Chapter 82: Peace
As much as Namie hated Izaya for his plans, for his secrecy and the lack of an explanation, she couldn't deny that this room was a great find.
Ever since joining Shinra and Karisawa she had never quite felt safe. Not back in their camps, nor in the library.
And after what that damned priest did to them the tension had only kept increasing.
Letting herself slump into the surveillance chair the woman sighed for a content second as she closed her eyes.
Izaya was checking the apheresis machine and Shizuo was guarding the tightly locked door of iron as if he were expecting a new kind of monstrosity to barge right through.
It was assuring in a way. Despite Izaya's shitty character and Shizuo's simplicity these two made an awfully efficient team. She had been surprised when they first approached their group, saying they had been getting by together, but now she clearly saw why that worked so well.
Humming, Izaya drew her attention to himself and her eyes opened again.
He seemed overly pleased considering their current situation and she sighed.
"And now?"
It was a whisper, barely traversing the dusty space. The peace and tranquility of their current location affected all of them equally and rummaging through the contents of the cabins located to the left side of the room had resulted in finding a blanket and pillow on top of all the spare food and water.
Spreading the piece of cotton on the ground like a picnic at a pond, Izaya pulled over the pillow and laid down on his back.
"We wait for sunrise." Arms were crossed, body relaxed and Izaya sighed contently, before opening his eyes again. "After all there is still a mission we need to complete."
Right.
Get the teddy bear.
Gritting her teeth the woman's eyes narrowed as her thoughts traveled back to those they left behind.
Karisawa. Vorona. Kadota. Shinra.
"Sick bastard," she mumbled under her breath and Izaya laughed.
"He could have given us a more difficult mission, I'm glad it's just a sick joke."
"What could possibly be worse?"
A lot.
Izaya sighed and shrugged, "Something that requires one of us to die for example." tipping his lips he thought about the constellation of Jo's hoes, about the ultimate dictatorship the priest was demonstrating and most common acts to show one's loyalty in past times.
"Shoot one of your comrades to prove your loyalty." Izaya reenacted the priest's demeanor and voice as well as he could and smiled, "Something like that."
The impression had been well enough and the words more than Namie needed to understand that they really had been lucky he just sent them out to fetch a damned teddy bear.
Her expression only grew more solemn at those words and she sighed.
That bastard had the power to kill at least half of them if he so pleased. That deduction wasn't exactly assuring considering they had left most of their group behind.
Injured nonetheless.
Swallowing bile would have probably been more pleasant than having to ask Izaya about his opinion, but in this case she needed his frighteningly accurate deductions on human psychology.
"Do you think they are alright?" she whispered, referring to Shinra, Karisawa and the rest. After all, the priest had snatched the doctor in order to lure them to his mall.
Wasn't Shinra's purpose fulfilled just by that?
"I asked to see Shinra once we complete the mission, and he agreed," Izaya elaborated. "If Shinra were dead he would have given us a more meaningful task and not just to fetch a plush animal."
Right. Namie could follow that logic. The bluff about seeing someone who was already dead would only work once.
"Meaning he wants us for the long term and seeing Shinra will be the condition he had to meet to attain our workforce," Izaya continued and Namie nodded to show that she was following this far.
Shizuo was listening too.
"So unless we bail and discard this so-called mission it would be stupid to kill anyone from our group," Izaya announced, and the blond felt his body relax a little bit.
It wasn't like he didn't care about Karisawa, Kadota or Vorona- but ever since teaming up with Izaya he just didn't have the capacity to worry over more than one person.
It was already hard enough to try and keep Izaya safe. Adding even one more person to that tight circle would only increase the risk of either of them dying.
If something like an approaching flatworm forced him to choose between saving Izaya or someone else from the group, hesitating just a second could potentially end up having both die in front of his eyes.
And yet- that didn't he didn't care.
The way his conscience lightened only proved as much as Izaya said they were safe for the time being.
