Divided by Two, Add Terror
Author's note: Long bloody time it took me to get this out and if you're still there, I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. I take great satisfaction from getting it done. But alas, Highschool of The Dead isn't updating anytime soon. Here, the gang has been split up by the store blowing in their faces, forcing them to continue on without each other. Also, I'll try to imitate Osaka's way of talking from the anime. I'm sorry if both casts haven't linked up yet; I'll try as best as I can to update this. I could also use your help as well, PM me if you want to talk to me for ideas and such.
"I can't believe this!" Kaorin exclaimed in frustration as they began piling up liquor bottles in a bag. She always knew that Yukari was such wild teacher, setting up study halls when she ought to be teaching English, making bets in every PE activity that sought to challenge Nyamo, a certified PE teacher, and driving like a Mad Max. But now, doubling back to the convenience store to pack up some booze at her whim was probably the most stupid thing they've ever done for her. Normally, they would have refuse but with Yukari and her notorious temper tantrum, they had no choice in the matter but to do as she said and to catch up with the others.
Sakaki, while she was packing provisions into another rucksack, picked up a plastic jar of strawberry jam. Its contents were vivid red and it caused her hand to shake in tremors. The longer she looked, the more her hands quaked, pupils dilated as she recalled her first encounter up close with ever-increasing clarity, a jarring montage of images played in front of her, jerky flashes of an open-mouthed monster in front of her wanting to sink its teeth into her body.
With a shudder she dropped the jar of jam and it landed on a pile of ramen packs scattered on the floor. She looked down to see it.
"Miss Sakaki," Kaorin spoke up. "Are you okay?"
She shook her head a bit to clear it. "Kaorin, let's just get some bottles and be on with it," she said quietly, more sternly than she intended.
"Okay," Kaorin said meekly. The tall girl regretted what she just said.
Lorenz looked at all the sorts of merchandise they would ever need were either on laid on the shelves or strewn on the floor. He thought aloud, "I think we should also stock on some more goods too."
Kaorin sighed with frustration. "Thanks, Captain Obvious. That would have been a good idea if we didn't have to carry booze for her." She picked a bottle of ninety-proof vodka and put it into the bag. Already there were eight bottles inside, each a different brand of alcoholic spirit. Lorenz raised his eyebrows in mild surprise at the amount of contents inside.
"Uh... Miss Aida," he spoke up. "Don't you think you're carrying a little too many?"
Kaorin spun around and gave him a look equal to his own. "Didn't you hear her? She said she wanted twelve bottles of this stuff and fifteen cans of beer." Although he was their classmate and a European at that, most of the girls at school seldom stop in to chat with him and vice versa up until now.
He cocked an eyebrow at realizing the oddness of their task. "That sounds a little excessive, don't you think?"
"I don't want to piss off Yukari like you did at noon. If she can make you dance like a fairy, who knows what she'll do to us?"
Lorenz gulped and cringed at the thought of dancing that ridiculous dance again. While he doesn't put great stock in appearances, it's definitely not something he wanted to recall. If there's something that deserved to be locked up in the "Most Embarrassing Moments of High School" file cabinet for the rest of his life, that was most certainly it.
"I see your point," he agreed. His face scrunched in recalling being made to do that Monty Python number in front of the class.
She did not listen to the entire exchange and the moment after it as she was absorbed with her own thoughts. It did not occur to her at all to think much about this disaster until now. A few hours ago, they all broke out of school in a gambit that surely saved their lives. Of course they had to bust through the horde with whatever they had to use for a weapon. She never knew what it felt like to something or someone with a piece of metal.
That changed today when she struck her first kill. It wasn't like when she hit a ball during PE with bat, it wasn't like when she prepared meat, fish, vegetables and other foodstuffs for cooking like she occasionally did sometimes for her family. No, it was completely different, she realized with a shudder.
As soon as they turned on the music, everyone leaped off into the fray like jackrabbits. She picked up Chiyo and ran down the stairs. The plan worked, the zombies converged in classrooms where the loudspeakers were, blaring out Surfin' Bird loudly and obnoxiously. Descending down the stairs with Chiyo in hand, she caught up with the others as they fought a literal running battle for the door leading to the school yard. She set Chiyo down and they dashed down the corridor.
In the heat of the moment she encountered one of "Them" up close. One of the things clambered into her way. She halted abruptly and wildly shook her arms in an effort to keep her balance and not fall on the monstrosity. On the floor she feel on her back with a thud. The thing turned its face on her. She locked eyes with it and was instantly afraid at what she beheld. Raw primal fear seized her body and even her voice as she watched it slowly walked to her with its gaping jaws, letting out a low moaning sound, singing a song of visceral hunger.
The moaning made her shudder, yet her body refused to make a move. In her mind the song of the fiend was much more horrifying, reverberating in her ears loudly. Eyes wide, pupil dilated, she thought of this ravening creature proceeding to pounce on her and rip her apart, her screams accompanying its feast, feeling every painful pull, tear and bite. Never had a more gruesome and heart-wrenching image entered her mind in more vivid a fashion.
At first she only hear her low shallow briefing. Then he heard a rather distant voice. It was high-pitched and it kept on calling her name. Raising her head a bit, she saw in her feverish vision Chiyo, her hands cupped around her mouth. She must have been calling her name. Her calls gradually became louder and more frantic. She turned her head around to see a crowbar just lying within arm's reach. It was her crowbar, which must have fell out of her hands when she stumbled on her back. She turned her eyes back to the the zombie, this time it was much closer. She saw its sickly hue of death gray, scented its overpoweringly sweetly-rotting stench. Its eyes were white, rolled-back with pupils shrunk into tadpoles, its mouth and teeth were stained with blood and gristle. From it the smell was even worse, like the deepest pit of hell itself. It slowly bent over to eat her, unsteadily kneeling down with hands stretched out to pin her down.
