I come with the rain 1/3

[snoozing_kitten]

-- Do I expect to change, the past I hold inside,
with all the words I say,
repeating over in my mind,
somethings you can't erase, no matter how hard you try,
an exit to escape is all there is left to find-- Echo – TRAPT






It was dark when he opened his eyes, completely and totally pitch black, enough so that he thought for a moment that his eyes might have still been closed. His mouth tasted vile, maybe like something had curled up in there and died. When he tried to move his arm wouldn’t move with him, and still feeling fuzzy he couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong. Everything felt abstract and disconnected, and he couldn’t even pull himself together enough to really care.

The blackness it was so thick, he couldn’t blink it away no matter what he tried to do. His arm was completely immobile but when he tried to move his legs something clattered noisily to the ground.

Thoughts finally seemed to straighten, untangling themselves. First , it was really dark, second, why couldn’t his arm move, third, where was he?

Movement, something slithering in the darkness and a primal sort of panic settled in, he stilled completely. There was a faint moan and he fought down his instinctive fight or flight response, slowly trying to pull at his arm, there was a little give. An irrational shiver went down his spine, zombies? No of course not, that would be dumb.

“Ouch.” The darkness hissed, and his arm tugged back, a faint feeling in his shoulder as his fingers all the way up to his elbow still felt like dead weight. Then there was more movement, and blood was rushing to his fingers and he realized that something must have been resting on it. “What?” The darkness moaned softly, obviously pained in some way. More tugging on his arm.

“Stop that.” He ground out, the faintest tingling returning in his fingers and it hurt like a son of a bitch.

“Oh my god!” A shrill squeal but undoubtedly a man’s voice, and he was being tugged forward even as things clattered to the ground in a cascade of sound and movement.

“Stop that, stop ow, fuck.” Something hit his shoulder hard and then he was being tugged forward by his arm.

“Let go of me please!” He cried, and there was a crash of something even bigger hitting the ground. But he was being pulled by his arm forwards and the ground was too hard under his knees as he was forced to them to keep from being dragged.

“Stop moving.” He yelled back, and with one last tug the other stopped moving. “I’m not holding you.”

“Why can’t I see?” The other said in a scared little voice and he was torn between being annoyed and trying to find him in the blackness to reassure him or give him a solid swat.

“I don’t know.” He answered finally, and there, there was a sliver of light now that the other had moved. They should move. The dark unsettled him too much. “Are you okay?”

“I think so?” His voice wavered, thick with fear. They needed to move, staying here in the blackness wasn’t an option.

“Good, look there is some light.” There was a tug on his arm when he mentioned it, they must be attached somehow. Pins and needles were starting in his palm, and when it moved pain burst sharp across his hand, tingling all the way up to his elbow. “Ouch.”

“Are you okay?”

“Fine. You need to move toward the light at the same time as me okay? I think we are attached somehow.” It felt natural to take charge, to be the one to crawl, one arm lagging behind him towards that tiny brightness. There was the sound of movement behind him and a small tug as his dark companion joined him. The light was closer then it appeared, and he reached out hesitantly to touch it, sitting back on his heels. The surface was cool and his fingers slipped under into coldness on the other side, he felt around the edges; as warmth settled along his side, his arm still painful with every little jolt making his fingers throb and ache. It felt like a corner, smooth under his fingers, he followed the edges up until he found the handle.

Of course, it was a door.

Feeling dumb he scooted back, moving as the same time as pulling on the handle, for a moment he thought that maybe it wouldn’t open, and that there had to be something more to this. It slid open easy enough, hitting his knee and forcing him to move further out of the way, shuffling awkwardly on his knees. The light burned his eyes, too bright after the inky darkness of their little womb. He shut his eyes tight against them, sitting back on his heels. The air that flowed in was moist and warm against his skin unlike the dry chill, his companion made a small noise, something caught between a whimper and a squeak.

