The Falling

A childhood dream

Aaand the third chapter is up^^ I really enjoy writing this fic, It feels more story driven I guess, more planned so I'm a bit new to that way of writing. I usually just write the story as I go so that's why it's not always that coherent hahahh so we'll see if this one turns out different. I really love zombie movies and zombies in general, they're quite fun so I guess that's why I'm writing about them.  Maybe you don't enjoy those kinds of stories but I promise you there will be romance heheh. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and if you do please don't forget to rate and comment<3

Pitch black. The lights didn't work, how convenient. Thinking about it, no electricity in the building was on, he hadn't thought about it as the daylight had shined through the windows. Nana walked forward through the narrow corridor, navigating through touching the walls and the doors of different storage units. The only thing he could hear was his own feet dragging to the ground and some water drops slowly dripping from a leaking pipe. "Kirari? Kirari are you here?" he whispered out expecting silence but he heard it, a slight whimper. "Kirari?" he now said a bit louder, reassuring himself it was real, he had heard it. He crept closer to the sound, moving faster and faster towards the silent cries. A storage. The door wasn't locked and without a second thought he slammed it open and sprinted inside.

"Onii-san?"

He could only see a shape but it was her, cradled up in a fetus position in the corner of dads unit. He hugged her. He would never let her go. Never ever leave her alone. What was she doing here?

"I'm here, I'm here. Don't worry", she clasped his shirt and cried against his chest. Nana lifted her up, they had to get out of there, he didn't know why she was hiding, who she was hiding from. He lifted her up, carried her on his back- afraid to lose her. Nana started walking out, she was safe. 

Bang!

From nowhere they suddenly heard a loud noise. Nana didn't look back, he knew he would be unable to see anything in the dark so there was no use. He ran. They were not safe yet.

"What was that?" he huffed, legs still moving forward.

"Grandpa but-", he slowed down.

"No! Keep running!",she hissed in panic.

"But it's-"

"We gotta hide", Nana didn't understand but Kirari obviously knew more about what was going on so he kept running. What was wrong with Grandpa? What was he doing here?

Nana ran up the stairs to their apartment and closed the door. He put down the plank beside the sofa and sunk down. Kirari, even though her young age was taking the situation seriously. She sat down beside him and started to pinch the loose skin covering his knuckles, a thing she'd done since early childhood. Nana knew she wouldn't be the one to start the conversation.

"Kirari, you have to explain to me what's going on. Why were you hiding? Why did we just run from grandpa? What's going on outside? Why are all the neighbors gone? You have to help me understand", she kept pinching his skin, pressing it together. It was probably a lot for her but he needed answers. He needed to figure out the appropriate thing to do, fast. "Kirari?" she kept looking down.

"You've been asleep", Nana could hear the lump in her throat. Suppressing her urge to cry. "For days", for days? He was completely baffled. She looked up at him, misty-eyed and smiled. "I waited, did I do good?" Nana embraced her. Whatever was going on, he would protect her no matter what.

"Yeah, you did well"

17.22 4 Jan

The world had fallen apart. It began slowly, people just started to fall asleep. In school, at home, in the office but also in traffic, hospitals, and fabrics. They couldn't figure it out, thought it was some kind of weird virus making people trapped in comas but the comas didn't last for long. The news wouldn't stop reporting it, they just called it the epidemic. Suddenly one of the coma cases woke up, but something was wrong- he wasn't acting like himself. The family described him behaving like an animal, the virus had a strong resemblance to rabies. More and more cases started to wake up and within a few days, everything was in chaos. The ones who didn't wake up simply died from malnutrition. Their bodies changed, they aged faster, it was all weird. Somehow they couldn't stop it, no one knew where it came from and Japan lost contact with the outside world. Many moved from the bigger cities, scared that it had to do with the pollution or with the crowds. Tokyo was suddenly empty, dead bodies and creeps slowly dragging their bodies around. Creeps. Things had just moved so quickly. Igarashi saw it all on telly, how Tokyo was falling. He called them creeps. People stopped going to school, they stayed at home or moved away but he just kept going like normal. Of course, not a lot of other kids joined him but Serinuma, Mutsumi-senpai, and Shinomiya-kun were always there. Nishina had been forced to move away and they hadn't heard from her.

It was the fourth day of the falling he had seen a creep for the first time. This lady was walking down the street, carrying her shopping bags on her way home and suddenly a man started to follow her. Closer and closer. Igarashi yelled at the women, tried to get her attention, maybe the creepy guy would go away. She turned to him and then it happened. The creep threw himself at her, tugging on her clothes in the middle of the street. Igarashi felt sick, he ran up to them, tried to force him off her. But he bit into her skin, deeper and deeper down her throat. Igarashi tried to pull him off, tried to save her but it was too late... she was no longer alive. The police dragged Igarashi back and told him to go home, to stay at home. The gory image wouldn't leave his brain.

The fifth day of the falling he killed his parents. He couldn't let them wake up like that. A kitchen knife and that image flashing in his head over and over again were all it took. Human flesh is incredibly tender and fragile. The sharp blade and the delicate pale skin from the sleeping ones. A part of Igarashi died that day together with his parents.

"It's always been a childhood dream of mine to sleep in a supermarket. All the food you can eat, all the toys you can play with", Serinuma smiled. The girl was hurt but wouldn't let it show. She was the strongest one among them.

"Except we can't eat it all because we gotta save it so we can somehow survive this wreck of a world", Shinomiya-kun was as anxious humanly possible but what sane person wouldn't have been.

"Did your call finally come through to that friend of yours?", Mutsumi-senpai changed the subject. Serinuma wouldn't stop trying to reach a friend of hers, he was living in the countryside so he should've been fine but she wouldn't stop worrying. Maybe it was smart on her behalf, maybe he was safe and they could go there?

"Yes, but the signal was weak so I'm not sure he heard everything. The call ended before I could ask him anything really", she looked disappointed but you could tell she was relieved to know her friend was alive. "There was this weird thing though...", everyone's attention was now on Serinuma. "It was like he didn't know about the falling", she looked at the others.

"But that's impossible!", Iga finally opened his mouth. "Even if you lived outside the city you would've heard of it, seen it on the tv, met people telling you about it", she had to be joking.

"Maybe he lives on some random mountaintop or out in the woods, completely isolated from everything?", Shinomiya tried. Serinuma just shook her head.

"He doesn't."

"Let's not over think this. Maybe he's visiting someone overseas or in an isolated place, maybe you just misunderstood each other, maybe he just didn't understand what you were trying to say because of the signal", what Mutsumi said made sense.

"That would explain why he sounded confused and you interpreted it as him not knowing about the falling", Shinomiya concluded. Serinuma gave up on her attempts to explain her thoughts and leaned back against the wall.

"Let's just stay here from now on until we figure things out", the others agreed. Igarashi was confident about this place. They had food, water, heat, and weapons. A rather good safe haven. Now they just needed a plan, they needed to move forward, find safety...but where?