[ t i m o r ]

~ o ~

"So, what exactly are we getting today?" Roxas inquired, stepping over a bit of debris left over from the initial onslaught some time ago.

"We're running low on protein bars and stuff, and getting some more water bottles might be good, too." Ventus lifted his arms above his head in an effort to stretch. The boys had decided that they would return to their local supermarket today instead of raiding houses and convenience stores like they usually did. "Oh, and if there's any canned soup left, that'd be awesome."

"Y'know, we might need to make a plan to escape the city." Roxas idly kicked a small rock out of his way. "Our food supply isn't gonna last forever and neither is our ammunition. Except for all of that frozen junk, we haven't really eaten anything with a lot of sustenance 'cause all the meat went bad weeks ago."

"Yeah, and so did the bread," Ventus climbed over the roof of a car that laid smashed into the side of a building, blocking his path. "And the cheese and the milk - all that shit."

"And everything else is going to run out sooner or later. We've been able to survive here for almost two months, but those things don't seem to stop coming. I think it'd be best if we get out of here as soon as we can." Ventus sighed, the two boys finally clear of the worst part of the road.

"And how do you suggest we do that? The roads are blocked and all of the cars are completely toast. Even if they weren't, neither of us can drive." Roxas opened his mouth to speak, but Ventus interrupted with, "And no, we're not going to try to learn how. Too risky."

The younger Gracy boy rolled his eyes as his brother continued. "Besides, where would we go? If Chicago's been hit this badly, think of everywhere else. What if the whole world is just as bad as, if not worse than, here? At least if we stay in the city, we know our way around."

"But what if it's not?" Roxas glanced over at Ventus as they turned a corner. "Remember when we saw 28 Days Later? Yeah, shit went down, but it was only in the UK. What if it only hit certain parts of America?"

"Oh, so all of a sudden real life is just like a movie?" Ventus' eyes widened with mock surprise, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Roxas scowled.

"Yes, actually, it is. In case you haven't noticed, there are fucking zombies all over the place. I think life lost its 'real' sense a long time ago."

"Roxas, you can't base every single thing about our situation on movies. There's a lot that they got wrong."

"Well, excuse Hollywood for not being one-hundred percent accurate on the ways of the zombie, Ven." Roxas scoffed and rolled his eyes once more.

"Hollywood wasn't one-hundred percent accurate on anything, dude." Ventus stifled a low chuckle, finding it humorous how much they were arguing over something so trivial. "Okay, I'll play your game. Suppose Chicago is the only city that's been struck by this. Why, then, didn't it spread to anywhere else?"

"A lot of reasons, like maybe the borders have been able to be kept under control and stop the spreading, or maybe they can't be anywhere else." The younger blonde rattled around in his brain to think of what he had learned from observing the undead and from watching the Discovery Channel many days prior to the initial outbreak.

"We know the zombies can't go out in the sun, and Chicago is pretty cloudy most of the time due to being next to a lake-"

"Then what about Wisconsin and Michigan and the rest of Illinois?" Ventus interrupted.

"Let me finish," Roxas huffed, glaring slightly. "Maybe this is their hunting ground. Like how sharks will stay in one area if there's an abundance of food."

"But there isn't any food, Roxas. They've all either died or become infected."

"No, there is. They eat each other, remember? As long as there're a lot of them, there'll always be food. Why would they leave?"

"Okay, good point." Ventus nodded in agreement. "Why do they do that, anyway?"

"Sometimes animals will resort to cannibalism if there's a shortage of other sources of food." Roxas tried to think harder. 'Damn, it's been a while since I saw this. I miss TV.'

"So, with no other living humans and no animals as far as we can tell, they eat each other?" The older twin summarized.

"Any way to get their fix, I guess." Roxas shrugged. "They're attracted to blood, and with so many of them bleeding from wounds, I guess they just can't help it."

Crunch.

