At first I regretted the ending I had planned for Survival
Then I remembered the joys of Conflict P3 and tweaked the major plot points a teensie bit.
Hope you enjoy this one, guys~!
"Jesus Christ!"
"What happened?"
"Where's Aria? Are you okay?"
"You're bleeding... Shit, Wendy can you stitch this up?"
"I-I don't know! I've never done it b-before!"
"Where the fuck is Aria!?"
"That guy said he wasn't alone... I think- I think there's one b-behind the c-counter..."
All she heard after that, upon coming to, was the door beside the counter crashing open. Vision returned slowly, a bleary image of the man from before, standing just in front of her and ready to deal a fatal blow, before he was flung back by a familiar sound. She'd heard it before - somewhere, somehow. But what was it?
Wait... It was slowly coming back to her... That was the sound of Kit's Pardini. She'd heard it once, when Alec had borrowed it.
A smaller form came skidding towards her, frantic questions about her wellbeing. Aria glanced up, spotting the worried features of Kit, and slowly began to push herself up off of the floor. She tried to say something, but words were escaping her. She couldn't ask if Iza was okay, or if there had been any other people waiting in the store. Kit helped pull her to her feet, slinging one of Aria's arms over her shoulder and walking her out of the room as carefully as possible. Aria searched frantically for any sign of what had happened, only to spot the group crowding around a slumped form against a wall. Aria began tp panic, wondering who it was, and quickly glanced down to a bloody corpse just a little distance away from the group. It was a man's body, bloodied knife in hand and face barely recognisable. Mei must've gotten ahold of him, she thought to herself.
The group slowly parted as they neared, revealing Iza to be the person on the floor. She was pale, almost as pale as Sora had been, and blood was seeping from a wound on her chest. Her eyes had deep bags under them, and all Aria could think was, She shouldn't be looking like this so soon. I couldn't have been out for that long.
"I think some of the..." Iza paused to take a breath, smiling guiltily. "Some zombie blood was... On the knife."
Almost immediately, Freddy dove for the knife in the man's hand and examined it. There was a thick coating of blood, too dark to belong to a human, underneath the fresh layer of blood from Iza's wound. It was all mixing in, sticking to the blade like honey.
"Guys," Freddy said slowly. "Does human blood get this dark?"
"H-How dark?" Wendy asked cautiously.
Freddy hesitated. "Almost black."
At that, Wendy let out a small sob, turning to Iza frantically. "I think you're right," she whimpered.
Almost immediately, Mei snapped. She threw her axe to the ground with a roar, turning on her heel and advancing on Aria. Grasping the older girl by the collar, she yanked Aria away from Kit and snarled in her face, "This is on you."
Aria didn't disagree. "This is on me," she replied, nodding slowly. "It's on me. Not you."
A hurt expression flickered across Mei's face for just a moment, but it was quickly replaced by a look of anger as she shoved the older girl away. Aria stumbled a few steps, unable to regain her balance, and fell onto her behind as Iza tried to get everyone's attention. Roberto was the only one properly listening, close to yelling at the group once more for their attention.
The group gathered around Iza once again, watching as her skin turned even more pale by the second. It was taking longer than what Aria had seen with Yomi, but the signs were starting to show. Iza wasn't just dying from a stab wound - she was turning from the blood mixing in with her own.
"So this was fun," Iza said quietly. The younger members of the group all shifted closer, but were held back by the elder members. Iza smiled at that. "Glad I made it this far. Sucks that I have to-" She coughed, the first spray of blood flying from her lips. "To die like this."
There was a vibration in Aria's pocket, probably her phone. She reached for it weakly as Iza continued on. "Gonna miss you guys," she said. "Don't forget me, 'kay?"
She was struggling to so much as look at them, her head slowly tilting downwards with each passing minute. Wendy released a shuddered breath as she counted down the second to Iza's turning, remembering Kozan's clearly. It'd been ten minutes after he'd found Wendy that he'd changed, and he'd been bitten before. It was at any given moment now that Iza would start to turn.
Her death was peaceful, compared to Sora's. The others weren't screaming, Iza was drifting off into a deep sleep, and everyone's tears were silent, mostly to help bring her some calm. As soon as her breathing stopped, the others readied their weapons. Mei was the first to act when Iza came back; she knelt in front of the girl, taking the handle of the axe, and lodged it between Iza's teeth. Aria's phone, now in her hand, continued to vibrate. It was the fourth time it'd started going off, Daniel's caller ID displayed on the screen; all that mattered right now was Iza, however.
