[chaptered] Outside the Vault (3/?)
Title: Outside the Vault (3/?)
Author:
junjun_pon
Pairing: Matsumiya
Genre: Horror, Angst, Adventure, Drama
Rating: R (language and violence)
Disclaimer: I do not own the boys!
Summary: Based off the popular game “The Last of Us.” After being left behind during a mass-evacuation, Nino struggles to survive against the infected and other humans.
a/n: Sorry it took me so long, folks! I got busy and got out of my writing groove. But I'm back! :D :D :D
As always, comments are love~
===================
[Chapter 1]| [Chapter 2]
===================
They drift from place to place awkwardly for a week together. Jun avoids talking, and Nino will not stop talking. It’s cloudy and windy. A chill is in the air with humidity; an autumn rain will be coming soon. Avoiding towns blesses them with minimal infected encounters, though they have little food left, and their clothes are rank from sweat, rain, and mud.
Nino holds a strap on Jun’s backpack as they walk in tandem.
“Hey, can I call you Jun?” Nino asks, tugging on the strap. Jun is silent for a while, obviously thinking based on his quizzical expression.
Jun frowns, “I guess…” Nino smiles in response.
“You can call me Nino if you want,” Nino says, hoping Jun would agree. He feels as though they have bonded the past week.
Jun stops and lets out a great sigh, “Fine, but we’re still not friends.” Nino almost pouts, but just nods. He wishes Jun would open up to him a bit more.
They begin walking again, heading into some woods off a back country road.
“Hey,” Nino starts, “How old are you, Jun?”
Jun keeps walking, however, he replies quickly, “Thirty.”
"Uwah, so five years older than me! Satoshi was older than you,” Nino says skipping a bit to catch up with Jun’s quick pace. Jun just hums for a response and continues to walk, keeping a watchful eye on the trees around them.
In silence, they reach another road that leads to a large house. Behind it is a small lake, showing a cloudy and blackened reflection of the sky above. The sun is at their backs and setting.
“We’ll stay here for the night,” Jun says. Nino lets go of the strap and heads to the front door. It’s boarded up from the inside. He scoots over to a window and peeks through a hole. The room is dark and still.
“Hey, kid, get away from there…” Jun says. He changes direction and heads toward Nino.
“I’m just looking,” Nino says. He squints to see something moving within the house. Jun suddenly pulls Nino backward by his backpack just as decayed hand reaches viciously out the hole and through the glass. Nino lets out a scream and looks up at Jun from the ground.
“I told you to stay away. I’m not dumb, you know…” Jun says rolling his eyes and leaving Nino to watch the arm, pawing at the open air through the glass.
“Sorry…the house just looked inviting, you know?” Nino says following after Jun, brushing himself off.
“It’s boarded up from the inside. Probably someone got bit and went crazy,” Jun says heading toward the dock down by the lake. Nino stays quiet and follows closely, a bit jittery from the attack. He wishes Jun would at least ask him if he’s okay, but he forgets about it.
Jun digs in the boat and then throws his backpack in, “Get in,” he says. Nino looks confused and nervous to be near water.
“I’m not getting in there!” Nino says.
“You’re going to if you want to live…” Jun replies, gently nudging him toward the rocking boat. The wind picks up and Jun gets impatient.
“Come on, either you move, or I put you in there myself!” Jun barks.
Nino pouts and skittishly gets in the unstable boat. Once he makes it in, he sits and holds onto the side. Jun hops in and begins paddling them out into the middle of the little lake.
“Why are we out here?” Nino asks, having calmed down slightly. He still grips the side for safety. Water from the windy lake splashes onto his face.
Jun struggles with paddling in the heavy wind, but continues regardless. “You’d rather stay on land where there are infected?” Jun asks.
“I’d rather stay on land so I don’t barf all over this boat, you, and myself…” Nino replies. He’s far from getting seasick, but he’s always worried.
“Well we’re staying out here for the night. I’m not risking my back just because you’re afraid of water…” Jun says cynically. Nino frowns.
They reach the middle of the small lake and Jun throws down the anchor resting at the bow with a grunt. He wipes some sweat from his forehead and turns back to Nino, “Now, gets some sleep.”
“Sleep? When if the boat flips and I drown?” Nino says.
“Having an irrational fear of boats and water will just make you paranoid, just find a way to relax,” Jun says, “Go lie down.”
Nino finds a more open spot on the boat and lies down, staring up at the cloudy sky. He hears the water slapping at the sides of boat, some of the spray coming aboard. He thinks about the time Satoshi forced him to go fishing and how he puked the entire trip. Nino smiles gently and curls up.
Jun lies down next to him on his back, crossing his arms behind his head as a pillow. Nino closes his eyes thinks about Satoshi some more with a sigh.
Not long after, it begins to rain and Jun groans. Nino is woken up from his daydream by more water hitting his face. He looks at Jun who seems grumpy and says nothing. It’s not until it begins to pour and Nino shivers from his wet clothes and the wind that Jun pulls a small tarp from one of the compartments on the boat. He opens it up and lies back down with it.
“Come here,” he says strangely, as if struggling whether or not to let Nino be close to him. Nino is so cold that he complies without complaining as he normally would. Jun pulls the tarp over their heads even though their legs will stick out. Nino snuggles against Jun’s body and slowly but surely stops shaking and relaxes. He blushes slightly, but hides it from Jun. There are the sounds of the infected in the distance and Nino is glad he got into the boat. Being next to Jun, he doesn’t feel sick at all.
“Ne, Jun?” Nino says softly.
