III – Rigor Mortis
"Destroying is a necessary function in life.
Everything has its season, and all things
eventually lose their effectiveness and die."
- Margaret J Wheatley.
Leaving Super Viva Home, Unknown Coastal City, Japan
1730 hours,
Z Day + 22
In the end, they only lost a few things to the destructive rampage of the marauding gang, and nothing that crippled them. So the makeshift team finished loading the vehicle together, and headed back to the Mimei. They hadn't seen any of Them yet but the gunfight was sure to have drawn attention. And they wanted to be long gone before that happened.
Shizuka continued to drive the car at a leisurely pace down the road, since there had been no sign of Them anywhere along the way. And she did not want to get too far ahead of the others, since most of them were walking very slowly. Kohta-kun's head had been bandaged, his eyes covered. One of them seemed to be fine, but Shizuka knew that she had to cover both eyes until the left one had fully healed, or it could be further damaged. Alice was serving as his guide, holding his hand and walking with him beside the car. Trailing slightly further behind, Saeko and Rei shuffled along, exhausted from their ordeal.
"Why did you save me?"
Rei glanced at Saeko in surprise. "What kind of stupid question is that?"
"You wished I was out of the picture. It was a perfect chance to make such happen. You wouldn't even have been responsible. Just step aside and I would be little more than dog meat..."
"I don't want you dead, Busujima-sempai. I just... I wanted you to stop trying to be with Takashi."
An awkward silence descended on the two women. And much as she disliked the idea of pressing on, Rei disliked the things unsaid between them even more. If they were some of the last people left on Earth, they needed to get along.
That meant no more secrets.
"You said some pretty mean things back there."
"I don't hold back in a fight," Saeko replied softly, eyes downcast as they walked side by side. Even if it's a fight of words, she thought, but did not voice aloud.
"... they were true," Rei reluctantly continued on, earning a glance from the swordswoman. "I... I made some mistakes in the old days. I didn't choose Hisashi over Takashi but... I wanted to make him jealous. I wanted him to fight for me. To protect me, like he'd always done. That was stupid."
Saeko privately could not have agreed more, but she held her tongue in check this time. Instead, she realized she had another debt, and honor demanded she repay it. Steeling herself, she spoke.
"You saved my life, Rei Miyamoto. For that, I owe you. And the only way I can repay such is... by standing aside."
Rei glanced up sharply. "What?"
Saeko's face twisted as if she was swallowing very bitter medicine indeed, but she kept her voice steady. "I will not pursue Takashi any more. For him, I would give my life, because right now he is my life. So I give it to you," she said soberly, and Rei paused in her footsteps for a moment as the implications sunk in.
"No."
Saeko came to a stop, her boot screeching against the pavement. "No?"
Rei quickly stepped up her pace to keep up, even as her tired ankles protested. "Don't get me wrong, Busu-... Saeko-san. I want to accept. I love Takashi. So much sometimes that it scares me. And maybe you do too. And I realized that, if I were you, I'd fight just as much for him. And it's not up to either of us. It's up to Takashi. If one of us wins, we're happy, but maybe he won't be. That's not fair to him."
"I... suppose not."
"So, no, I don't accept your conceding. After all... I think he should be the one make that decision, ne?" asked Rei with an impish smirk.
And despite herself, Saeko smiled back.
The rest of the way back to the ship was in comfortable silence, as the two women leaned on one another for support, arms wrapped around each others shoulders.
As the survivors and their tiny car made it to the docks, Saya saw them and gave a wave, indicating the Mimei was safe. Takashi smiled faintly as he saw them coming back, and it looked like just about everyone. Headcount was right, at least. That was a relief.
He turned to Saya. "Listen, what happened... I won't say anything," he said. "It's none of their business."
"No it isn't," she agreed quickly, adjusting her glasses self-consciously.
Saya slipped to her feet to grab some of the supplies off the back of the car and placing them where they would go in the yacht, under the deck or in several storage compartments they'd found. Their fearless leader, however, was helpless to do little more than watch, not wanting to risk injuring his leg further. Fortunately, it didn't take long for them to stow everything they needed away, power the ship on, and guide it away from the peer and back out to the open sea. Takashi settled into the seat to steer, giving everyone else a chance to rest.
Saeko and Rei joined him by the wheel, the latter offering him a twinkie, which he gratefully accepted. Though he couldn't help but wonder what adventures they had endured to get it. It was obvious they'd had some trouble, judging from Kohta being ushered below decks by their nurse, and the state of Rei and Saeko's clothes.
"So, what did we miss this time?" he asked casually, leaning back in the seat.
Rei and Saeko's eyes met and, as one, reached a mutual conclusion.
"Not much," replied Rei and Saeko, near simultaneously.
Takashi frowned at their scripted response, took another look down at their ripped, torn, and blood-stained garments, and idly wondered what he was missing.
On very rare occasions, Saya Takagi would admit to herself that she absolutely hated it when she was right all the time.
It was getting colder out.
Long gone were the days of their swimsuits. Now everyone was wearing coats and long pants, socks and shoes. The skies were overcast and dark, pregnant with the thought of rain to come, which was enough to sour anyone's day. Playing in the sun wasn't an option anymore, and in any case, few had the energy to try. They spent all their time below decks now, talking, reading or eating. Their supplies were in good order though, they had food enough to last at least a week longer. Takashi's leg had even finished healing, leading nurse Marikawa to conclude it had been nothing more serious than a fracture, and not a true breakage. Even so, he kept off it as much as he could while it finished the delicate process of mending.
What's more, they had a goal. They had discussed it with Takashi and Saya when they'd gotten back and gotten underway. The signal, the safe haven. And although many cons were suggested, the possibilities of pros outweighed them. They were going to give it a try.
Unfortunately, their long journey was not over just yet.
It was around the fourth day back out at sea that the storms began, fierce winds howling and then great waves rising up. In no time flat it was raining, and above deck rapidly became slippery and dangerous. After an hour or so, the storm died down a little, then returned more fiercely than before.
"We should find shelter!" shouted Saya over the crash of the storm, even as Takashi took the wheel and powered up the engine.
"We'll head back to the coast! Make port if we have to!"
"Which way is it?" shouted Rei, head covered by a hood to offer some mild protection from the elements. She cast her gaze left and right, but there was no sign of land in any direction. And the sun was hidden from view above by the dark clouds.
"It's okay I know which way, we're heading west!" replied Takashi, tapping the console. A built-in compass was guiding them.
Suddenly the ship heaved, and Saya stumbled, one hand trying vainly to shield her glasses from the rain to keep them clear. But it was a hopeless battle and she knew it. Within seconds she'd be close to blind.
"Have you got everything up here?" she shouted to Takashi, despite his close proximity.
"Yeah I've got this, get below deck!" he hollared back. "Take Rei with you, no sense you all getting soaked!"
Saya nodded, grabbing Rei and carefully making their way across the slippery deck and towards the hatch. They climbed down to the crowded lower levels with the others, most of whom were soaking wet and miserable. Saeko, especially, was huddled in a blanket, teeth chattering. Only Kohta was unaccounted for, as he was resting in the smaller cabin. Low moans continued to issue forth from the room, fraying Saya's nerves.
The ship shuddered again, and Alice nearly spilled her can of soup. "Are we gonna be okay?" she asked timidly.
Saya exhaled slowly, then put on a smile for her little sister, and nodded. "Sure we are. We're just heading back to land until the storm passes. Shouldn't take long."
"Good! Can we go shopping again like last time?"
Rei chuckled at that, even as she huddled under a blanket for warmth beside Shizuka, the two women sharing body heat. "Hopefully a lot more peaceful than last time," she added.
