Chapter 3

"Is it clear?"

Kaito turned around. The words had belonged to Luka, who was peeking through the door like an intimidated young child.

"Yeah," Kaito said. Luka! Of all people, she had been the one to see. She was the closest person to Gakupo other than himself.

"I heard gunshots and came to look through the window. I saw you drop that body off the edge,"

So Luka didn't know. It was dark, too dark for her to see who had been gunned down. There was no way for her to know, unless Kaito told her.

That brought up a new problem. Should he tell them who he had shot? Or should he keep it to himself? If he told, they might blame him, despite the darkness. But then again, it would be better for them to know that Gakupo was dead. It would at least let them know that trying to find him again was pointless. But if he told, then they would lose that small bit of hope they had that he was still alive.

And if he told, would they reject him? Send him away because he had accidentally killed their friend? Would he be left to fend for himself out with the zombies?

"Kaito? Earth to Kaito!"

Kaito was shaken out of his thoughts by Luka's shouts. She was standing in front of him now. When did she leave the house?

"Oh, sorry Luka" Kaito apologized.

"I asked you if the guy had any good stuff on him. Any food or weapons?"

Kaito shook his head and said "No. But he might have dropped something. Give me a minute to look around,"

"Alright," Luka started to walk back to the house. Kaito sighed and started to look around.

"Oh and Kaito?"

Kaito looked up. Luka had stopped walking and turned around to face him.

"Yeah?"

"Was the person….anyone we'd seen before?"

Kaito bit his lip, he was afraid she would ask that. Now came the decision. Should he tell her and risk her rejecting him? Or not tell and risk them finding out?

"Kaito?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you okay? You keep zoning out like that."

"No. It's fine. And the guy wasn't anyone we knew. Just some stranger,"

Luka stared at him for a second before she nodded and went inside.

Kaito sighed and went over to where Gakupo had dropped his sword that he tried to attack Kaito with. He couldn't see it well, but when he felt along the edges, there was a lot of some sort of crust. Dried blood. It had to be. The only other thing Kaito could think of was dried mud, but it was too light and thin to be that. Kaito picked up the sword and carried it into the house.

"Well?" Miku asked "What happened?"

"Somebody showed up on the roof," Luka explained "Kaito gunned them down"

Luka, Miku, Lily, and Gumi had all come running at the sound of gunshots. They all looked relieved that nothing bad had happened.

Except Miku, that is. She looked disappointed.

"That's it?" Miku asked "Nothing more exciting?"

"Damn, Hatsune," Lily shook her head "Are you stupid? You should be relieved that the gunshots weren't at Kaito. Or us for that matter,"

"Whatever," Miku waved Lily's comment away "Let's just…"

Suddenly Kaito came in with a long samurai sword. It was cover with a dark red crust.

"The guy dropped this," Kaito held it up for the girls to see. "His weapon, I guess"

"Looks kind of like Gakupo's sword," Gumi said.

Kaito flinched at the sound of Gakupo's name.

"Duh," Luka said, not noticing Kaito's reaction. "It's a samurai sword. But can we please not talk about Gakupo?"

"Sorry Luka," Gumi mumbled "I know you were good friends with him,"

"Whatever," Luka shook her head, which sent her long pink hair flopping around her shoulders. "I'm tired. We should go to bed."

"Alright," Lily agreed.

Lily, Miku, Gumi, and Luka left for the bedroom it had been decided they would all share. It was the only bedroom in the house, so Len would be on the couch, Rin (who refused to leave his side) would be sleeping on the floor, Meiko would be with in the bedroom, and Kaito would use the chair in the study.

"Meiko," Kaito called into the small house "Your watch"

"Alright," She emerged from the living room, where she'd been trying to match Len's symptoms to any of the diseases in the medical encyclopedia she'd found in the study. "Rin," she called behind her "Remember to change his ice pack every time it melts."

"Okay," Rin called back. From the hoarseness of her voice, it was obvious she'd been crying.