“Hm?” Jun replies, his eyes closed , trying not to think about the wet body attached to him.
“Do you know a lot about the infected?”
“I do.”
“What are they?”
Jun turns his head to face Nino and finds the man staring up at him cutely. Jun suppresses a blush and just chuckles. “There are so many things to k now about! I don’t know where to start.”
“I’ve seen different kinds…like the fast ones…” Nino says. Water sliding down his face from his hair washes off some of the dirt and mud. Rain taps heavily on the tarp.
“Well, there are four kinds,” Jun says, “Runners, Stalkers, Clickers, and Bloaters…”
“Runners are the fast ones?” Nino asks.
“Exactly, but they’re easy to sneak up on. You don’t have to stab them, you can choke them too since they’re still partially human,” Jun states. Feeling comfortable with the conversation, he flips on his side and faces Nino. “Stalkers are like runners, but they hide from you and then attack at the best opportunity. They’re very smart.”
“I’ve never met one of those before…” Nino says, trying not to blush. He feels strange around Jun, but he won’t admit it. Instead, this thinks of his beloved Satoshi and passively participates in the discussion.
“I’ve only met a couple, they’re tricky, but go down the same way as runners,” Jun says. “Now clickers are scary and can only be killed with a blade or gunshot to the head.”
“Why are they called clickers?” Nino asks.
"They make a clicking and croaking noise. The infection covers and morphs their faces and makes them blind, so they use-“
“Echo location like bats?”
“Exactly,” Jun replies. “They’re easy to avoid as long as you are quiet. If you get noticed, just hide. They usually give up.”
"Oh. Well I’m good at that,” Nino says with a cute smile.
“Just don’t let them touch you. They’re strong as all hell,” Jun says.
“And the bloaters?” Nino asks.
“Bloaters are a fucking nightmare, but they’re slow,” Jun says. “I’ve only seen one, but they are covered in infection…usually huge and they spit those spores that they think caused the outbreak…I guess they take a long time to develop.”
“Spores?”
“Yeah, I guess they form when an infected dies…the bloaters also naturally give off those spores…they wouldn’t kill you, but they’d do plenty of damage to me,” Jun says.
“How do you know all this?” Nino asks, snuggling closer to Jun.
Jun backs away just slightly, “I was with other people before I found you.”
“Who were they?”
"I don’t want to talk about it…just…go to sleep, okay?” Jun replies hesitantly. He’s hurting about someone just like Nino is and that gives Nino a bit more comfort.
Nino snuggles against Jun’s warm body and sighs lightly. Jun ignores Nino’s gesture and rolls on his back once more, holding the tarp down over their bodies. The continuous sound of hissing and groaning from the shore puts him asleep hours later, Nino already fast asleep, a hand resting gently on Jun’s chest.
The next morning, Nino wakes up and finds himself alone under the tarp. The sun is out and the humidity is worse than the day before. Surprisingly, he doesn’t feel sick from the boat. He thinks it may just be an ocean thing. Nino sits up and pulls the tarp off to find Jun looking at a map.
“Where are we going?” Nino asks softly, rubbing his eyes and squinting because it’s a bit bright out.
“To a hospital,” Jun says.
“A hospital? Why?”
"I’ve overheard a while ago that some doctors are working on a cure, Jun says, “but I’m not sure if they still are…I only heard about it soon after the outbreak.”
“So we can go then? I’m immune so I could help, right?” Nino asks.
Jun just nods, “I’ll take you there, okay?”
Nino smiles and nods. He stands up in the boat, wobbling, and wrings out his wet pants legs that were uncovered by the tarp during the rainy night before. “How far is the hospital?”
Jun briefly looks at the map, “It’s definitely not close…so we’d better get moving.”
Nino snacks on some berries they’d found a few days before and waits for Jun to lift the anchor and paddle them ashore.
- - -
“It’s a clicker and a runner. I’ll take the clicker,” Jun whispers. They are crouched behind the back window to a small, two-story house in a suburban neighborhood. “Wait until I kill the clicker, then follow up with the runner when I get noticed. I’ll whistle.”
Nino nods and takes out his knife. He and Jun are traveling together for the second week. He moves with Jun to a position alongside a partially opened back door. Jun stealthily moves into the house and Nino waits for his cue. The clicker wanders around the back side of the house; its face is contorted and left leg dragging. Its croaks and clicks are loud, but Jun stays close to the ground and goes unnoticed. The runner stands at the front of the house, inactive, unlike his clicker friend.
Jun maneuvers carefully around a kitchen island, avoiding bumping small items that had fallen on the floor at some time or another. The room is dim despite sunlight coming in through every possible window and door. Jun accidentally hits a fallen fork that chimes and catches the clicker’s attention. The clicker makes a gasping sound and heads toward the source of the sound. Jun backs up around the kitchen island to avoid being noticed. He scurries inaudibly around the back of the island and knifes the clicker in the back of the head. It shrieks and calls to the runner in the other room, pulling it out of its statuesque position. Jun whistles loudly.
Nino rushes in and sees Jun struggle to keep the clicker down until it dies. The runner rushes from the other room and charges at Nino. Being small and light, Nino slides along the tile floor, knocking the runner over. He climbs onto the runner’s back and wraps and wraps and arm around the runner’s neck, squeezing with his knife ready just in case. The runner struggles underneath him and flips them over.
Despite being out of the way of the infected’s mouth, Nino calls for help. Jun, having made sure the clicker was indeed dead, rushes over and stabs a blow to the infected’s head, rendering it motionless.
