Beside the Dying Fire

[Marching Can]

It's a oneshot, but I cut this into two posts because lines or whatever.
Inspired by this song.
Pastebin: http://pastebin.com/Sq6BWbr6
Please enjoy and let me know what you think.

Beside the Dying Fire

The sound of wood chopping, echoing through an empty Alaskan forest. The occasional bird call, the distant sound of rivers flowing and the gentle touch of a cool Spring breeze.

There is the sound of a snapping twig, which shakes Hanako from her tedium. It's close.

She's grown accustomed to the feeling of the axe handle. She listens for any sound that could carry on the wind. She refuses to blink until the details become too obscure, even if she thinks that it is another thing she'd be accustomed to by now.

There's a faint click of a safety being switched, and a grunt as the Nurse pushes himself from his seat. Nobody knows his name, still. The idea that there was a person, with a name, before any of this, hurt to think about. He was the strongest of the group, without a doubt, but he had lost just as much as anyone else. Everyone had ways to cope with their losses. Ways tried and tested.

Except for one of them.

Another snap, closer. It couldn't be more than two. Hanako stands by the firewood, axe close to her chest. She hates fighting them, but she hates them more.

Nurse keeps his pistol trained on the foliage ahead of them, inhaling and exhaling in silent, measured fashion. He was a hell of a shot, and he kept everyone who could hold a gun on a routine. Only two people other than Hanako, now.

Only the sounds of breathing and distant water. Only the touch of a cool Spring breeze.

He whistles.

"What the fuck, Nurse?" Hanako whispers, expression as bitter as her voice.

"It's going to be Emi and Rin," Nurse says, just as quiet but refusing to match the tone. An optimist.

"You don't know that," she says, but she wants to believe him.

They listen. Breathing, water, breeze. No whistles or chirps or barks or growls or moans.

They wait.

From behind them, from the lodge, a door creaks open. A pair of golden eyes look out expectantly. They flicker between despair and hope. The breathing behind her is laboured, and waiting for Misha to come back to her side. She needs her hand in her own now. For the first time in a long time, she worries about the others, about Hanako, Nurse, Emi, Rin, Misha.

She wishes Misha would come back.

She whistles.

Nurse gives Hanako a look. He's unsure. No, he can't be. He had to be sure. Meiko wouldn't fall prey to doubt so easily when it came to her daughter. Another broken promise. Another buried name.

They listen.

A whistle.

Hanako and Nurse almost share a laugh of relief. They settle for a smile instead.

Misha withdraws from her watch, looking away with a tear and a smile.

[Emi and Rin are back,] she signs, walking over to Shizune's side.

Shizune offers a smile, but it is frail. Her sweating hands don't make the effort to move. Even now, she saves her energy to fight on for a little while longer. She doesn't want to leave. She has to.

She wants to stay with her friends, with Misha. She can't. It had been the longest six days of her life, but it only took seven. She doesn't want to go like this.

Misha rests a damp cloth on her forehead and her hand on Shizune's, giving a loving squeeze. She won’t have to go like that. She's not sure if that makes it worse.

"Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits!" Emi speaks up triumphantly, gesturing to the string of meat and fur dangling around Rin's neck. It drapes lazily over her good shoulder.

"Almost looks like enough for a week," Nurse says as walks over to her, casually switching his pistol's safety again and grinning excitedly. Not a toothy grin, though. No more of those.

"I've never seen this kind before," Hanako says as she plays with the rabbit sitting beside Rin's ear. Rin raises a brow, and they all look at Nurse for an answer, as usual.

Nurse brushes his beard in thought, before settling on a likely explanation. "It is Spring, so they could be migrating northward for the warmth and food."

Hanako shudders. 'They' could mean a lot of things. Emi doesn't think much of it. She thinks about how lucky she is, to have warmth and food, and friends. Rin keeps thinking back to the smell of dead rabbit. She thinks about the smell of the cities, and wonders if Yamaku smells anything like that.

The girls move back to their lodge, while Nurse stands outside and watches. He thinks about the smell of home cooking, of breakfast in someone else's house.

Hanako steps out, leaving Emi and Rin to skin their catches. She thinks about how she used to cook with Lilly. She hopes it's better in Scotland. She approaches Misha's and Shizune's cabin, hesitating at the door. She listens.

[Marching Can]

Only the sound of failing lungs. Hanako bites her lower lip. It took seven days to kill, less than an hour to come back. She couldn't keep count of the hours left. Only Misha kept count. The pain of it was unbearable.

"Misha? Shizune?" Hanako slowly teases the door open, stepping into the room. That unmistakable smell of slow death, something she knew. Something she had tried her hardest to run away from, just like Emi had taught her.

Misha glances in Hanako's direction, her eyes too wet with tears to see her properly. She sniffs, trying on her brave, happy face. It nearly brings a tear to Hanako's eye, seeing her do that. Seeing them like that. The girls owed them their lives. If Shizune hadn't invited them to join her in visiting Misha in America… There are only so many places to run in Japan.

Now, Shizune lay bedridden and Misha was heartbroken. It wasn't deserved. There had already been so much pain, but the pain never stopped. It only got worse.

