Hey, it's Blanca here bringing you all the third chapter of Another Day! I don't have much to say about this chapter, but I hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I neither own nor claim to own Highschool of the Dead or any related characters or locations. This is purely for amusement.


xX Chapter 3: The Slaughter Pen Xx

The strong scent of smoke was what finally shook Azumi from her thoughts. She blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes before looking around in a daze. The first thing she noticed was that the blonde girl that helped her before was not in her sight. Still, she didn't immediately respond to that and instead looked up at the reddening sky; they had been up there for not just a few minutes. She once again rubbed her eyes and struggled to her feet while her mind continued to run in circles. Nothing from her surroundings were sticking. She was blank.

Azumi groaned as the pain radiating from her back was finally noticed. She stretched and, upon hearing a satisfying 'pop,' let her eyes fully look over the roof. Eventually her gaze landed on the girl who stood towards the center of the large space. Azumi lifted a hand to wave at her just as everything clicked together. The smoke. The distant sounds of groaning. Them. They were far from being safe.

"Hey-!" Her yell was caught off when a loud rumbling echoed all around them. She rose her hands to her ears with a grimace and looked above them to see yet another helicopter. This time it was hovering just above them. Without any second thoughts she found herself screaming at the top of her lungs and waving her hands around frantically. She continued to scream even when her throat felt raw from the effort. Her cries only stopped when her companion placed a hand on her shoulder. Azumi looked into the scared girl's eyes in confusion before further inspecting the machine. From what she could see, smoke was rising out of its interior and was slowly beginning to cover their view of the sky. All of the windows were clouded with ash and only a few blinking lights were seen in the cockpit.

"What... What's wrong with it?" The girl stuttered as tears came to her eyes. Azumi just shook her of her hold on her shoulder and turned back to the confusing scene. The helicopter had begun to putter away for about a block in length before all of the whirling came to a sudden halt. It hung there just long enough for a few rotting hands to smash through one of the windows before dropping. A flash of bloodied jaws was the last thing Azumi saw as it crashed onto the track that she had run many times before. She cried out in anguish at the sight of the growing flames licking at the air.

"Why...?"
"I don't know, ok? I don't know!" Azumi snapped at the blonde's question. A headache had begun where her brows furrowed and her fingers rubbed the skin in anxiety, "We... We should just get out of here," Yet the two comtinued to watch in a stunned silence as the flames continued to rise and fall before them; the glow casted shadows across their bodies.

After a few more minutes the girl began to tug on Azumi's sleeve, "L-let's go... P-please?"

"I don't even know your name," she murmured, ignoring her plead. She opened her mouth to introduce herself just as another explosion rang through the air. Azumi's head snapped in the direction of the track field to see that the rest of the helicopter had gone up in flame. Her eyes widened and she clutched the girl's hand as she ran towards the door.

The two bolted down the staircase, Azumi with the broom from before in-hand, and skid across the tiles as they rounded the corner. They sprinted into the nearest classroom and Azumi slammed the door shut behind them. She turned around after catching her breath to look at their surroundings. The room had a desk laying on its side as well as some books and papers scattered everywhere. Her eyes soon landed on a closet towards the back of the room and she gestured for her companion to follow.

Azumi knelt down and began to rummage through the junk that had built up among the light coating of dust. Eventually her fingers wrapped around a sturdy wooden stick. She brought the large ruler out and placed it on the floor beside her before going back to her search. Azumi tossed the lid of a box by her side and rested a small container on her lap. From inside the box she found a pair of scissors as well as a roll of duct tape.

"W-what are y-you doing?" the blonde stuttered from behind her. She knelt down and gingerly picked up the ruler to examine it, "I-I don't have much s-strength and..." Her sentence trailed off once she realized that Azumi wasn't paying attention. Instead her eyes were focused on the rest of the items that she dug out: a few unsharpened pencils, some markers, a small box of crayons, and an eraser that was worked down to a small stub.

