"Thump, thump…!"

The criminal jumped as he let out a startled yelp and scrambled to push himself back away from the fence. He could hear more of the thumping as the things continued to walk up to the barrier. Their noises kept getting louder as well no matter how much farther away he got. As a matter of fact, it seemed to be just the opposite.

"Thunk…!"

He growled and his hand instinctively flew to his head as a familiar sensation of stinging pain flooded in his skull where he hit it. Even with the unpleasant sense lingering in his nerves, he gritted his teeth and gripped onto a handful of his own bright red hair all while keeping as quiet as he possibly could. He could hear the things continue to pound on the wood, and listened to just that until the intensity of the sounds suddenly decreased while gunshot was happening in the distance. The man kept his ears pinned as he waited and bit his tongue.

"Fuck…!" the redhead exclaimed while he turned his upper body to see what was behind him after the thumps had stopped entirely. "God damn fucking porch…"

With a sigh, he rubbed the back of his head and stood up by using the grey colored porch for support. His green eyes traveled around the, what he noted was, backyard he had fallen into. It was a nice yard… Actually, it was a decent yard. Probably the best he had ever seen; or from what he could remember at least. "Hello…? Anybody…?" he hollered before letting out another sigh.

His eyes then locked onto a circular pool with its cover on for a bit, and he said before turning and walking off to a tree, "Maybe I'll go for a dip…"

Man, he thought as he stared at a small table with fake, play china on it as he walked to the tree which he discarded for the sight above him in the thick limbs. If that was a beer set instead of a tea set, I'd be a set guy… No pun intended either.

The redhead kept his head tilted up as he observed the structure above. "There's not a chance of me getting up to that playhouse with this leg," he mumbled as he eyed the dark colored wood tree house. He rested a hand with long fingers on the light colored wood pieces nailed into the tree that acted as a ladder. "Hello…? Is someone up there?" he called and paused in his yelling, muttering to himself about the figure they saw in the woods. "If you can hear me, please, say something… I'm not one of those…things, if that what you're thinking!"

Don't mind me, he thought while pushing up on the rolled sleeves of his black button up shirt, I'm just a strange man bleedin' in your backyard…

After watching for any signs of life, the man shook his head as he turned away and set his eyes on the two-story, dark beige painted house with white trimming. "Wonder if anyone's in there," he whispered in a questioning tone before he slowly limped back to the home. He held on tight to the railing when he carefully climbed up the steps and across the porch until he ended up standing in front of a white framed sliding glass door. Before he walked to the door, he leaned forward and idly scratched his bare chest where he left his shirt undone. "Someone home…?" he asked loudly as he hit the glass with his fist, making sure to get attention of whoever might have been inside if any. "I need a little help…"

Backing away from the door a little bit, the man observed for a long moment through the window and frowned a little bit when there wasn't a sound. Well, minus the tire swing hanging from the tree making a rather loud squeak now and again. "Hello…?" He banged in the window again with his fist. "Is no one here?" he asked himself quietly and somewhat pressed himself into the glass. He was able to see that the door led to a dining room and a kitchen immediately, then a living room deeper within the abode with the television on and showing a blue screen. It illuminated the otherwise unlit house.

Maybe it's unlocked, the redhead told himself in his head before pulling on the handle of the door and having it slide open smoothly.

"Don't shoot, 'kay?" he called into the seemingly empty dwelling, slowly limping inside. "I'm comin' in…" He hissed suddenly after he had turned back around from closing the door behind him. "Aah, shit…" he growled and grabbed his dark wash jean covered leg. He held it for a moment before letting go and walking a little further into the household. "'M not a trespasser…or one of…them…" The redhead looked around and it made his green eyes widen a bit.

There were chairs that were off their legs and on their sides instead, the place looked like it had been ransacked with the living room appearing how it was, and… Was that puddle of blood in the entryway of the kitchen? What had happened in this house exactly?

"Whoever lives here might need more help than me…" he said quietly and looked over to his right at the bar. There wasn't anything particularly interesting on the surface. All that laid there was an open spiral notebook with chicken scratch writing and pencil on the paper and an open trigonometry book with a scientific calculator on top if it next to it.

He looked back and saw a small basket of fruit on the dining table he hadn't noticed before. As fast he could, he limped over to the table and reached for an apple. When he touched it, he immediately frowned and turned his back on the table as if it had just insulted him. "Damn it," he said under his breath, "it's fake…"

Cocking his head some to the left, the redhead's frowned deepened a little bit more at the pool of blood. "Jesus," he breathed and took a careful step forward. It didn't matter how cautious he was though… The man, only after taking two steps forward, slipped and fell on his right side; the side with the injured leg. He groaned as he got back to his feet then looked at his side. "Really?" he asked out loud, shaking his head and continued forward into the topsy-turvy kitchen, not spotting the bloody hand and footprints that lead deeper into the area.

