Chapter Text
Had someone warned Ego beforehand about what would’ve happened then he would’ve tried talking those rich bastards out of this.
The dim lights illuminated the tight science office, his back hunching over a microscope as he inspected the blood from their current subject.
There was dark colored veins running from where the syringe was sticking from, the effects were indeed different.
His body was indeed fighting the virus off, while slowly adapting to it, on the other hand the subject infront had failed to fight the virus off, simply put, he turned.
—
Name: Benedict Grimm.
Age: 20.
Subject Number: 499.
Results: Turned.
—
“You’re studying late.” A yellow portfolio was passive aggressively thrown onto the desk, the newly turned zombie behind the glass thrashing and pulling on the chains that kept it contained.
“Do I have a choice?”
“You know, your subjects are out there, alive and evolving as we speak. I thought we had planned to contain them, Jinpachi.”
“Get out.” Ego’s voice rang, not loud, not soft, but a steady stern tone.
“We’ll have to substain them at some point and you know it, So why don’t you stop acting like you care for those children and get this over with? A cure could’ve been made ages ago!” The other males voice was suffocating in the compacted space.
The subject started to pull on its chains even harder, its teeth chattering together could now be heard from behind the glass.
—
The stench was overwhelming, saliva dripping from the fresher zombies mouths onto the floor, the more older ones teeth could be heard clashing together in an uncanny way.
Of course he would run into trouble, this was a hospital, the emergency section at that. He pulled the black cloth over his nose and mouth as he ducked behind a desk and waited for the stray undead to walk by, making his way down the stairs while he hurriedly stuffed the bandages and painkillers in his waist bag.
He was passing by what he’d assume was a waiting room when his eyes caught two figures rummaging through the drawers of an office.
“Kunigami?” He muttered, barely above a whisper.
The orange haired male looked different, so different. Kunigami’s hair looked darker and he had visible eye bags underneath his eyes, to which also looked dull.
Ness looked around quickly before opening the door and slipping into the room with experienced caution, careful enough not to let it click. For the undead heard any and everything.
The orange haired male wasted no time, Ness hissed as his back was harshly pressed against the door, “Bitten?”
“N-no!” He strained out, the knife in his hand trembling in Kunigami’s hold.
“Are you lying to me?”
“Why the hell would I lie about something so serious?” Sweat beads rolled down from his forehead down to his chin. “Not the first time someone has said that.” Kunigami muttered as he released Ness’s hand.
“I can’t find anything, let’s not stic- Oh.” The red and black haired male paused for a moment looking between Ness and Kunigami.
“He safe?”
“So he says.”
“So he says.” Ness mocked him, as he spoke up again.
“If you guys were smart enough then you should’ve known all the lower floors would’ve been raided already, no survivor is gonna risk it and go up to the top floors or the emergency room sections.”
Barou’s vein was now visible, a nasty frown crept up onto his face.
“And what’s make you so sure of yourself?”
“Think about it, when the apocalypse first broke out everyone probably rushed to the hospital desperately, to which they would’ve been directed to emergency rooms meaning there’s more zombies over there than the goddamn waiting rooms for starters. Also, no person is gonna take the risk of getting stuck upstairs with no way of escaping.” He explained, his voice calm and slightly annoyed.
“So what makes you so different, why’d you go up there? And how were you able to get back down without being cornered?” Kunigami asked, his voice toned with suspicion.
He hesitated, “That’s none of your concern.”
Ness turned around to leave before his wrist was grabbed.
“What is it?” His annoyance now fully on display.
“Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
“Liar,” Kunigami countered.
Ness exhaled before a smile krept onto his face, it all happened so quickly Barou barely had time to react before the orange haired male doubled over and started wheezing.
Ness darted through the door and quickly made his way to the exit. The smell outside was even more unbearable than it was inside.
Everything was so much right now. The smell, the light the sun shined, the breeze prickling against his nape. He clutched his side and took a deep breath before he started walking again. He made his way down a gravel path leading back to the city, any stray zombies taking their time to walk up to the brown and magenta haired male only sniffed him in a shallow frenzy before walking away.
It was quite annoying but atleast they weren’t biting. Not anymore. Ofcourse them not biting didn’t stop him from hearing the subtle mumbling some of the zombies did.
Each time a mutter was heard it was a mere cry for help, a stupid worthless ‘Help me.’ or something sorry like ‘I didn’t meant to.” It was times like these that made Ness sometimes regret escaping the facility.