"Right!"
Saya shook her head ruefully and stood up, stepping over Saeko's legs and making her way to the smaller cabin where Kohta was recuperating, knocking on the door a moment before letting herself in.
"Who is it?"
"Just me," she said, letting her voice comfort Kohta as she sat down on the bed beside him and closed the door to the cabin. His eyes were still bandaged while he was sleeping, but Shizuka had given the diagnosis and it was reasonably good, all things considered. His right eye was going to be fine, and his glasses had been recovered so he could still see. His left eye, however, was useless. The optic nerve had been damaged. He now had a nasty scar running through the side of his head that still hadn't wanted to heal properly. And he'd lost a great deal of blood from the original injury. It had taken him this long to get most of his strength back.
She patted his shoulder. "Feeling better?"
"No," he replied, fumbling a moment before resting his hand over hers. Without his sight he was relying on his other senses a lot more. "But I'll live."
"Good. We still need you, Hirano-kun," Saya whispered softly.
He laughed softly at that, grimacing immediately afterwards as his stomach rebelled against the motion. A brief cough wracked his frame. "Of course. I'm a vital part of the team."
"Very vital," she said. "We need you to keep us alive."
"And you all keep me alive," he replied. "Give me a reason to keep on going."
She frowned at that. "What do you mean?"
"Its not important," he replied. "Just... glad I got something to do now. Life sucked back at Fujimi."
"I could've been worse," replied Saya unthinkingly, seemingly imagining he was just giving the usual teenaged 'school sucks' speech.
"I'd been thinking about killing myself," he said suddenly, softly. She started, amber eyes wide in surprise at the confession. "A little while before the Outbreak started. I dunno if it was serious or not but... my life really sucked back then."
"Everyone has problems," she mused aloud.
He shook his head bitterly. "Not like mine."
She gently squeezed his hand in hers. "Tell me?" she asked. Not demanded, like she usually did. Asked. She didn't say please but the tone of her voice conveyed such anyway. He hesitated a moment, then the story came pouring out.
"You know how I got bullied a lot in Junior High and then in High School, I'm sure. And yeah, we all go through it sometimes. Stealing my lunch money, hassle me about my weight, my glasses, my interests. That's normal. But this one time I guess I pissed off the wrong guy, and these three big fellows jumped me behind the gym one day. Kept hitting me in the stomach, making sure the bruises wouldn't show up easily. And I saw our teacher was there, and he didn't try to stop it. I realized he and the others weren't going to help me, and the only one who could protect me was me. That's when I started to learn about guns. I wanted a way to protect myself, and in hindsight, it was probably because I was too lazy to learn a martial art. And sometimes I even thought about getting revenge on those bullies who tormented throughout my life. I felt like I didn't fit in. And Mom and Dad were always away on business so I didn't have much of anyone to talk to. Or to keep me in line. They even agreed when I asked to go to America to learn how to shoot. Then one day there was that news report about a school in America where kids with guns had gone nuts and killed a bunch of people, and I realized I was turning into that. I was enjoying the idea of it, I was even starting to plan it. That's why I wanted to kill myself. I thought maybe I'd come back as a butterfly," he added as a weak attempt at a joke.
"Baka," she spat out, slapping his shoulder none-too-gently. "That's never an option," she added. And was very grateful he couldn't see when realization hit her like a ton of bricks, and she realized those were the exact words Takashi had told her the other day when she'd been talking about the exact same subject. Oh, if Takashi had seen her, she would never live it down.
Grateful no one had caught her little slip-up, Saya patted Kohta's shoulder. "And if it hadn't been for you, none of us would've gotten very far on this trip," she said. "I doubt if I would've made it out of Fujimi High School alive."
"Komuro-kun would've saved you," replied Kohta gently. "Besides, without you, I doubt I would've made it far either."
She snorted at that.
"No it's true! I was just going to cut and run, I'd probably have been eaten. Or maybe I'd still put together that nail gun but without you to tell me about how They worked, I might've just gone out in a blaze of glory instead."
"Well, you didn't. And now we're here, and you're a vital member of this team. And our friend. So no more talk like that. You die and I swear I will come down to Hell and kick your ass myself, clear?"
He grimaced, being very able to picture such. "Crystal," he replied, feeling a shiver despite the mostly empty nature of her threat.
Saya smiled at that, peering down at the groups resident marksman and felt warmed by his show of trust, telling her about his past. It hadn't been easy for him, that was obvious, and she could've probably guessed as much herself. But still, he told her, when he'd probably told no one else before. Maybe not even his own parents. In the very dim back of her mind she might've recognized her growing feelings as a form of transference, that she was trying to replace the love of her lost parents with affection for Kohta. But for once, she really didn't think much of it. In fact, she wasn't thinking much at all. Her body was running almost completely on impulse as she leaned down over Kohta who, thanks to his blindfold, didn't have a clue of what was coming.
Her lips tenatively pressed against his. At first she realized she had absolutely no idea what she was doing, but that thought was lost an instant later as he tilted his head and kissed back. Warm feelings washed over them both, suffusing every molecule of their bodies with renewed joy and strength. For an instant, they forgot about the Outbreak, forgot about the horrors and the troubles, the stress and the fear and the madness. All of it melted away like snowballs on a hot summer day. They almost forgot who they were, and instead simply were. Together.
Then that instant shattered.
Up above, there came the sound of a shot, or a muffled explosion, snapping Saya's head back up and breaking the kiss. She failed to account for the low ceiling and bumped her head hard, and instantly jerked it back down again, clutching at it with her hands. Another muffled boom came from above, followed by spluttering and wheezing. It sounded like a car backfiring. And you didn't have to be a genius to tell what that was.
"Oh goddamnit! What else can go wrong?" Saya spat as she grabbed the frame of the door and hauled herself up and out of the tiny cabin.
He knew he should've gone after her. Should've sat up and at least felt for the cabin door. Asked the others what was going on and if he was needed. Or if he could help.
But Kohta Hirano found he couldn't move a muscle. Except to smile even more broadly.
"Saya..." he whispered blissfully.
As Saya had surmised, the Mimei's engine had burnt out. None of them could say for sure exactly why, but it was easy enough to see the results. They shut it off quick as they could and did their best to cool it down before the whole ship went up in smoke or got smothered in it. The storm didn't help much, and Rei nearly pitched overboard during one massive swell before Shizuka could grab her wrist and hold her against the railing. In the end, they managed to subdue the engine to a reasonable degree and get going under less conventional methods. Namely, the sails and rudder. Kohta climbed up onto deck, looking very piratical with one eye covered by a cloth bandage, and proceeded to give out instructions on how to guide the ship. Fortunately, they weren't far from land now. They could see the high skyscrapers on the horizon like the jagged teeth of some huge giant. And the harbor just up ahead, the docks barely visible in the darkness and the rain.
"Komuro-kun, port!"
Shizuka's cry came out seconds too late, as the Mimei slammed into the docks almost head on, and listed hard to the right, nearly pitching half of its crew overboard in the process. Grimly holding onto the wheel, Takashi directed them alongside the dock and to a position they could come to a stop, even as rain beat down atop of him, plastering his unruly black hair to his head.
Thankfully, the Mimei was undamaged, save for a dent in its side that would've been barely noticeable. Checking the inside, Saya and Kohta found no leaks, the vessel was serviceable, and everything they had was undamaged, if scattered everywhere. So they tied their stolen yacht off with its heavy chain and secured it in place, Saya slipping the key into her pocket for safekeeping.
"Okay now what?" Takashi shouted over a clash of thunder. So loud and sudden he had to repeat himself.
