A/N: Well, first of all, thanks for checking out this story. The story revolves around some martial artists trying to survive in the HOTD universe. For changes, first of all, the setting is still set in the Fujimi High School, only with a few changes, which I will point out further in the story. At the start, some of you may be saddened due to a group with no estrogen in it, but fear not! This is only the beginning! There is a reason why I'm planning to rate this fic 'M'. Although I won't put up any sex scenes, I WILL put up ecchi ones. I don't want to spoil anyone, but if you want to ask about the plot, feel free to send me an im or review. I DO NOT OWN HOTD, OR ANY OF THE COPYRIGHTED STUFF I MAY INCLUDE IN HERE. I did include (or am planning to) some concepts from games like dead rising 2, or the zombie survival guide and world war z by Max Brooks(epic guy). I made the OC's of this fic to resemble some real life people (classmates + family), so if you have any complaints as to their character, please don't flame me. I didn't raise them. Anyways, thanks to my friends for beta reading this fic (so far). I don't think they have fanfic accounts(one forgot his), but if they want me to put their real names here, I will. Now, without further ado and random rantings: Welcome to the Empire of the Rising DEAD!

Everywhere… there's chaos. Buildings are burning, people are running. What happened? As I look to my left, two males are fighting on the ground. The first one, struggling to keep the other away from him, the other, desperately trying to get closer to the first one, with his mouth opening and closing systematically… as if it were trying to… bite the guy? Nah… can't be.

"Help me!" a sudden scream from my right caught my attention. This time, there was a girl running away from a group of people… god they look drunk.

I look back to my left, to where the two males were fighting. What now remained from the fight was the figure of the second male crouched over the unmoving body of the first one, his back facing me. Did the first guy die? The second one seems to be shuddering in what I could make out as sorrow… I guess he's crying.

I start walking towards the two, I notice more and more people around me. Was there some party recently? They all look drunk and messed up. Finally, I reach the two guys and tap the second guy's shoulder "Hey dude, are you alright? What happened?"

Slowly, he turns to face me. His eyes look as if they've lost all the color and detail a normal human would have; his mouth dirty and splattered with… blood? As I slowly back up and move away, he stands up and turns toward me.

I look at the body of the first guy, only to see a bloody hole where his stomach should be, and outside it, his intestines were scattered around and looked chewed up. "…what the hell?" I mutter to myself as the scene reminded me of something eerily familiar. What was that again?

Before I could think of anything else, the body of the first guy sat up, more of his guts falling out. "Oh yeah… zombies." Wait. If these two are zombies, then that means the others ar—

A cold hand grabs my shoulder, and before I could do anything, I feel pain coursing through it as teeth sink into my flesh and promptly rip it off.

"AAAAhhh!" I scream at the top of my lungs while falling to my knees. As I look at my attacker, I'm greeted by a guy with half his face rotting off, and behind him, about a dozen people who have similar defects. "Wake up…" the zombie seemed to have spoken to me. Before I can even comprehend what just happened, it slaps me across the cheek.

"WAKE UP DUDE!" Reo's eyes snap open to see a familiar face. "Dude, what happened? You were mumbling something, then you suddenly fell from your seat." Jac, a great friend of his says. "I had to slap you to wake you up. Be glad I didn't do anything else."

"He's right dude, I mean, sure you can sleep on the bus, but randomly falling from your seat is just weird." Another friend, Franz says.

"Okay, so are we there yet?" Reo asks, getting back to his seat. 'Well that was a crappy dream.'

"No, traffic's lasted for quite some time now"

There's this huge martial arts exhibition in the city, the organizers designed the event to hold separate fights for guys and girls. For the order of the fights, they decided to solve it with a simple game of rock, paper, scissors between a random male and female staff member.

Apparently, since the guy won, the first few days would be spent for the male tournament. In Fujimi High, the principal decided to send a handful of their best martial artists to represent the school. Although most of them are exchange students, they've been in Japan long enough to actually speak, understand, write, and read the language. The group consists mainly of eleven combatants who specialize in different fields such as hand-to-hand combat and kendo. In hand-to-hand combat, there's Jac, Bryan, Franz, Alvin, Mat, and Richard. They specialize in hand-to-hand techniques, but their styles differ. As for the kendo practitioners, there's JC, Robbie, Ramon, Justin (though everyone calls him JDog, just to piss him off), and the appointed leader for the event, Reo.

