Stars on the Floor
Chapter 2
Crunchy
-KH: 10:30 A.M.
I awoke to the feeling of Tsukasa gripping my arm like I was a teddy-bear. I already knew something was wrong, and I remembered the events of last night. Those screams. Not good.
"What's the matter Tsukasa? Why are you over here?" We share a room because, long story short, basalmic vinegar can be VERY acidic if mixed with pond water. Back to the potentially delicate situation unfolding all over my pyjamas. Yeah, she's crying on me. Or weeping? Expelling moisture from her tear ducts, alright?
"I couldn't sleep Kagami...I heard screams all night, they got louder and there were more of them, so I kind of curled up on you and tried to block it out." Damnit, now she's giving me the puppy-dog eyes. I got up and pulled the shades back so I could see out the open window. I kind of wish I hadn't. There was a fire belching out the side of a tower on the skyline, and there was smoke rising from various points in the city, and the acrid smell of burnt meat was overpowering. I leaned out and puked all over our lawn, which I should probably note is dead. It wasn't dead last night. Terrific.
After I was done heaving my Pocky all over the place while hearing more prolific screaming, some rather close too, I closed the window and hugged Tsukasa tight. I'm more concerned with what happened then why. I grabbed my cell phone from the bedside table and called Miyuki. It picked up on the first ring.
"Hello?" It wasn't Miyuki; it was a very quiet voice, and at first I thought I dialed the wrong number, but it was on Speed Dial. "Is anyone there?" Quiet voice now sounds scared. Wow, I'm terrible.
"Oh, sorry, this is Hiiragi Kagami. Can I talk to Miyuki-san?"
Awkward pause...
"I'm sorry, she's busy in the bathroom for a moment." Okay, that was weird. Something's up.
"I'm sorry, I never got your name, miss...?" Step one of Truth Extraction initiated!
"My name is Iwasaki Minami. I apologize for not stating it previously. I'm a first-year at Ryoo High. Miyuki-san should be done within a minute, if you wish to stay on the line she'll pick up soon." As she said this a banging sound could be heard, like someone hitting a door with all their weight. I also heard a gutteral moan, sort of like something out of a bad monster movie; not quite dead, but not human either.
Except, that sound was on my end. I gave the phone to Tsukasa and ran over to the window. And saw exactly what I didn't ant to see. There was a person trying to climb the side of the house, and he looks like he has a nasty case of leprosy. Oh. Fantastic. Terrible Move plot 3: Lepers attack!
Wait.
Why the hell would someone with leprosy be trying to climb the side of our house?
Shit.
Moving on, I grabbed the phone back from Tsukasa while giving her an encouraging look. Five thousand yen says I failed at that. Miserably. I opened the window again and tried to push him off, but he held on like a drunken Santa Claus. He moved a hand onto the window sill, and I took a chance and slammed the window shut on his hand. It didn't make a loud cracking sound. It went SQUISH. The guy didn't scream either. He made a growling sound that made my blood run cold, and I realized what he was. It should've been obvious, with all these other signs. It was a Specimen. A Horzine Specimen. I watched as he fell off the side of the house and splatter from the 3 meter fall. Chunks of rotten flesh landed in our garden.
Aaaaaand we are well are truly screwed now. Oh joy.
I ran back over to Tsukasa, and after a brief moment of hugging, I put the phone back up to my ear.
"Hiiragi-san? Miyuki-san is going to be a bit I'm afraid. There is someone at the front door."
"DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR!" I screamed into the phone. Minami surprisingly stayed calm. "Miss Hiiragi, you mean you haven't watched the news? The Horzine virus has escaped in Saitama, but in smaller quantities than in the outbreak in Britain. The military is already moving to contain it, and are manufacturing an antidote to counteracts its effects." She said it quickly yet concisely enough that I understood every word. Good skill. As she said this I heard Miyuki speaking in the background, in increasingly loud tones. "Miyuki-san is arguing with a police officer, refusing to be evacuated. She says she has several friends that are meeting up here before we evacuate. Would you be one of them Hiirag-san?" I sighed in relief. "Yes, myself and Tsukasa would be glad to meet up with you, but here's the thing: the antidote doesn't cure those afflicted with "dead". The military will only be able to do so much. Why are they letting it happen?"
