The Resolute
Chapter 4
Author's Note – As always, be ready for that good old ultraviolence.
Sora sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. "Shoot, I just can't believe you guys made it here. I thought you coming here was like a suicide mission—I didn't expect you to even make it."
Axel snorted in response. "For a while, I didn't expect us to make it either. But somehow we got lucky and Kairi's neighbor turned out to be the son of Rambo." He joked, pointing his thumb at me.
I looked up from my sword; I'd been picking at the hilt for the last couple of minutes, swept up in thoughts of my father. My mother and father...they were still out there somewhere. I pulled out my cellphone and looked at the black screen. "You don't happen to have a charger that will fit this thing do you?" I asked, holding my phone up for Sora to see. He took it from me and looked at it.
"Sure—I think Selphie has a similar phone. Let me go check." Sora took my phone with him as he walked back into the shop where it looked like an office was located.
Axel sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "Man—I feel like we did it. We made it here—we're at home base, you know? We're safe, but I don't feel like we are."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I can't help but feel uneasy about this whole thing. Sora and Squall seem like them have everything under control but if there's one thing I've learned—it's that just when you relax you get fucked." I said.
Axel snorted at me. "No need to be so melodramatic, but I totally fucking agree. They're acting like they're totally safe because they set some traps and shit, yet we just came here and told them how a zombie set a trap for us. It's like some fucked up version of Mousetrap or something. It's so weird how they totally accept your story and think it's amazing but they're not doing anything about it."
"I feel like they probably should have pumped up their security a little bit. Tripwire, two cameras, and some bells? Maybe if this was Home Alone 3 or something"
"There has to be something they're not telling us." Axel stated point blank.
"I couldn't agree more."
We were then silent until Sora rejoined us. "It fit, so your phone is charging right now."
"Cool, thanks." I replied. Once it was done charging, I could try calling my parents again.
"So Son-of-Rambo and the Red-Haired Wonder, care to make a trip with me in the morning?" Sora asked, picking at some of the grease caked under his fingernails.
"What for?" Axel asked immediately.
"Need to pick up supplies at our local hospital for Squall to continue some of his experiments. The only reason he agreed to sleep is because he ran out of petri dishes and shit," Sora replied nonchalantly. "It's a twenty-five minute drive away from the city so it's a little more secluded but it has been crawling with Z's the last few times I went. Luckily, I found a back entrance into the lab that lets me get in and out quick."
"Huh, sounds dangerous," Axel replied. "I'm in."
It seemed like Axel was a little out of touch with his own humanity lately and I didn't blame him. I'd never felt so vulnerable and yet so invincible with this sword in my hand. Its metal gleamed in the bright lights of the shop and I realized that it was still wicked sharp even though I'd been treating it like shit. I need to take better care of it if I didn't want my mother to kill me.
There I go again—thinking about my parents. What if they weren't as safe as I thought they were? What if the unthinkable had happened and they had succumbed to this new plague? I shook my head. I couldn't think like that. My father had survived hell in war and my mother dealt with shit everyday—if anyone could survive the apocalypse it was the two of them. They were a veritable dream team.
"What about you, Riku? You in?" Axel asked me.
"Who else is going to watch your ass?" I replied. The second Axel had said he was going, I knew that my fate was sealed too. We were partners now for better or for worse.
"I knew you'd been looking at my ass." Axel teased.
Sora laughed, "Why don't you two get some rest. You probably haven't had a decent sleep in forever. It's my turn to stay up and watch so don't worry."
We tried to protest that we'd stay up and help Sora keep watch but he wouldn't hear any of it. Instead he just directed us to the loft where his dad had built a little hang out to keep him and his siblings occupied while he worked.
"Once you get to the end of the hallway, go up the stairs. Don't go down into the basement—we haven't totally secured it yet. The door is dead-bolted though so you can't get in it anyway. There are some couches and other stuff upstairs. Make yourselves comfortable." He said and he gave us a short salute before grabbing a hunting rifle and heading away from us.
I glanced over at Axel and raised an eyebrow but he looked too tired to register anything. Together we walked up the stairs but I couldn't help but stare down behind me at the basement door. There was a huge deadbolt lock on it but somehow, I didn't think that would be enough.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
There was a steady noise that sounded like water dripping from a faucet. It shook me out of my studying and I looked up from my textbook.
I thought that I should probably go close the faucet or I'd give my father a heart attack when he realized I was wasting water. You know 'I served in a desert,' he'd say. 'You had to conserve water or you'd end up as dry as the sand around you.' Another one of his war stories. I'd heard a million of them.
I closed my textbook and got up from my desk. My feet made almost no noise on the carpet as I walked out of my room and down the hall to the bathroom. I stuck my hand in the doorway and felt for the tap on the faucet. It was shut tight. There was nothing dripping from the faucet. Maybe something was dripping from the shower-head then. I flipped the bathroom light on and stalked over to the shower.
I threw open the curtain and had to bite back a scream when I saw that the tub was filled with blood. I stood frozen as my mother's face drifted up out of the murk, to the surface. There was blood splattered all over the shower and it was dripping from my mother's severed hand that was still attached to the shower faucet.
I quickly spun around and was face to face with some shambling mess that's face looked like it had lost a fight with a lawn mower. It raised one huge fist to me and I closed my eyes as it smashed me to the ground.
