I don't own High School of the Dead or Ranma 1/2. Can't think of anything funny right now to add, sorry.
Some reviews I'd like to mention:
Rey'kan: Actually it wasn't the guys wrists that Ranma broke, he crushed every bone in his hands.
Narsil: thank you for the great review: Yes, that portion with Nodoka is meant to come off as creepy. It would however take someone really trying to convince me to have Rei get with Takashi. Maybe some humorous moments in the future, but that will more than likely be all. I think I know what crossover you mention there (Harry/Star Wars, with him, Leia and three others?), and your points about a bit of variety being good are well founded.
Holy Sasami: love that name dude, and you'll find you and I had similar thoughts about tragedy in this chapter.
NOmster: Thanks for the great review! I agree, tragedy isn't normally my thing. In this chapter I hope to show the seriousness of the current crisis, as well as the human element. I also hope you like the various interactions in this chapter, though I will say I didn't devote as much time to that portion of the story this time around because of what else was going on. Don't worry about Rei, nothing that horrible happened, though what did happen will come out in the next chapter.
Libri Ignis: You should really like this chapter I think as the other problem with a crisis like this other than the zombies makes themselves known.
Alemmis: This story is a snack in comparison to my other stories, that is sort of the point. The original HOTD is pretty much a snack in comparison to Macross, Ikkitousen, and Gold Digger too, not because it is less serious, though that is true in a way, but because of the number of characters. A small group lets you really bring out your characters more, but the story itself isn't as compelling. This is my guilty pleasure, I admit that, and am happy that other people enjoy it as well.
The response on tragedy was mixed, but I hope everyone is happy with what I came up with. And in regards to me writing this beyond where the original went, I will say I have plans to keep writing this story going forward at least until they have gotten to the island and forted up.
Chapter 7 A Most Satisfactory Little Get-Together
Kohta moved out of the hatch sitting down and pulling a blushing Asami into his lap next to Kyoko in the back, letting Rei take his place for now in the gun hatch. Ranma stuck his head in, accidentally bumping his head against his cousin's full breasts, causing her to blush slightly but Ranma didn't notice, too busy staring down at Saya. "Where we off to now?"
"The police station where we're supposed to meet up with your mom and aunt like we said, but the route isn't as straight or easy as it was from the river to the mall." Saya replied. She had begun to plan out the route before they even left the parking lot. She wasn't a fighter, if she had to have a weapon in her hand than you knew the shit had hit the fan. Her mind was what she brought to the group, and she used it as well as she could.
Now Saya pointed out the route as she began to talk looking up at where Ranma had stuck his head down his hair falling down further and his little pigtail looking like some kind of piñata tail or something that she just wanted to smack. "There's no straight line route there, but we can get there using a few of the main roads unless they're blocked entirely. I don't think this car could you know, do that monster truck thing from those American commercials? Where they go and crash over other cars?"
That was directed towards Shizuka, who was driving once more, and Yuuki, sitting beside her. They both giggled and shook their heads, though Yuuki looked almost wistful at the very idea of working on one of those monster trucks.
Saya shrugged and went on. "The problem is we haven't really run into any real resistance yet, we haven't seen the numbers of zombies I'd expect to see on the side of the river, even when you add the number of zombies around the mall." She ignored the fact that they were in fact zooming past several small clumps of zombies, since it didn't really matter in terms of the numbers she was talking about. "That could mean that the evacuation on this side of the river actually worked pretty well, or it could be that most of what we're seeing are stragglers and the rest are heading towards some noise or other elsewhere, possibly the police station. I can't believe the evacuation would be a silent affair after all."
Ranma frowned thoughtfully, pulling his head up and looking around the streets. He saw a lot of parked cars still, though whether or not they had just been parked or had been abandoned he couldn't tell for most of them. One of them he could see had been abandoned in the center of the road as Shizuka moved around it, but for the most part despite the clumps of zombies it was pretty peaceful here. He started looking at those clumps of zombies for a moment, then nodded when he noticed something. "Most of the zombies we're seeing are coming out of buildings or clumped around entrances. They could've been inside and are now reacting to our noise but could have heard whatever was going on earlier, that might have gotten them out of the buildings in the first place. Are there any chokepoints we should look out for? And should we rely on speed or should I take Kohta somewhere and set him up to clear the route?"
All the occupants of the Hummer nodded thoughtfully at his first phrase and then Saya looked around and ahead of them. "That might be a good idea, but wait a bit until we turn on to what was the name of it," she looked down map and nodded "15th street. We'll be on that road for at least 20 minutes maybe more if it has a lot of debris we'll have to go around, and it's the straightest part of our route. If we can take it down as far as we can then won't have to have to take more than three other roads before we get to the police station."
"I've got a question," said Asami raising one hand from where she was sitting on Kohta's lap to save room. "Where are we going after we go to the police station? You guys said you weren't going to be evacuated, and Asami's willing to stay with you, but what's our long term plan?"
Saya shrugged. "After we hit up the police station we're going to go to my parents house and see if we can find any sign of them there, then we're going to move on down out of the city proper towards the docks and out onto the ocean. We want to find an island out there and fortify it, then just wait out the worst of this." Eventually once they were fully situate they could think of sending Ranma and a few of the others out on scavenging trips, but getting to an island would do as an objective for now.
The young policewoman nodded thoughtfully. "Well, if there aren't any police people at the police station when we get there we might want to loot it down to the ground if we can, though we don't have a lot of room admittedly." They all looked at her in surprise and she shrugged. "If the police aren't there there's a lot of weapons we could use, him and they wouldn't be of any use just sitting there."
Saya nodded approvingly at her. "That's a good idea Asami," she said reaching over and slapping her on the shoulder, though she had to reach over Yuuki to do it. The others all nodded, and Kohta looked as if he was falling in love with her all over again. The idea of getting his hands on all those lovely, lovely guns had sent him into seventh heaven.
Ranma scratched his chin, still leaning down upside down, not even noticing the fact his cousin's eyebrow was now twitching behind his head, which had once again bumped against her chest. "It would depend on whether or not we could stay there for long, but Saya-chan's that might not be a bad idea." He also didn't notice Saya's blush at the affectionate form of her name, though this was because he was drown to the bounce of her and Yuuki's breasts as the Hummer hit a pothole. He wasn't any closer to agreeing with the whole multiple girls thing than he had been, but damn if Yuuki and Saya weren't making it hard to resist.
