Author's note: I had some fun going a bit deeper in the setup of the apartment building ^^

Thanks to the following reviewers: LunaticQuxxn; Gloria; 666snoopy; leighd1314; Richon; Iraheta 127; JaiJayce; Kalos

Warnings: Zombie death; some more banter; smidgen of drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 6

Morning arrived with the noise of muted groaning, which didn't bode well for their situation. Leaving Naruto to wet the towel again, Sasuke went over to the window and looked out of it. Closer to the glass, the groaning was not that muted anymore and he grimaced, resting his fingers on the windowsill.

"Any change?" Naruto sighed, settling back on the couch. The wet towel was back around his ankle. A quick look had revealed it to be still viciously swollen, but Naruto claimed he was feeling better already, being a fast healer according to him.

Sasuke scowled at the wriggling mass below in the street. Even with the charred remains spread across the asphalt, the herd hadn't thinned out that much. Something was keeping them here and he worried it was their presence.

"Nothing," he answered and pressed his lips together. "The herd has thinned out a bit, I suppose, but not nearly enough to risk getting to our van."

"Wonder if they can smell that we're still here," Naruto muttered and frowned up at the ceiling, stretching his leg gingerly.

"All the way up to the third floor?" Sasuke said sceptically, but it was a possibility he supposed. Not a very pleasant one, though. "If they can, we'll have even bigger problems. No, for now I guess it's because nothing else has piqued their interest so far."

With no other living humans making noise in the town, he supposed he shouldn't have been surprised to find the street basically still overflowing with the undead. If nobody else showed up, they could be stuck here for days on end. He glanced at his bag. If they rationed the supplies as much as they could, they would be able to stretch it to a week he estimated, but what about Gaara? And …

He stole a glance at Naruto, who was still frowning up at the ceiling; his arms crossed over his stomach. Sasuke had woken up this morning with Naruto practically clinging onto him like an octopus, radiating enough heat that for one disorientating moment Sasuke had truly believed he had somehow snuggled up against a heater. With how closely they had been pressed against each other, it had been rather difficult to ignore how lean Naruto truly was, verging almost on the edge of too thin. Sasuke imagined that Gaara's build wasn't much better. Given that both men had been at the compound for nearly five weeks by now with regular meals even with the rationing they were forced to do, they should have been putting on more weight. Or had their stomachs simply become incapable of eating decently sized meals?

It was a thought that made him frown, because it was yet another reminder of how long they had been on their own out there, forced to fend for themselves. That fact disturbed him for some reason and he didn't know why. They weren't the first ones who had been on the road for a long time before finding the compound and they would most likely not be the last ones either. Yet there was something about them, something about Naruto specifically, that kept drawing in Sasuke and it frustrated him to not know why. He normally never bothered becoming close to other people, yet there was something about Naruto that gained his attention time and time again.

"I wonder if we could find something that would draw them away," Naruto mumbled and sucked his lower lip between his teeth before letting it pop. "Maybe cause a distraction with Gaara. I don't think we should hope that other people show up soon and get their attention. That'd be a bit too lucky, I guess."

"And I'm not so sure whether you should hope for something like that to begin with, considering what could happen," Sasuke pointed out mildly. "Fighting the dead and the living at the same time would be a bit too much."

Naruto squinted at him before giving a roguish smile. "My bet's on the dead then in that case."

Sasuke snorted. Yeah, in that scenario he would bet on the zombies too. He turned back to the window when movement across the street caught his attention. Gaara was awake as well, nodding at him in greeting. From this distance Sasuke couldn't be certain whether the other man had managed to clean up, but his face still appeared vaguely smudged.

After some quick thinking, Sasuke snatched the piece of paper they had used yesterday and used Naruto's marker to write down, 'Going to look for something to write. Running out of room'

"Gaara's awake," he announced and pressed the sheet against the window so the other man knew what he was planning. "I'm going to take a look around this floor, see if we can find extra paper before we run out of space on this one."

