Title and summary: see above.

Rating: M for blood and gore

Disclaimer: I don't own Detective Conan and its characters. And of course I don't own the zombies.

A/N: This is Zombie Apocalypse!Future fic, so I'd like to picture Ai and Conan in their teenage age. I know not everyone is into the zombie thing. I don't know what had gotten into me, but I wrote this anyway. Enjoy!

.

Through The End (And So We Begin)

Part I

.

.

"I think the formula is working."

"Are you serious?"

"This might be our only chance."

A strawberry blonde girl was busy inspecting the test result in her hands. It was bunch of papers worth weeks of work with just 2 hours of sleeping, aspirin, and coffee. Her fingers warily flipped them one by one on the desk while her eyes screened the pages over and over again, almost in disbelief herself. This couldn't be a mistake. She bit her lip.

"We should call Professor."

As soon as she announced that, the boy with glasses nodded and he immediately jumped up the stairs to get the radio ready. When his footsteps slowly disappeared, she quickly grabbed a hundred terabyte memory card out of her drawer and plugged it in. Technically, the small thing could suck up the entire server in the lab, but she couldn't care less. A disc would break easily and hard drive could crash when in shock and her data was not something she would risk to lose right now.

When the green bar of downloading reached the maximum, she unplugged the card hastily and tucked it deep in the back pocket of her jeans. She ran the stairs soon after out of the basement in time.

"There, we're in," Conan handed her the speaker when she was approaching. She took the device and brought it closer to her mouth.

"Professor?" she prompted.

"Conan-kun said you found the formula. Is it true?"

There was an old man's voice on reply. He didn't even bother to comment of how late her call was, for he used to get mad every time she's up past 2 o'clock in the morning. But nothing was like the way they used to be. So she decided to cut the crap and bring him the news.

"Yes. It worked in nine out of ten samples down the lab."

"How many iterations?"

"Three, so far."

"When's the last run?"

"Just now."

There was a pause on the other end and she glanced to Conan on her side. His face was stern as they waited for the response.

"Listen Ai-kun, the military's going to pick up the formula first thing in the morning. It's too risky tonight. Have you made the backup yet?" Professor inquired.

"It's save in my pocket," she told him.

"Okay, good. Good," Professor said. And as the girl was expecting him to hang up, she heard him spoke again. "And, Ai-kun. Please get some sleep. Be safe. It's going to be alright."

The voice sounded concerned and she couldn't deny there's a sudden burning feeling behind her eyes.

"You too, Professor. Don't work too hard," she replied instead and swept her eyes with her sleeve. She didn't know she had missed him that much since Professor had gone away to help the military to fix things up. Things that couldn't be undone anyway.

"Yeah, Ai-kun. I'll try," there's a nervous laughter in the voice which reminded her of how silly he sounded whenever he attempted to lie. She imagined the old man would scratch his head clumsily and smile goofily while he's doing that, and the thought itself made her smile.

The radio call was over and there was silence until Conan spoke up.

"The morning is like, four hours later," he said the obvious while inspecting his wristwatch. Then he turned to her. "Come on. Let's go get you some sleep."

He extended his hand to gesture her coming and she followed suit. Instead of going inside of the bedroom, they walked past it and head to the farthest corner of the wall. Then they went inside a small room which was used to be a bathroom. There's a set of couch, a table, a small fridge, and of course bathtub inside. Since everything started, it has become their new bedroom for some reasons.

Conan locked (or blocked) the door shut as she crept inside the bathtub. Of course the couch would be more comfortable, but she felt more secure in the cold marble. She took her pistol that had been tucked on her back jeans and put it on the table. Then she laid on her side and grabbed a pillow nearby. She tried to close her eyes, readying to sleep.

She heard a sound of metal clicking right after the boy took the couch. Conan must've decided not to sleep.

The girl took her time to look at him, questioning him, though it was harder with the lack of light in the room. The boy, however, seemed to get her signal and shrugged.

"I'll keep on watch. Subaru-san hasn't coming back."