The group left the school as early as 7:30 just to reach the stadium in time, but seeing that they aren't there yet, Reo checks his watch and audibly curses "It's already ten-friggin' thirty?"

"Yeah, we were all supposed to play slapjack going there, but you went ahead and slept on us. Mr. Team Captain." Franz pokes Reo's cheek with one finger. "Well, you missed out on the fun, so sucks to be you dude."

"Oh, sorry 'bout that" Reo leans back and stretches his arms to relieve himself of some of the sleepiness he just got out of. "So Robbie," Reo calls out to the front, "how are things going out there?"

"Nothing much, people look pissed, but that doesn't make things any better, I mean, look at that." Robbie points out the window. "People are leaving their cars to see what's up."

True enough, there were some people getting out of their vehicles, and shouting on how late they were for a meeting or an event, some people were asking other drivers if they knew what was happening up the road, but most of them were just swearing and cursing randomly. "Hey guys, look over there." Robbie's brother, Bryan, points to a person.

Everyone looked out his side of the bus to see a man wobbling and staggering forward. "Whoa dude, is he drunk?" Justin asks. "Wow, gee, you think he isn't?" His seatmate, Ramon replies, taking off one of his earphones. "How can he be not drunk? Just look at him. They way he walks isn't how a sober guy does."

"Well, yeah, but what if—"

"Oh, wow, what kind of conspiracy are you thinking of now? Oh wait, let me guess, that dude stumbled on some sort of secret government document and survived an attempt on his life? Or maybe—" Ramon's rant was cut short by a blood curdling scream from outside.

The man in question started biting a nearby office woman's neck. For a few seconds, everyone in the vicinity seemed to be frozen in shock, but a few guys soon rushed to them and pulled the mysterious guy off the girl. The mysterious guy immediately started to struggle and overpower the men that pulled him, so more people eventually rushed to help restrain him. Another man, who seemed to know what he was doing, started to plug the bitten and bleeding area of the office woman with his shirt. He then started yelling at others, telling them to call for an ambulance.

The office woman started to violently cough out blood, then stayed still. The man who was plugging the office woman's wound then started to check for signs of breathing. When he found none, he started to try reviving the woman by using methods like CPR. After a few tries, he checked for any sign of breathing, only to have his neck bitten by the person he tried to save.

As if on cue, more screams could be heard in every direction. People started to panic, leaving their cars and running in a direction they thought was safe, only to run into more people like the mysterious man, and their painful death. Others tried to stay in the safety of their cars, but the constant pounding of some crazed people were able to break the windows and claim a free meal. Some tried to save their loved ones, while others left their loved ones to save themselves. One word could have summarized what was happening: Chaos.

Breaking the curse of silence and shock, Ramon continues in a soft voice

"—it's a zombie apocalypse."

For a few more seconds, nothing was said. Everyone in the bus was just staring blankly at what had now turned into a massacre. Men, women, children, the elderly, no one was spared from the "zombies".

After watching a few more seconds, Mat started to vomit on the floor. Soon after that, about three more people followed his example. "That doesn't look like fun." Mat states, wiping off puke from his mouth. "Are you kidding?" Bryan turns to face him, "This is a zombie apocalypse! This should be really exciting… so long as you're not bitten, that is."

"What the hell is wrong with you? Aren't you scared of this?" Mat points to the chaos outside. "We're all gonna friggin' die man."

"No we're not." Reo half shouts, anger dripping from his words, "It's that way of thinking that'll get you killed." Changing back into a more calm, but assertive tone, he starts to reach for his bag, which contained all his gear. "We should get ready to leave this bus. If we don't, we'd end up as tinned food for those… zombies."

"Yeah, he's right." Bryan agrees. "What's the plan?"

"Let's pack up first then head for the rooftops. I don't think these zombies can climb ladders." Reo takes out his kendo mitts, but puts them back, opting to wear fingerless leather gloves instead.

