Welcome to my mainstream sellout! You read that right… this is a zombie apocalypse AU story with a twist!
A few warnings: this is rated M for explicit language, violence, adult situations and topics, sexual content, and substance abuse.
A zombie apocalypse should be messy, terrifying, and compelling enough to make you question yourself and the choices you would make in similar situations. Things will get a bit hairy, and it should be said that this story is not for the lighthearted. I'm not the kind of author who would write stories with characters suffering needlessly for enjoyment, if it doesn't have a purpose, I won't write it. For anyone who has read other stories of mine, you know how important my methodical writing is to me.
But be warned, even though the characters (eventually, all of them) will have good endings and lots of heartwarming moments, the crushing reality of the world I have constructed should not be ignored. You will be surprised. You will feel for the characters. You will question the direction of the story and some moments may make certain people feel strongly.
If at any point you decide you don't want to continue the story because of some of the scenes, please don't feel any pressure from me to keep reading. I thank you sincerely for giving my story a try. I will say, I WILL NOT change how this story will be written. Like all of my recently published stories, the plot has been decided, and while this story will have plenty of fluff to make you feel good and warm inside, it will have a darker tone. It's a horror story at its base, after all.
I would *Also* like to add that this is a slow-burn story with Yoshi as the main pairing. Why Yoshi? I could write an essay about it, but let me summarize:
There is that certain thing inside of almost everyone that the two of them simply don't have. That thing that gives people the courage to chat amongst their piers without feeling self-conscious. Yoshi, from what we have seen is a "follower." Naoto is too. But Naoto is a follower who was forced to change for survival. The two complement each other well.
Gamo (the original main pairing of this story) and Nagatoro are more like the leaders. Sakura is more like… well, a 'sheep' in my eyes. All of them are important with their roles and how they appear. All of them will have their shining moments.
I do not own Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-San! That belongs to Nanashi 774. I only own this specific plot and my own OCs who won't make it to the end of the story. There will be no update schedule, as I am very busy with military work, painting art, and writing original stories. I apologize for this inconvenience. I DO NOT permit anyone to repost any part of this story anywhere without my express permission. The reason for this is that this is an ADAPTATION of an ORIGINAL SERIES into fanfiction. Please be respectful.
"Fate… what is fate, if not a series of moments and choices that define our lives? Roses we want to remember and thorns we can never forget? Regardless, there's always a moment where all the choices we've made… all the lies and affectations we've built… catch up to us. A moment that changes everything forever. A moment… of reckoning."
Are We Alone Now?
Chapter 1: The Night Eats the World
The setting sun provided just enough of an orange glow for Naoto to see that the streets were clear of the undead. Well, clear of the ones that were up and walking, anyways. Over four dozen bodies littered the streets which made up his home tome. He'd been the one to kill them all. If such a word was even fitting for it. How was someone supposed to kill something that was already dead?
After the first few rounds from his pa's rifle had been spent, the shock of killing something had finally worn off and it became little different to him than plowing fields or harvesting crops. It was just another job. Just a much bloodier one.
He was an artist at heart, and while he never enjoyed following in his grandfather's footsteps as a farmer, he understood its importance in the world and was always more than willing to help his grandfather out.
Regardless, none of that matter anymore. He was alone in the world. No friends and no more family to call his own that walked the earth. It was only him, against enemies that he couldn't understand. But one thing he did understand, was that nothing survived a well-placed bullet through the brain. Not even the dead.
And looking up at the sky, it was also time for him to return to his farm. He could finish the messy work of purging the world of undead filth tomorrow, or the day after that if he desired. He had a feeling that time no longer mattered much anymore. Still, the day had been long and hot, and he'd worked up quite a thirst. All he had at the farm was a water well, some canned juices, lots of spoiled milk, and whatever purified water still remained in the holding tank kept outside in massive bulk.
