Standard disclaimer

With only one other 'serious' story up right now and the two joke stories I felt obligated to have another 'serious' one on the Zentrodie name. Been kicking this idea around for awhile in the old noodle and I'm finally going to write it. Just to warn ya though it won't be all roses and sunshine like a lot of my others.

X-X

The End is the Beginning

Chapter – 1

Waking with a start, a sharp in take of breath that rocked his body, Shinji lurched up in his bed. He felt exhausted, but his body was alight with pent up energy. Grabbing at the back of his head, his vision swam as he took in the room. It was a hospital room, but not the one at Nerv, and it was bathed in the red glow of emergency lighting. It was from the one visit to Touji's sister Mari that allowed the bewildered boy to know anything about his location.

"Where is everybody?" he mouthed as he shakily spun his feet out from under the thin sheet. His back hurt and his limbs were stiff, but that took a backseat to the empty room. Typically somebody would be there when he woke up, usually Rei or Misato. "And why the general hospital, shouldn't I have been transferred?"

Sitting on the edge of the bed for a solid five minutes as his vision came into crisp focus, the boy noticed a change of clothing on a chair next to the bathroom. On unsteady legs, he tottered over and discarded the hospital robe, removed the IV line, and put on his standard white shirt and slacks. Calling out loudly, "I'm awake in here, can somebody open the door?"

He got no answer.

Heading into the bathroom, the boy let loose his overloaded bladder, he caught a look at himself in the mirror. Deep circles under his eyes, Shinji had to wonder just how long he had been sleeping. "At least my being here means we won." A shudder worked down his back as he recalled the events leading up to his blacking out.

It had been another angel attack. A giant form from out in space had been bombing the city making its corrections in aiming. Misato had an insane plan to have the three pilots capture the damn thing. One would hold it, one would disable the AT Field, and the last would kill the bastard. Only it didn't work like that at all.

"Asuka just always has to be the best, even if its not the best time for it," Shinji chuckled as he zipped up his fly. He had been the one to catch the falling bomb, but Asuka had sprinted so far ahead in the wrong direction that she had been delayed in her correction. "And Ayanami…" Shinji's smile feel away at the unfortunate events with the mysterious First Child. "Stupid city," he quipped as he walked to the door separating him from the common area.

Shinji could still hear Misato's frantic calls over the comm. system. Ayanami's unit had hit a weak plate in the cities upper defensive shield. Her foot crushed through several layers of incorrectly meshed steel and had become lodged. So with Asuka half a city away from him, and Ayanami trapped, it left Shinji alone holding the gargantuan creature that had every desire to crush him.

Knowing that if he failed not only would he die, but so would everybody else the boy focused harder than he had ever done before. He had been half aware that Ritsuko had chimed in that he was in danger of overloading the synaptic connections between Unit-01 and his brain. All he saw was that thing's eye looking at him as he held it up. His vision began to cloud and haze over, black encroaching around edge of his sight. Then a white light enveloped him and he fainted.

"It must have blown itself up like the first one did," Shinji reasoned as he tapped on the steel security door. He could see the numeric keypad that was next to the door handle was without power, but that wasn't what surprised him. It was the deep dent in the door and the cracked viewing glass. The doors to the secured medial suites were supposed to be some of the best in design. "Anybody out there?" he called though the broken glass and tried to spy any movement.

There was none.

Pounding on the door futilely, Shinji felt a creeping fear rising in him. Something was wrong here, something was just plain wrong. While he didn't have an ego about it, Shinji knew his safety was something Nerv put a lot of stock in. So where was the guards? Hell where was another person? Putting his face right up against the buckling glass, he eyed the red hazed hallway outside his room. "Hope Mari is alright," he mouthed as he pulled away from the door.

Taking a few steps back from the door, claustrophobia brewing at the notion of being trapped was slowly becoming a fact, the boy spotted a bend in the edge of the door. "If I could…" rushing to the IV stand, Shinji took the gripped it in the middle and rammed the thin metal rod into the space between door and frame. "Just have to hope," he rushed the metal bar and threw his weight against it. For a moment nothing happened, and that fear of dieing alone in the room added the extra oomph he needed.

