All I can say is: theboblinator, challenge accepted. If any of you are wondering what I mean by that, basically, the author I mentioned and underlined just then (he's great, check him out) set up a challenge in his story HOTD: Jack's Story which was to have an OC teacher survive with the main group and is paired with Shizuka. So, as I said, challenge accepted (even though it's been fucking ages since the challenge was issued to begin with! I apologise for taking so long).

That being said: you know the premise, it's fairly simple, let's get the fuck on with this!

Zombies … This was NOT in the Job Description!

I was always fascinated with the concept of zombies, I'm not going to lie. Whether they were undead, slow, lumbering cannibals or rage-induced, fast, frenzied psychopaths, I always had this strange love for them that I really couldn't explain. I'd never carried such a love for any other movie monster, so why the hell were zombies so special to me? Was it the horror that awaited victims of a bite? No, vampires did that, too … it didn't matter how much I thought about it, I was never sure why I loved them so much.

I bet you're wondering why I'm rabbiting on about zombies. Well the answer will become apparent rather soon, I assure you.

I suppose it's time to start off the story you're all here to hear, yes? Very well. First of all, I think I should give you my name; manners and all that, you know? My name is Ren Xander Levitt. A bit of a weird name, right? Well, basically, my mother was a Japanese woman who moved to England for a job opportunity, where she met my father. They never ended up marrying before my mother tragically passed away. I always thought that the fact they never married was a bit odd, considering the fact that I was 5-years-old at the time. But that's where my name came from. I had my father's last name: Levitt. And my mother gave me my first name of Ren, since she wanted me to have a Japanese name. Xander was just a middle name they both liked.

Anyway, 20 years later I was living and working in Japan as a teacher at Fujimi Academy. At 25-years-old, I had shoulder-length, slicked back black hair. My eyes were a shadowy blue that looked black in certain lighting conditions, which actually unnerved quite a lot of my fellow staff members, with one exception. I wore a black business suit with bright blue pin-stripes. I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't exactly as muscular as quite a lot of men were in their 'prime' but I could certainly hold my own in a fight if one ever came to me. The only real distinguishing feature I had was a long scar going across my forehead; it was a souvenir of an incident I had when I was younger, in which I fell off my bike. I was a rather clumsy little shit, a habit which I have thankfully grown out of.

But yeah, I worked at Fujimi Academy as a teacher. The subject I taught was English. It was pretty ideal, actually, considering that I was technically from England. Though my mother had planned to make it a priority for me to learn Japanese, a priority my father was sure to see to after her untimely death.

Then we have my arrival in Japan. I moved over here about two years ago. My primary ambition since I was a kid was to be a teacher; it appealed to me due to the fact that I'd always wanted to make a contribution to society, and teaching the world's youth seemed a great way to do so. It had to be in Japan, though. I'd always known I was going to visit Japan, it being my late mother's homeland and all, so when the time came for me to choose a career I thought teaching in Japan would be an ideal way to see the country my mum came from. So I went to Japan, found a high school with a job vacancy, and I got the job.

And that's when I met her.

Shizuka Marikawa: the school nurse. She was absolutely stunning. Her hair was long and blonde, so long in fact that it came down to her knees. Her eyes were dark brown and beautiful. Now, most men would have first taken notice of the fact that her breasts were … let's just say 'sizeable' for now, shall we? We'll get into details later. But I, having always tried my hardest to be the perfect gentleman, only paid attention to that little detail later on.

Of course she wasn't the only person I met. The others just aren't really worth mentioning, but I'll list a few of them off for conveniences sake. There was Mr. Takayama, the janitor, who I actually got along pretty well with. Ms. Hayashi who I never really spoke to at all. Mr. Wakisaka, who was one of the main people who were a little freaked out because of my eyes. Then, finally, there was Mr. Shido … I fucking hated the man.

Shido was a massive pervert, that was what made me dislike him initially. But the man is a God damn snake, that retching parasite that feeds on whatever it can get its slimy teeth into. He bullied the students (which I tried to stop, but he had way too much power over the school system for my comfort), he looked up the female students' skirts if they happened to drop something … and he was constantly staring at Shizuka's boobs! That pissed me off more than anything else could have.

