Our Armageddon

Chapter 17

A/n: aww jeez apparently I had already written this chapter and forgotten to post it. I'm working on chapter 18 (the next one) as we speak.

If you like, please review.

Also, thanks to everyone that has reviewed in the past even if I've never answered.

"...Why?"

It was empty all around the young doctor. He could faintly hear water dripping in the distance. He could hear voices but couldn't understand them. Was this how Izaya felt when he went 'somewhere else?'

It felt terrible.

Coming back to consciousness was difficult for him. Harder than it should have been. Did he even want to wake up?

"Why is all this happening?"

It's so cold.

"Am I awake? I can't tell. I should be able to but I have no clue…"

The water continued to slowly drip. Just a drop every couple seconds was enough to start irritating him and he started feeling more awake after each quiet, yet somehow deafening, sound.

"Why…?"

Shinra's head started pounding in his ears. He was, however, fairly certain the pain was there before that moment but he hadn't felt it until then. There was someone else there with him, a few people, but someone whom he was laying his head in their lap.

"Celty…?" He groaned.

The person didn't answer but he knew it was Celty who sat there stroking his hair. His vision started to clear and he started counting the group, naming everyone he saw in front of him.

Celty.

Kida. Mikado. Anri.

Kadota. Walker. Erika. Simon.

Shizuo...and Izaya.

Including himself, everyone was accounted for. But where were they? And where were their-

"Our supplies! Where are they?!" Shinra shot upright and all heads turned towards him. He could see Celty out of his peripheral vision holding up her hands trying to silently calm him down. But even her gestures did little to comfort him. "How long have I been out?" He asked franticly, looking at his surroundings.

"Kishitani-san, please calm down…" Mikado hurried to hush him. The younger boy kept his voice low yet he also seemed fearful of something. Though, that 'something' must have been different than what Shinra was currently panicking about. The way Mikado spoke, the way he kept looking towards the door on the other side of the room, and the way he was almost pleading with Shinra told Shinra the synopsis.

"What's going on?" Shinra asked and, although he was calmer, Mikado still flinched at the volume Shinra had used.

Before Shinra could register any movement, Erika had one hand over Shinra's mouth and the other in a gesture to signal him to keep entirely quiet. She kept this position as she too looked towards the door. Footsteps were heard coming towards them, the sound stopped outside their room, which was the size of a large pantry minus the food, before the footsteps continued passed. Voices rose in the distance and Shinra then remembered the men who had been dragging them throughout the elaborate basement.

Erika lowered her hands. "We can talk but nothing above a whisper, you understand?"

Shinra nodded. "I got knocked out." he said putting a palm to his forehead."

"Yeah, you missed some shit…" Walker piped up.

"Like what?" Shinra asked.

"Like these guys laying down the 'rules'." Walker continued. "These guys are all over the place!"

"Shh!" Erika scolding him when he started to get too loud.

"All over the place?"

"They're crazy." Erika cut Walker off before he could elaborate. She didn't need him getting excited and chancing raising his voice.

"...So, you said something about rules?"

"Yes. No talking-"

"I think he figured out that already." Walker snorted.

Erika glared at Walker until he shrank back towards his spot against the wall next to Kadota.

Erika turned back to Shinra and continued. "No talking. No trying to escape, no yelling-"

"Isn't that basically the same as no talking?" Shinra asked, a look of genuine confusion plastered on his face.

Erika glared at him until Shinra shrunk into himself and looked away from her death stare. "-No crying, no arguing, no fighting, no biting, no-"

"Biting?" Shinra interrupted again.

Erika closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing.

"-No scratching." Erika ignored the surprised look Shinra was giving her thankful that he wasn't opening his mouth again. "We eat what they give us as food when they give us food, we have to be polite to them, and we do what they say without struggling or arguing. We don't ask questions."

Satisfied that she had gotten through the list finally, she rocked back on her heels waiting for a response from the man in front of her. He looked dumbfounded, completely clueless, as if she had just told him in all seriousness that unicorns were real and that she had evidence. She took another deep breath and shook her head solemnly.

"Okay, well, that's great and all but who are they and what do they want?" Shinra finally got himself out of his daze.

"We don't know." Shizuo spoke as softly as he was able with his baritone voice. "They dragged us in here, told us these stupid rules, and then left, locking us in. That's all we know so far."

"How long-" Shinra tried to ask.

"It's hard to tell. Maybe a couple hours?" Shizuo shrugged.

"Tick...tock…" Izaya spoke staring at the ground next to the blonde. He coughed again, his body racking once again with the stress of it. Shizuo put his hand on Izaya's cheek and tried shushing him.

Shinra stared at the interaction before shaking it off. He couldn't help him right now. If he focused on the raven right now, he'd make mistakes in this situation. And as the minutes grew on and the footsteps continued to pass back and forth outside the door, he knew there was little room for error.

The group was quiet once more as Shinra absorbed the new information. He looked to Celty who was still right next to him, watching him. He mouthed the words, "Are you okay?" to her to which she nodded in response. Shinra felt somewhat relieved by her simple response and couldn't help but let his sight gravitate back towards Izaya.

Izaya was sitting right in front of the door, staring at it. His head would move to follow the sounds of pacing footsteps. He was analyzing though not consciously. It was simply habit at this point, built into his nature.

Footsteps on tile flooring.

Breathing. Their captor's voices.

Wind howling, water dripping, rumbling.

Rumbling, rumbling, groaning, the distant sounds of machinery, trucks.

Rattling metal, scraping, laughing.