The boy explained and something clicked in her brain. Okiya had gone out to get supplies from outside and he had to go by himself. It couldn't be helped since he was the only adult in this little group. He usually had to make a run to abandoned store to get the job done for few hours. And the fact that he hadn't return was strange because he had left since the morning.

"Hey, don't worry. He's alive," Conan said immediately when she was about to say her thoughts. "He sent his signal like two hours ago. Maybe he just had to wait till the morning to come back. It's better that way."

The signal was actually a new way to communicate since none of the cell phone works. Or internet, for that mattered. So they had to be creative and Detective Boy's badges seemed like a good idea. They'd have to send beep signal (because talking would consume too much battery) to tell others when they're save. So far it had worked wonders to keep them stick together.

So she said nothing anymore and tried for the second time to sleep. She knew it's hardly possible for her to drift off easily, but Professor's words from earlier kept on playing inside her head.

It's going to be alright.

It's going to be alright as the new formula worked and soon this nightmare was going to be over. Soon things would be back to the way it used to be and they don't have to live hiding from the world anymore. She's made it so far anyway.

Well, so far.

The next time she's conscious, the sun blared through the wooden planks on the window, making the room lit and her eyes squinted. Conan was nowhere inside and the door was wide open. She's instantly on her guard as she grabbed her pistol in steady grip and walked outside. She found Conan in the TV room.

"So you can't get here? Not even in a hundred meters radius? Are you even telling me that you're the military?"

He sounded angry to whomever on the radio with him. It couldn't be anything good.

"Well break the blockage, or turn around and find another way. Or send a helicopter. I don't know. We're talking about a cure that could save the whole world, for God's sake!"

He kept on snapping to the speaker like he's bursting out his patience right now. She had tucked her pistol and approached him. Soon the girl was near and they locked gaze for a second. The military was still talking through his ear.

"And what, you expect us to come and deliver it to you? You're joking me."

He broke the eye contact and looked furious again. Now she had caught up to the conversation and understood what it was about. The thought of them going out to the road had made her gut stirred.

"Well, good. Send them here. Send the whole platoon if you have to, I don't care. You better bring your best guy or I don't think it'll gonna end well. You copy?"

He slammed the radio button with his fist when he's done. The strawberry blonde girl had been staring at him and once again, blue orbs met each others. He regulated his breath and sighed.

"Military will be here in the afternoon. The APC got blocked. They'll get here on foot," he shared her an explanation, though she already picked that much. "Stupid."

"Maybe they don't have many options, Kudo-kun. We'll just have to wait," she argued.

"We'll be fine. I'm worrying about them," he said, furrowing. "They don't know what's waiting on them in open road. The undead don't get asleep in the bright light."

Though he might be worrying too much about the professionals, he had a point. Being in open road was like suicide, unless you're invisible or something. We'd never know what's behind what. Especially when there's a horde of…

Shit. Stop thinking about hordes or she'd be going to lose her appetite for breakfast.

The girl pushed the thought away and decided to distract herself. She walked to the nearby window, which wasn't exactly a window anymore since there're more planks blocking instead of solid glass. She slowly peeped at the small gap in there and winced.

"It's so quiet out there," she thought out loud. Conan was already beside her and did the same.

"It's too quiet. It's been like this since the last two days," he muttered. "Come on, I made you sandwich."

She wanted to ask more, actually. She felt she had missed so much of the development since she's working down in the basement. But Conan had already given him the breakfast and she decided to cut the chatter. The news could wait. Now they'd just have to stay until the military picked the cure up and heal the world.

"I'm gonna check the barricades," Conan suddenly said and turned on his back. "You stay here."

"Whoa, what?" she nearly choked the damned sandwich. That boy had bad habit of deciding everything over her alone. She wasn't that weak, she wanted to tell. She could work. "I'll come with you."

"It's too dangerous outside."

"I'll watch your back, moron, so you won't get eaten and we're all die."

Conan winced at the thought and he mumbled irritably. "Good point."

The headed to the living room where a small gap was made at the door frame. It's the only way they could get in or out from the building. They made it just enough for them to crawl through. Zombies couldn't crawl.

