T.T So sorry for how long it took to update anything, guys. My computer screen cracked and it needed to be fixed, but the technicians took so long to do it (over a week D: and they'd said to check back at lunch on the first day!). For a while I'd been using the home computer (which needed a replacement keyboard because someone spilled tea all over it [again]), and eventually got bored enough to start two new original (and around seven Hetalia) stories on Quotev and write a journal entry on DeviantArt which clearly states how I should not be left with my own mind for a week (WARNING: The entry may contain spoilers for Survival. I still don't know if I'm going to use half of the crap I wrote down on there). Heh, there's only eighteen there, but I managed to fill two textbook pages with sixty suggestions – one of which was a simple "Penguin army attacks. BAD END."
I sincerely hope I'm not rambling, and if I am then I apologise. I also apologise for the amount of switches between perspectives – I just... I couldn't stick with one person for too long with all the events that are going to happen and stuff.
I finally managed to draw that picture of Kit – and various other pictures, mainly anime sketches and a new thing called "Imperfectly Perfect" (pretty much that is me and three friends and pictures that represent how imperfectly perfect we are in our own eyes). Profile picture has changed to Kit, and I will announce the next character at the end of the chapter :)
All I have to do is wait two days. All I have to do is wait two days. All I have to do is wait two days.
Through her quiet exterior, her mind was racing and panicking, wondering how long it would take her to snap. Aria had been anxious ever since Daniel's last phone call, thoughts passing by as she stared at the table. Where were they refuelling? How many people would the helicopter fit? Would Keiichi do something stupid between now and when they arrive?
A brown glass bottle was placed in front of her loudly, snapping her out of her revere. Aria blinked, stared at the bottle, and then looked up at the person that had placed it there. Alec offered her a smile as he sat down on the seat next to hers, a couple more people from their group behind him. Iza sat down on her other side, followed by Mei, who then had Mitsuru sit down next to her. On Alec's side was Wendy and Kit, as well as Freddy, Jun and Roberto – in that order.
What was strange was that almost all of them had a beer bottle in front of them.
"This isn't some kind of intervention, is it?" Aria asked bluntly. "If so, I deny everything and regret nothing!"
Iza giggled, just as Sora sat down next to Mitsuru. "No, silly," she told her. She then placed a hand on Aria's shoulder. The older girl shivered slightly, still not over the fact that she had to wear a bikini till morning. "Sora noticed you run outside and saw you crying. When she told the rest of us, we decided to come down and give you some comfort."
"I didn't," Mei grumbled, which earned an elbow to the ribs from Iza.
Aria felt herself smile a little more, unsure as to why.
"So," Aria sighed. "How did you plan on doing...this?"
"What, give you some comfort?" Kit inquired. She shrugged with a smile. "We figured that sharing a drink would do – even if some of us aren't drinking."
The Lambert girl cast her eyes down and spotted the bottle in Kit's hand. She eyed the girl with a frown.
"You're drinking," she stated. Kit nodded confidently.
"My grandmother always said that a true lady can always stomach her alcohol," she announced with a proud smile. Aria decided not to press further and stared down at her bottle. Her parents had never believed that drinking would solve problems; but Aria felt that she could really use one right now.
"Yo, Wolf, Alec!" one of the men called. Alec turned away from his drink lazily, as did Freddy, and both teens stared at the man with a question in their eyes. He stood at the doorway, hands in his pockets and a grin on his face. "Your group got called up. Since you got the manpower, you've been put in charge of scouting."
"Scouting?" Freddy scoffed. "And why our group? We're just a bunch of teens."
Alec nodded in agreement and raised the near-empty bottle to his lips, finishing it in one large swig. He placed it back onto the table quietly and stood, glancing at Freddy before replying, "Where're we wanted?"
The man grinned further, a look in his eyes that said he just knew Alec would say yes. He gave them the order to wake everyone on their team that they needed – or at least anyone they needed that they wanted to take – and then left without another word, giving them the simple instruction to meet at the front yard when they were ready.
After having a silent discussion with Freddy, the two teens began to make their way to the next floor of the house, ready to get the people they needed for the scouting job. Alec had to admit that he hadn't been expecting it, what with so many other able-bodied fighters in the house, but felt it was better than the zombie-filled alternative that awaited, should they not "earn their keep".