It took time before he could open his eyes, each time he opened them he lasted a little longer before he needed to shut them again, lids slamming down against the brightness. Moments of near silence passed before he could keep his eyes open, still slitted against the light and the pain that seemed to center in his forehead but they were open. Turning to find his companion, he was momentarily stunned, in the grey-light the other man’s hair glowed golden, and his eyes were closed, nose scrunched with the effort. When his eyes finally did open they were almond shaped, and a deep brown, long lashes fluttering. He was breathtakingly pretty.

“Who are you?”

Those sharp eyes turned to him, blinking rapidly. He frowned, eyebrows coming together to form a little wrinkle between them. Eyes roamed over his face, pausing on his lips, his hair and his nose, and for the first time he stopped to wonder what it was that the other man was really looking at.

It occurred to him, that in all the terror before he hadn’t the foggiest idea how he ended up in the dark room in the first place. Or even what he looked like.

“I don’t know. Do you?” A startled look came over his face, it morphed quickly into panic. “Oh god, I don’t know. Who am I? How did I get here?” As pretty as he was, the wide-eyed look didn’t suit him, neither did the string of annoying questions. “Do you know who I am?”

“No.” He snapped, closing his eyes against his headache. Today was turning into a really bad day, of course he couldn’t tell if yesterday had been any better. Hell yesterday could have been shit, but he had no way of knowing. For all he could remember he killed and ate his neighbour yesterday. Tastes like chicken, he thought wryly. After all he could distinctly remember the taste of fried chicken bursting along his taste buds, but he could not remember his own damn name. He could have been anyone and done anything. “Just shut up.”

“Oh.” He blinked a few times, calm settling over his momentary panic.

“I don’t remember anything.” He said tersely, his mind filtering through everything it could. He couldn’t remember anything, about the time before the darkness. It really was like a womb, born into this grey world shiny and new. There was nothing of him from before.

“Wait.” He said the voice from the darkness, and there was a sharp tug on his arm, pulling it backwards, the pins and needles had faded to a dull throbbing sensation.

“Do you remember anything? “

“No, there’s nothing.” He looked up all startled eyes and too pale against his golden hair, pulling his hands to his face, and his own arm went with it, pulling his shoulder at an awkward angle. “What happened?”

“How the fuck should I know?” He groaned, trying to pull his arm back slowly. First things first, he needed to detach himself from this man. In retrospect, there had to be a reason he was attached to him in the first place? They must have known each other somehow, or how else would they have been in the same room like that?

A closer look at the blinding showed that it actually was a leather belt, wrapped around both of their wrists to hold them together. Curious he lifted the edge of his shirt with his free hand and found that he was missing his own belt.

“Looks like I am the one who tied us together.” The other man stopped and looked down at their joined arms. “You must be important.” The joke fell more or less flat, but the other man smiled faintly, his full lips curving in a super-model worthy smile. “Let’s get this off.”

While attacking the edges of the belt with his nail he noticed that when the other man’s sleeves shifted there was something written on his arm, started just above where the belt left off and vanished up his tanned arm. Letting go of the belt he pushed the sleeve up and smiled, for the first time since he awoke. “You’re one smart cookie.”

“Huh?”

“Look.” He pushed the sleeve further up, and there, written in big block letters on his arm ‘KOYAMA’ “That must be your name, Koyama.” That got him a full smile, his eyes going narrow with the force of it. Together they scrambled with his own shirt sleeves, made difficult by their still loosely bound hands. There it was, closer to his elbow like he was trying to hide it, block letters written in thick ink, messy, but legible ‘YAMASHITA’.

“Yamashita.” His companion, Koyama, tested it out, the name rolling off his tongue in a surprisingly smooth voice. Now that he wasn’t a discombobulated zombie voice, the sound was surprisingly soothing.

“That would be me.” He smiled back, somehow comforted by having a name, something to call himself in his own head. Keep it together Yamashita. Across his other arm, written on the soft underside, and just barely legible ‘look out for-‘ the rest of it was a wiggly line.

