxas said, turning around to face him. "We won't get too close, I promise!"
"No way!"
Roxas pouted, looking slightly hurt. He walked over to Demyx and took his hand, trying to pull him along. Demyx, being older and bigger, didn't budge. He was scared out of his mind enough as it was. Roxas tugged harder, but still failed.
Demyx finally got tired of him pulling at his hand. "Fine, fine! A quick look, then we're outta there. Got it?"
Roxas's face lit up and he pulled Demyx along. The two came up to what used to be a fairly large intersection. The bases of the skyscrapers were still standing on the side opposite from them. Roxas motioned for him to be quiet and the two crouched behind a half-intact wall. Demyx froze up, hearing a loud thump sound coming their way.
"Here he comes," Roxas whispered.
"Oh god…"
Demyx saw it and knew exactly who it had used to be. The dog was slightly bigger than Roxas's description. Its fur was blue and it was covered in blood. You could see the bones and muscle where it's rib cage was. About in the middle of it's tail the bone shoed. The back of one of its hind legs was also missing skin and a good chunk of meat.
"What's wrong?" Roxas whispered, noticing that he had gone pale.
"Th-that was my friend…" Demyx stammered, shaking badly. "H-he must have been fused with his d-dog or something…"
"I'm sorry… I didn't know!" Roxas said with that scared look again. "…Hey! Look!"
Roxas was pointing wildly. Demyx following his motions and saw a man on the other side of the street, hiding like they were. The man had short blond hair from what Demyx could see. The dog monster was sniffing around, looking for a meal. Demyx was horrified to realize that the man was Luxord. The creature stopped sniffing and turned away, heading back the way it came. Luxord had noticed the two across from him and made an attempt to run over to them.
Demyx freaked out and motioned for him to go back, waving wildly. The man paused for a moment, looking confused. The dog froze up, sniffing the air. It reeled around, resting its bright yellow eyes on Luxord. It let out a loud roar, sending drool flying from its horrible looking teeth.
"Luxord, RUN!" Demyx yelled.
He let out a scream and turned to run, but the monster caught him before he had a chance. Demyx looked away as it tore his friend apart. Roxas was watching with morbid fascination, too transfixed to look away. Demyx wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. He yanked the blond away, and made a run for it. Roxas snapped out of his strange state and was soon running right along side him. Demyx stopped once he thought they were safe, also feeling a stitch pulling in his side. His breathing was ragged and hurt. Roxas didn't even appear to be breathing. He was watching Demyx curiously.
"This… is… messed up…" Demyx said, panting.
"…" Roxas couldn't think of any thing to say.
Demyx looked up to the blond, who appeared concerned. He let out a sigh and straightened back up. He had failed to help his friend, but he felt determined to protect this boy. He just didn't understand why he felt the need. He tried to smile, placing his hand on Roxas's shoulder. The boy's tension eased a bit and the two started walking back through the ruins.