A jarring screech accompanied the slow prying open of the door. Pulling back and pushing harder and harder, his brow already perspiring, the euphoria of freedom was delicious. With one last mighty push, Shinji forced the door open enough to allow a body to fit through. And one did, a body fell into the room with a meaty wet splat.

Falling over as the bar he was using lost its support and gave way, Shinji tumbled to the ground. Rolling over and sitting up, he rubbed his pounding head, and saw the body of the dead security guard. "Oh my Kami-sama," he whispered as he met eyes with the dead man. He had never seen a dead body before, and this one had its throat torn out and was missing one of its hands and just had a blood stained stump.

Just staring at the body, Shinji would have back peddled but he was to enthralled by it. He had no way of knowing the man had been dead for two weeks, but he was smart enough to notice that the blood was all dried. "What the hell is going on here," he questioned as he crawled to the body. It was cold to the touch, no surprise there, but the man's gun was still in the holster. As guns were such a rarity in Japan, why hadn't the man's murderer taken it? Shinji was at first a little reserved about it, but Misato's words about necessity came to his mind for some reason.

With as little contact to the body as possible, Shinji unbuckled the holster and stole the dead man's gun. As he pulled it out from under the man, the badge on his shirt stated his name had been Koji, the body's head wobbled and turned to the side showing the large open skull. "He was shot in the head!" But with all the other wounds, why go that extra mile and put one in the man's computer?

It didn't matter, not now anyway. He'd ask all the questions he had later in the safety of the Nerv complex. Getting back up, Shinji stepped over the body of the fallen guard and into the hospital proper. He saw the nurses' station, devoid of anybody save a headless body draped over the counter. From the attire and slim frame, he could tell that was a female. The clock on the wall behind the station stated proudly that it was only eleven o'clock in the morning.

"Whatever happened here, I better check on Mari," Shinji despite the extreme drive to find the nearest exit and use it had the larger need to see to the hurt sister of his friend. Had Shinji not been responsible for her being in the hospital he'd have left her, but a feeling of obligation overwhelmed him. Spying the letters on the wall stating he was on the forth floor, and as Mari was on the first it wasn't as if she was out of his way anyway. Strapping the holster around his waist, Shinji made his way to the stairwell and made his way down.

The deep primordial groan that was emitted was over shadowed by the doors heaving squeaking.

X-X

Forcing the door open on the first floor, Shinji had to push yet another dead body out of the way. This had been older man, from what he could tell from the remains. Most of the body had been removed and spread around the floor in a gory painting. Again the blood was all dry, indicating to the boy that it hadn't happened recently. "M-maybe I should just go," his voice cracking and uneven as his survival instinct was screaming at him to run out the front door.

And he could see it now too, a glowing white light of the sun filling the hallway with something other than blood red. But as much as he wanted to, he hadn't seen or heard anything to indicate he was being followed, and maybe Mari was fine. He'd never be able to live with himself if he learned Mari starved to death or something because he was afraid of an empty hospital.

Barefoot, the boy tiptoed down the hall towards Mari's room, his left hand tracing the wall as he went. A rattling to behind him caught his attention, but it was just paper blowing through the broken front door. "Where is Misato…" he asked himself, his want was more for a protective figure, somebody with the answers he wanted and to provide safety. Much akin to asking for his mother. His mind was racing for explanations for what he was seeing. A terrorist attack seemed the most likely, but why the place hadn't been cleaned or him moved didn't get answered by that.

Walking past more incomplete bodies, he counted five additional, Shinji stood outside the slightly ajar door to Mari's room. Opening it the rest of the way with his left hand, his right fearfully gripped at the hilt of the gun. "M-Mari-chan, are you there?" A slight rustling answered his call. "Mari-chan is that you?" he pushed the door open fully and stepped into the room. He was starting to hate that red light, it was to dim to really make anything important out.