Kaito went into the living room where she saw Len with an ice pack on his head and Rin on the floor, rolling out a blanket Miku and Meiko had found while looting the neighboring building. She didn't even look up when Kaito walked in.

"How is he?" he asked.

"Worse," Rin answered. "His fever keeps rising, and he's been sweating and shaking for hours now. He's also saying things like 'Make the pain stop' and 'kill me before I do it.' What do you think it means?"

"It just sounds like delusional gibberish" Kaito answered "But it may be trauma from the things he saw today,"

"You saw worse,"

"He doesn't know that. At least I wasn't stabbed with a ripped metal pole,"

Rin shrugged and lied down, wrapping herself in the blanket like she was a piece of sushi. Kaito looked at her sadly, knowing that it was a futile attempt of her keeping warm. He yawned and wandered out of the room and over to the study. He sat down in the cushy swivel chair and covered himself with a blanket he'd placed there earlier. It wasn't an ideal sleeping experience, but he was too tired to care. He closed his deep blue eyes and was asleep within seconds.

The night want by smoothly, no intruders showed up, and every watch change went as planned. Miku had the last watch, and when dawn came, she was about to fall asleep.

She heard the door open behind her and turned to see Luka holding a mug and a two granola bars. Miku smiled as Luka handed her the mug and one of the bars. Miku recognized the smell immediately, before she even looked down at the dark brown liquid.

"Coffee? How?" she asked.

"We had some coffee beans. I crushed them up and mixed them with water. Then I lit a fire in the fireplace and used it to boil the water. I added a bit of sugar, but it's the closest to coffee we're gonna get."

Miku drank the coffee gratefully, despite its extreme bitterness. She was happy to have something to wake herself up. She tried to savor her granola bar, but as soon as she got a bite, she couldn't stop herself from practically inhaling the rest. Luka sat down next to her and stared off in the direction of the sunrise.

"Thanks," Miku said as Luka nibbled in a bit of her bar. "I needed some energy,"

Luka nodded, but said nothing.

"Wait," a thought struck Miku "Wouldn't smoke from the fireplace let people know where we are?"

"It's a gas fireplace," Lily explained "Doesn't raise smoke, at least not any that's visible."

"Ah," Miku sipped her coffee thoughtfully. "What do you think the purpose of this house was?"

"No idea," Luka shrugged "Maybe some home office space or something."

"Where's everyone else?"

"Lily, Gumi, Meiko, and Rin are inside eating. Kaito's still asleep,"

"Oh," her coffee was gone now. She set the mug down and stood up and stretched.

"Hey Miku?" Luka asked.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Gakupo's really dead?"

Miku was silent for a moment.

"Do you?"

Luka sighed. "I'm not sure. I don't know what happened to him. He could be alive, but he could also have died somehow. I'd like to believe he's alive, but I also think that, if I knew for sure he was dead, I'd be able to accept it."

"You mean, you could just accept his death and let him go like that? Just…pretend he never existed?"

"Not exactly. I would still feel upset about it, but I wouldn't be completely distraught, you know? In a world like this, you just have to let people go sometimes. You can't let every little death slow you down; you have to just keep moving on."

Miku shrugged "I guess you're right."

Luka nodded, she knew she was.

But Kaito didn't.

Len wasn't sure what was happening. Everything around him was constantly changing. One minute he was drowning in a sea of blood, the next he was being torn apart by zombie versions of his friends, the next he was tied to the couch while Rin force fed him peaches from a can until he suffocated, and the next he watched himself swing over the edge of the fire escape and into a sharp, ripped, metal pole over and over again. Then the cycle started again. It was like he was in some strange alternate universe where he was to be eternally tortured.

"Is this hell?" he wondered as he was ripped apart for the ninth time. He watched in horror as a zombie Gumi sank her rotten teeth into his left arm, which wasn't attached to him anymore.