Mei held Iza there as long as she could, begging the others to help her. She didn't want to take another life, she reasoned, and she couldn't kill her only friend. Everyone was reluctant to move, but in the end it was Kit who took the extra two steps forward and pointed her gun at Iza's forehead. As the zombie tried to get out of Mei's hold and bite either of the girls, Kit pulled the trigger. A muffled shot was all the group heard, and all they saw was red.
Iza's blood splattered up the wall, her limbs became limp, and Mei screamed in horror.
"Daniel?" she squeaked. Roberto opened the door for her and helped her inside the small truck, watching carefully for any danger as the others piled into the back of the vehicle. It seemed that there really had been a delivery truck in the back of the store, and it still had a full tank. Aria settled into the passenger side seat and lightly felt her head, wincing at the bruising under the bandages. "When are you coming?"
Daniel was panicking on the other end, frantically apologising for the helicopter in the park and the pain they'd been put through. He didn't even need to see his sister to know what they'd suffered - the fatigue in her voice was apparently explanation enough. Roberto closed Aria's door and hurried over to the other side, taking the keys and inserting them into the ignition, and soon enough he was driving the delivery truck out of the gas station. Behind them, the store slowly burned; a fire had been lit just outside the storage room, slowly making its way towards the pumps, and Aria waburst through the windows. They were a fair distance away when the fire reached the first pump, and she had to close her eyes as she watched the cloud of fire rise from the ground and burn everything around it. Even as Roberto turned into the next street, she could still see the giant ball of red in the sky.
"Aria? You there?" Daniel asked. Aria nodded, only then realising that he wasn't beside her, couldn't see her.
"I'm here," she said quietly. "Where do you want to meet us?"
"Aria, I want you to listen carefully, okay? We aren't in the area, which means we don't know where the safest point to land would be without attracting attention."
Roberto ran over a zombie on the next street, its head leaving a large crack in the windshield. Neither of them reacted to it and continued on regardless. "Okay," she slowly replied. "Do you want us to find a safe place and then call you?"
"That'd be preferable, yes." He paused, taking in a deep breath. "We can't afford to lose any more of your group - I can't afford for the next loss to be you."
Aria breathed out a laugh, her head hurting just a bit now. "At the rate I'm going, I'll be the next loss anyway."
Roberto's grip on the steering wheel tightened, but he made no comment. Aria didn't notice it, going on, "Besides, I've gotta put the rest of them before myself - I'd be a bad mum if I worried about me first and my babies second."
"Aria, what-"
"Just focus on doing your job, okay? We'll get there, I promise."
He didn't respond for a few moments. Another zombie was run over, this time taking a side mirror with it. "Okay," Daniel agreed. "Just make sure you keep that promise."
"I will." After a few more moments of conversation, mostly just learning about Daniel's wellbeing, Aria hung up and leaned back in her seat. They'd covered some distance, already on a main road and far away from the now-grounded fireball. Aria sighed as she closed her eyes, a sudden headache washing over her as she tried to listen to the sound of the truck's engine.
After a few minutes, she heard a husky intake of breath right in her ear. Her eyes flew open, no sign of anyone directly beside her, but she could feel the stare of someone - someone definitely not Roberto, whose red and blue eyes were locked on the road - on the back of her neck; a hand brushed her own, nails dancing over the skin, and suddenly she shrieked, "Pull over!"
Roberto complied hurriedly, shocked at her outburst, and pulled over on the side of the road. The highway was just a small ways away, and Roberto was more then certain that they'd find help if they continued on for the next hour or so. Aria burst out of the truck, falling to her knees and balancing on the palms of her hands as her stomach churned uncontrollably. Before she could stop herself, everything she'd eaten within the past few hours came rushing back up. She was surprised at how much came out, how easily she broke down halfway through; by the time she was done, just ten minutes later with Roberto patting her back lightly, making soothing sounds, she was dry heaving and sobbing like a child. A ringing was present in her ears, blocking out almost all sound aside from her group demanding to know what was wrong.