Silence covered the floor of the surveillance room and Izaya closed his eyes in pleasant silence.
He appreciated company as much as anyone inside this apocalyptic environment. But at the end of the day a decent moment of peace was almost rarer to find.
"What do you think he will do next?" Namie whispered and Izaya's eyes opened to look at the ceiling.
Beige tiles lapped into each other. Reminded him of his old school a little.
"He has a god complex, or a very strong belief, either way he is convinced that no one will act against his orders," Izaya concluded and a dark smile spread across his features, "If that were all that would be nice. He would be easy to trick. But considering those infected dogs and the way he keeps himself I can't help thinking he has something up his sleeve that none of us will expect."
He knew Namie was probably hoping for him to say everything was going to be okay and that he had figured that priest out, but fact was, he hadn't.
At least not entirely.
"What do you mean?" she asked softly, as if raising her voice would worsen the situation and Izaya shrugged.
"He is too confident. Blind belief is one thing and some of his followers seem to follow him for that reason alone. But the priest isn't stupid. He knows something we don't. And it's on us to find out before he uses that against us."
Hidden knowledge?
Namie frowned.
What could he possibly hide?
"Maybe a weapon? He took over the entirety of the mall. Maybe he used what he found there to construct a military power of some sort?" she tried, but Izaya shook his head immediately.
"No, I have a feeling his ace is something attributed to himself only." Obvious confusion met Izaya from both, Namie as well as Shizuo as neither could quite follow his deduction and he elaborated. "Think about it, if it were a physical weapon, we could simply take it away and use it for ourselves. It would fill the bastard with caution to the brim of his existence. Instead he seemed awfully relaxed. As if he were terribly sure that nothing in this world can defy him."
An involuntary shudder traveled down Namie's back at that idea.
Something that would both secure the priests position and could harm them? What kind of atrocious ace could it possibly be that he hid from their eyes?
The fact that they had to return to that damned mall and Hoes hoes hideout once the sun rose wasn't exactly delighting either.
"Takes a psychopath to understand one," Namie joked, trying to ease the tense mood, but it seemed she was the only one feeling the tension as Izaya merely rolled onto his side.
"We should sleep now." As if having announced the next day's lunch and not talked about something as unsettling as their ambiguous fate, Izaya spoke those words with exceeding calmth.
Calmth of a degree that left Namie a little bewildered.
"Huh, are you serious?" she asked, but Izaya merely shrugged.
"I am. We will take turns taking watch just in case those creatures learn how to open iron doors. Shizuo." As if having received an order of some sorts the blond merely nodded and let his back meet the wall next to the door as he sat down more comfortably.
It was amazing in a way.
Having Shizuo follow Izaya's order as if he had never done anything else was one thing, but being able to fall asleep in this environment made Namie feel even more out of place.
Without further delay Izaya closed his eyes and Namie was left alone in her mess of thoughts.
She would never admit it, but the images from their earlier deeds were still burnt into her inner eye. The way the fungi took out the flatworms and vice versa. The fungus up close that had almost spotted Namie.
The truck back on the road filled to the brim with these monsters- Shijima.
Karisawa. The blood- Shinra's thigh-
Involuntary nausea welled up despite her trying not to succumb to these emotions, but now, maybe exactly because they were safe she couldn't keep her thoughts from circling the most gruesome events.
"Namie," It was Izaya's voice that snapped the woman out of her spiral of demise and she blinked shortly, before noticing that Izaya was staring at her. HIs eyes were awfully serious. "We are safe," he suddenly whispered, and amongst a deep sense of embarrassment and annoyance she also felt gratitude towards Izaya for saying those three words out loud.
He had obviously figured out what was going on in her mind and continued. "Use this time wisely. You will most likely need your energy tomorrow and I'm not interested in dragging dead weight around with me."