The man immediately went to his right, heading to the silver sink that was there, and picked up a purple cup sitting next to it. He looked inside of it before gulping down the substance, which was water, that was inside of it and placing it back down onto the counter while letting out a sigh. He then opened up one of the drawers next to the basin only to find an empty box that used to hold aluminum foil before looking around the kitchen. "Place seems to have been raided," he said as he took note of the various open cabinets and drawers. "Whatever had been valuable's gone now…"

Of course, that didn't stop the redhead from opening up other random drawers and cabinets; which he did until the last drawer he opened held a big, black walkie-talkie, and he stared at it for a second. He wondered why a walkie-talkie was there to begin with, but let it slide and picked up the radio, putting it into his pocket before he noticed the black refrigerator in the room had a note on it held by a magnet of a Chocobo head with an overturned table in front of the appliance. "Castle Oblivion…" he trailed off, staring at the note a little longer. "That's a Hollow Bastion area code…but that's the type of info you leave a babysitter…right?"

Suddenly a loud, shrill beep filled the air, making the man wince a little. "The hell's that…?"

"You have three new messages."

Hobbling along, he saw a fallen bookcase when he stopped next to a table along the wall. "Furniture all fucked up and blood's everywhere… Shit…"

"BEEP…"

The redhead looked over at the table and caught the offender making the horrible noise. He saw a bright red number three on the screen and the other buttons that made the mechanism work. "Maybe the answering machine will have something on it that'll tell me what the fuck's going on…"

He pressed the play button and he listened as the machine spoke. "Three new messages," it said with a monotone voice. "Message one, left at 6:09 p.m.…"

"Neku, it's Cloud," a deep, male voice said in an almost gentle manner. "I'm still in Hollow Bastion… Sephiroth's plane is delayed, so I have to stay longer than originally planned. Anyways, I don't think I'm gonna make it back tonight, so we'll probably stay at a hotel here. I swear I'll be back before your damn break, so don't get pissy and don't pick on mini me."

"Message two, left at 11:04 p.m.…"

"God damn, finally… I dunno if either one of you has been trying to reach us… Calls have been getting dropped left and right… No one's letting us go anywhere outta here and they're not telling either one of us shit about Traverse Town. Neku, leave now and take mini me with you. Rocket Town may be your guys' best bet, but I dunno… I gotta get back to the hotel and make sure Seph isn't "making new friends" again. Lemme know you two are safe."

"Message three, left at 7:01 a.m.…"

"Neku…Mini me…if you can hear this, call the cops… Love you guys… Lo…"

He slowly turned his gaze away from the off-white machine after the last message ended abruptly. The man couldn't help but feel his stomach attempt a flip and a twinge of sorrow. He only hoped Neku and Mini me, whoever Mini me was, had taken Cloud's instructions to heart and gone to Rocket Town. Somewhere safe…

The redhead ignored a Struggle Champion trophy that had fallen over on the table and instead let his fingers touch a black, smooth picture frame. He licked his lips as he picked up the small memento and held it in both of his hands, running a thumb over the cracked glass. In the image was a tall, silver haired man with a blonde man at his side as well as trying to get him to smile and a shorter blonde male receiving a noogie from an orange haired male.

While examining the photograph, along with the inappropriate thought about how the orange haired being in the picture should have taken off his headphones, the redhead began to wonder what if… What if he had woken up sooner? What would have happened if he came to this house, if he had found it, earlier?

He set down the frame, shaking his head. Too many questions were filling his head as well as feelings, oddly enough. He didn't want to continue assuming that something happened to Neku and Mini me. In his mind, the two of them had gotten out of Traverse Town and gone to Rocket Town and were alright.

An abrupt scratchiness broke the eerie silence which made the redhead look around with a curious gaze during it, and even after. There was one more short moment of loud static before there was some rustling. Then there was a voice that came through. "Cloud…?"

"Whoa, what…?" The man looked down while his hands immediately went to his ass as if he were searching himself. He rolled his bright green eyes when he realized it was the walkie-talkie that had been going off the whole time. "Dumbass," he called himself then grabbed the device before shuffling over to the sliding door and holding it up to his mouth, pressing a button on the side of it. "Hello…?"

"You need to keep it down," the young male voice seemed to growl at him.

Frowning slightly, he turned around and wobbled back to where he was aligned with the fake basket of fruit. "I'm not one of them," the redhead said gently into the machine.

"I know you're not," the other replied shortly.

"…You okay?"

"Fine…"

"Um…who is this, anyways?" the man asked, bending down some to peek under the dining table then standing back up.

