Disclaimer: We don't own either franchise. If we did, they'd probably suck.
Chapter 1: Hell's come back for us
"How the hell could this have happened again!?" I muttered, seething as I swung at the zombie lurching towards my friend, smashing it's skull against the wall. Normally he'd be able to handle it but he was at the moment indisposed throwing the one in front of him over the railing of the stairs.
It's another god-damned zombie outbreak! We thought we were past this after Fortune City but I guess life just loves shitting on us! We're trying to catch up with three other survivors headed for the roof. The girl in the group, looks kind of familiar actually, managed to get that spear of hers stuck pretty well into the last zombie between us. Unfortunately, she stuck it in it's chest. Zombie knocked her to the ground but got it's head smashed before it could get any closer. Not by us mind you. One of the guys in the other group grabbed a baseball bat from the other and dealt with it. With that, the route was clear.
The last of the other group yelled for us to hurry and got us into a closed off area of the roof. We were able to barricade the stairwell pretty effectively; turns out cellophane tape is a lot stronger than it looks. It wasn't perfect but it would do us well enough to get our bearings and come up with a plan.
Now that we've got time I should probably explain a few things. Name's Gerard Kinane, my buddy here's Peter Ashall. We're foreign students in Japan from the US. Coming here was his idea and I didn't have anything better. Besides, who could have predicted this? Anyway, now that we've got a chance to catch our breath we recognised who we were following or rather, one of them recognised us.
"Peter! Gerard! You're alright!" we heard Takashi shout out in relief.
"Takashi? Is that you? I'm glad you're okay!" Peter said, similarly relieved while I chimed in with "Good to have someone we know with us during this". Seriously, that's more important than you would think.
I recognised all of the group. Takashi Komuro, one of the first friends we made since moving here; Rei Miyamoto, Takashi's Ex-girlfriend and Hisashi Igo, Takashi's Best-friend...who just so happens to be dating Rei since she broke up with Takashi. Yeah, awkward. Still, he isn't too bitter about it far as I can tell and right now, dating's the least of our concerns. We all know each-other well enough that there shouldn't be too much friction in the group.
"It's great to see you're all safe. Question is what do we do now?" I said.
Takashi filled us in. "I know the Astronomy club left some drinks and food in there for sleep-overs." He motioned to the storage room. "There are sleeping bags too. We should have enough for two or three days". Rei opened the door and went inside. She came out shortly after informing us "There's a toilet in there". Sensibly, Hisashi asked "Was the water working?" Rei answered "it was, but how?" adding on "Wouldn't the power go out at a time like this? If the power was out then the water pumps wouldn't be running." I figured "surely there'd be an emergency generator here for when the power goes out. That's probably what's working the water pumps."
We all got some water and just rested while we had the chance. Hisashi told us "There's nothing we can do but wait for someone to save us". Takashi was leaning against the railing and getting rather irritated at the zombie moaning at him down below. "Why you..." and raised his arm about to throw the bottle he was holding before Peter yelled "Takashi don't!" and grabbed his arm. "We need to hold on to as much water as we can." Hisashi chimed in saying "we have enough water inside to last us a whlie." and Rei realised "If nothing else, we can make the water last for a week"
As it turns out, Takashi was the only one with a cell-phone so we had him try to call the police. All he got was an automated message. Makes sense now that I've had a chance to get a good look at the city. It's a mess to say the least. Chaos as far as the eye can see. Lets just say none of us were particularly happy about it. It's bringing back some bad memories in us. Oh crap. Pete's got that thousand yard stare again.
–––Pov Change: Peter–––
Where the hell did these come from!? One minute we're in the audience for Terror Is Reality and the next we're running for our lives! What happened? What do we do? Where do we go? All these questions and more went silent the moment I got out of the stadium and saw just how bad it was. Zombies running loose, killing and eating everyone. I froze, it felt like an hour but was really just a second. I felt something push me from behind and I panicked! "Pete! Keep moving damnit!" I recognised my friend's voice and was able to calm myself enough to follow. Saw an older guy try to direct people to "get to the shelter". Didn't see any better options so we ran there, dodging zombies as we went. Saw a man in a yellow jacket carrying a child about to be grabbed by a zombie so I charged and kicked it away. I shouted "Come on! Hurry, this way!"
Only about a dozen people made it. As it turns out, the guy I protected was Chuck Greene. I recognised him from the competition. We also found out the girl was his daughter, Katie, and she had been bitten previously. He must have been competing to get the money to pay for her Zombrex.
Apparently, we had rescue coming in three days. When we found this out, Gerard told me "I don't think that guy's got enough to last that long. Just something about their reaction". Turns out he was right. Chuck tried to get out through the vents. Claimed he was looking for other survivors. Don't know why exactly but I felt like I had to help him. Maybe I felt bad for him and Katie, maybe I felt I just had to do something, anything. Maybe I just had something to prove to myself.
"Peter, you okay?" I heard a quiet, but familiar voice. "Peter!" I felt something grabbing and shaking me. I was suddenly on the roof again. "Wait, what?"
"Pete, we lost you for a minute there. You alright?" Gerard said, obviously concerned. Looking at the others, they were also concerned. "Yeah, I'm okay, just..." I said, trying to reassure them but trailing off "Fortune City again?" Gerard said. I just responded with "yeah." "It's okay, that messed us both up."
The others were looking at us with a mix of concern and curiosity. I was going to explain things to them but I was interrupted by a loud bang. We turned to see what was going on and saw a teacher running onto the roof. Rei identified him first "Thats...The P.E. Teacher, Takayama." He was talking to himself and laughing. Then he climbed the safety fence and jumped off the edge. Obviously he snapped under the pressure. I couldn't help but mutter "idiot".
After seeing that, Rei lost all composure. "I can't...I can't take this any more...". I was going to try and calm her down but Hisashi acted first. He gave her a shoulder to cry on and helped her try to make sense of the situation. When he said "If we know why this is happening, we'll be able to look for a solution" it suddenly hit me. Could Phenotrans be behind this like last time? I couldn't be sure. I decided to ask Gerard "should we tell them?". He responded "Not yet. They have enough to worry about without giving them the idea that we might be involved. I know it makes no sense but they're not thinking straight. Nobody does in these situations." He was right. After all, we've been there before.
I leaned on the railing next to Takeshi. I could tell he was at a loss. Nothing was making sense to him anymore. Nothing ever does at times like this. To be fair, the only thing I can do right now is ask 'Why?'. Why is this happening? We thought Phenotrans was finished after we broke the story. Did they somehow stay active despite the massive government sanctions? Did one of their scientists go rogue and release the plague as revenge? Did we accidentally bring it over despite all the checks? Is it something else entirely? ...I suppose right now the only thing we can do is survive.
Author Notes: Should probably describe what our characters look like. Peter has dark-brown hair, blue eyes and a slim-athletic build. He wears a small metal pendant in the shape of a wolf's head. Gerard has black hair, blue-grey eyes and fairly muscular for his age. They've both been staying in fighting shape since Fortune City.