Part One

Pandemic

Food was rare those days, Naruto was out to hunt with his tame foxes. They could catch a rabbit easier than him, even in a starved state. He couldn't really see straight, he was just so hungry.

The problem was the pandemic. The Creeping Death as it was called. It didn't have any symptoms, you would only grow weaker and weaker day by day until you couldn't even stand. And if no one provided for you, you wouldn't even die from the disease, but from dehydration and starvation. If you were lucky and someone was willing to share the spare provisions with you even when you were at death's door, you would die slowly, painfully. No one knew where the Creeping Death had come from and no one could examine it, the scientists who had tried were long dead already. They had been too close to the virus. Humans and animals alike succumbed to it, everywhere you looked laid rotting corpses.

Only Naruto lived. He had an immunity to it for some reason. He had never been sick in his entire life and continued to stay free from this illness. It was both a blessing and a curse.

Everyone he had known had died and he was all alone. The grief had almost killed him, but it clearly hadn't.

He only had his foxes and each and every day he prayed to whatever god, goddess or demon would listen, that they wouldn't be taken from him too.

Three foxes, one orange, one crimson red and one gray. He hadn't given them names, they were free foxes after all, he was no master of them and it was not in his right to name them even when they continued to stay at his side through thick and thin. Besides if he named them, their death would be even more painful than it would already be. They were the only friends he had left. His human friends were long gone and almost forgotten after all these years.

Naruto was alone. But he searched every day for life, anywhere, anyone. To chase away the stillness, the silence.

The only sound came from the foxes. They were quite lively for all this death around them. They liked to play fight against each other, their yipping echoing through the silent world. Without this sound, Naruto was sure he would have already gone mad.

Sometimes, on good days, there was also the bird singing. When the birds sang it was the best sign. The illness was far and his foxes were safe. But when Naruto found a place where the birds sang it was never a safe haven. Only a break for all his constant worrying. Because a few days after finding the place, the birds would fall silent. The Creeping Death would catch up and the insects and birds would be the first to fall ill.

The silence was all-encompassing, it was heavy and it was deafening.

When was the last time Naruto heard a human talk? Weeks? Months? Years?

He didn't know, couldn't recall.

This lifestyle was his life for as long as he could remember, everything before the pandemic a blur, the memory suppressed, denied, forgotten.

Naruto was hungry. When was he not? But it was getting worse. He could see the ribs of his foxes, he himself lost all his flesh too, but he would survive longer than his companions. The animals were all dead here and it had been weeks since they had last eaten. But they were too weak, too hungry to really travel far. And who knew where the Creeping Death had spread?

Naruto was worried. They couldn't survive much longer and they hadn't yet risked eating the bodies all around them. Soon they would have to try. Maybe 'soon' was now.

There in the bushes lied the rabbit Naruto found. The corpse still fresh, not yet rotten. The life had only drained from the rabbits eyes a few hours ago. He stared at it now for a few minutes, as if it would miraculously come back to life. As if the sight of it would change.

Naruto had already lost the ability to be disgusted, he couldn't afford it in this world, so he stared at the rabbit's body until his foxes joined him.

They made no move to eat it, of course, animals sensed the virus in a way humans didn't. They knew that the body was sick, like poison to them. But only to them, not to Naruto.

So he threw an old cloth over it and picked the poisonous thing up, using only two of his fingertips, minimal contact for the shortest time with the contaminated flesh, he was immune but he had no need to tempt the Creeping Death. He had made a fire earlier, as he had no fur to keep him warm. He tossed the meat into the flame. The fire hissed and flared up, the flame was green. A few minutes the angry sizzling died down, the flame was red again. Was the virus gone? Was the meat edible?

He let it cook for a few minutes longer before dragging it out of the ashes. The rabbit was coal black, so Naruto used his knife to cut it open and the meat inside was rosy pink.

Immediately the foxes sniffed it, deemed it safe and made to eat it. It was safe, the virus was gone, they could actually survive, they only had to torch the contaminated meat at first.

Naruto let out a laugh at that, his voice throaty and deep from the lack of use. His laugh echoed around and his mirth died down. So he found a way to survive. But what now?

Food hadn't been their only problem, they couldn't just continue to run. He had no idea how far the creeping death had spread, where it already was and where it had yet to come. It wasn't like he had a map of it.

