chesedonia | ah, zombies!

[ sometimes rin falters.

there's a part of him that's still too young and human and full of love to survive for much longer. the part of him that hovers behind the tremble of his hands every time he makes a shot. some of their targets still look human, indistinguishable from one of their own. some of them still have the power of rudimentary speech. some of them can shed tears.

every time they go out, every time he needs to take a shot, that hesitation lasts a shorter amount of time. sometimes he looks to his left or his right where sousuke's shadow blankets the ground and he wonders -- when the hesitation ceases to exist, is that when he's forgotten his humanity entirely?

their lives aren't as terrible as they could be. it's not like the movies, where the enemy is faster and stronger and more bloodthirsty; they amble about like lost beasts, eating carrion like vultures, dangerous only after scenting blood. otherwise none of them would have survived. rin, who was seventeen when the infection broken out in tokyo, the high population density meaning that the city was overrun in a matter of days. it had taken longer to spread to iwatobi, at which point the local municipality had taken precautions. rin had learned to shoot a gun, to barricade a house, to start a fire with minimal help. they'd taken sousuke's parents' house as their home base, tearing away memory and history before making it their own. sousuke's parents had been in tokyo during the first wave. ]

Sorry.

[ rin's voice is soft, but it still carries across the room. sousuke is sitting on the bed, looking cold and unreachable in his distance. it makes rin want to shuck off his bloody clothes and tuck himself against sousuke's side, to bring him back from the brink of terrible memory that strikes them all at the worst of times. ]

Should've taken that shot today. Thanks for covering for me.

[ his hesitation had flubbed it, but sousuke had been there, quick and deadly, taking out the two gristly horrors that would have separated rin's head from his neck had they made it another ten feet forward.

they'd been two children. two girls. one of them still had her hair in pigtails.

rin unbuttons his jacket, tossing it off to the side to be sanitized later. he drags his pants off, as well. in a t-shirt a boxers, both clean except for the dust and sweat of the day, rin goes to the desk, pulling out the first aid kid that's already running low. they'll have to make another supply run sometime this week. ]

Let me take care of that gash on your arm, alright?

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