"Gaara's awake?" Naruto perked up and swung his legs off the couch. As soon as his injured foot touched the floor, he stared down at it contemplatively as if trying to figure out just how much pressure it could hold.

"I think it'd be best if you let your ankle rest a bit longer," Sasuke advised. "Gaara will understand."

He wasn't a medical expert by any means, but he doubted putting pressure on a twisted ankle was a good idea. They didn't have anything to wrap around the ankle that could act as support, so Naruto's best option for now was to let it rest.

"I'm fine," Naruto dismissed his concern. "It might look like shit somewhat, but the pain's already decreased. I usually don't take long bouncing back from whatever. Could be my genes, no idea."

"Don't come complaining to me if you fuck up your ankle even worse," Sasuke warned darkly and walked over to the improvised barricade, putting the nightstands to the side before dragging the table out of the way enough that he could access the door again.

He picked up his katana and looked at Naruto. "You got your weapon with you just in case?"

They hadn't come across any of the undead upstairs yesterday, but it was possible they had missed one. They could be hidden in one of the other apartments. Sasuke didn't want to leave Naruto vulnerable, but he had to take a look and see if the other apartments yielded something useful.

Naruto patted his machete in reply while he hobbled over to the window, apparently determined to ignore Sasuke's advice.

"I'll be right back," he promised and opened the door wide enough to slip through.

He held his katana ready as he carefully checked the corridor first. It looked the same as when they had arrived yesterday; no signs of the undead wandering about. He kept his back to the wall and quickly, but quietly crossed the hallway to the other end first, deciding he would work his way back from there. The door of this apartment stood ajar; faded blood trails stained the wood, smudged all the way from the middle to the bottom as if someone had leant against the door before falling down. He rapped his knuckles against the doorframe: loud enough that anything present in the apartment would hear him, but silent enough that it wouldn't agitate the undead outside.

Nothing came to greet him or made noise.

The layout of this apartment was basically the same as the one they were currently occupying with the main difference being that the window in the bedroom looked out at a row of roofs. He searched through every room meticulously, but it yielded nothing that they could use to write on. The only pieces of paper he found were decayed newspapers; the characters were still too legible to be of use to them. The pens stashed in one drawer were all empty, because of course they were. Who even kept empty pens? Shaking his head, he left the apartment and rapped his knuckles on the next one on his left.

This one was completely thrashed. Everywhere he looked, there was nothing but broken pieces of wood and shattered glass. Unreadable graffiti covered the walls and the one futon remaining had been shredded to bits; its filling pooled onto the floor, having turned a nasty brown and grey colour. He wasn't even going to shift through the rubble here and left, kicking open the apartment across from it. This one was a bit more organised still. Most of the furniture was still standing, covered with a thick layer of dust. Old dishes still cluttered the sink; some kind of black mould growing on the plates. Grimacing, he turned around, making his way to the room he guessed was the bedroom.

This room had apparently belonged to a gamer. Shelves filled with dusty videogames greeted him, together with a bunch of empty ramen cups and empty bottles littering the furniture and the floor. Old faded tracks showed the pattern that the desk chair had made over a long period of time; it was spun away from the desk upon which a laptop still stood, closed and covered with such a thick layer of dust Sasuke couldn't even tell what the original colour had been. With the amount of empty cups and the wheel tracks still firmly embedded in the carpet, he couldn't help but wonder if this apartment – or at the very least the bedroom – had belonged to a hikikomori. The curtains were partly closed, leaving just enough daylight through to see. The bed was unmade, as if the occupant had only just got up.

Done observing the room, he made his way over to the desk, avoiding the empty cups. He opened the drawer, having to put some force behind it and right as it shot open, an odd muted sound reached his ears. He stilled and looked up, trying to locate the sound. It was silent for a couple of seconds and then it was there again: still muted, but growing in strength.

A zombie moaning.

He whirled around, raising his katana in preparation. He went to check the corridor, but as he passed the wardrobe, it started shaking as if something within was trying to get out.

