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Leaves crunched underneath the black combat boots as Kirishima followed Bakugo through the thick forest, trying to be as quiet as possible. Signaling with his hand to stop walking, Kirishima looked around nervously at the surrounding area. He didn't see anything, he didn't hear anything, but Bakugo did and that's what mattered right now. Bakugo lifted an arrow out of his side pack and drew back on his bow, aiming at something Kirishima couldn't see from where he was standing. He let go and the arrow flew through the air at a painstakingly slow pace, Kirishima felt like he was watching it in slow motion. It hit the target, Kirishima knew, because there was a sudden thud from across the woods. Following Bakugo's trail they walked to it, the dead laying there twitching. It was a perfect head shot, but they still take a minute to 'die' again.
Bakugo ripped the arrow from it's head and put it back in the case. They couldn't waste any arrows, there weren't enough of them to go around, and they already had to make some of their own. "Come on, there will be more around." Bakugo said in a low voice, Kirishima nodded and followed closely behind him.
The incident had started a year and a half ago, when strange reports of people coming back to life after they died started being broadcasted on the news all over the world. It seemed to have started somewhere in Europe, they were never able to pinpoint the exact location or cause. Before the systems went completely down and the world went dark, the last news update they got was that it seemed to be some sort of viral infection from mosquitoes. Some scholars were comparing it to the black death from the 14th century. Nobody could be certain, though, and now it didn't even matter. Everybody can assume that they were already infected, and when they died they would turn. Of course being bitten turns you too, or even being scratched in rare cases. They had watched it happen before, and they would almost certainly watch it happen again.
"We won't make it out of the woods tonight, Bakugo." Kirishima reminded him when they came to a clearing. "I think if we change course slightly there's a shrine that way." he pointed to the northwest, staring at the compass in his hand. "We should take shelter for the night."
Bakugo didn't like it, but he agreed without protest. Being out during night meant that you either wanted to die, or you were really fucking stupid. During the night the dead get faster and stronger, nobody knows why but they do. They can run like they were a healthy living person, and it's terrifying. "Lead the way." he urged and followed Kirishima, carefully avoiding stepping on any sticks on their way.
Kirishima was, thankfully, right; after another two hours of trekking through the woods they came upon an old shrine. It was small, but it had doors and was a good place to take shelter for the night. Bakugo took the lead when it came into sight, he was better at spotting the dead than Kirishima was. With his bow already drawn he carefully walked into the clearing, pointing in all directions looking for any sign of a threat. They made it to the door of the shrine and Kirishima put his hand on the handle, waiting for Bakugo's signal to open it. He nodded and the door flung open, Bakugo jumping in front and pointing it all around, looking for the dead.
So far there was no sign of them, but there were other rooms to check. Kirishima shut the door but didn't lock it, they would barricade it when they got the all clear. Silently walking through a once sacred place, they were appalled at the amount of blood and guts smeared around the floor and walls. Whoever was here when the incident got really bad in the beginning had a terrible end. Kirishima felt nauseous but kept his head held high, they didn't have time to be scared. Bakugo nodded towards the room on the left side, and Kirishima flung the door open again. This time there was something inside, a dead crouched down on the ground growling. Bakugo shot his arrow quickly, not giving it time to react. He looked around and there were two more. Kirishima drew the baseball bat from his back and rushed into the room with Bakugo, rushing up to the one on the far side of the room. It didn't have a jaw and provided little threat, but Kirishima didn't hesitate bashing its brains in. When he turned back Bakugo had taken out the other one, and retrieved both of his arrows.
"One more room." he whispered and they walked to the other one. To their relief it was empty.
"Help me block the door with this." Bakugo said and started pushing a shoe cubby towards the door. Kirishima joined him and made sure it was securely in front of it. It wouldn't hold off a horde, but one or two dead wouldn't be able to push through.
"Let's clear out the rooms and block those, too. There were windows in there." Kirishima said and Bakugo nodded. Approaching the first room they cleared out, Kirishima carefully avoided stepping near the dead and scavenged around them. Mostly it was useless: papers, empty boxes, and personal items from whoever ran the shrine. Kirishima turned the picture frame upside down and closed his eyes, saying a silent prayer for whoever they were. He spotted one more closet he hadn't checked out yet and opened it up, to his utter joy it was filled with candles and matches. He triumphantly packed them all up and headed out to the main room.
Bakugo had more luck than he had, and returned with some small kitchen knives, jugs of water, and another backpack that surprisingly wasn't covered in blood. "Anything?" he asked, looking up from the pile he made on the floor.
"Lots of matches and candles. I think we should make them waterproof, I saw this video once that said if you light a candle and dip the match in the melted wax it would be waterproof, when you wanna use them you just pick the wax off." Kirishima explained and sat down on the floor, dumping the contents of his bag onto the floor like Bakugo. "I can't believe there was water here, this is fucking amazing." he said and reached for one of the jugs, taking a small swig.
Bakugo nodded, "Too bad we can't carry it with us, so we better drink up tonight." he encouraged and took a drink himself.
Kirishima agreed, "At least we can fill up the bottles we do have." he reminded him.
"Yeah, but it our bags get too heavy it'll slow us down." Bakugo said and Kirishima nodded. Bakugo was usually right when it came to things like this.
"You're right."
"I think waterproofing the matches is a good idea, though. Let's do it now." he gave a small smile and lit one of the candles. Kirishima did the same and they worked in silence for a bit. Bakugo made sure to test one of them to make sure it wouldn't be ruined before continuing, not that Kirishima could blame him. Sometimes those videos online were bullshit.
"You ever wonder what happened to everyone else?" Kirishima asked suddenly, taking another drink of water.
"You mean everyone in the whole fucking world, or what?" Bakugo spat.
