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ஜ Chapter 15: Unexpected ஜ
-Izaya´s point of view-
"Iza-nii Iza-nii! Look what I found!" with a beaming smile the little brown haired girl ran towards her older brother. Golden sand flew away with every quick step she took. Gasping Izaya glanced at the white object in her little hands as the girl showed him what she discovered.
"Oh, what a beautiful shell Mairu." It was white with small brown stripes- well he had seen various of these shells on the beach but he couldn´t say that to his little baby sis, now could he?
"Too." Glancing up he spotted Kururi following right up, with her pink swimming suit and a neat braid that her sister forcibly made hear wear. Blinking Izaya eyed the shell she was holding.
"Oh, wow where did you find that one?!" Mairu gasped in amazement as her sister showed her what she found. It was a snail´s shell, small, yet big enough to fill out his little sister´s palm. Unlike the shell Mairu found, it there was no seaweed growing on it yet, leaving it spotless to look at a soft pattern of brown and white.
"Heh I haven´t seen one like that around here at all." Izaya mumbled, taking the shell as Kururi handed it over.
"Amazing! Kururi is amazing as always!" softly gasping the girl tried not to fall over as her sister hugged her tightly from behind. "Totally not like our lazy older brother!" a tongue was shown towards Izaya and he had to smirk.
"Well excuse me for staying out of this salty and cold water."
"It´s not that cold!" his little sister complained, letting go of her twin only to pull at Izaya's arm instead- "Come on, don´t be so lazy, join us in the water Iza-nii!"
"Iza-nii. Join."
"Not you too Kururi," the raven laughed, the twins pulling at him more and more. A soft breeze was blowing across the beach.
"Come on Iza-nii." The sky was illuminated in all sorts of colors. Blue, red, orange, gold the sun was setting.
"Iza-nii." But then it got darker.
"Iza-nii.." and darker.
"Iza-nii..."
Blinking Izaya looked at his phone. He was in his office, the voice of his sister now coming from his phone instead.
"Mairu? What´s with you, you haven´t called me that in ages." Spinning around in his swivel chair he looked out of his apartment´s window. The sky was grey, rain was softly thrumming against the glass, trailing down to form huge raindrops, as if they were trying to hold on, but they only to trickled down the glass anyway.
It was weird.
They gathered to hold onto the glass, and still fell.
"... Iza-nii... she died-"
They just fell.
The sky got even darker. The rain poured down heavily.
Icy raindrops hit his skin, he was running through the rain.
Trickling, dropping, falling from his coat as a pair of arms wrapped around his waist.
More drops of water trickling down his sister´s face.
Men were standing there in the gloomy corridor, all mighty, in white, thinking they were gods-
"You said she was getting better!" Hands wrapped tightly around the small crying frame holding onto him.
The door to a certain room opened, in there was only a lifeless body.
"So why is she dead now?!" More drops fell, joining the others in their journey.
"Why?!" but the men just shook their heads. Mumbled something about the virus being too strong, about the antidote having been too late.
And then it was dark again.
So dark. Really dark. And quiet, he couldn´t hear anything, nor see.
No wait, there was some noise.
Steps, little steps following him, walking over broken glass, garbage- groans were to be heard from afar. Those creatures lurking god knows where.
An odd sound made him swirl around.
"Mairu, are you okay?" The flashlight´s flip was switched.
Horrified eyes met his own.
And a pair of white ones.
A small dog.
Biting her arm-
"Iza-nii-"
Shooting up from the seat Izaya gasped, wide awake-
"Wha-!" feeling the vehicle steer violently to the right Izaya almost fell off the seat while the brute swore under his breath.
"Shit do you always wake up like that flea?! You could have warned me, I almost crashed into a sign-" Shizuo swore under his breath, trying to keep driving on the street.
Izaya didn't really seem to be bothered by their near crash at all.
Confused the raven blinked, looking at the blond.
Shizu-chan?
Right-
Shizu-chan.
He had teamed up with him. Right. Shizu-chan was sitting there. Driving the van. The van he had chosen.
