ZombieLoz: Homecoming, Part Three
Part Three, in which there is further Plot and Uncomfortable Situation, and maybe even a glimmer of Hope.
Title is from a Gary Numan song on the Zombie Mix I made last year.
Part Three (Dead Heaven)
The town was, without a doubt, the strangest that any of them had ever seen.
Yazoo slowed as he passed the welcome sign - a brightly painted thing proclaiming the place ShinRa Model Town #13, "Mako Wells". Apparently the community was built to support an experimental type of Mako reactor built a couple of miles up the valley.
"Not Corel," mumbled Loz, wiping blood from himself with what seemed to have been a band T-shirt left in the back seat.
"Doesn't matter," Kadaj reminded with a huff.
Beyond the sign, the trees and shrubs on the sides of the road became more well-manicured, and then... the houses began. They were nearly all individual two-storey buildings, large enough to be spacious for a single family, with wide yards and porches and white picket fences and flower beds. They were covered in wood siding with dark roofs, and they were nearly all painted white, punctuated by the occasional beige or gray, with different dark colors of trim for each.
Running along the sides of the wide street, separating the yards from the asphalt, were wide concrete sidewalks. The entire area was so neat and orderly that it barely seemed to be inhabited. Yazoo had never seen the like before.
The overall impression was quite unnerving, despite sunny skies dotted with cotton candy clouds and warm coppery trees. Perhaps it was because the houses all seemed to be based on a set of four or five designs with minor variations, or because the streets were wide but there were few vehicles parked there (and even those were low, wide, impractical things similar to the one they'd appropriated), or because there wasn't a human in sight. The houses were still and silent.
Kadaj rolled up the passenger side window a bit, warily eyeing the empty-looking houses.
After a few blocks, the houses became a little smaller and closer together; the change was a little reassuring, though this new area was just as devoid of humans.
A few more blocks and the buildings became a little more familiar still - bulky cinderblock and brick structures with large garage doors or wide display windows and cheerfully painted signs. There were a few garlands of little colored triangular flags strung over the street at intervals. Obviously they were coming to the commercial area in the center of the town.
"Stop the car," Kadaj ordered, straightening in his seat.
"Why?" Asked Yazoo, pulling to one side and shutting down the vehicle nonetheless. Without the thrum of the modified engine, the area seemed eerily silent, except for the light chatter of birdsong and the staccato twanging of the guitar that Loz was toying with in the back seat (despite Kadaj having told him to stop several times already).
"Because I'm hungry now." Kadaj immediately hopped out of the car, fastening Souba's scabbard to the straps on his back again. "Even if there's no people there's bound to be food here somewhere." He spared Loz a vaguely irritated look. "Somewhere quiet." He began to walk down the sidewalk toward the next intersection.
Yazoo instinctively glanced back at Loz, but his older brother's ashen pallor only unsettled him further despite the familiar shrug. Loz was still Loz, but... different, and it was the difference that continually gnawed at Yazoo. Somehow Kadaj seemed to continue as though nothing were out of the ordinary - as though those days and nights he'd spent clinging to Yazoo and sobbing hadn't happened - but Yazoo found himself unable to adjust so easily. Loz was with them but not, and the three of them had never been so... separated.
Sighing, Yazoo moved to step out of the car as well. Loz immediately set about attempting to open one of the back doors, but Yazoo got out, closed his door, and calmly opened the back door before Loz could quite get a proper grip on the handle.
Yazoo took the guitar from Loz's hands - he seemed to have forgotten he was holding it - and chucked it back into the backseat before closing the door again. He left the keys in the ignition; if someone decided to take the car, it was no problem of theirs. It would save having to ride around with the blood smell any more, and would be useless beyond these rare paved roads anyway.
"Come on," he murmured to Loz, watching Kadaj stride away from them.
Kadaj reached the next intersection and stopped, studying something down the cross-street. Then he glanced back at his brothers, waiting for them to catch up.
What was clearly the town square was a block away from them, with building-sized lawns and a fountain topped by a statue in the center. More of the flag garlands stretched overhead. There were a few hundred humans there, all gathered around one corner where there seemed to be some sort of platform set up.
But more importantly, so far as Kadaj was concerned, on the opposite side of the square from the people was what was clearly an eatery of some sort. A pink and orange neon sign on the roof of the strangely rounded single-floor silver building proclaimed it to be "Mo's Diner". And it seemed to be completely unattended at the moment.