It was a tough conversation, Kirishima didn't hold it against him. "No, I mean our classmates..."
When the incident broke out in full force they had been on a school field trip. It was at a museum in Kyoto, so they were allowed to separate from the group as long as they met back up at a specified time. Kirishima remembered seeing the huge horde coming through the glass windows, people were screaming and trying to lock up the museum. Bakugo grabbed Kirishima by the hand and they raced through the winding halls, taking refuge inside of one of the interactive exhibits. They didn't move from that spot for two days, when they finally stopped hearing the moans and stumbling of the dead from outside. When they did leave they couldn't find anybody, nobody was left. The only bit of peace they had was that there were no bodies they recognized in the museum on their way out. That was the only bit of hope that they had to cling to.
"Of course I fucking do." he said harshly, face twisting up in anger.
"I like to think they made it out. That they're hiding out just like us somewhere." Kirishima sighed and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. "They were all pretty innovative, I'm sure if my stupid ass made it this far then they did too."
Bakugo slammed his hands on the ground, "Don't say that, you're not stupid. My ass would be dead if it weren't for you." he narrowed his eyes at the redhead who only smiled weakly.
When they left the museum it was like they woke up in a post apocalyptic movie. The streets were completely abandoned and there was nobody around at all, not even the dead. Bakugo insisted that they needed to find weapons, and so they did. Bakugo started off with a machete that he found in one of the stores they forged from, Kirishima stuck with a metal bat. They didn't know what to do, but they wanted to get back home. The trains were obviously down, and it was a hell of a long walk back, so they hot wired a car on the street even though neither of them knew how to drive. Bakugo drove them back to their neighborhood in silence, desperately trying to get a signal on the radio. When they finally got home, everything there was empty too. Kirishima went into Bakugo's house first and tried not to let him in when he saw his family had been eaten. They stayed there for a long time, Kirishima holding Bakugo while he cried. Bakugo did the same for Kirishima when they met the same fate at his house later. They both changed into more practical survival clothes, boots, pants with deep pockets, a t-shirt with their thick jackets for the winter.
Both emotionally wrecked for the day they had to figure out a plan, but neither of them knew what the fuck to do. Bakugo said they should head north, try to get to a different island. Kirishima didn't know how the fuck they were going to get across the fucking ocean, but going north seemed like a halfway decent idea. They loaded up with supplies from their houses, taking only the necessities, and headed out. Their first night on their own on the open road, they encountered several dead walking their way. Bakugo froze, thinking about his family back at the house. He couldn't get his knife out of his bag and Kirishima was able to quickly take them out. It was only a few, and they were decently spread out. He's pretty sure Bakugo won't forget that day ever.
"And my ass would be dead if it weren't for you." Kirishima retorted, giving Bakugo a mom look. "I know it's tough to talk about, but I wonder where they went... I mean they only had a two day lead on us, I feel like we would have run into them by now, you know?" he continued. "I bet Midoriya went off to save some little kid or something." he forced a laugh, trying to think about happy memories.
"Todoroki probably has a cow every time he sees Deku rush into the dead. I'm sure he's rushed into a group before." Bakugo said sheepishly. "Fuckers, why didn't anybody else hide out in the museum?"
"I don't know. Maybe they got out first." Kirishima shrugged. "It was a good hiding place. There was nothing we could have done without weapons, anyways. We would have died." he said blankly.
By this time the sun had set and they were sitting in darkness, except for the two candles lit in between them. They could hear the wind roaring outside, leaves rustling against the shrine, and the low moan of the dead walking about. Kirishima's heart started to beat faster and he closed his eyes, hoping that the night would go by quickly. "I bet they're all in some big group together, mourning us because they think we died that first night." Bakugo said suddenly. "I bet Aizawa and Yamada took them to some building to hide out in and gave them all fucking training or some shit like that." he continued.
"You're probably right." Kirishima laughed. "I hope they found their families in time." he swallowed hard, letting tears streak down his cheeks.
"I hope so too." Bakugo said softly.
They hadn't checked the other students houses when they went back to their neighborhood, because they didn't have time. "It's not your fault, you know." Kirishima said weakly. "I know you think it is, but I don't think if we got there any sooner that anything would be different."
"I know."
"I don't know that you really believe tha-" there was a loud crash against the door and Kirishima jumped to his feet, scrambling to grab his baseball bat. Bakugo quickly grabbed his bow and arrows from the ground and stood up. They approached the door quietly and listened, low moaning. Another dead.
They backed away from the door and stood in the center of the room, waiting for it to go away. One was fine, but the longer it stood there trying to get in the more likely it was for it to attract other dead. They waited in silence for what felt like hours, hands shaking and sweating with nervousness. It eventually did go away, not without causing a big anxiety fit for the both of them. Finally they were able to sit back down again, neither of them talking for hours.
When Kirishima opened his eyes again it was from Bakugo shaking him awake, sunlight poured in through the cracks in the door. "It's morning, we should get moving." he said. When Kirishima sat up he saw that Bakugo had already packed up both of their bags and filled their water bottles. "Drink up." he handed the rest of the big jug to Kirishima and he drank it without talking, still shaken up from the night before.
They left the shrine and headed back into the forest, heading north. Their next goal was a small city not far from where they were. Kirishima was hopeful they would be able to find some more supplies while they were there. Food and medicine were the number one things on their list, but some new weapons and clothes couldn't hurt. Bakugo was less hopeful, what little hope he had left was aimed towards them surviving through the day. Kirishima remained the more optimistic of the two, despite their circumstances.
"I don't know if we'll ever find anybody again, but I'm glad that you're with me." Kirishima said abruptly, bringing Bakugo into a hug.
Bakugo hugged back, burring his face into Kirishima's neck. "I'm glad you're with me, too."