Daryl, Rick and Carl had been traveling for almost twelve miles scavenging for food when they came upon a small town. Raiding towns was no big deal for the group as they have done it many times before, but something was different about this town. This town looked as though maybe there were some survivors because it was adorned with Japanese lanterns and there were no dead zombie corpses lying in the streets. Rick, being the most cautious one out of the group, started to pull out his silver .44 magnum. Carl and Daryl followed Rick's lead and raised their own weapons.
Rick whispered to the other two "alright, keep your eyes open and your mouths shut until we clear this place. I don't think we are alone here."
Daryl nodded his head and Carl replied "right behind you dad".
The group slowly proceeded to enter the small town. As they walked the main drag deeper into the town they saw an increasing amount of shops with what appeared to be Japanese writing on them. They were almost at the core of the town when Rick spotted a grocery store. Rick only knew this because the shop had a picture of a bowl of fruit on the front of it surrounded by Japanese characters.
Rick had planned to scavenge the store alone while Carl and Daryl stayed outside to stand watch, so he said to both of them "Ok, I am going to go in and grab all the canned food I can carry. You two stay out here and watch for any trouble."
Carl and Daryl each took their posts on the opposing sides of the grocery store entrance. Rick kicked through the glass door because it was locked from the inside. He was able able to stick his hand through the broken glass and pull the handle to unlock the door. The store was quite small inside and was very dusty, because of this Rick made the assumption that it was safe to start looting the food.
Rick had just finished putting one last can of tuna in his backpack when he heard a crash in the stores supply closet. Rick quickly dropped the backpack and approached the door. Rick went for the handle of the door. The door was unlocked. Rick peaked his gun around the corner as he opened the door. Inside the closet Rick found an unarmored boy who looked to be about 16 to 18 years old.
Rick pointed his gun at the boy, who was very nervous, and shouted "Who the hell are you?!"
The boy stuttered back "I-i-i-i-am Sunny" on the verge of tears.
The boy then crying said "Please don't shoot me! I mean you no harm!"
Rick holstered his gun seeing that the boy had no weapon and replied "what are you doing in that closet"
Sunny replied with a little more confidence in his voice "I hid in here when you broke down the glass, I thought you were coming to hurt me."
Rick saw that this boy was no threat to them and said "No, we are not those type of people. We are just looking for food."
Sunny, who was still shaken up, said "Please take all the food you need, I have plenty. I also have a place for all of you to stay that is safe."
Rick who was reluctant at first but knew it was getting dark and needed a place to rest, simply responded with a nod of the head. Sunny got up out of the closet and followed rick out the door of the shop to meet up with Daryl and Carl. Daryl did not trust the new company in the beginning but stood down when Rick told him that he trusted Sunny, and they were desperate for a place to spend the night. The three guys followed Sunny almost to the other side of town. It was dusk when they arrived at their location.
Sunny said in a cheerful voice "We are here!" and motioned with his hands towards the building.
Rick and the others were unsure about what exactly this building was because like all other things, it was only labeled in Japanese. Upon further analysis of the architecture Rick deducted that it was a school, a high school perhaps.
Upon entering the school, Rick stared down the hall with his gun pointing down. It was dark and shady, Rick couldn't tell whether this kid was telling the truth or not. He slowly works his way down the corridor and notices a big cafeteria with the windows blocked out.
Sunny knocked in morse code to signal the others to open the door. Slowly the door slid open, a young girl stood at the door looking at Rick and the others, as the other girls in the back held nail guns and hammers.
"It's all right, I offered them a place to stay temporarily." Sunny said, "Don't get so alarmed."
"Are you sure we can trust them?" The tall blue haired girl analyzing them. She seemed to be clutching her katana that was strapped to her waist.
"Yes. Saeko. Don't be rude, they are merely survivors like us." Sunny exclaimed.
