Here it is, my new fic! Man, felt good to start writing this, as it always does when starting something new.
To those of you who've simply chanced upon this fic, welcome! And to those of you that may have read any of my other fics, welcome back! Hope this one will live to expectations, both yours and mine!
And on that note, just want to say a few things. Firstly, this fic will probably – probably – not be as long as my previous fics. This isn't going to be a goal or anything for me, but rather given what I do have planned, I simply don't foresee this fic being 50+ chapters long. But I've proven myself wrong before, so who knows, right? Ha ha.
On a second note… actually, I'll mention this at the ending AN, but it's not like it's a big deal per say, but rather just a bit of an explanation for this fic, not like it really needs one.
Now on one final note, although this is LONG overdue, I'd like to dedicate this fic in honor of HOTD's author, who sadly passed away before it was ever finished.
Now then… time to start!
P.S. Thank you to Jauneblacksmudge for the title! Thinking up one for this fic had been giving me way more trouble than I ever thought it would.
Mayflies Among the Dead Chapter 1
Takashi awoke with a start, all but gasping for air as if he'd been deprived of it. "Fuck…" he muttered, feeling so very much like shit.
It was the middle of the day, which was turning out to be just like any other, which is to say, another boring day at Fujimi High School. He'd skipped class and had headed for this little stairway that no one ever really used due to how far away it was.
He hadn't been expecting to suddenly fall asleep against the wall though. But then, he had been getting very little sleep lately, so maybe he should've seen this coming.
With a great big sigh, he stood up and leaned against the rails, looking over the front area of the school along with a good portion of the city.
But he could scarcely bring himself to actually focus, the otherwise enticing sight just barely registering to him.
"Man, what a day so far…" he mumbled, saying this with a level of exhaustion that not even his lack of sleep could explain.
For the past several years, life had become extremely routine for him – wake up, freshen up, eat breakfast with his parents with only his dad kindly talking with him while his mom all but ignored him, head to school, suffer through class, see Rei hang out with Hisashi, deal with Saya's usual lectures, then head back home where he'd continue to feel alone until he went to bed. The only times this routine was broken was when he hung out with some of the other slackers here at school like Morita.
In and of itself, this wasn't much, but when it accumulated for years like this, not even a stubborn guy like him can't help but feel depressed nowadays, clinically so.
But he wasn't about to let life get him down just yet, even if losing his childhood friend, Rei, to Hisashi had been a major blow to his feelings, if only because Rei had started to treat him pretty harshly after some incident. Sure wished he knew what exactly this incident was though, since Rei hadn't bothered explaining it to him in favor of stiffing him whenever they saw each other.
However, it wasn't this that had gotten his attention so recently. Honestly, he's reached that point where his feelings for Rei, whatever exactly said feelings had been, had started to just die off. No, what had him feeling so beaten down recently were his nightmares.
If only he could remember what his nightmares actually were about. All he knew was that he'd sleep fitfully and filled with fear before eventually waking up in a cold sweat, unable to remember what exactly had caused this in him. Thanks to this bullshit, he'd only been getting around two hours of sleep every night for the past several weeks and he was really feeling worn down as a result. Sleeping like this in school was just about the only times he could get a few more z's than normal, but it was nowhere near enough.
Takashi sighed. Class was barely halfway done right now, but once they ended, it'd be lunchtime and that meant Saya, his other childhood friend, would start gunning for him, eager for another lecture, filled with her usual putdowns. He figured he could go back to class, just face the music and get this over with sooner than usual but going back to class meant seeing not just Saya, but also Hisashi and Rei too. Why exactly Rei had been held back a year, he didn't know exactly, but he knew for sure it had to do with whatever incident had happened with her. But that aside…
…Time to beat a retreat in advance.
So he took the stairs up to the roof and slammed the door hard behind him, hoping it'd get stuck in place.
Up here in his little safe haven now, he took a deep breath and looked straight up, as if trying to divine answers from the sky above. Obviously, no answers were forthcoming for any life-changing questions, let alone his own personal ones.