They made it to the outside. Conan instantly held his submachine gun and aimed around. There's nothing around, though. He lowered his arm.

"Let's be quick. Pistol's ready."

She rolled her eyes. Of course she had the pistol on her grip right now. Her eyes and body were on full alert as she stood beside Conan. The boy was inspecting their first barricade. There're three more.

"This one's fine. Let's move."

He tapped her shoulder and they moved to the left side of the building. There's the second barricade there made of metal pieces and sharp iron bars. Few dead bodies scattered around the defense. No questions of the amount of blood on the surfaces.

"Gross," she couldn't help to voice her mind out. The sight was more unpleasant when exposed under the sunlight. Thank God they didn't stink anymore.

"It's perfectly fine," he didn't even bother to inspect, but the spot seemed pretty solid. "Come on."

They turned around the building to get to the third barricade in the back of the house. It's mostly wooden planks because it's the narrowest access to get inside. There're none breaking, though. And when they're on the fourth stop, the girl detected something.

"Shh. Did you hear that?" she hushed and lifted her arm on position.

Conan dropped his tools and grabbed his weapon, instantly on guard also. They both fell silent in a moment, trying to capture the noise before. It seemed to be a false alarm, before another sound of coughing was heard. Coughing? Really?

When they both couldn't guess what the sound was, the girl was being pulled back really, really fast. She was just standing there beside Conan, but a second later, she was almost meters away from him. And this thing had wrapped her really tight in the chest. She couldn't move her arms.

"Haibara! Shit!"

Conan moved as fast, though. He was shooting at something behind her. Then she felt her chest loose. She got up on her feet and let go of the slick… tentacle that had gotten her earlier. It wasn't really like anything else she had ever seen before.

"Haibara, you're okay?" Conan said hurriedly. He sounded concerned.

"I'm fine," she said. "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know. We should get in. I hear sounds coming."

The sounds he meant were actually howling voices from the distance. Zombies were soulless creatures which were only attracted to living being and loud noises. Conan's gun had broken the silence that had built up all along. It's only natural that it lured bunch of lurking undead in the neighborhood.

"Quick! Inside!"

Haibara didn't need to be told twice. She crawled her way inside and made way till the boy was through. They pulled nearby iron plank to hold the gap. They sprinted to the TV room soon after.

"Grab the backpack! I'll get the radio— what the…"

Haibara reacted on time and shot the creature right between its eyes. The thing was dead and slumped on his feet.

"Careful now!" she snapped. "I've got the backpack. Let's go!"

Though seemed pretty startled, he wasted no time and belt up the radio on his shoulder. He made comment between his efforts. "How did it get in?"

"I don't know," she said, trying not to sound desperate. How the hell should she know? They've been checking the barricades and none had been broken. But looked like the undead had found the way in from God knew where. "There's so many of them outside. Do you think they could hold?"

"Maybe we should set the fire."

It was the only sensible plan right now, since they're just two teenagers who couldn't lift anything heavier than Conan's submachine gun. If Subaru-san had been there, he surely would handle the crowd with few barrels of his semi-auto shotgun.

"Upstairs," he ordered, and she obeyed.

They both didn't find any more zombies inside as they reached the second floor. Good. The girl located the gasoline can and Conan crouched in the balcony. He was aiming his weapon on the ground. His face showed that whatever the scenery couldn't be anything good.

She tried not to scream anything when she hit the balcony too. She had seen hordes of zombies before, but it never failed to terrify her whenever they're coming. The creatures were roaring and striking anything on the way. Their nails were like claws when they're on their prey. Their mouth never stopped puking their stinking guts out.

"Throw it!" he snapped. The girl did so quickly and let go of the gas can to the middle of the crowd. "Watch out!"

And the gas can exploded when the bullets hit the liquid, making the horde ran from the barricades in fire. The zombies scattered away and for a moment she felt a bit of relief.

"More," he said, and she questioning him with her look. "The explosion could've attracted more of them. Get more gas can and we'll make fire barricades in the front yard."

