Chapter 4: Running in the dead.

A/N: WHAT IS UP GUYS, I'M BACK ONCE AGAIN THAT'S RIGHT, and welcome to another chapter for one of my most, if not my most popular story yet, before we begin I'd like to give a shout out to Argafinkel for being the first, and quite frankly the only person to try and guess the hidden code, he got it right, drag is short for dragon which is in reference to dragon slayer magic from the anime Fairy Tail. This is just another wacky idea I decided to throw into the mix, nothing's set in stone yet, I have two ways this could go down, option 1: Emerald injects himself with the various vials each at a different stage in the story, destroys the vial marked...Ultimate power...if I remember correctly, and all the power leads him to think he's invincible and causes him to charge head first into pretty much suicidal situations. Or option 2: he doesn't accept the power of the various dragons and destroys those serums (I hope I spelt that right) then during one of his battles he uses the ultimate power and nearly dies. It's another vote people so put a #1 or #2 for whaterer option you preffer then the majority will rule, speaking of votes, heres the poll for Zoro's pairing so far, I encourage you to vote as the poll end's next chapter, I will allow last minute entries and read the final results in chapter 6.

ZoTash (Is that right? is that how you say it?): 1

ZoRobin: 0

Zoro X Robin X Tashigi: 1

Also shout out to CRUDEN for making an interesting suggestion about Zoro and Kuena, but before I make a response to that I have a theory, that I find to be highly beleivable, but before I PM you the full story of that theory, I need to know if you want to hear it. All I can say for now is, Kuena and Tashigi, both female swordsmen, both share the same face, both share similar dreams or ideals in a way if you really think about it, I defy you to tell me that's just a coincidence. But that aside, like I said earlier please vote, voting lines for the story direction close once chapter 8 is uploaded, that is also when the story path will be announced and will start taking whatever turn it does. Now on with the story.

-Chapter begin-

We now skip to the next day at 5:05 AM, we open with a jet flying miles above the city... doing... something... I actually don't know what it's doing, it must be important THOUGH, right? I mean, It's not like some dick head just went 'hey armagageddon's here, I'm just going to casually fly around in a FUCKING MILITARY GRADE JET' anyway maybe we can learn more from watching it, Oh it appears that there's a camera underneath it, It appears to be taking surveilance photo's of the city below until it eventually dove down flying alongside a bridge where we see Takashi and Rei riding passenger in a greyish coloured truck with Emerald in the drivers seat and an armoured SUV. Anyway they look up and notice the jet flying overhead which caused Rei to wind the window down and wave as a sign that they were okay as the jet jot level with them and took their photo.

-Meanwhile with Emerald-

We see Emerald pull his bicycle up in front of a house 'hmm, home again' he thought to himself as he dismounted and walked to the garage "Well if I'm going to survive with the others I'm going to have to bring some wheels to the party" he said as he opened the garage door to reveal nothing "WHAT? WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL MY STUFF?" he yelled in rage as light's switched on followed by a voice from nowhere.

"Intruder detected locking door, preparing for... extermination" the electronic voice said the door closed and locked behind Emerald.

"Shit, that ain't good" Emerald said in worry as turrets appeared from the walls and started firing at him. Skillfully Emerald dodged the bullets and got into a blind spot, Oh, did I mention he still had his school bag on "Come on, there's got to be a password, or passcode, fingerprint scanner, something, anything" Emerald said thinking furiously.

"Password option selected, please speak the correct password" the AI spoke

"Well, that was easy..."

"Incorrect" this time the floor became covered in spikes with Emerald barely having enough time to get to higher ground. This caused Emerald to play the guessing game for a good 5 minutes each gues being wrong and releasing another hazard, after the last guess he was trying to stay off the ground, dodge various turrets, lazers, and a few sets of mechanical arms with buzz saws on the end, just to name a few, at that moment his life flashed before his eyes including the password. Back in Reality one of the buzz saws was closing in rapidly with no time to dodge, Emeralds last hope was getting this guess correct.

"DRAGONKING" Emerald screamed before the blade stopped just inches away from his face.

"Password...Accepted, welcome back agent hot-shot, more commonly reffered to as Emerald" The voice introduced as the defences packed away and the room was returned to normal.

