Finding A Safe Haven

Chapter Three

Many deaths have haunted me, the faces of those people visiting in my sleep without a fail every night - they were blaming me for their own end, their lips rotten; eyes bulging out of their sockets; pockmarked with green and yellow lesions; and it kept you awake for days following my unforeseen departure from Nicholas's group.

Regardless of my heavy feelings of leaving them to suffer on my own, I know there's no turning back on my choice as the death of Howard will surely make Nicholas and Takashi to hate meeither way.

I let their friend died and I'm alive, unable to save him even though I could've done it.

I wanted to die. I wanted for all of it to end.

I wanted to say sorry to Howard that I couldn't save him. I wanted for Nicholas and Takashi to blame me all their life if it would be long in this new world.

And I wanted the most for the time to rewind and turn everything back to normal, so that I could see my mother alive and I will wake up everyday again to see that all is well.

But time is like a karma. A devil winning over the one who created all of living things. In his controlling evil hands, had he risen all of the dead chasing for the live ones. He wants for it to happen.

The apocalypse. The end of the humanity.

In the darkness of the abandon hut I found, I pressed myself against the damp wall. Thin rays of the moonlight cut through the broken window, the zombie's low growls could be heard outside followed by a gunshots and flesh ripping out of the body, there's someone out there.

And I didn't have the bravery to face whoever it is. What if they were a killer? Not a survivor?

The killers who all now not only kills zombies but the other people as well.

How did I find out?

A dying old man once told me when I stumbled to him in one abandon car, waiting for his life to it's finale one week ago.

Hearing another gun shot and with my racing heartbeats ringing up to my ears, I hold my weapon tighter. A revolver - the old man gives me before he took his last breath.

I wait for what seems forever then even if I readied myself, I'm not prepared when the flimsy door broke down from it's hinges, a shotgun aimed directly at my face as the owner runs in and looks at me with his eyes blazing for the kill.

"Who are you!?", he shouted, scaring me quickly as he stepped forward and his finger set on the trigger. "Why did you not help me out there?!"

I raised my hand up, studying him to see him practically bathing in crimson blood and whatever the color of his shirt before is unrecognizable.

"Answer me or I'll fire!", he shouted once again in anger, makinge raised my hand higher.

I shouted my name back, "Angela. Forgive me please!"

"How could I ever forgive you? You didn't come out. There's ten of them who nearly kills me"

My eyes widens in shock and horror at the knowledge of him facing those monsters alone.

"You really did kill ten zombie?", I asked, not knowing why I even bother.

He's aiming his shotgun towards my face yet I still have the mistake of asking him. I might now be getting insane because of this f****d up world, I think.

"If I didn't, then I will turn like them and if it really do happens, you will be my first victim", he said it like a warning.

I gulped down a lump in my throat deeply.I thought I wanted to die although now that I'm facing it, it looks like I still want to live at the same time.

"Didn't you know how to talk? If you-"

Because of the nerve egging me to say something, I cut him off with another shout. "How am I able to talk if you're pointing a gun on me?!"

"Do you really think I can trust you not to kill me with that gun in your hand?", he really pointed his shotgun to my hand then return it to my face.

"Compared to yours, this is small if you must know", I explained, still scared at the shotgun and him.

"It can still kill"

"As if I don't know that"

The two of us had gone silent after that, he's clearly sizing me up while I felt small at his tall stature and that shot gun he raised down a minute later and he goes to the window, checking for any zombies around.

"Are you alone?", he asked, returning back to you and making me raised my brows at the sudden change of his voice. From being harsh tone to a worried one.

"Yes"

"Then you should come with me"

The words hade made my brows fly high. How can the situation goes from being an intense one to a miracle?

For the first time since you runaway from Nicholas and Takashi, it seems like I will have a chance again to survive with someone. Do I want it?

"What is your name first?", I looked up to him, he looked back down at me.

"Is that really important to know when we could all die tonight? Tommorow and in the next days to come", he sounded like someone who has already seen horrors too much.

Just like anyone and I who's trying to live despite the danger coming at every second.

"Yes. I need to know so that I can remember all the people I met before I die one of these days", I told him, causing for me to questioned myself in my mind.

Why are you still not running away, Angela? That is your plan, right? To avoid any living person?

"Have you given up already? Did you not have any reason to live anymore?", he throws back at me, his eyes bored into mine.

"What about you?", I will not open up that easily to anyone.

"My reason is.." he looks away, hearing a loud guttural moans from a great distance and thankfully not near to where the two of us stood.

"....I'm searching for my little brother"

I tilted my head to the side, to look up at his face better. "Little brother?"

"I went out of our house once for food and something bad had happened making me unable to go back for a few days..", He paused, checking if I'm listening.

"Then what?"

