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The alleys in between the tall buildings make a true maze. With sight blocked, those with a weak sense of direction can get lost easily. Of course this does not apply to the two detectives who have traversed every street during their missions. Yet it is still annoying to search for a modest shop in enclosing darkness. The older one has expressed such annoyance:
"Damn, why would Ruvik pick such a location?"
Ruvik. Since he started his fortune telling career under this pseudonym, most people have forgotten his real name Ruben Victoriano, together with his identity as the successor of the Victoriano legacy. After a tragic fire, the former genius in cognitive science abandoned aboveboard researches. The notoriety as an animal torturer is gradually washed away by the fame of precise prediction. Equally well known is his innovative methods, distinct from either the Oriental fashion or the Gipsy style, bearing some scientific traits.
Back to the detectives. Neither of them, alone, would consider visiting a fortune teller for advise on their relation, especially now, when nothing has gone wrong and the only stress is from some omnious presentiments. Sebastian would not worry about the future, and the rational Joseph would not resort to instincts. They are becoming each other.
Ruvik's attire, just like the decoration in his shop, is simple or even austere. A white hood could seem unworldly, but for him it is a mixture of mysterious and coarse. "Mr Castellanos and Oda, welcome."
A white-haired boy hands them cups of water and retreats to the inner room. "It's Leslie, my apprentice. Which aspect of your relation do you want to hear about?"
Joseph pushes up his galsses. "We have been partners for nine years. Amost there to start a family. But I have a feeling, or more likely a presentiment, about how we are gonna end up. I'd like to see some indicators."
"No matter the present life or the past life." Sebastian continued.
"It's your Eastern genes and your one some hundredths Mayan extraction that are functioning." Ruvik smiled without approval or denial, "What I captured is not a past life in the chronological sense, but some traces of you in alternate universes, something that have happened or will eventually occur. They should provide you some reference."
"Can we observe these?"
"The boundaries of most alternate worlds are so tenacious that I can barely penetrate some key points. But I reconstructed one of them." Ruvik gives each customer a helmet, with a common VR device connected to the eyes' position. "You can feel it via this."
Sebastian, still puzzled, and Joseph, with a grave face, start their experience in the apocalyptic world.
_______________________________
Those things outside -- those insanes with crimson eyes -- continue striking against the roller shutter. Some bodies litter inside the warehouse, in pounds of thick, rotten-smell liquid, the deposit of virus-contaminated blood. Seb, with unkept stubbles and a giant backpack, accelerates his movement to throw cans of food into the open zipper. When he is to zip the bag, the rusty shutter gives in. The blood-washed walkers flood inside, spreading their pale grey arms on which veins protrude.
Fuck. This happens every time he scavenges, and it has been three years. The massive backpack is an awful burden even for the strong man, so he get out of breath after three seconds' sprint. But he cannot discard it. It contains the necessities to live, the hope that Lily relies on.
The man pulls out his shotgun and fires at the horde. The zed closest to him falls down with half a head blown away. Those behind it also gets stiff. At point-blank range the shotgun is devastating. The enemies around are suppressed. Seb fights while retreating to the appointed extracting point. As long as he gets onto the truck, he can make his way to the base.
When Seb sees the undead surrounding the truck, he feels danger. Some of those things clutch on the window fighting for the last bite, and rush at the living man as soon as they smell him. There is a moment when Seb witnesses the dead driver chewed into pieces, and curses aloud. Con is the most skillful driver in their force. They have accomplished so many missions. Yet now he cannot drive them away from danger anymore. No time to lament the force's loss, the only thing Seb can do is to avoid more loss, which is just himself.
The number of zombies exceeds prediction, so he is surer that someone is deliberately making difficulties for him. It should be just fine if there are only the normal ones, which were not strengthful meleers when they lived. Seb could hang on till rescue arrives, if there is any. But his hope is immediately crushed out by a huge mutated figure.
It's a muscular giant in quarterback outfit. A helmet protects it from headshots, and increases the power of strikes, like what it is doing now, literally heading towards Seb. The man hurries dodging to the side, but does not make it completely. He falls to the ground and the bag rolls away. Dizzily, he can't grab it. It is even luxurious to survive, as the quarterback's subsequent attack is on its way.
Right at this moment a black shadow jumps off the roof, chops the quarterback in mid air, somersaults and sets feet on the ground. It's a slim man in ninja costume holding a katana. His glasses stand out unharmoniously. Seb has no time to wonder why the glasses didn't fall off when he was turning in the air. The quarterback, irratated by the ninja, sprints to smash him, but the ninja turns half a round to dodge and cuts its back again.