He now planned to just ride out the rest of the day up here. Saya would get mad at him and so would his teachers – again – but not really his parents. His dad would be rather chill about this and his mom simply wouldn't care, just huff at him being a troublemaker and go about her business. In any case, it was only really his parents' opinion of his slacking that mattered anymore, so he was cool with this.
Takashi now walked up to the roof's railings and leaned over it rather dangerously, but only for a second before readjusting his position.
The walk up here had helped to wake him up more fully, helped him focus just a bit more and now he was able to appreciate the view of the city the roof offered.
But it was really damned odd, scarily so even – normally, the view from up here always calmed him down for some reason, made him feel at peace and even feel curious too. But as he looked out towards the city, he began to feel really nervous.
"…What's going on?"
Off in the distance, he could make out several sources of thick smoke rising from the city and forming clouds.
Was there a fire going on? Would explain the smoke, but that couldn't be it – the streams of smoke were too spread out to be originating from the same fire, if that really was the case.
He got so distracted by the rising smoke that it took a minute for him to then realize there was a bit of a commotion going on right by the school gates.
Looking down, he saw some teachers approaching the school. There was Teshima-sensei, who taught history and a few others he didn't recognize. They seemed to be talking pretty loudly amongst themselves about something.
That was when he finally saw what had their attention. And when he did, he nearly blinked, convinced for half a second that his mind was trying to fuck with him.
"I-Is that… supposed to be a dog?"
It sure looked like one and it looked like it was resting right outside the school gate. But that's the thing. It looked like a dog, but only a little bit. Its body seemed too large and muscular to be any kind of dog that he knew of… and it didn't seem to have any fur either.
One of the teachers, Teshima-sensei, stepped forward bravely. Looks like he intended to rouse the dog from its sleep and make it go elsewhere. Can't have something like that leaning against the school gate like that, especially when it clearly wasn't an average dog.
The teacher reached out and gently roused it but got no response. Takashi then continued to watch with a growing unease as Teshima-sensei kept trying to make it wake up and move, but with no success.
Eventually, the teacher got fed up and gave it a pretty harsh shove-.
-And that had been when something finally happened.
Alarm bells were going off in Takashi's head just milliseconds before it occurred too, but it wasn't as if he could yell out for the teachers to look out or anything.
It simply happened too fast.
The 'dog' suddenly stood up, revealing itself to be almost as big as Teshima-sensei, who wasn't a small guy. As it did so, it rammed against the gate – and knocked it down.
Where its face should be was nothing but teeth, large and jagged and it clamped down on the teacher's shoulder and pulled.
And just like that, most of Teshima's left shoulder was simply gone, muscle and bone, mangled as they were, now visible while blood poured out of the grave injury.
The other teachers there screamed at the sight and faster than any of them could react, the 'dog' dashed past them all right onto the school campus.
Takashi watched all this, completely frozen. He was definitely wide awake now and he failed to comprehend what was going on.
But he was able to understand just one thing – that monster, for there was clearly no other way to describe it, filled him with indescribable fear.
And now it was loose here on the fucking campus.
He had to do something, had to warn others somehow. And the instant this thought occurred, he was able to move again…
…But not before seeing something else that was equally absurd.
Teshima-sensei had died, the wound too big and grave for him to have endured it. Blood surrounded him and the other teachers there, with one holding on to the history teacher's body while some of the others pulled out phones and tried to call for help.
The history teacher was clearly dead. Even from all the way up here, that was pretty obvious. And yet, despite this, the new corpse began to convulse violently for several seconds.
And then it started to actually move.
Teshima-sensei's eyes were now pale, as if he were blind, but that didn't stop him from suddenly grabbing the teacher holding him and biting into the man's jugular, blood spurting out like a fountain when the history teacher pulled away with the entirety of the throat.
More screaming occurred at that moment.
But unlike just a moment ago, this absurdity didn't make Takashi freeze. Instead, it compelled him to act a hell of a lot faster.
He bolted for the door and threw it open, glad that his attempt earlier to get it stuck had failed. He all but leapt down the stairs, nearly tumbling as he landed, but he just kept on going.
Not to the principal's office to any of the other nearby classes as he reached the hallway.
Instead, he headed for just one class in particular:
His own.
