The group files into the house, converging into the living room and startling the three occupants.
"Johnny!" One man calls out.
"I'm sorry! I heard them say my name!" Johnny sobs from behind the group.
"Who said-"
"Shut it!" Steven says, pushing Lavi away to point his gun at the man.
"Woah." The man says, putting his hands up. "Don't shoot."
"I'll shoot when I damn well want to." Steven replies, cocking the gun.
"What do you want?" The man asks, glancing around at the group.
"Your supplies'll do just fine." Steven answers.
"Our-" The man thinks for a moment. "They're in the back."
"Go get them." Steven commands.
"Tapp." The man looks over to a large man in the corner. "Get this nice man some supplies."
Tapp quickly stumbles out of the room, heading through a door in the back of the room.
"Sit." Steven commands, forcing the man to sit on the nearest couch, next to Lavi.
"'sup?" Lavi asks the man.
"Hey…" The man looks at Lavi curiously.
"Don't talk!" Steven demands pointing the gun at the two.
"Gotcha'." Lavi leans back into the couch giving Steven a small smile.
Allen struggles against Frank's grip, trying to remove his hand.
"Stop it." Frank whispers harshly, tightening his grip.
Allen freezes and let's himself get led into the house.
Frank stays at the back of the group, obscuring Allen's vision. Allen recognises the voices talking beyond, but he doesn't hear Cross. Allen slumps, causing Frank to readjust his stance.
He's not here.
Allen hears Tapp leave the room and Lavi talk to someone.
Frank shuffles around, trying to get a better look through the narrow doorway. He passes Chris and Cynthia as he moves into the room with Steven.
"Frank, good." Steven calls him as he moves in, Allen still in his grip. "Oh, let go if him." Steven orders. "Make sure these ones don't try anything." He gestures to the group on the couches.
Frank shrugs and drop Allen, who almost trips over.
"Allen!" The man next to Lavi stands, arm out to Allen.
"Reever!" Allen cries, running over to the man.
"Sit down." Steven points his gun at Allen, who takes a seat between Lavi and Reever.
The door across from the swings open and Tapp comes through holding a large rifle.
"Heads up!" Tapp shouts, pointing the gun at a distracted Steven.
"Shit!" Steven turns to Tapp, only for Reever to jump up and grab his gun.
"Jiji!" Along haired man with a bandana tied over his head and round glasses jumps up. Frank is startled by the man who grabs his pistol and punches him in the face.
"Haha!" Jiji laughs, tripping Franks and standing over him.
"You thought you could take the four of us with just two of you?" Reever asks, smirking at Steven.
"Damn you." Steven growls.
"Che." Kanda moves in, grabbing his sword off Frank and unsheathing it in front of Steven.
Steven doesn't move, his eyes focused on the blade.
Lavi also stands one hand on his hammer.
"What now?" Tapp asks Reever.
"Dunno." Reever scratches the back of his head.
"I'm very sorry." Cynthia moves forwards into the room, with Chris by her side.
"And you are…." Reever asks.
"My name's Cynthia. Chris and I are…with this man." Cynthia explains, gesturing to Steven.
"We can take care of them. We have before." Chris says.
"Are you sure?" Reever asks.
"Yeah." Chris shrugs. "Oh…"
"What?" Reever looks at Chris curiously, who'd frozen in place.
"You wouldn't have been with someone called James, would you?" Chris asks, looking hopefully at Reever.
"James? James Jefferson?" Reever asks thoughtfully
"Yeah! That's him." Chris replies excitedly.
"Yeah, he was…." Reever looks at Chris sadly.
"What happened?" Chris asks quietly.
"We got attacked. He…didn't make it." Reever explains. "I'm sorry."
"Was he, left on the roadside?" Lavi interrupts.
"Yeah, actually. How'd you know?" Reever answers.
"We, uh, we saw him. We got this map from him." Lavi holds up the map, marked with the cross.
"Oh." Reever replies.
"We should go." Cynthia says, taking Chris' arm.
"Yeah." Chris mutters. "Thanks."
Steven and Frank rise and Cynthia points a small handgun at them.
"Get moving."
_
Once the four left, Reever locks the door behind them.
"Okay, into the living room." Reever commands.
The group converges into the room, taking up all the space on the blue and green couches.
"So-" Reever starts.
"Allen!" Johnny almost topples Allen over, who's, luckily, seated on one of the couches.
"Johnny! I'm okay!" Allen reassure, laughing at Johnny, who'd sobbing hysterically.
"I'm so glad you're alright!" Johnny wails.
"Come on." Reever pulls Johnny off Allen, dropping him on the adjacent couch.
"Allen!" Johnny wails.
Allen smiles and waves at him, hoping he calms down.
"So, introductions." Reever says, looking over at Lavi, Lenalee and Kanda.
"I'm Lavi." Lavi says, waving at Reever.
"My name's Lenalee." Lenalee introduces smiling at Reever and the others. "That's Kanda." She finishes, gesturing to Kanda, who's standing in the corner.
"Che."
"My name's Reever." Reever says before gesturing to Johnny.
"This is Johnny. That's Tapp." Tapp gives the group a small salute.
"Jiji." The long haired man waves, a large grin on his face.
"So, what's your story?" Reever turns back to Lavi and Lenalee.
As the two explain, Allen stares out the window, spotting the far-off figures of Steven, Frank, Chris and Cynthia going over a hill.
"I see." Allen turns to see Reever nod at Lavi. "I guess it's out turn now."
"As you probably already know, we're from Wellsborough." Reever starts.
"We were headed to Hopetown when we got forced off-road by a zombie hoard." Tapp continues.
"We found this place and decided to hold down the fort." Jiji finishes..
"What about Cross? He was with you, right?" Allen interrupts, drawing the attention of the group.
"Yeah, he was here, but…" Jiji trails off, turning to Reever.
"He said he had to go do something." Reever explains. "He said he'd only be gone a day, but…" Reever looks at Allen sadly. "…That was three days ago. Right after we got here."
"Eh?" Allen collapses back onto the couch next to Lavi.
"I-I'm sure he's fine though! You know Cross, always running off." Reever tries to reassure.
"Y-yeah." Allen mumbles, not looking up.
"Uh…" Johnny tries. getting off the couch.
The group sits in silence for a moment before a gunshot echoes in the distance.
"What the?" Lavi jumps up and head to the door, Kanda and Reever close behind.
Allen turns to look out the window, where the others had just been.
"They're gone." Allen murmurs, just loud enough for Lenalee to hear.
"What was that, Allen?" Lenalee asks him, following his gaze out the window.
"They were…" Allen stares as a figure appears on the hill, running towards them.
"Who's that?" Lenalee wonders aloud.
Allen and Lenalee watch as Lavi, Reever and Kanda run out of the house, towards the figure.
"Let's go." Allen says, jumping off the couch to chase after the three.
"Allen!" Lenalee cries, running after him.
Lavi's stomach drops once he recognises the figure as Cynthia, stumbling towards them, clothes red with blood.
"Cynthia!" Lavi calls as the two intercept. Cynthia collapses in Lavi's arms, holding her wounded stomach.
"What happened!?" Reever asks.
"Steven…" Cynthia trails off, eyes glassy.
"Shit." Kanda runs up the hill, back to where Cynthia came from.
"Kanda!" Lavi cries. "Here." He pushes Cynthia into Reever's arms before running after Kanda, hammer at the ready.
As the two run over the hill, they spot Frank standing over Chris, both covered in blood.
"Chris!" Lavi calls out, gaining his attention.
Steven turns to see Lavi and Kanda running at him and turns to escape.