So this thing is poor in turning. Seb takes the chance to sit up, and shoots at the quarterback's abdomen when it focuses on the ninja. Its strength attenuates. The ninja cuts off its head just in time, ignores the falling helmet, picks up the backpack for which Seb risks his life, and pulls up the still-astounded man. "GO. TO MY MOTOR!"
His voice is clear and dulcet even when shouting. His strenth doesn't match the boney body. Occasionally some walkers fall down in front of them, cut into pieces or penetrated by bullets. The duo hop onto the motorcycle and rush away.
"Thank you so much. You are?"
"The name is Oda."
"Oda, I'm Seb."
People in the catastrophe call each other with abbreviations. Why would you remember someone's name if they may die tomorrow? Seb used to have some comrades simply called "Bro" or "Kid". A psychologist named "Hof". The driver is "Con". A master in expolsives, a girl with C4 filling her room, is even called "Boom". One may wonder if they still remember themselves as Juli Kidman, Yukiko Hoffman, Oscar Connelly, and Esmeralda Torres. As for himself, he uses "Seb" instead of "Sebastian Castellanos", and the complicated full name is only for the memory of close kins.
"So this is our base, our safeheaven, Oda." Seb has shown his new comrade around their workplaces, including a table to upgrade weapons and a chair to enhance abilities. Suddenly a little girl comes by. "Daddy, who's that?"
The ninja squats down and combs her hair with his fingers. "I'm Oda, Joseph Oda. I'll protect you with your daddy from now on."
"Really? I'll have mommy again?"
"Uh-never mind, Oda. She was three at time of the outbreak. It took her mother's life to bring her to the chopper. I still remember her last word..." Seb thoughtfully touches his blood-soaked silver ring. "She said, it's our child, do take care of her."
Joseph Oda, who just announced his full name, takes off his mask. "I know. I'll also take care of her."
"Thank you. Let me reintroduce myself: Sebastian Castellanos."
To Sebastian's surprise, Joseph is not only a proficient martial artist, but also a talented technician. When he is not on missions, he would forge something in the yard. He just improved the locks a few days earlier, and now he is assembling a cable, which is said to be helpful for tracking down the zombie origin. He smiled and said, when Sebastian asked, that he learnt these in the police academy.
"Before I graduated, the whole college was talking about an alumni who can smash padlocks with bare fists."
A truck besides them is unloading. Some crossbars are opening wooden chests one by one. A few chests are locked up by previous owners. Sebastian picks one of those, and lands his fist in the proper angel. With a clanging noise, the chain breaks.
"Like this?"
Sebastian really appreciates the surprised expression Joseph shows.
In his free time, Joseph often tells Lily stories, writing on sand with a little branch. They also draw pictures. Lily draws her dad with angel wings. As for the man daddy is holding, Joseph didn't recognize it as himself at first glance. Unforturnately, the drawing does not last long. An idiot walking by carelessly steps on it and completely destroys it. Lily bursts into crying. Joseph, seeing this, searches his pocket and pulls out a worn paper package. "See this? Cheese bar. It's for Lily."
"Enough, Joseph." He lifts his head only to encounter the serious eyes of Sebastian.
"Lily, uncle needs that to fight. You don't want uncle lose, right?"
"It's ok, Sebastian." Joseph persists to hand Lily the cheese bar.
When Joseph is pulled away, he keeps preaching at Sebastian. "The days are hard. I' can bear with it, but children need nutrition."
"What about you?" Sebastian is getting a little mad. "You can't fool me. I know you leave everything nice to the children. I would not find a grain even if I strip you right here."
"No, Sebastian, don't. It's not that serious. I'm fine."
"Fine?" The emotional man is unstoppable when he feels anger. "I should warn you not to do silly things, like giving me the last medkit or something else. You must stay intact, copy that?"
"You don't need to worry about me, really."
In the following few days, Joseph does not start any conversation with Sebastian, and only hums and haws when the latter talks to him. He is not in the mood of playing with Lily either. All day long he sits under his cable, sketching on the notebook that he always cherishes with a fractured gel pen. He seems to get some clue, or maybe he finds no feasible solution.
On that day the alarms ring like hell. Some may blame Oda for making the alarms too sensitive, but they soon learn how severe the situation is. Hordes after hordes of the undead are approaching fast. Even the rookies know that their base cannot defend this. Will, the combat expert, calms down instantly to deploy RPGs, but facing an overwhelming population, calmness is almost useless.
Joseph puts on his ninja outfit, but does not follow the group towards defending spots. Sebastian perplexedly reaches him to ask why.
