damned_institute | Nightshift 42: The Bookworm

Entry tags:

Nightshift 42: The Bookworm

Worst Case Scenario: they got stuck in town when night came.

He hated being right.

It started out subtle. Hinamori had barely finished her sentence before he realized that the sunlight had all but died. Things got a little cooler, wisps of grey marking their every breath. Peter turned to the window in horror. A splatter of blood blossomed before his eyes on the glass, welling up from the centre and drying as soon as it was born. Beyond it, the paved street cracked. Half-fleshed hands sprouted from the divide, pulling up even more gruesome bodies behind them.

"GAAAH!!" he shrieked, clutching at his throbbing head. His spider sense was going psycho, harder than it ever had. He tasted blood, leaking in a thin trail from his nose to his lips.

Get up get up get up

He pushed past the sensation, shooting a look up to Hinamori, then to the rest of the store when the floorboards started to creak. The clerks behind the counter didn't look so friendly now.

"Zombies," Peter whispered in disbelief, rising from his chair. "Oh my god, they're all zombies..."

The pain in his head began to fade. He took no solace in that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/675435.html?thread=55894123#t55894123) some time later]

The world was swimming back to focus. At first, all he could see were blurry shapes, couldn't hear anything but his ragged breathing. There was something spider-like coming at him from above. Sanzo's eyes closed.

Warm liquid was pooled up under him. He was lying on his stomach. His cheek was pressed against the floor.

His eyes opened again. This time they stayed open. That shadowy shape resolved itself into the hand of one of the undead. The creature was trying to reach for him. It was only inches away. Distantly, he rolled his eyes up. He got glimpse of a rotten eye before the face wavered into that of a spider-youkai, then to centipede. More dead eyes appeared.

There wasn't any sign of Takasugi. The barricade had shifted, falling a few inches. Gaps were opening up. The things were moaning as they pressed against it, teeth gnashing. Sanzo didn't know if they had any of the basics senses. They acted like they could smell the blood heavy in the room. It seemed like it was spurring them on. More hands were joining the first through the gap, all desperately trying to reach for him.

Something brushed against his hair, something suspiciously finger-like. Without thinking, Sanzo dragged himself further away. The things went into a frenzy, wailing and groaning. The barricade creaked ominiously. Inch by inch, Sanzo pulled himself across the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind. The monk got to the base of the steps before that last bit of strength gave out.

Sanzo rested his cheek back on the floor, unable to keep his head up much longer. He'd always known that there was a good chance he'd die on the mission. If not during, most likely after. He'd just never thought it'd be like this.

He just didn't think he'd have to die with that chorus of watery moans in his ears. Sanzo would've preferred it if death had been instant. Instead, he was going to have to listen to them trying to get in while he slowly bled to death.

The monk tried to focus instead on his own harsh breathing, even as he lay there. Anything to drown out the mob at the window.

[reserved: Kenren]

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/673721.html?thread=56046521#t56046521)]

He wasn't sure what it was that made him head to the book store; a niggle at the back of his mind, or that part of his mind that wasn't really his perhaps, maybe just instinct. Maybe just that he book stores just made him believe that there had to be someone half buried in books in there as a matter of course.

Oh yeah, the swarm of the fucking zombies crowding around the damn door were kind of a giveaway that something was in there too.

As he approached, he could see the barricade that had been erected and which was now beginning to fall under the assault from the hordes of the undead. Yeah, if there was a barricade then there was definitely someone inside to need the barricade in place. You just didn't go to the effort of barricading an empty building, y'know?

He was probably going to regret this, and sometimes he really hated the fact that he didn't mind helping people, but he charged towards the door, taking a couple of the zombies by surprise and ruthlessly suppressing them. The others turned, deciding that he was more interesting, but once distracted from their goal, they seemed to be fairly easy to lead away from the door, immediate prey more appealing than something they had to wait to get at. One of them actually headed off towards a couple of nearby patients which was helpful even if Kenren couldn't help but feel a little bad.

He didn't bother trying to take the rest of them out. He smashed the legs of one and shoved it towards the others, making them stumble for a few crucial seconds before he dashed towards the door.

The barricade fell far too easily for his liking and Kenren entered without much difficulty, peering around the dark interior. The scent of blood assaulted him and he grimaced. No wonder the zombies had been drawn to the place. Speaking of...

He piled what remained of the barricade up against the door, adding whatever else he could find. It wouldn't last for long but he could at least buy some time. They could smash a window or something to get out, right?

"Hey! Anyone in here?" he called out, taking a few wary steps towards where the scent of blood was strongest.

There was a soft groan from the end of the room. A faint light came down from the stairwell, barely touching the edges of a dark heap at the bottom of the stairs. The blood rippled as something moved in the darkness.

Kenren turned quickly towards the sound, raising the crowbar defensively. That sounded far too much like the dead for his liking. He blinked at the hint of movement that he saw in the faint light, taking a wary step towards the heap. It wasn't looking like a threat just yet, but Kenren wasn't about to dismiss the possibility. He approached slowly, warily, keeping the crowbar ready at hand.

