Takashi growled in annoyance as the Humvee finally gave out. Its engine gave one last cough before it died, the gas having run out. They had been driving non-stop for the past few hours, smashing into "them", the dead. They had for the most part been silent after leaving the Takagi estate, the home of another of the survivors, Saya. The second year student had not spoken a word after crying out for her father as they drove past the man, having been surrounded at the time. His chances of surviving where not high and she knew it.
Rei Miyamotoo, the orange-brown haired classmate of Takashi and Saya, had been injured earlier when they had crashed the Humvee and she was thrown from the roof. Rei sat next to the geeky, gun loving nerd Hirano, who up until just a few minutes ago was asleep. On the roof of the armored car sat Saeko Busujima, there being no room in the vehicle to sit conformably.
She was the last member of the band of survivors, besides their busty school nurse and the girl Alice, and was a master of kendo. The eighteen-years-old third-year student was deep in thought, bringing into question her dark side once again. It had been a problem ever since she had almost been raped some years ago.
Since that night she had felt those dark urges in class and daily life, having to fight them down to prevent her from killing any of her classmates.
Looking back at it, she was surprised that she had lasted this long without smashing in the head of one of the annoying guys that harassed her in school. She had almost smashed in Saya's head when she wasn't looking, but at the last moment she had restrained herself.
It was a close call. She couldn't stay with them, she knew that it was only a matter of time before one of them made her mad and ended up dead. She needed to leave before that happened.
She just had to find the right opportunity, one that would leave them thinking that she was dead and wouldn't come looking for her. Hirano was slapped awake by an annoyed Rei so they could try to figure out what to do.
"We need gas and that's final. I don't want to go running around the city without some protection," spoke Rei. "I don't want to walk around with Alice (Arisu) out in the open; if we run into any of those things, we would be dead in a second."
"Well what do you think we should do?" Takashi questioned. "We can't stay here. If a horde of them come, we could be trapped in the car and starve, depending on how many of them there are."
To everyone's surprise, Saya spoke up, "We do both, obviously. Send several people out for gas and other supplies, but we need some fighters to stay to protect the car."
Almost hesitantly, Takashi spoke up, "Me and Saeko could go." His words earning him a glare form Rei.
"No, it's alright Takashi," Saeko said, still sitting on top of the car, her voice almost like a whisper. "I can go by myself. That way we'll have more fighters to protect the car. Besides, Rei is still too injured to help, and we are almost out of ammunition for both her and Hirano's guns."
If they said yes, then this could be the chance that she was looking for. Almost grudgingly, everyone agreed to Saekos plan. She was the best fighter they had, and if anyone had to go alone, she had the best chance of survival.
Takashi looked like he wanted to say something, but he knew that her argument was solid. On the other hand, Rei almost looked delighted at the proposition of being around Takashi without the quiet girl there. Without another word, she was already off down the street in search of the supplies they were looking for, leaving the arguing of her classmates behind. She was fine in this world, in fact, she was better than fine.
This was the kind of world she was born to live in. For the most part the streets were clear; she had only run into a dozen at least, spread out over more than a mile. They all soon fell victim to the quick, precise swings of her blade. She was more than an hour into her search by the time she found him.
Rounding a corner off of the main road she had been traveling on for the last few blocks to follow the directions given by a sign promising of a gas station, she was met by a sight like nothing she had ever seen.
There were dozens of them, more then she had ever seen in one place, and they were all dead, cleaved into pieces by a blade-wielding survivor, leaving behind a gory monument to the person's skill. Looking at the sight before her, she could sense something wrong with the picture, and it was soon clear why.
In the center of the all the carnage sat a still-running vehicle, on its roof sat half a dozen cans of gas. The survivors who had gathered the supplies were lying around it. They, too, were hacked to pieces. But the strange thing was that, among the dead, there were two bodies that looked untouched by the blade.
The two of them lay next to each other, filled with more bullet holes then was necessary, and, judging from the way they looked, lacking any other form of injury. It was safe to assume that they had been ambushed.
Judging from the fact that the attackers were torn to pieces, it was more than likely that one of the members of the ambushed party was the culprit. But the question remained, how did he survive the ambush when his friends didn't? If he was walking behind them or was close to some form of cover that could hold back the bullets maybe.
Looking back at the car, she had to suppress a smile. From the look of it, she wouldn't need to go further. There was gas, food, and judging from the number of shell casings, there was more than a chance of some extra ammunition and weapons. But her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of gun-fire coming from an ally way less than a dozen yards away. Against her better judgment, Saeko drew her sword and ran around the corner, only to stop in her tracks. The swordsman was still alive, and for the moment, so was the last member of the ambushers. The swordsman was just a dozen feet from the entrance of the alleyway, his shoulders shaking from the anger. Her assumption was right; he was wearing the same color shirt that the others had been.