"There's got to be more than this..." Azumi whispered, a few tears beginning to form at the corners of her eyes, "Help me!" She growled at the girl before she once again fumbled through the closet. It took a few moments before another pair of hands joined hers.

The closet was practically empty by the time that they were done. It didn't take them very long, but their hurried search left the girls out of breath. Azumi ran her fingers through her purple locks as she eyed the mess that they had made. They had just wasted their time by trying to dig through the pile. She didn't expect that they would find guns and lots of bullets, but she couldn't have helped but to hope that they would.

"W-what are we g-going to d-do?" the girl sniffed as she continued to run her fingers over the ruler. Azumi took a deep breath to steady herself and straightened up before looking over at her. She was about to respond when her eyes once again landed on the smooth piece of wood. Without a second thought she took it from her grasp and fumbled around for the duct tape and scissors. After some cutting and placing she had the scissors' handles pulled out so a blade was sticking out at each end and was strapped to the edge of the long ruler. Azumi pushed herself to her feet and swiped the new "weapon" at the air a few times. She smiled in satisfaction and handed it to the girl.

"Here's what we're going to do. Now all we have to do is gather some supplies and find secure shelter... that is, if you want to," Azumi's smile turned sheepish as she turned away to push some of the items back into the closet with the toe of her shoe.

"L-let's do that," the girl ended up stuttering after a moment. Azumi nodded and picked up her broom from one of the desks nearby. She didn't really know much about fighting but she had seen her brothers play those ridiculous action games from time to time. If all else failed, she would just start running. She nodded to herself before turning back to the blonde beside her,

"We should head down to the cafeteria first. There may be some food left there," That is, if none of the other students had come up with the same plan as her own. Hopefully most of them just ran for it. Azumi shook the thoughts from her mind and tightened her grip until her knuckles whitened to try and bring herself back to reality. She tilted her head towards the door and headed over with the girl by her side.

"One... Two..." she paused briefly and took a deep breath, "Three!" Azumi opened the door and burst out into the hallway. She came within inches of one of Them before veering to the side. With one panicked swing of the broom, They dropped to the floor with its leg twisted at an odd angle. A grey hand clamped down on her shoulder and pulled her backwards. She let out a scream and jabbed at its stomach. The sound of crunching bones signaled that she met her target just as one of Them grabbed onto her ankle. Azumi struggled to pull the broom from the rotting piece of flesh behind her as her foot came down on the crawling Thing's head. Brain matter splattered across the floor, leaving her gagging as she quickly turned and kicked. The force from her adreniline sent Them stumbling backwards just long enough for her to back up out of its reach.

"Are you going to help or not?" Azumi called out to the panic-striken girl that still stood helplessly at the door. She then turned back to the still-advancing Thing and held the broom out defensively before her. Still it reached out at her with bloodied hands. She screamed again and tried to kick at its legs until one of the rotting limbs twisted and brought Them down ontop of her. Azumi swung the broom at the head with her eyes shut tight as blood splattered across her face and upper-body. They dropped to their knees and she took a step back before the corpse sprawled across the tiles.

"Why didn't you do anything?" she turned to the girl and snapped, her eyes narrowed in anger. Her eyes began to moisten and she quickly turned away before wiping her cheeks with the back of her free hand, "Come on..." Azumi stepped cautiously over the bodies and headed off down the hallway. The shocked blonde stood there for a few more seconds before scurrying after her. She caught up just as Azumi rounded the corner and right into someone, or something, else. Their foreheads bounced off each other's and left the two groaning in pain.

"I... I'll take care of this!" the voice called out just as a sock swung at Azumi's head. She yelped and ducked with the object missing her just by a few inches. A ruler shot out from behind her and right at the attacker. The scissor-free edge hit them right between the eyes and sent them stumbling backwards into someone else.