Smoke continued to billow out from under the hatch as Kohta emerged, using a piece of cloth to cover his face. "The engine's out for now! But it's too thick down there to see anything, let alone sleep!"
"Then we need to find some temporary shelter!" Takashi returned, getting nods from everyone. Quick as they could they grabbed what they felt they might need for an overnight, which was to say their weapons and Kohta's pack, and made their way onto the docks and out into the cityscape. Takashi took point, shotgun in hand, relying on the light from Shizuka's flashlight to keep them from stumbling in the dark and the rain. Or worse, running into a horde of Them, which the city seemed to be simply teeming with.
However, in this aspect, the storm seemed to be a blessing, because all the noise kept Them from recognizing easy prey within their reach. They stumbled in virtually any direction aimlessly, allowing Takashi's group to cut a path through and around them with a minimum of trouble, searching for somewhere they could hole up safely for the night.
Takashi felt a tug at his jacket's elbow, glancing down to see Alice pointing, holding Zeke with her other arm. Following her view, Takashi saw a fair-sized building seemingly materialize out of the darkness. And although it was subtle, he could see lights coming from within. Lights meant people, and probably warmth and food.
It could've also meant a run-in with more marauders or the kind of people who had killed Alice's father, but somehow Takashi didn't think so. Especially not when they came across a large sign just before the building, proclaiming it as 'Goshou Hospital.' They made their way to the revolving doors and stumbled into the darkened lobby. It was deserted, but there were definitely signs of life to be found within. A lantern was shining on the front desk and the air was still warm, with the smell of baking. Taking a moment to ensure it was safe, Takashi beckoned the others inside and shut the door, making sure they weren't followed by any of Them.
"Who're you?"
Takashi's head snapped back around, and he was seconds from raising his shotgun when he belatedly realized that They wouldn't have bothered to ask who he was. However, the action wasn't completely without merit, as they found a young, blonde-haired man holding a handgun and pointing it right at them. He was a bit on the wiry side, but not much taller than Takashi, making his exact age difficult to judge. He had a jagged scar running across his forehead.
"We're survivors," replied Takashi, keeping his own firearm lowered for the moment. "Just like you."
"I thought everyone in this city was dead," the young man replied. "How'd you make it?"
"We're not from around here," Kohta interjected, also keeping his weapon lowered, if still close at hand. "We're from up north originally."
"Our transportation broke down. We need a place to stay for the night. After that, we'll move on, and we won't cause you any trouble," said Takashi evenly.
Blondie glanced between them, taking in the measure of the kids with very big guns standing in his lobby, and lifted up his gun, pointing it at the ceiling as he nodded. "I'm Doctor Ryo Cheisu," he said. "Come on in."
Cheisu led them into what must have been the employees lounge, complete with couches and even a miniature kitchen. The windows were boarded up with heavy planks of wood and furniture to prevent light from escaping, and the room was remarkably well lit. Lights were present everywhere, real, working lights, and the TV was even functioning, though at the moment the main channel was static snow. Still, even the fact that they had power surprised just about everyone but Saya.
"Make yourselves comfortable for now, Dr. Hikke will be along shortly," said their savior as he set his handgun down on the countertop nearby. "It's just the two of us here since... well since the Outbreak began."
"You seem to be managing pretty well," said Takashi as he shrugged off his wet jacket, hanging it over the back of a nearby chair to dry as he tugged at his soaked red t-shirt.
"There used to be more of us," replied the blonde doctor, who looked more haggard in the light. "Seven in the beginning. But yeah, having power after the EMP hit helped. A lot of other places panicked."
"How come you still have power?" asked Alice curiously, even as she slipped off her shoes just like her big sisters were doing by the doorway, attempting to observe customs of politeness.
Saya interrupted with the answer. "Back-up generator. Every major hospital has one. They're designed to keep power flow uninterrupted in case doctors are in the middle of surgery. Or to keep power going to life-support units."
The young doctor nodded, impressed by the high school girls knowledge. "That's right. We were very grateful for the fact, but we kept it hidden by keeping the lights off and the windows shuttered for the first week after the EMP hit. Most of the bandits in the area moved on, and we saw less and less sign of survivors as time went on. I was starting to think we were all that's left, until I heard you in the lobby."
"What happened to all of your patients?" asked Shizuka.
He hesitated, clearly wanting to tell her good news, but in the end, simply said "They died."
Her face fell, and he kicked himself for being so blunt.
"We tried to make it as quick and painless as possible for as many as we could, but we were just swamped by the attacks and the injuries, it was so sudden."
"And once they were bit..." she trailed off.
Cheisu nodded. "Those first few days were pandemonium."
Most of the group nodded, well remembering their time back at the school.
"Then, after that, most of our patients had fled, and we'd survived by locking ourselves into the employees lounge. Dr. Hikke organized those of us who remained and we gradually cleared out the building. Ever since then we'd just been... surviving."
"Where'd the gun come from?" asked Saya, picking it up off the countertop to examine. Kohta was at her side an instant later, eyeing it with the critical eye of a professional.
".40 Sigma Smith and Wesson," declared their weapons expert.
"Most hospitals have a security force in case of truly unruly patients," mused Shizuka aloud, rubbing a finger against her dainty chin in deep thought.
"There was a lot of confusion during the first day or so. Most of us just grabbed whatever we could find as weapons. When it settled down I found this in the corridor, someone must've dropped it. I don't know if it was a patient or a guard or what. But I keep it on hand just in case," said Cheisu, pointedly taking it out of Saya's hands and shoving it into his pocket.
"You got a radio or something in here?" Takashi asked, scouring the countertops and furniture for one.
Puzzled, the doctor shook his head. "I don't think so, why?"
He started to reply, but Saya cut him off. "We've been trying to see if anyone is still out there. Get word on the government, the military, anything like that," she stated.
"I think there may be a radio in the front lounge, I'll go check," replied Cheisu, slipping out of the room. When he was gone, Takashi turned to Saya. He didn't even need to ask, he just raised an eyebrow curiously.
"Do we even know this guy?" she asked pointedly. "Or the other one? We should at least check them out before we blindly invite them on the quest. Besides, the Mimei barely fits the seven of us."
Zeke barked softly, as if to remind her of the proper head count, but she ignored him.
"We haven't got room for others."
"There are other boats," he reminded her. "If we get the engine fixed we might even be able to tow something."
"For how far? And what happens if we break down again in the middle of the sea between here and Okinawa?"
All good questions, and ones he really had no answers for. So he decided to burn that bridge when he came to it, if need be. "We'll check them out, if they're good we'll tell them about the signal. Then decide what to do from there."
Saya frowned mightily but nodded in agreement. Then they both fell silent as Cheisu returned, shaking his head. "No radio, sorry. Must've been grabbed up after Z Day."
"Z Day?" Rei inquired.
"We seriously using the Z word?" asked Saya, looking mildly disgusted.
"Does seem kinda appropriate," Kohta added, gaining himself some of her ire.
"Anywhere we can change into something dry?" Shizuka asked, tugging at her soaking wet t-shirt, which thanks to its white color was dangerously transparent. Beside her, Saeko sniffled and shivered miserably, wrapped up in a blanket.
"You'd have to speak to my boss," replied Cheisu.
"Your boss?" asked Shizuka curiously.
"Oh that would be me."
Everyone looked up at the sudden intrusion, and as if timed perfectly, a flash of lightning chose that moment to illuminate the form of Dr. Hikke, who limped into the room, leaning heavily on a pale white cane. It soon became obvious why, as his left foot was missing its shoe, and was heavily bandaged. A direct contrast to Dr. Cheisu, his appearance was wild and unkempt, graying hair scattering in a million directions atop of his head, and heavy stubble across his chin and cheeks. He also wore a white coat, but it was ruffled around the edges and stained by obviously repeated use and little upkeep.
