Zombie. The soldier with a gun in his hand, had just said Zombie, with a fucking smile on his face! Did he hear that correctly? Izaya glanced down at the body of the one the soldier had just shot in the head. Had he woken up into a world of the undead? The raven shook his head, not quite able to understand the situation. A nudge from the man brought his attention away from the dead, he looked at the soldier and was gestured to follow down the next corridor. The two ran on ahead, Izaya tried his best not to look anywhere at those who were clearly already dead; it was a gory sight. He winced when the soldier stopped abruptly, and they turned to back themselves against the wall by another set of double doors.

Izaya was not going to dismiss the idea that a Zombie apocalypse was possible, because his world was already filled with Irish Dullahan fairies and demonic swords that possessed those that – huh, Izaya frowned as a thought crossed his mind, what if –

"Wait here," the soldier said suddenly, interrupting his thoughts as he stepped away from the wall and in between the doorway.

Izaya looked at the gun in his hand, checked the bullet count – there was a full clip. With a sigh, he took the time to scan the corridor he was standing in. Although there were only a few bodies, the corridors were littered with papers, equipment, and even personal belongings. He was starting to think that the infected ones originated from this very hospital. That nurse had said they were in the middle of an evacuation, he must have been out long enough for almost an entire hospital to clear. Not to mention how many dead humans he'd seen already; at least the chaos in the streets below had an explanation now.

Izaya's mind wondered back to his previous thoughts, what if this was some kind of Saika possession gone seriously wrong? When a person is possessed by Saika's power, didn't they act like a Zombie would do? But – did they rip people apart and eat them? Izaya almost grimaced at the thought of the one in his room, pulling out the nurse's insides bit by bit, sinking its teeth into her as though she were a buffet. He clenched his fists, his stomach churned, and he took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a second. All he wanted to do was vomit, but he wasn't going to; Izaya glanced over at the soldier, especially in front of a stranger, soldier or not. The man gestured for them to continue on so they ran ahead, could see the flickering of the illuminous green light above the door, signalling that they were approaching a staircase. That's right, they weren't even on the first floor were they.

Izaya started to think they weren't going to make it to the evacuation zone, he found it very odd that they hadn't met up with anyone else trying to escape, was he seriously one of the last ones? If he hadn't woken up, were they just not going to bother helping him? No, that probably wasn't true either, that nurse had come in to help, hadn't she? Shaking his head, they stopped again at the crossing of the staircase. Izaya placed his hand over his side for a moment, he could feel it throbbing beneath his fingers and hoped the bandage had supported his wound enough that he hadn't pulled his stitches yet.

"Let's go, gotta hurry now," came the soldier's voice, echoing in the empty stairwell as they began ascending the stairs. That's right, they were going up. Not down as Izaya expected them to do, so the evacuation hadn't started from the top, it had started from the first floor. "The evac zone is on the roof, we have ten minutes until they all leave without us."

Ten minutes. Izaya didn't want to be stuck in this hospital with no information about the infection, who knows how many of the dead were just shuffling their way through the corridors, looking for the next living person to chow down on. Fuck. There went his stomach again, dammit, he thought he could withstand a lot more then this. Though it wasn't as if he had lived through anything that would have prepared him for this. What the hell had caused this in the first place? The damn hospital was already overrun, the streets below as far as he could see from his window were chaotic. If it happened this quickly, then how long before the entire country became effected? Had it already happened in Ikebukuro, Shibuya and Shinjuku? They were his cities, they were part of him, populated with his humans –

Humans that may not even be human anymore.

They're monsters, just like Shizu-chan.

Izaya followed the soldier toward the top of the staircase, the gun in his left hand held tightly, safety off and poised by his side. The more he thought about the possibility of a Zombie outbreak, the more he wondered if any of the movies he had seen when he was younger – movies that his sisters had made him watch a few times before – he wondered if any of their tactics would even work. His thoughts remained on his sisters for a brief time, he had always claimed to hate them, their relationship with one another was no more then the recognition they were related. Izaya frowned at the odd feeling of being worried about them, even if it was only the slightest bit, that was not the point. The point was, since when did he care about them at all? Okay, so maybe he might feel something if he found out one or both were dead – or in this case – undead?

Tch.

No, he was not going to think that far ahead yet, after all, he still didn't know if he really believed the soldier when he spoke the Z word just yet.