"What... what the hell was that for!" Azumi sputtered, still a bit shaken. Her eyes looked over the two before her and her eyebrows rose in disbelief. She didn't expect to see other normal students so soon, especially the dark-haired boy. She couldn't quite place his name yet somehow she had a feeling that she saw him somewhere before. The girl beside him was the one that left her at a blank. The school uniform was quite obvious so she must have been attending the school. Perhaps she was a new student. That didn't really matter much at the moment, though.

"You're... not dead..." the boy whispered as if in a haze.

"Of course not!" Azumi scowled briefly before her face reddened. She probably looked like a mess considering the rather dangerous encounter that she had with Them just down the hallway; her clothes were already tainted with blood as well as many tear stains that decorated her shirt. Arms crossed over her chest as her face continued to grow even redder.

The boy smiled nervously before struggling to his feet with one hand rubbing at the bruise that was sure to be forming. After a moment he turned around to the orange-haired girl beside him to help her to her feet. She only stared at the two girls before her briefly before whispering something in his ear.

"Ah... well, her name is Tachibana Momo," he motioned with an awkward wave of his hand before coughing, "And... ah... I'm Kagome Fumio. And... uh..." his sentence trailed off and he stuck his hands into his pockets. He grimaced before looking up into Azumi's eyes for about a second and quickly looked back down at his shoes.

"I'm Keiji Azumi," she replied after a moment and looked over at the girl beside her. She jerked her head in the direction of the two to try and signal for her to introduce herself. The noise from the fire had blocked her from hearing before, so it would be a great time for her to finally find out. The shy girl's mouth opened to reply just as a loud crash came from somewhere in the direction that Azumi and her had come from. All four of their heads whipped around in time to see a large hoarde of Them scrambling up the stairs and across the bloody tiles towards the small group.

Azumi opened her mouth and closed it a few times in shock before she grabbed the girl's wrist and dragged her off in the opposite direction of Them. The unnamed girl wasn't much help, but it was nice to have someone else around instead of just being by herself.

"Hey! Wait up!" Fumio yelped and scrambled after them with Momo at his heels. The two quickly caught up to them just as they reached another flight of stairs. They all ran down while clearing two or three steps at a time until they reached the very bottom. One of Them crawled out from beneath the stairs and had just enough time to expose its bloody teeth before Momo brought a crowbar down on its head. She then hit it again just to make sure before she kicked it off to the side with her shoe.

"Ah, great job, Momo!" Fumio said with a nervous smile.

She only waved his praise off with a shit-eating grin that uneased Azumi, "Momo needs no praise." She then went on to open the door that lead out to another hallway with the others trailing behind her. The silent blonde was the last one to pass through before she hesitated and rested a hand on the door frame. Azumi looked over her shoulder at the girl in confusion and motioned for the others to stop as well.

The girl grimaced at the sudden attention, "I-I just... I just don't u-understand w-why we're w-with those two, Azumi," she whispered with her eyes on Momo, "I-I'm e-especially worried about h-her."

"What do you mean?" Fumio asked with narrowed eyes. He took a few steps towards Momo as if to defend her before he faltered and shuffled back into his original spot a few feet away. Momo raised an eyebrow at his little dance routine, causing Azumi to smile in amusement, and turned her attention back to the nervous girl.

"I won't hurt any of you. Momo won't attack anyone that isn't dead with this Useful." she said while holding up her bloodied crowbar. The sight of it had her wiping off the red stains with the front of her shirt before she once again held it limp at her side.

"A-Azumi," the girl pleaded with wide eyes, "A-Are we really g-going to t-trust these two?"

Azumi sighed and rubbed the back of her neck with one hand, "Do we really have a choice? Having two more allies is better than having two more enemies, if you ask me." Her friend began to persist before she stopped herself and looked down at her shoes in silence. A few moments passed before Momo once again lead the way down the hallway. She then stopped after a few yards and turned around to face the group.

"Where exactly are we going?" Momo asked while pulling at one of her lopsided pigtails. Everyone looked over at Azumi expectantly with questioning looks.

