Det Er Bare Oss Og De Døde
Hello everyone. As I have said so many times before, I'm sorry for having not updated any of my recent stories for so long, but life just keeps getting more and more complicated, and I end up losing potential ideas, so instead, I bring you something new. Now, ever since I saw the first episode of the anime, and read the first chapter of the manga, I fucking LOVE Highschool of the Dead. I've loved zombie movies my entire life. At the same time, I've also become strangely enamored with Scandinavia thanks to a webcomic entitled Scandinavia And The World by someone pennamed Humon. So, I figured I might as well do something that combines HOTD and some Scandinavian characters of mine. I'll provide translations at the end of every chapter for when foreign languages are used, and they will be. I do not own HOTD, just my characters. Oh, and for future reference, every chapter title will be in the following languages in that order: Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and Finnish. Anyway, enjoy.
Kapittel ett: I Begynnelsen Til Slutten (1)
Hallo.It's been quite a while since I've had an opportunity to tell anyone the story of how we came to be where we are now. In fact, it's been so long, I'm rather at a loss of where to begin. I guess I'll start with telling you who I am. My name is Bjarte Mortensen. I am, or rather I was an exchange student from Oslo, Norway who was shipped off to a high school in Tokyo, Japan as part of a foreign studies program. Now, I'm just another person trying desperately to survive. This exchange, it was originally supposed to be just myself, but when word had gotten out that I was going abroad, some of my best friends used some money they had been saving for themselves, to come and move with me. In fact, it had been enough for us to officially rent our own apartment, so for lack of a better word, I suppose you could say we had just moved to Japan.
Now, whereas my reason for going had been for school, my friends' reasons were much more...personal. My friend from Denmark, Ditlev Petersen, had gone because for as long as I had known him, he had been obsessed with those bizarre cartoons Japan kept bringing out by the truckloads. I believe he told me they were called anime, or something along those lines. Ditlev had always been one of the most laid back and collected persons I've known. I suppose one would think we were brothers by how close we were.
My friend from Sweden, Fritjof Halvorsen, had always been one for meddling with computers. Nowadays, the Swedish have been known for being the most technologically advanced out of the rest of the Scandinavian people, but he loved computers, and tinkering with them so much, that when he had heard I was to go to Japan, another one of the most technologically developed nations on the planet, he was actually the very first one to suggest they all tag along with me. For as long as I've known him, Fritjof has had a tendency to come across as high strung and not very outgoing, and sometimes, even just flat out weak, but there have been times when I've seen him get pushed, and I can honestly say I wouldn't want to get on his bad side.
Now my friend from Finland, he is a bit harder to figure out. Alpi Jukarainen, has probably got to be one of the hardest people I've ever gotten to know. To call him antisocial would be quite the understatement. He rarely ever talks to people he doesn't know, and he just flat out never speaks to people he dislikes. However, in all the years I've known him, he's proven to be a very good judge of character, so it in turn acts as a great way of telling if someone is good news or not. He has always had a penchant for firearms. I personally believe it may be because he's a descendant of the legendary Simo Häyhä, one of the best snipers in modern history. He once told us that he actually had the very same Mosin Nagant rifle that Simo Häyhä used back in WWII, but as he'd never shown us, none of us believed him. According to him, he had come with us to Japan, simply because it would be too boring without us around, and that he had nothing better to do. Left it at that completely.
They may have come with me with some of their own personal reasons in mind, but they always did what they could to support me during my time there, and I always did what I could to help them as well. After my very first day in my new school, I had even shown them the quickest way to get there in case they ever needed to contact me personally and couldn't reach me by my cellphone. Fritjof had even taken the precautions to write the directions himself afterwards.
Well, that's all my most personal friends in a nutshell I suppose. I could go into detail of the others I have made since all...this, happened, but I would just be wasting my breath. They'll come into it soon enough. So, how could I possibly be able to describe the day it all happened? The day everything I thought I knew came to an end. It all feels so long ago now, even though it was really just so fairly recent. Ikke godt.(2)
Well, I guess I could just start with when I had left our apartment the morning it all happened. It was a typical morning for the likes of us. Ditlev was watching one of the many, many anime DVD's he had purchased at Akihabara just the previous week, and much like he spent every morning, he was high as a kite on his personal stash of pot. I suppose being a supposed "visiting" foreigner from a country that legalizes pot has its perks.
Fritjof had busied himself on his laptop, most likely writing a thesis he had told us he was making for the university he had been attending in Stockholm. Thankfully, being a very advanced nation with such a flexible educational system allowed students to continue studying from abroad. Despite having come here for the computers and further electronical wonders Japan had to behold, Fritjof always did say school was one of the most important things.
