Luka sighed again. "Hopefully…" he leaned back. He was obviously upset about this whole situation. He just didn't understand why he was as upset as he was. Lilac smiled sadly. "Hey, kiddo. Sleep well?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood.
Mori cowered a bit, looking up at Lilac meekly. He shrugged, not properly responding. He still wasn't really in the mood to talk, and he wasn't quite awake just yet.
Lilac sighed as she sat up a bit more. "Guess that's a no…" she looked away after ruffling his hair.
Mori closed his eyes, burying his face in Lilac's shoulder. Kas looked around with a soft sigh, leaning back on the stairs. "Ugh… I'm so bored. What time is it, even? Might as well sleep to pass the time if I'm not allowed to do anything else… you guys won't let me do anything with my leg hurt."
Lilac held Mori close to her, sighing. "I've got you…" she muttered. Luka nodded. "Yeah…sure…" he whispered. He was exhausted.
"Where are we even supposed to sleep?" Kas asked, not-so-carefully dragging himself to his feet and clinging to the rail so he wouldn't fall. Mori sighed shakily, holding tighter to Lilac.
.jpeg)
Aspen spoke up after being completely silent
"there's a room with hospital beds in it"
she rubbed her temples
"to the left down the hallway" she added.
.jpg)
"Great, we'll sleep in there then. You guys can go to bed whenever, really. We're not on much of a schedule, and I know some of you could use the rest," Lis said, shifting her gaze back to Mori once again, "It seems pretty safe here."
Tohru took off his sweatshirt, which now had tears in the sleeves from where zombie claws had slashed through. The bandages he had used to cover his wounds were messily bound over his shirt sleeves. He started to unravel them a bit, wanting to more thoroughly clean the injuries and wrap the bandages beneath all of his clothes.
As he worked to remove them, he scowled in pain a bit. He'd done a pretty rough job earlier, and he was having trouble removing some of it.
Tohru realized those wounds had bled a lot more than he thought, and now they were caked up with dried blood where he hadn't had time to clean up, only to stop the bleeding.
Aspen scooted over to where Tohru was, and began unraveling the bandages he couldn't reach, or couldn't get off.
"don't say anything, I know you probably hate this, but you obviously need help so here I am" she said quietly, opening her bag, and pulling out gauze, baby wipes and bandages, along with one bandage clip.
She began gently wiping away the dried blood around Tohru's wound, and when it was as clean she could get it, she then poured a little water on gauze, and stuck them over the wound, quickly wrapping the bandage around his arm, tightly but not to tightly, and then clipped it with a bandage clip.
"I'll head over there, then. I'm tired…" Kas started towards the room and tripped on the stairs. His heart lurched and his breathing hitched as he stumbled, swearing and grumbling at the pain. Thankfully, he'd fallen up, so he didn't fall far. He pushed himself up on his hands, holding his injured leg a few inches off of the ground so it wouldn't hurt as much.
Aspen stood up and looked up as she heard the impact of kas' hands on the marble stairs, she quickly rushed over to him, grabbing under his shoulders to help him fully upright.
"Are you okay?" she asked quietly, her grip strong and firm.
"Yeah, yeah… I'm fine…" Kas would've normally tried to shrug her hands off, not liking to be held or touched, but he was honestly a bit uneasy about the prospect of falling again. "I'm fine." He insisted.
"N-no," Tohru whispered, tensing up in pain, "It's alright. I appreciate the help, really."
He looked at the sweatshirt sitting in his lap and frowned.
"It's probably about time to see if I can find some more clothes, huh? This poor thing's about had it."
He stared at the wall, his mouth going dry as he thought about everything that had just happened again. Tohru brought his knees up to his chest and let out a sharp exhale.
Aspen gave a soft smile to Kas, and turned to Tohru, still holding Kas' underarms
"there might be spare clothes in the rooms up here, you know… the ones they put in the plastic bags after you change into the hospital gowns" she said "you can come with us, if you want" she added,
patiently waiting for Kas to get both feet on the stair ahead of them, before moving to the next herself.