"Are you kidding me?" he muttered and after kicking away several cups, he braced himself and quickly flung the door of the wardrobe open.

There seated with crossed legs was the undead body of what had once been a very lanky, long haired young man. His muscles had wasted away, his skin basically sticking to bones only, looking a sickly mottled green. As soon as his empty eyes landed on Sasuke, the zombie started gurgling louder, reaching out with shaky hands. His eyes rolled back and he began crawling forwards. Before he could latch onto Sasuke's ankle, Sasuke stabbed him straight through the forehead, cutting off his awful moaning.

"Guess you tried to wait out the apocalypse in the wardrobe, huh," Sasuke muttered and after shaking off most of the blood, he went back to the desk, but he only found a couple of stubby pencils left. Nothing decent again.

The third apartment was completely empty; it had probably been up for sale or rent before the world had gone to shit. The fourth and last apartment looked more promising upon first sight. It had belonged to a family before; several pictures still decorated the wall. He stopped to look at one of them, which showed a young couple laughing; the woman's dark hair slightly curly. Both the man and the woman had their arms wrapped around a very young, dark haired boy who was grinning so widely his eyes were crescent shaped; his grin showing off some missing teeth. The long scarf he wore trailed down, covering part of his parents' legs; some tufts of dark hair peeked out from underneath the white cap he wore.

Every picture present showed a loving, happy family in all sorts of settings: from the front of a school to an amusement park. Sasuke spent a moment wondering if the family had managed to escape on time before pushing that thought out of his mind. He made his way deeper into the apartment where traces of the past owners were still visible. They appeared to have left in a hurry a while ago. The fridge still contained some boxes with expired food; the fruit bowl was filled with a brownish mush that might have been apples at one point. The wardrobes had been left open; some clothes having spilt onto the floor. Toys littered the ground in the boy's bedroom; one shoe discarded next to the bed, missing its counterpart. Clearly they hadn't decided to attempt to wait out the apocalypse here.

Another round in the living room revealed something he had missed earlier: a whiteboard. Next to it on the windowsill was a box with black markers and Sasuke hastily grabbed one, trying it out on the whiteboard.

It worked.

He smiled satisfied, dumping the marker back into the box and sheathing his katana. It wasn't pen and paper, but it would do the job just fine.

"Found something that'll make communicating with Gaara easier," Sasuke announced, rolling the whiteboard to the middle of the room and placing the box with the markers on the table before he shoved the table back against the door.

The nightstands were put on top of the table as well. He hadn't come across zombies anymore after that one guy in the apartment, but he wasn't taking any chances either. As long as they remained here, the barricade would stay in place.

"Paper?" Naruto asked absentmindedly. He was staring out of the window, his hands braced against the windowsill; his injured foot hovered awkwardly above the floor.

"No, something better," Sasuke replied and wheeled the whiteboard towards the window. "We won't have to worry about running out of paper with this."

Naruto turned his head and his eyes lit up at the sight of the whiteboard. "Was somebody into some kinky teacher-student roleplay?" he grinned.

"Is that seriously all you can think about?" Sasuke asked exasperatedly and placed the whiteboard in front of the window. "I found this in an apartment belonging to a family of three."

Naruto squinted at him. "Do you think parents can't get into some kinky shit or so? Man, you are so repressed," he said mournfully before perking up. "How about I teach you to loosen up, hm? You can be the teacher, I'll be the delinquent student," he suggested; his eyes glittering. He was clearly enjoying the bullshit he was spouting.

"How about no?" Sasuke deadpanned. "Get your mind out of the gutter already."

"Really, Sasuke, how do you expect me to do that when you come in with - " Naruto cut himself off when the sound of knocking on glass grew stronger.

They both turned to look out of the window and saw Gaara lowering his fist before he started writing something down. 'What's going on?'