"Hey Hanachan," Misha says, her voice breaking, "We saw Emi and Rin get back with dinner, looks delicious!"

Misha hadn't lilted her voice once since Shizune was bitten. She'd lost the pink in her hair earlier than that. She'd changed so much.

Hanako smiles weakly, "We'll save the best parts for you two, promise."

The bed shifts incredibly slightly, but noticeably. Shizune's hands curl up on the bed, tugging at the sheets. It draws Misha's attention, even if she already knows what to say.

"No, I don't think that would do Shicchan any good," Misha's voice falters, but she soldiers on. Doing it for her. "You all need to keep your strength up. You can't waste it on…"

She can't soldier on.

"On…"

She can't. She cries. Hanako cries.

They move into each other's arms and cry. They stay together for an eternity, shoulders and cheeks red and moist with tears. They didn't count how long they stayed like that. Shizune watched, but only for a brief while. She turned her head to look out the window. The near forest, the distant mountains, the further clouds and the stars further than that.

The stars. She'd be up there with the stars soon enough.

"It's tonight," Misha finally says.

"Hmm?" Hanako quietly hums through the drying tears and her sore throat.

"It takes seven days. It's going to be tonight."

Hanako has nothing to say. She hugs Misha even tighter and plants a kiss on her cheek. Misha cracks a tiny smile as she thinks of something, anything, to fill the emptiness.

"We have to fight hard," she settles on.

Hanako doesn't understand it completely, but she nods.

"We have to fight until the end."

They part. Hanako and Misha gaze into one another. The timid girl, now survivor. The brave girl, now broken beyond repair. The sun is hanging low, now. The stars will be out soon.

Misha sits beside Shizune on the bed, squeezing her hand for one last time. Hanako turns when she reaches the door.

"I'll see you in the morning, Misha."

Misha nods, smiling with her brave, happy face. Hanako leaves as Misha's eyes settle on the bedside drawer. Seven days and six left, soon to be five. She slides open the drawer and takes out her pistol. She fiddles with the safety and holds it close to her chest.

She looks to Shizune and smiles, sincerely. Shizune stays unaware, watching out the window, waiting for the stars. Her vision is foggy, and her mind is beginning to make its last calls for happy thoughts and memories.

Misha kisses her on the forehead, before taking up a sheet around wrapping herself up alongside Shizune.

"Goodnight, Shicchan."

**

Her headstone lines up with the rest. They're not stone, only wooden panels with names and numbers etched on.

Shizune Hakamachi

Hisao Nakai

Meiko Ibarazaki

Some didn't think the others were gone. Maybe Lilly and Akira were in Scotland, safe from the rest of the world. Maybe Jigoro and Hideaki were living like kings in Tokyo. Maybe Yuuko was okay, gone to Greece.

Maybe not. None of them would carve a headstone for maybes.

Misha leant into Hanako, unable to look. They held each other close. Emi, caked in earth, stood by Nurse and Rin. Nobody had anything to say.

Emi and Nurse break away first. The day was, after all, new. They all had to do exactly as Misha said. As Shizune did.

Rin eventually speaks, looking to Misha, who hadn't left Hanako's shoulder. "The sadness will not last forever. Mr. Nomiya told me that someone important said the opposite once, but that's not true," Rin sniffed, speaking through her own partially dried tears in monotone. "It's not."

She left them with that. That and the quiet.

The occasional bird call, the distant sound of rivers flowing and the gentle touch of a cool Spring breeze.

*

[pandaphil]

Definitely an interesting setting. But its such a depressing reality that I don't think I could bring myself to follow it with these characters. It would just hurt too much to watch them suffer and die.

[Carighan]

As a standalone I think this is really good, it actually evokes a lot of the Walking Dead feeling. A really powerful game.
Ofc, having Shizune succumb brings back horrible memories to the incident with the kid. Ugh.

As a continued story it'd be cool, but depends on how "hard" you want to be on the readers. Walking Dead did a lot of good tension building by constantly threatening characters, but you would ofc run out of them rather soon.

[Marching Can]

Definitely an interesting setting. But its such a depressing reality that I don't think I could bring myself to follow it with these characters. It would just hurt too much to watch them suffer and die.

Yeah, I don't think I could either.
It was pretty hard to write as it was, to be honest, but the idea was there so I figured I might as well put it into writing.

As a standalone I think this is really good, it actually evokes a lot of the Walking Dead feeling. A really powerful game.
Ofc, having Shizune succumb brings back horrible memories to the incident with the kid. Ugh.

As a continued story it'd be cool, but depends on how "hard" you want to be on the readers. Walking Dead did a lot of good tension building by constantly threatening characters, but you would ofc run out of them rather soon.

Thanks, good to know that I hit the right note, and I agree, loved that game.

I don't think I'll be continuing it as any kind of series, although I did have an idea to do a short bit about Lilly 's probable last moments and a poetry piece detailing the fates of everyone else, so those may be around in the future.

Thanks for the input so far, guys.

[pandaphil]

^ Yeah, I've been kinda luke-warm about the tv show lately (probably another side-effect of KS's) But the game was one of the best things about 2012. There were some epic feels there.

Cried like a baby at the ending.