“Look out for snakes?” Koyama asked slowly and Yamashita snorted, shaking his head. He doubted that was the message here, but he had no way of knowing for sure what it was he was supposed to look out for. Maybe it had said look out for Koyama, maybe the other man was dangerous? Or maybe he was supposed to take care of him, and that was why they were tied together. There was no way to find out sitting here in the hallway. They managed to finally unwrap the rest of the belt, and Yamashita put it on, figuring it must be his as Koyama was still wearing one.

The light that had been so bright before came from a window, there was no glass left, just a blank opening into the cloudy sky. Huge grey clouds blotted out the sun, making the light that filtered through hazy, and down the hall where the window was yellowed over, almost completely dark. He spent a minute staring at it, wondering where the glass had gone.

“Where are we?” Koyama was standing next to him, holding onto the frame of the window and looking out into the over-cast little courtyard, there was more building on the other side. From the outside most of the windows were either boarded up or missing all together. “Do you think we live here?” If they did it was a pretty sad little place to be living.

“How should I know?” The hall to the left was dark, curving away from the windows, so he turned to the right where the hall followed the curve of the building staying within the light of the windows. “We’ll never find out if we just stay here, we should check it out.”

“O-okay.” He looked nervous, but nodded bravely anyways, pushing off the sill to stand closer to Yamashita. He wore white pants that were all but painted on to his legs, and the knees were dusty already, dark against the white. No place for a wallet, they found earlier while searching themselves. Yamashita found with something akin to awe, that his own navel was pierced. What the hell kind of man was he before all of this? A hooker maybe, the thought wrly.

Koyama stuck on his heels and for that he was pleased, after all wherever they were was dark between windows, and dusty, the paint on the walls peeling giving an over-all sinister feel. He hoped they had a good reason for being here. Even if he couldn’t think of one. Whatever the reason, having the tall man so close to him was comforting. Maybe if they found someone else they could tell them what happened. Someone somewhere had to know what happened.

“Let’s look in here.” A tug on the sleeve of his jacket pulled him towards a closed door seemingly chosen at random. Koyama knocked, and when there was no answer gripped the door and opened it slowly. Yamashita imagined that it probably should have creaked to match the rest of the scene, of course it was a sliding door, but it would have matched.

“What’s in there?”

“It’s dark.” He said back, pushing the door farther until it hit the end of its tracks with a resounding bang. What little light filtered into the room was barely enough to make out shapes, but not enough for detail. “What is this?” It looked like the room was full of oddly shaped tables, maybe a dining area?

Or not, there were three tables in the room, and the further one seemed to be attached to the wall, as his eyes adjusted he could see small doors on the far wall. A chill went down his spine and he automatically reached out to grab Koyama’s bicep. Not a dining area; a morgue. “Let’s keep going, there is no one here.” He growled, trying to bodily drag the other man away from that place.

“Wait wait, what the hell.” Koyama wiggled in his grip until he was forced to let go, but he didn’t go too far, taking half a step, but not enough to put them out of touching contact. “What was that about?”

“Those tables, it was part of a morgue.” That seemed to take him by surprise, and Yamashita was mildly amused that he could physically see the other man thinking about it.

“You’re right.” He nodded, looking over his shoulder towards the gaping shadow of the open door, probably thinking about ghosts and zombies. Yamashita decided to keep his earlier thoughts about zombies to himself as well. “Let’s keep going.”

“Good idea.” He nodded, taking a step in the direction they had been going, with one last look back Koyama started following him.

“If this is a hospital it doesn’t seem to be running anymore, there is no one around.” Koyama mused out loud echoing his earlier thoughts.

“Nope.” Yamashita agreed, peering into the darkness of yet another T-section, what they needed was a flash-light, and maybe a map while they were at it, one with a big X where they needed to go. He decided against going deeper into the building and kept following the windows, if Koyama had any objection he didn’t say anything.

“Why do you think we were here?” He asked, a few windows later, pausing to look out into the courtyard between the wings of the building. He’d asked just about every question that Yamashita didn’t have answers too except ‘Why were we tied together?’ “I mean, it is kind of strange to be here right?”

