Start: Act Four – Escaping the Dead
The six walked down the dark tunnel. Their footsteps echoed through the entire corridor, and they were nearing the janitor stations inside the wall just before Shinigami whispered for the group to halt.
He walked ahead of the five of his companions, and stepped back against the left side of the tunnel. He wanted to check the stations to make sure no one could surprise them on their way past.
The silver-haired boy brought a finger to his lips, and then stared ahead into the empty blackness. Only a corner of the janitor's desk inside the station was visible. After a minute of silence, he looked into the group of his companions.
"Masako. The other one." he said, tilting his head toward the other station.
From the front of the group, she nodded and quietly jogged past him; then stopped briefly, inching toward the other station. After a few moments, she stepped out in front of the space. She turned her head to Shinigami, and shook her head. "I don't see anything."
He looked to the group, and gestured for them to move. "Ok. We can go now."
"Shinigami!"
His eyes snapped back towards Masako, who was inches away from one of them, and ran over. She was falling backwards, on purpose, to get away from the thing that had her under it's control by her neck. He raised his katana in the air, but as he imagined the katana going through the undead janitor's back, it also cut into Masako's stomach. Panicking, he dropped the blade, and pushed the janitor as hard as he could. It stumbled sideways, and since Masako had no one holding her up, she lost her footing and fell against the wall.
Shinigami hurried over to Masako as soon as he saw Itachi and Chris running towards him in the corner of his eye. He grabbed both of Masako's hands and pulled her up, while the whip of a swing was soon met with the sound of a pound into flesh. There was another, and eventually, a splatter sounded to their right.
"Are you alright?" he asked, searching her eyes. They were full of... shock. Wide-eyed, blank... shock.
Masako only stared. She didn't say anything, and by this time, Syoko had been beside them.
"I think she just wants to move on," The blonde said. She knew her friend better than anyone, and Masako hated being scared.
Shinigami looked to her and nodded, and the group started to move forward. He picked up his katana along the way, and as they approached the door in the darkness, more cautiously this time of course, Shinigami heard a quiet conversation taking place.
"You'll be okay. You're a big girl, right?"
That was Chris' voice.
"Actually she's pretty small compared to you."
...He didn't recognize that one. Maybe it was Itachi's, then.
"Yeah, but Shinigami came to your rescue. He's a big guy at least."
"Actually, he's not as big as you either."
Somebody started to shuffle, and jog... backwards. "Hmm...
Only a small difference," a feminine voice said, more distant now.
"See, only a small difference. Thanks Syoko."
A short "mhmm" hummed from her throat.
"Like I was saying, you have a personal bodyguard. He got that guy off of you in... point-two seconds."
Syoko was still speaking lowly. "Ohhh, you noticed that too...?"
A giggle followed, and a few others chuckled with her.
"I don't know about you, but I think he's sweet on-"
The group came to a halt, and almost immediately, Shinigami had his eyes on Itachi, who had expected to finish his sentence.
"She almost died. What was I supposed to do? Shut up and be serious."
He was taken aback, and shook his head. "Sorry man.. We didn't mean to piss you off or anything. It was only a joke."
His glare eased, but only slightly. "Just drop it from now on," he said, turning around with the hopes of discouraging him from talking anymore.
"...But if he starts to make googly eyes at you Masako, then you'll know why, right?"
"Oh shut up, Itachi!"
A sigh followed. "Just trying to lighten the mood, Hoshiko..."
Ignoring them, he leaned against the door, with his katana in his hand. "We're about to be out of the door now. Are you all ready for me to open it?" Shinigami asked, directing his voice backwards.
Chris asked the same question. "Is everybody ready?" A few seconds passed. "Yup, we're ready."
Shinigami nodded. "If you two are really splitting, we won't be able to help you. You three stay behind me. I'm going to go for the front gate, but if we need to think further, does anyone want to go anywhere specific?"
Chris answered. "We can always head for my house. It's a little far, but it's a straight shot for the first couple of blocks."
"Okay. Masako, Syoko?"
"Yeah?" they both answered.
"Stay close to Chris."
"Oh, so you get to kill everything and be the badass zombie-killing machine while I'm stuck on security detail... ow."
He turned briefly to see an angry Syoko glaring at Chris, who was rubbing his right arm.
"Be ready!"
He pushed the door open, and as the tunnel flooded with light, He took in every aspect of the outside world he could see so far.
It was nearing the evening, about six p.m. The sky was a warm blend of early morning, night, and mid-day, with the sun directly ahead of them. There was a single van in the area. It was already moving toward the gates, so their was no point in even considering a vehicle. There were stragglers outside in gym uniforms... the entire P.E. Class had been turned, apparently. Blood decorated the concrete every few steps, and outside the front gate was a horde of undead citizens.
The path to the gymnasium was only littered with a few of the previous gym class however, and Shinigami had already thrown his plan into action.
"Set a boundary for the three of you as I clear the way," he called to Chris, who nodded and complied.
"Bye, you two. Be safe," Syoko said, nodding to them as she watched Itachi and Hoshiko head in the direction of the back gate. Itachi waved back, and Hoshiko kept running forward to be sure that one of them was paying attention to their path. The blonde turned her head before she could see the two forced to defend themselves, and silently prayed that they would at least make it away from their sights safely...
And soon enough, she was watching Shinigami's form obliterate the undead in their way to the gymnasium. Masako was patrolling their left and right while Chris followed the direction of her gaze, prepared to attack.
Shinigami turned his head to them, with his katana positioned between his knees. "Go inside!"