Rei. Hisashi. Saya… he had to get to them.
His pace picked up substantially when roars began to occur, all of which seemed to be coming from near the school and even the city itself.
And that was when the screaming started too.
Rei Miyamoto considered today to be like any other day for the most part. She came to school, met up with her boyfriend and headed to class together and ignored Takashi – "that idiot" she muttered – and put up with classes that she's already gone through once before thanks to that bastard Shido.
But her consideration of this being yet another day came to a pretty abrupt end just a moment ago, when those roars had suddenly occurred.
God, what inhuman roars they'd been, having rattled her down to the bones.
She hadn't been the only one affected; the rest of the class had all but ceased listening to their teacher and were muttering to one another, wondering what the hell was going on. Even their teacher seemed disturbed and looked ready to excuse himself to go inquire about whatever the situation was.
However, just as a minute passed by without anyone doing much of anything, the door to their classroom slammed open and in walked Takashi, looking like a man on a mission…
…And he was heading straight for her.
The teacher called out to him, clearly annoyed, but Takashi paid him no mind and instead grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up and out of her seat.
"Come on, we're getting out of here!" he exclaimed. And as if as an afterthought, he turned to the stunned class. "You all better scram too!"
Naturally, no one took this lying down, Rei included. "Hey, back off!"
"What're you doing, Komuro?!" Ah, there was Saya standing up now.
But at both her words and Saya's, Takashi didn't let go. If anything, he pulled harder.
The rest of the class watched on uneasily, some jeering but doing so uncertainly. They were all spooked by something.
But Hisashi wasn't. He was out of his seat and gripping Takashi's forearm tightly. "What're you doing to Rei, Takashi?!"
Takashi leaned in close to her boyfriend. "There's been a murder at the front gate… and there's something roaming around on campus now."
The words froze her and her boyfriend in place. "…For real?" Hisashi asked.
"Why'd I lie about something like that?" Takashi all but growled. He then gave her another tug.
And this snapped her back into consciousness. "H-Hey, hold up, you can't just say something like that and expect me to listen!" She pulled back and broke free of his grip. She outright snarled. Just what was up with Takashi here. "You better explain yourse-!"
His hand blurred and an instant later, she felt pain in the side of her face. Takashi had slapped her.
"Just shut up and move! There's no time for your bullshit!" He sounded desperate rather than angry and somehow, that rattled her more than the slap did.
"…Sensei, excuse us for a minute," Hisashi then said to a shocked teacher and class before swiftly grabbing them both and moving them out of the classroom.
Once they were out of there, Takashi turned and almost started to run off with them in tow – but Hisashi managed to stop him from doing so.
"Takashi, hold up," he said. "Now can you tell us what's going on?"
"Damn it, there's been a murder outside! A teacher got bit and then he died and now the other teachers out there are probably being killed!"
"You're so full of it!" Rei shouted. Seriously, did Takashi think she was going to believe that? He's hardly ever given her reason to believe him before for anything else!
He bristled and looked ready to speak or drag her and Hisashi away again, but before he did, there was another roar and it sounded nearby.
Like, really nearby.
And there was something else too.
"Moaning?" Hisashi muttered.
"Well there you go," Takashi said with open arms. "Some proof. Wanna stick around to meet it? Or do you wanna escape instead?!"
"…Alright. Rei, let's go," Hisashi muttered, gently goading her into running.
And now all three of them made a break for it.
"W-Wait! Let's just call my dad first! He's an inspector!" She tried to plead with them even as they all ran.
"Fine, whatever, but don't stop running!" Takashi yelled.
Huffing, she pulled out her phone without slowing much and called the police.
She all but stumbled from shock at what she ended up hearing.
"Th-the phoneline… it's busy," she said, genuinely shaken. "There's a huge number of 911 calls…"
Both her boyfriend and former friend were deathly silent at the news and just kept on running.
The moaning from before got louder…
And soon they saw the source.
"That's one of the language arts teachers!" Hisashi said as the person came into view from around the corner.
Rei recognized him too – Wakisaka was his name.