Roxas paused in his step and looked back over his shoulder, trying to locate the source of that faint sound. Except for all of the destroyed cars, street lamps, and decayed limbs lying scattered in the street, it was pretty much all clear. Doubt, however, still began to set in. 'Are we being followed?'

"Roxas, you comin'?" Ventus was already about five feet ahead of him before he realized Roxas had stopped walking.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm coming." Slowly, but eventually, Roxas turned back and continued to walk beside his brother.

"Hey, Roxas."

"Hm?"

"I can't wrap my brain around this one. We both know that blood attracts them, right?"

Roxas glanced off to the side at Ventus, raising an eyebrow. "Riiiight...?"

"I know vampire bats and leeches and shit feed on blood because of it's their natural food source and they have nutritional gain from it…but, what about people?"

The two finally arrived at their local Target and pried open the dead automatic doors before stepping through and leaving a heavy box that contained computer equipment to keep the doors propped open. Upon stepping inside, they turned on the flashlights they packed with them as the store was pitch-black.

Everything seemed to be that way nowadays.

"What about people?" Roxas looked around the area to make sure it was clear before leading the way to the food aisle.

"People can't sustain themselves on blood; they need food, like meat and vegetables, stuff that provides what their bodies need. So...why do they feed mostly on blood?" Ventus glanced down and gazed at a long-dried pool of blood next to a rotting corpse, a young woman with short brown hair and broken glasses - a college student they ran into every now and then when the boys were forced to go shopping with their mother. "They shouldn't still be alive, should they?"

"Why do you ask?" Roxas picked up a can of chicken noodle soup and checked to make sure it wasn't contaminated by blood seeping into a hole or anything like that.

"It seems like, lately, they're becoming less and less like zombies and more and more like...humans."

The younger twin froze for a brief moment before turning to look back at his brother. "Explain."

"They're just as fragile as we are when it comes to injuries," Ventus began, approaching the other, "and it's starting to look like they know when and where to be. Take Ginny and Bob, for example. The sun was blocked by clouds and instead of wandering all over the damn place like the others, they just happened to be in front of our house. Do you think it's possible they were waiting for us?"

"I thought we've already established that they're just as brain-dead as zombies have always been made out to be. Remember the one that kept banging against the gate these past two nights?"

Ventus scoffed and glared off to the side. "Yeah, damn bitch kept me up all night."

"If she really was capable of intelligent thought," Roxas loaded up five soup cans into his backpack, "then why didn't she just leave as soon as she realized there was an obstacle in her way?"

"Maybe whatever it was drawn to clouded its senses?" Roxas only rolled his eyes and threw his bag over his shoulder.

"Ven, are we gonna ask questions all day or are we gonna load up on shit and get out of here?" He looked around to find another corpse, an old man with his jugular torn clean out. His body had long begun to decay.

"All right. We'll hurry up, then." Ventus nodded and began to help his brother load up on food items. After some time, the two had managed to pack a month's worth of soup, ramen, and various other nonperishable items. On their way out, Roxas noticed the clothing section of the retail store.

"Hey, Ven."

"Yeah?" Ventus stopped with a foot out the door and looked back at Roxas.

"When was the last time we had any fun?" Ventus blinked with shock and confusion.

"Uh…Why do you ask?" He froze when Roxas shot him a mischievous grin. That look alone told him all he needed to know. "Oh, hell no, Roxas. Nuh–uh."

"Aw, c'mon, Ven!"

"Roxas, I said no," Ventus huffed, trying to break away from his brother's grasp on his jacket.

"I thought it was your dream to see what kinda shit's in…the girls' aisle." Roxas widened his eyes with feigned shock and horror – if they were in some cheesy horror flick, this would be about the time the music would go Buh, Buh, BUUUUUUUH. Ventus blushed slightly at the thought of all of the girls he used to know, what they used to look like – fair-skinned beauties, with the sweetest smiles, the brightest eyes…in nothing but their bras and panties, shyly showing off their womanly curves and perky, matured breasts.

