Welcome to chapter four, Constant Readers! I hope you all enjoy!
Ditching the Douchebag
I had woken up an hour or so before, and I had been bored out of my skull ever since. We had reached the bridge by the time I'd woken up, but apparently everyone in the city had the same idea as us, and the traffic had barely moved an inch since I had awoken. Marikawa-sensei sat at the wheel of the bus, sighing. The only way we could've been going slower is if we were going backwards. It also didn't help that Shidou was rambling on and on to his own brand of zombies at the back of the bus. I wasn't sure, but I think it was the honking of the horns outside that woke me up. Kouta didn't seem to be having much trouble, though; he was still snoring away and drooling.
"Rather than each of us acting on our own …" Shidou said to his drooling followers at the back of the bus, "… we should only act once we've secured a safe location. For example, checking on our families … should only proceed after we've moulded ourselves into an orderly group."
Should've listened to Rei and let the manipulative son of a bitch die at the school, I thought to myself as I glared at thin air, unwilling to turn around and look at the scene unfolding at the back of the bus. I could hear Takagi-san growling a little under her breath, which I am surprised I heard over Kouta's snoring. Takagi-san nudged Kouta with an elbow, and he began to stir.
"Hirano," Takagi-san said irritably as she nudged Kouta again, this time bringing him out of his sleep completely.
Kouta rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Takagi-san, good morni—"
"I can't believe you can sleep at a time like this," she said, looking at him with disgust. "And wipe that drool off your chin."
"I can't help it …" Kouta said, moaning, but he did as she asked and wiped his chin with his blazer's sleeve.
"Look at this," said Takagi-san, gesturing out the window and at the slow build-up of traffic outside. The police were outside, too, directing the vehicles into specific lanes in order to keep the traffic jam as orderly as possible.
"We should get out of the city," Kouta said after looking at the traffic for a few moments.
"Cars aren't the only way to get out of here." Takagi-san pointed out the window, up into the sky. Despite not being part of the conversation, I looked anyway, and saw exactly what she was getting at.
"The airport," I said suddenly. Takagi-san and Kouta snapped their heads in my direction, probably having not expected me to get involved with the conversation.
"There's also the port." Takagi-san nodded her head in agreement, quickly recovering from her brief moment of surprise. "Anyone can see that the city isn't a great place to be at the moment, so there's probably a lot of people trying to run away to some island. Or to some isolated place where there's plenty of armed forces."
"Like Okinawa?" asked Kouta.
"If there's a suitable means of dealing with 'them,' even Hokkaido would do … The planes are headed in those directions for the most part."
"We should go there, too," Kouta said enthusiastically.
"It's too late for us," Takagi-san said with her famous "you are an idiot" glare. "Even if they've managed to keep 'them' out of areas where there are Self Defence Forces or lots of American troops, they've likely started implementing strict entry protocols. Actually, I take it back. Everywhere on Earth is probably like that already … If contact with people you didn't know meant letting 'them' in, wouldn't you do the same?"
"I'd coop myself up in my house," Kouta said.
I released a small amount of laughter. "Yeah, I know you would," I said, making no attempt to hide the humour in my tone. "But you'd basically be trapping yourself. One noise too many, and you'd have an army of dead cannibals bashing at your door twenty four-seven." My tone turned a little grimmer. "Plus, if you really look at the situation, you're basically fucked no matter where you try to hide. This shit spread across basically the entire planet in a matter of hours. In order for it to have spread that quickly, especially when the zombies are as slow as they are, it would've had to spring up in basically every major city in the world at once. The odds are that, wherever the hell those planes are taking people, they won't find any peace there."
"… Well, aren't you just a ray of sunshine?" Takagi-san asked me. Then she sighed. "You are right, though. But more to the point at hand … What if everyone on Earth started thinking that way, if they all start preserving only the minimum of community it takes for them to survive?"
"You really are a brain, you know that, Takagi?" Kouta said.
"What are you talking about?" Takagi-san asked him. Then she pointed toward Shidou and the people at the back of the bus. "He's already made himself head of this operation. I don't know if he knows it himself or not … but it barely took half a day, see?"
"Shall I show him the door?" Kouta asked, raising his nail gun to do just that.
"Don't," I said. "He's got all those mindless cultists on his side, so even if we helped we'd be outnumbered." I didn't particularly want to survive the zombies only to get killed by a group of people who somehow managed to be even more idiotic, you know?
"More importantly," said Takagi-san. "We should be thinking about how we're going to survive. With people we can trust … urgh. If Komuro were here, I'd be able to ask him about this."
"Takagi-san, you like Komuro," Kouta said in a teasing fashion.
I snorted with suppressed laughter.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Takagi-san exclaimed in denial.
