Chapter Text
It had been a few weeks since Langa had seen anybody.
Everyone has already evacuated, which he can't blame them for, the zombie apocalypse is only something you'd see in fiction, so seeing it come to life would naturally scare people away. Langa has been living off of some groceries his mother picked up a few days before the apocalypse had occurred.
Speaking of, ever since his mom had left to secure the house, he hadn't seen her return. Could she have been attacked by the undead, maybe even by a rogue group of raiders. He doesn't know, but he can only hope for the best.
Just as he'd finished cleaning the table tops of dust and rubble, he heard the sound of the front door opening, a head of messy, pink hair popping through.
"I'm back, hope you aren't dead," a tired voice echoed quietly through the small living room, keeping quiet. Langa's ears perked up at the sound, quickly turned around to see his older brother, Kaoru.
"Cherry, did anything happen while you were out? Did you see mom anywhere? Where did you-" He was cut off when a hand was placed quickly over his mouth, making him quiet down.
"God, do you never run out of questions? If you want to know what's out there, then I suggest you look for yourself. Also, no, I did not see mother anywhere, trust me when I say I attempted to find her." Kaoru shook his head softly, taking off his dirtied clothes.
Langa stared at his older brother as he walked briskly to the bathroom. He was just wondering, what's so wrong with that? He knows that Kaoru only wishes to keep him out of trouble, but it gets overbearing at times. He also wants to protect his family, so why can't he?
Before he could lose himself in his thoughts, Cherry had stepped out of the bathroom in casual clothes and a towel around his mop of hair.
"Were you alright while I was out? I brought back some food for us, and maybe a few desserts for you to indulge in." Kaoru wasn't looking at Langa while he spoke and only moved to the bloodied bags filled with ingredients and snacks.
"Uh, I was alright, I didn't get attacked...or anything like that." He was raking his fingers through a few strands of hair, trying to brush a knot out, but only putting stress on his scalp in the feeble attempt. A hand had slapped him out of the movements, looking over towards the culprit he only narrowed his eyes.
"You need to stop doing that, honestly, I know everything is practically free now but we can't be crossing the city to get you good hair products for when you're balding, Langa. Take care of this mess you have while you still have it." Kaoru scolded him, but there was no malice in his tone.
"Sorry, I'll just..brush it then." He let out a small sigh, getting up to move toward the bathroom. He walked with a hunched back, obviously upset from doing nothing all day.
Langa began to brush his hair, albeit roughly and not in any way that Kaoru had intended him to. In the middle of fighting a small knot at the back of his head, there was a loud shot that rang throughout the small apartment and into his ears.
He moved to the door slowly, peeking his head out of the room to see the commotion, only to see Kaoru holding a pistol to someone's head.
The person seemed to be around his age, but with the yellow hood covering half of his face, he couldn't tell much about them other than that they had red hair.
"Cherry, who is that? Are they a raider or something?" Langa looked up to Kaoru's face, now unreadable. His face wasn't blank, but Langa couldn't tell what he was thinking. Before Kaoru could speak, the person in the yellow hoodie spoke first,
"Um, hey! Could you tell this guy I'm not a raider or zombie? I'm Reki Kyan, my friends are outside, they don't mean much harm either, and we were only looking for a place to stay." The yellow hood was slipped off his head, revealing a head of red hair and bright amber eyes.
Langa could only stare, a knot of sorts had been rapidly increasing in his gut. He turned to Kaoru, his expression was still unreadable, but there was something there he couldn't quite pick up on. Perhaps his brother believed this Reki person? Langa didn't see any reason to not believe him, so he walked to the door.
"What in the world are you doing, Langa?" Kaoru's voice reached his ear just before he could unlock the front door. He turned, looking at the two people briefly before turning back around to the door.
To Langa, this is an opportunity, for both him and his older brother. They could meet more capable people and live easier in this crazy scenario, and maybe he is a bit too optimistic about this, but what else could Langa do? He hasn't had any proper human interaction in the past month, of course before this apocalypse he was a bit of a shut-in, but even he spoke to a few people.
His right hand turned the lock while his left hand opened the door. Through the little sliver of the open door, he could see two people standing on the other side of the hall, one seemed to be in his late twenties while the other person looked like a young middle schooler.
"Hello, are you with Reki Kyan?" Langa manages to utter, his voice shaking. He doesn't expect to come out of this alive if he's being honest, but what else can he do? These people look nice enough to not want his head on a stick.
"Yep, did you kill him or something? We both heard a gunshot." The younger kid, dressed in raggedy, bloody clothes asked. Langa was suddenly regretting speaking. It was usually Cherry who spoke for him, so he isn't very confident in his speaking skills.
Langa shook his head quickly, then looked down to the floor before answering, "No! He's alive and well, if you want to come in you can, but don't make too much noise please," his voice was getting softer with each word he spoke, his blood rushing to his face that was feeling very sweaty all of a sudden,
"Oh, thanks." Both of them walked into the house, pushing past him, with Langa following them in and closing the door softly. He turned to the room to see Cherry looking at everyone with annoyance. The guests were all seated at the table, doing nothing but speaking quietly. Kaoru walked to Langa quickly, putting one hand on his shoulder and whispering,
"You keep an eye on them, I need to get some...supplies of sorts. Be wary, Langa, you can't trust people easily nowadays." And with that, Langa was left sitting on the kitchen counter with his thoughts and some random people. Langa doesn't regret his decision exactly, but he does feel the strain on his jaw, his neck, and his back.
Langa was not prepared for this scenario.