Namie didn't know what it was, maybe the sarcasm and lowkey insult, or maybe just the way Izaya treated this like any day back in his flat, but somehow his words seemed to be just what she needed to hear as she felt the raging storm in her head calm down.
She hadn't been much of use today, and Izaya was probably never going to let her hear the end of it, so she had to toughen up so she could prove him wrong the next.
Sighing softly she made herself comfortable inside the tilted chair and closed her eyes.
"Yeah, fuck you too."
Sleep.
It was a luxurious good rarely enjoyed these days.
Even back then at the library or inside their camp Namie had rarely done more than dozed off for a few minutes. It was highly unhealthy and she knew it was by no means a long term solution, but so far surviving had been that much more of an important task compared to a dosage of sleep.
Might also be the reason for her quick decisions and cranky mood, but at the end of the day she needed to stay vigilant.
Always.
Without exception.
Because once she was dead there would be no need for sleep at all anymore.
She knew that. And yet, right now, maybe because of the safety of their location, because of Izaya's words, or Shizuo's guarding she somehow finally lost to her most human urges.
It was a fingertip poking her forehead that brought her attention back to life and settled her brain into mild confusion and drowsiness.
"What-"
Grogginess defined Namie's conscience and for a second she had no idea of anything. Who was she, where was she what time was it-
Izaya gallantly answered one of these questions as he showed his finest grin.
"Good morning sunshine."
Confused, Namie looked around. Warm spread from her cheek and she spotted Shizuo resting in the spot Izaya had been laying in.
He had woken up in a similarly confused fashion and looked around with a yawn on his face.
"... didn't you say we were supposed to switch?" Namie asked, finally connecting the dots to her current well being.
She felt groggy. But nice. Like she actually slept for more than half an hour, and Shizuo did too. Which made no sense if he watched the door for half the night.
Shrugging, Izaya declined the question, "I intended too, but you looked like you really need your beauty sleep."
Ah, yes, of course. Insulting her the second she woke up, that was truly Izaya in his best form.
Now that she thought about it he had used to pull all nighters all the time, so finding now that he executed a similar action didn't seem too surprising.
Soft glare in place the woman rose from her seat. Shizuo was stretching his body as well and Namie realized with relief that nothing had changed.
The room appeared just as it was.
Blinking softly, another question forced itself onto her mind as she glanced at Izaya. "How do you know it's morning?" After all, except for the light bulb fed by solar energy of some sort there was no window to tell the sun's state.
"Circadian rhythm?" Izaya snorted and Namie rolled her eyes, "And the real reason?"
A shrug followed and Izaya pointed towards the door.
"I peeked outside and the brim of the station is starting to show a border of sunlight."
Ah.
Almost instantly Namie's hair stood on ends as she glanced towards the entrance.
"You opened the door while we were asleep?" she asked bewildered, but Izaya merely grinned, "Correction, I opened the door while you were asleep. What do you take me for?"
A short glance was cast towards Shizuo and the man nodded in slow confirmation, assuring Namie that Izaya had at least not needlessly endangered their lives.
"Now hurry up, we are supposed to be back by morning," Izaya announced and hummed with a pleased smile, "A very tangible term if you ask me. Could be anything between 4am and 11am, but I guess that was his inherent intention."
A water bottle found its way into Namie's hands as Shizuo had been drinking from it previously.
"I go first," the blond announced quickly upon Izaya's announcement and moved towards the door.
The blanket was left behind on the ground, same for the food and the multiple resources stacked inside the shelves.
Startled, the woman scrambled to her feet as she caught up to the two.
"Wait-" she called, not because of any impending danger, but because of her own weak mind.
She was aware that there was no reason to stay inside this surveillance room for even a second longer and yet she felt adamant to leave.
But her words were ignored as much as her actions and Shizuo opened the door.
to be continued~
Well this was a fairly peaceful chapter xD Makes one wonder how long this peace is going to last, doesn't it? C: xDDDD