That made me laugh even harder. I only stopped when I realised that Busujima-san and Marikawa-sensei were staring at the three of us. Marikawa-sensei looked to be in some strange state of happiness, and she wasn't at the wheel any more, probably because of the lack of movement in the traffic. Busujima-san kept a perfectly straight face, though there was no sense of hatred when her eyes landed on me. That was new. It was rather pleasant, too, actually.
Takagi-san coughed into her hand awkwardly and stood up. "Good timing," she said.
"Yeah, they arrived just in time to save you from all that blood rushing to your face," I said, grinning maliciously.
"Shut it, Blake!" she yelled at me. Kouta looked like he was trying not to laugh.
Any more conversation we might have had on this topic was brought to an end when Shidou, the bastard, started talking a lot louder than he had been before.
"This is not the time to forget our pride as members of Fujimi High School!" he said to his drooling followers. "And it goes to show that when Miyamoto-san and Komuro-kun left the bus, they weren't fit to be part of our group!"
"This is seriously bad," said Takagi-san.
"We must unite to survive!" Shidou continued to yell.
"Indeed," said Busujima-san. "It sounds like an invitation to a new religion."
"We must combine our strength to make it through these hard times!"
"It's not 'like,' it downright is a new religion," said Takagi-san. "We're witnessing the beginning of the Order of Shidou."
"You'd have to be a bit of a dumb cunt to listen to anything that comes out of his mouth," I said, not even bothering to hide my distaste for the man. "And they are, I mean … just look at them. They're eating from the palm of his fucking hand."
"The way the roads are, we have to ditch the bus and make a break for it," said Busujima-san. "We have to cross Onbetsu Bridge somehow and get to the East Police Station … I promised Komuro-kun."
I felt a sudden wave of jealousy overtake me. It was brief, but it was there. Busujima-san hadn't even met Takashi before all of this started happening, but apparently she already had a lot more respect and care for him than she ever had for me. I could tell my emotions were showing on my face, as Kouta was giving me a look, and even Takagi-san was taking little glances at me. I did my best to get my facial expression as neutral as possible. I didn't like showing what I was feeling on my face.
"You're awfully worried about Komuro, aren't you?" Takagi-san asked her. "What about your family?"
"I'm worried, but my family is just my dad and he's in a dojo abroad," Busujima-san said, smiling. "So right now, the only thing I have to protect other than my promise to Komuro-kun is my life. And my dad … taught me to always uphold promises, even if it means my life."
"So, um, Takagi-san, where is your house?" asked Marikawa-sensei.
"It's with Komuro's across Onbetsu bridge," said Takagi-san.
"My parents aren't in this area," said Kouta. "So as long as I'm with you, Takagi-san, I'll go anywhere."
While Takagi-san had a little freak-out, I couldn't help but smile a little. Takagi-san had been … less than kind to Kouta, to put it mildly, yet he still openly expressed how much he cared about her. I was almost envious of his ability to be so honest about his feelings even though there were no signs that they were reciprocated.
"Where is your family, Hirano-kun?" Busujima-san asked him.
"My dad's a jeweller, so he's on a trip to Holland to buy stones," said Kouta. "And my mum's a fashion designer, so she's always in Paris."
There was silence. We all went silent from sheer shock at his family background.
"What era does a background like that come from!?" Takagi-san finally managed to yell.
"If this were a manga, your father would be the captain of a foreign passenger boat, I imagine," said Marikawa-sensei, laughing.
"… That was my grandpa." Kouta rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as we all fell silent again. "My grandma was a violinist."
"P-perfect," said Takagi-san, groaning.
"Well, the more you know," I said, shrugging, though I was just as baffled as the others were. I had known Kouta before all this, and even I didn't know he had this kind of family background. It was really quite a marvel.
"What about you, Blake-kun?" Marikawa-sensei looked at me. Then she seemed to freeze up, like she was realising something, and I knew she had remembered. "I … I'm sorry …"
"It's fine," I said quickly. I shuffled uncomfortably in my seat. It felt like my stomach was caught in my throat. I glanced at the others, who were staring at me inquisitively. "It's, uh …" I cleared my throat. "It's complicated. Let's just say that I have no family I am capable … not that I intend to … of reaching." The not that I intend to was whispered under my breath, and I was confident that no one had heard it … though Busujima-san was giving me a rather curious look …
"So what do we do?" Marikawa-sensei asked us, smiling, though it was a little tense now. "I want to go with you guys, too."
"Are you sure?" asked Takagi-san.
"My parents aren't around any more, and the rest of my family is far off," said Marikawa-sensei. She looked to the back of the bus cautiously, and when she next spoke it was in a hushed voice. "And I know it's not nice of me to say this, but … I think Shidou-sensei is kind of a douchebag." That got a round of giggles out of all of us.