Only slowly the raven realized where he was. On a road to god knows where with the blond, in an apocalyptic state of their surroundings...
His palm finding its way to his forehead he let out a sigh. Shizuo was still uttering curses under his breath, but he didn´t rally pay attention to them.
... it was just a dream.
... just a dream.
Why was he getting so riled up about it? Why even dream about those two now?
... they were long dead.
Well, not exactly long speaking in terms of time, but in a world like this, where every second they survived seemed like a miracle in itself it seemed like it happened an eternity ago.
They were dead.
He and Shizu-chan were the only ones left alive.
It was only then that he noticed the sky´s color.
Black.
It was dark.
His heart skipped a beat-
"Shizu-chan, why is it dark?" The blond blinked over the weird question, pausing his complaints for a second and glanced at the flea. His hair was disshelved and he looked a bit out of it.
"Because it´s night obviously. You slept pretty long." Stupid flea didn´t even pay attention to him it seemed as he kept looking out of the window.
He had sat up, the blanket partly wrapped around him as he looked outside the driver´s window.
Shizuo was still driving on the very same road they started at before Izaya fell asleep. It had been a few hours by now. For the sake of finding some place safe Shizuo had just kept driving as far away from the cities as he could.
It was dark, the only thing lightening up the street was the light of the van like vehicle.
Rain drops, forming the image of dozens of spider webs falling from the sky were decorating their surroundings.
Heavy the rain thrummed against the glass.
"Stop the car." Firm and almost angry sounding the flea said those words.
Confused the blond blinked.
"What?"
"-did your protozoan brain finally shrink to a nonexistent size or what?! STOP THE DAMN CAR!" Perplexed and startled by the flea´s outburst Shizuo hit the breaks- the car screeching and the flea almost falling of his seat the car came to a quick halt.
Rain thrummed violently against the car´s window, as the motor of the vehicle silenced, the lights going out.
"Fucking stupid brute, can´t even listen to one stupid command. I wonder why I even tag around with you, you are obviously too stupid for everything!" Swearing, cursing the flea muttered these things under his breath- Shizuo wasn´t even sure if he was supposed to reply or not as the flea simply glared at him then switched to the window staring out into the wet darkness.
What the hell-
Why did Izaya freak out like that? He even yelled- Izaya never yelled like that.
Thrumming against the car the raindrops created a pattern of sounds, soothing somehow. The blond let his glance travel along their surroundings, taking in what was around them, but he didn´t spot anything odd.
The rain was heavily handicapping his ability to even make out what was around them, but the moon shining so brightly above them still made it possible to make out certain things.
For example the street in front of them. Houses to each side of it. Slowly but surely his eyes got used to the darkness, everything taking on a clearer shape outside.
He could even make out some stars.
It really was wondrous what a week without any fumes or industry pollution did to the night sky.
But apart from that?
There was nothing.
Drawing his attention back to the raven he noticed he wasn´t paying attention to the outside anymore either.
He had sat up, the blanket still partly wrapped around him as he rubbed his temples.
"... sorry." He almost missed the sigh that reached his ears as the raven looked back at him. "Didn´t mean all that."
Sighing himself now the blond let himself lean back in the car seat.
"I sort of figured." Seeming a bit surprised the raven tilted his head, glancing back at the blond.
"Really?" he mumbled softly.
Of course. Izaya didn´t yell like that.
It also was unusual for the flea to act so... well civilized. There was no hint of a joke or anything in there. He seemed tense for some reason.
"You don´t swear usually, you know." It had been obvious the second Izaya yelled that something was just bothering him other than Shizuo himself.
"What, aren´t you even the slightest bit angry?" he shook his head.
"Not really." He was seriously craving for a smoke by now though. He wished he had kept that last cigarette for just a little while longer. Only faintly he remembered the taste of the nicotine on his lips when he smoked his last cigarette on that shops rooftop. It was when he teamed up with Izaya then, wasn´t it?
"How far have I sunken, really," the raven mumbled, making him snap out of his nostalgic thoughts.
Silence followed.
...