Silence and an uneasy sigh. I thought so. They are going to let it go, most likely for political purposes. Disgusting, but I guess in the big scheme of things, a couple million dead isn't too bad. They'll work harder on trying to quarantine Saitama, taking any survivors that make it out, but certainly not risking their own skin on an Infection zone.
I told Tsukasa the plan, while confirmed something with Minami.
"If we're going to survive this, we're not going to do it with 5 people and no means to defend ourselves. The Horzine Virus' KDR is 7 million to 30. How are we going to fight that?"
"Bring whatever weapons you can scavenge while on your way here. A baseball bat or maybe an emergency fire axe would be optimal. They're quite squishy I've been told. Oh, and Miyuki-san is here. Here you are Miyuki." The last words accompanied by static as Miyuki picked up the phone.
"Kagami, how are you holding up? I'm still quite scared about all this, but I guess it's natural to be afraid of undead, flesh-eating humans trying to make a meal out of my innards."
She's holding up quite well, by god! Yep, she's probably mentally unstable from the sheer craziness of the situation. It MAY be my hatred of the world in general that I'm not in shambles about this whole thing.
-MT: 10:45A.M.
After finishing my conversation with Kagami, who was trying to calm me, and tell me to stay put and don't leave the house (obviously!) I hung up with some musings of my own. It sounded like she had already encountered these specimens. They were reanimated corpses, as was generally believed, but horribly mutated people and animals who have been exposed to the Horzine virus and have no immunity to it. The virus was actually a variation of the flu, so if you'd had the flu, you would not be affected by the Horzine virus, at least, not in its airborne form. If you were bitten or swallowed blood from anyone who was affected, you were gone the moment your brain was severed from the spinal cord.
I had researched this previously, because, as they say, knowledge is power. And because I had the flu several years ago, I will be fine, barring death by decapitation. That, I'm more worried about.
Myself and Minami went around to all the entrances, locking doors, closing and locking windows, even upstairs ones, and tried to find things to defend ourselves with. We found a nail gun in the garage, with a box of 60 nails, and a metal baseball bat. I took the bat, as the nail gun was heavy, and Minami hefted it up like it was nothing.
While we were still examining our finds, a scratching sound was heard at the front door. It was a grating sound, and small pieces of wood splintered on our side and fell to the floor.
Whatever was on the other side of that door was not friendly. Minami ran to the window next to the front door, and quickly jumped back. She looked at me with fear in her eyes.
Well, that's not good. I do belive a specimen is out there.
I creeped up to the door on the other side and looked out. The specimen still looked human, which was a start. That is, if people walked around without any skin on and having talons that rival an albatross replacing their hands. Its skull was exposed though, and everyone knows that if you destroy the brain, the specimen will die.
I took the bat in one hand and made a move to unlock the door, and Minami moved back to be in line with the door, about 3 meters away, holding the nail gun at eye level.
I unlocked the door, and the specimen, which I recall being called a Clot, trundled into the room. He saw Minami first, who fired the nail gun. Or rather, tried to. She hadn't loaded any nails into it, and it just made a large clicking sound. She realized this a moment too soon, and instead threw the nail gun at the Clot, which stumbled, and I took the initiative and made a heavy overhead strike on its head.
The effect was spectacular. Its head exploded into gobs of rotten flesh, its body leaning over sideways to the floor with a muffled thump. Miraculously, neither myself or Minami were touched by it. The walls on the other hand were stained.
Minami, still very visibly shaken, grabbed the box of nails and the nail gun and loaded it with a full clip of 15 nails.
Our carelessness had almost gotten us killed. That was a sobering thought.
We took a peek outside the front door, which was still partially intact, and saw another such creature stumbling around the front walk. Minami took a stance and fired the nail gun with a WHOOMPH sound, and the nail neatly embedded itself into the Clot's cranium. It fell over. And didn't get back up.
As we moved a dresser from the dining room into position in front of the door after tossing the body, sans head, out onto the walkway, I thought about my friends. I wondered where they were, and if they were even still among the living. We werealmost beaten by a shriveled skinless monster becuase we were careless. I hope they are faring better, though they should, as I live closest to the city, so there SHOULD, in theory, be less opposition for them to get from there to here. I just hope they're all right...
