The dead lined the street, two long rows of gray, rotting toy soldiers. Anzu walked with Jonouchi, Mai, and Atem down the street. From the mansion to as far as they could see, zombie after zombie stood on the sidewalk, facing each other. They stood still, with their arms at their sides and their mouths and eyes closed. That was worse than anything Anzu had ever seen – them standing still with their eyes closed – lifeless, decomposed fairytale princesses and prince charmings all under the same eerie sleep spell.
And she knew, at any time, Kamenwati had the power to break the spell, like true love's first kiss.
Anzu looked down at her hands, amazed at how calm they rested at her sides, no shaking, no quivering, no fear, just hands resting against her blue jeans.
Hold on Yugi. We're going to rescue you.
Another fairytale, she feared, but she prayed Jonouchi was right – that their faith was still strong enough to keep them alive and safely together. Her hands slid up to her stomach. It was too soon to feel the child quickening inside her, but knowing that life existed, and that she carried it within her, was her greatest motivation to hope when giving up seemed like the only way.
The stars crowded across the sky, and the litter-strewn pavement reflected the silver light of the full moon.
"We're almost there," Jonouchi whispered, as if they didn't know, as if they didn't all know exactly where the Game Shop sat. Even in the moonlight, even with silent, immobile zombies guarding the way, they were the same streets, the same shops, the same hedges that framed all of their lives. The countless trips from school (high school and college), the evenings after work, the hours spent playing games, talking to each other, planning lives they would never have because the world ended when they were only beginning to get started, all those moments lined on top of one another, more haunting than the dead bodies to their right and left.
She saw two small lights in the distance. A crowd of undead circled the game shop. On a flat section of roof above the huge GAME sign sat two iron braziers. Their fire lit up the figure of a robed man standing in the center on the roof. Behind him, almost lost to the shadows, were three other figures. Silhouettes of spikes outlined the head of the shortest figure in the center of the three.
"Yugi," Anzu whispered.
She jerked when a warm hand grabbed hers. Looking to her right, she saw Atem. "Don't worry," he said.
Ryo and Kek walked hand in hand. In the moonlight, his golden hair looked silver. Ryo knew his own white locks looked the same. "So what are we going to do between now and the tournament?"
"Sleep." Kek smiled.
Ryo winked at his answer. "Sleep? Or sleep together?"
"Yes."
"You don't want to kill anything?" Ryo teased.
"Better to rest."
Ryo pulled Kek a little closer to him, pressing his free hand to Kek's forehead. "Are you sure you're not feeling sick?"
Kek released Ryo's hand. He used both of his hands to take the one pressed against his forehead and then kissed it. "I'm sure." He kissed Ryo's hand a second time. "Why don't we play a game or something this week? Let's play an RPG."
"It's kinda hard to play with only two people."
Kek winked. "I bet you could make it work."
Ryo shrugged. "Yeah, I can. Damn . . ." he thought a moment. "Can't remember the last time I played. I know it was two years ago, but I don't remember my last campaign. Too bad my old apartment complex caught on fire. I had so much stuff we could have used."
"Is there a game shop near by? We could loot it."
Ryo checked to see what street they were on. A sharp, lonely stab hit his mind when he realized where they were. "Yeah . . ." Ryo sighed. "There's one a mile from here. The Kame Game Shop."
"Ryo? What's wrong?"
Ryo shook his head. "Nothing really. I was just wondering what the others were doing right now. I haven't seen them in so long."
Kek snorted. "Those dorks? Probably playing Duel Monsters and getting ready for the tournament."
"You're right. Of course that's what they're doing." Ryo shrugged. "Gods, they are dorks. Why anyone would be excited to repeat Battle City is beyond me. The last one was terrible."
Kek laughed, scratching the back of his head. "Ooops, sorry about that."
Ryo laughed with Kek. "We need t-shirts that say 'I was banished to the Shadow Realm during Battle City, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt'."
