Chapter 60: Flatworm
"We have a problem."
Morning had barely arisen, faces half asleep, half ready to take on another day of the world turned towards the entrance of the library. It was barely past 10am. Izaya and Karisawa had stepped out of their safety zone in order to check their nearest surroundings- namely the rest of the school. Given the knowledge they had attained and their currently unstable surroundings it was the least they could do.
Pushing a strand of hair behind her ear Namie was anything but interested in what Izaya had to say. "What a way to enter." She added curtly, while adjusting another delicate screw inside the delicate mechanics of the radio. "Can you be any more dramatic?" Not even a glance was cast towards the couple and Karisawa's eyes flickered to Izaya.
Of course they had already come up with who was going to say what, but the reluctance to start talking set off alarms without intending to.
"What happened?" Shizuo was the first to ask. Shinra was by his side, applying what appeared to be a set of carefully executed exercises to determine the degree of damage that had been done to his body but even the doctor froze in his motion at the question.
Within seconds Karisawa's reluctance to speak quickly had turned the room into a chamber fit for interrogations.
"We saw one of the zombies. A fast one," Karisawa finally started to speak up, successfully missing the point of the conversation.
"Is it lurking near school?" Vorona instantly tensed and the whole group mimicked the same reaction. Including Shizuo.
Eyes searching for any hints in Izaya's face he ignored Karisawa entirely as the raven quickly shook his head. "No, it is dead."
"Then where is the problem? Get to the point." Namie spat curtly while putting down her screwdriver with just a tad too much force.
Small screws tumbled to the ground, but the clicking sounds didn't seem to bother anyone present.
Casting one last glance towards Karisawa, Izaya hoped the girl would continue, but it seemed Namie's reaction had taught her to keep her mouth shut instead and so he finally took it upon himself to speak.
"They are starting to learn."
The way Izaya phrased his words was as much of an announcement as it was casual. It made the contents seem weak and laughable, despite their dangerous character.
"What?" Namie asked, only receiving a shrug in return for her boldness.
"You wanted me to get to the point. There you have it."
"You-"
Shoving the woman ready for a battle of words aside, Shinra made his way towards Izaya. "Learn? On what scale?"
It hadn't happened too long ago and yet Izaya felt as though a century had passed since they witnessed the horrifying sight outside the streets. He could still remember the zombies more vividly than he liked to, and hear the shriek of the fast one as it perished by its allies.
"One of the creatures realized the sun was hurting it and it started jumping from shadow to shadow, enduring short heaps of pain to get to us." It was as quick an explanation as it was shocking.
Even the usually so composed and awfully witty Namie shut up at the revelation and Izaya felt just the slightest urge to escalate her fear. A grin sneaked upon his features without him really doing much to sustain it as he added. "It was smiling while doing so."
He received what he wanted. Eyes of horror and finally god damn silence from the bitch.
"Shit." Shizuo was the first to find his voice again. Of course. Out of everyone present inside this room Izaya and him probably had had the most encounters with the absurdity that made their present. While everyone else was busy being absolutely crushed by this new set of information Shizuo was probably already thinking about how to kill them and finding a solution.
Kadota not so much.
"Wait, are you trying to tell us those monsters are developing intelligence?" he asked, doubt swaying in his voice as he internally pleaded Izaya to tell them he was just joking.
Izaya didn't even get to answer as the rest of the group finally woke from their trance.
"We need to secure the area." Vorona was the first to contribute anything tactical useful. "Scan the area? And die or what?" Namie wasn't amused.
Soft creaking of old metal caught Izaya's attention.
Shizuo was trying to get up from the bed.
"Don't."
The hand on Shizuo's shoulder was there quicker than he expected it to be and he glared at Izaya from below.
"We need to move. If that thing is still there-"
"It's dead."
Surprised flashed across Shizuo's face and Izaya sighed.
Glancing towards the chaos of confusion no one seemed to pay them any attention and so he leaned down.
The whisper was short and quiet, but easily understood.
"Just let me handle this, okay?"
Moments of banter and ridiculous suggestions filled the next couple of minutes. But Shizuo's expression relaxed- because he saw it.
He had been out of it for an unknown period of time and he didn't even want to think about what had happened to Izaya while he was unconscious.
But whatever it was- it seemed to have brought him back.
Izaya's face was still the same as always, witty, teasing, a soft smile tugging at the corner of his lips- nothing anyone would have interpreted in anyway. But for Shizuo it told everything.
The absence of fear. The amount of confidence. Shizuo knew Izaya had killed the mutilated creature that bashed in his chest after he went down. Maybe that had been the point, maybe something that happened afterwards. The point was, Izaya knew what he was doing.
A calm wave of trust enveloped the blond in a blanket of cozy warmth as he let himself sink back into the cushions.
"Alright."
Not missing a second Izaya turned around and raised his voice once more.
"Everyone, listen," he spoke curtly, interrupting a scene that was on the brink of madness and despair. "I`m not sure what exactly we saw so please take this with a grain of salt, but when that newly evolved creature screamed it suddenly lured all the other zombies towards it."
"Wonderful! Are you trying to tell us they are they gathering as an army?" Namie spat in return, but the oh so confident aura usually kept around her had diminished to nothing but a layer of fear. Her eyes were wide, her stance tense.
Izaya shook his head. "No, they killed the creature."
Shinra blinked, "They?"
Finally having found her voice again Karisawa continued what would have been her job all along. "The zombies. They suddenly ran and killed it." Glancing sideways as if waiting to get praised or scolded for what she had done, Izaya merely gave a soft nod.