Naoto felt that it would be best to gather a few more supplies before heading home, and there were a few convenience stores he could go to and pick from, but the big one was a Universe store that belonged to Old Man Yasuhara. He was sure Yasuhara wouldn't mind if he raided his market. Naoto knew Old Man Yasuhara wouldn't mind because he'd put a bullet through his bald head three hours ago. Or maybe it was four? He couldn't remember, and the events of the day had all blended together in a bloody, traumatic blur that he didn't entirely care to recollect upon.
When Naoto opened the door to the quaint supermarket, the first thing he noticed was the smell of rotten meat. Best to avoid the deli and meat section then, clearly, or else his olfactory receptors suffer greatly from the smell. He grabbed a wobbly shopping cart, quite comically, and began to fill it with cookies, chips, and other canned foods—and junk foods—that would survive a thousand years without perishing. That was somewhat a joke, but they would survive a long time, regardless. Longer than he planned to be alive, anyways.
He then took a few jugs of water—the large jugs that you would see in the water dispenser you would often see near a restroom in office buildings—and a few cases of coke. Not the diet kind, either, no, no, no. This was the end of the world, and there was no way he wouldn't enjoy the little things.
Once his cart was on the verge of overflowing and he was ready to turn back toward the exit, was when his thoughts were completely overpowered by the thoughts of ice cream. And Twinkies. His frontal lobe was doomed in the fight for control. And it made up a third of the entire volume of the brain that was now entirely infested with a florid, healthy colony of thoughts regarding twinkies. His flag of intellectual independence fell. Still, though, his conscious thought didn't give up; it merely darted away, blown through the wastelands of an already conquered temporal lobe.
"So, what then? What do you recommend I do?" Naoto asked aloud, looking towards one of the mirrors that filled the aisle he was walking down. Of course, the question was completely rhetorical—or should have been, if there wasn't already a conversation panning out in his head.
Wasn't there a freezer in the back of the store? A big one for the display that held drinks and an even colder one was meant for the ice cream and snacks.
"No, no, no, that won't work. Freezer or not, it has been almost two weeks since anywhere has last had power, everything inside is probably rotted or spoiled." Naoto responded to himself.
But it's worth a try, isn't it?
"You think so?"
It's the end of the world! What have you got to lose?
Even though the power had been out for weeks now, Naoto was entirely convinced under the notion that few tubs of half-frozen ice cream might remain inside the gigantic freezer—all his for the taking and eating. And that alone was all the convincing temptation he needed.
Naoto began his stroll to the rear of the store, the section where all the refrigerated and frozen goods were stored. There, he ended up walking past the deli and meat counter—the place he told himself to not go for his nose's safety, but it was too late. He was driven by the thought of ice cream. He did his best to avoid the flies and maggots, which covered the lunch meats, steaks, pork chops, and various other perishable meats and foods that would have once made his mouth water just days earlier, but now he couldn't block out the awful odor that forced bitter bile from his stomach to the roof of his mouth.
The freezer door was closed. Which was a good thing, he assumed, because it might have been able to keep most of the cold inside. And possibly preserved the ice cream inside, of course. That was his new mission. That creamy, soft, sweet treat. He grabbed the silver handle of the freezer and gave it a hard jerk and pull. The suction gave way with an audible pop as the door creaked open. A wave of cool, damp air washed over him, and his stomach rumbled with hunger. He wondered if there was any chocolate inside. He hadn't had chocolate in forever.
Stepping into the freezer and carefully prepping it open with his cart, he looked around the inside of the freezer with his Clayton flashlight. The thing was bright, basically the equivalent of looking into the sun, which was perfect for him, and not so perfect for the undead. It seemed to blind them whenever he shined it at them. Momentarily, of course.
Four rows of shelving units were stacked full of boxes of snacks and other frozen goods. And on the shelf closest to him, he saw one of his objectives: a box of unopened twinkies. Multiple boxes, actually. Wasting no time at all, he reached for the closest of the unopened boxes, tearing the damp boxes apart and grabbing one of the plastic packaged treats inside.
"Come on, come on… be good to me," Naoto mumbled, fumbling with the Naoto-proof wrapping of the Twinkie. After finally ripping the things apart crudely, he wasted no time biting into the sweet goodness inside, almost one-biting the thing. He threw his head back momentarily as he chewed. "Mmm… finally."