“I’ve been thinking about that, and I have no idea.” He shrugged both of them stopping by the next window, the last three had been boarded up and the light was hazy at best as it slipped through the slats. Outside it seemed the weather was getting worse, the clouds thickening and darkening, or maybe the sun was setting, it was hard to say. He wasn’t wearing a watch and neither was Koyama. Time was sort of irrelevant, but darkness and food could become an issue if they didn’t find anyone.

“Maybe we were stuck here for some reason. A dare may-Hey!” He jumped suddenly, leaning too far out the gaping hole where the window used to be. “What’s that?” Yamashita had lunged forward instinctively to grab the back of his sweater, and so he managed to see what had caught Koyama’s attention. There, a floor down and across the courtyard, a stray beam of light illuminated the opposite side, and there was someone moving there, yellow shirt glowing like a beacon. “I think it is a person.” He said excitedly, stepping on Yamashita’s feet as they both tried to push off from the window. They stumbled their way through the first few steps, getting in each other’s way as much as holding each other up.

With motivation they upped the pace, almost running through the derelict halls of this wing. In his head Yamashita tried to keep track of where this other person might be, there were too many twists to make it easy. Twice they started down a promising off-shoot hall only to find it ended suddenly or simply looped back to the first hall. In the darkness Yamashita banged into a case of some sort and Koyama tripped over a stray chair and crashed loudly to the floor. Pulling themselves back together with hands held in front of them feeling until they were together again, and fingers twisted in each other’s sleeves they looked for the stairs. A corner caught Yamashita’s shoulder despite his best efforts and he almost bounced with the force of it, grunting low in his throat in pain.

“Okay?” Koyama’s voice was soft, vibrating in the humid air that pressed against him.

“I’ll be fine.” He mumbled, holding his free hand out higher, hoping to avoid a repeat of the corner. They couldn’t go very fast in the darkness, but they were determined, and probably a little desperate for some answers.

“Was it this way?” Koyama asked, tugging him left and Yamashita tried not to trip on his feet as he followed the other man down the dark hall, up ahead it seemed like there was some light. They moved towards it automatically, they were not too much help without being able to see anything, “Looks like more windows.” He said absently, picking up the pace as soon as they were clear of the worst of the obstacles.

“I think we found the other side of the building.” The light came from the cracks between the boards, as a large majority of these windows were covered. In the gloom a single free window down the hall seemed overly bright. “Maybe we can see out from there, and get a clue.”

Kindly Koyama didn’t ask about what because Yamashita didn’t really know, but it seemed reasonable to be optimistic.

“Good idea.” He had a dazzling smile, white teeth flashing in the gloom. When they moved his arm followed Koyama’s both of them neglecting to let go of each other, and for a moment it seemed familiar, just on the edge of his mind.

They passed a few doors, one hanging open ominously, gaping blackness between its frames, Koyama gave the door a wide berth and Yamashita didn’t laugh at him. Another tug on his arm, steps quickening as they approached the window and then it hit him, why it had seemed familiar, right, they had been tied together when they woke up. That made him frown, had his memory always been so bad? Or were they still forgetting things? Shaking his head of depressing thoughts he caved to another tug for more speed, Koyama pulling him in a bee-line. Outside was enough to distract him, a small voice in his mind telling him to ‘just stay positive!’, it had begun to drizzle since the last time they looked, the wind pressing the small droplets against his face when he stuck his head out.

There was one streetlight on down to his left, and its pale yellow glow allowed him to make out some of the details of the street below. They seemed to be three, maybe four, stories up, and across the way was a convince store attached to a large gas station, beside it was a low squat building with a smashed window. Nothing but the rain moved in the gloom. He has the shiver-inducing thought that maybe they were the last people left on earth. What would they do then?

“I think that everyone must be inside because of the rain.” Koyama said softly, staring at the dark windows of the gas station, the red digital numbers of the price glowed eerily as a spot of colour in the subdued pallet. “Right?”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Yamashita nodded, putting his hand on Koyama’s shoulder to feel the other man’s solid body heat there. Well even if everyone was really gone, he wasn’t alone. The him from before had rather tied himself to this man then be alone. When he focused on it he could still feel the pins and needles in his arms from where it had been under Koyama’s unconscious form.