"Well well well, guests. I'd say it's nice to meet you all, but somehow I doubt you've made an appointment."
Takashi stood and offered a half bow. "We're just here to get some shelter from the storm, Dr. Hikke. Tomorrow morning we'll leave, we promise."
"Oh no need to be like that, please, take a load off, settle in, sleep on our sofas, eat our food, we don't have much to go around as it is after all..."
"Hikke-san!" his colleague shouted to get his attention, stunned at his appalling lack of manners.
The limping doctor waved off his concerns. "Relax. Yes alright you can stay. I trust I've been introduced?"
"Doctor Genzo Hikke, I presume?"
"Ah good my reputation precedes me."
A rough round of coughing interrupted them, and everyone turned to regard Saeko, who was trying to cover her mouth but coming dangerously close to passing out from lack of air. Each cough wracked her frame as Shizuka wrapped her arms around her to try and help keep her warm.
"Pneumonia I take it?" asked Hikke. "She's soaked to the bone."
"We didn't expect bad weather to hit quick like this," replied Takashi, but Hikke ignored him as he examined Saeko.
"Had she been out in the storm long?"
"Oh no, we left the boat only a little while ago before we got here," said Alice innocently.
"You were on a boat? In this weather? Oh well that's completely different, no chance she could get wet in those sorts of conditions," Hikke replied sarcastically. Despite his rude tone, he was very gentle as he took quick stock of Saeko with a stethoscope, pressed gently against her chest to listen. After a moment, he nodded. "Definitely pneumonia. Probably bacteria. Cheisu, see if we have any Penicillin in storage. That should put some pep back into Shivering Beauty here."
The coughing swordswoman dipped her head to Hikke politely, thinking it wiser to conserve her air and thank him properly later.
"And what happened here?" asked Hikke, indicating Kohta's injured eye as the marksman turned to regard him with his good one.
"Ricochet," Kohta replied, as the doctor limped over to him.
"There's not much that can be done," Shizuka said as she joined him. "I checked out the eye, I think the optic nerve was severed."
"Dear, please, I'm a professional, let me have a look and leave this to the ones with real medical degrees, not those obtained by mail-order," he said without sparing her a second glance. Shizuka fumed at the implications. He had practically called her a blonde bimbo right to her face, when she was likely just as qualified to be a medic as he was. He must've been foreign, she thought. No one else could possibly be so rude.
Still, after a few moments of inspecting Kohta's eye, it seemed obvious Doctor Hikke couldn't fault Shizuka's analysis, and only said that the best they could do was offer him an eye-patch that would fit under his glasses more securely. He looked up to see Shizuka with a vaguely satisfied expression on her face and her arms crossed in front of her chest, bumping up her rather considerably cleavage as she tried not to look too smug.
And failed miserably.
"Lucky guess," he retorted.
"We could use a second opinion on Takashi as well, Doctor Hikke," replied Shizuka, very generous in victory. "He injured his leg a while back."
"Our MRI was broken two weeks ago and we haven't been able to call for repair teams, for obvious reasons," Hikke stated sarcastically. "If the kid can walk he'll be fine."
Takashi bristled angrily but held his tongue. He didn't want to be responsible for getting the group kicked out of their shelter for the night.
Fortunately, once his insult was flung, Hikke barely paid either of them any further attention. "Cheisu, how's our other patient?"
Cheisu had fetched some anti-bacterial medicine to help Saeko's recovery, and an extra blanket. She was still looking uncomfortably pale, and coughing, but hopefully both of these symptoms would fade in time. "She should be fine in a few hours," said the young man, as he took back an empty glass of water she'd used to wash down the pills.
"We may want to keep her isolated. Just for the night," Hikke added.
"Isolated?" Rei asked, puzzled. "Why?"
"If it's bacterial it could be infectious. Better to have her sleep in one of the patients rooms on the next floor."
Takashi didn't like the sound of that. "Alone?"
If there was one thing he'd learned since the Outbreak had started it was never, ever, to allow anyone in the group to be alone. Especially in an unfamiliar place. Last time they'd done that had been at the mall, and Shizuka had nearly become victim to a guy with his brain in his trousers. Since then they never let a single member of the group go wandering off alone. You always had a buddy. Or a wingman, as Kohta called it.
"I'll keep an eye on her, Komuro-kun," said Shizuka, sensing Takashi's reluctance. "Doctor Cheisu can assist me."
"He's only a medical student you know," Hikke stated, obviously deciding to take his subordinate down a peg. "Never finished school. Probably never will now."
Cheisu bristled at the insult, but unfortunately it was true. Shizuka stepped forward and between the two of them, they managed to escort/support Saeko out of the lounge and to a bed. Seeing things start to settle, Rei took Alice and led her over to a foosball table that had been set up, keeping the two of them entertained for the time being. Saya joined, intent on playing the winner. Leaving the pair of group leaders alone.
"So... got TiVo?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
Hikke smiled in a decidedly unpleasant manner. "Oh TV works fine and we've got all the channels, but most of the networks stopped broadcasting anything but the Emergency System ages ago. Unless you brought a few Blue-Rays I'd say you're out of luck."
Takashi decided to check just the same, and looped through about three hundred channels of either blue 'no signal' or the emergency broadcast system before giving up and throwing down the remote in disgust. Meanwhile, Alice gave a cheer of victory as she knocked the ball past her opposition and into the goal post. Rei's eyes met Takashi's knowingly.
She was letting the younger girl win.
Hikke had vanished, but that didn't overly concern them. If anything, they was grateful the sarcastic, rude bastard was gone. Feeling his stomach a touch more empty than he usually liked, Takashi made his way to the fridge in the back of the room to check its contents. Sure enough, it was full, but a quick inspection produced nothing of truly desirable content, save a bottle of milk. Not as nice as a soda, and he felt like he could use some caffeine, but it was healthy enough. He popped the lid and started to drink straight out of the plastic carton.
Instantly he spat it out, aiming for the sink. Sour. He belatedly checked the expiration date. Three days ago. Not too bad but it was enough, apparently. He dumped the whole thing down the sink, then poured some hot water for good measure to wash away the rotten smell.
"Day can't get much worse," mused Takashi aloud, even as he flopped bonelessly into one of the padded chairs. He was so tired...
A surprised twang greeted him as he lay back in the chair. Surprised, Takashi leaned over the side, and found the source of the noise. A guitar had been stashed behind the chair at some point. Idly he tugged it out and settled it into his lap, testing the strings.
"Huh... wonder how this got here?"
"Oh that was a patients a few weeks back," said the nurse. "Left it behind as a gift to the hospital for helping save his life. But the boss couldn't play, he's more of a drummer-"
Takashi's hand glided across the instrument. He would've preferred using a pick, but none were available, and just used his thumb. A reasonably solid melody of a popular rock song filled the air. He cut it off briefly, and even smiled when Rei and Alice applauded him.
The day was looking up.
"Any requests?"
Rain continued to pound outside of the hospital as Saeko was escorted up the stairs and helped to settle into a bed on the second floor of the hospital. She'd been stripped out of her soaking garments by Shizuka and wrapped up in a number of blankets provided by Cheisu. Between exhaustion and the medicine she'd taken she was out like a light in no time. Her clothes were neatly folded onto a chair beside her bed, and her pistol lay atop of them, but she kept her sword by her side while she slept.
Shizuka, meanwhile, had decided to go in search of food, and dragged Cheisu along as a guide. And so he went to show her the cafeteria, though they locked the door to Saeko's room first. Only the resident staff of the hospital had the keys to unlock the room from the outside, though Saeko could leave anytime she wished from the inside.