"Ok, I have a few questions, first who are you?" Emerald asked the machine

"I am your designated artificial intelligence, factory name VIA, however you nick named me Data" the AI responded.

"Ok, Second, I'm pretty sure I remembered storing a load of veichles and supplies here, where are they and how did I store the veichles?" Emerald asked.

"This is no ordinary garage, you designed a security system that only you could bypass, it detects intruders before they open the door and makes it appear like a standard garage" the computer explained as the walls began to shift and rotate revealing a load of supplies such as military grade first aid kits, guns, ammo, MRE's (Meals Ready to eat (you just have to add boiling water to the meals)), and other ration packs that you can take with you onto the field, and much much more. "You also designed the garage to be portable so you can lay it out while in the field, and It will shift it's form to your desired specifications, It is controlled by this remote" the computer explained as a metal arm handed Emerald a small black remote.

"Neat, and about my cars?"

"This little tablet here has a list of all the cars you have stored and modified to your survival needs, any other cars you store in here will automatically be modified." the AI finished as a tablet was habded to Emerald containing a list of 10-12 cars he has in his garage "So do you think?"

"I think...I feel like a kid in a candy store" Emerald said as he continued receiving the ins and outs of his abilities and what he could do.

-Flashback (Takashi POV narrating)-

We now go back to the argument that Takashi and Saya had when everything was right with the world "That's right, Everything was normal up until then, I was in the sun, enjoying the luxury of feeling sorry for myself. If there was a ranking of the most pathetic highschoolers in the world, I'd probably rank fourth. But at that time, Emerything was already coming to an end, and none of us even saw it coming."

-Me: CUE EPIC CLIMAX MONTAGE (go through all the major scenes in the school escape as Takashi reads on)

Now back to Takashi's thoughts. "Now that I think about it, I should have just forced my way out the other side no matter what. But back then we had no time to think, so we went to the roof, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Whatever Hisashi says is right, I wanted to belive that too, but I already knew intuitively that the world we were already familiar with was broken, so... I... That's right, at that moment prettending that things were normal, was something far to dangerous, Everything was different, walking down the hall way, armed with weapons, It wasn't just a school hall anymore, I used to think highschool was hell... and now it was"

-Normal POV, Back to the present with Takashi and Rei-

"I wander if anyone's coming for us" Rei questioned as they parked on a cliffside road overlooking the city.

"Nobody's coming" the black haired male stated solidly

"How can you be so sure?"

"It's just like the helicopters we saw on top of the school, they can't afford to be rescuing us, and maybe they'll never be able to" Takashi explained

"Never? Then what are we supposed to do with no kind of help?" Rei questioned worridly.

"We will do what we can, that's all we can do"

"I should have seen that coming, god you're so predictable" Rei sighed in annoyance "The glass isn't half empty with you there is no glass, You've been this way since kindergarten"

"I only told you the truth" Takashi fired offended by the remark

"Yeah, but you don't have to be such a bummer about doing it though" Rei snapped back before they both froze, yep you guessed it, that argument rang the dinner bell. "Let's go"

"Right" Takashi agreed and then they drove off.

-Flashback to when the group was making a break for the school gates-

-Takashi POV Narrating-

"Making moves back then ment we were getting ready to face the real crysis, we ran through the school filled with yelling voices, screams, life and death all mixed together, then we were outside, and it was more the same, just more of it"

-Back to present with Emerald-

"So let me get this straight, I can do a tonne of amazing things as it is already" the green haired male asked to the computer who was currently analysing the vials Emerald picked up.

"That is correct, you are far stronger, faster, and can absorb more damage than the average human, you also heal faster, for instance while it takes most people 5-6 weeks to recover from a broken bone, your bone could be fully repaired between 1-3 days" Data comfirmed, "That on top of the abilities you already have and the haki vial you injected yourself with makes you fairly strong"

"Cool, How's the analasis going by the way?"

"Well they are, as you would say legit, the poison vial actually contains no toxins whatsoever, my analasis indicates that drag is short for dragon, the vials with that label actually allow you to harness the said element to a great extent, the full capabilities are still unknown" the AI said as the analasis continued.

"Any Idea who left them for me?" Emerald questioned

"I apologise but I can't recognise the hand writing"

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure I'll find that guy some day" Emerald assured as he looked at the first vial they used to test the analasis, it was labeled diamond.

