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Haru was not the kind of person who believed in fate. The idea of fate sounded so absurd and cliché to him, like the heavily formulated romance novels that his best friend's sister loved to read.
It has been 10 years since he lost his best friend to this fucked up world. It has also been 10 years since the virus had been contained, although Haru did not doubt that there were still infected patients lurking around the outside of these protective walls.
‘Infected patients’ was one of the nicer terms that were used to label these ‘victims’. In reality, they were nothing but the walking dead. Zombies, was the more common term and even though the new government decided to ban the use of the word, it was more like futile effort as people were still going to use it anyway.
The walking dead, zombies, the Infected - whatever people were going to label them was none of Haru’s concern. He just needed to survive. That’s all that mattered to him. He lost his parents when he was 7 in a car accident and then lost his only best friend, someone who he was comfortable enough to call his brother, in the midst of this stupid apocalypse, leaving Haru behind with his only younger sister who was currently attending university.
Matsuoka Gou was the only person left who he could actually call his family. Haru was glad that Rin entrusted her with him and that Gou was comfortable enough to trust him the same way she did her brother. Haru treated her like his own sister, seeing her occasionally when the both of them could as she lived in the university dorm. He also made sure to call her at least once or twice a week to check up on her, soon becoming a comfortable routine for the both of them.
Haru sometimes pondered on why he was still alive. When Rin told him it was because God felt like it wasn’t his time to go yet, Haru snorted at him. He had been bitten. He should have died 10 years ago but he hadn't. Instead, Rin had. It was a painful time for him and Gou. He can still remember how Gou had tried to choke down her own tears, still failing at the end. It hurt even more that there was no funeral, no burial, nothing. Just a simple cremation where Rin’s ashes were scattered to the vast sea.
There was also times where he thought that maybe Rin took Haru’s pain onto himself, as absurd as it sounded. Gou had simply laughed it off when Haru brought it up one time and answered, “Maybe he did. He’s Rin, after all.”
Doctors had called Haru the ‘miracle’. He was bitten yet he did not die, having some sort of immunity against the virus. Being the first person out there who had shown a resistance to the virus had caused a debate about what should have been done with that info, which Haru wanted nothing to do with. In the end, they took a few blood samples from Haru before he was released back into the world. In only one to two months later was news of a successful vaccine released. It was still up to this day that Haru didn't know if he had inevitably became the savior of mankind, if they had actually found some sort of cure in his blood. Well, it wasn't like he cared about any of that anyway.
Haru had been prepared to spend his lifetime alone as he was not ready to trust anyone, not after Rin’s death.
That was until one day when he had decided to walk into his life, turning it all upside down.
“Fate’s a bitch,” Haru thought.
--
“Yeah, okay, make sure you ace this term again,” Haru spoke into his phone with a little burst of proudness in his chest. “I gotta go, I’ll call you again soon. Good luck with this term since it’s your last, after all. Okay okay, love you too. Take care.”
Haru ended the call as he walked into the building. Casually passing a few people, he scanned his ID before entering the department.
The Department of Outer Defense.
“Good morning Nanase-san,” the receptionist greeted with a smile.
“Morning,” Haru replied as he strolled through the office. He was not amused. Haru was suppose to be on paid leave as he was planning to send Gou back to the university after she came back for during her semester break. However, that plan ended up being a bust as soon as he had gotten a message from his superior who had basically demanded to see him immediately. Gou had taken quite a few hours to convince Haru that is was alright for her to go back on her own.
Haru reached for the door and before he could even knock, a voice from the room said, “Come in, Haru.”
He sighed and swung open the door with ease. “General Sasabe.” He saluted. “What is the urgent situation that you requested me to attend to immediately?”
General Sasabe Goro, the current commander of this department sat in his office chair. “Sorry to cut your time with your sister short, Haru, but there have been several activities reported in the west and we need someone there at the location as soon as possible.”
General Sasabe stood up and handed Haru a case file, the word “CONFIDENTIAL” stamped over it in big red letters that almost seemed to be glaring at him. “You’re the only agent I know that knows the west district better than anyone else so I need you to head out there as soon as possible. ”
As soon as the file was in Haru’s hands, he quickly flipped the pages and skimmed through the report. “It won’t be a long one, I just need you scout the area and report anything that’s off back to HQ.”