As the zombie advanced on me, I realized it was dragging my father's dead body behind it. I stared up into its black, black mouth as it was lowered towards me. I couldn't move. I couldn't breath. It was about to be over.
I shot straight up—sweat pouring off my body.
A nightmare.
Just a nightmare—none of it had been real. Just a terrible dream.
I shuddered and had to shake off my last feelings of unease. I was safe now. But God only knew about my parents. It had seemed so real though. I stood up and walked over to the window that was hidden behind venetian blinds. Everyone else was still asleep and I didn't want to wake up any of them. Kairi was passed out on a couch with Selphie asleep in the recliner next to her. Axel and I had just slept on the floor, with two pillows and a blanket shared between us. He was still out cold, on top of the blanket. I wouldn't be surprised if he was drooling.
I stared out the window for a while. There was nothing really behind the mechanic shop but fields and fields of tall grass. There was a barbed-wire fence out behind the shop that looked like it could slice flesh to ribbons. And there by a power box set next to one of the poles in the fence was Sora, crouched down with a tool box. He fiddled with something in the box for a little while before stepping back from the fence to toss what looked like a stick onto the top of the fence. The second it hit the wire, sparks jumped up and the stick started smoking.
Satisfied with the results, Sora packed up and walked away. I couldn't really comprehend what I had just seen. An electric fence? Why hadn't we been told about this? An electric fence isn't something you just gloss over when it comes to surviving the zombie apocalypse.
I couldn't help but wonder what other secrets, they had been keeping from us.
In the morning I went downstairs to find Selphie and Kairi setting up a cold breakfast for everyone. I helped them out a little in setting out utensils. Eventually everyone else straggled in and we settled down for a meal that seemed out of place. It was a nostalgic feeling, being able to sit down and eat a simple bowl of cereal in such a fucked up world.
I shoveled Lucky Charms into my mouth with little care for my surrounds. It wasn't until Axel jabbed me in the shoulder with a fork that I realized Sora was trying to talk to me.
"Fuck," I muttered as I rubbed the sore spot on my shoulder. I looked up and realized that everyone at the table was looking at me expectantly. "Uh, what was the question?" I asked, faintly embarrassed that I had been to easily distracted by food. Kairi giggled at me—I hadn't heard something so light-hearted from her in a while.
"I was telling you that we'd be leaving soon, so you should get anything you may need. To each, his own weapons!" Sora said, brandishing his spoon in a flourishing arc like a sword. There was a slightly manic gleam in his eyes that stirred up strange feelings in my gut. Not able to use my voice, I just nodded my head and continued shoveling food into my mouth.
"Doing your best 'dumb jock' impression, I see." Axel said in snarky tone.
That raised my head from my bowl. "I am a jock—I'll get back to you about that dumb part though," I said, threatening him with my spoon.
"Oh yeah, what do you play?" Squall asked me, from over his coffee. I just grinned.
"I always saw you in your backyard playing lacrosse with your dad..." Kairi mused out-loud.
"Lacrosse in the spring time, track and cross-country the rest of the time. We'd be playing a big game today...I'd been looking forward to it." I got lost in my thoughts for a moment before smiling. "But you never can tell what the future will hold, can you?"
"Hell, never thought I be caught dead here," Axel said, motioning to everything around him. "Man, I never even knew any of you guys existed until a few days ago."
"The feeling is mutual." Selphie said, sticking her tongue out. Axel and Selphie started bickering back and forth with Kairi trying to soothe all the ruffled feathers; Sora turned towards me.
"I play soccer—I know what it's like to suddenly have normalcy ripped up from underneath you and land in the world of surreal. A week ago, I'd been in here working on cars after dark and ignoring the homework piling up on my desk. I wouldn't be planning on stealing supplies from a rundown hospital, that's for sure," Sora said.
"I guess this is where the men get separated from the boys—figuratively speaking," I added hastily glancing over at Kairi. She'd more than shown her worth on this trip. She'd probably had the worst time of it out of all of us and she was the glue that had brought us all together. Kairi had brought Axel into our two-some and her mere presence had given me something to focus on other than the hell that was surrounding us. Kairi was a light spring breeze in the Sahara Desert.
Sora chuckled and stood up from the table, taking his dishes to a dirty sink in the corner of the shop. "Leaving in ten minutes, ya'll. Better be ready." He called over his shoulder.
The next spoonful of cereal tasted like cardboard in my mouth.
Sora was sitting in old Dodge Ram pick-up truck. The red paint was rusting and the leather seats were worn and smelled faintly of cigarette smoke. I went in first and took the seat in the center and Axel slid in beside me. Keeping in mind what Sora had told us earlier about the hospital being overrun, I'd armed myself to the teeth. I had a handgun stuffed down the back of my pants, a shot gun slung around one shoulder and my sword in the other. I'd wanted to leave the sword behind but then Axel had said that it might be useful if we need to make a quiet kill and I knew Sora would agree.
Axel had a hunting rifle and a home-made ammo belt that he wore with pride. The ass had even painted black lines under his eyes with grease and tied an old camouflage bandana around his head. I knew he was only doing it to lighten the situation but he still made me roll my eyes.
"What you have your sword and Rambo-ness to make you look like a bad ass. What do I have to intimidate the zombies with? My wit?" Neither Sora nor I made any further comments on Axel's appearance.
