Chapter Seven
Starved
Yasuhiro felt more relaxed now than he had in days. He honestly could hardly remember the last time he could just sit back and relax in a car – though this time was a bit different, he supposed, since he was the one driving it, but still the point stood that inside a vehicle going anywhere from twenty to sixty miles per hour (depending on multiple factors), they were almost completely safe from the zombies trying to kill them. They'd just drive pass an area, and before more than dozen or two of the monsters started forming into a cluster, they were already long gone.
In the passenger seat was yet again Byakuya, who after talking with Yasuhiro for a solid twenty minutes earlier that morning about the directions, was now just reading a book he must have gotten from one of the houses they stayed the night at. For the first time in a long while, he could focus solely on the book, and not his own survival.
Toko was in the back, and she was drooped to the side, her head resting on Kyoko's shoulder as she slept. Yasuhiro recalled that Kyoko said that the girl needed her rest, so he figured that it was ok. Kyoko in the meantime was just watching the scenery outside pass by, her eyes drooping every now and then.
In the bed of the truck were Makoto and Aoi, who were both relaxing too. Earlier they were talking a lot, and Yasuhiro could even see them laughing through the rearview mirror, but now they were silent, just leaning against the truck and watching the scenery like Kyoko had been, as they continued to drive down the side streets and out roads.
Everything was going absolutely perfect… That was until there was suddenly a loud beeping noise, ringing out three times. He looked down at the gas gauge and let out a groan, "Looks like we're running low on juice again," He reported to Byakuya, who looked up from his book.
Byakuya set his book down on the dashboard, and his eyes now scanned the area they were in, "Make sure you don't drive into any populated areas," He warned, "The car makes enough noise to attract them all within a mile."
"Yeah, I know," Yasuhiro replied as the car turned down a hilly road, "Oh, hey, look." He pointed to what looked like a mall, the parking lot of which was full to the brim with cars. "Should I go there?"
Byakuya nodded slowly, "Be sure to park as far away from it as you can though, no doubt the monsters are lurking within the parking lot and inside the building. I'd prefer not to get stuck in there."
It turns out that Yasuhiro's assessment was incorrect – it wasn't a mall, it was a large casino, and as Byakuya predicted, there were plenty of the undead wandering around the lot. The building itself looked absolutely grand – a lot of work must have been put into the design of the place. The main building had columns lining up the entry way, and what looked like a large dome in the entry hall, and the actual casino looked to be two floors tall. Attached to the casino was what looked like hotels, and Yasuhiro had no idea how many people could fit in there.
He snapped out of looking at the casino however, and slowly pulled into the lot, parking as far away as he could possibly get. Unfortunately, he still alerted some of the zombies, and they started walking towards the car as he turned it off, but both Makoto and Aoi made short work of them, killing the dozen or so that he attracted with relative ease. With that, he got out of the car, and went to the other side where Kyoko and Byakuya were talking.
As everyone came over, Kyoko spoke aloud so they could all hear, "Be sure to leave your bags in the car – Hiro, make sure it's locked."
"No problem," He replied, locking the car just as Makoto tossed his bag inside, "Alright! Let's get some gas!"
"Hold on," Kyoko suddenly looked sharply in one directly, and her eyes narrowed – there's two figures coming towards us."
Aoi got her bow ready, "Just tell me when to shoot!"
"No, they're not the undead," Kyoko shook her head, "They're over there, by the red car." She pointed to a cluster of cars much closer to the casino, and everyone could see that Kyoko was right – it was two figures, and they were clearly human. Another notable thing was that they were both female, and appeared to be just a little older than the rest of them.
One of the girls had her black hair tied back into a ponytail, and she had narrow eyes that glared harshly at the zombie whose head she just smashed in with her hammer. Like everyone else in the world now, her clothes were torn and ragged, and they only consisted of a tank top and some shorts. After she kicked the zombie she killed aside, she started to look inside the red car they were close to.
The other girl stood off to the side, her eyes scanning the surroundings. Her hair was cut extremely short, almost to the point where she was bald. The only reason they were able to discern that she was a girl was due to her chest. Like her sister, she too wore a tank top and shorts, and she had a hatchet in her hands. It was her who suddenly spotted them, her eyes widened and she called over to her sister.
"Shit!" Byakuya cursed under his breath, getting into cover behind their own vehicle, the rest doing the same, "Aoi, get ready to shoot on my mark!"
"B – But they're human!" She cried.
"I'm not saying kill them now! Just do what I say!" Aoi wasn't happy at all as she put an arrow in her bow, but she knew now that it was best to not be so trustful, despite what her feelings told her.
"Stop where you are!" He yelled as the sisters started coming towards them, "If you come any closer we will shoot!"
"Ya have a gun?" The bald one asked, her eyes widening, "Aw shit, we don't want ta cause any trouble!" She dropped her hatchet to the ground, and lifted her hands into the air, her sister quickly doing the same beside her.
"Well…" Makoto mumbled so only his group could hear him, "We're not aiming a gun at them, but if they want to believe that, it's fine with me…"
"Why are you here?" Byakuya called out to the girls standing still in the parking lot.
"We're just looking through the cars out here!" The bald one answered yet again, "We aren't here ta hurt you or anyone! We live in the casino there with our dad! Honest! The name's Haruka, my sister 'ere is Rei!"
"I don't think they mean us any harm," Aoi muttered, her arms beginning to strain from hold the bow, "What do you want me to do?"
"Lower your bow for now," Byakuya muttered to her, and then he raised his voice, "Just go on your way now and we won't harm you!"
"W – Well…" The other girl – Rei – finally spoke up, "Maybe we can help you out? You're in our land anyway, and dad always told us to take care of guests!"
"Their land?" Kyoko repeated, "Well… I suppose whoever owns the establishment is most likely dead now…"
Pushing that unpleasant thought aside, Yasuhiro looked thoughtfully, "Why don't we take em up on that offer? Maybe they would be willing to trade or something?"
"We d – don't have much to t – trade, you idiot." Toko reminded him, "J – Just tell them to go away."
Byakuya thought about it for a little bit, and finally called, "What would you be willing to help us with?"
"We have a lot of food inside!" Rei replied happily, "Hell, y'all can even take some if you want!"
"We also got some of them games inside the casino workin again! It's pretty good for some mindless fun!" Haruka exclaimed, "C'mon, we haven't had guests in a little while, it'll be fun!"
Before anymore negotiations could continue, they all heard the load moaning of the zombies coming, and they could see that their shouting to one another was causing quite a few to make their way towards them. Makoto wasted no time in drawing out his sword, and Yasuhiro and Aoi were both prepared as well. Toko covered her head and began to shake, while Byakuya and Kyoko stood back, allowing the others to fight.
Coming towards them were only a dozen or so of the zombies, and the three of them would be able to manage it easily enough, but the two sisters, wielding their weapons came over to help as well, and it was a one sided slaughter. The zombies hardly ever got a chance to even bite at them, since they were long dead by one of the five fighters.
"Rei, was it?" Yasuhiro asked the black haired girl shortly after the engagement, "The name's Yasuhiro, but my friends just call me Hiro!" He held out his hand, and was pleased to see that she returned his smile and shook his hand as well.
