In the next forty-eight hours nothing seemed to change... except that the inhabitants of Midorijima started to look weary and worn out while the number of zombies only increased, and some zones of the town were now literally warzones, with whole streets burned down to set some kind of barriers against the monsters. The other change was that now, almost every time Aoba and he shared a look from across the room, they ended finding a mostly private nook somewhere and kissing each other. Sometimes, if there were people around, it was only a small peck. Others, like at that very moment, they could take their time and enjoy a long and heated snog. They hadn't talked about it, it had only been a short exchange of glances, and then, just a minute after, they bumped at the almost empty stairs and suddenly Aoba was pinned to the wall by a pair of hot lips. The small group of teenagers sitting some stairs below took a quick glance at them and proceeded to ignore the couple. Intimacy was something the base was lacking, sadly.
I think I'm in love with him, Noiz thought. Was this what he wanted me to say the other day? Then perhaps I should tell him now. But, on the other hand, perhaps I'll scare him away saying that all of a sudden… He thought the whole "sentiments" thing was truly difficult, and still unexplored land for him, and he would avoid scaring Aoba off by all means. He wanted nothing more than to enjoy his closeness and his warmth for as long as Aoba would let him. So he tried to keep his hands waist up every time they kissed, although at that moment they had been at it for ten good minutes, and when he held the other man closer there was a clear erection down there, rubbing against his hip, and a rough moan escaped from Aoba's lips. Noiz shuddered, turned on like hell.
"Hey, you, lovey-doveys", someone said at their back, and obviously to them, "meeting room in two minutes!"
They parted, Noiz with an inquiring look on his face, Aoba avoiding his eyes and wiping his mouth with his long-fingered hand. His cheeks and his ears were tinged in scarlet and his blue bangs were a mess, and Noiz wished he was allowed to arrange his hair for him. But of course Aoba rushed to the meeting room without a single word or gesture to him, embarrassed. Noiz sighed and followed him.
The meeting room was the largest space in the fourteenth floor, perhaps previously a loft. Noiz watched the crowd around him, and he noticed that not everybody had been summoned: the attendants were mostly adult men below their fifties, although a small bunch of strong and tough looking women could be seen, too. It was obvious what the topic of the meeting would be. Noiz saw Aoba had met his friends, and was chattering with them with a worried tiny smile on his face. Feeling a bit left aside, Noiz stood where he was and waited for the leaders to appear. One was that huge Native American guy, Mink, but Noiz was surprised to see who followed him closely and stood on top of a low table to be seen while addressing the crowd: it was Tae, Aoba's grandma. One quick glance in Aoba's direction told Noiz the boy was as surprised as he was when the old woman started to speak.
"Good afternoon, everybody", she said with her rasp voice. "You can surely guess why we have gathered here today. I regret to say that we finally know for sure the origin of the zombie outbreak, thanks to Mink's team and to my previous inquiries."
A loud general murmur burst into the room: yes, she had said the dreaded word nobody dared to say aloud. Zombies. If there was a better word for those creatures, anybody knew, but 'zombies' was pretty accurate anyway.
"Shut up and listen to the lady", Mink said in a calm voice, effectively shutting everybody up.
"Some of us have worked at Toue's facilities at some point of our lives, and we are aware of what kind of 'experiments" is Toue running… And it seems his latest ones revolve around chemical weapons."
"Is it a virus, then?" someone shouted.
Tae nodded.
"Yes, Mink's infiltrate in the Oval Tower has confirmed it."
The muttering started again, but this time Mink cut it at once, raising one of his huge hands.
"This is what we are going to do now", he said then. "We will take some volunteers, four groups of five members each, we will enter Platinum Jail and then take the labs in the Oval Tower. We will force Toue to stop the virus and help us to rebuild Midorijima!"
Most of the people cheered, although they all seemed more concerned and exhausted than rebellious. Some of the presents started to fire questions, asking for the details of the plan. Mink cut it short.