You see, while the other teachers really didn't bother that much with 'the new guy,' Shizuka made an active effort to make me feel welcome. We were friends pretty much instantly. During the first week of work—and every week after that—I made it a habit to go down to the infirmary during my lunch break in order to spend time with a friendly face. That is assuming my students didn't need me for anything, of course. She was a rather ditzy and air-headed, but I found that more of an endearing quality rather than something to make fun of. She was nice, friendly, funny (okay, she tried to be, but the failed attempts just made her seem cuter), and over time I found myself spending more and more time with her. About half a year into my new job, I realised that I'd fallen in love with my co-worker.

It hadn't been all that hard to come out with, to be honest. I know most people say that telling someone you love them is the hardest thing there is, but not for me; I'd never had any problems telling people exactly how I felt about them at any given point … Like how I never made even the slightest attempt to hide my hatred of Shido. So we were alone in the infirmary, I was helping her pack up her things after school was finished, we were chatting nicely. Then, as we were finishing, I asked her out. She accepted, after much blushing occurred, and that night I took her out to dinner. Nothing fancy, of course, didn't want to go too overboard on the first date, but it was nice, simple and she seemed to enjoy herself. As the night drew to a close I told her about how she was probably the only person I'd met so far who'd been friendly to me, and that she was now the main reason I looked forward to going to work so much. Then I told her how I felt.

It may have been relatively easy to come out with, but trust me, the long silence that came afterwards was killing me on the inside. So many questions racked my brain: What if she doesn't feel the same? What if she only wants to be friends? What if she already has a boyfriend? What if I've scared her off by doing this?

But then the most extraordinary thing happened. She kissed me. She kissed me. She told me about how I wasn't like other men, about how I was the only one who didn't see her chest and think of her as a piece of meat. She told me that I was now one of only two people who she really felt close to. Then she told me that … she felt the same way about me as I did about her. And I felt my heart skip a beat. I'd never been happier in my life.

Any previous thoughts I'd had about ever going back to England went straight out the window. I called my dad and told him so, and he was happy for me. He wished me luck and we still kept up a regular correspondence.

Between work and going out on dates with Shizuka and … other things (don't look so shocked, we're both consenting adults) I found that I was having the best time of my life. The only really scary moment was when Shizuka introduced me to her friend Rika, who was briefly back from working for the SAT, and she told me she'd break my neck if I ever hurt Shizuka. I reassured her as best I could that I would never do anything to hurt her friend … I actually think I came across as a bit of a pussy. Her laughter at my expense further cemented this fact. After she finished laughing she made a comment about going to bed so me and Shizuka could 'get busy' and left us both blushing on the couch, still laughing as she went. Though … she wasn't necessarily wrong about what we did that night …

A year and a half after getting with Shizuka, life was great and I couldn't have been happier.

Then the day came when everything changed.

~Me, My Students and the Dead~

I was in a good mood. It was late in the day, just after lunch as a matter of fact—I, as usual, spent my lunch break with Shizuka, my ever-beautiful girlfriend—and I was on my way to the next lesson I had to teach. I always looked forward to the lessons I taught, since I wholeheartedly enjoyed my job. The students were pleasant, with a few minor exceptions, and it felt fulfilling to impart something I had a lot of knowledge of onto the younger generation. If only all the students took it seriously. Rather a lot of them tended to skip my classes on a semi-regular basis.

I hummed as I walked. I think my good mood is infectious, because a lot of the students I passed on the way to the classroom smiled cheerfully at me as I passed. A few of the less pleasant ones laughed at me, thinking me some kind of freak, but—and forgive me for saying this about my students—fuck them, I was in a good mood. I continued in my walk to my classroom and came across a student leaning against the side of a stairwell.

Takashi Komuro was a slim young man with spiked, unkempt raven black hair. His eyes were brown, not dark but striking all the same. He wore the basic male uniform for the school—the differences in uniform between male and female here in Japan still baffled me somewhat—except that he also wore a red t-shirt beneath. I found that as of late he had been brooding rather often, but whenever I asked what had him in such low spirits he always told me that it didn't matter. As much as I wanted to keep my students as happy as possible, I found it would be rather rude to pry into business that they were clearly trying to keep to themselves.

"Afternoon, Komuro," I greeted him, taking a brief stop in the stairwell as I did so. He looked up at me and attempted some sort of smile. He failed. "Any particular reason you're standing around here rather than heading to class?"

"Same old same old," he told me. He dropped his poor imitation of a smile, seeming to realise that I knew he was in a bad mood. He sighed. "Forgive me for saying, Mr Levitt, but I don't really feel like I'm up for going to class right now."