Despite all the windows and the back door being boarded up the cafeteria seemed to be in reasonably good shape. Some half-finished puzzles and a game of solitaire dominated one table, evident how the doctors had been spending their time since the Outbreak began.
Like a gentleman, Cheisu held the door for her. "The kitchen is through here, it's fully stocked. And the freezers are keeping most of it preserved."
Shizuka stepped inside and began to rummage through the shelves and cabinets, giving a girlish squeal of delight when she emerged from the fridge moments later with a yogurt carton. Then started to look for a spoon.
"Third drawer on your left," said Cheisu, sensing her question before she spoke it.
Cutlery obtained, she popped open the container and eagerly started to enjoy the contents, even as she maneuvered around some tables and chairs to find a comfortable spot to sit. Her companion grabbed a bottled water and joined her, sitting down across from her.
"So you were a doctor, before all this started?"
She nodded. "Mhm! I worked at Fujimi High as the school nurse."
"That explains how you know the kids. That's where you when it all happened?"
"Mhm! What about you? You were here the whole time?"
Cheisu nodded solemnly. "Working under Doctor Hikke. He's not really... well okay he is a bit of a pain sometimes. But he's brilliant. He's even working on something now to try and fix this infection. He has been ever since Z-Day started."
"Can I help?"
"We'd have to check with him, but I'm sure he'd welcome another brilliant nurse on the case," he said with a charming smile.
She waved her spoon at him teasingly, "flattery will get you everywhere."
He chuckled. "I guess this is the part where I ask if you've seen the latest movie or read any good books lately," he said, leaning forward across the table.
She pondered this as she finished the last of her yogurt. "I was halfway through the first book on Cardiology when the Outbreak started. I'd just finished the fourth chapter the night before. Now I don't think I'll ever be able to."
"If you like we have some books on the topic in Dr. Hikke's office. I brought them in for a case once and haven't had the heart to pick them up since."
"You have them?"
"I could show you them tomorrow, in the morning... if you want that is," he finished lamely.
"It's a date!" she replied, beaming so brightly she seemed to light up the room.
It was still raining outside, buckets full pouring down by the minute, still met by the occasional flash of lightning and clash of thunder. Which was good news for them. More noise outside meant they could be louder inside without worrying about drawing Them. And each lightning flash revealed more of Them outside, not far away. Takashi tugged back the curtains to keep the light in the lounge covered. No sense borrowing trouble.
Takashi tried to fight off sleep for as long as he was able, but between the mad rush here by land and sea alike, he was exhausted. He barely had the time to lay out a blanket on the floor behind the couch and curl up inside of it for warmth. He would've slept on the couch itself but he wanted to free it up for the others. Plus if trouble broke out, he wanted to be behind cover.
A month ago, he wouldn't have thought of such things. He'd base a bed on comfort, not defense, and rarely have to worry about anyone other than himself. How things had changed, he mused, as he drifted off to sleep.
And in his sleep, dreamed.
No one was positive what moment it had all gone wrong.
For a while, it seemed like this was the end of their story. They were being evacuated. Shintoko Third Elementary School was practically a fortress, and everyone getting in was being screened. Rei was even reunited with her father, and the group had not seen her happier in days. They were informed that Takashi's mother had been evacuated prior when he inquired, but they'd no reports regarding the rest of the groups families. Even so, no news was generally good news, and they were in high spirits.
Even the arrival of a familiar black striped suit and some fellow Fujimi high uniforms couldn't dampen their good mood. It seems that Shido had survived as well, which didn't terribly surprise them. He was like a cockroach in that regard, and many others beside. He seemed to be short a few of his followers, however. He was down to just Yuuki and Kurokami, the latter of whom was complaining about some pain or other they'd suffered on the way. Likely just senseless whining, because Shido didn't seem concerned about it.
Takashi and the others ignored them, and simply fell into place in one of the unused classrooms, keeping out of the way until they could be evacuated. According to the Miyamoto patriarch, the JASDF and the USAF were sending CH-47 Chinook helicopters to pick everyone up, going from one evac point to the next. After they were full, the survivors would then be deposited at Yokota Air Base, which was preparing to shelter them for the foreseeable future. After that depended on a lot of other factors that hadn't been briefed to the police yet. But it was a start, and things were looking up ever since the Outbreak had started.
Then, in an instant, it all fell apart.
Somehow, They got in.
Maybe They broke past the barricade of armed policemen. Maybe one of Them had slipped in unnoticed. Maybe someone had been bitten and joined Them in death. Whatever the case, Takashi heard the scream, and bolted for the hallway, just in time to see a woman and her infant being leapt upon by a gray monster. Within seconds anarchy ensued. The senior Miyamoto thrust his daughter into Takashi's arms and barked out for him to "keep her safe!" as he pulled his gun and made his way down a corridor to help an elderly man being overwhelmed by undead.
"Get out!" someone screamed.
"Help me! Oh my god help me!" came another.
"We're all going to die!"
"Everyone please remain calm, the police have this under cont- aauuuuugh!"
"Run!"
Takashi grabbed Rei's hand and ran, sparing a glance over his shoulder to see the rest of his team coming with. In a crisis, they always came through and stuck together, and that's just what they did here. Unfortunately, few others possessed their sense of unity, and all around, they saw more and more of the citizens gathered being overwhelmed by Them. Within minutes, the Fujimi High survivors were also surrounded. Takashi unloaded a round into two of Them coming their way from the left and Saeko swung out her katana to decapitate another one shuffling down the opposite way. One came after Shizuka but Rei intercepted Them and impaled the ugly zombie on the sharp bayonet attached to her rifle, piercing Them clear through the heart. It didn't kill them but it slowed them down long enough for Saya to finish them with her pistol.
Within minutes, only one of Them was left in the corridor, an older man in a police's uniform with his hat down. Saeko drew back her katana and prepared to make the final strike, when Rei suddenly grabbed her arm with both of hers and held on tightly. "No!"
Confused as to why the ginger-haired girl would be protecting one of Them, Takashi looked again, and felt bile rise in his throat as the undead creature's head raised for its signature moan, and he saw the face under the brim of the hat. Like all of Them, his features were gray and lifeless, eyes rolled back into the skull. But he still bore a very distinct, clean mustache and no-nonsense crew cut, as well as a familiar wiry form. If that wasn't enough, the badge on his vest identified him readily enough.
'Miyamoto'
"Papa?" Rei quietly whimpered as tears rolled down her cheeks. But the undead being was blind to such and shuffled forward towards the sound of her voice, unable to resist its instinct to attack. To feed. In seconds, he... it... would be upon them.
Takashi hesitated for perhaps half a moment, then stepped forward, pumping his shotgun. They didn't exactly need to worry about being quiet when the entire school and most of the surrounding area was so chaotic. He'd make this quick and clean.
"No."
He wasn't the only one who turned to look. Everyone watched in surprise as Rei stepped around Takashi and lifted her M1A rifle with surprising confidence. Only a slight trembling of her knees betrayed the horror and revulsion she was not doubt feeling. But she had to do this. She couldn't let Takashi kill her father. Not after watching him kill Hisashi. She had to be the one to do it. Or their feelings for one another would take another serious blow, and she couldn't live with that. Just like she couldn't ask anyone else to do this for her.
Rei was standing just there, and it seemed almost as if the reanimated body of her father was hesitating. She positioned her rifles muzzle to her father's forehead and closed her eyes as she quietly spoke, "Goodbye, papa."
He only moaned, baring teeth and raising up his arms...!