A flash of bright hair and...

"Sanzo?"

Fuck.

Without thinking, Kenren moved to his side, crouching down and grimacing at the sight of the blood which was pooled around the man's body. What the hell had happened? "Crap. We need to get you some healing right now," he murmured, more to himself than Sanzo. What the hell had the monk done?

The voice was overly loud. It cut in, temporarily drowning out the moans from the undead. Sanzo weakly turned his head to the other side, towards the sound of the voice. His face was pale. He blinking owlishly before looking up at him blearily. His eyes were dilated, the iris reduced to a thin ring of color.

It took a moment for his vision to adjust. The shadows clarified. Sanzo's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. The face above him was the very last person he'd expected. One red eye was strangely more vibrant than the other. "Gojyo?"

What the hell was he doing here? He'd wondered on and off what happened to the roach, what he was doing with all of them snatched up like this. He'd written the roach off in the end. Gojyo'd no doubt took the opportunity to get drunk and sleep around without him or Hakkai to rein him in. The idiot did that shit all the time. Why would this be any different, he'd reasoned.

It looked like he was wrong. It was just a matter of Landel getting around to it. For once, Sanzo wished that he'd been right about it, that Gojyo was back doing the same shit. It was better than here.

Fuck, it really was him and not just someone who looked a lot like him damn it. He hissed softly when Sanzo called him by that name but bit his lip at the rebuke which sprang automatically to mind. "Yeah, that's me," he said, grinning at the monk like absolutely nothing was wrong. "Figured you'd need me to come and get you out of trouble. Not that I care," he added. "But Hakkai would've bitched if I'd left you."

He tugged his shirt off quickly, making a quick rip and figuring that the muck on it from the fighting couldn't exactly make things worse. "We'd better get you out of here."

Gojyo's face seemed to flicker, distort for a moment, the same way Takasugi's face had earlier. It didn't have the same smile that'd persisted despite it though. At least he could be certain that Takasugi hadn't come back for more.

What was this about Hakkai? Had he been found? Or had he come back?

Sanzo watched him distantly, head resting against the floor. The roach was ripping at his shirt. Why the hell was he bothering? He might not have the same medical knowledge Hakkai had, but even he knew this looked bad. He'd lost a lot of blood. That was on top of the fact that both wounds were fucked behind belief, and probably contaminated. Even if Hakkai was somewhere in this shithole, his powers would be suppressed.

Gojyo always had lacked that little bit of common sense.

He was too drained to snap at the roach. He just took a shuddering breath. "We're surrounded. Where the fuck do you think we can even go to?"

He pressed part of the bundle of cloth against where he thought the worst of the wound was even though he doubted that it would do any good. There was too much blood on the floor around Sanzo which meant that there was too little inside him. He couldn't just sit here and do nothing though, it went against every fibre of his being. And he wasn't lying. Hakkai would've bitched if he just walked out and left Sanzo.

It would have been better if the cloth got soaked through. At least that meant that he still had enough blood left to bleed. The fact that it didn't, well...

"Yeah well, I'm too fucking stubborn to just give in and die," he muttered with a touch of annoyance. "I just hate giving anyone the satisfaction of seeing me roll over, y'know?"

Sanzo'd tried to push himself up off his stomach to help, but it only partially succeeded. He settled for lying on his side. He couldn't do much more than that. Gojyo was pressing the bundle against the wound in his stomach. He didn't know what that was supposed to accomplish aside from delaying the inevitable, but Gojyo wasn't Hakkai.

Well, you are a goddamn roach, Sanzo thought. Of course he'd just keep on living. Gojyo was nearly as impossible to kill as Goku. Goku had an excuse. Gojyo was just determined to be an ass and outlive them all. Sanzo always thought he had to have some cockroach mixed in with that youkai blood. It'd explain a lot.

Sanzo could feel blood welling up in his throat. He clenched a jaw, tried to swallow it down. After a moment, the monk gripped Gojyo's wrist.

"You can't retrieve water once it's spilled, idiot," he said softly. The kappa was wasting his time here. Sanzo pulled at his wrist, trying to move it away from the wound.

"Shit, don't move," Kenren protested when Sanzo rolled onto his side. What the fuck was he trying to do? Make it worse? It meant that Kenren could get a better look at the extent of the damage though, but after a moment he kinda' wished that he couldn't. A few strips of cloth was not going to make this any better. A whole infirmary probably wouldn't make this better and even a healer would be pretty hard pressed assuming that Kenren could just nip outside, grab one and drag them in her right this second. Maybe day would come. For the first time since coming here, he really really hoped that day would come.

He started when Sanzo grabbed his wrist, although the grip was weaker than Kenren had ever thought it would be. Fuck. "Fuck that," he snapped. "You have things to do you crappy monk. You think Gyumaoh is just gonna' kill himself?"

Sanzo just tried to glare at Gojyo. No shit. It wasn't like he could move much more as it was, even if he'd wanted to.

