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turnupswritessometimes · 6 years ago

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The One With the Zombies - AshEiji - Ch5

Title: The One With the Zombies

Chapter: 5

Word Count: 4673

Description: Another what it says on the tin from me - it's a Zombie Apocalypse AU because how else could this anime/manga get any darker? Whilst on the run from the outbreak of zombies, reporters Ibe and Eiji stumble across a New York street gang, safely huddled in an abandoned warehouse. As if the undead weren't surprising enough, Eiji finds himself becoming closer and closer to the gang's leader, mysteriously dubbed Ash Lynx. But safety doesn't last forever and soon it's only Ash and Eiji. And they're up against more than just zombies.

Note: This is available on A03, and I would recommend you follow it there, as I remember to update it. I would post a link, but then Tumblr wouldn’t include it in search results.

Eiji had never been glad that he hadn't been able to pull a trigger.

The two dark shapes had not been zombies. They were moving slowly, but they hadn't been dragging their limbs behind them. No, it had only been a very tired Ibe and Max.

There had been no time for a happy reunion. Ash had given them a sharp nod and they had nodded back.

They kept walking, though Eiji had wanted nothing more than to collapse into Ibe's arms and sob. He ha been scared - so scared - and he wanted someone bigger than him to tell him it was okay now, the danger had passed.

The danger hadn't passed.

They had walked until dawn. After an hour or so, Skip had gotten tired and Ash had given him a piggyback without saying a word. So they had continued walking – until they had been bathed in amber light and they could see a house in the distance.

Nothing was following them. Eiji glanced back every ten seconds until they had reached the building. Every moment that he wasn’t looking behind him, he was sure that there were hands reaching out towards him – fingers ready to grab at him. But no one had followed them. Which probably meant that the zombies had been occupied with other things.

It was a farmhouse. They climbed over the wooden fence and passed empty barns and stables until they came to a sprawling, wooden house. It was like something from a book – from Anne of Green Gables or the Wizard of Oz. Empty windows with checked curtains were visible from outside and there were two rocking chairs on the porch.

As good a place as any to stop had been the thought that Eiji was sure was going through everyones minds.

Max kicked the door open and had traced the room with the nose of his gun. With the light outside, the inside looked pitch black, the furniture just shadowy shapes that looked like crouching figures. It was empty. So they had entered.

They had found Skip a room with a quilted blanket and a painting of sheep grazing outside pinned to the wall. He had fallen asleep before his head had even hit the pillow. Max and Ibe had taken the double bed in the backroom, with the gun resting on the bedside table. Bones and Kong collapsed in the attic room – twisted around each other on a twin bed.

Ash had volunteered for the first watch. Eiji had followed him. He had expected Ash to sink back on one of the rocking chairs with a ciggie and watch the dawn. Instead, he was leaning against the door, still looking taut.

“Get a few hours sleep.” Ash said. He hadn’t even needed to turn to know Eiji was there.

Eiji pushed past him – he had started to ignore Ash’s commands. Whenever he told him to go to sleep, he had always stubbornly stayed up, leaning against the door and standing with him. It didn’t matter if they didn’t say a word. Ash was lonely. Eiji wanted to make him less lonely. Everyone else had thought he was crazy when Ash would tell him to get him something and Eiji would say “no,” even if he was getting up to oblige. Ash’s bark was less than his bite. So Eiji settled himself into one of the rocking chairs, his back aching from relaxing after so long.

“I can’t,” he said, and it was the truth.

“Yes, you can. There’s not as many of us now, you have to take a turn sleeping so you can take a turn on guard. We can’t share it anymore.”

“I really can’t.”

Ash’s eyes softened. He was still holding his gun. Not fiddling with it; he was ready to shoot it. “You’re scared of what you might dream.”

Eiji nodded, his gaze not leaving Ash’s green eyes.

“From my experience, your brain stops giving you nightmares once life becomes one.”

“Experience?”