Then, all too suddenly, his fantasy warped into a nightmare as he remembered that every, single one of those girls had turned into them.

"Eh, no thanks, man." Ventus shook out those thoughts, shuddering a bit as the image flashed once more in his brain.

"You sure? There won't be anybody else to see," Roxas grinned and turned on the ball of his foot, returning to the inside of the store. The other boy gulped silently and watched as his brother left him all alone just outside of the store.

Not even five seconds passed before Roxas heard feet shuffling behind him. "All right. But make it quick, okay? I'm getting creeped out by this place."

"Sure thing, bro. C'mon, let's go." The two boys quickly and cautiously made their way to the clothing aisle of this Target, occasionally looking down at their own wardrobe to compare the quality – their clothes were becoming more and more worn and a lot tighter as they were still growing. Ventus was starting to think that maybe Roxas' insisting on fucking around in the clothing aisle was actually a pretty good call.

That is, until he saw Roxas walk out of a changing room wearing a bright purple tube-top and a jean miniskirt with a little checkered bow in his hair, grinning like the damn fool he once was.

"I feel pretty."

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me," Ventus deadpanned, unamused. Smirking slyly, Roxas turned and gave his brother a show. Eyes widening, Ventus slapped his forehead and covered his eyes with his palm. "And are you wearing the underwear, too?"

"So what if I am?"

"You're a fucking idiot."

"I'm an idiot who's having fun," Roxas huffed and proceeded to look around the boys' aisle for clothing that better fit his now taller and more muscular body. "Y'know what they do in those movies when they take on too much at once?"

"Blow their own brains out?" Ventus guessed, following suit.

"They go batshit insane from all the stress thrown at them. We've been able to relieve some of it by killing them, but it'd still be nice to let loose every once in a while." The younger Gracy boy picked up and changed into a black tee that fit against his torso in a snug, yet comfortable and free-moving fashion. The tube-top was ditched.

"So that's why you dragged me all the way back in here? To help chill out?" Ventus raised his eyebrows a little, glancing up at his little brother, who was smiling warmly. "Damn, Roxas. That's pretty mellow of you, all things considered with the zombies and shit, heh."

"Hey, when all this shit first went down, you were the one being all mellow and trying to keep us calm and thinking rationally. Let's just say I kinda picked up a few of your quirky traits." Roxas shrugged, still smiling and looking for a couple more shirts and some pants. "Plus, I've kinda, maybe sorta always wanted to try on girls' clothes. Just to see what all the hype was about." Ventus' lips vibrated as he suppressed a chuckle.

"And? How is it?"

"I feel like a whore." Ventus guffawed to the point where he had tears coming out of his eyes, earning a playful glare from the other as he continued. "The sad part is that these clothes were all that were out here. Fuckin' America. Fucking sluts these girls were becoming, oye."

Exhale.

Roxas froze for a brief moment. He heard it that time; he definitely heard it. He slowly tilted his head and flashlight up from the rack of jeans he was observing until his bright, cerulean eyes met a pair of dulled, white orbs about twenty feet away.

He had seen those eyes before.

It was a woman – maybe nineteen, twenty at the latest, with dark brown hair, fair skin, a tint of freckles on her face. Her mouth was agape and stained with dried blood, a large wound on the crook of her neck.

She was staring right at him.

'Don't move,' Roxas told himself, and Ventus caught on as well. Neither one moved as they watched her, bracing themselves to either attack or make a run for it if needed. 'She'll just walk right past us. She won't even know we're here. Just like the others.'

Deep down in his gut, however, he knew this wouldn't be the case. Whenever the boys encountered one of them and they were in a place where it was wisest to not spill blood, they remained perfectly still and they eventually wandered away. Their eyes were blank, staring at nothing as if their heads were full of nothing but air.

Her's, however, were fixed on him.

She took a staggering step closer.

'Don't move.'