“The government has been wanting to restore the west district for quite some time now and have ordered us to ensure that it is entirely evacuated and empty before they proceed with their plans. The west district is apparently filled with valuable resources and empty land that we could be desperately need at the moment so they want to get this done as soon as possible,” General Sasabe further explained as Haru nodded, indicating he understood the basic situation. “After this mission, I’ll give you another holiday.”
“It’s okay, General. I understand the situation. Also, if you don’t mind, I’d like to save up that extra holiday to be used on a later date,” Haru told him, tucking the file beneath his arm..
General Sasabe smiled contently and sat back in his chair before continuing. “So when can you leave?”
“This afternoon,” was Haru’s reply before saluting General Sasabe again and walked out of the office.
--
“Haru-senpai!”
Haru looked up from his packing to find the source of the voice, arms flailing in excitement, which caused him to sigh. Haru zipped up his backpack and slung it over his shoulders before picking up his trustworthy PGM Hecate II sniper rifle and FN Five-seveN handguns.
As he walked towards his buggy, the voice had decided to follow him. “Haru-senpai! I heard that you’re going to the west district for a scouting mission! Is it true?” he asked in excitement.
Haru turned away from him as he sighed once again. He placed his backpack and Hecate II in the buggy before turning back to face the other, who had decided to lean his face nearly centimeters away from his own face, eyes gleaming with curiousity. Haru’s immediate response to this was to push his face away before answering, “Yes.”
“Cool! I wish I could go out for field mission too,” he said as he continued to stare at Haru.
“Stop staring at me like that, Kisumi,” Haru sighed as he raked a hand through his hair. “You should be able to go for field missions as soon as you pass the test you’re suppose to take in two weeks.”
Kisumi calmed down and said, “I know.I’ve always wanted to see the outside world, to be honest. However, I don’t think I’ll be able to pass the test, considering that I’ve never been good at this sort of thing. It would have been better if I had just stuck myself in an office job just sorting out paperwork.” Kisumi gave a sad smile.
Another voice interrupted them before Haru could continue, “So you’re still saying that, huh, Kisumi-san.”
“Rei,” Haru greeted.
“Hey, Haruka,” Rei greeted back as he handed Haru some rifle rounds and extra bullets for his weapons before turning to face Kisumi. “You always say stuff like this but we both know that you work the hardest amongst all the trainees. You’ll do well in the test, I’m sure of it.” Rei assured Kisumi. “I’m your main instructor, after all.”
Kisumi grinned at Rei before deciding to pop up a few questions about his test to Rei. Haru had also been one of the instructors that had trained Kisumi’s batch and while teaching had not exactly been his thing, Rei had been caught in an emergency situation, causing Haru no choice but to replace him. They had been good trainees, as far as Haru could recall and he quite liked them.
“Rei is right. Just apply what he’s taught you were necessary and I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Haru reassured him again before he stepped into his buggy. “I’ve gotta go. I’ll be back in another two weeks, hopefully.” If nothing goes wrong, Haru thought.
“Take care, Haru-senpai!”
“Be careful, Haruka.”
Haru gave them a smile before slamming his foot on the gas pedal as he drove out of the building.
--
It was a 2 hour drive to the west district from the walls. He stared at his GPS as it navigated him through the area, indicating that he had a mile to go before reaching the cabin owned by the department. Haru fiddled with his player to change the radio to his mp3 as the radio frequency did not reach to the outer areas.
He reached the cabin at 6:43 P.M, just as the sun was about to set. He glanced over the overcast sky, hoping it would not rain tonight as it would get cold and Haru had never liked the cold. It only reminded him of all those days that he wanted to forget.
He parked his buggy in the garage before taking out his backpack and Hecate II out from the back. Entering the cabin with his ID card, Haru unloaded his necessities before making himself a cup of coffee as he sat down to look over the file again. He took out a digital pad that was made specially for agents and loaded up the map of the west district, making some notes on the places that he would need to visit tomorrow.