Naoto was about to turn and explore more, but a sharp click filled his ears, the sounds of something hitting the ground.
Naoto dropped down and spun, dropping the Twinkie he was eating on the ground, and swung his rifle around with steady hands. Searching around carefully, he couldn't see anything yet, but that didn't mean he was safe. And he wasn't about to leave until he got his ice cream. He didn't care how potentially dangerous it was, it didn't matter to him.
"Hello there?" Naoto asked aloud, mimicking his best Obi-Wan impression as possible.
And this his light shined on something shuffling behind the boxes. Hiding from him.
He couldn't help but think for a moment if it was going to be a witch, like from the hit zombie game Left 4 Dead. But that was wishful thinking, at the least. He wished the undead he was fighting were like the things in games. Instead, they were more like the undead in Resident Evil. At least in Left 4 Dead, they didn't have conversations with themselves. But that was a story for a different time.
"Hello?" Naoto asked, this time not to himself for his kicks. He was looking through a small gap between the boxes, getting on his knees, Naoto moved his light to shine through the gap better, bright yellow eyes widened when he made out two pale legs, crimson liquid dripping down them.
"You're bleeding." Naoto's tone immediately shifted. His normal curious, cautious and sincere tone turned bleak. His only responses were sniffles, and the legs shifted away from his sight, the sound creaking through the darkness. "Did you get bitten?"
The silence of the freezer continued for a moment Until Naoto's thin patience broke completely in an uncharacteristically dark tone that betrayed his typical appearance. His gun shifted from the ground up to the figure behind the boxes. Whoever it was, if they had been bitten, they were as good as dead already. And a bullet from this distance would be a mercy. He wasn't afraid to pull the trigger either. He had learned better early on that his hesitation could cost him a life. And it did.
Naoto reached for the boxes that blocked his line of sight from the person and gave them a swift tug, never wavering the gun far from where he assumed center mass to be. And when they were finally gone out of his view, his eyes raked over the person, realizing it was a woman.
Staring at her, he tried to take in her features as best as he could. She had dark blonde hair with bright eyes. Her face was dirty, as well as the rest of her exposed skin. He saw the tremble in her busted lips as she eyes the gun pointed right at her, the tear streaks on her cheeks, and the puffiness around her eyes.
Her hands twitched momentarily, calling his attention. She clutched what looked to be an ordinary steak knife, with unknown blood clinging to the surface of the somewhat sharp-looking cutting edge. Naoto didn't know who's blood it was, he couldn't tell if it belonged to an undead, an animal, or a person.
Looking at her bare feet, Naoto saw that the sides of her feet were torn up in cuts, and he couldn't imagine what the bottom looked like. Blood wasn't only on her feet though, it was on parts of her legs and arms, small and large cuts adorning random parts of her body. From what he could see… no bite marks.
That was a good sign. Maybe, maybe he wouldn't have to shoot another person today.
"Hey…" Naoto gave the girl an uneasy wave, moving the gun away from her hoping it would calm her down a little. He was wrong. It only made the girl flinch hard before pressing herself to the wall to get away from him. Her feet scraped against the rough concrete floor, causing more blood to coat the ground.
"You probably shouldn't do that," Naoto tried to warn, wondering if her feet were responsible for the tears that stained her face. His eyes raked over her form again, taking in more details since she hadn't responded to him.
Cuts along her neck and shoulders, some fresh, some poorly healing, blended in with the dark and light bruises that adorned her skin. Her body was dirty, as well as her hair. A few pieces of… some kind of food threaded into her grimy, dark blonde locks. It looked like she hadn't brushed it in weeks.
And the girl was shaking. He realized a little too late, that instead of shaking in fear, she might have been cold. Her clothes barely covered her, after all. She wore a white shirt, and he could very barely read the words and a symbol. 'I 3 Dog.' Her shirt had rips in multiple places. And he knew the girl wasn't wearing a bra either, since he could see and pink nipple peeking out between a large rip just over her right breast.
