Chapter Text
It had been two hundred thirty-six days since Kaveh had seen another human being. In fact, he may never see another human face ever again, except for the ones building up against the wall on the floor below him, dozens of rotting corpses— Lurkers, he called them— stacking against each other just to claw at the coarse red brick. He may die here, sitting against the rough wall in this old, shabby office building.
Kaveh had called for his mom on the ragged solar radio since he had lost her. The static-laced silence was the only reply he received, a miserable reminder of her disappearance. Every dawn, dusk, and any time he had in between, he would search for an answer, a clue.
But static. There had only ever been static.
He had traveled almost all over Sumeru, and there was no sign of her. All Kaveh wanted was his mom back.
But still, the walls bore the ghostly outlines of removed calendars and posters, faint squares where time once thrived. The floor on which Kaveh had been lying was strewn with glass and papers. Cabinets were filled, their drawers ajar after Kaveh had scavenged for supplies earlier, only to find manila folders split open, their contents spilling out their secrets. At one time, those folders were these people's most significant worry.
Yet, among the decay, history was there. Time had abandoned this place.
The air hung heavy with dust, Kaveh could see the motes swirling in the bright beams of light that pierced through jagged cracks in the boarded-up windows, the same motes he used to try and catch with his bare hands as his mom and dad laughed.
That's how most things felt these days, grasping for something out of reach: peace, freedom, his mom, humanity. But nothing was humane about killing ones you used to know, even if they are carcasses.
Kaveh had already thought about taking the easy way out. He has a couple of bullets in his Smith & Weston pistol, not nearly enough to take out the dead that lurk outside, but one is enough for himself. The only reason he hasn't is because every time he raises the pistol to his mouth, his mind says the words: “It’s a coward's way out.”
—
Day three of being stuck in this archonsforsaken office, he wondered if the workers were as tired of these walls as he was. Probably.
Yesterday Kaveh had tried to find some sort of entertainment in the classified files, but as he sorted through all of them, he found out that this was just a damn printing company, so nothing special there. There was honestly no reason for these files to be anointed as ‘classified’; what was someone going to do with the brand of printing ink they used, or how their sales were going down?
Maybe it was so that the workers felt as if what they were doing was somewhat important.
He had called his mom some more on his radio, as he always does, just hoping for an answer. But he never does. He's getting tired hearing his own voice and the static that follows.
—
Day four was coming to an end as the orange sun was setting through the windows.
Today, Kaveh had found an emergency axe. At first he thought he could use it to escape but when he glanced outside, all he could see was himself getting ripped apart with desperate hands and starving teeth. An axe and one man wouldn’t be very helpful. That’s when he decided to just try and seep his way through his hunger.
He rested his head on his backpack, which was not pleasant due to the bulky survival gear, folded flowers Kaveh made from the file paper and empty food cans were scattered about the floor around the ratty blanket that he was lying down on. All and all, it wasn’t very comfortable but Kaveh hadn't been comfortable in a long, long time.
—
Time didn't feel real, the hand on the clock still bolted to the wall is stuck forever at 3:28– but as they say, a broken clock is still always right two times a day. However, all Kaveh knew was day, and night.
Kaveh tried to clean up a bit, stacking the cans nicely, sweeping up the glass, and laying all the paper on the floor like a carpet. Kaveh didn’t know why. Routine? Pretty sure the apocalypse ruined his routine a bit. Maybe if someone showed up they would think “Wow! I’m sure glad someone cleaned up a bit!”
The dead have grown quieter now, maybe they have given up. Maybe that's a sign that Kaveh should, too.
—
The sixth day began slowly. Kaveh had not slept much. The sky was light blue due to the fog, casting the hue onto everything in its path. This light reminded him of all the days he pulled all-nighters sketching. Hunched over a desk and not even noticing it was morning until the light shone through the windows.
He lay still, curled around himself, staring at the rusted metal desk legs, and trying to find odd shapes in them like you do with clouds. Instead, he was thinking about the things he could've done. His mom could be dead, all of this could be for nothing, but soon Kaveh would run out of food and starve to death; at least he would be able to meet his mom at the pearly gates.
Kaveh sat up and groaned from the kink in his neck and peered outside the crack in the wood as he heard the Lurkers start growling, but this time, away from the brick. This time, they were going towards a man with a black mask and a hood. An alive one! Kaveh thought he was hallucinating for a minute, that this man was just another Lurker coming to guard the outside and the hunger was getting to his brain, until he saw how clear his skin was, his clothes unspotted and un-torn. The man took an unsteady step back. He didn't have a gun; he only had a bat with nails embedded into it like a sea urchin's spikes. One man against about a dozen Lurkers with no preparation? He was bound to lose.
Kaveh had to do something.
And if he died trying to do so, at least he goes out in a more valiant manner than his original plan.
“Shit!” Kaveh whispered, scurrying to grab all his things, stuffing them back in his bag, but carefully enough that it would all fit. As he stood up and began to go down the stairs, he realized he had no weapon aside from his couple of bullets. He contemplated for a moment, looking around as he spotted the “Break in case of emergency” box on the other side of the room he had found the other day, before he rushed toward it. He took the handle of his gun, slamming it into the glass of the case, quickly grabbed the axe, and ran down the stairs.
Kaveh moved the couch away from the doors that he originally dragged to block out the Lurkers and slammed the axe into the chain that he had wrapped around the handles. As he burst the door open and dropped his bag on the ground, the man turned to look at him with eyes full of surprise and the Lurkers looked with their lifeless ones and torn faces.
“Hi!” Kaveh exclaimed with a smile, looking way too happy for a man about to kill the already dead, before jamming the axe into the head of a Lurker to his right, blood splattering on the brick.