Sakaki quickly grabbed the crowbar. With a grunt she swung it hard at its right temple. She heard the loud ding of metal making a wet sickening crunch on a human face. She could not believe that she had just hit him, a person... or what used to be one. She never, for the life of her, did anything so violent like beating someone with a piece of metal.
Sakaki's hesitation nearly cost her.
The thing creaked back its head and with a roar, jumped at her. She was startled out of her spell and quickly blocked its attack. The thing grabbed the crowbar and sank its teeth into it. It couldn't bite into the metal. She frantically tried to pull it away but its grip was surprisingly strong, pushing itself on her. She gritted her teeth and pushed back with all her might, wrestling it relentlessly with the crowbar.
Grunting in muscular exertion, she eventually pushed it back a bit, giving her some leverage to raise herself up a little and with a sudden burst of power she slammed the crowbar with both hands against the creature's nose. It snarled viciously as it slammed against the wall.
Free of the monster's grip, Sakaki then twirled the crowbar like a baton and slammed the hooked end at it, first was a right and a left hook to the jaw, then she raised it upward and brought the straight end down on the forehead with a cranium-busting crunch. She backed up as it staggered a bit and collapsed forward, landing before her feet.
"Miss Sakaki!". Chiyo's shrill cry prompt her to turn her head and saw little redhead running to her with some tears in her eyes. "You're alright!"
She quickly scooped Chiyo into her just in time for Kagura to call both of them onward as the group of desperados that they are were temporarily held up by a score of "Them". Sakaki set Chiyo down again, this time close by, and joined the fray. She attacked one, parrying the crowbar against the side of the head. It reeled from the blow and slowly got back up. She laid one on the shoulder, forcing it to bow and cracked the top of the skull with crowbar. It tilted a little fro and back. She quickly nudged it out of the way with the crowbar.
"Wicked skills, Sakaki!" Kagura cheered loudly. Seeing more of them blocking the hallway. She then cried, "Let's waste these fuckers right and get outta here!" Both of them raced towards the crowd of a dozen or so blocking their way to freedom with the others following behind.
"Miss Sakaki, are you alright?" A voice asked her. Her trance broken, she saw Kaorin and Lorenz standing before her.
"Miss Sakaki, are you okay?" she repeated the question worriedly. "You just stared into space like that."
Sakaki shook her head, chasing away the cobwebs of her earlier recall of her first kill. "No, no," she refuted. "I'm fine."
"Well, Fraulein Sakaki, that's good," Lorenz said. "You had us worried. Please don't do that again." He adjusted his glasses, causing a bit of afternoon sunlight to glint from it. In less than a day, she had heard Lorenz talk a lot more than she remembered. She could not recall a time when he said this much from the day he showed up in high-school as an exchange student up to now, except perhaps for a few times she could recall, often when he was asked to recite in class a poem by Kimura or something else. Perhaps it's because she seldom interacted with anyone outside her friends, not that she couldn't find anybody else to socialize with but she felt comfortable with them around. Up until today, she never really crossed paths with the boy.
"Thank you for you concern, Lorenz," Sakaki replied.
"It's alright, Fraulein Sakaki," he said, visibly relieved.
"You got us worried," Kaorin added.
"I'm fine, Kaorin. I think we need to get back the others."
"Well, there's no use dwaddling about," he agreed. "Let's get this all of this before they start scolding us for holding up." Sakaki nodded and rode on point.
"Hah," Kaorin snorted. "We're gonna get a double scolding when Miss Kurosawa realizes that we're carrying liquor for Miss Yukari."
"Hmm, that seems like-" Lorenz cut short his sentence and stopped on his tracks. A moment of clarity flashed in their minds.
"How could we be so stupid!" Kaorin exclaimed. "Lugging up booze just so she could be drunk on her ass. Come on, let's get out of here." She dropped the bag full of booze disdainfully, crashing with sound of breaking glass.
That startled the trio into jumping and yelping sharply.
"Jesus, Kaorin!" Lorenz exclaimed out of breath. "Don't be hasty next time. I think those things can hear us."
"Oh, I'm sorry," she squeaked in apology.
He sighed. "It's alright. Let's not get careless." The two girls nodded. "Alright, follow me." He un-clipped his spade out of its place, brandishing it for a quick fight if needed.
He had never spoke in length with any girl in school before. He was not a skirt chaser by nature and he put his mother and studies ahead of him... and old memories behind. In this disaster, he would be at least glad to rejoin the others. That still required they get to them though. He blinked his eyes twice, as if blink away whatever images in his mind that bothered him.
"You sure know which way you're going?" Kaorin asked.
"Yes, it's that apartment complex we passed by a while ago," the boy answered. "We can't miss it since we passed through it by."
Sakaki took a look at the broken refrigerators that contained liquor. On the floor lay the scattered shards of glass and a puddle of their contents. Apparently, whoever looted this place before them did a hasty and sloppy job; not that she blamed them for the store's state of affairs.
They gingerly walked around one of the half-fallen shelves blocking their way, stepping on the growing puddle of liquid. Sakaki carefully walked on it so she wouldn't slip. The other two were were having slight trouble walking on the wet floor, with Lorenz almost losing his balance at mid-point to their trip back to the storeroom while Kaorin lost footing and almost flung herself backward. Sakaki caught her and helped the shorter girl back to her feet.
"Thanks, Miss Sakaki."
"You're welcome," she replied quietly.
They heard the some faint noses outside in the street that sounded vaguely mournful. They froze on their tracks as their minds registered the threat they almost have forgotten about earlier.
"They're back," Lorenz whispered as they turned to look outside through the large display window. They could see a scattering of them in twos and threes with probably more out of sight. "Let's get out of here. Quietly."