The idea of more of the walking dead coming was never a pleasant feeling, so she turned her back nonetheless and got more of the cans. After Conan's order, she threw some of them near the gates, where Conan shot them bullseye and the fire started. It was just in time before they saw hundreds of impatient zombies running out the street.

"They're coming," she said, as a matter of factly.

"Come on! To the bathroom!"

He jumped off the stairs hastily while grabbing her arm. They could hear loud roaring on the street, but they didn't seem to come any closer. Conan got to the bathroom first, encouraging her to be faster. She made it eventually, and he blocked the door tight with the metal bars.

She panted as if she'd just finished a hundred miles marathon and threw herself on the couch.

"The fire should keep them away," he swallowed his own breath and collapsed beside her. "Send Subaru-san an alert."

The girl put the pistol beside her and winced. It'd been a long time since she last held a pistol like that. Firm and tight. She moved her burning fingers and goddamnit did it hurt.

Anyway, she pulled the Detective Boys' badge and sent Subaru-san the SOS morse code.

"Now what," she said in between her breaths.

"We'll wait for the military. And hoped the zombies couldn't find us here," he reloaded his machine gun and cocked it. "God, it's not even in the evening yet. We lose the barricade, we're screwed."

Okay, wait there and pray seemed like a lot easier thing to do. Surely she needed a break from the sudden zombie party in the front yard. And she was sure as hell didn't want to get strangled from the back by slobbery tentacle again.

Oh God since she remembered it, what the hell was the tentacle thing?

"Something's happening on them, Kudo-kun," she said, suddenly felt the urge to spit her mind out. "They seemed to have been…mutating."

"Ew, it sounded bad," he made a disgusted face and winced. But she continued.

"I mean, it could be. They started as ordinary flu and then changed so fast. Maybe mutation is the natural way for the virus to survive."

"Whatever happened to them, Haibara," he cut her wandering mind and her scary theory. "We're going to end it with the cure you created. And we'll do it today."

The girl lowered her gaze for a moment. However cocky the boy could be, he had quality of seeing things in good perspective, something she clearly lacked of. Well, sometimes. But mostly he's the one who kept her on track when she nearly hit herself with the wrong train.

She bit her lip. However bad the situation they're in, it's always better to think up ahead, right? What if the zombies were actually mutating? And what if they couldn't survive the day?

She shuffled the backpack she had been holding and took a bottle of medication. The boy saw her in confusion as she handed him one of the green capsule. He raised an eyebrow at her and took it.

"What's this?"

"It's the prototype of the current successful cure. We'll never know how many zombies we're going to face till the rest of the day."

"Has it been tested to human beings?"

"Just about to. We're our first volunteers."

"You're kidding, right?" he chuckled nervously, but she didn't flinch an inch. He frowned. "You're serious."

She rolled her eyes and took a capsule instead. With one quick prayer she swallowed it hard and they both waited for something to happen. Her heart started pounding, anticipating some changes in her body. But as she predicted, none had happened.

He followed her example and gulped down the prototype. The girl couldn't help sigh in relief. At least they're prepared.

"Is there any response?" he asked.

She checked her badge, but Subaru-san hadn't sending her any feedback.

"No," she said. "Not yet."

"Damn it."

He looked frustrated for a while, but then there's a loud banging on the metal door. They both paralyzed at first, deciding whether they should open it. But a second later the banging went more intense. And brutal. And there was a rasping breath joined the racket.

"Shit, they're here," Conan brought his arms on guard, aiming to the door. The girl reloaded her pistol in one smooth, trained routine. She was soon ready beside him.

The banging was going insane now. One of the metal screws went loose of too much pressure. The metal bars were rocking as the door being forced open in to no avail.

Their hands were ready to pull the trigger now. They hold their breath so that it didn't go as rapid as their heartbeats.

But there was a loud bang behind the door once, and the banging stopped. Faint running noises followed and there went the second loud bang.

It was definitely shotgun. And a shotgun meant there was somebody on their side was behind the door. Conan unblocked the metal bars and the door swung open.

"Subaru-san!" he hissed, not wanting to attract anymore undead creatures to come. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Long story, Conan-kun. I'm glad you're okay. You too, Ai-chan," he greeted her, however unnecessary that was. "But we can't stay here anymore. We need to move. Now."

