Chapter 66: mission completed
Shards cracked underneath Izaya's feet as he advanced. The top of the light pole Shizuo had thrown earlier had shattered and dropped its glass onto the ground.
Looking past his shoulder Izaya threw one last glance towards the two women and Shinra.
Namie was putting the tools away. He could see her hands shake even from here.
Bloodied from her fingertips up to her elbow with no water in sight to wash herself she provided quite the disturbing sight.
Quickly moving over he searched for a certain blond haired character. Shizuo wasn't as far as he had expected him to be.
Sitting on top of a car he had chosen the highest viewpoint to keep everything in check.
"Shizuo-" Izaya called as he approached and the blond nodded quickly, "I heard," he announced while jumping off the car. "Which one?"
The variety of abandoned cars was quite amazing, really. Left open, parked on the side, or crashed into the rail guards there was an abundant amount to choose from.
The only criteria that had to be met was fuel and function. Which of course ruled half of the ruined metal present out.
"What, not complaining about stealing this time?" Izaya joked, referring to the first time he hijacked a car right after meeting Shizuo.
He could still remember his ludicrous scowl and initial reluctance to commit what he considered a crime.
Nothing but a worried smile followed this time around as he shook his head. No. The times where he complained about something this simple were over.
"This one?"
Shizuo pointed towards an SUV decently parked down the road. It showed no signs of destruction and the adjacent road wasn't obstructed either.
But Izaya shook his head quickly before stepping across a set of corpses on the ground.
"Too small. We need something bigger. Especially now with Shinra down and-" pausing midway Izaya's expression shifted to small delight. There it was.
A van.
Most probably belonging to the blood donation facility it was parked a little further down the road. Red and white mixed in a logo that resembled the shape of a heart and the words "Donating blood saves lives" was imprinted on the side.
It was perfect.
Usually he would opt for something small and easy to steer, but right now they needed space. Shinra needed to lay down and preferably set his thigh up high in order to prevent any unnecessary further blood loss.
Speeding up his steps Shizuo quickly followed Izaya who was already at the back of the vehicle.
A short frown accompanied by a soft click of tongue followed as Izaya slipped inside.
"Something wrong?" Shizuo asked whilst approaching.
"It was already raided."
Reaching the same destination Shizuo caught a glimpse from the inside. A bed was aligned to the left of the cabin and a set of opened and emptied cupboards to the right.
Whoever it was, someone had been here before and took everything of use breaking the lock at the back in the process.
He had wondered how Izaya had gotten inside the vehicle so fast. Well, turned out it had already been opened.
There were two very generous seats in the front row, one for the driver, one for a passenger or two. The back was quite crammed with the bed inside as well and connected by a large window in between.
Glass shattered into tiny pearls as Izaya got rid of the barrier.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting to the front. Except you would like to take over hotwiring this car." Izaya stated and with that he slipped to the front.
With no keys, unlocking it from the inside was easier than the other way round. Quicker than Shizuo expected, the engine of the vehicle purred and the van moved.
Slower than any of them had driven a car in the past two weeks they rolled up the street.
Reversing the van as if Izaya had never driven anything else in his life he skillfully approached the two women on the ground.
A soft tilt to the side was the result as the backwheel crushed the dead body of the zombie's corpse.
But no mind was paid to the sprawled guts and brain as Namie looked towards Karisawa.
Hands still set on Shinra's shoulder drawing patterns and telling sweet words of comfort she quickly nodded.
"Carefully," Namie announced as Shizuo opened the back. Izaya had hoped the bed was removable, but sadly it had been mounted to the car. It was a good thing in case they had to maneuver in not so patient friendly ways on the road, but it was also inconvenient when it came to moving Shinra.
Stepping out the group collected around the injured doctor like a group of hard working ants.
"Ready?" Namie asked, and they nodded before lifting Shinra off the ground.
Scrunches of pain flashed across Shinra's face and he bit his lips in an effort to keep quiet.
Karisawa seemed to emphasize a bit too much as her own face mimicked the paleness of Shinra's.
"Look, we are going home, everything will be alright," she assured quickly as the doctor was laid onto the bed in the back. A tired smile forced itself onto Shinra's lips, but his eyes stayed shut as he nodded.
A quick job was made of adjusting belts across Shinra's body and Karisawa sat down next to the bed in one seat that had also been mounted to the wall up front.
"I will stay here," she announced quickly, and Izaya nodded.
Namie had already turned up front.
Bloodied hands on the wheel she quickly rummaged through the driver's side in search of something to wipe herself with.
Shizuo was next to the passenger's side. As Izaya closed the back their eyes met for a brief moment and it was as though they both had the same idea.
"The machine," he asked and Izaya nodded. "We are taking it."
The backspace was large enough to put it next to Shinra.
"Namie! Reverse the car!" Izaya ordered and a complaint seemed ready to slip from Namie's lips as her brown curled into a frown. But she kept her lips shut upon meeting Izaya's gaze.
He wasn't joking. And this definitely was not the time to argue.
Without any more words she moved reversed from the alley and turned to the entrance of the blood donation facility.
A quick glance was cast towards Shizuo and Izaya whispered, "That machine-" he started, but Shizuo nodded, not needing the end of the question to understand.
"I will manage."
It was funny, the entrance was surely not meant to be trespassed by a car, but with the front side pried open and no one to care Izaya was very glad to notice that the van was just short enough to move past the door.
Reversing backwards to the point the car halted right in front of the staircase, Izaya quickly slipped behind the vehicle.
With neither Namie nor Karisawa possessing the strength to lift this off even ground into a car it was only the two of them who were left to act.
Assembling left and right of the apheresis machine, Izaya glanced up from tired eyelashes as he looked at Shizuo.
"Ready?"
A nod was given. And the machine moved.