A jerky, shaky arm raised and her fingers wiggled, reaching blindly out to him. His heart beat began to grow rapid as she only drew closer and closer. Ventus glanced back and forth between his brother and the zombie, panic beginning to set in.

'Whatever you do, don't. Move.'

He gasped as her fingers lightly grabbed at the front of his shirt. He could only stare into her cold, lifeless eyes as she bared her teeth and whispered as her face was brought closer to his. His eyes widened as he listened.

His vision became red with the sound of a bang!

"Run, damn it! Run!" Ventus grabbed Roxas' arm and pulled him along in full sprint as he threw their bags over his shoulders. Roxas watched her over his shoulder as she stumbled backwards in shock, blood protruding out of a fresh wound on her arm. She was dumbfounded enough for the boys to put some distance between them.

And then she let out a horrible, bloodcurdling screech and darted after them, her injured arm dangling and flopping around like dead weight.

"What the fuck is it doing out in the middle of the day!" Ventus glanced back as he led them around the corner and through the store, trying desperately to find the exit. He didn't understand why he couldn't find it, since they were just there.

"How the fuck should I know!" Roxas yelled back, struggling to keep up with his current attire.

"Let's go, move it!"

"Hey, you try running from a fucking zombie while wearing a god-fucking-damn skirt!" The boy felt a shiver creep down his spine as he heard footsteps charging toward them from a distance not too far behind. "And why the hell did you shoot her!"

"Dumb ass, it was going to fucking eat you! What was I supposed to do, sit there and twiddle my- There!" Ventus spotted the propped-open door that led to outside of the store, lighting their way. Luckily, it was still a clear day – none of them around; at least, none that they could see. Ventus dragged his brother toward the exit and squeezed him through the crack in the doors, tossing their bags outside with him. When Roxas turned around to help Ventus, he spotted her, staring back at him through the glass doors only thirty feet behind his brother.

"C'mon!" Roxas pulled Ventus out by his arms and kicked the box out of the way just as she hurriedly limped over to the now-shut door. She was locked inside.

Screaming and wheezing with frustration, she rammed her body into the glass over and over again, letting blood splatter all over the glass with each hit until it just barely began to crack. The boys just stood there, shaking with fear as she kept her eyes fixated on Roxas even as she pounded her fist and kicked and smashed herself into the doors again and again…until she eventually slumped to the ground, blood pooling around her skull.

"Le-Let's go home…" Ventus lightly tugged at Roxas' sleeve, keeping his handgun in the other hand for the time being. Nodding shakily, Roxas followed Ventus and kept himself close to his brother as they trekked back to the shelter.

"Why did you freeze up like that?" Ventus asked after a few minutes of awkward silence between them. Roxas knew he wasn't being angry or accusatory; Ventus was scared.

"She...She was alive," Roxas murmured.

"What do you mean? Roxas, it tried to eat you. People don't eat other peop-"

"She talked to me." Ventus looked at his little brother and saw, for the first time since they left, how truly, deeply terrified he was. "She said something…"

"Shit…Really?" Roxas nodded slowly. "Wh-What did it say?"

Roxas didn't answer. Ventus didn't push any more.

He heard her speak. It was nothing more than a whisper, and a rather choked one at that. But he definitely heard her. She talked to him. Right now, he wanted to get it out of his head. He wanted to forget that she had spoken to him.

But he knew he wouldn't be able to forget that word - not when she said it.

Mine…

~ o ~

That evening, Roxas confined himself to the roof. He was sitting with his knees hugged to his chest, staring blankly through half-lidded eyes out into their broken world. He'd already changed into some more comfortable attire – a pair of sweatpants and a jacket – but his nerves were still rattled and his body was still tense.

He heard the door open and his brother's voice greeting him with a, "Hey," but he remained still as Ventus joined his side and handed him a plate.