“Don’t try to strangle them, Nino. You’re not strong enough,” Jun says, huffing and full of adrenaline.
“Don’t call me weak! If it weren’t for me, you’d be outnumbered,” Nino says, pushing the infected’s body off his own. He stands up and brushes himself off, putting his knife away.
“I’ve dealt with more than two before, kid. I’m just trying to teach you a thing or two,” Jun replies, dragging the bodies from the house and out into the backyard.
Nino wanders around the home looking for food and useful supplies but finds very little.
“Some beans and some canned peaches are all I could find that was still good,” Nino says, watching Jun lock up the house so they’d be safe for the night.
“That’s fine, we’ve had worse,” Jun replies. He heads upstairs and looks around. He settles in the master bedroom and heads to the attached bathroom. He sees the decayed body of a person in the bathtub and investigates. The smell had already dissipated and a small handgun rests on the bottom of the tub. Jun grabs it and a nearby towel and shuts the door.
“What’s in there?” Nino asks, trying to open the closed door despite Jun standing as a roadblock.
“A dead person, you don’t need to see that. Here, I got you a towel. Wipe your face off,” Jun says, gently moving him away from the door and placing the towel on top of Nino’s head.
Nino smiles and wipes his face off, revealing smooth, flawless skin and a cute mole on his chin. Jun gives Nino a small smile back and wipes his own face off and sits on the edge of the bed. Nino plops down next to him, grinning.
“What?” Jun asks.
“Nothing, I just like when I’m clean,” Nino replies.
“Well you’re not totally clean, just your face.”
“So what? I feel a little clean. It’s better than nothing I suppose.”
“Yeah. I suppose.”
Later in the evening, Jun watches out the bedroom window which overlooks the street.
Nino lies on the bed after having eaten some food. His stomach growls loudly but he ignores it, “What are you looking at?”
“Just looking out,” Jun says, “We’ve got to be careful of bandits and raiders and such.”
“Bandits?” Nino asks.
Jun leaves the window and sits on the edge of the bed, “Yeah, I‘ve heard rumors that there are a few large gangs that hang around, loot houses and such.”
“Well, if that’s the case, shouldn’t we be moving on from here?” Nino looks concerned.
“Naw, we’ll be okay,” Jun says. He then decides to frighten Nino a bit, “Though we do have to be careful, because I’ve also heard that some have turned to cannibalism because people can’t eat the infected and other animals are hard to find. They’ll capture people and eat them!”
Nino’s eyes go wide, “Eh? Then we should leave now!” He gets up and Jun just laughs.
“While it is true what I’ve heard, I don’t think we’re in danger,” Jun says, lying down on the bed, “I’ve got a gun, only five bullets, but I’ve got one. However, we will kill with stealth as much as possible so we don’t attract infected or cannibals, okay?”
Nino nods and crawls back onto the bed. He snuggles against Jun’s body.
“Uhh, what are you doing?” Jun asks, a little disgusted.
Nino blushes, “Ah, I thought we were going to sleep.”
“There’s another bedroom, this one’s mine…” Jun says pulling away. Nino looks sad and a little scared.
“Okay…” Nino gets up from the bed and heads to the other room across the hallway. Jun relaxes and falls asleep on the bed with his knife under the pillow just in case.
The nights grow colder since winter is only a couple months away and Nino shivers in the small child’s bed, the thin blankets aren’t enough. He gets out of bed and heads back to Jun’s room. He stops at the door and calls to him, “Jun?” he says in a soft voice.
“Hm?” Jun groans, “Nino, go to bed, leave me alone…”
“I’m cold…there aren’t enough blankets…” Nino complains.
Jun is quiet for a little bit and sighs, he lifts the sheets and blankets on the bed, “Come on, I suppose it’s safer this way… just don’t be a blanket hog…”
Nino hurries to the bed and gets in, snuggling right against Jun. Jun hisses when Nino’s cold feet touch his, “You weren’t joking, kid!”
“I never joke,” Nino whispers. They are both silent and fall asleep one at a time.
In the early morning, Nino wakes up first and opens the can of peaches to eat half. Jun follows suit once he’s able to function and they sits and chat on the bed. After a nig ht of great sleep, Nino finds that Jun is more friendly and easier to talk to.
“Satoshi and I used to just have days where we’d lay in bed and get fat on sweets and shrimp cocktail!” Nino says playfully, slurping up a piece of peach.
Jun chuckles, “So you’re saying you were spoiled by your rich boyfriend?”
“I’ve said that once before, right?”
“I faintly remember, but you sure don’t look like you’ve sat and gotten fat recently.”
Nino sticks his tongue out, “Well I’ve been starving for months, what do you expect!”
Jun’s attention is drawn away from Nino when he hears the sound of a truck and voices.
“Shh!” he says to Nino and slides off the bed, peeking carefully at the road from the window. Nino freezes and stares at Jun, trying to hear whatever is going on outside.
“Fuck…we need to get out of here,” Jun says quietly, moving to stuff his bag. He slings it over his shoulder and sees Nino just staring. “What are you waiting for? Pack your shit.”
Nino fumbles and stuffs his bag when people enter the home. Jun opens the window and hops out onto an awning, “Just hide.” Jun disappears and Nino dives under the bed and scoots himself as far back against the wall as he can. He gasps when he notices he forgot his backpack lying on the floor but it’s too late. He hears heavy footsteps and low, gruff chatting. He sees two pairs of boots walk first into the room across the hall, and then into the master bedroom.