Sora had equipped himself with what looked like a goddamned assault rifle from God knows how many years ago and a wicked hunting knife that he had shoved down his boots. The guy had told me to come armed and next to him I looked like I was going out for a stroll. A black assault rifle gleamed in the sun between us and I wondered where he had managed to lay his hands on something that looked like it came from a battlefield.
"It was my uncle's." Sora supplied without me asking. "He was the youngest of my Dad's brothers and ended up dying over seas in Iraq. They sent him back here since we were the only family he had. My Dad hung the gun up in his office in a special case as a tribute to him...I guess neither of them realized how damn handy it would be."
"My dad is an ex-Marine and cop," I said.
"Well that explains a lot." Sora laughed.
"And his mom is a surgeon—it was like he was born for this kind of shit. How is the average Joe supposed to compete with The Terminator over there?" Axel groaned, pointing his thumb at me. He had the window rolled down and was once again chain smoking. I guess he hadn't really quit after all. Some habits die hard.
It was about a twenty minute drive to the hospital along rolling roads that Sora took at breakneck speed. My stomach was protesting the four bowls of cereal I had this morning. Axel looked a little green around the edges himself. The whole time, Sora kept on chattering in his slight southern twang. I was mesmerized, listening to the lilt in his voice.
"There it is," Sora said, pointing with one hand. "James H. Walker Hospital. We're taking the scenic back entrance to the lab. Now if we can pull this off like we did last time, I'll be going in, one of you will get the car and the other can go halfway in. It'll kinda be like a chain of watching one another's back. I'm for sure going in since I know the layout and what we need. Someone needs to stay with the truck. Which one of you can drive stick?" Sora asked.
"I can." Axel volunteered which was a good thing because learning to drive stick was something I had never gotten around to doing.
"I guess I'm the halfway man then. You may want this," I said, handing Axel my dad's handgun. It'll be easier to use than that bulky thing if you're staying in the car."
He took the gun and nodded. "I'll be fine don't worry."
Sora pulled up behind the hospital where looked like there had been an attempt at evacuating. There were still cots and stretchers littering the parking lot. Hell, even a few IV drip stands were lying around in random places. It looked like a bomb had gone off. There was debris everywhere and few of the cots still had bodies in them. I assumed those individuals had most likely passed on after being detached from their life-saving machines. There were a few bodies on the ground in scrubs and lab coats and some others in street clothes. I could almost smell the bodies rotting in the sun from here.
"It seems like after the Z's attacked, they tried to evacuate the patients. Most of them got out to other hospitals—but I don't know how much good that did them. Squall volunteered here a lot over the years and was actually here when the first Z's showed up. It's a miracle he made it back to us after how long he stayed here, trying to save those people. It tore him up a bit inside, that's for sure." Sora said. "Hell, if I was him, I probably would have ditched the second the Z's started eating the patients. You'll have to ask him about it."
"Sounds like a riveting bedtime story," Axel drawled.
"Heh, well you two got the plan, right?" Sora pulled up close to a door set in the back of the building and put the truck in park. "Alright, pretty boy—let's get going," he said as he jumped from the cab of the truck.
I turned to look at Axel as he open his door. "Pretty boy?" I asked, one eyebrow quirked. He smirked at me and slid off the seat.
"Time waits for no man, pretty boy! Come one!" Sora called from the doorway of the building. I sighed and hurried after Sora into the dark building.
Sora walked a few paces ahead of me and turned around, he had a duffle bag slung over his shoulder that I hadn't seen him put in the truck. I assumed it was for carrying whatever it was that Squall needed. "You ready? I'll take the front and I'll tell you where to stand—you'll be able to see me but you won't really be able to see the doorway."
I nodded in agreement and hiked the shotgun further up on to my shoulder so that it was out of my way. "So tell me Sora, what is so important that your brother needs you to risk your head and ours?"
"He's been doing experiments—like he told you. Squall is a genius; if there is anyone who can figure out what created the Z's, it's him. Him and his think-thank of complete genius friends at Yale. They're still there—at Yale, that is—locked up in some lab trying to figure out what makes the Z's tick."
"So what does your brother and his friends think caused all of this?" I asked, genuinely interested in hearing what Squall had managed to discover.
"He could probably explain it to you better than I can. His friends think it is some kind of virus or something—but they can't figure out how it infected so many people at around the same damn time. They're attempting to find a connection but now that the internet is shot to hell, it's made it impossible to examine complete stranger's pasts."
"So a common link between all the original infected could help figure out what caused it? How do they determine who the original carriers were?" I asked.
"Now that is something I don't know. Apparently, there's a marker in the Z's blood that they're attempting to use as a timeline. I don't know how successful they are."
"How are they getting blood samples?" It was only the next logical question.
"Beats me," Sora said and he looked back over his shoulder at me. In that second, I saw something move in the shadows and I grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him back next to me, sword poised in the air.
"Thought I saw something move..." I muttered and then I heard shuffling.
A zombie appeared around the corner and he looked like he was having a hard time putting one foot in front of another. He only had one arm, the other was a bloody stump that was dripping on the floor. He saw us a few feet away and attempted to make a mad dash towards us but ended up impaling himself on my sword instead. He sagged down on the blade as whatever kept his body going gave up the ghost. I tipped my sword and he slid off it and landed with a wet thunk. A quick slash and his head was separated from his body. A closer examination showed me that it looked like something sharp had taken off the zombie's arm.