"Get him!" Lavi calls to Kanda, who speeds ahead. Lavi continues towards Frank and Chris.
"Stop!" Lavi hears Chris call out as Frank grabs him.
Lavi raises his hammer and shouts at Frank, who turns to him.
As Frank turns to Lavi, Lavi spots the gaping hole in Frank's chest, right over his heart.
"What the!?" Lavi cries, slowing his pace.
"He's turned! Steven-" Chris calls out, only for ex-Frank to crash into him, mouth wide.
"No!" Lavi rushes forward, slamming his weapon into Frank's skull.
"Chris are you-" Lavi stops short one he looks at Chris, now with an obvious, fresh wound in his next. Chris stares, wide eyed, at Lavi as he chokes for a few seconds before becoming still.
"Shit." Lavi mutters before raising his hammer again.
Allen couldn't take his eyes off Lavi and Chris, even when Lavi raised his hammer after Chris has died. Allen knew he shouldn't watch but…
The hammer slammed down, spraying blood across the grass around them.
"Allen!" Lenalee calls from behind him, stopping short once she spots Lavi and Chris.
"Oh god…" Lenalee says, stopping to stand next to Allen.
"Where's-" Allen looks around and spots Cynthia to his right, lying motionless in Reever's arms.
"Oh."
Lavi seems to spot Allen and Lenalee and starts heading over.
"What happened?" Lenalee asks, running forward to meet him.
"Steven shot Frank and he turned." Lavi glances back to Chris' body. "But Chris before we got to him."
Lenalee gasps, hands over her mouth.
"Where's Kanda?" Allen asks, walking over.
"He ran after Steven." Lavi explains, wiping the blood off his hammer with his hand. "He'll be back soon."
Kanda rushed after Steven's retreating form, which had just entered a small forest adjacent the fields. Kanda slows slightly as he enters the forest, brown leaves crunching under his feet as he walks. Kanda stops to listen around him. At first, he only hears birds and the wind rustling the branches above and around him. Then a loud crunching sounds in front of him, accompanied by the rustling of bushes and branches being pushed aside.
Kanda springs into action, dodging a few trees before jumping into Steven's path, who'd just pushed aside another low hanging branch.
"Shit!" Steven swears, raising his gun.
Kanda thrusts his sword forward to Steven's throat and knocks the gun out his grip with his free hand.
"You-" Steven growls.
"Che." Kanda readjusts his footing, staring grimly at Steven.
Steven suddenly moves forwards, nicking his cheek on Kanda's sword as he draws a small pistol. Steven flails the gun widely and fires without aiming.
Kanda lets out a grunt as he pushes his blade forward and through Steven's chest.
"Gah!" Steven cries, dropping his gun and collapsing.
Kanda looks down at his left arm, now dripping in blood.
"Dammit." Kanda growls, sheathing his sword to grip his wound.
Kanda barely glances at Steven's body as he picks up the pistol he dropped.
Not looking at the corpse, Kanda points the pistol at it's head and pulls the trigger, the sound echoing through the forest. Kanda immediately drops the gun and starts heading back from where he came.
"Kanda!" Allen calls out, spotting the older teen come over the hill.
Lenalee rushes over, immediately noticing the wound on his arm.
"What happened?" Allen asks, following Lenalee.
"The idiot had a second gun on him." Kanda replies, teeth grinding.
"Get back to the house, we'll patch you up there." Lenalee says, leading Kanda back to the house with Allen close behind.
"Hungry?" As everyone reenters the house, Tapp holds up an armful of cans.
"Yeah, yeah, let's eat." Reever answers, heading back into the living room.
"What should we do with them?" Johnny asks, sitting next to Reever.
"We'll bury them, after we eat." Reever replies, staring at the ceiling.
"Okay." Johnny replies, watching Lavi, Kanda, Lenalee and Allen file into the room, all with varying expressions.
"Tapp's making lunch." Reever calls to them. "Well…late lunch." Reever checks his watch with a sour expression.
"What time is it?" Lenalee asks, as the four sit together on the opposite couch.
"3:30." Reever replies, nodding to the group.
The group sit in silence, listening to Tapp opening the cans next door.
"Soups up." Tapp calls.
"Let's go." Reever stands, dusting stray dirt off his pants.
The kitchen is tiled with floral patterns across the floors and walls. A round table sits in the middle, shielded by a pink checkered table cloth and surrounded by an array of mismatched chairs, including a wooden rocking chair.
"Dibs the rocker!" Jiji runs past everyone, flying into the rocking chair with a satisfied expression.
Everyone else takes a seat around the table as Tapp places the cans in front of them.
"We only got soup, sorry." Tapp explains, dropping a pile of spoons on the table.
"That's fine. Thank you." Lenalee smiles up at Tapp, taking one of the spoons.
"So, what's your plan?" Lavi asks. "I mean, you'll run out of food eventually."
"We're…working on it." Reever admits.
"We were planning on waiting for Cross, but we're not sure how that's going to turn out." Jiji says
"What about you?" Reever asks.
"We came here looking for Cross, so, I think that's what we should do." Lavi replies.
"Well, we can help you with that." Reever replies.
"Really? I though he'd just gone off on his own." Lenalee wonders.
"Yeah, but he left us a few things." Reever explains. "I can show you later."
"Thanks." Lavi replies.
_
It took an hour or so for Lavi, Kanda, Reever and Tapp to bury the bodies. Cynthia and Chris had been given side-by-side graves, while Steven and Frank's had been burnt.
By the time everything had been done, the sun had begun to dye the sky a deep orange.
Allen, Lenalee, Johnny and Jiji had shared stories around the kitchen table where they'd been left. Lenalee told them of her adventures with her older brother and how'd they'd started out surviving. Johnny and Jiji told how they'd ended up in Wellsborough, even though Allen had heard the tales before. While Allen didn't have many stories to tell, he listened intently to the retellings of old ones and the details of new ones. Jiji had a habit of changing stories whenever he told them, dramatising and exaggerating parts until they were almost unrecognisable.
Lavi and mentioned to Allen, before he'd gone off the bury Cynthia and Chris, that they'd talk about his bites that evening, so not to retell the story too everyone individually. They'd left that part out of their story before, as well as the elusive girl called Road.
"We're done!" Reever calls out from the doorway as footsteps can be heard entering the house.
"C'mon." Jiji says, standing to meet them in the living room.
As they hear the door slam shut, they file into the living room. Lavi and Reever are standing in the hallway, dusting a considerable amount of dirt off themselves, trying to avoid dirtying the couches or carpet.
"So, ready to talk?" Reever says, walking into the room now that's he's cleaned off his clothes.
"Just a minute." Lavi calls from the hallway, obviously still trying to dust off.
"Talk about what?" Johnny asks.
"Lavi said there was something they needed to tell us." Reever explains, looking over to Lenalee, Allen and Kanda who's just filed into the room.
"Oh, yeah." Lenalee verifies, taking a seat on the nearest couch.
Everyone else follows her example, sitting or leaning on the two couches as they wait for Lavi.
"Okay." Lavi grins, walking into the room.
"So, what's going on?" Tapp asks, standing behind the green couch holding Reever and Johnny.
"It's well, a long story." Lavi tries, moving to stand next to Lenalee.
"Okay, how does it start?" Reever asks, leaning forward.
"Well, I guess it started with Allen." Lavi replies, looking at Allen. "Wanna explain, Al?"
Allen nods, looking up at the gathered group.
"When Wellsborough got…attacked," Allen explains, looking at his feet. "The zombies got everyone, in-including me." Allen mutters the last part, but everyone in the room still hears it.
