please tell me if you find any mistakes, as usual, or if something doesn't sit quite right.

The TV is on when Rin comes downstairs. That's not strange in itself, but what shows on the screen, is.

"Da…d?" Her voice breaks mid-word, feet frozen to the spot as her parents turn to face her. Mother doesn't look well. Mother doesn't look well.

Suddenly, mother's face contorts right into a snarl, lunges at her, teeth bared, smelling like death, and Rin runs, she runs so far away she'll never come back and she's ashamed…

Snrk.

Rin snaps out of her daze with a jolt. Not sleep – she doesn't sleep, not anymore. And yet she still has nightmares.

There's something outside the door.

It's been two weeks (how has it only been two weeks?) and Rin is so cold and tired. Her joints are stiff. She can't afford stiff joints and sore muscles, not now, or ever.

"Hanayo," she hisses under her breath, trying to wake her friend up from an enviously peaceful slumber, "Hanayo! There's…"

A gunshot. There's a gunshot, which startles both girls wide awake despite the time of night. Neither of them carry guns, and Hanayo's father certainly never does, bless his soul. So who's…?

Another gunshot. Louder. It deafens them both for a moment. The air is thick with noise and smoke and something unmistakeable yet unidentifiable. They huddle together for a moment, and Rin can't tell who's shivering more. Hanayo is so small. She's so thin. Nothing bad should ever happen to her.

"W-we have to get out of here…" Hanayo whispers in a voice so thin Rin is beginning to doubt she's even there at all. With a nod, Rin grabs her wrist and staggers to her feet.

"The vents," she jerks her head back and they move backwards together, before the door is kicked down rather loudly and violently. Hanayo screams, maybe Rin does too, she can't tell, all she's focused on is that gun. The man in the doorway gives pause, lowering the massive thing to the ground, but it doesn't soothe Rin's nerves. He's wearing a flak vest with 'Police' written on it, though somehow, Rin doesn't believe he was ever on the force. There's a spray of blood on his uniform.

"… Oi, Sakamoto. Kids."

Hanayo's fallen to the ground again but Rin is so paralysed with fear and adrenaline that she barely notices. Gunshots. Gunmen. Survivors. She thought they were safe. They were supposed to be safe. Together, her and Hanayo's family had barricaded off as many roads as they could. They were supposed to survive for at least another few weeks, until they could figure out a way to get to Otonokizaka.

She was supposed to find her friends.

Another man has stepped into the doorway behind the first. He's older and greyer but taller and wider. He's scary.

"Nakajima, who're these?" He says to Nakajima, who responds by waving his gun around rather haphazardly. Rin flinches.

"Kids," Nakajima says again, "must be that guy's. What'll ya do with 'em?"

That guy…? Rin scrunches her face, trying to make sense of the situation past the fog of her brain.

"… Orders-"

"Oh fuck your orders." Nakajima steps forward, Rin and Hanayo scramble back two. He clears his throat and lowers his gun right down. "You kids, you got a licence to be here?"

"Licence…?" Rin repeats, absolutely bewildered. They were just staying in their home! Hanayo's home! What would they need a licence for?

Nakajima senses the confusion. "You're in protected borders now, kid. Barricades gone up, an' you need a licence and a full check-up before you're allowed to stay here. You got one?"

Rin can't move. Suddenly every joint in her body feels like lead. Her brain feels like soup. Sweat slicks her palms. Is she sick? Where is Hanayo – there. Where is her dad? Her mum?

"N-no, we don't…" Hanayo squeaks, shaking. "We didn't know-"

"Too bad, kid." The tone in Nakajima's voice sends a chill down Rin's spine. She shouldn't have been so careless. She was always so careless. A screw-up.

Nya, she thinks, and the thought is oddly out of place.

"Nakajima," It's the older man, now, "shoot them down-"

What.

"-They're kids, Sakamoto. I- can't. They're alone. It ain't the law to shoot a kid. I'll get them outta here."

"They'll die on their own."

"So be it."

Rin can't help but sob tearlessly as her and Hanayo are taken jarringly by the shoulder and marched outside. Nakajima is not gentle. Hanayo cries openly for the first time in days.

To her left, Rin sees the sprawled out bodies of the Koizumi family. A woman in a flak jacket searches their pockets while Nakajima pushes her into the starlit night.

They're blindfolded, loaded onto the back of a truck.

It's daybreak when they finally reach their destination.

"Blindfolds off!"

Rin is blinded for a moment by the rising sun, but she has to adjust as she's pushed towards the ground. Hanayo makes a brave effort not to cry out, and Rin is by her side in an instant. The engine hums again, louder than Rin remembers, for some reason.

Nakajima gives them both a glance that's almost apologetic. Rin blankly stares back.

The truck drives off, with three people pointing their guns in various directions, until it disappears. Everything is quiet. Everything is quiet and they are alone.

"Rin…" Hanayo coughs, doubling over. She's pale.

"Sh," Rin rubs up and down her back and she's sure her tremors can be felt even through the cloth. Hanayo's breath rattles in her chest. Her glasses are gone. When did that happen?

Rin straightens and takes note of their surroundings. A train station. Rin's never been here before. It's on a slight hill overlooking an unfamiliar part of town. Off in the distance, there's smoke. Everything is still.

How could this happen?

Hanayo starts to cry again, uncontrollably, and Rin holds her, too numb and shocked to do anything else.

"I'm sorry, Kayo-chin…" It's the only thing Rin can think to say. She feels so useless.

She's ruined everything.

The sun is properly in the sky by the time they awaken (had they fallen asleep? How risky) and Rin's stomach growls. She makes a flat little joke about something or other – neither of them are listening, but it feels better.