"...so?" he twisted in his seat, letting his back lean onto the driver´s door as he looked at the flea. It was not like he actually saw him because of the lack of light, but he very well could make out his expression.
... he seemed troubled somehow.
"What´s wrong?"
Silence followed, interrupted by nothing but the soft tripping of the rain before the whisper left Izaya's lips.
"... nothing," he mumbled, shaking his head as if to chase away what was bothering him.
"Didn´t sound like nothing to me," the blond argued making the raven frown just the slightest bit.
...
Somehow it annoyed Izaya that the brute seemed to be so persistent. On the other hand though... it was probably him that was annoying him right now. Yelling at him out of nowhere and stuff, without giving a reason.
It was kinda unfair.
...
"... I dreamt about my sisters, okay?" he admitted with a soft sigh.
Shizuo just remained quiet as the raven closed his eyes and let his head lean against the fabric of the seat behind him.
"... Mairu died just because I wanted to keep walking at night." Izaya could still remember it. His stupid obsession of keeping moving. Not stopping anywhere. Just because he thought they could get trapped if they stayed somewhere.
"I turned around, and you know... there was suddenly a dog. It had already bitten her arm." It was his fault, he knew it. "Her eyes were really wide and scared- she looked at me, she just said my name... but it sounded so horrified..."
His voice fading out the raven tried to swallow down the lump that had started to appear in his throat.
Ha... why now? Of all times...
"That sounds horrible..." the blond mumbled, unsure of what to say.
"Just because I wanted to keep going at night."
... Shizuo understood.
So that yelling before- it was probably because of that. Remaining quiet the blond just let his sight trail to the car´s window.
The rain wasn´t letting up, relentlessly pouring from the sky.
To be completely honest he had wondered before, what happened to his sister that is. He always thought the flea was heartless, so he may just have abandoned them, but over the course of their trip it seemed he had a slight misconception about the raven.
If he said they were walking even at night... then he probably just wanted to protect her. Just like he wanted to protect Kasuka.
A soft frown appeared on Shizuo´s face as he recalled the unpleasant memory.
"... did you... kill her?" he whispered, breaking the silence. A silent nod followed.
"...yeah" The raven was sort of smiling and yet... he looked so sad. "Really now, I don´t even know why I dreamt about them. It´s all done and over with."
All done and over with, huh? Just because they died?
"I didn´t even flinch when I shot Kasuka. It just happened. Just like that." Izaya blinked when he heard the blond talk, didn´t look over to him though.
"And then he was dead on the ground." ... Izaya couldn´t help but think about Mairu as the blond kept talking.
Just happened, huh?
"I walked away. I didn´t even bury him. I just... walked away. I don´t know. It somehow felt like I was in a bad dream, and it didn´t actually really happen." He let his eyes slip shut, just listening to Shizuo´s voice. What he said reminded him just way too much of what he did.
It was odd.
He always thought he and Shizu-chan were completely different and yet-
There were similarities it seemed-
"What about you?"
...
Izaya still remembered it.
She was so scared. Shivering. She kept calling him Iza-nii, like a lost child, while sobbing.
He hugged her.
He hugged her really tight.
Until she stilled.
Thinking back to it now he couldn´t believe how careless he had been, how risky he behaved...
She stopped shivering and crying, stopped making any sounds at all, and when Izaya leaned away just a bit... she had white glassy eyes.
She didn´t move.
Not yet.
And then her expression churned. From tired and sad... to...
He had felt his own expression become stoic at the change.
It was just a quick stab.
She didn´t even get to use her lips to emit those gurgling brutish sounds. No.
He didn´t let it get that far.
Just one quick stab.
And she was dead.
He had stood up, and went away.
Just like that...
"...same." His voice sounded hoarse even to his own ears.
He thought he could deal with it better than that and yet, why did he dream of the two now?
It was almost cruel.
"Something like that won´t happen again." It was Shizu-chan who had spoken those words. Turning his head he glanced at the blond. It was dark, yet he could still make out the determination on his expression. "I got your back. And you got mine."
Protecting each other, huh?
Certainly. With Shizu-chan the probability of him turning around to see him being bitten was at least not as great as with his sister...
