Chapter 1
Another ugly day in beautiful Japan. Being a foreign exchange student was hard enough, without having to learn the bloody language too!
But I coped.
I was a strong young woman, I could handle it.
I'd been learning Japanese for a few years now, my obsession with anime gone a step too far. Otaku they called me, but I wasn't offended, in fact, I quite enjoyed it when they called me that. I had become something recognisable to them, and so far, I'd been accepted without too much hassle.
Of course bullies were nothing compared to what was about to come my way.
It was fifth period still, and I was in Maths, my worst subject; because now I had to do it in Japanese too. I always sat in the same seat. The closest to the window at the front of the class, so I could see everything that went on, but nothing prepared me for the tannoy announcement that came.
The class erupted into chaos, and I remained where I was, to avoid being trampled. The screams of fear and pain filled the air, surrounding me. I was alone, but not for long. Someone stumbled into the room, but I remained where I was, silent and unmoving. They tripped over the chair that had been knocked over by the door, and I saw they're true form.
He was a zombie…
The living dead? It must be some kind of joke, I thought, but another had remained in the class with me. The geeky boy who everyone picked on, who just wanted to be accepted. He stepped towards the no-longer-man, and called out to him, asking if he was alright. This was the boy's first and last mistake.
The creature lunged at the boy, and the pair went down in blood, the boy screaming to high heaven til his last breath left him. His cries had attracted others though, and I was trapped in the classroom, with the zombies making their way towards me.
I opened the window… it was only the first floor… I could make it, I hoped. Standing on the ledge I looked back at the carnage, then down again, to the dirt below. I stepped off and begged to be alive and well at the bottom.
I rolled when I hit the ground, spreading out the impact, like my parkour friends had taught me before I'd left for Japan. I was a favourite pastime of mine, freerunning. And it just saved my life.
My ankle twisted when I landed, but other than that, I was fine. I stood and limped quickly towards the lockers. There was no one about so I opened mine quietly and pulled out my bag. The contents precious.
My father had died in a house fire when I was seven, and ever since then, I'd always carried some basic supplies with me where ever I went. I had the feeling that I would need them.
Inside my bag was a large torch and spare batteries, a Swiss army knife, a mini medical kit, fire making tools, an umbrella, change of clothes and a world wide food survival guide.
Unfortunately, nothing in my bag would be of much use against the zombie apocalypse. I would need a weapon.
I snuck down the corridor, avoiding the blood stains, and still unable to get the image of the boy from my class being eaten out of my head. Soon I reached the janitor's cupboard, the keys were on the floor in a pool of blood, streaks of the red liquid leading away down the hall. I tried my best not to think what fate the man had come to, but couldn't stop the shudder, from taking my whole body for a few moments.
I opened the door slowly; wary in case someone was inside, but opened it fully when nothing happened. Everything was quiet, too quiet, and I didn't like it.
I searched for something I could use to defend myself with, and smiled when my hand touched a crowbar. I took it and the janitor's keys, and then made my way towards the car park at the front of the building, in the hope of taking a car.
Dead zombies lay here and there; some had nails sticking out of their foreheads, like an executioner's bullet. But who had done this?
I left the lobby and ran outside, towards the front gate. There I saw others running ahead of me, right at a bus waiting to escape this hell. I ran full pelt, dodging round the dead as fast as I could, even going so far as to leap over those who had fallen.
There was a teacher ahead, in a black pinstripe suit, with slicked back hair; he didn't stop to help the boy who had fallen behind him. Instead he kicked the boy in the face, breaking his nose and making the boy scream in pain, attracting the creatures towards him.
What a bastard!
I ran past, faster than the teacher, leaving him behind, secretly hoping he would get eaten.
The kids ahead of me clambered onto the bus as quickly as they could, but the back window was under assault from two of the zombies, the glass was already cracked and would break soon. I tossed my bag through the open door, over the heads of the other students, and turned to deal with them.
Crowbar raised, I swung it down onto the head of the first creature, I didn't recognise her, but I still felt bad. Her skull cracked and smashed, she went down, the other, a teacher, turned to me and I rammed the crowbar upwards, pushing the point through the bottom of the jaw and into the brain. He fell too.