He looked down, as if in a shame. "Then I find no one in the house once I'm able to return. I leave him in the basement for safety and he's not there anymore"

Left in the basement? It's like I have already heard someone being left in that kind of place and starved. I can't just remember who for now.

He glanced back at me and nods for me to say something.

"I have no one but this", I pointed to the revolver placed back in it's holster.

"Then you can have me and help me find my little brother", he said, determination set on his face. "I will not let myself be killed until I find him alive"

"What makes you think he's still alive out there somewhere?", I asked cautiously, knowing I can't be certain for anything good in this new age of earth.

"I have a feeling", he wandered to the doorway. "Especially at the fact when looking at the basement, it seems someone had find him there"

I followed him towards the door, the rays of the moon was our only light. He slowly walked into the woods, letting me follow into his steps as I make sure I will not be left alone again.

"Since we're doing this, can I ask your name?", I find it quite odd, feeling quite safe in his side.

"Takumi"

"What?" I gazed at him, to see him looking around the trees with caution.

"That is my name"

"Just Takumi?", I repeated.

He looked at me for a moment. "A name is a very powerful thing. Make sure you don't just give yours to anyone"

"But I gave mine to you", I complained and was ignored.

Instead, he continued walking to the north, only looking at me whenever I make a sound and once we rached to where he is leading the way, my mouth jaw dropped.

A haven is right in front of me. At least that's what I think it is. What with the two watch towers and the massive walls protecting a compound inside. One of the guards spotted the two of us, suspicious at first but when he saw Takumi, the metal gates opened up and some guards readied their guns, in case zombie appears out of nowhere.

Takumi turned to you with a small smile.

"Welcome to a safe haven, Angela"

_______________________________________

Nicholas didn't know what to do. He didn't even know how it had happened and where the girl had run off to. All he knows after witnessing Howard's near-to-death experience was the drive of his heart screaming for him to find her.

Howard survived. For some reason, the bite mark from the zombie didn't worked the virus from turning him into one. He became sick, yes, for a week. His fever goes up than normal, making Nicholas and Takashi worried but after the week of not leaving him alone in their hiding place, was he suddenly healed.

There's Howard now, preparing them some food in the kitchen and trying hard not to make a lot of sounds while he and Takashi waited in the table.

Takashi stared at Howard in amazement, still not recovering even after a few days of seeing him alive, safe and sound.

"This is a miracle, isn't it?" Takashi wondered, turning his eyes to Nicholas.

"An impossible miracle, yes, but as long as we have him alive, I don't care about some complicated reason of why did it happened", Nicholas replied, observing their miracle.

Howard sets up their cooked food in the table, only canned ones is what they could afford. Finding organic ones is hard to find now.

Sitting in the chair beside Takashi Howard looks at Nicholas. "Speaking of miracle, could we wish for one more?"

"Yes. One more please", Takashi added, nearly reaching for the food but Howard swatted his hand.

"It's still hot. It could hurt you, you need to wait for a minute", He reminds him.

Takashi grew annoyed. "If my big brother were here, he will be angry if you swat me again"

Nicholas then remembered the day he and Howard finds Takashi in the basement, crying out for his brother to come back as they take him away there. They only did to keep him safe.

"Changing topics", he makes the two focuses on him. "Takashi, what did you think happen to your brother?"

The boy's face suddenly falls, his lips trembled a little and eyes glistening too fast. "I don't know. He said he will only get food for us but he didn't come back"

Howard and Nicholas's exchanged worried glances to each other. They both knew how the younger boy really cares for his big brother. He even cried for a few days to the two of them, saying he doesn't think his brother is dead.

If anything, he's a survivor, Takashi said it with a determination.

"Do you..", Howard begun.. "want to find your brother, Takashi?"

He nodded repeatedly. "Yes"

"Then we will try to search for him and..", Howard trailed off, glancing to Nicholas who frowns at him in confusion.

"...her, Angela"

Takashi was the only one who cheered up. Nicholas on the other hand, had become frozen in his seat while Howard finally let the youngest eat his share of food.

Angela? She is a ghost they could felt was always there wherever they go and even as they run sometimes from the zombies, they could still feel her presence reminding them of their first meeting with her.

No matter how short the time given for the three of them to know her completely, they had at least had another person in the group. A girl who reminds them there's still a hope even though she never said it, they know she truly cares about them.

And at that moment, as Nicholas begins to eat, examining the happy faces of Howard and Takashi, he swore to himself - they will find the missing part of their group.

_______________________________________

The next day, the three of them was up before the sun rises completely in the somewhat gloomy sky in their eyes. Nicholas reminded the two to make sure all the things they needed was inside their packs and Takashi was reprimanded by him, for wearing his favorite green and yellow jacket for the reason, it is too bright and it could catch a lot of attention.

Either from a zombie or human.

"But if my brother is searching for me and is out there somewhere, he could find me faster", Takashi reasoned, running behind Howard, so that Nicholas could not remove the jacket out of him.