Scouting missions were usually done in pairs, to ensure that the mission proceeded smoothly but General Sasabe knew that Haru had always been a lone ranger since his early days and much preferred to be left alone. Haru only paired up with others when the mission was of absolute top priority.
Turning off his pad as he switched on the defense system installed in the cabin, Haru kept his handguns with him as he walked towards his bed to get some shut eye for the night.
--
The following day had went by faster than Haru had expected. He scanned the area, checking every nook and cranny that he knew in the district almost by heart. The West District had once been a lively town, home to many families and there wasn’t a single thing he didn’t know about this place like the back of his own hand. It was, after all, the town that he had grown up in with Gou and Rin, the place that had held everything that mattered to him until the breakout of the virus and Rin’s death.
He visited the last checkpoint of the day, a market in which he used to frequent with his parents, before stepping into his buggy and marking the place off his checklist. Just as he was getting ready to drive back to the cabin, he saw a shadow at the end of the market.
Haru immediately went into defense mode as he picked up both his handguns, on full alert. He slowly stepped out from his buggy and walked towards the shadow, every step cautious as he tried not to make any unnecessary noise.
Suddenly, the shadow moved and Haru immediately fired a bullet in its direction, missing by an inch as he dashed towards it. “Who’s there?!”
Haru was ready to shoot again before a voice yelled out, “Wait! Hold your fire!”
Haru was surprised at the voice. He had not expected another agent, as it had not been written in the mission details. As he lowered his guard a little, Haru met face-to-face with someone who clearly did not look like someone who would have been an agent..
He immediately pointed a gun towards the stranger and asked, “Who are you? What are you doing here? You aren’t an agent and I wasn’t told that there was anyone that was suppose to be here.”
That man’s immediate response was to raise both of his hands, showing that he was not hostile and Haru asked again with a firmer tone, “Who are you?”
“M-my name is Tachibana Makoto. I’m a freelancer. I have the papers to show for it but um,” Makoto paused and smiled nervously as he stared upwards at the gun for a brief second. “Could you please lower your gun for a moment?”
Haru gave him a stern look before lowering his gun. Makoto immediately dug through his sling bag and took out a laminated piece of paper that indicated he had the proper license to be out here.
Freelancers were not bounded by the department. They were simply individuals that had a hobby to explore the outside world, whether was for research purposes or sightseeing. There were strict rules to follow and a tracking chip was required to be implanted into their bodies before any visits outside. Even then, they were still required to submit paperwork in advance before leaving, like a visa when leaving out of the country into foreign land.
But Haru would never understands them - the freelancers. Why would people want to venture out when there was always the danger of the Infected lurking around. One bite from them and you were as good as dead.
Haru placed his handguns back into his holsters as Makoto kept back his stuff as well. “I did not receive any prior reports regarding the presence of a freelancer here or were you the one who caused HQ to call me up?”
Makoto immediately froze and looked up at Haru. “Something happened here?” AS Haru continued to stare at Makoto, he continued, “I applied to be out here last month at the department and there wasn’t anything else said when they gave me permission five days ago regarding this area.”
“It was just two days ago when I was told about this. Have you spotted anything weird around the area during your time here?”
Makoto shook his head. Haru sighed in exhaustion as he said, “Well, I guess that’s that. Just pass me your code so I can key it into the system since I’d rather not point a gun at another human being.”
Haru unlocked his digital pad as Makoto recited his code number to him. The digital pad produced a ‘beep’ sound indicating Makoto had been registered properly into Haru’s digital pad and that Makoto’s movements were now being tracked.
“How long will you be out here?” Makoto asked, hoping to get an answer.
“Not sure, maybe for another one or two more weeks. The government plans to recover this district.” Haru answered him as he stepped into his buggy. “Ah, before I forget, send me a message if you discover any abnormalities.”
Makoto nodded and sent Haru off with a warm smile. As Haru slowly drove back to his cabin, his heart had a sudden tug of warmness. Haru grabbed his shirt where his heart was located and cursed at this feeling. He had not felt like this ever since Rin had died. Gou gave him warmness, yes, but it was different.
Haru cursed silently as he slammed the gas pedal to get back to the cabin as soon as possible.