Richard, upon seeing this asks, "Hey dude, won't those be less useful? Kendo mitts provide more coverage."

"Yeah, but they're big and stuffy. Might hinder me later on, and I haven't really washed them."

"Shit! Some of them know we're here!" Bryan says, looking out the window. True enough, after a second or two, zombies started to bang on the door and the sides of the bus.

"Okaay, I don't think we'll be able to leave that way anymore." Justin states as he picks up his bag and zips it shut. Upon hearing this, Ramon sighs and lightly slaps his forehead. "Dude, just shut up."

"Anyways," Reo says, making his way to the back of the bus. "We can use the side door and jump down. Stay close to each other, there's a fire escape on the other side of the street. Once we get to the top, let's think of what to do next. Ready?" he reaches for the handle, looking back to see everyone silently nod their heads in approval while holding whatever they could use as weapons with them. The kendo practitioners had their wooden swords, while others wrapped their fists in bandages and cloth. "Let's go!"

Reo jumps down and rushes to the nearest zombie and delivers an overhead slash to its head. There was a sickening crack as its skull broke open, but it was still standing. "I guess hoping for one hit kills with a wooden sword is too much eh?" he mutters to himself as he started to hit the undead with his wooden sword again.

After three hits, someone screams from behind. "Driver's a goner, just leave him!" Mat jumps down and closes the side door. 'How evil, but I guess it can't be helped.'

"Let's move! Don't bother killing them; just push them back so we don't get swarmed!" Reo shouts to the group, leading them to the fire escape. Just getting there was already hard, as there were still civilians running away in panic, also not to mention the threat of the zombies in the way. "Try not to get separated!" Reo pushes back another zombie to the side as the group moves forward.

After a few seconds, Reo first reaches the base of the fire escape. As he starts climbing up, he sees Mat get shoved to the side by a panicking civilian, and falling down. Reo starts to make his way to help him, but Alvin sees this and pats his shoulder "I'll go back for him; we'll meet you guys on the roof."

With that said, Reo starts climbing the ladder as fast as he could. "Dude, hurry up! They're starting to pile up over here." Robbie shouts, as he starts climbing up as well. Reo hurries up even more, and eventually gets to the top. He looks down from the side and sees Mat and Alvin trying to get to the ladder, but notices that karma is finally getting back at Mat for all those stupid things he's done, like not doing homework, or peeping in the girls shower. Apparently, He and Alvin are surrounded by at least two dozen zombies.

"S-shit dude, we're surrounded!" Mat stutters. "I don't wanna die…"

"I can't believe it…" Alvin whispers as he and Mat start to back up. Mat stumbles and falls on his ass. "I don't wanna die…"

"Fuck this, dude, if I die, I'm bringing down as many of these bastards." Alvin picks up a plank of wood which was lying nearby. "…Fuck this…" With a roar, he rushes to a nearby zombie and slams the plank of wood on its head. Due to the mere strength of the swing, the zombie fell down, but didn't get back up. Not wasting another moment, Alvin started to bash at the zombie heads with his mighty plank of wood. More and more kept falling, while only a small handful got back up.

As Alvin was raging and killing zombies, Mat just kept backing up. "I don't wanna die…" Mat's back eventually hit something. He looks up and sees a zombie staring back at him with lifeless eyes. "I don't wanna die…" Moments later, the only things that came out of his mouth were blood curdling screams and gushing blood.

Alvin was actually doing great. His sense of survival flared to the max. It was only after Mat's scream that he did something completely stupid. He looked in its direction, to see Mat being cannibalized by a group of at least five zombies. His mouth locked in an eternal scream of pain. As he looked back to what he was doing, the only thing he saw was a mouth, which soon took a chunk off of his neck.

Pain. That was the only thing he thought of at the moment. He wanted to scream so badly, but he couldn't, as his vocal chords were just ripped off. Soon, he started to see the clichéd scenes of his life pass before him, as well as more mouths, which soon took more chunks of his flesh.

Back at the rooftop, almost everyone was on the ladder going up. The ones at the bottom were scrambling to get up, as the zombies started to get nearer by the second. As the last to reach for the ladder, Richard started to climb up. He was already on the fifth bar, when a zombie suddenly grabbed his ankle. "Fuck! It's trying to pull me down!" Eventually, a few more zombies started to reach up as well, trying to make sure their prey doesn't escape.