"...yeah," he was right probably.
A soft smile spreading over his lips he let his eyes slip shut for one more second.
"After all someone´s gotta watch out while you puke your guts out." A chuckle reached his ears.
"Exactly, and someone needs to throw you into buildings to distract the fuckers." Really now.
Taking a deep breath the raven felt a weigh drop off his chest. That sort of thing wouldn´t happen again. Shizu-chan was right.
"You are right, I mean you even saved my life." His eyelids fluttering open once more he let his palm trail over the band aids wrapped around his waist.
Shizu-chan saved his life. Well Izaya did save his ass before, so they were sort of even- but still. What Shizu-chan did was a bit more than what he had done.
... only with dread he remembered what had happened back there.
That thing...
"... ne Shizu-chan. What do you think that was?" His lips felt a bit numb as he recalled the events before he passed out.
That thing... in the hospital... what was that?
Izaya didn´t even need to specify what he was talking about as the blond tensed, obviously getting immediately what he meant.
"... an ordinary zombie?" he tried, hoping that maybe Izaya could explain it somehow, so he wouldn´t have to think that thing was actually something worse- Izaya, however, shook his head.
"It wasn´t like the others Shizu-chan." Of course not.
A frown appeared on the blond´s expression.
"... I feared you would say something like that..." he didn´t like the idea of that thing having been something stronger, some sort of special zombie at all.
"I don´t think you noticed, but that thing busted its way out of the operation room," the flea continued, only making the blond´s blood run colder with each word.
"I think it killed the others." It was dangerous.
That was all Shizuo heard while the raven analyzed the situation. Dangerous, that´s all that he heard from what Izaya said.
He had known the second they stepped into that hospital that it had been a bad idea all along. His guts told him, screamed it at him since the very beginning. He should have listened to them and kept the raven out of there.
"... we can only hope it was the only one of its kind..." Izaya murmured, reaching towards the window. Raindrops were trickling down the cold glass, racing for the end of the door. Softly he touched the icy glass, following a raindrop on his journey as he mimicked it´s movement with his fingertips.
"Don´t worry." As long as Shizuo was there none of these things would hurt the flea again. "I´m stronger than that zombie."
The raven almost had to smile at the blond´s words. Sounded like he was in save hands, didn´t it? He twisted his head, withdrawing his attention from the window and focusing it on the blond instead.
Now that he got used to the darkness it was all too obvious how Shizu-chan didn´t look too well himself.
He talked all confident like this, and yet there were dark circles surrounding his eyes, and a general feeling of exhaustion mirroring Izaya's reflecting in his eyes.
This was really taking a toll on him... more mentally than physically that was true, but still.
"So, since we are not driving on, how about you sleep, hm? Just resting for a night, and tomorrow we can drive on," the raven suggested, making himself get more comfortable as he took in their surroundings. The blond, however, just shook his head obviously not agreeing with Izaya.
"Nah. You need the rest more than me, just sleep on." Because of his injuries?
"I´m fine Shizu-chan, you need to sleep too." After all, he had rested more than enough by now. As long as he didn´t try to run a marathon he should be alright, really.
"I don´t want to." And yet the brute just didn´t seem to get it.
"You need to though, you really-"
"Shit flea, can´t you accept a simple no? I am going to keep watch if one of these strong zombie assholes appears, okay?" A frown appeared on Izaya´s face.
...
Odd, why was he so damn keen on staying awake?
"Sleep is important for the body and mind to regenerate its strength. Now that things are like this you really should pay more attention to your health," Izaya argued, not wanting to sound like he was scolding Shizu-chan or anything, but he really was behaving unwise at the moment.
"Says the one who got injured from a zombie."
... true-
The raven sighed, giving up. Obviously the blond wouldn´t listen to him no matter what he said.
"Sorry... Just sleep okay? One night of staying awake won´t kill me." Somehow the sentence left a bitter feeling on his tongue-
"... one night? You haven´t slept ever since that happened." That, namely as in him getting ambushed by this creepy shit. How long had it been? Two full days? Shizuo bat up a couple zombies meanwhile, was always on alert, it couldn´t be good for him.