“Hey boss, this is fresh,” one man says with a higher, more agreeable voice. Nino sees a hand reach down to pick up the can of opened peaches. He feels the other man press down on the bed.
“Yeah, and the bed is still warm too, someone’s in here, I can taste it,” the other man says with a low, almost scary voice. He can hear a few others downstairs through the floor.
The man with the scary voice reaches down and picks up Nino’s backpack, dumping it out onto the floor. All non-food items are dumped including Nino’s precious Christmas sweater photo of him and his beloved Satoshi. Nino holds his breath.
“Hah! Boss, wouldn’t it be funny if the guy were under the bed?” the agreeable man says. He man leans over and peers under the bed. He and Nino make eye contact and Nino’s eyes beg him to leave him alone, but to no avail.
“Ah, we’ve got a little rat hiding under the bed,” the agreeable man says sinisterly, “Boss, I’ll move him your way.”
The scary man moves to the other side of the bed while the agreeable man reaches under and tries to get Nino to move out the other direction.
“Ah, boss, he’s pretty cute,” says the agreeable man.
“Stop jawing and scare him outta there!” the scary man roars. Nino moves out of the way and between the wall and the bedside table. The agreeable man begins to crawl under the bed after Nino, forcing him to move forward. His arm is grabbed and he is ripped from under the bed, getting large scratches on his free arm and hip.
“You’re right!” The scary man says, holding Nino by his arm while Nino struggles to pull free, “So how’d you survive this long, little rat?”
Always having his knife strapped to his hips and hidden in his pants, Nino grabs the blade with his free hand and deals a deep cut to the scary man’s arm, setting him free. The man roars and calls for the agreeable man who is still trying to wedge himself out from under the bed. Adrenaline pumping, Nino runs from the man, grabs his special photo and goes down the hall to the stairs.
“Catch that fucking kid!” the scary man yells.
Nino rushes down the stairs to see three other men. He’s cornered and seeks an exit. He ignores the men yelling at him and thinks for a moment. A tall man stands before him. Nino takes the opportunity to use his sliding method and slides straight under the man’s legs and jabs his blade into the back of the man’s leg, earning him a few more feet closer to the door. He makes a break for the front door, bullets splitting the trim around the door, missing him by inches. Nino makes it out and looks back as he runs to see Jun step in the doorway and shoot the gunman dead where he stands.
The other men put their hands up as they had no guns, just melee weapons.
Nino stops in awe of Jun’s actions.
“You leave us alone or I’ll fucking kill you both,” Jun snarls. He slams the door shut, as a courtesy, and runs to Nino. He grabs Nino’s arm, urging him to run.
“We’ve gotta get out of here, kid…” Jun says. His voice is severe. They run across the street and into the woods behind a row of cookie-cutter houses. Afraid that the bandits, despite Jun’s warning, would come after them and skin them alive, they move quickly through the woods, getting as deep as possible, walking on areas that would not leave tracks from their rugged shoes. After a few hours of fast walking and jogging, they stop to collect themselves.
Nino gasps for air as he is not used to such exercise. He sits down against a tree and focuses on breathing. Jun squints to see if there is anything in the distance and there is not.
Jun disappears deeper into the woods, leaving Nino behind. Nino immediately tries to follow Jun , afraid of being left alone, “Jun?”
“Over here,” Jun says. He stands in front of a tall tower fastened to a tree. “We’ll stay here tonight since we’ve already wasted a day running from those fucking cannibals.”
Nino finds Jun and walks to the tower, still trying to catch his breath, “Oh…so we have to climb it then?”
“Well yeah, I’ll help you, so don’t worry. Also, put your knife away, you won’t need it for a while,” Jun says softly, tossing his bag up to the top. The bag barely makes it. Nino is happy that Jun is taking care of him. Before sending Nino up the ladder, he stops him and examines the scratch on his arm. He sighs and pats Nino’s butt to get him moving up the ladder.
“You’re a real liability, kid,” Jun says chuckling.
Nino begins to climb and is nervous about the height, “I’m not a liability, I practically saved myself!”
“Yeah, you’re right. Until I shot the gunman dead.”
Nino scoffs and makes it to the top with Jun right behind him. He sits in a spot that he feels safe and looks at the picture of him and Satoshi. Jun sits next to him, his back against the tree, “So you managed to take that cheesy photo before almost getting killed?” Jun asks.
“Of course, it’s the only possession worth keeping I’ve got left,” Nino says. He sighs lightly and scoots next to Jun. Jun hesitates again from the closeness, but lets it be. Nino shivers a bit and Jun digs in his bag. He pulls out a thin sweater and hands it to Nino.
“So your bag is gone, I guess we’ll have to share for a while until we find you a new one, hm?” Jun says gently. He seems to get more and gentler with Nino each week. Nino slips the sweater over his shoulders and leans against Jun.
Jun gets a chill from some wind and wishes he had two sweaters.
“We can share,” Nino says, staring up at Jun with an innocent stare.
“We can’t possibly fit in one little sweater, dumbass,” Jun says harshly, but all in fun. Nino smiles and moves. He sits between Jun’s legs, resting his chest against Jun’s, curling his arms in to fit better.
“Can I stay here?” Nino asks. Jun hides a blush and just chuckles. Since Jun doesn’t push him away, Nino stays. “Thank you, Jun,” Nino says quietly against Jun’s chest. He closes his eyes and without a response from Jun after a long while, falls asleep.
Enjoying the warmth from Nino’s body and the sweater, Jun wraps his arms around Nino and sighs lightly with a slight smile.