Hearing the shout, the person above him, Jac, tried to reach for his arm with one hand, while firmly gripping the ladder on his other one. "Dude, try to kick them off and reach for my hand! I'll help pull you up!"

Richard struggles to kick the zombies to no avail, their grip too powerful to break. Seeing no other alternative, he instead focuses on reaching for Jac's hand and climbing up. "Their grip's too strong dude!" With one great heave, he lunges for Jac's hand, and holds it firmly, as if his life depended on it. "Got it!"

Jac then acknowledges by attempting to pull him up, hoping to save his teammate. It was actually working, "It's working!" Richard also used his other hand to pull himself up, until he felt teeth sink into his left ankle. "AAahh!" His grip weakened for that moment, but that was all it took for a group of ravenous zombies to pull him down. Soon after he was pulled down, the zombies wasted no time in devouring their next meal.

Jac, still holding onto Richard's kendo mitt, let out a curse, then climbed up. As he reached the top, he angrily threw the mitt at the floor. "Fuck! What the hell man? I was already pulling him up!" Jac cursed again, then sat down near the group. "Now what?"

"Well, we should plan our goals first." Reo suggests, sitting down as well.

"Yeah," Bryan agrees. "We should also be more careful, if not, we'll die just like Mat, Alvin, and—"

"Don't relate us to them!" Justin interjects. "It's their own carelessness that killed them. Mat broke down, Alvin got distracted, and Richard, well, was probably just unlucky."

"That's why we should take this topic seriously. It's because they died that we should talk about ways to be more careful." Reo reaches for his bag and place it in front of him, rummaging through its contents. "First of all, does anyone have a mirror?"

"What the hell man, you just told us to take things seriously. What good would a mi—"

"A mirror," Reo interrupts, glaring at Justin, "Will help us see what's in places without having to stick our necks out to check. If we use one, we'll be able to check corners without much risk."

"…oh. Well, how was I supposed to know?" Justin shrugs.

"First of all, you're probably used to using mirrors to see your own reflection, fag." Ramon teases, enjoying as Justin's face contorts in disgust. "Hey!"

For the first time since this apocalypse started, the group laughed. In these few moments, we all forgot about the death and decay, about the zombies, it was just as if it never happened. Soon though, it would stop. And everyone would have to get serious. Because if not… bad things would happen.

As the laughter stopped, Reo clasped his hands and got down to business. "Okay, so seriously speaking, let's finalize some rules and formations. Anyone want to start? If not, I will."

"Yeah, actually, I have a suggestion." All of us look at JC, who was raising his hand. "As for the formations, why don't we use the ones used by special ops people. You know… like in games, where there's someone at the front… you get it right?"

"Well, yeah." Bryan agrees, nodding his head in an approving manner. "We could use the point person, two flanks, and one rear formation. But since there are eight of us left, we could adjust that."

"Okay, so anyone want a specific role or spot?" Reo asks no one in particular.

"Hey, I wanna be point!" Jac immediately says.

After a while, the formations were set. Jac and Reo would be on point, Ramon and Justin on the right flank, Bryan and Robbie on the left flank, and finally, JC and Franz at the rear. Basically Jac and Reo would be the tip of the spear. They'd be the ones leading the way, as well as attacking enemies in the way. The flanks would mostly be the supports and clean-up, while the rear would protect the group from zombies that come from behind.

"What about the RoE? What are our rules on that?" Robbie asks.

"Well, since our current equipment isn't really for bashing skulls in, I'd suggest knocking them back, if we're moving, but if necessary, you might need to hit the head multiple times for a kill." Reo pauses, thinking about his next statement. "I saw from how Alvin fought, that something as simple as a plank of wood can kill. But technically, he just hit with it really hard. If a random plank of wood can kill, I'm pretty sure that a wooden sword would be more effective. Though, that's just what I think."

"Wait, what about us?" Franz looks at the rest of the hand-to-hand combatants, then back at Reo. "I don't think bare hands can crack a skull. Well, if you're really buff, I guess you could…"

"Good point. You guys should find something… like an iron pipe— just improvise for now. Hopefully, we'll get better weapons later on. Anyway, moving to the next topic, what are our goals?"

