Dear readers, this is the author formerly known as akane_soir86. I humbly apologize for putting my story "Twilight of the Dead" on a two year hiatus. Truth of the matter is I was busy with real life and never actually found the time to get back to continue the story. To make matters worse, I have forgotten the email and password to my previous account so I had to make this new account to continue my story. This will be a rewrite to the discontinued version, the story will mostly be the same but there will be improvements and slight changes to the story, so I hope you will enjoy this as much as the original. I apologize once again for the hiatus and to my readers who have been waiting for so long for an update and I hope this rewrite will make up for it. Again, sorry for disappointing my fellow readers.
Yours sincerely, TheNotoriousKAZ
Disclaimer: I do not own Saki or any of the films from the Dead series; Night (1968), Dawn (1978), Day (1985), Land (2005), Diary (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009). Saki belongs to Ritz Kobayashi and the Dead series belongs to George A. Romero.
~ PROLOGUE ~
(Ghost Town)
It was quarter past seven, and the sky was darkening. A second year high school student was riding along a long and quiet stretch of road leading away from Kiyosumi High School. The sixteen-year-old sang along to the Idolmaster soundtrack "Relations", which was playing on his MP3 player, quietly. Streetlights flickered on as he rode past a canal, and into the small, peaceful town he had lived all his life. However, as soon as he reached the town, he noticed that something wasn't right. He turned his head left, then right. A feeling of uneasiness enveloped him when he realized there wasn't a soul in the streets.
"Funny…" He thought, "Normally, there'll still be people at this time…"
As he was riding past the shopping district, the student noticed that all the stores were empty as well, mostly with their main entrances still opened. He swallowed hard as he looked around, seeing litter scattered in the streets and cars were parked in a peculiar way. He slowed down his bike as he approached a gray Honda, which had its passenger side door left ajar. As he slowly passed the vehicle, he noticed an arm hanging out. His uneasiness turning into fear, the student broke into cold sweat, his instincts telling him to cycle faster, which he did, having lots of questions going through his head.
"What the hell is going on here?" He thought, "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 streets, lit dimly by the lampposts. The silhouette appeared to be that of a man. He was relieved to finally find someone else in town. His instincts told him to be cautious on his approach, but he simply brushed the thought off. The student pressed the brake handles of his bike to slow it down, before pulling to a stop about a good five meters away from the man. After climbing down from the bike, he propped it upright. Pulling his headphones down to his neck, the student jogged after the man.
"HEY!" He called out, no response.
"HEY!" He called out again, still no response.
"HEY!" He called out yet again, and the man stopped.
The sixteen-year-old stopped jogging, two meters away from the man, who slowly turned to face the student. He was wearing a red-and-black polo shirt, black slacks, white track shoes and had a white apron and matching hat on. The student was quick to recognize it as uniform worn by employees working for the sushi parlor in the shopping district. Then, the student noticed something wasn't right. His eyes widened to shock, and then horror, realizing the man had a bloody stump where his left arm should be.
"My God!" He gasped, "What happened to your arm?"
Strips of flesh and strings of arteries hung loosely from the bloody stump, quivering queasily at every movement the man made. His bone jutted out from the stump. Blood trickled from the wound, down to the bone, and finally dripped from the sharp, broken tip leaving a small puddle of thick, crimson liquid on the road. The student looked up at the man's face. He had an agonized expression, eyes rolled backwards till only his whites could be seen and his mouth was gaping widely. The man let out a really weak moan.
"Sir? What happened to your arm?" The student demanded, "I'll call for help…"
The student pulled out a cell phone from his pocket and dialed for an ambulance. Then, without him noticing, the man started shuffling towards the student slowly, his right arm reaching out, his fingers gnarled into claws. An almost mournful moan escaped his gaping maw as he shuffled closer towards the student. The line couldn't get though. Frustrated, and trying hard to keep himself from panicking, he dialed again. The line still couldn't get through.
"Damn…" The student cursed under his breath. Still trying hard to hold his composure, the student decided to come up with another option, "Sir! There's a clinic at the shopping district! Maybe we'll find help there! Here, let me take you-"
Before the student could finish his sentence, the man lunged at him suddenly, grabbing hold of the student's shoulder in a vice-like grip, growling like a wild animal and the pained expression he had on his face before was replaced by rage.
"HEY! WHAT THE HELL?" The student was startled, completely caught off guard and was shocked by the uncanny strength the man seemed to possess. With a growl, the man opened his mouth wide and prepared to sink his teeth into the student's throat.