"Your crew can fight well," She complimented, "I can see why you've survived so long."
"Well, actually, we've only just started doing this a little over a week ago." Yasuhiro admitted, and the girl looked honestly confused, "Ah, don't worry about it."
"Ya know, why haven't ya cut your hair?" She asked, "Isn't it dangerous to have it so long and puffy?"
"H – Hey… My hair's just fine!" He protectively rubbed his hands through it, and then he noticed the rest of the group making their way over, "Ah, hey guys."
"Since you helped us out there," Kyoko mumbled, "We'll trust you guys for now." Makoto looked over at her, and it was obvious that he wasn't too happy with how mistrustful she was of these people.
Yasuhiro however couldn't care less if Kyoko was still a bit wary of the two sisters, he was just glad that they've found survivors that didn't want to hurt them! Not to mention, Rei was pretty cute, if he had to admit, his cheeks warming slightly as he thought of it. "So Rei, you said your dad was in there?"
"Yeah," She nodded, smiling brightly at him, "He's the one who brought us here when the outbreak started. It was originally one of the evac centers that people were goin to." She explained, "Well… Lotta people were 'ere, but turns out that the evac zone was moved somewhere else."
"That would explain all the cars here," Byakuya nodded slightly, "Why did you decide to stay here? Surely you were aware that with so many people in one location there were bound to be lots of the undead as well."
"Yeah, that was a problem at first!" Haruka exclaimed, "But the undead are a pretty stupid lot, it doesn't take much to outsmart them as long as yer quiet and ya know what yer doin."
"I can't argue with that," Makoto agreed, "As long as you don't let them surround you, they're not too bad."
"Ah!" Haruka gasped, a light blush appearing on her face, "Look at me just stayin out in the sun talkin like this! You guys are probably hungry, eh?"
"You promised that we could have some of your food, right?" Byakuya asked, "Then I'd appreciate it if you did indeed allow us to come in."
That was Byakuya for you, being less than humble – he didn't even thank them properly! "Hey, thanks for helping us out," Yasuhiro replied, covering for Byakuya's rudeness, and grinning happily when Rei chuckled.
"Aw, it's no problem. Like we said, we don't get many visitors around here!" Rei replied.
"'Cept for the undead," Haruka grumbled, "Stupid rotten flesh – they're no good for anything."
Kyoko frowned a bit at what she said, but kept her mouth shut, following the group as they walked towards the entrance, leaving their car behind for now. The closer they were to the entrance, the more and more cars were scattered around. It seemed that after all the closest parking spots were taken, desperate people hoping to get evacuated started parking in the middle of the road, causing even more chaos.
They just ignored the obvious signs of the chaos that came to pass near the entrance, there were large fences that were knocked over, luggage left abandoned, and there were even blood stains here and there, though it was clean of corpses. I wasn't that surprising, they figured, since apparently these two girls lived there with their father. They then entered through the front doors of the casino, and stopped.
If someone told them that it was a resort, they would have believed it, everyone in the group with the exception of Byakuya looked up at the ceiling in awe – the glass dome above looked amazing, with all sorts of designs of flowers, landscapes, and even pictures of the ocean and sky, all beautifully lit up by the sunlight shining through. The rest of the room wasn't bad either, there was a large fireplace off to the side with a lot of chairs gathered around it – broken or otherwise – and on the opposite wall was a large sitting area.
"Holy crap," Makoto muttered, "This is amazing!"
"Isn't it?" Rei asked, and then she turned to Yasuhiro, "Do ya like it?"
"I've never been to a place that looked this fancy before – isn't this supposed to be a casino?" He asked uncertainly, looking over to Byakuya for an answer.
"Why are you asking me?" Byakuya grumbled, looking quite annoyed, but he did decide to indulge him, "Owning a casino is a very profitable business," He explained, "very profitable. People gullible enough to come gamble here lose way more money than they earn, and that translates to huge earnings for the casino. Why do you think there's a hotel right next to here? It's so people stay the night and lose even more money."
"I take it you're not a fan of gambling?" Kyoko asked him.
"Ugh, I'm not like Celestia, I don't take pleasure in throwing money away." He paused, and his face momentarily darkened at the memory that she brought up.
"Was this Celestia girl a friend of yours?" Haruka asked, noticing his expression, and her own face softened, "We've lost a lot of friends too since the outbreak started…"
"It wasn't due to the outbreak," Aoi replied, "It was… something else…"
The sisters knew not to press the issue when the entire group seemed to get a bit gloomy at the mention of whatever this 'something else' was, so they changed the subject, leading the group further into the casino. "C'mon, dad's probably playin some of the games. It's pretty fun if you want to waste away a few hours!"
"How do you have games if the electricity isn't working?" Kyoko asked, following the group as they walked through the grand entrance room.
"They don't rely on electricity," Haruka explained, "Dad got em workin so you can just pull the lever and the slots work. Course, that means only the traditional machines work, all them electric slot machines are obviously worthless."
"I see," Kyoko said evenly.
They walked a little further in, and pass the entrance room was an absolutely expansive floor where hundreds, maybe even thousands of machines sat, all of them were powered off, and it was incredibly dark, since no natural light could reach that far once they exited the entrance room. "You think they'd put some windows in here or something," Yasuhiro mumbled.
Rei beside him giggled, "Nah, dad says that the buildin's intentionally designed like this so you can't keep track of time. I think he's just foolin, but ya never know."
"It wouldn't surprise me," Yasuhiro replied, "So uh, we're not going in there are we?"
"No!" Rei shook her head, "It's too dark, and there's a lotta zam-zams in there! We stay over here near the light and then go to our own hotel rooms at night so they can't get us."
"Um… Excuse me?" Aoi spoke up, "What did you call them?"
"Zam-zams!" Rei repeated, "I mean, 'zombie' is kind of a stupid word if you think about it, don'tcha think?"
"Um… And zam-zam is better?" Aoi asked, disbelief clearly etched on her face.
"Sure is!" Rei exclaimed.
Aoi looked like she wanted to pursue the topic further, but Kyoko placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her head. 'It's not worth it' was what that told Aoi, and she wisely decided to stop talking about it. Aoi finally muttered, "Well, that's good, I guess."
"C'mon, why are y'all talkin for so long? Let's go see dad and tell 'im we have some guests!" Haruka said, gently smacking the back of her sister's head.
"Yeah!" Rei exclaimed, grabbing Yasuhiro's hand, "Dad's pretty funny, I know you'll like him!"
Yasuhiro blushed as her hand clasped against his, but he didn't pull away, and allowed the girl to run still holding him. It meant he had to run to keep up, but really, she was cute, and he wasn't one to deny a cute girl. The rest of the group followed a lot slower, and then went down the lit up hallway, the expansive dark gambling floor to the right the entire time. Eventually there was an opening to their left, and it was a much smaller room, though it too had a lot of slot machines inside.
"Hey daddy!" Rei called, "Look who we found!"