The two girls nodded in tense agreement as they went to the counter to get into the storeroom.
Outside, the delivery van which they rode to safety with Yukari wildly at the helm had sprung a leak in the fuel line, which sprouted into a growing puddle on the asphalt in the direction of the upside-down car which crashed into the pole. In irony of purpose, the very wires it was built to hold were what held it in place in spite of the car that broke its base. Soft gusts of roving air swayed it gently, almost imperceptibly.
But those wires would only hold for so long. The weight of the split pole stretched the wires to their limits. A few seconds later, the stress of the tension caused them to snap, releasing the pole to the ground.
A loud crash occurred, making them whip their heads in its direction.
In a space of a few seconds, the wires crackled alive with electricity, causing a shower of sparks from the severed, frayed ends. Some of the sparks landed immediately on the fuel puddle, erupting instantly aflame.
Instinct immediately dictated his response. "Run! Now!"
They frantically rushed forward to the storeroom and threw themselves in. Lorenz spun around and quickly closed the door, locking it. He helped the two up on their foot. He growled, "Come on, you two, we've got to leave!"
At his prompting Sakaki immediately breezed through the boxes and shelves that filled the storeroom. Her heart was beating faster and the adrenaline had kicked into her body again into overdrive. She barely knew that she was leading Kaorin by her hand or how she got to the door in within a second. Lorenz stopped by its left side, she took the right. He struck the padlock with his spade and gave a kick to the door.
It did not budge. "Dammit!" he cried.
He then swung the spade repeatedly at the door handle like an ax, breaking it out of its place. He then gave another swift kick and the door broke outward. "Come on! Through here!"
Sakaki swiftly collected Kaorin and they raced through the door into an alley, just in time for a thunderous explosion to to occur behind them. By reflex they dove to the ground, crawling until they find a dumpster to hide behind and covered their heads with their hands. It was followed by another violent explosion rocked the store.
The noise of the explosions rang in their ears. Nyamo got up from the floor, cover in debris that showered them previously and coughing the powdery dust out of their throats. The ringing remained in her ears until it gradually faded.
She blinked. White powder fell on her eyes, making them burn. She blinked harder and and rubbed her eyes to rid them of the burning white dust. Blink rapidly to get her eyes going, she put her hands underneath herself and pushed up. White powder fell her arms, body and hair. She blinked them away. She tasted some of the dust and spat them out. The chalky taste was still their. She spit again.
She looked over to Yukari next to her, who groaned. She leaned over and shook her gently. "Yukari, are you alright?"
"Yeah... yeah..." she replied weakly. "... I'm fine, Nyamo..." Her groaning sounded like her voice when she was annoyed, not the kind she knew when Yukari hurt herself. Nyamo sighed with relief. She gave a cursory check on the English teacher to see if she had injuries. Not seeing any to alarm her, she got shakily to found out where the explosion came from.
The store front that was across the street a while ago was now a burning wreck, the van and the upside-down car were now twisted and smoldering from the explosion.
It took a few seconds for head to clear before comprehending what happened exactly. "Oh my God!" she screamed wildly. "No!"
Yukari was startled and scrambled up to her feet as Nyamo continued to scream to the top of her lungs.
"Nyamo, calm down!" she cried.
But the PE teacher did not heed her friend and was about to bolt when Yukari grabbed her with arms. Struggling to keep Kurosawa under control nearly her arms. She shouted rapidly, "Hey, Nyamo! Chill out, chill out, chill out!" After the screaming and struggling, Nyamo stopped and slumped, breathing heavily.
"Okay...", the English teacher said calmly, remembering that TV episode of what to do during a panic attack from some show. "Breathe in... breathe out... Okay, repeat after me."
Nyamo followed Yukari's instructions several times, regaining enough calm to look at her friend.
"Okay, now?" Yukari chimed. "Are you okay, Nyamo?" she asked with real concern.
"I... I..." she stuttered. Then her mind was seized with desperation, causing her to bolt up. "Sakaki! Kaorin! Oh my-!"
"Hey, calm done, Nyamo." Yukari was almost lifted off her feet by Nyamo's abrupt move. "Calm down."
"Calm down!? What hell are you talking about? We've got students burning across the street!" she shot at her friend, enraged.
"It's too late," she shot back. "They're both roasting in a fire, if you hop in, your ass is toast- "
Nyamo's fist caught Yukari by the jaw, sending her reeling to the left before she tackled the English teacher down on the floor with a hard thump. She grabbed her collar and lifted her head up from the floor.
"Damn it, Yukari!" she cried angrily. She breathed heavily as her eyes stared back at her friend. Her friend! The very person who at a whim sent three good people back to get booze, and to their deaths. She felt the rage building up inside as she looked at her friend, who stared back with frightened eyes. "Yukari..." she said in choked rage. "Damn you!"
She thrashed her friend's back against the floor repeatedly.
"Sending them out!" -*crash*- "To collect booze!"
"Hey!" Yukari vainly cried for Nyamo to cease. "Cut it out- Ahhh!" She tried to lunge back at Nyamo, prompting the PE teacher to shield herself from Yukari. It was then they wrestled each other, rolling across the floor, with Yukari trying to block Nyamo from gripping her neck by gripping her wrists.
Yomi and Kagura, worried by the explosion, followed teachers back to the apartments and to the stairs to where they heard shouting.
The two were writhing together on the floor, grunting and clawing at each other. The two girls quickly tore them away from each other, Yomi with Yukari and Kagura with Nyamo.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" Nyamo threatened, being held back by Kagura.
"Nyamo! Chill! Chill!" Yukari begged defensively as she sagged in Yomi's arms.
