Hope everyone had a good holiday!

Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing


Chapter 2, Rule 5: No Attachments

Renji and Rukia and always been a couple. Maybe they hadn't realized it as soon as everyone else, but there constant squabbling and the un-dyeing affection that was always present between them was so obvious even strangers could tell.

They had made it official junior year of high school, gotten married a month after graduation, and were completely moved in by the end of the summer. They were perfectly matched; both stubborn and strong headed but loved each other enough to ignore their own values to simple be with one another. Renji did what Rukia told him to do and Rukia strived to make Renji happy. When we all got together; the gang from high school that still lived in the area, Renji and Rukia became just best friends. They didn't lay all over each other or smother us with their love. But we all knew it was their, in the looks they gave and the smiles.

Their son was born a year after they moved in together, making him 4 and a half now. Kaine was named after Rukia's mentor and my grandfather, who died in combat our junior year. They had named me his god-father, a title I chose to use to spoil the little brat to no end. Kaine had Renji's bright red hair and Rukia's huge, dark, almost purplish eyes. He was perfect and anyone would lay down our lives for that kid.

It was almost 3 am when we pulled up outside Renji's small suburban home. Instead of the 20 minute drive from the hospital it would have normally taken, we had been forced to take side roads to avoid the miles of abandoned cars on the highway's. As we had gotten further into the city, the Walkers became more abundant, forming groups of them that charged on sight. Renji and Rukia lived in a quiet suburban neighborhood not far from mine, though theirs was much nicer with its perfectly trimmed lawns and manicured flower beds.
Now, it didnt look so nice. A car had been driven into his neighbors house, the wall crumpling over the roof and bricks strewn everywhere. Cars were left in the middle of the street, the doors still open from the drivers escape. The street was clear though, no Walking Dead wandering about. We still made care to close the doors quietly and sneak up to the porch, Renji's shotgun in hand.

The house was completely dark except for a faint light coming from the middle upstairs window. Kaine's room.

"Ren wai-" I said as he charged through the front door, his whole demeanor frantic.

"RUKIA! KAINE!" He screamed, running up the stairs two at a time. I moved inside quickly behind him, shutting the door and locking it just in case.
Their front door opened up onto a staircase that lead to the bedrooms up stairs. To The left was the dining room and the kitchen and to the right was the living room and back deck. The house would have cost me more then I had ever owned in my life, but Rukia's family came from money and was expected to live as such. Not that either one of them ever complained.
Normally the house was lit up with candles at night, sweet smelling ones that Rukia picked up at the farmers market. Now the place smelled rotten and empty. I glanced into the living room, a shiver passing through me at the smashed in plasma and overturned bookshelf.

I followed Renji up the stairs slowly, hating the thoughts that were forming in my head. Kaine was gone. Rukia was gone…which meant my family...

Their was loud banging coming from upstairs and then the sound of splitting wood. I scramlbde up the last steps to see Renji entering his sons room, door hanging off its hinges.

"KAINE!"

I ran down the hallway to Kaine's room, terrified. I walked in to see Renji kneeling down with his arms wrapped around his son, their identically colored hair migling together as he sobbed. Kaine stared at me with those far too intelligent eyes, his arms barely wrapping around his fathers neck. It was the second time I had seen Renji cry, the first was when him and Rukia had broken up for about a week before them came running back to each other.

"Thank god…" I mumbled out with a sigh, falling against the wall neck to the rocking chair. But how had he survived by himself? I looked arouned the room, seeing three boxes of the kid's favorite cereal, Captain Crunch, some bread and a box of crackers. Jugs of water were stacked in the corner, an open one sitting next to Kaines bed.

"Mommy…?" Kaines voice squeaked out. Renji tightened his hold and nodded, squeezing his eyes shut even further.

"We'll find her, we'll find her don't worry"

"MUUUHHHHHHAAAUUUUUUU" A loud, unearthly scream erupted from the doorway, breaking apart the sweet moment on the floor. Renji reacted instantly, shoving Kaine behind himself and crouching down with his fists ready. I stood up, stepping up next to Renji and blocking Kaine even further.