Sora stepped forward and kicked the body before sheepishly looking up at me. "Sorry, bad habit. The first couple that I killed before I set up security around the shop had a nasty habit of coming back for their pound of flesh."
I just motioned for him to keep moving. He took the lead again and we left the zombie lying in a pool of blood that quickly stained his scrubs and began to coagulate. A couple more feet and a corner and Sora told me I was at the halfway point.
"I'll be in that room," He said, pointed to a door at the end of the hallway. It was dark, there was no light coming through the blinds that covered the window. "Give me five minutes before you leave. If I haven't come out by then, chances are that I won't be in good shape. I'll whistle if I need you and vice versa." He jogged off down the end of the hallway and I glanced down at my watch listlessly.
It was going to be a long five minutes.
I walked around the corner and back again so that I could keep an eye on both doors. It was quiet except for the faint noises I heard from the other side of the door Sora had disappeared behind. A door that was locked with a card swipe and a sign next to it that said, 'Authorized personnel only'. Squall must have had high enough clearance to get a card for that door.
Suddenly, from behind another door I heard the sounds of glass breaking and snarling. I glanced wildly at the door Sora was locked behind and pressed my ear to the door with the noise. I jerked my head back in surprise when something smashed the other side of the door with bone-jarring strength. Then Sora was there and he grabbed my hand, flying down the hallway with me in tow. We burst out into the sunlight as the zombies smashed through the door behind us. Sora put on an extra burst of speed and we left the darkness of the hospital hallway behind us for the sunlight of the early morning.
Sora dropped my hand and turned to slam the door shut in the zombies' faces. I don't know how many of them there were but there were enough that I didn't feel safe with just a metal door between us and the horde. I kept running for truck and Axel reached over to throw the door open for me. I jumped in, tossing my sword in to the cab behind us.
"Fuck! Hurry it up—they're coming!" Axel yelled to Sora and I turned around to see at least twenty zombies running towards us from the front of the building. Sora was busy stringing a heavy chain and padlock around the backdoor.
"Sora! There are more coming!" I yelled and Sora looked up. He cursed loudly when he saw the mob heading for him. He started towards us but then went back for the duffle bag he had left behind. "Run!" I yelled. "Run!"
Sora sprinted for the truck and tossed the bag into my lap. "Drive, dammit, drive!" He yelled as he tried to swing himself into the truck. One of the fresher and quicker looking zombies had caught up to him though and it tried to drag him out the cab of the truck before Sora could get settled.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." I chanted out-loud as I grabbed onto Sora's shirt again and engaged in a tug of war with the zombie hanging off him. I could feel the seams of his old shirt ripping as two forces tugged on it. I tried to adjust my hold on him and grabbed him around the shoulders so that I was attempting to force him into the seat I had just vacated. Crouching over the seat, I was suddenly face to face with the zombie that had dug its nails into Sora. Somewhere, in the distance, I could hear Axel and Sora screaming. I punched the zombie hard in the face as it bared its teeth at me and in response it lifted one of its hands, grabbed something from its pocket and slashed me across the face.
With a roar of pain, I lashed out and punched the zombie again and with only one hand sunk into Sora's flesh, I was able to knock the zombie free of Sora. I hauled Sora in by the belt-loops on the back of his pants and slammed the door shut behind him. We sat there breathing heavily against one another as Axel careened down the road at breakneck speeds.
Sora took a deep shaky breath. He looked over at me and his eyes were grateful. "You saved my li-" He attempted to say but the shattering of glass broke into his statement. A hand reached through the back window of the cab and attempted to grab me by the hair. Axel took one look in the rearview mirror, slammed on the brakes and whipped around with my dad's handgun. Three quick squeezes and he turned around, driving off as the zombie's body fell out of the back of the bed of the truck and was left in the road behind us.
"Holy fuck." Sora said.
All I could do now was agree and I nodded my head slowly—still trying to catch my breath and piece together everything that had just happened. I looked down at the bag between my legs. A drop of blood falling on the bag distracted me though and in a daze I looked up and leaned back against the seat, crushing Sora's legs. It was strange, I could hear a roaring noise all around me and it took a few seconds before I realized that Sora was calling my name.
"Motherfucker." Sora swore as he looked at me. "Axel you'd better fucking step on it—he needs help bad."
Confused, I looked up at Sora about to ask him what was wrong when he took his shirt off with a wince and pressed the clothing to my face. I was about to complain but I was suddenly overwhelmed with the spicy smell of Sora. I breathed the scent in deeply and tried to ignore the stink of copper filling my nose.
The drive back to the shop didn't seem to take as long as the drive to the hospital but by then my face had started throbbing something fierce. Axel must have pulled up to the shop because he hit the brakes and quickly turned the truck off. He jumped and threw open the door helping Sora orient me enough so that I could get my legs underneath me when I slid off the seat. Together they guided me into the building as Sora kept his shirt pressed to my face.
I tripped going up the stairs and Sora steadied me. I could feel the lean muscles of his chest straining to keep my heavier body upright. I still had one hand gripping the bag tightly and as the pulled me down the hallway, it scrapped along with wall.
Footsteps came running up to us. "What happened?" I heard Kairi ask.