"Shut up! You sent them to die!" Kagura was almost swept of her feet in struggling to keep Kurosawa from tearing her best friend apart.
"Come on, I didn't-"
"Fuck you!"
"Coach, calm down," Kagura begged. "Where's Sakaki and Kaorin? Where's the exchange kid?"
"Dead!" Nyamo cried hysterically. "Yukari killed them."
"I did not!"
"Oh yes, you do-" It was guttaral, raw anger given voice.
"Hey, cut it out both of you!" It was Yomi who called out, prompting all eyes to turn on her. Yukari stood up shakily while Nyamo breathed herself, the anger seething slowly now, still hanging in Kagura's arms. Her student lifted her on her feet, also shaky but for a different reason. Nyamo had a dangerous look in her eyes, looking ready to lunge at Yukari if she ever so as try to run away. Kagura felt the tension in her mentor and was prepared to grab her a second time lest she flare up on Yukari again.
Yomi sighed with relief. Thank God, she thought. For once some sense had reined them in, allowing them to stop and think despite the intense feeling of the chase and its heavy aftertaste. As they looked on, Yomi didn't know what to say next. She surprised herself with the realization that she just ordered two teachers to stand down. Perhaps that was where the awkwardness came from. Why, the whole room was silent save for the noises outside. So Yomi struggled to form whatever thoughts she had of the situation into coherent words, anything to get the whole show on the road.
That was when a flurry of moans, hisses and groans began to grow louder from the streets below. They all looked down to see a crowd of those things gathering all over the street. Their hollow voices seem to sing a mournful yet jubilant song, almost as if rejoicing in the deaths of the gang's lost comrades. They shambled listlessly, yet they can't get the feeling that they were like dancing around an evil altar, which was exactly what the store was now. Everyone felt a subtle creeping dread all over their bodies as they watched and listened to the horrid sight below.
"Oh shit..." Yomi muttered silently.
Nyamo's words broke the silence. "We gotta go."
"But what about-"
She repeated herself. "We have to go - now."
Everyone slowly did as they were told, having no energy to dispute them. In only a second apart they left the room one by one, on their way to join the others. They have more time to mourn - and to argue and fling the blame - when they find better safety.
It rained bits of fiery debris over them but thankfully they were protected by the dumpster they hid behind.
"Oh my God! We're gonna die, we're gonna die!" Kaorin held closely to Sakaki, her high-pitched wails spilling over the deafening noise. She was practically begging for her life as all three huddled closely for cover, her arms gripping the tall girl's body.
"Miss Aida, don't panic!" Lorenz called out. "We're all safe."
A large flaming object crashed behind his back, prompting the girls to scream and him to nearly lose his bladder control. It bounced away from them before rolling to a stop. They breathed rapidly, their hearts pumping into a frenzy over their close escape. The rush that propelled them to save their lives was slowly fading away. Lorenz lifted his head up and turn around. All he could see around the alley were scattered flaming debris and he could feel the heat washing from the store behind the dumpster. But he feared they'll have company soon.
"Fraulein Sakaki, Fraulein Aida," he said softly. "I think it is safe to leave." The girls nodded anxiously.
"Okay, let's go." They all got up together and walked away from the dumpster, cautiously looking around. He tensed up, the spade in his hand was held like a farmer's machete, gripped tightly and ready to deliver a quick strike. They reached the end of the alley that connected to the road. When they arrived, they were astounded to see lots of "Them" in the streets already.
"Oh my God they're here," Kaorin shrilled with fright and disgust. The sight of so many fiends once again nearly churned her stomach.
"Oh God...", he muttered. "I think we need to find another way to the others."
Sakaki felt something crawled under her skin as she watched the revolting sight of the decaying grayskins gathered around. One of them had almost took her life back at the school. She could get still see the face of the first one she killed. The rotted teeth, dead eyes that bore inside her, that hellish breath, and the twisted expression on their faces were still clear in her mind. And that awful smell from their mouths, she thought. It almost made her retch as she looked at them, they seemingly looking back at her with those empty rotting eyes.
Lorenz gently shook her shoulder. "Fraulein Sakaki, we have to leave." It was enough to break her out of her trance, and promptly turned to the boy. "We need to find another way to the others."
"Okay," she said quietly.
"Ah, good. Let's go." She patted her shoulder and he gestured to Kaorin to join up. They promptly left the alley searching for a new route around the dead.
They have beaten their feet all the way to find safety. It had been a harrowing flight from the undead and so far they've been lucky not to dump into more of "Them". They have Minamo Kurosawa to do that. And now they were fighting their way through a thick crowd gathering near the mouth of the alley. She brought her garden spade upward into a jaw of one fiend, sending on its back. She then flipped it over and stomped its neck, killing it.
"That's one less zombie to worry about!" Yukari hollered. She kicked her own opponent on the stomach and whacked the top of its head with a broken-off table leg. "Oh yeah!"
At the rear Tomo and Yomi vigorously defended from the shamblers gathering from behind. The wildcat was lancing "Them" with with her mop-derived spear. It was not exactly helping Yomi as her friend only used one attack, that was to to keep thrusting and recovering it from her opponent. It did not work as well as she tried to aim for the head but sometimes missing her mark, resulting in her hitting the non-fatal chest area and limbs or missing entirely, giving Yomi some close calls.
"Hey!" Yomi snapped. "Watch where you're stabbing." She brought her axe down on her own fiend splitting its skull open.
"Come on, Yomi!" Tomo retorted. "I've got my hands full here. Besides, you're not even doing a half better job than I am."
That pissed her off. "What!? You let two slip past you and another tried to eat you from behind!" She dispatched another with an axe blow, sputtering blood against the wall, venting her frustration against it. More than once already, she bailed Tomo in this fight, forcing her to toggle her attention between keeping her flank clear of them and keeping Tomo, Kaorin and Chihiro from being overwhelmed.
