Bleach: Zombies

A Fan Fiction written by

David Vincent

Beginning of the End

Chaos. The screaming can be heard for miles around. Smoke covers the sky as it blocks out the pale, full moon. The smell of blood permeates the city as crimson paints eerie and gruesome portraits on walls and streets alike. One man, terrified, crawls away from his persuers until he reaches a dead end. He doesn't even have time to let out a cry before the ten crazed and mindless... things... begin to rip, bite and claw their way through him!

Soul Society.

Sei Rei Tei.

Ten hours ago.

Several stories below the surface of Squad twelve's Research and Development Institute walks a lone soul reaper. He is pale and small; roughly 4'10" with his sandals on. His lavender colored hair is cut short and dishelved. He nervously walks down the dimly lit cooridor; turning every few seconds as the steril metal hallway creeks audibly from inactivity. This particular soul reaper's name is Kohei and he's been with the division for two years. His captain, Mayuri Korutsuchi, has never even taken the time to learn his name. As Kohei continues his lonesome journey, he tries to take his mind off of the creepiness of his assignment.

His mind travels back to the day he was introduced to his captain and seated officers. Captain Kurotsuchi's first question was not that of what his name was, but rather;

Kurotsuchi: 'Are you healthy? Do you have a problem with needles?'

The small man was completely taken aback by the indiference that the man with the black and white face paint treated him with! But never the less, Kohei was determined to have his captain learn his name one day. He graduated from the Shino Academy with high marks; none being higher than what he recieved in his science courses. He heard the rumors of what became of soul reapers that didn't live up to Mayuri's expectations, but he knew that this was the only division for him. He was at home behind a computer screen or working on complex experiments...

Kohei sighs as he's brought out of his reverie when he reaches the security door that momentarily hinders him from completing his mission. As he looks at the huge door that blocks his way, he again looses himself in thought; this time of the recent past. Why was I asked by third seat Akon to retrieve past soul data on... what was his name? Kohei couldn't remember...

Akon: 'Kohei-san; I have an assignment for you. I need you to go down to level five and retrieve some data for Captain Kurotsuchi.'

The pale soul reaper finishes tapping at his keyboard before turning in his chair.

Kohei: 'B-but Akon-san, I haven't finished recording the results of my last experiment.'

Akon: 'That can wait until you get back. This won't take long and Captain Kurotsuchi is expecting you to deliver it to him.'

The lavender-haired man rises to his feet and looks up at the taller soul reaper with the small spikes protruding from his forehead.

Kohei: 'Sir, I-I don't have clearance to enter level five. My clearance only gets me into level two...'

He trails off when his superior folds his arms impatiently.

Akon: 'I was given an order from our captain and I am now delegating this task to you. Take my access card and retrieve the files. Don't come back until it's done.'

Seeing as how there's no convincing his third seat, Kohei nods his head and then bows his acceptance of the impromtue mission...

The small, pale soul reaper reaches into his kimono and pulls out the small rectangular card. He slides the access key into the card reader that's on the right side of the door and the mechanical locks hiss as they're deactivated. As the door slides open, a large amount of compressed air escapes out into the darkened hallway. Kohei swallows hard as he enters the dimly lit area. As he walks, small yellow emergency lights begin to illuminate the floor around him. The pale, unseated soul reaper shudders at how cold it is in the large storage area. I know that there are computers in here, but why does it have to be so cold? It's not like there are any actual dead bodies in here! Wait; I can't say that for sure can I? This is level five; there's no telling what kind of experiments are stored in here!

He slowly makes his way to the back of the large facility to where a small catalogue computer sits. Kohei again slides the borrowed access card into a slot on the side of the monitor and the machine's hard drive whirs to life. After the start-up process completes, the lavender-haired man stares at the screen for a moment before he finally remembers the name of the person's soul data that he's suppossed to collect. After moving his fingers along the keys like an expert pianist and hitting the search key, the computer thinks for a moment before a window pops up with the location of the desired information. A few seconds later, the printer spits out a sheet with the same information on it.

Kohei takes the page and looks at it. He sighs and begins to walk in the direction of the section that the paper indicates. The building that he's in is a fairly large storage room. Rows and rows of metal shelves are placed in perfect lines and they are stacked nearly to the sealing. As Kohei looks around, he sees all manner of items on display with their own tags for cataloguing. Most of which make him want to scream and run in terror! He takes a deep breath to steady himself as he resolves to be brave enough to retrieve the data and get out of here. After finding the right shelf system, he turns down the aisle and begins to walk to the section indicated. Let's see; row fifteen, section seven. That's easy enough, just a few more sections to go... As he continues to walk, he hears a noise coming from behind him! Startled, he spins around and accidentally knocks a beaker of glowing yellow liquid from a near-by shelf! The sealed jar hits the floor and shatters, spilling it's unknown contents on the metal floor. Kohei looks at the mess he made and gasps; immediately coughing and clutching at his eyes as they begin to tear up!

Kohei: 'Wha - *cough* - ungh - what's going... on?'

As quickly as the coughing started, it ends and the pale soul reaper finishes drying his eyes with his sleeves. He again looks at the glowing yellow liquid and begins to panic as he thinks to himself; oh no, this is bad! Captain Kurotsuchi's going to be furious when he finds out what happened! He'll experiment on me until I'm nothing but a used up corpse. Or worse, he'll reanimate me and I'll be nothing more than a mindless servant! The small man works himself into a frenzy as he imagins what punishment is in store for him upon his return to face his captain.

His breathing starts to return to normal however, when his brain begins to think about the situation. Wait... I don't hear any alarms are warnings going off. Maybe no one knows what happened just now. I could just clean this little mess up and I'd be in the clear! That's it! I'll pretend like nothing happened and deliver the data to my captain and return to my duties. He quickly looks around for something to clean up the mess and when he doesn't find anything, he rips off his own left sleeve to mop up the mess and collect the thick glass. The liquid smells awful but it doesn't seem to have any corrosive properties, so Kohei gathers the sopping wet material in his arms and begins to looks for a trash can. After several minutes of searching the large storage facility and finding nothing, the soul reaper puts the foul smelling rags on the metal floor.

Kohei: 'Well, since there's no trash can to help hide this mess, I'll just use some kido to destroy the evidence.'

He raises his right hand and points it at the soaked garment before saying;

Kohei: 'Hado, 31; Shakkaho!'

Moments later, out of the palm of Kohei's outstretched hand, errupts a small red ball of energy that soars to his intended target! The energy slams into the mess and instantly engulfs the area in a small explosion of flames, incinerating the contaminated material and leaving nothing but a small charred area in it's wake! The lavender-haired soul reaper proudly dusts off his hands as he thinks to himself; I may not be able to hold a sword to save my life, but I can sure use kido! After silence returns to the area, the small man quickly becomes his timid self once more and goes back to the spot of the accident. He examines the now vacant spot where the beaker was once displayed and reads the small card that describes the unknown substance.

Kohei: '"Experimental Augmentation Serum: Part A". "Augmentation Serum"? What would this be used for?'

The curious squad twelve member shakes his head and resumes his search for the data that he was originally sent to retrieve. A few feet down from the area he was just at, Kohei comes to his destination. He quickly picks up the data disk and rushes out of the cold and eerie storage facility.

...