If Naoto was being honest, maybe when he was in high school the sight would have made him feel some kind of way. Maybe. But now, he honestly couldn't care any less. The girl in front of him, while she looked like someone he had seen in high school, she wasn't a looker. She was far from it and he had far better things going on in his now-bland and depressing life to worry about than a partially nude girl who looked like she was on the verge of death.
While his thoughts were dark and methodical, he didn't have the heart to turn and leave the girl to her own devices. His cold and calculating head told him to turn and leave the girl. He would have a hard enough time protecting himself, hell, he couldn't even protect his own parents. But he wouldn't. He was far too kind.
Yes, that's the word.
Kind.
Not nice
Naoto noticed the shorts the girl wore. He assumed they were supposed to be white. They were instead covered in dirt, and a few dingy spots of white peeked out from the filth. Well... he hoped it was dirt.
It took him another moment to realize that her skin damage didn't look normal. Whatever 'normal' was. It didn't look like the damage from something that wanted to kill her, but it looked like the damage from something that just wanted to hurt her. Her bottom lip was busted as if she had been hit by some blunt object from a fall or punch. There was dried blood on her arms, shoulders, and legs and she had a nasty bruise on her left eye. It would heal in a few days, with proper care and nutrition.
"Are you okay?" Naoto suddenly blurted out, deciding to ignore the question of where she obtained such damages. The girl flinched hard as he spoke. He assumed the girl got used to the silence and was startled by his sudden question.
Ah, who was he kidding? He tried to play the tough guy now, but deep inside, he still had a compassionate heart. It was part of the reason he stayed when he saw the girl. He could have just left. But he wouldn't leave the girl alone. She was the first human he had seen since he…
Since he last saw his parents.
He shook the horrible thoughts away from his head.
The girl slowly pushed one hand to the ground and readjusted herself. Naoto's attention shifted once more, this time to her wobbly, cut-up legs. They shook badly when she stood up, and he finally had a good look at her body.
Or whatever was left of her body.
He didn't realize when she was all hunkered up, but the girl was dangerously thin. He could clearly see her collarbone, and that disturbed him greatly. He wouldn't be too surprised if he could see each rib on her torso either.
"G-g…" She coughed before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. The girl's eyes started watering, the knife in her hand pointing towards him with her trembling hands. The girl parted her lips slightly to try again, giving him a view of her slightly yellow-tinged teeth. The girl clearly hadn't brushed them in the time she had been here, and her diet wasn't very good either. Naoto sighed when he realized he wasn't going to get the girl talking yet.
"Maybe we got off on the wrong foot." Naoto flashed her his best fake smile. Her eyes seemed unfocused, her gaze dropping to his now extended hand. "My name is Naoto Hachioji. You are…?"
He hoped that he was getting somewhere now. But he was wrong yet again, as he was met only with silence yet again. He sighed and looked down at the watch on his wrist. It was almost time for him to head back, he certainly didn't want to be in this city when the smart ones began to move out from the shadows. So, he either got the girl to the safety of his farm, away from all the things that infected the world, or he left her.
"I'll be right back," Naoto said before turning and leaving her alone for a moment, walking over to the cart that propped the door to the freezer open, he grabbed some water and granola bars that he had snagged.
Come on, you didn't believe he had snagged only junk food, right?
Returning to the girl, he was surprised to see that she hadn't moved an inch. And this time, she didn't flinch away from him when he approached. Her eyes were fixed on the two water bottles he held, and she bit her bottom lip, wincing slightly as her teeth dragged over the cut.
He slowly sat the food and water down on the floor. It was a decent enough bribe. "You should eat those."
With a shaky hand, she reached for the water, dropping her knife. Naoto frowned when he saw her right nipple peek out even more from the tear in her shirt, her nipple hard from the cold air. He wanted to ask if the girl was aware of her situation… but how could she not have been? She was just too terrified and malnourished to care. The girl could have found clothes easily if she walked outside… but he had only just cleared the building today. Just… how long had she been here?
