a glitch in the system
AlexisKeller
Kiri was shuffling through the hallway in the dark house—another deserted dead end in his search—when it happened.
He heard a groan.
It was painful and so coarse that it was almost... inhuman.
He guessed what it was immediately.
The thought registered itself just a second before there was a faint thud outside the door and his heart thundered in his chest.
He'd locked the door as soon as he'd entered as a precaution, so he wasn't scared of them coming in. That wasn't the reason why he was scared, no. It was the realization that this was happening.
And it was happening right now.
Shit.
They were here and chances were he couldn't outrun them. Well, he could, but not if they were high in number. And in the case that he did some stupid shit and tripped or something, he'd have his flesh ripped out with the freaking jaws of death before he even ate the dirt.
Shit.
He couldn't make a run for it because doing so was a surefire death and the thing was, nobody would even notice. It was true. He wasn't being an asshole kid about it, he was just stating a fact. And the truth was, he wasn't anyone important or anything. He was just one of the many people Sasuke had deployed to look for her.
This evident suicide mission would have been so much more worth it if he'd actually found some clues to here she was.
Honestly, he didn't understand why he was even sent to Kirigakure in the first place. Kankuro would have better luck searching for her in Suna, or even Hozuki in Oto.
But then again, those places were way too obvious. Thinking on it, Kankuro and Hozuki would probably return to Konoha with no leads. Still, he didn't think she'd be here. Kiri thought for sure she'd probably be somewhere far away, soaking in leisure someplace far more luxurious than here.
God, he hoped he'd find something. Anything. He had to.
They needed her.
The only light that illuminated the musty and overly crowded (with furniture and old books) lounge came from a bulb in the center of the room. He could see other lights but he really wasn't in the mood to try them. The windows were all boarded up and the doors were big and locked so he knew they'd hold. Whoever was here before certainly knew what they were doing. Kiri pushed a dusty table out of the way, setting his ass on the floor and back to the wall as more thuds sounded outside the door.
He sighed heavily. Whether he liked it or not, he was stuck here for the time being.
He just hoped the kitchen was well-stocked.
He needed to survive. He had a mission.
Shikamaru tapped his cigarette in the ashtray twice before returning it to its place between his lips.
He should really stop smoking.
Everyone always told him to stop smoking.
He did. Stop, that is.
But then all this happened, and Shikamaru figured he was excused.
Their scientists had fucked up big time and now zombies were on the loose. Very soon, man would not be able to step outside without the fear of being eaten.
And God only knows what all that meant for them.
Even though Konoha was safe at the moment—with the walls they were building, it'd hopefully stay safe—he was aware that this disease of sorts had broken through an hour or so ago. It had to have started spreading. They didn't know just how fast it was but they were running out of time. Suna was still safe too, from what he knew till now.
But the world was coming to a tragic, stuttering end, zombie apocalypse style.
He snorted and got up from the armchair. Making his way to the open window, he looked outside. Trees with their branches flailing, wind blowing like no tomorrow, the dark clouds covering the sky—it certainly looked like something out of a horror movie.
Something else for Hinata to pray about, Shikamaru thought absentmindedly.
The sight outside was maybe the perfect depiction of what was to come.
Doomed didn't even begin to cover what they were.
Naruto sprinted down the clear, pristine hallway in a mad dash and skidded inside the last and only room at the end of the hall for a final sweep of the place.
There he saw a man in glasses and a lab coat furiously scribbling on his clipboard.
"Dude, what the fuck?" Naruto demanded, quickly striding up to him.
"I need to get this done," the man replied, sparing him a pleading glance.
"Uh, buddy, how about no," Naruto growled. "We just announced the order that all lab coats were to descend their asses out of the lab and take cover. This is not your ass out of the lab taking fuckin' cover."
"Just a minute," the man begged.
"We don't got a fucking minute."
"Thirty seconds."
Naruto grabbed his elbow. "Okay, dude, maybe you don't get me. But you know what? With the limited time we got, I'll explain. This entire area is to be deserted. Do you get that? Everybody from the Secondary Lab unit in Suna has to take cover at the Primary building in Konoha. Everybody's already out and on the road. You know why that's happening. It's because we fucked up and now we're paying the cost. And I'll repeat: everybody's already out. And if you don't come with me right fucking now, there will be consequences."
He sounded tough. He knew Sasuke would be proud if he heard him now. But then again, this was part of the reason Naruto did what he did back in Konoha, he'd finally grown up and manned the fuck up.
The man was a quivering mess in his hand.
"Okay," he squeaked.
Naruto grit his teeth. He had great wheels; a new Jag he'd only bought last week that he'd left running outside the Lab unit. Getting from Konoha to Suna as quick as he needed to get there hadn't been a problem. But if they wasted another minute here, getting back to Konoha might just become one.
"Come on," Naruto said and they brisk-walked their way out of the lab, through the hallway and out. He paused outside the heavy double-doors of the lab and stared at the alarm.
Should he put it on?
He always used to, everyone did.
But with what was happening, did it even matter anymore?
"Aren't we leaving?" Lab Coat asked him.
Naruto turned and guided the scientist to his car a few feet away. Lab Coat got in the passenger seat and strapped his seatbelt firmly across his chest, which led Naruto to believe that he'd probably heard of how Naruto drove. Which was not slow by a long shot. He got off on driving fast and he couldn't fathom why anybody else wouldn't. He and Sasuke were well-known to race from Konoha to Suna and back again every day.
What sucked was that Sasuke usually won.
But Naruto did have his days.
As Naruto stood there, Lab Coat called out to him again, "You coming?"
He shook his head to clear his thoughts and called back, "A sec," and jogged back to the Lab Unit. Then for some inexplicable reason, he punched in the code to set on the alarm that activated the steel doors and engaged bars at the windows. Once that was done, he made for his car and angled in.
"Time?" he asked as he got behind the wheel.
Lab Coat anxiously glanced at his wristwatch. "It's almost seventeen hundred hours."
Fuck.
He'd spent almost a minute more than he'd intended to spend at Suna. And everybody knew time was seriously of the essence right now.
He looked over at Lab Coat and hoped to fuck he could take the speed.
Then he hit the gas.
all will be explained in the next chapter.
like most of you know, i have exams going on but i had this and i figured why not?
-lexy