Bloom and Scatter [Free! Zombie AU]

In Water - Part 2

Rin coughed. There was water down his nose and throat and he rolled onto all fours to hack it out. The stench of garbage was absolutely revolting but the oppressive heat from the machine was gone. Rin's eyes were burning, watering every time he tried to keep them open, attempting to dry them with the collar of the shirt he was wearing.

"Are you okay?" Makoto croaked to Rin's right. He managed to make out Makoto's silhouette against the darkness.

"Mostly," Rin grunted, sure that he'd broken at least all of his ribs from the impact of the explosion as he and Makoto were tossed around like rag dolls in the garbage chute, "Could use a hospital."

"Yeah," Makoto rasped in agreement, "I don't think I can run anymore."

Rin looked up at him, realising that Makoto was clutching his leg. A sharp pain in his own shoulder kept him from reaching out.

"How bad is it?"

"I can feel it. It's just... probably broken in twenty places."

"Can you stand?"

"Sort of."

"How about walking?"

"Hurts," Makoto grunted, "A lot."

"All right," Rin replied shakily, "You need... you'll be needing a splint. And looks like we ended up wherever the landfill is, so I'm sure there's something here."

Still, no one was ever that lucky. Rin ended up pulling out his sawed off shotgun from his backpack and tying it firmly to Makoto's left leg. There were no sticks or poles long enough to serve as a walking stick, so Rin toughed out his broken shoulder and supported Makoto's weight. It hurt to hell and back, the throbbing almost numbing at times, but he tried to focus on other things as a distraction from the pain. It was hard to tell where they were. It was definitely rural, with nothing but trees as far as the eye could see. They'd ended up in an enormous recess in the earth which seemed like an industrial sewer. Rin tried not to think too hard about what they'd landed in... what he'd coughed up.

They weren't that far from the sea. Cutting through the stench of trash was the sharp scent of salt. If his ears weren't ringing so much, he was sure he could hear the waves lapping against the shore. It was tempting to head for the sea to clean up and rest. But after everything that had happened, they couldn't risk sitting still in hopes help would arrive. Rin had had enough. They were going to get out now, or die trying.

"You wanted," Makoto cleared his throat, "You wanted to know what's going on."

"It's okay, Makoto. We can do this when we're somewhere safe."

"Where do I even begin?" Makoto sighed, "There's... There's a lot of stuff that I've come to discover since you came back. I didn't try to explain before, but, well, it's pointless not to tell you now. It wouldn't be fair to keep you in suspense."

"Honestly, Makoto, we're both injured. I don't mind waiting."

"But I do."

Rin closed his mouth briefly, debating whether or not to keep arguing before he finally relented.

"All right. Where the hell were we? Didn't seem like an air raid shelter to me."

"It was, though," Makoto let out a frustrated huff, "Going in, it was exactly how I remembered it. It had been a store room and I used to fetch things for the PE teacher. Where the machine was though... looks like they did some renovations when no one was looking."

"And that machine, what was it?"

"That," Makoto inhaled shakily, "Is the reason for everything that's been happening here. That's the Fog Machine. That's the thing my friend, Rei, was looking for."