"Oi! Ya kids need a ride?!"

The truck was dilapidated and rusting and most of the tires were bald. Nashi sighed. He wanted to accept his offer but before he was able to refuse it.

"We are!!!" Like a kid seeing an ice cream van, Ume jumped from sitting position and cheerfully went to the truck.

With closed eyes, Nashi only shook his head and silently followed his sister. "...Don't change your mind, kay?" He said to Ume, though unaware of what her brother meant by that, she only tilted her head and carried Yuzu with her.

Once they walked closer, the old man wasn't alone. Sitting next to him was a girl, maybe around 10 at most, silently watched them while her head was resting against the window. "Ah, sit in da back! da front is already taken!" Said the old man.

Nodded, the siblings followed the old man order and climbed their way to the back, with Yuzu in the middle, Nashi right in the old man back and Ume on the grade school girl. "Yar all set? Hang on then kiddo, I'm not a good driver!" Said the old man followed by the pirate sounding laugh.

Though, with a deep sigh, Nashi slowly closed his eyes and let the wind hammered and flapped his hair. Thinking that at the very least he could take a relaxing sleep. And on his side, Yuzu the only one that didn't manage to drink the potion was holding her dry throat. "...Nee-chan, I'm thirsty."

Hearing this, Ume carefully crawled her way, knocked at the glass and shouted. "Uncle! Can I get some water?!"

"Water?! Just take it from the blue bag!" Said the old man.

Once again, as the wind flapping her skirt she crawled her way to the blue bag and what she found was a big pile of treasure. Water, canned foods, flashlight, batteries, hand crank radio, first aid kit and medications, multi-purpose tool, blankets, and what really attracted her attention was the soap, shampoo and toothpaste.

As a girl, the odour that permeated from her body was really unforgivable right now. Not to mention the smell that came from her brother, the smell of blood from her brother clothes really pierced her nose, and it was worsened with the fact that the wind hammered against them, making the smell turned into rotten one.

After she opened the cap and gave the bottle to Yuzu. "So~ Uncle! How's the city?!"

"The city ain't good!! Why do ya think we're here?"

"O..oh..." The ugly expression she made as she regretted her question was enough to make her won the tv show. Though, as she watched her sister gluttonously drinking the water, spilling it from the corner of her mouth. Slapping her cheeks for many times to change her face back. "So, where is your destination?!" once again she shouted.

"Ah'm heading south, ah heard there is dis city that still standing on the south!"

"Oh?! What city?!"

"Ah dunno, anyways even if that city ain't no good, ah can take my boat and head to my island." After that, no one spoke about anything, and then the old man spoke again. "So, whatz yar story?!"

"What do you mean by that?!" Said Ume.

"Well, considerin ya guys don't know bout the city, mah best guess iz dat ya guys are escapin before everythin went bad."

"Hmph, that huh... I guess we're just lucky." Said Ume as her voice became smaller after each word, suddenly remembering about her father and mother. And somehow feeling grateful that her brother didn't leave her back then.

"Lucky huh? Ah guess we're all gonna need dat." And once again the old man closing his words with pirate laughed. "By the way, ya'll can call me Hatake, and dis little one iz my granddaughter, Eiko."

"Oh~ Nice to meet you Eiko~ The one that speaking right now is Ume, the stink one is my brother, Nashi. And this little on is Yuzu, come Yuzu, introduce yourself."

"Yes! My name is Kamiya Yuzu, 5 years old!" Yuzu shouted cheerfully. Though there was no response from Eiko, as she just silently watched the road.

"Sorry little one, she hasn't said a single word since this happened, anyway, she isn't a bad child. Trust me, when she begins to talk nothing can stop her." Said Hatake while he patted Eiko head.

"Oh, I see... well if you need someone to do your hair just ask me!" Shouted Ume.

And as they journey continued, one young man in particular always groaned in his sleep.

***

Nashi silently sat in the dark while he watched his father came in. The room was nothing like the steel and concrete monoliths around it. The walls were as thick as a medieval castle and the windows almost as mean. There was no flicker of light within and the thick wooden doors were closed as he expected them to be.

Then after the calmful conversation, his handcuffed hands were slamming against the metal table, creating a sound loud enough for the other police to hear it from the outside.

"I'm your son goddamnit!!! How can you not believe me?!"

"No, I do believe in yo-"

"Then why are you agree with that?! That wasn't my fault!!"

His father only reaction was massaging his forehead as the needle just pierced it. "...Listen, you're still young, there are many things that you don't understand yet."

BAAAM!

"STOP GIVING ME THAT BULLCRAP!! WHAT I DID IS SELF DEFENCE!!!"

Sighed, he only shook his head. "Yes, I know... it's just... there is a limit for what you think about self-defence, and once we get out, make sure to follow what I do."

"WHAT?! BET YOU'LL BOW YOUR HEAD RIGHT?! LIKE HELL I WILL BOW AT THEM! YOU'RE NOT EVEN FIGHTING THEM!!"

"...Nashi, listen, sometimes fighting back isn't an option. Anyway, it's either this or you'll go to juvenile."

And walk out they did, when the door was opened, eight persons in total were glaring at the young man whose face was covered with bruises and stitches. "...Tch, you better put your child in the mental hospital."

"I'm sorry." Said his father as he forced Nashi to bow his head alongside with him, and inside of his working suit was eight thick brown envelopes, slowly changed the ownership from his hand into their hands.