And he wasn't looking well. His eyes were all but bulging out of the sockets and the pupils looked murky, as if he were blind. Blood dripped forth from his nostrils and mouth and onto his button up shirt. His skin was pale and getting paler by the second.
He moaned and now that he was this close, it sounded absolutely horrific, just unlike anything she's ever heard before.
And he wasn't the only one either. One after another, from around the same corner came other teachers and even students in similar states, moaning as well.
It was only then that Rei noticed a number of them sporting injuries that made her almost gag.
Bite marks, or at least what looked like bite marks, littered over all their bodies. Some were small and others were big. Some sported only one and others sported many.
…those injuries were deep and clearly fatal. By all rights, a lot of these people should be fucking dead.
But they weren't. Here they were instead, shambling towards them. Even as blood slowly oozed out of the wounds, they didn't slow one bit.
At the sight of this, she and the others could stay rooted in place, Hisashi standing defensively out in front of her while Takashi backed up next to them.
"Stay quiet," Takashi said. "Doesn't seem like they've noticed us for some reason. Just stay fucking quiet and back up-."
"-What is going on out there?" uttered a student from one of the nearby classrooms. A second year just like them, some girl that none of them knew.
When she poked her head out and saw the large group of people that should be dead so close by, she let out a loud and startled scream.
That was when all hell truly broke loose.
"The stairs!" Hisashi found himself exclaiming just as the girl screamed.
The very second she screamed, those things – no way they could be people anymore, they just couldn't – outright changed before his very eyes.
Before, they'd simply been shambling along, like… like zombies. But then upon hearing that scream, they all screamed too, with a mindless fury and hunger that almost made him piss his pants if he hadn't reacted otherwise.
Even their expressions had shifted from dull and lifeless to ones of absolute and ravenous rage. And an instant later, they'd been upon that poor girl with hands and teeth, which only caused those in that classroom to scream and make them move.
Jesus, just how could those things suddenly move so fast?!
By the time he'd grabbed Rei and had led her and Takashi down the stairs nearby, the end of the hallway those things had come from was already swiftly becoming a small sea of blood.
He ran down the steps as fast as he could, doing his best not to scream at the insanity he'd just seen. Takashi was right by his side, looking pale and frightened but admirably remaining dead quiet.
Sadly, the same couldn't be said for his girlfriend, who screamed shrilly at what she'd just seen. Not like he could blame her, really.
Still, that didn't mean he could panic when he heard those same cries of rage now occurring throughout the other floors.
"ohshitohshitohshitoshitoshit!" Takashi mumbled from beside him when they all but ran right into one more of those- of those things.
What used to be guy from the looks of it, but with most of his organs spill out and dangling from the front of his chest and stomach, which looked as if he'd been quite the feast for a small group of those things.
The thing roared and charged right at Takashi, but Takashi managed to stumble out of the way in time for the thing to go and tumble right over the stair rails down to the bottommost floor, hitting the floor with a sickening crack that echoed up to them.
Hisashi didn't know if that took care of that one, but the sound just seemed to attract more of those things on the bottom floor and sure enough just seconds later, a dozen of them started charging up the stairs.
"Fuck! This way!" Takashi exclaimed, slapping him on the shoulder to get him to follow.
Hisashi obliged instantly, tugging on a stunned Rei.
The three of them ran down the hallway they'd been forced onto.
"W-Where are we even going?!" Rei finally managed to say.
"The stairway on the other side of the school! The one out in the open! We can jump from there!" Takashi answered in between breaths as they ran.
Hisashi knew where Takashi was talking about. From what he recalled, his friend here liked to hang out by himself there pretty often recently.
"Are you out of mind?! You want us to jump?!" Rei hissed, mercifully in a quieter voice than usual. She seemed to understand almost instinctively now not to be too loud lest she just get those things' attention.
Not like she had much to worry about anymore since there was plenty of screaming going on now throughout the rest of the school. Those things moved fast indeed. Too fast.
"You'd rather get eaten?!" Takashi shot back hotly. "Not like the distance to the ground is that dangerous!"
"Wait up, at least get a weapon or two first!" Hisashi interjected here and now before they got too close to the stairs. "If we ended up having to push past those things, doing it barehanded won't work!"
