Chapter Text
For once, it had seemed like everything would be okay.
After a dangerous few days, they'd managed to get parts for a radio. Risking the danger of the city had been worth it, and now, all they had to do was leave the ruins of the outskirts behind and find somewhere safe and high to try and contact other survivors.
In the post-apocalypse, moments where you felt like that were hard to come by. It was a relief to have a moment to rest after the chaos of the last few days, where they could sit here together by the fire. Maybe that's why, just for a moment, they’d relaxed, and Tsurugi Kinjo had foolishly let his guard down.
Then, the moment had shattered, and a familiar song, one he knew all too well, began once more.
“What should we do?” Brown eyes, scared, but far too trusting of him, gaze at him above the embers of their campfire. Both of them stand, abandoning the blanket they'd been curled up under and the embers they'd been watching over together.
“Let’s go,” Tsurugi whispers back an order. Some of the anxiety fades from Yuki's face thanks to Kinjo's seemingly confident lead. “There must be another way out.”
“Okay,” Yuki whispers, quietly taking a knife from their supplies. There was no time to pack anything back up and take it with them. After grabbing the radio they'd risked so much to find and tucking it away, Tsurugi pulls a crowbar from one of the packs, and readies it as they begin to move. It was a meager defense, but he had little else. What he wouldn't give for an actual weapon. A gun, or at least something with more range; getting close enough to use this was incredibly dangerous in itself.
Growls, groans, and shuffling, shambling footsteps echo behind them as Tsurugi leads them further away from the entrance they'd used, and deeper into the abandoned factory. They dart up the stairs to a catwalk above, staying close and quiet. While Tsurugi searches ahead, Yuki monitors the path behind them, staring down at the ground below. Already, rotten silhouettes were obscuring the fire from view, drawn like moths to the heat and light left by the living.
Countless catwalks and a few cranes hang above them, but Tsurugi ignores the dead ends. While it was likely going further up would stop their pursuers from reaching them, it would also trap them up there, with no guarantee the horde would give them an opening to flee before they starved.
“Kinjo,” Yuki’s nervous warning directs Tsurugi’s gaze back over to where they'd come. Mismatched, rotten hands were beginning to appear at the top of the stairs. Thankfully, Tsurugi has already spotted a door leading away from the factory’s production floor.
“Over there,” he points, and they both race for it, jumping over holes and debris. The catwalk reverberates metallically with each step, but it was pointless to worry about noise now. As they run, Yuki topples crates and debris over behind them, attempting to create some kind of barricade. Mere seconds later, they halt at the end of the line. Faded white paint makes the door almost seem to glow in the dark room, where nearly everything else was painted in rusty tones of red, brown, and grey. A slight bit of light was even trickling through a window in the center. Despite the dust obscuring the glass, Tsurugi felt certain he could make out a hallway beyond, and an open door with an unlit exit sign hanging above. Before he grabs the handle, he catches a glimpse of Yuki’s face. Relief and hope were sparking in his fearful eyes.
That light is quickly extinguished when Tsurugi turns the handle, and is met with nothing but a heavy, despairing, metallic clunk. Neither of them say a word as Tsurugi tries again, then again. Even when he starts using more and more force, nothing happens. Both of their faces turn white after Tsurugi steps back and rams the door with his shoulder, and still nothing happens.
I've forced entry through heavier doors than this, Tsurugi thinks incredulously. He knew he was strong enough to bust down a door like this, and yet nothing happened no matter how hard he hit it. Behind him, he hears Yuki scrambling to use whatever he can find to form a barricade. Beyond his crashing and stacking and Tsurugi's quickening heart, the endless march creeps forward. He can hear the groans, broken bones crackling, muscles bending and pulling together, and lost shoes still shuffling on without meaning, owners no longer truly there. Horror and panic were already starting to threaten his clear head, and he could see that Yuki was already starting to lose himself to fear. They both needed him to think quickly and act faster.
Yuki yelps in surprise at his side as Tsurugi lifts the crowbar, and uses it to shatter the door’s tiny window. Then, he reaches an arm in, ignoring it when broken glass grazes his sleeve and cuts into the skin below. A hand presses around his forearm, holding on, and reminding him painfully of who was depending on him. If he was scared, Yuki must be terrified. He spares a quick glance back towards his companion, trying to reassure him in some small way.
“It's not over yet.” He promises, meeting his gaze. Yuki nods, and despite the electric fear prickling in the sides of his eyes, there was something trusting and determined there, too. Once again, Tsurugi is reminded of the trust being placed over him. The weight of it is crushing, but he has to accept the burden.