The 7.62 rang throughout the hallway, echoing against the walls for what seemed an eternity afterwards.
Konpaku Miyamoto stumbled backwards for a moment, missing a good chunk of his head, then collapsed face first onto the floor. Blood splattered everywhere, but most prominently over his only daughter, who scarcely noticed. She'd already gone into shock, bright red eyes wide and staring at nothing, whole body trembling. Her rifle dropped from nerveless fingers to hang uselessly from its strap against her stomach, but she hardly felt a thing. She didn't even notice when Takashi threw an arm around her to try and guide her towards an exit.
"Rei! We need to go now! Come on!"
We need to go now! Come on!
... come on!
Come on!
A particularly loud crash of thunder split the air, and Takashi jerked awake in an instant, hand on his Beneli and automatically looking for targets. It took him a few moments to remember where he was, and slowly relaxing, realizing he was still in the employees lounge at the Goshou Hospital. He sat up slowly, but didn't see anyone else up. Most were sleeping, wrapped in their blankets and draped across various furniture. But sleep did not come easily to Takashi that night, and not just because of the storm. Something seemed off about the whole place, like there was some lingering evil in the air after a great tragedy. Unlike the previous places they'd spent the night, this place had been breached before. Shizuka's friend's house, the Takagi Estate, the mall, Yokota Air Base and even the Mimei. But not this hospital. They had lived, died, re-animated, and been destroyed here. The air was full of psychic impressions of death and horror.
Or at least, that's how some might've seen it.
It didn't seem like most of the others were bothered. Kohta, like Takashi, held his weapon close at hand, even while sleeping curled up in a chair, though he'd kept the safety on, for which Takashi was very grateful. He smiled faintly as he saw Rei with her arms cuddled around Alice, who was in turn cuddling Zeke, looking not unlike one of those wooden dolls they made in Russia that fit inside one another. Only Saya was still up, it seemed, sitting by a desk with a lamp on and scribbling onto a piece of paper. She glanced over as he started to rise, setting his weapon down on the floor beside him.
"Everything alright?" he asked, his voice pitched at just above a whisper.
She nodded. "Quiet as a graveyard."
The choice of words didn't exactly inspire Takashi, and that nervous feeling was still with him, constant as the drumming of the rain outside. Constant as the beating of his own heart. He decided to go on a quick patrol to check on Dr. Hikke, the two nurses, and Saeko. Plus, he had to take a leak. He left his shotgun behind but checked and made sure his pistol was still in his jean's pocket as he stepped out into the lobby and followed the hallway to the cafeteria.
There he found the two nurses. Shizuka was lying half over the side of one of the booths, clutching some covers to her bosom and sleeping like a baby, while Cheisu was snoring softly in the chair beside her. The sight warmed his heart, but he saw no sign of Saeko, and gently reached out to shake her shoulder.
"Shizuka-sensei, where is Saeko?"
"Room 203," the blonde nurse murmured, half in her sleep. "S'okay, Cheisu has key..."
Spotting the item in question, Takashi picked it up off the table without further waking either of them and climbed up the stairs to the second floor, locating where Saeko's had been moved to. Room 203 was empty, however, and unlocked to boot when he arrived. The sheets were ruffled, however, so maybe she'd just gone for a walk, he mused. And her clothes and weapons weren't present, so likely she'd brought them with her.
Takashi stepped back into the hallway after a moment more, and realized he had no idea where to find the restrooms. Or wherever Dr. Hikke was staying. And unlike the rest of the hospital, these passageways were dark, lit only by the moonlight drifting in from uncovered windows. Still, he steeled himself and decided to take a look.
He would later come to regret this decision.
Finding the restrooms proved less of a difficulty, so Takashi relieved himself and then hesitantly called out into the Ladies Room to see if Saeko was within. No one answered, so he gave a very brief check, and then moved on. He checked the next patient room and the next, and eventually even found the office of a Doctor Genzo Hikke, but he wasn't in, and neither was their swordswoman. So he moved on, and came across the doors to a medical laboratory with some lights still on. Curious, he pushed open the doors and stepped inside. The light was coming from the far wall, where a switch was located. Apart from that he couldn't see much, so he stepped inside, nearly bumping into a table in the dim light.
His hand reached out and flicked on the light, and turned to get a better view of the room.
And almost leapt out of his skin as he came face-to-face with the gray, rotting visage of one of Them, less than a foot from his face. He stumbled backwards into the table, too frightened out of his wits to grab for his pistol. Abruptly, he realized They weren't coming any closer, and then he saw that They were restrained by a metal chain around their throat, bolted into the far wall.
There were three of Them, he now saw. Three young women, all former nurses to judge by their blood-stained and ripped uniforms. They might've been pretty once, but the illusion was ruined by their new undead status as the closest one lunged forward, fingernails grasping at the air as she tugged against her restraints to try and reach Takashi, who was well out of her range.
Somewhat absurdly, Takashi took a moment to be grateful he'd taken a leak before he'd continued his search.
"I see you've met my test subjects," came a voice, and Takashi whirled around to see Dr. Hikke standing in the entryway, leaning casually on his pale cane as if nothing was amiss. "Oh don't mind them, they're perfectly harmless," he added, misreading the horrified expression on Takashi's face. "Just don't get too close."
"What the hell is all of this?" shouted Takashi, inciting fresh bouts of lunging from the corpses, who strained hard against their chains but could not reach either of the living occupants of the room. Realizing his yelling wouldn't help matters, Takashi quieted down, and leaned well away from Them while he confronted the doctor, who didn't look the least bit perturbed as he began filling a syringe.
"They're an experiment. Not exactly volunteers but when my nurses got infected we had only a few options. And we'd already killed plenty of people. So I came up with this idea, and together, we managed to get them here and chain them up. Takashi Komuro, may I introduce you to my former colleagues nurses Ayana Fumiko, Kurohime Camataka," he said, indicating the first two, then the third, "And Sakura Foaman. Fellows in the practice of medicine."
"Fellows?"
"They're still helping me, even if it's not entirely voluntary."
"Helping you? What on Earth could you possibly need these three for?"
"I'm working on a cure, boy!" snapped the doctor as he slammed his cane down on the table for emphasis, hobbling over with the syringe and setting it down on another part of the operating table, taking a moment to jot down some notes on a nearby sketchpad. He indicated nurse Foaman with the pointed end of his pen. "I'm using this one to test various chemicals on. If I can find out what brought Them back to life, then maybe I can find out how to stop it. Maybe even reverse it. The second one I'm testing psychologically. Seeing how it reacts to various stimuli. I'm convinced burried deep down underneath all that hunger and aggression there's lingering memories. That's why those that rise continue to linger in cities or near their jobs. Because its what they did in life."
"And her?" Takashi asked, indicating the third nurse, curious despite his revulsion.
"She's my control subject," he replied calmly, finishing his notes. "I do nothing to her. And in return, she tells me something very important. She lets me know exactly how long it takes these things, whatever they are... to lie down and stop twitching."
"Saya theorized it might take a while for them to decay..." Takashi murmured absent-mindedly.
"Smart girl," replied Hikke, even as he powered up a centrifuge and set it spinning. "Almost as smart as I am. Explains why you all survived for so long."
Takashi bristled at that, insulted, but held his tongue. He didn't have anything to prove to the likes of Doctor Hikke.
"I take it you also figured out by now how this spreads."
Takashi nodded. "It's the bite. That's how they got these two, isn't it?" he asked.