The discussion paused as a helicopter zoomed by all overhead, pulling Ranma's head once more out of the gun hatch. For a moment a few of them were tempted to wave and try to get the helicopter pilots attention, but the helicopter zoomed past so quickly they couldn't. Kohta, sticking his head outside of the window next to him frowned thoughtfully. It could have been his eyes playing tricks on him, but he could have sworn that helicopter had a few people hanging on to the outside of it…
A moment later they heard a boom in the distance, and they all looked at one another. "There're still a lot of other people moving around" said Yuuki thoughtfully more thankful than ever they had taken the time to silence the Hummer's engine as much as they could.
Saeko and Ranma shared a glance nodding at one another. The more people that were moving around the more zombies would be attracted to the noise, and the more likely they would run into other groups that wouldn't be so friendly to them. Ranma was remembering the group of yakuza that he had seen moving down the street a few days ago, and Saeko was remembering the group of looters that she had killed when they attempted to take her captive. Both knew that their group, with the number of gorgeous girls and few boys, might look like a soft target to such groups.
Surprisingly the two of them weren't the only two that were thinking along those lines. Saya was thinking of it as an intellectual exercise, but Shizuka was shivering a little as she continued to drive, remembering how close to being raped she had come back at the mall. It was a fact of life that disasters like this brought out both the best and the worst in people, and she had so far seen examples of both. She remembered the look of cold fury on Ranma's face, the look of possessiveness he sent her way, and she felt better for it, but wished she could pull over and get a hug from her neko-chan and pouted a little as she continued to drive.
Ranma looked back down at Kohta. "In that case I think we should gear up and prepare for trouble. Get Asami a gun, I want you, her, Rei and Takashi all armed from now on at all times."
Kohta nodded and looked over at Takashi. "You want a rifle, a nail gun or the crossbow?"
Takashi frowned a little, but shrugged. "Give me the nail gun, I don't know if I'm as good a shot with that rifle as you and Rei or Asami maybe, and I can't turn it into as good a weapon in close with a bayonet as Rei can." He poked her legs with one finger and she looked down at him, grinning a little weakly at his praise as he went on. Alice, once more sitting in his lap, also poked Rei's legs giggling a little, and Rei gently reached down and caught her hand in her own. "A nail gun will also let me carry something else in my off hand." He reached down underneath and pulled out a large cleaver he had taken from a store in the mall. "If we get stopped I'll jump out and provide close support for the Hummer so we don't get bogged down."
Ranma nodded approvingly, "Good thinking Takashi."
With that he pulled his head back out from the hatchway, and Kohta turned around in his chair, rummaging in the back for the guns and ammunition. Luckily thanks to Saya's reorganization the guns and ammunition were both on the top of the pile in back and easy to access, and he started to pass the ammunition around, as well as passing over the nail gun to Takashi. He also got out the crossbow and handed it to Kyoko, who grimaced but slid a bolt home then leaned it against the center console in front of her between her legs. Kohta absently noted how crowded it already was in the Hummer with all of them in it, and wondered where the heck they were going to put the two mothers if they were able to successfully link up with them.
He turned back to show Asami how to use the shotgun, but it turned out she ready knew how to use it. He grinned at that, as well as the fact that she had already opened up the window and was pointing it out at the nearby zombies in an effort to get a feel for the powerful weapon. On the other side Takashi was doing the same and he nodded approvingly.
What followed was a bit of a gymnastics exercise as Rei was lifted out of the hatch by Ranma, standing there on the top of the truck followed swiftly by Kohta. Rei then dropped back down and took up a position at one of the windows, grumbling at how crowded it was now with four girls abreast in the back seat, and Kohta took her place in the gun sight.
The drive passed silently from that point on, except for Alice once more trying to convince Ranma that he needed to name his meteor hammer, a task she had taken to with a will but had yet to see any results of. Yuuki talked about fashion with Shizuka, inwardly irritated that Kohta's body was blocking any chance of flirting either verbally or physically with Ranma. Kyoko and Saya continued to talk about the route, specifically how they would get from the police station to her home, which would require a lot of twists and turns if they tried to go straight there, while Asami and Kohta began to talk about guns back and forth.
Asami turned out to be strangely knowledgeable on the subject, but she cleared that up by confessing it was the only aspect of her training that she had done well in. She hadn't been able to memorize any of the rules or forms or anything, but on the gun range she had been able to shine. That just made Kohta even happier she was with them, and he said so, which earned him a kiss that had him practically swooning, and set Saya gagging theatrically to Rei who shook her head at her friend's attitude.
Soon however they turned onto the main street that Saya had mentioned and Ranma stretched for a moment, standing easily on the moving roof of the Hummer before reaching down and pulling Kohta out of the gun port with one hand. "Time to go Gun God." He looked over at Saeko, and shook his head sadly. "I'd love to take you with us Saeko-chan, but I think you'll probably be needed here."
Saeko scowled a little. "It seems to me as if you are always leaving me to go have fun elsewhere." She reached out and gently tapped the flat edge of her unsheathed katana against one of his shoulders. "I do hope this isn't indicative of a pattern."
Ranma shook his head back-paddling verbally "No, no, no, no, it's just the way it's been going so far, I promise we'll be able to go off by ourselves and have some violent fun at some point."
The others in the Hummer chuckled at that, thinking that he was joking but Kyoko and Saya shared a glance frowning thoughtfully. Both of them recognized that their survival depended on Saeko and Ranma to a greater degree than any of the others, but their battlelust continued to worry them both.
Saeko gave Ranma quick kiss on the mouth (which made both Yuuki and Say who were able to see it twitch in irritation) and nodded. "Come back safe you two." She said formally, and Ranma grinned while Kohta just gave her a thumb up.
With one arm around Kohta and the other holding onto his gun Ranma jumped up to the nearest roof, and set Kohta down for a moment to let him scan around for a good spot to set up somewhere away from their route. Behind them Rei stood up to take her place in the gun hatch again.
This section of the city was half small commercial buildings and half middle class houses, which made most of the buildings around only about two or three stories tall. The only exception to this was a four story building in the distance about eight blocks off of their present route that had a restaurant on its roof. Kohta thought he recognized it as a place where the girls at school had loved to go because of their sweets and teas, but obviously he had never been there personally. The rooftop was set up to be an outdoor dining area with tables and large umbrellas, and a metal fence stuck into a low wall around the edge of it.
Kohta pointed it out to Ranma. "That's probably the best place, but…" He shrugged and gestured for Ranma to look through the sight on his rifle. Ranma did so, and frowned a little. "There looks to be about a dozen zombies on the roof, most of them girls."
After a moment Ranma shrugged. "If ya think that's the best place to go, let's go, I ain't gonna overturn ya in your area of expertise man. And the more noise you make the better for our friends."