“Maybe I’ll tell you one day,” Ash said. “But the main thing is that you will be able to sleep. You need to sleep, Eiji. You’re exhausted.”

“So are you.”

“Two hours,” Ash said. “Sleep for two hours, okay? Sleep in the living room and I’ll wake you up if you have a nightmare.”

“You promise?”

Ash nodded. There was dark smudges under his eyes. “Two hours.”

“Can I sleep here?”

“Inside.”

Eiji pushed himself out of the rocking chair, feeling his knees give way as he stood. He caught himself on the door and passed Ash again. He felt a hand on the small of his back and turned to see Ash giving him a sleepy smile. The sun behind him made him glow.

Eiji opened his mouth slightly – then realised he didn’t know what he was going to say and closed it. Instead, he put a hand on Ash’s wrist; making sure that he was real. Real and warm and here. He could hold him.

It was strangely hard to pull himself away, but he eventually managed it. Managed to make the two steps over to the sofa and collapse onto it.

Ash had been right. Eiji drifted off almost immediately, and when he did, he hardly dreamt at all. Everything was dark. Not a scary kind of dark – a warm, comforting dark that was protecting him from everything. There were arms around him. He didn’t know whose arms, but they were warm and real and there.

So he slept.

Ash hadn’t meant to watch Eiji. He knew it was exceedingly creepy, so he only allowed himself a glance every five minutes or so. It was just simply less nerve wracking to glance inside than to look out over the day. He couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched; of being followed and he hadn’t wanted to stop at all. It had been for the others. They needed to rest. He didn’t.

So he allowed himself a single glance every five minutes. The door was half-open and golden sunlight brought out the browns and reds in Eiji’s dark hair, like the iridescence of a blackbird’s feather’s. His hair was thick – thick enough to cast a shadow on his expresso coloured skin. Expresso coloured, apart from rosy pink cheeks and rosy pink lips. It was only obvious because of the bright orange jacket.

Ash loved that jacket on Eiji. He liked it more than the sweaters and the button up shirts. It just suited him more – the boy who didn’t bat an eyelash at a gang leader. Who lit up the room with his smiles and glowed when he laughed. A boy like that should wear huge orange jackets. He needed to stand out.

Of course, Max Lobo couldn’t know that Ash was doing this – and as he appeared from one of the backrooms, Ash glanced away, back out the door.

“You decided whether to tell him or not?”

“We leave once everyone’s had a couple of hours sleep.” Ash said. He didn’t bother to keep quiet – Eiji hadn’t moved a muscle in almost two hours and was breathing deeply. He was far gone. “We can’t stop.”

“Are you going to sleep?”

“I don’t need to.”

“Right.” For once Max wasn’t patronising. He leant his elbows against the porch railing, looking out over the abandoned farm. Ash joined him, after a moment. He didn’t want to, but he suspected that it wasn’t the end of the conversation.

“We can’t stop,” he repeated.

“Is it about Griffin?”

Breath left Ash for a moment, so he nodded instead. He tapped his fingers on the wood in front of him and wished he had thought to roll a cigarette before. He hadn’t realised quite how much he wanted one until he remembered.

“There’s no time,” he managed to say. “He’s running out of time.”

Max was silent for a moment. Ash had barely been able to get the words out – hadn’t, really, been able to get them out – and he wondered if Max understood them.

“Are you sure there’s time?”

Ash didn’t reply. He watched a woodlouse crawl out of the woodwork and scuttle across the top on the bannister, the sun glistening on it’s back. Ash let it crawl across his cracked fingernails. Cracked and dirty, he realised, with a certain satisfaction. Worker’s hands. Man’s hands. He wasn’t impeccably clean anymore and there was a certain relish in that. It was easier to think about the state of his fingernails than the state of his brother.

“Ash, what happened back there,” Max said. He was still looking at the horizon. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“You see a lot of zombies?”

“A fair few coming out the city. They didn’t behave like that – that was –“

“Organised.”