"I'll take out the zombie origin."
"Oda, no!"
"Seb, we can't defend this. And there's no way to break through. I just located the signal last night. It's the only solution."
"Then I come with you."
"No, stay here and protect Lily."
Too urgent for more words. Oda hurriedly takes out a tin box with red cross. "Take this. Lily needs her father. You have to live." He nearly forces Seb to accept it.
"I'll cover you. Meet you over there."
Oda jumps and throws himself across the barricade. He rushes away.
The zeds on the way don't quite badger with him. They aim at a specific target, the base. He only chops off two of them that gets into his way, as the prologue of a slaughter. The major difficulty is the origin that he plans to pull out, a laboratory. It is heavily guarded. He runs into a squad of walkers as soon as he enters the front door. Though he has a specific target too -- a radio broadcasting signals that control the undead -- it takes an awful battle to get there.
He wields his katana at an incredible speed, shredding whatever comes close, leaving a layer of flesh on the floor. Filthy blood splashes onto his cloth, but disappears into the black background. A mist of blood persist around his eyes, a mist which only the blade can cut through. Lift, chop, stab, pull. No more fancy procedures, just harvest bodies with the most basic movements. The rotten, stinky odor benumbs his feelings. The only thing in his mind is to proceed, to shut down the fucking radio, to send these insanes back into sluggishness, and into hell.
The distance is merely a few steps and some stairs. It shouldn't take long in normal times. Yet every inch ahead means several kills. His movements turn robotic. His body feels either floating or sinking. The chaotic growling of the herd makes up silence in some sense, rendering the radio bloop even more ear-piercing. His target is right here. Under a hysterical cut, the control circuit bursts out sparks. While the radar still shows the direction of the base, the emittied signal loses its periodic pattern and degrades into pure noise.
The zeds, ferocious and agile just now, become slack instantly. The orderly roaring far away also turns into chaos that outshines ten open markets combined. Joseph raises his spirit, slicing off two head at once. Opening his way with flying flesh, he jumps over the handrail and runs to the monitor room on the ground floor.
Though the enemies have been significantly weakened after the radio is shut down, he is totally safe only when he closes the door. Joseph plans to have a rest, and return to the base when its siege is nearly lifted. He is too tired for any other option. Habitually, he checks around his body. This should be nothing but a routine, but he finds something bad.
A line of teeth marks shockingly prints itself on his left forearm. He has no idea when he got this. It was such a confusion. He didn't feel the pain either.
There is no cure to the zed's poison. Medkits can only heal some scratches, but if it's a bite, nothing would work. The poison needs some time to show effect. There used to be somebody who sneaked into the base after getting bitten, which caused a turmoil. Luckily, if the wound is cleaned soon enough, he still has some hope to survive.
By "clean" it means what Joseph is doing now. He pulls out his dagger, presses the blade into his muscle, and drives it forward right above the bones. Ignoring the spilling blood, he cuts a whole piece off. Why wouldn't his earlier numbness last longer, till now, to mitigate the excruciating pain, a pain that makes him feeble. He moans quietly yet continually, like an animal skinned alive. All his willpower turns into a desire to survive, a desire that is supporting him through the process.
He has imagined, over and over again, how he would live with Sebastian after all is over. The peaceful life now comes into his mind once more. He would be a Kendo coach. He would bring Sebastian a sandwhich when the detective works overtime. Or he may wake up and find Sebastian has already made him buttered toast with nori. Weekend again. They need to shop for milk for Lily. Whole milk, remember.
If someone has browsed his notebook when he doesn't notice, these above are what they will see.
A piece of flesh with irregular incision falls into a pool of blood. Joseph finally drops his dagger, gasping. When he aggregates enough courage to take a look, he sees lead-black bones exposing to his eyes.
Damn. The color means it's too late. The poison has invaded his marrow. Only something more radical might work. The katana is held up again, this time aiming at the elbow.
To cut off an arm is harder. Even the sharp blade can't make it in one try. The splitting flesh and fractured bone shatter his sanity. He struggles to concentrate for another attack, but he sees his pale grey wrist.
The color of changing. The protruding veins.
Joseph feels the stiffness in his fingers. He know his pupils have enlarged, as his sight loses focus. He can't recognize the man kicking the door open. One thing dominates his mind: the poison has spread, he would keep turning into a walker even if he cuts off the arm.
He has no hope.
"Joseph!" The coming man shouts aloud out of anxiety and sorrow. He is not sitting down, but rather falling over in front of Joseph. A hug is more desperate than desperate. "We did it. Hold on. You'll be fine. I've brought you a syringe. Joseph look at me!"