"Before you use that, too many syrums in your body without a catalyst could cause your body to become more unstable than it already is, I've prepared the catalyst vial in the private room, it works better if you're not clothed which is why I reccomend using it.

"Thanks for the heads up" Emerald said as he approached the room for his second injection.

-With the bus on a busy bridge-

We see the school minibus on a bridge that is packed with traffic to the point that if they were moving any slower they would be going in reverse. There were also a few police officers monitoring the traffic and advising people not to get out of their veichles. On top of the bus Luffy just woke up and it looks like his stomach has finished digesting reverting back to it's normal size. "HEY GUYS WHERE ARE YOU?" Luffy yelled confused with his current situation causing Sanji to open the emergency exit and explained what happened.

"Look's like you've finally digested all that food" the blonde cook said looking Luffy up and down before untying the ropes and allowing him to enter the bus.

"I'm not sure we'll make it across the bridge before dawn" Saya analysed as Kohta's stomach growled causing the pinkette to snap at him in rage and disgust.

"I'm sorry, it's just that I'm so hungry" the heavy built sniper grumbled. as the groups attentioned turned to the police officers shooting down some of the zombies (That's what I will primarily be calling them now, you can call them whatever the hell you want) that had been lured to the bridge by the sound of engines, some of the girls got scared by the gunshots which lead to Mr Shito (How's that one, eh) comforting the girls. This caused Saeko to glare at the back of the teacher.

-Flashback to the straw that broke the camels back so to speak-

Most of the students in the bus applaud Mr Shido siginfying that he had won the vote for leader "Well, it looks like it's been decided, the majority appears to have made it quite clear yes?" the teacher said with a small amount of amusement. This caused Rei and Emerald to jump off the bus with Takashi following while trying and failing to stop them.

-Takashi POV Narrating-

"Basically I wasn't aware, the world I knew... It was just a memory now" the crash and the meeting plan follow soon after his statement finished.

-Present day with Takashi and Rei-

It is now just past midnight as the dou drives down a suburban street passing endless scenery left from what went through there not too long ago and it was quiet, a little too quiet. "There's nobody here" Rei pointed out.

"Did they leave? Or did they all die?" Takashi wandered

"But if they all died that means that they became them" Rei stated in worry (Hey I did say that I would refer to them as zombies, I never said anyone else).

"Maybe they went to find others?" the young male suggested as they pulled up at an intersection "The ones that are still alive." at this point Rei noticed something.

"Takashi, Look up ahead" Rei said pointing to a police car parked a few streets up, it's headlights are still on, this caused Takashi to laugh.

"No helmet, no license and a stolen bike, I'm just asking to be arrested wouldn't you say?" the male said with a smile.

"Come on, don't tell me that after fighting a bunch of those things you're still scared of being arrested?" Rei teased.

"Valid point" Takashi concluded as he drove to the car, when they got there however the officers were dead and the car could have been in more favourable condition, by which I mean,the complete opposite of completely totalled "You have got to be kidding me" Takashi groaned as the orange haired woman walked over to investigate before Takashi stopped her. "HOLD UP, theres a gas leak coming from that car don't do it" he warned.

"There could be something we could use" she argued "What the hell is wrong with you, this is the end of the world as we know it, man up." Reluctantly Takashi got off the bike and walked over to join her. After their search they came up with hand-cuffs, an extenable police batton and a gun with 10 rounds total. "Do you know how to use it?"

"I've watched enough TV, how hard can it be. Besides, what do they say, don't aim it unless you plan to shoot" Takashi explained as he gently picked it up "It's a bit heavier than I thought it would be"

"Of course it is it's the real thing" Rei answered as Takashi opened the clip and loaded some of the bullets putting the rest in his pocket.

"It only shoots 5 times" Takashi thought aloud.

"There was another one but the grip was broken, the bullets were bloody but still useable" Rei pointed out causing Takashi chuckle a bit.

"I'm impressed" Takashi said with a somewhat solemn look

"What? My dad collects guns, I've been around them my whole life, besides you think I'd freak out about a little blood now?" Rei questioned while wiping her hands as Takashi put the gun in his pocket before they got set to take off again with Rei holding Takashi's bat and her improvised spear. "Should we ditch these?"