Kas carefully made his way up the stairs with Aspen's help and leaned against the wall for support as he limped down the hall. He found the room with hospital beds in it and flopped down on one, panting softly from the exertion. Mori didn't seem to have much interest in anything at the moment. He didn't want to move, eat, or speak at all, and he was just clinging to Lilac quietly.
Aspen made sure Kas was settled and then wandered down the halls, touching the walls as she walked slowly.
She gave a small, sad sigh, the memories of her mother rushing back to her, the smell of her lavender perfume, the way her accent shone through when she said certain words, her bright blue eyes and the way they twinkled when she got excited.
She covered her face with her hands and leaned against a wall, sliding down until she was in a sitting position.
(Yo @ZephirFox8812 do you have any reference images of Levi?)
Lilac continued to hold Mori close as she stayed quiet. She brushed her fingers through his hair. Bean walked over to Aspen, sitting next to her. She hugged her. Luka took a deep breath before walking over to one of the empty rooms. He sat down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
(I'll have to make one since the only one I have is of his design from his other story who is ahem- missing an arm - hem)
(Oops- I was just wondering bc I may or may not be doing fanart.)
(👀)
Lis was running around, checking to see if everyone had what they needed. Aspen had Bean at her side. She appeared upset, but at least she had the company.
She found herself going back to Mori and Lilac, and she sat down next to them, wrapping her arms around both kids.
"Hey, look, I know this has been scary, but we're gonna make it. Looks like we're going to crash in this town for some time while everyone gets better, and it'll be okay. You've got a lot of us to help now."
Tohru was sitting silently, still trying to sort things out. Yet, the more he thought, the more guilty and scared he became. He felt like he was reliving what happened a few weeks ago. It was really his first time mulling over it this hard, and his first time having a flashback.
At this point, a couple of people from the original group had died. One got mauled by a zombie and was lucky enough to escape the fate that was transformation. Another died from a serious leg infection following an injury. A third died from friendly fire; someone had been trying to shoot a zombie, but they missed. Things were already going downhill when Noah started getting sick. He was just feverish and unwell at first. Tohru tried to convince himself that it was just some regular sickness, and not the zombie infection. Yet, things started growing worse. More people were dying off, order was disintegrating, and everyone was scared suddenly and became more self-serving than was healthy in this situation. And then there were two. Just Tohru and Noah. And they both knew Noah's fate.
It was about a week since Noah had started showing symptoms. His joints hurt so badly he could barely move. Daylight was unbearable and triggered migraines. He had been coughing up blood for days, and a few discolored, necrotic splotches had appeared on his hands and legs. Yet, Tohru still tried to hang on. He kept taking care of Noah, bringing him meals and water, and keeping him company even when everyone remaining had left them behind, screaming at Tohru that he was trying to save a dead man.
But finally, Noah accepted this was over. That if he didn't end it himself, he would be among the infected and go on to hurt, infect, and even kill people. He asked Tohru to finish the job; he couldn't even move his limbs well enough to shoot himself.
It hurt. It hurt so bad. Tohru had to look away as he pulled the trigger. He was too scared to look at the body. Never gave Noah a proper burial. He walked away, shocked, exhausted, scared to death.
Yet, he couldn't find it in himself to cry, he was so numb. And he never cried over Noah's death or mourned properly. That's why it was all hitting now.
Tohru tried to fight off the memories, but failed. He bit down on his lip, unconscious of what he was doing until it bled. He felt that same odd choking sensation that he had during the panic attack yesterday, that same heaviness on his chest.
He suddenly grabbed for Levi's hand without thinking. After all, Levi had helped him before. It was only natural. His breath hitched a little bit as he tried to take deep, slow breaths.
"Oh hey, you okay?" Levi said, swinging his body around to face Tohru, crossing his legs over his. He took his other hand and gave them a light squeeze. "Another panic, or something else?" He asked, his voice low so the others couldn't hear and freak out. "How can I help?"
"It's not as bad as the other day but I-I don't know… Yeah… maybe," Tohru whispered back, tightening his grip on the other's hands.
He lowered his head a bit.
"I can't stop thinking about all the shit that happened. It's finally catching up with me, I think. I most certainly don't feel… well…"
With Levi's hands in his, he was able to better stave off the worst of it, though his chest still felt heavy.
(Bump?)