"What!?" Johnny exclaims, jumping up.
"What do you mean?" Reever asks.
"When they came through, three of them got into my house and…" Allen trails off, his right hand gripping his left arm.
"Allen, it's okay." Lenalee reassures him, putting her hand on his back.
"I've got three bites, here." Allen continues, rubbing his arm. "I thought I was done for…but nothing happened." Allen looks up at Johnny, Reever, Tapp and Jiji in front of him, all wide eyed.
"You're saying, you didn't turn?" Jiji asks.
Allen nods, looking at Reever.
"Are you sure you were bit?" Reever asks, a thoughtful look on his face.
"Mmhmm." Allen murmurs, nodding again.
"Shit." Reever mutters. "This doesn't make any sense."
"It get's better. Worse. Whatever." Lavi supplies, regaining the group's attention.
"Huh?" Jiji rubs his head with his hand, eyebrows furrowed.
"There was this girl, called herself 'Road', who could control the zombies." Lavi explains.
"What?" Johnny says quietly staring up at Lavi.
"She attacked us and could get individual zombies to do what she wanted. They grabbed us, but didn't try to bite us until she said so." Lavi continues. "She's dangerous, real dangerous. We barely survived and we were only against her and three undead. She also got Allen pretty bad."
"Allen?" Reever wonders, looking at the boy.
Allen points to his covered left eye.
"She likes stabbing."
"Eugh." Jiji makes a wrenching sound, sticking his tongue out.
"Is that all?" Reever asks, looking almost hopeful.
"You wish." Kanda mutters, loud enough for Lenalee and Allen to hear.
"There's something going on with the zombies too." Lenalee says. "The one's from Wellsborough, they weren't reanimated right away."
"What do you mean?" Reever asks.
"We were half way through burning them when they decided to take a stroll, almost burnt the town down." Lavi finishes.
"That's weird." Jiji says, running a hand over his stubble. "How long do you reckon they were 'dead' for?" Jiji added quotation marks when he said 'dead'.
"A few hours? No, it was almost a day I think. If Wellsborough was attacked late at night then…yeah. 24 hours." Lavi says thoughtfully.
"Hmm…I don't like this." Reever mutters, leaning back into the couch.
"What should we do?" Johnny asks him, obvious worry in his voice.
"Right now there's nothing we can do. We don't know enough, we'll just have to be wary."
"Frank was only dead for seconds before he came back." Allen supplies, suddenly remembering the man.
"Yeah, maybe only specific ones take a while to reanimate." Tapp adds.
"Well, we have a lot to think about, but first." Reever looks up at Lavi. "I promised you a few things."
_
Reever took only a minute to retrieve the box of Cross' things. It was only the size of a shoe box, made of a light wood and stained with patches of dark red and black. There were visible dents and scratches along the sides and on the lid.
"What's inside?" Lavi asks as Reever comes through the door.
"You'll see." Reever replies, sitting back in his place next to Johnny. He sets the box on his lap before pulling the lid off.
Inside, there is a stack of papers and a small package wrapped in green paper.
"What are those?" Lavi asks, moving forward to get a better look.
"As far as I can tell? Receipts, bills, and sheet music. I'm not sure about the package though."
"You didn't open it?" Lavi asks, curiously.
"No, couldn't build up the courage." Reever admits, shaking his head.
"I'd rather not delve into Cross' personal life." Jiji adds.
"He can't be that bad." Lenalee insists.
"Just wait 'till you meet him." Jiji sends her a smirk. "He's that bad."
"Really? What do you think, Allen?" Lenalee turns to Allen.
"Eh, well…" Allen rubs the back of his head, smiling sheepishly before looking up at Lenalee seriously. "He's the worst."
"Eh?" Lenalee exclaims.
"I mean, he can be nice, but he's very…uh…" Allen looks over to Jiji and Reever for help.
"Dirty? Salacious? Corrupt? Exploitive? Obscene?" Jiji tries, glancing over at Reever.
"Any of those'll fit. Anyway, I guess we should open it." Reever says. "Who want's to do it?" Reever looks around at his comrades who avoid his gaze.
"How about it Al?" Lavi pats Allen on the back, pushing him forward a little.
"Me?" Allen asks loudly, turning to look at Lavi.
"Do you want to?" Reever asks him, holding out the box.
"I guess…" Allen says, sending Lavi a quick glare.
"Here." Reever takes out the package and hands it to Allen, who takes it gingerly.
Allen stares at it for a second before pulling off the green paper.
"Ah!" Allen turns to see Lavi swatting at the air.
"What's wrong?" Lenalee asks, standing.
"It's that bird! I swear it's out to kill me!" Lavi asserts, looking helplessly at Lenalee and Allen.
"Bird? Tim?" Allen wonders, looking around the darkening room.
"Bird? What bird?" Reever asks, looking around the room with everyone else.
"My bird, Timcanpy…" Allen replies, trailing off.
"Ow!" Lavi almost trips as a flash of gold collides with his forehead.
"Timcanpy!" Allen quickly replaces the already displaced wrapping and places the package beside him to jump up.
"Get back here!" Allen cries, reaching over to grab Timcanpy off Lavi's face.
"Yuu! Help me!" Lavi grabs onto Kanda's arm, causing the older teen to growl and draw his sword.
"Don't-"
"Stop that!" Lenalee cries, pulling Lavi off Kanda.
"What's going on?" Allen hears Reever mutter, watching the scene unfold.
"I'm sorry! Tim just does whatever he wants." Allen explains hurriedly, trying to keep Timcanpy trapped in his hands.
"Ah, right." Reever replies, collecting himself.
"Tim! Stay here." Allen drops Timcanpy onto the couch next to him, right by the package. Tim, obviously noticing it, starts grabbing at the wrapping with his beak.
"Stop!" Allen pulls the package away from him and onto his lap.
"Let's get back on track." Reever tries, watching Lavi move to the other side of the couch, away from Kanda who's glowering in the corner.
Allen finally pulls away the wrapping, placing the green paper beside him. Timcanpy grabs the wrapping jumping into the pile, like a nest.
"It's…a key?" Allen says, picking up the golden key.
"What?" Lavi leans over, looking curiously at the key."Where do you think it goes?"
"Dunno. We didn't have locks in Wellsborough." Allen says, examining the key. "It looks new."
"What do you mean?" Johnny walks over, looking at the key.
"It's all shiny and smooth." Allen explains, holding the key up for Johnny and Lavi to see.
"He's right. It's probably never been used before." Johnny says.
"Why's it here?" Allen ponders, turning the key in his fingers.
"I think you should hang on to it, if you're going after Cross." Reever says, leaning back.
"Okay." Allen replies, still staring at the key.
"Wait a second…" Reever rummages through his pockets before pulling out a long piece of string.
"You can put it on this, so you don't lose it.
"Thanks." Allen takes the string and threads it through a small hole in the key. He ties the ends of the string together and pulls it over his head with a little difficulty.
"Perfect." The key falls onto Allen's chest, over his t-shirt.
"What about the other stuff?" Lavi asks, pointing to the box.
"I'm not sure why he left it, but you can take a look." Reever hands the box over, slightly disturbing the papers inside.
Lavi takes the box, picking up the top sheet of paper.
"It's dated for 36 years ago." Lavi notes. "Apparently Cross bought 5 packets of cigarettes."
"Most of them are the same." Reever says, gesturing to the box.
"4 packets. 3 packets and a magazine. 5 packets." Lavi files through the sheets before stopping. "What's this?" Lavi raises one of the sheets, emblazoned with a musical score.