"Please!" Cried the ambusher, lying at the feet of the seething man. If it wasn't for the smoking gun still held in his hand, she would have felt sorry for the crying man. With one quick swing of a sword, another survivor died. Whether it was because of his own actions, or those of his group, one thing was certain- he wouldn't be getting a second chance. It took a few seconds for the swordsman to fall to his knees, and his quaking shoulders soon turned into full-blown sobs.
He didn't say anything, he just cried, oblivious to the world around him. If she wanted to, Saeko was positive that she could have killed him, but she held back the darker aspect that told her to do these things. Instead, she started to back out of the brick-rimmed dead end. But her plan of taking the supplies silently was ruined when she felt the strong grip of one of them almost crush her shoulders. Its grip was so strong that she felt her collarbones groan and almost crack under the pressure.
It was so bad that she was forced to let out a pained yell. If things could get any worse, they did. Surprised, Saeko was thrown forward on to the hard pavement, twisting onto her back in order to have some form of self-defense. But it was wishful thinking; they were stronger than any normal human.
She forced her forearm up under the chin of the one trying to kill her, but as she was doing this, another one stumbled into the alleyway and stomped on one of her feet. She felt a sickening pop coming from that ankle, the pain was like nothing she had ever felt before. It was so bad that she let out a scream of pain, momentarily losing her grip on the one above her.
But before the once human could take advantage and rip her throat out, its head was suddenly gone, removed by the sharp blade of the stranger. Saeko didn't see the next few seconds of the fight, having been covered in blood, some of it blinding her.
But she did hear the sounds of more limbs dropping to the ground. Hurriedly, she wiped the blood from her face, only to find herself staring into the eyes of her savior, and for a few seconds she was at a loss. She was knocked out of her stupor when the man suddenly swept up her katana from where she had dropped it. He had a wild look in his eyes, one that terrified her.
She had seen that same look in her own eyes when she let her darker side take over. But seeing it on another person was something completely different. She tried to back away, but as soon as she moved her leg, she was on her back panting painfully. Despite that she kept her eyes warily trained on the man. Slowly, the look on his face faded away, turning into a neutral look. He moved forward cautiously until he was crouching over her injured leg.
When she saw it for the first time, a wave of nausea washed over her and almost sent her to her back again. Her foot was bent at a sickening angle. Her eyes immediately darted in-between the man's face and her lame foot several times. She couldn't run if he decided to do anything, she would be completely helpless without her weapon. He could finish what that rapist had tried years ago. But the man's face changed from that of neutrality to one of sympathy, surprising her.
"What's your name?" The man suddenly asked, his voice strained form crying.
"Saeko." The dark haired girl replied, almost afraid.
"I'm Perseus," He went on, "It looks like you have a dislocated ankle," he winced as he spoke. "But I can fix that in a couple of minutes…" He tapered off at the sound of more of them coming down the road. "We can't do it here." Handing her both of the weapons, he picked her up without warning. As if it was nothing, he began running down the street. He paused slightly as they passed his friends, but they didn't stop.
It took them most of the day to find a safe place to rest. It seemed as if wherever they went the dead were already there. Several times Percy had to leave Saeko to go ahead and clear a path. When he did, he displayed a fighting style completely opposite to Saeko's own. It was more beautiful than it was precise.
The first time he had stopped, the dark haired samurai was amazed. Whereas her style was based off of precision and speed, his was more of a dance- moving flawlessly from one attack to the next with not a move wasted.
Perseus fought with a grace the world had not seen in a long time. Saeko realized this is what people like his name sake must have fought like. Focusing on energy conservation and not on brutal attacks, it was for long term fighting to allow the swordsmen to fight for days.
The dark haired man could fight dozens of attackers like this without tiring. On the other hand, Saeko's style of sword play was meant to incapacitate an enemy as quickly as possible, regardless of the energy needed. This meant that when facing a large group of the dead she would tire quickly and was more likely to be overran.
It was a big eye opener for the dark haired girl- one that she was determined to fix. After an afternoon of intense fighting, which left its mark on the two in the form of gore and blood. They finally stopped at a small cinderblock garage. The building's main door was an overhead chain-operated door that would not be affected by an EMP blast. There was also another thick steel door that lead to a back ally that was empty of everything but trash. It was perfect for them, and didn't require any clearing.
There were even some spare blankets and a small cot. The only bad part of the building was that several full cans of motor oil had fallen from their shelves and now covered half of the floor.
Perseus didn't say anything, he just set Saeko on the old surplus army cot and went to close the door.
