Chapter 1: Spring of the DEAD.
Well, it had started out like any other day you could imagine whilst out on holiday; up late enough for it to be considered a lie in yet late enough to not be considered inhuman. Excuse me that was a poor choice of words based on my current situation... Anyway, it had been a good time to get up, the Sun was still spreading a beautiful array of colours across the sky and upon the clouds; a range of lustrous oranges, gentle pinks, calm reds and lacklustre purples. Yep, it had been a pretty good time to get up.
Such beautiful calligraphy among the clouds was only improved upon by the view of the woman I woke up next to; my sweetheart and one of the best friends a man could ask for. She'd still been dozing at the time of my awakening, giving myself a chance to just savour everything about her that I could; her brunette hair framing her face, a look of peace rested upon her.
I'd later agreed to get a couple of groceries to add to our breakfast from a store far enough away in order for me to garner something akin to a morning jog; that is if you consider a four mile run through the quietening streets of rush hour Tokyo into Tokonosu with a 80lbs pack strapped to your back a mere morning jog.
'Why the pack?' I here you ask, well, when you're a soldier in such a secretive regiment – as I am – where your cover story is that your apart of the regular SAS or similar special forces unit; you're expected to be in peak physical condition. As much as I thought that it was unnecessary at the time, as did my better half, I've quickly come to be glad I did. Bearing in mind how quickly this picturesque day turned to one of nothing but sheer horror.
It had seemed to start not long after I'd entered a school district of Tokonosu City Prefecture of Tokyo, Fujimi I believe it was called. I'd been jogging steadily passing what must've been a Japanese equivalent of a sixth form college, and I'll be honest; I hadn't noticed anything immediately out of the ordinary. It must've been getting on for second or third period as the school and surrounding area where dead quiet. Again; another poor choice of words. Anyway as I was about to cross the road to go down the last road to a grocery store, this clanking noise could be heard coming from the direction of the school, which I paid no heed.
What did grab my attention was an ear piercing shriek that spread around the area like thunder. It was soon followed by another high pitch scream; the sort that makes your blood curdle as you know someone is about to, or in the process of dying.
When I turned to see what had been the cause of disturbance, my gaze was met by a man by the gate of the school seemingly walking into it repetitively, almost as if he was unaware of it being there. And that, was when I noticed something that, to all intents and purposes, I wish was just an illusion; the man at the gate had a gaping hole in his back. Unless he was stood directly in front of you; you could not have missed it. That man; should not have been able to stand, let alone capable of walking.
I dashed over to him, which in the process of doing so; I noticed a lot of blood had been spilled. That was the point where reality began to sink in. As I got closer to this guy I took the decision that he needed to be stopped. In such a way that meant he was going to be getting up again in a hurry.
As my footsteps pounded against the hard concrete, the guy must have heard me as he turned in my direction and proceeded to stagger toward me. My right foot smashed into his ribs, the multiple sickening cracks confirmed that a number of ribs were rather broken. The man hit the deck in a crumpled heap, not even gasping for breath or grabbing at the area I'd roundhouse kicked him. If it wasn't for the fact that alarm bells had long been going into overdrive in my head, they would have started ringing at that point; not many people can ignore the feeling of broken ribs. I straddled his hips before proceeding to punch the guy in the face repeatedly until something happened which I thought was only possible in video games; the man's head, and there's no other way of putting this, exploded.
Blood, grey matter, skull and tooth fragments splattered everywhere within a foot's radius. That included upward toward me... I wiped the blood from myself, try to look somewhat presentable after killing a bloke, before turning in the direction of the school to see that it was about to become a total apocalypse within those walls.
Now if this had been at home, I would honestly have left the little bastards to fend for themselves; shows how much respect I have for kids in my home town, however, as I wasn't at home it didn't feel right to not look for survivors. So, deftly I clambered up the metal gate until I came level with the top of the brick wall, which was where I realised that; a) this was in fact already an apocalypse, and b) the cause of said apocalypse react only to sound, judging by how these guys seemed to turn towards the gate not long after I had started clambering up it.
Luckily enough for myself, I'd come – unexpectedly I admit – prepared for such an eventuality. Somewhere in the depths of my pack was a couple of flash bangs; stun grenades in lame mans terms. However as I wasn't in any imminent danger it struck me as a better idea to save them until I could guarantee a resupply.
With the pack still strapped to my back I silently moved along the top of the wall, aiming to reach a tree that was 100 metres away from the metal gate. The intention was to hang the pack by the two straps onto a sturdy branch to allow myself to rummage through it with some guarantee of safety. Intention, thankfully, became reality in that I was able to withdraw a weapon from the pack.