Who the hell was this Makoto guy anyway?
--
The following week went by surprisingly fine. Haru saw Makoto here and there, and at times, the other would follow him around as he did his scouting. There was idle conversation at times and Haru had felt quite comfortable in Haru’s presence.
“Rin was like a brother to me and my only best friend. I treat Gou as my younger sister as well.” Haru smiled at the thought of the Matsuoka siblings. “What about you?”
“I have two younger siblings, a sister and a brother. My parent died during all the pandemonium.”
Haru spotted the slight hint of pain that flashed through his face before he smiled again. “I really try to treasure them. I knew it was hard on them when our parents died because there was no burial nor could we pay them our proper respects but they tried so hard to be strong for my sake.”
Haru suddenly thought about something and asked, “Why did you choose to be a freelancer?”
Makoto let out a small laugh, “It was like a spur of decision kind of thing. I needed a job and I had a degree in Archaeology Research because it had suddenly became such a well sought-after degree after the government had started reestablishing itself.”
Haru nodded in understanding as that had also been his decision during that time.
“Since we’re on this topic, I might as well ask what your motivations were for becoing an agent. I know that the freelancer test is ridiculously crazy but the agent’s requirement test is even worse,” Makoto asked as he took another sip of his coffee.
Haru tighten his gripped on his tumbler and Makoto immediately saw it. “It’s okay if you don’t want to say, I understand.”
“It’s fine. I managed to obtain my degree sometime after I had sent off Gou to university and life had gotten a little bit quieter after that. I had been job hunting then but nothing had seemed appealing to me.” Haru paused for a moment to look at the cup in his hand. “One day when I was walking down the streets to get some grocery, I saw the banner and I just thought, ‘why not?’”
“I see,” Makoto said as he nodded in understanding.
“I had the perfect aptitude for it, apparently. And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it so I did. It felt better for me and I would be able to see the outside world a lot more than just be stuck behind these walls all my life,” Haru said.
Makoto could not said anything because he had felt exactly the same He loved his siblings more than anything but he didn’t want to spend his life surrounded by all these barriers, not being able to do anything useful in his life to him. Not having a lot of friends in his life to put up with him, Makoto was just grateful that Haru was comfortable around him.
Haru’s digital pad started to beep, indicating it was time to head back. It was almost 7 P.M. Haru stood up, finished up his coffee and put his tumbler away, “I gotta go. See you tomorrow?”
Makoto stood up also and nodded, with a smile on his face, “Sure.”
--
Haru was back at his cabin, showered and changed, instant ramen sitting on the table as his dinnerIt was barely past 8 P.M. when he was done eating and cleaning up so he decided to spend some time analysing the maps and the area he had not gone through yet.
In truth, Haru would have been done by now if he had really wanted to but there was a part of him that was enjoying Makoto’s presence. There was something about him that Haru could not quite fathom. Sometimes when Haru thought about it, it felt like he had met Makoto before sometime back but could not seem to put a finger on when or where. So he shrugged the feeling off and decided to finish up his daily report before dozing off.
--
Beep, beep, beep
Haru groaned at the sudden beeping. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, glancing at his digital clock showing that it was just a few minutes past 3 in the morning. He stretched a little before walking up to his digital pad, Makoto’s name flashing on the screen as he pressed the answer button.
“Hey, Makoto? What is it?”
“Uhm, Haru, I’m sorry to wake you up at his hour but.” Makoto paused.
“But what?” Haru asked into his digital pad, his voice showed a hint of annoyance.
“We might have company.”
“Shit!” Haru cursed as he immediately changed his clothes “Can you send me the exact location of where they are?”
“I’m on it.” was Makoto’s answer.
Haru jumped into his buggy and drove to the location that Makoto had sent him. It only took less than 15 minutes to reach the particular destination and Haru parked the buggy a few hundred meter away from it, in order not to attract any unwanted attention.
He saw the cabin that Makoto was staying in and slowly made his way there. Taking his handgunsand Hecate II outalong with some ammo tucked in his back pocket, his eyes and ears were on full alert as he scanned the surroundings. He safely reached in front of Makoto’s cabin and knocked. Makoto opened the door immediately.