"As a teacher I believe I am required to advise you against skipping classes." I let a soft smile spread over my face. "But as a person I believe that if you have some personal issues to sort out, then by all means take all the personal time that you need. Just be sure to catch up with some studying later, okay? You may not be skipping my class, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna let you just goof off."

He gave a small, if slightly forced, chuckle. "Thanks, sir." He turned his head back so that he could continue staring out into space.

"No problem, Komuro." I turned and carried on towards my classroom, quickening my pace now as to avoid being late to a lesson I was giving. I know it's wrong for a teacher to play favourites, but there were a select few students that I felt closer to than any of the others; Takashi was one of them. It's not that I spent any more time with them than I did the rest of my students. No, it's more the fact that most of the other students saw me as an annoyance, one of their torturers in the dungeon that they saw school as, and very few of them treated me as any more than something they simply had to put up with.

Then there were students like Takashi. There were a few of them: Kohta Hirano, Rei Miyamoto, Hisashi Igou. There were a few more, but those were the main ones. They showed the respect for me that none of the other students had and they almost seemed to treat me like I was one of their fellow students … which might not be far off, actually, considering that when I first met them I was still new to Japan and they, on occasion, helped me to understand things that I hadn't beforehand. Honestly, if it weren't for the job I think I'd see them as friends rather than students.

Soon I arrived at the classroom I would be teaching in to find the students chatting animatedly, awaiting my arrival. Upon my entry they quieted down, though a few whispers could be heard here and there. That was fine. It was pointless telling them to stop, they'd only continue as soon as I stopped speaking.

"Hello, class," I greeted them, a warm, encouraging smile on my face. I found that having a positive attitude towards one's students went a long way in getting them to listen to you … as long as said positive attitude didn't descend into simple down-talking. I found that teenager's hated being spoken to, or treated, like children. "Now, today we will be …"

It was the usual routine from there. I went over a few things, writing them down on the blackboard, telling the students that making notes would probably be a good idea. It was almost boring … almost, I didn't find my job quite so dull that repetition made it any less interesting for me. If anything, the repeat in routine from day to day actually made things easier. The students may not have liked me all that much, but they still listened, and that was all that mattered in the end.

About fifteen minutes into the lesson I heard a little commotion coming from down the hall. A few students ran past the classroom, though they moved too quickly for me to get a very good look at who they were. Then the cracking of the school announcement system blared to life and a shaky voice was heard by all.

"Attention! Attention all students!" the voice over the speakers said. The voice was full of panic and fear … and in a start I realised that it was the principle who was speaking to us. "There is an emergency situation taking place inside the school right now! All students are instructed to remain calm and follow staff members to safety! I repeat, all students are to—" The sound of groaning could be heard faintly over the loudspeakers. "Wh-What are you doing in here …? Wh-what are you doing!? Stay back! Stay ba—" Silence.

Nobody in the classroom said a word. Not even me. Looking back on it, I suppose that I should have started rallying the students into some sense of order immediately after the principle's voice had been cut off, but I was just frozen up at what had just happened. I'd … just listened to a man die; at least that's what I assumed, I had no real proof of that until a few minutes later. So many thoughts ran through my mind in the next few seconds alone: What the hell was that? Is he okay? Who attacked him? What's this 'emergency situation'? Has anyone been killed? Is … is Shizuka okay?

Screaming in the halls. That was the first thing I heard after my thoughts were cut off. Screaming and footsteps, rapidly approaching and passing by the classroom. Hordes of students panicking, screaming, bolting down the hallways in an attempt to escape whatever fate had befallen our school's principle. It was then that my senses finally snapped back into place and I looked around at the terrified faces of my students.

"All right, everyone, let's just keep calm h—" I was cut off yet again when a few students stood from their seats and ran for the doors of the classroom. "Hey! We need to keep calm here, people! Don't panic, it's all going to be okay! Why won't you listen to me!?" My speech devolved to English at the end as the stress made me subconsciously switch to my native tongue. It was all pointless, though, as after the first few students had left the others panicked and fled, too. In no time at all I was alone in my classroom, nothing but my own thoughts and the sounds of panicked teenagers in the hallways to keep me company.