"I made some frozen pizza," Ventus spoke softly. "It's your favorite, sausage and pepperoni. I know we're supposed to be saving them for special occasions…" he paused and glanced away, "but I thought it'd help cheer you up."

Ventus' gaze returned to his brother, and he grew dismayed upon finding Roxas unfazed. The boy didn't seem to acknowledge Ventus' presence; however, Roxas heard everything Ventus said and while he was appreciative of the kind gesture, he just didn't have the appetite for it.

A hand was placed on his shoulder. "Are you – miiiiiiiine…"

Roxas jumped and yelped in surprise and fear, looking over at Ventus with wild eyes; Ventus, in turn, jolted a little, startled by his brother's sudden outburst.

"W-What did you just say!"

"I asked if you were all right. You seem really focused on something…" Sighing, Roxas looked away and relaxed a little.

"Just thinkin' about earlier. That girl…I just don't get it."

"Get what?"

"She was here a couple nights ago, and I'm one-hundred percent sure she followed us today, even though it was pretty clear outside. Why would she do that even though the sun should have killed her? And, then…when she talke-"

"What'd it say, anyway?" Ventus raised a curious eyebrow, listening and watching intently.

"She said…'mi-'"

BANG!

The boys jolted where they sat, startled from a sudden distant, but clear, blast of noise. Roxas looked around in a panic, searching in the darkness surrounding them. "What the fuck was that?"

"I dunno." Ventus stood up and hurried to the opening in the roof. "But we're going to find out."

Ventus vanished into the house for a brief moment, and when he returned he was carrying a pair of rifles. He handed one to Roxas before looking around as well. They scanned the area for a good ten minutes. Nothing.

"Well, shit," Ventus sighed, plopping onto his ass next to his brother.

"Bu-But, we did hear it, right? We're not going crazy?" Roxas asked with concern, looking over at the other boy.

"Yeah, we heard it. It sounded like a gunshot." Hearing this got Roxas excited.

"A gunshot? You mean, there're other people out there?" he asked, his voice dripping with hope. Ventus only shook his head.

"I'm not sure anymore. There was only one shot, and now there's nothing. If anything," He slouched a little, "it was probably just one of them accidentally setting off some gun that was lying around."

Roxas' face fell a little. "I-I see…"

"I'll give it another hour, and then I'm headin' back inside. I'm freezing my ass off out here." Ventus sat upright to stretch. Roxas nodded in agreement. If there was even the slightest chance of somebody else out there who was really still alive, he'd wait all night for any other signs. Or, at least, he'd try to.

'Maybe we're not alone. Maybe we've never been alone. Someone else out there had to have been able to stay alive. They had to.'

An hour passed. Nothing.

"Well, we're boned." Roxas looked over at his brother as he stood up and stretched. "That's it, man, I'm callin' it a night. You can stay out here if you want, but I'm going to bed."

"Actually," Ventus turned to watch Roxas stand up as well, "I think I'll be headed in, too."

"What? I thought you were the optimist. Just hearing that noise, even though it was probably nothing, made you so determined to find whatever it was. Why are you giving up like this?" Now Ventus was worried. When Roxas was excited about something, he never gave it up this easily.

"I have to face the facts and wake up to reality, Ven. At first, I really did want to wait. But, as we waited longer and longer for anything else, it gradually began to set in."

"What did?" Roxas gave him a sad look and started to walk past him toward the door in the roof.

"We really are the last people alive here." Ventus' eyes widened with surprise. This wasn't like Roxas at all. "I mean, heh, we've been at this for two months. If someone really was still out there, we'd have run into them by now, right?"

"Roxas-"

"Anyway, there's nothing left for us here." The younger blonde opened the door. "I really do think we should leave soon. Who knows – maybe we'll run into somebody somewhere else."

"Roxas, it's a big city, and there's a ton of shit lying around. They're probably just having trouble getting around, that's all." Ventus placed a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Ven, I'm leaving." Ventus gasped a little. "And, if it comes to it, I'm leaving without you."