"Can I see?" Allen reaches over, taking the sheet of Lavi.
"It looks complicated." Lenalee says, looking over Allen's shoulder.
"Not really." Allen mutters, scanning the notes. "I could probably…"
"You can play the…" Lavi looks over for the instrument.
"Piano." Allen finishes, smiling up at Lavi.
"Cross teach you?" Lavi asks.
"Yeah, but I taught myself mostly."
"I didn't see a piano at your house." Lenalee comments.
"There was one in a warehouse, so everyone could use it. But I think I was the only one." Allen explains.
"You should've shown us." Lavi says, rummaging through the box. "Hey, there's more."
Allen takes the music sheets, about ten in total.
"They're all the same." Allen suddenly says.
"Huh?" Lavi looks over. "No they're not." He points at a few of the notes. "This part's different."
"They look kinda different, but they'll all sound almost identical. They've just got different speeds, notation and key signatures." Allen tries to explain.
"I don't get it." Lavi mutters, turning back to the box.
"It's not that hard." Allen mutters, turning back to the music.
Lavi looks looks though the papers for another minute before Allen starts humming.
Lenalee closes her eyes, listening to Allen.
"It's lovely." She mutters.
Allen doesn't reply, only increasing his volume a little.
"I didn't know you could hum piano music." Lavi remarks.
"You can't." Allen stops to reply. "It's just the melody. It's sound better with an actual piano."
"I see." Lavi looks away.
"Can I see?" Lenalee moves over to Lavi.
"Sure." Lavi hands her some of the papers inside.
"These are all really old." Lenalee says, going through them.
"Yeah, all around a year before." Reever says.
"Before? Oh, right." Lenalee says, turning back to the sheets in her hands.
"It's got to be a clue." Lavi murmurs, flicking through the sheets with a renewed fire.
"We've stared at those sheets for days and we couldn't find anything." Jiji says.
"Jeez." Lavi puts the sheets back in the box. Lenalee places hers inside and closes the lid.
"We'll try again tomorrow. It's getting late." Reever says, standing.
"You guys can sleep in here. There's no room upstairs." Tapp explains.
"Sure, thanks." Lavi says with an exhausted expression. "That'd be great."
_
The four ended up falling asleep on the couches before Reever and the others could supply them with blankets. In hindsight, it may not have been the soundest decision to make.
"Uggghhh…" Lavi groans, rolling face first off the couch.
"Shut up." Kanda growls, getting up from his seated position on the couch.
"Ow, my neck hurts…" Allen complains, stretching as he stands.
"It'll pass." Lenalee reassures, stretching her arms.
"You guys awake?" Jiji's voice calls from the hallway.
"Yeah! We're up." Lavi calls back as he gets up off the floor.
"I'm not." Allen declares, collapsing back onto the couch.
"C'mon, I'm starving." Lavi says, pulling Allen off the couch.
"Tch." Kanda powers out of the room, his expression darkening by the minute.
It only took a few minutes to set up breakfast. Tapp and Lavi had combined their efforts to speed up the process, most likely because Allen could hear both their stomachs rumbling the whole time.
Breakfast was more canned food, beans and fruit this time. Everyone had silently agreed to avoid talking in favour of eating as fast as possible.
By the time everyone was done, the sky outside has brightened, casting warm light into the farmhouse.
"So, what's the plan?" Reever asks, leaning back in his chair.
"I guess we should have another look at those papers, to see if we can figure out where Cross was headed." Lavi replies, leaning forward to lean on the table.
"Jiji, can you-" Reever starts.
"Got 'em!" Jiji leans under the table and produces the box.
"Oh. Here." Reever says, passing the box over to Lavi.
"I'm always prepared!" Jiji declares, rocking back and forward in the rocking chair.
"Thanks." Lavi says, opening the box.
_
About an hour later, they'd still made no progress with the papers.
"This is impossible!" Lavi cries, slamming his head onto the table, scattering papers.
"Come on, Lavi, there has to be something." Lenalee assures.
"Uggghhh…" Lavi groans.
"There must be something we're missing." Jiji says, filing through some sheets.
"But what could it be?" Johnny asks, scratching his head.
"Hmmm…" Allen was re-examining the music sheets, laying them all out in front of him.
Tim had perched on his shoulder, chirping whenever Allen moved.
"How many sheets are there?" Allen asks.
"How many? Let me check." Reever says. "Count how many you have of each."
The group start filing through the sheets, counting. They soon pass their totals to Reever who starts adding them up.
"453 receipts, 102 bills and…"
"12 sheets of music." Allen supplies.
"That's 567." Reever finishes.
"567…" Lavi echoes, looking thoughtfully up at the ceiling.
five, six, seven.
wait…
"Wait a minute." Allen mutters, grabbing the closest receipt.
"What is it?" Lenalee asks, looking over.
"These receipts are all from the same place, right?"
"Yeah." Reever replies.
"18 Shelmore street, Carpeville, Vearmont." Allen reads. "Were there any other receipts? Like, ones Cross didn't keep in the box?"
"Others? There might've been…" Jiji answers.
"What do you mean?" Lavi asks.
"On the first night, we started a fire to burn the undead bodies we'd encountered." Jiji explains. "Cross was the one to start it, I'm almost certain that the fire was burning paper before we added the bodies.
"So he burnt the excess ones." Allen says.
"Yeah, I guess. So he wanted us to have 567 of these." Jiji replies.
"But why?" Tapp asks.
"Cross used to tell me stories about before." Allen says. "He always said that he and his best friends, used to live in houses 5, 6 and 7."
"You think that's what he meant?" Johnny asks, looking at the papers curiously.
"I think so. Also, the shop these are all from…" Allen points to the receipts. "Is on the same street, I think."
"And the bills?" Jiji prompts. "Why are they here?"
"There's 102, right?" Allen asks.
"Yeah." Reever responds.
"102 is the number outside our house in Wellsborough." Allen says. "But I'm not sure if that's it…"
"It sounds about right. If Cross is directing us to his old home, then he'd reference his current one." Lavi tries.
"Probably." Allen says. "Cross, while he tries not to show it, isn't actually that…smart…"
"What do you mean by that?" Lavi asks.
"I…I mean, he probably guessed you guys," Allen gestures to Reever, Johnny, Tapp and Jiji. "Wouldn't count the papers because you'd try to find something smart, like a hidden clue."
"Fair enough." Jiji says, leaning back in his chair.
"And you wouldn't know about his old house, but that means…" Allen trails off.
"Wait, if it does mean his old house, then… Wouldn't Allen be the only one who would get the clue?" Lenalee wonders.
"I suppose so, but that doesn't make any sense." Reever replies.
"What makes you say that?" Lavi asks him.
"No offence, but how would he know you'd make it this far? I mean, that would mean he would've known you couldn't…"
"He knew." Allen interrupts, eyes wide. "He knew I wouldn't become one of them."
"We-We can't jump to conclusions here!" Johnny says frantically. "We're not sure that he knew."
"He must've, he must've known." Allen whispers, hands clenched into fists.
"Well, right now, that doesn't matter." Lavi declares. "What matters is this is the closest we've gotten to a clue and we need to follow it."
"He's right, you can go interrogate him once you find him." Reever agrees.
"Al?" Lavi tries, looking down at Allen.
"Yeah, I'll interrogate him alright." Allen says, giving Lavi a small smile.
"That's not something you should smile about." Lavi says.
"Of course it is." Allen's smile widens,
"Al, you're scaring me."
"I know."
"Lenalee! Allen's turned to the dark side!" Lavi cries, grabbing Lenalee's arm.