"What's going on with everybody?" came Shidou's voice. He was looking toward us now. "We need everyone to agree to cooperate here …"
"No thanks, Shidou-sensei," said Takagi-san, cutting him off. All of us stood from our seats. "We've got our own goals in mind! This isn't some field trip, we have no obligation to stay with you!"
"I see …" Shidou said in a calculative tone. He had a smirk on his face that I didn't like one bit. He put his hands together in the same fashion as a stereotypical evil villain would. "If you've decided that, then go ahead and do as you please, Takagi-san. After all, Japan's a free country! However …" he licked his lips perversely, "… we can't have that with you, Marikawa-sensei! It would be too great a loss if the only doctor were to walk out on us in our current predicament." He began to slowly walk toward the front of the bus, all the while speaking in an incredibly smooth tone of voice. "How about it? Won't you stay? There are students here who rely on you, too. Now, Marikawa-sensei. Just as soon as we secure ourselves a location, Takagi-san and her friends can call on you when they need …" He was suddenly cut off when a tiny projectile flew past him and left a scratch on his right cheek – it was a nail. The nail embedded itself in one of the seats near the back, leading one of the students to crying out a little in fear. Kouta still had his nail gun aimed at Shidou. "H-Hirano-kun?" Shidou looked like he was starting to panic. "Y-you're not a violent student like that …"
"Do you have any idea how many people I killed at school!?" Kouta yelled at Shidou, his face contorted in a rage I had never seen in him before. "And you've done nothing but mock me from the very beginning! I've put up with it this long! All this time, I've put up with it! I put up with it all this time because I wanted to live a normal life! But I don't need to do that any more!" The scowl on his face morphed into a twisted, sadistic grin. "Normalcy has no meaning to me! That's why … I … I can kill. I can even kill the living." He had his nail gun trained on Shidou the entire time, never moving it so much as an inch.
"H-Hirano-kun …" said Shidou. He was shaking, sweating bullets, and he sounded scared. It was incredibly satisfying. "Th-that's not …"
"Busujima-senpai, get off first please," said Kouta, glancing back at us. "I'll bring up the rear."
Busujima-san walked over to the doors of the bus, which had now been opened by Marikawa-sensei. Busujima-san stopped by the door for a moment, causing the wind to blow at her torn skirt, which gave me quite the view of her panties. I blushed up a storm, but luckily for me, everyone else was too distracted to notice. "Spoken like a true man, Hirano-kun," she said, then jumped out of the bus. Marikawa-sensei and Takagi-san were next, and I got out just before Kouta did. As I got out, I saw Busujima-san's eyes narrowed on me briefly, before she seemed to shake it off and go back to her neutral expression.
Something's changed, I couldn't help but think, though I didn't quite believe it. But this is still a problem. I'm going to have to deal with it sooner or later, otherwise this animosity between us is going to get one – or both – of us killed.
"So, which way?" I asked once we were all off the bus.
"First, we figure out where Onbetsu bridge is," said Takagi-san.
"It might be blocked off," said Kouta. "This traffic isn't exactly normal."
"Only one way to find out," I said.
We began to make our way in the rough direction of the bridge. We walked in relative silence, careful not to attract any unwanted attention. We were walking down a reasonably empty street when a kind of metallic growl/roar reached my ears. It was a rather easy noise to place.
"Does anyone else hear an engine?" I asked the others.
Apparently they did, and we all started looking around for the source of the noise. Barely a few moments later, a motorbike stopped a little way down the street from us. I squinted at it, trying to see who was getting off, and a grin worked its way onto my face when I saw exactly who had just rejoined us.
Rei practically jumped off the bike and barrelled into Marikawa-sensei, giving her a large hug. "Sensei!" she exclaimed in joy.
Marikawa-sensei returned the hug enthusiastically. "Oh my, Miyamoto-san!" she cheered just as happily as Rei had, if not more so. "And Komuro-kun, too!"
"I'm so happy to see you're okay, Komuro-kun," said Busujima-san, and I could already feel my facial expression souring in jealousy. It was petty, I knew, but I simply couldn't help it.
Takashi glanced at me, and a hesitant smile appeared on his face. "Same to you, Busujima-senpai," he said. He sounded a little tense.
Takagi-san started tugging on Takashi's sleeve. That irritated expression was back on her face. "Forgetting someone?" she asked.
"G-glad to see you're okay, Takagi," said Takashi, smiling nervously. "You, too, Hirano. Paul." I smiled at him and nodded, and I'm pretty sure Kouta did the same.
"… We haven't been able to find a way across," Busujima-san said to Takashi.
"Ditto," said Takashi.
"What about farther up?" Takagi-san asked. "This area's got shoreline protection installation so we can't cross, but maybe that's not the case upstream. Remember, there was that kid in elementary school who was fooling around and got carried away by the current?"