He broke down where he stood and let the tears fall as the relief washed over him. He was tired, he didn't want to go on anymore, what was there anyway? Even if he could find food, what was there to go on for? Just a vast nothingness and the eerie stillness and silence everywhere. Darkness and death all around him and one day Naruto would even lose his foxes and he would be alone. The sole survivor of an arrogant species that thought it was invincible. The last living being on a planet of the dead.

At long last turmoil took over and Naruto screamed. His throat hoarse from being unused so long but he screamed anyway, even though it hurt, even though there was no one to hear him, no one to care.

His foxes were startled by his outburst, they abandoned their meal and fled, not used to this loud sound, not used to their human making any real noise.

They came back though, like they always did. Of course. Naruto was their ticket to survival after all. They needed him and as long as he stayed useful to them, they would stick around. It wasn't like they saw him as a 'friend'. Naruto was a means to an end for them.

His scream had died down to a sob. Naruto felt powerless. He was alone. Always was, always would be.

His 'future' was bleak.

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNS

When Naruto woke up again after his outburst, it was dark. He sat up shakily and wiped at the now dried tear stains on his face. His foxes had left him a piece of the meat in the ashes of his forgotten fire and were nowhere in sight.

He immediately scarfed the food down, having not eaten before or after his break down and he'd been starved for a long time now. He was ravenous enough that he didn't even care for the ash on the piece or that it was already cold again.

Once done, he felt fuller than he'd ever been the last weeks, even though it was not a huge piece of meat. But it was definitely more than nothing. He licked his fingers for the residual taste. Then he started digging through the ashes of his fire to see if there was anything left in it. He even sniffed it, a habit he picked up after spending so much time only around his foxes. All in all, one could say that Naruto was more similar to an animal than to a human. Weeks and weeks out in the wild without any human contact and only instinct to trust did that to a person.

The foxes came back again, each of them carrying different animals. Three times as much food as he could have gotten by himself. They looked at him expectantly, were probably waiting to cook it, to free it from the poison.

Naruto started a new fire, the foxes watching his every move. While the fire got started, he began to skin the animals. Maybe he could use the fur, he just had to roast it a little, not burn it completely, then he could make a coat.

The flame was sickly green again when they cooked their breakfast and roasted the furs. It had been a good idea to do that first, the virus should be dead then and Naruto could use the skin without worrying about his companions falling ill.

When he pulled the meat out of the flames again, all three attacked a piece of it, but refused to eat the rest. Naruto was confused but relented in the end. It would mean more for him anyway and his body would thank him for the extra energy.

It was a fascinating feeling: to start into a new day with a full stomach. When was the last time he had felt like this? It was too long ago to recall, the constant hunger was all Naruto could remember.

He sat down. He had to think. What now? They couldn't stay here; the Creeping Death had already reached the area and the mere air could be toxic to his foxes. They had to go on somewhere.

But where? What direction had they come from?

Naruto didn't know. When they had arrived there, days ago, he had been so starved he couldn't even see more than blurry shades. He had guessed that his foxes had brought him something and he had scarfed the raw meat down without even bothering to check what it was.

So he knew that he had no idea where he had come from and no idea where to go.

And as brief as it was, the contented feeling of starting the new day without hunger was gone completely. In its stead; the pooling dread of not knowing what to do.

Naruto started breathing faster, shorter, shallower. A panic attack. Again.

He wanted to swear but his vocal cords had forgotten how to speak. He was trapped in his own mind with his own thoughts that haunted him.

His foxes sensed that something was up. The red one curled against his legs, the gray one snuck into his lap and the orange one climbed onto his shoulder, nuzzling the scars on his cheek.

He appreciated their effort, but it didn't help. He was close to hyperventilating.

What now?

What next?

Please.

Someone.

Help?

Who was he calling out to? There was no one there! He was alone, he was alone, alone.

Had there ever been someone other than him? Had the time, where he hadn't been alone, even existed? What if the world before the Creeping Death had only been his imagination? There wasn't anyone around to prove otherwise.

Wasn't this all he'd ever know?

His breathing got even faster, sometimes skipping a beat. He breathed and breathed and still got no air. Suffocating, drowning on land. Pathetic.

The foxes started to panic too; what if their pack leader died? What would they do? They needed him to start the fire for their meals. The frenzy of furballs agitated him.

They didn't even care for him, only for the food he provided!

Naruto didn't want to think that way, but he couldn't stop. His thoughts tumbling into a spiraling mess of nonsense. His vision got blurry from the lack of oxygen. The edges of it started to darken. He would lose consciousness any moment now and the thought spurred his panic on even more.

And suddenly…

Nothing.