There was what seemed like a long pause before the male on the other end replied. "'M Roxas and this's my place," the one named Roxas said bluntly. "Who're you?"

"Hey, Roxas… Name's Axel…"

"…You're not my brother."

Axel shook his head even though Roxas couldn't see him. It saddened him a small bit when he heard the other's statement. It felt like he had kicked the kid when he was down. "No," he said. "I'm not…" He made a half turn to see the sliding glass door again before looking forward and limping to the living room, standing next to the couch. "How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"…and you're the only one here?"

"I have no idea where anyone is," Roxas stated. "How old are you?"

The redhead licked his lips. "Um, I'm twenty four…"

"Alright…"

"Er, if you don't mind my asking," Axel began as he turned around and went back to the kitchen, "where're your parents?"

"Don't have any anymore," he said. "They were dead before all this crap happened… All the family I have now are my half-brothers."

"Where are your brothers then?"

"I dunno where Neku is," Roxas said in a sigh. "Cloud went to the airport and left me here with Neku… Hollow Bastion, I think? Y'know, where the gummi ships are…"

As the young man on the walkie-talkie spoke, the redhead had made his way from the entry of the kitchen to the sink. He turned his head different angles, attempting to see if he could possibly find the other male he was talking to. "Hey, are you safe?"

"Sure am."

"Where are you?"

"Outside in the tree house… They can't get me from here."

Axel's eyes traveled up to look at the playhouse and smiled a small half smile. "That's clever…"

"Look," Roxas instructed as he opened the door to the tree house, effectively catching the green eyed man's attention. "Can ya see me? I can see you in the kitchen."

The criminal smiled and gave the young man in the playhouse a wave. He jumped slightly when Roxas let out a yelp and hid back into his hiding spot. He was about to question him until he was surprised by a dead being when he turned to his right some.

As the thing came at him, the redhead jerked around and put his hands on its shoulders to keep it away. Grunts came out of his throat while he fought against it. His jaw was clench and his short, red eyebrows were fixed into a tight frown. Where had this thing come from? How had he missed it?

With a sudden surge of strength, Axel pushed the dead being into the black stove and turned on his heel immediately to run off. He just barely got started on his escape when his feet hit a pool of blood, making him slip. The man hit the side of his head on the edge of the counter before he met the cold, unforgiving tile.

He groaned as he opened his green eyes. His vision was blurry, making him panic and rub his eyes. "God damn it," he growled and shook his head violently, propping himself up with his left arm. Axel could hear the thing coming closer, and his sight wasn't coming back to him fast enough, so he decided to do the best he could. He waited until he was able to make out what he thought was the dead being's head before he kicked.

The man scrambled to his feet after he felt his foot make contact, his vision clearing and allowing him to see the thing fly back to the stove. As fast as he could, he limped around the corner to the dining table before his heart felt like it had stopped. The dead being's hand had grabbed his ankle and effectively making him fall to the ground again with his chest making impact. "Uuhn…!" he gasped, the air being crushed out of his lungs, while he turned around to be able to face the dead and his eyes widened as the thing was crawling up his body since it had already caught up to him.

With clear vision, Axel brought up his left arm and targeted a punch in its forehead before watching it go back and to the right as he backed away from the thing. Much to his dismay, the being recovered quickly and continued its chase after him. He had no idea what he was going to do. He wished someone else was with him and that they could help him.

Unknown to the redhead, a small, blonde male had climbed down a tree and was running across the yard as fast as he could.

The young man climbed the porch railing when he got to the house (cutting the middleman in a way) and with a swift jerk on the handle, the sliding door flew open. He kneeled down while the door opened he held a rusty looking hammer at Axel's side far enough in front of him to see. "Here," he ordered in a hasty manner.

Axel punched the thing with what he now noticed was orange hair and it also wore headphones around its neck. Where had he seen this before? He was sure this being was somewhat familiar to him…

It suddenly dawned on him when his mind flashed and remembered the picture he looked at earlier. The silver haired man, who he assumed was Sephiroth… The tall blonde, Cloud, who was trying to make him smile… The short blonde, Roxas, who was getting a noogie… Then the fourth male who was giving Roxas the noogie…

This must be Neku, the criminal thought sadly.

Roxas' voice took the man out of his trance; disturbing his thoughts. "Hurry," he insisted and nudged the other with the hammer.

He took the tool from the other young man and somewhat played with it in his hand. The redhead watched as it moved around in his hand before he held onto it with a tight grip. He then let out a choked startled sound when he was dragged to the other being after his ankle was grabbed unexpectedly.

"I-I'm sorry, Neku," he stuttered in a small whisper before bringing the arm with the hammer in its hand back.