"GET BACK!" The student yelled as he shoved his hands against the man's chest. The man was sent stumbling backwards, but he lunged forward again. The student swung his right fist across the man's jaw, who then reeled backwards and fell to the ground.
"Shit… why the hell is he attacking me?" The student thought, gritting his teeth as the man, or Ghoul, slowly got back up to its feet and shuffled towards him again. The student charged forward and landed a flying kick into the creature's chest.
"Sir… what the hell has gotten into you?" The student yelled at the creature, which had fallen to the ground again. The creature slowly got back to its feet again, shuffled forward a few steps and lunged at the student yet again. "Don't make me do this!"
The student side stepped and using the creature's momentum against it, he shoved his hands against the creature's back. The Ghoul was sent hurtling forward, landing face first on the ground and got back to its feet again. "Damn, he's unrelenting!"
He looked around and spied on a lead pipe on the ground, a short distance away from him. The student rushed over to the pipe and bent over to pick it up. As he grabbed the pipe, the creature lunged at the student and grabbed the student's shoulder.
The student swiftly decked the creature across the face, knocking it backwards. Clutching the pipe tightly, the student changed towards the stunned creature and swung the heavy pipe using his full strength, knocking the creature's head off its shoulders.
As the creature's lifeless body collapsed onto the ground, the head rolled to a stop a few meters away. However, its eyes were still moving in their sockets and the mouth was still trying to bite. A crimson puddle was formed under the still-moving head.
"No… No… No! This isn't happening! Its head's off its body, dammit!" The student thought, beads of sweat tricked down his forehead and a chill ran down his spine as he backed away from the motionless body, eyes fixed on the severed head.
As the student focused his eyes on the creature's head, he heard the sounds of slow, shuffling footsteps coming from behind him. He turned to the direction where the footsteps came from and saw eight to ten silhouettes shuffling in streets seemingly drawn by the noises made he made during his scuffle with the one-armed Ghoul which attacked him earlier. The creatures slowly advanced towards the student, their vacant eyes staring blankly ahead. Frightened, the student backed away from the moaning mob. A distinct moan caught his attention and turning to look behind, another small group of creatures were advancing towards him. He realized that he was completely surrounded.
"What IS happening?" The student thought as he looked at the creatures surrounding him. Turning his head to the right side of the street, he saw a small stairway leading down to another stretch of road. Not taking any chances, the student ran towards the stairway, only to find a lone Ghoul, a student in high school uniform, walking up the stairs unsteadily, its vacant eyes staring blankly at the student who then proceeded to deliver a kick into its chest. The creature let groaned loudly as it toppled over and rolled down the stairs. The student ran down the stairs and into the streets below, and ignoring the creature getting back up, he turned right and saw six to eight creatures in the distance.
"I gotta get back my house…" The student thought, worried about his family's safety. He turned left and saw the streets up ahead were clear, so he ran as fast as he could, making twists and turns, until he was able to find his residence. The student bent over, resting his hands on his knees to catch his breath for a minute. He looked around to see if there were any creatures around, none were in sight. He looked up at the house and saw that it was mostly dark. As he pushed the front gate and walked towards the front door, he could feel his heart beating in his chest. The moment he was right in front of the door, he pressed the doorbell, no response. He pressed the doorbell again, still no response. "Hello?"
The student turned the doorknob and realized that the door wasn't locked. He slowly pushed the door as he entered cautiously, its creaking hinges breaking the silence that surrounded him. He switched on the living room lights and gasped when he saw his house in a mess, as though someone had broken in and ransacked it. He walked through the living room and noticed that the television was still on, but was static. He walked over to the television and turned it off.
"Hello?" The student called out, "Mom…? Big bro…?"
The student walked across the living room, towards the stairway leading to the rooms on the second floor. Climbing the stairs, the student cautiously made his way to the upper level of his house. As he reached the second floor, the student switched on the lights, only to notice a crimson trail of bloodstains on the floor. His eyes followed the long trail of blood slowly and to his horror, it leads to the closed door of his mother's room. He felt his heart beating rapidly in his chest.
"My God..." The student gasped, "No… please, no!"
Author's Notes: The events of this story takes place at the same time as Night of the Living Dead. Also, take note that the films in Romero's Dead series canon 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 epidemic was never explained.
- In addition, anyone who dies, unless by damage to the brain, will become a "zombie".