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 the soldier had just shot. Had he woken into a world of the undead? The raven shook his head, not quite able to grasp the situation. A nudge from the man carried his attention from the dead, and he looked at the soldier, who gestured to follow him down the next corridor. Izaya tried his best not to survey those already dead; it was a gory sight. He winced when the soldier stopped abruptly, and they shifted to back themselves against the wall by another set of double doors.
Izaya wouldn't 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 - Izaya frowned in thought. Could it be altered Saika's?
"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 and checked the bullet count – it was a full clip. With a sigh, he took the time to scan the corridor. It was littered with papers, equipment, and even personal belongings. He started to think the infected ones originated from this same hospital.
Izaya's mind wandered 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 as a zombie would? 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 forced it down; he would not vomit in front of a stranger. The man gestured for them to continue, so they moved ahead, the flickering of the luminous green light above the door signaling their approach to a staircase.
Izaya had doubts they would make it to the evacuation zone and found it odd that they hadn't met up with anyone else trying to escape. Shaking his head, they stopped again at the crossing of the staircase. Izaya placed his hand over his side for a moment and could feel it throbbing beneath his fingers but hoped the bandage had supported his wound enough that he hadn't pulled his stitches.
"Let's go, gotta hurry now," the soldier's voice echoed in the empty stairwell as they descended the stairs. They were going up, not down as Izaya expected. "The evac zone is on the roof. We have ten minutes until they leave without us."
Ten minutes. Izaya didn't want to get stuck inside without information on the infection. Who knows how many undead were shuffling 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 than this. What the hell had caused such horror? The damn hospital was already overrun, and the streets below were chaotic. If it happened this quickly, how long before the entire country became affected? Had it already happened in Ikebukuro, Shibuya, and Shinjuku? They were his cities. They were part of him, populated with his humans – humans who 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 as a young teen – movies that his sisters had made him watch a few times before – if any of their tactics would even work. His thoughts remained on his sisters for a brief time, and he frowned at the odd feeling of being worried about them. Okay, so maybe he might feel something if he found out one or both were dead – or in this case – undead?
Tsk.
Izaya shook his head.
"We're not that far, it's just down this-" The two froze at the top of the next passage. "-corridor," the soldier finished with a flash of horror on his face.
Zombies.
Not just one or even two.
There were over a dozen.
Izaya stepped back because they hadn't been discovered. The infected humans appeared to be occupied with something far more interesting. There was a shuddering breath in front of him. Even the soldier was terrified, which certainly did nothing to reassure him. 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 that had just stepped on a glass shard.
Within seconds, every goddamn pair of eyes were on them, and at least four of the infected shuffled in their direction. It wasn't long before the others started to follow, and Izaya swore they edged toward them faster than when they started.
BANG
BANG
BANG.
Three shots echoed down the corridor. Three down, nine to go, just great. Spinning around, the man nudged Izaya back. "Run!" and Izaya did. He was good at running, but the bandage rubbed against his wound irritatingly. Another two shots sounded behind him, and Izaya frowned. If there was one thing he had assessed very quickly, the infected appeared to have a very keen sense of sound. He'd discovered that in the first ten minutes. Surely the soldier trying to rescue them knew that. If he did, then why the fuck was he shooting his gun off like that!
They had turned in the other direction, running down the right corridor of the staircase. There had to be another exit! Izaya dared to look back but really wished he hadn't. The entire group of undead maniacs covered their distance reasonably quickly. "Turn left!" the soldier shouted. Izaya frowned; why were they turning left? Left into what? It was a fucking dead end! "The room at the end is a pharmacist lab!" Who cared about that? Ultimately, Izaya didn't have a choice; it wasn't as though he could turn back.
With a slam of the door, Izaya ran into the room. Shelves occupying tall cases were filled with assorted medicines, and cabinets covered the back walls. Izaya leaned against one of the tables in the center of the room, a hand covering his side as he took a moment to rest. He could hear gunshots just outside.
