Ch 2: Xemnas
Kairi grabbed the key and stood in a defense stance over Sora, prepared to fight. A man with long white hair, yellow eyes, and darker skin entered the bathroom, his gun immediately aimed at Kairi. Upon seeing that it wasn't a zombie, Kairi lowered her key, just a little.
"Don't lower your guard," he whispered, turning his back to them to check his surroundings. "These are crafty little shits and can get you when you least expect it." He turned back around to them and aimed his gun at Sora, who was now sitting up. "What happened to him?"
"I slipped and hit my head on the sink," Sora retorted, glaring at the man. "Now I would appreciate it if you pointed your gun elsewhere." The man stared at him, as if contemplating whether to comply with his request or not, but lowered his aim regardless. Sora stood up at the sink and continued to clean out the wound.
"You need to hurry, because I saw a large group of zombies headed this way," said the man, looking over his shoulder again.
"I'm trying, but the bleeding won't stop, and I don't want to die due to blood loss." Sora held a large wad of paper towel on his wound and grimaced. The man stared at Sora, contemplating, his eyes smoldering under the dim light. Kairi was taken aback by how eerie his eyes looked. His eyes were fierce, but not the passionate kind of fierce, like the way Sora's eyes got when he is determined. It's a kind of fierce that is always seen in a murderer. This raised a red flag for Kairi.
"We have a medic." Kairi raised her eyebrow as Sora stared at him from the mirror. The man was staring directly at Sora, hoping that his smoldering gaze would make him choose quickly.
"We?" Kairi questioned, "there's more of you?"
"I have a group that are setting up defenses at a warehouse north of here. We have a medic with us in case something happens. We can take care of that wound for you." Sora thought for a moment, and glanced at Kairi.
Can we trust this man? Kairi thought. We only just met him, and he aimed his gun at Sora.
"We don't even know your name," Kairi stated, gripping her keyblade tightly.
"Xemnas. I'm a scientist," he explained, completely lowering his gun and holding out his hand as if asking for a handshake, eyes still smoldering. Intuition screaming, Kairi just looked at the hand. "Kairi."
"I'm Sora. We're just college students." Sora was now fully facing Xemnas. "We'll go with you, but I need to contact my friends to let them know. We're supposed to meet somewhere. I don't want them to get worried." Kairi nodded in agreement, keeping her eyes on Xemnas. Xemnas simply met her glare with his still smoldering eyes. A shiver ran up Kairi's spine as their eyes met. So eerie, so scary. She then exchanged glances with Sora, who immediately figured out she was extremely wary of the situation. "After I get patched up, we'll get out of your hair." Xemnas thought for a moment, then agreed.
"Very well then. It's almost dark out, and we wouldn't want to be caught in the darkness with these creatures. Do you have all of your needed supplies?" Xemnas inquired, looking between Sora and Kairi.
"I left the backpack with our supplies in the kitchen," Kairi stated, "I'll go grab it." Xemnas shook his head. "What?"
"Let's go together, we don't need you attacked because you were caught unawares. I'll take the lead." Xemnas took out a military grade knife and slowly opened the door, peeking around to make sure that there were no zombies lurking nearby. Upon making sure the coast is clear, Xemnas gestured for Sora and Kairi to follow. Sora picked up his bat, and followed Xemnas; Kairi followed behind, holding up her keyblade in defense.
They entered the lobby of the restaurant, where the two zombies kept wandering, but they were far away from the bathrooms, so the group ignored them and entered the kitchen, where the backpack was sitting on the floor, the contents sitting inside. Kairi knelt to close the backpack and she hoisted it over her shoulder. Xemnas took the lead again after Kairi confirmed that she was good to go. He stalked towards the back door, knife and gun aiming, and peeked around the corner. Clear.
As they exited from the back, and were about to quickly go towards the front, they saw something that stopped them in their tracks.
A large hoard of zombies was dragging themselves their direction. Hundreds of zombies stumbling here and there, some falling and some walking into walls. As unaware as they are, how are they the deadliest creatures currently?
"They may seem dumb, but they are a dangerous force in masses," Xemnas explained under his breath.
"How do you know this?" asked Kairi. "It's almost like you've encountered this before?"
"Anything in large quantities is not good," stated Xemnas, sneaking around the building before the hoard noticed them. Kairi and Sora followed suit.
"I mean that's true, unless you're talking about dogs and video games," Sora mumbled, reaching for the door handle of his car and pulled.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
Suddenly the hoard quickened their pace towards the group, moaning and groaning loudly. The zombies that were inside of the restaurant were banging on the windows.
"FUCKING SON OF A-" Sora scrambled with his keys to turn off the alarm.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Xemnas demanded. "TURN THAT SHIT OFF."
