Bloom and Scatter [Free! Zombie AU]

Lost & Found - Part 3

He stepped through the corridor, scanning his surroundings. There was a row of doors that led to... offices? Consultation rooms? Most of them were open. Rin passed by one and a cursory look revealed that it was empty, but had been completely ransacked. The same was true of most of the rooms he peered into. At the end of the passage was a doorway that led to a foyer that linked other corridors together, with a main staircase leading up and down, and two lifts. He lowered his hands, stepping over a trampled gurney to the nurse's station, checking the counters for anything useful. There were some bottles of prescription medicine and a stack of gasmask filters, but it was mostly paperwork. He couldn't help the small quirk of the lips when he realised one of the nurse's had been doing her homework under a patient report.

"He must have come and gone," Rin said as he approached the model skeleton hanging on the wall, beside some medical posters and hospital notices. He poked the skeleton in the jaw, listening to the clack, clack, clack of the enamel bones clicking against each other as the body swayed and dangled in place.

CRASH!

Rin spun round, machete out. Something was definitely on this floor.

He strained his ears, heard something that was undeniably... scraping. Images rushed through his mind, of zombies clawing at a door. He touched the butt of his shotgun and considered several possibilities. He approached, slowly but steadily, wincing as he felt glass crunch underfoot and hoping that whatever it was wouldn't detect him. Rin pressed his back against the wall, taking a deep breath, and slowly peering around the corner.

Rin sheathed his machete and deftly pulled out his shotgun. He stepped into the open and reloaded, loudly.

Makoto let out an honest-to-goodness squeak as he jumped up three feet in the air and dislodged the crowbar from where he had been attempting to break a chained door, holding it unsteadily in front of him. When he saw it was Rin, he hesitated.

"I see that you aren't sure whether you should be pleased or afraid to see me," Rin began pleasantly, tilting his shotgun up and back so it leaned against his shoulder as he stalked towards Makoto as menacingly as he could, "That is the correct response."

"I-I can explain."

"Oh, no doubt about that. You can start with that damned stunt you just pulled. How could you have left me behind?"

Makoto couldn't respond and hung his head, "I... I have no excuses for that."

"Wrong," Rin said sharply, "You're going to tell me exactly why you did just that. And why you lied to me."

Makoto's head snapped up, "I didn't lie to you, the journals really did say that he came here."

"Yeah? Mind telling me why you'd artfully omitted the part about zombie experimentation in the Tottori medical department?"

Makoto fell silent briefly. He answered, in a softer voice, "I... didn't think that was as relevant."

"You mean 'attractive', right? It's not as attractive as a story about your stranded friend, who we just have to save. God damn it, Makoto, this was exactly why I didn't want to come back here in the first place! We knew there was a hoard here, and thanks to this entire fuck up, we know for a fact that they're probably here because they were fucking created here or something!"

"But I wasn't lying," Makoto insisted, "Nakagawa said that even after the hospital was deserted, he insisted on coming back here. There was something here that was important."

"What? What the fuck could be so important that your friend came back to a fucking zombie-infestation?"

"I..." Makoto hung his head again, "I don't know."