adding onto what I just posted, here are two short drabbles to accompany it. gore warning for the first one i went a bit graphic
Also neither have been beta read
Nirei get's infected:
"Shit!" Sakura cursed, the soles of his shoes slamming into the pavement as he increased his pace.
Suo was hot on his tail, single eye scanning each corner and alleyway for familiar blond.
Nirei had only managed to send a vague location before becoming completely unreachable.
[Near shopping street. Butcher I think]
Hardly exact coordinates, but Sakura had lived in Makochi long enough to know the back streets. Finding their friend wasn't really the hard part, dodging the reanimated corpses patrolling the streets was.
Faces he greeted each morning, Furin student's whose names he'd yet to learn, now roamed the street with sickly gaits, skin sagging and drooping under its own weight.
The whole town smelt of iron and rot. He and Suo had to take turns throwing up each time they came across a new body.
When the butchers colourful storefront finally came into view, both boys put all their energy into the last stretch. They slid across loose gravel, catching themselves on the wall as their eyes roamed the scene.
Instead of Nirei's frantic but relived face rushing over and pulling them both into a bone crushing hug, they were greeted with a sick squelch.
There were two bodies on the ground, clothes soaked with a deep red that just kept pooling outwards. The taller figure was hunched uncomfortably, spine bending like it had been snapped in two. Its hands gripped tightly to the other form beneath it.
What should have been a rich, green, cotton uniform was now a muddy brown, the bleach blond hair beside it turning a similar colour.
Sakura's bones felt like tungsten. Heavy and unmoving. He hardly registered Suo rushing forward, skillfully kicking the taller shape away before taking some nearby debris and skewering it through the skull.
The noise drew bile up the youngers throat.
"Nire-kun!" Suo yelled, desperate and afraid as his knees slammed into the ground, trembling hands shifting the limp body.
Sakura skirted closer to the scene, thinking of anything other than the oppressive smell that was trying to suffocate him.
Nirei's face had been picked apart. Skin torn from his nose and mouth, exposing the muscle and cartilage underneath. A large chunk of his scalp had also been torn away, Sakura convinced himself that the strange texture under the skin was anything but his skull.
But the worst of the damage came from his stomach. Something long and wrinkly was hanging out from the jagged gash in his torso. Everything was the same colour, a deep, threatening crimson. The only thing Sakura was sure of was that most of these shapes were supposed to be in the body.
Suo's hands were quickly blending into the mess as he tried to stuff everything back inside, applying useless pressure. Nirei's chest had long stopped moving.
Sakura wanted to tell him to give up. Sakura wanted to tell him to keep going.
A gurgle suddenly grabbed both of their attention. Fresh blood sputtered out of the gaping hole next to Nirei's mouth, exposed teeth becoming stained anew.
"Nirei?" Sakura managed to choke out, something similar to hope warming his body as he leaned closer.
Nirei began shifting, not much, but both boys could tell it was more than just a cadaveric spasm.
When the boy's eyes fluttered open, they revealed a diluted grey, nothing like the warm amber their class had grown to love. The foreign colour stared up at the sky, dull clouds shining just enough light to make it clear that the iris and pupil were indistinguishable.
A low, wet, inhuman groan dragged its way up Nirei's throat, his Adams apple bobbing weakly with the effort.
Sakura had never seen such hysteria on Suo's face before now. The one eyed boy leaned closer than necessary, grinning cheek to cheek as he spoke frantically.
"You're still there, right Nire-kun! You can hear us right!?"
Another deep groan was given in reply. Sakura watched helplessly as Suo began to laugh, one hand still pressing down on Nirei's front while the other came to grip Sakura's shoulder, defiling his uniform with their friends fresh blood.
"We need to get him out of here. The others won't understand that he's still Nire-kun, they'll think he's one of those things."
Sakura nodded numbly, following Suo's lead as he hefted Nirei into an upright position, fixing up his uniform the best he could before standing.
"We'll have to leave town. Umemiya-san has taken the offensive and we can't risk having Nire-kun around anyone too trigger happy," Suo explained calmly, acting more like they were about to go on a school trip.
Sakura nodded some more from his place on the ground, voice stuck. He'd forgotten how to speak, all focus on breathing and not throwing up and Nirei.
The blond showed no protest when he was pulled to his feet. Suo looked him over once more before grabbing Nirei's hand, gentle but firm. He gave Sakura a desperate look before turning away to speak.
"It's just us now. Nire-kun stays with us no matter what."
Sakura couldn't find any reason to disagree.
