Bloom and Scatter [Free! Zombie AU]

The Boss - Part 2

Iwatobi High was completely deserted.

Not a plastic wrapper out of a place. No indoor slippers tossed aside haphazardly. Hell, where was the graffiti?

Barely any dust had settled on what (very few pieces of) furniture was left, indicating some form of habitation, and yet, the place screamed 'abandoned', although that wasn't quite right, either. Rin couldn't quite put his finger on it. His first instinct was that the place had been evacuated, but it was a little too clean, a little too perfectly empty. No furniture. No food. Hell, no footprints. Iwatobi City had been littered with abandoned supplies under a layer of dust. Besides which, survivors didn't usually clear out their safe house lock, stock and barrel. After all, the Tottori University commune had left behind a small cache of arms, food, and diaries, among other things. The Iwatobi SC had also provided them with some supplies, despite looking ransacked.

No, Iwatobi High was too perfectly clean. It looked less like an evacuation, more like...

... like somebody didn't want a single trace left behind.

Makoto looked around, feeling lost, "It's like they took everything that wasn't nailed down. Why isn't there anything inside the school building? No shoe lockers, no potted plants, no posters..."

"Beats me," Rin sounded irritated and it was only partially due to the pain, a shiver running down his spine, "What I want to know is where the fuck all the people are, given the non-stop bullshit I've heard about the Iwatobi commune."

Makoto was silent momentarily, "Maybe they're in hiding."

"Hiding? They've barricaded this place to hell and back."

A brief pause, "That's true, but... there was someone warning people on the loudspeakers about what was going on. And the sirens that have been going off... I'm sure with all this chaos, they went into some place even more secure," he paused briefly, "Like the air raid shelter."

It made sense. Hell, there had been explosions out there, it would be crazy if any survivors didn't take the initiative to go somewhere safer, if they had one.

Still.

"You'd think people who drop everything to go into hiding would have actually dropped everything," he gestured to the floor. It was spotless. Makoto fell silent.

When he finally spoke, it was slow and measured, but full of quiet determination, "I heard the voice. I know I did. That person, whoever it is, saved us."

Rin sighed softly, not up to debating a non-issue. It didn't matter anyway. They had to keep moving. He reminded himself why they had risked their necks, over and over again, to come to the eye of the storm: Their families could be here. His mum and his sister, they could be here. They could be alive.

He gave Makoto a vague hand gesture, asking him to lead the way. Makoto replied with a hesitant smile and they began to walk down the length of the main corridor, ducking their heads into the offices and classrooms on the ground floor to make sure that they hadn't missed anything, but like the foyer, they had been stripped completely bare.

Rin ran his hands over the walls as they moved, still unable to put his finger on what exactly was bothering him about the entire scene. He ended up walking into Makoto's back when he didn't realise he had stopped. A half-hearted rebuke was on his tongue but it melted away when he glanced up and saw Makoto's listless stare into a barren room, hands gripped tightly at his sides. In the centre of the nearest wall was a big rectangular shape that was discoloured, which probably meant that a blackboard had hung there once before; that, or a really big notice board. He looked at the room label. It was a second year classroom.

It took a while to register, but when he did, Rin completely understood and turned to Makoto.

"You okay?" He rested a hand on his shoulder.

Makoto's shoulders were shaking slightly. His breathing seemed ragged and Rin was concerned that he was hyperventilating. He rubbed Makoto's back, trying to calm him down and regain his attention with a soothing tone.

"It's my fault," Makoto finally croaked, voice thick with emotion as his entire body trembled, "It's my fault he's become like this. He is... was... my best friend. He was constantly by my side, and I felt uneasy whenever he wasn't with me. I didn't want to be alone, even with my family. I needed- I needed someone to rely on. If it weren't for me... I was the one who dragged him out of his house to be evacuated. We were together the whole time, at the military cordon. The whole time. Why... why did I make it, but he didn't? Why did I let myself get hit? If it weren't for me, he wouldn't have... wouldn't have..."

Alarmed, Rin squeezed his shoulders, forcing Makoto to turn and face him. He wracked his brain desperately, trying to force himself ahead of the grief and to be a voice of reason.

"Hey, don't think like that. D'you think Haru would want you to think like that? You didn't take him with you so that he would turn. You wanted him to be with you and your family, to be safe. That's why all of you tried to evacuate, remember? You don't even know what happened after that, Makoto. The soldiers hit you and made you go unconscious. How could you have possibly known that was going to happen? How could you be responsible for something you weren't even awake for? For something you had absolutely no control over?"

Makoto looked down. Despite the mask, Rin could tell he was biting his lip.

"But we were together," he choked out.

"I know, Makoto. I know. And you know what? I... I wasn't. I wasn't there for my family. You did all you could to make sure your family and Haru were safe, didn't you? Checked their gas masks, made sure you were all together until the end? You did all you could whereas I'd run away. So you have to believe that you have nothing to be regretful for. Listen to me, all right? I don't blame you one iota for what's happened; you cannot blame yourself."

Makoto shook his head and raised his hands to his face, as though making to wipe away his tears. They thunked clumsily against the eyepiece of his gas mask and the sound broke the tension. A beat passed and both Rin and Makoto chuckled weakly.

Moment officially over, Rin took a deep breath to steady himself and kept both his hands on Makoto's shoulders. There was a lump in his throat and he coughed once, uneasily, as he dropped his gaze to the floor. His mouth felt like lead, "There's... something you should know."

Makoto raised his head and looked at him wordlessly. Rin shifted his weight from foot to foot, feeling even more uncomfortable. He hadn't wanted to have this conversation, but...

"Do you remember the zombie who bit you?"

Makoto paused, thinking it over, and then nodded.

"... I'm pretty sure that was Coach Sasabe."

He could physically see the impact of those words, because when Makoto seemed to comprehend, he took an abrupt step back, as if receiving a blow to the chest. Rin dropped his hands to his sides.

"No," he breathed, clamping his hands over his ears, shaking his head, "No. You're wrong. It can't be. It can't be. I don't want to hear it—"

"Makoto," Rin said sharply, and then softened his tone, "Makoto, please listen. I know it was him. I recognised his face when he was attacking me. I'm not bringing this up to make you feel worse, but... we both saw the Boss. We know who it is. And the zombie that bit you..." He sighed softly, hands on his hips as he looked away, "The point I'm trying to make is that... from here on out, we should be prepared. For anything."

He let his sentence hang in the air, knowing Makoto would understand the underlying subtext.

They had to be prepared to meet more of their friends and family.

Makoto and Rin only had a quiet moment to ruminate before another explosion from outside, muffled but powerful, rocked the building. The walls and ceilings cracked, cement chipping and skittering to the ground. Rin and Makoto exchanged a look. He had to focus on what was ahead of them, no matter how awful or nerve wracking. They couldn't afford to go to pieces, not here and not now.

"We have to keep moving."