He'd take up Karate in the past, got himself a belt in it too so it wasn't as if he was helpless in a fistfight. But against those things, with their numbers and ferocity? Screw that.
"-Janitor's closet then! This way!" Takashi skidded and swerved as he headed down another hallway that Hisashi was quick to follow along with Rei.
Not even half a minute later, they found what they were looking for. It was locked, but Hisashi quickly stepped forward and gave it a strong kick to force it open. It made a good bit of noise, but the ongoing screaming, as nightmarish as it was to listen to it still, proved helpful in covering up the sound.
He then reached in and pulled out a mop to hand to Rei, but not before breaking off the mop part itself in order to essentially turn it into a spear. He handed it to her and quickly looked inside the janitor closet again, which was filled with a bunch of stuff.
"Damn it!" he muttered, trying not to panic. There was a lot of random junk in here. Not exactly a good thing when they had to get out of here pronto.
"Try and look for a couple of bats in there – this janitor is a bit of a hoarder, so he's got to have some in there," spoke Takashi.
Despite himself, Hisashi snorted in bemusement. "Let me guess, your time slacking around let be buddy-buddy with this guy?"
"Nah, not really." Takashi grinned a bit. It was forced one, but some of the tension visibly left him as he did so. "But we talked here and there while I walked around. He also carries around some weed in there too. Apparently, he found it somewhere out by the baseball field some time ago."
"Heh, always thought some of those guys looked a little out of it." He paused for a second as he kept searching. "Got them!"
Sure enough, he found a few baseball bats. This janitor really was a hoarder and it sure was a handy thing to know now.
He tossed one gently to Takashi and kept one for himself.
"Alright, now let's go-."
He got cut off when a sound that drowned out all else occurred. It was a growl, an insanely loud one at that. It sounded completely surreal, well beyond what the human lungs and throat could ever produce. Not even those things from earlier would ever be capable of such a sound.
It was a wet and sickening growl, as if something was trying to gurgle and yell at the same exact time.
And it was coming from the floor directly above them.
"W-W-What in the world was that?" Rei whispered, the fight she had in her earlier completely gone now in the wake of these events.
"Don't know, don't care to find out," Hisashi declared firmly. "Come on, let's go before it comes down here."
He started to run for the stairs, Rei swiftly following behind. However, he came to a stop well before he could even gain much speed.
"Takashi? Come on, we need to move!" His friend had remained still, almost as if he was now a statue.
"Takashi…?" he called out slowly, worried.
Just what was going on now?
Takashi hadn't meant to freeze up like that, but he simply couldn't help it when he heard that growl. A powerful sense of vertigo had struck him out of nowhere as the growl rang in his ears and standing perfectly still was the only thing he could do lest he go stumbling like a drunk.
Without any other evidence to support it, he just knew that the growl was coming from the thing he saw earlier, the thing that had killed Teshima-sensei and got this whole shitshow going.
That it was here in the school's main building… he'd feared the worst, but having it actually happen was something he hadn't been ready for.
"Takashi!"
Suddenly, hands clamped down on him and shook him and it took a colossal amount of effort to keep from swinging the bat in his hands now. Hisashi had given him a good shake to snap him out of his current state and he silently thanked the guy.
"You alright?"
"No… but I'll feel much fucking better when we're out of here," he replied in a firm tone. But it was just a front, for Hisashi and Rei and more importantly himself.
The sight of those smoke trails flashed across his mind and he wasn't so sure that heading into the city would be much safer than being here. But at least out there, there'd be more ways for them to maneuver past these things that surely had to be lying in wait in the city too. After all, why else would there be so many 911 calls going on?
In any case, he wasn't about to just up and quit here in school. He always thought school would be the death of him, but he had no desire for it to be made literal.
"Come on," he said as he suddenly brushed past Hisashi and Rei. "I can hear those things coming."
As if to prove his point, some moaning and inhuman cries started to reverberate from further down the hallway.
Hisashi and Rei followed immediately after him.
As he now led them once more towards the stairs he spoke of, he did his best to remain more in control now.