"Sorry, my name is Saeko Busujima, I participated in the school kendo club, and these are the other survivors of this school, Takashi Komuro, Rei Miyamoto, Saya Takagi, and Shizuka Marikawa." Saeko exclaimed, "We managed to salvage what we could from this school and barricade ourselves in this quiet cafeteria. I don't know how much longer we will be able to hold off here. It's tough enough for us to escape to gather the supplies we constantly needed."
"I'm sorry to hear that, but we want to continue moving up north. We are hoping to find a place to make refuge and hopefully, find a way to stop this madness. You are all welcome to come along with us if you'd like ma'am" welcomed Rick.
"That would be great help, thank you." Saeko and the others thanked cheerfully, "That is greatly appreciated, we'd love to take that offer up."
"But let's rest here for the night", Daryl suggested, "the night is a hard time to travel especially with this many people. If we come across those walkers we won't be able to escape them."
They all agreed as they began to make refuge in the cafeteria, and each of them took turns keeping watch. Although, Rick and a couple other's weren't able to sleep because they weren't fully convinced it was entirely safe to trust these newcomers, so they began to pack for the trip.
Day and night seemed to move a lot slower than before, maybe it was due to the idea of them moving slower and having to be more cautious. All of them realized the dangers of walking in such a large group. It was a hazard in itself. Rick was already on full alert, but he couldn't rest his mind. He was too bothered by the fact that they had to care for high schoolers.
"Quiet! Get down! WALKERS!" Rick whispered as everyone started to crouch behind a large bus. But Rei's backpack was unchecked before leaving and a small hole was left, a can of tuna had slipped out and clashed on the steel sewer lids. The loud clicking noise echoed through the the streets. This caused unwanted attention as walkers began closing in to their location.
Rick, Daryl, and Carl began to slip into panic. While the high schoolers stood up. Saeko, told them to be quiet and started to move forward, while Takashi, Rei, and Sunny grabbed the guns from them. They planted themselves in a defensive position. Takashi gave the signal for Saeko to make her move.
Saeko got into a kneeling position while drawing her sword. Quickly she sprung into action rushing in toward the zombies, swiftly with her sword slicing through the zombies heads. The others took care of the defense holding back the remaining zombies that were left, while Rick and the other two just stared in amazement. They couldn't help but just stare blankly at how helpless they became.
Rick was imagining how insignificant he actually was because he imagined himself to be the alpha dog and protect everyone, but yet, he couldn't move an inch. His ego was being broken down as he sees a group of high schoolers bravely going into the horde and not breaking down in fear. His soon fear turned into admiration, but not too long after. The shots had produced too much noise and Carl looked behind them, "We need to go, they are about to surround us!"
Saeko and the other's fell back to regroup and began moving, they started running down the main road and stumbled across an abandoned railroad track. They quickly took their chances and they ran across the wooden bridge. Across the other side seemed like a forested area. The group decided to quickly reach the woods….
Once in the woods, the group, counted their numbers to make sure that everyone was present in the group, "Good. All present and accounted for" Saeko says with a giant sigh of relief. But what were they suppose to do now, they seemed to be getting chased from nearly every direction. What in the Hell were they going to do? Where were they going to go? Everyone they knew seem to be bitten or taken by the surrounding virus. Carl being the brave little bastard that he is, took it upon himself to go look for food and water. Despite the disapproval of the group, in fear that something may happen to Carl, he leaves anyway.
Carl grabs his trusty katana and sets out, only to find that things may just be getting started.
Carl started by looking for a stream or a creek. He kept thinking to himself that there has to be one nearby; being that he was in a forest. He heard a snap behind him, he spun around katana drawn. "Oh it's just you," he said with relief.
Saeko decided to follow Carl to help him out in the search for food and water.
Saeko and Carl head out on their mission, to find a spot for their company to set up a safe haven from the hordes of zombies that would soon draw near the outskirt of the forest.