On one of the nearby slots, a man looked over – he was smoking a cigarette, had a prominent beard, very messy hair, and two eyes hidden behind his glasses. He just wore a torn up T-shirt and some jeans, and he narrowed his eyes at Yasuhiro. "What's this?" He asked gruffly, "You went and found yerself a boyfriend?"
"Daddy!" The girl exclaimed, her cheeks coloring, "No! He's just a friend."
"Son…" He looked over his glasses at Yasuhiro, "Just what are your intentions with my daughter? You'd best be honest, I know if yer lying."
"Um…" Yasuhiro felt sweat forming on his brow, and he wiped it away, "I have no intentions with your daughter sir! I just met her, I can't really do anything in that amount of time, don't you think?"
"Wha – What?" Rei looked at him with big watery eyes. "I – Is it because I'm too old for you?" She managed to get out between her sniffles. Honestly, the thought never even crossed his mind, since Rei was at least a head shorter than he was.
"No!" He cried, "You're cute, but uh… We got to get to know each other first before w – we do something like that…"
"So you DO have some intentions in mind for my daughter!" The man stood up, and approached Yasuhiro. His figure was like a tank, and though he wasn't taller than Yasuhiro, he knew that the smaller man could still kick his ass.
"U – Um…" he stuttered, taking a step back.
The man stopped right in front of Yasuhiro, and after another few seconds, a smile spread across his face, "Dear god boy, you shoulda seen the look on yer face!"
Yasuhiro looked incredibly confused as father and daughter both started to laugh hysterically, and he felt like he was just left out of a joke. "U – Um… What?" He managed to get out, "What's going on?"
"I was just foolin around with you, boy." The man said, "The name's Kou – don't call me 'Mister' either, boy, I don't want nothing to do with that until I'm older."
"But you're already old," His daughter reminded him, a wide smile appearing on her face when her father gave her an annoyed look, "But I love ya anyway."
"Are you two done foolin around with 'im?" Haruka asked, walking into the room with the rest of the group in tow, "You're gonna scare them off, and we don't want that, do we?"
"No, I guess not," Kou replied, "So there's six of ya? That's quite a big group to be wanderin around out there with."
"We work well together," Byakuya simply stated, "We're here because your daughters have offered us some food, is this true?"
He lifted a brow at Byakuya's forward manner, but didn't get upset, instead he just smiled, "Aren't ya usually supposed to tell me yer name first, son?"
"You may call me Byakuya, if you must," He said sharply, "Now is it true?"
If anything, Kou just seemed more amused than before, and chuckled, "Sure do. Actually got plenty of food in storage in the back." He grinned, "But why eat now? Why don't you stay a while and have some fun?" He looked towards the slots, "Money's worthless now, but we just use it to play these machines when we're bored, you wanna try?"
"No, not really." Kyoko replied, just as eager as Byakuya to get out of there.
Makoto couldn't help but feel tense as he watched Kyoko – she had on her normal façade, sure, but there was an edge to her voice, and she seemed to be far more alert. Maybe he was just overthinking things – they were in an unfamiliar location after all. Still, he just felt off, and as a result, he too was looking around, trying to see if they were in danger.
"Aw, come on!" Yasuhiro exclaimed, "It'll be fun!"
Byakuya grimaced at Yasuhiro, who was obvious becoming infatuated with the stupid woman at his side, and he let out a disgusted sigh, "Fine. One hour. We'll stay for one hour, and then we're leaving."
Yasuhiro smiled, "Thanks man." Before anything else could be said otherwise, he was quickly pulled away by Rei, leaving the rest awkwardly standing around.
Byakuya let out a long sigh, and took the nearest seat next to a slot machine, having no intention of playing it, and Toko sat right beside him, similarly unimpressed. Haruka meanwhile looked at Makoto, and started dragging him away, but two very irate girls followed them before he could even go more than a few steps with the girl alone.
"So… How've you been all this time?" Kou asked the only two remaining.
"We don't need to speak." Byakuya remarked sharply.
"I was talkin to the lady," Kou politely said, his eyes looking directly towards her.
"Um…" She looked at Byakuya and hid a little bit more behind him, "F – Fine I guess… J – Just don't talk to me."
Kou was a little taken aback by that, blinking a few times at such a rude dismissal by the two teenagers, but he finally shook his head and stood up, "Well, if all we've got is an hour, then I guess I'll go prepare the food for ya – I'm sure you'll enjoy it."
"What do you mean by that?" Byakuya asked, "It's just canned food, we've been eating that for a while now."
"Oh? All you've been eatin is canned food? No wonder you're so grumpy." He chuckled, "You'll be in for a surprise then." He walked away, ignoring Byakuya's questions with ease.
"What does he mean by that?" Byakuya wondered aloud.
"I – I don't have a good feeling about this." Toko muttered, shifting in her seat uncomfortably.
'Neither do I," Byakuya admitted, "But Yasuhiro is smitten with some wench he just met, and Kyoko and Aoi are too busy trying to prevent Makoto from behind dragged away to give a shit."
Toko's eyes widened. It was rare when Byakuya looked this stressed out, and it made her just as stressed, and she began to shake, "W – We'll be fine, right?"
Byakuya let out a soft sigh, "Yeah. Of course we will be. I just want to go…" He mumbled, looking vulnerable for only a few seconds before he pulled himself together. "Just fifty eight minutes left to go…"
Meanwhile, Yasuhiro was pulled to a different room altogether. There weren't any slots in this room, and instead there were a few tables that he assumed people played poker or other cards games at. Chairs were scattered about, but she settled in one at a table nearest to the windows, and he did as well, a goofy smile on his face the entire time.
"Do ya know how to play poker?" The girl asked, pulling a deck of cards from her pocket, "We should play a few games while we… talk." She smiled, and Yasuhiro knew that he hit the jackpot – she was interested! After traveling with three girls who were either emotionless, insane, or – well Aoi wasn't too bad he supposed – but anyway, having a girl who actually acted like a stereotypical girl was refreshing, especially since she was totally into him.
"Uh," His thoughts returned to the present, and he chuckled, "Um… Poker? Uh, sorry, I'm not too familiar with it."
"Well that's ok," Rei replied, "I can teach ya."
"The only cards I really use were tarot cards back before…" He paused, and finally muttered, "This."
"Tarot cards?" She asked, looking at him curiously.
"Yeah, you know, they're used for divination and things like that," He explained, "There's the hierophant, lovers, fortune, and a lot more. It's used to predict the future."
"So you're like a fortune teller?" She wondered aloud.
He resisted his impulse to yell that he was MUCH more than that, but he held it in, and shook his head, "Eh, not quite. I'm actually the Ultimate Clairvoyant – back before the outbreak, I was going to a school due to being so good at it."
"The ultimate?" She muttered aloud, "So you were better than everyone else?"
"Not quite," He shook his head, watching her shuffle the cards, "It'd be more accurate to say that I was the ultimate upcoming clairvoyant, not the current best one."
"So you were one of those folks attending Hope's Peak?" She asked, and his eyebrows shot up, "What? Everyone heard of it, before all this trouble happened, me and my sister always dreamed of going there – the elite of the elite…" She sighed, "Too bad it didn't work out."