"Not hell," a voice somewhere is his head told him "You're not dead, Len…..yet."

"So I'm dying?" He asked the voice.

"Not necessarily," the voice said "Just undergoing some small improvements"

"What?" Len asked "What are you talking…"

"Don't question it boy," the voice ordered him "Don't fight it either. Just go with it until it's all over."

"But I don't understand…" he began.

"There is nothing to understand Len," the voice assured him "Just go with it,"

Rin was flipping through the medical encyclopedia when Len started screaming.

They were high, piercing screams of absolute pain and fear. They were erratically growing louder.

"MEIKO!" Rin shrieked. "MEIKO HELP!"

Len's screeches were enough of a summons without Rin's cries. She threw the ice pack off of his forehead, which was so hot it seemed to burn her hand. His face was almost white, despite his screaming, which would have ordinarily reddened his face. He was writing around on the couch and clawing at the air. His eyeballs were rolled back in his head and he was sweating buckets.

Meiko ripped the blanket off of him and started pulling his clothes off.

"What are you doing?" Rin cried over the screams.

"Cooling him down as much as I can," Meiko shouted back "He's overheating. Hand me the ice pack!"

Rin handed her the first aid kit ice pack, which Meiko pressed to his wrist. She demanded for another, which Rin grabbed out of a portable cooler at the side of the room. She tossed it to Meiko, who placed it behind his neck. This process was repeated until there was an ice pack on both of his wrists, his neck, both ankles, the crook of his right elbow, and his forehead.

Yet the screams continued, his voice growing hoarse. Rin was struggling not to cry, she was so scared. Meiko was beginning to panic. She had done all she could to cool his body down, but his fever was still dangerously high. Not knowing what else to do, she started smacking him. She started with just his cheeks, but on one smack she accidentally hit his temple. The second that connection happened, Len fell silent. He stopped moving around, his eyes rolled back to normal, his eyelids shut, and his breathing became slow and even. Meiko quickly grabbed a thermometer and stuck it under his tongue. When she read it a few seconds later, she saw that his body temperature had dropped at least 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

"What happened?" Rin asked.

"I don't know," Meiko admitted "I just panicked, and when I hit his temple, it triggered some sort of shut down to whatever was just going on."

"I though you said he was overheating?"

"He was, but that wasn't the cause of the meltdown. It was more like an effect of something bigger and more dangerous," Meiko ran a hand through her brown pixie cut. "Whatever it was, it put his body and mind under extreme stress. We need to figure this out, n and do it fast"

Everything was dark. The repeating scenes of pain were over, the strange voice was gone, and everything went black. Len didn't know what had happened, but he was thankful for it. He couldn't feel his body at all, but that was a relief after all that pain. It was like someone had hit a light switch in his brain, turning everything off. He was extremely thankful to whoever had done that, and he didn't really care how they had.

Except for Rin, Meiko, and Lily (who was on watch at that point in the afternoon) everyone had gathered in the kitchen. They'd heard Len's screams, but didn't want to get in the way of Meiko.

They were all completely silent until the shrieks stopped. Nobody spoke for a moment until Miku broke the silence.

"Do you think he's okay?"

Everyone looked at her. Nobody responded.

"I mean," Miku corrected herself, realizing what she had said "Is he still in a coma? Or was he awake just then?"

"He sounded pretty awake to me," Gumi said.

"I don't know about that," Kaito said "He could have been screaming in his sleep. It's common with some illnesses,"

"That sounds more likely than him waking up," Luka agreed "If he had been awake, wouldn't Meiko and Rin have been trying to calm him down? We would have heard them talking to him, but all we heard was Meiko shouting about icepacks."

"That's true" Gumi said.

Just then, Meiko came into the kitchen. She looked over the crowd of people, not surprised that they were gathered there.

"Len's fine," she said "Still unconscious, but fine"

"What happened?" Miku asked.

"I don't know," she gave Miku a dirty look "What? Do I look like a doctor to you?"