Kohta frowned, but nodded all the same. He wasn't exactly happy about getting that close to the zombies, but with Ranma there to protect him it would probably be okay. A moment later the two of them had arrived on the roof in question. Surprising Kohta Ranma had been able to jump up from a nearby roof and actually clear the fence around the eatery's rooftop, the two of them landing in a small clear area.
Ranma set Kohta down and immediately charged at the nearest zombie, a teenage girl with a bleached blond hair and tan skin, lashing out with a punch to the head that caved in its entire skull. The zombie next to it blinked and moved towards him feeling the splatter of brain and bone on it, but a kick to its chest sent it skidding away to slam into to others. Ranma swiftly pulled out his meteor hammer from around his waist, and began to slaughter the zombies nearby while Kohta shot out single shots from his rifle killing the zombies closer to the doorway leading up from below. The elevator next to the stairwell was shut, and looked to be safe enough without power to bring the elevator up.
Between the two of them they cleared the whole roof swiftly, but two more zombies appeared in the stairwell coming up toward the noise. Kohta put them both down with single shots, and Ranma grabbed up a table ripping it up bolts and all before tossing it into the doorway clearing out another zombie behind the first two as the table crashed into the far end of the stairwell. After that he ripped out two more and did the same with them, making a barrier in the stairwell against more zombies. He grabbed all the nearby chairs that he could and tossed them in as well, but it still wasn't as good a defense as he could have wished.
He could hear the zombies on the other side starting to pile up already and he shook his head. "I don't think I'm going anywhere this time Kohta, I'll stay right here in case the zombies break through. Get to shooting and start clearing the road for them, and tell them to get a move on, this ain't exactly a good place to be."
Kohta nodded and ran over to the side of the roof that would give him a view of the route their friends were following. Once there he stuck his rifle through between two of the fence's bars, propping it there with one hand. Once that was done he reached to his belt with his free hand and pulled out the walkie-talkie. They had taken the opportunity at the mall to replace the Kiddy style walkie-talkies with more survivalist versions from the outdoor sports store, and they worked far better. "This is Gun God to Lady Blade and Megane Hime, we're good to go over here. Be advised that this position isn't the best, and we would recommend that you get a move on, over?"
He scanned the route they were going to take with his gun sight, and only saw a few pairs of zombies moving around. "It looks like you're good to go, clearing the route will be relatively simple but again get a move on." Behind him he could hear the zombies pounding on the rubble that Ranma had stacked around the door. Ranma added more and more to the pile, but it sounded as if the zombie's numbers were increasing as they stood there.
He forced himself to breathe out slowly, calming himself down to that icy focus a sniper needed, ignoring the sounds behind him as he gently rested his cheek against his rifle closing one eye and sighting through the Springfield's scope with the other. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, fire! One zombie down.
OOOOOOO
Saeko tapped the top of the Hummer. "Go, go quickly. It sounds as if their position is in considerable danger, and we don't want them stuck out there alone."
Shizuka nodded and the Hummer thrummed as the engine revved higher, moving forward faster, dodging around and through abandoned and overturned cars. "What about stop signs and lights and other stuff?" Even as she asked that Shizuka shook her head, realizing it was a truly foolish question.
"If it's human and still breathing don't run it over" said Saya dryly. "Anything else either Dodge it or go through it. I really don't think we need to worry about the safety each and traffic laws right now do we?" That was a gentle dig at Asami who shook her head wildly. She was more than a little worried at the moment. Without Kohta around she had lost a bit of the courage she had gained, and was feeling very much the odd girl out in this group.
Kyoko however noticed how worried she was, and put one arm around her gently. "Don't worry, this isn't the first time Ranma and Kohta have done this little flanking operation of theirs, they'll both be back."
Asami nodded and went back to watching the road outside of her window her gun aiming at shadows in the alleyways as they passed. They saw a few more zombies coming out of buildings at the noise of their passage, but not nearly as many as they might have seen without Yuuki having silenced the engine is much as she could. And the few zombies that they saw on the road were already gunned down before they got to them.
Asami gaped a little seeing seven zombies in one section of the road all dead with single shots to the head. She had thought Kohta might be pretty good, he sounded knowledgeable at least, but she hadn't actually seen him shoot during the escape from the mall. This was the first time she had seen his handiwork, and it was better than most snipers in the police that she knew of could do, maybe as good as the SAT snipers.
The trip passed uneventfully on the two lane two way road and they covered the straight line distance quickly along it. Soon they reached the first point where they had to turn off of the straight line road and begin to make the series of winding turns toward the police station.
Saeko took up her walkie-talkie as they reached the turn. "This is Lady Blade to Gun God, we're about to turn off 15th street, good work on covering us, but you can leave it now."
OOOOOOO
Kohta breathe a sigh of relief before replying quickly. "This is Gun God, roger. We'll meet up with you soon, over and out." He pulled out his gun quickly from between the bars again. He'd had to change positions several times since the bars of the fence made him unable to turn his gun enough to cover the entire route from one position. Once he did, he turned to Ranma. "We're done Ranma let's get the fuck out of here!"
Ranma had been tossing everything he could grab to block the doorway, but the zombies had been slowly but surely pushing it all out of the way. He estimated there were at least 25 to 30 zombies pushing at the stuff, and he was more than willing to get out of here. While he didn't think that number would be able to bring him down, they would probably be able to move around him to attack Kohta, and despite his skill with a gun Kohta was a liability in close combat, which this roof pretty much was.
He swiftly picked up his meteor hammer from where he had dropped it tying it around his waist again then raced over to Kohta and picked him up, jumping first up onto the top of the fence along the roof, balancing there for a moment then jumping out into the air to the next roof over. Behind them they heard the zombies pushing the last of the junk out of the way by sheer weight of numbers.
Ranma ignored their close shave, looking around worriedly. "You'll have ta direct me, I didn't notice where we were supposed to go." Kohta nodded and pointed the direction they needed to go and both of them frowned when the sounds of gunfire started up in that direction.
OOOOOOO
Almost the moment the Hummer had turned off of 15th street onto the first one-lane, one way road along their route they had run into a barricade just out of sight until you made the turn. It was a very professional looking barricade, with several cars piled on top of one another to block the road and things torn from houses or shops to block the sidewalks. But it wasn't the barricade alone that caused them to pull up short. It was the fact that as soon as they stopped in front of it they came under fire from both the barricade and both sides of the street.
