"I'm swimming through this nightmare

Where black waves pull me under..."


Moving through an urban landscape on foot after hours was always a risky proposition, or at least that's what Rei Miyamoto had learned through past experiences still fresh in mind. In spite of everything else she had lived through thus far, Rei had this feeling of trepidation that she just couldn't shake. Then again, in a situation such as this, how could someone shake a sense of impending doom? Slowly and quietly she made her way down a dark city street, the flashlight attached to Rei's Springfield M1A1 providing the only light for the path ahead. The neighborhood she was in seemed particularly quiet, suggesting that there was only a small undead presence. Of course Rei didn't let her guard down because of that; for all she knew there could have been a nearby house or two filled with a two dozen of them, only needing a single sound loud enough to draw their attention.

Under any normal circumstances, Rei would never be out alone like this after dark. But a few days ago, while holed up in a police station for the night with her friends, her group came under attack by some 'survivors' who wished to raid the precinct for supplies. During the scuffle it appeared that Rei's traveling partners all got separated in one way or another, and she was on a quest to regroup with them. There was much about the sudden attack on her group's shelter that came across as odd (as odd as something like this could be given the situation), but Rei hadn't dwell on it too much since it happened. For her, the most important thing now was survival long enough to find her friends. She'd try to make more sense of it later.

Several hours after the scuffle, Rei had crossed paths with another high school student that was running for her life from a small horde of the undead. She introduced herself to Rei as Michiru, and Rei had been traveling with her since. Rei found it amazing that Michiru had been able to survive for as long as she had... Rei learned very fast, within moments of meeting her, that Michiru was a coward in every sense of the word and couldn't bring herself to fight off a corpse even if her life depended on it. She was, however, quite friendly and very thankful for Rei's help, and Rei wasn't about to turn her back to the poor girl. Michiru was dressed in a blue and white school uniform not all to dissimilar from the one Rei wore, though Michiru's was in a severe state of disrepair. Both her skirt and shirt had slices, blood splatters and other filth all over them, the uniform itself telling quite a story. Michiru was also short, probably less than five feet tall, and very petite. Her hair was short, the straight dyed-blonde hair not making it past her ear lobes, and her eyes were a very deep blue.

Rei kept her breathing quiet and steady as she slowly walked heel to toe, her rifle up and ready as she looked down the iron sights in to the barely-lit road ahead of her. In the month or so since the outbreak happened, Rei had at least become proficient with her firearm... failing that, the bayonet at the business end of the gun seemed to work quite well in pinch. The occasional groan or shuffling of a corpse could be heard every few seconds, causing Michiru to cling tightly to the back of Rei's shirt.

"U-um, Rei?" Michiru whimpered, Rei glancing over her shoulder to look at Michiru and pausing her advance. In the pale moonlight Rei was able to make out the expression of complete and utter fear on Michiru's face, her blue eyes glossing up with tears as she brushed a stray lock of her short blonde hair from her eyes. Rei knew exactly what Michiru was feeling, and she could see (and sympathize with) the fear that Michiru must have been dealing with. But Rei tried to keep a stern and reassuring expression on her face.

"What is it?" Rei whispered

"Th-they're... all around us... I can hear them... can't you?" Michiru said, her whisper turning in to a quiet though high pitched squeal of terror by the end of her sentence.

"Of course I can." Rei replied as she faced forward and continued her slow march down the street. "But as long as we stay quiet, we'll be fine. Just trust me on this. I promise I'll find us shelter."

Upon reaching the end of the street, Rei and Michiru found themselves at a four way intersection. Rei kept her wits about her, scanning the intersection for any activity before her sights settled upon something that was a bit out of place this long in to the outbreak; a motorcycle. The metallic paint still had a luster to it when Rei's flashlight hit it, suggesting that the bike had been used or cleaned recently since there was no layer of dust upon it. More importantly, a motorcycle still upright that appeared to still be in working order. When Rei moved the beam of her flashlight away from the bike, a small and dull red light could be seen blinking on the bike's speedometer. This was well within the reach of the EMP shockwave caused by that missle, so somebody had to have rode it here. 'A survivor?' she thought to herself, bringing the flashlight up a bit to see what the bike was parked next to; a convenience store.

Michiru, seeing the bike, interpreted it quite differently. Michiru saw a mode of transportation, a way to quickly navigate their way out of this scary place. The thought hadn't even crossed her mind as to whether or not either of them knew how to operate a motorcycle, much less one that looked so large and cumbersome.

"Hey! Rei! Look!" Michiru exclaimed excitedly, leaving Rei's side and jogging over to the bike. Figures, the coward in Michiru decided to come roaring out at an inopportune time. It was obvious that she made little to no effort controlling the volume of her voice, either.

"No, Michiru, wait!" Rei called out as best she could in a hushed voice, though judging by some increasingly loud groans it looks like they'd already brought enough attention to themselves.

Just then, a loud crash was heard within the convenience store, one so loud it echoed throughout the dark streets. Very slowly the sounds of shuffling feet and feral growls began to fill the night, growing louder with every passing second...