"Slashed across the face by a Z. Get Squall, Selphie." Sora grunted out. Kairi gasped. They half-guided me half-dragged me to the desk in the center of the shop. I heard crashing noises as whatever was on the desk was unceremoniously removed and I was placed on top of it.
"He wasn't bitten was he?" Squall asked from my side. I lifted attempt to lift the shirt to speak by Sora kept the shirt pressed to my face.
"No—just scratched. It's pretty bad." Sora said.
"Here give this to me," Kairi muttered from beside me as she tried to remove the bag from my hand.
The shirt was removed from my face and a blinding light was switched on that seared my eyes. I groaned in response. "Shh, shh, don't move let me look." Squall said as he leaned over me. Cold metal probed at my face and I moaned as even that slight touch made my nerves flare. "Selphie please go get me that bottle of Jack from Dad's safe.
A few seconds later she was back and a bottle was put to my lips. "Drink deeply," Squall commanded me and I took a deep drag and almost chocked when I realized I was drinking whiskey. I tried to spit it out but a hand was placed over my mouth.
"You'd better drink—this is going to hurt like a motherfucker." Sora's voice rang out and I swallowed my mouthful. I opened my mouth to gasp and another mouthful was poured down my throat. Obediently, I swallowed even as my stomach roiled and raged against me. Someone grabbed my hand and squeezed it—it was a slender female hand—Kairi's hand.
"One last drink." Sora coaxed and reluctantly I took one last swallow before the bottle was removed from my lips.
"Sora, I find it hard to believe that fingernails did this." Squall's rumbling baritone rang out.
"Did I ever say it was fingernails? It was some fucking metal surgical equipment or some shit. I have no fucking clue what you call it!" Sora yelled, frustrated.
The probing on my face stopped. "It used something to attack Riku?" Squall asked, his voice like steel.
"Yes."
Squall swore. "He's going to need some stitches for this. Everyone get out of my light unless you know what you're doing." He bit out. "Now."
"I—I've done stitches before." Axel said.
"Alright, you're assisting—everyone else, grab his legs and arms." Squall directed.
The pain in my face was blinding but the fogginess growing in my mind helped to assuage that until I felt a new—sharper pain in my face. I cried out and jerked my arms. Someone was attempting to pin them down but they were strong enough and I broke free of them.
"Hold him down!" Squall yelled and suddenly there was a heavy weight across my chest, pinning my arms to the desk. More weight was added on to my legs and I was rendered pretty much immobile. "Please, Riku. I need you to stay still so I can sew your face back up. You've got some loose flaps of skin and if you don't want to end up looking like the fucking Phantom of the Opera, you need to lay still." Squall gritted out between clenched teeth.
Someone was brushing the blood off of my eyes and I opened them to see Axel and Squall's faces tinted pink from the blood still in my eyes. I closed them tightly to protect against the stinging sensation. "Come on Riku, Squall will fix that face of yours." Sora's twang rang out and I focused on that as Squall cleaned out my face.
"Hold your breath Riku and cover his eyes for him Axel." Squall commanded as he dumped what felt like an entire bottle of hydrogen peroxide on my face. I could feel the chemicals bubbling in my face. "God only knows what the fuck did this. So I'm going to make absolutely certain that you don't get an infection." I felt him pour something else on my face and it smelled very pungent. It burned the insides of my nostrils.
"I'm going to start suturing now. Please stay still. Axel hold this."
The next ten minutes were pure hell. I tried my hardest not to move or cry out each time the needle puncture my face. I could hear the sound of the needle singing through my skin and feel the pull of my flesh. Every movement Squall made seemed to send fire coursing over my face. And then it was over. I was shivering and covered in cold sweat. There was no more weight pressing my limbs down, instead there was the comforting feeling of a blanket being laid over me. I closed my eyes and didn't open them for a while.
I struggled to open my eyes for few seconds before they became unglued. It was dark out now and the soft light was soothing on my eyes. I didn't want to be in the dark anymore after this morning—especially not alone. Even though that was silly—neither darkness nor light had any effect on zombies. The throbbing in my face reminded me of the pain I had been trying to forget. It was almost mind numbing the intestity of each pulse across my face. But the fact that I could feel anything at all was good enough for me.
The only thing I really had on my mind was getting a glass of ice cold water. My mouth was as dry as all hell and I attempted to moisten it with my tongue but it felt like sandpaper rasping along my teeth. Gingerly, I stood up, using the wall as a crutch. My head spun for a few seconds and I breathed shallowly to keep my stomach from rebelling. When everything had settled back down, I slowly made my way down the stairs to the shop. It was slow going but I could feel myself growing stronger with each step and more aware of the pain in my face.
At the bottom of the stairs, I caught sight of Selphie, her brightly colored jumper gave her away. She ran up the stairs to me and placed one of my arms around her shoulder. "Come on now, take it easy—you're probably starving to death big guy. I saw the way you were eating at breakfast." She joked lightly but I could hear her grunt as she attempted to support my weight as we went down the stairs.
Eventually she settled me down at the crappy little table we had eaten breakfast at. "What's up Riku? How are you feeling?" She asked me, her voice concerned. She'd lost her youth sometime since this morning when she had been arguing about something stupid with Axel. Attending to me like a nurse, Selphie set me up with a glass of cold tap water before going to tell her brother that I was awake. I drank deeply and drained the cup before Selphie returned with Squall.