Rukia stood there, dressed in her Chappy the Bunny pajamas she refused to give up from highschool. Her eyes were ghostly blue, wide and hungry. Her shoulder had been ripped apart and now hung in bloody strips down her side. The arm attached hung useless, but her other was reaching out towards us as she dragged her broken ankles into the room. The clothes were bloody and soiled, hanging in craps in some areas.
I couldnt react for a moment, staring at what had become of one of my oldest friends. She was still beautiful, even in her death. I wanted to reach out and hug her, pick on her like I used to, let her beat me up because there was no way I could ever fight back... no way I could ever hurt her...

Kaine let out a scream as Rukia started dragging herself towards us, her gargled noises becoming more frantic as she took in the sent of flesh. I spared a glanced at Renji, his eyes were wide and terrified like mine had been moments ago. He had tuned out his son, his eyes only for his lost wife.

I thought quickly, knowing we only had seconds. The gun was downstairs, we had no weapon. And even if we did, I didn't know how to shoot and Renji would never be able to to kill when he was like this. And never Rukia...

Rukia couldn't move fast due to her ankles, but she was still halfway into the room when Kaine, still crying, screamed at me.

"Uncle Ichi, the bat!"

I swiveled my head to him, seeing his small hand pointed at Renji's baseball bat from high school, which was laying on his bed.

It was as if my brain shut down for that moment. I knew what I had to do and simply reacted. Instincts. I needed to protect Renji and Kaine, I needed them to be safe. We only had room for the living in our hearts now.
I turned and slammed the bat into Rukias head just as she was about to reach Renji. The sound of crunching bone filled my ears and suddenly I felt invincible. I slammed the bat into her repeatedly, quelling the smile that almost spread across my face. Her bones crunched underneath the metal, her gargled noises becoming less and less as the fake life she had ebbed away. I couldn't stop though, even when her body became an unrecognizable heap. The blood, thick and almost black in appearance, splattered against me and the colorful carpet that had traines driving across it...Kaine loved traines..

I snaped back to reality and dropped the bat instantly, eyes wide. The mess before me was utterly disgusting, innards spilled out and mushed to a lick soupy consistency. Her pajamas could stil be made out, the pick fabric now a deep red. I swallowed back the bile that rose in my throat, staggering back a couple feet.

"Kaine, can you take your daddy downstairs?" My voice sounded strange to my ears, warped in someway. I was still staring at the gore in front of me when Kaine grabbed his fathers hand and dragged him out the door hurriedly. Renji followed zombie-like, which was ironic. I wonder how Kaine felt to have both his parents turn to zombies...

I looked back down at the mess, knowing I could not leave this here. Renji had not reacted during my moment of insanity, but he was sure to remember it. I was protecting them though, it was all self-defense.

"Ya kno' it wasn't Aibou"

I shook my head of my thoughts, grabbing the edge of Kaine's carpet and rolling it around the body. Thankfully only splatters littered the wood and walls, easily cleaned. I didn't want to think of my clothes, or my face. I could feel the blood drying on my cheek...Rukias blood...

I cleaned my face off in the mirror, having escaped into the bathroom after taking the carpet to the back porch. I stared at myself, my eyes tracing over my face critically. I looked older then 24, but that could have to do with my constant scowl. I smoothed out the frown with my hands, letting my face turn blank. My eyes were dark, muddy brown, hard and cold looking. My hair...god my hair. My hair was the reason I had learned to fight, the reason I had met Rukia and Renji. I tugged at the orange strands that were growing over my eyes, now reaching the middle of my cheek. Too long, but I had neglected a hair cut for weeks before we left for the camping trip. Before the end of the world.

I left the bathroom and found Kaine sitting with his father at the dinning room table, sitting silently across from him. He looked so small in the giant wooden chair that he sat in, his chin just barely reaching the table top.
I stood at the doorway a moment, unsure of how to enter.

Kaine looked up at me and gave me a heart-wrenching smile. His eyes were watery, but he was still trying to keep calm.

"She's gone?"

I nodded, staying out of the room. I felt like an outsider suddenly, like I needed to leave them. But Renji was my best friend and we needed each other. Especially now.

Kaine looked away, turning his attention back to his father, "She got hurt two days ago, one of the monsters bit her shoulder. She said she was going to get very sick and that I couldn't be near her…" He trailed off as Renji lifted his head to look at his son, "She locked me in my room with the food and water and bat and said that if she got in, I had to fight her. She told me to kill her..."