“Hey, you okay?” Was Haru’s first question as he entered.
Makoto nodded in reassurance. Haru took a look at him before placing his sniper rifle down on the table closest to him and asked, “When did you find out about this?”
“Just a little over two minutes before I called you. I was on a toilet break.” Makoto scratched his head. “Then when I glanced out the window, I saw a few shadows. I thought I was just seeing things at first, but when I took a closer look, I saw that I wasn’t so I immediately called you.”
“You’re unarmed?”
“I have a handgun. You know we have to be armed if we’re ever out here.” He sat down to the chair before continuing. “But if I were to be honest with you, I’ve never actually encountered them before.”
Haru was shocked beyond words. He hadn’t met anyone before who had never encountered any of the Infected. It was clearly written on Haru’s face as Makoto had started laughing.
“I’m sorry to surprise you. I did not mean to.”
“I’m not going to lie, I’m really surprised by that statement. I’m starting to think you have really good luck or some sort of superpower if you’ve never even come close to seeing them before,” Haru muttered.
Makoto laughed again. “Well, I guess I’ve ran out of that luck since there’s one here today.”
Just as Makoto finished his sentence, beeping sounds were coming from Haru’s digital pad. He unlocked it and opened up his map, just to see multiple red dots around the area. One, two, three… There were five of them. Haru put his pad down before taking out his handguns and flicking the safety off, taking a deep breathe.
Five, he could handle five. Haru had handled more than five before, but he had not beenalone back then, having been surrounded by other teammates. This time, it was going to different. As much as he trusted Makoto, he did not know how well the other would handle a gun, especially under these circumstances as he had never ever faced them before.
“You’re not going to use your sniper rifle?” Makoto asked, bringing Haru back from his train of thoughts.
Haru glanced over at his Hecate II. He did want to use her but he was unsure to whether or not he could pull it out in these conditions as they were not particularly in his favour. First, it was dark outside and his vision would be limited. Second, he did not know the area well enough to walk around in the darkness so it was a risky move.
“I can’t. I don’t have the right conditions. In order to use her, I need the stars to be aligned,” Haru explained. He saw the amused grin that tugged on Makoto’s lips and that was when he realized he had just called his Hecate II a ‘her’. A small blush appeared on Haru’s cheek.
“So are you going to walk there like that or monitor them for awhile?” Makoto asked.
Haru thought for a second as what Makoto had suggested was not so bad. He could monitor them for a while, tracked down their patterns and formulate a plan. He could do that, until his digital pad started to beep again.
“They are moving towards us,” Haru said, voice hard. He did not expect any of this to happen. They were usually oblivious to the surroundings and would not attack any human unless they were within a 5 meter radius.
Haru was getting ready for a combat. The Infected were hard to get rid off when they were agitated. They would jumped at any chance they had at a human. Just as Haru finished getting his handguns loaded and made sure he had extra ammos in his holster, ready to be use, as he turned around to see Makoto loading his handgun.
“What are you doing?” Haru asked.
Makoto looked at him, with a slight confusion in his eyes before answering, “I’m going with you. What else do I look like I’m doing?”
Haru hate to doubt people so he decided to place a little trust in Makoto.So he nodded and said, “Be careful. It’s different from the simulation.”
Makoto let out a laugh, “Yeah, I know. Everything is different from the simulation. I learned it first hand when I first walked out of the gate.”
Makoto opened the door that kept them inand both men strolled out into the battlezone.
--
As soon as Haru reached his spot, he talked into his communication unit directly. “Current status?”
“One of them is directly on your three, just about 5 meters away. There’s another one behind you, on your nine, about the same distance too.” Makoto spoke back.
Haru tighten his grip on his guns and swallowed the thick lump in his throat as he paid his full attention to them.
He looked at the one on his three. Haru could make out that the zombie was a woman with blacked hair. Her face was all sorts of messed up, clothes tattered and the only thing that was still human about her was basically her body structure alone Haru could not care less because in his eyes, they had all been dead a long time ago.
He took a fast aim at her head, his mouth curled in slight disgust as he pulled the trigger.
