Neku shot another blast through the Horde, hand steadying his shotgun. Behind him, he could sense Shiki picking off the Infected one after the other, Beat whacking away at the masses with his skateboard and Joshua firing into the crowd, double pistols going off one after the other, simultaneously; either way, they worked as fast as his snotty mouth as far as Neku could be concerned. Within ten minutes, the Horde lay on the ground, decimated, gone. Neku reloaded one last time and sighed.

"That was a nice distraction," Joshua quipped. "Still, we need to do better than that, Neku."

It was an unanimously accepted fact that Neku was leader of the ragtag misfit group of Survivors. However, that still did not stop Joshua from getting on his nerves. Deliberately. As if to prove his point, a high-pitched scream/laughter/screech of "3.14159265" emanated from some location; a black mass hurled itself at Beat and began riding him about.

It would have been funny if not for their dire situation, coupled with Beat managing to ram into everything that could and would harm him. It took three shots to aim at and kill the... thing without the possibility of blowing Beat's brains out.

Neku shook his head as Beat recovered from his recent ordeal. They, as much as he hated to admit it, definitely need to do a lot better than that.

It quickly became evident that Beat seemed to be the cause of their troubles that they were not supposed to have. Special Infected tended to target him, Hordes came after him, and that was because half of the time, he was the one setting off the whole place. It still brought a pained smile to everyone's faces when they recalled the one time he alerted the Horde with his sneeze.

To that extent, Neku decided to try and introduce him to a gun. Shiki tagged along and gave tips, Joshua merely giggled amusedly and walked off to at least cover the group. At first Beat made quite a number of protests – he could kill zombies quick 'n' easy with his skateboard, thank you very much – after Neku yelled at him that their odds of survival could be so much higher should he just listen and learn how to use the bloody gun already, he quietened down.

It was going well, at least until he emptied several shots into a blinking car.

Neku swore to leave Beat to his own devices, and just that.

A week after their meeting, it was pretty set out for them what to do.

They were currently in a safe-house at Cat Street. There was several more in Shibuya – Towa Records, Molco, AMX, 104... However, the hotspot was at Pork City, where the last helicopter was scheduled to pick any remaining survivors up in around two weeks. That gave them a bit of time, but honestly? The faster they could get there, the better it would be.

Not to leave out the psychological pain. The Jockey – that was what the group quickly termed it – turned out to be Minamimoto-sensei after close inspection, something Shiki quickly excused herself from. They had run into the mayor of Shibuya, deformed and almost unrecognizable save for his suit and shades – they called his kind 'Smokers'. Classmates and acquaintances were shot down; strangers were often easier to deal with.

However, there too were some added benefits – coming in the form of hopes and goals. While Neku merely spurred himself on for his own survival, Shiki and Beat were looking for someone – namely a best friend and a sister, respectively. He did not know about Joshua, but he really could not care less. The effeminate boy could just... go screw himself.

After establishing their route to safety, they set out of the cafe they had barricaded themselves into, and into the district known as Shibuya.

As fate would have it, their first encounter with Witches turned out to be simultaneous with their second. It was not too much to say that it was not a pretty sight. Not at all.

Beat turned the corpse around and came face to face with-

"Ms. K?"

Shiki quickly took a look at the other.

"Thank god it wasn't Eri..."

But before they left the area, Shiki dropped a pin over her body. A salute and a small bow later, and they left Ms. Konishi and Eiji Oiji's disputably number one fan behind.

They met Eri at Molco.

Shiki had cried with joy and hugged her; Joshua and Beat warmly welcomed her into the group. Neku merely shrugged and told her, "as long as you don't pull us down."

It would have been a happy ending, had Eri not started to convulse before leaving Molco.

"P-Please," the voice was high, breathy, racking with sobs – Neku did not want to hear. "Shi...ki... kill- " The last syllable shot up into a half-sob, half-moan. Her red eyes pleaded with Shiki's brown, her pink hair spread out on the floor like an unholy halo.

Shiki closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.

They ran into Kariya after a day or two. The irony was that he was moving more than he usually did, performing parkour as if he was born an acrobat.

The unfortunate part was that he was Infected.

Neku winced as he tended to the scratch marks left by Kariya's frenzy, Joshua covering him albeit with an onslaught of sarcasm-laced insults. It used to be Shiki, but Shiki was…

She acted too much like Eri, in the short time that Neku knew her. All that was needed was an appearance switch.

Frankly, Neku was unsure of whether to be uncomfortable, or… uncomfortable.

Shiki finally broke down at 104.

"What's the point," she had said, "Eri's gone. Mum and Dad's gone."

"I've nothing left."

Beat had been unsure of how to react or comfort her. Joshua had stared at her with something akin to disappointment in his eyes.

Neku had knelt down and told her straight out that Eri wanted her to survive, so get yourself together. He was not sure what he said or whether it was making the situation better or worse, but he had to do something.

When Shiki hugged him and whispered a 'thank you', he breathed again.

Beat found his happy ending in the elevator of Pork City.

'I'm fine, Beat. I'll meet you soon. R.' had been scratched onto the ceiling, noticed by Joshua who coincidentally had his nose stuck up in the air. Or at least to Neku's opinion.

Why.

Why. Why. Why?

It had been going fine. The crane makes a lot of noise – big deal. Clear out the Horde and just keep on driving it to the edge so that everyone use it as a ramp to get onto the helicopter Pad that had been isolated by earlier survivors who didn't want zombies to attack them when they were boarding the helicopter. Then… then…

Have someone go back down to drive it away so that Mr. Higashizawa won't be able to clamber up and pound them into mince-meat.

Why didn't he think.

Dull blue and pale violet met across the span of the roof. Shiki was crying not again Beat was being held back by Neku watchu thinkin' Phones prissy-boy's gonna Neku was just looking at Joshua, not believing he won't do this

Joshua smirked.

Survive.

They all watched as he doused himself in bile and threw himself off the roof of Pork City, bringing the Horde after him.

(And no one said anything as the helicopter came.)

A/N: Well, you know where this came from. Neither TWEWY nor L4D and all of its related franchise belongs to me.

So, the Special Infected are: Sho as a Jockey, Megumi as a Smoker, Konishi and Uzuki as Witches, Kariya as a Hunter and Higashizawa as a Tank. Or Charger. Whichever is scarier.

Joshua takes up Bill's role - I had the final scene in mind, but it didn't turn out the way I expected. Oh well. Shiki's scene was... rushed. Sorry, Shiki.