A Whisper in the Wind
Zombie AU. Aomine and his friends are the only survivors as far as they know. Everyone else is dying or already dead, but yet still alive because of the toxin outbreak – luckily, the people who were already dead are still dead, so those are fewer bodies to worry about. Point is, Aomine and his friends never thought that they would meet another human being again, until they met him.
It has been three months.
Well, three months and 8 days since the outbreak occurred. Three months and 8 days since everything they knew all fell apart. Three months and 8 days when everyone they loved and cherished died. All except for them.
Aomine was not sure why they had not been affected by the toxin outbreak or why they have not yet 'died' from being attacked by those creatures – those zombies. Akashi suggested that maybe they were special. Experiments, maybe – somehow immune to the deadly toxin that rotted your flesh away in a matter of hours and twisted your thoughts into only one thing: food.
After all, each one of their parents worked at the same company, all with power and all at the top. The more that Aomine thought more about it, the possibility of being experimented on seemed real. Or, maybe they were thinking too far into this whole thing and they were just lucky to survive and live to fight another day.
If you called being a 16 year old male, stuck in an apocalyptic world where all humanity was dead – lucky. Heck, even some animals were beginning to show signs of being affected by the toxin, although not as harshly as humans. Aomine knew that eventually him and the others were going to die, and that would be it for humanity's chance at survival.
So, they continued to live and fight. Kill – or be eaten or turned into one of them.
It was a day like any other day – one that they have all become accustomed to. Aomine, Kise, Murasakibara, and Kuroko all left their base of operations, a warehouse that they have all made their home a month after the outbreak. They were beginning to run low on food, so the four of them went out to go retrieve more while Akashi, Kagami and Midorima went to search for medical supplies because they could never have too much of that.
While scavenging for food (anything canned, really), Aomine had split up from Murasakibara and Kuroko, taking Kise with him as they traveled down a dimly lit aisle of a nearby supermarket. The only light they had with them came from the flashlight attachments of their weapons (guns they had stolen from the dead military personnel), as well as the light from the sun outside.
Aomine motioned for Kise to take his duffel bag and start filling it with anything he could find; anything would be helpful, after all in such a disastrous situation. The dark skinned teenager crouched to the ground, putting his gun down next to him as he swung his bag down, digging around the inside.
He pulled a list out and read it over before looking back at Kise, who was busying himself with filling the duffel, his tongue poking out of the corner of his lips. Aomine also began to fill the bag with things written messily on the list, wondering why Kagami had wanted him to specifically bring these ingredients and canned goods back. Maybe he was going to make something special.
The thought made Aomine's stomach grumble, causing Kise to chuckle quietly. Aomine shot him a glare, ignoring the way his cheeks flared from embarrassment before he got back to work. A few minutes passed and the sound of a can dropping to the floor made Aomine look next to him. The can rolled into his boot and it took Aomine a moment to realize that Kise was on his other side, which could only mean that…
A mix between a hiss and an anguished growl pierced the air and Aomine instinctively reached for his weapon, aiming at the zombie that broke into a dash, hobbling straight towards him. Aomine pulled on the trigger, however nothing happened. "Shit." He swore, wondering why his gun chose that moment in time to fail him and get jammed.
"A- Aominecchi!" Kise yelped, too startled to make a move on the fast approaching zombie. Aomine whipped the jammed gun at the zombie in hopes it would slow it down – and it worked for a second, until the zombie recovered quite easily and continued to pursue Aomine who had used that second to get up, grab Kise, and run.
The others must have heard the commotion because Murasakibara and Kuroko appeared not to far away, both alert and guns at the ready. "What happened?" Kuroko asked, worried and frantic.
"Zombie." Aomine snarled, turning to see the zombie running towards them. The zombie crashed through an already half-destroyed display, knocking things over and creating an even louder ruckus. That made Murasakibara curse under his breath as the market began to fill with more zombies who were interested in the sounds of food. "My gun was jammed. I had no time to fix it." Aomine spoke quietly and quickly, his muscles tensing as he began to count the number of zombies that seemed to just appear out of nowhere, filling the area and creating a larger horde.
"Mine-chin." Aomine looked over at Murasakibara, who was holding a large combat blade out to him, crunching on the lollipop in his mouth. Aomine gave a nod and took it, grateful, and gripped it tight. The zombies came towards them and the bullets started flying.
It felt like they have been at this for hours but in reality it was hardly ten minutes. The zombies just kept coming and attacking, eager to sink their teeth and rip apart their flesh in an attempt to satisfy the hunger. Kuroko was the first to run out of ammo, trading his gun for a smaller hand-gun that they all knew would not do much damage. Kise followed suit, however he used his empty weapon as a sort of bat, smashing the heads of the zombies since that seemed to be their weak point. Aomine knew he was not faring well – with only a knife in hand. But the others all worked together and the zombies could not touch them. Not yet, anyway.
It was not until Murasakibara ran out of ammo that things were beginning to look grim for the four of them. It did not help that the infected just kept coming and coming, unrelenting and starving for anything human. They were pushed further back into the supermarket, nearing the far corner of the west side, the side furthest away from the main entrance and exit. "Tetsu, maybe you should go get help." Aomine suggested, thinking that Kuroko could use his shadow-misdirection somewhat on the undead horde and get past them and go find Akashi, Midorima and Kagami.
Kuroko shook his head, "I'm not leaving you all." He stated firmly, his mind already made up. Aomine sighed, knowing it would be pointless to argue with Kuroko, seeing the blaze in his soft blue orbs. "If we-…" The shorter of the group fell silent, choosing not to continue with what he had just been about to say.