When he did this, Saeko's eyes darted to the swords that where left lying next to her. If he tried anything she could defend herself, but even if it came to that she wasn't positive she could stop him. She had seen the look in his eyes when he killed the dead that they encountered. It was the same look she had when her dark side took over.
It was enough to scare her. She knew what she was capable of in that state, but she didn't know a single thing about the man. Sure he saved her, but what was his motivation? Could he be like the man who almost raped her? Or could he just be a kind person?
Could a person with that darkness inside them really even be a good person? Whatever his motives where behind saving her she would watch the man carefully until she knew he could be trusted.
The rattle of the heavy metal door sounded out loud across the empty street as it moved down. It would probably draw the dead their way, but if they managed to get it closed and stayed quiet they should be fine. It was made of metal and would not break easily.
They were safe for now… or at least Perseus was. Saeko still wasn't sure if she could trust him. There was just something about him that made her believe he had some dark secret that he was hiding from the world. Or …. Maybe she was just reading into him a little too much.
After what felt like forever the overhead door fell closed, leaving them in silence. For the first time, the dark haired swordswoman took in her surroundings. She was in a dark room with a man she knew nothing about besides the fact that he had the same blood lust she felt, and she knew while under its affects, even the nicest of people could be capable of terrible things.
Perseus started to move in her direction, walking with purposeful steps. Crouching down in front of her, he started to examine her foot. From her angle, he looked younger and not as worn as he had outside.
Now he just looked tired. The bags under his eyes seemed a lot darker in the failing light. Just by the way he acted without thinking made her believe that he had been though situations like this before. Not the whole zombie apocalypse thing, but the fighting and surviving part.
Another thing was plain to see, he had lost people a lot of people. Judging from the matching shirts, they had been part of a group and he had just walked by their bodies without saying a word. Hell, he hardly even paused.
"I'll warn you now," he said, breaking what started to feel like an oppressive silence, "This is going to hurt a lot. You have a bad dislocation and it may take me several tries to fix it." The way he said it, it was almost as if he had had the same thing done to him.
For several seconds he fumbled around in his pockets, until he pulled out a leather wallet and handed it over to her. At her confused expression he explained, "So you can bite on it. Trust me, putting that back in place is going to hurt and you don't want to add a cracked tooth on top of what you already feel."
Not seeing any fault in his reasoning, she did what he asked, albeit hesitantly.
With a soft touch Perseus grabbed her ankle and foot, causing a shiver to run up her leg, and with one quick jerk her ankle as back in place and the dark haired teen was unconscious.
Hours later, Saeko woke to the sound of the dead banging on the meatal door, and her own shivering. The thin blankets that they had found had all been thrown over her and did little to help fight off the unseasonably cold night.
Even at Saeko's insistence Perseus had given her everything that could fight off the cold, leaving the taller teen shivering on the floor. Letting out a sigh, Saeko watched her breath freeze in the air.
"Perseus… Perseus…"
With her whispers not reaching him, Saeko pulled the covers from her aching body, losing the little protection she had against the cold, and the moved towards the still swordsman. With a shaking hand she flipped the other teen onto his back, only to almost let shriek that would have been out of character.
His face was deathly pale and his lips were blue. Reaching out a hand, Saeko confirmed what she had originally thought. He was cold, deathly so, to the point where if he didn't get warm soon he might die. Knocked out of her almost haze, Saeko hurried to his side and started dragging the tall boy back towards the cot, almost cringing at the amount of blood she could feel soaking into the front of her clothes. Soon she was shivering twice as hard as before.
Dragging him the last few feet, the purple haired teen stopped herself. Laying him on the cot as he was and throwing blankets over him wasn't going to do anything without killing her along with her savior. Dammit Percy. With a new plan in mind, she started to take off her clothes, getting the wet material away from her skin. She could already feel her hands going numb.
She then tried to take Percy's off, but her hands where too far gone to be any help. With nothing else she could do, Saeko grabbed the katana and pulled it from its sheath. It took her a good five minutes-time she didn't have- but she didn't want to end up hurting Percy.
"Come on Percy I need to get you up on this bed." With a very un-lady like grunt, Saeko practically threw him unto the cot. Seconds later she was lying next to him, the blankets covering them the best they could. Slowly it started to work, and she could feel both of their bodies warming the shared space. Slowly, she started to drift off to sleep with her face pressed into Percy's back.
"Now we're even."
Even as she drifted off a small, sad smile flickered across the demigods face before he joined her.
Yes I know why am I writing this instead of a new chapter for my other stories. Well there is a reason for that. It's because I wanted to. I had this idea bouncing around for more than six months and decided to go out and publish it. I am working on chapters for both the dark avenger and new beginnings but things are going slowly. Don't forget to read and review. Also go check out my other stories.