With eyes only for the restaurant, Kadaj barely turned his head in Yazoo's direction as he spoke. "Run interference if you have to. I'm going to get something to eat."
Yazoo, on the other hand, was staring at the large group of humans, instinctively trying to count them and assess the threat. "Kadaj, I don't think -"
But it was too late. Kadaj didn't even have time to step away from his brothers before one of the humans on the platform, facing in their direction, saw them and gave a shout.
"They're here!"
A low roar of murmurs surged through the crowd as they turned to look where the man on the platform was pointing. Yazoo tensed, hand halfway to reaching for his Velvet Nightmare, noting that Kadaj was reaching for his weapon as well.
And then the crowd errupted into a barrage of elated cheering, which was surprising enough that none of the brothers were quite able to react as the humans rushed them.
It was disorienting. Yazoo managed to draw his gunblade, but there were faces and hands everywhere, all around them, gaping at them and staring and pawing and pushing them forward. It was too much to process at once, and there were too many people around Yazoo for him to even raise his weapon. The crowd pressed too close, all smiling and speaking thanks for some reason - too many faces to mark, too many hands to swat away, too many targets to choose from. If he just started firing, he'd run out of ammunition quickly, and he might hit his brothers.
It felt like drowning. Yazoo looked wildly about for Kadaj and saw him just ahead, just as overwhelmed. But not close enough. Panic was rising in Yazoo's chest, and Loz being pushed along next to him, close enough that they collided every few steps, was not enough to quell the feeling. Kadaj needed him and he was failing -
And then Kadaj was pushed up onto the stage, finally managing to draw his sword as he stumbled onto the steps. He was angry, but had the presence of mind not to simply start slashing at the smiling faces - so long as he was on the platform, he was in the clear. His eyes briefly sought his brothers'; the motion of the crowd satisfied him that they were being herded the same way, and he relaxed slightly, straightening and lowering his sword a bit.
"S-sir?"
Kadaj turned as the somewhat harried-looking, suited man on the platform addressed him. The man was in his late middle age, salt-and-pepper haired, with a trim moustache. He glanced nervously between Kadaj and his brothers as they reached the stage. The crowd quieted down. "Which, ah, which one of you... leads?"
Kadaj straightened further. Now things were making a little sense. "That would be me."
The man blinked. "It... would?" He looked Kadaj up and down, taking in obvious youth and lesser stature.
"It would," Yazoo confirmed, eyes narrowing as he came to stand behind and to one side of Kadaj. Loz moved to Kadaj's other side, glowering, for all that he moved sluggishly. At least from here they'd a better chance of regrouping and successfully escaping, if not slaughtering the lot of them.
"Oh." The man blinked again. "Well then..." He coughed, adjusting the microphone in front of him. "Thank you for coming to rescue our fair town!" He proclaimed loudly, voice booming through loudspeakers mounted about the square - speaking directly to Kadaj. "Everybody, can we get another round of applause for these brave hunters!"
The humans erupted into cheering once more. Yazoo tilted his head, warily trying to gage the situation; Kadaj frowned in annoyance.
Beyond the suited man, there were a few other humans on the stage - two older and one around the same apparent age as Kadaj. The young one, a golden-haired girl, leaned forward a little to look past the man - her hair falling over one shoulder - and smiled fetchingly, blue eyes bright. She raised one hand and waggled her fingers at Kadaj. The motions would've appeared shy, were she not standing in front of an entire crowd already.
Kadaj huffed, blowing a stand of hair that had fallen in front of his face, gaze passing over the girl as though she wasn't there. As soon as the roar subsided enough that he could speak without shouting, he scowled at the man in charge. "You seem to be misinformed," he shrugged.
"You're the bounty hunter trio that answered our distress signal, aren't you?" The man asked, brow furrowing. He covered the microphone with one hand, speaking quickly in a low voice. "You look like it, and your message said you'd be here today... and we have the money ready for you... Is it not enough? Did you change your mind? We'll pay whatever you want! Just please, help us! Everyone that dies keeps coming back and we can't survive like this!"
Yazoo straightened and raised an eyebrow, glancing at Loz. Up until that last sentence, he'd expected Kadaj to simply gut the man next, but...
Kadaj's scowl softened and he looked to the floor of the platform for a moment. When he raised his eyes, he was nothing but stern composure again. "We'll need food and lodging."
"Of course!" The man exclaimed, hand flying from the microphone. "Of course, of course, you must be tired from your journey! We'll get you taken care of and as soon as you're settled we'll send someone 'round to tell you everything that's happened."