"Only you would fucking say something that morbid, Ryo, and actually think it was funny."
"Come on. Let's go rob Yugi's game store!" Ryo ran down the street.
He heard Kek following behind. "This race is not fair. I'm in heels!"
"Mai could do it!"
"She's had more experience!"
Ryo glanced over his shoulder as he ran. "I'll slow down – but that means you're it."
"Racing isn't tag."
"Then I'm not slowing down."
Kek stopped. His expression changed into an odd mask. Ryo stopped as well, staring at Kek, and then finally turning to face forward again. He saw a line of people at the end of the street blocking the way.
"Those . . . are people, right?" Ryo asked himself. He couldn't see them well at a distance and in the unreliable moonlight.
"They're dead."
"That can't be." Ryo frowned. "They're just standing there. We were shouting at each other and running. They should be attracted to all our noise."
Kek pulled out his kukris. "Stay here, Ryo."
He pulled the naginata from the strap he used to hold it on his back when he wasn't fighting. "Like fuck I am."
Kek growled. "Will you at least stay behind me until we figure out what's going on?"
"Sure. I'm not stupid."
They crept down the street until they reached the intersection where the zombies stood with their backs turned away.
Kek poked one of the creatures with his kukri. It didn't move. Ryo peered down the line and it stretched as far down the street as he could see. Across the street, another row stood. Kek swung his right kukri and caught a male zombie in the skull. The corpse sank to the ground, but nothing else moved.
"This is weird as fuck," Kek whispered, killing two more. Nothing happened. "Why are they standing still? This is pissing me off. Fight back you bastards!" Kek went down the line, smacking zombie after zombie, watching former housewives and bakers, business woman and police officers fall to the street, their blood violet in the moonlight. "Fight!"
"Maybe we should follow the yellow brick road?"
Kek frowned, knitting his eyebrows together. "What?"
Ryo pointed with his weapon. "They make a path. Maybe we should follow it?"
Kek kept knocking the undead to the ground. One-two, one-two, one-two, to Ryo it looked like Kek barely tapped their skulls with his kukris before the bodies fell. "Sure, if you want, but I'm not going to let the assholes just stand here and insult me!"
Ryo couldn't help but smile at the thought of Kek taking personal offense to the zombies not attacking. He walked alongside Kek as he went down the line. "What about the other side?"
"You get that side while I get this side."
"This is a lousy date." Ryo huffed a snort of laughter as he crossed the street. "You're a workaholic."
"Will a week's worth of Monster World make it up to you?"
Ryo started swinging at his own row of corpses. "We were going to do that anyway."
"What if I punched Bakura in the face? That would be worth a good laugh at least."
"That's kinda tempting, but I think Amane would scold me for it as soon as I went to Aaru. In the end, it wouldn't be worth the hassle."
"So . . ." Kek asked as he continued to cover the sidewalk with fallen corpses. "Is that a sister thing? To be meddlesome?"
Ryo grinned. Sweat matted his loose hair to his forehead as he struggled to keep up with Kek. "Did this just become a conversation about Ishizu?"
"No. I mean, not really. It's confusing with her."
"Yup. Confusing is how family works."
"Not with you. You had a good family."
"It was still confusing, Kek. My dad was gone a lot. Sometimes I'd get mad. Sometimes I thought he must hate me because he worked so much."
Kek glanced over his shoulder. "But . . . I thought you loved your father?"
"Of course!"
"Then how could you get mad at him?"
"I get mad at you all the time."
"Oh my god this is boring!" Kek screamed instead of continuing their conversation.
"Are you kidding?" Ryo laughed. "I wish it was always this easy."
"No! They need to fight back. They need to do something. Move, dammit! Move! Move!"
The corpses in front of them all turned, facing down the street instead of at each other. Ryo and Kek jumped back to the middle of the road as soon as the cadavers shifted.
"Holy shit!" Ryo pressed his back against Kek's, waiting for an attack.