"Here," Naoto said, setting his rifle aside and removing the fleece coat he wore. It made him more vulnerable to not wear the coat, but it is better now for her to have it than for him. And he had more at home. He had started collecting the trench coat things for one simple reason—the things that walked during the day couldn't bite through something so thick.
Naoto rolled the coat up, letting the chilly air finally bite at his partially bare skin, letting him know the girl was probably not fairing any better than he would. It was a miracle she wasn't sick yet. "Here, you should put this on—" He noticed far too late in his approach to the girl how terrified she was, and like a person reaching for a scared dog, the girl bit at him with her knife.
The knife swooshed through the air, and tore through his shirt and chest, spilling fresh blood onto the ground and oozing down his stomach.
"FUCK!" Naoto yelled, jerking backward and dropping his coat, and pressing his hands to his chest where the cut had been made. "Why the hell did you do that? I was trying to help you!"
Naoto did his best to muffle his pains through gritted teeth. He didn't need to make any more noise. Not when it was so close to sunset. Naoto quickly stomped over to the cart, and inside, at the very bottom, he found the container of alcohol. Immediately, he dowsed the area with alcohol and winced from the sensation it caused. But he knew it wouldn't be enough.
He wasn't sure if he would turn into a damn monster or not, and he didn't want to take his chances. He would rather die now than turn into the things that took everything from him. So, he turned quickly, the action startling the girl.
And then he realized.
He left his rifle beside the girl. She hadn't reached for it. The girl didn't want to hurt him. She was scared and wanted to protect herself. Nothing wrong with that. He just wished things could have been different.
He walked over carefully and reached for the gun. The fear in the girl's eyes only increased, and her lips parted, and she finally began her crawl away.
"N-No… I'm—" The girl choked out, tears forming in her eyes as she looked at him with pleading eyes. "…Sorry."
The gun whipped around, but the barrel didn't point at her. The barrel was under his chin.
"D-don't…" She tried to get out as her eyes widened in horror.
"The blood on that knife… did it belong to one of the infected?" Naoto asked carefully, making sure every single word was carefully said without mistake.
"W-what? No." The girl replied quickly, her eyes set on him.
Naoto felt unimaginable pressure ease from his shoulders as he processed her words and moved the gun away from his chin. His finger was never on the trigger of the rifle, he wouldn't dare to ever do such a thing until he confirmed if he was infected or not. He wasn't going to take any chances.
There was another stagnant pause between them as Naoto sat the gun down and sat down on the cold stone floor across from the girl.
"Th… Thank y-you." The girl finally spoke on her own. At first, Naoto was a little confused and didn't know why the girl had decided suddenly thanked him. But then he realized as he eyes the granola bar wrappers and water bottles.
"You're welcome." He said, looking at her carefully. He wasn't sure when, but the girl had put on his coat and hugged it closely.
The girl pointed at the knife that was now on the ground. "Hu-human…"
"Human blood?" Naoto asked, finishing her sentence for her, thinking it would help her in the long run. The girl nodded. "Was it… yours?"
The girl shook her head no. Now Naoto started to piece the puzzle pieces together.
"Were they trying to hurt you?" He sincerely hoped it wasn't the case, but a queasy feeling came to him that he couldn't misplace. The girl dropped her head and nodded. She hugged herself tighter. No wonder the girl lashed out at him, she probably thought that he was going to hurt her or thought he was with the last people she knew. Not only was she afraid and alone, but she was also traumatized.
He released a sigh. He wasn't careful around her. It was his fault that she slashed him.
"Hey," Naoto began, the girl looked up at him as he spoke. "I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? I just want to help you. As much as I would love to start over right now, because we didn't get off to the best start, I've got to leave. I don't know how much you know about these… things, but at night they change. I'm talking about some really scary changes that I don't want to be anywhere near to witness."
The girl looked up at him as he spoke.
"I've got a place. I've been working on it for a few weeks now. Far enough away from the city to not see many of them, but we've got to leave now. Like… right now." Naoto explained, offering her his hand once more.
Gazing at the hand, she slowly looked up at his face. He saw more tears flood her eyes as she lifted a shaky hand towards him. He had finally gotten through to her. He made sure to be extremely gentle as he shook her hand. He carefully released her, allowing her to move at her own pace.