Yasuhiro chuckled humorlessly, "You were lucky…"
"Did you say something?"
"No," He shook his head, "So… You're gonna teach me to play?"
"Actually, since you're supposedly a fortune teller," His eyes twitched at that word, "I want you to tell me a fortune! It'll be fun!"
"Usually I charge my clients a thousand dollars for a standard reading, but…" He looked thoughtful for only a few seconds before his grin broke out again, "Given the situation we're in, I guess I can give you a discount of one hundred percent."
She giggled, and he again felt a goofy smile work its way on his face, "Thank you!" She exclaimed, "So what do I do?"
He had none of his tools, and really, he wasn't a fortune teller, despite what the girl said. He was similar to it sure, but he wasn't damn it! That aside though, he had to be in a certain mood to tell fortunes, and while he did fancy the girl, he didn't really feel up to doing his usual job, though he did feel a tad nostalgic as he took her hand into his and stared intently at it, tracing lines on her palm.
"That tickles!" She exclaimed, though she was still smiling, "What are ya doin?"
"Is this your dominant hand?" He asked suddenly, and then he blinked, "Oh, sorry, it's palm reading. It's a form of," He tried not to sigh, "Fortune telling, and I'll tell you your future. I'm right about thirty percent of the time!"
"Only thirty?" She asked, her eyebrow raising, "That's a bit low, don't ya think?"
He shrugged, "The future can change at a moment's notice, so I wouldn't say so," He then sighed, "Plus, I never predicted the outbreak ever occurring, and I've been doing this kind of thing for years…"
She noticed his mood dropping, so she snapped her fingers, "Hey, you were readin my palm, right?"
"Oh, yeah." He shook his head, "Anyway, is this your dominant hand?" She nodded, and then he continued, "You're left handed? Interesting. Then since I've got your right hand here, that means that it represents your future."
"Alright," She replied, giving him her complete attention.
Now he was getting more and more into his element as he examined her hand, first looking at the lines of her palm, he identified the ones he'd need, "Here's your heart line, your head line, your life line, and your fate line," He traced them all for her to see, "We'll start with your heart line, which will tell us how your love life is."
She blushed at this, but looked shyly towards him, "So what does it say?"
"Notice how it stops right below your index finger? It means that you're content with how your love life is right now." He explained.
"Well, I guess that's true," She mumbled, "I don't want to have any lover during all of this, though…" she paused, looked at him, and giggled, which only caused him to blush as well.
"A – Anyway… Next is your headline, and due to the lines going through it, it tells me that you're either in or going to be in an emotional crisis. Your life line tells me that you can be easily manipulated by others – be sure to watch out what others say to you." He warned her quickly, "That's not the greatest one to have."
"I'm sure I'll be fine with daddy and Haruka with me!" She said, seemingly not disturbed one bit by one he said.
He nodded slowly, "Al… Right then… Finally, your fate line tells me that – oh, hey – you often get the support you need from close friends and family, I guess you're right." He smiled at her, "That's good to know."
"That was really cool!" She exclaimed, looking at her hand in the daylight, "How can you memorize all of that information?"
"I've been doing this since I was a kid," He explained, "I was forced to remember it or else I would be punished," He let out a sigh, "Man, it's nostalgic to think about…"
"You'd be punished?" She asked, her eyes widening, "Yer parents don't mess around, do they?"
"It was never anything bad!" He assured her, "It's more accurate to say that they don't reward me, I suppose." He shrugged, "Anyway, why did you bring me out here alone?"
She blinked in surprise at the really abrupt change in subject, "Eh…" It took her a little bit longer to adjust to the new subject, "Um… Oh!" She smiled, "Well, I thought you an' I could just spend a little alone time together… You seem like an interesting person, and I wanted to be with you a little longer… Is that so wrong of me?"
"Um…" He smiled, "I guess not, usually I'd like to know someone before it gets… Like this… But since the world's screwed up anyway, might as well, right?"
"Exactly!" She exclaimed, "Though we shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves!" She grabbed the deck of cards, "Let's play some poker first, then maybe later we can…" She smiled mischievously, "Do something else?"
His inner Kyoko was ringing alarm bells, but he squashed her and just nodded, "Yeah, that's fine."
With another cute laugh, she began dealing the cards, and letting him know how to play.
While Yasuhiro was busy spending time with Rei, Makoto was having a far less interesting time, sitting at a table in what he could only assume used to be a huge restaurant, and three girls all sat around the same table with him. He knew many people may be envious of his position, but he had a bald girl he barely knew wrapping her hands around his arm, and on his other side, Kyoko of all people was doing the same, while Aoi just growled threateningly from Kyoko's side at the other girl. He felt so horribly out of place and even a bit of scared, and he just wanted out of there.
They were seated at a round table near a window, which fortunately provided them with more than enough light to see the room. There was even a bar in the place, though it looked like all the liquor was long ago spent, though there were a few glass cups still on the bar, which looked like they have been used recently – which made sense, Makoto supposed, since Haruka and her family lived here now. The most curious thing was a door behind the counter that was padlocked shut, a security feature that seemed mostly unnecessary with the way the undead acted.
"Um…" He smiled, his attention returned to the girls around him, and trying to appear friendly to both parties he said, "How about you both just let go of my arms and we can just… talk?"
Haruka either didn't seem to notice how sour the other girl's moods were, or just didn't have a care in the world, because she leaned closed to him and began to coo, "Aw, are ya afraid of me?"
He blushed at how close her face was to his – prior to the outbreak, she must have been very pretty, because he could still see hints of that now. "Um… No, not really, it's just, ah…"
"You're making him uncomfortable!" Aoi exclaimed, "Let him go!"
"Aw, but you two are awfully close over there, are ya both with 'im then? Don't want a third girl to come in and join ya little group?" Haruka's smiled wided on the huge red blush that appeared on all of their cheeks, and they all suddenly separated from one another – Aoi, who was practically hanging off of Kyoko – was at least an arm's length away. Kyoko meanwhile let go of Makoto, only now realizing how it made her look, and she internally cursed herself for allowing her emotions to control her actions.
"D – Don't make jokes like that!" Makoto demanded, "We're just friends."
Both Kyoko and Aoi felt as if they were hit in the gut with that – didn't Makoto like them? They then looked at each other and again blushed – were they having the same thoughts too? Kyoko cleared her throat, her emotions falling cleanly behind her erected mask, "Makoto's right, we've been friends for…" she paused briefly, "A few years, I suppose."
Technically that was true, but given that they couldn't remember those years, it was more like about two months, if even that long. Still, it did give them pause, and Kyoko wondered if their trust for one another was present in their earlier memories, and that was why she could trust Makoto so much easier during that 'game'. It wasn't a thought worth pursuing now, but it was definitely worth thinking about later.
"So ya went ta school together or something?" Haruka asked, still annoyingly hanging onto Makoto's right arm.
"Yeah," Aoi nodded, using what she could recall from what Junko told them, "Two years ago we got into Hope's Peak Academy, and we hung out a lot together back then…" She couldn't help but let a pained look cross her face, and it was easy to understand why – it hurt to think about all of all of them who killed each other and died, unknowingly killing their own friends…
"Hope's Peak?" Haruka repeated perking up, "So y'all have some really cool powers then?"
