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Eric frowned watching the words scroll across the bottom of the screen before he went around the couch to turn the volume up to actually head the words that where being said as opposed to just reading it. It sounded ridiculous. Water being Toxic? Yeah, sure waterborne diseases were a thing but being outright toxic? No. Not unless you lived closer to an active volcano or something of similar odd occurrences. Still, it wasn’t even common anymore not with how filtered their water was nowadays.
Course he could be wrong. It wasn't like he had the most reliable schooling to reference so he could definitely be wrong. Still sounded ridiculous to the blond though.
"We're home! Hey Eric what are you watching?"
The blond turned to look at two of his boyfriends as they both returned to their home from their work. Akiyama, Benzai, Fujishima and Eric had all moved in together shortly after taking down jungle and … and well the near death that they had all gone through. "Hey Himori, hey Yuujirou. Just the news. Have you seen this? They are saying that toxic water is the cause of the high influx of sick people. They said it is in the high thousands already but they haven't exactly pinpointed where it is coming from."
Akiyama hummed and placed a quick kiss to Eric's cheek before looking at the screen as Benzai went to loving on their currents set of stray cats in their home. "Yeah. No one has died yet but they are not sure where the source is so they are advising to sticking with bottled water and boiling when necessary. Doesn't seem like it is anything to worry over though." The green haired male said before looking around. "Where is Kousuke?"
"He's out with Kamamoto on patrol. He said he'll stop and bring home dinner for us all on his way back." Eric replied smiling at the kiss. "I have an early patrol in the morning before I go into the dinner for lunch rush shift."
"That’s the patrol you have alone, right?" Benzai asked looking up from his kneeled position with the cats his hand buried in one of their long furs.
The blond nodded. "Yeah, everyone else at Homra is busy and Kousuke is taking the cats to the vet before he takes them to their new homes. It will be fine though. You guys at Scepter four have been a great help when it comes to patrols but it has been quiet lately so I don't expect any problems." he said with a shrug looking to the brunette.
---
What took months for the first death to happen took less than a week to turn around and bite them in the ass.
Figuratively and literally.
By the first death they had already filled the hospital with the sick and when the first death happened it was like a domino effect and the others started dropping like flies. There was nothing that helped or stopped the progression. If you got sick you died. That was it at that point doctors couldn’t figure anything out so they couldn’t really help with sickness itself.
In the days following reports of the people ‘coming back’ or ‘waking up’ started popping up in the news and it made Eric uneasy. Akiyama, Benzai, and Fujishima all told him to not worry about. Reports went quiet after the first day of ‘patients waking back up from death’ after hospitals closed its doors to reporters so the blond listened and tried to not worry.
Right up until while he was on an early morning patrol alone two days later and he heard the blood curdling scream of several people up ahead on the next street.
He ran up to see what the commotion was only to be pushed aside by a woman running away with panic and fear on her face once rounding the corner. He cursed her in English under his breath before he looked to what seemed to be the issue. While not having the fire power of the red clan to back him anymore since the fall of the slate he still had being a part of Homra to back him... Though seeing what was in front of him made him freeze and want the red power back...
People... If you could call them that were attacking other people near them. Biting into their flesh and tearing even as the person screamed and tried to get away. It didn’t matter what the person did to the thing, hit it, claw at it, nothing phased it and it still tore at them. Filling its mouth with their flesh and swallowing whole while going in for more.
Eric stepped back on reflex wanting to get out of there to save himself but there were a few people that had yet to be attacked however they were being followed by one of the things. He couldn’t leave them. He cursed quickly and grabbed a trash can dumping the contents onto the ground before he ran towards the thing slamming the open end over the thing.... he refused to think of it as a zombie... fuck who was he kidding this damn thing was a freaking zombie wasn’t it?
“GO!” he yelled at the young couple the thing had been after as he kicked the creature away watching it hit the ground the trash can firmly stuck over its body making it impossible to it to attack. It could still scream though. Loudly at that . When it did it had the other zombies on the street turn towards them actually leaving the people that they had been after to come towards Eric . “Son of a bitch!” he looked to the people that had been left alone. “Well go on then! Get out of here!” He yelled before hopping to the balls of his feet.
Alright zombies... Zombies. Fucking Zombies ... Al r ight cool. Cool. I can do this. Survived through worse... The Mafia is worse right? Whatever, just don’t get bit or scratched. Just need to stay alive. Survive. Just got to survive this shit too.
Eric’s eyes narrowed at the zombies that came after him and dodged their hands keeping their attention on him as the rest of the few people still nearby ran off. He jumped back when one swung at him and then immediately swung its other arm at him. “Fuck off.” He growled out at the thing and stepped backwards into an alley. If I go down here and then turn left at the crossing, then I can follow that down to the next road over… then I can run to Homra. I’ll run through allies and lose any of these fucking damn zombies that are around before getting there. Right, now he has a plan. He looked over his shoulder at the alley checking that it was clear before he turned and ran down it hearing the things stumble and yell as they came after him.
Making it to Homra wasn’t hard… wasn’t easy either but he still made it there safely. He wasn’t the only one either. Kusanagi was there behind the bar on the phone speaking quickly to whoever, who was he kidding it was Awashima, on the other end. Mikoto and Tatara were looking out the windows, Mikoto with his arms crossed glaring out at the street. Yata was pacing around on the phone, his actual phone and not his watch, not speaking just having it to his ear as, Eric assumed, Fushimi spoke on the other end. He looked around and frowned not seeing very many of their other members around.
“Eric.”
The blond to look at Yata with a curious look as the redhead walks over to him before he frowns at the serious and worried look his clanmate was giving him. “Saru says Munakata had them all out in the field at the beginning of all of this but he’s calling them all back to base now... But they....” Yata stopped speaking looking like he was conflicted on if he should say anything at all even after starting.
“But what shorty? Spit it out.”
“They have not heard from Akiyama or Benzai yet. They didn’t respond like they are supposed to when given the order to retreat...”