CHAPTER ONE:

The rough texture of sand graced my palms as I placed my self ready. My mind went numb as I breathed in through the nose and out with the mouth. The next state competition was up next week and if I didn't qualify this time I won't make it for state regional is next month. I looked up and saw Misaki giving me a thumbs up and bright smile. I might have looked rude by the visitor's eyes, when I didn't return the smile, but I needed to concentrate now. My couch lifted her hand and stated the words… ready… set… go!

Like a bolt of lightening I through myself forward and gave a huge leap when I stepped on the plate. My body went soaring through the wind and for a moment I felt sure about myself. I lifted my legs to embrace and shoot forward when I did hit the soft sand. I didn't want to do a stupid mistake now after I nearly begged the couch to put me on the try outs again. As I neared the ground, I braced myself for a good landing. My feet hit the ground and I shot forward falling onto the palms of my hand. Not wanting to move an inch until my hands stopped shaking. Misaki was at my side in a flash, kneeling next to me.

She didn't speak she knew all too well how I felt about things like this.

"Misaki, how was it?" I asked clinging to that little thing called 'hope'. Misaki looked back at the couch and a weary look crept cross her face.

"I knew it!" I spit out, slamming my fist into the sand.

I looked up at a smiling Misaki, holding both hands to cover her mouth. Was she…giggling?

"Why are you laughing?" I questioned feeling quite depressed and mad. My own friend, the one who knows me best, was laughing straight in my face! Misaki couldn't hold any longer and let out an unattainable laugh. My eyebrow quirked up at this sight before me.

"Baka," she said laughing harder, "You made it!"

My eyes felt like dinner plates when she said it.

You made it.

I jumped up and grabbed her by her gym collar. "Misaki," I screamed, "If I wasn't in such a good mood I might have killed you right now!" Misaki only continued laughing harder at my antics. I could see tears of laugher escape her eyes. I let go of her collar and watched her control herself a little before falling into another laughing fit. I stood up and saw coach smiling at me.

"Sensei, did I make you proud?" I asked smiling.

"Yes you did kid," Sensei replied. "Next week Tuesday, be sure not to be late."

I nodded and turned to see Misaki breathing slowly.

"Wow," She said shortly after, "That was a good laugh." She rolled onto her back with her hands behind her head and looked up at me.

"We need to go shower and get dressed before the bell rings," I stated and pointed a thumb to the lockers behind me.

Misaki sighed, "Well okay, if you insist." She jumped up and flashed a smile at me before making a run to the locker.

"Last one is the lover of Mr Shido!"

I sprinted forward already revolted by the name. Mr Shido had a reputation of fondling with high school girls at our school, but always made it out of the student counsel without a scratch on his name. I leaped forward with long strides as I tried to catch up to Misaki. We both came in the exact time into the locker room, nearly crashing into the wall that made privacy easier for female students to dress.

"Aww well too bad for Mr Shido," said Misaki giving a pitiful look.

I barked a laugh at her.

"I would say good luck to Mr Shido. You are such a tiger in the bed, even the great pervert Mr Shido himself couldn't handle you!"

I tilted my head back to see her facial expression, but was only met with a stone cold wall. Running water told me she was already in the showers and didn't hear my joke.

I grabbed my towel and headed to the showers. I placed my towel on the stand and started to undress. When finished I hurried over to Misaki.

"Did you ever hear my comeback?" I asked opening the shower next to hers.

"Only half, you know I go death when I listen to crap," Misaki smiled ruthlessly. She was a fast thinker when it came to saying witty things. I on the other hand was a fast thinker when it came to hockey. I was the captain of our first ladies hockey team and tried my best to do them proud, even if my school work suffered from it.

"Hey Kaori," Misaki said breaking me out of thought.

I looked up to see Misaki standing still, eyes tensed.

"What's up?" I asked seeing no further reaction.

"Did you hear that?"

I turned my tap off, so did Misaki, both of us pitching our ears to listen. Misaki had a keen hearing sense and to doubt her was simply preposterous. I didn't hear anything and looked back at Misaki who was still stretching her ears.

"I think we should get dressed," She said making her way to her towel.