"We're not that far, it'll be just down this-"

The two froze at the top of the next corridor.

"-corridor," the soldier finished his sentence with a look of horror on his face.

Zombies.

Not just one, or even two.

There were over a dozen.

Izaya took a step back, because they hadn't been discovered, the infected humans appeared to be occupied with something far more interesting right now. There was a shuddering breath in front of him, even the soldier was terrified, and that certainly wasn't giving him a lot of reassurance. Tightening his hold on the beretta, Izaya took another cautious step back –

Clink.

The raven froze, swallowing dryly as he glanced down at his heel, the heel that had just stepped on a large shard of glass. Fuck.

Within two seconds, every god damn pair of eyes were on them, and at least four of them had begun to shuffle in their direction. It wasn't long before the others began to follow, and Izaya swore they were edging toward them just a little bit faster than when they started.

BANG

BANG

BANG.

Three shots echoed down the corridor, one bullet for each one the soldier aimed for. Three down, nine to go, just great. Spinning around, the man nudged Izaya back and shouted, "Run!" and Izaya did. He was good at that, running, except – his wound, the bandage was rubbing against it, irritatingly painful. There were another two shots behind him, Izaya frowned, if there was one thing he had picked up on very quickly since he had woken up, was that the infected appeared to have a very keen sense of sound. He'd discovered that in the first ten minutes, had no one else? Surely the soldier trying to rescue them both knew that. If he did, then why the fuck was he shooting his gun off like that! Better yet, why did he give him one?

They had turned in the other direction, running down the right-hand corridor of the staircase they had come up. That couldn't have been the only way up to the roof, there had to be at least one other exit! Izaya dared to look back, and he really wished he hadn't, from the moment they had been spotted, the entire group of undead maniacs had covered their distance rather quickly. There was at least seven feet in front of them, and Izaya wanted it to stay that way. "Turn left!" he heard the soldier shout, Izaya frowned, why were they turning left? Left into what? It was a fucking dead end! "The room at the end, it's a pharmacist lab!" who cared about that? They were supposed to be going to the roof! Ultimately, Izaya didn't have a choice, it wasn't as though he could turn back was it?

With a slam of the door, Izaya ran into the large room. Shelves occupying tall cases were filled with all kinds of assorted medicines, cabinets covered the back walls. Two metal tables were sat in the middle of the room, and off to the side, there was a glass room. Izaya leaned against one of the tables, hand covering his side as he took a moment to rest. He could hear gunshots just outside and then –

There was a slam of the door as the soldier rushed in and pushed the door closed. Izaya lifted his head and realised that the man was struggling to actually close the damn thing, they were trying to get in! Izaya was the type of person that could think fast in a dangerous situation, create a solution on hand if he had to. The raven ignored his wound and began frantically looking for something he could shove against the door. Too bad it wasn't a double handled one, that broken metal table leg would have done the trick. Izaya noticed one of the large shelves close by the door, he quickly jogged toward it and pushed from the other side. Crap. The damn thing was too heavy, and his side – Izaya looked down, it was bleeding.

The soldier glanced over at the raven as he struggled to keep the Zombies out, he smiled, realising Izaya's intentions. "Hey, switch with me!"

Peering around the case, Izaya wasn't sure if he liked that idea much better, if he couldn't move the shelf, how was he supposed to keep the infected out? He would rather shoot himself then get mutilated by those things. Izaya shook his head, a massive step too far, that would surely be a last resort, he wasn't the type to give up that easily. With a nod, Izaya left the case and took his position by the door, mimicking the soldier's.

Izaya gritted his teeth as violent thuds threatened to tear the door down any second. He could hear growling and snarling, even scratching – that soldier was taking his god damn time! Another violent thud – Izaya almost lost his hold on the door, shit, he was going to die! Pushing heavily against the door, he managed to place half his attention toward the man. "I can't hold this door any longer, can you move the shelf or not?"

Izaya watched as the soldier appeared to snap out of whatever world he had just been in. the raven snorted, well he hoped that world was better then this one. What kind of soldier spaces out like that in the middle of a crisis!? All of a sudden, an arm smashed through the small glass window, just above Izaya's head. A hand reached in and tried to make a grab for him, Izaya ducked with a small yelp and then a loud scraping was heard. Quickly letting the door go, he jumped out of the way just as the heavy shelf was pushed against the door.

