The New Ajin

Chapter Thirteen

I don't remember landing.

My mind must have gone in survival mode because when I come to my senses I am running through the trees with the boy right behind me. His yellow shirt is stained with his own blood and his skin is coated with dirt.

I must look similar.

We clear the trees and find ourselves on the street.

"Where to now?" He asks me.

"I don't know. We just can't be here," I reply.

"We could go to my place?" He says this in an asking manner.

"Why are we saying we?" I say instead of an answer.

"Because we're in this together now. We have to warn the public," he stands tall and nods his head. I could see him clench his hands into fists.

I curse under my breath. He's right.

"Fine. We'll go to your house. I am Eri Kimura," I say.

"Kou Nakano," he says back.

***

He's been staring out the train window. When we first stepped foot on the train, he was paranoid. Whenever he saw a hat on a man, he thought it was Satou.  I had to yell at him under my breath to get him to quiet down.

I've been searching the train with my eyes to make sure the place was secure. The two of us do look like we belong in a haunted house but nobody has talked to us about it.

My gaze falls on Kou-san. He has a young face but he must be older to be wondering around by himself.

His eyes then go wide and he mumbles, "That's an Ajin's..."

He immediately ducks his head below the window but I take a closer look. A dark swirling pilar stretches high into the pink sunset sky.

"What are you doing! Duck!" He whispers to me.

"It's coming from a different direction than Satou," I say, "we're safe."

He slowly sits back up and the two of us stare out the window.

"Then whose is it?" He asks.

I shrug my shoulders.

The train soon comes to a stop and Kou leads me off the train. He raises his hood and we walk fast through the streets. We come in front of an apartment.

Kou decides to be a ninja and runs behind walls until he makes his way to the elevator.  He waves me on.

I sigh and walk straight to the elevator. 

"Eri-san!" He scolds me.

"What? Nobody is here," I say.

He looks around and pushes the elevator button.

The elevator comes and a woman steps through when the door opens. Kou freaks out and starts walking back but I keep my spot.

The older woman smiles, "good morning."

"Good morning," I put on a smile as well.

Kou stutters from behind me, "G-good morning."

"Oh!" The woman gasps, "so much blood!"

"Oh, yeah, I just had a big fall..." Kou starts saying.

"Ambulance! We need to call an ambulance!" The woman is practically screaming now.

"No, no. It's okay. We're okay," I try calming her down.

Kou grabs my arm and drags me in the elevator and presses the button to close the elevator doors.

The doors open again on floor 7.

We start walking to his room.

"She's always so intrusive," he tries laughing but a forced chuckle comes out instead.

He finds his keys and puts it in the lock but the door is already open. He pushes the door open.

"Kou no!" I grab him by the shirt and try pulling him back out but it's too late.

"Nakano Kou? You live here, right?" A large man in dark clothing is in his house.

I want to run. Ko-san is still standing there, however, completely frozen. I can't leave with out him.

I get in my stance ready to fight if need be. The gun from before is still in my bag on my back.

The man walks closer and my instincts are screaming at me to run.

"Yes?" Kou says.

Another man appears from the back of the apartment. He reaches for something in his coat.

I can't wait any longer.

I grab Kou by the hand and pull him away from the door. I hear the sound of a gun going off.

It sounds different from a regular bullet. It must be those tranquilizers.

We run down the hallway and I focus on getting the bag off my back and pulling the gun out. I then throw my bag back on my back.

"You have a gun!" Kou yells when he sees the weapon in my hand.

We turn the corner and another man is there.

"We have to jump!" I shout. I get on the ledge with Kou but a man grabs Kou. I raise the gun and shoot the man in the shoulder. He shouts in pain and let's go of Kou.

We're falling again.

I see and tranquilizer fly through the air and find it's way in Kou's shoulder.

We crash through electricity lines and a painful shock runs through my body as we hit hard against a gated greenery.

We land in the bushes.

It hurts.

It hurts so much.

I can't pin point where it hurts, either. The pain is all over my body.

I see Kou laying next to me withering in his own agony.

He hits the floor with his fist and struggles to stand up. I curse under my breath and stand up with him.

We are both limp running away from the apartment building. A street is in front of us.

Neither of us know where to go but we continue running forward across the street.

I hear the sound of a car and look to my side to see a car racing towards us.

There's not enough time to move.

The car rams into us and I feel my body being thrown.  I land on Kou and he screams out under me. I roll off of him and stand up. I try to raise my gun at the man with silver hair who opens the car door. Kou stands up next to me.

The man points his own gun at us.

But in the distance I hear the wailing cry of the ambulance.  I smirk at the silver haired man and tuck the gun in my bag.

The ambulance drives up behind us.

"We got a call that two people were hurt!" Four men in scrubs run towards us.

I look back at the silver haired man. He is glaring at us as he gets in his car.