"Sora, what the fuck?" Kairi squeaked, quickly grabbing his keys and hitting the off button for the alarm.
"I'm sorry! I locked my car out of habit!" Sora pleaded, face getting as red as it can.
"That doesn't matter anymore, get your ass in the passenger's side of the car, you are NOT driving in that state." Sora complied with Kairi's demand and quickly jumped into the passenger's seat. "Xemnas, you take the lead and we'll follow."
"Take this, so you can call in case of an emergency." Xemnas handed her a business card with his cell phone number printed on it.
"Got it." Kairi hopped into the driver's side, tossed her keyblade in the backseat and quickly followed Xemnas out of the plaza which was quickly overrun by zombies.
As soon as they were out of sight, Kairi let out a huge sigh and relaxed her grip on the steering wheel. They were northbound, driving under the freeway packed with abandoned cars and some zombies.
"Holy shit… when did this start? Today? What time? Because it's been a few hours since my gran got..." Kairi shook her head to keep herself from thinking about her now deceased grandmother. "Crazy how quickly it got to this state…" Sora didn't say anything and just stared out of the window. "How are you feeling?" Empty houses and shops sat at the sides of the road, abandoned cars littered the street. A house looked like it was on fire. There were some people running inside for protection. Kairi could only wish for their safety.
"I'm a little dizzy, my head hurts, and I'm feeling a bit sick… But other than that, I think I'll pull through. I just want the bleeding to stop," Sora answered, readjusting the paper towel on his head. "Oh shit." With his free hand, Sora searched for his phone and pulled it out from his front pocket. He has had multiple missed calls from both Riku and Roxas. "How much do you want to bet they called you too?"
"I wouldn't know, I… left my phone at home on the kitchen counter," Kairi grumbled.
"Hey, no worries, we can use my phone. I can use my car to charge it."
"What happens when the phone service stops working?
"Um… We'll worry about that bridge when we get there. I'm going to call the guys now." Holding the phone in his hand, speaker on, Sora waited as the it rang. After a few seconds, they let out a huge sigh of relief as they heard Riku's voice through the speaker, along with other voices.
"Guys! Oh, my God you're safe. Where the hell are you?" His voice sounded cool and calm, but both Sora and Kairi know that he was silently panicking. "I've called you and Kairi multiple times but no response!"
Sora chuckled sheepishly as Kairi sighed. "Sorry about that. Kairi left her phone at home, and well, I'm kind of in a bloody situation."
"Bloody situation? What do you mean? What happened? Were you bitten?"
Although they were all relatively the same age, Riku acted as the older brother figure, and hearing these rapid-fire questions gave Kairi a sense of relief. Maybe everything will be okay. Maybe all of this just a huge nightmare, and she'll wake up at home, with her grandmother making some delicious waffles with whipped cream and berries…
"I, uh, slipped in the bathroom of a restaurant we were gathering supplies from, aaand hit my head on a sink," Sora pressed the paper against his head even more, sheepishly grinning at the phone. There was silence on the other side.
"That's such a Sora thing to do," they heard Roxas mutter.
"HEY!" Sora exclaimed. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?" Kairi giggled as the boys started to bicker. Cousins will always be cousins.
"Guys, guys, now's not the time to bicker like an old married couple," Riku stated. Sora and Roxas both grimaced, and Sora stuck out his tongue. "So, what happened? Did you start bleeding?"
Sora sighed. "Yeah, I did. I'm trying to keep myself from bleeding out as Kairi is following someone. He said he's in a group with a doctor who can help us? He claims he's a scientist, so let's see what happens." Silence again.
"So, you are following a strange man to God knows where who claims to know a doctor, and claims to be scientist, and you are following him all willy nilly?" Riku's concern only made Kairi trust her intuition more. They didn't know him, he had a menacing aura, and it's just too fishy for him to have military grade weapons, and know about the zombies and have a warehouse with a doctor. That's just too… convenient.
Kairi gripped the steering wheel tightly "Trust me Riku, I'm extremely wary of this situation too, however…"
"I don't want to bleed out from a dumb gash on my head. I'm already feeling dizzy," Sora's words slurred a bit.
"Alright, just make sure you guys stay safe… and call us if it all goes to shit so we can make a plan to get together, and get out."
"We only plan on getting Sora patched up and then leave, so we'll let you know."
"Okay, that sounds good. We got to go, we see a few of the zombies approaching and don't want to get caught in a swarm. Talk to you later."
"Be safe guys! Talk to you later!" Sora hung up the phone and sighed. They sat silently as Kairi focused her eyes on the road. "I hope they make it out safely." Kairi furrowed her eyebrows and glanced at Sora.