Shuffling into the little girl's room, Shinji made his way to her bedside. He noticed the straps around her waist, used to keep her from moving and hurting her spine more than it already had been. "Mari-chan, it's me Shinji, do you remember me?" his voice was lighter, glad to see somebody he knew. His meeting with Mari before had been very sweet she held no ill will and in fact had a slight hero fixation. "Mari?" he asked again as he watched the little girl moving.

Mari's body quivered and rebelled against the strap that held her down. Slowly yet methodical, she jerked up and up trying to break free. The bed rattled as she fought, but she made not understandable sound. Just a deep throaty moan, and her head turned to see Shinji and her mouth opened wide.

"I'll get you out of those straps and into a wheelchair, ok Mari-chan? I think it would be best if we left here," Shinji gushed as he rushed to the girl's bedside. His hands instantly went to the buckle on her waist, but stopped as he noticed the discoloration on her sheet. It was a deep color, and if he was a betting man he'd have thought it was blood. Turning to look at the little girl he saw her mechanically jerking motions. She was trying to bite him. "M-Mari-chan?" his voice had almost lost all its power.

The blood wasn't hers, it had been from the body in the corner that was slowly stirring and shambling to its feet. Mari just continued to capture the flesh so tantalizingly close to her. The empty glassy eyes rolled in her skull, nothing of the happy child Shinji remembered remained. Just the mindless need to feed.

Shinji's hand rested on Mari's chest and stomach and that hauntingly cold feeling from the dead guard came screaming back at him. Mari was cold, to cold to be alive, but she was moving and still lunging at him! "Mari-chan, what are you doing…it's me!" He felt tears working up in the corner of his eyes. Somebody had to be playing a fucking joke on him, and he wasn't laughing. Then the movement from his left caught his attention, "Touji, what the hell is going on here, what is wrong with Mari-chan?"

The tracksuit clad boy didn't answer in words, his arms stretched out forward and in uneven steps lurched towards forward. His mouth open wide and drool and spittle trickled down, his front was covered in his own life's blood that had had poured out from the large bite on his neck. A size that fit Mari's little mouth well, Touji hadn't believed it possible that his sister had turned as the news reports said, and got to close.

Backing away from Touji, Shinji's hand went back to the gun, "Touji please stop joking around and tell me what is going on." His back brushed up against the corner, no further escape route open to him. Touji just kept on shambling towards him, his head tilted at an odd angle showing the frayed muscle and torn flesh. "Oh Kami-sama…" the boy felt his stomach lurch and bile threaten to force its way out.

The being that had once been Touji Suzuhara continued to press forward on Shinji. His arms gripping shoulders and leaning in towards Shinji's neck he leaned in to bite. An arm under his throat kept him away from sinking its teeth into that warm flesh. His jaws opened wider in anticipation of a meal.

Warding off his best friend with one arm, Shinji pleaded for Touji to stop playing around. "Don't make me do this, please just stop!" But Shinji could tell when somebody was playing and when they were being serious. The forced needed to keep Touji from closing those last few inches were monumental. Gripping the gun with his left hand, Shinji fired two shots into Touji's chest. About to drop the gun, Shinji still heard Touji moaning and pressing just as hard as before, the shots had no effect!

Closer and closer to the supple flesh, the thing that used to be Touji's teeth brushed up against the pulsating neck line. A moment later, a bullet laced his skull and he toppled over after bathing Shinji in its blood. Slumping to the ground, the remains of its brain pooled on the ground.

Standing stock still, Shinji just stared off blankly at the wall. "This is all a joke right…a joke." Somebody had just shot Touji! Somebody killed Touji! Touji who was just about ripped his throat out. About to fall to the ground, Shinji felt firm but slim fingers pushing him against the wall and trailing his neck. Tearing his eyes away from the tiny form of Mari who was still biting air in his direction, he came eye to eye with his savior. "What is going on here? Who are you?"