Okiya was already walking on the corridor, out of the bathroom. Conan and Haibara followed immediately, with feet cautiously avoid the scattered brains on the floor. She was lucky she didn't have too much breakfast earlier, or she'd spill her stomach for sure.

"How did you get in?" Conan voiced his question when they're past the TV room. Haibara still could hear the loud shrieking from the front side of the building. Most of the creatures were still outside. The fire hadn't seemed to stop.

"The back door. I had to break in. And that's our way out."

No discussions went after that. The full stories could wait.

"There. Climb that ladder," Okiya pointed to the ladder attached to the wall behind the building. It's the access for them to get past the next block. If they're lucky, they could get out of the riots and find saver place. If there's any. "You first, Conan-kun."

Conan tucked the submachine gun in his belt and started to go up. Haibara was the next as Okiya needed to watch their backs. Once the three were at the end of the ladder, Okiya instructed them to climb down at the opposite side of the walls so they're basically separated from the chaos behind them.

Once Okiya's feet hit the ground, he gave them the direction and they rushed to the street. It's desolate, and the abandoned houses just made the day creepier. Even the sun was hiding behind the cloud now.

They've been running for minutes now when Okiya finally found their rest stop.

"Inside," he pointed to one abandoned building. "Go."

The teenagers run with the remaining strength inside and Okiya pushed the door shut. Haibara felt her body got heavier and she leaned herself on the wall. Her hands still gripping on her pistol like glue. Conan was lying flat on his back, his breath racing, and the radio already fell off his shoulder. Okiya shot one last look to the street before sitting down.

Giving time to both men to recover, the girl put down her backpack and tucked her pistol in its place. They're in tiny room with a stack of boxes and few gas cans. There's an oil lamp on the corner of the room, and there's a small bathroom behind the second ajar door.

This place was meant to be a pretty solid shelter from the outside world.

"Did you make this place?" she asked nonchalantly as she opened the farthest wooden cabinet in the room. There're stacks of food that could keep them alive for days. Someone must've prepared all of this.

"Yes. I found this room a week ago, when I was searching for supplies," the man said, regaining his breath. "From then on I started putting stuff here. We couldn't stay in the old house forever. They'll break through eventually."

"Nice thinking. I was almost hit by one of them earlier. I didn't know where they came in from," Conan commented from his spot on the floor.

"How was research?" Okiya asked instead, suddenly in realization that they had just left the lab for the zombies. She hoped they're not smart enough to locate the entrance to the basement.

"It's save. I made backup," she assured him, but Conan filled her in. As if she'd forgotten to tell the most important fact.

"She found the cure. We called Professor last night and the military was supposed to pick the damn thing up."

Okiya was struck by the big development. He looked doubtful at first, then relief, and then he turned all serious on his face. "When?"

"This afternoon. We were waiting for them, but the hordes had gotten to us first."

Okiya glanced at the girl briefly, then his brows furrowed. He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Aren't we supposed to tell them not to come to the house?"

"You know, I was just about to do that," the boy grumbled, immediately sat up, and took hold of the radio to get the right frequency. Once the connection was made, he spat up. "Hello, this is team Conan speaking."

Haibara rolled her eyes at once. She was sure Okiya did the same.

"Change of plan. New pick up location. Pull your men back, and direct them to the north. Yes, zombie overrun," he rattled on, impatient. "Stop by Beika Hospital. I'll tell further instruction when you're near. Copy?"

The boy switched off the radio once he's done. His expression was hard and tense. Well, everyone else's was too.

"Now what," she voiced up, low.

"Now we'll wait."

And so they waited.

.

.

To be continued

.

Okay, I'll be working on part II. But it'll be great to hear from you guys! Please tell me anything that comes to your mind while reading this: confusions, OOC-ness, predictions, opinions, or any even wtf? feelings. Hope I'll see you soon *gives hug*

Also, I kind of had ripped-off the zombie(s) from one of the best zombie game ever invented. Bonus point if anyone knows where's it from. The answer is in the end of part II.