Rin decides to raid the vending machines for food and a can of coffee with a bit of change they find lying around, and the rest of Rin's savings she'd been hiding in her pocket. A packet of chips each, and they share the coffee. It's a little better, but not much.

"Let's check everywhere else, there might be some stuff lying around," Rin suggests, trying to keep that smile there. Hanayo looks unsure, so Rin pulls her across the train tracks, faltering only slightly at the sight of something staggering down the train tracks. It's facing away from them, but it's still terrifying. "C- come on, it's not like… anyone else is going to use it…"

She's only just aware of how terrible that sounds.

The bathrooms are empty but still clean so they make use of them before scouring the rest of the station. One particular door has been torn right off the hinges, and it makes both of them pause. But it's empty on the other side, though it looks as if a tornado has swept right through and overturned everything.

Rin notices a dead body on the ground and tries her hardest to swallow down her fear. It's missing the legs. There's a tail of bloody entrails. It's still twitching.

"Um, let's move on," she says, touching Hanayo on the shoulder. Hanayo seems frozen for a moment before breaking out into another fit of coughing. Oh dear.

By the time they've scoured the place, and found nothing but dirt and blood and a broken phone, the zombie down the train tracks is gone. Safety? Or uncertainty?

At least following the track is easy enough. It's mindless. Up ahead, Rin sees a derailed train. It's still partially on the tracks, and is turned sideways. There's a bloody handprint on the side, she can see as they approach.

It's empty inside. Probably already been looted. There is an empty pistol, though, and Rin takes it despite Hanayo's wary glance. She doesn't know how to use pistols, anyway, but it's pretty heavy. It feels secure and safe in the deep pockets of her pants.

They're off again, but this time Hanayo insists they stay off the tracks, just in case there are people nearby. Rin hadn't thought of that.

"Thank goodness I've still got Kayo-chin around!" Rin says, stepping a little closer and over an oddly nourished tuft of grass. Hanayo looks about in tears. Rin shuts up.

They manage to squeeze through a gap in a chain-linked fence, into a supermarket car park. Zombies are scattered over the open area, and the windows to the building have been smashed into. Rin hopes they aren't too late.

She forces her friend to keep up the pace as they trace along the very edges of the fence, just like Hanayo's dad said. So long as they don't make any noise, and they move slowly, they should be fine. Rin was never one for moving slowly. She has to get into the supermarket before she's driven crazy, before they're caught and eaten…

Rin ducks across a gap behind a car and motions for Hanayo to follow, but she's too timid and she's shaking and are the zombies getting closer or is that just her?

With a thumping heart, Rin darts out and catches Hanayo on the arm, freezes when she hears a moan.

"Run!" She urges, not letting Hanayo even think about lagging behind. The feet pound loudly on the pavement. It's too loud. They have to run faster. Faster.

The door's locked. She should have expected it. She should have thought before she acted. Hanayo whimpers, and Rin turns around. There's no imminent danger, but some of the brighter zombies are meandering their way. They've been spotted.

"Window," Hanayo nods, and they climb through the broken window. Hanayo goes first. Rin is right behind her and scrapes her arm on the glass in her haste. It bleeds, in little droplets of red, and Rin hardly takes notice. They scramble together through the overturned supermarket, and there are aisles completely overturned, and three over in the corner in a makeshift barricade. A good place to hide. Or, it should have been.

Think. Think! Rin can't think. Rin's not the thinker. She's the runner. She's the comic relief, she's Kayo-chin's best friend, she's about to be eaten in a supermarket.

There's a scraping sound. Rin starts. But it's no zombie, it's Hanayo, weedy little Hanayo, putting every ounce of her strength into the back of one of those portable shelves. The zombie outside moans and it's so close that Rin has no choice but to follow the lead. Together they push it in front of the open window, and it feels… safe. Safer.

"Thanks, Kayo-chin!" Rin beams with a shaky thumbs-up, and Hanayo promptly falls to the floor in exhaustion. "N- no, Kayo-chin, you can't sleep here, we have to… We have to go further in…!"

"Rin…" Says Hanayo blearily, "you're bleeding…"

Rin looks down at her arm. "… So I am. But this isn't me, you can't stay here, it's not…"

There's a zombie right outside, now. Hopefully it won't figure out how to climb through the window and then push aside the shelf. It's not a big shelf. Rin can see the hair of the zombie on the other side.

"… Safe. It's not safe. Hanayo, we have to get out of here."

Hanayo nods slightly, and Rin helps her off the ground. Her arm looks a lot worse than it feels. Her stomach hurts. So does her throat. They haven't eaten since this morning.

Together they stumble back into the heart of the building. It looks like the place has been thoroughly raided already. There's not much left, but there are a few out-of-date fruit bars, a tin of something slimy, and a small bag of rice under a pile of rubbish. Rin gives Hanayo the rice.

The sounds of zombies groaning and shuffling aren't really the best to build a high spirit, but Rin tries anyway. She tries to talk about what will happen when they escape. Nozomi's probably already got a shelter prepared, she says, maybe Maki's mansion is safe, too. Umi's good with the bow, isn't she? She's probably kicking zombie butt! Hanayo doesn't respond. She just sits there, nibbling occasionally. She's dead, not on the outside, but on the inside.

Rin finds it very easy to blame that man, Nakajima, and his friends. Surprisingly easy. She's got to release all this pent up anxiety somehow. She can't run forever.

Hanayo looks up, but she doesn't meet Rin's eyes. It's unnerving, now that she thinks of it. "Do you think they… Do you think they… It was q- quick?"

Rin doesn't have an answer, so she sits there in silence and feels the wetness against her shirt where Hanayo leans against her.

Two weeks is a lot of time, she thinks, in a zombie apocalypse.

word count, 2222.

zombies based on a mix of twd and dayz. stupid, slow sometimes, really really dumb.