Almost immediately Saeko dropped behind the Hummer out of sight, dodging a few shots that would have hit her legs and the four who were armed began to fire back. Luckily for the others and for her the Hummer was pretty much bulletproof. Shizuka was particularly thankful for that shuddering as a bullet skipped off the Hummer's windshield. The fact that someone over there cursed at the shooters, shouting "Damnit you fool, can't you see how hot she is, we want her alive with the others!" did not bring her any comfort.
Rei only fired one shot from the Knights SR before ducking down inside the hatch with a yelp, her position at the top a little too dangerous to stay there. This move saved her life from several bullets which went straight through the position she had just been occupying, and she shook her head. Whatever that one voice had yelled out, they obviously were willing to kill a few of them at the very least. She and Kyoko switched positions, and she stuck her rifle out of the top of the bulletproof window, firing at the house alongside the right side of the car.
Asami hammered out a single shot from the shotgun at a shooter on the first floor of a building alongside them, forcing him to duck back with a cry. She didn't know if she had hit him, but right now just taking him out of the equation was a good idea. That, and the recoil from the shotgun had knocked her back onto Yuuki's lap, and the police girl winced as she felt around her shoulder, wincing. "Asami thinks she should stick to a rifle from now on, that shotgun hurts!"
Yuuki handed her the police pistol from where it had fallen shaking her head. "Kyoko thinks that Asami should stop talking in the third person and get to shooting!" Asami blushed at being called out on her habit, and grabbed the pistol, sending a shot through the upper window of the building alongside them. Yuuki reached back and tried to find the second nail gun while Kyoko readied her crossbow just in case.
Rei and Takashi were concentrating on the front of the barricade, and Takashi put a nail right through one man's hand as he stuck a gun over the top of it to fire at them. He fell back with a scream, but that was nothing in comparison to Rei's shot. She had hit a man in a window above the Hummer as he stuck his head and arm out the window to fire from a rifle, taking him cleanly in the head. The brunette stared for a moment appalled that she had just killed a person.
Just then a voice from one of the buildings on the left side shouted, "Give us the women and we'll let you go! If you don't we'll just kill you all and take them!"
That line pretty much killed all of Rei's concern over the man she had just killed. None of the people in the Hummer answered, and the trio of shooters continued to belt out shots with their various weapons.
Behind the hummer several other men had run out, pushing another car into position skidding it along one side. Saeko closed with them using the bulk of the Hummer as cover from the barricade, and before they knew what was happening slaughtered them all, her blade lashing out faster than their eyes could follow.
Before this the gunmen who could see her from the barricade didn't shoot at her, probably because she was so good looking and was one of the women they wanted to take alive. This would prove their undoing, as before they could range on her but now before they could she threw herself into the doorway of one of the buildings on the right side of the road.
One leg lifted, pushing her skirt up rather obscenely if she had a moment to consider such things, and one kick shattered the door. She leaped in over its remains then had to roll to twist aside from a swing from a man wielding a bat. Her sword swung backwards slicing open his stomach, spilling his intestine out onto the ground. The man fell back with a gasp and she turned taking another man who had just turned away from a window to bring his gun around in the neck. His head flew off like a shuttlecock, and she raced on grinning wildly, feeling herself getting wet from the excitement of battle.
This looked like the front entrance of an apartment complex, and after a second to make certain there was no one else on this floor she raced up the stairs to the second story, killing two more men in the hallway and bursting into the apartment where the shots had been coming from this side. Before the shooter there could think she had kicked him so hard as to send out the window behind him to the ground below. He landed awkwardly on his neck, killing him instantly despite having only fallen a single story.
The shooters on the barricade turned and gaped seeing their friend dealt with like this but before they could do anything Saeko jumped out landing behind the barricade among a few men standing there with hand to hand weapons, ready to charge around the barricade after her friends had been softened up. Her blade lashed out and soon she was covered with the blood of her kills, but she had to jump into one of the cars that made up the lower section of the barricade as two shooters from the building on the other side of the street began to fire at her rather than the Hummer.
By this point Kohta and Ranma had arrived on the scene, and Kohta immediately set up himself up on the nearby roof. From there he began to fire at the shooters still trying to fire at Saeko, and Ranma jumped from there over the road, landing on the roof of one of the buildings that held shooters who were firing at those in the Hummer.
Below Takashi had ducked out and underneath the Hummer, allowing Kyoko to take his place at the front of the Hummer. With her and Rei concentrating on that side to give him cover he stood up racing for the nearest doorway smashing into the door there with his shoulder at full speed. He and Ranma actually entered at the same time. Almost as soon as the door fell Takashi ducked a blow from a man with a wrench stabbing him in the leg with his machete. The man went down screaming and holding his thigh, but Takashi pulled out the machete and rammed it into the man's neck.
He didn't have time to think about the fact that he had just killed someone as another man turned quickly raising a gun to his shoulder. Takashi stared down the barrel of the man's rifle but before he could fire he spasmed in place, then fell forward, three bullets having smashed into his back from Asami's pistol.
Takashi paused just a second to think of his near-death experience but then raced on, nothing was on his mind now but clearing out the shooters so they could get out of here. The noise they were making was sure to bring the zombies down on top of them, and they needed to be gone before they that happened.
Indeed Saeko could see from where she was still hidden among the cars of the barricade spread eagled out on the back seat of one of the cars that there were over three dozen zombies shuffling their way swiftly down the road from behind the barricade toward them. It was evident they had identified the sound is prey sound rather than random sound, because their movements were more certain, much quicker than normal. Their mouths were open and their teeth gnashing, hands outstretched and ready.
She shimmied her way across the car kicking open the door aiming towards the Hummer and poked her sword out first to tell the two girls still firing from the Hummer that it was her. Kohta had by this point switched to taking out those on the barricade, and all five of them were down now.
By this time Takashi and Ranma had also met up having cleared out the shooters on their side of the street. Ranma looked out the window down the street then nodded at Takashi. "We've gotta get out of here."
Takashi scowled angrily, the adrenaline of the sudden battle still flowing through him. "Tell me something I don't know dumbass!"
Ranma and laughed and grabbed him around the center, not even noticing that Takashi had almost skewered him with the machete on reflex for just a second there, and jumped down from where they had killed the last of the shooters. Takashi scrambled back into the Hummer while Ranma jumped up to the roof and grabbed Kohta taking him down again. Kohta too scrambled in taking his position at the gun port on top while Saeko jumped on top.
Ranma grabbed the back of the car that the four men Saeko had killed had pushed onto the road. It had taken four men to push it along on its side, but Ranma merely grunted a little as he pushed it even further along the road, the sound of metal squealing on the road grating in his ears until he had moved it enough for the Hummer to get by. That done he jumped up to land next to Saeko on the front most portion of the top of the Hummer. "Get us out of here Shizuka-sensei!"