“Stupid kid…”
Author:
junjun_pon
Pairing: Matsumiya
Genre: Horror, Angst, Adventure, Drama
Rating: R (language and violence)
Disclaimer: I do not own the boys!
Summary: Based off the popular game “The Last of Us.” After being left behind during a mass-evacuation, Nino struggles to survive against the infected and other humans.
a/n: Sorry it took me so long, folks! I got busy and got out of my writing groove. But I'm back! :D :D :D
As always, comments are love~
===================
[Chapter 1]| [Chapter 2]
===================
They drift from place to place awkwardly for a week together. Jun avoids talking, and Nino will not stop talking. It’s cloudy and windy. A chill is in the air with humidity; an autumn rain will be coming soon. Avoiding towns blesses them with minimal infected encounters, though they have little food left, and their clothes are rank from sweat, rain, and mud.
Nino holds a strap on Jun’s backpack as they walk in tandem.
“Hey, can I call you Jun?” Nino asks, tugging on the strap. Jun is silent for a while, obviously thinking based on his quizzical expression.
Jun frowns, “I guess…” Nino smiles in response.
“You can call me Nino if you want,” Nino says, hoping Jun would agree. He feels as though they have bonded the past week.
Jun stops and lets out a great sigh, “Fine, but we’re still not friends.” Nino almost pouts, but just nods. He wishes Jun would open up to him a bit more.
They begin walking again, heading into some woods off a back country road.
“Hey,” Nino starts, “How old are you, Jun?”
Jun keeps walking, however, he replies quickly, “Thirty.”
"Uwah, so five years older than me! Satoshi was older than you,” Nino says skipping a bit to catch up with Jun’s quick pace. Jun just hums for a response and continues to walk, keeping a watchful eye on the trees around them.
In silence, they reach another road that leads to a large house. Behind it is a small lake, showing a cloudy and blackened reflection of the sky above. The sun is at their backs and setting.
“We’ll stay here for the night,” Jun says. Nino lets go of the strap and heads to the front door. It’s boarded up from the inside. He scoots over to a window and peeks through a hole. The room is dark and still.
“Hey, kid, get away from there…” Jun says. He changes direction and heads toward Nino.
“I’m just looking,” Nino says. He squints to see something moving within the house. Jun suddenly pulls Nino backward by his backpack just as decayed hand reaches viciously out the hole and through the glass. Nino lets out a scream and looks up at Jun from the ground.
“I told you to stay away. I’m not dumb, you know…” Jun says rolling his eyes and leaving Nino to watch the arm, pawing at the open air through the glass.
“Sorry…the house just looked inviting, you know?” Nino says following after Jun, brushing himself off.
“It’s boarded up from the inside. Probably someone got bit and went crazy,” Jun says heading toward the dock down by the lake. Nino stays quiet and follows closely, a bit jittery from the attack. He wishes Jun would at least ask him if he’s okay, but he forgets about it.
Jun digs in the boat and then throws his backpack in, “Get in,” he says. Nino looks confused and nervous to be near water.
“I’m not getting in there!” Nino says.
“You’re going to if you want to live…” Jun replies, gently nudging him toward the rocking boat. The wind picks up and Jun gets impatient.
“Come on, either you move, or I put you in there myself!” Jun barks.
Nino pouts and skittishly gets in the unstable boat. Once he makes it in, he sits and holds onto the side. Jun hops in and begins paddling them out into the middle of the little lake.
“Why are we out here?” Nino asks, having calmed down slightly. He still grips the side for safety. Water from the windy lake splashes onto his face.
Jun struggles with paddling in the heavy wind, but continues regardless. “You’d rather stay on land where there are infected?” Jun asks.
“I’d rather stay on land so I don’t barf all over this boat, you, and myself…” Nino replies. He’s far from getting seasick, but he’s always worried.
“Well we’re staying out here for the night. I’m not risking my back just because you’re afraid of water…” Jun says cynically. Nino frowns.
They reach the middle of the small lake and Jun throws down the anchor resting at the bow with a grunt. He wipes some sweat from his forehead and turns back to Nino, “Now, gets some sleep.”
“Sleep? When if the boat flips and I drown?” Nino says.
“Having an irrational fear of boats and water will just make you paranoid, just find a way to relax,” Jun says, “Go lie down.”
Nino finds a more open spot on the boat and lies down, staring up at the cloudy sky. He hears the water slapping at the sides of boat, some of the spray coming aboard. He thinks about the time Satoshi forced him to go fishing and how he puked the entire trip. Nino smiles gently and curls up.
Jun lies down next to him on his back, crossing his arms behind his head as a pillow. Nino closes his eyes thinks about Satoshi some more with a sigh.
Not long after, it begins to rain and Jun groans. Nino is woken up from his daydream by more water hitting his face. He looks at Jun who seems grumpy and says nothing. It’s not until it begins to pour and Nino shivers from his wet clothes and the wind that Jun pulls a small tarp from one of the compartments on the boat. He opens it up and lies back down with it.
“Come here,” he says strangely, as if struggling whether or not to let Nino be close to him. Nino is so cold that he complies without complaining as he normally would. Jun pulls the tarp over their heads even though their legs will stick out. Nino snuggles against Jun’s body and slowly but surely stops shaking and relaxes. He blushes slightly, but hides it from Jun. There are the sounds of the infected in the distance and Nino is glad he got into the boat. Being next to Jun, he doesn’t feel sick at all.
“Ne, Jun?” Nino says softly.