A grin stretched across Hikke's face as he nodded in the affirmative. "Once the bite kills you, you're dead. There's nothing can be done then. Good as I am, I can't quite cure death. I'm working on it," he added with a chuckle, brushing a hand back through gray tuffs of hair to try and smooth them out. Takashi shivered at his casual joke. It didn't seem very funny to him. "But I'm still working on the process itself. Trying to find a way to save those who're bit before they die. Look here, young padawan..." he said, and gestured to his work table, and a particular section.
A jar hung suspended over an open flame, its contents black as pitch and bubbling ominously. Like tar pits you see on nature channels.
"And this is the fruits of my research," Hikke explained. "Basically, I take out the chemical cocktail from the brain, purify whatever should already be there, and this is what's left."
"And this is the substance making people rise from the dead?" asked Takashi, peering at the jar with morbid curiousity.
The doctor nodded. "It contains two carbon, four hydrogen, and five nitrogen, which shouldn't be possible. I've been calling it Trioxin," replied Hikke with a faint chuckle. Then, seeing the confused look on Takashi's face, rolled his eyes. Kids these days. No appreciation for the classics. "Thing is, this jar is inert. The substance seems to die almost the instant it leaves a human body. That's the only place its active. In the bloodstream. Doesn't seem to re-animate animals either, I've tested on the rats we catch here."
"So they're immune?"
"Oh no," he replied morbidly. "They just die. Anything this stuff gets into the bloodstream of dies... but only humans re-animate. Like my former co-workers here," he said, indicating the three chained undead, who continued to mindlessly, and rather weakly, tug at their bonds. "But that's the point."
Takashi nodded. "I get it. When all of Them are gone, its over. We don't have to worry about this happening again."
"Hopefully. If not, eh, the world had a good run..." said Hikke in an off-handed manner, launching off into an odd rant. But Takashi wasn't paying attention anymore. He was already drawing up possibilities. Of what they could accomplish when all of Them had wasted away. They could rebuild. They could fix things.
Of course that was if they could manage to kill all of Them. Every last one. And that would be difficult, if even a single one escaped it could start up the whole thing all over again. And then there was the problem of sheer numbers. Saya had once done some rough calculations based on the number and types they had encountered over the past few months. Her guess was, given how fast the contagion spread, and that everyone killed became one of Them, that as of a week or so ago, she estimated at least seventy percent of the world was Them. With another five percent liable to die soon due to poor planning, suicide, or accidents, which left the worlds survivor population at only a quarter.
And if that wasn't depressing enough, it was getting smaller all the time.
Interrupting his musings, another low moan reached his ears, but to his surprise, it wasn't coming from either the decaying forms of Camtaka, Fumiko, and Foaman. Takashi glanced sharply left, past them, to a section of the operating room that had been hidden by curtains. Curiousity getting the better of him, he wondered why Dr. Hikke would be hiding this part of the lab when he clearly had no interest in concealing the fact he had zombies in here.
The good doctor moved to intercept him, and that set off all kinds of warning bells in Takashi's head.
"What's back there?" he asked.
"It's nothing," Hikke said, far too quickly, in a tone that Takashi instantly didn't believe, and shoved past him to grab at the curtain. "Its just another subject for my exper-"
Takashi yanked back the curtain, and gasped in shock.
There was another medical bed down here behind the curtain, with thick, heavy straps designed for restraining unruly or seizing patients. And the sight of anyone being held down here in those restraints, like some damn lab rat, would have horrified him enough as it was. But it wasn't just anyone on that table.
But it was Saeko Busujima in those bonds, staring up at him helplessly, cheeks stained with terrified tears.
She tried to say something but a rubber gag filled her mouth, preventing more than a muffled murmur. He scarcely noticed she was stark naked, or that her clothes were lying on a chair beside her bed, as well as her weapons. Instantly forgetting everything else, Takashi moved to undo her bonds, though he had no idea where to start on the heavy straps.
Her sapphire eyes widened and she gave a muffled cry. Realizing too late he'd turned his back on Hikke, Takashi started to turn, but in an instant, the doctor was on him, one arm around his neck to restrain him with surprising strength, the other holding a syringe. Before he could even put up much of a struggle he felt the fiery prick of the needle penetrate the skin on his neck, and something hot surged. Takashi thrust out his elbow at the doctor's chest, knocking him back and off of him, and clutched at his neck as he suddenly felt dizzy.
"Sooo sooorry weee haaad tooo dooo iiit thiiis waaay Kooomuuuurooo-kuuun..." said the good doctor with an almost pleasant smile, as Takashi's vision started to double and then triple, and he felt like he was back at sea, fighting to keep his balance.
Dr. Genzo Hikke grinned with immense self-satisfaction, again trying to smooth out the rough scatter of gray hairs atop of his head, and straightened his tie and lab coat. The boy had been injected by his strongest sedative, he'd be out in a few minutes, and then he'd strap him down onto the table beside his little girlfriend.
"You know now that I think about it, it works better this way," he mused aloud. "Now I can see if there's any difference in the infection period for a male and a female of roughly the same age. It's perfect," he declared, lightly slamming a fist into his palm for emphasis.
Saeko moaned weakly behind her gag, and he grimaced at the noise. Obviously he hadn't given her strong enough of a sedative when he'd crept into her room earlier and picked her up. Then again, she'd already been mostly out thanks to the anti-bacterials and exhaustion. It'd been easy to administer. Carrying her had been slightly harder thanks to his broken ankle but he'd managed well enough.
The plan was simple. He needed to see how quickly infection spread but he'd had no test subjects. Cheisu he needed as a watch dog, or at the very least an alarm system. But these kids were perfect. So he'd grab them up one by one. He even grabbed her weapons and clothes and put them on a nearby table. He was going to say she'd run away all by herself when the boy had gone snooping. But now he was Hikke's experimental subject as well.
It was going to be slower going getting the others, he might have to wait a day for that. If they asked about these two, he had a lie already prepared.
"Decided to cut and run on their own, everyone else was slowing them down," he practiced aloud, his voice laced with sarcasm. "I know they were your friends but everyone has a breaking point. Oh I'm so very sorry to hear that."
Hikke hopped back to his lab table to recover his cane, using it to again relieve some of the pressure on his broken ankle, and turned back to see if the boy had fallen yet. To his surprise, he was leaning up against the girl's bed for support and reaching for something in his pants.
And Hikke realized he'd made a critical error. He'd forgotten to check the brat for weapons.
Takashi fumbled at his jeans but managed to yank out the policeman's pistol kept there, and pointed it at Hikke. Or at least, he tried too. He couldn't focus very well. He fired randomly, and almost instantly blacked out. The good doctor stumbled, possibly hit, then came at him full force, knocking the weapon from his hands and swinging his cane like it was a club. Takashi awkwardly blocked the blow with his arm, but stumbled backwards. Hikke took quick advantage of this and grabbed both ends of his cane, thrusting it forward at Takashi's neck as he went sprawling over another table.
The mad doctor pressed down hard, cutting off Takashi's air. Between the sedative and the cane pressing down on his windpipe, he couldn't breathe. Stars exploded behind his eyelids. He was about to lose consciousness when the doors slammed open, and he caught a glimpse of yellow and white.
"What the hell is going on here Hikke?" shouted Cheisu, lunging at the demented doctor to try and restrain him. But with deceptive speed Hikke's cane whistled through the air to smash against the blonde nurse face, breaking his nose. Cheisu stumbled backwards, clutching at his face, and in that instant, stepped within the range of his former co-worker. Nurse Sakura lunged forward and eagerly sunk her gray, rotting teeth into his shoulder, wrenching another scream from the young man's mouth.
Shizuka meanwhile darted past the chaos to start undoing Saeko's restraints, freeing her. The swordswoman scrambled off the bed and yanked the rubber ball-gag out of her mouth as soon as it was loose.