"Come on, a tired Shizu-chan can´t take care of anything." He mumbled, sighing deeply as he glanced at the blond once more- only for the blond to not pay any attention to him though.
He had tensed, his stare fixated on something in front of the car-
Izaya twisted his head, wanting to see what he was looking at-
But a hand suddenly pushed his head down before he could even react, making him gasp in surprise-
"Wha-" a glare settled on his face and he looked up at the blond, only to meet an anxiously stern expression- eyes still locked with... something.
The raven kept still, growing anxious as the blond had also leaned down, almost as if he were hiding from something.
The pressure on his head loosened, the hand slipping off as Shizuo just glanced warily at the flea.
His heart beat quickening Izaya leaned up, just the slightest bit- the window coming into sight again. The sky.
The roofs of the houses-
Until he saw them.
Feeling his blood run cold and shivers travel down his spine Izaya tensed, not daring to move anymore at all-
There was one- no, not even one.
More movement attracted his attention, in the houses gardens, on the street, behind cars-
Those were no normal zombies-
It were four at least- flesh rotting off their skin, skinny to the bones they kept looking around.
Looking-
They could see.
They were just like the zombie in the hospital.
The raven swallowed, feeling trembles rule his body.
"Still want me to sleep?" it was barely a soft touch, but when a hand suddenly found its way onto Izaya's to pull him down again he couldn´t avoid flinching violently.
"Where the hell are they coming from-" the blond whispered, seemingly not getting just how fucked they were-
This wasn´t good- this wasn´t good at all-
"Shizu-chan we have to get away." The raven burst out, quiet, but still loud enough to make the blond flinch just the slightest. Shizuo only frowned.
"Why? I can kill them just fine. One hit to their heads and-"
"Shizu-chan it´s dark-" He didn´t get it- that brute seriously didn´t get it- "If you punch on the others will jump on you without you even seeing- and we don´t even know if there are more hiding in the darkness-!" not only that-
"Shizu-chan if they spot us now and we go outside-"
If they saw them-
"We will get bitten for sure-!"
Shizuo´s eyes widened considerable as he realized the direness of their situation.
If they found them- even if they tried to drive away, they were strong, that zombie that attacked Izaya, it crashed the wall, they would have no problem, crashing the windows- and they were fast, they would be able to keep up with them for a while- and if they had to stop because they way was blocked-
They would get them- they would get them both-
Shit-
Shit!
Glancing back onto the road he realized with dread that one of them was coming closer- Gnawing, growling- the rain making it only look even more gruesome-
The raven´s breathing accelerated in a heartbeat as he was suddenly pulled down to the small space beneath the steering wheel-
The blanket that had been wrapped around him got tugged away before he could protest and suddenly he found himself pressed up to Shizu-chan-
The blanket resting over their heads-
Not a second too early as a loud noise caught their ears- the thing had jumped onto the roof of the van-
Izaya swore he felt his heart beat right out of his chest.
If it found them- if it noticed-
They would be dead-
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End of chapter 15 C:
DUN DUN DUUUUUNNNNNN x'DDDDDD ahahahaha stopping right there yes x'DDDD Gosh what a wonderful cliffhanger -looks at my cruel end- C': xD
Now then, how will this continue I wonder~? xDD I hope chu liked the extra-extra- long update xD 4000 words gosh x'D
Melobski4: awwwww thank you ;/;
Guest 2: xD aw indeed he is haha, the cute fluff ball C': xD I´m glad the princess scene wasn´t too over board x'D I was wondering whether I was exaggerating x'D awww yeah C: Shizuo does kinda think of himself as a monster, and monsters can´t be gentle, now can they? But that´s sort fo something he is used to already, so no worries about him getting even more down naw. Heh I bet you are surprised by how this changed xD For once it was Shizuo taking care of Izaya in a non fighting and protecting way haha C: Now then~ Let´s see what I will bring up next x'D
See you again on Sunday the 30th~! Ahaha I just noticed the current mood totally fits Halloween next time x'DDDDD
See you~! *0* xD