"Good," Kadaj acknowledged. "Food first. Then talk."
Title is from a Gary Numan song on the Zombie Mix I made last year.
Part Three (Dead Heaven)
The town was, without a doubt, the strangest that any of them had ever seen.
Yazoo slowed as he passed the welcome sign - a brightly painted thing proclaiming the place ShinRa Model Town #13, "Mako Wells". Apparently the community was built to support an experimental type of Mako reactor built a couple of miles up the valley.
"Not Corel," mumbled Loz, wiping blood from himself with what seemed to have been a band T-shirt left in the back seat.
"Doesn't matter," Kadaj reminded with a huff.
Beyond the sign, the trees and shrubs on the sides of the road became more well-manicured, and then... the houses began. They were nearly all individual two-storey buildings, large enough to be spacious for a single family, with wide yards and porches and white picket fences and flower beds. They were covered in wood siding with dark roofs, and they were nearly all painted white, punctuated by the occasional beige or gray, with different dark colors of trim for each.
Running along the sides of the wide street, separating the yards from the asphalt, were wide concrete sidewalks. The entire area was so neat and orderly that it barely seemed to be inhabited. Yazoo had never seen the like before.
The overall impression was quite unnerving, despite sunny skies dotted with cotton candy clouds and warm coppery trees. Perhaps it was because the houses all seemed to be based on a set of four or five designs with minor variations, or because the streets were wide but there were few vehicles parked there (and even those were low, wide, impractical things similar to the one they'd appropriated), or because there wasn't a human in sight. The houses were still and silent.
Kadaj rolled up the passenger side window a bit, warily eyeing the empty-looking houses.
After a few blocks, the houses became a little smaller and closer together; the change was a little reassuring, though this new area was just as devoid of humans.
A few more blocks and the buildings became a little more familiar still - bulky cinderblock and brick structures with large garage doors or wide display windows and cheerfully painted signs. There were a few garlands of little colored triangular flags strung over the street at intervals. Obviously they were coming to the commercial area in the center of the town.
"Stop the car," Kadaj ordered, straightening in his seat.
"Why?" Asked Yazoo, pulling to one side and shutting down the vehicle nonetheless. Without the thrum of the modified engine, the area seemed eerily silent, except for the light chatter of birdsong and the staccato twanging of the guitar that Loz was toying with in the back seat (despite Kadaj having told him to stop several times already).
"Because I'm hungry now." Kadaj immediately hopped out of the car, fastening Souba's scabbard to the straps on his back again. "Even if there's no people there's bound to be food here somewhere." He spared Loz a vaguely irritated look. "Somewhere quiet." He began to walk down the sidewalk toward the next intersection.
Yazoo instinctively glanced back at Loz, but his older brother's ashen pallor only unsettled him further despite the familiar shrug. Loz was still Loz, but... different, and it was the difference that continually gnawed at Yazoo. Somehow Kadaj seemed to continue as though nothing were out of the ordinary - as though those days and nights he'd spent clinging to Yazoo and sobbing hadn't happened - but Yazoo found himself unable to adjust so easily. Loz was with them but not, and the three of them had never been so... separated.
Sighing, Yazoo moved to step out of the car as well. Loz immediately set about attempting to open one of the back doors, but Yazoo got out, closed his door, and calmly opened the back door before Loz could quite get a proper grip on the handle.
Yazoo took the guitar from Loz's hands - he seemed to have forgotten he was holding it - and chucked it back into the backseat before closing the door again. He left the keys in the ignition; if someone decided to take the car, it was no problem of theirs. It would save having to ride around with the blood smell any more, and would be useless beyond these rare paved roads anyway.
"Come on," he murmured to Loz, watching Kadaj stride away from them.
Kadaj reached the next intersection and stopped, studying something down the cross-street. Then he glanced back at his brothers, waiting for them to catch up.
What was clearly the town square was a block away from them, with building-sized lawns and a fountain topped by a statue in the center. More of the flag garlands stretched overhead. There were a few hundred humans there, all gathered around one corner where there seemed to be some sort of platform set up.
But more importantly, so far as Kadaj was concerned, on the opposite side of the square from the people was what was clearly an eatery of some sort. A pink and orange neon sign on the roof of the strangely rounded single-floor silver building proclaimed it to be "Mo's Diner". And it seemed to be completely unattended at the moment.
With eyes only for the restaurant, Kadaj barely turned his head in Yazoo's direction as he spoke. "Run interference if you have to. I'm going to get something to eat."