“Hm?” Jun replies, his eyes closed , trying not to think about the wet body attached to him.
“Do you know a lot about the infected?”
“I do.”
“What are they?”
Jun turns his head to face Nino and finds the man staring up at him cutely. Jun suppresses a blush and just chuckles. “There are so many things to k now about! I don’t know where to start.”
“I’ve seen different kinds…like the fast ones…” Nino says. Water sliding down his face from his hair washes off some of the dirt and mud. Rain taps heavily on the tarp.
“Well, there are four kinds,” Jun says, “Runners, Stalkers, Clickers, and Bloaters…”
“Runners are the fast ones?” Nino asks.
“Exactly, but they’re easy to sneak up on. You don’t have to stab them, you can choke them too since they’re still partially human,” Jun states. Feeling comfortable with the conversation, he flips on his side and faces Nino. “Stalkers are like runners, but they hide from you and then attack at the best opportunity. They’re very smart.”
“I’ve never met one of those before…” Nino says, trying not to blush. He feels strange around Jun, but he won’t admit it. Instead, this thinks of his beloved Satoshi and passively participates in the discussion.
“I’ve only met a couple, they’re tricky, but go down the same way as runners,” Jun says. “Now clickers are scary and can only be killed with a blade or gunshot to the head.”
“Why are they called clickers?” Nino asks.
"They make a clicking and croaking noise. The infection covers and morphs their faces and makes them blind, so they use-“
“Echo location like bats?”
“Exactly,” Jun replies. “They’re easy to avoid as long as you are quiet. If you get noticed, just hide. They usually give up.”
"Oh. Well I’m good at that,” Nino says with a cute smile.
“Just don’t let them touch you. They’re strong as all hell,” Jun says.
“And the bloaters?” Nino asks.
“Bloaters are a fucking nightmare, but they’re slow,” Jun says. “I’ve only seen one, but they are covered in infection…usually huge and they spit those spores that they think caused the outbreak…I guess they take a long time to develop.”
“Spores?”
“Yeah, I guess they form when an infected dies…the bloaters also naturally give off those spores…they wouldn’t kill you, but they’d do plenty of damage to me,” Jun says.
“How do you know all this?” Nino asks, snuggling closer to Jun.
Jun backs away just slightly, “I was with other people before I found you.”
“Who were they?”
"I don’t want to talk about it…just…go to sleep, okay?” Jun replies hesitantly. He’s hurting about someone just like Nino is and that gives Nino a bit more comfort.
Nino snuggles against Jun’s warm body and sighs lightly. Jun ignores Nino’s gesture and rolls on his back once more, holding the tarp down over their bodies. The continuous sound of hissing and groaning from the shore puts him asleep hours later, Nino already fast asleep, a hand resting gently on Jun’s chest.
The next morning, Nino wakes up and finds himself alone under the tarp. The sun is out and the humidity is worse than the day before. Surprisingly, he doesn’t feel sick from the boat. He thinks it may just be an ocean thing. Nino sits up and pulls the tarp off to find Jun looking at a map.
“Where are we going?” Nino asks softly, rubbing his eyes and squinting because it’s a bit bright out.
“To a hospital,” Jun says.
“A hospital? Why?”
"I’ve overheard a while ago that some doctors are working on a cure, Jun says, “but I’m not sure if they still are…I only heard about it soon after the outbreak.”
“So we can go then? I’m immune so I could help, right?” Nino asks.
Jun just nods, “I’ll take you there, okay?”
Nino smiles and nods. He stands up in the boat, wobbling, and wrings out his wet pants legs that were uncovered by the tarp during the rainy night before. “How far is the hospital?”
Jun briefly looks at the map, “It’s definitely not close…so we’d better get moving.”
Nino snacks on some berries they’d found a few days before and waits for Jun to lift the anchor and paddle them ashore.
- - -
“It’s a clicker and a runner. I’ll take the clicker,” Jun whispers. They are crouched behind the back window to a small, two-story house in a suburban neighborhood. “Wait until I kill the clicker, then follow up with the runner when I get noticed. I’ll whistle.”
Nino nods and takes out his knife. He and Jun are traveling together for the second week. He moves with Jun to a position alongside a partially opened back door. Jun stealthily moves into the house and Nino waits for his cue. The clicker wanders around the back side of the house; its face is contorted and left leg dragging. Its croaks and clicks are loud, but Jun stays close to the ground and goes unnoticed. The runner stands at the front of the house, inactive, unlike his clicker friend.
Jun maneuvers carefully around a kitchen island, avoiding bumping small items that had fallen on the floor at some time or another. The room is dim despite sunlight coming in through every possible window and door. Jun accidentally hits a fallen fork that chimes and catches the clicker’s attention. The clicker makes a gasping sound and heads toward the source of the sound. Jun backs up around the kitchen island to avoid being noticed. He scurries inaudibly around the back of the island and knifes the clicker in the back of the head. It shrieks and calls to the runner in the other room, pulling it out of its statuesque position. Jun whistles loudly.
Nino rushes in and sees Jun struggle to keep the clicker down until it dies. The runner rushes from the other room and charges at Nino. Being small and light, Nino slides along the tile floor, knocking the runner over. He climbs onto the runner’s back and wraps and wraps and arm around the runner’s neck, squeezing with his knife ready just in case. The runner struggles underneath him and flips them over.
Despite being out of the way of the infected’s mouth, Nino calls for help. Jun, having made sure the clicker was indeed dead, rushes over and stabs a blow to the infected’s head, rendering it motionless.