"Hey! Nobody asked you!" Miku protested.

"Uh, yeah." Meiko sneered "You just did. I can't believe I'm in here, having an argument with a stupid kid while we have a boy who almost died in there and a bunch of rotting corpses up and walking around outside! Ugh, I don't need this,"

Meiko marched out of the room.

"What was that?" Miku asked.

"Don't bother her Miku," Luka advised "She's in a mood. We're putting her through a lot by making her our personal doctor, but she's the only one who knows the slightest bit about first-aid here. She's also stressed about Len; he's in a coma, and his entire survival is riding on her figuring out how to fix him. It's a big job for one woman. She may be the oldest one here, but that doesn't make her the best fit for the stress."

Suddenly, Lily burst into the room, rifle in hand. Everyone turned to look at her.

"Zombies," She said "On the roof,"

"What?!" Gumi cried "How did they get up here?"

"The same way we did," Lily answered "They took the stairs"

"Crap," Kaito muttered "Len's screaming must have attracted them,"

"We need to move," Meiko, who'd just come back into the room, cried "Miku, Lily, and Gumi, get the supplies. Kaito, get Len. Rin and I'll get the medical supplies."

Nobody hesitated. Everyone rushed to do what Meiko had told them. Miku, Lily, and Gumi grabbed all the backpacks and filled them with the supplies from the study. They then grabbed all the weapons and ran to make sure everyone was armed. Kaito scooped up Len and rushed to take one of the backpacks from the girls. Meiko and Rin were frantically stuffing medical supplied into the first aid kits and shoving the first aid kits into Meiko's backpack. Gumi ran into the living room and tossed a backpack to Rin, who threw it on her back and ran back into the kitchen with Meiko.

When they all had congregated in the kitchen, Miku was the first to speak.

"How are we getting out?"

"Yesterday I found a weak spot in the concrete floor in the bedroom." Meiko explained "We need to use the axes to break through before they get through the door."

There was a sudden banging on the locked door.

"Doesn't sound like that'll take long!" Gumi cried "Let's go!"

They raced into the bedroom and locked the door. Meiko showed them the weak spot and Luka, Gumi, and Rin began beating away at it with their fire axes. After a few minutes, there was a huge crashing sound.

"They broke through the door!" was Miku's frantic whisper.

"Won't they hear us?" Lily asked.

"Its better we try to get out of here than hide," Kaito pointed out "And if that means making noise, then so be it."

They could hear the zombies in the house now. And it didn't take long before they were up against the door.

"Hurry!" Miku cried.

Rin suddenly broke through. And they began widening the hole.

"We're running out of time!" Meiko cried "It's only wide enough for one person, so we'll go one at a time!"

Rin went first, slipping right through. Then Len was shoved through. Then Gumi, Luka, Lily, Miku. Then Meiko slipped through. She landed on her feet and looked around. They were in a large storage room filled with random things.

Meiko looked up to see Kaito's legs sticking through the hole. He seemed to be having trouble fitting through. Meiko jumped up and grabbed his legs. She pulled down, but couldn't dislodge his broad shouldered body.

"Help me!" She commanded the girls.

The other girls grabbed his legs and (some dangling off the floor) pulled. There was a loud crash.

"Hurry!" Kaito shouted.

The girls gave one hard heave and an enormous crack was heard. Kaito came falling down on top of them. They all stood and regrouped, but Kaito's left arm appeared to be hanging out of his socket.

"Kaito!" Meiko cried "Your shoulder is dislocated!"

"Well?" He cried "Pop it back in or something! I need to get Len out of here!"

Meiko cringed as she strategically grabbed his left arm and, with a loud crunch, popped it back in. Kaito winced but said nothing. He tried to lift Len, but was unable to do so without giving a small shout of pain and dropping him again.

"I'll carry him," Meiko said "You're in no condition to,"

Kaito didn't argue. He just let Meiko pick the sick boy up.