Enter Sugishita:
It had been days since the boy's had encountered anyone who still had air filling their lungs, whose skin still had a lively glow.
Nirei let himself be dragged behind them, regardless of where they went. His footsteps were heavy, no control behind the weight, but other than that he remained completely silent.
Suo had been determined to leave town. Sakura didn't want to. He loved Makochi, it was the first home he'd ever had, but was there really any point in staying if he wasn't with Suo and Nirei?
In the end, it didn't take much to convince him.
They'd been sneaking around and looting what they could for the past few days. He felt horrible for doing it, but whenever he hesitated, Suo would speak up, tone deceptively calm.
"They gave us free stuff all the time, right? They'd want us to take it."
Sakura was going to protest the first time he said this, but then Suo took a big bite out of a loaf of nearly stale bread. The sight of his friend eating, no longer going on about his supposed "diet" made Sakura realise that, yeah, if they didn't eat they would die.
At least they only needed enough for two. Despite their many attempts, Nirei remained wholey uninterested in any kind of food. They'd even tried raw meat.
They couldn't say for certain why their friend was so different to all the other zombies. Suo insisted that it was because he wasn't a zombie at all. Sakura just chose not to think about it.
They'd snagged a map from the train station once their phones had stopped working. What looked like complete gobbledygook to Sakura was apparently perfectly legible Japanese to Suo, who began confidently leading them out of town, claiming to know "the perfect place to go during a time like this."
It was when they were only half a mile out from the border between their beloved town and the next that they finally had their first encounter with another human.
"We're nearly out of town," Suo said lowly, left hand keeping a steady grip on Nirei's arm. Sakura stood close behind, arms crossed.
He noticed how Nirei's head lolled to the side first, dull eyes staring straight past his shoulder. It was the loud voice that followed that truly startled Sakura.
"Hey!"
His heart shot to his throat. Suo and himself had barely spoken above a whisper since this whole shitshow started, but what startled him most was the fact that voice was familiar.
Sakura whipped around, his dual-coloured eyes meeting those of dark brown.
There Sugishita stood, backlit by the setting sun, arms shaking from the ferocity with which he clenched his fists.
"What the fuck is this?" He growled out, eyes locked onto Nirei.
Suo and Sakura both moved in front of their dead friend, bodies shifting into cautiously defensive stances.
"Sugishita-kun," Suo began calmly, arm raised before his face, "I'm glad to see you're still alive."
"What the fuck happened to him?" Sugishita didn't listen to the others pleasantries, stalking closer to the trio.
"I'm sure you can figure that out for yourself." Suo said simply.
Sakura was grateful one of them was able to hold a conversation, since his heart was still steadily beating from its new home in his oesophagus.
"Where are you going with him." Despite being a question, coming from Sugishita's mouth it sounded more like a command.
"I don't see how that's any of your business."
"He's my friend too," Sugishita snarled, now stood close enough to tower over the three, "you don't get to just run away with him."
Suo scoffed, an unexpected sound from the refined boy, "he's not your friend. He's your therapist."
Something dark flashed across Sugishita’s face, but before he could retort, Suo continued.
"Friendships are mutually beneficial. Tell me Sugishita-kun, what have you ever given Nire-kun?"
"Fine!" Sugishita spat, bending down to get in Suo's face, "then what about Kiryu and Tsugeura? Or Tsubakino-san? Aren't they Nirei's friends? You're not the only ones in his life!"
"Well where were you all when he was bleeding out in an alleyway!?" Suo snapped back, acid in his voice that Sakura had never heard before. His breathes following the exclamation were ragged and short, shoulders heaving with each exhale.
"I've seen what you're all doing under Umemiya's command! Herding them like fucking cattle and burying them! You think Nire-kun's one of those things, right? You wanna kill him just like you killed the rest of them, right!?" Suo continued, not giving himself a moment to rest.
Sakura expected the two to fall into a shouting match, but instead Sugishita stepped back, head raised high as he looked down his nose at the three.
His eyes roamed from Suo, over to Nirei, before landing on Sakura with a neutral gaze.
"Sakura," he began quietly, "if you ever wanna bring him here, you're welcome to." His eyes had darted to Nirei once again as his spoke, implication clear.
Sakura still couldn't speak. He could only manage a tiny nod, but both knew it meant nothing in reality. Either all three would return, or none of them would.
Their eye contact was broken when a tug on his sleeve nearly sent Sakura toppling over his own feet. Similar to Nirei, he let himself be pulled away from the scene by Suo's shaky grip, only able to send Sugishita one last nod before they rounded the corner.