“What the fu-” The man started.
“Watch out! 12 o’clock!” Kaveh warned as the man's bat collided with the head of the Lurker behind him, pieces of brain flew and the rotten body slammed into the ground with a disgusting SPLAT!
Another Lurker lunged at Kaveh, its jaws snapping. Kaveh sidestepped, swinging his axe swiftly and cleaving through its neck. The head tumbled to the ground, the Lurker's jaw still clamping, eager for something to eat, but before it could do anything, Kaveh stepped on its head, hearing the skull scraunch and brains turn to mush.
As one limped toward the grey-haired man, without missing a beat, he swung his bat horizontally, the spikes embedding into a Lurker's skull with a resulting crack, and the man’s face showed his disgust just from his brows pinching together. He struggled to yank it free before the corpse collapsed in a heap.
Kaveh gripped his blood-streaked axe, “My name's Kaveh, what’s yours?” his breath was ragged. Across the lot, the man stood grasping his bat in a braced position, looking at him as if Kaveh himself were a Lurker, with a hint of confusion and a bit of disgust.
Kaveh lunged forward at the group surrounding the stranger, his axe cleaving through the first Lurker's skull with a sickening crunch. The man followed suit, swinging his bat in a wide arc, the spikes embedding into a decaying neck.
“Alhaitham.” He answered with heavy breath.
Back-to-back, the strangers fought in unison, their weapons dancing through the air. Kaveh's axe whistled as it sliced through limbs, while Alhaitham’s bat crushed bones with each swing.
Blood and gore splattered across the pavement, the metallic scent mingling with the rot as the moans of the undead echoed through the abandoned streets.
Silence returned as the last Lurker fell, its head caved in by Alhaitham's bat. The two men stood amidst the carnage, chests heaving.
Kaveh glanced at Alhaitham, a grin playing on his lips. "Not bad."
Alhaitham nodded, "Likewise," glancing at the absolute disgusting mess before Kaveh grabbed a cloth from his pocket reached to hand it to this handsome stranger. Alhaitham hesitated before grabbing it and wiped blood and body rot from his face. "Thanks. Think that's all of them?"
Kaveh shrugged, a grin spreading across his face. "For now."
Alhaitham hummed and looked around as if one was hiding around the corner. Or maybe as if Kaveh had set a trap for him— which he would never do by the way!
“Thanks for that.”
“You helped save me, too,” Kaveh said before he groaned, glancing at the blue sky. “I was stuck in there for days. I never want to see those walls ever again.” He made his way back to his bag on the floor and started putting it back on, tightening and buckling the straps.
“I was wondering why they were all piled here like garbage,” Sakusa muttered to himself as his eyes followed Kaveh as he started walking to slump on the hood of a car, the metal plate underneath him making a creaking sound.
“I started running out of food.” Kaveh sat up, forearms on his knees, “So, thank ya,” he smiled at him. Kaveh may be oversharing. Maybe this man will understand that what Kaveh said means that he still has food on him. Maybe the man is starving and desperate and will lunge at him and kill him.
However, Kaveh is too glad to be glancing into gorgeous eyes that are full of life to even think about those possibilities.
“Well, you’re welcome then.” Alhaitham said, Kaveh smiled lightly before seeing Alhaitham make his way back to the road.
“Hey, wait up!” Kaveh called, quickly jumping off the car and jogging to keep up with him, “Where are you going?”
“As much as I appreciate your help, I need to keep going.”
Kaveh eventually ends up catching up and walks on his right, “Do you have a camp? Do you know any others?” Kaveh asked, “Excuse my eagerness but I've just been alone for so long, I’m just happy to see a breathing human.” He laughed nervously.
“Trust me, people aren't much better these days.” Alhaitham scoffs.
How could he say that? Kaveh hasn’t seen anyone in so long it’s driving him mad. He isn’t ignorant, he knows people grow desperate in the position of survival, but could they truly be that awful? How can being alone be better?
“But you've seen some?” He inquired.
Alhaitham only responded with silence that had a weight that words couldn’t convey. His face was thoughtful, the same face that Kaveh made when thinking about his father, or when he contemplated how much any of this was worth it. Alhaitham’s pain however, wasn’t tied to loneliness, or the agony of having to hide from the ones that you once loved because they became possessed by death. His torture is from humans. And while Kaveh still didn’t understand, that was enough of an answer for him.
“Do you have a group?” Kaveh leaned forward, trying to glance at Alhaitham's face trying to read him, but Kaveh was learning very quickly; this man is impossible to read.
“No.” He replied instantly.
“Are you looking for one?”
“No.”
“Okay…” Kaveh drawled, “Could I join you?”
Alhaitham paused, both in speech and in his steps. He glanced at Kaveh like he was an alien and studied his face for a bit before replying.
“Why?” He questioned, “Even if I was looking for a group, how do I know if I can trust you?”
“I did save your life.” He mumbled.
“So what?” He snapped, “You wanted to leave the building anyway, as you said, you just took your chance.”
“That wasn’t the only reason! I’m not an awful person! Did you expect me to just let you die?”
“Most people would.” Alhaitham said flatly, glancing away.
“I guess I'm not like most people then.” He glared. Maybe Kaveh doesn’t want to join this man, he’s a bit of a dick. However, for some odd reason, perhaps because Kaveh is desperate for human interaction, he’s inclined to trust this odd man. He doesn’t want to be alone again. He can’t be alone again. He doesn’t think he can handle it.
This seemed to catch Alhaitham's attention. “Fine.” He agreed, but before Kaveh could celebrate, Alhaitham had to ruin his mood, “But only for a couple days. Then you have to leave me be.”
Kaveh can take that.