Disclaimer: I don't own Saki or any of the films in the Living Dead Series - Night (1968), Dawn (1978), Day (1985), Land (2005), Diary (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009).
- Saki is property of Ritz Kobayashi and GONZO.
- The Living Dead Series is property of George A. Romero.
~ PROLOGUE ~
(Ghost Town)
It was quarter past seven. The sky was darkening. A second year high school student was riding along a quiet road that leads from Kiyosumi High School. The sixteen-year-old sang along to Leatherwolf's 'Alone In The Night', which was playing on his MP3 player, silently. Street lights flickered on as he passed a canal and into the town he lived in all his life. However, as soon as reached the small town, he noticed something was not right. He turned his head left and right. There was not a single person down the streets. He felt a tingle of uneasiness surging through his body.
"Funny..." He thought. "Normally, there will still be people around at this time..."
As he rode along the shopping district, the student saw that the shops were empty too. He swallowed hard.
"What the hell is going on here?" He thought to himself again, the feeling of uneasiness growing stronger. "Where did everybody go?"
As he rode out from the shopping district and into the residential area, the student spotted someone walking up ahead in the dimly lit streets. The silhouette was that of a man. He was relieved to finally see someone else in town. Something inside of him told him to be cautious on approaching the man, but he brushed the thought off. The student pressed onto the brake handles of his bicycle to slow it down, before pulling to a stop about five meters away from the man. He got down from his bicycle and propped it up. Taking off his headphones, he jogged after the man.
"HEY!" He called out. No response.
"HEY!" He called out again. Still no response.
"HEY!" He called out yet again. This time, the man stopped right in his tracks and slowly turned to face the student.
The sixteen-year-old stopped about two meters away from him. He was wearing a red-and-black polo shirt, black slacks and white track shoes. He wore a white apron over and had a matching hat. The student immediately recognized it as uniform worn by employees working for the sushi restaurant in the shopping district. However, the student noticed something was not right. His eyes widened with shock and horror.
"My God!" He gasped. "What happened to your arm?!"
The man had a bloody stump where his left arm should be. Bits of flesh and strands of arteries hung loosely from the bloody stump, quivering at every movement. His bone jutted out from the stump. Blood trickled from the wound, down to the bone, and finally dripped from the sharp tip of the broken bone leaving a puddle of thick, red liquid on the road.
"What happened to him?!" The student thought. "His arm doesn't look like it was cut off! It looks more like it was ripped off!"
The student looked up at the man's face. He had a pained expression. His eyes rolled upwards and his mouth was gaping widely.
"Sir?! What happened to you?!" The student demanded. "I'll call for help..."
The student pulled out his cell phone and dialed for an ambulance. Then, without him noticing, the man shuffled towards the student slowly, his right arm reaching out, his hand gnarled into claws . An almost mournful moan escaped from his gaping mouth. The line could not get through. He dialed again. The line still could not get through.
"SHIT!" The student cursed under his breath. Frustrated, and trying to control himself from panicking, he decided to come up with another option.
"Sir, there's a clinic in this town," The student told the man. "I'll take you th-"
Before the student could even finish, the man lunged at him suddenly, growling like a wild animal, his pained expression turned into rage. The man grabbed hold of the student's arm in a vice-like grip. With his mouth wide opened, he prepared to sink his teeth into the student's left shoulder.
"HEY! WHAT THE FUCK?!" The student yelled, completely caught off guard, shocked at the amount of strength the man possessed.
"WHAT TH-" The student violently shoved the man to the ground. "GET BACK!!!"
The man, or rather, the ghoul, stumbled backwards before falling back-first onto the ground with a thud. With a sickening moan, the creature got back up to its feet slowly, and shuffled towards the student again.
"Shit!" The student gritted his teeth and looked around. "Why the fuck is he attacking me?!"
He spied on a lead pipe, which was lying a short distance away from him, on the ground. As he bent down to pick it up, the ghoul lunged at him again, clamping his right hand tightly onto the student's left shoulder and tried biting him again. The student swiftly brought his left elbow up and smashed the creature in its jaw. The ghoul staggered backwards with the bottom half of its face caved in, falling onto its back again. Holding on tightly to his pipe, the student approached the ghoul as it slowly sat up and reluctantly raised his weapon. The one-armed creature struggled to get back on its feet, its animal-like snarls making the student sick to his stomach.
"Die, motherfucker!" The student swung his pipe with full strength, knocking the ghoul's head off its shoulders. The head rolled to a stop a few meters away. However, its eyes were still rolling in their sockets and its mouth was still trying to bite. A pool of blood formed under the still moving head. Beads of sweat trickled down the student's forehead. A chill ran down his spine as he backed away from the motionless body on the ground, eyes still fixed on the creature's severed head.
"No... No... NO!!! This isn't happening!!! Its head's off its body, dammit!!!" The student swallowed hard as he took a few steps back.
Then, he heard footsteps coming from behind him. Slow, shuffling footsteps. He turned and saw more creatures shambling in the streets, drawn out by the noises he made during the struggle. They were all moaning. The same sickening, spine-tingling moan as the ghoul with the missing arm. The sound rose until it became a sonic equivalent of biting into an apple. It made the student nervous and queasy. The moaning mob seemed to be aware of his presence and began advancing slowly towards him. The ghoul closest to him, a male high school student of about his age in black school uniform, lunged at him with a growl. The student reacted quickly, holding onto both ends of his lead pipe and shoved it against the creature's chest, knocking it backwards. It shambled forward again. The student swung his pipe onto the pressure point of its left shoulder, but the blow didn't have any affect. He swung his weapon again, this time onto its right shoulder. Again, the blow didn't have any effect. He rammed the tip of his pipe against the creature's gut in an attempt to knock its wind out. The didn't phase it one bit. He swung his pipe again, this time at the side of the ghoul's head. It fell down and got back up slowly.
"Damn! What the fuck are these things?!" The student gritted his teeth as it got back to its feet.
Gripping his pipe tightly, he swung it at the side of its head once again. A loud, sickening crack sounded good under the impact and the creature dropped to its knees and onto the ground, blood seeping from where it got hit. The ghoul twitched on the ground for a few seconds before finally lying motionless. He looked at the other ghouls homing in on his presence. Not taking any chances, he ran into an intersection with the creatures pursuing him slowly.
Author's Notes: The events of this story takes place at the same time as Night of the Living Dead. Take note that the films in the Living Dead Series DID NOT take place in any specific year. As the sets and costume make clear, each film is set in the time that it was made - and yet not. The events of Dawn of the Dead (1978) happen weeks after those of Night of the Living Dead, which was released a decade before. The events of Day of the Dead (1985) occur only months after the second film. Only three years separate the events of the first film and the fourth, Land of the Dead (2005). Diary of the Dead (2007), the fifth film, takes place at the same time as Night of the Living Dead.
- In Romero's series, (albeit few theories) the cause of the "zombie" epidemic was never explained.
- In Romero's series, anyone who dies (unless by damage to the brain) will become a "zombie".