"Aria," Roberto said, giving her a small shake. She coughed loudly, wanting to reply by unable to find the words. "You okay?"
Again, her reply took longer than she'd wanted. "'M fine," she slurred. "'Ead 'urts."
All eyes went to Wendy, who immediately stepped forward and knelt in front of Aria. She held the shaking girl's face in her hands and forced her to look her in the eye, observing her face carefully. Aria was finding it hard to keep focus, a wave of dizziness taking over. She could barely see the twelve-year-old's face as Wendy reported what was wrong - Aria was suffering from a concussion, this time worse than what Mei had caused. Wendy snapped her fingers in front of Aria's face as the older girl's eyelids drooped, and quickly asked how many members in the group there were as of this very moment.
Aria took a moment to think it over. Mei, herself, Roberto, Wendy, Kit Freddy, Iza... Seven.
"What does that mean?" Kit demanded, hurriedly kneeling beside Wendy. Had Aria counted out loud? "Did she just forget-"
"Memory loss surrounding a traumatic event - usually the one that caused the concussion - isn't uncommon," Wendy reported. "Aria, what happened this morning?"
Yet another moment was taken to rethink. "We was in th' st'tion," she said. "An'... An'..." She couldn't remember what happened next. Crap, what happened?
Wendy was urgently advising the group, taking an authoritative tone and ordering them to pick up Aria, take her into the back and to make sure the others monitored her behaviour. Wendy mentioned that Aria might become irritable at some point, and advised them to use her phone's light in order to check the size of her pupils; if her pupils were larger than normal, or of uneven size, they really needed to find a doctor faster than the pace they were already going.
Aria was hoisted off of the ground, groaning and flailing about weakly in an attempt to stand on her own, and was loaded into the back of the truck with Kit and Freddy. Roberto decided to keep Mei in the front with him, just so Wendy could keep an eye on Aria without Mei disobeying due to her hatred of kids. The group was happy with that, and within moments they were on the move again.
She vomited three more times in the next half hour, the delivery truck pulling over twice due to Wendy banging on the walls in order to get Roberto's attention. After the third time they pulled over, some four hours after Aria's last vomit, Roberto announced that they needed a rest. He said that Mei wasn't to drive again, especially after the last time they put her behind the wheel, and a fifteen minute power nap for everyone would help greatly. They all agreed, letting the two older teens sleep in the front of the truck as the youngsters of the group watched over Aria. She drifted in and out of consciousness every so often, lasting no longer than twenty seconds at most. She constantly complained about being tired.
At some point, she started hearing voices from outside the truck. No one opened the roller door to check, afraid someone was outside and willing to hurt the group. They became extremely concerned when Aria said they were screaming and banging on the door - none of the younger teens heard it, saying that there wasn't any sounds coming from outside. Aria soon fell asleep some two minutes after her last complaint, muttering about letting Sora into the truck. Neither Kit, Freddy or Wendy knew what to say to that.
They resumed travel as Aria slept, occasionally asking Wendy what would happen if they didn't reach a doctor in time. Wendy simply said that Aria would suffer from one or many things after she recovered, probably in little over a week, but was sure to point out that her risk of developing epilepsy would double thanks to the concussion. Conversation died at that point, and the truck only pulled over again at a small supermarket. Roberto and Freddy went in to get food, leaving the girls to look after Aria and defend the truck, and they returned rather quickly with more blood on them than before.
"Zombies," Freddy had explained as he handed canned food to each member. Roberto took the responsibility of waking Aria, giving Wendy a break, and did his best to feed her in her dazed and delusional state. She continuously watched the open roller door, muttering between spoonfuls of beans that Sora and Iza were waiting, waving to the group enthusiastically.
Wendy made the guess of schizophrenia as soon as Aria was asleep again, listing the symptoms she was exhibiting. The rest of the group all had their own special reactions, but each one followed the same thought: This is going to be tough to handle. They were prepared to help the group mother with a concussion - Wendy could easily direct them on how to act, what to do, how to treat certain symptoms - but dealing with a psychotic mental disorder? They didn't even know what medication they could pilfer from any nearby pharmacies, let alone if it could be treated!