"Sebastian..." The voice from an exhausted body is merely a stream of breath. "Kill me, now."
"Are you mad?!" Sebastian holds the half-broken arm. "How can this be? Don't. I can save you."
"No use." Joseph leans against Sebastian. The touch consoles him. "Before, I, turn into, those...things."
"Please."
At this point, Joseph's once-clear eyes start to become turbid. Veins crawl on his face like worms. One or two groans escape his throat.
Sebastian has to accept this.
All ammo has been depleted. He doesn't have a spare bullet even for the worst pistol. He can only take the dagger. So easy is it to find the heart. Sebastian positions its point between the ribs, but hesitates to push in.
"What, can't do this?" Joseph can barely retain his last bit of sanity. He smiles, surrounding Sebastian's hand with his own. "We, to-gether..."
A smooth stab. Sebastian follows the lead as if he is opening a lock. And it is fast. Joseph's head falls aside immediately. His eyes stop getting turbid.
Sebastian remains. Like a statue positioned as his last gesture. The temperature of Joseph covers him. Sunshine peeps in, at the most improper moment, only to light up Joseph's serene sleeping face. Tracing back, there is no sign of the sun. Will his contour be etched across the sky. Will a cloud bring back his image, someday.
_______________________________
Sebastian, still submerged in the finale, doesn't notice tears running down. The black screen after the last image is a prolonged ceremony for mourning, a mourning prolonged into some eternity in between wakeness and dreams. Joseph helps him to take off the helmet, and wipes his tear with a gloved hand.
Reality appears so abrupt. It is only after a while's astonishment that Sebastian figures it out. He recklessly grabs his partner's arm and rolls up the sleeve. Nothing is there on the fair skin,
He acts before thinking again. Joseph has his sleeves rolled up all day.If there were a birthmark, Sebastian would have noticed it long ago. He hopes to find a birthmark, since it represents something in the past, some bygone that a simple mark can cover. But there is nothing.
It is not about the past, but a destiny that may fall at any time.
"Joseph, I'm sorry, I...."
"It's alright."
Joseph would be lying had he said he wasn't touched. Yet unlike Sebastian who expresses the most intense emotions in the most enthusiastic way, Joseph shows only a restrained frown, while he ponders and ponders over what he has seen. Lingering in him is depression as well as placidity.
"Don't you think we had a memorable time together, and we made it."
"Who the fuck cares!" The voice is hoarse with sobs. "Why did you end up like that? Why?"
Yeah, it was tragic. Joseph has to admit that he is horrified by his desperate attemps to survive. But he doesn't feel much fear. 'Cause they were with each other at the end. The last hug is precious enough for him.
"No need to worry." He supports his partner's head with his thin shoulder, while the latter sinks into grief and apprehension.
"What about other worlds?" Sebastian asks Ruvik in the hope of finding something sweet.
"Like I said, I cannot penetrate them. All the key points I observed are on this list."
Luckily, they never abandon each other. It is their death dates that are noted down, not the dates when they break up. The records are terse. Sebastian examines them for many times, but gets no clue which one of these will their life here resemble. The only thing for sure is that tragedies are not rare.
Joseph notices one extra detail. In most parallel universes he did not live longer than 34, and the greatest number is 39. He is already 33. Something is inevitable. No hope to alter.
Joseph hides this secret. He never regrets his connection with Sebastian, and will not retreat. The dire predictions actually consolidates his mind. He knows what will happen not far away, and is ready to embrace it.
Yes, he is willing to.
So their life proceeds as usual. In the morning Joseph gets into Sebastian's car with nori toast hanging from his lips. Sebastian makes the same nasty face towards the green stuff each time. And Joseph does the same thing to Sebastian's greasy hamburger at lunch. They study their cases for hours together, and in the end it is always Joseph who takes care of the paper work. On Friday night they lean against each other on the couch, talking about whatever the TV is showing. Many have seen them playing stupid games in the playground on sunny days. Yet they do cherish each other more, especially Joseph, counting down his days.
__________________
On that day they come across a complex scene. So complex that they bring a great deal of equipments, which fill the trunk and almost take up the back seat. Joseph makes some effort to squeeze himself in, or Connelly will let him sit on the car roof.
On their way back, they got a call:
"All units, all units. 11-99, Beacon Mental Hospital..."
Sebastian is responding to Dispatch. Connelly can't help joking around. "I'm sorry detectives. I know you just come off a case, but you're gonna take a detour."
Joseph suddenly feels a shock.
"What do you make of it?" Sebastian turns back and asks him.