“None of the others have organised themselves like that. It was like they were after something.”

“Someone,” Ash said. He tapped his fingers with more speed. “Some brains. That’s all they want. They must have – they must have figured out that there were a lot of us in there. All drawn to it because it’s the only place with anyone in it for miles.”

“They figured it out, did they?” Max repeated. He sighed. “Smart zombies.”

“Fuck off, Lobo. I know as much as you.”

“You’re – admitting that you don’t know something?” Max put a hand to his chest, rolling his eyes in mock surprise.

Ash could have knocked his teeth out. He hoped he conveyed that with a facial expression. If he did, Max had no reaction. He lowered his hand, and smiled slightly.

“Rest,” he said.

“No thanks, dad.”

He got a wince at that and remembered to file it away for future reference. ‘Dad’ got under Max’s skin.

“Then just sit. Your legs need to take a break.”

“Like I would do anything that you tell me to do.” But Ash’s body was betraying him. He was sinking into one of the rocking chairs and suddenly it hit him just how tired he was. Every muscle that he had suddenly relaxed, as though he had just stepped into a hot bath. He was sore. Every part of him was sore. He had been tense for so long and it felt good to relax.

Just for a minute, though. Just until everyone had rested. Then they had to get going again. He had to go to New York. He had to get to Griffin.

After all, he told himself as he stared at the silhouette of Max Lobo, Griffin had been abandoned too many times.

He hadn’t even realised that he had fallen asleep until he heard his name being called from somewhere high above him and he realised that he had to open his eyes. He did, peeling eyelids back that felt as though they had stuck in place.

It was hot. A hot day. One side of his face was boiling hot, sweat trickling down his temple in the humid heat. He was sweating – right through his shirt, he was sure. The air felt thick and he could hear bugs chirping in the distance.

Eiji was over the rocking chair, one hand on it to steady it. His brown eyes looked gold in the morning light and for a moment, Ash had forgotten everything. He smiled up at Eiji, because he was alive and there – because he looked absolutely wonderful in the daylight.

Then the previous night hit him like a freight train.

“What’s the time?” he demanded, all but jumping out of the chair. It creaked and groaned, rocking to itself as if it was consoling it’s loss.

“Midday,” Eiji said.

“We need to leave. Have you got your stuff together?”

“Max and Ibe left.”

“What?”

"They've gone to find more supplies," and at the look on Ash's face, he added. "You're out of bullets. Max is too. And the others."

"Fuck." Ash said. "Fuck – fuck that. As soon as we get to New York we'll get more bullets."

"I said you'd be angry." Eiji had stuck his hands in his pockets and the jacket made him look small. He looked up at Ash from below his fringe.

"What did Max say?"

"Something like 'oh well.'"

"Of course he fucking did."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Ash said. He found himself smiling slightly. "You don't have to apologize for everything, you know."

Eiji shrugged.

"Did they take Skip with them?"

"Yeah."

"Fuck," he ran a hand through his hair, looking out over the porch. The sky was blue – midsummer blue – the kind of deep blue that you only saw in story books. "We could go – just us. I can send a message to Skip and ask them to wait here for a couple of days."

"Here doesn't seem safe," Eiji said, carefully. He hesitated, drawing the jacket closer around himself. He must have been boiling. "I don't think it's a good idea to go alone."

His English had gotten better – loads better, since he had arrived. But now he seemed to be struggling – hesitating to find the words.

"You don't trust me?" Ash found himself smirking.

"I do." Eiji's voice was strong. He made eye contact as he said it, then he wavered again. "I don't want Ibe-san to worry about me."

"You don't want to lead him." That was the answer behind the puzzle of Eiji's hesitation.

He nodded.

Ash sighed. A long, heavy sigh that he exaggerated just to make Eiji smile. He wanted Eiji to keep smiling. It was as important as keeping Skip smiling. He leant on the railing, feeling it wobble underneath him.