"Uh, power?" Makoto repeated, "No. Not really." He tried to maneuver his arm out of her grasp, but she only held on even tighter.
"Yeah, don't ya got to be some sorta ultimate something or another to get in?" Haruka elaborated, and a dawning realization came upon the rest of their faces.
"Oh," Aoi was still glaring at the girl since she was holding Makoto, but she was still at least trying to be civil – only an hour and they could leave, thank god. "I got in due to swimming, I was known as the 'Ultimate' Swimmer."
"It's not worth mentioning what I was," Kyoko quickly stated as Haruka's eyes went to her. She was still apparently a little bitter that Makoto wasn't struggling a little more to break Haruka's grasp.
"And um, I was the 'Ultimate Luck', he chuckled, "I ended up getting in due to a lottery." He saw Haruka frown at that, "W – What?"
"A lottery? Luck? You shoula went to a casino if ya were considered the ultimate lucky person!" Haruka exclaimed, pressing her body into him and smiling as the pink again flared up on his cheeks, "Hey, since you're so lucky, why don't ya-"
Kyoko suddenly slammed her hand on the table, causing everyone else to jump, "Who are you to just suddenly climb all over him like that?" Then her glare turned towards Makoto, "And why aren't you pushing her off of you? You barely know her, and yet you're allowing her to do that to you!"
"Aw," Haruka cooed, easily fanning the flames, "Are ya jealous?"
Makoto's face blushed at that – he was aware that both Aoi and Kyoko were a bit peeved about Haruka, but that was because he thought they didn't trust her… Was it possible that it was due to jealousy? He again remembered his conflicted feelings, and looked aside, not sure how to feel about either of them quite yet, other than he just wanted to be friends for now – there was a lot more to worry about in their situation than romance after all.
Still, he could at least appease them and get Haruka off of him, "Um, I'm sorry Haruka, but can you please stop antagonizing my friends?" She looked surprised towards him, but he was glad that both Aoi and Kyoko looked at him with a pleased look, "And… Just let go of me, please. I'd like to get to know you first before you try to do something like that to me."
Haruka looked incredibly put off, and she let go with a huff, "Fine, I guess. You city folks were always more prudish than us, I remember that." She didn't stay down for very long though, since a smile suddenly popped back up on her face, "I'm sorry if I came off as rude," She settled down in her chair and smiled at the other girls, "It has just been a while since a cute boy walked in 'ere."
Aoi tried not to bristle again at the words the girl was saying, but she was making it very difficult not to do so. "Yeah… It's ok." She grounded out, smiling politely back at her.
Kyoko however, had no reservations about showing her dislike and she just frowned, "Fine." Was all she said, and nothing more was spoken, her emotions were hidden from view, but it was obvious to Makoto that she didn't really trust the girl one bit.
"So can ya tell me about this school ya used to go to?" Haruka asked, "What was that elite place like?"
"It was… Fun." Makoto replied, choosing his words carefully, trying to piece together some sort of recollection through all the pictures he saw of his life in the school before his memory was erased, "We were the seventy eighth class, and we all got along really well."
"Yeah!" Aoi nodded, "We had a lot of friends, like Sakura…" The mood suddenly fell hard at the mention of that name, and she looked down.
"Uh, you ok?" Haruka asked carefully, "You ain't lookin too hot right now!"
"It's just a bad memory," Kyoko covered for her, "Sakura was one of the victims of the outbreak when it first started." It was a hastily put together cover story, but it worked all the same, since Aoi was clearly not acting.
"I'm sorry," Haruka replied, her face falling as well, "When the Tragedy happened a year ago, it caught everyone by surprise. All I remember was hearin reports of the dead rising in some city in the United States, and then a few weeks later, all this hell happened."
"We were too busy in class at the time to pay attention to the news," Kyoko replied carefully, "What do you remember of the outbreak?"
Haruka chuckled, "I suppose elite student like y'all couldn't be bothered to watch the news, huh? Well, like I said, it started in the United States, and then I suppose it came here because sick people were ridin in the planes, ya know? Back then we didn't know how it spread or how to kill them zam zams, so we just fell like flies in the beginning."
"The task force, with some help from the US, set up a quarantine around our major cities, and that kept the infection from spreading too quickly, but then a few months back, I guess it all just started to fall apart. Sick people got smuggled into cities, and it spread too quickly ta be contained. After that, the military started settin up these evacuation centers all 'round the country. I hear they was fleeing the country, and if you made it, they'd fly ya to one of ta battleships offshore or something, I dunno."
"Anyway, a month after that or something, everything just fell apart again. No one got power no more, food's rotten, and it's harder to come by too." She frowned, "Plenty of cars still work 'round 'ere, but where would we go? The casino is safe enough as it is, even though there's still a lotta zam zams around." She leaned back in her seat, done explaining everything, "That's all I really know, ya gotta talk to dad if ya want to know any more than that."
Kyoko took it all in, and nodded, "So you're sure that all of the evacuation centers have fallen?"
"I ain't sure of it, but it's probably the case. I hear rumors from people comin here all the time that the cities are all doomed." She shrugged, "But ya can't trust rumors I guess, right?"
"D – Do you think that we can possibly get in contact with one of these battleships – assuming they're even there?" Makoto asked, looking quickly at Kyoko, who also looked thoughtful.
"I dunno," She shrugged, "Like I said, I've been stayin here for a few months now."
Kyoko suddenly frowned, "How exactly do you still have food?"
"It's a casino, they needed to have a lotta food for everyone who came 'ere of course!" She chuckled well humoredly.
"But you even said the power is out," Kyoko pointed out, "And somehow I doubt there'd be a lot of food left here, especially after how many people came here hoping to be evacuated."
"Well…" Haruka's smile faltered, and now she looked a bit scared, "Ya know, things just worked out is all."
'You're lying." Kyoko'd eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Um…" Haruka looked nervously to the side.
"She's a perceptive one, ain't she?" all four of them looked over to see Haruka's father standing there, and in his hands was a shotgun, "Usually we can get to mealtime before people start figurin out something ain't right, but occasionally we get some like y'all."
Makoto's eyes widened comically at the sight of the gun, "W – What's going on?"
Kyoko however showed no expression other than her face paling slightly, "So that's how you get food… I was wondering where other survivors might be…"
He sighed, "At first it wasn't like this, ya know, but soon we were runnin low on food, and we was all starting to starve, so…" He left it hanging, "After a few months, everyone else either left, killed themselves, or…" He smiled slightly, "Well, the rest 'decided' to stay here and provide us with a bit o' food."
Aoi's eyes suddenly widened now, "Cannibals?! You're cannibals?!"
"That's why you were so friendly and willing to give us food – you never intended to do so in the first place." Kyoko muttered, her hand slowly creeping down her jacket towards her pocket. If she could just get her gun, then they'd be in a better position.
"I wouldn't do that," Haruka's voice cut Kyoko from her thoughts, and she looked over to see that she now had a knife up to Makoto's throat, "Get yer hands away from yer pocket."