Masako grabbed Syoko's hand and ran forward. The undead seemed to close in on their path, as if they were now aware of their presence. Had they made too much noise?
As they neared the doors to the gymnasium, Syoko looked back. Shinigami was right behind them, and Chris was a little further back.
"Keep looking forward."
Her eyes darted back to Shinigami's. She turned around, and found that Masako had now opened the gymnasium doors.
The three went inside, and Shinigami kept his focus on what was behind them inside the gym. Masako held the door open for Chris, and as soon as he had gotten inside, she shut the door.
"Did anyone see outside the gates? Those looked like people in town..."
"Not now, Syoko. We have bigger problems."
She turned around. Shinigami had been referring to the zombies inside the huge gymnasium, and the two people fighting them off from a shrinking corner of the room.
"Please, let's just leave..."
Masako had grabbed Shinigami's sleeve before he could even think about helping them.
"I just want to get out of here."
Realizing his elbow was raised to jerk it away from her grasp, he decided to simply drop it instead. "You wouldn't want anyone to say that about you if you were in that situation, would you?"
"But there are so many of them..." her voice trailed off as she looked into his eyes.
He shook his head at her. "You're just shaken up."
"Don't I have every right to be?"
"Masako, we're helping them. No questions asked." Syoko had been glaring at her now.
All she could do was become silent, and let her gaze fall to the floor. She still felt Shinigami's eyes on her, however, and it made her feel... under fire.
"Don't start acting like that. You're helping too. Come on."
Masako exhaled silently, but didn't look up to acknowledge anyone's reaction to her. She just moved forward, behind Chris and Shinigami.
Chris held the left, Masako moved to the right, and Shinigami focused on the middle. Syoko had remained by the entrance, but moved to a corner so not to attract anymore attention to the doors.
Shinigami, while absentmindedly slicing through several bodies in his swings, watched out for the two in the corner. The crowd separating the two groups was not as thick as it was long, so they stood a chance of not being overwhelmed.
There was a girl an a boy; both with baseball bats, and both obviously very capable of defending themselves. They had acknowledged the other group's presence, but they had yet to let it distract them.
After dismembered, brutally bashed, and twitching bodies covered the gymnasium's floor on Shinigami's side, the boy and the girl started to move toward the middle. There was eye contact for a brief moment, and the boy decided to speak first.
"We've closed off the area for right now. If we can clear out the rest of these things, we'll be safe in here."
He nodded, and returned his focus to the situation. On his left, Chris had seemed to favor a tactic that involved letting his strength take care of any zombies that dared to get close enough, and letting his hammer make sure they didn't get the opportunity to try it again. He was doing fine, with none of the undead nearby (that he couldn't control), and didn't seem tired.
On his right, Masako had been leading single zombies far away from the mass she controlled, and taking care of them from their distances away from the rest. He silently approved, since she was smart enough to consider her own strength.
He didn't have to worry about himself, of course. The boy and the girl were near him, and they were capable defenders. He wasn't defenseless, either.
So he turned around, and saw Syoko raising a thumb to him. She hadn't made any noise, so none of them had bothered to even shuffle in that direction.
He moved to his right, and decided to help Masako. The other two had moved in Chris' direction now that the middle of the gymnasium was clear.
With him killing the majority that were in back, Masako had started to feel a little better. She had been pacing herself, so she wasn't tired, and she hadn't come close to getting bitten, either. She felt calm as the number of undead on their side began to shrink to zero.
As she watched Shinigami plunge his katana through a the side of a nose, and kick the body from the end of his blade, she let her axe fall to her side. She was even bloodier than she was before, and so were Chris and Shinigami. The wiped the blood downwards from her bare legs, and ended up smearing it all over herself.
She looked up, to find Shinigami's gaze upon her. "We're done," he called.
She nodded, and walked to the center of the room, meeting with Syoko, Chris, and the other two people. One was a girl, with wavy black-blue hair that was a little messy (from the killing, she presumed). Her eyes were brown, and her complexion was close to that of Masako's.
The boy was five foot eight, with green eyes and spiked black hair. Both of them were carrying metal baseball bats.
The girl spoke first. "My name is Sora. This is Katsu. Don't bother telling him your names, he'll just call you something ridiculous that characterizes you in five or less words."
"Got to it before I could, did you? Well, since it's out there..."
He turned to Masako. "Grumpy of the seven dwarfs."
She blinked.
"Like I thought," he said, grinning. He then turned to Shinigami.
"Hmm..." He looked him up and down, and after a few seconds, shared his observation. "Dante of Devil May Cry."
Shinigami raised both eyebrows. "Uh huh. Keep it moving."
"Okay... on to..." He started to laugh. "The mighty Thor of Asgard! You've got the hammer and everything."
Chris smiled, shaking his head. "It is fitting, so I guess I can't get upset..."
Now it was Syoko's turn, she supposed... but he couldn't seem to think of anything. His mouth twisted in thought. "Blondie? But that's too obvious, right?"
She nodded and crossed her arms, playing along. "Yeah. You can do better."
He thought for a little while longer, and finally seemed to have his answer as he shouted "Aha!"
"Princess Peach."
Her enthusiasm dropped. "Of all the..."
"Anyway," Sora exhaled, requesting the group's attention. "I'd like to call you by your real names."
"I'm Shinigami." He looked to his side, and followed the group by their names as he saw them. "Masako, Chris, Syoko."
Sora nodded, and smiled. "Nice to meet you all. Thanks for helping us."
"It was no problem," Chris said.
Shinigami sheathed his katana. "So, how long do you suppose we'll be in here?"
End: Act Four – Escaping the Dead