"Jeez." Lenalee says, prying Lavi off.
"Are you sure you're okay, Allen?" Johnny asks, a worried expression on his face.
"Ah, yeah. I'm okay. Just got a lot to think about."
"You'll have plenty of time to think on your way." Reever says. "Vearmont is a three days drive from here. It'll take over a week to walk there."
"Over a week?" Allen squeaks.
"That's gonna hurt." Lavi mutters, sitting up straight in his chair.
"But I never said you were walking it." Reever says, a smirk on his face.
_
"We found them the day after we arrived." Reever pushes open the garage door, revealing a rusty blue car.
"Them?" Lavi asks, heading over to the car.
"There was another, but Cross grabbed it. A bright green ute, if I recall."
"Does it work?" Lavi asks sceptically, eyeing the corroded metal suspiciously.
"Yeah, we tried it out already." Reever replies. "We just need to top off the gas."
"Is there some here?" Lavi asks, looking around.
"There's a few bottles in the shed, we'll bring them over." Reever says before turning to leave. He takes a few steps before turning back around.
"Lavi?"
"Yeah?" Lavi looks away from the car to answer.
"I'll get the others to head down too, so you can get going faster." Reever says as he restarts his walking.
"Thanks." Lavi replies, smiling, before turning back to the rusted car.
"You're clear to bring the stuff down." Reever calls from the hallway.
"Oh, thanks!" Lenalee calls back as the door slams shut.
"I'm not sure we can carry all this." Allen comments, stacking the food cans into his arms.
Lenalee, Allen, Johnny and Tapp are standing around the kitchen table, where Tapp has laid out all the food they could spare for the trip.
"I'm still not sure we need all of this." Lenalee mutters, throwing some cans into her bag.
"It seems like a lot, but you'll go through it faster than you'd think." Tapp explains, collecting another share of cans.
"We might need to take a few trips." Johnny remarks as he struggles to balance a towering stack of cans in his arms.
"We just need some extra hands." Tapp says before turning to the door.
"Jiji! Lend us a hand!" He calls, resulting in a frantic rustling next door.
"Coming!" Jiji calls before jogging into the room. "Gotcha'" Jiji mutters, scooping up a pile of cans.
"There's still some left." Allen points out.
"Maybe Kanda can grab them." Lenalee says.
"I-I think we're fine, I could-" Allen starts before Lenalee shouts.
"Kanda!?"
Kanda, who had been brooding in the adjacent room, plodded into the kitchen.
"What?" He growls, glaring at the assorted group with armfuls of cans.
"Could you grab the last cans Kanda?" Lenalee replies, smiling sweetly.
"You don't need my help for this." Kanda says, turning away from the table.
"Kanda…" Lenalee trails off, staring at Kanda's back.
"I don't think he can do it Lenalee, he's too socially inept to even be close to more than one person." Allen says, a small smirk on his face.
"What was that, beansprout?" Kanda spits, turning back to look at him.
"Was I not clear enough? Or do you need your ears checked? I think you're going deaf." Allen casually replies, smirking pointedly at Kanda.
"Why you-" Kanda takes a step towards Allen, who's smile isn't wavering.
"Kanda, just grab the cans so we can go." Lenalee orders, her tone sharp.
"Che." Kanda grabs the three remaining cans before powering out of the room.
"Looks like you're good for something after all." Allen calls after him, following close behind.
"Let's just go." Lenalee says, heading after the two.
"Uh, okay." Jiji replies, heading after her.
"Since when were they so hostile?" Johnny asks Tapp as the two leave the room.
"Dunno."
_
"Allen, you shouldn't be so rude to Kanda." Lenalee reprimands, now that Kanda's moved a good ways ahead.
"It's not my fault he's so broody." Allen says. staring after Kanda
"That's not a reason." Lenalee replies.
"He's just so…ugh, I don't know…infuriating. He just ticks me off. And he's mean to Tim." Allen turns to Lenalee, as the bird in question flies up to sit on his head.
"It's just how he is." Lenalee says, smiling down at Allen before looking forward again.
"I guess." Allen mutters as Timcanpy chirps in protest.
As the two head to the garage, they spot Lavi tinkering with an odd blue car, covered in rust and grime.
"Ew." Allen says as they approach.
"It's not that bad." Lenalee assures him, yet she eyes the vehicle suspiciously.
"It doesn't look like it'd work." Allen comments, dropping the cans onto the floor.
"It works fine." Lavi answers, finally pulling his head out of the car's trunk. "There's plenty of space too."
Allen and Lenalee move over to Lavi to look in.
"That's good. I was worried we wouldn't be able to fit anything else besides these cans." Lenalee says, smiling at the large space.
"Speaking of, where'd Kanda go?" Allen wonders, looking around the garage.
"He ran off in a hurry, after he dropped those cans on my head." Lavi explains, pointing to three cans by his feet.
"Rude." Allen mutters, glaring at the cans.
'Whatever, let's start packing them in." Lavi says, scooping up Kanda's cans and placing them at the back of the trunk.
"We're here!" Johnny's voice sounds from the garage doors, accompanied by Tapp and Jiji.
"Cool! Bring them over here." Lavi calls back, standing straight to look over the car at the three.
"Got it." Jiji says as the three head over to drop the cans on a nearby table.
"That's a lot of cans." Lavi mutters, surveying the heaps of cans on the table and floor.
"That's what I said, but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry." Lenalee says, picking up two of the cans to place in the trunk.
_
It took a little while to load up all the cans, luckily the trunk was spacious and there was plenty of room left.
"What else do we need?" Allen asks, once the cans had all been packed.
"There's some clothes back at the house, clean ones, and they're too small for us." Tapp says.
"We've also got extra camping and medical supplies if you want them." Johnny adds.
"That'd be great, thanks." Lenalee replies, smiling brightly at Johnny.
"Great! I'll go get them." Johnny rushes off, a faint blush lining his cheeks.
"What now?" Allen asks, turning to Lavi and Lenalee.
"I suppose we should gather our packs from the house and pick up anything extra." Lavi replies.
"Me and Allen can go get everything." Lenalee volunteers. "Lavi, maybe you could go track down Kanda for us."
"Sure! I'll track Yuu down, he's probably pouting in a shadowy corner somewhere." Lavi agrees.
Allen and Lenalee head out the front of the garage while Lavi leaves through a rusted back door, which groans loudly as it opens.
_
As the two reentered the house, they almost collided with Johnny, who'd been carrying a stack of supplies. Allen leans against the nearby wall trying not to fall over as Timcanpy circles his head.
"What's all that?" Lenalee asks, once they'd regained their bearings.
"Tents, sheets, sleeping bags….uh, matches and fire starters…" Johnny rummages through the pile in his arms.
"That's a lot of stuff." Allen comments, eyeing the pile warily.
"Yeah, no one here's going to use it so it should be put to good use." Johnny explains. "Reever was grabbing the spare medical supplies too."
"We were just grabbing our packs to put in the car." Lenalee says. "We can take some of that stuff too."
"Oh, that'd be good." Johnny heartily agrees as Lenalee grabs a bag of tent poles out of Johnny's arms.
"Allen, grab something too." Lenalee says.
"Uh, sure." Allen slowly confronts the precarious pile, quickly swiping a bundle of blankets tied with string.
"That's better, thanks." Johnny says as he readjusts his hold on the supplies.
"You should hurry to put that down, I think Tapp's still down there." Lenalee says.
"Is he? Thanks." Johnny replies as he heads off the porch and onto the grass.
"C'mon Allen, let's grab out stuff." Lenalee says, smiling as Johnny wobbles away.