They must have stayed like that for a long time, just staring at everything out the window like they had never seen a street before. Well, if you couldn’t remember seeing a street, then does it count as having seen one? As fascinating as this was, “Let’s go find the stairs.” He tugged on the other man’s shoulder, after a few more moments of resistance the other man allowed himself to be lead away. The stairs weren’t too far ahead of them, the lettering above the door, barely legible in the half-light, in fact they completely passed it by then Koyama grabbed him and they went back. The door opened into gloom, and Yamashita peeked inside standing side by side with the other man.

“It’s a little scary.” Koyama admitted, unabashedly clinging to his forearm.

“It is.” Yamashita nodded, “but we need to go down there.”

“What if we fall, it is hard to see.” Yamashita frowned; they really could have used a flashlight or something at this point.

“We just have to be careful.” That got him a nod from the other man; Koyama seemed oddly reassured by his voice alone. Either he was too trusting by nature or it could be some leftover of their time before. When they found someone it was going on the list of questions to ask. “Come on.”

“Yeah, okay.” They linked their fingers in each other’s sleeves again, like holding hands would have been any worse, but by silent assent they didn’t cross that line.

He slid his foot forwards into the darkness, leaving the door as wide open as possible so he could try and find the edge of the stairs. They moved carefully sideways until his free hand bumped into the wall, and he slid his fingers along it until the end of his shoe encountered nothingness. “Stop.” He said sharply and Koyama froze, half a step behind him. “I found the first stair.”

“Okay.” Koyama shifted around, until he could grab Yamashita’s shoulder, “how should we do this?”

“It will be easier if you can hold onto the wall as well.” He nodded into the darkness, letting go of Koyama’s arm, reaching blindly until his hand bumped into the other man’s chest, leading him towards the wall. “I will go down first, and you come right behind me.”

“Okay.” He felt the other man move under his fingertips, doing as he was instructed without complaint, even as his voice shook faintly. It was fucking creepy, descending into the pitch blackness. The hairs on the back of his neck rose, he was completely vulnerable like this, clinging to the wall as he took slow step after slow step, the only sounds of his own breathing and the sudden increase of his heart rate. As crazy as it sounded he imagined something there, just out of his reach waiting to get him.

“Yamashita?” Koyama called, voice slicing through his panic like a knife. Not the best analogy given his situation but it was enough for him to put his paranoia on the back burner. “Are you there?”

“Here.” He breathed out slowly, taking another step, he had counted six so far.

“Oh, good.” There was relief in his voice and that was sort of cute, in a weird sort of way. “I’m going to start now.”

“Sure.” He agreed, following the corner of the step with his toe so he didn’t misjudge the distance. With both hands on the wall and very carefully he made it to the first landing, the sound of Koyama’s boots tapping on the steps as he made his own way down was a comfort, allowing less of his mind to wander on sci-fi movie-esque deaths for himself. The first landing was narrow and just as black as everything else, he followed the line of the walls, two corners close to each other, and it seemed like there was nothing on the floor to trip on.

“What I wouldn’t give for a light.” Koyama called down to him, and Yamashita smiled to himself, his own shoes feeling for the second ledge. “This must be the slowest staircase ever.” They were half way now at least. “I think.” He added after a pause.

“Probably.” Yamashita agreed, moving a little faster now that he had a base sense of the spacing and height of the stairs. “I can’t imagine this has happened before.”

“It could have?” He could hear the shuffling sounds of Koyama along the landing, the scratch of his nails on the wall.

“Being stuck alone in a hospital?”

“We’re not alone.” Koyama said, and Yamashita stumbled a little his breath catching as he managed to keep his balance and only slid down one stair. “Are you okay?”

“Slipped,” he explained try to sound flippant and not like the jolt scared him, despite the way his stomach had twisted with a sudden sense of vertigo and impending doom, fucking stairs. Glad again to have Koyama at his back. “We haven’t found anyone yet.”