"This house is like the one back home," he said. Mostly to himself. Mostly because he was thinking of Griffin. Partly because he wanted to tell Eiji about himself, and that was the only thing he could say. "I used to wish for a cyclone to take me away to Oz."

When he was eight. When he was eight his class had watched The Wizard of Oz on a rainy day. Ash had still been sore. But when he had seen Oz, with it's too bright yellow roads and popppy fields and Emerlad Cities, he hadn't been thinking about it. He had been completely transported – the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion all rolled into one.

But then Dorothy had clicked her heels and said 'there's no place like home,' and Ash had crashed back down to the real world.

"I wish that could happen now," Eiji said, softly. He leant against the wood next to Ash, his face turned up to the sky. There was a mole under his jaw. Ash had never noticed it before. And he needed a shave – his jaw was covered in the thin, downy hair of a boy who hasn’t shaved enough to grow a proper beard. Ash let a hand run over his own skin. Barely anything. He felt that he would be cursed with a baby face forever.

"You don't get cyclones here."

"Or in (!!)?"

Ash smiled then – a genuine smile that he couldn't stop from spreading across his face. "Not there, either."

Eiji paused. "You're not supposed to get zombies here, either. There's always hope."

"You're weird."

Eiji shrugged. He was still smiling as he looked up at the sky.

Ash should have hated this. He should have hated being trapped on a farm with no bullets when his brother needed him. It might be too late already – every voice in his head was screaming at him to leave – to run to New York if he had to. Maybe he was scared.

He was scared to see Griffin again.

So maybe staying on an abandoned farm with no bullets wasn't too bad.

"Well then," he said. "Come on, Dorothy. If we're stuck here, we might as well explore."

He wasn't sure how Eiji's hand found its way into his, but he wasn't going to point it out. It was warm and real and there and he didn't want to let it go as they padded back into the shade of the house.

It was humid inside too – the kind of heat that you could taste. The curtains had been closed and the relentless sun outside burst through them, casting everything in a rosy light.

The living room was cliché. Sofas with patchwork cushions and handstitched embroidery in wooden frames on the walls. But then there was a large t.v and a stack of blu-rays that felt hideously out of place. Skip's room was similar – a wii U set against The Jungle Book and Alice in Wonderland. A poster of Spiderman next to a cross stitch of a forest scene.

Max and Ibe’s room still had a rotary phone in. Ash played with the dial in silence, smirking slightly when it dinged back into place.

“It’s all empty,” Eiji said. Ash turned to him – he had been opening the chest of drawers. “Everything is empty.”

“They must have cleared off.” Ash said.

“I hope it was long before all this happened.” Eiji said quietly. He drew lines in the dust on the top of the chest of drawers. It looked like Japanese – Ash assumed it was Japanese. “Do you think they went on their honeymoon?”

“What makes you say that?”

Eiji pointed to a framed photograph. A young couple were all smiles – both women holding their hands up so that the light sparkled off of matching engagement rings. A snapshot of unspeakable happiness that was now gathering dust.

“Maybe,” Ash said. “Maybe this place is only rented out to honeymoon couples. Maybe I should have carried you over the threshold.”

Eiji looked at him, tilting his head to one side. “Ash.”

“I’m serious – come here.” He was wrapping his arms around Eiji’s waists before he could protest, lifting him from the floor. Eiji didn’t yelp – he gasped, his hands going to Ash’s as if to disentangle himself. Ash stumbled – laughing, but surprised. “Shit, I didn’t realise you were so heavy.”

“That’s not very polite.” Eiji landed on the floor with a thump. He turned to Ash with a pout on his face and shit – shit, he was close. But he didn’t seem to notice that he was almost pressed flush against him – no, he was smiling up at Ash with a mischievous look on his face. “It’s very rude to comment on someone’s weight.”

“So?” Ash tried to stay calm – to look as unfazed and teasing as he always did.