Shizuka didn't need to be told twice, since a dozen more zombies had appeared, from all directions moving toward the noise of the gun fight. Swiftly the top heavy nurse backed the Hummer up, slamming into and over two zombies before turning the car around and racing back down 15th street.
Ranma grinned widely at Saeko, leaning over to kiss her hard on the lips. The tomcat portion of his personality was hammering at the wall of his psyche, it had just been in a fight and it had won. Now was the time to show his dominance by coupling with his strong mate, letting their noises tell all nearby challengers who was the alpha around here. Yet Ranma easily beat it back, simply enjoying kissing his girlfriend now that danger had passed for the moment.
Saeko responded ardently, grabbing the back of his head as the tow of them made out for a few seconds before pulling back, ignoring the blushing Kohta, who had swiftly turned away from this display. She smirked a little, feeling at least two pairs of eyes glaring up at her. the next time we stop somewhere safe, I think I will bring up my idea of sharing, it certainly seems as if they are primed for it heheh.
Ranma cocked his head, nibbling at her throat for a moment before pulling back again. "I hope that excitement made up fer me not taking ya with me and Kohta?"
"Indeed, a most satisfactory little get-together." Saeko smiled back at him.
But the two of them and Kohta were the only ones who were handling the battle with any aplomb. Now that the immediate danger was over Asami dropped the pistol as she began to hyperventilate a little, her shoulder bothering her from her earlier attempt with the shotgun. Kyoko put an arm around her comfortingly, rubbing her back gently, glaring up past Kohta at the two combat junkies.
Takashi too looked down at his hands which were starting to shake a bit but Alice's concerned face and a hug from her around his middle as she clambered up into his lap again, and the thought of what might have happened to the young girl, were enough force the shivers to subside. After they did though his shoulder that he had used to ram open the door began to throb, as well as one of his ankles and his lower back for some reason. He reached for a water bottle below his chair as well as a packet of painkillers from the glove compartment, then sat back waiting for them to start working as he smiled wanly at Alice.
Rei had dropped her rifle, her eyes closed as she started to worry at her lips, her hands wrapped around herself.
Ranma motioned at Kohta and he moved aside just enough to so that Ranma could stick his head in to look at the others. "I know that wasn't easy for you guys," he said his voice grimmer then they had ever heard it before. "But it was necessary, if they're going to shoot at anyone that comes by then it was a case of us or them."
Saeko nodded agreement. "They wanted us, I mean the women among us, including myself. I don't have to paint a picture as to what would've happened to us do I?"
That made it easier for Rei and the others, and Kohta simply shrugged. He hadn't had as bad a reaction to having killed an actual human being as the others.
Kyoko noticed the lack of reaction in him, Ranma and Saeko out of the corner of her eye, while the rest of her was busy comforting Asami. Next to her Yuuki had begun to do the same for Rei. A friendly arm around her shoulders seemed to cheer Rei up, but she looked almost longingly up at the front seat, where Takashi was being pulled out of his own funk by Alice and the puppy, both of whom had been pushed down into the leg area of the front seat and told to stay there during the fight before he had jumped out of the Hummer.
Kyoko noticed all this but concentrated on the trio with the least reaction to what had happened. It was a little worrisome, but overall the fact that they knew they didn't have a choice and hadn't gone overboard or enjoyed overmuch was a good sign in her opinion. She was still concerned for the future, but for now they all seemed to have their darker natures under control. She shrugged off her worries for now and looked over at Saya, who already had the map out. "So where do we go from here?"
Saya frowned thoughtfully. "I don't know if we should trust any of the smaller roads now, but were making a detour here." She pointed to where they were now. The route they would have taken should have started to have them wend their way towards the police station, but right now they were almost straight across from the police station, but there were no roads they could take to get there just yet. They would have to continue on past it and then double back. "If we can't trust the single lane roads not to be blocked around here like that we'll have to go at least 20 minutes out of our way to take some of the wider roads."
Ranma nodded a little grimly. "Step on it Shizuka-sensei, I think we're past the time where careful is necessary right now, speeds the thing." He was getting more and more worried about what might be going on at the police station, worried that it was this evacuation attempt his aunt mentioned that had drawn off the zombies in the area.
Saya nodded firmly. "Right now we need to meet up with the parents and get out of here. The enclosed streets around here are too dangerous, and if there are other groups of looters around there's too many places where they could hold us up. And this section of the city would attract them pretty naturally."
Saeko nodded grimly as she cleaned her sword, the blood all over her clothing would have to wait and she noted absently that Ranma had several splotches on his body as well. She was also dealing with her own reaction to the battle, but she was able to push her arousal down easily enough. There'd been no challenge in that combat once she got in close and that limited the pleasure she had gotten from killing those men, though the fact they had wanted 'the women' as they put it let Saeko take some pleasure from the act.
Kohta looked over at Ranma "You think we should head off again?"
Ranma shook his head. "No, I think we need to stay with the group for now, besides ya see a place around here that would be any good?"
"Not once we make another turn…" Kohta said, looking around and shaking his head. "I'd have to stay too close to shoot down at the street for any of our noise to draw off any of the zombies from the Hummer itself, so yeah that makes sense."
Ranma nodded and turned, putting an arm around Saeko's waste and pulling her into his lap where he sat on the top of the Hummer. The group continued for a while, seeing small zombie groups here and their but none with large numbers enough to actually bog them down as they drove on. Shizuka and Asami both flinched occasionally when they saw zombies that had formerly been children and kids, even a toddler at one point, crawling out of a overturned baby carriage. The site of that particular zombie almost made Shizuka pull over and get out to pick the baby up, but then she noticed the eyes and the fact that one ear was missing. She shuddered and the Hummer continued.
Takashi reached out and patted her shoulder, knowing it wasn't enough, but also knowing nothing could be under the circumstances.
As they went on they started to see more and more dead bodies, people that had been torn apart before they could turn, people that had been shot down before they could turn, as well as several zombie bodies..
Saya nodded over to the left side away from their route. "If we go that way we'd hit one of the entrances to the highway out of the city, I can't imagine what it's like or what the highway itself looks like at this point. With the EMP having taken out most of the cars everyone up there would've been stranded and forced to run away under their own power. In that kind of situation the zombies would've caught up and bandit groups would have formed pretty quickly to defend themselves and take advantage of the chaos."
Ranma and the others nodded grimly and the group continued on seeing more signs of combat and more signs of atrocities, making most of them flinch while Ranma's eyes simply hardened noticeably as time went on.
