Akuroku, rated for gore, blood and character death. With help of my Beta-reader TheAnnoyingVoice.
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts is not mine.
Different sorts of wicked experiences and completely shitting events happened throughout the lives of the survivors of the Apocalypse years after it had begun. At least twenty years and uncountable lost lives further, humanity fought against the creatures that had been brought on earth by the scientists which assured everyone they could make the world a better place. Experiments had been completed, others left to rot, and thrown away- until one went so wrong, that the world had suffered from the mistakes which had been made.
A research had then started to find the scientists who had caused the suffering, but yet no one of them had been found. It's as if they'd disappeared from the earth, engulfed by silence or even death- they weren't sure. Voice records had been taken- along with the files of the last experiment they'd been working on. Fingerprints had been removed carefully, and the files of all the employees which worked in the lab had been burned until ashes were left.
But the research was nineteen years ago, and they had already given up for quite some time. It seemed useless, thus said by the general of the military. They got rid of any traces left within the lab, even the camera recordings had been erased and the tapes had been destroyed. The scientists were one step ahead of humanity. Thus seemed, nineteen years after the research, and still no trace had been found. They were smarter than one could ever think.
Until the day they live in now, they never found out about the experiments done by the scientists. The outcome of the experiments had been clear though, since thousands of lives had been destroyed by it. Cannibalistic, flesh-eating monsters slumping through day- and night. Watching the survivors from every corner, and waiting for a vulnerable, pathetic human to show up- to be their diner for the day. Ready to rip of arms and legs, to sink their teeth into the soft, fresh, human meat. To be able to eat every inch of the- with blood covered- substance. Only the thought of it all made their mouths practically float a river down their sharpened teeth, even though it was impossible for them to have any saliva nor water inside their 'bodies'.
The military was surprised that the percent of survivors hadn't dropped as much as it had the year before. Forty percent of humanity survived through the last year, now thirty-four percent of the ones which survived that year. Holding count on the ones which didn't survive made their heads ache, too many people died and too many graphics had to be re-made. It wasn't necessary, in the militarist's opinions, but the commander wanted to know which humans had died. He still had a little hope for the scientists to be found along the lists which had been made by patrolling militarists.
Every night a group of men and women were sent out to check on every corpse, register their information into their system, and get a move on back to their base. The commander, Squall Leonheart, was determined to find the bastards which had caused this fate to fall upon humanity. He cursed every one of them which had been in the project they were working on. Because of them, thousands of lives had been taken away by death, and replaced by abominable, atrociously, gruesome- and any other word to describe what he's getting to- flesh-eating monsters to arise.
But beside the one's who didn't survive through the events, there were- luckily- enough survivors left which were making their way to Organization XIII, a minor group of survivors. The group had been formed a few years after the first 'monster' to arose. Within the day, that one abominable monster managed to turn half of the city into one of his kind. They had decided after that to start a group to help each other out- to not let one of them have the same fate as those unlucky souls roaming the earth, now, as a soulless- death, bodies. The group consisted of thirteen members, each one of them with their own story. Only one of the group- the fourteenth member, which had been forgotten a long time ago- didn't make it through with the others. He didn't had the courage to fight against those things, for they had taken the lives of his beloved ones. He stayed behind, as the others moved along. They guessed he should already be dead by now, either he'd hung himself up, or morphed into one of those creepers. They didn't care, for personal reasons. The rumor about it all was pretty famous though, since everyone had heard about the Organization's Fourteenth member. Apparently he was as important as the rest of the group, because he was one of the few that had saved many lives on the group's way.
The rumor also fell on a red-haired man's ears, also the story about the Organization's goal to help all the left survivors. Axel Flynn, thirty-nine years old, the last survivor in his home town, where his brother Reno and son Lea have died. He'd searched for any other living being, but the only actual moving thing he'd found were those beasts walking around. In every street, corner and house- simply everywhere. He managed to survive for so long, without any company. Living off of other's food- finding guns and bullets inside people's houses to protect himself- he wondered why so many people had weapons.. and getting light from candles since the electricity had been long gone. It had been- and still is tough for him. He lay awake for nights because of the gnawing sounds coming from the creatures, knowing they could find him by one single movement.
Not that he'd cared about it though. He stayed awake to be alert, not because he was scared. He wasn't dumb. By setting traps around the house he slept in, he knew they couldn't reach him that easily. Also, he knew the military did patrols at the night, and he hoped they would reach his hometown eventually. Unless they gave their hopes up, in that case he'd had to move by himself and find another city. That was his first plan to begin with, but within a city with at least hundreds of those creatures, it wasn't very easy to slip through them and get the hell out of there.