"Yeah … but I wonder," said Takashi. "With all the recent rainfall, the river's risen …"
"Excuse me …" said Marikawa-sensei. "I think it'd be better if we rested for today."
"R-rested?" asked Kouta.
I was slightly baffled, too, honestly. I thought the opportunities to rest would be few and far between during this situation, so I wasn't entirely sure where Marikawa-sensei suggested we go to be rested for the night. Speaking of which, the sun was setting, so it wouldn't be long before we would be out in the dark.
"It's going to be dark within the hour," said Marikawa-sensei. "And when it gets dark … if we run into any of 'them,' even Busujima-san would have trouble, see?"
"Where do you propose we get rested up?" I asked her. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we are in the middle of a street."
"We could raid the castle," said Busujima-san.
There were two things about that sentence that surprised me. One, Busujima-san had responded to something I said without being aggressive about it. Two, she appeared to be making an actual joke. I didn't know whether it was due to my surprise or if I thought it was genuinely funny, but I found myself chuckling at her suggestion. Takashi and Kouta laughed, too, so it had to have been at least relatively funny.
"We wouldn't be able to protect it with so few of us," said Takashi, trying not to smile.
"Um, excuse me, but I have a place we can use," said Marikawa-sensei. "It's walking distance from here."
"Your man's pad," Takagi-san asked, smirking.
Marikawa-sensei blushed up a storm and waved her hands in front of her face in denial. "N-no!" she said. "It's the home of a girl friend of mine. She's got so much work, she's always flying from one place to another, so she left me her key to air out her home every once in a while."
"Is it a condo?" asked Kouta. "Can you get a good view of the area from it?"
"Uh, sure," said Marikawa-sensei. "It's on the riverfront, and it's a maisonette with a convenience store right next door. A-also, she left me her car. It's built like a tank."
"Well, we'll need the transport either way," said Busujima-san.
"Today has me dead tired," Takagi-san said, groaning. "I just wanna shower while there's still power."
"G-good idea," Kouta said, a lecherous grin on his face. The second the words exited his mouth, Takagi-san kicked him in the face. I winced in sympathy.
Takashi climbed onto the motorbike again. "Shizuka-sensei, hop on the back," he said.
"Oh, right," said Marikawa-sensei. She carefully climbed onto the back of the bike and wrapped her arms around Takashi.
"I'm going with Sensei to check it out," said Takashi. He looked at Busujima-san. "Busujima-senpai, you take it from here." She nodded in agreement, and then Takashi sped off on the bike.
I could see how tightly Marikawa-sensei was holding on to Takashi, and it amused me to think about how much he must have been blushing in that moment.
And so we waited for Takashi and Marikawa-sensei to return.
By the time Takashi and Marikawa-sensei had come back and taken us all to the house, it was the dark of the night. As we entered through the gate, I found myself awestruck by what I saw. In front of the house sat a military model Humvee!
"Your friend is very well connected, isn't she?" I asked. This was a lot more than I had expected when she'd talked about a car.
" 'They' probably wouldn't be able to make it over the fence," said Rei as she looked at the large metal fence surrounding the building. "So we should be able to sleep with peace of mind."
"Takagi, do you have anything we could use?" Takashi asked Takagi-san. "We have a gun, but we're not sure how good we are."
"Huh!? A gun!?" Kouta asked in excitement.
I sighed. "You really did it now, Takashi …" I said. Though I had a fond smile on my face.
"I'll let you play with it later," Takashi said to Kouta. "But for now …"
Some moaning resounded around the area. I looked around and saw that a group of zombies were congregating around the gate, probably because of the noise we were making during that conversation. There weren't a lot of them, but if left long enough they could easily become a problem.
"Komuro!" Takagi-san said, handing Takashi a crowbar. "Are we going to be okay like this?"
"Yeah, this is perfect," said Takashi. "Stay back." Takagi-san and Marikawa-sensei stepped back. "Don't forget to cover each other's backs! Let's go!"
Takashi, Rei, Kouta, Busujima-san and I then all charged the zombies. Kouta stayed at the back, shooting the zombies down with his nail gun. I simply swung my golf club with deadly precision, breaking undead skulls open and sending their brains all over the floor. I paid little attention to what the others were doing. There was no more running away. We were attacking first to protect our new home. Any and all fear switched off as soon as the fight started. It had only been a little over a day, and the foundations were already laid for the person I would become thanks to the rise of the zombie apocalypse.
In this temporary shelter of ours, a lot of things would change. And, for me at least, they changed for the better.
I hope you enjoyed the updated version of this chapter. As you can see, there is still some animosity between Paul and Saeko, but true to her thoughts last chapter, Saeko is trying to be at least a little bit friendly now. I'm quite glad I've chosen to do it like this – the sudden turnaround in their relationship in the original version was pretty rushed, looking back on it.
See you next time Constant Readers!