Soon however they came to the point where they would have to turn again to head towards the police station. "We'll want to turn up there," Saya said pointing ahead with a frown on her face. She wasn't looking forward to trying to use another side road after what had just happened.
Ranma gently lifted Saeko out of his lap and stood up pulling her to her feet as well. "Saeko-chan and me'll go ahead to scout the route, Shizuka-sensei go slow and we'll be back by the time yer ready to turn."
Shizuka nodded, slowing the Hummer to a crawl, which made the noise of the engine die down as well. This made the few zombies that were around stop reacting except for the closest few but since the car kept on moving and the others were all armed well enough Ranma and Saeko felt safe to leave the group. They raced over to a nearby building, where Saeko readied herself for a moment then crouched and leapt upward. She almost made it, and one hand grabbed the side of the roof and she flipped herself up onto it easily. Ranma simply jumped from a standing start landing next to her easily. "Not bad, three stories that time. I told ya we'd get ya roof hopping soon enough."
Saeko smirked then grabbed him by the back of his head pulling him into a kiss, which was more hungry and sexual then a simple peck. Their tongues dueled for a moment, and again Saeko could feel at least two sets of eyes glaring at her before they reluctantly parted. "Time enough for that later love," Ranma said his blue eyes dark with desire. The one time back at the mall hadn't really put much of a damper on this newly awakened libido alas, and his girlfriend obviously knew it if her wicked grin was any indication.
The two of them turned and with Ranma watching Saeko made her first leap from one roof to another. She faltered a little when she landed, but recovered swiftly enough, and Ranma nodded approval. That had been a tilted roof, which were always a little tougher than flat roofs anyway. He leaped over and landed next to her and the two of them moved on swiftly. Soon they came up to the road that Saya had indicated would be their first turning point, and the two of them looked down. It looked clear, but Saeko pulled out a pair of binoculars from a small backpack she had taken from the mall and looked into the windows of the buildings on the far side of the street. After a moment she nodded. "I don't see any movement, this stretch looks clear."
Ranma nodded and led the way to the next toward turning point, consulting the map that Saya had thrust into his hands as he left the Hummer smirking at the little notes she had made over time on it. 'Here there be idiots' was marked on the mall building and the river had 'a possible route down to the sea, remember to come back to it'. Her house on the other hand was simply marked as 'the bastard's place'. Several other places were marked as points of interest to the 'grease slut' and 'gun baka' though one mark on the other side of the river drew his eye. It was marked 'the baka's house' and Ranma noticed that it was close to his house and wondered if she met Rei, him or Takashi. He wasn't about to ask since he knew that she would reply with something like all three of them or something even more cutting. Ranma liked Saya's sharp tongue well enough when it was directed at other people, but not when it was directed at him.
By this point in his ruminations the duo had come to the next turning point and they paused on the corner of a roof looking around. "So far so good," he muttered.
Saeko nodded as well and pulled out a walkie-talkie. "This is Lady Blade, the first two turns look good, come on up."
The two waited there for the Hummer to pull in about 5 minutes later and then continued on. The two of them stayed ahead of the Hummer by two turns, not finding any danger right up until the last turning that would take the Hummer onto the street that could take them to the police station.
There they noticed dozens of zombies moving towards the police station. They couldn't hear any sounds of gunfire in the distance, but there were still some sounds that indicated a fight was going on. They went ahead to wear they could see the rest of the street and up toward the police station then looked at one another before turning and running back they way they had come.
The two dropped down onto the top of the Hummer, making Kohta jump a little and the Hummer to rock for just a second. "There's trouble up ahead, zombie kind not human." Saeko reported, dropping the sheath of the Saotome blade into the hatch
Saya cursed a little. "There goes the idea of staying at the police station and looting the place. How many zombies do you think?"
Saeko and Ranma looked at one another than Saeko answered "A little over a hundred I think."
Kohta whistled and the others looked worried that number but Ranma merely shrugged. "Full speed ahead sensei, run them down if you can, we'll clear the way on the sides."
Shizuka gulped but nodded.
As it turned out however they didn't have to reach the police station. They blew through several groups of zombies moving along the street and making other zombies turn in their direction but almost immediately they could tell the fight was closer than the police station. Because over the sound of their gunfire they heard two voices haranguing one another.
"Oh yes and you were sooo innocent as a child!" one voice was saying then was interrupted by a funk as if someone had sliced into something heavy. "Who exactly was it who was found making out with her seventh grade teacher? It certainly wasn't me."
"It's just like you to bring up the ancient past when we're talking about indiscretions." Said another, less amused voice with an odd tremulous note to it. "At least I wasn't kicked out of middle school for assaulting a fellow student."
"He had it coming! How dare he feel me up and then say I was flat! I've never been flat!"
"Well that is true," said the drawling voice, more humor evident in it now. "You definitely developed earlier than most. That might be why your name appeared on the wall of practically every bathroom stall in the school."
"Simply a sign of pettiness among our fellow girls, they were just jealous that I actually had hips and a bust whereas they could barely dream of it."
Despite the somewhat disturbing back and forth Rei and Ranma looked at one another through the Hatch and grinned happily. Both of them recognized those voices.
Saeko and Ranma and leaped off the bus heading straight ahead, cutting down any of the zombies in their way while behind them those with the guns began to blaze away on either side as well as in front.
"Someone's moving towards us!" said one of the voices, the one that Ranma now recognized as his mom. "A last second group that wanted to be evacuated? Or other police I hear a lot of gunfire."
"Mom!" Ranma shouted, "It's us!"
Nodoka began to break out into laughter as she cut her way towards her son. "I told you they'd find us didn't I tell you! My oh so manly son wouldn't let us down!"
"Yes, you said that dozens of times, along with how he was probably being manly somewhere with dozens of girls," said his aunt Kiriko dryly coming forward and guarding his mother's back with her naginata.
Moments later they had sliced through the zombie horde all around them, and Ranma began to twirl his meteor hammer above his head, focusing his ki into it. "Head towards the Hummer back there!" He shouted while Saeko pointed back the way they had come. The numbers of zombies weren't a hundred, they were more like three or four-hundred, with the majority of them coming from the police station behind the two adult women and some others boiling around it from the sides. The group was in danger of getting overrun here, and that called for desperate measures. "And get ready to duck when I tell you!"
"Kohta!" he shouted, not looking away from the zombies all around him to look at the sniper who was taking single shots killing the zombies as they closed on the Hummer "Get ready to go to automatic fire and plow the road!"