_
The two quickly grabs their packs from the living room, also grabbing Lavi and Kanda's as they pass.
"If you're heading back to the car, you should take this." Jiji's voice sounds from the corridor.
The two turn to see him holding up a moderately sized, bright blue bag.
"What's in it?" Allen asks, heading over with his and Lavi's packs on his back.
"Just some spare clothes and the like. We found them when we arrived. They don't fit us and probably won't fit Lavi or Kanda, but they'll likely fit you two." Jiji explains, handing the bag to Allen.
"Thanks." Lenalee says brightly. "Here, Allen. I'll take Lavi's bag so you can hold that one." Lenalee leans over to take the bag off Allen.
"Thanks." Allen says, smiling up at Lenalee and then to Jiji.
"Reever said he'd bring down the medical stuff in a minute, so you can go on ahead." Jiji informs.
"Okay, thanks again." Lenalee replies as she and Allen head to the door.
"Oh, by the way." Jiji calls back, causing the two to look over.
"I forgot to say before, but last night when I was on watch, I saw a hoard moving north from here to the east. They didn't come anywhere near here and we're heading this way, but you might hit them on your way out."
"Thanks, we'll try to be careful." Lenalee replies.
Allen and Lenalee then head back out of the house, a strong wind whipping their clothes and hair around. Tim, spurred by the wind flies into the sky above, circling around to land on the roof.
"Tim!" Allen calls to the bird. "Come down!"
Tim chirps at him, almost grinning from his spot above his head.
"He'll come own later, let's get going." Lenalee reassures, giving the troublesome bird a little wave.
"Urg, okay." Allen groans, pushing his hair out of his face.
"Let's get back under cover quickly." Lenalee says, holding her hair back from her face. "Maybe I can find a hair tie somewhere too…"
_
Lavi was able to find Kanda relatively quickly, he's been stalking around the forest's edge with his sword drawn.
"Yuu! Whatcha doin' buddy?" Lavi calls, waving as he runs towards the teen.
Kanda glances over towards Lavi and scowls before quickening his pace.
"Hey! Wait up!" Lavi calls again as Kanda disappears into the forest.
Under the trees it was dark, only specks of sunlight breaching the thick canopy above.
"Yuu?" Lavi calls, looking around him. "Where'd you go?"
The trees around Lavi all looked the same. Smooth, pale bark on the thick trunks holding the weight of millions of dark leaves above him. The brown leaves across the ground crunch underneath his feet, almost echoing in the silence.
"Yuu? Kanda?" Lavi calls again, beginning to feel distressed.
"Shut up." Kanda's voice growls behind him.
Lavi spins around, a make-shift grin already plastered on his face.
"Yo."
"Idiot, let's just go." Kanda scowls as he prowls past Lavi.
"You do know where you're going, right Yuu?" Lavi asks, struggling to walk next to Kanda.
"Che." Kanda speeds up, pushing past a mesh of spiny bushes.
"Ow!" Lavi cries. He'd tried to grab the bushes, only for the spines to jab his finger.
"Hurry up!" Kanda snarls as he makes his way out of the tree line.
"Coming!" Lavi calls back, attempting to step carefully over the bushes only to trip.
"Ouch." Lavi lands on his face, his right leg trapped in the bush. He turns to untangle himself only to be see a decaying hand tightly gripping his leg.
"Get off!" Lavi cries, kicking the hand with his free foot.
"Oi, rabbit! What's taking so long?" Kanda turns back around to see Lavi struggling with the bush.
"What are you doing?" Kanda quickly makes his way over, only for Lavi to lunge back, revealing a legless undead crawling towards him.
"Shit!" Lavi grabs his hammer out of it's holster and brandishes it at the undead.
"Idiot! Just kill it!" Kanda shouts, standing a few meters away.
"And let it grab me? No thanks!" Lavi calls back as he tries to stand up.
"Dammit." Kanda mutters as he walks over.
"Gotcha!" Lavi, who's managed to get off the ground, points his pistol at the zombie's head.
"Kill it!" Kanda shouts, stopping in this tracks.
Lavi flashes Kanda a quick grin before aiming the gun and pulling the trigger.
The band echoes across the farm as the zombie goes rigid, thick, dark blood pouring from the gaping wound in it's brain.
"Gross." Lavi comments and he puts his weapon away.
"Let's just go." Kanda says, heading away from Lavi.
"Hey, wait up!" Lavi calls after him as he starts walking himself.
_
The undead's body twitched slightly, first in it's fingers and then it's arms and face. It lets out an unholy groan as it pushes it's head upwards. The blood runs down it's face and shattered bone protrudes unnaturally from the top of it's skull around the gaping hole.
It seems unaffected, almost stunned by the shot, but nothing else. The remains of it's brain collapse out of the rotted skull, and the undead simply starts crawling. The grey organ lies half destroyed by the bushes, surrounded by dark, clotted blood as the zombie crawls towards the house, leaving a dark red, almost black, trail of rotted blood and innards behind it.
"Lavi! Kanda!" Allen calls towards the two outside the garage door.
"Hey! You get all the bags?" Lavi calls back as the two approach.
"Yeah, we even got some extra clothes for me and Allen." Lenalee answers as Allen holds up the bag.
"Great." Lavi smiles.
Allen drops the bag before noticing the unfamiliar blood smears on Lavi's pants.
"What's that?" Allen points to the new marks.
"Oh, we found half a zombie in the forest." Lavi explains, grinning.
"Half?" Lenalee asks.
"Yeah. Had it's legs and half it's gut's gone. It was just a head, chest and arms."
"Ew." Allen scrunches his nose.
"You should've seen it. It was all rotten, with thick blood pouring out if it's-"
"Lavi!" Lenalee interrupts him as Allen face sours.
"Gross." Allen scowls, glaring at Lavi.
"What? You asked." Lavi defends.
"Come on, let's pack up." Lenalee intervenes, pulling Lavi over to the car.
Lavi smiles playfully back at Allen before helping Lenalee throw the packs into the trunk.
"Allen, bring that bag over please." Lenalee asks, once the packs are secured.
"Here." Allen hands the bag to her, giving Lavi a half-hearted glare.
"If you keep glaring, you'll end up looking like Yuu over here." Lavi warns, gesturing towards the older male, still at the garage's entrance.
"Don't push it." Kanda growls, his hand moving to rest on his sword.
"Gotcha'." Lavi winks at Kanda before grinning at Allen and Lenalee.
"What's next?" Allen asks as Lavi shuts the trunk.
"Reever'll come down with the supplies in a bit, but I'm not sure what else we'll need." Lenalee answers.
"I didn't see Johnny's camping things in the trunk, did you move them?" Lenalee asks Lavi, who looks confused.
"Johnny? I haven't seen him." Lavi replies.
"What? He left the house just a few minutes before we did." Lenalee says worriedly.
"Maybe he forgot something." Allen wonders, looking at the hills past the garage door.
"We can go look for him." Lavi volunteers. "Lena-lady and Yuu can hold down the fort."
"Alright." Lenalee agrees.
"You up for it, Al?" Lavi asks Allen.
"Yeah!" Allen replies enthusiastically, immediately heading for the exit.
As Lavi passes Kanda, he snarls. "Don't call me that."
"Gotcha'." Lavi gives him a small salute before heading after Allen onto the nearest hill.
"Let's check the house first." Lavi says, heading in that direction.
"Coming!" Allen runs down the hill after him.
_
When they arrived at the house, it was deadly silent.
"Where do you think he'd be?" Lavi asks, sticking his head into the living room.
"Maybe he's upstairs." Allen proposes before heading in that direction.