It had only been three weeks since that had happened and he already felt hopeless. Completely alone and hopeless.
Ness only came to a halt when he approached a worn down garage door. He bent down and started lifting the door upwards, just enough for him to slip under and close it.
The garage was dusty, with a few weapons laying idly on the floor as he made his way to a rusted door its handle squeaking when he turned it and pushed it forward.
He started at a particular white door before he finally tore his eyes away from it and made his way to the kitchen grabbing a can of beans before bending down and opening up a cupboard.
A cupboard that had a cage of rats in it and a pair of black gloves resting on it.
He quickly slipped them onto his hands opening the small metal gate and grabbing one of the rats, not caring for its cries as he closed to tiny gate now walking towards the same door he was staring at earlier.
He stopped infront of it, his hands hesitating for a moment as he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.
The door opened and clicked shut behind him.
Blonde and blue hair falling over the face of the figure infront of him, its arms chained to the walls behind it.
“Micha.”
Kaiser raised his head, a singular bloodshot eye pointed straight towards Ness before a series of thrashing screeches could be heard.
Ness cautiously walked closer towards Kaiser as he lowered his hand and released the rodent that was quickly grabbed by kaisers sharpened teeth.
The crunching sound honestly creeped Ness out, but this was something he had to get used to if he wished to keep him around.
He sat down crossed legged infront of the blonde haired male, a very faint yet present foul smell radiating from him.
“I-…” Ness’s voice was small, barely above a whisper.
“I met our classmates Micha, I didn’t stick around though.” He started off with a simple topic. He knew the other could understand him, that much he figured out.
Though it seemed as if it was random times to which Kaiser could speak. “Kunigami and Barou, it seemed as if they had been traveling together for a while..I-I couldn’t bring myself to stick around them any longer knowing I was putting their lives in danger. I’m dangerous Micha.”
He tilted his head down to hide his now moist eyes, his bangs covering his unwrapped eye.
A low gurgling sound could be heard before an all too familiar voice was present.
“Kill me, Alexis.”
His head shot up at this, Kaiser was no longer thrashing or growling uncontrollably, his bloodshot blue eyes were staring right back at his own magenta pair.
“What? N-no I can’t do th-“
“I bit you.”
“Yes you did but look Micha! I’m fine okay? I’m fine.”
“No. This isn’t because of you, Alexis, I simply dont wish to be such a humiliating sight.” His voice was now filling the space they were in, sounding a bit too emotional that Alexis was used to but ofcourse, he didn’t voice his own opinion, he never did.
“Do you know how it feels to sit here all day while trying to surpress urges to kill? To feed? Everytime I see you my first instinct is to thrash and try to feed, I’m long gone there’s so saving me when I’ve turned into this ugly replica of what I once was! What humanity once was.”
Ness tried to speak once more but his throat burned, his eyes watered and ugly tears threatened to spill from his eyes any moment.
He got to his feet and walked towards the door before pausing, not looking back but finally swallowing.
“No matter how ugly you think you are Micha you will always be the most beautiful thing to me. I don’t care how selfish you think I am but I won’t kill you, when we first met-“
He paused, taking a deep breathe. “You asked if I believed in magic, now, I’m asking you to believe in me, my Kaiser.”
The door clicked shut behind him as he walked back into the kitchen and placed the can of beans back into the cupboard.
He wasn’t in the mood to eat, infact he was barely able to tell the last time he ate without feeling repulsed and bringing it back up.
Food tasted bitter, rotten and unpleasant against his tongue.
He fell back onto the couch with an exhausted groan, he was always tired these days, not to mention constant headaches or feeling dizzy. Ness ran a hand through his hair and down his face in frustration, his hand grazing the bandages that covered his left eye.
A hand moved slow and carefully as the bandages came undone. Searching the room his hand reached for the small makeup kit with a glass built inside. He looked even worse than he remembered, his left eye was now a lighter color than the other, extremely visible eyebags circling both of them. He brought a finger to his upper lip and curled it upwards fangs now on display.
He ran his tongue across his tooth, the tiniest drop of blood now running down to his chin dripping on the camouflage shorts he had on.
A sigh was audible as he positioned himself cross way the couch. He’d only nap for a few minutes before his nightly runs.
Maybe this time he’d find something that could help him, that could help Kaiser.
Thud.