Alpi was simply watching the TV with Ditlev while eating out of some leftover takeout from the previous night. I don't know if Alpi even liked anime remotely as much as Ditlev did, but I knew he would've preferred over listening to Fritjof's constant computer talk. The two of them never really saw things eye to eye that much.
I had been on my way out the door to Fujimi High, the local high school in the small Tokyo-based city we were settled in, Tokonosu, when I remembered what to tell my friends. "Ok gutta, jeg er gå på skole. Fritjof, ikke la Detliv gå ut i dag. Hvis han saker en like og politiet finne ut han har potten med ham, vi vil alle være i stor trengsel, ok?" (3)
"Ok, Bjarte. Låt inte hela utlänning student tryckbärande komma till dig." (4) Fritjof had answered as I went out the door. He always was the most responsible out of all of us, so I knew I could trust him to keep an eye on Detliv and Alpi for the day. The only worry I had in regards for Alpi was that he and Fritjof would get into another one of their petty fights. Looking back on those good old days back home, I actually miss the fights they used to have.
In case you're wondering, what Fritjof had meant was that for the last couple months that I had been going to Fujimi High, I had earned something of a reputation amongst the faculty and the student body for not only being a foreigner, but also such an exotic one. People like Americans, Englishmen, and even Germans were sort of common foreigners in Japan, but people like us, Scandinavians, were quite a rare sight. I spoke the Japanese language almost perfectly, as I would have to in order to function properly here, but it didn't really help me socially. I admit, it would be a bit much, asking Japanese people to stop treating me like such an exotic foreigner, but still, I don't like to be made a showcase by people, as I'm sure nobody would.
I had been able to get on good grounds with a couple students here and there, people who didn't ask me stereotypical questions that were reserved for foreigners of my type, like most people would. And thankfully, I had been able to get on said good terms through shared interests. To be honest, I had always been interested in international forms of melee combat, from graceful fencing, to the good old fashioned viking-style swordplay of me and my friends' ancestors, and even to something as unusual as staff or spear fighting. Something that always amazed me about Japanese schools, was the sheer number and variety presented in the kind of clubs they could have, so when I found out there was not only a bokken training club, but also a Spear Martial Arts Club, I have to say, I was thrilled. I was only really able to sign up for one when I had started out in that school, so I decided to try the Spear Martial Arts club.
I'll admit, it was pretty tough at first, but I was actually a pretty fast learner, which really amazed all the other members that a foreigner like me could catch onto a dominantly Eastern form of self-defense so quickly. I had been able to make a friend or two through that, mainly a girl around, or possibly a little under my age named Rei Miyamoto. According to all the other members, she was one of the most experienced members of the club, and so the fact that she said I wasn't half bad, I'll admit, felt pretty good.
Through her, I ended up befriending another student, this time a boy named Takeshi Komuro, who was definitely closer to my age than Rei. At first glance, most would think he was a good-for-nothing street punk, but in all honesty, he was a pretty decent guy when I first met him. Neither of them treated me like some marvel because of my nationality and constantly ask me stupid questions about it, they actually treated me like a regular person, which I was really grateful for in the months to come.
In the process, I also ended up meeting Rei's boyfriend of all people, Hisashi. I don't really recall his last name, sadly. He seemed to be a pretty decent guy too, and was actually one of Takeshi's best friends, although I always had a gut feeling whenever the three were all together that Takeshi was...jealous, for lack of a better word.
Anyway, I'll get back to the point. Everything was pretty much normal when I had gotten to the school, paid no mind to any students whispering to each other about me and made my way to my class. Eventually class started and everything went like it normally would, a teacher teaching, and students learning, plain and simple. At least, it was until the school loudspeaker came on unexpectedly. The words the announcer said still echo in my head among other terrible things.
"Attention, all students. A fight has broken out on campus. Please follow your instructors and evacuate from the school. I repeat, a fight has broken out on campus. Please follow your instructors and..." and before the voice was able to continue, there was the sound of what I could only describe as a struggle, followed by the loud pitch of a knocked over microphone. There was several moments of a deathlike silence, and then came sounds I'll never forget.
"Help me! Stop! Help! No! No! Help! No! No, n-AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!" and then, all sound just stopped. I still hear that bloodcurdling scream every night, it chills me just to think back to it. The silence that filled my classroom, and perhaps the entire school was frighteningly still. It almost felt like a form of shellshock, and I could tell all my classmates were just as terrified at that moment as I was. It felt like the silence lasted forever, but in what was only a few moments, all that unsettling silence erupted into a chorus of terrified screams from everyone around me.