"I'll look around here a bit more." Lavi says, heading into the kitchen.
The stair creak loudly under Allen's feet as he moves into the upstairs.
"Johnny?" Allen calls, looking around at the open space.
The upstairs was mostly empty, with only a small area walled off in the far corner. Sleeping bags and blankets lay strewn on the floor, accompanied by stacks of clothes and backpacks.
"Are you in here?" Allen tries again, a little louder.
As he looks around the room, he hears a familiar chirping.
"Tim?" Allen steps further into the room, before noticing the golden bird perched on a chest of drawers.
"Tim, how'd you get in here?" Allen asks, reaching his hand out to him.
Time chirps before swooping forwards to sit on Allen's arm.
"Allen? Find him?" Lavi calls from downstairs.
"I don't think he's up here!" Allen calls back.
"Here Tim." Allen let's Timcanpy fly into his jacket pocket where he wriggles for a moment before going still. "Let's go."
After taking one last look at the messy room, Allen heads down stairs.
Allen didn't see Lavi when he came downstairs, so he moves into the living room. He spots Lavi with his head out of an open window, looking around curiously.
"What are you looking at?" Allen asks him, once he had moved into the room behind him.
"Huh?" Lavi leans back to look at Allen. "Just looking around."
"Did you see anything?" Allen asks as he head over to the window to have a look around.
"Nah, I didn't see Johnny. Or Reever. Or Jiji or Tapp either." Lavi answers as Allen pulls away from the window.
"I wonder where they all went. They were here just a minute ago." Allen wonders.
"We'll just have to keep looking." Lavi says, grinning widely.
"Yeah. Where should we check next then?" Allen asks.
"Hmm… We can check around the grass out front and the hills out back." Lavi proposes.
"Sounds good." Allen says.
As the two head towards the door, they hear a scratching sound.
"What's that?" Allen asks, looking around them.
"Where is it coming from?" Lavi asks, peering around the corridor and rooms.
"There." Allen points to the closed door, where the scratching is coming from. The door's window, obscured by a white curtain, bleeds white light, unobscured by a shadow of a person.
"It's not Johnny then." Lavi mutters, heading towards the door with his hammer drawn.
Allen stays back, a few meters behind Lavi as he reaches the door.
Lavi rests his hand on the handle, sending Allen a quick glance before throwing the door open.
_
Johnny's breath was ragged as he ran through the forest.
He'd dropped the supplies a while back, so to get away faster.
The forest is dark, barely any light breaking the layer of leaves above him. Only small flecks of light reach him, blinding his eyes or illuminating the forest floor.
A low growling sounds to Johnny's right. Causing him to freeze in his tracks.
Another growl starts behind him as the bushes nearby start to shiver.
"Johnny!" A faint cry sounds directly ahead. Fortunately, away from the growling around him.
"Johnny!?" The cry sounds again as Johnny starts running again, towards the voice.
Johnny struggles to see far in front of him as he tries to locate the sound of the voice. Tree roots around him start growing thicker and the dry bushes begin to disperse. Johnny speeds up, jumping and stumbling over the tree roots while trying not to slip on the damp leaves under him. As he jumps over a particularly large root, he slams into an unknown figure that knocks him to the ground.
"We should check the forest next." Lavi says, one hand over his eye as he scans the hills around them.
Lavi and Allen are currently standing atop the highest hill, being an inch or so higher than the fields had been empty, it'd only taken a minute to check, seeing that the crops had been burnt out years ago.
"Why would he go into the forest though?" Allen asks him, also looking around.
"Dunno. But he's not anywhere else." Lavi replies.
"Maybe he already met up with Lenalee and Kanda." Allen says.
"Maybe. But they would've come and told us by now. Since we're out in the open."
"Yeah. Maybe." Allen stares out at the tree line, dotted with bushes and fallen trees.
"Do you think there are any zombies in there?"
Lavi follows his gaze to look at the trees.
"Reever said they'd swept the forest when they arrived, took out quite a few. There shouldn't be any in there. Even if there was, there'd only be one or two. I wouldn't worry about it." Lavi flashes Allen reassuring grin as he starts towards the trees.
Clouds started speeding across the sky, tinting the sun's light grey. It was almost midday - their planned departure time - yet Lavi and Allen had just entered the forest in search of Johnny, the others, and their misplaced supplies.
"Johnny? Are you in here!?" Lavi calls into the forest around them.
"I don't hear anything." Allen says, looking around at the dark forest.
"Yeah. Maybe he's deeper in. Or on the other side." Lavi looks back the way they came before scanning their surroundings. "We just need to keep looking."
After a few minutes of walking, the forest floor became ridden with large roots and thicker bushes.
The two were forced to half climb and half jump over the roots and bushes. Soon the bushes dispersed into damp leaves.
As the two went further into the forest, they heard shouting.
"Is that Johnny?" Allen asks as the two speed up.
"Not just Johnny." Lavi replies, vaulting over a particularly large root. "Johnny!"
In a small clearing, Johnny and Reever stand with weapons drawn. They're surrounded by some undead, slowly inching towards them.
"Johnny! Reever!" Allen calls out, waving to them.
The nearest undead turns towards them, baring it's rotten teeth.
"Ah, I got it." Allen pulls out his pistol and aims it at the undead.
As he pulls the trigger, it's head explodes, causing the rest of the body to topple backwards.
But, just as it's about to hit the ground, the zombie regains it's footing, standing up straight.
"What?" Allen stares at the undead's head, now with the top split open.
"Get back!" Lavi moves forward, gun drawn.
He shoots at the head again, giving the same result.
"The chest!" Reever calls out, waving to Lavi. "Hit it in the chest!"
"The chest?" Lavi shrugs and aims his gun, only for it to be grabbed by the undead.
"Al!" Lavi calls to Allen as he struggles with the zombie.
Allen raises his gun, but the undead is moving too much to get a clear shot. He then pulls out his knife, Crown Clown, and points it at the zombie.
"In the centre!" Reever calls again, pointing to the centre of his chest.
Allen nods at Reever before taking a step closer to the zombie.
"Any minute now, Al!" Lavi says, still struggling with the undead.
Allen bends his knees a bit before lunging forward, pressing the knife squarely into The zombie's chest.
The undead collapses, taking Allen's knife with it.
"Ah!" Allen falls forward as he tries to dislodge the knife. He falls on top of the corpse, smearing red and black across his jacket.
"Gross." Allen mutters, finally pulling out the knife.
"Don't rest yet." Lavi says, staring at the three other undead who are staring at them.
"Right." Allen gets back up and draws his gun.
The next closest two head towards them, shuffling their feet against the raw earth.
Allen steps forward to line up his shot as the undead closes in. As Allen prepares to shoot, the zombie stops right in front of him.
"What?" Allen mutters, lowing his gun slightly.
The zombie stares straight at Allen with it's remaining eye, the left one a mess of torn flesh and shattered bone.
It almost wavers slightly before turning away from Allen to head towards Lavi.
"Hey!" Allen calls to it.
It stops for a moment before continuing forward.
"Shoot it!" Lavi call back to him, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
Allen takes the shot and the undead falls in front of Lavi.
"What the heck?" Lavi mutters.
"Ah ha!" Lavi and Allen turn to see Reever smash the chest of the second undead. The other already on the ground.
"You okay?" Lavi asks, heading over to the two.
"Yeah, we're fine." Reever answers, wiping his forehead.
"What happened just then?" Johnny asks, looking at Allen.
"I don't know." Allen says, glancing back at the fallen zombie.