"Yeah, I'm skinny and they still attack me, fatty!" Tomo retorted.
"What-!"
"What the hell are you guys whining for!?" Yukari screamed angrily as she sideswiped her kill with the table leg. "Quit slacking off!" No more complaints came from the two although it did not change their situation.
At the back Chiyo and Osaka shuddered as they stood in the middle, huddled in terror as they watch their friends fight "Them" off.
"I h-hope M-miss Kurosawa get us out of here," she whimpered.
"Ah'm mighty fine, Chiyo," Osaka said hopefully. "Let's just stick close 'n trust 'em. Miss Kurosawa knows her stuff." A growl turned their heads to their right and they screamed as a zombie appeared to their right.
"Oh my God, we're gonna die!" Chiyo screeched in terror as it loomed above.
SPLACK!
Yomi wedged her fireaxe into the head. She kicked it off to free the blade and returned to her position next to Tomo, complaining harshly to her not screw up again. Chiyo remained petrified, too shocked to have noticed that they just escaped death by a hairline. She was as pale as a ghost, her arms rung around Osaka like a vise.
The airhead then asked Chiyo, "Chiyo-chan, what did Tomo screw up? It's not that she's got a screw to throw."
The nonsensical reply was enough to get Chiyo's mind back in gear, if only lethargically. "Osaka, let's... be careful next time," she slowly said.
"Oh great," the airhead chimed. "Why don't we hug each other like this in a slumber party?"
"Yes..." Chiyo replied weakly and they went near the front of the group, which was struggling to clear a path through the thinning yet difficult path of "Them".
The front end's lot wasn't any better. Hacking through throngs of walking corpses like weeds was just as uninviting as the lawn-and-garden chore itself: they keep growing back. Still the gamble Nyamo had taken promised a great return as the crowds at that end of the street were rather thin compared to the ones tailing them but that could changed if they didn't slice through fast enough.
"Keep pushing," Nyamo said frantically. "We need to get to the end of the alley and out to the street."
"I am," Yukari retorted. "What do you think I'm doing?"
"Push harder." Her order came out a growl, swinging the pipe wrench against her foes, knocking a few back as Kagura grunted defending Nyamo's right, swinging bat against rotting flesh and bone. She looked furious as her hands gripped her weapon tightly, teeth gritting as she slowly but surely carved a path with Kurosawa while the boys backed up Yukari to the left. The two athletes were doing a better job at fighting as Yukari's way of fighting wasn't as efficient as their's and sometimes the boys have to help each other just to kill one fiend.
"Die, asshole!" Ryo cried as he beat with his gold club, which bent slightly with each wild beating.
"Yeah, just like he said!" Kazani added, his own club even more out of shape, swiping a fiend at its head.
"We can't keep up with this!" Ohyama cried. "What the hell are our clubs made of?" His ten-iron was now being bent out of shape but he held on to it for the lack of anything.
His question went unanswered as a fiend rounded his corner and moaned loudly; he spun up and began whacking him for dear life, pushing him back to the fore. But his broad clumsy strikes made him lose his balance and he landed flat on his stomach at the feet of the dead.
He looked up and his eyes met their inhuman faces. Ohyama yelped in terror, then quickly and comically backed up well away from the undead and back to his friends on all fours like an insect.
They were now trapped with end seeming tantalizingly out of their reach, slipping little by little as their bodies began to the tire. Nyamo and Kagura must find a way as more of "Them" slowly poured out into the streets either singly or in twos, threatening to corner them in.
Kagura said, "Coach, we gotta get through or we're fresh meat."
"I'm trying, Kagura!" Nyamo replied. The PE teacher's mind raced frantically for a solution to their problem. The narrow streets offer little in the way of speedy passage for them and the numerous store and office fronts looked like difficult to break in, not mention containing more of the bastards inside.
There! She spotted an open iron gate with a closed door with a sign written in golden English letters set in red. A pub! Just like the ones she seen in a few British movies Yukari brought over in the occasional lonely night spent together. A gamble, a choice, already decided by heat of the moment. But how to get there?
She turned around at the corner and noticed a large dumpster sitting next to them. Of course! she scolded herself. She should have thought of it a while ago or they wouldn't be in this mess right now. "Kagura, follow me." She jogged to the dumpster.
The tomboy athlete followed suit. "What now, coach?"
"Help me push this thing," she called out. The two begin shoving the heavy metal trash receptacle with their shoulders. Everyone was briefly taken aback by this but caught on when they saw the actions of PE teacher and her best student. They all fell behind the dumpster with the exception of Yukari, who was too focused on fighting "Them" without even noticing the others leaving her side.
"Push!" she cried.
"What?" Chiyo asked uneasily. "Dumpsters are full of germs! There-" Tomo spanked Chiyo on the head.
"Come on, Chiyo," Tomo said seriously. "Where's your spirit?"
Chiyo nodded her head glumly in agreement and put her hands on the dirty dumpster. Everyone began kicking.
"Hail to the queen, baby~!" Yukari cried, satisfied with another kill. She noticed herself without company. "Hey! What's the big idea?" she angrily called out.
"Shut up, Yukari, and help us push this dumpster against the bar!" Nyamo snapped rapidly from behind the dumpster as everyone heaved the thing forward.
"Oh, why didn't you just say so," Yukari cheered as her friend's brilliant idea. She skipped towards them and started shoving the dumpster alongside everyone else. The big garbage can was now moving under human power. The gang put all their strength into moving the thing. But the thing was not budging fast enough to their liking. It was like a block of limestone being moved around in a slave quarry.
"How is this going to help?" the English teacher complained.
"We need to push this hard enough to ram this zombies out of our way."