"Eh? Why should I decide?" she huffed with her arms crossed, "I'm not exactly an expert at surviving... this."

"Do you expect me to step up instead?" Fumio sputtered in response.

"No. We'd all be dead in a matter of minutes." Azumi muttered. She couldn't help but to giggle at his glare soon after, "Well, we shouldn't worry about that right now. Before we ran into you two we were heading towards the cafeteria, so I guess we should continue heading there."

Heads nodded as the sounds of moaning from the stairway increased. The door leading to it exploded with rotten, clawing hands and splinters in all directions. Azumi held her broom out defensively while she pushed the shaking blonde behind her. Fumio, on the other hand, stood by Momo's side with his sock hanging from his long fingers. He seemed nervous yet a glint in his eyes showed his refusal to back down and join the girl.

Azumi was the first to take on one of Them. She jabbed the handle of the broom at its head while her foot kicked at its chest. A cracking sound could be heard as the corpse crumpled to the ground and crawled towards her. A crowbar made contact with its shoulders as she aimed her broom at its head. Azumi looked up to see Momo with that strange grin once again on her face before she turned to bring her crowbar down on another one of Them. Her gaze then landed on Fumio as he swung his sock around wildly. The two coming at him were knocked to the side by his blows: the one had his head cracked in half by the wall while the other was sent stumbling towards the window. The glass shattered upon impact and dug into its flesh while a few pieces managed to scrape Fumio's arms. He called out in alarm but was able to ignore the pain long enough to send the blow needed to have the thing fall out the window.

"Dammit!" he swore with gritted teeth. Azumi pushed back an approaching one of Them with her broom and ran over to stand in front of Fumio to defend him while he recovered from the initial shock. Momo joined her briefly before she went ahead and ran through what was left of their old peers with her crowbar expertly aimed at various body parts. The blonde had retreated to stand by Fumio while the other two girls fought.

A few minutes passed before they were able to clear out the group. Momo immediately went about at looking over each body while Azumi went to check on Fumio.

"You alright?" she asked and looked down at his injured skin. He only shrugged in response. Azumi examined his face and saw a glint of fear in his blue eyes. She smiled at him assuringly before she patted his shoulder, "We'll somehow get you patched up. Don't you worry." Her face may have portrayed confidence, but in reality she was actually worried about his injuries. It wasn't like he broke a bone or anything like that, which she was thankful for, yet it would set them back considering that one of their group members was already not an asset in battle. They would have to be extremely careful from then on.

"W-we should c-clean his wounds," the blonde stuttered from behind Fumio, "I once dropped a g-glass and had to go to the h-hospital. I s-still remember how they treated my f-feet."

"Momo knows how to, as well," she spoke up from her crouching position by one particular corpse. She had removed the ribbons from her hair and put a headband in its place. Momo stood up and took the accessory from her head to drop back onto the floor. Instead she decided to pull her hair back into a messy bun with one of the ribbons. Well, if you could call it a bun. It was more of a hairstyle that consisted of a ribbon tangled in her orange-tinted locks.

"Let's all take a stop at the bathrooms," Azumi suggested, "We might as well take advantage of the plumbing while we can."

"Ok. Let's go, Fumio," Momo chirped as she reached out to pull him along by his hand. A light blush came to his cheeks and he tried to slip from her tight grasp. Another hand shyly rested on his shoulder and stopped both of them in their tracks.

"I-I said I would h-help him," the blonde insisted with a brief glare thrown in Momo's direction. Azumi probably wouldn't have seen it if she hadn't been so interested in what was going on.

Momo once again flashed that shit-eating grin, apparently blind to the girl's actions, "You don't need to worry. Momo will take care of him." Before the girl could respond, Azumi rested a hand on her arm. She hesitated and took her hand away, allowing them to continue on to the bathroom just down the hallway. She linked arms with her friend and walked after them. The two went on into the boys' bathroom while the two girls entered through their own gender's door. Azumi wasn't entirely sure, but she thought she spotted Momo sticking her tongue out before the door closed behind them.

