High School of the Dead: Semper Fidelis

Author's note: I thought would be nice to tell an American side to the story, lets shake things up a bit! I can't get the imaginations of out my head of a Marine meeting up with Takashi's group and helping them out with survivial. So lets see where this takes us. Here's the little intro, more will come when our Marine comes into the lives of our High Schooler lives. The information on my branch of service is as accurate as possible and pretty possible since there are American forces in Japan. Enjoy the fic guys!

The sounds of humvees rolling down the bloodied streets of Tokyo is a sound one cannot forget, the sounds of wheels plowing through dozens of corpses, that's something that sticks for a while. This is a scene nobody would picture Tokyo to look like in those fancy brochures or in those animes that everybody seems to imagine Japan like this. A desolate city surrounded by destroyed cars, random buildings tarnished or house fires, and of course the many corpses of either the citizens or the dead undead as if that would make any sense. Once an ounce and only an ounce of one's sanity leave one's embrace, only then you'll get used to it.

For instance, one of the five United States Marines inside this certain humvee was lucky enough to get himself a catnap throughout this chaos. As the Marine rested his head against the rough cushions of the armored vehicle ignoring the random bounces as their driver ran over yet another corpse, he continued his slumber.

'Get back…one more step and I'll sho-?' thought processes were interrupted upon getting slapped on the top of his helmet. He instantly snapped to attention and looked all around him; he wasn't back in the garrisons of Okinawa encountering his first 'them' contact, he was still in the humvee.

"Corporal Sullivan! We're about three klicks away from H&S company, just thought it would have been appropriate to give you a heads up." the voice of the Marine next to him grabbed his attention. Corporal James Sullivan nodded and stretched his numb limbs out before patting the Private First Class who woke him up.

"Thanks Meyers; I don't need Gunny Richardson getting on my case." James said with a smile as he yawned once more and looked out the porthole just to see exactly where he was. His jade hues brightened up immediately and his youthful features soften upon seeing the trees, it was cherry blossom season, the reaction of Hotel Company; 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines was quite mutual to the Sakura blossoms.

"Check it out, Marines! You never know when you get to see beauty like this anymore, embrace it men…embrace it." yelled out Sergeant Wells who took his little fix of beauty while driving, in response all the Marines including Sullivan had taken in the beauty of falling Sakura pedals as if it was their last day. "Aye Sergeant, this shit is beautiful…" said the PFC. Meyers.

James's face lit up with excitement as he climbed past Meyers and got a glance at the Marine manning the .50 cal; inwardly he was jealous that Corporal Beckett got to stay there. Not because he wanted to fire the M2 Browning, he just wanted to get a better view of the sakura pedals.

Corporal Johnny Beckett while enjoying the innocence of the season, he knew his time was near. But he wanted to hold onto life as much as he could, especially after seeing this show. He quickly covered his mouth with his arm and emitted a strong cough; looking down at his cammies he could see his own blood staining the desert MARPAT of his uniform. His eyes were getting heavy but his stamina wouldn't allow him to let this virus win.

James tugged on Beckett's trouser seams similar to how a kid does that for attention. Beckett looked down at him from the hole and smiled down at him, "Howdy, Sully! Enjoyin' the view?"

Right before he was about to say something he was called by that name, instantly his innocent happy-go-lucky moment went to death glare. "You fuckin' country motherfucker! Quit callin' me Sully!" that response was just what Beckett needed, a good laugh.

"What I wanted to say was, you're a lucky son of a bitch. You get to enjoy such a view, you wanna switch?" James said as he reached into his rucksack and pulled out an MRE, waving it in the air he winked. "I'll trade you manning the .50 cal for five minutes in exchange for a beef teriyaki MRE…I'll even try and steal Sergeant Colbert's JUGG's mag for ya, I know you've been dying to see Jennifer's sweet body!" he said referencing to the porno magazine that his Recon Marine keeps in his rucksack. Most of H&S Company within 2nd Battalion is now being guarded by Recon and MARSOC Marines. They were actually on their way to reunite Sullivan and Beckett back to their respective units, 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion.

Sullivan and Beckett's original platoon of MARSOC Marines was on a patrol around the Shinjuku area, when 'they' came to play. There were just too many of them, and the firefight lasted for hours. Air support came in too late as well did their reinforcements of Hotel Company, regular Infantry Marines. The entire platoon was wiped out with Sullivan and Beckett as their survivors. They vowed to carry on their officer 1st Lieutenant Miller's dying wish, to live on and save any civilians life anyway possible. Even if you have to sacrifice your own to do so, and so they did. With Sergeant Well's permission since their officer was dead too, both Corporal's were able to conduct search and rescue missions throughout their journey back to H&S Company.

Their last one was a little more than unsuccessful; the couple that they tried to rescue was already too far gone. Beckett put himself on the line and fought the zombified husband, beat it to death with his helmet since his M4 was far from reach. James didn't get to catch much of Beckett's brawl with the undead husband since 'they' once again decided to come crash the party. If it wasn't for Hotel Company there, they would have become one of 'them' by now.

Seeing James's desperation to get on top and watch the Sakura blossoms fall, he decided to be nice. Beckett waved him up, "How about this, why don't you're city slicker ass get up here and help me 'man' the Ma Duece?"

Catching onto this he climbed up to the top and stood next to Beckett, taking his helmet off and allowing the wind to blow through his brunette locks. Brunette locks tamed by the regulation high and tight that military men must maintain, but he allowed his hair to be a little longer, even long enough to comb with. Taking a deep breath he rested his chin against the surface of his helmet and exhaled in sweet ecstasy.

"It's beautiful…isn't it, Devil?" James said as he slowly opened his jade hues to look at his fellow Spec ops buddy, but his youthful features turned from happy to concern in an instant once he got a good look at how sick Beckett actually looked.

"Oorah to that, Sullivan…" Beckett said as he coughed up another storm, covering his mouth once more with his bloody sleeve. James was horrified to see Beckett pull back his sleeve to reveal his mouth all bloodied from the sleeve and his coughing. 'Please…please tell me this isn't happening…not you too!' he thought as he looked into his tired eyes.

"No…Johnny, please…don't tell me you're…" James whispered as Beckett quickly put hand against his mouth, shushing him before he sounded off.

"Stow it, Marine. I don't wanna die yet, I can still fight…this don't mean shit! You know me, Sully! Remember what we've been through back in Afghanistan? This shit here doesn't compare to the shit we've seen in the sandbox…come on bro…don't tell anybody." Beckett pleaded with his fellow Devil Dog; it pained James to see him like this. He's right; they've been through plenty in Afghanistan and they were like brothers. He lost so much already, not him too.

Biting his lip behind Beckett's fingerless gloved hand he whispered in a tone audible to only him. "But you know what happens when you get bitten though…"

Then there was silence, Beckett closed his eyes and took his hand off of James's mouth. "I don't care…once I fall and I can't fire my weapon anymore, don't hesitate. I want you to kill me. Let me die as a United States Marine…not as one of them…" the silence returned as a pedal fell between the two Marines, James caught it and looked at the frail pink flower pedal in the palm of his gloved hand.

'Beckett…' he thought as he continued to stare at the pedal when the scenic route quickly lost its luster once those words were yelled within the humvee.

"WE GOT CONTACT!"

x—Devil May Cry.