ARC 1 - THE SUBURBS
CHAPTER SONG - Elephant by Tame Impala
—-
When Bachira dared him to explore the old checkpoint an hour away from his house during their sleepover, he wasn't expecting him to just dump his ass off and then dip with Raichi.
What he expected was for Bachira to at least explore the place with him! But noooo, all he said was that Raichi and him would be back within two hours to either pick him up or collect whatever was left of him.
So here he was, standing right outside the abandoned checkpoint with the walls that protect his home towering above him just a few miles away. Now that he looked at it, the walls always seemed so small from far away but up close they out-scale even the tallest buildings in the city.
He can't believe that the only thing between him and the Outlands is nothing, the checkpoint was shutdown ages ago after all. The story will differ between people, but most conclude that the outer wall was breached by an old world building giving into the test of time and creatures from the Outlands took the opportunity to strike. The theory is only proven by the few old world buildings old workers of the checkpoint used to talk about so often. But what does he know, he was 6 when the checkpoint closed and his mom doesn't like talking of the time she was a record keeper there.
Taking his first few steps toward the checkpoint, the draining realization of what Isagi's doing finally dawns upon him.
Him, Isagi Yoichi, who has never even gotten a red card in soccer before is going to explore a possibly dangerous place all on his own.
He shouldn't have gave into Bachira.
It's been 17 minutes since Isagi entered the checkpoint and he has zero idea where he is.
Some might think that the checkpoint wouldn't be that difficult to navigate, after all it's literally just a building in a straight line that connects with the wall that leads outside!
But holy fucking shit are they wrong.
It's not just a straight line, there's multiple different doors that lead to different parts of the building just in the entrance area! There's doors that lead to bathrooms that aren't even labeled correctly, doors that straight up lead to nowhere, doors that have stairways behind them that lead to a wall and some that lead to and upstairs. The building doesn't even look tall enough for a second floor!
His mom would complain to him while making dinner when he was little about the building being a maze, but he didn't think it was real. Supposedly it's built this was to confuse any monsters or outlanders that happen to sneak in. Something about them not having good directional instincts, he doesn't know it's just what his history teacher likes to say.
Don't get him started on how dirty the place is, because the amount of times he's tripped on something or encountered a dead bird can equally sum up his thought quite easily.
He's tripped 12 times and has seen 7 dead birds. Or what remains of 7 dead birds. It creeps him out.
He's read a few books and seen some artist renditions of the creatures that run rampant outside of the walls, heard tales of the people that live outside the walls. About how they're brutish and have to fight multiple monsters a day just to keep safe, that they could never reintegrate with the society inside the walls. He doesn't know what he believes, he's never met an outlander before so who knows what they're actually like.
The only thing that accompanies Isagi as he walks up and down the same hallway again and again is the sound of paper wrinkling as he steps on it and the occasional crunch of glass he accidentally steps on. He doesn't want to explore any further than he is right now incase he gets anymore lost, so he sticks to the hallway that leads straight back to the entrance room. Bachira never said how far or much he needed to explore, hell he could just walk back outside and wait for Bachira and Raichi there and watch a soccer match on his phone instead of walking up and down a hallway for the next hour and ten minutes and wasting his battery using his phone flashlight.
Instead he could be wasting it while watching videos.
Deciding that this is the final time he'll walk the hallway, Isagi turns to walk back to the other end of the hallway where the door to the entrance is.
What happens next will lead to the downward spiral of his sanity. A chance meeting, something that could have been avoided if he didn't pick dare, something that could have been avoided if he just didn't look up that damn stairwell.
When Isagi walks past a certain door, a door that leads to a stairway to the second floor, he gets the indescribable urge to look up it, to shine his phones flashlight up the staircase to just get one last look of the place.
So he does, and the thing he sees will fuck up his life forever.
The person he sees.
It's a kid(?) staring down at him from the top of the stairs, the darkness behind them and the bright light coming from in front of them makes the scene way too eerie for Isagi. The only thing that makes it worse is the gas mask the person has on, it's like the ones he sees in his history textbook about the old world and it's wars. It's unnerving.
What also doesn't help is the clothes they wear, or more likely their shirt. A giant claw mark runs through the shirt from the right of their hip to the middle of their stomach, dried blood stains the edges of the rips. Their -pants? long skirt? he can't tell- barely fit them and, are they not wearing any shoes?
After awhile of staring in shock, Isagi's quite literally pulled back into reality when the person runs down the stairs and grabs his wrist, making a mad dash towards the door leading to the entrance room right after.
Behind him he can hear a large body run into the wall he was just standing next to, and not a second later he can hear the cry the creature lets out. He doesn't look back, instead he runs faster overtaking the person and instead dragging towards the doors.
He doesn't even look back until he hears the monster run into the door.
When he does look back he sees you, rushing to grab something from the backpack strapped onto your back. You pull out what looks to be a dynamite stick he's seen in cartoons, but instead of red its dark blue in color and looks hand made with no writing on it. Next you pull out a lighter, lighting the stick and rolling it under the gap between the door and the ground.
And then suddenly he's being dragged again, but this time you've got an iron grip on his hand and are pulling him outside into the frigid early spring night. He has no idea what's going on, but you just possibly saved his life so he'll let you do what you want for now.
It takes you 10 minutes of walking in silence to finally stop, and what happens next along with his next decision will ultimately be what seals his life to a certain fate.
Your grip on his hand softens,'such soft hands', and you turn your head to look at him slightly. He finally gets a good look at the mask you're wearing, and the only thing he can see is the dullness in your eyes behind it.
"Do you...know where we are?" Your voice is hoarse, but god does he find it attractive.
"Yeah...I do."
You nod your head at him and then point towards the city in the distance, the sight a beacon of lights and pollution.
"Will you take me to the tall buildings."
Isagi thinks about it for a minute, he could but how would he? He doesn't visit the city that often, and he lives a good train ride away from it. Plus he doesn't even know who you are, you kinda just appeared out of nowhere and saved his ass from being monster food. Could you even be trusted?
"Yeah, I'll take you there."
And with that, Isagi Yoichi's fate has been sealed.
—-
[name] is gn
btw chapter songs might not always be accurate to the vibes of a chapter
also posted on quotev
not edited