Satisfied that the boy wasn't bitten, the woman put her weapon back in its holster. "Kyoshi Nakamura, used to be a nurse here, as for what is going on, I have an idea. But with all the racket you've been making we have to get out of here. They'll all be coming at us now." Grabbing one of her spare machetes, she handed it to Shinji. "Guns need reloading, knives don't. Aim for the head, it seems to make them stay down." Grabbing arm she started towards the door only to feel the boy resisting. "Boy, we have to hurry." This had been a big bust for her, she had come to get the pilot boy and barter her way into Nerv, but his room was open already.

"I can't leave her like this," Shinji choked back tears and aimed at the Mari thing. "I was going to save her, take her with me out of here." Taking a fugitive step closer to her, Shinji covered his mouth with his arm to keep the sob from escaping. As he aimed, he felt the woman push his arm down. "What?"

Shaking her head, "We can't risk the noise, we have to be quiet." Pulling a tire iron from her belt, "I'll deal with her, you just get yourself collected and ready." With a sudden lunge, Kyoshi impaled the miserable thing's skull and put it out of its misery. "God damn you things," Kyoshi murmured through gritted teeth. Pulling the gore covered rod out of the child's head, she put it back where she stored it. "You ready kid?"

Having only heard what Kyoshi did, Shinji couldn't watch her do it. Nodding fiercely, "Lets get out of here, I-I'm Shinji Ikari by the way." Shinji followed his sudden savior down the halls of the hospital towards the glowing light. Faint but growing sounds were emerging all around him, shuffling and moaning sounds. "What is going on here?"

"Be quiet until we get outside!" Kyoshi hissed. But what a stroke of luck! Her ticket to safety was still alive and she had gotten to him first! She had seen the name on the clip boards around the hospital after he had been brought in, but she never actually saw the boy. Her job was to deal with the elderly on the second floor, not the VIP's up on four. "They'll hear you and I don't think we have enough bullets for all the bastards here."

As the pair moved, Shinji had to fight hard to keep his lips from acting. So many things he wanted to ask, to have explained. This woman told him to be quiet though, and with the remains of his friend dripping down his face, Shinji found more than enough things to think about to keep him silent. As the duo approached the door, two more bodies emerged from the kiosk by the entrance. A doctor and an elderly woman, the doctor appeared fine, save for a large gash on his chest, and the woman appeared perfectly fine except for the unsteady walk and outstretched hand.

"Fuck, take the one on the left, I'll get the right," Kyoshi ordered as she pulled out the tire iron again. "They're slow as hell, but if they bunch up on us we'll be dead before you know it." They were to close together for her to attack one without the other grabbing her from behind, and her munitions were running low so she didn't want to shoot them. "GO now!"

Jumping at the woman's command, Shinji lunged at the elderly woman with the knife he had been given. Letting out a strangled rage filled cry, Shinji buried the knife between the woman's eyes with both hands as she blindly grabbed at him. He could hear Kyoshi doing the same. His breath was coming in and out in large puffs, his arms ached as he tugged to free the large blade, then Kyoshi stepped down on the woman's neck to keep the head from moving and he was successful.

With her hand wrapped around his wrist pulling him, Shinji stepped foot out into the city and into the glorious light of day. Cars were lined up all around the entrance of the hospital, bumper to bumper, some had those things in them futilely clawing at the windows, but most were empty. "What is going on here, can you tell me now?" he asked as Kyoshi started walking along the line of abandoned autos.

Wiping the remains off her weapon, the one-time nurse sighed as she continued to walk. "I'm not entirely sure. Just about three of four weeks ago, just after the last of those things came, we had a rash of violent crimes. At first it was just here in Tokyo-3, but then we start getting reports that its world wide. Before you know it we get these crazy people being admitted to the hospital with bites and claw marks." Kyoshi's head dipped down, her husband had been one of the people bitten, and by their neighbors child no less. "Things go crazy from there, people saying it's the dead rising from the grave, others think that whatever it was that attacked us is responsible."