The door slammed when the soldier rushed in and pushed the door closed. Izaya lifted his head and realized the man struggled to close the damn thing; they were trying to get in! Izaya ignored his wound and frantically looked 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, quickly jogged toward it, and pushed it from the other side. Crap, the damn thing was too heavy, and his wound – Izaya looked down - was bleeding.
The soldier glanced at the raven and smiled, realizing Izaya's intentions. "Hey, switch with me!"
Peering around the case, Izaya wasn't sure he liked that idea much better. How was he supposed to keep the infected out if he couldn't move the shelf? He would rather shoot himself then get mutilated by those things. Izaya shook his head. A massive step too far; that would be the last resort because he wasn't the type to give up so easily. Izaya left the case and took his position by the door, mimicking the soldier.
Izaya gritted his teeth when violent thuds threatened to tear the door down any second. He could hear growling and snarling, even scratching, and that soldier was taking his goddamn time! Another violent thud and Izaya almost lost his hold on the door. Pushing against the door, he shifted 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 snapped out of whatever world he had just come from. The raven snorted. I hope it's a lot better than this one. What kind of soldier spaces out like that in the middle of a crisis! Suddenly, an arm smashed through the small glass window above Izaya's head, and a hand reached in to grab him. Izaya ducked with a low yelp, and a loud scraping caught his attention. Quickly letting the door go, he jumped out of the way when the heavy shelf pushed against the door.
Izaya breathed heavily and leaned against the metal table, his hand back against his side, the gun placed next to him. His eyes scanned the room, looking at the ceiling and around the walls. They were trapped in here. I should have just gone out the window. Since he was trapped in here anyway, he should probably use their supplies. He took his jacket off and lay it over one of the tables. Izaya took bandages, gauze pads, iodine, and tape off the shelf and brought them to the table. Izaya flashed a small glare at the soldier perched against the shelf covering the door. It was probably selfish to blame the soldier for trapping them here since the man had saved his life, but Izaya didn't care.
Izaya realized he didn't need to follow the soldier and could have strayed off his way, but he was worried about his chances. He didn't know anything about these infected beings, didn't know how to fight them, or how it had happened – and that scared him the most.
"The wound bad?" The soldier's voice sounded so quiet against the continuous groaning from outside.
Izaya placed a pin through his shirt for better access to the injury. "I don't know," he replied and slowly peeled off the tape from the gauze. "It's bleeding…."
The soldier stood up and walked forward. "I can help." Izaya raised an eyebrow at him, and his eyes shifted to the door, causing the man to laugh slightly. "Doubt they can get in. We'll be safe for now."
Izaya peeled back the rest of the tape, then chewed his lip when he realized the bandage had become stuck to his wound. The blood had clotted, which was a good sign, but a layer of yellow had coagulated.
"I really can help. I am a soldier."
Izaya 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 realized just how screwed they might be. Despite this, it would probably benefit him more if he let the medic tend to his wound. Izaya handed the iodine over to the doctor and perched it on the table's edge. The soldier nodded and set his gun down next to Izaya's.
The medic chuckled at the iodine in his hand. "You would have just thrown 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."
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 would hold, and glanced at the beretta. The medic returned with the bowl, set it beside Izaya on the table, reached in with the cloth, and squeezed it. He noticed the raven's eyes on the gun and began to wipe away the blood around the wound first. "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 cleaned the wounded area, adding pressure to clean off the dry pus.
"Can you tell me how this happened?" Izaya asked.
The medic wiped the cloth across Izaya's injury once more and took out a gauze padding from its container. "I can, but I don't know how much you'll believe."
Izaya smiled ever so slightly. "I'm open-minded."
The medic laughed. "Well, that's something." He cut three long tape strips and pressed them securely over the gauze. Izaya nodded his thanks and lowered his shirt. The man then wiped his hands and spoke again. "It happened pretty fast…."