Mixed Zinnia–Thinking(or in memory) of an absent friend.

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Sachi liked the girls' dolls. There was a dollhouse almost the same shade of pink as the walls of the room. There was one bed, queen sized, in a corner of the room and the walls were painted a light pink with white butterflies painted on them in a few places. Old band posters hung on the walls. A white wooden dresser with a TV above it,along with a game system. A large toy box took up another corner of the room. There was a doll house with plenty of dolls for Sachi and Tsukumo to play with. There was even a short tower of drawers next to the dollhouse for the doll clothes and accessories. A teal boom box sat on top of the tower. The last piece of furniture in the room was a black wood desk with makeup pallets and utensils scattered over the surface, earrings, in the drawers of a clearly very-well used jewelry box that was filled with bracelets, rings, necklaces.

At some point, Tsukumo had found safety scissors and chopped off one doll's hair. The doll had purple hair, for whatever reason and the hair was now decently cut like Izumo's, if a little choppy. Sachi had found markers and colored the doll's blue eyes red.

It took Rin until they made Ryuji out of a male doll to realize that they were making their group out of the dolls. Rin's heart ached. The dolls actually looked like their people. The hair cuts were a bit choppy, but mostly accurate and the eyes were colored the right colors. The clothes were all cut up too. These kids were fashion experts, Jesus!

"Ugh!" Sachi threw her hands in the air, a habit she'd gotten from Rin when he was frustrated and done with whatever was irritating him. He laughed quietly. "What's wrong, sweetie?" He asked. "Non o them hav white hair, Daddy!" She complained. Rin's heart may have exploded.

"Oh God, what did I do to deserve you?" He gasped. "We can bleach it. That's the closest we'll get. We'll do it tomorrow. For now, why don't you just cut the hair and do the eyes, hmm?" He suggested. She nodded, still annoyed, and carried on.

"Are those....is that....are they making us?" Izumo blanched. "Yeah. Yeah they are." Rin answered with a smile. The two stood there, feeling like proud parents while the kids displayed their artistic talents.

A bit later, after the girls took a break for lunch and played outside a bit, they came back to the dolls.

Rin didn't pay much attention until he once again noticed something strange. "Who're you making now?" He wondered. "The girls in the picture." Tsukumo said. "Oh." Rin watched quietly. Was this an unhealthy attachment or just interest in the life of a family they'd never known?

"No, tha one hav darker eyes." Sachi told Tsukumo. The girl colored a slightly darker blue onto the doll she was working on. "Dot ar hard to make!" Sachi huffed, crossing her chubby baby arms. Rin stifled a laugh.

Rin went over and helped her with making tiny brown dots on the doll's body. "She got mark righ dere." Sachi pointed to the arm. Rin looked at the photo for reference and sure enough, she did.

"Why are there no glasses?" Tsukumo groaned. Rin snickered. "Ryuji, come make the kids some glasses for their dolls!" He called. He handed the teen some paperclips and the boy sighed. They found pliers and bent the wires into doll-sized glasses. One pair was colored black and one silver.

"Dere! Now what deir names?" Sachi wondered, tilting her head in question. "I don't know, honey. You wanna make some up?" Ryuji crouched next to the girls on the floor. Sachi thought before shaking her head. "No. I like dem as jus 'Girls.'" She decided.

"Me too." Tsukumo agreed. Rin, Ryuji, and Izumo all watched them, smiling. Kids were a blessing.

§~•~§~•~§

Sachi and Tsukumo took all their modified dolls with them in a kids' backpack that was most likely owned by one of the previous inhabitants of the house. There were actually a few old backpacks in decent shape to carry supplies, so they'd gathered what they could around town and moved to find a different place to stay.

They found a huge apartment complex a little ways down the road from that little house. It was eerily silent besides the Shima brothers messing around until Kinzou shoved Shima into a car, setting off the alarm. Then, the dead were everywhere,flooding the parking lot they were walking through. At first, there weren't that many and the group was able to fight them off. But more and more came to the sound of the alarm that echoed in the wide open space around them, herding the group into a tight circle around the kids. Rin growled at the situation and dispatched the dead around him as fast as he could, though for every one he took out, two or three filled it's place. They weren't close enough to any of the buildings and he didn't know if any were safe inside anyways.