As Freddy headed up the stairs first, Alec took a moment to think about who they would take. Wendy was out of the question – she had nothing to defend herself with and probably wouldn't be able to keep up with the group. Jun wasn't a good option, either – the kid could cook, but Alec doubted he could fight...
Sighing and giving his thoughts a shrug, he continued up the steps so he could meet the group.
She narrowed her eyes in thought. "So, what you're saying is," she started, "that we've been given the job of finding shit?"
"Pretty much," Alec said with a nod. The six of them were standing outside, weapons at the ready and questions in the girls' expressions as they waited. The girls in question were the three most reliable in the group that were willing to come: Sora, Aria, and Mei. Their clothes had dried (or at least were mostly dry) and they skill seemed to have the bikinis underneath their outfits, to which none of the males seemed to argue about. The only other boy in the group with Freddy and Alec was Roberto, barely fazed by the fact that they had to do some work and looking more like he was in his own little world.
"Fan-fucking-tastic," Mei grumbled. "And we have to fucking leave Iza here on her own, too."
"She's got two kids and a blind guy to keep her company," Alec defended. "What's there to be complaining about?"
"The fact that she has two fucking kids and a blind slowpoke the keep her company," Mei suggested lightly.
Alec rolled his eyes, right when Keiichi himself walked out of the house's front door and approached them with high authority in his posture. His eyes met with the resident carrot-top's, and a spark of negativity passed between the two. Aria was still pissed about his decisions to take her phone and isolate her for a few days, and he was still pissed that she'd tried to challenge him, kill him at best.
He stopped just in front of the group, frowning at each of them before beginning his instructions. "We've received word that a department store nearby is easy access to food, and we all know that our current rations won't last forever," he explained. "I need your group to get in there, eliminate any undead lurking about the place, and bring back some more food."
Aria scoffed, taking a hands-on-hips position. "In others words, you want us to grab your Twinkies and a packet of Doritos while we're at it. On top of that, you want some drinks." She then shrugged, raising her hands with the action and turning on her heel, making her way toward the ladder that led down to the ground. "I suppose the worst that could happen is that we get conflicted between Coke and Pepsi, eh?"
The older man was left to growl at her, a scowl reaching his face as everyone else followed Aria with a snigger.
"We won't forget the Gummy Bears, either!" Aria went on.
"Stupid motherfucking assholes, making us work because we're cheap labour," Mei grumbled, kicking a rock along the footpath. The six of them had been searching for a few hours, slowly finding their way to the store that Keiichi had told them about.
Obviously, things weren't going too well in the group – Roberto was barely putting in any words to say, while Sora took every chance she got to say something; Mei was swearing off her head, constantly badmouthing the survivors in the house on the hill; Aria was being more than depressed, probably going to borderline unresponsive; on top of it all, the boys seemed to be the only ones taking care of the situation.
That's it, Alec thought, somewhat annoyed. We need to get this damn job over with.
He stopped walking and turned on his heel, facing the rest of the group sternly. Mei stopped her cursing, tightening her grip on her axe with an indifferent expression on her face; Aria looked up with a bored face; Roberto glanced Alec's way, signalling that he was listening; and Sora – well, Sora actually shut up for a few seconds to see what was wrong.
"Listen," Alec sighed, shoving a hand into one of his pockets. "We've been given a job; so let's just get it over with and go back to the house, okay?" He cut Mei off as she went to argue. "Yes, Mei, I know we're being treated like cheap labour. Get over it for a second and think about what we could loot from a department store. I mean, seriously, there could be entertaining shit there."
Mei raised a sceptical eyebrow, seeming to think about what he'd said, and then grinned like a madwoman. "Hell the fuck yes," she muttered to herself.
"Okay, then," Alec said. "Let's get going."
Boredom was at the edge of Mitsuru's mind, threatening to ruin his wait for the six members of the now-split group. They hadn't split intentionally – it was rather a plan of Keiichi's, so that the house had more food – but Mitsuru still couldn't help but feel something wasn't right.
None of 'them' had been hanging around lately – it was like "they'd" just vanished without a trace near the hill. It worried him a little; what if "they" had moved on to another area, right where the six scouts were sent?
An hour passed as he waited longer, noticing nothing around him as footsteps arrived at his door and a small knock sounded lightly.
"Hey, Mitsuru," Iza's voice came through. Mitsuru blinked and looked away from the window, finally realising how sore his back and his neck were.