"What about Nerv, is Nerv doing anything about this?" Shinji balked at what he was hearing. Just how long had he been sleeping!? From what this woman, a rather striking close cropped red hair and radiant emerald green eyes he noticed, was saying it had been for about a month! Why hadn't he been moved in that time, but if it happened as fast as Kyoshi said, maybe they didn't have time. "Where are we going?"

An angry tick, her eyebrow scrunched up as the boy kept talking. It wasn't his fault he didn't know, and that was why she hadn't exploded in rage by now, but it was hard for her to keep thinking about this. "Nerv has done nothing but hole up in that little fortress of theirs and deny anybody else admittance that isn't personal, and that includes family. But with you, I'm hoping to barter a deal and get in." The bastards had been using that red monstrosity of theirs to occasionally clear out the front gates of the things, so a pilot should still have some weight at the negotiating table. "So that is where we are headed."

Catching the subtle hints that this woman wasn't in the talking mood, his time with Asuka and Misato giving him privy into the female mind, Shinji sagely kept his mouth shut. He just observed the dilapidated state the once mighty Tokyo-3 had been reduced to in such a short time. A sea of unused and stalled cars littered the roadway, several small groups of 'people' banged on boarded up doorways and store fronts, to fixated on whatever they were doing to pay mind to the silent pair.

It was agonizingly slow movement, but Kyoshi was pleasantly surprised that the boy, Shinji, had shut up. It wasn't that she faulted him or anything, but it was just hard having lost her husband, and then get denied access to a safe haven from the people her tax dollars supported. "Sorry I was so rough on ya back there, kid. Just a lot on my mind, not to say you don't have more." She had heard he'd been in a coma since he was brought in, it had originally been her idea to bring the sleeping body to Nerv's gate and demand to be let in. With him awake it would be easier, and he could fight if he had to, a good sign indeed.

Offering a half hearted smile, Shinji replied, "My flatmates taught me well when to talk and when to keep my mouth shut." Asuka would slap him if he pressed when he shouldn't, and Misato's teasing would turn from light hearted to cruel. Shinji was a fast learner to say the least. "These people…are they dead?"

Grateful that Shinji was more mannered than the typical annoying teenager, Kyoshi sent off a mental thank you to the aforementioned flatmates. "Its getting late and we still have a few miles to cover. We best find a place to stay for the night. Being out after dark is a death warrant with these things around. And, Shinji, I don't know if they are dead or not. All I know is that they're not what they used to be and that's all that matters to me." Her husband had nearly torn her head off, and the loving and caring man she married would never have done that.

More tired than he thought possible, Shinji simply nodded and followed along with her. They had to dispatch three more of the things as they moved, one a boy his own age and two men in business suits. The boy Shinji took out personally as it came at Kyoshi from behind. "What about there?" Shinji asked pointing to an apartment building with nothing in front of it.

"Good idea, we can get a unit on the second floor and barricade the door. That keeps the windows clean and only one possible entrance," Kyoshi admitted. Shinji was defiantly pulling his weight, the save from before and the idea about the apartment. As they neared it though, something was starting to make Kyoshi nervous. Why were none of the things here, and the building had a fortified look to it. A gunshot rang out to answer her fears.

"Stop right there and put your hands where I can see them!" a thick and heavy voice called out from inside the building. "I've a bead on you woman so if you try anything I'll blow your head off before you can blink." Another shot fired at Kyoshi's feet came from the doorway.

Whispering to Shinji, "Do as he says, but if it looks bad take him out while he's not looking." This hadn't been the first time the evil nature behind mankind had shown its true face to Kyoshi in the last few weeks. Mostly it was people wanting her gun or food, but two men wanted her for something else. With no other means of entertainment or stress relief, men wanted women and they had no qualms about taking them. With no law enforcement it wasn't like they had to worry about being fined or jailed.

