Thanks to CrazyCreator33, Kshepps37, Jashin worshipping Jaganist, TomorrowComesToday, Spinning Bird Kick, Crazy anime chick since 1993, MyLifeInWhole, HigherBeing, fowxer, luveydovey78, DrunkFox, sleepingsnowwhite, and Skyla15699 for reviewing!
Sorry for taking so long with this chapter, but it's twice as long and twice as intense as usual. I had such a hard time writing it. So another thanks to Nepheara for nudging me through.
Also, a couple of people pmed me to say that they thought the last chapter was a little rushed, so I edited it and added some more bulk to the end if you want to go back and read it. If more than one person tells you it's rushed, then it's probably rushed, right?
Well, here we go.
Daisuke woke with the gritty crunch of sand between his teeth, nestled under his sleeping sisters with the imprint of the playground's slotted wood pressed into his cheek. Ai and Ayame drooled into his shirt collar. Hana sat with her legs curled up to her chest on the other side of the fox hole, awake.
"It's safe now," she said, not taking her eyes off the exit.
Daisuke rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "What…? Couldn't they just be waiting for us to come out of hiding?"
Daisuke recalled the blazing red eyes of Miss Miyake. He had been paralyzed with fear. Surely she had seen him, but she turned away and disappeared soon after that. They had waited for the longest hour of their lives, trying not to breathe, muscles locked up as their shoes slowly filled with sand. Was she gone? Was it safe? They didn't know.
It was Ai that ventured out of the foxhole. Daisuke could see the fear building up inside her until it threatened to bury her alive under the playground. She had to get out. She had to get fresh air, and so she clawed her way up to the surface despite Daisuke's protests.
It took mere seconds for her to race back down the hole, Miss Miyake springing up from behind the miniature rock wall and scraping at her ankles as Ayame pulled her back to safety, screaming.
They were all trembling, close to tears. Ayame had been crying off and on since that morning, trying to stop and not succeeding. Hana watched, vacant. It was as if it was happening far away from her, like she was watching from a distance. She curled in on herself, balled up in the corner.
A plump, middle-aged woman in a maroon pants suit lumbered outside to join Miss Miyake, followed by a frail-looking woman with a festive sweater—her assistant Mrs. Kudo. They circled the foxhole like wolves for minute after agonizing minute before they lunged for the opening, grabbing at the kids as they tore their way inside, jaws snapping.
Daisuke dug through his back pack, franticly searching for anything that could be of use. He flung crumpled wads of homework and textbooks out until his fingers wrapped around his only defense. Ayame screamed. Principal Tamiyama had caught hold of one of her pigtails and dragged her back by the hair.
"Get your hands off my sister!" he said, slamming a wooden ruler into his principal's face like it was a baseball bat. She shrank back with an animalistic howl, clutching her eye and flailing in the sand like a hooked fish. The other zombies peeled back, confused. Ayame scrambled to the back of the foxhole as Daisuke looked down at his new weapon, panting. It came away red and he dropped it, startled. Ai picked it up again, jaw set.
"No one's come since then," Hana said, poking her head out.
"Hey, careful," Daisuke said, leaning forward. The action woke Ai and Ayame and they jumped, heads colliding with Daisuke's chin.
"What the heck? Are there more?" Ai said searching for the ruler with one hand and massaging her head with the other. She found it half-buried in the sand and picked it up.
"Hana thinks they're gone for real this time," Daisuke said, rubbing his chin.
"Because Hana is the most reliable source of information." Ayame's muffled voice came through her knees, curled up and rocking slightly as she cradled her head.
"She knew we shouldn't go to class today didn't she?" Daisuke said, crawling over to the exit with new courage. Hana was already outside. Everything appeared to be normal.
"For all we know, we could've been safe in class if Hana hadn't taken so long to go inside," Ayame said as she crawled out behind Ai. She looked around as she tried to pick the sand out of her underwear. The school was deserted. "What time is it?" she asked before Ai smacked her shoulder.
"Stop doing that. It's weird," Ai said as she headed for the courtyard. "Sis is the one with the watch. Let's just try to make it home."