Everything had just spun into a storm of confusion, I had no idea what to do or where to go. All my classmates had practically jumped from their desks, crowding the doors in an attempt to flee the school, and before I even realized it, I had been sucked into the crowd and was soon in the hallways. The halls were practically flooded with students from all the classes, making a panicked rush for the stairs. I kept trying to get my bearings straight so that I could get my feet on the ground and think of what to do, but before I knew it, the ground was getting bumpy and people were tripping all around me, and one unlucky glance down showed it all to me. Everyone was in such a rush, that they were literally trampling anyone unlucky enough to have fallen, and I could swear that already some of them were dead.
By the time the wave of people had reached the stairs, I was at last able to break free, and grabbed onto the guard handles for safety as I looked at this mob of terrified kids running for the exits. In that instant, I could hear the sounds of fists and people yelling in pain and falling. All kinds of people were shouting for others to get out of their way, even beating each others faces in, and kicking girls down the stairs in an attempt to get out faster. On several instances, I swear I could hear the snapping of necks as these terrified kids tumbled down the stairs under the feet of their friends.
It wasn't long until the massive crowds had dissipated enough for me to make my way down the stairs on my own. I could still hear a wall of screams permeating the almost empty halls as I made my way for the entrance to the school. Once I had reached the bottom, I could only see a few handfuls of my fellow students running through the halls, some of them covered in what I feared was blood. I quickly noticed a floorplan for the bottom floor of the school up on the wall. I was so confused at this moment, I couldn't even remember where the entrance was. Once I had found the entrance on the map, I turned on my feet to make my way, but I suddenly saw one solitary figure walking through the hall that stood between me and the exit.
The sun had been bright this morning, and the blinding light had been shining through the glass doors, preventing me from being able to make out the details, but I could tell it was one of the teachers based on the height and physical build. I breathed a relieved sigh for the first time in what felt like hours as I quickly made my way towards the teacher. "Sensei, oh thank god you're here! What the hell's going on?" I asked in desperation as I soon came to a stop. I was then able to make out some of the details. I had seen this teacher a few times before since I had first come here. She was tall and had red hair done up in a ponytail and had what I could only describe as librarian glasses, and I'll never forget that face for as long as I'll live. Something was wrong, I could feel it. She wasn't answering me, and when she came into the light, I could feel my heart stop.
Her skin was a sickly gray, her white dress shirt was almost completely red with blood, and there was a large gaping hole in her throat, looking like she had been horrifically mauled by some vicious animal. Her eyes were rolled into the back of her head, a ghastly white, and the only sound she made was an empty wheezing kind of moan emanating from her mutilated throat.
I wanted to just turn on my heels and run for anywhere that would get me far away from her, as far away as possible, but I couldn't feel my legs, they were practically glued to the floor. My whole body was numb, and as much as I wanted to scream, I couldn't. I had gone completely stiff. I never even felt the push that came from behind me that brought me to the floor. The only thing that brought me back to my senses were the screams that followed. When I had come to, I was sprawled on the floor, and when I looked up, I saw that very same teacher from mere moments before, clutching another students ankle, and biting into his leg. I could feel my stomach twist in knots as I saw a large bleeding hole get torn into his leg, spilling a mess all over the once clean tile floors. I wanted to vomit right there, but something prevented me from doing so.
Without even thinking, the very first thing I did was crawl backwards, back towards the stairs, and once I got back onto my feet, grabbing the railing for dear life, all I could think of doing was running back upstairs, I didn't care where I went, just so long as it was away from there. My heart was pounding like mad at my chest as I got myself back to the top floor of the school, sprinting down the hallways I had just come from. I still couldn't believe what I had seen just moments before. The gaping wound that teacher had in her throat, no human could possibly survive something like that, and seeing her eating that students leg like a lion ate its prey in the wild, it felt so unreal. I remember, I kept thinking to myself, wishing as much as I could that this was just a terrible dream,just a really bad nightmare, but something in me kept telling me that this was real. I didn't even know what to think of it, or what to call it.
My chest began to burn as I came to a stop, resting against one of the walls, trying desperately to catch my breath. Things were happening so fast, I couldn't make any sense of it. I could hear a few lone sets of loud footsteps speed past me as straggling students were running down the halls, some of them limping, or clutching their arms, and I swear I could've seen more blood on them. I took a moment to see where I was, get my bearings straight once more. The sign on the wall said I was back at my original classroom. I don't know what I was thinking to look back inside through the windows, maybe it was the faint hope that somebody was still there who could help explain to me what the hell was going on, or maybe just the hope that somebody was there at all. What I do know, is that what was in there, was what finally made me lose it all over the floor.