I was terrified. With the amount of students running through the halls, there was likely such a frenzy that none would notice if they ended up trampling their fellow students. With this in mind, I darted to the door of the room and threw it open, stepping out into the chaos of the school building. It was not a sea, but a flowing river of people, all running in different directions. Pushing. Shoving. It was a free-for-all Battle Royale, and no clear winner could be seen. I did my best to get their attention.

"Hey! You lot! Calm down! Stop panicking! Will you all just listen to me! You're not going to get anywhere if you keep going like this!" None of them paid me any heed. And even those that noticed me barely spared me a glance. Then more screaming, the sort brought on by pain and suffering. I turned towards the source and prepared myself to help the poor soul who was in such pain … only to freeze on the spot once more. What I saw in that hallway was an image that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

It was one of the other teachers—it may have been the janitor, but I really couldn't tell because of all the blood—and he was on his knees … biting one of the students on the throat! The student's cries went unanswered by all, including myself, as the abomination that had once been human ripped flesh from his neck, spraying streams of dark, shining, red blood all over the floor and nearby walls. I was horror-struck. What manner of world are we living in where this sort of thing can happen? There was only one word, one very scary word, that entered into my mind upon seeing the horrific image before me: Zombies. But that would be impossible … wouldn't it? They aren't supposed to exist outside of books and movies and TV shows … so why the fuck was this happening!?

My frozen state lasted but a moment, and my survival instincts took over my body. Before I realised I had moved I found myself back inside the solitude of the classroom. Breathing heavily, I sat at my desk and rested my head in my hands. Sheer terror is the only thing that comes anywhere near to the emotions I was feeling at the time.

Zombies are real, was the first coherent thought my mind could come up with. Those filthy, undead, terrifying things are real. And they're here. Right now. What do I do? I have no weapons, where could I find weapons? The janitor kept a bunch of sports equipment in his storage closet, so I could check there. When should I go? Now? No. Wait for the panic to die down. It is … a horrible thing to do, but those kids won't listen to me, I have to save my own ass. Where to go from there? I need to find people, other survivors. I need to find … My breath caught in my throat as my emotions came flooding back full-force, kicking my survival instincts out of the driver's seat. Shizuka. I need to find Shizuka.

My sense of terror increased ten-fold. Was Shizuka even alive? She had to be. She couldn't have … I didn't even want to think about it. I knew she was alive. I could feel it. But I wasn't an idiot. Worrying about Shizuka wouldn't do me any damn good if I died on the way over, so the plan to wait until the panic died down still stood. I felt a guilt stronger than any I'd ever felt before at letting my students fend for themselves, but it was like yelling at a brick wall … none of them would listen …

I was surprised to find that the noise outside the room ceased after about ten minutes. I took a deep breath, gulped down any fear that was grabbing at me, and pulled open the door. The hallway was chaos. There was blood absolutely everywhere; the walls looked like they'd been coated in the stuff. There were several zombies— No, I thought, this is real life. Calling them that is disrespectful and insulting to the people they once were. But what do I call them? There were several … things in the hallway, feasting on the corpses of the dead, some of whom were still writhing or twitching as they had not yet lost consciousness. The undead in the hallway looked up for a moment upon my exiting of the classroom … and then just went back to their meals. I didn't understand. They looked right at me and didn't acknowledge my presence.

Maybe … they're blind? The thought brought hope surging into my being. I hesitated a moment before taking my next action. It was a risk, but I decided that it was worth it. I walked slowly over to one of the feasting undead and knelt down in front of it … directly in front of it. It didn't react. So they really are. I let a small smirk slip onto my face. In that case, getting to Shizuka should be simple enough. Hope probably wasn't an emotion it was wise to feel during the apparent apocalypse, but I simply could not help it.

I stood up and began to walk down the hallway as carefully as I could, determined not to make the undead aware of my presence. It was a simple enough affair; they were all too busy feasting to even notice my slightly faster footsteps. For me, however … it was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. All around me, the bodies of my students were being devoured, most if not all of them rising from the grave shortly thereafter. I felt sick. I had to fight to keep bile from rising out of my stomach. I need to be strong, I reminded myself. If I come across anybody else, they might need my help. I can't be puking my guts up when that happens. With the chaos having died down, I assumed that anybody left alive would have more sense than to just randomly run around in search of an exit.