It's not going to be like back then. He promises himself as he continues to reach in through the opening. I’ll protect him. He isn't sure if he believes himself, but he has to try. Yuki would be keen to pick up on how he was feeling if he didn't carefully obscure every possible sign; and he couldn't let them descend into panic.
His heart sinks as he feels something heavy and thick jammed across the other side of the door. By touch alone, he can tell it must be too big, but when he draws his arm back and stands on his tiptoes to peer through the opening, his suspicions are confirmed. A massive support beam had fallen, and the higher end was lying against the upper half of the door. Dread fills Tsurugi’s chest. He's certain that even if he were on the other side of this godforsaken door, it would be impossible for him to lift. Even with Yuki’s help, he doubted it would budge, and from this side, it would never move.
“K-Kinjo…?” Yuki’s voice is hollow. Behind them, the sounds made by the zombified horde were growing louder and louder.
“I’ll try and pull it open the other way,” Tsurugi quickly responds. The pressure of Yuki's hand around his arm disappears, allowing him to move more freely, despite part of him wishing it was still there. But there was no time for things like that. Immediately, he raises the crowbar again, and plunges it down into one of the hinges before using it to pry away the panel and screws. Realizing his intent, Yuki starts kicking at the lowest one, then plunges his knife into the wood surrounding the hinge. Both of them manage to separate the pieces; Tsurugi forces the screws out of the wood, while Yuki creates a big enough cavity in the surface of the wood for them to easily pull the hinge away via crowbar. However, precious seconds peter away, and the horrible march towards them grows ever louder. Once again, Yuki’s hand grabs his arm tightly. Now, all he had to do was pry the door out enough to get through, or break the lock.
It sounded so simple when he said his plan out loud. Simple enough, he hoped, that Yuki would accept that it could easily be done.
“How close are they?” Tsurugi already knew by the sound that they were too close, and that there probably wasn't enough time to break through before zombies descended upon them.
But Yuki didn't need to know that. He needed a task to do while Tsurugi put his entire being into prying the door open. One that kept him further away and higher up where Tsurugi needed him, just in case… Tsurugi’s plans trail off as he feels Yuki release his arm, and scramble up the barricade. Already, he regrets making him leave.
“Tell me if they reach the barricade,” Tsurugi calls back, then slams his shoulder uselessly into the wood. The lock, of course, does not break. He returns to putting his entire weight against the wall, willing the lever to work. The tiniest bit of movement sends a jolt down his aching back. It's starting to move-
“They're here!” Yuki’s panicked cry crushes his hope.
Too late. Tsurugi steps back, leaving the crowbar levered in the door, then leaps up to the top of the barricade. His companion stares at him, scared but determined, probably expecting to be told they had to run or fight, for Tsurugi to buy them more time somehow, or really anything other than what he was actually planning to do.
Forgive me, Yuki. Without giving his friend a second to speak or even react, Tsurugi grabs him and hoists him suddenly up into the air.
“K-Kinjo, what are you-” Yuki’s voice raises with shock until the words are cut off by a sharp yelp. The smaller man is thrown into the air, flying until he lands atop one of the broken catwalks hanging above them.
Tsurugi is suddenly grateful his companion wasn't wearing his pack. Even from the highest point, it had been a feat throwing him so high. For a brief second, he hesitates there, at the peak of the makeshift barricade, staring upwards as the creatures below begin to ascend, fingers clawing at the crates and bodies shaking the pile.
Though he struggles at the edge of the catwalk for a second, legs dangling down, Yuki manages to scramble to safety. That sight, despite the look on Yuki’s face when he looks back, gives Tsurugi some tiny modicum of victory.
There was no time to waste on staring upwards, though. Tsurugi tears his gaze away, hoping that somehow, it won't be the last time he sees the man staring down at him from above. Tsurugi would not be joining him up there. It was too high for him to follow, and besides, their only means of escape was here, right in front of him. He can feel Yuki's eyes on him and hear the pain in his voice when his friend slowly begins to realize.
“Stop!” He shouts, and Tsurugi very nearly does. “WAIT!” Instead of listening, he returns to the door and puts his entire body behind the makeshift lever. Wood creaks and the lock groans; rusty metal bending. Tsurugi was making progress, but it was already clear it wouldn't be fast enough. Misshapen forms, bloody and rotten and vile, are already beginning to pour down along the barricade. The bodies stumble and fall over each other, landing in heaps and breaking each other in order to reach him.
“TSURUGI!” At the same moment he hears a brittle snap, and the door starts to turn toward him, a desperate, frantic voice calls out from above. He turns, pulling the crowbar away just in time to ram it into the skull of an encroaching zombie. It doesn't make a single sound of pain as it falls back, tripping up several of the others still marching forward.