"Hey, what about Hakumei?" Daisuke said pulling her back by the shoulder.
"What about her?" Ai snapped, shrugging him off. "We're going home. She'll either be there or she won't." Daisuke clenched his fists, but said nothing.
"And Daddy?" Ayame said.
"We—" Ai hesitated. "We'll try calling him when we get home. For now let's just focus on getting there alive. Come on—would you stop doing that?"
"Ugh, but it feels weird!"
Hakumei might as well have been a ghost. The zombies leapt straight for Keiko, who brought her palms down hard enough to introduce their faces to the floor. Hakumei used her whole body to fight back. She stomped on toes, she kicked, she hit, she elbowed, she bit, she pulled hair, but there were just so many. They were quick to overpower her.
Keiko screamed as one grabbed her by the hair.
"Leave her alone!" Hakumei jumped on his back, slamming them both into the ground and successfully toppling a handful of others on the way down. She hit the floor and excruciating pain stampeded across her neck and chest. It shot from her shoulder and down her arm, stinging behind her fingernails. The breath pushed out of her as the zombies crashed into her stomach. Everything went black for a split second, like she had been turned off and rewired, something screamed between her ears, and for a moment she couldn't hear anything over the ferocious ringing.
Now they noticed her. Globs of spit spilled on her cheek as one pinned her down, snarling in her damaged ears, leaning on her wounded shoulder. Hakumei thought she heard Keiko screaming in the distance, but within the blurred haze of pain she realized it was her.
She kneed her attacker in the gut. A thud. The solid thud of bone on muscle, but he barely moved. It wasn't strong enough. It wasn't loud enough. As he struggled to keep his grip on her wrists, Hakumei brought her knee up again, harder. He groaned.
Keiko was scrambling to crawl out from under the mob as it was soaked with high-pressured baking soda. Botan had gotten to the fire extinguisher.
Hakumei kneed him again, harder still. She wanted him to feel all the pain that she was feeling. Louder. She wanted him to suffer for putting her through this surreal hell. Another thud. More. A snap, a broken rib. More. Louder. Louder.
Louder.
"Get off!" Hakumei brought her knee up again and the thud resonated throughout the room, snaps crackled like fireworks one rib after the other, the organs swam inside him with a nauseating fluid gush as they were forced to the side. She sent the zombie up and flying into the back wall.
"How on earth did you do that?" Keiko asked as she helped Hakumei up.
"I—I don't know. I got angry, I…" She couldn't manage to form the proper words around the pain. Hakumei's shoulder hung lower on her body, the knob of her clavicle stuck out through her skin. Her shoulder, arm, neck, and chest burned like someone set off a bomb inside her. Her face and shirt were wet, and she realized she had been crying since she hit the ground, torrents of water just pouring out of her eyes until the world looked liquid. "I think my shoulder's dislocated—"
"I'm sorry, but we don't have time to get you to a hospital." Botan grabbed her elbow, before Hakumei could protest, pushing her forearm inward and back out. The motion had Hakumei staggering with pain, fading in and out of consciousness. "This will just have to do."
Hakumei screamed as Botan pushed her shoulder back into the socket. The relief was instantaneous, but Botan was ripped from her side before she could breathe out a thank you. Mr. Iwamoto lifted her off the ground like she was nothing.
"Put her down!" Keiko rammed into him with a slap that twisted him around like swirl soft serve.
"A stellar hit, Keiko!" Botan said with the victory sign as she picked herself off the floor. "You should fight on the boxing team."
"Pretty sure…" Hakumei winced, clutching her shoulder, "Boxers don't slap people," Botan made a face.
Keiko stood there, horrified, looking at her hand. "I hit a teacher…" she murmured.
"And he attacked you with scissors," Hakumei said, "Come on."
They ran into the first door they could find and locked it behind them, but Mr. Iwamoto was already pounding on it. He struck the window with his scissors and it exploded into a shower of glass.