It was weird hearing the roach actually talk about the mission like that. Sanzo'd been doing this for so long, searching for the sutra, probably before the roach even knew where his dick was. Not to mention that half the time it seemed like Gojyo and Goku considered the damn mission as just a joyride. He'd never thought he'd see the day where the roach was actually talking about responsibility.

Except Sanzo knew it wasn't going to be just a matter of will power here. Maybe it was some buried instinct, but he knew it wasn't that easy. Every limb felt weighted to the floor. He could barely concentrate. Everything seemed like he was watching it from another room. He could feel the thick blood welling up slowly again, leaking past his mouth.

"You think...I don't know that..?" Sanzo gritted out. Normally Gojyo would be enough to rile him, get him to stand up just to prove a point to the bastard. Now he just felt tired.

Kenren glared right back at Sanzo, narrowing his eyes dangerously. He wasn't allowed to give up, he wasn't allowed to die. What would he ever say if Goku turned up again? Him and Sanzo might have had their differences, but the kid needed Sanzo around. Other people weren't supposed to die. It was supposed to be him who kept them safe so that they could do what needed to be done. It left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"So don't just give up!" Kenren snapped, trying to ignore the blood that he could see on Sanzo's lips. If he was ever going to die, it should have been to go out fighting at least, not on the floor in a bookshop of all places.

Sanzo's eyes had started to droop. At Gojyo's loud voice, they fluttered back open. For a moment, they were unfocused, before they centered up at the roach. Kenren was glaring down at him. He was too exhausted to muster up the strength to glare back. He just let out a labored breath.

The idiot couldn't really think it was as easy as deciding not to bleed all over the place? Sanzo'd always been a firm believer in sheer will power, mind over matter, but it only went so far. Will couldn't stop him from bleeding all over the floor, only take some focus off the agony.

His breathing was coming in pained, hitched gasps.

The monk tugged the sutra off his shoulders and with unsteady hands, rolled it up, before pressing the bundle hard against Gojyo's chest. He didn't say anything. The message was clear. Sanzo's fingers lingered for a moment longer before he let go of the scripture.

He wasn't even glaring. That was a bad bad sign and Kenren's hands curled into fists at his side, knowing that the inevitable was coming. He didn't want to accept it, but he had no choice. Even if he could get Sanzo out of here, there were those creatures outside and Sanzo couldn't run or fight. Kenren couldn't run or fight if he was carrying the monk either.

He gave Sanzo a surprised look when the monk pulled something from around his shoulders and pressed it to Kenren's chest. The god took it, holding it tightly in his hands. It felt like cloth and it felt powerful albeit in a muted way. It wasn't something that Sanzo would give up easily. He grabbed the monk's shoulder, shaking it lightly. "I'll take care of it," he said because he couldn't even pretend that this could turn out any differently. "You have my word on the lives of my comrades."

"If you don't lose it first..." Sanzo mumbled. He didn't look at the sutra. He'd just entrusted the the mission to Gojyo. He might give the bastard shit constantly, but when push came to shove, when shit got serious, he could get something done. The question was whether he really understood the responsibility just yet.

Sanzo took a sluggish breath.

It was strange. He'd been so consumed with the journey West and the sutras that it would've made perfect sense for it to be the last thing on his mind. It wasn't.

There was that worry about Goku, the one he hadn't ever been able to fully squash. All he could feel was regret, dread now. He'd always bitched about how fucking annoying the monkey was, how he didn't have a single moment of peace and quiet, thanks to the dumbass. Early on, he'd tried to just tune him out. That never worked; no amount of meditation or training block out that shrill voice. Sanzo would've been glad to get a few minutes in without Goku's voice chattering.

Now there was just a heavy silence in his head.

"Goku..." Sanzo tried raggedly. His eyes looked up at Gojyo through his bangs, fingers digging into Gojyo's wrist. " I can't...hear..."

He never finished. The monk let out a small sigh of breath. His eyes drifted closed as he slowly went limp. The grip on Gojyo's wrist relaxed, bit by bit.

"Tch, fuck you," Kenren murmured, although there was no bite in his voice. His words were practically coming automatically by now as he tried and failed to process what was going on. People died, they had died, but it wasn't supposed to be like this, not here, not now. They had things to do, battles to fight, and they couldn't fucking do it without Sanzo!

His hand closed more tightly around the sutra, a white knuckled grip as though he intended to never let go of the relic.

He barely heard Sanzo when the monk spoke again, but caught the whisper, leaning closer so that he could hear the rest.

Goku... figured that would be the last thing on his mind. It was reassuring in a way. He was Goku's sun and Goku had to be important to him. It set Kenren's mind at ease about that at least. He gripped Sanzo's hand firmly, giving the monk a fiercely determined look. "He's waiting," he said. "You'll hear him yo-"

He broke off with a harsh noise, anger and hurt and more emotions that he couldn't really put a name to at that moment. He only let go of Sanzo's hand when the monk finally stopped breathing altogether, resting it carefully at the monk's side.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nightshift 42: The Bookworm

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject