Chapter 6: Light Yagami- Day 4 (Merciful Death)

They had only made it back to Sayus hospital room. There was no brigade of armed police men waiting for them at the base of the stairs like Light had feared. What waited there for them was much worse. It was the moans and screams of the uninfected sick. Those who had been to weak to run like the doctors had not even a day ago.

Light shut the door against the noises but that helped little. Light sighed and fingered the small TV remote. Was it worth it? Watching the news when he already knew what ill it would tell. He braced himself and pressed ON.

"...multiple deaths in what could be the biggest blood bath in modern history. All violence seems to take place in Central Tokyo but there have already been reports in the Tama district. Deaths have already been totaled well into the hundreds and as a result Interpol has voted on sectioning Tokyo off into East and West to stop the flow of violence. Eastern Tokyo will be completely closed in via barricades and armed forces will be sent in to arrest those under suspicion of having killed. Those innocent can begin migration to Western Tokyo and enter a sanitation process before entering. To those of Tokyo, Good Luck. Sakura TV."

Light blinked. They had to be kidding. Admitting that much on a local television station! Sectioning off Tokyo with a barricade and telling everyone to march west. That would cause total chaos-- They mentioned a sanitation process. Sanitation usually applied to something that could be caught. Like a virus. If this was some simple Yakuza organized killing spree what would a "Sanitation Process" be used for? He nodded and looked at Sayu out of the corner of his eye. "So it is a Virus."

He got up and walked slowly towards the door. Light held up a hand to halt Sayu as she made to follow him. "You need to wait here." She made a low keening noise in the back of her throat and gave him The Sad Eyes. "I'll come back soon. Do you want me to go get you something to eat?" Sayu tilted her head to the side. "Do you want food?" He lead her back to the bed and put on a children's show. "Sit here and watch this." He tucked her in like he always did when they were Little and Dad wasn't home.

Light patted her on the head silently and Sayus dark eyes followed him as he left. He stared to make a mental list of what he needed. A computer. The hospital had Wi-Fi so it didn't matter if it was a laptop or not. Food. Non-perishables, water. A backpack to put it all in. A weapon. He swung his fire extinguisher slowly as he walked. Should he chance it with the army coming to carry a gun on him? Light skirted around a large pool of blood, he didn't stay to play Name The Stain. He decided a gun might be A Good Idea.

First a computer. He wanted to go through the news reports of the days before the Outbreak and find any connection to what was happening now. He began to duck into rooms as he passed by them. Most were dead or hysteric. He walked away without searching if they moved within a minute of him seeing them. When he found an old person he didn't bother looking around. They wouldn't bother with a computer. He got to the second floor before he finally hit a teenagers room. Light entered the room silently.

The white curtains around the bed were pulled closed, the light shining through the window illuminated them and made the figure laying on the bed a dark, cancerous being. The closet yielded no results. Only jeans and long sleeved tee shirts. He considered taking one and putting it in the bag he would later find but decided against it. It felt wrong. Light walked around the white curtain like it was a wall not to be breached instead of a simple piece of fabric. There was a backpack at the end of the bed. It was red from what could be seen underneath band stamps and writing. With a last look at the black smudge Light reached out for the bag.

The was no fanfare as he rifled through the bag, no chorus of growls coming out of the closet or down the hallway. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise again, but wrote it off to the creepy atmosphere. There was a computer shoved into a pocket inside of the main bag. He pulled it out slightly. It was a HP Pavilion, of fairly recent edition. Light shoved it back in the bag. There wasn't anything else of importance in the bag. Only a notebook and a camera. He stood up with the bag slung over one shoulder.

The curtain was flung open. Light ducked out of instinct. A shot rang out. He peered up over the foot board. The black sludge was really a wide-eyed teen holding a gun. "Are you infected?" The voice was terrified, almost on the verge of a breakdown.

Light shook his head.

"I don't believe you. Stand up."

Light stood up. Held his hands up on either side of his head. "I'm not infected." He said this calmly, like he was in charge of the conversation, not a terminally ill boy with a gun.

"What's you name?" The boy asked. The gun in his hand trembled.

"Light." Simple and to the point. The boy would probably drop the gun from exhaustion. He was very pale.

"Good bye Light." The gun didn't waver. He put it beneath his own chin and pulled the trigger.

Light didn't know how long he stood there staring at the red splash on the wall. But he decided in his temporary insanity that the splash had a very appeasing shape almost abstract. It was coiled at the bottom in a small spiral and at the top it burst out like spikes. Light remembered the camera. He pulled it out. It was a cheap thing. One of those manual winders that you bought at a hundred-yen store for vacations. Light knelt down and angled the camera so he could see the gun clutched in the boys limp hand andjust make out a part of the Splash.

It was morbid, yes. But he felt like he had to do it. The boy gave him a gun after all. Light shoved the camera back in the bag and pulled the gun from his hand. That went in the bag too. Light remained kneeling and pulled the boys charts off of the hook.

He couldn't find any mention of bite marks or assault in his file. So he looked under diagnosis. There were the seven letters that became more feared than the TB from earlier generations: HIV/AIDS. He looked back up at the splash. "A merciful death."

(PAUSE)

Light finally left the room. He had a computer, with the charge cord, and a backpack. He pulled the gun back out of the bag and held it in his hand. It was heavy, more so than he would have imagined. Light shoved the gun under his belt. He found the nearest stairwell and ran down it. He didn't trust the elevators. Not when the power might go off at any time. The cafeteria was in the sub basement so when he got to the first floor he had to locate another set of stairs and take that down.

Compared to the upper levels with their flickering lights and yelling captives the cafeteria seemed like heaven. Very bright and very quiet. Light walked here slowly. He wasn't going to try the vending machines. He had no money and the plastic that covered the front was very durable. So he'd have to check the kitchen. He pushed open the white double doors with his shoulder and peered in. The kitchen was in a state of chaos. Food was thrown on the floor with pots and pans. There were some smudges on the walls that could either be blood or sauce.

Light found the freezer and made a bee-line to it. He pulled the door but it was locked. He reached up and found the lock, and unlatched it. Cold air wafted out and it sent a chill through his whole body. He searched through the boxes on the floor and container of pre-made peanut butter and jelly. That went in the bag too.

There was a moan outside the freezer door. Light peered out, there was someone walking between the stoves. She clutched her neck. He couldn't tell whether she was infected or not. He pulled the gun out of his pants. The noise attracted her. She caught sight of his red hair through the little frosted window.

"H-hey!" She shuffled closer than stopped. She seemed shocked at what he was doing but Light thought it really wasn't all that shocking. It was survival of the fittest after all. He had his gun aimed at her. If there was a laser sight on the gun, there would be a little red dot on the skin between her brows.

"I- I need your help." She clutched her neck so tight, Light thought she was trying to kill herself.

"Where you bitten?" It was said with a frostiness that rivaled that of the freezer.

"...yes." The woman seemed so sad. She took her hands away from her neck. There was so much blood that Light couldn't see the wound well enough to tell if she was lying.

"A merciful death." And he pulled the trigger.