"Yeah?" he asked.
Iza grinned and glanced behind her, causing Mitsuru to stare over her shoulder and at the blind chef, Jun. "Jun doesn't want to stay with us girls, so I thought he'd be better off here with you," she told him. "That okay?"
He stood from his seat and stretched, feeling bones along his spine crack. "Yeah, that's okay," he told her.
With a smile, she stood aside and allowed Jun – who looked rather uncomfortable – to walk inside and find his way to Mitsuru. "This way, Jun," Mitsuru advised, using his voice to guide the blind teen. "Watch out for the coffee table – just sidestep a little to the left."
He did as he was told, and then finally Jun was seated in a chair at the small round table. Iza left once he was seated, which left the two guys by themselves. Mitsuru was at a loss for what to do, seeing as it had been just him a few moments before.
A few moments of silence passed, consisting of nothing but Mitsuru staring out the window and Jun sitting quietly by himself.
The fact that there was awkwardness mixed in with that silence didn't seem to make any sense to the blonde boy.
All six of them were tired and panting, holding their weapons with both hands as though they expected the dead bodies to rise once again.
When nothing moved, they dropped to the ground and released relieved breaths. The horde they'd just fought off wasn't as big as the one outside Kit's house, but it was full of larger undead and a small quantity of smaller undead – which, of course, were gleefully hacked apart by Mei and her axe.
From what Aria could see, the store they were trying to raid had been locked for the night before; which meant that none of 'them' had managed to get inside.
"Do we just...?" she panted, weakly pointing to the glass doors. "Or do we just...?"
"I think we just..." Alec replied, panting just as much as the rest of them. "Yeah... We just..."
Being the first to stand up straight, Mei staggered toward the glass doors and gave them a hard shove. They budged, but they were obviously locked.
She shook them again and again, impatient.
"Open the fuck up!" she ordered, frustrated. Sighing, Aria joined her.
"You gotta smash it with the axe!" she told her. "It's locked from the inside!"
That started a bicker between the two, leaving the remaining four to find an alternate way inside. They split off into two pairs, Sora going with Roberto and Freddy going with Alec. One pair headed left. One pair headed right.
The bickering two remained where they'd previously been, still arguing over what to do about the door. Aria kept on ordering Mei to smash the window open; while Mei kept on arguing back that she would "do as she fucking wants".
A few moments passed before they started to quieten down, and by that time the others had made it to the corners of the shopping centre. Both sighed, leaned against the doors, and crossed their arms in front of them.
"We really need to get this shit together," Aria muttered, speaking mostly to herself. Mei seemed to nod in agreement, and then frowned.
"Any other suggestions on how the fuck we get inside?" she inquired, her question genuine but still laced with a sarcastic wit.
Aria considered her answer, and then replied, "Air vents."
Those two words were simple enough to understand, especially the plan forming around them. With a grin, Mei glanced around their area in search of an air vent. Sure enough, there was one near their left, residing very much higher than either could reach. The two girls glanced at each other, and then exchanged nods before moving.
With a twitch of his brow, Alec resisted the urge to kick a nearby dumpster. They'd left for only half an hour – thirty damn minutes – and already Aria and Mei had disappeared. There was no sign of where they'd gone, nor was there any note left that said anything about what had happened.
The door was still in one piece; the girls' weapons had been taken with them; and there were no bloodstains on the ground.
"Anyone got any clue for what happened to them?" he asked, sighing. Everyone else shook their heads, frowning as they thought long and hard.
Alec sighed again and looked around the area, finally taking notice of what could've let the two girls inside. He strode over to the intercom device hooked into the wall and examined it for a moment, and then pressed one of the buttons.
"Test, one-two-three," he announced into the speaker. He removed his finger from the button and waited a few seconds.
The reply came, "What can I do y'for?"
Why did I do this? Why did I do this? Why did I do this? Why did I do this? Why did I do this?
"Move your ass!" Mei commanded, japing Aria's leg with the handle of her axe. Aria flinched, trying her hardest to control her breathing.
"S-Shut up!" she whimpered back. "I'm doing my best here!"
She thought she was, what with her crawling through at least a quarter of the whole place's circulation system while at the same time crawling through a closed space.
"Weak," Mei growled, displeased. Aria jabbed her foot back as hard as she could, feeling contact with Mei's shoulder. The other girl cursed to herself while Aria started moving again, smiling to herself.