The bus engine started up, and I grabbed hold of the back of the bus in time. It lurched into motion, with me clinging to the back. I knew when we hit the gate that I'd be knocked off. So I hammered on the back window, begging for someone to let me in.
The window opened, and a dark haired girl held out her hand to me, I took it and we both tumbled through the window, over the seats, and onto the floor. The scream of metal on metal and the jolt that made my head spin told me that we'd hit the gate. The feeling of being weightless lasted a few seconds before we hit the ground again, and raced off towards the city.
I lay there, dazed, for a few moments before sitting up and taking in my surroundings. People stared at me, and for a second I wasn't sure why. That's when I realised I must be covered in blood.
"Heh heh…? I must look a state right? Sorry." I mumbled.
"The state of your clothing has nothing to do with it. We were not expecting you to be…"
"What? Foreign? It's okay, you can say it, I get that a lot."
"I apologise."
"Don't worry about it. We have bigger things to worry about."
The girl nodded, and with her practice katana at her waist, she made her way to the front of the bus.
I stood and followed her, ignoring the teacher in the black suit, and grabbed my bag from where it had landed.
I sat on the floor behind the driver's seat and pulled out the change of clothes from my bag. I pulled on the shorts and then pulled my school uniform skirt off. People stared at me, but I didn't care. Though I did send a death glare to a boy at the back who seemed to be staring a little too closely.
I undid my shirt to reveal the white top I had on underneath, thankful that the blood hadn't seeped through. I wouldn't need my other top yet then.
I settled back down and looked at everyone in turn.
"I'm Anna Grenwood by the way, class 3-B."
"I'm Saeko Busujima, that's Komoro Takashi, Rei Miyamoto, Saya Takagi, and the guy with the nail gun is Kohta Hirano."
"Nice to meet you all, considering the circumstances…"
We spent the rest of the journey into the city in silence; except for the cult forming in the back seat.
I just wanted to go home, and go to sleep, to wake up from this nightmare! But how could I? Where would be safe from them? Those monsters that haunted my dreams when I was younger, they had become real, and hunted my waking life now too.
The sun had begun to set as we made it into the city. And the Cult in the back was interfering with our survival. The teacher in the suit was trying to force us all to stay and basically worship him. Fat chance!
I'd seen what he'd done to that boy back at the school. He'd played God and sent the poor guy to his death. As if I would trust the dickwad!
We pulled to a halt and Rei leapt from the bus, closely followed by Komoro. They stood and argued for a few moments in the middle of the road. But a roar from an engine distracted them.
Another bus, one used for public transport was hurtling towards them. I moved to jump out of the bus to go towards them, but a hand clamped down on my elbow. It was that creep! I could only watch as Komoro and Rei attempted to throw themselves out of harms way, into the tunnel behind them.
Busujima raced over, getting to where I wanted to be before I could reach the pair.
Komoro, I glimpsed him behind the flames, he called something to Busujima that I couldn't make out. Twisted metal covered the gap where he had been, and the two vanished.
Creatures tumbled and fell out of the bus, but it seemed fire did work against them, for they fell before Busujima could deal with them.
I tore my arm away from the teacher, earning a few scratches, and raced over to her.
"Are they alright? What did Komoro say?" I asked anxiously.
"They will meet us at the East Police Station at 7 tonight. If they cannot reach us, or we cannot reach them, we will try again tomorrow."
"But it's already 6:45… where is the station?"
"Not too far from here, but things could get complicated. Don't hope to see them again soon."
And with that she stepped back onto the bus and sat down in Rei's now empty seat.
I stepped on and the doors closed behind me. The engine roared back into life and we were driven even deeper into hell.
Time passed without much event for a good while. We'd missed our deadline with Komoro, and if we wanted to meet up with them, we'd have to leave the bus.
The cult in the back was totally against this, which was really pissing me off. I just wanted to slap them all in the face and leave!
Busujima placed her hand over mine and stopped my thoughts. She looked at me knowingly, understanding my frustration.