Selphie ran off again and promised to return with some food for me. "Fill him up another glass of water, will you, Selph?" Squall called out. "Now Riku, how are you feeling?"
"Like shit," I mumbled out.
"I can imagine. You got almost thirty sutures put in your face. You'll have some scarring but I'm pretty good at suturing so it won't be too bad. Besides—your hair will probably cover most of it." Squall replied, peering at his handiwork. "Do you know what the zombie hit you with?"
I shrugged, "I just remember seeing something silver in its hand. I barely even felt it when the zombie slashed me."
"Adrenalin can be a wonderful thing." He quipped dryly. "Now you are going to be sore as fuck for a few days and there will be a little bruising but I'm trying to keep that down." He handed me an ice-pack that I pressed gently to my face.
"Are you going to have to take the stitches out?" I asked hesitantly, not willing to go through all that pain again.
"Yes, they'll have to come out in about a week but the internal ones will dissolve on their own. Stitches without any anestheisia is pretty badass, you know." Squall said.
I grimaced a smile at him, remembering the stitches Axel had put in Namine. She had taken those stitches better than I had. Squall mistook my grimace for pain and dug something out of his pocket.
"Here, take some of these. We don't have too many."
"What is it?"
"Think of it as an extra strength Tylenol." He replied.
"We have some heavy duty pain killers in the truck."
"Pills that cloud your mind and dull your senses. Not the smartest thing to take in a world overrun with zombies. Trust me. You're better off with a bit of the pain—it'll keep you in touch with this shit hole around you." He waved me off with a flippant hand.
"Just what I wanted—to be aware of the hell around me." I gripped.
Squall just smirked at me and told me to take it easy, if I pulled any of my stitches I'd end up with worse scarring than I was already supposed to have.
Scars didn't really mean too much to me. I have had scars all my life—lacrosse is a very unforgiving sport, especially when played without padding on the asphalt. Besides, I wasn't looking to win any beauty contests. I was just eager to find my parents. I still felt uneasy being here; they were hiding something from us and I didn't know what it just yet. Selphie came back with a bowl of soup for me. She handed me a spoon and a napkin and gave me a smile before flouncing off to do something else. Suddenly ravenous, I dug into the soup like a man starved.
Squall raised an eyebrow at me. "You certainly eat a lot."
"I work out a lot—I worked out a lot. Did a lot of sports, burned a lot of calories, got a quick metabolism. I'm just a growing boy you know."
"And your butchery of our beautiful English language would make any educated person cringe." He said, crossing his legs and leaning back to watch me with a look of amusement on his face. Or maybe it was disgust. I didn't care, the chicken soup tasted like sodium-infested heaven.
"Where's everyone else?" I mumbled around a mouthful of chicken.
"Up on the roof actually. Sora likes to go up there to keep a watch and he took your friends up there with him. Kairi was wearing out the floor with all her pacing and Axel needed a smoke.
I stayed with Squall a little longer before cleaning up my dishes and heading up to the roof with Squall's explicit directions. Once again, there was an emphasis to stay out of the basement. Why wouldn't it be safe if there was a fucking electric fence surrounding the back of the shop? What was down there that they thought was so dangerous? I gave the basement door a suspicious glare before I continued up to the roof.
"Ah, Sleeping Beauty, you've awoken. And who gave you true love's first kiss?" Axel greeted me.
"Oh didn't you hear? It was Bob, the zombie boy down the street." I replied with equal sarcasm.
Kairi threw herself at me and was squeezing me tightly around the middle. "Oh my gosh! Riku—you came in here bleeding all over the place! I didn't know what to do...I didn't know what to think...All that worrying—I should have known you'd be fine, you jerk!" She smacked me on the arm and rubbed her eyes to rid herself of tears. "You worried me and Axel sick!"
I laughed. "I'm sorry, Kai. I didn't mean to worry you. Head wounds just like to bleed a lot."
"Oh is that all you have to say! You almost get yourself killed and it's just a head wound huh? I heard from Sora and Axel what happened." She put her hands on her hips and gave me a stern look.
"Come on, Kairi. Leave the conquering hero be. You know how it is with his type; everyone else comes first. The hero syndrome." Sora joked. My eyes snapped up to him as he talked and they meet his baby blues. Something about the way he looked at me took my breath away. But I remembered all the suspicious things I had been noticing and forced myself to look away from him.
"But seriously, Rambo. Take it easy next time. Don't use your face to beat off crazy cannibal zombies." Axel said, clapping an arm around my shoulder. His other hand entertained a cigarette that he took deep pulls on every so often.
"Those things will kill you, you know." I said gesturing to his cigarette.
"Touche."
Kairi lifted my hair up to take a good look at my injury. Her concerned eyes lingered over it before she let my hair drop back down. "You should take a shower—clean all the dried blood off and stuff. You don't want an infection."
"Heh, most of that stuff is iodine, Kai. It kills infections." Axel said from my left.
"Still—a hot shower would make you feel better. Come on, I'll help you clean your face." She insisted, pulling me back down the stairs. I gave the two guys left on the roof a salute as I let my small friend drag me off. "Apparently, this shop used to also be Sora's family home before his dad was born. The floor we've been sleeping on used to be where they lived. In fact, their grandparents lived there up until about five years ago when they got sick and passed away. So there's a little kitchen and bathroom in the corner—you probably never even saw them, they're really well hidden."