Instead of attacking, they all marched forward.
"Hey! Where the fuck do you jackasses think you're going?"
"We should race ahead and see for ourselves," Ryo suggested.
"Fuck these guys! I'm not letting them just walk past me like I don't exist." He looked at Ryo. "Try to keep up. I'm about to clear this fucking street of the undead."
Atem pulled the Tome from his backpack, lifting it up so that Kamenwati could see it. "I brought it. Show me that Yugi's okay."
The robed figure disappeared from the roof, reappearing at the door in front of them. Yugi stood, tied and blindfolded with an undead guard on each side of him.
"You bastard!" Jonouchi screamed at the defected tomb-keeper when he saw Yugi tied.
"It's alright, Jo. We're getting him back," Atem said, forcing his voice to sound as confident as it always did.
Yugi's head perked up when he heard their voices. "I'm sorry . . ."
"No, Yugi." Atem shook his head, although he knew Yugi couldn't see the gesture. He stared at Kamenwati, trying to read the man standing beside Yugi. "Why? Why did you kill so many people?"
It seemed to Atem that every time they fought someone, their malicious actions were spurred by grief. Pegasus trying to cope with the lost life of his lover, Marik trying to cope with childhood trauma, Bakura trying to cope with the loss of his village, each one of them had specific reasons for their anger and atrocities. Atem didn't think it justified their actions, but he was beginning to understand that people weren't as simple as black and white chess pieces.
"Why? Because I had the opportunity. Both the Tome and the Items were too well-guarded before, but after the fulfillment of the prophecy, the remaining tomb-keepers let their guard down."
Atem shook his head. "But why do it? Children . . . entire families . . . entire countries are dead!"
"And now they're subservient to me." Kamenwati extended his leather brown hands outward. "Give it to me."
Yugi turned to the man's voice and then back towards the others. "If he's talking about the Tome, don't let him have it!"
"We're trading," Atem said, as if that explained everything.
Yugi shook his head. "No! You can't trust him! Keep the Tome. I don't care what happens to me. Just fix the world!"
"Yugi . . . I can't."
"Yes you can! I'm one person, one person. If you give him the Tome, everyone dies!"
Kamenwati's face didn't change. Kamenwati gave Atem a warm smile, his face of mess of wrinkles. His iron gray goatee grew over the scarred flesh and his chin and cheeks, and his dark-colored eyes seemed to twinkle in a deceptively good-natured way,. "If killing this one won't convince you, I'll kidnap his woman next. Perhaps her life is worth the Tome?"
Yugi screamed, charging at the sound of Kamenwati's voice. The two corpses beside him grabbed him and held him in place. Yugi struggled until the skin on one of the corpse's arms split open, causing curds of old blood to plop to the ground, but they didn't let go.
"Enough!" Atem commanded. "Here's the Spell Book – let Yugi go!"
"Atem, no!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Atem saw Anzu reach for her pistol. Mai touched her wrist and whispered something in her ear. Atem wished he could hear what Mai said, but whatever it was, it made Anzu hold on drawing her weapon.
Atem pushed the heavy, hateful book into Kamenwati's grasp. "Here."
A strange sound, like a thousand soldiers turning about face after a silent command. Atem realized the zombies were closing in, he stepped backwards, his group standing closer together and getting ready to fight.
Kamenwati smiled. "Thank you."
"Now let Yugi go," Atem said, although he knew better.
The old man smiled again, turning to the corpses guarding Yugi. "Kill him. Kill all of them."
The undead lunged towards Yugi. Anzu's bullet killed one the second Kamenwati spoke, but the other one managed tear into Yugi's shoulder before it fell with a bullet wound in its skull.
The parking lot of the Kame Game Shop became a battlefield. The others pulled out weapons as well, too busy fighting the dead to get near Yugi. Anzu screamed, emptying the last of her bullets into Kamenwati's head. He dropped to the ground. Atem reached out to take back the Tome, but when he rolled the ex-tomb-keeper over, two empty eye sockets of a long dead corpse stared back at Atem.
