IE zombocolypse

Chapter 35

He thought it was...rather exciting, thrilling actually, the way the sky exploded and cracked with lightning; roared with thunder. It was exhilarating, the unpredictable nature of it all, the majesty of it all-no matter how small and insignificant it made him feel he'd always loved thunderstorms. It was shameful. His friends were out in this hell, perhaps they were even in danger-he remembered the words of the responsible adults that were tasked with looking after him; how they'd scolded him when he was little for wanting to run outside during a storm. He'd just wanted to experience it first hand. 'It's dangerous! You could be killed!' Those words had been drummed in his head, and yet it never stopped his fascination with the subject.

He felt what could only be described as a morbid sort of jealousy. This storm had been the only adrenaline rush he'd had in some time, the only exciting thing he'd witnessed-and he was stuck indoors, not able to even feel the rain or the cold, Suzuno and the others were lucky. He needed to stop these stupid thoughts, of course they weren't lucky at all, they were probably terrified, but still...

He pressed his face closer to the glass, eager to feel the vibrations from the fierce wind.
"Move please." A voice said, stern despite the pleasantry used- Kidou. He pushed the boy away before hastily beginning to barricade the window.
"Do you think the windows might break?" Kogure asked, frowning a little. Kidou wiped a hand across his forehead "Let's hope not."

The boy took a step back as Kidou moved on to a different window, people were milling about, some like Kidou actually doing jobs whereas others just seemed to be wandering around pointlessly, not sure if they should be doing something.

"Nagumo, how are we looking?" Hiroto called, a worried look on his face.
The other redhead slid out from underneath the comms desk "Gone to shit, the storm's massively fucked us over." He growled, pushing his welding goggles up and sitting down heavily on the floor. Hiroto joined him, his hair still wet and a new shirt on after the episode beforehand with Midorikawa.

"They're alone out there, in this shitty storm." Nagumo murmured, eyes glued to the floor, to the small cracks and scratches in the wood that had accumulated over the time they'd all been here; he tried to remember it, it all felt like years ago now, how long had they been stuck in this hell? He remembered one instance, near the beginning, he'd gotten into a nasty fight with Suzuno, of all people, Suzuno was never one to physically fight people, preferring psychological warfare instead, but that night was different.

That was the night six had become five, the night Suzuno had taken the pragmatic approach and shot Saginuma through the head before he could turn. The night Midorikawa and Hiroto didn't speak, the night Afuro realised how quickly things could change, the night Nagumo doubted his sanity for the first time.

He understood now, Suzuno was showing mercy; Saginuma had been in agony for hours while the group just bickered about what to do, Suzuno had taken control and had done what the other dying teen had begged of him-but Nagumo just couldn't accept that. In his eyes Suzuno had murdered their friend. No one said anything on the way back to the base, the base they'd told Saginuma they'd found, but Nagumo just couldn't stay silent any longer.

Suzuno had thrown him so hard to the floor that night that it made a small crack in the floorboards.

His eyes were glued to the crack, a dark hole, a hole to another dimension, a void of nothingness-no pain, no hunger, no fear. His body leaned forward unconsciously, fingers splayed across the hole; maybe, if he could make it bigger, just a little bigger, he could fall right into the hole, escape this hell. Maybe that's where Saginuma was? He could just fall into that black nothingness and escape all the terror that plagued him night and day, the horrors he'd seen and would see in the future. Something crawled out of the hole, slow and languid, inky black like it was a manifestation of the nothingness itself. It heaved it's small body up, gliding weakly across his hand, up his arm.
"They're smart, especially Suzuno. I'm sure they'll have found some shelter for the night." Afuro soothed, coming up behind Nagumo and massaging his shoulders. He knew how tense his friend could get whenever Suzuno wasn't around. The redhead would've jumped at the sudden voice if he wasn't so exhausted, he looked down again to see the creature was gone. It must have slithered away. He sat back, relaxing into the others touch "Mm Suzuno, Suzuno'll come up with something." he murmured. As appealing as the nothingness was, a world without pain wasn't worth living in if he had to leave Suzuno behind.