"How do we get out of here?" Gumi asked nervously.

"There's a door over there!" Miku cried.

They rushed over to the door she had pointed out, shoving the various items stored in the room out of the way. Miku tried to turn the doorknob.

"Locked," she reported. "Should we break through?"

"Wait," Lily said, pointing to a small hole in the door "What if there are zombies on the other side? We should look through that hole and check."

Rin, who was the shortest and whose eyes were level with the hole, peeked through. Not even a second had passed when she pulled away.

"They're everywhere," She reported. "There's no way we can go this way,"

"We need to find another way," Miku said.

"Thank you captain obvious," Meiko sneered "But how do we do that?"

Miku let out a noise that can only be described as a growl. If looks could kill, Meiko would've dropped dead.

"We don't have time for arguments," Luka said "We need to move before one of those zombies falls through the hole!"

Suddenly, Luka had an idea. She ran to the wall that she knew was at the edge of the building and started swinging her axe.

"What are you doing? They'll hear us!" Gumi cried.

"No!" Meiko said with realization. "She's getting us a way out! Rin! Gumi! Go help her!"

The three girls were soon all hacking away at the bricks in the wall. It took longer than before, there not being a weak spot.

All of a sudden, Miku shrieked. Everyone turned around to see a zombie that had fallen through the hole above them. Miku leaped into action, pulling out Gakupo's sword and stabbing it right through the zombie's brain. It crumpled to the ground.

"Ugh," Miku said as she pulled the sword out of the zombie's brain. It was covered in a sticky substance "That's just nasty."

Then she gave Meiko a knowing smirk and said "See? I'm not completely useless."

Meiko scowled and set Len down. He was heavy, despite his lean physique, and she didn't have the strength to carry him as effortlessly as Kaito had.

"Good job Miku," Kaito praised "Keep that up if more get in."

Miku nodded and smiled, happy to have Kaito praising her for once instead of Meiko.

"We broke through!"

Gumi's sudden cry brought everyone's attention, including the zombies. There was a sound of pounding on the door.

"Widen it!" Lily cried "And hurry!"

Another zombie fell through the hole. It dove at Miku, who swung the samurai sword at it, slicing its left arm off at the elbow. She then spun away from the zombie and sliced its head in two. Just then, the door broke. Zombies were coming in. Every zombie that even came close to Miku got its brain chopped up, but soon they were overwhelming.

"Lily!" Kaito cried "Use the rifle!"

"But the noise…" She began.

"Doesn't matter now!" he cried "Miku! Get back and use your gun!"

Miku backed up against the wall and, with Lily, began shooting the zombies down. They fell like dominoes in a young child's game, but more and more kept coming.

"The hole's wide enough!" Luka reported.

"Start going through!" Meiko shouted.

"Wait!" Gumi cried "There's nowhere to go! It's like a ten story drop!"

"Nine," Meiko corrected. "Here," Meiko lifted her gun and shot the window of the nearest building several times until there was a reasonably sized hole "Jump onto that ledge and go through the window,"

Gumi was the first to slip through the hole and onto the small ledge. She leaped with all her strength across the small space between the buildings. She landed on the ledge and bent forward so that the momentum sent her through the hole in the window. Rin was next, then Meiko with Len, then Luka, then Kaito. Lily and Meiko continued to guard them the whole time they were jumping.

"Lily! Miku!" they heard Luka call to them "Come on!"

"You first," Miku said "I'll cover you,"

Lily nodded and stepped out onto the ledge. She leaped across and landed safely in the next building.

"Miku! Go!" she yelled from the other side.

Miku shot one last zombie and quickly stepped out. With no one to cover her, she was frantic and hurrying. She jumped, but sloppily.

Sloppily to the point that she missed the window.

Miku instead hit the side of the building and slid down the side. She clawed at the side franticly, trying to find a grip. But it was no use. She flew down the side of the building and ten stories down, landing with a loud crunch on the pavement below.