"Survive?" JC suggests.

"Well, that's obvious. I was thinking like, a place we can go to, or something." Reo replies, fighting the urge to roll his eyes.

"Well, how about the school? Let's see if the other guys barricaded themselves inside. We can also use the school as some kind of fort. It has concrete walls and an iron gate." Bryan stands up, and looks at the street below. "Though, I suggest that we wait for the crowd to clear up a bit…"

True enough; the zombies were still crowded around the ladder, still feasting on Richard's corpse. The zombies on the street though, were starting to move deeper into the city, as they were attracted by the screams and commotion coming from that direction.

"Okay… I say we make our way to the school, while looking for family members close by, and weapons. Is everyone fine with that?" Reo asks, looking back to the group.

Choruses of yeses come from them. "Then we're set! …After we wait for the crowd to clear."

After about ten minutes, the group of zombies near the ladder was mostly gone, with only one or two remaining. "Let's move, but be quiet." Reo says as he picks up his gear and moves down the ladder.

Reaching the bottom, he passes by the remains of a friend they all used to call Richard. His body was mutilated, his stomach torn open with half his guts eaten while the other half was scattered outside his body, hell, even his face was bitten up. As the rest of the group get down, everyone says a short prayer and continue moving through the alleyways.

Just as discussed, Jac and Reo were on point, leading the group. The zombies encountered were few in number, and mostly alone. When encountering a lone zombie, Jac would usually kick it so it would fall, while Reo moves up and bashes its skull with his weapon. Usually, it's best to kill them so they wouldn't follow from behind and attract more zombies.

As the group reached the street, the scene in front was very welcoming. Gladwasp, a fast food restaurant that looked untouched, stood there right in front of us in all its glory.

Upon seeing this, the group looked amongst themselves. "Well, we haven't eaten lunch yet…" JC comments as everyone enters. Aside from the leftover food on some tables, there wasn't any blood at all. Not on the floor, the tables, the counter, …nothing.

"First things first, check for zombies or survivors. Two people a group, move." Reo commands and looks at Jac. "Let's check the manager's office."

"Let's eat!" Since the restaurant was a small one, we were able to check every corner of it. No one was here, so they probably left with everyone else they saw running.

Ever since the bus ride, everyone was already hungry, having eaten breakfast only. It was already nearing lunch time, and an opportunity like this won't happen again, so the group ate whatever they could, after finishing, Bryan suggested that everyone bring some food with them to eat later on.

"That was great!" Franz says as he finishes the drink he brought out. "Eating in a fast food restaurant without paying feels weird though."

"Yeah," Reo agrees as he starts walking again. "Let's move!"

Once again, the group starts moving, this time opting to stick to the sidewalks while trying to avoid contact with the zombies instead of taking unfamiliar alleys.

After walking a few blocks down the road, Reo stops walking, signaling the others to wait.

Quietly moving to the corner of the street, he sticks the mirror out and looks at the street, to see something very disturbing. Reo silently curses and moves back to the group.

"What'd you see?" Jac asks as Reo returns.

"Zombies. The whole street is flooding with them. We won't be able to use that way anymore."

While everyone silently curses, Ramon looks at the surrounding structures and notices a large warehouse near the street with the zombies.

"Hey, do you think that warehouse extends to the other street?" He asks, pointing at said warehouse. "We might be able to pass through if we're quiet enough."

"Well, it's worth a try." Robbie shrugs. "There might even be weapons."

"Then let's go!" Reo and Jac make their way towards the warehouse gate and push open one side of it with a small creak. Noticing nothing too dangerous, ie. Zombies, Reo motions towards the group to go in. "It looks clear."

Inside, the group looked all around them to see nothing more than skyscrapers of crates. Apparently, when the panic hit, the workers must have left whatever they were doing and just ran for it. Thankfully, no shuffling sounds or moans could be heard, but still, everyone kept their guard up, just in case something unexpected were to happen.