"Kinzou, I'm gonna brain you with Izumo's shovel after this!" He growled at the blonde man. Kinzou cringed. "Sorry!" He yelped and swung his weapon to take put the zombie trying to chomp his nose. "Apologize when we're not two seconds from becoming corpse chow!" Izumo snapped at him.

"Sachi, Tsukumo–heads down, eyes shut." Izumo ordered. The little girls huddled together and covered their ears as they clenched their eyes shut as the ambling corpses surrounded the group, no openings to run in sight.

Rin glanced at the buildings, trying to find some way out of this. He wasn't alone anymore. He couldn't just slip through the bodies and under grabbing limbs to escape like he used to. He couldn't just push his way through solo with his sword and his axe like before. He couldn't be reckless.

Rin glanced around again, trying to pay attention to the zombies and trying to see what utilities they had around them.

Finally, he saw something of a plan forming.

There was a building in his peripheral vision off to his left. There was a giant pine tree behind it with branches that were low enough to reach. The tree was sturdy and taller than the building and could be climbed to the top so someone could get on to the roof of the building.

But he still needed a distraction to keep the corpses focused on something else. The Kill Circle was getting smaller and smaller as they were pushed back by the dead.

Rin heard the car alarm still blaring over the shouting of his group and groaning of the dead on his ears. If that car had enough battery power to blare like that, hopefully it still had gas and a working stereo. "Izumo!" He called. She was right next to him, fighting off the corpses viciously with a shovel. He grinned. She had more balls than Shima, he had to admit.

Once he got her attention, he began telling her what she needed to do.

"Do you see that tree over there?!" She nodded. "Good! Grab the kids and Torako and run for that tree. You all have to climb up there and stay safe. Get onto the roof if you have to!" He told her. "What about you guys?!" She asked. "I'll distract them, everyone else will have to run for cover until this is over!" He answered. She nodded. "Wait for my signal!"

He steeled his nerves and charged forward. He pushed through the dead. He sliced limbs off to make a path for himself. He ducked under grasping arms. He was surrounded entirely by corpses trying to eat him. His breath came in gasps. He had nowhere to go. The bodies crushed him from the outside. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't see, he was losing it!

He blinked sweat out of his eyes and crouched. He curled up, hugging his knees. Surprisingly, the dead just walked on past him, some tripping over him. He felt like he'd be sick if he stood back up. His stomach felt empty and flip flopped and his body shook. Cold nausea swept over him in a wave.

Okay.

Okay.

Breath. Just breath. All you gotta do is breathe, Rin. You have to do this. Do it for your family.

He swallowed the bile rising in his throat and took a few deep breaths. It felt like a different world under the dead and the destroyed world. He crawled towards the tires he could just barely catch a glimpse of.

Finally, he reached the vehicle. He grasped the handle and seeing the door open, hoisted himself up onto the seat. He didn't even look for keys. He found the wires he needed and hot wired the car. It roared to life and he looked at the gas meter. Nearly empty, of course. Hopefully this thing ran good on fumes.

He reversed, took out a few corpses, then went forward. There weren't many in front now that they were all going toward the fresh meat. He cringed at the thought and started driving down the road. Fast enough to stay ahead, but slow enough for them to stay with him. He blasted whatever was in the CD player. American Rock began blaring and he grinned. It was perfect for an action scene in a movie. The dead slowly began to come to him and he waved a hand out the window. In the mirror, he saw Izumo yell something to everyone and run with the kids and Torako to the tree he'd pointed out. He didn't see where everyone else went, but he kept driving.

It felt like forever until he made it out of the apartment complex. He made it to the main road and just as the thing went empty and started slowing down, a herd of dead walked right into the car. They must have gotten all in the tires and axle, because the car went wonky and started turning. Rin only had a second to realize what was happening as it happened.

The car plummeted down off the side of the road into a marsh below.