"The other ones, they we're going for you either, they were going after Lavi." Johnny says, glancing over at Lavi.
"Maybe they couldn't resist me." Lavi says, grinning.
"But that one." Johnny looks over at the one furthest away. "It did what you said."
"What do you mean?" Allen asks.
"When you called to it. It stopped, yeah?" Reever answers.
"It- it just stopped for a second." Allen says, looking over at it.
"But it stopped." Reever presses.
"Yeah, I guess." Allen looks away to stare up at Reever, who's got a thoughtful expression.
"What does it mean?" Johnny asks Reever.
"I'm not sure. But for now, we need to find Jiji and Tapp." Reever says. "You didn't see them anywhere did you?"
"No, we checked everywhere." Lavi answers.
"Well, let's get out of here and figure out what's going on later." Reever commands as the four make their way out of the forest.
_
At the forest's edge, the group hear some faint shouting.
"Is that them?" Johnny asks.
"Could be." Reever answers as they head to the source of the sound: the house.
As they head over, the shouting grows louder.
"Shut up!"
"It's gonna get us!"
"We gotta wait."
"All of you. Shut up!"
"Don't be so rude."
The four head around the front of the house, where they spot three undead clawing against the door, all with their heads blown up or off.
Lavi immediately draws his gun to shoot the nearest one, with Allen close behind. After a few more shots, all the undead are collapsed on the porch.
Lavi walks over to the door, where the voices have gone silent. Just as Lavi moves to open it, it swings open.
"Tapp!" Johnny rushes forward as Tapp, Jiji, Kanda and Lenalee appear in the doorway.
"What the fuck!?" Kanda growls, glaring at the fallen zombies.
"How did you do it?" Jiji asks Reever after everyone had assembled on the porch around the bodies.
"Shot to the chest, apparently that's what takes them out now." Lavi explains to a glowering Kanda.
"Two shots. One to the head and one to the chest." Reever says to a distressed Jiji and Tapp.
"That makes no sense." Jiji says, staring down at the nearby corpses.
"Well, how about we find out what's going on." Reever leans down next to the nearest body and pulls out a pair of gloves from his pocket.
He slips them on and rolls the body over onto it's back to get a look at it's chest.
"The zombies are caused by a virus. One that kills the host and corrupts the brain."
"And…?" Lavi asks, crouching next to Reever.
"That was out prior understanding, but something's changed. Or maybe, it was always different."
Reever pushes the torn flesh away from the chest, revealing a black mass in it's chest, impaled with a bullet.
The mass is a small sphere, around 3 inches in diameter. It's surface is uneven and hard, still wet with blood and long, pale filaments holding it in place.
"What's that?" Lavi asks, leaning over to get a better look.
Reever pulls it from the chest with ease, the thin fibres snapping at the slight touch.
As the pick it up, the bullet falls out onto the porch, covered in a black liquid. From the hole, more liquid leaks out.
"Step back." Reever commands as he drops the sphere in front of him as the liquid bursts free.
"Gross." Allen mutters as the liquid flow falters.
After a second, the sphere cracks open, the wound slowly spreading uphill the ball splits in two, revealing a clear, red tinted gel within.
The gel quickly melts in the sun, melting into a blood-like red before dissolving in the black stain on the porch.
The group stare at the remains for a minute, just watching the black harden across the wood and the sphere dry, turning to black flakes.
"That was weird." Lavi says, after the remnants had gone still.
"Yeah." Reever crouches back down and prods the sphere. "It's solid."
He picks the two pieces up, weighing them in his hand. "They're light and not so thick."
Reever runs his thumb over the outside and then the inside, which has the same texture.
"Don't touch it." Reever says, looking down at the dried stain. "That's most likely the concentrated virus, touch it, and you'll turn."
"What?" Johnny jumps back, hiding behind Tapp.
"Are you sure?" Lavi asks, warily watching the blackness.
"90%. Which is enough." Reever replies. "Okay! Our plans haven't changed."
He turns to Lavi and Kanda. "Are you still ready to go?"
"The supplies are almost all packed, so yeah. But, are you sure you don't need us?" Lavi says.
"Whatever this is, we'll figure it out. It's our job." Reever replies. "We'll still be here when you get back. With or without Cross."
"We were just waiting of Johnny's things." Lenalee says.
"We'll retrieve them while you finish up. A few of you might need to change clothes." Reever says, smiling as he look over at Lavi and Allen's bloodied clothes.
"Yeah, that sounds fair." Lavi says.
"Right. Well, let's get going." Reever says as the group disperses to their own devices.
"Here." Johnny hands a wrapped box to Lavi.
"What's this?" Lavi says, closing the car's trunk.
"It's the papers cross left us. I thought you'd might want them."
"Thanks." Lavi says, taking the box off Johnny.
Lavi reopens to trunk to place it next to Johnny's supplies, which they'd finally recovered.
"Hey Lavi? You got the time?" Lenalee pulls her head out of the back seat, where she'd been packing the last of the supplies.
"Uh, it's around 3:30." Lavi said, checking his watch.
"Oh okay. We should leave soon, then." Lenalee says, closing the car door.
"Yeah. Can you go get Kanda and Allen?" Lavi asks.
"Sure, I'll be back in a minute." Lenalee heads out of the garage, waving at Lavi behind her.
"I'll get Reever and the others to see you off." Johnny says, following after Lenalee.
"Great, thanks." Lavi give Johnny a wave before turning back to the car to close the trunk.
_
"We already checked over here." Allen mutters.
"Shut up." Kanda growls back at him. "Keep moving."
"This is boring." Allen complains, shuffling after Kanda.
"You're making too much noise." Kanda says, stopping to turn around.
"If you're worried about noise, then you should stop talking." Allen says, kicking a pile of nearby leaves.
"Stop that!" Kanda growls, grip on his sword tightening.
"We already checked this part of the forest, there's no zombies here." Allen repeats, ending Kanda a bored look.
"They're not immobile, brat. The could've moved around." Kanda says, continuing forward.
"How do you know they're moving?" Allen asks, falling into pace behind him.
"I'd be able to tell, if you weren't being so loud!" Kanda says loudly, spinning around to face Allen.
"Maybe you could hear if you stopped barking like a dog. Maybe you're just stuck with the IQ of one." Allen smirks at Kanda and turns away from him.
"Why you-"
"Kanda!"
The two turn to see Lenalee skipping over, waving and smiling brightly.
"Lenalee!" Allen cries, running forward to meet her.
"Hey, run into any trouble?" Lenalee asks him.
"Nope. We've just been going around in circles instead." Allen replies, glancing back over at Kanda.
"We're not going around in circles, you dumb beansprout!" Kanda growls, stepping forward.
"Come on, we're already behind schedule." Lenalee prompts, leading the two boys back the way she came.
A few minutes later, the car was packed and they were ready to go and the others were seeing them off.
"Watch the road, if you hit a zombie, it could mean trouble." Reever advises.
"Don't go off road unless there's a road block." Jiji says.
"Try not to drive around at night. It's more dangerous than the day time." Tapp says.
"Gotcha'. Thanks." Lavi replies, shaking Reever's hand before getting into the car.
"Roll in, kids. We're going on a road trip!" Lavi calls.
The Kanda silently takes the seat next to Lavi as Lenalee and Allen say their good byes.
"Thanks for everything, Reever." Lenalee says, giving him a quick hug.
"Be safe, Allen!" Johnny squeezes Allen in a tight hug, tears streaming down his face.
"I'll be okay Johnny." Allen pulls back to smile at him. "I'll see you soon."
"Yeah!" Johnny says, giving Allen a big smile. "See you soon."
