AN: Thanks to a friend of mine, I was pulled back into writing my old stories. A special thanks to Moondalion. Hope everyone likes the new chapter, sorry it's short... I will soon update another chapter after this as we get into the heat of things.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. The day I own the rights to the franchise is the day that Twilight becomes a compelling book series.

Zombies in Manhattan Ch 3: You guys have a tank?

"Roxas?" Axel repeated, tasting the name on his tongue. The redhead's voice was made ten times better just by saying his name. "So that's your name."

The blond in question felt a fire spark in his gut. "Yeah, don't wear it out." Please, wear it all you want.

"Demyx and Xaldin are on their way down." Zexion told Axel. "The rest are on higher floors where the overhead speaker can't reach."

"Damn, oh well." Axel shrugged before turning to Roxas. "Looks like you'll have to wait to meet the rest of the group. Zexion, how are we on food?"

"We'll need to go into town to grab more, it's the end of the month already and we need to stock up again."

"Noted." Axel shifted to one foot, his hips swaying lightly to one side.

Roxas shook himself a bit, and had to force his eyes back up from slim hips to Axel's eyes, not that it helped. The redhead's eyes had no qualms with being as attractive as those hips.

"Like what you see?" Roxas jumped when that sexy voice addressed him, noticing he had been staring. Axel was smirking at him, eyebrow raised. Roxas sputtered incoherently as he tried to come up with something and failed spectacularly.

"Um, uh..."

Luckily, Roxas was saved from having to answer by the elevator chiming, releasing a boisterous teen and a black-haired boulder of a man.

"I heard there was a code thirteen?" The first one said with a smile and a hop in his step. The teen wore a shabby purple shirt and black cargo pants, which were - Roxas suspected - heavy with amo cartridges. Behind him an electric blue Gibson MIII was strapped around his back, the neck of the designer guitar hanging precariously close to the floor. Dirty blond hair stood up high atop his head in a ruffled manner, giving him a crazed look. However, the sparkle in his eye and light tone in his voice gave the impression that this person never took anything seriously as long as he could help it.

Roxas was surprised. People like that were rare before the infestation, now they were just miracles.

"Indeed there was." Axel confirmed. He walked over to pat Roxas on the shoulder. "This here is Roxas, found him just outside on our doorstep."

"You say that like he's a pet stuffed in a basket and left on a porch!" The dirty blond laughed. He held out his hand to Roxas. Roxas eyed it before taking the hand in his own. "Demyx. Nice to meet you."

"I'm not a stray." Roxas said in a dull voice, with a small effort thrown in to make it sound light. It wouldn't do to not make friends with the first humans he had seen in forever. "And it's nice to meet you too."

"This here is Xaldin." Demyx threw a thumb in gesture over his shoulder at the big guy.

"Pleasure." The word was drawn out and cold, but underneath it one could sense a softness in the way the voice flowed. The man's face was ever-frowning, even when talking. Roxas guessed that this man must have seen some terrible things, no surprise there.

Roxas nodded to the big guy, a little intimidated by the intense presence. "Um, sure is."

"Now that introductions are finished, Demyx, I want you to lead the errands for the day." Axel said, clamping and rubbing his hands together. "Take whoever you want with you. We need food, water, and necessities."

"Aww. Why do I have to do it?" Demyx whined.

"If you don't, I'll make you assist Vexen with his work." Axel made a pointed glare at the teen.

"If that's the way it is," Demyx's character turned a one-eighty and instead of despair, he was smiling at the prospect of errands as he slipped the guitar off his back and placed it on a gun rack. He swooped an arm around Zexion, who in turn shook his head sadly and put his book down on a nearby table. "I'll take Xaldin and Zexy!"

"Do what you want, just don't wreck the tank." Axel waved him away in dismissal. Roxas' eyes grew wide in slow realization...

"Wait, you guys have a tank?"

Axel smirked. Behind the two talking currently, Demyx dragged an annoyed Zexion to the back where there were stairs leading to the skyscraper's parking lot, followed by Xaldin.

"We have plenty of treasures here at Castle Oblivion." Axel simply jested. He began walking to the elevator, Roxas on his heals.

"Are you telling me," Roxas started as he got into the elevator with Axel, "that you take your tank to go grocery shopping?"

"What else are we going to do with it?" Axel shrugged, humor glinting in his smelting green eyes. "We couldn't let it just spoil and gather dust."

"That's..." Roxas shook his head as the doors to the elevator closed behind them. "...incredible."

Roxas allowed himself to imagine three guys driving a heavy tank over a horde of zombies, fully protected by twelve inches of metal. After killing all zombies with see verbal rounds of exploding shells, they would cram all they could from the stores into the tank, and roll on back to HQ. Now he really wanted to have been invited on that 'errand'.

"You haven't seen anything yet." Axel assured as he pressed a number to the right of the elevator door, the grin on his face contagious as Roxas found himself smiling. When was the last time he smiled?

Since his family died? Since his friends betrayed him?

Roxas looked down at the floor of the elevator from the thought. The elevator rose with a smooth ease, playing 'Staying Alive' softly in the background. Roxas felt the silence between them stretch, and began to notice that he was in a compact room, with the piping hot specimen standing right next to him, and was the temperature raising, or was it just him? He had to say something before the smell of the man got to him. He'd always like cinnamon spice, and musty gun powder-

"Where are we going?" Roxas asked in a rushed voice.

"Floor 47. Valentine's study." Axel replied.

"Like the holiday?"

"Ha! It's been a while since Vince heard that one." Axel chuckled. "No, Vincent Valentine is one of us. He upgrades weaponry and goes out on missions when Vexen is onto something."

"Vexen, you mentioned him before."

"Yes, he's a scientist." Axel leaned against the elevator wall, his eyes not leaving Roxas'. Those green eyes were quite captivating... "He's trying to find a cure for the zombie infestation."

Roxas' blood ran cold, effectively sobering his sex-deprived brain. "He is?"

"Yup." The elevator pinged and the silver doors slid open.

Roxas followed Axel out of the elevator and down the hall, his mind lost in thought. A cure. So people were still trying to find a way to fix what's happened. Images flooded his mind as Roxas' past tried to pull him under its grasp. His father coming home and collapsing, black ooze dripping off his hand as he told his sons to run. Shaking off the dark memories, Roxas jogged to catch up with the hot red-head after he found himself lagging behind.

Entering a business office, Roxas didn't bother taking in the room around him as the man sitting in the swivel chair behind a desk called out his name.

"Strife?"

Roxas froze. The man in front of him...he'd never seen him before. The long black hair that was left to grow over time but held back by a red sash. The man stood up from the chair as it fell over, like the long-haired man had been electrocuted; his expression of shock clear on his face.

Axel looked back at Roxas in confusion. The blond boy didn't notice.

"H-how do you know..." Roxas tried to voice his question, but came short as the man stepped forward from around his desk.

"You're Roxas Strife, aren't you?" The man, Vincent, said.

Roxas could do nothing but nod as Vincent put his hands on his shoulders, as though looking at a lost friend. Roxas finally voiced the question bridled inside him, afraid of the answer.

"How do you know my last name?"

Vincent's hands clenched his shoulders, and the man's auburn gold eyes looked nearly fragile.

"Cloud. I was friends with your father, Cloud."