"You know what happens when you hit a teacher!" he said as he fit his arm through, scratching it on the remaining shards of glass. Blood streamed down his gray skin and dripped off his fingertips, but he didn't notice. Keiko was his only goal, and he was close like a shark closing in on the kill.
"We better think quickly," Botan said as Keiko eyed the broom cabinet. She ran over to it and grabbed the two brooms inside.
She tossed the broom to Botan, "Keep him busy," she said as pulled her scarf off.
"I've always loved the way you think," Botan said.
Always? Hakumei thought back to their first meeting in the bushes. Keiko could barely remember Botan's name. How could Botan have an opinion on Keiko's thinking if they didn't know each other that well? Hakumei knew Keiko was smart, but she went to school with her, shared the same classes…
Botan caught the broom and ran up to distract Mr. Iwamoto, block his view, keep him out as long as possible. She shoved the broom through the window and hit Mr. Iwamoto in the face with it. Hakumei heard his nose break as he fell back into the mob, but if his bloody arm was any indication, it wouldn't slow him down for long. Hakumei spotted a large shard of glass on the floor by her feet. She took off her own scarf and wrapped it around the flattest edge. A makeshift knife, but a knife nonetheless.
Keiko closed the doors to the cabinet around her scarf before she ran to pull back the curtains. "Up here," she said, and Hakumei and Botan climbed up on the windowsill, leaning against the glass, they hid behind the curtain just before Mr. Iwamoto got back up and busted into the room.
He spotted the scarf right away. "I always knew you weren't as smart as you made us think," he said and the mob swarmed over cabinet, pounding into it until it crumpled in a metal wad on the floor. Hakumei swallowed the rising bile. If they had been inside… Oh… She covered her mouth. She was going to be sick.
"It won't be long until they realize we aren't in there," Botan whispered. "We need to go. Now!" She jumped out, and Keiko followed. Hakumei took a deep breath and jumped after them. Keiko and Botan made a few swings with the brooms while Hakumei ran straight for the door. Did they really think they stood a chance at overpowering all those zombies now that they had a couple of brooms? Were they crazy?
"Don't attack them, run!" she said, waving them out, "Run, let's go!"
The streets were desolate, not a soul on them. Cars were stalled, stopped in the middle of the road, still running. A few were crashed and dented, piling up in the lanes and near the sidewalks, empty and still. Their footsteps were loud against the pavement.
"Where is everybody?" Ayame said, sniffling.
Daisuke squeezed her hand. "Just keep walking."
They went on in silence, afraid that even the smallest noise would send the zombies rushing out in droves from the shaded alleyways. Hana froze, and the others turned to look at her. She pointed to a bicyclist who was pinned between the hood of a car and a fire hydrant, tears welling up and spilling down the sides of her face.
The body bent backward over his crumpled bike, leg caught in the spokes of the front tire. He stared at them with glazed, unseeing eyes as the blood dripped from his mouth and down to his forehead. The back wheel of the bike was still spinning, bent from the accident. It circled around in slow, crooked loops with a dull creak that rang between the hollow buildings.
Ai's eyes were wet and glossy, but she bit her lip and pulled of Hana close before she allowed herself to cry. Ayame leaned to the side and puked, sobbing, hiccupping, trying to breathe between the heaves that shook her tiny body.
"Why is this happening?" she choked out. "What's going on?"
Daisuke couldn't stop the tears, the frustration, the fear, the helplessness. What was he supposed to do? He was only eight years-old. He wasn't supposed to have to deal with this. They weren't supposed to have to deal with this. He rubbed Ayame's back and helped her up when she was done. They had to keep moving. Daisuke wiped his face on his sleeve, sniffling. He didn't know what to tell her, so he told her the truth.
"I don't know," he said, collecting Ai and Hana and moving forward with Ayame huddled into his side. He looked back to the body as they left it behind. The bike wheel to the bike had stopped spinning. "I don't know."
Keiko and Botan led the way as they sprinted down the hall, until Hakumei heard a sickening crunch and Botan lurched to the side. Everything slowed as Hakumei watched. Botan's head knocked to the side, eyes wide, mouth open, losing her footing and falling to the floor. Zombies had jumped out at them from the adjacent hallway, slamming Botan in the face with a metal pipe that rang with the swing. Keiko slid, catching Botan's body before she hit the ground.