The footsteps again, walking towards them. Laughing, laughing…

"They're...coming." Izaya whispered softly. Shizuo was the only one who had heard it but hadn't understood what he said.

"What was that, Izaya?" Shizuo wondered.

The lock shifting, the doorknob turning.

Their breathing, footsteps…

Izaya's breathing picked up and became ragged. Shizuo realized what was happening and pulled the raven towards him and away from the door as it opened. In front of them now stood a man they had yet to see, still hard to tell his features in the dimness of the room. By the way he held himself, cockiness and arrogance seeping off of him, it was pretty clear he was the one in charge to those whom they had already been acquainted.

Behind him, although set in shadow from the backlighting, was a small group of his underlings. The man in front turned to those behind him and laughed. "You know the rules. I get first choice. After that, I don't care what you do with your's."

The man stepped farther into the room, presence ominous and towering. He moved around the group, looking at each of them, before stopping in front of Erika. He smirked and his teeth were the only real feature Erika could distinguish clearly. He crouched down in front of her, looking her over.

Erika subconsciously crossed her arms in front of her chest. It only seemed to intrigue the man more rather than intimidating him. Though, Erika supposed she wasn't particularly intimidating sitting on the floor, looking hungry and cold while looking up at her captor.

"What's your name?" The man spoke and Erika couldn't hold back gagging from the rotten stench of his breath.

She composed herself and looked him in the eyes but said nothing. She wasn't certain she could say anything, so she opted for glaring and keeping her exterior looking calm. Erika swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry and bile building in the back of her throat.

The man laughed. "Are you dumb or something?" His grin turned sour. "TELL ME!" he yelled in her face.

Erika closed her eyes briefly and let out a shaky exhale. She looked up at him again, defiance still radiating through her terror. "Does it matter?"

The man shrugged. "I was hoping from mutual respect between you and me." He stood up, throwing Erika over his shoulder. "Have it your way though." He started walking out with her kicking and screaming obscenities, which went entirely ignored by the opposing party.

"Erika!" Walker got up rushing towards her only to get punched in the gut by one of the other captors. Holding his stomach, he fell to his knees and then fell to his side, clutching his gut as if it were about to burst.

He could hear Erika calling his name repeatedly from down the hall. Each outburst softer and more distant than the last.

The other men walked into the room although there only seemed to be two of them now. One man seemed overly cheery and like he was hyped up on amphetamines. The other seemed quite dull and carried a lead pipe in one hand. They stalked around the room in a similar fashion as their boss although they were much more casual about the whole ordeal as if it was a normal occurrence.

"Aw! That was cute! You could hear her yelling all the way to the boss' room." Walker heard from above him. Next to his face was a boot that belonged to the oppressive voice. Sweat was beading on Walker's head and his vision had become blurry, speckled with white dots. Somehow he knew that Kyohei had moved closer to him. His mind reassured when he got a whiff of vodka.

"Adorable." The other one of them spoke. "Pick one. Get on with it."

The boot moved out of Walker's sight just as he passed out.

The boisterous of the two men walked around, humming some unknown tune stopping in front of each of them before moving on to the next. He resembled a vulture circling roadkill. Picking and choosing, what a smorgasbord he had found among the captives.

Izaya gripped onto Shizuo who was using his own body like a shield. Next to them, Shinra and Celty stayed motionless yet looked as if their were ready to run if given the chance.

"Just choose one." The duller man voiced getting impatient.

"I'm not like you. You'll fuck anything with a pulse. I like the decision making process."

"So? Hurry up." the man spat and the continued in a mumbled voice, "I hate the rule that we have to share. Though I am glad we won the lottery."

"Helmet girl is tempting but," he saw the young doctor grow tense, "'bet she's ugly under that thing. She hasn't taken it off at all." His gaze circled around Kyohei and Walker. "Unconscious ones are never fun. Drunks get too aggressive. It pisses me off." He said, staring down Kyohei. "Broken arms get in the way," he said pointing at Anri, "He's scrawny as fuck." he pointed to Mikado this time then pointed at Kida. "That one just looked like a little shit to deal with." Masaomi gritted his teeth. He turned towards Simon chuckling before simply stating "no" and moving on to the remaining three. "Now, eeny, meeny, miny, moe…"

"...Come the fuck on." his peer groaned.

"Blonde and burly, fragile and cute, or the nerdy-glasses-wearing type?" he tilted his head in thought. His eyes flitting over each of them as they stared back wide-eyed with their breaths all caught in their throats.

"Just. Pick. One. Already."

Without warning, the vulture leaned over and grabbed Izaya by his upper arm prompting a yelp from the raven haired man. "Shizuo!" Izaya grabbed for Shizuo's shirt grasping it for only a moment before being tugged away. "Help me!" he screamed again but as Shizuo reached out for the other man, the vulture's partner rose the thick metal pipe above his head and smacked the former bartender's hand away as hard as possible.

Shizuo had never felt such pain before. It flared through his entire arm, burning his muscles, tendons feeling like they'd tear, and the feeling of bone cracking underneath his skin. It was nearly unbearable.

"SHIZUO!" Izaya's voice forced Shizuo back to the present. The dull captor in front of him, staring blankly.

And for once, Shizuo couldn't speak or move or do...anything.

The other man snorted, "He belongs to us now, not you." with that he stood and walked out of the room to follow the other now with the raven. He slammed the door closed and all that was left for the remaining members of the group was the lock clicking back in place and the distant screaming of Erika and Izaya.

A/N: I'm gunna update asap. sorry for the wait guys.