"Are you fucking insane!" Ventus pulled Roxas back toward him and turned him to face him. "The only reason we've been able to survive as long as we have is because we stayed together. You go out there by yourself and you'll be dead before noon! They will eat you alive!" Roxas looked up at Ventus and he saw, for the first time since all this started, his brother crying. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, dripping off his chin. He looked so desperate.

"Please don't go…You're all I have left. If, If I lost you…" His voice trailed off. "Please-"

And then, Roxas snapped out of it – not because of his brother's pleas; not because of his brother's tears.

BANG!

Ventus, too, snapped out of it, and the boys looked around for the source of the noise.

"Was that…-"

BANG! BANG!

"Oh my God, it is!" Roxas hurried toward the direction those gunshots were coming from. His eyes scanned the area and off into the distant city, trying to pinpoint exactly what part of the city the other survivor was at.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

"There's more than one!" Ventus joined Roxas' side, beginning to grow excited just as his brother had been earlier. Roxas grabbed his rifle and brought the scope up to his eye after setting it to the night-vision mode and began to look around. When they realized that the shots weren't coming from the ground level, he directed his search to the taller buildings.

And then-

"Oh my God," Roxas gasped softly.

"What? What is it?" Ventus hurriedly asked.

"There're people. In that building over there," Roxas pointed in the general direction of the building while still watching the other people fire at the zombies. Ventus squinted his eyes to take in its shape and distance from where they were sheltered.

"Holy shit! That's the Shinra building!" Roxas only continued to watch as a pair of men in business shirts were taken down by a young woman in a suit. Blood splattered onto the window, and as more came to feast, more gunshots rang out. The blonde directed his focus onto a trio of men in black suits, the ones responsible for those shots. They didn't look like regular employees, 'must be security guards.' One was bald and was wearing sunglasses despite how dark it already was; one had a really long ponytail; the last had insanely spiky hair.

All three were kicking ass.

"Roxas, there are other people still alive!" Ventus paced around, unable to contain his excitement and newfound hope. "Oh my God, oh my God, we're not alone. Two fucking months of this shit hole and we're not alone!"

"Should we go get them?"

"No. No fucking way in Hell. We go out there now and we might as well just hang ourselves. It's dark and they're all over the damn place. We'll leave when the sun comes up and whoever wants to come with us can. Why the hell would you even think about asking something like that?"

"Because…they're losing." Ventus froze in place and looked over at Roxas, his joy fading.

"W-What do you mean, 'losing?'" The other Gracy looked around the other parts of the building. It was a bloodbath no matter where he looked – the undead were gaining an advantage, and there were just too many unarmed people.

"They're not going to make it." Roxas lowered the scope and stare at the building in horror. "That place is too narrow and there's no way to escape." The scope was brought back to his eyes and he looked around for any sign that he was wrong. Every window he was able to peer into had the same scene: people running, people chasing, and eventually people being overrun by them.

He spotted a pair of girls running from a small group of undead women who were gaining fast. His eyes widened as he noticed that one of them looked just like-

"Naminé…" At that instant, he remembered that night – the night he went looking for Naminé against his brother's will. She was still home, and she was so happy to see him.

So happy, when she first noticed him standing there and staring at what she had become, she dropped her father's hand and a small twitch of a smirk appeared on her face before she stumbled in his direction. He fell under the spell of her gaze, unable to move, to breathe, to take in what had happened.

He didn't want to believe it.

'Why didn't I shoot the fucking gun?'

BANG!

"Roxas! What the fuck are you doing!" Ventus yelped, startled from the sudden blast of noise coming from his brother's rifle. Roxas was still, shaking just slightly, as he, too, realized what he had done. From his scope, he could see the girls shaking in fear and confusion from what just happened, but when they realized they were able to escape, they fled.

The women were feasting on one of their own he shot.