But that proved to be a hard thing to do when he could hear that monster from earlier seemingly follow them from the floor above, its heavy footsteps thudding in the same direction they ran in.
Thankfully, just several seconds later, the footsteps ceased and he breathed a sigh of relief.
About half a minute later, the stairway he spoke of came into view and he nearly laughed in joy, already picturing freedom.
Only for his daydream to be cruelly shattered when a handful of students and teachers came running from down the stairs, screaming at the top of their lungs while more of those things gave chase. More of those things came running from below too, converging at the spot he'd been leading Hisashi and Rei to.
And so he could only look on in despair as their route was blocked, a tidal wave from hell itself now coming their way.
With no other choice, he and his two friends could only turn around and flee in the exact opposite direction they'd been traveling in up until now.
And legion itself seemed to be hot on their tails.
With no other ways to escape anywhere in sight, it seemed like this was to be where he and Hisashi and Rei would die. It was with this much unwanted thought that he could perhaps be forgiven for screaming, especially since it seemed like the horde of fellow students and teachers and those things were catching up.
Hisashi screamed.
Rei screamed.
Then, as if by some divine or hellish intervention, the ceiling above them all broke apart and collapsed.
As Takashi found himself and everyone else in the hallway being crushed beneath the debris, all he could think of was why that monstrous roar sounded so great to him.
Then all he knew was darkness.
And that's that for now! So what do you think, guys? Interested?
Heh, well not exactly the longest chapter I've ever done, but probably one of the longer FIRST chapters I've ever written, at least as far as I can recall. Could be wrong, though. In any case, think of this chapter as more of a prologue than an actual chapter, situation by the end of it notwithstanding.
I'd initially planned to keep on writing, including the rest of the main characters from HOTD, but eventually decided against this in order to avoid simply throwing everyone in there all at once – have to space things out for the sake of the plot. I may not be intending to make this fic that long, relatively speaking, but that doesn't mean I'm going to rush things to do so.
Now regarding what I intended to mention in the beginning AN, this fic won't really be a typical HOTD fic. That isn't to say there won't be zombies and action and horror and ecchi because I'll be doing my best to have all of that in this fic by the truckloads, particularly the horror if I'm able to do it right. So on that note, allow me to explain just a few things about this:
Firstly, all the characters in this fic will, for the most part, be from HOTD. Very few OCs will be in it and when they do show up, you guys will know right off the bat.
Secondly, this fic is inspired by elements found in another awesome/wacky horror manga called Mahou Shoujo of the End, also known as Magical Girl Apocalypse in the US and other countries. This isn't to say I will be copy/pasting things from it into the HOTD universe, rather that certain things from it have formed a basis of sorts for my own ideas that will be executed in this fic. The 'dog' creature briefly shown early on is but a small sample of what is to come. So if you think reading Mahou Shoujo of the End will somehow spoil this fic, not to worry – the plot is of my own creation as are the things I will be introducing later on, inspiration aside.
Thirdly, the only thing from MSotE (Mahou Shoujo of the End), that'll be even remotely present in this fic for real are the zombies. Whereas the zombies in HOTD are pretty typical ones barring the tracking by hearing thing, the ones in the other manga are much different – they're too fast and strong from average people to outperform and extremely aggressive and actively search for people to kill. Plus, they aren't blind either and utter 'Magical' a lot. They also will simply kill people in whatever way is immediately available to them; biting isn't exactly a priority for them though their victims will become zombies too regardless of the method used to kill them.
The ones in this fic will be a merger of the two – fast, strong and aggressive when hunting for victims, but are blind and will bite if possible. Outside of hunting and killing, however, they'll be somewhat quiet and docile until provoked.
Whelp, that explains just about everything I think needs to be explained off the bat. Hope this'll be something that interests you guys because I've been wanting to do this fic for quite some time now and it's my hope that it'll be warmly received by the HOTD fandom even with the changes to canon that will be occurring shortly.
Until next time, everyone! Take care!
P.S. Recently got Dies Irae, an awesome visual novel that's like 50+ hours long. May or may not cause the next chapter to come out a little later than I usually plan. That said, strongly recommend the VN!