The desks were all overturned, and there were several students who I assume had decided to stay behind, sprawled on the floor, with multiple students hunched over them. But I could see clearly through the windows. Those students were just like the teacher. Deathly pale eyes, sickly gray skin, and their hands were glistening red with blood. Practically the entire floor was a mess, and I could see body parts and what I could only conclude were...human organs in their teeth.
I heaved whatever I had eaten that morning the instant I finally realized what it was I was looking at. Not just what lay on the other side of that window, but rather, what was going on all over the school, all around me. I didn't want to believe it was real, but a part of me kept nagging at me to accept what it was, to accept the impossible. To be honest, even now, there's a very small part inside me that wants to believe this is all just some terrible nightmare, but I know the truth. Zombies. I was in the middle of an Ærlig til gud(5) case of zombies.
I couldn't believe it, I didn't want to believe it, this was something you should only have been dealing with in movies or videogames, it wasn't meant for the real world, and yet here it was right in front of me. Dead people getting up and attacking and eating the living. I had the urge to just curl up into a ball against the wall, hoping this were just a dream, but something inside convinced me to do otherwise. I'm sure I wasn't really thinking on any line of reason in that very moment, but the idea had come to me that I needed to get something to defend myself. It was at the moment, that I felt to actually go outside, cause an idea had suddenly popped into my head.
Wasting no time, I was making my way down the hall, trying as hard as I could to avoid the individual...dead students that were wandering the now empty halls. I still get goosebumps just thinking of those poor victims in that light. I was soon down on the ground floor again and making my way down the East Main Hall, towards the running track for the PT classes. As I had made my way towards the open glass doors, there was a horrible smell heavy in the air that got worse and worse the further I got to the outside. The twisting feeling in the pit of my stomach pretty much told me what it was. Human blood, and it was so thick, so heavy, it made me nauseous just briefly smelling it just to breathe.
There was another smell mixed alongside it out there as well. At the time I didn't know what it was, despite how familiar it was to me. I didn't want to waste anymore time, so I just made a bolt through the door till I felt the outside air meet my face. What awaited me out there, made me just want to get back inside the school and stay there. I had thought what little I had seen on the inside was horrific enough, but out there was even worse. Almost all the students who made a run for the exits, it was like more and more of those...walking corpses were just waiting for them, and it had turned into an all out bloodbath. That once deafening wall of screams from all my schoolmates...had now been reduced to a few straggling screams of pain, rather than terror.
I could hear girls screaming about the pain, and I could hear boys begging for those monsters not to eat them. So many times I've woken up in the middle of the night with my heart racing to the sound of those pitiful screams that signaled their premature end. There was blood all over the ground, all over the grass and the sand and the dirt, dismembered body parts strewn about all over the place, it was worse than anything I could have ever imagined.
When I tried to look up to the clear blue skies, just to get my sight away from this horror at my feet, I finally realized what the second smell was. Smoke. The entire sky had gone completely dark with it. In the distance, I could make out the faint sounds of fire engine sirens, ambulances, police cars, windows crashing, people screaming, all around me. I couldn't stomach much more of this, as more and more terrible things kept presenting themselves to me. It wasn't just the school, the whole damn city was being attacked by...the walking dead. Even now, after I've seen so much of them every day, I still can't help but scoff at the idea of the dead walking, no matter how real it has become.
I still remember how hard the thought had hit me as if it were just a minute ago. My friends. They were still home, and completely defenseless. With that new resolve in mind, I immediately broke into the fastest sprint I had ever done in my life, ignoring the few surviving students running across the grounds to escape, and the numerous walking dead until I had finally reached it. The tool shed for the groundskeepers. I admit, I didn't know what I was going to find in there that would help me defend myself, but at that moment, I didn't care so long as I found something at all. The door was locked, and despite how hard I had kicked at the door, hoping to maybe bust it off its hinges, it didn't budge at all.
I was exhausted after several attempts, but a fateful glance solved my problems, and yet at the same time, made them worse. The groundskeeper was there in front of me, but the blood on his face told me everything. A large chunk was missing from his forearm and his neck, and that same empty groan came from his hanging open mouth. Thankfully, I almost instantly spotted the key ring that was hanging from a loop in his belt. I honestly had no idea how I would get those keys off of him while trying to avoid getting bitten, but I just went for it either way.