Kohta blinked in shock then grinned wildly. "You got it boss!" The two women raced past the sword wielding Saeko and Ranma, entering the cleared area between them and the Hummer but all around them the zombies closed in despite his fire and that from everyone else. Even Yuuki had joined in, firing one of the nail guns from over Shizuka's body. At any other time the sight to the two amazing looking women pressed that tightly together would have knocked Takashi out, but he had other things on his mind now. He was again shooting out the window from his seat in the front, Alice once more pushed down into the leg area, but this time he was wielding the shotgun, blasting away at the closest zombies on that side.
Rei had exited the car on the other side, blasting away with the Knights SR while Kohta wielded the Springfield from up above. While her shooting was nowhere near his, a blown off leg or a shot to the gut still slowed the zombies down at least. Asami was with her on that side, blasting away with the second nail gun, the ammunition for the police pistol having run out before this. Her aim wasn't very good however because of her already bruised shoulder. On Takashi's side Kyoko was using the last of the crossbow bolts, taking out a few zombies who were reaching for the two approaching women.
Ranma focused his energy into his weapon, and above his head the wire began to glow blue. With a flick of his wrist tiny barbs appeared all along the chain, and he nodded, "Duck!"
The two women dove down onto the ground as did Saeko, kneeling down right behind Ranma and he whirled the weapon around, the chain elongating to around 50 feet, slicing into the zombies all around them. It also cleared the way back to the Hummer entirely, nearly nicking its front bumper with the pole end, which he hadn't bothered opening. After a single turn he faltered, the chain returning to its normal size and he pulled it back in shaking his head tiredly. "God, that really takes a lot out of me."
Saeko stood up swiftly grabbing his arm and pulling him back towards the Hummer, shooing the two adult women onto the top of the vehicle and motioning Rei to get back in. She easily jumped up to the top of the Hummer herself, pulling Ranma with her even as she shouted instructions. "Now Kohta, Shizuka! Get us out of here!"
Yuuki pulled back swiftly as Shizuka gunned the engine and the Hummer shot forward, smashing into the remnants of the horde in front of them which had already been weakened by Kohta going to rapid-fire on the Springfield, belting out rounds as fast as he could rather than single shots. Asami and Rei had done the same sticking their heads out the back windows to fire straight ahead, and between the three of them they cleared enough of the zombies for the Hummer to smashed through the far end of the horde. Moments later they left the horde behind, and continued their way through the streets of the city.
Ranma tiredly sat up leaning against the junk at the back of the Hummer's roof, reaching in and trying to pull out some energy bars for himself. He pulled out a whole box of them, but only decided to eat three of them now before putting the rest back. He then wearily rewound the chain of his meteor hammer around his waist then leaned back again, closing his eyes even as his hands automatically unwrapped the energy bar and forced it into his mouth.
Now that they were safe Kohta scrambled up and out of the way as her sister dove into the Hummer, grabbing her daughter and pulling her into a hug despite the awkward angle "You're safe!" she exclaimed tears in her eyes. "I knew you were safe when Ranma called us, but you went off alone…" she pulled back and stared angrily at her daughter. "What the hell happened, why did you do something like that!?"
Rei was in tears too and pulled her mother into another hug "I'll tell you why later, it was just something stupid, I'm sorry! I'm sorry I worried you! I'm just so happy that you're alive and we're together!"
Above them, Nodoka had gone to her knees next to her son and pulled him into a hug of her own. "I never doubted," she breathed, "I never doubted that you could get through to us."
Ranma smiled weakly at her then bit into one of energy bars before speaking. "You know me mom, it's gonna take more than zombies to put me down."
"My manly son," said his mother ruffling his hair and looking up to where Saeko had remained at the front of the Hummer kneeling down and looking in the direction they were heading. She noticed that the young woman was wielding her family blade and she gasped a little. "Does Busujima-san's wielding our family blade mean what I think it is my son?"
Saeko looked back at her and smiled gently. "I hope you treat me well, haha-ue."* that phrasing made both Saya and Yuuki scowl, and both of them resisted the urge to head up there and slap the sword-user silly.
Ranma's mother grinned at the young woman and moved forward to give her a hug too. "Welcome to the family my dear," she whispered. "I hope you know what you're in for."
Saeko smiled a little wickedly. "I've had several good examples of what I'm in for over the past few days yes."
"Oh," said his mother leaning even closer. "Do tell. Was he all you expected him to be?"
She was interrupted by a slap on her leg from Kiriko, who had just stuck her upper body out of the gun hatch. "Stop that, no mentally scarring the children."
"Mama," said Rei, looking at her "Wh-where's dad? What happened?"
The two adult women shared a glance and shook their heads. "Your father was wounded. Not by a zombie," she hastened to add as Rei's eyes widened with a look of horror. "He was shot in the chest, and the bullet lodged there. There was nothing we could do for him here so he was airlifted out to the rendezvous point. We stayed to help with the defense of the police station."
"And how was that defense broken?" said Saya pushing up her glasses and looking at the two women seriously, alternating between looking at the woman who was now sitting down next to her with Ray in her lap and the woman who was sticking her head over the side of the gun hatch, her auburn hair falling like a cascade down into the interior of the Hummer.
"That's where it becomes very strange" replied Kiriko, shaking her head angrily. "That police station was designed with an exterior wall around its parking lot, and the back of it to an alleyway behind but there's no doorway there, so it was a decent defensive position, that's why it was chosen as an evacuation point. Unfortunately, there are groups out there that apparently have decided to take the law into their own hands."
Nodoka took up the tale. "The two of us were holding the parking lots entrance. The last few groups to come in had been rather noisy and pulled even more zombies, adding to those that had been attracted to the noise of the helicopters landing. We were about, I would say five or six more loads before we were going to pull out when we heard a large explosion from behind us."
"An explosion?" said Saya questioningly. Kohta too was listening avidly as was Asami. Ranma concentrated more on putting food in his face than anything else, and Takashi and Saeko kept an eye out all around them. Yuuki, Kyoko and Shizuka were listening while Alice was looking at the two adult women with interest, the puppy once more in her arms as she looked over the back to Takashi's seat at them.
Rei's mother took up the story again. "A few of the policemen from inside the station came out shouting about how someone had blown a hole in the back wall, but by that point the explosion had attracted even more zombies, and while it wasn't exactly a clean break or anything from what I understand, the zombies simply came in waves from both that direction and the front. It was decided to pull out immediately with as many people as we could load onto the last few helicopters, but your mother and I decided to stay behind to meet up with you."