Bang.
She landed on the ground, truly dead.
As soon as she fell, Haru immediately switched his attention to the one behind him.
A shot in the head was all they needed to fall to the ground to meettheir ultimate death. He stood there for a minute, paying his final respect to them and marked down the location so he could call for cleanup in the morning.
He walked down the road to meet up with Makoto who was hiding behind an alleyway, monitoring the movements of the zombies.
“There’s one coming down that road,” Makoto said as he pointed to the red flashing dot on the screen. Haru nodded as he clocked his gun before moving down the road and pulled the trigger again.
Makoto cringed at the sound of the gunshot and the silent scream of the dead. It was a combination of the worst sounds ever. He sighed at himself before he looked at the screen again. He swore he almost yelled.
“Haru! We gotta run!”
Haru was standing there with his own digital pad, marking down the spot just as Makoto came running to him and grabbed his arm, running off.
“Makoto? What’s going on? Why are we running?” Haru asked as Makoto held on to him, still running.
“They-they,” Makoto tried to explain as he caught his breath,“They are coming our way. I think they were attracted to the noise so they’re heading towards this direction.” He showed Haru the screen.
Haru could see the two flashing dot that were chasing after them, fast enough to be a threat as he cursed under his breath as they continued running.
Haru took the lead when he saw the area they were running to. “This way.” he led Makoto into a stairway and when they reached the top, Makoto was not surprised that it was a shrine.
“In here,” Haru said as he slide open the slightly broken and tattered wooden door. Makoto gladly followed him in as Haru shut the door.
They both sat down, trying to catch their breath as Makoto continued to monitor the screen. “It seems like we’ve lost them.”
Haru nodded, stood up and walking towards the altar. Makoto looked at him with a confused face as he watched Haru propped something below the wood which revealed a small door underneath, just below the altar.
“We keep some of our supplies here. There is also clean water directly from the mountains. Just don’t tell anyone about this place,” Haru said as he threw Makoto a bottle of water and a towel. Makoto caught it with eased and nodded.
“Let’s stay here for awhile until they calm down.” Haru explained while scrolling through his digital pad.
Makoto looked around the shrine, a small smile tugged on his lips as he turned to look at Haru. Haru caught his smile and asked, “What are you smiling about?”
“I’m not surprised that you don’t remember but this is the exact same place you brought me to ten years ago.”
Haru looked at him with a confused look while Makoto let out a small laugh.
“Excuse me?” Haru asked.
“10 years ago, when my parents had just passed away and I was seperated from my siblings for a bit. I was lost in this town and you found me,” Makoto paused while Haru’s locked with Makoto’s. “The Infected had broke through the defense line and everyone was freaking out so I went hiding in an alleyway. You found me there and offered to help me. You brought me here and we stayed until the authorities found us.”
Haru eyes widened as the memory suddenly flashed in his mind.
--
10 years ago
17 year old Makoto was scared but he was not scared of the Infected, he was scared of the safety of his siblings. He had to get out of here fast, was his main train of thought when the havoc had happened.
Ignoring the panic and chaos, Makoto ran as fast as he could, not looking up until he had reached a dead end. Seeing a small and hidden alleyway, he had crouched there and hoped for the best in his rough situation.
He crouched there for a solid minute. There was still screaming and yelling all around him which meant that the Infected was still around. Makoto prayed, he prayed his hardest for the safety of his siblings and prayed for himself, until a voice broke his prayers.
“Hey, you okay?”
Makoto looked up and the first thing he saw was a pair of blue eyes that shined like the a reflection of the moon on the surface of water. He was too stunned by the beauty of it to speak.
“My name is Haru. You need to get out here quickly, it’s not safe here,” The boy called Haru said to him. “I’ll bring you to somewhere safe. My friend and his sister are there too. Come on.”
Makoto nodded. He was not sure how much he could trust this stranger that offered help, but there was something about him that made Makoto wanted to trust in Haru and the warm, soothing feeling that he emitted. Haru extended his hand to Makoto and Makoto gladly took it, where Haru lead them out of the main district and towards the housing area.