"Miyuki, I'm going to call some of my friends, to see if they're alright and if they could make it here. Is that okay with you?" Minami had her cell phone in hand, speed dial open.
Miyuki just nodded. The more people who could form a group to fight back and possibly escape this epidemic, the better...
-KI 7:30 A.M.
NanaKO!199: Oy, Konata, it's almost 8 A.M., I think we should get some sleep. Nice loot tonight though. ^.^
Konakona: Awwww teach, do I have to? And I totes agree. :P That Buster Sword will be a big DPS boost to my Pally
NanaKO!199: Yeah, have fun with that. I'm going to bed. I'll be up around midnight. . And I'll probably skip sleep on Sunday to be up in time for school.
Konakona: Got it teach, later then (^.^)
NanaKO!199 has signed off
The white text against the black screen begin to blur as sleep caught hold of her. Staying up 3 nights in a row for raids was exhausting, but it was worth it for the exclusive loot offered. She crawled over to her bed and turned conked out almost instantly, though her attempts at sleep would be all for naught. She didn't even realize the sounds of screaming and moans outside her window.
She was awoken by her father roughly shaking her awake only minutes later. At least, she thought it was, but in reality over 3 hours had passed, and it was almost 11 A.M. She tried to roll over and go back to sleep, but Sojiro Izumi was too much for her. She opened her eyes to look at him groggily, and seeing the look of terror and fear on his face, decided it was in her best intentions to get the hell up.
"What's the matter dad?" She said this after jumping out of bed and throwing some clothes on after her father had left the room. She walked into the living room to see the news on repeat, with a large Biohazard symbol rotating on the screen repeatedly. She paused to listen to the news broadcast.
"...virus has already infected a large majority of the population, the military is sealing off a massive region from Katon in the east down to Nagoya in the west, and Nagano in the north. It is expected for the majority of the population to be killed by this virus, which is a mutated strain of the same Horzine virus that destroyed Britain and caused the entire island nation to be leveled with nuclear weaponry. Officials are urging for everyone to leave the area immediately, and to report to government owned facilities to be vaccinated and shipped out of the country. The UN has declared Japan to be under a quarantine, and all incoming and outgoing planes and boats are being kept in port and kept under military protection. We will be back soon with live updates on this dire situation."
Her dad just simply looked at her with a dead look in their eyes. He pointed to the box that was sitting on the table in the living room. She picked it up with bile rising in her throat.
It was Killing Floor: The Real Deal, a game produced that detailed what the survivors of the British incident had to do to escape. They did not have it easy, and only 30 people out of the entire country made it out alive. Konata dropped the box and rushed over to her father and hugged him tightly. The situation had changed so dramatically, and so suddenly, she didn't know what they were going to do. He hugged back tightly, afraid for himself, and his daughter. It was the only family he had left, and he wasn't going to lose her too. Well, her and Yui and Yutaka...speaking of which, he thought desperately, where was the salmon-haired girl?
"Konata, where's Yutaka...?"
Konata froze. Her thoughts raced, but then she realized that Yui had picked her up last night to go to see some concert, and was staying the night at Yui's place.
"Dad, she's at Yui's...which is out of the city..."
"Good, she should be safe there...shouldn't you call your friends? We need to get out of here...quickly."
Konata nodded, then broke the embrace and ran to grab her cell phone off her desk. She dialed Kagami's number, while gazing out the window to see the scope of the problem. She looked at the bodies in the street, both moving and unmoving. This was NOT going to be easy.
Kagami's phone rang a couple minutes after she was done talking to Miyuki and had finalized plans to meet up at Miyuki's residence, as it was the most accessible place, and, being on a relatively large property, easy to see what was going on outside. She realized the number was Konata's, and picked it up immediately.
"Kagami! Are you alright? Have you looked outside? What are we going to do? Where's Tsukasa?" Her questions came out in a mess, but Kagami was used to it.
"Yes, I'm alright, I know that we are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse with a survival rate of almost zero, I'm going to round up everyone else we know and we are going to go to Miyuki's, and I'm currently searching through my kitchen cabinets for food, while Tsukasa is upstairs looking for things we can use to fight these things."
Kagami spoke with a hard tone to her voice, almost as if she had refused her fate that was laid out and was going to fight back against it. Which was, of course, exactly what was occuring.
