Chapter 80: Fungi vs flatworms
The honk was loud. As expected of a warning signal designed to warn other drivers who were similarly shut off from sound by sitting in their own cars.
But to Namie the noise seemed awfully exaggerated.
Two buildings sitting at the corner of the street cast an intimidating shadow across the plaza leading to the underground train station. The sun was setting.
Half an hour, that was the maximum time Namie estimated they had before every ounce of their surroundings would turn into flatworm territory.
Movement down the street caused Namie to flinch in her stance.
There they were.
As expected the fungi were the first to arrive at the scene.
One, two, three- more than she was willing to count emerged from all corners and side streets.
Rotting jaws and feverish gazes void of sight searched for the source of the grotesque noise and Namie felt nausea raise in the back of her throat.
She had seen them before. The atrocities this virus brought forth. But knowing they existed and facing them head on without a layer of bulletproof glass in between were two entirely different experiences.
Her fight and flight response triggered faster than she liked as nothing but the urge to run filled her mind.
And Izaya noticed.
"Get inside the shop."
Confused by the order and even more the timing, Namie's head turned to face Izaya.
"What?"
They were standing on top of their car. A thread spun from many laid bare in Izaya's palm.
It was connected to the steering wheel inside the car and the bricks that relentlessly pushed onto the honk.
She knew about the plan, she knew about the risks and about their immediate options to escape but none of that really calmed Namie down.
"You are stiff as a board. Go," Izaya repeated, and this time Namie listened.
Scared, reluctantly, but all over thankful she slipped off the vehicle while there was still time.
The shop Izaya had talked about was not too far.
Located to the right side of the street it used to sell watches of all kinds.
Clocks too, old relics as well as new. They had examined the place real quick before deeming that nothing had yet infiltrated the safe space.
Slipping past the upper section of the broken glass door Namie quickly hoped inside. Shards cracked, her back pressed into the next wall as her heart beat out of her chest in much more respect that she had anticipated.
She was scared. Izaya understood.
So was he. But compared to the panic he felt before this fear that settled in the back of his throat was of a more healthy kind.
It was very much welcome as it boosted his vigilance and tensed his body like a spring reading to jump.
A glance was cast towards Shizuo who stood by just as planned.
Right at the border of the shadow, separating the flatworm territory from the fungi.
They of course had heard the honking too, and within seconds creatures that Namie had never seen before approached Shizuo from the front.
Slowly, and very well aware of the sunlight, they stopped just before Shizuo. It had to be infuriating, seeing their target so close ahead but not being able to reach it.
The light grazing the ground was awfully dim and by every second the chance the creatures would attempt to leap towards Shizuo increased.
It should be Izaya's position.
He was immune, Shizuo was not.
But there had been a fat chance in hell that Shizuo was going to let Izaya play the bait for these bastards.
And in terms of strength he was probably the only one able to compete.
More and more of the fungi gathered around Izaya's car.
They reached for the driver's seat, as expected, completely unaware of Izaya's presence above. Within a hot minute he was surrounded and his breath slower than ever.
This was it.
Deeming the present fungi as enough in number Izaya shortly locked eyes with Shizuo.
A nod was exchanged and with that Izaya pulled the string.
Much smoother than expected the bricks layered on top of the steering wheel slipped to the side and the honking stopped.
Awful silence filled with grunts replaced the soothing even tune and Shizuo took a deep breath.
"HEY, BASTARDS, I'M HERE!"
Disturbed by the loudness, but appreciating the confidence presented, Izaya couldn't help but flinch a second and his eyes narrowed.
They turned.
All of them at once. Almost as if having been given an order.
It was a gruesome sight, and anyone but Shizuo would surely have lost their nerves.
Delighted screeches and grotesque spasms jerked the crowd to life as they slowly started to accelerate.
Izaya held his breath the second Shizuo moved.
The fungi were blind. The flatworms were not.
That was the fundamental difference between these two species. And it was the one rule they were going to exploit.
Taking a few cautious, slow and most importantly silent, steps to the side Shizuo welcomed the wave rushing towards him with no presence of his own.
Unaware of their fate the flatworms screeched as their prey fled, unable to see that it was themselves that were being preyed on soon.
Forcing their way forward, the first of the blind fungi was quick to arrive at the border of shadow and sunlight.
The flatworm in front did a quick job of it due to its superior strength, speed and undoubted advantage of vision but none of that mattered, as it had neglected the most important factor.
Sound.
Because the flatworm screeched. Whether it was of pain or in pride was nothing Izaya would have been able to discern, but it did the second it beheaded the fungus.
And the fungi heard.
A repetition of what Karisawa and Izaya had seen when being chased by one of their atrocities played out in front of Izaya's eyes as the entire horde of fungi stilled. They had heard the flatworm screech. They knew about its invasion of their natural habitat and within seconds all hell broke loose as the entirety of fungi present rushed towards the shadows.
Screeches, sounds of death, of murder and flesh tearing in spots no human would ever want it to brimmed in the tight air of annihilation.
