Chapter Text
It wasn’t much, what they had left. It had never been much, but now it was even less - just a momentary flash in the pan of goods.
They had been on a trip together, as an extended family. Shu and Mika and Nazuna were the epicenter, the triad that had decided to begin the trip in the first place. Miyuki, Shu’s sister, had invited herself along, and so Mika had invited his sister, Suzu, and then Nazuna had invited Tomoya, Hajime, and Mitsuru, claiming them as honorary brothers. Then Suzu had invited Anzu, since she was her girlfriend. The babits took this as a cue to invite their partners, and thus Hajime invited Ibara, Tomoya invited Hokuto, and Mitsuru invited Arashi and Adonis. From there, Anzu invited her brother, Otosuke, who invited his girlfriend, Natsumi. So by the time all was said and done, it was Shu, Mika, Nazuna, Miyuki, Suzu, Tomoya, Hajime, Mitsuru, Anzu, Ibara, Hokuto, Arashi, Adonis, Otosuke, and Natsumi. Fifteen people.
Then the apocalypse started.
They’d been able to hole up in a convenience store, but things were breaking down as the misery carried on. Their food supplies were dwindling, and the threat was still raging outside. The undead… they didn’t quite patrol the streets, but they were certainly out there a lot.
Misery loves company, and the company was making everyone uncomfortable.
There weren’t beds in the convenience store, but there had been a few plush toys for sale, and ponchos. They had fashioned beds from those behind the abandoned counter, but there wasn’t enough room for all fifteen of them. They had to sleep in shifts.
Miyuki was having the most trouble adjusting. She, even more than Shu, was used to the luxury of the Itsuki name. After a week, she screamed and ran out into the night, unarmed.
The next time they saw her, they were down another person - Mitsuru was gone, Mitsuru’s remains were being eaten by Miyuki.
Hajime screamed. No-one blamed him, but they had to try so hard to protect the convenience store after the noise drew in the undead. It wasn’t quite enough, either - the window broke.
The window broke, and Mitsuru - Mitsuru - Mitsuru’s rotting corpse reached through the window and - and -
They had to abandon the convenience store, then. Scatter, and run. No-one knew where anyone else ended up afterwards, running, running - all alone now - they were all alone in the world, a world that was no longer familiar at all.
Natsumi was alone, but alive. She’d managed to run and hide, but she was down to only a single backpack of supplies. Mostly candy and chips, insubstantial food, but shelf-stable and plentiful in a convenience store. She also had a machete, a blade that was long enough, quiet enough, to fight off one or two zombies at a time, if she was careful.
She needed to keep going.
Her feet hurt as she kept running, running, running for her life, keeping to the shadows. She needed to find shelter, she needed to find the others again, but she couldn’t find anything other than uncertainty, misery.
Forward, Natsumi. You can do this.
She found an apartment building, and made her way inside. There was a chance that there would be nothing inside but danger and zombies, but there was also a chance that she could find an empty apartment that she could secure decently well. That chance drove her into the building, out of the streets.
She couldn’t have gotten out of the streets any later, really. It started to rain only moments after she made it inside.
The first apartment was unlocked. It also probably wasn’t the best place to set up a permanent camp, but if she could make it work for tonight, that would be better.
She checked every room in the apartment, and found nothing. Well… not nothing, but nothing dangerous. She found cabinets still stocked with food, and rancid food in the fridge because the power had shut off. Whoever lived here hadn’t been here in a few days at least. She doubted they were still alive.
At least there weren’t any zombies here. Natsumi locked the door, checked the windows, and determined that to secure this particular apartment, all she really needed to do was bar the windows, which she wouldn’t even need to bother with if this wasn’t the ground level. However, she didn’t think she had the energy to do that tonight…
A raid of the apartment netted her enough blankets to set up a sleeping space in the bathroom. Since the bathroom was windowless, once the door was locked, Natsumi could feel herself begin to crash. There was nothing else she could do tonight… but there was a place to sleep, and food to eat tomorrow, and she could make it one more day.
Maybe tomorrow, things would be better.