Cornered, Kyoko did just that, lifted her hands up above her head. While Kou stood there with the gun pointed at them, Haruka walked over to Kyoko, and dug her hand into Kyoko's pocket and pulled out the gun she got from the headmaster's office, and she let out a soft whistle, "Wow, a gun. These things are pretty rare, I wonder where you got it from."
"That's none of your concern." Kyoko replied evenly, "What do we have to do to have you let us go?"
"Let you go?" Kou muttered, "Ah, you're mistaken miss," He grinned at her and the others, causing all of their stomachs to just drop, "Yer gonna be dinner real soon, good night."
"Wha-." Kyoko wanted to ask what he meant, but she suddenly felt something smash the back of her head, and she was out like a light. Aoi and Makoto were similarly taken care of by Haruka, and the two cannibals stared at the bodies a little longer.
"Help me drag em downstairs, then we'll go get the others." Kou instructed, and they dragged Makoto and the others behind the counter, where Kou unlocked the door and dragged them carelessly down the stairs and into a cage. The room was pretty large – there were a lot of cages all around that were made out of all sorts of debris from the furniture from the casino upstairs, and they could hold a decent amount of people. Some of the cages held the undead with missing limbs, while others were completely empty except for a large blood splatter.
Makoto, Kyoko, and Aoi were all thrown into one together, fortunately without the zombies inside of it, and then they were left downstairs in the dim candle light. In the middle of the room was a table that had plenty of cuts and blood splattered all over it, and beside the table were all sorts of tools, all of which were also coated in blood.
Upstairs, Byakuya and Toko were sitting impatiently, though Byakuya started to get a bad feeling all the same. "He's been gone a while," He mumbled, looking to Toko, "I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this."
Toko let out a soft sigh, "Y – Yeah… Me too."
He abruptly stood up, "I'm not waiting here, come on." He beckoned her to follow him, "We're getting out of here. I don't care if they provide us with food or not. We shouldn't have trusted them so easily." He let out an aggravated growl, "Damn it."
"S – Should we split up? Y – You go get Hiro a – and I can get the rest?" She asked, her brain working fast to try and determine the fastest way out.
"No, Makoto's with Kyoko and Hina, we can get them last." Byakuya replied, "We ought to stick together."
"D – Do you think we're in danger?" She asked.
He let out a sigh, "Something has been bothering me a lot – it just doesn't add up that a place like this would still have food when so many people came here. Do you really think they'd just leave a family of three here on their own with it all?"
"That is strange…" She mumbled, "Then what do you think is going on?"
"I don't know, but it can't be good." He started walking out of the room, "Do you remember which way Hiro went?"
"T – That girl dragged him off that w- way." She pointed down the hall.
"Good." He walked at a brisk pace with Toko just a step behind him, and soon they came across the pair sitting in the gambling room playing cards. Byakuya didn't even bother to hide his distaste and he sneered, "Hiro! What are you doing?"
Yasuhiro jumped, and looked back at Byakuya with a glare, "God damn man! You scared the hell out of me! Why are you sneaking around?"
"We're leaving," Byakuya replied, "I've had my fill of this place."
"But it hasn't even been an hour yet!" Yasuhiro exclaimed, looking crestfallen, "We can't leave yet!" Rei looked incredibly displeased as well, and was giving Byakuya a glare of her own.
Honestly, they could get as upset with him as he wanted, he didn't give a shit. They just needed to get out now – all of his instincts were telling him that they needed to run, because absolutely nothing was adding up. "Yasuhiro, think for a moment – how do they have food, and why would they want to share it with us?"
"It is a casino, they must have a lot of food!" Yasuhiro pointed out logically.
"Yes, that would have been true a few months ago, perhaps." He replied evenly, "But do you see all the cars outside? Once shipments stopped coming here, how long do you think their supplies would last for that many people? Not very long, I'd think. They'd start hording the supplies for themselves and leaving – it's what I'd do."
Yasuhiro looked disturbed at that, and turned to look at Rei, hoping that she would have an answer to that, but her face just paled slightly, and she looked aside, "W – Why are you asking so many questions?"
"Because I want to know what you're hiding." Byakuya replied, "Electricity stopped, so practically everything has gone bad, the canned foods must all be gone by now, so that leaves a few options of what exactly this food could be." He lifted up two people, "Either you're somehow able to hunt the local wildlife enough to sustain yourself, or…"
There was the sound of a gun being pumped, and Toko let out a gasp as she and Byakuya turned around to see Kou standing there with his shotgun out. "Honestly, dear, what would you do without me?" He asked Rei, giving her a kind smile.
Yasuhiro's eyes bugged out, and he looked between Kou and Rei, "W- What's going on?"
"You haven't gotten it yet?" Byakuya spat out, "Your little girlfriend there is a cannibal! She eats other people!" He glared hard at Kou, "So when you said you were going to prepare the food, that meant us, didn't it."
Kou sighed, "Ya know, we didn't wanna do this at first, but in this world ya gotta survive, and if this is what it takes, then so be it." He aimed the shotgun at Byakuya, "If ya make any sudden movements, you will die."
"The fuck!" Yasuhiro shouted, his gaze turned to Rei, who was averting her eyes, looking genuinely sad, "You – You're… Seriously?" He just couldn't believe it – just when they thought they found trustworthy people... It turned out that they were anything but that. "God damn it…" He mumbled, looking to the floor dejectedly, "Then you were just acting friendly to me on purpose?"
Rei shook her head, "N – No… It's not true. I do like you, but…" She looked up to her dad, "We need ta do this to survive… You understand, right?"
"Eating other people?" Yasuhiro mumbled, "I can't say I understand that at all."
Rei looked like she was about to cry, but she shook her head, and her features hardened – and she looked towards her father, "Are the others already downstairs then?"
He nodded, "Yeah, they was about to figure it out themselves. If I didn't jump in when I did, Haruka woulda been in some trouble."
Byaluya's eyes widened, "The others?"
"Yep, I got yer friends all locked up downstairs, and I'm sure they're just dying to have you down there to join em." He chuckled, "You did say you wanted food within an hour, well, I suppose we can cook one of y'all up and share with ya if you want."
"You're sick!" Yasuhiro cried, "Are you even hearing what you're saying? What kind of person says something like that?! What is wrong with you?"
"You've been in this world as long as we have, haven't ye?" Kou asked, "You gotta learn how to survive like this. At first it was hard, hundreds of us stayed here in hopes that we'd be rescued. Soon as the first people started dyin, people started resorting to cannibalism… It takes a long time to get used to it, but now…" He smiled, and everyone could see a hint of madness within his eyes, "I actually kinda like it."
Yasuhiro was going to retort, but seconds later he felt something hard hit him in the back of the head, and he collapsed to the ground. Seconds before he passed out, he looked up to Rei, who was holding the handle of a knife in her hand, misery etched on her face as she mouthed, 'I'm sorry'. He wanted to shout out to her, ask her why she would do this, but it was no use, and seconds later he was out.
"Hiro, wake up, come on!"