"Hey guys," Bryan snaps his fingers to get everyone's attention, then points to his left. "Look over there"

On top of a lone crate, one of the most magnificent tools you could ever hope for was lying down in all its splendor. The crowbar; it can kill zombies, open doors and other things, and… it was also a weapon of Gordon Freeman. Though they weren't fighting aliens, zombies weren't so different— their heads still crack open if hit by it.

"So... who gets it?" Bryan asks.

"Well, you found it, so it's rightfully yours. Unless you don't want it." Ramon quickly adds in. "Besides, there should be more… right?"

True enough, the warehouse contained two more crowbars, both of them found in the vicinity. "These should go to Franz and Jac," Reo said, tossing both to them. "Hand-to-hand combat is too risky in this situation."

"Why don't you guys open the crates?" Justin asks out of pure curiosity. "Who knows, maybe this warehouse is actually a mafia hideout where they store lots of illegal guns!"

The group just stared at him.

"I bet he's wrong." Ramon says, raising his hand.

"Same." Soon after, Justin's suggestion became some sort of bet. If he were wrong, everyone who bets against him has to follow one order each. If he were right, everyone gets to give him one order each. Anyways, it's not like he won't win with the odds of seven-to-one… right?

"Then it's settled. We'll open one crate each. If by some miracle you're right, which by the way, you're probably not, at least we'll have guns." Ramon says, sticking a crowbar he borrowed from Bryan into the lid of a crate. With a great heave, he was able to lift the lid just enough to look inside to see… FM radios. A lot of FM radios, stacked neatly together.

"Hmm, this doesn't look like an illegal weapon, now does it?" Ramon smirks as he crosses his arms.

Five minutes and a crestfallen Justin later, the group opened a total of eight crates, each of them holding either random decorations, or useless radios. "You know, the sign on the Warehouse did say that it was a furniture and décor shipping warehouse…" Robbie comments, grinning as he sees Justin's face go wide with an expression that said 'WHAT?'

"Anyways, we've been here too long. Let's move!" Reo makes his way to the back door and opens it, making Jac puke on the spot shortly after.

Upon seeing their comrade puke just like that, everyone rushed to him before looking at the sight outside. Carnage. Another damned word that was sufficient enough to explain the sight on the street. The only vehicle there was an overturned truck, behind it were trails of blood and squashed bodies, which tuned out to be pre-school students. If they were the usual kind of corpses like the others littered around, nobody would be so disturbed. But these were extra deformed. The truck must have lost control and crashed, mowing down the young students before they had a chance to get out of the way. The sight was similar to road kill, but far more gruesome.

"That's right," The group brought back their eyes onto their leader. "You have a little sister here, right Jac?"

"Dude," Jac stands up, wiping the puke off of his mouth. "Can we look for her? I think her school is nearby."

Reo eyes Jac, then the rest of the group. "Do you have to ask?" Reo grins as he pats Jac's shoulder. "Then let's pick up the pace."

The group moves across the deserted street, while keeping their eyes peeled for any kind of threat. After a few minutes of walking, Bryan starts to snicker. Curious, everyone stops and wonders if he's lost it. "…bro?" Robbie asks.

"Our luck today is off the cha—" Robbie cuts him off as he hisses in Bryan's ear. "SHUT UP!"

Nodding, Bryan points to one of the shops on the side of the road. Following his finger, everyone stares at what looks like a three story building next to a chain of apartments.

Squinting his eyes further, Reo starts chuckling as well, getting confused looks from everyone. "Is there some kind of joke that I'm missing?" Franz asks, hoping to find an answer.

"Guys, we've hit the jackpot…" Reo and Bryan start jogging to the said building, their grins getting bigger. "…A hardware store."

The group, not wanting to be left behind, started to jog towards the building as well, to see a hardware store on the second floor. The stairs going up were located on the outside, so they didn't need to bother with looking. Half-way up, JC stops and calls out to the group, "Hey guys, shouldn't we block this part so that zombies won't get up?"

"Dude, there's no one on the street!" Justin points out. "It's not like zombies just appear all of a sudden."

Feeling a grumbling feeling at the back of his stomach, JC grudgingly agrees and continues to enter the store. Meanwhile, the sudden outburst of Bryan and Justin a while ago didn't just attract the attention of their group mates…