Eiji’s arms were around him in the next moment – strong, stronger than Ash thought he could be – and then Ash was light as a feather. He was looking down at Eiji, his hands on the Japanese boy’s shoulders to steady himself. Eiji was grinning at him – triumphant.

He felt helpless, in the air. He couldn’t figure out if he liked that feeling, because it was Eiji and Eiji wouldn’t hurt him – Eiji would never hurt him. And yet he felt completely helpless and it made his stomach squirm and writhe. But, he still had to be Ash Lynx. So he huffed, blowing hair away from his face and looking away from Eiji as though he couldn’t care less.

“Very clever of you.”

“Sorry.” Eiji was helping him back to the ground. And they were still close. Still very close and it didn’t seem to matter to Eiji that Ash stunk of sweat and mud.

“You’re strong.”

“I did high jump back home.”

“Did?”

Eiji looked down then, a small smile on his face. Ash knew that smile – it was a deflecting smile. So he went to take Eiji’s hand again. He couldn’t quite do it this time – not when he was thinking about it – he brushed his knuckles against Eiji’s instead.

“Let’s keep looking.”

All of the rooms were the same mix of modern and rustic. They couldn’t see any signs of life from the stables or barn and decided not to investigate in too much detail. The longer they looked the more Ash was aware that he was carrying around an empty gun. He wasn’t sure what he would do if they came across a zombie now.

There was a shed around the back. Although the wood was new, it wasn’t hard to break the lock on the door. Eiji’s eyes had sparkled with such excitement at the possibility of breaking in that Ash had counted them down and they had ran at it with their shoulders.

At first, the wood juddered from the frame but did not come away. They tried again. It buckled.

The shed seemed even darker than the house had been. There was nothing especially exciting in there – forks, shovels, empty buckets. Dead bluebottles and cans upon cans of paint. But there was a rather large chainsaw. With several spare blades.

Eiji ran his finger along the edge of one.

That was when Ash heard it. A thud. His first thought was that it was Max being the general lummox that he was, so he stuck his head out of the shed.

“Lobo?” he called. “We’re round the back.”

There was another thud and he heard a groan. He frowned stepping out of the shed and heading around the house. Were they hurt? It sounded as though someone had fallen. As he came around the side of the wooden building, he saw a figure on the porch step.

“Lobo?” he tried again. “Max?”

The figure twitched its head towards him, looking weary. Scared. It must have been someone like them. A survivor. The sun was blinding him and even when he shielded his eyes with his hand, he couldn’t make out any details.

“It’s okay. We’ve got supplies and we can help you.” He walked as he spoke and knocked a stone in the grass with his foot. The head followed the movement. That was when he first noticed how fluid the movement was, like the head was loose on the neck.

There was the groan again and as the figure pushed itself into an unsteady standing position Ash realised his mistake. He had let his guard down. His mind had been filled with emerald green grass and blue skies and expresso coloured skin. He had been away in Oz.

This was reality.

It wasn’t one of the women in the photo – but he had seen this man – this boy – in the photos in the house. He was tall, taller than Ash but even thinner. Broken glasses sat skewed on a face that was once pale and shy. Now there was a deep, ragged gash running from temple to chin, oozing dark blood that was crusting in a pool over him. Skin hung limply, as did his left forearm, from the elbow down. Ash could see bone poking through the flesh.

He wondered how the smell hadn’t hit him before. The smell of decay – an overpowering, vomit-inducing smell. Maybe he had gotten used to it.

No, as he stumbled back, he realised why. The barn was open. It had been punched at and the wood torn away until a hole was in the bottom of the door. That had let the smell out. A rat hung, dead, over the opening.

The boy had heard him, yellow eyes had focused on him like a sniper targeting it’s prey and he stumbled forward. Stumbled faster, picking up speed as Ash did, darkened lips curling over yellowing teeth in some resemblance of a smile.

Ash wasn’t looking where he was going. He was just walking backwards – running backwards – as quickly as he could. This was helpless. He didn’t have a gun that would work. He didn’t have any defence. He had been careless and he would pay the price.