After a while of manoeuvring through hallways of walking corpses, I arrived at my first destination: The janitor's closet. Somebody had already been there, I noticed, as there was a baseball bat and a broom missing. Curiously, the head of the broom was sitting on the floor just outside the closet; I guessed that somebody had broken it off to use as some sort of weapon. I looked through the closet myself, and I found a cricket bat. I think the Shaun of the Dead joke practically makes itself. I felt infinitely more confident now that I had a weapon.

Next order of business, then: Shizuka. She would have been in the infirmary when all this shit went down, so that was where I would go to find her. I made my way through the hallways once again, slightly confused now that I thought about the surprisingly small amount of undead that there were around. It made me nervous. Where were they? I thought that they were probably scattered after pursuing the students around the school.

After a few moments of silent contemplation, I found a hallway with a slightly larger undead population than I was used to. There were nine, maybe ten, I didn't really count them. It occurred to me that there were too many for me to comfortably go through the hallway. There was only one option: fight. Breathing heavily, I raised the cricket bat in preparation for combat. They couldn't see me, which meant that I had the advantage. I stepped forwards carefully, keeping my eyes on the undead, but occasionally turning my head to make sure none came from behind. I got close to one of them. I raised the bat. I was shaking, but I had to do it. With a gulp of hesitation, I brought the bat down hard on the thing's head, cracking it's skull open and causing brain matter and blood to spill out of it. The undead crumpled to the floor, lifeless.

I did this eight or nine more times in that hallway. It was harder after the first, as the noise I'd made killing it had roused the others. Though I found that if I was careful, I could simply slip around them and hit them from behind. In a few minutes the hallway was empty except for the crumpled corpses of the students. It felt horrible. I couldn't stop myself this time; I ran for the window leading to the outside, and I vomited out of it. There was no other way of looking at it, I'd just bashed in the heads of what used to be my students. I felt sick, horrified … but I was alive. And I needed to find Shizuka. Keeping her in my mind kept me strong, and I'd be damned if I took any longer than was needed to get to her.

I wiped the excess puke off of my mouth and kept going. The infirmary was not far now. I kept moving, avoiding as many of the undead as I could but fighting if I had the need to. It took no more than ten minutes for me to reach the door to the infirmary … and that's how I found out where all the undead had been. There were loads of them, at least compared to what I'd seen thus far, and they were all banging on the infirmary door. Along with the growing fear, I also felt relief. If they were trying to get in there, that meant somebody was alive in there.

Just as I steeled myself to charge in, however, something terrifying happened. The undead broke through the door to the infirmary. I froze up, shocked that it had taken them so little time to get through. The cries of pain from what sounded like a male student brought me back to my senses, and I charged forward, my weapon raised. There may have been a lot of them, but at that moment I did not care. I ran in there and smashed a skull in. Then another. Then another. I could see Shizuka on the other side of the room, though I didn't have the time on my hands to take in her expression. I just kept on fighting. Eventually I noticed somebody else join in the attack on the undead. I was grateful for that; I didn't think adrenaline would have saved me forever.

The rest passed by in a blur. There was blood and brain and bone. By the end of it there was nothing to differentiate the infirmary from a morgue. I felt something collide with me, and for a moment I thought it was one of the undead, but it was Shizuka, hugging me tightly. After I got over the shock of the fight, I hugged her back, holding her close. It hit me just how scared for her I was, and I resolved that I would never let them get her. Not while I was breathing.

The person who had joined the fight midway was a student. She was a third-year. She had long, straight, dark purple hair that came down on her face in a triangular fringe that barely touched the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were a deep blue. She was quite tall compared to her fellow students, and very athletic. I recognised her as Saeko Busujima, the most promising student in the school's kendo club.

That's when I noticed the other student. He must have been the one I'd heard the undead attacking on the way in. My God … he looked awful. He was covered in blood, there were chunks missing from his flesh and bite marks all over his body. I gulped down some bile that was rising from my chest. I wanted to move forward, to comfort him before he bled out … but I just couldn't bring myself to move. My hug around Shizuka tightened as my breathing came out shaken. I felt like a failure; it was a teacher's job to safeguard their students, yet they'd been dying around me and I hadn't done a thing. What did that say about me?

Saeko proved herself a much braver person than me by approaching him, his body slumped against the wall, struggling for breath. Saeko knelt down in front of him. "I'm the captain of the kendo club, Saeko Busujima," she introduced herself to him. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "A sophomore. What's your name, kid?"

His voice came out choked and I could tell he was struggling to speak. "I-Ishi … Ishi Kazu …" He coughed up blood in between words. Once again I began to feel sick.