Naruto grabbed a marker from the box and quickly wrote down on the whiteboard, 'Sasuke found this board to use. But it's a no to the kinky roleplay apparently'

"Are you serious?" Sasuke hissed and snatched the marker away, hastily removing the message with the eraser that clung to the board with magnets. "I will defenestrate you, I swear to god."

He chanced a glance at Gaara, but the other man appeared mostly amused; probably used to his friend's stupid antics.

"Oh, a big word, I like that! Quite the turn-on, not going to lie," Naruto grinned shamelessly, almost purring the words.

"Don't test me, Naruto," Sasuke warned him. "You're making it tempting to open this window and push you outside."

"Nah, you wouldn't," Naruto said confidently. "You're too good a person for that. But don't worry," he winked, "I happen to like nice boys."

Sasuke thought the punch to his arm was quite justified.

'Use zombie guts to make our way to the van'

Sasuke was this close to asking whether those two had been hit on the head one too many times in the past. "We can't use that as our plan," he stated, writing it down on the board as well for Gaara to see.

"Okay, look, I know you might be squeamish," Naruto started, adjusting his weight to his non-injured leg.

"This has nothing to do with me being squeamish or not," Sasuke interrupted him. "Gaara and I could do it, sure, but do you think you'll be able to make it all the way to the van with that injury without attracting their attention? You really want to take that risk?"

He wrote his objection down on the board as well, so that Gaara remained in the loop.

"It's not so bad," Naruto started to deny, but again Sasuke cut him off.

"You haven't put that foot down the entire time you've been standing and you've been leaning your weight more and more against the wall," he told him bluntly. "That doesn't look to me like it's not that bad."

"You're being a dick," Naruto informed him with a frown, but a look across the street showed that surprisingly Gaara was agreeing with Sasuke this time.

'Keep the guts stuff as last resort,' the red haired man suggested.

Naruto sighed deeply, but didn't make another attempt to argue, which was as good as giving in.

"Our best bet would be to distract them with something," Sasuke said, jotting it down on the board. "I'm going to take a look around, see if we missed something that could be of use. We still have bullets, but that distraction won't last long and the sound might draw even more of them here."

'I'll take a look around here,' Gaara let them know and disappeared from view.

"I'll take a look around the living room," Naruto suggested and pushed himself away from the wall.

Sasuke shook his head, but didn't say anything. If Naruto wanted to fuck up his ankle even worse, that was his prerogative he supposed. He ignored the kitchen, because he had already emptied all the cabinets and drawers there yesterday and had checked all the corners of the tight space, so he knew there was nothing of interest to be found there. There might be something in the bedroom, though. He hadn't paid that room much attention so far, except for taking the nightstands – which had been disappointingly empty – and ensuring there was a bed they could sleep in. Perhaps the previous owners had left something behind?

The wardrobe crammed into the right corner was empty save for a couple of empty wire hangers; the previous occupants had taken everything with them when they had left. He knelt down on the floor, sticking his hand underneath the bed and feeling around the springs. In some houses they had got lucky that way when the past owners had stuck weapons to the springs, but no such luck here. Next he lifted up the carpet, but aside from several large dust bunnies, nothing could be found underneath this either, not even any loose planks he could try to pry open.

He let the carpet drop back and straightened up to look around the room. There was an air vent built right next to the door and he regarded it dubiously. Should he try it out? Well, they had nothing but time now, so …

Returning to the living room, he saw Naruto riffling through a closest, throwing papers – bills? – to the floor. He went to his bag and retrieved a screwdriver from it. It was mainly used as a makeshift weapon in case he ran out of bullets or the space was too narrow for him to use his katana, but now he could use it for its actual purpose: removing the screws from the air vent.

After unscrewing the last screw, he plucked the cover away and placed it on the ground. He carefully felt around in the small space; his fingers bumped against something small and roundish.

"Bingo," he muttered and pulled the unknown object towards him, curious as to what it might be.

Fireworks. He was holding a bundle of fireworks.