Faster than expected and faster than Izaya liked him too, Shizuo exerted an effort to get done with the job as quickly as physically possible.
With a heavy sound the car sank just a bit as the heavy object settled in the back.
Harsh intakes of breath and heavy heaving caused Izaya's heart to sink to his guts as Shizuo wheezed.
"Are you okay?" A quick confirmative nod was given and Izaya took a quick breath of his own before straddling the machine with belts left and right.
"Fixed?" Namie called from up front and Shizuo moved towards the passenger seat.
Following quickly after, Izaya was right behind, both slipping into the generous front row.
"All done," he announced as he pulled the door shut and one last glance was thrown across her shoulder as Namie glanced towards the back.
Due to the glass having been shattered she couldn't only see Karisawa sit next to Shinra, but also hear her whispering soothing words of comfort.
"We are leaving. Everything is going to be alright."
A soft nod was given by the doctor as he let his eyes slip shut.
Oppressive silence took over the vehicle as Namie's hands gripped the wheel. The soft purr of the engine was all that was to be heard as the woman steered the van out of the building.
The map Izaya had been holding onto the entire time was pulled from the back pocket of his pants and spread across himself and Shizuo.
"You know the way I assume?" he asked curtly, while trailing their path with the tip of his finger.
"Of course, what do you take me for?" Namie uttered quietly.
Rubbish, cars, any obstacles in the way had been either moved or evaded on their way as they emerged onto the road and drove off.
This was supposed to be the easy part of their small mission.
Finding the apheresis machine and getting it onto the car should have been the only hindrance to slow them down.
Glancing past his shoulder Izaya felt a lump build inside his throat.
Shinra had fallen asleep. His chest was raising up and down in slow but even patterns and Karisawa gave a quick assuring thumbs up as soon as she noticed the glance.
This idiot. Getting injured like that- He was the only doctor. Why did he not call for them?
A hint of unreasonable guilt befell Izaya as he realized he had been the one to send him outside.
"Will he make it?" he whispered softly, not intending to have Shinra listen in, in case he was still conscious.
The oppressive silence only turned worse as Namie drove up into the highway with an expression that spelled no good news.
"I don't know," she whispered, and her eyes only narrowed as her grip on the steering wheel tightened. "I take people apart all the time when they lay on my dissection table. Run tests on their bodies, dissolve their flesh, but alive?" It was funny. Izaya had known this woman for years. But he had never seen her this affected by anything that didn't revolve around her brother. "He lost a lot of blood," she sighed and Izaya swallowed.
"Wait, wasn't that place used for blood donations? We could grab some of his and give it to him," Shizuo suddenly suggested and somehow Izaya couldn't help but smile.
A snort escaped his lips and he glanced towards the blond in what almost resembled amusement.
"How long do you think electricity has been gone Shizu-chan?" The dawn of realization was as interesting as it was amusing to watch as it grazed Shizuo's face.
And yet Izaya had been glad for the question.
It was silly. It was not helpful, and yet with its unpredicted occurrence it had managed to snap Izaya out of blaming himself for what had happened.
"With no cooling, you can't avoid the denaturation of proteins, which basically means they are functionally useless, there is also the possibility of growth of microorganisms, not to mention about the decaying process in general," Namie informed curtly, for once actually not making fun of the blond for asking the question. "A direct transfusion directly from donor to recipient might be necessary at some point, but I want to avoid it if possible."
"Why?" Karisawa had been the one to ask.
Leaning across the ledge of the window she had joined in on the conversation.
She half expected a scolding for asking yet another stupid question, but this time Namie remained professional and neutral as she replied.
"Blood donation is safe when done in a hospital in absolute sterility and with professionals at hand, but even then there are still risks. Allergic reactions, adverse reactions to the blood itself and in this environment-" she faded out.
"We don't know if the virus is something that our body is latently fighting without our knowledge." Izaya continued and Shizuo frowned.
"I thought it's transmitted by bite?"
Izaya nodded, "Body fluids. Exactly. Seeing how much zombie blood you got on yourself you should realize what I mean."
Lessons in biology that Shizuo had skipped and countless reports on the news that had warned the citizens to wash their hands and avoid human contact suddenly flooded back into Shizuo's mind. They had warned the population to keep infections as low as possible.
"Correct. If it's working on a level of microbes then there might be a small amount of it coursing through all of our veins," Namie agreed, and the horror on Karisawa's face matched Shizuo's as she looked at Namie's arms still drenched in Shinra's blood.
"... then why are we not infected?" she whispered.
A soft pause followed in which Namie herself seemed in loss of an answer. Eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel she sighed.
"The amount of "fungi" or "flatworms" possibly entering our immune system through our skin is most probably too small to do serious damage, but I can't tell for sure," a weak smile grazed her lips as she added bitterly. "A bite on the other hand…"
Of course.
Recognition mimicked in Karisawa's and Shizuo's face. Not being the number one students in biology class or scientists at heart or interest neither had thought of the possibilities before.
Izaya did.
Glance dropping to his arm he felt his own body grow with heat. Injecting himself- the risk he had taken that day had been immense.
Not only for himself.
For Shizu-chan as well.
And yet- … all of this talk, wasn't it in favor of the conclusion that he might be immune by now?
It was an idea he loved to hope for but didn't dare to believe.
"Izaya-" And suddenly Namie called his name, in a voice so strained and honest it sent goosebumps down Izaya's spine the second he heard it.
Eyes immediately darting to her he saw her locked in something in front and followed her gaze.
The van slowed down to walking speed as they approached a terrifyingly familiar face in the middle of the road.
It was Shijima Hiroto.
The guy that had almost killed Shizu-chan with his mutilated flatworms.
to be continued~
C: C: C: Ohhhh we are getting to the really good parts now C: C: C: