Chapter Text
Brian opened his eyes to nothing but pitch black. He slowly blinked, thinking his eyes would adjust to his dim surroundings, yet nothing changed; the darkness didn’t leave. He didn’t even know if he was actually awake, or if this was just another weird dream, but one thing was certain; He had to move. His body felt oddly stiff, like it hadn’t moved at all for months, even years. Even stretching his fingers took a lot of effort.
After what felt like hours of self body motivation, Brian gathered enough strength to shift his body just a bit, and he felt the area around him move. Slowly, but surely, he kept moving and moving, picking up speed as his body continuously shifted and his limbs pushed and kicked against his surroundings, trying to break free from whatever darkness had enveloped him. Brian didn’t know which direction he was going, but as he kept moving his body, the path became easier to follow. The area that previously felt compact and sturdy was now flowing through his hands. It even felt...crumbly?
He moved an arm, and watched as it pierced through the darkness, light seeping through the exit he had made.
He was out.
The zombie dug through the rest of the dirt above him and hefted himself up, landing with a thud on the ground next to the hole he had dug. He sighed in relief to be out of the dark area and turned to get a proper look at where he was.
Brian found himself in a grassy field, completely surrounded by grey tablets on the ground of various sizes. Some had crosses standing erect next to them, others had bouquets of flowers, freshly placed. Confused, he looked at the nearest slab of marble, the white and grey patterns of the rock making it stand out against the green grass. He bent down to dust off the dirt that had gotten on it, and froze when he read what it said.
BRIAN YU
199_ - 20__
B_lo__d __n, _ro___r, and _____
What did this mean? Brian stood up and backed away from it slowly, disbelief on his face. Suddenly, the sun came out from behind the layers of clouds, and when the sunlight hit him, he hissed in pain. He felt like his skin was on fire from simply being exposed to it, like the sun had somehow become much more deadly. It burned, and as the pain coursed throughout his body, he smelled smoke coming from around him.
It was as if flames were surrounding and closing in on him, leaving him to choke on the hot air from his own decaying body. As smoke entered his lungs, he looked up to the bright orange sky to see—
“BRIAN WAKE THE FUCK UP!”
Brian jolted awake with a gasp that quickly turned into a coughing fit. When he opened his eyes, Amira was the first thing he saw. The second thing was all the smoke surrounding her, apparently not even fazing the girl. At that moment the smoke detector in his bedroom beeped, and a few seconds later water sprinkled down to the horror of the djinn.
“Argh! Goddammit, not again!”
She quickly ran out of the room as Brian scrambled out of the bed and landed with a thud on the floor. The zombie ran into the bathroom, grabbed a nearby bucket and turned the faucet on to let water gush out into the container.
“C’mon, c’mon.” He mumbled to himself as the smell of smoke filled the air and his lungs, though he barely noticed any pain from the latter. It’s not like he could die twice…right?
The moment the water nearly reached the top of the bucket, he rushed out and threw it onto the bed, though it didn’t seem to help. In fact the fire seemed to be burning even brighter now, causing more smoke to form. He coughed loudly before running back into the bathroom to fill up the bucket again.
As he was doing so, a loud hissing noise filled the air, and the heat radiating from outside the bathroom seemed to slowly disappear. Brian looked out the door to see Oz spraying the contents of the fire extinguisher in his hands all over the last remaining embers. The shadowy figure wiped the sweat from his forehead once the fire stopped showing signs of life, and the alarm finally stopped ringing. Brian breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thanks man.”
“No problem. When I saw Amira run out I knew that it was another Code Red.” Oz placed the now empty extinguisher on the floor and chuckled at his own joke. A few seconds later, Amira walked into the bedroom with an apologetic look.
“Sorry about that B, guess I wasn’t paying attention.”
“It’s fine, who needs bedsheets anyway?” He straightened his back with a loud crack, and stretched his arms, sore from the unexpected awakening.
“What are you guys doing here anyway?”
“Here to pick you up, duh. You wouldn’t answer your calls, so Vicky told us to go check up on you.”
“Why? I was just sleeping.”
“It’s 3:00pm.”
“And?”
Amira gave a huge sigh in response.
“Whatever, just get ready and meet up with us at the outdoor party tree in an hour. Later, B.” Amira walked out of the apartment door, slamming it shut as she left.
“You better take a shower, dude. You smell like smoke.” Oz paused before sniffing his cardigan.
“...And so do I. Guess I’m missing Mrs. Feratu’s class.” He headed towards his own bedroom, one of his many living fears closing the door behind him.
Brian wiped his face with his hands as walked into the bathroom, still trying to fully process what had just happened in the span of a few minutes. The bucket he was previously filling with water was now overflowing in the sink, the faucet still gushing water out of it. Brian let out a grumble as he turned it off.
That was one hell of a way to wake up.