"We're not going anywhere at this rate," Yukari griped, and landed a kick hard to the dumpster. Everyone else pushing fell to the ground as the runaway dumpster hurtled towards "Them", knocking more fiends out of the way and squishing some right into the wall of the pub.
"That's sick," Chihiro muttered with a cringed.
"Oh yeah, baby!" The English teacher pumped her fist into the air in triumph. "Now who's the better teacher now-"
"Make a run for it!" Kurosawa screamed. The entire gang rushed through the cleared path all the way to the pub's doorway in desperation. Yukari hastily caught, shouting about how they almost left her.
Everyone slammed themselves against the doorway Nyamo quickly quickly grabbed the knob.
"Shit!" She turned the knob desperately. "This thing won't open!"
"I'll handle that!" Yukari excitedly volunteered. She pushed Nyamo aside and with scream rammed her shoulder against the solid oak door.
Her solid thrust recoiled and sent landing on her back on the pavement.
"Aw... crap," Yukari moaned, grabbing her pained shoulder.
"Nice going yet again, Yukari," Nyamo growled sarcastically at her fallen friend. She then turned her eyes on the crowd which increased dramatically after their runaway burst to safety. The whole situation went bad for them in just a few seconds.
"Miss Kurosawa!" Chiyo shrilled loudly. "Please hurry! They're coming to eat us!"
Yomi scooped Chiyo in and brought her to the steps of the gate. The child prodigy huddled in her arms, whimpering in a way reminded the glasses girl of the Yukari-mobile, only it wasn't funny right now.
"This doesn't look good, coach," Kagura said brandishing her weapon. "We gotta get inside."
Nyamo looked around their surroundings carefully, hard pressed to think beyond the shamblers coming out to feast on them. They reminded her of maggots pouring out of a dead rabbit she saw when she was six after poking it with a stick. The positively ghastly analogy invaded her thoughts as she watched undead slowly fill up the street. She swore silently.
Kagura shook Nyamo out of her reverie. "Coach, help me!" She started pushing the dumpster a bit and climb up. "We can break through the windows at the upper floor."
"Great thinking!" Kurosawa climbed up and approached the window. It was about chest high above the top of the dumpster and wide enough for someone to jump in quickly. She then broke the glass with her garden spade, crunching around the edges to saw no one would be cut by stray glass shards. As an extra measure, she took of her jacket and laid it on the window sill.
"Okay, everyone, get in!" She gestured to the open window. "Watch the glass." Everyone clambered up the dumpster get to safety. "One at a time."
Kagura was first to get in, going in slowly to avoid landing on the glass. She then helped Yomi bring Chiyo in and the glasses girl followed. One by one, the gang clambered over the dumpster and into the window. Tomo almost lost her footing but Yomi caught her and shoved her into the window, prompting a complaint from the shorter girl. Chihiro climbed in quickly.
Nyamo pushed the boys inside, one by one, who then tumbled into the floor on what was fortunately safety glass. Then she grabbed Yukari.
"Oww...," Yukari whimpered as she Nyamo picked her up roughly. "Watch the shoulder..."
"Just get in and shut up," the PE teacher snapped and tossed her roughly into the window, making her colleague whine loudly. Kurosawa looked behind her to make sure "They"could not climb to follow them. Seeing that they couldn't climb over the dumpster, she climbed into the window.
"Phew," Ryoo said with relief. "We're safe. We're..."
"Everybody, check downstairs now!" Nyamo called out. Startled to their feet, the students did as they were told, despite having recently entered the premises and not knowing what's inside. She then turned to Yukari. "Yukari!"
"What!?" The English teacher did an about-face to her friend.
"Do something, damn it," she retorted with a snap, "look after these kids, will you." Yukari left off quickly with no complaint. Nyamo then shouted loudly for anyone to help, "Somebody get me something to block this window."
"On it, coach," Kagura replied. She turned to the first door she saw and turned the knob. Locked.
She swore and she started beating the knob with her bat. Nyamo joined in and swung her spade the knob, break it piecemeal from the door. Breaking it off, they pushed through the door and went inside a bedroom. Among the items one fitted their purpose: a heavy wooden cabinet.
Kagura and Nyamo removed it from the room steadily, lest it falls out of the way and then they pushed the heavy thing out of the room. They inched the heavy furniture out the room, grunting with effort as they positioned and then pushed it against the window.
Following her wards closely behind, she told them what to do as necessary as she felt too tired to walk them through everything herself. Kagura turned around to face her mentor.
"Coach, are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm... fine," she replied, her voice heavy with mental exhaustion.
Kagura's face betrayed her concern. "You don't look so good."
"Are we?" Kurosawa's reply came a little gruff. Kurosawa was led to downstairs to the pub, her hand guided by the rails as though as to keep from falling over and tumbling down on Kagura. She moved with a listless gait, the fatigue she suffered was evident in contrast with the flurry of activity that everyone else displayed.
"Come on, move you asses!" Yukari shouted to the boys and girls as they push and piled the heavy tables against the door and windows. The boys pushed a heavy looking pool table up against the door. Yomi and Tomo were piling chairs and tables against the windows, likewise Osaka and Chihiro besides another of the door. Chiyo, due to her lack of physical strength, made herself useful by directing the piling of the chairs and tables in a way that they couldn't be toppled over by the hordes outside, should they break through the windows. "We don't have all day."
Kagura led her coach to one of the bar stools to sit. Tired, she sank on it as she watched everyone else do their jobs. The whole scene struck her at how everyone else pulled together without her. At a time like this, no one sane would trust them at their devices, especially to Yukari. But then, Yukari is a teacher who did a job in spite of her lax and childish approach to her responsibilities. She also had Chiyo to assist her.