"I haven't even washed up properly," I started to protest.

But she didn't stop from towelling herself off. I groaned loudly and walked to grab my towel. Loud screaming came from outside, I looked behind me to see Misaki standing perfectly still. She gave me a look that read: 'told you so'. I ran without a second thought to the doors of our locker room peering outside. Misaki and I were seniors and we tried out best to make a proper roll model for the younger students. Lately roomers have spread about a group of boys taking advantage of younger girls. I grasped the door and held it closed a little to peek at what's happening outside.

A few students were shuffling about. Looking rather retarded, as they made their way to the school building. I couldn't see any girl being held hostage. More screams could be heard coming from Fujimi High School. I looked back at the shuffling people that responded to the screaming. More of the people that turned immediately made its way back when another scream erupted. What the hell is going on? I looked across the field to see a body lying on the ground, franticly hands and feet were flying as one of the retards came closer. I braced myself to scream at the person, but within second the retard jumped at the person. An awful scream erupted as the person tried giving way…or was the person trying to pull the retard off of him? Suddenly my eyes almost popped out of my sockets as a spray of blood went through the sky. The thing bit him? I covered my mouth with my hands and closed the door holding the handle for a second as my mind registered what was happening.

"Kaoki?"

I jumped at the sound of my name.

Misaki frowned down at me but with sincere eyes, she was already dressed.

"Hey what's wrong?" Misaki asked putting a hand on my shoulder. A friendly gesture, but it didn't feel right, I shook it off. Her frown deepened at this abstract behaviour. My eyes must have looked wild because when she saw my face, she grabbed my arms and shook me roughly.

"Kaoki, what the hell is going on?" She demanded.

"Outside," I croaked and pointed with a shaking hand at the door. Her hand moved to the door handle to open it, but before she could reach I swiped her hand away. She looked up at me confused.

"It isn't save at the door, look through the windows," I said and pointed with the same shaky finger at the windows above the door. She climbed onto a bench, which was near the window, and looked out. I took in her expressions as they followed from alert to frighten to bewildered. Mine must have followed the same path as my eyes stayed on her facial features. She continued to stare at the chaos outside.

"What the fuck," she whispered silently, it sounded almost like a question. But in the midst of all this, who was there to answer such a question?

"Misaki," I said trying to gain her attention, "That's enough looking." I reached out to touch her hand, but she pulled it away. Her gaze fell onto me and for a split second I felt scared. Her eyes wild and pupils as small as a needle pin, she looked almost like she belonged in the mad house. I stepped back and pulled my hand in. This must have knocked her back to reality. She shook her head and apologized if she scared me.

I smiled and took her hand this time, "We need to make a plan. First we need to secure this door." Misaki nodded and walked around the wall. I tried to follow, but didn't want to leave the door unguarded. I could hear a faint wiggling sound as steel met the tiles. Soon she wiggled around a loose locker.

"Move," She stated out of breath. I did so and watched as she wiggled the locker between the door and wall across from it. When she finished she dusted her hands off and turned around to see me staring at her.

"You need to get dressed," she stated pointing at the towel around my body. I looked down and gave a knowing nod and walked to my locker. I didn't have anything else but my school uniform and gym clothes. I grabbed my gym short and took my school shirt. I dressed quickly and grabbed my sneakers. Who knows what's coming next, might as well be prepared for the worse. I looked at Misaki who was standing on the bench again staring outside. She didn't move a muscle as she watched. More cries could be heard outside.

The cry of pain and horror was so vivid; I struggled finish tying my shoes as my hands shook uncontrollably. When I finally did finish, I climbed onto the bench next to Misaki to see what she was watching so intently. Outside more bodies lay on the field with these creatures eating at their flesh. After the things bit the people, the people will stand up, but all sense of morals and life will be washed away as they bite other students in the same horrific way. Now and then a student who looked alive would run and scream, but wouldn't get very far, soon hordes of these creatures would cover him.

"What are they?" I whispered.

Silence consumed the conversation for a moment before Misaki started to speak.

"I think…I think their Zombies."

I looked up at her with wide eyes.

Zombies?