"Nah, let's keep them until we can get some target practice" the black haired male suggested.

"Good point, and don't you feel better now that you have something with a little more fire-power?" Rei asked as they rode off

-Meanwhile with Emerald-

Emerald slowly gained conciousness, he blacked out a while ago but the memory of how it happened was blury, slowly peicing together his surroundings he found that he was lying on a cold steel floor wearing absolutely nothing, Suddenly he remembered, he took the catalyst injection to allow him to access the full extent of his abilities and stabilize his body before he felt a bit woozy and collapsed.

"Are you alright sir? you've been out for about 3.5 hours" the AI voice known as Data questioned.

"I've been better" Emerald answered as he wiped his face to help him wake up "Does that usually happen?"

"I did some analasis and it appears that you already used one of those needles before you got here is that correct?" the AI questioned.

"Yeah, I used one labelled haki A3, which I can assume means all 3 kinds of Haki" the male questioned as he got up.

"Then that explains it, the Catalyst was ment for preferable use before you experiment with other syrums, so after realising that you already had another syrum in your body it went haywire shifting your DNA slightly to adjust for the injection already in your body" Data explained.

"So how much has changed to each specific detail?" Emerald questioned

"Your height has gone from 175cm to 190cm, your build has become slightly more muscular, your skin colour has become slightly darker, albino white on the lightest part of your body to light tan all over to be exact, and your penile measure..." the computer analysed as Emerald nodded before interrupting

"WAIT? Nobody needs to know that" Emerald stated firmly

"You asked for all the changes to the finer detail, which reminds me, your voice has gotten a fair bit deeper, and you're now have some decent stubble on your chin, my body scan has no limitations, and If I may add we're the only ones here" Data explained.

"What about the audience? I'm fairly sure they don't need to hear that" Emerald questioned "Though on another note I certainly am larger than I remember"

"Yes sir, 8.5 inches to be exact, are you really that proud of yourself?"

"Umm... never mind, where are my clothes?" Emerald questions.

"Your old clothes were covered in blood so I took the initiative and put them in to wash, and put a fresh set on the stool to your left" Data answered as Emerald looked to see a set of neatly folded clothes where exactly where Data had told him to look.

"Much obliged" Emerald stated as he got dressed, he was now in a black T-shirt that read 'If I offend you, then my work here is done' accompanied by navy blue cargo pants "That's better" Emerald said as he relaxed before he got a stirring feeling that Takashi and Rei were about to get into a spot of trouble "Hey Data?" Emerald questioned as he broke out the tablet and started scroling through the list of vechles he had in his portable garage.

"Yes sir?"

"Two questions, First, how fast do you think you can pack this up without moving the whole garage and what veichle would be best suited for carrying as much as possible with enough seats for ..." Emerald started before he started counting.

"I can already tell that you will need more than 1 veichle, what do you need now?"

"That's where my second question comes in, once you're packed up as much as possible can you upload your software into that recomended car and have some sort of auto pilot?"

"I can do that, and I recomend that for transportation of goods and passengers I'll use the knight XV fully armoured SUV" Data Reccomended.

"Too easy, meanwhile I'm going out for a bit, nothing to big, so I'll request the Chevrolet Silverado, black ops concept" Emerald requested as the requested truck appeared in the main driveway of the garage.

"I see that you've already loaded up a few supplies on my veichle of choice" Emerald stated as he looked around the car and among the supplies before opening a weapon crate. He grabbed a glock 17 with a silencer and red dot sight, and a classic AK-47 with extended mag and acog sight. He put them in the passenger side seat then got in the truck himself before starting her up and driving off.

-With Takashi and Rei-

The duo pull up in front of a gas station where the bike just ran out of fuel. "I wander if they still have any gas left?" Rei wandered.

"They say that any gas station has a tank that can hold enough gasoline to fill up 1000 cars, so I'm willing to bet they do" Takashi explained as he approached the pump before freezing "SHIT"

"What's the matter?" Rei questioned.

"This station is self-service, we can't get gas unless we put money or a card in it first" Takashi sighed in frustration

"And your point is?"

"With the cash on me right now all we're going to get out of this pump is fumes" the male admitted.