"Alright, negative Nancy, chill out with the Emo phase, you left that phase in high school," Kairi gave him a reassuring smile. "It's not like you." Sora shook his head and smiled back with downcast eyes.
"I'm just trying to be realistic. We're in a zombie hell that only just begun, and it is highly likely that none of us will survive." Sora looked out of the window, watching as the road led them outside of the city. Kairi teared up and sighed. She hates it when he gets like this, it's not like him, but she can't just leave him in this state. She needs to do something to cheer him up. "Kairi… I'm feeling worse… I just want to lie down and fall asleep." His voice sounded tired, his head began to bob a little and his eyes a little glazed over. SHIT SHIT SHIT
"Hand me your phone and Xemnas's number." Sora complied. Kairi began to quickly dial his number with one hand as she drove with the other. He picked up quickly.
"Xemnas, it's Kairi. How close are we to our destination?" Her voice shook as she kept an eye on Sora as his eyes began to droop.
"We should be arriving within the next five minutes, why?" His voice was deep and serious.
"Sora is on the verge of unconsciousness."
"Okay. We'll be there soon. Just make sure he doesn't fall asleep. Keep him distracted."
"How?" He hung up before the word left her mouth. Shit. How am I going to do this? I have never experienced keeping someone conscious. HOW? Suddenly Kairi knew just the thing that'll keep him from kicking the bucket.
"Vanitas."
"Oh God, please don't bring that up." He seemed to perk up a little, though he did look worse.
"Why not? You really loved your alter ego!" Kairi had to do something to keep him awake, even if it meant embarrassing him. This is always something that will always keep him talking.
"That was waaay in the beginning of high school! It's so embarrassing!" Sora is pouting at Kairi. She's pretty sure he'd be blushing if he had the right amount of blood.
"You even begged your parents to get you yellow eye contacts, that was… certainly something."
"NOOOOO." He covered his face with his free hand.
"I remember the teachers being very confused. As to why you asked them to call you Vanitas instead of Sora. But you know, they complied."
"I was so embarrassed when I asked them to call me by my actual name after I got over it. They were so happy to see that I went back to normal."
"It was such a quick phase. Why did you change?" There was an awkward silence. A thick awkward silence that can be sliced with a knife.
"I had a large crush on Xion and I wanted her to notice me," Sora slightly blushed and Kairi forced out a giggle. "Obviously, it was futile because she ended up falling for Roxas, who also had a thing for her." Kairi forced a smirk. She loves Xion like a sister, they're close friends along with another girl named Naminé, who Riku had a major thing for. She couldn't help but feel a small twinge of... jealousy? "That doesn't matter now. I can see that she and Roxas were meant for each other. I also am interested in— "Sora cut himself off before he spilled too much information. "I, uh, am interested in bettering myself as a, uh, person." Kairi gave him a side glance, raising an eyebrow.
"You're great as you are already, but if you feel like you need growth, I'm here to support you." She gave him the most genuine smile since the whole situation has started. He returned the gesture, his eyes squinting with the smallest hint of happiness. Good.
Xemnas's van took a left onto a slightly obscured road, and at the end there was the parking lot of an isolated warehouse. It wasn't a large warehouse, probably the warehouse of a small company, but it seemed to suffice the needs of people surviving a zombie apocalypse. The building was made from concrete with steel doors and large windows. Xemnas stops just outside an automated gate and Kairi stops just behind him, waiting. Suddenly the gate begins to open, and Xemnas slowly drives his van into the parking lot, followed by Kairi and Sora. Kairi quickly got out of her side of the car to help Sora out. She supported him with her shoulder as Xemnas guided them inside.
"This is the warehouse where others and myself are taking shelter in," Xemnas gestured for them to look at how well prepared the warehouse was. The shelving that held former merchandise was being utilized as bunk beds and as ration shelving. A few people already occupied the bunks, some looking like military personnel.
"This is astounding," Kairi stated, dragging Sora along as Xemnas led them deeper into the warehouse. A few people greeted Xemnas as they passed, grateful to him. More shelves held ammunition and weapons. Odd. It's like all of this was ready before the apocalypse happened.
"The doctor is right down this way. Aerith!" A woman with long brown hair and green eyes exited a room, holding a clip board and pen, scribbling down a few notes, followed by a man with brown hair, a scar across his face, holding a massive gun, acting as her guard.
"Xemnas, you're back—Oh! Who are these people?" Aerith hurried to Sora to inspect him. "What happened?"
"H-he slipped and hit his head on a sink," Kairi stuttered, becoming more worried at Aerith's frown. "He has an open wound and lost some blood."
"Leon, please help bring him into the infirmary, I need to work on him right away." The man, Leon, took Sora from Kairi and supported him to the room Aerith came out of, with Aerith following close after.