He stared at the small bundle for a long time, uncertain whether he was really looking at fireworks. It was such an odd thing to hide in an air vent of all places. What had the owner been planning on doing with it? Had they wanted to celebrate something before the world had come crashing down? But why hide it in the air vent then? That had taken a lot of effort just to hide fireworks of all things.

Shaking his head, he put the fireworks back into the vent. Maybe he could grab them with him when they left here, as a surprise for Deidara or so. That guy would get a kick out of this for sure.

He left the bedroom again. "You found anything?" he asked and couldn't help but frown when he saw the way Naruto was bracing himself against the back of the couch.

"Nah, nothing 'cept for some paperwork and some empty pens. Doubt we can do much with those," Naruto replied, somewhat listlessly. The change in tone was quite noticeable with how flirty and almost upbeat he had been earlier. He winced when he hobbled to the window, sinking down on the windowsill with his lips tightly pressed together as his hand landed on his left knee.

"You overworked your ankle?" Sasuke inquired neutrally. He had no desire to fight or start the argument again, but he had warned him about it.

It might feel less painful, but even to Sasuke's unexperienced eyes that ankle looked nowhere near ready enough to carry Naruto's full weight – slim as he was to start with.

Instead of becoming annoyed, though, Naruto merely sighed wearily and ran his fingers through his hair. "Hm, looks like it. I must have twisted it more than I thought at first."

One night of rest wouldn't be enough to undo running on a sprained ankle and dragging himself up three flights of stairs on top of remaining standing for quite a while.

"We don't have to leave right now," Sasuke said and walked over to the window as well, looking down at the street. He pressed his lips together; still no real improvement in the mass of zombies lumbering around. "I've still got food and water in my bag and we've got those soup packages left. Gaara also managed to find some food. We can stretch it out to a week if need be. I'm sure Gaara will understand. That should give you enough time t-"

Naruto, however, was shaking his head and a spark of irritation ignited within Sasuke. "What?"

"Staying here for a week could be suicide," Naruto said flatly. "There's no saying how large that herd will remain and for how long and what happens when the food is gone, hm? Gaara doesn't have a supply for longer than a week either, if that."

"Got a better plan then?" Sasuke asked, harsher than he intended, but he didn't like the infliction of resignation that was creeping into Naruto's voice.

"'Course," Naruto said easily to his surprise. "Was thinking I could distract them while you and Gaara get the hell out of here with the van. Should work. Those fuckers get mightily fixated if they think they can bite someone."

"And what would you do after we get into the van?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

The dry look in those blue eyes had him clenching his hands into fists. "I ain't going to do shit, 'cept for holing up here. You two get your arses back to the compound with the supplies like promised."

"Leaving you here would be signing your death sentence!" Sasuke bit out, slamming his hand on the windowsill. "Are you out of your fucking mind right now?! There's no way you can defend yourself with just one good leg if they break through!"

"Look," Naruto began and Sasuke wanted to punch the fucker for using a goddamn reasonable tone of voice, like they weren't discussing leaving him behind, like he wasn't telling Sasuke and his own best friend to leave him behind to die. "There's no point in all of us staying here. Like you said, my ankle is fucked now; if I have to be honest, I doubt I could run all the way down and to the van. You two can, though. I can distract them while you and Gaara wait for the right moment and then - "

"No. Forget it!" Sasuke snapped and slashed his hand through the air like he could destroy that fucked up proposition that way. "We all arrived here and we're all going to leave here. I'm not leaving you behind and if you think for one second that Gaara will agree to that goddamn stupid plan of yours, you don't know your friend that well!"

When Naruto opened his mouth, presumably to protest or say some more stupid shit, Sasuke practically snarled, "This is not up for fucking debate, Naruto! We're not leaving you behind, end of story! You didn't get bitten, you're not dying, you've got a fucking sprained ankle, for fuck's sake! We'll stay here until your ankle heals a bit more and we'll figure something out!"