He blinked his eyes a few times, and noticed Makoto and Aoi looking down at him, "Wha… What's going on?" He asked, his eyes adjusting to the dimly lit room they were in, "Where are we?" He looked around the room, despite being groggy, and he noticed they were placed in a small cage that seemed to be made out of some of the fence that he saw outside, and tied together with some rope.
Byakuya was busy pacing the length of the cage, cursing under his breath as he did so. Toko was sitting in the corner, gently cradling her injured arm – did she hurt it somehow? Kyoko meanwhile was looking for any structural weaknesses in the cage they were in, investigating parts of it and giving it a good push or tug here and there.
"We're trapped," Makoto replied with an edge to his voice, "These people… They're cannibals."
Yasuhiro's eyes widened as he suddenly remembered, and he sat up immediately, "Shit!" He replied, "Everyone's fine, right?" He looked around, "Did they take all of our weapons?"
"We're all fine for now," Kyoko answered, "And yes. They took all of our weapons before placing us in here." She let out a soft growl, "Damn it, I can't find any weaknesses over here…"
Yasuhiro felt around his body for the knives he usually wore in his clothing, but there was no luck. All of his pockets were searched it seemed, and he didn't have any of them on him except… He quickly felt down to his shoe, where he stored a knife hidden under the sole of his shoe. He couldn't help but smile at that – he wasn't completely defenseless. He quickly brought the knife up and pocketed it just as the door to the basement opened and they heard heavy steps on the stairs as their three 'hosts' walked down.
"Well look at what we've got here," Kou muttered, "This ought to last us for a while!" he let out a bark of a laugh, "Look at em, they all still got some meat left on their bones! It almost looks like y'all haven't been wanderin around out there for too long."
No one bothered to say that it was true, since none of them were feeling particularly gracious towards their host.
"Aw, just bein quiet are we?" He asked, "Oh well, you'll be squealin like a pig when we begin… Now, which of y'all want to go first?" Rei held the shotgun out towards them, ready to fire if they again made any sudden movements, while Haruka carried Kyoko's gun.
Another very long silence occurred, and Yasuhiro was afraid that he would be chosen. He didn't want to know what it felt like to be cut up – looking at all the bloodied instruments on the wall just made him realize that even more. He paled as Kou looked directly at him, and his finger started pointing towards him. Shit.
"I'll do it," Makoto's voice cut right through the silence, "Just don't hurt my friends, please."
"Heh, a noble one, eh?" Kou's gaze tore away from Yasuhiro, "I can promise ya that yer friends will be just fine while I start cookin you up!" He opened the locked cage door, and gripped Makoto's arm hard, "Now come on, let's put on a show for yer friends."
"NO!" Aoi screamed, grabbing Makoto's hand, "Don't! What are you thinking Makoto?!"
"Let go of 'im!" Haruka shouted, pointing her gun at Aoi, who refused to back down. She had no intention of letting go, but Makoto jerked his hand out of hers, and gave her a pained smile.
Kyoko meanwhile was very still as she watched Makoto being dragged out of the cage and placed on the bloodied table. She started to shake as the hateful man began to tie him down, and then her blood went cold as the man found a brutally large blade, and leveled it right on Makoto's right arm, just below his elbow.
"I can promise you, this will hurt a lot," Kou promised the shaking boy he strapped in, "Are ya ready for this?"
Makoto was shaking even worse than the time than when he was almost executed during the 'game'. At least there it would have been instantaneous, but this… This would be a long and horrible death. He glanced over to his friends, and managed to steel his resolve just a little bit, "Y – Yeah…" He shakily replied, "I – I'm ready."
He barely got any time to brace himself as the blade slammed into his arm, and at first it didn't hurt, and he just stared at his partially detached hand in shock. It was then that the pain began to register, and it was worse than anything he had ever felt in his life. He wasn't able to hold in the blood curling scream as it ripped out of his throat.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed, tears beginning to stream down from his eyes as Kou lifted the blade up again to bring it down. Makoto wanted to move it out of the way, but he was strapped in, and he could only watch in terror as the blade cut even deeper into him.
"MAKOTO!" Kyoko screamed, slamming against the cage, her composure completely gone now, "NO! DON'T KILL HIM! PLEASE!" She begged, shaking the cage as hard as she could, "STOP IT!"
Yasuhiro watched in abject terror as Kou repeated cut into Makoto's arm, and he could even see splinters of bone flying around. It was only a small consolation that Makoto passed out from the extreme pain, but even then, watching his friend being butchered was something he didn't think he would ever get used to seeing. His stomach did a backflip, and he couldn't help but throw up all over the floor in front of him.
Byakuya looked at Kou with a hateful glare, and he too was shaking in fury. Toko was covering her eyes and ears, trying to block out all the noises it made as the blade cut into Makoto's arm, the sound of flesh being cut was not very pleasant. Aoi meanwhile was in severe shock, she had collapsed onto the floor, her eyes wide and her entire face completely white.
"Coward!" Yasuhiro found himself shouting, as Kou managed to fully cut off Makoto's forearm, "You're a worthless coward!" That seemed to cause Kou to look over, and Yasuhiro did anything he could think of to retain that attention, "Yeah! You just trap people and then cut them up? And you claim that you have no choice? That's what someone who's given up would say! You're nothing but a dirty coward!"
"Shut up boy," Kou warned, "Or I'll trade him out for you."
"Tch!" Yasuhiro spat out, "You're not going to scare me with that!"
Kou glanced down at Makoto's body, and then started to unbind him, "Stupid child, I usually don't like to waste meat, but this is an exception. You tried to seduce my daughter, and I ain't gonna allow that to stand!" He threw Makoto's limb into a small box off to the side, and then he lifted Makoto up and went to the cage, opening the door, he threw Makoto in, "Get over here!" He reached in roughly to grab Yasuhiro, and he managed to easily grab the boy's hair, "Now come on!"
Before Kou could close the gate, Yasuhiro reached down, acting like he was going to scratch his leg, but then he pulled out of the knife, and with a cry he slammed it into the one spot he knew would hurt – right in the man's armpit, and he made sure to dig it in as far as he could, twisting the blade as well. "THAT'S FOR MAKOTO!" Yasuhiro screamed.
"Watch out Hiro!" Byakuya ran through the opened door and slammed his body right into Kou's body just as two very loud gun shots sounded, and they all looked over to Haruka, who fired Kyoko's gun, though her face twisted in horror as she realized that Byakuya's intervention caused her father to block the shots from hitting Yasuhiro.
"NO!" Haruka screamed, watching her dad collapse to the floor with blood pour out of his mouth as he slowly began choking to death on his own blood. "How dare you?!" She screamed, ready to shoot again, but she didn't expect to get tackled to the ground by Yasuhiro, who crossed the room as fast as he could possibly go, "GET OFF ME!"
"Hell no!" Yasuhiro screamed, trying to get the gun out of her grip, but she was surprisingly strong. So he did the only think he could think of to do, and that was to smash his forehead into hers. It disoriented both of them, but he was able to retain enough sense of mind to grab the gun out of her hand and he used it to again smash her head, knocking her out.
"Stop it!" Rei cried, tears streaming down her eyes as she had the shotgun pointed at Yasuhiro, "H – How dare you?!"
