Bloom and Scatter [Free! Zombie AU]

The Boss - Part 3

"Did you hear that?"

Makoto raised his head slightly, saying nothing. He had been silent ever since they'd left the second year classrooms. He barely seemed to realise what was going on around him, more focused on the ground than on their eerie surroundings. Rin felt his heart clench but he forced himself to be as calm and rational as possible. It did no favours to lose his cool, least of all with Makoto, who had been soldiering along despite everything. He was distraught as hell but he had every right to be.

"I heard a noise," Rin said, clearing his mind and trying to gauge what it could have been, "From around that corner, near the home ec room. Sounded like something scuffing the floor."

Like sneakers, maybe.

Makoto quietly acknowledged what Rin said and they investigated. A brief scan of the place, and he was ready to announce that he hadn't seen anything, but a shadow moved from the corner of his eye and he snapped his head up.

"Wait!" Rin shouted, grabbing Makoto's elbow and half-running down the corridor, "Stop, please!"

They turned a corner and nobody was there. Rin let out an angry breath, but Makoto jerked to the side in alarm. There was a heavy thud, like something being hefted out of place. They moved quickly. A door was ajar.

"Ryugazaki!" Rin was losing his patience, "Ryugazaki, is that you? Please, wait! We have to talk to you! Makoto... Makoto is here!"

There was a whole lot of nothing as they passed the faculty offices but Rin swore that he'd seen shadows passing and he'd be damned if he didn't take the chance to make sure he knew exactly what he was looking at. They'd come this far with little to show for it. Rin knew he was grasping at straws but shadows were better than nothing.

"Where are we?" Makoto spoke for the first time as they hunched over, panting for breath. They had descended down a stairwell and were on a level that appeared to be partially underground. The windows that lined the walls were a third of the length of the ordinary ones and lined only the tops, above the earth, like cellar windows. They weren't boarded up like the others but some had been messily spray painted black. Rin could make out foggy shapes in the distance, illuminated by the light of a large fire.

"You don't recognise it?" Rin asked.

Makoto shook his head slowly, "Unless this leads to the music room... but the corridor is different from what I remember."

"Is the building familiar at least?"

"It's hard to tell without any fixtures or furniture..."

Well, they had been running blind for a good ten minutes by now. Rin exhaled slowly, straightening his back. At the very least, Makoto seemed to have recovered, which was a good thing. As he took a step towards him, his foot slipped and went flying upwards, sending him crashing to the ground, cursing up a storm.

"Ugh, ouch," he grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. The collision hadn't been too bad, but it still hurt something awful. He'd stepped on something, that was for sure. Leaning over to take a look, he paused. The smell clued him in before the view ever did.

Blood.

"... It's fresh," Makoto said quietly, squatting beside Rin to take a closer look. He sounded despondent.

"There's a lot of it," Rin replied, eyes tracking along the floor and adjusting to what little light filtered through the windows. Small, dark droplets splattered the ground, moving deeper into the belly of the school. And it was definitely fresh.

"Someone was leading us here," Rin said under his breath.

"It's most likely a trap," Makoto was quick to say, and then his voice softened, "... but then again, the blood... someone could need help."

"Could be both," Rin sighed, privately relieved that Makoto hadn't completely hardened up despite everything, "Those two things are not mutually exclusive."

"Should we..." Makoto hesitated, "Should we keep following it?"

Rin looked around before something caught his eye. He gestured at a nearby wall.

There was a little arrow, painted with a bloodied finger, pointing towards the darkness as the corridor stretched before their eyes.