Stepping out from behind the steel enforced door, the brute of a man emerged with a rifle trained on Kyoshi's head. "What do we have here?" he asked as he took sidelong glances to make sure the woman and kid were truly alone and not simply bait. "Tasty crumpet and…holy shit!" The man slapped his balding head, his large belly jiggled as he laughed. "It's the fucking missing pilot brat!" Several of the people who mistakenly came to this apartment had mentioned they were looking for Shinji and even had photos from the newspaper of him. The men he either killed if they sought entry, and the women he tried to capture but ended up either killing or they escaped. It was a dog eat dog world now, and he wasn't about to be supper.

"People are looking for me?" Shinji asked despite himself. He had wanted to be quiet and let Kyoshi take control of things as she appeared more than capable of, but his hope for a Nerv rescue were to great. A stern stare from the woman in jeans and a tight fitting blue t-shirt silenced further questions.

Pulling a revolver out with his right hand, the man shouldered the rifle. "Yeah a bunch of other outcasts had your face on an old newspaper article. Bet they're hoping to use you like this broad is." The gun danced a little but never left Kyoshi's head. "Get into that damn compound of theirs and all the safety it has to offer." Hell, he'd like to get in too, but with all the ammo he had, the food from the other buildings, and maybe a woman he'd be just fine where he was. "Tell you what, you two come in here, maybe I'll help you get there."

"No deal," Kyoshi said instantly. She could see the way he was eye humping her. Going into that building with that man had to high a price, and she wasn't going to pay it. "We'll find someplace else. Let's go Shinji, while we still have light." Turning around with her arms still up, Kyoshi feared but expected what happened next. Another gun blast thundered through the unusually still air of the city.

The barrel of the gun had a faint trace of smoke, but Tetsuo paid it no mind. "Sorry lady, this wasn't an offer. It was a demand." Sure it would have been nicer if she had done this willingly, but with the right drugs it wouldn't matter. His body ached since the city went straight to hell. He had often frequented the red-light, but with that no longer an option, and with his whole family dead, he was quite literally insane. "Now come inside or I'll kill the kid and give you no reason to go anywhere else," he turned to gun on Shinji and offered an apologetic shoulder shrug.

Her knuckles turned white with the pressure she was squeezing them. "What promise do I have you won't kill him after we go in anyway?" From the unsteady dialogue and nervous tick of his hand, Kyoshi wisely saw the signs the man wasn't playing with a full deck. Too much stress and fear pushed him over the edge. All he wanted now, she guessed, was food, sex, and silence. Her hand slowly moved down towards her gun, while the other the zipper of her jeans. "You want this right, but you don't want him because you're afraid you'll have to share."

Acting precisely as she expected, the broken man turned to face her and forgot about the boy. What threat was a boy anyway, he'd take the woman inside his room and lock the fucker out. "Good girl, now you come with ol' Tetsuo and we can survive thi…" A sudden blow to the back of his head sent him sprawling to the ground. Blinding white pain and disorientation rocked his senses as he rolled on the ground. "Fucking kid, I'll fucking kill you!"

"You're just as bad as they are," Kyoshi said as she fired a single shot into the man's head. Better to put him down now less he sucker anybody else into his place. Taking the man's gun and shouldering his rifle, she found his room key in his pocket. "Let's go Shinji, room 214 was this sad things place. We'll stay there until tomorrow." She hoped she didn't find anybody else in his place, dealing with a rape victim wasn't what she wanted. Just a nice long sleep, one she could have knowing full well somebody had her back for the night.

Not saying a word, Shinji was too shocked at how easy this woman killed the man. While he wasn't going to say he was happy something had been done, killing the man was far from what Shinji expected. The man would have likely killed him, Shinji realized, and based on the dead man's erection, Kyoshi wouldn't have faired better. Following Kyoshi though the maze of shopping carts and other makeshift barricades the pair made it to the man's unit and unlocked it.

It was what Kyoshi suspected of a single man's apartment. It had posters of half naked women, a large television, and a general unkempt air about it. No matter, it wasn't like they were going to stay long. "See what food he had, we'll need to take some with us." She hadn't had a good meal in days, and this mans death was going to wreak havoc on her mind for a long time. "Then we'll sleep in shifts. I don't trust this place nearly as much as he did."