He took him up an unknown staircase and as soon as they passed the red toji gate, Makoto knew what to expect. It was a shrine. An abandoned shrine with its torn and creaking paper doors, slightly chipped paint on the toji gate and an abundance of dried leaves around the shrine.
Haru slide opened the wooden doors without much effort and the first thing that Makoto saw was a well polished altar. He looked around and saw two figures, a boy that looked around the same age as Haru and himself, and a younger girl, which was probably the sister that Haru had mentioned earlier.
“You’re late, Haru!” The boy called out.
“I’m sorry, I was on my way and then I saw him,” Haru’s thumb pointed to his back. “He was crouching at the exact spot you did last time, Rin. So I helped him out and brought him here.”
The boy which Haru called Rin was grinning at Makoto, showing his perfect white teeth. “Hi!”
“Onii-chan, I think you’re scaring him…” The younger girl spoke out.
Rin turned to look at his sister before turning back towards Makoto again, “My name is Rin and this is my sister, Gou. What’s your name?”
“Makoto,” was his only reply.
Rin grinned at him again and said, “Nice to meet you, Makoto.We’re going to be stuck here for awhile but this is one of the places that usually gets scouted for people so we just have to wait until help arrives.”
Makoto nodded and proceed to take a seat on the wooden floor. Rin turned his attention back to his sister again and both of them were engaged in a conversation in no time.
On the hand, Haru was busy digging around the altar and suddenly the top of the altar popped open, revealing some dried food, water and other supplies. Rin beamed at Haru and went, “You did it!”
Gou showed a worried look and said, “Are you sure it’s okay for us to take that?”
Haru grabbed two bottles of water and passed one of them to Makoto. “It’s fine. I know one of the military guy, he was the one who told me about this place and this secret compartment. He just told me not to tell anyone.”
Makoto muttered a small thanks to Haru as he passed him the bottle. Haru returned him a smile before taking a seat beside Makoto.
“So, what were you doing in this town? I know you’re not from here.” Haru popped the question.
“I was on the move from another town to the city. Then some Infected broke through the defense line and I was separated from my siblings. I hope they are okay.” Makoto explained.
“I’m sure your siblings are okay. The military guys here are really strong and well-trained so I’m sure no one will get hurt. You should be able to meet them soon,” Haru said, sounding very confident about it.
“Why are you so sure? I mean, how do you sound so confident that they’ll be fine? I’m trying so hard not to run off just to find them now.” Makoto exclaimed, and then looked over to Rin and Gou who were still chatting away.
“You,” Haru started. “Just have to believe in them, as cheesy as it sounds. That’s how the three of us got so far. You might not believe me but the three of us have been staying here in this town with only each other as family for the last three years ever since the outbreak happened. We are still alive because we believed in each other,” Haru said as he took another gulp of the water. “Because we only have each other now.”
He watched as Haru walked over to them and engaged in their conversation. He watched them and observed them as they laughed over the silliest things possible. ‘They are happy,’ Makoto thought.
Slowly, Makoto smiled at the sight of them. If things had been different, maybe they would not have been in this situation. If the outbreak had not happened, maybe they would have all still been with their families, leading happy lives.
“Hey, Makoto! Come over,” Rin called and Makoto accepted his invitation. He walked over to them and sat down between Haru and Rin.
All four of them sat in front of the shrine’s altar, chatting happily as if they weren’t in a life and death situation if the Infected had found them, kids with barely any chances of survival when faced head on with a situation like this.
For once, Makoto felt at home, like he was surrounded by people he could trust. He was happy and content with their presence until the wooden door slid open, revealing a man in military suit.
“Time to go, kids.” The man said and Haru stood up along with Rin and Gou. Haru extended his hand again to pull Makoto up as they walked out.
“What’s your name, kid? I don’t think I’ve seen you from around this area before,” the military guy asked.
“Makoto, Tachibana Makoto. I was on the move from the east, and on the way, the Infected broke through the defense line and I was separated from the group.”
The man nodded and immediately spoke into his communication device. Makoto looked over to his new acquaintances. He wanted to call them friends but he wasn’t sure that he would ever meet them again. It was short, but at least Makoto had met a bunch of positive people that had helped him out.