'I see…'

A determined expression on his face, he mentally prepared himself and searched for more survivors in the building – the trio from before had joined ranks with a couple more people wearing the same uniform and they seemed to be doing fine on their own; the girls were able to lock themselves in, what appeared to be, an empty office on the side of the building; some people in the lower levels, however, were locked outside of offices and cornered in the hallways.

BANG!

"Roxas, if you're doing what I think you're doin-"

"What, we're supposed to just sit here and watch as they get slaughtered? Damn it, Ven, I am not going to stay on the sidelines and watch people die!" Roxas shot another – a cafeteria worker, apparently – just as she was about to attack one of her former co-workers. 'Not again.'

"I was going to ask if you needed help." Ventus smirked, grabbing his own gun and joining Roxas' side. "We can't go out there and get 'em, but we can help them survive the night at least." He looked at Roxas, who in turn looked back at him. They shared a brief smile that said, "All right. Let's own this bitch."

BOOM!

The two boys froze, staring at the Shinra building. That sound didn't come from either of them. It didn't come from any of the other survivors. It wasn't a gunshot.

It was an explosion.

"No…" Roxas whispered with fear and horror as they watched the Shinra building light up the darkness, fire breaking through the night as one side of the building crumbled and fell. Smoke billowed into the sky, clouding up the stars and the moon.

There were no more gunshots.

"Oh my God…" Ventus could only watch with shock as the building began to go up in flames. He heard a thud beside him, and looked over to find Roxas curled into himself, shaking. Crying.

"Roxas…" Ventus set down his gun and gently placed a hand upon his brother's shoulder.

"Fuck me! Just fuck me!" he screamed, curling into himself a little more. "It's not fucking fair! We had them! We could've fucking saved them!" He began to pound the roof tiles with his fist. "I can't do this anymore! What the fuck did we do to deserve this!" he broke down into uncontrollable sobs, all his hopes crushed just within moments of being raised.

"H-Hey, hey," Ventus stammered, taking his brother into his arms. "Some people might still be okay! It was just a small part that blew up, and most of the people were on the other side!" He tried his best to keep his voice stable, to make their situation seem not as bad as he knew it really was.

"There are still people, Roxas. They're still alive. And-And, in the morning, we'll go get them. Okay?"

"God hates us."

"God does not hate us."

"He did this." Roxas began to get up, shaking a little as denial set in. "He did this to us. He did all of this to us."

"Roxas, listen to yourse-"

"He fucking ruined the world and left us alone to rot in it."

"Roxa-"

"That," He pointed at the building set ablaze. "That was just to break us. As if taking our lives, our parents, EVERYONE WE FUCKING KNEW AND LOVED WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH!" A hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Roxas." He looked over to see his brother looking at him with worry. "That's enough." Ventus wiped away some of his brother's tears and looked him in the eye as he spoke calmly.

"First thing in the morning, we're packing up, and we're going out there." Roxas nodded slowly in understanding. "If we find somebody, we'll take them back here and we won't be alone. Not anymore. But," he paused, "if nobody's there…then we'll take what we can and leave the city. At that point, there won't be any reason to continue living here. Does that sound fair?" Roxas' eyes widened slightly, surprised that his brother actually agreed with his plan. He nodded again, a bit calmer now.

"Good."

[ f e a r ]

Author's Note:

Oh Jesus, I finally got around to this. College is being such a bitch and it's totally stifling my creativity.

…Haha. No, seriously, though. It bites. But! I'm glad I was able to finish this chapter because this, my beloved readers…this is where it really starts. You can consider every chapter up until now to be just filler stuff to pave the way for the next chapter. Shit's about to go down, and I hope you're all ready for it.

And yes. That one zombie talked. Things are only going to get worse for the twins from here on out. Juuuust saying.

Thanks to JustSayNoToPants for being the lovely beta that she is! She works so hard to find time to read and edit this and she's just so amazing and I love her. ; u ;

Read and review, please? They are, literally, the only reason why I'm still writing. ; A ;