“Yamashita?” He frowned, pausing and Koyama bumped into his back, moving quicker. “Don’t you remember?”

“What?” He carefully made it down the next step.

“The man in the yellow shirt?”

“What- oh.” The memory surfaced, humidity had pressing against his skin and a flash of movement across the courtyard. Right, that was where they were going. “Shit.” He swore, taking the next two steps quicker. “I am having trouble remembering things, that is the second time now.”

“…Me too.”

This probably wasn’t the best time to be having this conversation, he heaved a big sigh, his foot hitting the next stair, and when he felt for the edge there was none. The next landing then, he shuffled his feet along feeling along the wall until he hit the corner, then undoubtedly the next door. “There isn’t anything we can do about that right now.”

“I’ll just keep trying to remind you where we are going.” He waited at the door until Koyama’s fingers hit his back. He wrapped them around YamaPi’s shoulder, resting there for awhile. “If you remind me too.”

“Sounds like a good plan.” He would be on the lookout for a pen, maybe a sharpie, if he wrote everything he learned on his arms then they wouldn’t lose it. “He’s on this floor somewhere.”

“Then let’s go find him okay?” Once out of the stairwell there was some light, enough to pick out the whiteness of Koyama’s pants. More of the windows were boarded on this floor. If he remembered correctly they had seen him on the side facing the courtyard.

“Courtyard right?” This floor looked exactly like the last and he shook his head.

“Yes.” They set off again.

Yamashita was quickly becoming fond of Koyama’s ability to fill in the blanks of conversation. When it seemed like they were the only two people on the whole damn planet Koyama would talk and talk and talk, and it felt like he was in a crowd. It was soothing instead of annoying, even if Koyama would constantly ask questions that he had no answer for.

What do you think happened to everyone else?

Do you think we’ll be able to remember?

What day is it?

I wonder what my favourite food is?

While he couldn’t answer any of his questions Yamashita did his best to reassure his tall companion that everything would be alright. They would find someone and they would remember eventually. In telling the other man this he was able to believe in it a little himself. Something in his heart told him that is was important to have faith. Maybe he had always been that kind of man. Faith that he hadn’t been some depraved serial killer anyways.


He decided that maybe he could have a little faith that he was that kind of man.

“He’s gone.” Koyama sighed, squatting down against the wall. Yamashita thought that they might have circled the whole building, but it was impossible to tell without leaving a bread crumb trail. Probably should have thought of that earlier. “Or he was never here.”

Yamashita can’t remember seeing him anymore, the mental picture isn’t there, but by reminding each other, then that was what they were doing here. Koyama slid down the wall between two windows, squatting with his hands in his long hair. Yamashita lifted his own hands to his hair, tugging on it, to find that was wavy and sort of long like the other man’s. How weird was it to think that he had never wondered what his hair looked like before now.

“Hey, it is okay.” He was squatting down in front of Koyama, reaching out hesitantly to pull his hands out of his hair and offering a smile. Koyama smiled back, full lips and narrow eyes. God, but was he ever pretty, he had to be a model or something. Even with his hair sticking up in all directions from his fingers, he looked too good. “We’ll figure something out.”

He might have had more to say, even if he wasn’t sure what, but his stomach chose that moment to grumble, his low-level hunger rearing its head. He’d been ignoring the twisting in his stomach in favour of their desperate search until now. Koyama smiled at him, leaning his head back against the wall and chuckling.

“I’m hungry too.” He shrugged.

“Okay then, new mission.” He declared, “Find food.”

“Aye aye leader.” Koyama shifted to stand, and Yamashita stood, for a moment they were too close together, and if it felt good that could be because Koyama was the only person on this whole damn world and Yamashita really didn’t want to be alone. “We’d have better chances if we went out.”

The idea was sort of reassuring and sort of terrifying at the same time, so far all he knew was the hospital. But they couldn’t ignore their hunger forever. “Good thinking.”

Which meant more stairs.