Saeko's hand snapped out to grab her weapons, but instead of reaching for her customary Muarata katana, her hand enclosed around the beretta that had been hanging from her hip since the police station, expertly yanking it from its holster and turning it towards the demented doctor. A loud boom echoed throughout the room as her bullet impacted between his eyes, throwing him backwards. Seconds later, Kohta and the three remaining girls came bursting in, drawn by the sounds of violence.
Saeko didn't even seem to notice their entrance. For a long while she just stood there, eyes vacant and unseeing, hand trembling, until low moans came from the gray figures of his other experiments, and Saeko's hand jerked. Boom! The first zombie went down. Boom! The second one hit the floor right beside it. Boom! And that made three, freeing Cheisu as an added bonus, who fell into Saya's arms. A chuckle escaped Saeko's lips as a truly wicked grin stretched across them, her eyes sparkling with inner madness. Then with an almost maniacal cackle, she stepped over the cooling body of the mad doctor Hikke and unloaded another bullet into his head. And another, and still another. She didn't stop.
Didn't even want to stop.
"Busujima-sempai!" Kohta grabbed at her shoulder to steady her. "Its okay he's dea-!"
The beretta swung up, and Kohta suddenly found the unfriendly end pressed against his nose.
And it wasn't Saeko wielding it.
Shinigami grinned at the sight of the pudgy otaku, on the verge of wetting his pants as she pressed closer with the gun. She relished his fear, almost as much as the spilled blood of her enemies. Her finger tightened on the trigger.
"Saeko no!"
Click.
Kohta squeezed his good eye shut, fully expecting his brains to be splattered all over the wall behind him. But after a second, he realized he was still alive, and that she hadn't fired. Or rather, she had pulled the trigger, but the gun was empty. She'd spent all the bullets already. Seemingly without realizing this fact, she pivoted and turned the gun on the next person who'd spoke, aiming directly at Rei, who was crouched on the ground beside the unconscious Takashi.
Rei peered up at Saeko fearfully, arms wrappeed protectively around their leader's shoulders. The gesture was like a splash of ice water for the dualistic entity pointing a gun at them, and in that instant Shinigami vanished, and Saeko's warmth appeared behind icy blue eyes.
Her hand jerked as she regained control, and she dropped the spent pistol to let it clatter against the floor. No one bothered to reclaim it.
Saeko abruptly felt a chill, moreso than the horror, and realized she was completely naked. She grabbed at the covers of her bed to wrap around herself and preserve her mdoesty, and then grabbed up her uniform, desperate to be dressed. To have some sort of shield to protect herself.
Shizuka, meanwhile, had made her way to Takashi and rolled up the sleeve of his t-shirt with Rei's assistance. "Sorry to do this without your consent, Komuro-kun, but hopefully you'll thank me later..." she said, injecting a stimulant into his system to counteract the tranquilizer that Dr. Hikke had pumped into him, then helped him lean back against Rei. "Take care of him," the busty nurse whispered softly, steeling herself for what was to come next.
Cheisu had managed to drag himself to his feet, clutching at his shoulder as he breathed heavily. Blood dripped between his fingers from the open wound, which was already starting to look bad. Shizuka bit her lip. There wasn't anything she could do for Cheisu now. And they both knew it.
"Looks like I might have to make a rain check on that date, Shizuka-sempai," he said with a weak chuckle.
She sniffed, feeling her eyes start to water. "Its not fair," she managed to say, feeling a lump form in her throat, making the words difficult.
He smiled ruefully. "Never is," Cheisu answered, and then took her hands in his. A gentle, soothing gesture. Somewhat ruined as he pressed his gun into her hands.
Biting her lip so hard she almost broke the skin, Shizuka reluctantly nodded, fumbling for a moment with the unfamiliar weapon, but even she couldn't miss at this range. The resident medical student, however, just smiled at her, and turned his back. He didn't want to see it coming. He felt the cold muzzle of the firearm press against the back of his skull, but instead of focussing on that, he tried to remember the good times. Before the Outbreak. When things were blue and green and his girlfriend was alive and he was studying to become a fully qualified doctor.
He held onto those memories as tightly as he could.
"I'm ready," he whispered, eyes closing.
Shizuka did the same, not wanting to look, not wanting to hear either, but being unable to prevent the latter as she squeezed back the trigger and...
Bang!
Cheisu collapsed bonelessly onto his knees, then flat on his stomach on the ground. Very, very dead. A moment later his pistol was tossed down beside him as Shizuka choked back a sob. Heavy silence reigned in the aftermath, broken only by the muffled sobs of the blonde nurse, who covered her face with her hands shamefully. Takashi regained his feet, leaning against Rei for support weakly, his mind jumping all over the place between the sedative and the stimulant. Unable to focus.
"What now?" Alice asked, clinging tightly to Kohta out of fear and confusion. "Do we bury-?"
Takashi hesitated a moment, and then grabbed up the beaker with the substance Hikke had been researching, and smashed it against the far wall. And then he did the same with the other chemicals, and the equipment, using his arms to launch it off of the table and onto the floor where a lot of it shattered into glass pieces and metal fragments. The burner broke as well, and a lick of flame caught the far curtains which had hidden Saeko, and God only knew how many other victims. They ignited in seconds. As they watched, the flames began to crawl higher.
"We're leaving," Takashi said as his scowling face reflected the crimson glare. "Now."
Striding out of the room with a grim purpose, the survivors falling into step behind him. Their temporary sanctuary was lost, but they endured, and moved on. They took only a moment to stop by the lounge and grab their things before they left. Takashi took the lead, loading his last shell into the Beneli and priming it. Rei and Saeko slipped easily to either side of him, like twin angels of life and death. Shizuka strode up the middle, valiantly trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. Alice skipped faster to keep up with the long-legged nurse, holding Zeke in her arms. Saya adjusted her glasses, peering all around to watch for signs of trouble. Kohta brought up the rear, scanning for trouble, AR-10 locked and loaded.
They reached the doors to the hospital without incident. Only the dead remained within now.
By now the rain was subsiding to little more than a drizzle, and the sun was peeking up over the horizon. The vast hordes of Them were already being drawn by the sounds of the hospital's ringing fire alarms. Takashi and the others slipped past them with scarcely a murmur as they staggered helplessly into their own death trap. One of Them knocked over one of the lanterns off of the desk, shattering it on the floor and sending a rush of red flames up and down along its decaying figure. And the only thing worse than a zombie was a flaming zombie. It just kept staggering around until it collapsed into a pile of ashes, setting anything alight near it in the process. Indeed, it wasn't long before the hospital started to go up in flames, not just the ward where Hikke had been conducting unholy experiments.
The survivors paused at a safe distance to watch, soaking wet in the drizzling rain and a lot less encumbered than before, but alive and safe. The sounds of the destruction continued to draw more of Them, so Takashi wasted no time, and urged them all on down the street with a wave of his arm. Where they were going, they didn't know.
But so long as it was away from Goshou Hospital, they didn't care.
Author's Notes:
While not a direct reflection, credit goes to JM1681 and his story 'Dead Today, Gone Tomorrow' for inspiring the Rei-kills-her-undead-daddy scene.
2-4-5 Trioxin is the infamous substance from the 'Return of the Living Dead' series, which Dr. Hikke is referencing when he named it. Its not the same fictional chemical (and doesn't act like it at all either) assuming he even found the proper re-animator substance at all (and isn't just plain insane).
Also, Dave Reynolds (aka MachSabre) was kind enough to draw some artwork from the previous chapter, which can be found here: machsabre dot deviantart dot com slash art slash Commission dot com slash art slash Commission-Saeko-Shinigami-196063223.