DISCLAIMER: SKIP BEAT! and its associated characters are the creations of Yoshiki Nakamura. This author claims no ownership of Skip Beat or any of its characters. All other rights reserved.

Word: Wreck

For BotheChicken.

Body Count

"Seventeen!" she said, and they watched the Walker's head explode. She watched a few more come out from behind the building. When she was younger, Kyoko often wondered how it was they could kill so many Walkers, and yet so many Walkers remained. But that was before she knew—there had been eight billion people on the planet when Zero hit. It was an unfathomable number. How many of them had become Walkers? Obviously, some had survived. But the collapse of the communication infrastructure meant that no one knew exactly how many had. She supposed how many survivors there were didn't matter. All she really cared about was making sure she was one of their number.

"Nineteen!" Ren responded. He was watching her from out of the corner of his eyes. Five months since they'd rescued her and Kyoko had integrated into LME as if she'd always been part of it. Her ankle had healed and she'd joined the Recon team, matching him body-for-body on their raids into the City. She was posted on the secondary hatch of their armored transport, gleefully picking off Walkers. This was strictly a no-ammo outing—they didn't want the Walkers zoning in on the sound of gunfire. Thankfully, she was as good with the bow and arrow as she was with her swords.

Thwack.

Thwack. Thwack.

Thwack. Thwack thwack.

The arrows found their marks in quick succession.

"Twenty-two," she said smugly.

They were past the first line of Walkers and well into the City zone again. The wreckage was alive and teeming. It was June, and the Walkers were most active during the warmer months. But they took it in stride—they needed to take advantage of the longer days. They were scavenging for more and more selective things now: intact circuit boards, working computers. Machinery that had not yet gone to rot. LME was a growing center for re-establishing civilization, but there were things not even LME could yet produce. The precise manufacturing of materials was a lost art, for now.

"Twenty," Ren said. "But I'll catch up. Don't you worry."

"Twenty-seven," she said. "You should probably spend less time talking, then." She didn't bother looking at him. He watched her grin as she notched another arrow and let it fly.

"Uh, Ren?" he heard. "You're missing a few to our six—"

He tore his eyes away from her and focused on the Walkers. "Thanks for spotting, Kijima," he said.

He heard Kijima give him an ungentlemanly snort and would have rolled his eyes—except he nearly missed a set of walkers approaching right next to them. Get it together, Tsuruga, he told himself. If he'd missed them, he was never going to live that down. Kijima and Yashiro were already going to be insufferable when they got back to LME. Not that he didn't deserve it. What was he even doing? Kyoko was Kyoko, but the world had ended and he had a job to do.

Pay attention, dumbass. Being distracted could get you killed out here. He knew this. He told every single recruit this. Paying attention was Walker Survival 101.

If only she weren't so damn cute.

Or deadly.

And how did she manage to smell so good all the time?

"Thirty-nine," she chirped.

"Seriously, Ren, are you OK up there?" It was Yashiro this time. Ren fought the urge to roll his eyes and then refocused, knocking back an arrow and sending it straight into the skull of yet another Walker.

"Yeah, sorry," he called back.

"He's distracted," Kijima said.

"Is that what we're calling it?" Yashiro replied. "Distracted. Yeah."

"Ren," he heard. Kyoko dispatched another arrow while she spoke. "You can't be distracted. Seriously, what's distracting you?"

You are, he wanted to say. You are, and everything about you…

Seriously, he needed to get a hold of himself. He dispatched another pair of Walkers while he got himself under regulation.

"Twenty-eight," he called. That was the right number, wasn't it? He didn't even know.

Would she even consider being with him? She was so independent—so fierce. She was like him, a child of Zero. She'd grown up with death pounding at her door. Winning her over would be no easy feat.

He was only vaguely aware that they were trundling through an underpass when a Walker fell on him.

"REN!" he heard. Kyoko was screaming his name; he was reacting out of instinct, kicking with his foot at the center of the Walker's torso, moving that deadly mouth away from his flesh. He hadn't come this close to a Walker since…since ever, really. He usually dispatched them quickly, at range or with a sword in close combat. Never, never, never had he ever been underneath one. He'd never allowed it to happen. He was going to kick it off—never mind the fact that those teeth came awfully close to his exposed neck—why did he decide not to wear the headguard today!?

"REN!" he heard again, and then all of a sudden, the Walker flew off of him. There was a sickening thump and he realized that Kyoko had grabbed it off of him and then cut off its head.

"Ren…REN!..." And then she was on him, straddling him, her hands were on his face, turning his head gently left and then right, looking for any bite marks. She was so close and gazing so intently at him he was almost glad a Walker had nearly bitten him. "Are you OK? Oh god—were you bitten!?"

His heart was beating wildly, and he wasn't sure it was the adrenaline from nearly dying that caused it. "Kyoko—" he said. He took a hand and placed it lightly on her wrist. "I'm ok."

Relief. Joy. It was all in her eyes, which were gazing intently into his own. "Thank god," she said. "If anything happened to you—"

"If you two are done flirting," they heard, "get your asses in the transport. Now." He could tell Yashiro was furious.

Ren gulped. He was Recon Team Lead, but he knew he'd dropped the ball this time.

Kyoko had jumped off of him with a start and was blushing a bright shade of red as she slithered back down her own hatch, closing it after her as she crawled into the transport.

He sighed. This was all on him. His failure. His lack of professionalism.

He was going to have to do better.

He crawled into the transport too, latching the hatch behind him. Yashiro and Kijima were glaring at him; Kyoko was wiping off her sword and avoiding everyone's gaze.

"It won't happen again," he said.

"Damn right, asshole," Yashiro said. "Do you have any idea—"

"I'm sorry, OK?" He shook his head. "I didn't see it in the underpass."

"Sorry doesn't mean shit if you're dead, man," Kijima added. "How you gonna flirt with Kyoko if you're dead?"

"Ren Tsuruga does not flirt with me, Kijima," she interjected. "Anyone could've missed that Walker. That's why there's two of us up there."

Kijima looked at him and shook his head. Ren blinked. "Everyone's OK," he said. "So let's just…I'll just…refocus and get the job done, OK?"

Yashiro rolled his eyes in disgust. "Don't fuck it up, Ren. We need you alive."

=.=.=

He spent the rest of that mission on high alert. He was thoroughly ashamed of himself. Kyoko was her normal self—precise, quick, lethal. This time, he matched her body count.

He'd have to think about Kyoko on his own time, it seemed.

Did her blush mean anything?

He needed to find out.

=.=.=

Author's Note: So I guess I'll be adding these little zombie AU one-shots to the One-Shot collection until such a time as one of them requires its own posting. I can't promise that I'll write zombie chapters on a regular basis and didn't want to commit to a whole posting when I know I don't have an overarching story for the universe yet. When that happens, I may pull these stories out and put them all in the same place. But anyway, this week's word-prompt was 'Wreck.'

Aaaaaaand maybe this was inspired by that one scene in LOTR when Legolas and Gimli are counting kills.

Alrighty, seriously, though? Let know me what you think? Feed author? Author hungry.

Author out.