Bloom and Scatter [Free! Zombie AU]

In Water - Part 1

For some reason, Rin's vision continued to swim in and out of focus as a blur of white and green fought in the centre of the room. His head and back were painful almost to the point of being numb, and when he attempted to straighten himself into an upright position, his entire right side was completely stiff and wouldn't respond. On top of the injuries The Boss had given him earlier...

Rin shook his head, blinking hard to get himself to see what was going on, only faintly aware of the events up to that point. He wondered if he had blacked out or if he was just massively concussed, but he rolled over, groaning when broken glass crunched into his side. That white jacket fluttered as the creature reeled back from a heavy punch, the zombie letting out an agonised wail before launching itself onto Makoto.

"Gah...!"

The impact threw Makoto backwards and they both landed bodily onto Rin, crushing his insides and squeezing out every last breath from his lungs, probably fracturing something in the process. He choked, tasting blood as both of them continued to thrash on top of him but eventually a successful kick from Makoto sent the zombie flying and Makoto scrambled off.

"Fuck," Rin wheezed as he got on all fours shakily, clutching his stomach with one hand as he tried to stand. The pain was overwhelming. Rin was in no shape to participate in anymore fighting but he had to do something. Makoto was keeping the zombie occupied. This was his only chance. This was do or die.

Still a little dizzy, Rin leaned heavily on the wall for support and managed to stand. He surveyed the room again.

There wasn't much by way of weapons. Powders and liquids... He didn't know enough chemistry to figure out what could harm the zombie. Besides, he could end up hurting Makoto and himself. The chemistry set was a complete bust at this point. Rin's eyes wandered to controls of the machine.

Slightly broken. Freshly damaged. Marks that it had been hit with a blunt object. Some of the glass for the metres had shattered and a lever was broken, but everything else looked intact. The control panel was connected through tubes and wires to a machine that looked like it belonged to a factory assembly line, but there was no conveyor belt, only something that looked like a big oven door on a big metal vat of some sort. The machine didn't look like it was on, though...

What went inside? How did it go inside? It had a chimney connected to a vent in the ceiling, so that was probably the exit... or the entrance, depending on what the machine was being used for. If the chimney was an entrance, did that mean that whoever the controllers down here were, they just maintained it and checked readings or something? But that didn't really explain the chemistry set and all the materials...

Wait.

Go back.

In the middle of the room, there was a metal vat with what looked like an oven door. He recalled how they had found the trapdoor earlier. It had to be an opening of some sort. But how to pry it open?

Rin was startled out of his thoughts when Makoto slammed back-first against the vat, his groan of pain aborted as the zombie began choking him. Makoto punched blindly at the air, only managing a few hits in before he remembered he had legs and roundhoused the monster.

Good thing the oven door had been shut.

But that gave him an idea.

Rin limped to the controls, turning dials and pulling levers, but despite his efforts, they remained stuck in place. He was getting frustrated. Makoto was wearing out and they needed to settle this quickly. A glint from the corner of his eye made him turn and a bit of tired staring revealed there was a small plastic case in the bottom corner of the control panel that had been slightly cracked. The case seemed to protect a key that was half-turned. Grateful that the previous occupant had smashed the machine enough for the case to come apart with a single jerk, Rin turned the key all the way, as though gunning the ignition of a car. A red light washed over the room, followed by an industrial hum that vibrated heavily throughout the entire complex. They raised their heads. It was muffled, but another siren was sounding.