I had always been exceptionally fast when it came to self-defense, and since the dead were thankfully on the slow side, it didn't take much for me to get behind him and unhook the key ring from his belt. Once I had gotten the keys, I immediately noticed more of...Them, starting to approach me. Didn't take much for me to realize they had not only seen me, but also heard me kicking at the door, but this wasn't the time to beat myself up for it. I immediately kicked the groundskeeper in the chest, sending him onto his back, just to buy myself the smallest amount of time, as I quickly started testing the keys on the lock. First one didn't work, and neither did the second, the third or the fourth, but luckily the very last one did, and I found myself inside.
I honestly couldn't help but smile when I got my hands on the first thing I saw. There was actually a machete lying sheathed on a work bench. I figured the groundskeeper needed it for when the cherry blossom tree branches got too long, but that didn't matter to me. I needed it more than he did now. Grabbing the handle, I turned to find a small group of Them crowding at the open door, and so, in a moment of pure terror, I did the very first thing that came to mind, what I could only describe as a bum rush, I just ducked my head low and ran right through the crowd as fast as I could.
When I regained myself once I was sure I was clear, I honestly couldn't believe it worked, several of them were even sprawled on the ground from my knocking them over. I almost wanted to laugh, but I knew I had to keep running. I needed to get to my friends as quickly as possible, and so as I ran, I came up with the steps to get there as I went back into the school halls. The quickest way back to the neighborhood our apartment was on was on the side of town the front of the school was facing, so I had to make my way to the main entrance. I thought I had had it all figured out, thinking nothing could possibly go wrong, but when I reached the lobby...despair didn't even begin to describe how I felt. Within almost no time at all, the lobby was suddenly crawling with once dead students, wandering aimlessly, their spine chilling groans filling the now empty halls.
What made this all the more gut wrenching and almost heartbreaking was that I recognized the faces of some of these shambling corpses. I may not have ever talked to them, but seeing someone you once knew, dead, is tragic, no matter who it is.
Trying my hardest to hold back the bile rising in the back of my throat from the stench and the terrible sight, I quickly made a dash back for the stairs, back to the second floor, I didn't care where I ended up, just so long as it was away from Them. In a mad and panicked dash, before I even realized what had just happened, I was suddenly hunched over, trying to catch my breath inside one of the staff offices, the door shut behind me. It was several minutes before I finally had gotten my breathing back under control, and took in my surroundings. Without wasting a moment, I quickly locked the door and sat down against the wall, keeping my eyes glued on the door, the machete unsheathed and held tightly in my trembling hands.
With finally a moment of what could only be called peace and quiet, I had finally allowed my fear and other emotions finally catch up to me. My entire body was trembling with fear, anxiety and worry, for myself, for my friends, for whoever else could possibly be here, or out there in the city. My restrained tears were almost instantly going down my face as I dropped the machete, burying my face into my knees, rolling up into a ball. I was so scared, so utterly terrified, more than I had ever been in my entire life. I couldn't get those horrible images, all the blood, all the screams, all the chaos, I couldn't get it out of my head. Even worse, I was completely and utterly alone. My friends weren't there like they always had been, for all I knew, they were dead already.
I remember staying like that for several hours, until the orange glow of the evening sun had come shining through the windows. I don't know if I ever slept at all the whole time, or if I had simply lost consciousness with my eyes open, I just know I didn't remember anything up until the evening had come. What was left of the few screams of my remaining schoolmates were finally gone, and all there was, was the collective moaning of the dead, echoing through the now silent evening air. I had felt so helpless, so weak, so utterly clueless on what I was going to do, it felt like I was sitting all alone in a mental haze, until I suddenly heard an earsplitting scream break through the once silent air outside. I guess it's not surprising that it really made me jump with surprise when it came. I had come to really believe I was the only one left. I couldn't help but look outside through the blinds, but there wasn't a sign of life anywhere outside or on the roof. Sure, it sounds like I was starting to hallucinate, but I knew what I heard, and as strange as it may sound, it gave me a small sense of hope, if not for someone who could help get me out of here and back home, then just for the fact that I wasn't actually alone.
Norwegian for "Chapter One: The Beginning of the End"
Norwegian for "Not good"
Norwegian for "Ok guys, I'm going to school. Fritjof, don't let Detliv go out today. If he goes out and the police find outhe's high on pot, we will all be in big trouble, okay?"
Swedish for "OK, Bjarte. Don't let the whole foreigner student pressure thing get to you."
Norwegian for "honest to god"
Well guys, that's the very first chapter of my new story, and I hope you all like it. Also, for those of you actually fluent in these languages, I know that the dialogue I used doesn't EXACTLY translate to what I said they meant, but they say almost exactly the same thing. Also, I will have the POV's of the other Scandinavian characters be presented as well, but not until they end up joining the main group as well. This time, you CAN expect me to update this on a somewhat regular basis. Please read and review, and I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it.