Soft laughter drew Atem's attention next to him. Kamenwati stood, holding the Tome. "Not so easy, I'm afraid."
Atem took his sword and jumped to his feet. The body that fell before his edge was another long-dead cadaver, and then there were too many of the undead for Atem to focus his attack.
Kamenwati appeared again, possessing the body of a different corpse. "If you somehow survive this, I'll see you at the tournament. Make sure you bring Slifer. I'll need the Gods to finish my plans."
"Damn you!" Atem swore at he swung disabling blows to the mob surrounding him, trying to buy as much time as possible.
Kamenwati disappeared into the thick. Atem stood beside the others. Anzu knelt and held Yugi with one arm, using her other hand to shoot the closest dead. The rest of them tried to keep the press as far from she and Yugi as possible, but their circle of protection kept shrinking as the mob tightened around them.
Atem screamed. He screamed in rage and he screamed in grief. He slashed with his scimitar until he could barely lift his arm, and then he prepared to die, but a blur of bronze and red cut through the wall of corpses. Atem blinked, disbelieving his sight. The strange attacker moved so fast that it hurt Atem's eyes to watch.
For a strange, surreal moment, Atem wondered if Ra had awoken Sekhmet from her rest to once again pour the gods' wrath down on the land, but then Atem realized that it wasn't a woman fighting with twin blades, it was Marik's double. He no longer looked like Marik, a relative perhaps, but not like an alternate self.
The zombies fell like wheat against the blade of a scythe. Once the bodies surrounding them all fell to the ground, he stopped and laughed. He flicked blood off of his weapons and sheathed them once they were clean. "Ha! Take that you dumb shits. That's what you get for ignoring me." He looked up, seeing Atem and the others. "Ah, fuck, not you guys."
Yugi's entire right side burned. Human teeth weren't made for ripping through living flesh or bone, and the zombie had left a deep, jagged, bleeding wound in his shoulder.
Anzu cradled him and wept as gunshots exploded around them. Then everything was eerie silence, and Yugi thought he must be dead. That's why Anzu was crying, because he was dead, and that's why everyone was screaming around him although the sounds of fighting had stopped. Only the pain flaring in his shoulder suggested otherwise, but Yugi even doubted that when a battle-scarred angel scooped him up and held him.
But it wasn't an angel. It was Ryo, his white hair glowing in someone's flashlight. Ryo used a knife to cut away at Yugi's shirt. He poured something over Yugi's wound and Yugi screamed from the pain. Then Ryo took needle and thread and started sewing up the hideous gash. Everyone still screamed all at once.
"R-ryo?" Yugi stuttered.
"Don't worry, Yugi. It's all right."
"You have to shoot me," Yugi whispered. "Don't make Anzu do it. Shoot me, Ryo."
Ryo simply continued sewing up his shoulder, and then he bandaged it. "Don't be silly. I don't even have a gun."
"Ryo, I was bit. I don't want to be one of those things. Please, don't let that happen."
Ryo looked up. "Will you all please shut the fuck up? He's going to be fine!"
Anzu grabbed Ryo with shaking hands. "Ryo? Ryo don't you know what happens when someone's bit?"
"Anzu, he had the Puzzle. He'll be fine as long as this doesn't get infected."
"No, Ryo, you don't understand . . ." Yugi forced the words from his throat.
Ryo rolled his eyes. The gesture looked ridiculous given the circumstances. He pulled his shirt off, and screamed at the shouting voices that argued out of Yugi's line of vision. "Look! I know what I'm talking about. I've been bitten multiple times. It's Shadow Magic – Yugi had the Puzzle – he'll be fine!"
Anzu grabbed his shoulders again. "Really?"
"Yes, Anzu, I promise."
She started crying again, grabbing Ryo's cheeks instead of shoulders and kissing him in her joy.