"Yeah, two girls climbed into the air vent above you guys a little before you arrived," the voice said. "By the way, did you guys come from that house over on the hill?"
"Yeah," Alec replied, frowning. "Hey, where do you think they'd be right now?"
The voice scoffed, replied, "They best hope they don't fall into the candy store; I locked a whole bunch of 'them' in there before I got comfy here with my gun-nut friend."
Alec raised an eyebrow. "Im sorry, what?" he demanded. The voice laughed hysterically.
"Kidding, kidding. We killed 'em all before we settled down. So, do you want to come in the same way your friends did or are you wanting me to open those doors you have been so patient to wait by?"
"Aha! An opening!"
"Well, get moving!"
"I am, I am!"
Aria held her sword tightly and brought it around so that she could jab the grating in front of her. She gave it a hard poke to the centre and down it went, crashing onto the floor with a loud thud.
"I'll go first," Aria ordered. Mei didn't make any arguments and waited patiently as the carrot-top crawled toward the opening, peeking out cautiously and then carefully trying to lower herself down.
The room they'd emerged into was a deli area, locked off from the rest of the shopping places and such. Aria couldn't recognise a couple of the logos for some of the stores, but she sure as hell knew a McDonalds and a Subway when she saw one!
Tables were neat and chairs were in their rightful places, not a scrap of rubbish to be seen. Directly below her was the grating, snapped in half from the impact of the fall. Aria gulped in worry as she slowly slid herself down.
She landed on the ground with a hard thump of her feet, and then fell back as her feet tingled with pain. Aria sucked in a breath and let one out, moving aside so that Mei could drop down as well. The younger girl landed the moment Aria had moved, her axe stabilising her balance and keeping her upright.
Both girls stood and glanced around the area, curiously taking in how many food stands were there. In total, there were eight places to eat from.
Stomachs grumbled, and immediately they sped off toward the food stand of their choice.
Aria raced for the Subway stand, making a beeline for the drinks and yanking out a bottle of Vanilla Coke. Mei ran straight for the McDonalds stall and vaulted over the bench, heading straight for the ice-cream machine. Instead of grabbing a cup used for the sundaes, she grabbed a large cup for the drinks and started serving herself a large cup of ice-cream.
The two girls met back at a table between the two stalls, immediately digging into the food they'd grabbed in a heartbeat. Aria held in her hands a foot-long sub with room-temperature teriyaki chicken in it, while Mei chowed down on some fries – also room-temperature.
The moment they were almost finished with their food and beginning to drink their drinks, footsteps coming from outside of the food area alerted them.
Both of them stood, weapons at the ready as they swallowed the food in their mouths, watching every entrance with a glare. They'd been certain that none of 'them' were inside, so what else would be?
"Hey!" Alec's voice rang out, surprising them. "Quit hogging all the food!"
His lungs were begging for air, the smoke suffocating him too much to let him breathe. Mitsuru ran through the hall as fast as he could, Jun behind him and grasping his shirt for guidance. How the hell had this happened? How the crap did the house set on fire?
"Let me go!" a child's voice came. "Iza! Help!"
Through the smoke, he could just barely make out the form of a child being picked up by a taller form – an armed form.
The taller form turned to Mitsuru as it hoisted to child's form over its shoulder, and then aimed its gun right at the boys. A shot was fired, and Mitsuru almost couldn't figure out what the bullet had hit.
Almost.
Pain seared through his leg, and he dropped to the ground with a yelp. His hands flew to the wound, feeling warm blood flowing under his palms.
"Mitsuru, what happened?" Jun asked, still keeping hold of the wounded boy's shirt. Mitsuru didn't answer, but kept his eyes on the form stalking over to them. The child's form was limp, resting over the armed form's shoulder still.
The armed form rushed at Jun, knocking him unconscious with a single blow to the head. The blind teen went down, only to be hoisted over the form's other shoulder.
Mitsuru stared up at the form with wide eyes, and then glared in scorn. Slowly, he began to figure out why the house was on fire, and how it had happened; this monster must've set it alight from the ground level and then killed anyone that dared to put it out!
The gun was raised to Mitsuru's eye level, and before he knew it the world was gone.
Dear God, I'm killing a character per chapter it seems!
Hope to see you next chappie! Next character being drawn will be Alec, m'kay?