Backing into the shop's wall Namie was also watching the horrifying scene upfront. She knew what followed next.
Shizuo was moving to a fire ladder not too far. It led to a balcony and subsequently to the top of the building.
Izaya did the same. Slipping off the car agile and silent like a cat hunting prey he abandoned his location.
Namie was supposed to follow.
Because as safe as the watch shop appeared, once the sun set a flatworm would have no issue jumping through the makeshift entrance.
More and more fungi arrived at the scene and when a wave of five finally passed the shop Namie climbed back out.
Cursing her limbs and the way they had turned into useless clunks of frozen ice stepped back onto the street.
The dying noises up front from the flatworms suffering their newest fate was enough to block out any noise her steps might make.
But they also efficiently drowned out all other fungi present.
It wasn't like Namie hadn't paid attention- rather the other way round, she paid too much attention to the horror infolding up front.
But not to her back. And that's why the rotten shoulder pushing into her own came too quick of a surprise to contain her voice.
A yelp, quiet enough to not disturb the ongoing massacre in front, but loud enough for the zombie that had bumped into her shoulder to hear, escaped her lips.
The blind rotten face turned and Namie's body did anything but move as she stood in complete shock.
She couldn't move. Her brain was screaming various signals at once at her to get away from this danger, but somehow not even a single of her muscles twitched.
Izaya saw.
It was a natural response considering she was facing humanity's greatest fear, but impractical nonetheless.
Opening its mouth the creature seemed quite torn between the ongoing rampage in front accompanied by vast noises and the delicious voice it had just heard to its right.
But Izaya was quick enough to save the brainless monster from any complicated decision making as he silently approached from the side.
A clean jab to its neck and the body rushed down with a quiet thud.
Still frozen and disbelieving Namie looked at the corpse, looked at Izaya, and somehow Izaya could tell there was a lot going on in her mind. Fear, relief and even a hint of unspoken gratitude swayed in her unspoken words as another fungus hesitated in its steps.
Izaya had seen it, and without wasting another second he grasped Namie's wrist and pulled her after. Shizuo had watched the entire scene and was waiting at the fire ladder up ahead.
Leading to a balcony on the second floor it was the safest place in range considering they wanted to keep watch of that underground train station and one second later he was on top, holding out his hand to pull the trembling woman up.
The curtain of the abandoned apartment swayed in the wind, pleasantly covering Namie's sight as her back pushed into the far end of the balcony.
Knowing it her behavior was silly and her actions having been the only ones endangering their plan she cursed her existence along with her body that had been unable to react properly.
"You didn't get bitten, did you?" Izaya asked, and Namie stilled.
Remorse, regret and the faintest tint of embarrassment layered upon each other in a complicated fashion. She had fucked up. She had thought Izaya wasn't going to let her hear the end of it. She expected insults, taunts, and most importantly, she expected Izaya to leave her behind for the fungi to eat.
It would have been easy too.
They could have returned and simply told the rest of their group that one of the zombies got her.
Anyone would believe that considering what unpredictable calamities everyone had experienced by now.
And yet- he hadn't.
Meeting Izaya's eyes she shook her head to answer the question.
And Izaya nodded with nothing but stoic earnesty, "Good."
Looking down at the horror unfolding like a scene pulled right from a horror movie, Shizuo watched the death parade. It was revolting. Guts were pulled from their respective places with not much more effort than a child gutting a watermelon.
Gurgling voices screeched while drowning in their own blood and bones cracked in a volume heard all the way to their balcony.
"And now?" Shizuo whispered slowly.
Izaya was kneeling right next to him. Shizuo knew of their plan, he knew what their ultimate goal was, but confirming whether their old plan was still up to date somehow came as second nature to him by now.
"Now we wait," Izaya announced, and sat down on the balcony with his legs dangling down between the iron rods.
The plan was easy enough.
Power came with restrictions.
And in the flatworm's case that restriction was the fact that they couldn't chase Shizuo and Izaya under the guard of sunlight. But subsequently that also meant that they were basically trapped inside their shadow.
The blind fungi might now be the strongest zombies nor were they the fastest or the smartest, but they were high in numbers.
Way higher than any flatworms present.
From what Izaya could tell there had been roughly twenty to thirty flatworms inside the train station. The fungi exceeded that number tenfold.
Twenty minutes. That was the time their self created stampede needed to etch the last of life out of the flatworms present.
By now the sun had set and only a shimmer of blood grazed the horizon with the last of its power.
The shadows on the ground had disappeared and the boundary keeping any flatworms at bay had opened into a new hunting ground.
Gnawing noises and grotesque sounds hallowed inside the train station.
Glancing over his shoulder Namie seemed to finally have calmed down.
He didn't blame her.
He had seen Karisawa's reaction upon spotting one of these monsters for the first time. Of course there had been a variety of sarcastic replies and mean jabs of words on his mind, but right now he had no interest in distracting Namie with artificial rage.
The air had turned dead quiet.
The fungi must have finished crushing what was left inside the train station, and so Izaya rose to his feet.
"Alright, time to go."
to be continued~