"Are you crazy? He might find you dead if you didn't listen to me. Change it!", Nicholas argued, chasing for the younger boy and yet, Howard protected Takashi from his wrath.

"Just let him do what he wants", he reminds, smiling down at Takashi who throws him a grateful smile. "Kids will always be kids"

"What!?", Takashi exclaimed, his gratefulness fading into the view. "I'm not a kid!"

"Yes you are", Howard retorted.

"No-"

"Shut up!", Nicholas put a stop in the starting petty fight between the two he knew could go longer if he didn't intervened.

"We have to go", he said sternly, glaring at them making the two look down, both ashamed. "Behave yourselves or else, I would leave the two of you here in your meaningless fight"

With that, he walked out of the door and out into the hell hole, the two following him like an obedient kids.

How could they not? He is their leader. Their protector.

He may seem like a cold one and uncaring at first but once you get to know him, he truly does have a heart of gold and only stern at times for their own sake.

Once they reached the streets, a view of out of a nightmare meets the three of them. Abandon buildings and skyscrapers down to their ruins, there's a heavy smoke rising up from somewhere, and the one that made Takashi teps back behind Howard and Nicholas,

Dead bodies rotting everywhere.

People who had once breathed and hoped to see another day like them. People who died before they can tried to survive.

Then it appears, the gruesome creatures that did it to those dead people. The zombies. The new judiciary of this hell.

The ones who will decide if you will live or not.

Spotting the three of them, the zombies howled in pleasure at the new opportunity of flesh to eat but before they could begin to chase, Nicholas turned to the two and whispered. "You know what to do"

Howard and Takashi raised their weapons, their faces hardens, as if they were not the kids fighting earlier and they really know what to do in Nicholas's lead.

With a proud rare smile on his face, Nicholas faced back on the creatures who had kill too many of his loved ones and now he will be taking some revenge.

So they run forward, not to die but to kill. The rules of Nicholas playing on their mind.

Kill or be killed.

What would they choose? Of course, the first choice.

An hour later, Takashi let himself falls down into on Howard's side and they were leaning agaisnt one of the store front. Both of them were sweaty and doesn't know whether the wetness on their shirts were because of the sweat or the blood from doing something they did not expected they could do.

In front of them, Nicholas was still smashing his baseball bat on the last zombie's head, pouring out all his anger. Behind him, it's their bloody work. Several zombies were down, sliced up in their head by Takashi's hatchet, battered down by Howard's lacrosse stick, and was smashed into pieces by Nicholas's fury.

"Nicholas. Stop it!", Howard called out, handing a bottle of water to Takashi who was panting out of tiredness.

If only his big brother could see him now, he will be proud for sure, Takashi had this thought lingering in his mind.

"I'm just releasing my anger!", Nicholas shouted, not stopping on the gruesome way of releasing all his emotions.

"Don't you want to find her faster?!", Howard shouted, knowing this can stop his friend and it did.

Nicholas throws him a downright chilling glare, leaving the zombie and approached the two of them slowly, Takashi watched in awe, amazed at how he looked scary without even trying hard.

No matter how he did his best, people still find him cute. Like his brother who's always showering him with love.

He have the impression his brother is searching for him out there.

_______________________________________

"What is it?", I blurted out the question I have been trying to stop to ask as Takumi and I steps out of the the haven this afternoon.

The whole time we scoured the streets, he looked kind of restless, as if something is nagging him. He stopped walking before one of the stores, I looked to see it's a music store and inside there were albums trashed down on the muddy floor.

"I have the sudden feeling that somehow someone is thinking of me right now", Takumibthen walked inside, and me being his tail followed, eyes wandering on the reminders of the normal life.

"Who do you think is the one thinking of you?", I asked curiously.

Takumi kneeled on the floor, picking a white album with a big 7 printed on the front and I see a BTS written under the number. He brushed the dirt away, lifting it up to my eyes.

"My brother, Takashi", he replied with a hint of sadness in his eyes while I was dumbstruck at the name I already heard before.

How can I ever tell to him that the group I told him I runaway from has his brother in tow?

Takashi. What a small word it is that even in the apocalypse I met brothers in separate situations and places. Now I don't know how to work my mouth to reveal that he doesn't have to worry.

His brother is alive and is in the safe hands.

"We both love this boyband", Takashi continued, putting the album inside his bag. "I will give this to him once we find my little brother"

Not receiving any reply from me, he looked at me to see I wore an uncertain expression in my face.

"Why are your expression like that? Is there something wrong, Angela?", he questioned, stepping forward but I raised my hand, a signal for him to stop.

I looked into his eyes and readied myself.

"Takumi, I have to say something to you. You see, your brother is...."

I was cut off by a loud hiss of a zombie and a shout for help from somewhere out there in the streets.

Wait.... Why does it sound like a kid?