"Kurokocchi, Aominecchi, Murasakibaracchi…" Kise started with a slight whine in his voice. The blond looked at them sadly, his lips moving into a pout. "I just wanted to say that you guys were-"
"Don't even say it, Kise." Aomine hissed out, tossing a glare at the once-model before his expression softened. "We know, after all." He added. The dark skinned teen glanced down at the blade in his hand, wondering where exactly this had all gone wrong. Maybe their 'luck' had run out – choosing the wrong store to scavenge for food. They should have went with their other choice; a different store that was a little further away. But they all thought that the closer supermarket was better, easier, but they were wrong…
Just when Aomine thought it was goodbye for them, the clatter of a small can bounced into view. Aomine stared at, confused at the odd-looking symbol on the side of the can. After a moment of further study, he realized that it was some sort of gas. The can spun and a dark cloud of gas started pooling out from the opening at the top, blooming into the air around them and the zombies. Automatically, Aomine grabbed his shirt collar and pulled it up to cover his mouth, no wanting to breathe in the gas, judging from the way the zombies started to fall to the ground, lifeless and hopefully dead for good.
He took a moment to look at the others, to make sure they were okay. Aomine saw that they also had the right idea, covering their mouths from the spewing gas and backing up until they were in the corner. A figure emerged from the clouded air, stepping into view.
Aomine's eyes widened, seeing black hair and a large gas mask covering the figure's face. 'But… It can't be… Everyone else is dead.' Aomine thought, his mind going blank as he watched the figure come closer as the gas began to clear. He chanced a look around and was surprised to see all the zombies dead on the ground. Some had knives and other sharp-looking objects implanted into their heads, others plainly had no head anymore. Whoever this living person was, they were good.
The human had come in and saved them, quiet as a whisper in the wind but just as deadly as the toxin itself – and it amazed Aomine. The dark blue haired teenager swallowed thickly as he shared a shaky glance with Kuroko, who stood next to him. "Who are you?" Kuroko was the first to speak, eyeing the figure as he fingered the now-empty hand gun.
The person, who now could be identified as another male, tilted his head and reached up to take the gas mask off. Once it came off, Aomine raised his eyebrow, staring at the minor scars the guy had on his face. He looked into his steel-blue eyes, noting how nice they sort of looked. His eyes traveled down from the shorter boys face, taking in his overall appearance. He had dark gray pants on that were torn in some places and dirtied, with a bandage wrapped around his left thigh, dyed red from blood, and a pack buckled to his other thigh. Aomine could see more gas cans hanging from the pack, as well as other little deadly trinkets. He wore a blue muscle shirt which clung to his lithe frame and a ratted and bloodied hoodie with the sleeves torn off. Bandages ran up from his wrists and stopped just before his elbow.
He had a duffel bag hanging from his back, the strap running from his right shoulder to the left hip. The strap held a few smaller knives that could easily be pulled free and thrown. Aomine realized that this guy was prepared.
"I'm Kasamatsu." The guy – Kasamatsu – spoke finally, catching Aomine's attention. "You are survivors?" Kasamatsu asked, narrowing his eyes at the four of them as he inched closer.
"Yes." Kuroko nodded. "Are you-… Have you…" The shortest of them fell silent, not knowing what to say exactly. Kasamatsu seemed to understand and he looked away.
"I'm the only one left."
"Of?" Aomine pushed, glaring at Kasamatsu. The things he said were beginning to sound suspicious, and judging from all that equipment he had on him, he simply could not have raided any military officers.
Kasamatsu moved his steely-blue orbs from Kuroko to Aomine, eyeing him for a moment before replying, "Of Alpha Squad."
"Alpha squad?" Kise chirped, blinking innocently. "Are you like… part of the government or something?"
"Or something." Kasamatsu replied, flicking on the safety of the gun he had in his hands. "The people I was with were a part of the company that caused this entire outbreak. Well, they used to be, until they realized what sort of experiments they were performing on… children." He explained, looking at them oddly.
"The group I was with took in children at a young age and trained them; preparing them for what would inevitably come." Aomine and the others absorbed this information, feeling as if there was more to this whole ordeal than it suddenly seemed.
"Are there others?" Kasamatsu asked, changing the subject back to them. Murasakibara tore the plastic off another lollipop, sticking it in his mouth. "There's Akachin, Midochin and Kagachin."
"What Murasakibara-kun means to say is that we are the only other survivors we know of. I'm Kuroko Tetsuya; this is Aomine Daiki, Murasakibara Atsushi, and Kise Ryouta. The others, who are hopefully out collecting medical supplies with better luck, are Akashi Seijuurou, Midorima Shintarou and Kagami Taiga." Kuroko introduced all of them, pointing to the three who were present during his introduction.
Kasamatsu's eyes widened a fraction as Kuroko spoke. He nodded slowly, solemnly, and spoke, "I believe it was your parents' little experiments that may have started this outbreak." He announced, his expression turning cold for a moment.
Aomine guessed he looked as shocked as the others felt. He lowered his gaze and bit his lip, his fingers gripping the handle of the knife so tightly his knuckles turned white. He looked at Kuroko, Kise and Murasakibara, tense and lost all at the same time, "… We need to get to the bottom of this."
You know, I was beginning to think I was running out of ideas for a second there, until it smacked me in the face – ZOMBIES. So yeah. On another note, Kasamatsu looks pretty friggin cool in my eyes *u*
~WinterAssassin~