-๑-๑ ஜ ๑- Chapter 43: Breathe --๑ ஜ ๑-๑-
The silence was oppressing.
Izaya didn't really know what he was expecting the doctor to do. Having heard that Izaya had injected that wanna-be antidote into his veins the day Shizu-chan and him arrived at this camp had to cause either a feeling of betrayal or anger.
Betrayal over not having told Shinra about the possibility of Izaya turning into one of those nightly creatures, and possibly infecting everyone at this place, or anger, over the fact that Izaya wouldn't have told him shit about being on the verge of death despite their long history of friendship.
"Want to try?" A short moment of surprise flashed across the raven´s expression as he got torn from his thoughts.
Try?
Try what?
Being bitten?
…
Izaya couldn't help but smile a little at the way Shinra obviously had decided to ignore what was already done.
"Is this a test?"
"Maybe," Shinra grinned, in that oh so good old fashioned way the raven had known for years.
"I don't want to die anymore Shinra, and neither do I want to keep living in such a shit hole," the raven clarified, feeling as though a load had been taken off his shoulder, and that despite the fact that he might as well be rotting away from inside out because of his prior mistake.
"I'm glad to hear that," the doctor hesitated for a moment, "but the next time you keep something like this from me I will dissect you afterwards, is that clear?"
The raven snorted.
Of course.
"Go ahead, but I don't plan on dying so soon." Talking about dying. "I also noticed some oddities," Izaya started, now curious on his own "When Shizu-chan and I arrived here that is."
The doctor hummed, leaning back onto the box, "So now it's my turn I guess…"
Indeed.
"The barrier Celty has created is growing smaller. Even while unconscious I noticed as much when I woke up. One could think it's a measure of not standing out too much- but too much for whom is the question?"
The doctor´s expression grew serious. Glasses were adjusted and the man seemed to hesitate just a moment before speaking up again.
"We have more enemies than you think," he started, but just this fraction of a sentence was enough for the raven to conclude just what was going on.
"So it really is as I thought."
"You know?"
Izaya had suspected it for a while. Of course he hoped it wasn't true, and seeing as they didn't run into anyone else, he thought he might have been wrong, but Shinra´s words proved it.
"I saw Simon in an alley," Izaya started, "Dead." It was a sight he wasn't going to forget so easily. "He was shot in the head, but judging from the body before he even turned into a zombie." And that's what had put him off. "No signs of bite marks, nothing."
The doctor nodded, figuring there was no point in keeping any information from the greatest Informant alive.
"I take it you already guessed it. There are some groups of fanatics going around, they aren't a lot, but they are dangerous," Shinra filled the raven in on what he might have missed. "They seem to think this virus is something like a sign of god and that everyone should die, so they ultimately try to kill everyone still alive in order to help god."
The raven clicked his tongue.
"And stay alive themselves? Fucking hypocrites."
Of all the people going batshit, commiting suicide or worse it had been more than ovious that some people were going to treat this … plague, like it was sent from some kind of god. What god would do something cruel as this was a riddle to Izaya. What did those people even expect from their so-called god?
72 virgins? Living in heaven?
Maybe they thought they would be getting something like an eternal life or whatever.
To think someone peace loving like Simon had died due to such assholes caused the raven´s stomach to knot in an unpleasant way.
"As for your next question, I have no antidote. Yet," the doctor suddenly stated, tearing the raven out of his thoughts.
"You can read minds, can´t you?" he hummed, as the doctor had hit the nail straight on the head.
"Different from Namie who faked her death my father really did die when the apocalypse started," Shinra shrugged, "But he did some research- the opposite of what you were trying actually." Glasses were adjusted and a grin spread across the bespectacled man´s cheeks. "He didn't want to make an antidote to prevent being infected, but to make one that reverts the effects of the virus."
Revert?
Izaya couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows in disbelief.
"Is that even possible?" It sounded too good to be true.
And Izaya actually wouldn't put it beyond the doctor to even make that kind of joke.
"It is," Shinra confirmed, "I saw one of his experiments," his expression was dead serious,"A success." Pulling out a piece of paper with what Izaya could identify as numbers and letters the doctor showed it to him in a quick fashion. "And this is the formula."
A bit flabbergasted the raven stared at the piece of paper. He excelled on many subjects, chemicals had not exactly been one of them. Sure he still knew more than the average person, and probably more than their teachers ever taught them, but Shinra beat him by far nonetheless.
He could still make out the formula though, grasp some of the contents- a bit of what he had taught himself ever since this apocalyptic world had crashed down on them.
"Wait if he already succeeded, then why are we still here?" Izaya questioned aloud, the puzzle a bit too complicated to finish himself.
"Reverting one or twenty zombies a day with the antidote would end in a disaster," Shinra explained, "Just like the fanatics, no one can tell which stranger would be wise to revive, which will act according to our plans and which would try to monopolize the drug to gain the most benefit."
Certainly.
One would think the people would be wise enough to try and restore the prior state but no of course.
"Humans are dangerous aren't they?" Izaya sighed.
"I couldn't have put it better," Shinra agreed, "Therefore I started gathering ingredients, mixing tons of this since the apocalypse started."
Tons?
"So the helicopter you made Celty create-"
"I was checking out how much I would need to spray the entire of Japan from above."
Wow.
Izaya had expected the doctor to have done something while he and Shizu-chan had idled around, trying to survive and somewhat create a solution to this problem. He also had expected that Shinra would have been way farther ahead in whatever plans he had, but this was on a whole new scale.