I closed my eyes, fighting off the tears that were threatening to fall. I hadn't cried in years, but everything was too much now. And hearing Kaine, who was supposed to be worrying about how to tie his shoelaces, talk about his mother's death... "After a while, she started banging on the door and screaming at me. I wanted to open it for her, but she sounded so scary…", He continued, "She never left the house and I could hear her wandering the hallway all night..."

"You did really well Kaine. Exactly like your mother would have wanted you too" I finally said, walking over to give him a hug. Kaine burried his face into my shoulder and squeezed me as if his life depended on it.

"Thank you…" He mumbled out. I settled into the seat next to him, still clutching the four year olds hand tightly.

Renji was still staring at his son, the life coming back into his eyes. I felt as if he was about to speak for a moment, but then he stood and strode out of the room, out of the house, front door slamming behind him.

"He'll be back, don't worry. He just has to calm down" I reassured Kaine, though I was also reassuring myself. Renji wouldn't leave us, he just needs to let out some steam. Like whenever he got in a fight when we were younger, I always knew I could find him out by our meeting place in the woods, shooting bottles with his BB gun, his wounds still uncleaned. Though this time I knew it wouldn't be just bottles he was shooting.

I was tired and so was Kaine by the looks of his sunken eyes. After I made the kid a peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of the scraps in the pantry, we trudged downstairs. Renji had set up the dark, windowless room as a den with the standard mini-fridge, giant L shaped sofa, and plasma screen TV in every man-cave. I pulled out a comforter from the closet and got Kiane comfortable on the couch.

"Uncle Ichi?" He whispered out once he was all settled and I was lounging next to him, running my hand through his red hair, "Where's Yuzo and Karin? And The Gat Face?"

I snorted at the nick name Kaine had dubbed my dad, "We're gonna go get them tomorrow, we came to get you first" I answered, ignoring the thoughts that we could fine a scene like this at my dad's house as well...

"Their safe?" He asked, his big eyes so much like Rukia's gazing up at me, "No monsters got them right?"

I nodded, my eyes falling shut, "Yeah buddy, their fine. Karin wouldn't let anything happen to them, you know that. Their probably all sleeping right now, just like you should be"

I felt him nod and snuggled deeper in the covers, "I love you Uncle Ichi"

I smiled, opening my eyes to look at him, "Love you too Kaine"

A couple moments of silence passed.

"Uncle Ichi?"

I opened one eye and glanced at him, "What?"

"I'll always love you, no matter what happened"

My heart constricted in my chest and a feeling of dread seeped over me. He knew, he knew I could be a monster. Kaine was too smart to not notice the change that had happened upstairs. It would be my worst nightmare for the ones I love to be scared of me, but in all honesty I was scared at me. I had no clue I was capable of waht happened upstairs.

I closed my eyes again, turning my head away from the sleeping form next to me. I wanted to protect them all, but what if I was the one they needed protection from?

Slamming of doors, loud footsteps, cursing. I woke with a start, knowing Renji was finally home. It was light outside and I knew we had to have been asleep for almost four hours. I crept up the stairs after making sure Kaine was still asleep, finding Renji leaned against the kitchen counter.

"Hey man" I said as I walked in, giving him a good deal of space. I was used to Renji's temper and I knew the only person who would have been able to get close to him at a time like this was Rukia. Renji shifted and lifted his head, his red hair hanging loosely in front of his face. His eyes looked dead, zombie-like. They were still dark brown, but the emptiness I saw in them resembled the cannibalistic monsters so much it was terrifying.

"I put Kaine to sleep downstairs...I don't want to talk about it man, but he just lost his mother. You need to be here for him, let him know he's not alone anymore"

Renji moved faster than I anticipated and I found myself slammed against the fridge, his hand choking me as he screamed, "I CANT DO THIS WITHOUT HER! YOU DON"T UNDERSTAND"

I grappled at his hands, knowing I was a fool to talk to him so soon. But we needed to keep moving, my family..."Ren-ji stop" I coughed out. I scrambled against his hold, them pulled my legs up and kicked him in the stomach swiftly. He stumbled back with an 'uff' and I took that moment to tackle him to the ground. I got an arm around his neck when he elbowed me in the side, shoved me back and tackled me back. He grabbed my wrists and pinned them, digging his knees into my side.
His eyes borred into mine, accusion written all over his face, "What kinda stunt did ya pull upstairs Ichi?"