Eiji would pay the price for his carelessness. He heard his voice, like he was underwater and it was coming from above the surface, “Ash!”

The boy’s head rolled to Eiji’s voice and Ash clapped. He didn’t know what he was doing – keeping it away from Eiji, he supposed. He was clapping and walking backwards and he didn’t have a plan. Ash Lynx didn’t have a plan. Ash was meant to have a plan. Ash always had a plan.

His back hit wood. It was such a shock that his legs gave way beneath him. Dead end. The boy was over him – close to him now – close enough that Ash could see maggots in the gash on his face, feeding hungrily at still moving flesh. Flies buzzed around yellow eyes – Ash could see every vein.

Not dead end.

Just another building.

Fucking move, Ash Lynx.

Don’t be helpless.

Never be helpless again.

His hands found the dirt, went to start dragging himself away from this monster as far as he could before his strength gave out completely.

A new sound appeared.

It sounded like a roar. A dinosaur roar.

Then his eyes adjusted. It was too mechanical to be a dinosaur roar. It was the whirr of a machine.

He stared up at the boy in confusion – just in time to see silver above his head. Then everything was red.

Red splattered out from the boy, the device still whirring away as it cast the world with crimson paint. The drops caught the sunlight as they flew. Red poppies. He covered an arm with his face to avoid the warm, wet feeling of the blood touching his skin.

When the whirring finally stopped, when he peeled his arm back to see the boy’s split body falling to one side – guts and organs spilling out like the insides of a cracker – he found a silhouette above him. He shielded his eyes with his hands and this time he saw clearly enough.

It was Eiji. Standing with a chainsaw hanging heavily from his arms, panting as he stared down at Ash. Eiji, covered in scarlet from head to toe. Eiji, who had just saved his life with a chainsaw of all things.

Ash stood – stumbled – using the wood behind him to support himself.

Eiji had just saved his life.

He was alive.

Eiji had –

He was stepping – bounding – over the body – moving without thinking.

Eiji had saved his life.

His hands were on Eiji’s cheeks, not taking a moment to look at him before he was slamming his mouth onto Eiji’s. He tasted of copper and sweat and nothing in the world had ever tasted better. He was alive. He was alive because of Eiji.

Fuck.

He was kissing Eiji.

He pulled away, stumbling back over legs that looked like they belonged to a broken puppet.

“Well,” he said. He didn’t want to acknowledge that. He wanted to keep moving. “That was-“ the word came to him – where he had seen a chainsaw before. “’Groovay.’”

Eiji shook his head – scattering poppy petals of blood onto the Emerald City of grass. “I had to help.”

“Thank you.” Ash said. He swallowed, got the courage to touch him again and put his hands on Eiji’s shoulders. “Thank you, Eiji.”

“You said that already.” Eiji said. At Ash’s confused frown, he pressed a hand to his own mouth. Smudged with blood still.

“Sorry – I’m – sorry, about that,” Ash said. “I didn’t believe I was alive.”

“You don’t have to apologize for everything, you know.” A ghost smile sat on Eiji’s lips.

There might have been a laugh, if there wasn’t a dead boy between them. Ash looked down at the body, flies still buzzing around it, readying themselves for a feast.

“We can’t stay here,” he said. “It’s not safe.”

“Max and Ibe-”

“We don’t know when they’ll be back. I don’t care about waiting for bullets – we can’t wait, Eiji.”

“They won’t be long, they said-”

“Eiji, no.” Ash’s voice was a snap. He forced himself to swallow, though his throat was too dry to manage it. All he could taste was blood. This was it, he told himself, he had to come out with some small truth. He had to let Eiji in on this one. “We have to go to New York. My brother’s been bitten.”

#banana fish #asheiji #banana fish fanfiction #banana fish au #ash lynx #eiji okumura #the one with the zombies #turnupswrites

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