"Compared to you, me searching for an antidote seems almost laughable compared to the sheer scales of our projects." Almost seemed laughable now, his attempts on creating an antidote.
Well, maybe it was, considering it was only going to work on those not infected yet anyway.
"But it could be just the second part to mine," Shinra suddenly threw in. "The downside to the drug is it only works for a small amount of time, it basically suppresses the virus, but only for a few days."
"So the virus has hijacked the immune system, annihilating whatever enters the host," Izaya concluded, finishing what the doctor had been about to explain.
Shinra nodded, hands inside his laboratory.
"I couldn't have put it better."
Wasn't this the solution then?
No matter how Izaya looked at it- "So with your transitional cure," he started slowly, "And your antidote preventing the virus from taking over the host again-"
And suddenly it was there, a new goal, much broader and clear than what he and Shizu-chan had been trying to do.
"...This could actually work."
This wasn't about bettering their situation anymore, this was a reverse effect on everything that had gone wrong up to this point.
Every single human could be saved, everything returned to normal with just Celty´s helicopter and Izaya's antidote.
Sure, Izaya's antidote was nothing but an experiment still, but with Shinra´s help Izaya was more than sure they were going to be able to pull this off.
"I like how we came up with complementary solutions."
"Almost like we planned it from the beginning," Izaya agreed and couldn't help a smile from crossing his features.
"What about Shizuo?"
Good question.
If he heard about this new goal, about what Shinra and Izaya were about to do, and possibly even achieve, he would be delighted.
But…
"We won´t tell him yet," Shizu-chan was too unstable, too easy to throw off, "Something like this sounds nice while planning, but executing the act will take much more time and will than we can imagine now I suppose. And if anything goes wrong in the end-" the raven faded out, but Shinra knew what he was going to say anyway.
"Yeah, I can imagine him picking up some vending machine and just crushing everything in a frustrated fit."
"Which is deadly in this environment," Izaya added, just to be clear on what they were talking about here.
This wasn't just about maybe giving the blond a hard time, but more a matter of how a failure like this would affect him. It didn't really feel good to keep this from Shizu-chan, but it was necessary. At least until Izaya saw some results worth trusting in their success.
"So you will keep researching that virus," Shinra started. adjusting his glasses.
"And you, piling up that short-term solution," Izaya agreed.
"And once we have our results-"
"We get our good old way of living back." It sounded almost too good to be true.
But this was it, the end of this, no?
"Sounds like a plan."
Raising his head Izaya looked at the doctor who was grinning from one ear to the other. And for a moment he felt as though they were back at highschool, in that laboratory room, talking about whatever circulated in Shinra´s brain again. Science, Celty, the woman Izaya had had a hard time believing was actually living at Shinra´s home.
It felt comfortable.
A clap of hands snapped the raven out of his thoughts.
"Now for food~!" Shinra announced loudly, indicating he wanted to talk about subjects that were of a more acute need.
"True, we shouldn't starve till our salvation."
"One more thing," Shinra had been about to go outside again as he turned his head once more. "It feels good to have an old friend back."
And with that he left.
Izaya grinned.
"I could return the same to you."
He finally had a perspective.
They had a plan. A plan that was going to get them humanity back as he loved it.
He was happy about having Shinra back, about being here with Shizu-chan.
And yet-
The smile he wore started to fade as soon as Shinra left the tent.
Nauseating guilt had crawled back up from the back of his mind where he had stored it until he was done with the conversation.
Izaya tried to avoid the only logical conclusion these new pieces of information formed, but he couldn't escape it nonetheless.
The cure.
The one that Shinra's dad had invented.
It had returned a human back to normal.
Infected people could revert to being normal humans again.
Leaning forward the raven grasped his temples.
Izaya killed his sister the moment she turned.
He killed her- despite there still being a chance to save her.
His sister could have been turned back after having been bitten by that shit dog.
But he killed her.
Air.
The sudden need for air started screaming inside his lungs as he basically flew out of the tent.
"I'm not going again!" They were quarreling outside again, vorona and the others, Izaya didn't really bother to check who it was or what they were talking about.
He had to function.
Concentrating on shoving that thought out of his mind the raven collected himself.
This was not the time nor the place to be mourning, regretting- they had a goal and he had to fulfill it.
"What's the big deal?"
to be continued
Yo guys xD I'm as usual delayed again lol xD November was a little crazy here haha Lockdown, university thinking home-studying is a perfect excuse to give an infinite amount of workload and set up impossible surprise tests online was not helping lmao xD
Also half my family got corona including my chain smoking grandma -and there I thought I'm the one, working at a hospital, who has the highest chance of catching it x'D They are gladly all fine again now tho~ C:
Fun fact, everyone had just one symptom, but all different ones xD One couldn't smell & taste, one had fever, one had a cough, one had short-breathness, one was symptom free. xD
Another fun fact: Here in austria you have to stay home when you have corona, (of course) BUT the fun thing is the police actually comes by daily at a random time and you gotta wave outta the window at them to prove that you are indeed at home and not out and spreading the shit xDD
Is it just me finding this incredibly silly? x'D I mean, of course you should stay home, but doesn´t the police have something better to do than that? xD Considering how many people caught that shit they would have to do nothing but wave at people all day long to check whether they all stay home xD
But oh well~
Anyway, here I am with the new update and sadly this is the only one this month because I didn't get shit done C':
December is looking better again tho, so next up I will try to update as much as possible on the 15th of December again~
With that being said, see you peeps~!
Stay healthy and happy 3