With heavy pants, Izaya leaned against the metal table once more, his hand back against his side, the gun he had was placed next to him. His eyes scanned the room, looking up at the ceiling and around the walls, fuck, they were trapped in here. I should have just gone out the window. Izaya caught sight of a first aid section, since he was trapped in here anyway, he might as well make use of their supplies. He took his jacket off and lay it over one of the tables, he took bandages, gauze pads, iodine and tape off the shelf and brought it all to the table. Izaya sent a small glare at the soldier, who was now sat on the floor against the shelf that was covering the door. He knew it was probably selfish to blame the soldier for them being trapped in here, the man had saved his life after all. Izaya didn't care at the moment, he was sure there had to be another way to the roof, they didn't have to come down this way! He realised that he didn't need to follow the soldier, he could have strayed off and gone his own way, but – he was worried about his chances. He didn't know anything about these infected beings, didn't know how to fight them, how it had happened – and that scared him the most, not knowing.

"The wound bad?" the sound of the soldier's voice sounded so quiet against the continuous groaning that was to be heard outside.

Izaya took a pin between his teeth and lifted up his shirt, he pinned the bottom half to the top so he could have easy access. "I don't know," he replied and then slowly began to peel off the tape. "It's bleeding so…."

The soldier stood up and walked over to the table where Izaya was stood. "I can help." Izaya raised an eyebrow at him and then his eyes shifted to the door, causing the man to laugh slightly. "Doubt they can get in; we'll be safe for now."

Izaya remained passive as he peeled back the rest of the tape, he then chewed his lip when he had to also peel off the bandage that had become stuck to his wound. The blood had clotted, which was a good sign he supposed, but there was coats of yellow mixed in, early signs of infection he guessed.

"I really can help; I am a soldier after all."

Izaya couldn't help it, he narrowed his eyes at the man as he grabbed the iodine. "You're also the soldier that got us trapped in here."

Instead of rising to the statement, the man laughed lightly. "Well, it is my first official mission, and I'm just a combat medic…."

Izaya's eyes lost some of their glare, because now he realised just how screwed they might be. Despite this, it would probably benefit him more if he just let the medic tend to his wound, he didn't want to do anymore damage to himself. Izaya handed the iodine over to the medic and then sat himself on the edge of the table. The soldier nodded and then sat his gun down next to Izaya's.

The medic chuckled as he looked at the iodine in his hand. "No worries of pain then, you were really going to just throw this on there?" Izaya shrugged, it had worked for him in the past. "Crazy. A bit of warm soapy water will probably do the trick, it's not that infected, and that kind of infection is way better then the ones they've got out there."

While the medic prepared a bowl of warm water from the glass room, Izaya kept an eye on the door, wondering how long that shelf was really going to hold. He glanced at the beretta; would it be crazy to think they could shoot their way out? The medic came back with the bowl and set it beside Izaya on the table, he reached in with the cloth and then squeezed it. He noticed the raven's eyes on the gun and began to wipe away the blood around the wound first, he then spoke, "No chance of shooting our way out," Izaya turned to him. "Unless you're thinking of shooting yourself instead?" the medic smiled when he was answered with a shake of the head. "Good. I don't want that on my conscience as well as shooting what used to be people." Izaya barely flinched when the medic began cleaning the wounded area, adding pressure every so often to clean off the dry pus.

"Can you tell me how this happened?" Izaya asked, it was surprising to hear his own voice, he'd barely said a word since he had woken up.

The medic wiped the cloth across Izaya's side once more and then took a large gauze padding from its container. "I can, but I don't know how much you're going to believe."

Izaya smiled ever so slightly. "I'm open minded."

The medic laughed then. "Well that's something." He cut three long strips of tape and pressed them securely over the gauze. Izaya nodded his thanks and lowered his shirt down, the man then washed his hands as he spoke again. "It happened pretty fast…." His tone was solemn, as though this virus had been spreading over weeks of time. Izaya was very sure that it hadn't been that long. "Four days, that's all it took, we just – we didn't know, nobody did."

Izaya's eyes widened, four days…. Four fucking days!? That couldn't be right…. He was sure it wasn't weeks but – he didn't expect that.