“Hey, Haru.” Makoto called out.
Haru turned and said, “Yeah?”
“Thank you.” Makoto smiled. Haru returned a smile and Rin also grinned at him.
“You’re welcome. Guess we’ll see each other around?” Haru said.
Makoto nodded before he was ushered into the military truck and for once, Makoto was not sad because of the lost of his parents or the fact that he had still not found his siblings but because he would not see them again.
--
Present
Haru was shocked. How could he have not remembered Makoto, who was the last person he had met before Rin had died. He felt like punching himself for not noticing.
“Don’t blame yourself. When I first met you that night, I wasn’t sure whether or not it was you. It had been 10 years, after all. And you felt...different. I didn’t want to ask you much and you didn’t seem to recall anything about that incident anyway,” Makoto said.
Haru, still bitter at his forgetfulness, just uttered the words, “I’m sorry.”
Makoto let out a laugh, “It’s okay. I wasn’t really prepared when you told me that Rin had already passed away and I couldn’t really sleep that night. He was a really comforting presence during that time and I quite liked him.”
Haru walked over and took a seat beside Makoto as he looked down at his hands. “Rin was everyone’s favourite. Life was never dull with that guy and he always just wanted the people around him to be happy. That was the kind of guy that he was.”
Makoto smiled at the thought of Rin with the image of him chatting away in the shrine, with his white teeth and addictive laughter. “If things was different,” Makoto said. “I think all of us would have been great friends. That was what I always thought.”
There was a moment of silent between both of them before the digital pad beeped again, indicating that they were safe. Makoto stood up first and extended his hand to Haru, a similar gesture to what Haru had done 10 years ago. Haru took it and both of them walked out of the shrine.
--
It was 3 days later before Haru had decided it was time to return to the city. General Sasabe had actually asked Haru to come back immediately when he had reported back about the Infected’s attack but Haru insisted to stay for awhile to look over the situation as the cleaners came to pick up the bodies. He did his last sweep before stepping into his buggy and drove home.
The first thing he did when he reached home was to contact Gou as she had the tendency to worry whenever he delayed contact with her for long periods of time. He called her, asking her about how she was and leaving out the fact that he had met Makoto as he figured it would be better for him to talk to her face-to-face about it the next time she came down, maybe even meet Makoto himself.
The both of them had exchanged contact information before Haru had left Makoto back at the district. Makoto still had a few days left he had decided to stay there until the last day, promising to contact Haru as soon as he was back in the city. Haru did not argue with him about the dangers of it as this would be the last time he would be allowed in the district before their plans to renew it.
He sighed as he entered his apartment, took a shower and headed straight to bed.
--
It was over a week before Makoto contacted Haru, apologizing for contacting him later than he had promised. Haru ensured Makoto that it was fine despite Makoto’s consistently muttered apologises.
Both of them fell into a very simple routine where they would hang out once or twice a week, which usually ended up with them meeting at a little quaint cafe that was located near Haru’s apartment as they reminisced about the past or just talked about themselves in general.
It wasn’t until Gou’s next semester break when she had decided to visit Haru that he had introduced her to Makoto. Recognising him almost immediately, Gou had ended up crying on the spot, causing it to be quite the eventful day for the three of them.
There are times where Haru would think back to those days where he had been forced to make difficult choices, like choosing his career, for an example. Would he have went back to that fateful day and chose a different grocery store so he would not have came across that banner?
Then there are also times when he would try to think about what would have happened if Rin had not died and it was him who had taken his place instead. Whenever he had asked Gou about it, she would just tell him casually, “Onii-chan would probably be mad at you for dying before him.” And Haru would laugh because he knew it was true.
When Haru contemplated on all these life choices, Makoto would always appear somewhere in the back of his mind. At first, he would just think that it was due to the bond they shared that was connected by Rin but he knew that wasn’t really the case because there was something about Makoto, something he couldn’t describe in words, something that stirred up the long-forgotten emotions inside of him that he had always tried so hard to suppress.
If Rin had not existed, would Makoto’s path have still converged with his?
Haru’s answer was somehow, undoubtedly a yes.
fin.