Kairi took me down a floor and showed me the inconspicuous doors that hid the kitchen and bathroom. "There's a bedroom on the other side of the floor but I think that's where Squall sleeps. I don't really want to get caught snooping in there, you know?"
I nodded in agreement. Kairi took out some towels for me to use and I started up the shower, adjusting the temperature until it was warm enough to just turn my skin pink. When she came back she helped me gently wash away the crud on my face. I watched a mixture of blood and iodine go down the drain. It was a light brown color. Eventually, Kairi decided that my face was as clean as it was going to get. She left me to shower by myself.
The warm water felt wonderful on my tired muscles. I had strained some of my shoulder muscles trying to pull Sora back into the truck and sleeping on them hadn't done me any good. Washing all the dirt off of me felt like I was washing away some of the more terrible memories of the past seventy-two hours. I savored that sensation until the water started to cool. After I figured out how to turn the water off, I patted my face dry softly and tied my towel around my waist. I stole some toothpaste and rubbed it on my teeth to get that icky feeling out of my mouth. My teeth felt like they were wearing fuzzy slippers. After gargling some water to rinse my mouth, I made the mistake of looking up.
My wet hair was plastered to my forehead allowing me to get a clear view of my forehead. Two angry red slashes marred the flesh of my forehead and cheek. The longest cut went from my hair line on the right side of my forehead to just under my eye on my left cheek. Luckily, my eye hadn't been harmed. The other cut was much shorter and higher up on the left side of my forehead. Leaning close to the mirror, I felt breathless. It was so much worse than what I had expected. I would most certainly have a scar but Squall was right, it would mostly be hidden by my hair. Seeing that bright red against the pale of my skin made suddenly aware of my mortality. I had come close to losing an eye and even worse—being bitten by one of those zombies.
Frighteningly, what worried me the most was the thought that Sora had almost been dragged out of truck and eaten.
I got dressed quickly in the clothes Kairi had laid out for me, eager to leave the mirror and my disturbing thoughts behind. I went back to where I had slept and took the bloody pillowcase off of my pillow. It was probably ruined but I went and tried to soak it in the bathroom sink anyway. My old dirty clothes were folded and put out of the way. Kairi had given me one of the shirts I had carelessly tossed into a bag when we had fled my house. The shirt was red with gold lettering—my school colors—with a Native American playing lacrosse underneath our school name. On the back were the dates of our games a few seasons ago. The shirt was from my freshman year and the cotton was worn to the point where it felt as soft as silk. I remembered that season fondly; I was the only freshman on the varsity team. How strange that less than a week ago I was looking forward to my senior year lacrosse season.
There were voices outside of the window next to my makeshift bed and I looked out to see Kairi and Axel unloading some stuff from the truck. Seeing them at the truck reminded me of my ultimate goal—to find my parents. I had given my phone to Sora to charge the other day and had yet to get it back. I figured that he had left it charging in the office and went to search for it. I wasn't sure where everyone else was—I didn't see anyone on my way down to the office. Finding my phone didn't take me long, it was on the desk, fully charged. Resting, waiting for me.
Underneath my phone was a yellow legal pad that had very slanted handwriting on it. The letters were so thin and cramped together that I had trouble making out where one word ended and another began. I began to be able to pick out a few words and soon I realized I was looking at Squall's notes on the zombies. There were pages upon pages of them—the entire legal pad was almost full. He must have been writing for hours on end. I picked up the pad to get a closer look and a paper fell out. It had a bunch of times on it and some basic notes.
Healthy male aged 30, 5 foot 10, 160 lbs
1 hr – normal RBC shape, concave, enucleated
1.5 hrs – normal as before
2 hrs – one or two RBCs appear to have 'shrivelled'
2.5 hrs – half of RBCs shrivelled
3 hrs – all RBCs shrivelled.
What was all of this? What did it mean? What was an 'RBC'? I stuffed the paper back into the legal pad and picked up my cellphone. It had about two bars of service and one missed call. They had left a voice message. I quickly retrieved the voice message from the unknown caller, my heart pounding.
"Riku? It's Mom. We're at your Aunt's house and everyone is fine. We're safe here for now—but please Riku—be OK. I don't know where you are and I don't know how you're doing but I made your father drive me some place that we could get service. Honey, I hear that almost every major city is completely overrun. Please, find somewhere safe to go and hole up there! I can't lose you sweetheart. I love you and be safe." She whispered that last part but I heard it clear as day. I listened to that message three more times just to hear the sound of my mother's voice.
She was alive. They were both alive. I could feel the tension drain from my body—all the baggage I had been carrying had just become infinitely lighter. Alive! I still had them. It made this bleak world a little bit easier to deal with. I gave them a call back and left them a voice message telling them where I was and that I was OK. I could hear the tired relief in my own voice.
Still ecstatic with the good news, I ran out to tell Kairi and Axel. I found them out front arguing about the easiest way to carry everything in. Axel wanted to shove the guns in the sleeping bag and carry them in that way and Kairi thought that it wasn't a smart idea to be manhandling loaded guns that neither one of them knew very much about. I had to agree with Kairi. I reached between the two of them and picked up a gun. After a few seconds I was able to switch the safety on and placed it back into the truck.
"You guys need a lesson on gun safety," was how I greeted them.