Nodding dumbly, Shinji did as he was told. He found a gas powered mini stove and a lot of canned meals. Cooking some soup, he prepared it for Kyoshi and himself. The pair ate in silence, Shinji doing his best not to look at the woman still covered in the blood of the dead man.

"Look Shinji," Kyoshi said finally unable to take the silence she had come to hate, "I had no choice. If I had tied him up or something he'd just have been eaten by those things. Or he'd have broken in here, killed you, and raped me. Is that what you want?" She knew she had other options, but at the time instinct took over and she did what she had to. The food, while good, didn't really sooth her any more.

Swallowing the last of his food, his aching feet reminded him that he needed to find shoes soon. "I know, I just wasn't expecting it. I mean…until today I haven't seen a dead body and now I'm seeing a lot of them, and I saw you kill that man." He agreed with her, but it was still a bitter pill. "Did you want to take first watch or did you want me to?"

"You take first watch, likely you're more tired than I am," Kyoshi ruffled his hair and gathered the plates. Had she not had lost her baby during the birth she'd have been this kids age. "I think the bedroom is down the hall by the bathroom, just be careful." She doubted the man trapped his own building, but she wasn't going to take chances.

No traps greeted Shinji, just the musky smell of stale semen from the man's abuse of porn magazines and wads of toilet paper. Brushing the magazines to the ground, Shinji had absolutely no need for them at the moment. Lying on the bed, a nice yet cold water bed, Shinji fell into an uneasy sleep almost the moment his head hit the pillow.

X-X

His shift watching the apartment was uneventful if only a little unsettling. Everything was just so quiet. The city was never quiet, cars, alarms, and night workers were always heard before. Not now though. It was total silence only broken by the rare gunshot or moan. Kyoshi slept right where he had, the pretty woman, Misato's age if he had to guess, was a lot stronger than he was. He had just acted on instinct up till this point, or doing what she told him to. And while he accepted the fact it was only to save her own skin, he wasn't going to fault her for that since he was using her for exactly the same.

Breakfast had been a rather bland cereal eaten dry with tea made using the same stove he used to cook supper. Kyoshi drank it down, clearly not a morning person, but Shinji was well versed in handling that. "So you think we'll make it to the main entrance today?" he asked as he sorted through Tetsuo's stock of food for usable supplies.

Rotating her shoulder, sore from excessive use, Kyoshi nodded. "When I went two weeks ago, before things got really bad, that was where everybody was congregating." The other entrances were likely sealed completely to make the place even easier to defend. "I hope you have some sort of ID on you or something. I bet the whole 'I have a pilot with me' bit has been played before." Last thing she wanted was to get to the door and have the guards shoot both of them for trying to pull a fast one. She'd seen the Nerv security kill two people that tried rushing the gate.

Feeling for his wallet, he pulled it out, "Yeah I have my entry card on me." Filling a knapsack he found in Tetsuo's bedroom with breakfast bars, canned food, and bottles of water, Shinji was never so appreciative for canned amenities. "Do you think we'll have to…" he trailed off as a random shot pierced the air.

"Kill more of them? Most likely," Kyoshi checked her sidearm and the pilfered ones from the fallen man. Not a lot of rounds left for her gun, but the man had plenty of rounds for his. "Take a pair of his shoes and stuff them with socks. That way they won't fall off and you won't have to worry about cutting your feet." Once a nurse always a nurse, even if she spent more time killing now than saving lives. Pulling the door brace away, she slid the strap of the rifle over her shoulder. "I didn't hear many last night, likely he kept the building on lock down so we should be clear till we hit the street."

It was, and the pair made it back to the road without any unexpected happenings. Walking slightly slower thanks to the larger shoes, Shinji did his best to keep pace. Taking stock of the destruction around him, he couldn't help but say, "Doesn't take long for things to fall apart does it?" Maybe a month of panic and the city was already in shambles.