"Botan!" Keiko said, shaking her still shoulders, "Botan!" But Botan didn't move. There was so much blood. Hakumei heard every droplet hit the floor with a small splash on the tile. Drip... Drip… Drip...
Hakumei skidded to a halt behind them, hands covering her mouth, eyes wide. Botan was dead. She had to be dead. Hakumei stumbled back. She couldn't believe it. They killed her. They had killed her. There's no way she could have survived that, not when it made such a horrible noise…
Mr. Iwamoto stepped forward, laughing, and Hakumei whirled around. "The community comes together when it's important, see? And correcting bad girls is very important!" They were surrounded. There was nowhere to run.
He raised his scissors, point gleaming in the fluorescent lights, sharp and deadly. There was no way they could take them all. Hakumei saw white. Everything around her faded into a dead, cold silence. No one was coming to help them, and she wasn't strong enough to help herself. All the fight in her washed away, all the determination emptied out of her. She was suddenly tired. Her muscles wept, her shoulder cried her ears were sobbing. Even standing was just… so difficult.
She couldn't keep this up forever, with no end in sight. They just kept coming no matter what they did. This was it. This was where everything came down to a point and cut itself off. Hakumei Issei was over. Keiko Yukimura was over. Botan was already gone. A hit to the head. A hit to the head was all it took for the life to be snuffed out of her. Bang, in a matter of seconds. What chance did they have? They were all going to die here, like this. She dropped the shard of glass in her hand and it clattered to the floor with a hollow chime that echoed through the silent hallway. It was too heavy for her now.
Mr. Iwamoto grabbed Hakumei's arm, but just when he was going to plunge the scissors into her heart, electricity burst through the room, knocking the zombies backward in an explosion of light. Hakumei zoomed outward, tapping into a force wholly unknown to her. Sounds came rushing in from all over.
In less than a second Hakumei bore witness to the frogs croaking in the park, the rise and fall of their throats as they bellowed to each other across the lily pads. Ants crawling around the hallways in a line, cat patrolling the alleyways for a meal squeaking in the dumpsters. Birds flying into the night, the subtle swish of their wings beating against the chill air. She heard them all, drinking them in through her tormented ears. She went further, beyond into a landscape she had never dreamed of. Yusuke stared through her with white, screaming eyes. She reached out to him.
"Yusuke!"
She turned toward the voice. Keiko was calling, and he shrank away from Hakumei, the world zooming past her until she was thrown back into herself with a force that made her drop to her knees. Hakumei stared at her hands, flexing her fingers to make sure that she hadn't died, that everything was still working. She was alive… Incredulous, Hakumei looked up. There were bodies everywhere, all returned to their normal color. They were… They were going to be okay. She turned to look at Keiko, who was holding Botan with tears running down her face.
"She's breathing," Keiko said, and Hakumei flung her arms around Keiko and sobbed into her chest.
They stayed like that for a good twenty minutes before Botan was finally able to stand up. She leaned on Keiko while they picked their way through all of the fallen bodies. As Hakumei got up to join them, her foot hit something and she looked down to see the compact lying on the floor. Hakumei tilted her head and glanced back at cyan ponytail ahead of her. Botan must have dropped it when she received that blow to the head. Hakumei bit her lip and picked it up, slipping it into her skirt pocket before following behind them. She had a lot of questions, and she had a feeling Botan had the answers.
They went back to the classroom to get Keiko's things. Hakumei's bag was still in the lockers and she picked it up on the way out while Keiko changed her shoes.
"Hakumei, you live kind of far from here, right?" Keiko said as she slipped on her loafers. "You should come back to my place. My parents wouldn't mind…" Keiko stopped and Botan looked up at her.
"What's wrong?" she said.
"What if they're not okay? I have to get back there. I can't believe I didn't think about them."