"Wow Riku, it's amazing how cleaning the dirt off your face makes you look so different!" Kairi exclaimed, clearly noticing I was happy and not understanding why.
"I got a message from my parents telling me that they're OK!" I burst out, unable to keep the happy news to myself.
Kairi threw her arms around me and squeezed me tightly. "I'm so happy for you!" There were tears in her eyes and I think she was remembering her adoptive parents but they weren't tears of sadness.
Axel clapped me on the back. "That's awesome man. I knew your parents were like cyborgs from the future or something." He grinned showing all his teeth and then leaned in close to both me and Kairi. "I've been hearing noises from the basement." He said quietly.
I turned my head to look at him and he was staring directly at one of the cameras that Sora's family used to survey their land.
"What kind of noises?" I asked.
"Scrapping shuffling noises when everyone else is supposed to be asleep."
"Maybe it's an animal." Kairi suggested.
"I don't think so Kai, they've got an electric fence surrounding the place. Kinda hard for an animal to get around that." I replied.
"Electric fence, huh. Would have been nice if they told us about it." Axel said, his face hardening.
"Maybe it's just an old building. You know maybe it's just making creaking noises." Kairi desperately supplied.
Axel grabbed her by the shoulders and steered her around so that he was staring directly into her eyes. Granted, he had to bend down almost in half for them to be eye level. "Kai, baby, I know how bad you want things to be right and normal but that doesn't mean you should turn your head away from everything. You can't ignore what's staring us in the face. They have secrets—a huge secret and I guarantee that it has something to do with that basement."
"But why wouldn't they tell us?" She whispered, her eyes filled with tears.
"What ever it is must be bad—real bad. Bad enough that it makes them not tell us about an electric fence." Axel said.
I shouldered the bag Kairi was carrying. "You ever think that maybe that fence was meant to keep something in?"
"Like something that makes loud noises and is locked in the basement? The basement we've been warned to never go near how many times?" Axel replied.
"I over heard Selphie crying the other night while she was talking to Squall. I couldn't really hear what was the problem but they kept pointing at the basement door..." Kairi whispered.
"God. What the fuck is in that basement?" Axel asked, rubbing his head.
"Something horrible." Kairi whispered. "Maybe we should do nothing... maybe what ever it is they've got it handled."
I shook my head and grabbed a gun from the back seat. "We have to check. Tonight—we have to get in the basement."
"I thought you'd say that." Axel had a devilish smirk on his face. Now here's what we do. I'm on watch at around 3 am tonight. Everyone's usually asleep by then but sometimes Squall stays up and studies in the office. Some one will need to distract him if he's up—that'll be your job Kairi. And Riku can go down into the basement."
"Thanks for volunteering me." I replied.
"You're welcome, pretty boy." Axel said.
"I have a terrible feeling about this," Kairi mumbled. I could barely see her in the darkness on the roof but occasionally I could catch the glint of her teeth in the dark.
"We can take them," Axel replied.
"That's not what I'm worried about."
"Alright, Kairi, you head on down, make sure everyone's still asleep then I'm gonna find a way into that basement." I said, looking down the side of the building.
"But how are you going to get in, the basement door is dead locked." Kairi said as she started towards the stairs.
"That's what the bolt cutters are for." I replied as I stepped backwards off the roof and landed lightly in the dumpster below. "Whistle like we practiced if something comes up." Axel shot me the thumbs up and then disappeared further back onto the roof.
I climbed out of the dumpster as quietly as I could while moving quickly. I had thought I'd seen an underground entrance to the basement the other night when I'd been up on the roof. I just had to hope I hadn't been seeing things or else I would have to break into through a window and that would cause a lot of noise. But I was in luck and my eyes hadn't been deceiving me. There was an entrance that was chained closed with a padlock but the bolt cutter sliced right though the heavy padlock.
The bolt cutter made a sharp clack and I froze, poised to run but there was still silence. There was nothing to hear other than my heavy breathing and a small scratching noise coming from the other side of the basement doors. I eased the door open and luckily the hinges were oiled well enough that it barely made a creak. Inside it was pitch black and I took a flashlight out of my front pocket and flicked it on.
There was a lot of clutter in this part of the basement—old rusting metal hunks but further away I could see empty space and that was where I worked myself towards. In the center of the clearing was a wooden chair with someone sitting in it slumped over.
"Hello?" I whispered. There was no response. "Hello." I tried louder. Still nothing. I stepped forward and touched the person on the shoulder and it was then that I realized I was standing in a dark pool of blood.
The person sitting in the chair leaned their head back and I found myself staring into eyes that were almost identical to Sora's. A beautiful breathtaking blue.
"What the hell." I whispered. I walked around so that I could see the person's face and realized that they were tied down. Their wrists were bound to the arms of the chair and their legs were tied down. Duct tape covered there mouth. I looked up at this person, trying to figure out what I was seeing when cold realization hit me.
The person in the chair in front of me was matted with blood and they stared at me with dead, almost vacant eyes. But I'd recognize those eyes anywhere. Hell, I'd been dreaming about them.
"Sora," I whispered and his eyes dilated and then focused on me, piercing right through.
End Chapter 4
Author's Note – Well hopefully you guys enjoy this chapter. I got a few requests to add other people to the story but I'm trying to keep my characters to a minimum- makes it easier to stay true to my story. And an extra special thanks to ethickca! You helped me out a lot!