"You're the worst" Rei huffed

"I'M SORRY OK, I GUESS HISASHI WOULD HAVE THE CASH" Takashi snapped shocking Rei.

"WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM?" Rei questioned angrily "WHEN DID I EVER COMPARE YOU TO HISASHI?"

"YOU JUST SAID I'M THE WORST, OR DID I NOT HEAR YOU CORRECTLY, THAT MEANS SOMEONE'S THE BEST RIGHT?" Takashi fired back "SO WHY NOT ASSUME YOU MENT HISASHI, THAT IS WHO YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT AFTER ALL WASN'T IT?"

"I didn't then, but now I do" Rei stated solidly as Takashi held his hand out. "What do you want?"

"I need to borrow some cash, and please don't tell me you're broke as well" Takashi answered having calmed down a little.

"I kinda left my wallet in the bag" Rei admitted causing a long silence to rise between the two.

"For fuck sake... and you're riding my ass?" Takashi questioned grabbing his bat "Wait here, scream if something happens" and with that he walked into the building calling out to anyone, before trying to open a register, meanwhile Rei was outside unaware that they were being watched. "Not working, oh well, I've always wanted to do this anyway" and with that Takashi raised his bat and started bashing the register.

"Get in position Jackson" a mysterious figure ordered before the one next to him got into the shadows in the middle of the road thinking that nobody was going to use it any time soon and started aiming down a sniper rifle, completely unaware that he just shortened his lifespan by about a couple of dozen years, confused? You will know what I mean when it happens.

"What is he.." Rei started as the bashing continued "He's having a field day isn't he?" She questioned as the male in question started filling his pockets with cash. Not even a minute later she was grabbed from behind causing her to scream.

"Shit, Rei" Takashi yelled as he ran out the door to find Rei being held with a knife, the guy holding her clearly crazy sputtering barely understandable nonsense about killing his own family and so on. "Let her go"

"Why would I do that, and before you do anything rash, I'm not alone so just give me what I want and you will live, now be a good boy and drop the bat" the attacker ordered causing Takashi to throw it away, the sound catching the attention of some of the nearby zombies.

"Your fucking crazy"

"DAMN RIGHT, AFTER HAVING TO KILL MY OWN FAMILY, DO YOU REALLY EXPECT ME TO BE NORMAL?" the guy questioned before catching Rei again after she tried to make a break for it and groping her rather aggressively while making perverted comments really pissing Takashi off. "Now, I want your fucking bike, try anything rash and I'll kill this bitch"

"There's no gas in it"Takashi stated keeping his cool.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM, STUPID I HEARD YOU IN THE STORE, FILL IT UP AND GIVE IT TO ME, OTHERWISE YOU BOTH DIE" the crazed man yelled.

Takashi stood firmly but he couldn't see where the other guy was and didn't want to risk endangering Rei so he did as he was told and filled up the bike. "Hey, will you let us go now? The bikes full, it's all yours"

"SHUT UP, NOW START WALKIN' AWAY FROM THE BIKE" the crazed man yelled. by this point Takashi had more or less figured that he was in a blind spot so in a suprise attack he drew his pistol and pressed the barrel firmly against his chest "GOOD ONE, LISTEN PAL, I KNOW YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHERE MY BUDDY IS BUT YOU'RE DEAD WRONG, BESIDES YOU PULL THAT TRIGGER WE ALL DIE" Takashi's eyes wideded, he could almost swear he could hear the sound of a rifle ready to fire.

"That will be a hell of a lot better than someone else taking my girl" Takashi stated as he braced for the rifle and readied to fire, only to hear the sound of an engine followed by.

"BEEP BEEP MOTHER FUCKER" a voice called as a truck outfitted with mic's on it's mirrors cape into view, pulled into a drift and smacked the concealed enemy straight into view of the gas station which was swiftly followed by an arm reaching out the window holding a handgun which was fired. Then Everything went into slow motion, the enemies body was doing cartwheels in the air as the bullet approached it eventually making for an epic HEADSHOT, stunning the crazed person right in front of Takashi. Taking this as his opportunity the black haired male pulled the trigger the pain causing the man to release Rei and roll on the floor.

Slowly the two approached the truck where we see Emerald's new body exiting. "W-Who are you, and why did you help us?" Rei asked.