They had initially agreed that she would be the one to break the news. Izaya was somewhat of an outsider after all, and the chance that people like Namie wouldn't believe him was relatively high, so he opted for this instead.
But now, seeing how the doubt they held towards Izaya's words had proved to be nonexistent it had been a useless precaution anyway.
"What in the world is going on?" Shinra mumbled, partly to himself, partly to the other people in the room as deafening silence filled the space.
Vorona's forehead had folded in wrinkles. Occasional glances traveled to Namie.
It was quite easy to deduce what she was thinking about. How to protect her newest low interest.
Same went for Kadota. More than analyzing the situation, he seemed to be worried about their safety as he glanced back and forth between Izaya, Shinra, Shizuo and Karisawa.
The news probably hit him hardest as he was the one out to protect the majority of people present.
"That's all I can tell you, but maybe our scientist over here knows a thing or two about this." Izaya threw in, and the eyes turned towards Namie.
No witty comment nor anything suiting her usual attitude left her lips however, as her hand reached for her lips. She was in thoughts. Doing what she could do best.
Analyzing.
"... regaining consciousness and active thoughts is one thing. But for the other infectants to kill the specimen-" she mumbled by herself, fading out as her eyes regained their glint. "It doesn't make sense. It's almost as if a parasite of the nightly creature as you put it, is losing control of the host. It would make sense for the other zombies to eradicate such a specimen. But seeing as that creature wasn't becoming sane but going after you more efficiently is in the parasite's favor I can't see the issue."
Wait.
"Parasite? I thought this was a virus?" Izaya asked. He could clearly remember what he had read, what he had seen and heard. Listening to those damned news reports on his laptop had been the first action he had taken when the world came crashing down. He still remembered that hall he discarded the laptop in. Already having memorized everything the news was going to provide it had become nothing but a piece of useless metal.
And now this woman was trying to tell him what he had found out had been wrong all along? Undefined rage of no proper reason set his mind aflame. He hated acting in vain, but even more so he was annoyed by himself as he had not seen this coming.
Of course Yagiri pharmaceutics hadn't told the public any real information.
"The base of the antidote we handed out was a flatworm, known for taking over ants as its host," Namie explained further, revealing what had not been presented to the public openly.
"So you're telling me all those evolved zombies are those who received the antidote?" Izaya concluded, trying to chase away the immanent feeling of uselessness.
"... it would make sense. The virus is fighting for dominance and eradicating the parasite`s stem." Namie nodded to herself and Shinra lit up at the revelation.
"Wait, if they are regaining intelligence then that would mean the antidote was somewhat of a success. Doesn't that mean they might even regain their sense of reason?" A cunning thought.
True, it would explain why the parasites creating the zombies were instantly trying to get rid of the evolved zombie. It was possessed by a virus capable of defeating them.
And yet-
"I doubt that." Izaya sighed. "That creature didn't look like it retained any humane sense of reason. Instead it acted like an animal, looking for food." Whether it be the virus or the flatworm, they were both just fighting for dominance right? Gaining that in one individual wouldn't affect the others that much, right?
"... then the host's body might be dying." Namie mumbled, and Shinra nodded immediately as if having heard just the one thing had been looking forward to.
"Yes! That's it! It was trying to pass onto the next to survive. A healthy new body."
Scientists had always somewhat creeped Izaya out.
Be it Shinra, Namie or anyone else.
It was no different as the two descended into a rant of higher chemical context and bilogical theories. Usually Izaya would have been intrigued at least. He would have tried to follow the context and extract useful bits for his own knowledge.
And yet right now he didn't even hear what they said.
A healthy new body.
Shinra had said that and the moment he did Izaya's blood ran cold.
He took a sample of the nightly creature`s blood. Shizuo did. For him. He extracted it from that monster in the store before killing it. Izaya used it in order to try and create an antidote. After what happened to Shizuo and the imminent idea of them wearing an expiration date he injected what he believed to be something close to an antidote into his blood.
Into his arm.
His veins.
The flatworm blood.
The one taking over brains, the one out to kill-
"Izaya-" no words left his lips as he moved quietly to the door. The two scientists didn't even notice. It was Shizuo that he faintly heard, but not even his words really reached him as Izaya slipped into the corridor.
Nausea wracked his body and he leant against the wall.
His eyes were wide.
Only dimly he could hear the banter inside the library.
Pulling his sleeve down all the way to his elbow as though he was racing for it in a competition, Izaya stared at his arm.
At the small dot of red that had now disappeared. The place he put the needle in.
He thought of killing Karisawa-
What if that was the flatworm? Were those even his own thoughts? Was this thing alive inside him?
It reacted with the blood sample, he got it clear of the virus, but not of the parasite-
"Calm down, calm down-"
His hands were starting to shake and the nausea only trippled as he tried to take even breaths.
It couldn`t be alive. Not anymore. How long had it been? Days?
What kind of sick joke was this? He finally got over his fear of these damned assholes and now this? A flatworm was doing him in, really?
Was he being possessed? What was going to happen next? Was he going to kill Shizuo? Karisawa? Everyone present? Infect them?
Sliding down the wall Izaya tried to retain all sense of reason.
"Fuck-" right now, he would give everything for decent access to the internet to find out what it was that was now circulating in his blood.
to be continued
Hey guys! Sorry for the late as fuck update xD I hope you were grossed out by the course this is taking lmao xDDDD