When they found the stairs again Koyama went down first, feeling his way carefully. They looked to be on the second floor, so they descended one more floor. Working more efficiently in the dark now. Yamashita couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all very ‘survival horror’, and when Koyama opened the door into a room with long low tables set out with all manners of grotesque instruments the feeling ratcheted up to a lump in his throat while the other man gasped loudly.

“Oh god, what is this?” In the far corner a white sheet stained in splashes of random gore hung over one of the tables covering what appeared to be the shape of a body. The whole scene was lit in a pale monochrome by the weak light filtering into through the windows along the side. Koyama took a tentative step inside, they had found an ‘exit’ sign pointing this way, indicating that the lobby was through here. Instead they stumbled into a mad doctor’s laboratory. There was a door on the far end. Reaching out he gave up on pretending and grabbed the other man’s hand.

“Just go.” He didn’t want to stay here any longer then possible.

“O-okay.”

At about half way through the room, Koyama stepped up on a little raise in the floor, thinking nothing of it until it sank under his foot and a blast of pressurized hair hissed loudly and suddenly in the otherwise silence of the room. With a shriek he took off, running towards the door and pulling Yamashita along with him. He only managed to bite down on his own cry of alarm by accidentally biting down on his tongue when it happened. Fingers interlocked they hit the door at a dead run and burst through it into a long hallway, all of the doors that branched off hung open, and it was more than less boarded up leaving little pools of light in the darkness here and there. Koyama kept running, and Yamashita kept up with him, panic skittering through his mind and making him faster.

Just what the fuck was going on here?

The wide double doors at the end of the hall at first didn’t open when Koyama ran into it, and he swore under his breath fingers skittering along the second door and it pushed outwards unlike the other. Yamashita closed it behind them. He was breathing faster, hands shaking as he rested against the door to hold it close, Koyama crouching near him, hands over his face again, this time Yamashita had nothing to say to that.

“Oh god oh god.” He was whispering under his breath. “What was that?” There was just enough light in here to make out the other man’s wide eyes, mouth slightly parted.

“I don’t know.” He shook his head, moving a little so he could squint down the hallway they had just run. At the far end the door into whatever the hell that was was still hanging open. Nothing moved. “There doesn’t seem to be anyone else.” But the feeling of discomfort had settled into his chest, making it hard to breath properly, heart thrumming along like he’d just run a marathon.

“I’m scared.” Koyama said in a small voice and Yamashita could only shake his head, no words of comfort coming to mind immediately, even the optimist part of him silenced by adrenaline. “Where are we now?”

He took a moment to really look around, willing his heart to slow down as he did, there was a set of multiple double-doors that leaked in all the light in the room. Tile floor, scattered with wires and the dark boxy shapes of some sort of equipment on the ground here and there. Most importantly and at the same time the most out of place, was a long low table by the doors that seemed to be laden with platters of food. With one last look down the still hallway Yamashita pushed himself off the door and moved towards the table, the sound of boots shuffling behind him meant Koyama was following.

“Weird.” The other man muttered to himself, both of them staring at the food. Endorphins were still running though his blood, brain working too fast, and still he couldn’t understand. There was something more to this that was missing. Well actually he was missing the whole damn puzzle, but the few pieces they did have were not fitting together. “Why is there food here? It isn’t some sort of trap is it?”

He thought of the body shape under the sheet back there. He looked at Koyama, and the other man looked back, obviously thinking about the same thing. Yet, he was so hungry, he was willing to risk it.

“We could always try the gas station.” Koyama cocked his hip a little, but his eyes had never left the bottled water sitting on the table. Yamashita could empathize, his throat was parched, and he wanted it so badly.

“I will try some, and if I don’t die you can have some too.” He tried to smile, to make it seem funny but Koyama just pulled an annoyed face. His lips pinched and there was a crease between his brows.

“I don’t like that.”

“Too bad.” Yamashita shook his head; he didn’t want to try the gas station only to find something worse waiting for them there. He was so hungry. The seal of the bottle of water cracked when he twisted it, and that at least was mildly comforting. He took a long pull of water, the tepid drink soothing the sting in his throat.