"Those chairs are sloppy! Right them up!" she cried at Osaka and Chihiro. "I don't want my ass eaten."
"Yes, Miss Yukari," Chihiro replied wincing in fear.
Her selfishness, Nyamo thought wryly, was factor as well. Her primary concern was saving her own ass and commanded the students to that end. That spurt of leadership wouldn't last long.
Osaka and Chihiro hastily set the final chair on top of their barricade. "Phew," Chihiro said. "That's the last of it."
"At least that'll stop the zombies," Osaka conceded. "But how are we gonna get out?"
Chihiro felt a chill as Osaka's casual insight sent the fear back in her. "This looks bad," she moaned. She got close Ohyama. "Oh my, Kaorin..."
"Easy, there," he said. "I think she made it."
"But how," she replied, trying hard to make sense of her best friend's demise. "They-"
"We don't know that for sure," Yomi said firmly. "Let's just give it time."
Gathering in the middle of the pub was practically everybody minus the three friends they lost at the store, surrounding a solitary table. There was no sound save for some of the outsiders aimlessly tapping at the windows.
Yomi turned to Kurosawa, who was looking at her with concern. "Miss Kurosawa," the meganekko said. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Kurosawa replied with slight irritation. She took a seat on a bar stool.
Seeing that the PE teacher was not in a mood for pleasantries, Yomi got to the point quickly. "Miss Kurosawa, the building's totally safe. We've got no zombies inside with us. We checked all the rooms and exits. The only thing we have to worry about is the outside. Those things are still out there."
The PE teacher sighed wearily and closed her eyes. "Thank you, Yomi."
They were safe but for how long? No one would know for sure. Everyone once again felt drained of energy to speak up. They all huddled around a table like Bedouins around a meal but without the joy that came with it. Yomi sat back and huddled Chiyo in her arms. The young genius replied by grasping her tightly, wanting the security in Yomi's embrace. Kagura and Tomo were lumped together, exhausted from their flight. The boys huddled off to their own corner. Yukari was down on the floor, her back against the wall.
Nyamo sat down on a chair to calm herself down and try to think of a way of what to do next.
Yomi felt a wetness in her blouse. She looked at Chiyo in her arms, her head buried against her chest. She heard soft sobs coming from the genius. She asked softly, "Chiyo... Are you alright?"
The little girl looked up and Yomi saw her eyes wet and red with tears. The little girl had been sobbing silently and she thought about how cruel it was to subject a child, especially someone like Chiyo, to a situation like this. She also felt the loss of Sakaki and Kaorin, especially the former. She knew Chiyo had grown close to the tall girl and it hit her that she was finally shown that death was a concrete reality, that anyone can die by many kinds of deaths was something a twelve-year old should not be exposed to. For better or worse, however, this was the order of the day, a cruel statement by fate for all those still alive to experience this.
As the glasses girl sat down with her disheartened charge in her arms everyone slowly realized that they can't stay in this erstwhile watering hole forever; they must leave for better safety sooner or later.
"So, what's next?" Kagura asked, laying her back on a table.
"Well, with those zombies just outside," Ryu quipped. "We might as well stay put for the moment." He nervously fidgeted at the figures tapping the heavy glass windows paneled with oak. He hoped the windows hold.
"So we're just gonna sit here until help arrives?" Yukari asked flippantly.
"Assuming any help arrives at all," Nyamo spat back. "Or are you expecting the zombies to disappear on their own?" Her glare rested on the English teacher.
"No, of course not! I'm not that dumb." She placed her hand on her hips. "Right here, let's just settled down for a while we think of a plan. Look on the bright side, we've this place all to ourselves." She spun around and raised her arms to embrace the heart of the pub. "Just look at all this stuff! We could have a pint and a shot until this all blows over." She then went into a dance like a kid in a candy store would do in an exclusive discount sale.
The others reacted variously "Wow! Yukari's in heaven!" Tomo's loudmouthed voice rang out. "Just look at all that booze."
Yomi sweatdropped. "I see," she said wryly as they watched Yukari pranced around the bar, loudly shouting out brands and virtues of bitters, lagers, whiskeys, vodkas, red wines in the excited manner of an electronics store clerk showing off the latest flatscreen TVs. Everyone shared the same sentiment about the jarring contradiction in situations both inside and out, between the happily-fleet-footed English teacher and her companions.
There was one person in the bunch whose reaction was inevitable. Nyamo glowered angrily as she watched her colleague cavort at the bar. The others felt her anger and discretely backed off as the PE teacher rose and walked towards her colleague, who was blissfully oblivious to Kurosawa coming right at her.
"Whoa!" she shrilled excitedly. "Pass the Stoli, pass the Stoli, pass the Stoli, baby!" She her booty like it was the beginning of the new millennium.
"So you think you can party and drink away your problems, eh, Yukari?" Nyamo's low voice froze Yukari in her tracks, the latter's face frozen but her eyes betrayed the fear as she turned around, her face fixed in a grimace as the pub seemed to darken.
"U-u-uh, N-nyamo," she quaked. "I know you were upset from-"
"'Upset'!?" Kurosawa was nearing boiling point. "Is that what you called it? You do realize that you caused the death of three students!? Oh wait, you don't! You can just chalk it up to shit happens." Everyone else gave each other a stunned look, surprised to hear the normally levelheaded teacher swear. Yes, now things were turning serious.
"Hey," Yukari retorted, "I'm not the one who got off when I told to-"
With a force of a linebacker she forced Yukari against the wall. "How typical of you!" she roared venomously. "You dump the blame on your students when you threaten them with your wild behavior. You drunken slob! You irresponsible little tramp."
"What!? Who the hell are you calling tramp!" Yukari retorted angrily, forgetting instantly why she feared Nyamo a little earlier. "Nyamo, you're getting too far!"