“Don’t try to strangle them, Nino. You’re not strong enough,” Jun says, huffing and full of adrenaline.
“Don’t call me weak! If it weren’t for me, you’d be outnumbered,” Nino says, pushing the infected’s body off his own. He stands up and brushes himself off, putting his knife away.
“I’ve dealt with more than two before, kid. I’m just trying to teach you a thing or two,” Jun replies, dragging the bodies from the house and out into the backyard.
Nino wanders around the home looking for food and useful supplies but finds very little.
“Some beans and some canned peaches are all I could find that was still good,” Nino says, watching Jun lock up the house so they’d be safe for the night.
“That’s fine, we’ve had worse,” Jun replies. He heads upstairs and looks around. He settles in the master bedroom and heads to the attached bathroom. He sees the decayed body of a person in the bathtub and investigates. The smell had already dissipated and a small handgun rests on the bottom of the tub. Jun grabs it and a nearby towel and shuts the door.
“What’s in there?” Nino asks, trying to open the closed door despite Jun standing as a roadblock.
“A dead person, you don’t need to see that. Here, I got you a towel. Wipe your face off,” Jun says, gently moving him away from the door and placing the towel on top of Nino’s head.
Nino smiles and wipes his face off, revealing smooth, flawless skin and a cute mole on his chin. Jun gives Nino a small smile back and wipes his own face off and sits on the edge of the bed. Nino plops down next to him, grinning.
“What?” Jun asks.
“Nothing, I just like when I’m clean,” Nino replies.
“Well you’re not totally clean, just your face.”
“So what? I feel a little clean. It’s better than nothing I suppose.”
“Yeah. I suppose.”
Later in the evening, Jun watches out the bedroom window which overlooks the street.
Nino lies on the bed after having eaten some food. His stomach growls loudly but he ignores it, “What are you looking at?”
“Just looking out,” Jun says, “We’ve got to be careful of bandits and raiders and such.”
“Bandits?” Nino asks.
Jun leaves the window and sits on the edge of the bed, “Yeah, I‘ve heard rumors that there are a few large gangs that hang around, loot houses and such.”
“Well, if that’s the case, shouldn’t we be moving on from here?” Nino looks concerned.
“Naw, we’ll be okay,” Jun says. He then decides to frighten Nino a bit, “Though we do have to be careful, because I’ve also heard that some have turned to cannibalism because people can’t eat the infected and other animals are hard to find. They’ll capture people and eat them!”
Nino’s eyes go wide, “Eh? Then we should leave now!” He gets up and Jun just laughs.
“While it is true what I’ve heard, I don’t think we’re in danger,” Jun says, lying down on the bed, “I’ve got a gun, only five bullets, but I’ve got one. However, we will kill with stealth as much as possible so we don’t attract infected or cannibals, okay?”
Nino nods and crawls back onto the bed. He snuggles against Jun’s body.
“Uhh, what are you doing?” Jun asks, a little disgusted.
Nino blushes, “Ah, I thought we were going to sleep.”
“There’s another bedroom, this one’s mine…” Jun says pulling away. Nino looks sad and a little scared.
“Okay…” Nino gets up from the bed and heads to the other room across the hallway. Jun relaxes and falls asleep on the bed with his knife under the pillow just in case.
The nights grow colder since winter is only a couple months away and Nino shivers in the small child’s bed, the thin blankets aren’t enough. He gets out of bed and heads back to Jun’s room. He stops at the door and calls to him, “Jun?” he says in a soft voice.
“Hm?” Jun groans, “Nino, go to bed, leave me alone…”
“I’m cold…there aren’t enough blankets…” Nino complains.
Jun is quiet for a little bit and sighs, he lifts the sheets and blankets on the bed, “Come on, I suppose it’s safer this way… just don’t be a blanket hog…”
Nino hurries to the bed and gets in, snuggling right against Jun. Jun hisses when Nino’s cold feet touch his, “You weren’t joking, kid!”
“I never joke,” Nino whispers. They are both silent and fall asleep one at a time.
In the early morning, Nino wakes up first and opens the can of peaches to eat half. Jun follows suit once he’s able to function and they sits and chat on the bed. After a nig ht of great sleep, Nino finds that Jun is more friendly and easier to talk to.
“Satoshi and I used to just have days where we’d lay in bed and get fat on sweets and shrimp cocktail!” Nino says playfully, slurping up a piece of peach.
Jun chuckles, “So you’re saying you were spoiled by your rich boyfriend?”
“I’ve said that once before, right?”
“I faintly remember, but you sure don’t look like you’ve sat and gotten fat recently.”
Nino sticks his tongue out, “Well I’ve been starving for months, what do you expect!”
Jun’s attention is drawn away from Nino when he hears the sound of a truck and voices.
“Shh!” he says to Nino and slides off the bed, peeking carefully at the road from the window. Nino freezes and stares at Jun, trying to hear whatever is going on outside.
“Fuck…we need to get out of here,” Jun says quietly, moving to stuff his bag. He slings it over his shoulder and sees Nino just staring. “What are you waiting for? Pack your shit.”
Nino fumbles and stuffs his bag when people enter the home. Jun opens the window and hops out onto an awning, “Just hide.” Jun disappears and Nino dives under the bed and scoots himself as far back against the wall as he can. He gasps when he notices he forgot his backpack lying on the floor but it’s too late. He hears heavy footsteps and low, gruff chatting. He sees two pairs of boots walk first into the room across the hall, and then into the master bedroom.
