Snapdragon–strength

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Crawling out of the wrecked van at the bottom of the marsh was harder than it needed to be.

Rin hoped his luck would hold out, but he knew deep down he'd sustain some injuries.

For starters, he knew he'd hit his head on the wheel hard enough to make his vision blur in and out. It was disorienting and he wanted to vomit every time he moved, but he needed to get away from the van.

He wasn't fast enough, so of course, it exploded and threw him into a tree. He blacked out and woke back up choking on water at the bottom of the marsh, which tasted absolutely horrible. Fortunately for his group, the plan worked and the dead were all flocking to the burning van.

Unfortunately for Rin, he was still there and could barely think straight enough to even take inventory on his injuries. He pulled himself up using a tree, but the world tilted and he clapped a hand over his mouth. He swallowed down the bile and blinked the black dots out of his eyes. One ear was ringing, he hoped that wasn't permanent. Blood was running into his left eye and he wiped at it. The action didn't do much,more blood just flower down into it.

When he tried to walk, pain arced up his left leg from his ankle. Okay. So that might be fractured or broken. Good to know.

He limped very slowly. Fortunately, his sword was still with him, so he could haphazardly lop off the heads of the dead while leaning on the blade occasionally. Hopefully, he wouldn't end up accidentally falling on his sword in some butchered form of Seppuku. His breath was rattling in his chest and he really hoped he didn't have internal bleeding. There was at least one rib broken for sure, though. His throat was sore and burned from inhaling smoke and he coughed. He gagged a few times before finally losing his lunch in the midst of the coughing fit.

Everything hurt. Moving hurt. Breathing hurt. Seeing and hearing hurt.

So he was in very bad shape. It was a miracle he was even on his feet.

Rin couldn't think well. His head hurt, his eyesight was shit, he couldn't walk on his ankle, he couldn't breathe and he had no resources other than his sword.

He concentrated as best he could on just limping. Keep going. Just keep going until he didn't hear them anymore.

Eventually, he tripped and fell, which didn't help any of his injuries. He dragged himself to a tree and sat up against it. He was done.

It got harder and harder to keep his eyes open. He felt another coughing fit overtake him as he hunched over and dry heaved more.

His body ran out of energy and he settled down. Finally, his eyes remained closed. He couldn't tell if he stopped breathing or not, but he passed out against the rough bark of the tree.

§~•~§~•~§

"Shima, you have to be careful!" Konekomeru worriedly bandaged the cut on the teen's forehead.

"M'fine Koneko." He mumbled. They'd found some kind of hunters cabin. There was a couple cans of dog food and cranberry sauce, which had been their dinner that night. Some corpses had come shambling up to the black-haired boy when he was gathering firewood. Shima fell and sustained a small cut on his head, but it was nothing to worry about. They took care of the dead and hurried back inside.

"How do you think everyone else is?" The smaller teen asked quietly.

"I don't know, Koneko. I hope Rin is okay, but there's no way he's not injured after that drop. I think I saw Bon, Izumo, Torako, and the kids all run to one of the buildings. Shiemi and Shura are safe with the Amazon women. No clue where Paku went at all." Shima answered honestly.

"I don't like this. Being split up. It's so quiet. And cold." Konekomeru shivered and rubbed his arms against the rapidly dropping temperatures of Springtime.

Shima pulled the teen to him. They readjusted so Konekomeru was tucked into his side comfortably in the small twin-sized bed. "Then we'll stay warm." Shima murmured. He could feel Konekomeru's blush through his shirt.

Konekomeru laced their fingers together and Shima hummed. "You like holding hands?" He guessed. There was a short silence before he got an answer. "I....I like holding your hand." The boy corrected. "Hm. I like holding yours too. It's nice." Shima decided.

"You kissed me. Back at the tree village." Konekomeru recalled. "Yep." Shima agreed. He peeked open an eye to look down at his childhood friend. "Did it mean anything?" The smaller teen wondered. "Did to me. Hope it meant something to you." Shima answered simply. He was too tired to bullshit right now and he'd been crushing on Konekomeru since first year in middle school.

"Kiss me again?" Konekomeru requested. Shima smiled and leaned down. This kiss was placed on Konekomeru's lips. They kissed delicately.

They spent the next hour lazily kissing until they both fell asleep.

§~•~§~•~§

Rin blearily opened his eyes and blinked a few times. He went to rub the grit out of his eyes, but his hands were covered in dirt and flaking dried blood. The forest was pretty clear. No zombies nearby. Animals chittered and squeaked. It was cool in the shade of the trees, but sunlight reached through in small beams that broke through the foliage of the tall trees.

Rin figured that since he'd been covered in mud, dirt, and blood, the dead had skipped right over him when walking past. He didn't see or feel any bites on his body and he was in the same position he fell asleep in. Or, he was pretty sure he was. His memory was screwy when it came to anything beyond him driving a minivan down into a marsh and being surrounded by dead people.

He got up very slowly, leaning heavily on the tree. His hearing was back to normal and he could see fine, so that was good. That meant he didn't have a concussion or at least not a bad one. His ribs hurt like a bitch and it was still difficult to breathe. Rin really hoped they didn't heal the wrong way. His ankle still hurt a lot. He'd have to find some way to clean himself up so whatever open wounds he had wouldn't get infected.

He used his katana as a cane and walked for a while. He had no idea where he was. He'd somehow stumbled far enough away from the apartment complex that he couldn't see it at all. He even climbed a tree(very painfully)just to make sure, but the trees might have been too tall to see over.

Wonderful.