"Ishi, you did a great job protecting Dr Marikawa. I commend your courage. You do know what happens to you when you get bitten? Do you want your parents or friends to see you like that? If the answer is no, I will end your life as painlessly as I can. But I've never killed anyone before."

I knew what she was getting at immediately. The thought that this spread exactly like it did in the movies had occurred to me, but I had chosen to ignore it, finding it too horrible to think about with the present circumstances.

Ishi looked afraid. It would appear he knew what she meant, too. His look of fear remained on his face for a few moments, before being replaced by a light smile. "P-please do that." He closed his eyes, preparing the inevitable death. Saeko stood up and raised her bokken in a striking pose.

"W-wait!" Shizuka cried, prying herself from my arms as she started forward. "What are you gonna do?"

"Shizuka," I said, grabbing her arm and cutting off anything Saeko might have said in reply. "Busujima knows what she's doing … there isn't much else to be done." I turned to address Saeko. "Unless … you want me to do it? As a teacher, it's my duty to help my students in any way I can." I secretly hoped she refused … and I felt ashamed. Wishing blood on another's hands is disgusting, especially that of a person so young … but I felt sick after killing the dead ones. The thought of doing that to a student who was still alive sickened and terrified me. But I am a teacher, I argued with myself, so if it comes down to it … I will do what I must.

"No, thank you, Mr Levitt," Saeko refused me. "I appreciate you offering to take this burden away, but I'm afraid you look terrible after just dealing with Them. I would hate for you to worsen." She was such a good student. I was glad that she'd survived.

I nodded and she turned to do the deed. Shizuka looked horrified, so I pulled her back and hugged her again, making sure to keep her eyes away from the scene unfolding before us. I kept watching though. I felt it would be disrespectful to not at least witness the final moments of such a brave young man. Saeko raised her bokken … and swung it down. There was a lot more blood than I'd expected, the crimson flying all over the wall, but at least it was quick. That was more than what some of the other students had gotten.

"I'm glad you're all right," I whispered to Shizuka as I hugged her. "Don't worry about a thing from now on. I'll keep you safe." I hoped I would be good for that, at least.

She smiled slightly; only a small smile, her eyes still held much sadness. "Of course you will." She leaned up and placed a small, very brief kiss on my lips. "Are you okay?" she asked me, her face filled with concern. Apparently Saeko was right, my stress really was showing.

"… I'm fine," I lied. I don't entirely think she believed me, but she nodded none the less. She broke the hug, but kept a tight hold of my hand. I turned to Saeko, who had graciously allowed us to have our moment, and said, "We should probably get out of here now."

Before she could respond, more of Them—I decided that what Saeko called them was probably the best thing to say—came in through the broken door, knocking down what little of it still remained. I raised my cricket bat and prepared to fight, and Saeko also raised her bokken. A smirk formed on her face that I was a little unnerved by. I shook my head and chose to ignore it, instead focusing on Them.

The fight was short and brutal. Saeko took out more than me, I think, but I still bashed quite a few heads in. I was still horrified by the situation, but it was fight or die, and my instincts took over whenever combat was entered. Afterwards I felt sick, but I didn't have time to waste. Shizuka suggested we head to the faculty room, which I agreed with. After allowing Shizuka to grab some medical supplies in a case, we left the infirmary and set about navigating the corridors of the school.

At first there was nothing to be seen but blood and pieces of torn flesh. It would appear that most of Them in the area were just killed by us in the infirmary. It was quite nice, actually, being able to spend a little time without fighting. I didn't let my guard down, though, as that would have been suicidal. Eventually we came across hallways containing some of Them, but Saeko made a point of just pushing them to the side and continuing to walk on.

"The faculty room," Saeko sighed eventually. "Jesus, what a pain in the ass."

"But all the car keys are in that room, that's where they keep them," Shizuka reasoned. He hand was still tightly held in mine, but she had to jog a little to keep up with the fast pace that me and Saeko were walking.

"I still don't understand why we weren't allowed to keep them on us," I said. I sighed to myself. Now really wasn't the time to be making complaints about my job.

Another one of Them was ahead of us in the hallway. Saeko simply knocked it aside with her bokken and kept on walking.

"Why don't you just kill them?" Shizuka asked. "You've done so well this far, why stop now?"