After several hours of walking, the two stumbled upon an old broken down cabin. The cabin was on a perfect spot by a fresh water source, but had no food. They decided to make camp here for the night and weigh out their options in the morning on what to do next. As night approached, a cold breeze was brought in and moisture in the air began to freeze, while small little flakes began to fall.
"It's fucking snow! You have gotta be shitting me!" Carl screams, as he finishes a drag of his cigarette. Saeko runs to where Carl is standing to see what on earth he was talking about. The two looked at each other knowing if the snow was piling up they would be safe from the zombies for now, but with severe hunger approaching, they wondered if they would be safe from each other.
As the night continued Saeko sat down by the broken down fire place trying to light the wet logs, while Carl began sharpening his Katana. Both knew if they couldn't find food soon, the worse was sure to come.
Saeko sensed something was off with Carl, although they had never really been on great terms with one another. Saeko didn't think Carl would bring any harm upon her, let alone try to kill her for food. After all it had only been a few days since they last ate, a human can survive up to 7 days without food or water. Carl was a fat face, Saeko thought to herself, so Saeko decided that she should start preparing for the worse.
Saeko explained that she was going to go search through the cabin and the area surrounding it for resources, she told Carl if he needed her he needed to shout. Carl nodded in agreement. Saeko set out to find a weapon for self defense, as she knew Carl's hunger would soon be too much. Saeko headed outside into the heavy snowfall which continued to pile up.
Saeko first needed to find material for a weapon, something with a bit of length and had some strength to it. Something similar to the wooden practice swords she had back at home. She was lost in thought when she tripped. Luckily she caught herself and looked back at what she tripped over. It was a duffel bag, not a large one, the kind that athletes use to carry their supplies. It was dull in color and the stitching seemed to be falling apart, She guessed from the looks of it, the bag was left here for awhile. Saeko noticed that it was full and moved to open it. She pulled the zipper and saw the perfect weapon, a katana like carl's, but much more ornate in design. She gripped it to get a feel and pulled it out of its sheath. The blade slipped out with a slight hiss and she gave it a once over. The weight of it felt nice and it easily cut through the air like a knife slicing through hot butter.
There was also some cash in the duffel, she figured she would take it, it would make good kindling if anything. She continued her search. She noticed a shed towards the rear of the cabin and decided to check it out. The shed looked desolate and seemed to be falling apart. She pushed the door and it opened with a creak. Inside there was crate upon crate of supplies, canned goods, water bottles, knives, and camping gear. Saeko was filled with excitement, but she couldn't help but think that this is too good to be true. She pushed that thought aside and stuffed some canned meals into the duffel bag to bring back to carl. She got back to the cabin to find carl sitting by the fireplace with a small fire going.
"Hey, I found some stuff." Saeko announced.
"Cool, what'd you find?" Carl replied.
"I found some food and some kindling we could use, in the form of money."
"Nice. I'm starving. Whatcha got?"
"Uhh, baked beans, canned meat of some kind, and some dried fruit."
"I'll take it. Anything sounds good right now." Carl said.
"Oh some instant cocoa!" Saeko was relieved, a warm drink would come in really handy right now to calm their nerves.
"Hey, put some of that cash into the fire to help it out while I get some hot water going."
"Sure," Carl replied back as Saeko went to the kitchen to find a suitable pot to boil water in. As she was rummaging through the kitchen, Carl reached into the duffel for the cash and started to throw it on the fire to help coax it, as he reached into the bag for more his hand touched something that wasn't cash. He was instantly curious and pulled out the foreign object. "Whoa," he said with amazement. It was the katana that Saeko found earlier, with the look of curiosity he started to examine it. It had a nice feel to it, nice and light, had a very ornate design on it. He was lost in thought when he heard a scream.
"Saeko?" Carl called out with concern. "You all right?" no answer.
With caution he stepped up lightly and made his way to the kitchen, there was candle light appearing underneath the door. Katana drawn, he pushed the door open and as it opened, what he saw stopped his heart.