That weapon was a Belgian made pistol; an FN Five-seveN now with an additional suppressor to reduce the infamous muzzle blast the weapon was known for. Annoyingly, I only had a pair of twenty round magazines. Each shot was going to have to count, not that these guys seemed to do much in the way of duck and cover...
Now armed I cautiously made my way across the open ground between the tree and the school. I'd heard a school wide announcement being made whilst I was up the tree, only for it to end with the announcer screaming for her life before the broadcast was cut, sending the whole school into panic. As sad as it is, I reckon that mass hysteria may have made the job of crossing open ground much simpler then it could've been.
Upon reaching the main buildings, all hope there was of finding survivors drained out of me. It wasn't for the fact as to how many kids had been turned, it was more to do with how I watched from the shadows as, what I believed was, a PE teacher opened a second floor window, all the while muttering to himself, before proceeding to lazily jump out head first. There was a sickening crunch as his skull collapsed under the weight and velocity of his body, followed instantly by a splat as grey matter was compressed and sent splattering everywhere along with a few fountains of blood due to the rapid decompression, caused by the severe rupturing, of the higher pressure blood vessels that had circulated around the man's head. Well, as sickening as it is, when life gives you lemons...
I hefted the corpse over my shoulder and proceeded to slog my way into one of the buildings, the one that the man who I was carrying jumped out of I believe. Entering the building only confirmed my fears that buildings containing 'them' were as good as death traps. Everywhere that you looked there were blood splatters, and screams of 'help me' and 'don't come any closer' echoed throughout, the voices sounded so full of fear almost as if they were no longer human; rather like animals that knew their future was bleak. And that was even when you averted your gaze and attention to prevent yourself from witnessing the horrendous ordeal of someone being turned.
I suspect I'll be hearing the screams of those poor bastards in my dreams next chance I get to rest up.
Letting a small sigh slip from my lips I began my trek to find any survivors who weren't about to turn, or had lost their sanity, be it by choice or shock.
It had been thirty minutes after entering the building that I heard a smashing of glass followed by male screams. Within a minute those screams had died down to idle chatter. I was close to the source of the voices; admittedly it wasn't difficult to locate the sources as one room had each window shattered along with a collection of corpses belonging to them. There were only two survivors in the room; both were female, a teacher and a student.
First impressions of the teacher amounted to nothing but a single word. Airhead. The student on the other hand, she had a look of confidence on her, and a bokken in her right hand. Things seemed to start looking up; a student that knew how to defend their self.
Both of the women seemed – to varying degrees – surprised to see me. Hardly shocking, considering the body over my left shoulder, the straps to the pack over both of my shoulders and the fact that I clearly was not a native of Japan.
Not saying a word, I motioned for them to stay quiet and follow me. What I should've done was motion for them to stay quiet and lead the way, as I had no idea as to where I should have gone. Luckily the two women took the lead, heading towards the faculty room in order to retrieve the keys to some form of transport.
Our trio soon came to a door, where the nurse – as it transpires – somehow managed to trip up on the doormat, whilst stood still... The student tended to her as I decided it would be beneficial to holster the FN for the moment. As we carried these motions out, our attention was drawn in the direction of the faculty room. A survivor sounded as if she wasn't about to be surviving for much longer if someone didn't intervene.
Needless to say we didn't hang around long.
The sight that greeted us was of a pink haired teenage girl ramming a power drill into the now very much mangled face of one of them. Unfortunately her cries for help must have attracted more of them. Whilst the teenager with the bokken, as well as two other teenagers who'd shown up at the same time, dealt with the majority that had turned up, my attention was occupied with two or three of them who'd snuck up from behind.
This was the sort of situation I'd saved the headless corpse for, albeit for a much larger group of them. I slung the body off my shoulder and then hurled it at them. The arms and legs had, thankfully, spread out thus resulting in the dead limbs smacking into the faces of the two of them. The result caused all three bodies to hit the floor with an unceremonious thud. Consequently the corpse I'd grabbed could begin to serve its second function; bait, both in terms of nosh, short term, for them and more satisfyingly as a beacon of sorts in the longer term when the correct opportunity arose.
It was at this point that I realised that the group of teenagers were looking at me expectantly. They had just introduced themselves to each other, and subsequently comforted the pink haired girl who'd clearly just killed one of 'them' for the first time. In the midst of dealing with the two of them who'd tried to sneak up on the group – who were at that point gorging on the body – I had heard their names and tried to remember the sounds of the voices who'd said what.
Looking back on it, I reckon that none of them had expected me to be able to speak much Japanese because it sure as hell came as a surprise when I gave them my fluent introduction.
"I'm Captain Zane Wilkins, attached to A Squadron of the 22nd Special Air Service Regiment of the British Army."
I suppose from this point onward, our history means little, as all we have now is the hope that our loved ones are still alive...
To be continued.