"Like the ones in video games and in movies?" I asked looking at her intently. Her face didn't change as she continued to stare at the walking dead before her.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"They seem to respond to sound," I added, but didn't get a response back.

Misaki jumped off the bench and walked over to the chair on the far side of the room. She was deep in thought as she grazed her chin. I wasn't going to let her figure everything out alone, so I pressed my back against the wall and slid down to be seated.

What do people in the movies normally do in situations like this?

"Weapons!" I exclaimed only hard enough for Misaki to hear. She looked up stunned for a moment, while a smile crept across her face.

I walked over to her, "Check the lockers for sporting equipment. Were in a locker room so their bound to be something in here."

Misaki jumped up and saluted me.

"Yes Sir," she added before running to the nearest locker. She smiled, but I was sure that wasn't authentic. She was trying to hide the fear that crept into her mind. She must be worried silly about her brother. He was still in school when this all started. I walked to my side of lockers, trying to suppress the thoughts of Kenji being eaten and bitten by those things or worse turning into one.

I knew I bought my hockey stick with me today, so my weapon search was completed, but I continued looking for a weapon for Misaki to use in battle. She didn't do any team sports, only athletics. That's were we became friends on the field next to the sand pit while we were being chosen for the girls athletics team. She was loud and made jokes about how the boys weren't as graceful as the girls when doing the long jump. I found her a bit irritating back then, but as fate had it Misaki Yamamoto and I became friends and have been for the last 2 years. Her voice bought we out of the trail of thought.

"Found something!" she exclaimed. The noise sounded harder in the compounded space.

"Shhh!" I scolded bringing my finger up to interpret the action as well.

"Sorry," she whispered as she pulled out a tennis racket between clothes making more noise as the locker started to tip, crashing into more lockers next to it.

"Your kidding, right?" I asked amazed at this act.

She looked at me then at the racket, then the locker, then back at me.

I ran after one of the lockers as they were about to tip and caught it before it crashed back into the wall.

Finally I whispered, "What damage will a tennis racket do against those things?"

Her face twisted into a sorrowful look as she laid the tennis racket onto the floor staring at it in her hand.

"How do you think our family is doing? Do you think the plague has already spread that far?" she looked away as she asked this, "I wonder if Kenji…"

"I don't know but I'm not going to sit around and do nothing," I interrupted. Honestly for the last hour or so I haven't thought about anything beside Zombies tearing at flesh. My mind wasn't functioning like normal, with strategies and finding weaknesses. I was panicking at anything and losing control.

Thud!

Thud!

I turned around and walked to the door swiftly. More thudding followed after the other and moaning caught my ears. I jumped onto the bench to see out the window. Before me one Zombie stood crashing into the door repeatedly, but that wasn't the only problem. The more it crashed the more Zombies reacted to the sound and followed suite.

"Time to move," I stated, walking to the window on the opposite side of the room. Misaki grabbed my arm in panic as tears left her red cheeks stained as she cried heavy tears.

"No time for crying we need to move," I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the window sill. I didn't want to go tough on her, but the world has changed and so did the rules. This was a battle for survival from now on.

"Climb," I ordered pushing the window frame up for her to move through, springs were attached to the side to pull it back. She still had her tennis racket in her hands as she squeezed through. I noticed I didn't have my weapon and jumped off the chair to grab my hockey stick that was placed in my locker. An ear catching crash came down as the Zombies broke through. My heart felt like it has hit a home run as it sped up. The dead opening and closing its mouth to find something warm to sink its teeth into. They seemed like robots repeating the same action over and over again. Opening and closing its jaws as it fumbled to stand up, but didn't succeed. I grabbed my hockey stick and saw a few Zombies struggle to get up as they kept crashing over each other. I grabbed my hockey stick and lashed at the one who looked most likely to succeed in standing up. Only hitting it in the shoulder, but fell back. I grabbed the door of the locker and pulled it down to see it crash onto two more.

"Kaoki!"

I looked up to see Misaki grab onto the window sill as something grabbed onto her and pulled her out.

No!

Something I wrote some time back and thought I should post it. Please review... Its good for the human soul. =)

BloodyCourse =)