"We don't have time to spare, the details will be discussed with the volunteers. I want to set off to Platinum Jail in an hour, to arrive at nightfall, before the zombie activity peaks. So… who volunteers?"
At the last sentence, his eyes fixed on Noiz. Noiz stared back, defiant, but he didn't raise his hand. Around him, though, some men started to put their hands up, and Mink looked away. The German boy took a look around, too, and sighed when he saw Aoba had raised his hand. As I should have expected, damn my luck, he thought, putting his hand up as well.
And that way the meeting arrived to its end. Two of Mink's men took note of the volunteers' names and the rest of the attendants were reluctantly leaving. The ones staying revolved around Mink, shifting nervously.
"Alright, the plan is simple", Mink explained. He was a man of few words, and being forced to give explanations seemed to exhaust him. "One Scrap member has been working in the Oval Tower as security for a month, because we were already investigating him."
"What for?" Noiz said in a nonchalant voice.
"That's none of your business", the sharp answer was. Mink didn't look at him, keeping his eyes roaming through the volunteers. "He has provided a plan map of Oval Tower: we know where the elevators, the alarms and the cameras are. Approach your coils, I will send you the file." They all did, and all the twenty coils started to light up in turns when the file arrived. "We also have a code that will blur the image in the cameras for a while: it won't disconnect them, so once we enter the code, we must move quickly. This is why the groups have to be small. The old lady has given us information about the labs area, so we know more or less what to expect there. That area is less guarded, but arriving up there won't be easy. We will all enter the building through this door here", he signalled a spot on his coil's open screen, "and then we will separate and each group will go up to the labs using a different way. This should raise our chances of success: it is of the utmost importance that at least one group makes it to the labs. You have the paths marked in red in the plan maps."
They all studied their coils for a moment. Then one of Aoba's friends, the one with the tear tattooed on his cheek, asked:
"What about the main door? How will be open it?"
Mink's piercing eyes fixed on Noiz instead of addressing the tattooist.
"That's where this guy enters."
"Me?" Noiz asked, quietly, his face giving away nothing at all.
"You quite famous among the rhymers; everybody says you are the best breaking into systems. You will make sure the door opens for us and that the alarm is put in place again after our entering, so the main system doesn't detect us. You will wait until everybody has come in, and then will join your group. Can you do that?"
Noiz smirked.
"Of course. But I will only do it if I am put in the same group as Aoba."
The blue haired man groaned loudly. Mink sighed with annoyance.
"Sure, you get to be in the same group as your girlfriend."
"Oi!"
Aoba gritted his teeth, his face red up to his ears. Mink glanced at him and he suddenly froze, clicking his tongue.
"…You are the old lady grandson, right?" he asked. Aoba nodded, his blush subsiding a bit. Mink turned to Noiz again. "You have his back, Stud. Or the old lady will have my head, you understand?"
Noiz nodded, grinning. At the corner of his eye, he saw Aoba covering his face with his hands, groaning again in embarrassment.
"And what would you have done if I refused to do the deed?" Noiz asked before leaving.
The huge man looked sharply at him, raising an eyebrow.
"I would have used other means of persuasion."
And Noiz decided he really didn't need to follow that path of conversation.
"…Right."
It didn't take long to prepare the incursion. Mink's men had already gotten ready weapons and a small backpack with first necessity items for every member. So in an hour, more or less, the twenty volunteers, including Mink and three of his Scrap members, were at the main door of the base, ready to part.