Konata walked back to her dad, who was searching their cabinets as well. He had the right idea, though they never kept much around besides instant ramen and microwave-able food. That was coming back to bite them now. She went up to Sojiro before she replied.
"...Miyuki's house? We're not that far from here. Do we have to get there on our own? Listen Kagami, some of those things are right outside our door. How are we supposed to get past that?"
"Clots. Bash their heads in."
"Wait, what? Clots?" Konata was confused for a second.
"Yes, the ones that still look human, walk upright, and have huge talons for hands or something similar are called Clots. They have very mushy heads, and a good whack to the head will kill them."
"Yikes Kagami, you sound ready to fight these things."
"Listen Konata, I am. I'm not going to die here. If we prepare ourselves properly, and get supplies, we can ride this one out. We might have to leave the country to do it, but if there's a will, there's a way."
Konata thought about it. Kagami was right. She leaned over to her dad and asked him what they had to break through the stumbling flesh outside the door, to make the mad dash 4 streets over to Miyuki's house. He shrugged, before getting a creepy grin on his face.
"Kagami, I think we'll be leaving soon. We don't have much note-worthy here we could bring for supplies, so we're going to look for weapons and head out for Miyuki's place. If we never get there, don't come looking for us, okay? If we make it intact, we'll be waiting for you. See you in a little bit...hopefully."
Click.
There was no reason for Kagami or any of the others to throw their lives away in order to save her or her father. This was turning into one huge, twisted game of evolution. Survival of the fittest, as they say.
She heard her father rummagin for something in his closet of forbidden things, before walking out into the main room holding a handle with a sheathe on it. It was close to a meter long, and she wondered where he had gotten a sword...or at least until he pulled the sheathe off of it.
It wasn't a sword. It was an ENORMOUS butcher's knife. He held it deftly, the same maniacal grin plastered to his face.
"Konata, did I ever tell you what I did for work before I became a freelance writer? Well, I was butcher. And I had this for big jobs, like bulls. It's niiiiice and sharrrrrp. I almost forgot they let me keep it."
Well, that's one of us.
"Don't get any ideas Dad. Do you have anything smaller for someone like me?"
He only shook his head, deadly serious again.
Konata had other ideas however, and scoured the knife drawer for the biggest, most serrated knife we had. I decided on a meat cleaver about 20cm long, recently sharpened.
I regouped with my dad, who was trying to gather up all of his manga and anime.
"...Dad, you know we're not going to take any of this stuff with us right? It'll weigh us down."
He looked up, surprised Konata wasn't doing the same thing as him. She had already determined that the only thing she would take relating to her hobby was a Haruhi figurine.
"But, it'll just sit here...what if someone steals it?"
"Let them Dad, this is a matter of life and death, not a majestic little walk to the suburbs and back. And attempting to lug around several hundred kilos of stuff isn't going to help the situation."
He finally dropped the duffel bag, books and cases spilling out. He grabbed a backpack and put the only food they had found (green beans) into it, along with some cleaning supplies, some soap, and some clothing for both of them, and zipped it up. He handed it to Konata, who put it on, and they picked up their respective "blades", starting for the door. They sboth stopped at the door, and looked at each other.
Sojiro spoke first.
"So, this is it? Being thrown to the wolves?"
Konata nodded, a steely look forming in her eyes.
"Yep. Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. Let's not make it the last one too."
And little did she know how true her statement was.
A/N: To anyone who considered the 1st 2 chapters of this to be any good, I was hopped up on pain meds while writing those. Teeth surgery or some shit. ANYWAYS, thanks to a CERTAIN SOMEONE who may or may not have a last name with an anagram of DAUD, I am continuing this. So yay him. This chapter was significantly longer than the previous ones, and is roughly the length I will be aiming for in each consecutive chapter. I'm kind of making up the plot as I go, but I have a couple epic things planned out. Seeing as Japan has very restrictive gun laws, they're going to have to MacGyver some crazy shit if they want to survive. COUGH Miyuki and Minami in particular COUGH
Anyways, hope you enjoyed this, and make sure to review, it's like the sweet sweet drug that makes me write more! And everyone LOVES drugs!
"I need drugs! NOW!"
We love you too Scully.