Hakumei's face paled. The kids! She looked outside. It was already dark out, the kids were supposed to be picked up from cram school hours ago, and what if this zombie epidemic effected them as well? They could be hurt or worse. "I have to go get my siblings!" she gasped, spinning on her heels.
"Wait!" Keiko said, pulling a pen from her pocket. She grabbed Hakumei's wrist, but Hakumei pulled away.
"Keiko, I have to go. Now." She struggled in Keiko's grip, but she only held on tighter, yanking Hakumei closer.
"Not without my number, you don't. Hold still," Keiko drew a small map to her place from school on the back of her hand, as well as her address and phone number. "This is where I live, in case something happens," she said. "Otherwise—"
Hakumei was running out of the school building and toward Narou Elementary before Keiko could finish. There was no sound save for the steady click of her boots on the sidewalk. The usually busy streets were still, but she didn't stop to look around. Her mind was focused on one thing and one thing only. She had to find them. She had to find her kids, but when she got to the school, she found it deserted. The gates were still open, and the doors were unlocked.
Hakumei walked through the empty school building. The lights were still on, casting an artificial glow over bulletin boards filled with crayon drawings and gold stars. There was no one there. No one in the classrooms. No one in the front office, or the cafeteria, or the restrooms. She called for them only to have their names echo back at her through the colorful hallways. There was just… Just no one. Hakumei slammed the side of her fist into the wall. Where were they?
Her head snapped up. If they had tried to get home on their own they would've gone to the metro station. She just hoped they made it there in one piece.
She ran the three blocks from Narou to the station, body and lungs numb. She didn't allow herself to slow, jumping over the barricade and racing down the platform. Silence followed her everywhere. No one was in the ticket booths, and no one was waiting for the train. Hakumei checked her watch. It should already be waiting at their usual stop, but the tracks were empty. Her footsteps echoed as she walked, fluorescent lights flickering above her with a static buzz. They had to be here. This was the only other place they would have gone to. They would've tried to get home. If the train wasn't running, they would've stayed here until it was fixed. She knew it.
So where were they?
Hakumei tripped over herself when she saw four little heads lumped together over the back of a bench, waiting for a train home that wouldn't come. "Daisuke!" she shrieked, and one of the heads stirred.
"Hakumei?"
Her heart skipped a beat. It was Daisuke's voice. "Hana, Ai!"
"Sis is here?" Ayame sat up and looked over the bench. "Sis!"
Hakumei flew to the bench and flung her arms around them. "Ayame! What happened? Are you hurt?" She checked them over for injuries with frantic hands. Their clothes were torn, their dirty faces were streaked with tears, but they were alive, and smiling, and okay. She hugged them again, showering them with kisses until they jumped onto her sending them crashing to the pavement.
She hadn't wanted to move, piled under their tiny bodies, clawing at her clothes like she would disappear if they let go. She could lie their forever just to listen to them breathe against her, safe. She buried her face into Daisuke's hair as he cried into her collarbone. "Shh," she said.
"I'm here."
They eventually made their way back to Keiko's shop. Hakumei called on his cell phone and at the house, but had to leave a message both times. The kids were bathed and dressed in big t-shirts that belonged to Keiko's parents. They had the logo to their family ramen shop plastered on the front. They fell asleep in the living room with Botan during a game of Go Fish. She was borrowing a pair of Keiko's pajamas, snoring on the couch with a nine of spades between her fingers. Her hair was down and her head was wrapped with a stiff bandage. Questioning her would have to wait until tomorrow.
Hakumei fell asleep on Keiko's bedroom floor, hair still wet from the bath and dressed in one of Keiko's frilly nightgowns. Her first sleepover and it was the result of a city-wide disaster that was already making headlines on late night news. School canceled for a week, they had said. Sirens blared all night, but Hakumei slept through the noise.
They got the call the next morning. Yusuke was at Kuwabara's house.
Two days later he was awake, the kids were back at home, and Hakumei was wearing her own clothes, the compact in the pocket of her jeans. She stood on the sidewalk outside. Keiko had called her over to come visit. Botan was doing some explaining.