He stormed into the bedroom before the other man could react, rage wildly coursing through him, begging to be unleashed. Throwing the remaining pillows against the wall did absolutely nothing but piss him off even further and he remained standing next to the bed, his nails digging sharply into his skin: his breathing loud and laboured.

Dimly he became aware of an uneven footfall slowly approaching him.

"I didn't mean to piss you off," Naruto said quietly, somewhere behind him.

Sasuke didn't turn around, staring unseeingly at the wall where the pink and green striped wallpaper was slowly peeling off around the edge of the ceiling.

"I was just thinking about getting you two away from here," he continued subdued.

"Yeah? Why not think about a way for all of us to get out of here?" Sasuke snorted and rubbed his forehead. Pressure pulsed in his temples; a headache was steadily creeping up on him.

"Twisted ankle. You two are still in good shape."

Sasuke had no trouble envisioning the blond man shrugging now, even though he had yet to turn around to face him. When had he become so attuned to the other one that he could guess his reactions without even needing to look at him? It was somewhat disconcerting.

"Makes sense for me to be the distraction then. Besides," Naruto continued lightly, too lightly, "you've got people to go back to."

"Yeah? What, you don't?" Sasuke scoffed, concentrating on his breathing. "You've got Gaara. That's someone to go back to."

"No sense in keeping Gaara stuck here as well. I can try leaving once my ankle gets better."

It had taken them a couple of days reaching this place with the van; who knew how long it would take on foot, especially when injured? A van could at least offer some protection against a herd, but on foot you would be fucked if there was nothing nearby to hide. Naruto's half-arsed plan was bullshit.

"You're wrong," Sasuke decided to voice his thoughts aloud; something within him settling, calmness descending over him.

"Pardon?"

Now he turned around to face him, taking in the way Naruto was awkwardly leaning against the doorjamb, attempting to keep his weight off his injured ankle. Looked at his large, blue eyes, filled with incomprehension and wariness; that constant wariness that hadn't left his gaze since the second he and Gaara had shown up at the gates. He glanced at the air vent then, at the secret contained within, and immediately a plan unfurled itself in his mind; the steps unfolding in front of him like a flower blooming open in the sun.

"Your plan is idiotic," Sasuke said and Naruto frowned heavily. "We're not doing that. We're going to stay here for two more days and you're going to spend that time either on the couch or the bed, I don't care, as long as you'll rest. Two more days should be enough to give your ankle a bit more time to start healing."

"And what then? What's your grand escape plan, hm? Considering you're refusing to use zombie guts," Naruto drawled, narrowing his eyes with scepticism.

"Gaara can still cover himself with zombie guts; that's probably going to be the safest way for him to get into the van," Sasuke said and Naruto reared back in surprise. "I'm going out there."

He jerked his thumb backwards at the wall behind him. "The roof is close by. I'll use the apartment at the end of the hallway to get access to the roof through the window there. I'll set up the distraction further in the street while you drag your arse and our bags to the first floor. Gaara should have got into the van by then. You're going to wait there until I back up the van right against the window and then you'll jump on top of the roof. After that we'll get the hell out of here."

"You know, while that all sounds really adventurous and very cool, I do have one teeny tiny question," Naruto said, somewhat condescending. "I can imagine Gaara using zombie guts to get into the van, but how are you going to distract them yet still be able to get into the van in one piece, hm?"

Sasuke smirked, the action obviously surprising Naruto by the way he appeared taken aback, and walked past him to the air vent where he stuck his hand inside.

"With these." He smugly brandished the fireworks. "Think these will provide a nice distraction, don't you?"

Naruto stared incredulously at the small bundle before he started laughing, throwing his head back. Sasuke's smirk softened into a grin.

"Well, hell," Naruto grinned and locked eyes with him. "I guess that's one way of setting up a distraction."

Gaara's grin upon being informed of the plan matched theirs. It was an unorthodox plan, but it was one that was going to work. They would make sure of that.

AN2: I can't believe I never thought of using zombie guts in The Long Run. Ah well, Gaara's presence certainly does change things, doesn't it?

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.