Bloom and Scatter [Free! Zombie AU]

The Fog- Part 1

What the fuck had happened?

The town was empty, looking every inch like everyone had up and run at the drop of a hat. None of the lights were working, and the streets that had once been so clean were littered with dropped items and knocked over cans. Windows had been boarded up. Cars had been abandoned in the middle of the road. Rin hadn't heard of any invasion happening in Iwatobi – as far as he knew, the Hyogo-Tottori DMZ was supposed to be the land buffer zone that protected the Iwatobi settlement that was already naturally shielded by the ocean along the north coast. Was the evacuation recent? It really didn't look like it. As Rin inspected a single child's shoe that lay on the side of the road, he noted that it was also covered in a fine layer of dust. If there had been an evacuation, it had to have taken place before the communication cut-off. That meant more than two weeks ago. Things weren't adding up.

More importantly, it was hot. It was incredibly hot. Rin had taken off his shirt and shoved it into his backpack, leaving him in his tank top. It felt like his blood was boiling underneath his skin, and he could feel the handkerchief covering the lower half of his face getting heavier as it absorbed his sweat. He squinted at his watch, but his eyes were blurring and all he could estimate was that it was probably an hour or two after noon.

Rin rubbed his eyes, cursing. He was on the edge of Iwatobi and his house was all the way on the other side to the north, near the ocean. If he had any hope of finding a single clue about what had happened, he knew he had to start there. He just hoped he wouldn't die of exposure or dehydration before he got there, because that would be dumb as shit.

In the distance, he heard the clang of something being knocked over. Rin's hand shot out behind him, already gripped around the handle of his handgun that was still tucked away. His eyes darted around, still a little watery, but he could make out a shadowy corner by the side of a nearby house and sprinted towards it. The shade was an incredible relief and he peeked around the corner to see if there were any zombies out there who'd caught a whiff of him.

He heard the sound of shuffling footsteps. Grunting. Scraping. That was a good enough reason to bolt – around the shamblers, since the opposite way was where he'd come from, and he wasn't about to re-hike the entire length of a highway.

Careful to keep himself low, Rin pulled out the handgun and unlatched the safety and half-jogged as quietly as he could from one building to another, sure to go around the back wherever he could. Once in a while, he stumbled across random supplies – a bottle of water here, an extra pair of socks there – and he pocketed what he could while doing his best to forget why those things were out in the open in the first place. Part of him felt like hope was slipping away, but the stronger part of him was telling him he couldn't jump to any conclusions. Iwatobi was big. Anything was possible. He was here, wasn't he?

As Rin walked down a long length of shop lots, he could feel exhaustion start to kick in. Since he'd gotten off the plane, he hadn't been able to take a breather. As far as nutrition was concerned, Rin had had careful sips of water from his first water bottle and a bite of the protein bar he'd stowed away. It was all adequate in the long run, but he also hadn't anticipated being in his current situation, with the air quality and the long abandonment that probably meant things long past expiry dates. He was lucky that there appeared to be supplies littered throughout the city, if he cared enough to look, but the damned fog was making everything difficult to see and he was starting to get a really shitty headache.

Not too far away, he heard the sounds of fighting, like honest to goodness brawling. He could hear punching and kicking and shouting and, although he knew logically that he needed to run, his instincts told him to go towards it because punching and kicking and shouting.