"We need to leave this bus. We'll never find Rei and Komoro otherwise. And that guy's going to get us killed!" I whispered angrily to her, "If something doesn't happen soon I'm leaving."
Speak of the devil and he shall appear before you.
"What's this? You were thinking of leaving us? But how would we do without you? You are the only fluent English speaker among us. Should we come across aid, we might not be able to communicate with them, and for that you are our salvation. You can't leave us in this time of need."
I stared at him blankly.
"If you need to communicate that badly, have this." I handed him a handwritten booklet I'd been making for a friend. She'd wanted to learn English, but by now she was most likely dead or zombified. It was now no longer a use for me.
He took it and flipped through the pages as I turned away. He seemed to try to say something else, but loud honking and police voices became more apparent and we all peered out of the windows.
People in cars, vans and other buses were being ushered slowly out of the city, but the bridge was blocked and we knew that we would be hardly moving at all soon.
Hearts seemed to sink a little at the front of the bus.
We sat in the queue for what felt like forever. Kohta even fell asleep next to Takagi, which she was none too pleased about.
I stood and went to our driver, Miss Shizuka Marikawa, the school nurse. She seemed exasperated by our situation, wanting to move, to do something! Much like the rest of us. I looked out the front window, examining the chaos, sighing loudly.
What were we going to do? I wrapped my arms about myself, hugging the little warmth there was into my body. I was scared.
My family and friends, they would most likely be dead or un-dead now. Who would I turn to? Who could I turn to? I was surrounded by strangers, school-mates and teachers, but ever so alone. I felt the tell-tale tingle at the top of my nose that signaled the arrival of tears.
I blinked furiously, taking a deep breath to steady myself. Miss Marikawa's hand brushed my hip, and I took her slender fingers in mine. She offered me comfort and I accepted it with a little unease still attached.
How would we ever get out of this alive?
Gun fire sounded ahead of us, the police opening fire on the monsters. We were sitting ducks here.
A hand on my shoulder made me turn. Busujima was calling an unofficial meeting. I felt happy to be included, for once.
We sat around in the front, ignoring the ignorant in the back, and discussed what we should do next.
Out of the bus, meet up with Komoro and Rei, get over the bridge, and get to safety. It all seemed so easy. But we actually had to do that now…
The Onbetsu Bridge, they had to cross it to reach their families. If only I still had one of them… My father was dead and my mother couldn't bear to look at me because of how much I looked like my dad. She wouldn't even let me see my little brother. We'd secretly kept up contact for a few years now, but with each passing moment my hope dwindled.
Mr Shido, the teacher in the black suit tried to stop us from leaving, attempting to persuade Miss Marikawa from leaving by blackmailing her. Kohta fired his nail gun, stopping Shido in his tracks. We leapt from the vehicle and ran for it.
We kept on going, the day darkening, the Onbetsu Bridge our goal. We came to another bridge, there were a few cars blocking the way, so we clambered over them and met some creatures. Well, more than a few, there were too many for us to handle like we were. We needed some help.
Takagi and Miss Marikawa stayed close together whilst Busujima and Kohta spread out a bit more to take on our foes. I stuck near to Miss Marikawa; we would need her if anyone got hurt. Two approached me, and I swung the crowbar to the right, caving in the scull of one, and then I ducked under the open arms of the other and smashed it from behind.
Something crashed into me, and I fell to the ground. A creature was on top of me, I used the crowbar to hold it back, pressing the bar into its neck while its hands scraped the tarmac and messed up my hair.
It was stronger than me, and really heavy. I wouldn't be able to hold it up away from me for too much longer, my fear let loose and I screamed for aid.
Jaws snapped near my nose and I squirmed, wanting away, wanting to live!
And the weight was gone, the pressure lifted, my ears only filled with the roar of an engine.
Rei speared the beast above me, killed it and moved on.
They had come to meet us! They were alive! Relief flooded through me for these people I didn't even know. I wondered for a moment why that was, and decided I didn't care.
We were together again, and that was all that mattered, that gave us hope.