"You always have me cleaning up your mess!" Nyamo was now close to exploding. "If you think I'll just baby you now and all will be well, you had it wrong!"
Now the English teacher was afraid again."I mean we just lost a few guys-"
"A FEW GUYS!" Her growl scared everyone more than the dead outside. This time Nyamo, much to everyone's surprise lifted up Yukari with one swoop and crashed her back on one of the tables. Yomi shook, shuddering at thinking if there were bottles and glasses on it and thanking heavens it didn't.
Breathing heavily, Nyamo lifted Yukari up to eye-level. "So, they didn't matter much to you?"
"I-I- I'm sorry," she apologized quickly, quaking very visibly. "I didn't m-mean it. It just slipped off my tongue. I swear!"
"Really? How about I slip you back outside?"
"W-w-wait, wait!" Yukari begged, genuinely horrified at her colleague's berseker look. "Nyamo, don't kill me please! I beg you-"
SPLASH!
Cold water thrown from the back caused them to recoil like hydrophobic rabbits. With a start Yukari got around and saw the bonkuras behind the bar counter. "Which one of you doused me with ice water?" she demanded.
Instantly, Tomo pointed to Kagura to shift blame, who pointed at Osaka, who kept smiling.
"They told meh that you need ta cool off," she said in her spacey voice, "so we got all the ice water we could find, which is not that hard." She pointed to a refrigerator with its steel door open.
"And you think it's funny to do an ice bucket challenge on us!?" Yukari snapped. "I'll teach you how to-"
"Oh shut up, Yukari!" Nyamo said sharply. "Like you get the right to be angry at them."
Yukari wanted to snapped back at Nyamo but a redhot glare from the PE teacher told her that she wasn't in the mood for any verbal hijinks. She gulped inwardly as Nyamo looked ready pounce her. She backed down discretely.
Yomi decided to step in, silently thanking the insane trio for "cooling" the two a bit. "Okay, everybody" she said, "we don't have time messing around, we should think about finding a way out."
Nyamo nodded in agreement. "Yes. We do."
"Well, for starters," Kagura began, "I don't think we could last long here for a while. All we have is booze and no food."
"Hey, that's Yukari's dream come true," Tomo added gleefully.
"What? Happy hour? That ain't ah good idea," Osaka bleated dubiously. "We ain't having a toast about kissing our lives good bye."
"Have you check under the bar?" It was Ryo, their handyman. "From what I remembered they stack stuff in the basement. The basement should have a freight elevator that leads outside."
"What? Really?" Nyamo asked.
"Yeah, it's how they bars and pubs receive and store bulk, I guess."
"I think we should check it out. We need to find a way down first." On que Osaka noticed a four-foot square door with a metal latch, bordered by stainless steel.
"Hey y'all," she exclaimed. "Here it is right here."
"Thanks, Osaka," Nyamo said. She proceeding to getting around the bar when Tomo lifted the door by the latch.
"Man, it's heavy," she muttered as she only lifted it a millimeter or two before giving it. "I could use some help." Nyamo and Kagura responded and together with a heave pulled the heavy hardwood but to know avail. They tried again and again but it still won't open.
"Wow!" the wildcat exclaimed. "It's like pulling a ton of bricks."
"Ah think you missed somethin'," Osaka called out and bent over.
"Wha..." Tomo's mouth was opened as Osaka pulled out a wad of paper jammed between the seam behind the door.
"Ya outta take a look before ya do somethin'," she said sleepily. "Come to think of it, wha was it stuck there?" She unfolded it. "Hey, check this out."
"What?" Tomo vaulted over the counter ahead of the others, who went by the sides. "Let me see."
"Could it hold a secret?" Ryo intoned in anticipation.
They all huddled around Osaka, eager to see the paper. She unfolded the paper what it had written on. They were disappointed.
"That's just a stack of bills, Osaka," the wildcat complained loudly. "Way to go you, buzzkill."
"What were expecting?" Kagura said grumpily, tired of her friend's inanity. "An escape plan."
Tomo was in a smart alecky-mode. "I don't know, maybe a the location of a safe and a combination to open it?"
Nyamo sighed at their childish antics. "Shut up, both of you, and let's get this over with." She opened it to reveal a ladder leading down a dark interior, to which everyone looked down.
Tomo gulped as the dark interior looked like the kind of thing horror movies told you not to go to. She voiced a question. "Okay, who's going down the creepy ladder first?"
"Tomo, can the humor and get your ass down there," Minamo said grumpily. Tomo took the hint and got down.
Gotou helped organized the school survivors at the hanger they were staying, possibly for preparation for departure out the airfield. Today or tomorrow, he had no idea. For that reason, he sent some students to procure stuff from the commissary, assisted by a military policeman.
"Gotou-sensei, here." A girl handing him a cup of tea.
"Thank you." He needed the tea, it was a long day.
"There's some guys on the airfield in an SUV," she said. "Bunch of foreigners."
"Oh, that's nice." He smiled. Maybe he can get some news on the outbreak. Civilian he may be but having served in the United States Army until that fateful day back in Afghanistan, he can always count brothers and sisters still uniform to level with him. His tattoo and a story or two were his bonafides.
"They don't look like American base personnel."
He was puzzled. "What?"
"One of them is in a suit and two big burly men in a some military outfit."
"They look awesome," a boy added, joining in.
"How about we take a look?" he suggested, his curiosity aroused. Just coming out of the hanger and looking at distance did he know the truth.
Sonovabitch! his mind growled in surprise.
Author's note: Thank goodness, I've finished this chapter. Now, our gang is scattered in two parts. Sakaki, Kaorin, and my OC and the rest in the pub. Here, I end this chapter with a little surprise for the Math teacher in the form of old acquaintances.