"W-Why can't we just leave them?" the blonde grumbled as she stood in front of one of the many mirrors. She pushed a few stray bangs from her face and looked back at her companion with a frown, "I s-still don't trust her."

Azumi's fists clenched at her sides until her knuckles turned white. She ignored her question and went past each of the stalls to make sure that none of Them were lurking about. Eventually she came to a stop at one and went in. When the purple-haired girl came back out she walked over to one of the sinks and washed her hands. Her eyes looked over at the blonde by her side.

"Aren't you going to go?"

Her friend shook her head and turned around so she could lean up against the side of the sink, "I-I have a bad feeling..."

"Well, you shouldn't," Azumi snapped, "Momo has turned out to be pretty useful, don't you think? We're lucky to have found such a great fighter among all of this!" Her hand gestured at the building around them to prove her point, "And what the hell was up with what happened back there with Fumio?"

"L-Like I said, I-I don't trust her," she murmured, "not even if you d-do..."

Azumi shook her hands to try and dry them before she wiped them off on her skirt. She avoided eye contact with the girl while she murmured, "Let's go check in on them."

The two girls left the bathroom with their weapons in-hand and took the few steps needed to push open the other door. Azumi lead the way in only to stop suddenly. A squeak came from behind her as her friend ran into her. She put a hand over the blonde's mouth and put a finger to her lips before she tilted her head in the direction that lead further into the bathroom. They both looked back at the two teenagers crouched by each other on the damp floor. Momo had her fingers picking at some little pieces of glass sticking out of his shoulder. Azumi's eyes looked over at the discarded shirt that laid by Fumio as well as a small pile of shards that had been built up.

Fumio had a look of both discomfort and embarassment seen on his bright red face while Momo continued with her work. She had begun to hum an unknown tune as she stood up to go over to the sink to wet a paper towel. It was at that moment she noticed the two girls by the door and smiled.

"Momo is almost done." she assured them before she went back to attending to Fumio's cuts. All of the glass was soon removed and the blood was wiped away with a few paper towels. Momo held out her arm and managed to off a few pieces of her sleeve to wrap around the wounds. She then gave his arm one last pat with a grin and stood up to stretch her back.

"Great job, Momo," Azumi said as she watched Fumio struggle to pull his shirt back on again. He kept trying to put his head through an arm hole while his actual arm seemed to just be trying to create a new hole in the fabric. She sighed and rested her broom against the wall before she stepped forward to help him, "I wonder how you even made it this far without tripping down a whole flight of stairs." She grumbled before a hint of a smile came to her lips.

Fumio's scowl was revealed once his shirt was on correctly, "I'm not that clumsy," he grumbled, "Didn't you see me fight back there?"

"Well, I saw you get injured," Azumi sighed, "Just try to be more careful, okay?" She turned around to recieve her broom to see both Momo and the blonde eye-to-eye with each other. Momo had a death-grip on her crowbar and seemed to be ready to bring it down on the girl before her.

"Momo?" Fumio called out her name in confusion, "What's up with you two?"

Momo turned around to face him, "Nothing is wrong. Let's go get some food!" She grinned and ran over to his side. She went behind him and began to push on his back to get him to move, "Momo is starving!"

Azumi couldn't help but to chuckle at the sight of his bewildered face and him stumbling over his words. She quickly glanced over at the still unnamed girl and instantly regretted it. What she saw was the exact opposite of what she had been hoping for: a clearly unsatisfied glare. Azumi felt a shiver run through her body. She picked up her broom and walked past the girl to open the bathroom door.

"Let's go, everyone!"


Next time on Another Day!

"That would be great!"

"I'm scared."

"It's only a cold."

"Don't you care?"

"It's alright to be afraid."

xX Chapter 4: Devil's Den Xx