"Again, my name is Naoto Hachioji. What's your name?"
He didn't expect her to say anything, but much to his surprise, she spoke to him quickly after. Her personality had flipped a switch somewhere. "Y…Yo—"
Naoto perked up "Slowly, deep breaths."
"Yo… shi. Yoshi… Y-Yasuhara." The girl finally got out.
Naoto's breath caught in his through. A lump formed there that was slowly becoming painful.
How could he have forgotten? He went to school with Yoshi. Granted he was ahead of her by a year, never spoke to her, and didn't know her, he still knew of her.
Oh shit.
He just shot her dad today. His body was in the 'home appliance' section of the store they were in. He brought a hand up to his head and brushed his fingers through his hair. What was he going to do? Did she already know? There were so many things going on in his head that he forgot to check the time.
A potentially fatal mistake.
A muffled scream sounded from outside, echoing through the empty halls of the supermarket.
"No… no, no, no… not now. Not here." Naoto mumbled, quickly jumping to action, he grabbed the cart that propped the freezer door open and pushed it into the freezer deeper, closing the door shut and leaving the inside completely dark.
Naoto had to think carefully about what to do now. He was in a freezer… with a door that opened outwards, a girl that wasn't able to protect herself against these monsters, and a gun that was running very low on ammunition thanks to his killing spree earlier in the day.
"Yoshi… in the right pocket of the coat, there is the flashlight I used when I first came in. Turn it on and pull it. Quickly." Naoto spoke in a hushed tone, waiting for the light to click on. And it finally did.
Right in his face. And now he knew how it felt to be flash banged. It wasn't fun. But, the beam of light that was accidentally aimed at him, very suddenly became a lantern of sorts, lighting the whole freezer with a decent amount of light. Enough light for him to get started with the boxes.
He rushed to the four rows of shelving units that had been stocked with both cardboard of wood-plank boxes and began to move them quickly and as quietly as possible in front of the door. If the things outside opened the door, which they were more than capable of doing, the boxes would at least slow them down.
All he needed was a little bit of bought time, and he could fend them off as a last resort. He wasn't going to die tonight. No.
And when he was finally done, he heard a horrifying sound from outside the freezer.
A low growling mixed with the sound of gargling, followed by a few sharp clicks from a jaw snapping tightly closed. And then came a laugh.
"Hahaha! Ahhh! Get… out…" The voice sounded ancient, and the curdling sound only added to the terrifying sound. "I know… you're in there!"
Naoto's heart dropped.
"Let… me in!"
"Help me!"
"It hurts!"
Almost immediately after, the thing began to make sharp sounds, like a dog barking or a hyena singing to the night. Alternating between that and hollowed laughs. It was mimicking the sounds of victims. Like it thought it was amusing.
Naoto backed away slowly, grabbing his rifle and sitting beside the girl who was shaking far harder now than when he had first met her. He aimed his rifle at the door, his own hands shaking slightly as well. He never wanted to be so close to the things that were capable of making sounds like that. It was an absolutely harrowing sound that filled him with an unexplainable amount of dread. It was like his very soul was being torn from his body as the things approached.
"I-I'm… scared," Yoshi mumbled out with a shaky voice. She held her knife and shifted close to him.
He heard her loud and clear. But what was he supposed to say? He wasn't some invincible knight in shining armor. He wasn't a fearless warrior. And he certainly wasn't a hero. There were no words in his vocabulary he knew that could comfort her at the moment. Hell, how was he supposed to comfort someone else when he was scared to death right now?
"I am too…" His tone betrayed his words. He wasn't good at expressing himself to others, and he figured… he wouldn't ever have to do it ever again. "But… we'll make it. You'll make it. I'll do whatever it takes."
He wasn't sure why the words had formed. He should have just stopped talking, but he couldn't.
The life he methodically created for himself will no longer be as quiet and lonesome.
End of Chapter 1
The Night Eats the World
All questions and reviews will be replied to at the beginning of each chapter. Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to hearing from you all!