They seemed to pause on baited breath as he put the bottle down, it was clear plastic, and looked just like water, it hadn’t tasted funny either. Koyama was worrying his bottom lip, frown still firmly in place. When nothing happened immediately he took another drink. Nothing popped up to explain why there would be food out here, enough to feed quite a few people at once or a handful over time, but neither was he dropping dead or turning green. Setting the bottle down he stuffed a cracker in his mouth whole, his stomach still cramped up with hunger, it would take a lot of food to ease that.

Koyama watched him looking less then pleased.

He ate four more crackers, washing them down with large gulps of water, before he paused to take a mental check of his body. His stomach was still painful, hunger pulling him to stuff a piece of bread in his mouth next. He didn’t feel tired or drugged at all. Licking cracker crumbs off his lips he nodded at the taller man. “I think it is safe to eat.”

That didn’t get him a smile, only a faint scowl, his lips thinning into a line of displeasure. He grabbed a bottle of water and cracked the seal easily, taking small sips of the water between bites of the cracker. They were silent while they ate, Koyama visibly brooding, and Yamashita ignoring his displeasure while eating his fill.

“Why did you do that?” He should have guessed that Koyama wouldn’t let it drop, they were just about done, Yamashita was inspecting some of the stuff that was still lying around. There was a boom with an attached microphone and a bunch of empty cases that made him frown in confusion. “We could have found something else.”

“What? What else is there?” Yamashita said back evenly. “I don’t see a whole lot.”

“I don’t know.” Koyama crossed his arms over his chest, standing up straight, and Yamashita was forced to realize that they were roughly the same size, and while Koyama was skinny there was a breadth to his shoulders that spoke of strength. “Something.”

“I did something.” Yamashita said back evenly, and that made his frown worse.

“Did you even stop to think?” He hissed, and there was something wrong with the look of anger on his face, it made his gut twist funny. Maybe he had been poisoned? “If something happened to you, then what could I do? There isn’t anything I can do to help.” He seemed mad, and Yamashita’s mind whirled with the information. It was selfish in essence, Koyama didn’t want to be alone, to lose a second pair of eyes on his back. Yamashita couldn’t blame him. He thought of how things could have been if he was alone.

“I’m sorry.” He managed, he had done the right thing, but clearly the other man needed to be appeased.

“Just, don’t do anything stupid again okay?” Koyama wasn’t smiling, but his posture had relaxed a little. Something about it made him feel sort of fuzzy.

“I will remember to consult with you on all stupid ideas from now on.” He nodded, wondering for the nth time what the other man was to him before all of this. “How about we go out there and see if we can find anyone?”

Koyama peered at the row of double doors and Yamashita followed his line of sight; in the entire time they had been there no one had come by their little corner of the world. The rain was coming down harder now, he could see it forming large puddles on the street, catching and reflecting the light of the street lamp.

“I guess we can’t stay here can we?” Koyama said softly. With the rain the humidity broke and the temperature was rapidly plummeting. The idea of sleeping here was looking less and less appealing. Koyama walked the few steps to press his palms against the glass, all but one of the sets of doors had chains holding the doors shut.

“I don’t think that’s a good plan.” YamaPi agreed, standing closer to the warmth of the other man’s body then strictly necessary. At least the other man seemed to be done sulking, his face smoothing of its frown. In the glass he caught the vague shape of his own outline, thick mouth and big eyes, all cast into wild shadow and too hard to see clearly. “We should probably keep looking.”

“Okay.” Koyama nodded, bumping into him with his shoulder as he pressed off the glass. “Then we’ll find out what is out there.”

There being all of that endlessness beyond the glass, for a moment his heart thumped funny, beating oddly against his rib cage. He realized that it was fear, twisting in his stomach like a snake. Outside the rain splashed making the sides of the puddle widen slower than they could track with his eyes alone, but he knew it was happening. Some part of his brain knew exactly how basic physics worked, but was at a loss for why he knew it, couldn’t remember learning it, or even ever needing this thought, but then there it was.



Part 2