The afternoon was giving way to night when they arrived to the Oval Tower. Sneaking into Platinum Jail had been easy, as there was a secret pathway that some of the older people knew, and their travel through the exclusive neighbourhood had been almost awkward and almost dreamy, as they haven't found a soul across it: not a vehicle or a person, and not a zombie either. So it was true after all, Platinum Jail had been evacuated, while the rest of Midorijima had been left to its own devices. Noiz' hands fisted when he thought about it, about the hundreds of people piling up in the base, their homes lost, and the rest of the inhabitants hiding in their houses, scared to death, while those hellish creatures invaded their island and destroyed everything. The casualties tally was of hundreds at that time. And what was the culprit doing about? Noiz would bet his ass that Toue had left the island in the first plane after the outbreak, and that those reports were recorded from Australia or Hawaii. His blood boiled when they finally arrived to the Tower's door. The group opened, letting him come through and approach the alarmed double door. Noiz studied the system and opened his coil with a 'pop'. It was complicated, but not the most complicated security system Noiz had ever seen, and in less than ten minutes the doors opened. The sky was already dark around them, and only some of the plaza lights were on, and they moved like shadows, going inside the building quickly and as silent as they could manage. Each group ran to their goal without needing to speak, and in less than a minute only Noiz' group was at the door. He passed and closed the door, activating again the alarm, as they had planned. So far, so good.
Their group was composed by Noiz, Aoba, the tattooist (Mizuki was his name) and two other ribsters from Mizuki's team. The tattooist took the leader role at once, and Noiz was okay with it, as he hated to lead. Even in the Rhyme group he had founded, he was only the founder member, but not the leader: being regarded with respect was fine for him, having to take decisions and arbitrate arguments was not. So he followed Mizuki alongside Aoba, climbing up service stairs and hiding behind office doors every time they found Toue's workers around. From time to time, Mink checked on them through Mizuki's coil. It all seemed fine at the moment, but they were advancing slower than they thought. There were more workers than they expected to find, mostly technicians, and they didn't want to attract too much attention knocking them down.
Every now and then, they found a code box in front a stair or a door they had to access. In the first five floors the code they were provided worked fine, and they could run through the obstacle after a short pause to regain their breath. When they reached the sixth, however, and Mizuki entered the code to access the corridor from the staircase, it didn't work. The tattooist groaned and turned to look at Noiz.
"I suppose this is where our luck abandon us, and you get to save the day", he said.
Noiz studied the code box, frowning. It was an easy work, but he was a little concerned. He didn't want to say it aloud, but the fact the code didn't work any more could mean Toue's system had detected them and was trying to stop them, and that would mean way more that only a changed code… They could find more security from then on. After a minute of close study of the insides of the case, he cut a wire with a scissors. The door opened.
"Go on, quickly", he said. "I have to join the wires again when we have entered."
He plucked two wires from the code box and pulled them to the other side of the door. Mizuki and the others checked the corridor, running around the corner. Noiz connected again the wires, closing the door. He tried to hide a bit the wires inside the doorframe, so they weren't visible at first sight. He stepped back to look at the outcome: not bad. He smiled proudly when suddenly a noise at his back startled him. He turned in time to see Aoba hitting a security guard in the head with the handle of his axe; the man surely had appeared from an office door, because Noiz hadn't seen or heard him before. He slumped to the floor, unconscious, and Aoba grinned widely at Noiz, satisfied.
"That's one less I owe you!" he exclaimed, and Noiz couldn't help to chuckle.
That floor was trickier than the previous ones, and they ended having to stop and hide for almost half an hour, until the shift of a bunch of technicians ended and they had free way again. The men were unarmed, but there were around thirty of them, so they didn't have another choice than waiting. Mink sounded upset on the coil, but he said the other groups were facing similar obstacles and the whole operation was being slowed down. But they managed to get to the next floor. Noiz repeated his trick at the stairs door, and there they went.
That seventh floor seemed to be full of storage rooms and fewer offices, but just when they were starting to feel confident again they heard running steps approaching them: a large group by the sound of it, and that 'clink' metallic sound resounding with every step could perfectly be of guns. Mizuki signalled an open door, and they stepped inside the storage room and closed the door in a heartbeat. Once the group of what they supposed were armed men had passed, Mizuki went to open the door again. To his dismay, it wouldn't open. Noiz came closer, but the system was different this time: no code box, just a bar code reader. They all sat down, frustrated, while Noiz tried his best at opening the door, but nothing worked in the end.