Yasuhiro stood up, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he shook. He looked back towards his friends and noticed that Toko was unconscious, perhaps a consequence of seeing Makoto's mutilated arm. Kyoko meanwhile had Makoto held aside, and she was doing her best to try and treat him, but he could see her shaking violently and tears were streaming down her face as she shook her head.
Byakuya meanwhile stood along with Aoi at the front of the cage, staying still as Rei kept pointing the shotgun back at them and then to Yasuhiro. "Please…" Yasuhiro mumbled, "Put it down… I don't want to hurt you…"
Rei pointed it at him, "Y – You killed my dad…" She cried, tears streaming down her face, "How… Why…?"
"He was hurting my friend, I had no choice…" He replied, "Your sister is fine though, I promise. If you put your gun down, we'll leave you two here…"
She weighed her options, and finally shook her head, "I – I can't, you're an enemy…" She mumbled, "It wasn't supposed to be like this… B – But… I don't wanna fight…"
Yasuhiro watched her lower the gun down slightly to her side, and he acted then – he lifted up his revolver and fired once – it hit her in the shoulder, causing to look up at him with eyes that he would never forget. The pain, hurt, and betrayal in her eyes were all evident as he shot yet again, the bullet slamming into her chest. "I'm sorry," He mumbled, "But… I can't risk it… You understand, right?"
She tried to speak, but all that came out was blood as the bullet wound in her chest must have started filling her lungs with blood. Tears streamed down her eyes as she tried to lift up the shotgun, but her life was quickly fading. As she collapsed to her knees, she tried to reach out for her sister, but the last of her strength left her as she fell forward, death claiming her.
Yasuhiro was very still as he fell to his knees, the gun lay forgotten at his side as he just looked at Rei's fallen form. He… He had to do it… She wasn't giving in… He had to protect his friends… He – He had to! He shook, not caring as Byakuya and Aoi started to secure the room. "Hiro!" Byakuya shouted, "Help us! We need to save Makoto right now!"
He blinked his eyes, and slowly nodded, "Y – Yeah…" He got up, "What do you need me to do?" He was still shaking, but with some sort of objective in front of him, he was able to get his body moving again.
"He's bleeding very badly!" Aoi exclaimed, clearly trying to hold back her tears, "Kyoko says that – that she doesn't know if he'll make it!" Her lips trembled, "She says we need bandages!"
"We have some in the car," Yasuhiro replied, "We should… We need to get him out of here, we can help him in the back of the truck!" He tried to ignore his growing guilt, and instead focus on helping his friends.
"Damn it, Toko! Wake up!" Byakuya shouted as he went over to her side, slapping the girl's face, "Now isn't the time to be napping!"
Toko's eyes opened, but they all knew who it really was the moment they opened, since they had a maniacal glint, "Oh? Byakuya? What's the occasion?" She asked, giving him a wide smile as she sat up, and then she looked at her shoulder and arm in a sling, "The hell? What did the other one do to me?!"
"It's not important," Byakuya explained calmly, though it was clear that he was just about to go over the edge if anything else went wrong, "Help us gather our weapons and go to the our car – yes we have a car, we'll explain everything else once we get there!"
With that said, the group went into action. Kyoko had taken off her jacket and started ripping it apart and using it as a makeshift bandage to try and cover up the wound. Once enough strips of her clothing were applied, she just pressed right above the wound, trying to apply enough pressure to stop the bleeding.
When everyone gathered all the weapons they needed (including the shotgun), they ran out of the basement, and were unfortunate enough to see the undead had been attracted to the noise of gunfire, and they were coming out of the darkness of the casino gaming floor towards them, some even blocking their path.
Byakuya let out a feral growl, and – perhaps in a moment of madness – he grabbed one of Yasuhiro's knives, "I'm sick and tired of these delays!" He roared, and he – for the first time any of them saw – ran towards the horde and started to rip them apart. It appeared that his frustration and anger converted well into fighting the undead, and while he was upset, he was still in mind enough to not let the undead surround him or bite him.
Yasuhiro quickly joined him, and started clearing a path for Kyoko and Aoi, who were holding Makoto up, and Toko, who was grumbling as she was forced to hold almost all of the weaponry. The path was cleared quickly enough at least, and they made their way to their car, where Kyoko again began to treat Makoto.
"We need water! I need to clean the wound," She removed the bloodied and worthless makeshift bandage she made earlier, and started to use the bandage that they had stored in their car. Kyoko and Makoto were in the bed of the truck along with all the weaponry they manage to get, while Yasuhiro got into the driver's seat and everyone else got into the passenger seats.
"Be mindful that that's our drinking water!" Byakuya warned her as he got into the car, "Drive slow, Hiro, we don't want to hurt Makoto!"
Yasuhiro nodded, "It won't be too hard," He replied, "The zombies are slow, right?" He shook his head again as images of Rei filled it, and he focused on his task, as he started their car, still extremely low on gas, and started to get out of the casino parking lot, where hundreds of the undead were beginning to walk towards them.
Just a half hour later, Yasuhiro pulled to the side of the road, and the crew got together to assess their situation.
"He's stable for now," Kyoko explained as they all went to the back where she was, "Thank you for driving carefully, Hiro." She let out a sigh, "But he needs to go to see a real doctor… I don't know what else I can really do for him… He's starting to get a fever, and I fear he won't ever wake up again…" She tried not to cry, but it was no use, her façade was cracked, and they all knew it.
Aoi didn't even try to hide it, and was openly weeping, "He's an idiot… Why did he do that? Idiot…"
"He got his arm chopped off?" Genocide Jill asked, looking at it curiously, "Wow! That is a brutal lookin cut! Whoever did that must have been more sadistic than me!"
"The hospital isn't an option, clearly," Byakuya mumbled, completely ignoring Toko, "You'll need to do your best until we can get help from the military."
Kyoko looked up at him when he said that, and she noticed the desperation in his eyes, and what she told Makoto flashed back in her mind – if there's nothing there, Byakuya was most likely going to lose hope – and she looked away. This was up to her, the military wasn't coming… They were truly alone.
Yasuhiro meanwhile was sitting at the front of the car, leaning against the hood, ignoring the barren environment around them and was instead focused on his thoughts. Rei had to die… She had to… He had no choice.
Like the rest of the group, he could start to feel despair gripping his heart, and he started to think only one thing: just how much longer could he take this?
XxXxXxX
Brief Notes: Yes, I know the whole cannibal plot line has been done to death when it comes to zombies, but I wanted a way to make the group start to fall apart before they reached their destination, and I figured a group of cannibals that induces huge bodily injuries and massive amounts of despair was a good enough course of action.
When writing this chapter, I went back and forth on whether I really wanted to make Makoto lose an arm, but I decided to do so in the end - it's a zombie apocalypse story after all.
Other moments I kept thinking about rewriting include:
Kyoko holding onto Makoto - it feels way too out of character, but it was cute so I decided to leave it in.
Byakuya charging into the horde at the end - Also feels out of character, but at least it can somewhat be justified by the shit they just went through.
That's why this one took so much longer than the others.