But Axel was stubborn for his age. He may be half the age of a senior - what his brother Lea used to tell him - but he acted like one hell of an annoying teenager. Reno used to make fun of his childish acting compared to his age. Axel couldn't believe he'd missed his family this much - that he even missed their most stupid commentary on everything he did. They might've teased him too much, and made fun of him too many times, but those little things were the things his family used to do - it's what he is missing in his life now.
There was no time thinking about the 'good ol' times' now though; he had to come up with something if the military wouldn't show up, again. He'd tried different things to be able to get in contact with the military if they would ever come by, such as leaving notes when he sneaked past a few monstrous creatures - which were sadly, and grossly enough, enjoying their 'meal' from last week - writing with graffiti-spray on the walls, using small fires in the middle of the streets, anything. But his efforts were for nothing, for the military had still not shown up.
He thought they would eventually show up after at least twenty years of waiting, but they didn't. Seven-thousand and three-hundred nights went by- how did he know this? Axel was bored, seeing as there was nothing to do within the city - and there was still no sign of humanity other than himself. Eventually he would have to give up his hiding spot and go out, since the remaining hope in the military had almost died inside his mind. Waiting for so long without any sign of the soldiers didn't do any good to Axel at all.
He decided he wouldn't wait any longer. This day he'd be leaving his hometown and memories behind to find a new future on his own. Fuck the military, they wouldn't show up, he knew by now. They had probably already made a report about the city, that there were no survivors left. Thinking about the stuff he would need, he came to a conclusion a town-map would be easy. He'd been born and raised here, but since every way he'd known was blocked by those creepers, he'd guessed a map could tell him how to make his way through the sewers. The locations of the hospitals were pointed out on those maps, the same with the supermarkets, police and fire-brigade barracks. He could get medicine at the most nearby hospital, supplies at the supermarket and any other stuff he would need at the police and fire-brigade barracks. But first, he would need the map. Normal town maps were to find within supermarkets, but he needed one from the military. On those maps, everything was located. The sewers especially, and that was what he needed, he couldn't make it with a normal map.
He took a glance around the room he stayed at for quite some time and gathered the stuff he already had. A few cans with food, weapons and some medicine. Dumping them into his backpack and making his way downstairs towards the back-door, he loaded his gun and slowly pushed open the door to the backyard. From what he could see nothing was out there, so he deemed it safe. As he stepped onto the grass, he made his way over to the garage and climbed on the roof. At least twenty creepers- what he called them every since he'd saw them- surrounded the backyard, outside the walls. He cursed inwardly and pulled out another fully loaded gun, ready to shoot whenever he thought was needed. None of the creepers had noticed him yet though, so he jumped down the roof on the other side and sneaked through them in order to get on the other side of the street. If he remembered correctly, without the damage which had been done to the streets, he should turn left, right, left and then he would reach his destination- for now.
He was surprised that they still didn't notice him, due to the small noises his sneakers made while going through the pools of blood. He stepped over half-eaten bodies and body parts until the path was clear. In the alley, much had changed due to the long time of not taking care of it. Back when the creepers didn't exist yet, it wasn't as worse at it was now. No graffiti or dead bodies, no mold on the walls and no droplets of blood or whole puddles. Just a simple alleyway where junkies hung out in weekends while cursing at everyone who came by- the usual. Axel shrugged the thought of it away, he never liked the idea of junkies nearby. Only the thought of walking in the same alley they used to hang out, disgusted him more than the creepers. He had his reasons for. And the biggest reason was his brother Reno. He was a junkie, and didn't care about his health and the consequences of using drugs. Axel had tried to help him, but he refused.
Finally, he reached the end of the alley and soon a dim light was seen through the long grass and bushes which had grown all over the place. He pushed the leaves aside and sighed in relief to see he'd reached his destination. It was pretty ironic, since it never was such a big deal to get on the other side of the streets. But seen the fact those creatures were hungry for his flesh, he had to be more careful and stealthier than he'd ever had to be. And being the stubborn man he was, he never wanted to learn to be stealthy. He'd rather kill them all off instead of sneaking past them. But besides his stubbornness, he was wise as well. He knew when he would kill one, the rest would get on his feet. Perhaps there was still a little hope for him left after all.