"Come on, do you really know anyone more prepared for the zombie appocalypse than me?" Emerald questioned causing their eyes to widen.

"EMERALD? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?" Takashi questioned

"Long story, I'll explain later. Do you guys want to hop in or will you take the bike?" Emerald asked before he noticed the approaching hoarde "On second thoughts Takashi's gunshot may have rung the dinner bell... get in" Emerald ordered as the other two got in Emerald's truck and he drove off the crazed man begging for them to come back"

After a few minutes of driving and explaining to the other two what he is they arrive in front of Emerald's house "Password?" The AI questioned

"DragonKing" Emerald answered as the defences deactivated

"Welcome back sir... I see you've brought friends" Data introduced

"That is correct Data, how's the upload and packing coming along"

"Nearly done, there will be enough room to squeeze the requested number of people until we find another driver and or car" the AI answered.

"It will have to do for now"

"So Emerald, who exactly is Data?" Rei asked.

"I am data Emerald's personal AI and assistance unit, I help him wherever nessecary by providing critical intel on tough foes from an alternative threat in combat and providing transport for various situations such as the one I am due to Autopilot, the knight XV armoured SUV" the AI answered "Speaking of which, I upgraded those gloves as requested sir, I can now be with you whenever you need me"

"Neat" Emerald answered

"Upload complete" an automated system called as the SUV started up

"Alright, We leave at 5:00am" Emerald announced as he leaned back to get some shut eye

-Next day, 5:40 am-

The trio left at exactly 5:00am with Takashi and Rei being shocked when they saw Emerald move his garage in a matter of seconds, they were now driving down the side of a mountain in the Chevrolet while Data was piloting the fully armoured SUV in tow, however Takashi seemed a bit out of it.

"What's the matter man?" Emerald asked keeping his eyes on the road.

"I was just thinking, if stuff like that is going to happen repeatedly from now on" Takashi answered truthfully.

"You think so?" Rei questioned "I mean, I guess so"

"Don't dwell on the past you guys, it's over now" Emerald said trying to lighten the mood as the mini convoy continued moving.

-Takashi POV, Narrating-

"There's no way it's just nothing, it's only been one day since the beggining of the end, but I've already killed a person, there's no way it's just nothing"

-Normal Pov-

And it appears that we're back where we started with the photo op, I don't know what it's called but I hate when the end is the beggining and vice versa, anyway that is all for now

-To be continued-

A/N: WHAT'S UP GUYS I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER, I'M ACTUALLY SUPRISED AT HOW SOON I GOT THIS CHAPTER DONE AND READY FOR POSTING. And I know some of you may be a bit confused with the veichles I choose, I got them from a top 12 list of veichles to have in the zombie appicalypse, and I actually know a guy who has one of those veichles. but to help with confusion each time I introduce a new weapon or veichle which I think you guys are unfamiliar with I will do a data cache at the end of the said chapter describing each one, so without further adue, here are the first 3.

-Car specs, Chevrolet Silverado, Black Op's concept-

Chevy makes a solid truck, there's no doubt about it, and this one was built specifically for unforeseen emergencies. Although we can't say that the zombie outbreak was "unforeseen (In Emerald's case)," we can certainly classify it as an emergency. The fully capable 4×4 features a 5.3 liter EcoTec3 V8 engine with plenty of power (355 horse power to be exact) along with lower body armor, raised suspension, solar power pack, generator, military First Aid Kit, gas masks, a crate of food with Top Ramen and Twinkies (your new favorite food groups in this post apocalyptic world(Unless you have MRE's)), and a whole lot more.

-Car specs, Knight XV, Armoured SUV-

Who says you can't stay drenched in luxury in this new post-apocalyptic world? The Knight XV is luxury and ruggedness, fused into one completely badass SUV. The vehicle is packed with a 6.8 liter V10 engine, seating for 6, night vision cameras and bulletproof armor. And not to mention a completely badass exterior, wait did we already cover that?

Remember to vote for who you want Zoro to be with, Read and review and as always, stay awesome, also you may have picked up on the fact that I have started incorperating minor sexual references into my stories and I've started breaking the fourth wall in situations where it's possible, I want to know your opinions and wether or not you want me to continue fourth wall breaks, until next time peace out.