"So what? Are we cooped up in this storeroom like mice in a trap?" one of the men asked, upset.
Noiz said nothing. What could he say? He felt like he had failed. He eyed Aoba with frustration. At least he seemed calm, and in fact anyone blamed Noiz.
"You have done everything you could, mate, relax", Mizuki said, reassuring.
But then he tried to contact Mink through his coil, and found out the communication wasn't working either. He cursed loudly. All of them tried to use their coils, but although they could access their stored data, the messages wouldn't come through. They looked absolutely defeated.
"This looks bad", Aoba said flatly.
"We are fucked", another guy added. "They already know we are here, the next we will hear is those security guards opening this door for us."
"Hey, hey!" Mizuki said, raising his hands, trying to appease them. "We don't know that! And Mink was checking in us every ten minutes; I'm sure when he notices the communication is broken he will organise a rescue patrol."
"As if!" the previous guy puffed. "He has made himself clear: he only needs one of the groups to achieve our goal. The rest of us are necessary casualties, by all that he cares."
"Ha!" Mizuki grinned. "We have two assets he might need to recover: Aoba is Tae's grandson, and you all know how Tae would react if her only family was missing in action…" His ribster mate nodded, gulped, and Noiz couldn't help to grin: Tae was pretty famous, it seemed. "And there's also this guy", Mizuki pointed at Noiz, who raised an eyebrow, suspicious. "He is our expert in breaking through systems, after all. I bet Mink won't let him go that easy". The whole group turned to stare at Noiz, who sighed in annoyance. "Alright, I'll tell you what: it must be pretty late already, so let's all rest for a while, ok? Try to sleep. I'll do the first watch."
They all grunted, but after all Noiz was right, there wasn't much they could do right then. Noiz studied his surroundings. The storeroom was big, with shelves up to the ceiling. He opened one of the cardboard boxes that filled the room, and found out it contained uniforms. He unfolded one: it was a grey overall. He peeked inside other boxes: same content. There were green overalls, white ones and the grey ones, all of them with the 'Toue Inc.' logo in small letters on the chest. Great.
"Hey, give me some of those", one of the guys said, "at least we won't have to sleep on the floor."
Noiz opened a couple of boxes more, and they shared the contents, spreading the uniforms into layers until they at least provided some insulation from the cold and hard floor. Noiz lay down on his back, eyes fixed on the ceiling. It was far from comfortable, but the day's events were taking their toll on him, and he decided he would fall asleep easily after all.
Then, to his surprise, Aoba crawled closer and snugged next to him. Speechless, Noiz sneaked an arm around Aoba's shoulders, and it was welcomed, as Aoba placed his head on top, laying on his side, facing Noiz. His hand went to rest on Noiz' chest, and soon the German boy moved closer and held him by his waist, inhaling his hair's scent. The improvised cot had turned suddenly the most comfortable bed Noiz had found himself in a while, with Aoba's warmth and smell shrouding him like a blanket. He was amazed that the young man had dared to approach him like that, in front of his friends, but when he glanced at Mizuki, who sat by the door, the guy was looking at them with a half smile dancing on his lips. Noiz closed his eyes, trying to go back to that sleepy state he was a minute before. Aoba nuzzled his shoulder in silence. Noiz rubbed his back in small circles, trying to be reassuring.
"We will get through this, Aoba. Soon we will be back home."
"What home?"
Aoba's voice was bitter, and Noiz remembered Aoba didn't even know if his house had been burned down or if it was standing up yet. He leaned to kiss his frowned eyebrow.
"Home will be wherever you want me to take you, when all of this has ended. The world is wide."
Aoba said nothing, but Noiz swore he could feel him smiling against his chest.