"Take away their sense of protection, entertainment, and easy life and mankind turns on itself almost instantly," Kyoshi said with disgust. She had seen neighbors turn on neighbors for food stock. One woman gave her daughter to a group of men to save her own skin and a two-liter bottle of water. People were just animals that lied to themselves is what Kyoshi believed now. But she was going to live through this, she wasn't going to just roll over and die. "Remember to keep quiet, and try to avoid drawing any attention. That goes for those things and other people."

After the encounter with the man the day before, Shinji wasn't going to do anything unless he recognized the people first. "I'll try my best." Mile after mile the pair walked in silence, several times Kyoshi asked Shinji for directions and he replied to the best of his memory. Stopping for lunch the pair broke into a gas station and barred the doors with shelves. "This place has been picked clean," Shinji mentioned.

Taking the bag off Shinji's back, Kyoshi shrugged. "I wouldn't doubt a lot of places have already been hit by roaming bands of bandits." It wasn't a bad idea, safety in numbers, but Kyoshi doubted it was the safest place. With Shinji she had a chance at the best shot she could hope for. Breaking into a cereal bar, "So tell me something about yourself kid? The public doesn't get to hear much about Nerv or its pilots." To her, this boy was far too soft to be the hardened warrior that Nerv portrayed him as.

Unscrewing the top to a bottle of water, Shinji took a big gulp. "Not much to say really. I was living with relatives up until my father sent for me several months ago to pilot for him. I do a lot of tests to make sure I'm getting better at it, and I live with my commanding officer and another pilot." When he said it like that, Shinji had to admit his life sounded really boring. "I have a few friends, but I don't really…you know like hanging out with people that much."

A short burst of a laugh later, Kyoshi took a big bite of her food. "No offence kid, but from how the PR people at Nerv paint you I was expecting you to try and fuck me in my sleep last night and to go off guns blazing at these things." It was a very pleasant surprise that the idiots that tried to make this boy seem likable were idiots. Catching the deep blush on the kids face after her statement, Kyoshi started laughing even harder. It was rare to see innocence, especially after everything that had happened. It's only a matter of time till he loses that though. In the new world, Kyoshi doubted Shinji would be the same wide eyed child for long, and that fact made her stop laughing.

Trying to get past the idea of having sex with the pretty woman, let alone against her will while she slept, Shinji chugged the rest of his water. "What about you Kyoshi-san? Have you always been a saver of teenagers, and fighter of the insane?" He tried to be funny, to make her like him just a little bit more, but even to himself it sounded forced. "Have you-you lost anybody in all of this?" The building anxiety in him wanted to remind him that Nerv was highly protected so his mock-family should be safe, but until he saw them he couldn't stop his mind from wandering.

Popping the last of the bar into her mouth, Kyoshi thought it was too sweet of flavor for her to ever like. "My husband. He was bitten on the leg by one of those things." She didn't have the heart to say it was a young girl. "I treated it as best I could, dressed the wound, and we went to sleep." Looking out the window, she saw the scene as clearly now as she did back when it happened. "Next morning I wake up to see my husband of seven years inhumanly pale, with those damn lifeless eyes, and he fell on me." She sniffed hard, "I pushed him off, barely, and he hit his head on a dresser corner hard and that's that." Laughing weakly she continued, "Until that point I was just a nurse who had aspirations of being a writer. I sucked at it, but I had fun and he used to say that's what mattered."

Shinji didn't say anything after that, he could see the pained expression and was sure if he pushed it would only make matters worse. He didn't want to hear more anyway. After another twenty minutes of idly eating and drinking the pair got ready for the remaining trek to the main entrance to Nerv and hopeful safety.

X-X

Author Notes

Yeah you know what to expect from this one. Its not going to be friendly, its not going to be fully of happy fluffy moments, but I can't write that all the time. I like challenging myself a little and trying to be more 'serious' in a story. Hope you enjoy it and don't get to offended when the occasional death pops up.

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-dot-geo-at-yahoo-dot-com)