Saeko stopped at a corner and looked around it for any sign of company. "One or two at a time, believe me, no problem," she answered. "And I wouldn't think twice about doing it. But they come at you in packs. And don't be fooled, they're a lot stronger than they look. Once they grab you, it's hard to get loose."

"We could actually walk straight past Them if we moved carefully," I told the two of them. "On my way down to the infirmary I found out They seem to be blind. None of Them saw me, and They only attacked if I made a lot of noise. Just something worth thinking about."

"That may be the case, but we have no time to lose," Saeko said. "There are too many of Them here. Blind or not, we can't avoid that many forever." I saw her point and didn't mention it again.

Shizuka made to move forward and ended up tripping over a loose floor mat. "Oh, I hate these stupid floor mats. Jeez." She rubbed her head, her face read from either embarrassment or frustration, I couldn't tell which. I could tell, however, that it was adorable. I held out my hand to help her up, and she accepted it.

"What you're wearing isn't exactly made for running," Saeko pointed out, a deadpan look on her face. She knelt down, grabbed the bottom of Shizuka's skirt, and before anyone could say anything she ripped it right up to the hip, leaving just enough material to hold it on, and giving me a full view of Shizuka's gorgeous leg. Mind out of the gutter, asshole, you've seen it all before on several different occasions. I couldn't really argue with my brain's logic, so I stopped thinking about it.

"Are you crazy!?" Shizuka yelled at Saeko. "This is christianed yore!" (A/N: I may be an idiot, but I can't understand what she says here, so I just went with what it sounded like)

Saeko sighed. "Your clothes or your life. Which is more important?"

Shizuka spent a few moments struggling for an answer. Eventually she exclaimed, "Both are!"

"Shizuka," I said, a softness to my voice I wasn't entirely sure I was capable of at the time. "As much as I know you love your clothes, I would rather have you here than a pile of fabric." I smiled softly at her, lifting my hand up and rubbing her cheek. "So just put up with it for now, yeah? Remember, I love you not your clothes … and that sounded a lot less dirty in my head."

She gave a small giggle and then nodded. I took her hand in my own once more and we prepared to keep moving. Then I started hearing some strange banging noises from somewhere. Are they … gunshots? But they can't be. We don't keep that sort of stuff in the school. Unless … it might be one of those gas-powered nail guns from the construction classroom. Those are really fucking loud.

"Wh-what was that?" Shizuka asked upon hearing the sound. She grabbed onto my arm with both hands, unintentionally causing me to flinch when she accidentally hit my side with the case of medical supplies she was carrying.

"It sounded like it came from the … faculty room?" Saeko said, though she sounded unsure of it herself.

"Well that's quite convenient then, isn't it?" I said. "There might be more people there we can join up with." Saeko nodded at my statement and we kept on moving. The gunshots(?) kept going off, so I was sure that whoever was making the noise was still alive. I could only hope they would stay that way until we got to them.

All three of us froze as a blood-curdling scream tore through the building. That was it. Someone was in serious trouble. Knowing this, we began to hurry, sprinting through the school and towards the source of the noise.

We sprinted down a few corridors before we saw two others approaching the source of the noise from the opposite direction. One I recognised as Takashi, the other was Rei Miyamoto. She had strangely orange hair, brown eyes, and two bangs of hair that stuck up like antennae. She was wielding what looked like a spear, but upon closer inspection I could see that it was the long handle of the broom I had seen in the janitor's closet. We stopped in the middle of the hallway, facing the two of them, before looking to our side, seeing the source of the noise.

It was Kohta Hirano and Saya Takagi, surrounded by a small group of Them. Kohta had shoulder-length, black hair and large, square-rimmed glasses. He wore his uniform a lot more formally than most other students did, and I knew him as the victim of much bullying due to his weight issue. Some of it I stopped, some of it was … a more complicated matter. He was holding a gas-powered nail gun, but it was modified with pieces of wood, almost like the sight on an assault rifle. I had to admire his resourcefulness even in spite of the situation.

Saya Takagi was sitting on the floor, keeping one of Them at bay … by sticking a drill into its head. The drill was on and spinning, and the thing's blood was spraying in spurts out of its head. Saya's pink hair, styled in two pony tails on either side of her head, was becoming stained with blood, as was her uniform. She had her head turned away so that none of the blood would make it onto her face.

She was gritting her teeth and making a sound that was somewhere between growling and screaming. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE!" she yelled in anguish. "SOMEONE PLEASE!"