Yazoo, on the other hand, was staring at the large group of humans, instinctively trying to count them and assess the threat. "Kadaj, I don't think -"
But it was too late. Kadaj didn't even have time to step away from his brothers before one of the humans on the platform, facing in their direction, saw them and gave a shout.
"They're here!"
A low roar of murmurs surged through the crowd as they turned to look where the man on the platform was pointing. Yazoo tensed, hand halfway to reaching for his Velvet Nightmare, noting that Kadaj was reaching for his weapon as well.
And then the crowd errupted into a barrage of elated cheering, which was surprising enough that none of the brothers were quite able to react as the humans rushed them.
It was disorienting. Yazoo managed to draw his gunblade, but there were faces and hands everywhere, all around them, gaping at them and staring and pawing and pushing them forward. It was too much to process at once, and there were too many people around Yazoo for him to even raise his weapon. The crowd pressed too close, all smiling and speaking thanks for some reason - too many faces to mark, too many hands to swat away, too many targets to choose from. If he just started firing, he'd run out of ammunition quickly, and he might hit his brothers.
It felt like drowning. Yazoo looked wildly about for Kadaj and saw him just ahead, just as overwhelmed. But not close enough. Panic was rising in Yazoo's chest, and Loz being pushed along next to him, close enough that they collided every few steps, was not enough to quell the feeling. Kadaj needed him and he was failing -
And then Kadaj was pushed up onto the stage, finally managing to draw his sword as he stumbled onto the steps. He was angry, but had the presence of mind not to simply start slashing at the smiling faces - so long as he was on the platform, he was in the clear. His eyes briefly sought his brothers'; the motion of the crowd satisfied him that they were being herded the same way, and he relaxed slightly, straightening and lowering his sword a bit.
"S-sir?"
Kadaj turned as the somewhat harried-looking, suited man on the platform addressed him. The man was in his late middle age, salt-and-pepper haired, with a trim moustache. He glanced nervously between Kadaj and his brothers as they reached the stage. The crowd quieted down. "Which, ah, which one of you... leads?"
Kadaj straightened further. Now things were making a little sense. "That would be me."
The man blinked. "It... would?" He looked Kadaj up and down, taking in obvious youth and lesser stature.
"It would," Yazoo confirmed, eyes narrowing as he came to stand behind and to one side of Kadaj. Loz moved to Kadaj's other side, glowering, for all that he moved sluggishly. At least from here they'd a better chance of regrouping and successfully escaping, if not slaughtering the lot of them.
"Oh." The man blinked again. "Well then..." He coughed, adjusting the microphone in front of him. "Thank you for coming to rescue our fair town!" He proclaimed loudly, voice booming through loudspeakers mounted about the square - speaking directly to Kadaj. "Everybody, can we get another round of applause for these brave hunters!"
The humans erupted into cheering once more. Yazoo tilted his head, warily trying to gage the situation; Kadaj frowned in annoyance.
Beyond the suited man, there were a few other humans on the stage - two older and one around the same apparent age as Kadaj. The young one, a golden-haired girl, leaned forward a little to look past the man - her hair falling over one shoulder - and smiled fetchingly, blue eyes bright. She raised one hand and waggled her fingers at Kadaj. The motions would've appeared shy, were she not standing in front of an entire crowd already.
Kadaj huffed, blowing a stand of hair that had fallen in front of his face, gaze passing over the girl as though she wasn't there. As soon as the roar subsided enough that he could speak without shouting, he scowled at the man in charge. "You seem to be misinformed," he shrugged.
"You're the bounty hunter trio that answered our distress signal, aren't you?" The man asked, brow furrowing. He covered the microphone with one hand, speaking quickly in a low voice. "You look like it, and your message said you'd be here today... and we have the money ready for you... Is it not enough? Did you change your mind? We'll pay whatever you want! Just please, help us! Everyone that dies keeps coming back and we can't survive like this!"
Yazoo straightened and raised an eyebrow, glancing at Loz. Up until that last sentence, he'd expected Kadaj to simply gut the man next, but...
Kadaj's scowl softened and he looked to the floor of the platform for a moment. When he raised his eyes, he was nothing but stern composure again. "We'll need food and lodging."
"Of course!" The man exclaimed, hand flying from the microphone. "Of course, of course, you must be tired from your journey! We'll get you taken care of and as soon as you're settled we'll send someone 'round to tell you everything that's happened."
"Good," Kadaj acknowledged. "Food first. Then talk."