He didn't like being alone with his thoughts. When he was left alone, he had time to be forced to acknowledge the fact that he liked being alone. No one to tell him something wasn't a good idea. No kids to constantly worry about when they weren't with him. No boyfriend to nag at him about certain things. No brother to piss him off 24/7. No group to lead and take care of.

He could do whatever he wanted.

He could be as reckless as he wanted.

The thought that he still had to find everyone at some point and rejoin them didn't hinder him from being reckless. That was probably a bad thing, but Rin craved the freedom this gave him. He needed time to be alone like he used to. Before, he'd never had friends and was forever alone with his depressed thoughts closing in on him the more time he spent alone.

Yukio had died and he'd been alone. He'd been able to do what we he wanted and be as reckless as he wanted with no one to stop him or slow him down.

Having a family and a boyfriend was great. Having a daughter wasn't something he'd wanted at sixteen and especially not in the Zombie Apocalypse, but he'd made a promise and he didn't break promises. He'd train Sachi like Mamushi had asked him. He'd make her strong and able to take care of herself. The worry of being a parent would always be there nagging him, but it would hopefully lessen when she got older and stronger.

Rin wondered what direction he was going in. He needed to eat soon. He'd seen some dandelions popping up in patches along the forest floor. He knew the stems could be eaten, had seen it in survival shows on TV. For now, he could snack on those and hopefully not have to resort to bugs. He had a sword, an axe, and a backup handgun. The gun could work for hunting, but there was always a problem with guns in the Apocalypse– they drew too much attention from the dead.

Rin hoped he would have to deal with that. Maybe he could make a plan on how to keep that from happening?

As he mused, he heard a crack and spotted the squirrel that had just fallen out of a tree. It was still alive, but it's leg was broken.

Rin didn't hesitate to slide his sword through its eye sockets and thought it's brain. Looked like he had breakfast. Or lunch. Whatever time of day it was.

He got a small fire going with the old but manageable technique of clashing two rocks together on top of a small nest of dry material. It took a while for it to work and get a good fire going, but he finally managed. He ate dandelion stems and cooked squirrel for breakfast. It wasn't much, but it was enough to sustain him for a while.

He stared at the fire and got an idea.

§~•~§~•~§

"We're running out of food. Think the woods are safe to hunt in?" Bon wondered to Izumo while the girls played with their dolls. "I'd hope so. That explosion had their attention and then there was that huge fire
yesterday. They're all over there, so it should be safe for us, right?" Izumo answered. Bon grinned. He was convinced it was Rin who'd started the fire. For what reason, they didn't know, but it was definitely a Rin thing to do. Rin was on his own probably, so he had no one to tell him he couldn't do things. He didn't tell Bon, but the teen knew that Rin was itching to be cut loose. Being stick with everyone's lives on your shoulders must be really difficult.

When he'd seen the huge plume of black smoke come up from somewhere in the forest a ways away from the marsh, he'd muttered "Go ham, I guess." And Kamiki and his mother both looked at him like he was crazy.

"It was Rin until proven otherwise." He'd shrugged.

"I'll go hunt, stay here." He ordered. He moved to climb down the tree they'd first come up. Most of their supplies were lost in the mob two days before, so that put them in a pretty bad place supplies-wise.

He came back later with three squirrels and a rabbit. The bunny was a lucky kill. He'd had to run in circles a few times and then dispatch the dead drawn to his gunshots, but he made it and climbed back into their little safe haven by sundown.

"I also got some firewood and rocks to start a fire." He set the materials down.

"That's good. I guess we're going caveman style." Izumo sighed in relief. It took them an annoying amount of time to get a spark and longer to get a fire going, but they managed. "How does Rin always manage to do this so quickly?" Bon muttered, balancing the dead animals on the sticks skewered through them.

"Wasn't he alone for almost an entire year? He got good at it since he didn't want to die, obviously." Izumo pointed out. Bon rolled his eyes. Even in the Apocalypse, there would always be someone to annoy him, go figure.

But that was part of Izumo's charm. Strangely, her snappy personality just made Bon want to be with her more. Maybe because she argued like he and Rin had in the beginning of their relationship. They'd argued like cats and dogs and sometimes still did, but it never really mattered what they argued about, they always made up in the end.

With Izumo, Bon didn't know what to do with his affection towards her. He loved Rin, but Izumo was also alluring. They'd spent literally a year on a ship arguing and sometimes working great together.

He noticed Rin and Izumo connected through having similar pasts and understanding that they had to raise these kids in a world filled with the undead. Both had only one parent, said parents weren't exactly the best parents, and as a result, both had grown up not so great. Kids had bullied them at school. The difference was, Rin grew up virtually alone because his twin had been trying to be a doctor and no one had time for him, whereas Izumo had at least Paku and Tsukumo for company.

Bon could relate to both with their shared issue of Daddy Issues. Izumo didn't have one, Rin's neglected him, and Bon's did the same. The other thing that tied them together was the kids. Rin was such a mom and it was amusing to watch him fuss over Sachi and Tsukumo whenever they got the tiniest boo-boo or even a mosquito bite. He even fussed over everyone else in the group. Everyone, that is, except for Izumo.

Bon figured Rin recognized Izumo as another mom and didn't bother her unless she was injured. When she had a huge scrape up the inside of her thigh and knee, Rin literally carried her everywhere and had Bon carry both Sachi and Tsukumo. The girl had complained the whole time, but Rin and Bon both knew she appreciated it.

So the trio of parents had a weird relationship that they had no time to explore because they were busy surviving and raising the next generation.

But right now, Bon enjoyed the calm silence between everyone while they ate a good dinner. America seemed nicer than Japan in this kind of world. Rin was right–there was more room to run around, more freedom for them.

He hoped this country yielded a home for them.