I have to get the door open. I have to do that, or it will all have been for nothing, and Yuki will die here too.
Fending off zombies while simultaneously prying open a door was a nigh impossible task, even for the Ultimate Police Officer. Still, he manages to avoid being grabbed or bitten for a full two minutes. In that time, he continues to pull at one end of the door in between blows, until at last, he manages to wrench it back just enough. The sound can barely be made out above the groans and the sound of battle, but at last, one end of the door screeches forward, leaving just enough room for someone to escape through. The brief spark of victory Tsurugi feels is short-lived, however. A lithe, shambling figure somehow manages to leap from the mass of living corpses, and lands over his shoulders.
A stinking, crushing weight presses down on him, and Tsurugi barely manages to block the thing's mouth with his crowbar before decaying teeth meet his arm. Somewhere, distant and muffled thanks to the horde of rotten flesh surrounding him, he can hear Yuki screaming. His voice was broken, yet somehow furious in a way Tsurugi had rarely, if ever, heard before.
Then, every other noise is drowned out by an earth-shattering crash. It shakes through his entire body, reverberating through the walkway. One end of the catwalk plummets down, crushing a large chunk of the creatures surrounding Tsurugi's trapped form. The still biting at him from above is swept aside, and immediately, Tsurugi springs to his feet. His mind races, trying to catch up with what just happened.
While Tsurugi had been fighting for their escape, Yuki had been stuck, unable to do anything but watch from the safety above. Jumping or climbing down was beyond him, but he hadn't given up. As the first zombie fell down the barricade, Yuki had begun to pound and saw at one of the supports keeping the catwalk suspended. There were four on this platform, but one had already broken. It had taken precious time for his knife to break through the ties, but eventually, somehow, someway, he had broken through.
Tsurugi struggles for breath, eyes narrowed, and crowbar readied. This was merely a break in the onslaught, he knew. Most of the zombies continued unhindered, and the fallen catwalk would only slow them down a little. Panic throttles his heart, squeezing around his lungs like a gigantic closed fist. The catwalk was empty. Yuki was nowhere to be seen.
“MAEDA!” He calls, shouting above the cacophony, and bludgeoning a zombie that had crept too close.
“I-I’m here!” Relief flows into Tsurugi's mind. That familiar pressure relents as he turns toward the sound and spots a familiar face peeking over the other side of the ruined barricade. Immediately, he races over and leaps to the top of the catwalk, then down again to the remains of the barrier. A shaky hand reaches upwards, and he grabs it and drags Yuki up, kicking away a zombie still nipping at his heels. There was no time to talk. Yuki's hand closes around his own as Tsurugi leads them back down and they race towards the door, dodging countless clumsy attacks and the many figures leering out at them from the shadows, decaying hands outstretched.
When they reach the door again, Tsurugi shoves Yuki through first before he can protest. It takes a few seconds for his friend to squeeze through the cavity and manage to get up and around the beam blocking the entrance. After he does, Tsurugi quickly follows. The instant he begins to pull back on the door, rotten hands begin to appear beyond the opening, but with Yuki’s help, he manages to return it to where it had been. For a moment, they stare at the jammed entrance, chests heaving, and shoulders brushing together. Yuki pants, hands on his knees, tie loosened, and torn shirt unbuttoned. Beside him, Tsurugi takes deep, slow breaths. Then, he turns away from the muffled sounds of the horde behind them and towards the daylight pouring in beyond. He grabs Yuki’s hand and leads him forward, urgency and relief both driving him on.
Daylight hits them as they step outside, and Tsurugi’s spirits lift even higher as he sees what lies outside the horrible place they'd managed to escape. A huge, chainlink fence they could make it past without being pursued, and beyond, a clear path towards the shore, where a tall, steady lighthouse stood resolutely above. At last, they could leave the dangers of the city behind and contact the others. The striped tower, rising up in the distance, was a welcome sight, a beacon that left him suddenly hopeful.
“Maeda, look, there’s an escape route, we can finally…” he trails off with a sinking feeling when, instead of matching his excitement or returning his smile, Yuki tugs his hand back, and won't meet his eyes. “...Maeda…?”
In the daylight, he can take in far more of his friend than he could in the chaos and darkness of the factory they'd left behind.
Tsurugi falters and halts.
“Kinjo… I'm sorry…” Yuki’s eyes are teary, and blood drips lazily down his neck. A jagged, unnatural bite gnaws into his pale skin, and buries itself deep into Tsurugi's chest.
…I failed again after all.