"I saved you-"

"Im not talkin' abou' that, I'm talkin' about what you did with the bat" His face had pulled into a look of disgust, of hatred. I hated myself so much at that moment, hated myself for ever making my best friend look at me like that. His eyes...

"Daddy"

Renji released me instantly and slumped back, staring up at the ceiling.

"We need to bury Mommy"

Both our eyes locked onto Kaine, who stood in the doorway wrapped in the big brown comforter. It enveloped him, trailing across the tiles as he walked towards us. Kaine stopped in front of his dad, glaring at him, "Mommy wouldn't like you beating up Uncle Ichi, that was her job" I smirked a little, remembering the constant fights that Rukia always won.

Renji's face fell and Kaine instantly wrapped his little arms around his dad, pulling the comforter in a warm cocoon around them. A small smile pricked at the corner of my mouth at the sight as I pulled myself free from underneath Renji and left the room silently. My frown etched itself across my face as I headed out the back door and took a deep breath of fresh morning air. Everything was changing...

I went out into the yard, where I knew there was shovels in the garage. I knew Rukia had always wanted to have her ashes scattered at her favorite tree, but we didn't have to time to burn her body safely and avoid any walkers following the smell. She would have to settle for her backyard, which she had always taken pride in. I started digging next to a tall tree that she and planted daffodils around, making sure to avoid the flowers as best I could.

Renji joined me a half hour later and we settled into our normal silence as we dug the grave. I wanted to speak up and settle this, but it wasn't the time. This was for Rukia and she would turn over in her grave if she knew we were fighting over it. Before we set the carpet wrapped body in the grave, I partially unwrapped it to remove Rukia's ring from the muddled mess. Renji averted his eyes as I did so, but thanked me none the less when I handed him the cleaned off ring.

We stood around the filled grave, all three of us lost in thought. I remembered the first time I met Rukia freshman year, how she seemed so sweet and girly. Then I made on small comment about her height and she had me holding an icepack to my broken nose in the health room. When Renji kept persistently making fun of me for getting beat up by a girl, she knocked him out by slamming his face against his desk. His nose still looked slightly screwed up when you looked at him straight on.
I smiled at the thought, about to retell it out loud when Kaine spoke up.

"Will mommy go to heaven? Even though she turned into a monster"

"Of course" Renji answered, his hand running through his kids matching hair, "Your mother is the single most beautiful and stubborn woman to ever live. If the angels wouldn't let her into heaven, she sure as hell found a way in"

Kaine glared at his dad, "Mommy said you're not allowed to say hell" He reprimanded, sounding and looking almost exactly like Rukia.

Renji laughed and nodded, "Of course, but Mommy also swore all the time. She just didn't want me or you doing it" We all laughed at the memory, all three of us very much used to Rukias hypocritical morals.

"Will I get to see her when I die?" Kaine asked, looking up at his dad with the eyes of his mother.

Renji gazed down softly, looking exactly like a father in that moment, "Of course. But that won't be for a very, very long time"

We packed up the Passport with as much food, water, and supplies as we could find. Renji lent me a pair of jeans and a grey tee-shirt to change into, eyeing my bloody clothes but not speaking a word. I noticed he had changed too, a black fitted tee-shirt and dark jeans now covering his tattoos. He also lent me his Police issued pistol, saying that he would teach me how to properly fire it later.
I was sitting in the passenger seat waiting for him to finish up a last sweep of the house when he came out in his Police jacket.

Renji climbed into the car and rolled his eyes at my raised eyebrow, "Its good luck" He explained, "And if we run into any other people they might take us a little more seriously if one of us is a cop"

I rolled my eyes and glanced back at Kaine, who had set himself up with the giant brown comforter in the back, a crate of toes sharing the seat with him, "So where to Captain Kaine?" I asked, making him laugh with his old nickname I gave him after he declared one day he was going to be a fighter pilot. A depressing thought crossed my mind, that that dream would never happen now, but I tossed it away as quick as possible.

"We have to find Yuzo and Karin and Goat Face of course!" Kaine exclaimed, throwing his arms out wide and childishly.

I wish I could have the same optimism as him.


I found this, made me laugh.
"Blood is really warm,
it's like drinking hot chocolate
but with more screaming."
― Ryan Mecum, Zombie Hiaku: Good Poetry for Your...Brains

Review please