A full night passed. Aria's symptoms began to lessen. She was becoming more responsive, but wasn't her usual self; she barely made eye contact, didn't gesture as frequently, and often kept a blank expression as she spoke. Even Mei was beginning to worry, especially when Aria didn't respond normally to her pestering. The group felt uncomfortable, actually, and it didn't help that she just sat as still as a statue - as opposed to her previous state, in which she demanded they let her move around - every time they checked her eyes. It felt like an eternity before they found a new and empty house to sleep in, relieved that they could let the girl wander a little and hopefully get back into her right mind, even if for a few hours.
Daniel called again, and this time Mei answered Aria's phone. They'd confiscated it whilst the girl was delusional and dizzy, attempting to film a video diary (which Mei promptly took over and gave a rather foul-mouthed version of the day's events). Daniel was a little caught off-guard, and Mei barely spared him any curses as she gave him the news bluntly: Aria had suffered from a concussion, and was apparently showing signs of schizophrenia. Daniel's response had been ominous, a short, "Another one..." before he thanked Mei and hung up. Roberto took responsibility of the phone soon after, sighing as he checked for messages every twenty minutes.
Aria slept in the bathroom, all by herself, while the rest of the group slept together in the living room. They'd gathered as many blankets as possible and tried to stay close for warmth, and only managed to sleep for two hours at most - the sound of Aria hitting her fist gently against the inside of the bathtub was too much to let them sleep longer, and none were daring enough to confront her in this state.
"We're really falling apart," Freddy announced. "I don't know if we'll be able to get much farther like this."
Kit rested her head on his shoulder, frowning as she hummed in agreement. "If it wasn't scary before, it sure is now," she said. "We're smaller, and we can't handle another attack from strangers."
The rest of the group was reluctant to agree, listening as Aria finally stopped hitting the tub. Footsteps, dragged and stumbled, came down the wood floor, and stopped in the kitchen. The group witnessed her walk past the doorway ever so slowly, watching them with narrowed eyes and a blank expression, and listened in anticipation as she raided the fridge in the next room. As she stumbled back, watching them with the same expression, Roberto spoke up and caught her attention.
"Aria," he called. She paused in the doorway, looking at him yet not looking at him. "Are you with us?"
It felt like a lifetime, waiting for her to reply as she stood on her own in the doorway, a small snack in her hands as she watched the boy carefully. She said nothing, waiting for a few moments to pass, before finally moving on without a word. As soon as she was back in the bathroom, the tub-hitting resumed.
Mei let out a deep breath, cradling her head in her hands. "Jesus fucking tits, that was creepy," she breathed.
"It'll get easier," Roberto told her. "It'll take a while, but it'll get easier."
"'Things have to get worse before they can get better'," Freddy recited. "Sounds like the perfect phrase to describe our situation."
"Well, let's hope 'better' gets its ass moving," Mei grumbled, "because this shit is not right. I mean, how the fuck do you even begin to treat that?"
Kit let out a thoughtful hum, deciding to voice her idea. "Maybe antipsychotic medication?" she suggested. "They help by affecting the dopamine and serotonin, right?"
The group shrugged, unsure, but Wendy said, "It might work - schizophrenia's a chemical imbalance, so it'd make sense, I guess?" She shook her head. "We don't know for sure, and if we try to medicate her based on guesses, we might make it worse. We need to leave it until we can get back to her brother - she said he's a doctor, right? So he'll know what to do."
"Why wait?"
The group all turned to Roberto, eyes wide as he pulled Aria's phone from his pocket. He opened the address book and found Daniel's number, selecting it quickly. "Let's call him now and get an expert opinion," he said. "I'm sure he'll be dedicated to take time out of his schedule to make sure his sister's properly medicated."
He put it on speaker, setting out outwards a bit and waiting patiently for the man to pick up. After so many rounds of healing the dial tone, Daniel finally picked up with a cautious, "Hello?"
*Oops I Did It Again playing in the distance*
So I have to give thanks to Mayo Clinic dot org (haha fanfiction why do you do this) for the extra info I needed on concussions and schizophrenia - if it's not obvious, Aria's behaviour is starting to learn towards paranoid schizophrenia, with her increase in delusions and hallucinations, as well as her caution around the rest of the group. I apologise if I've gotten a few details wrong (i tried my best this late at night wweh), and I hope the chapter wasn't too rushed.
Bluh I'mma get some sleep now. Hope you enjoyed~!