"I'll take the right side," Saeko said.

"I'll hold the left," Rei said.

Then we all charged. No one bothered talking about which side they would take but those two. I ran in, raising my cricket bat to Them and bringing it down, sending brain matter, blood and bits of broken skull onto the floor. I was lost in adrenaline and instinct once again. I smashed, crushed and battered head after head, skull after skull, until there were no more of Them to deal with. All that was left was a rotting pile of corpses.

Saya was whimpering. She was staring at the dead creature in front of her in horror. The drill was still stuck in its head, though it was no longer spinning.

"Taka—" Kouta seemed to try and speak, though he was cut off as everyone began to run past him. He was knocked over by Shizuka accidentally as she herself past him. I sighed and walked over to him, holding out my hand to help him get up. He accepted it gratefully.

"Thanks, Mr Levitt," he thanked me. I nodded in acknowledgement and we both went to join the rest of the group, who were all gathered around Saya.

"Takagi … are you all right?" asked Rei in concern.

"M-Miyamoto …" Saya said, struggling through the tears she was obviously trying to hold back. I could see that she would cry soon. There was no holding it off forever.

"You already know the school doctor Ms Marikawa, right? And the English teacher Mr Levitt?" Saeko asked Takashi. "I'm Saeko Busujima from class 3-A."

"I'm Takashi Komuro from class 2-B," Takashi introduced himself.

"Ms Busujima, I remember you won the national championship last year," Rei said with a smile on her face. "I'm Rei Miyamoto. I'm in the spear martial arts club."

Kohta scratched the back of his head and said, "I-I'm Kohta Hirano from class B, just FYI."

"Nice to meet you," Saeko said to him, smiling. Kohta genuinely gasped at the fact that another student was being so polite to him. It made me feel really bad for him, actually …

"Why are you guys being all warm and fuzzy?" Saya asked. She had stood up from the ground and was looking around at all of is in annoyance. "Why are you being so polite to her, Miyamoto? You flunked last year, you're the same age, she's not your elder."

"What are you talking about, Takagi?" Takashi asked.

"DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE I'M STUPID! I'M SMARTER THAN ALL OF YOU COMBINED!" Saya had a look of rage in her eyes that was, in a word, demonic. Even I was scared of her in that moment. "You should be lucky I'm even in the same school as you!" She looked down at herself and her expression dissolved into that of depression. "I'm … I'm a …" She looked to be on the verge of tears. I'd had enough. I'd seen a lot of students die that day, and I was going to take care of the ones who were still alive … no matter what.

"It's okay, it's all right," I said as I stepped towards her, briefly noting that Saeko was moving to do the same. I placed a hand on Saya's shoulder and smiled lightly. "That's enough. You'll be okay." I tried to sound as reassuring as I could, but I don't know how convincing I sounded.

Saya turned her head slowly towards a mirror and was silent upon seeing her reflection. "… Look at me …" she muttered, though because of the silence we all heard it. "All these blood stains … Now mom will have to … take it to the cleaners …" And finally the waterworks started. She tried her best to hold them in, but eventually loud sobs rang from her as a waterfall of tears cascaded down her face. She ended up clinging to the nearest person—which happened to be me—and held on for dear life, crying her eyes out. I wrapped my arms around her in a comforting embrace, determined to comfort her. I cared for my students greatly, and seeing one like this was killing me inside.

We stood there in silence, just outside the faculty room. The only sound that could be heard were Saya Takagi's sobs.

Needless to say, I didn't love zombies so much any more.

How was the first chapter? Did I do good? I'm not entirely sure, but I put my all into it, and that's all I can really say. It's also my glorious return to the first person format, and I'm really impressed with how much I've improved since I first started writing. What do you guys think? I tried to make the character more human than in most of the stories I've read, and I would like to think I've made his thoughts and feelings during the situation pretty realistic.

Can I get your opinions on something for a second? You see, I'm in a bit of a struggle. How do I make Ren important to the group, without having him replace Takashi as leader? It's something I'm really having trouble with, and I'd appreciate the input. I want to keep Takashi as the leader because, not only is he extremely well-suited for the roll, but I find that it's important for his growth as a character. Any help and ideas you can give would be appreciated.

I have another new story in the works and a chapter for an already existing story. Which will come first? No idea. But my regular readers should be aware that there will be more content coming out relatively soon.

Next Chapter: Escape from the Undead Academy