“Hey boss, this is fresh,” one man says with a higher, more agreeable voice. Nino sees a hand reach down to pick up the can of opened peaches. He feels the other man press down on the bed.
“Yeah, and the bed is still warm too, someone’s in here, I can taste it,” the other man says with a low, almost scary voice. He can hear a few others downstairs through the floor.
The man with the scary voice reaches down and picks up Nino’s backpack, dumping it out onto the floor. All non-food items are dumped including Nino’s precious Christmas sweater photo of him and his beloved Satoshi. Nino holds his breath.
“Hah! Boss, wouldn’t it be funny if the guy were under the bed?” the agreeable man says. He man leans over and peers under the bed. He and Nino make eye contact and Nino’s eyes beg him to leave him alone, but to no avail.
“Ah, we’ve got a little rat hiding under the bed,” the agreeable man says sinisterly, “Boss, I’ll move him your way.”
The scary man moves to the other side of the bed while the agreeable man reaches under and tries to get Nino to move out the other direction.
“Ah, boss, he’s pretty cute,” says the agreeable man.
“Stop jawing and scare him outta there!” the scary man roars. Nino moves out of the way and between the wall and the bedside table. The agreeable man begins to crawl under the bed after Nino, forcing him to move forward. His arm is grabbed and he is ripped from under the bed, getting large scratches on his free arm and hip.
“You’re right!” The scary man says, holding Nino by his arm while Nino struggles to pull free, “So how’d you survive this long, little rat?”
Always having his knife strapped to his hips and hidden in his pants, Nino grabs the blade with his free hand and deals a deep cut to the scary man’s arm, setting him free. The man roars and calls for the agreeable man who is still trying to wedge himself out from under the bed. Adrenaline pumping, Nino runs from the man, grabs his special photo and goes down the hall to the stairs.
“Catch that fucking kid!” the scary man yells.
Nino rushes down the stairs to see three other men. He’s cornered and seeks an exit. He ignores the men yelling at him and thinks for a moment. A tall man stands before him. Nino takes the opportunity to use his sliding method and slides straight under the man’s legs and jabs his blade into the back of the man’s leg, earning him a few more feet closer to the door. He makes a break for the front door, bullets splitting the trim around the door, missing him by inches. Nino makes it out and looks back as he runs to see Jun step in the doorway and shoot the gunman dead where he stands.
The other men put their hands up as they had no guns, just melee weapons.
Nino stops in awe of Jun’s actions.
“You leave us alone or I’ll fucking kill you both,” Jun snarls. He slams the door shut, as a courtesy, and runs to Nino. He grabs Nino’s arm, urging him to run.
“We’ve gotta get out of here, kid…” Jun says. His voice is severe. They run across the street and into the woods behind a row of cookie-cutter houses. Afraid that the bandits, despite Jun’s warning, would come after them and skin them alive, they move quickly through the woods, getting as deep as possible, walking on areas that would not leave tracks from their rugged shoes. After a few hours of fast walking and jogging, they stop to collect themselves.
Nino gasps for air as he is not used to such exercise. He sits down against a tree and focuses on breathing. Jun squints to see if there is anything in the distance and there is not.
Jun disappears deeper into the woods, leaving Nino behind. Nino immediately tries to follow Jun , afraid of being left alone, “Jun?”
“Over here,” Jun says. He stands in front of a tall tower fastened to a tree. “We’ll stay here tonight since we’ve already wasted a day running from those fucking cannibals.”
Nino finds Jun and walks to the tower, still trying to catch his breath, “Oh…so we have to climb it then?”
“Well yeah, I’ll help you, so don’t worry. Also, put your knife away, you won’t need it for a while,” Jun says softly, tossing his bag up to the top. The bag barely makes it. Nino is happy that Jun is taking care of him. Before sending Nino up the ladder, he stops him and examines the scratch on his arm. He sighs and pats Nino’s butt to get him moving up the ladder.
“You’re a real liability, kid,” Jun says chuckling.
Nino begins to climb and is nervous about the height, “I’m not a liability, I practically saved myself!”
“Yeah, you’re right. Until I shot the gunman dead.”
Nino scoffs and makes it to the top with Jun right behind him. He sits in a spot that he feels safe and looks at the picture of him and Satoshi. Jun sits next to him, his back against the tree, “So you managed to take that cheesy photo before almost getting killed?” Jun asks.
“Of course, it’s the only possession worth keeping I’ve got left,” Nino says. He sighs lightly and scoots next to Jun. Jun hesitates again from the closeness, but lets it be. Nino shivers a bit and Jun digs in his bag. He pulls out a thin sweater and hands it to Nino.
“So your bag is gone, I guess we’ll have to share for a while until we find you a new one, hm?” Jun says gently. He seems to get more and gentler with Nino each week. Nino slips the sweater over his shoulders and leans against Jun.
Jun gets a chill from some wind and wishes he had two sweaters.
“We can share,” Nino says, staring up at Jun with an innocent stare.
“We can’t possibly fit in one little sweater, dumbass,” Jun says harshly, but all in fun. Nino smiles and moves. He sits between Jun’s legs, resting his chest against Jun’s, curling his arms in to fit better.
“Can I stay here?” Nino asks. Jun hides a blush and just chuckles. Since Jun doesn’t push him away, Nino stays. “Thank you, Jun,” Nino says quietly against Jun’s chest. He closes his eyes and without a response from Jun after a long while, falls asleep.
Enjoying the warmth from Nino’s body and the sweater, Jun wraps his arms around Nino and sighs lightly with a slight smile.
“Stupid kid…”