***

Waking up was no longer the pleasure it was. It could be really hard, especially when you dreamed about someone you'll never meet again. People said the memory of a dream would be erased, they might be right but one thing they didn't mention was the lingering feeling that stayed behind. And in Nashi case was regret.

Then his lids that were drooping and leaden violently opened as if he'd been woken by the disaster siren. But only this time, rather than a siren, it was his because he bumped the back of his hand into the rusty steel. "...What happened?" Said Nashi as he rubbed his head, looking around and found both of his sisters were rubbing their head in pain, like the one he just did.

"Ya'll okay back there kiddo?! Seems like we're gonna take a detour." Shouted Hatake, as he slowly turned his truck from the row of the abandoned cars.

(...Why they abandoned their car?) Was the only question that popped in Nashi's mind when he saw this. He stood around and gazed to the distance, from what he could tell, seemed like there was a big accident, considering the amount of traffic that came from their way and the opposite way.

(...But why didn't they turn around? or driving to the side.)

As the nauseated and uncomfortable feeling eating him from the inside. "...Yuzu, give me the sword to Ume and the chain gear to me." Listening to her brother, faithfully she took them out and gave it to her siblings. "And Ume, help me looking around.

(...There are no corpses, no red or green dot and the car isn't damaged either. This feels like.... they just disappeared? but why? yeah the traffic is bad but I don't see the reason for them to abandon it.)

But before Hatake was able to turn his truck, the engine suddenly stopped. Yeah, it was an old truck, but the timing and the location really gave a bad vibe for Nashi. And while Hatake tried for a dozen amount of times to restart the engine, Ume suddenly pointed toward something shouted. "Ah!! There's a person over there!"

Squinting his eyes, Nashi vaguely did see someone, though it was too far for him to clearly tell about the face but from the figure alone he could tell it was a man.

"Nii-chan, there's another one over there too." Yuzu said as she pulled his pants, pointing with the other hand to the shadowy figure, this time it was a pale-skinned woman, dragging her feet while she seemed muttered about something.

"Oi! Yar okay over there miss?!" Hatake Shouted and waved his hand to the pale-skinned woman. Maybe because she noticed his gesture, the woman turned her body and slowly walked to their direction.

And slowly the numerous people started to appear one by one, and as the woman entered Nashi Mini-Map radius. "It is green?!" He shouted when he saw the green dot, and not only the woman, another green dot slowly entering his Mini-Map radius. (...Am I wrong about green being another monster?)

"Where is the green one?!" Ume shouted as she tightly clenched the cutlass. Not yet realizing about the position of the problem. Though, after she said that, a few seconds later she muttered. "...Lvl 3 Zombie?!"

Surprisingly, without saying another word and relatively calm, Nashi carried Yuzu by the time Ume finished her word and jumped out from the truck. Following him was Ume, taking the blue bag and another bag away with her as she jumped down. "Old man! You're coming with us or not?!" Shouted Nashi.

"In a minute! Eiko, are you ready?!" The old man walked to the outside, carrying Eiko in his back. Though... as he ran passing the siblings. "What ar you doin? Hurry up or they'll catch up to us. Isn't they almost surrounding us?"

In reflex, Nashi dropped the chained gear and turned Yuzu's face into his body. "Close your eyes and cover you ear!" He shouted. And next on his side was Ume, trembled by what she saw with her own eyes.

Right on his back, Hatake was carrying Eiko as her blood running dark from her stomach... or if they could tell whether or not it was her stomach or her waist. Her intestines spewed onto the ground in pinkish brown coils. Indeed Nashi already realized from the first that Hatake brought a dead person with him, but he just thought that Hatake didn't realize about her being dead and he wanted to tell about it after he had some rest or once already reached their destination. But, no matter how much he looked at her, even a toddler could tell that she was a goner.

The denial was big in Hatake's mind. As the butchery rotten smell pierce their nose, Hatake said. "Don't worry, don't worry. A doctor must be able to fix her up. C'mon kiddo, what ar ya waitin for?"

And another thing that surprised them was the supposedly dead Eiko suddenly moved her head, groaning as she opened her mouth. "Oh~? Yar awake?" Said Hatake.

Trained by the many of B-rated zombie movies, Nashi wanted to warn Hatake, but before he was able to do that her mouth already bit his neck. His skin was being peeled back, his arteries being torn, and slowly his life fluid splurted like a fountain.

As both of Nashi and Ume watched 'Eiko' eating her own grandfather, with every munch she made, a piece of the bite-sized meat fell from the hole in her waist.

Pulling Ume's hand, He ignored Hatake and dashed away, And maybe... thanks to Hatake, most of the zombies completely ignored the three siblings and continued their way to him. As they were hearing the sound of munching and screaming behind them, not even stopping for once, they continued to run with Nashi breaking the head of several zombies that didn't get baited by Hatake, completely ignoring whatever item they were dropping.

After they ran until they ran out of the breath, dropping to their knees, shivering, Nashi once more being reminded of how close he was to dying.

"....Ume, you're okay?" He asked by the time he noticed Ume's dark skin had completely gone blue.

"*Sob* ...yeah."

(And she is another strong one, you are strong, both mentally and physically, maybe if both of you aren't here, I'll completely lose my mind a long time ago.) That was what Nashi thought as he slowly hugged his trembling sister.

"Nii-chan? hello? can I open them now?"

"...5 more minutes." Said Nashi, as he letting Ume spilt her emotion out, sobbing, crying, vomiting, shouting. There were different kind of emotion that came from her, and he knew Ume didn't want Yuzu to see her like this.