That was actually only half the reason why they had decided to stay behind. The other half was the fact that Kiriko had seen her husband's wound, and knew he was dying. There was very little even with modern medicine that a doctor could do for a gunshot wound of that caliber, and that supposed that they would have enough resources to waste on the attempt, which wasn't certain in the current crisis. It was only because of his record and his respected position among the ranks of the police (including the chopper pilots) and the fact it happened well before the assault on the back of the precinct that they had even bothered wasting space on his dying body. She had said her goodbyes to him before they had loaded him onto the helicopter, but had no wish to explain that to her daughter right now. Maybe once they got somewhere safe so they could both have a cry, but not before.
Kiriko shook her head. "As soon as the helicopters began to lift off the group that had blown up the interior made their appearance, they began to open fire on us from the surrounding buildings, it's evident they wanted to keep us from heading back into the police station, and they killed several of my fellow policeman who tried. I'm honestly surprised they didn't take shots at us once we broke out of the parking lot, but they seemed to have a plan and were sticking to it."
Kohta groaned and shared a look with Asami. "They were after the guns weren't they?"
"Probably," Asami said despondently poking her two fingers together worriedly. "But I think they're under some kind of lock encoder system or something, I don't know if they could get at them."
"The guns the police themselves were using were under lock and key," said Kiriko authoritatively, shaking her head resignedly. "But most of them had already been pulled out and assigned to officers. Looting the bodies of those they shot down would give them a few I have no doubt."
"But I doubt the police raided your evidence locker room said Kohta grimly. "I don't doubt there were a lot of guns in there for them to use either."
The two Miyamoto sisters nodded grimly. "That's probably true, and something we should've done. I think we had plans to do that before pulling out but because of the second wave coming at us from behind and the sheer number of zombies I don't think anyone got around to doing it."
She shook her head. Those last few moments with the helicopters lifting off and the zombies closing in from all around them had been perilous beyond belief. The two women had quickly realized they couldn't get back to the helicopters even if they wanted to. Besides the zombies coming in from the hole in the back of the precinct the zombies had actually begun climbing over one another to get over the small wall around the parking lot, and there were shots coming in from everywhere. The sounds of helicopters and the screams of the civilians as they were escorted on to the helicopters under fire were just too much for them to listen to without reacting and it had drawn hundreds of zombies from all around in on the precinct.
She shook her head from the memories of seeing two policeman pulled back into the horde, zombie mouths gaping wide and biting down silencing their screams as the helicopter's lifted off. Two of them had even crashed, dragged down by zombies as they lifted off the ground but the other two had gotten away.
"So, she said briskly, slapping her hands together and then moving them back to rest around Rei's waist in a loose hug. "Where are we going? And what have you all been up to? What's all the stuff at the back?" Implied in that statement was the question as to why all of it was there blocking the lot of them having more room. Having her daughter back in her lap at her age was very weird, but it was the only way for them all to have room, and that was with four of them up on the roof.
Nodoka nodded, sending her hair rippling in the air of the Hummer's interior, turning to look down at Alice with a warm smile. "And who is this little cutie? How are you dear?"
"I'm fine miss," said the little girl smiling up at her. "The onii-chans and onee-sans have been looking after me really well!" She held up the dog. "And this is Zeke," she said happily, glad that she and Kohta had finally come up with a name for the little white puppy. Knowing its cue, the newly christened Zeke barked lightly, waging his tail furiously.
"I see said Nodoka pulling her head up to look over at her son who shook his head mouthing the word 'father' and shaking it again. Nodoka nodded and didn't make any comment simply reaching down and patting Alice on the head. "Well I'm glad you're along dear, it would get so boring without someone like you along to liven things up. And you can call me auntie."
Alice nodded seriously. "The onee-chans take things a little too seriously sometimes, but I try to keep them in line."
Everyone in the Hummer laughed at that but Ranma was too tired to join in, leaning back against the pact duffel bags on the slope of the back of the Hummer even as he popped a second energy bar into his mouth. While it wasn't working yet, he hoped it would kick in before their next battle, or else he was going to be about as useful as a wet noodle. I need to figure out some way did heightened my ki reservoir, that should not have taken that much out of me. I know was necessary at the time, but if we hadn't been able ta break through in that first rush I wouldn't have been in any condition to help.
Saeko sat down beside him leaning against the same duffel and nuzzling one of his shoulders. "Well done my heart," she muttered kissing the side of his neck for a moment.
Saya poked her head up, nearly smacking her forehead into Nodoka's, who had leaned down again to talk with Kyoko and Shizuka, wanting to thank the two women for looking after the teens. Of course they all knew it was more the other way around, but certain proprieties had to be maintained. Saya didn't care about that, having her mind on more long term problems. "So, on to my place?"
Ranma nodded. "That's the plan. Should we head back to the river and take that down to your parents place, or follow the roads and take our chances?" He looked up, estimating it was near five o'clock by this point, meaning they had about three hours or so of daylight left.
Saya took out the map from Saeko's backpack, which the swordswoman had dropped into the hatch before they hit the zombies around the two sisters. She spread it out over the top of the Hummer then moved to one side as Kyoko stood up, sticking your own head out to look at the map, making the hatch a little crowded, but thankfully both of them were much thinner than Kohta, though their busts did make it rather uncomfortable. Luckily the others had better sense than to try and join them, though judging by Kohta's blush the tow of them alone were already enough stimulation for him.
Saya ignored the pervert for now, concentrating on the map. "Well we're heading towards the river now, but this street's going to dead end soon and we'll need to turn to the right to continue on towards my parent's place. After that we'll hit a main road, and we can take that back to the river if we want. I think that is really the best plan, we won't run into any problems on the river itself after all unless people have already begun to build boats to try and get away, but I doubt that's an issue just yet. The roads leading to my parents place though pass all the way through this commercial district before hitting the housing district, and I don't think we should trust the roads around here anymore than we have to."
Kohta frowned a little from where he was holding on to one side of the Hummer as it sped along, both hands gripping the roof's edge so hard his knuckles were white. He really didn't like being on the roof of the Hummer when it was moving like this without him in the protection of the Hatch. He'd even had to hand his rifle down so he had both hands to grab on with. "D-do you think we can get some ammunition for the guns from your house? I mean your dad is the one that leads that whole ultra-nationalist party right?"
Saya shrugged not showing any surprise that Kohta knew that. "I'm pretty we could, I mean I've seen guns like that around a time or two. My father runs his party more like it his own private army anyway." She said that part bitterly.
Saya had long hated the fact that her father was so involved in politics at the expense of being with his family, and hated the fact that the people around her used their relationship to put her on a pedestal and treat her like a princess. To Saya's mind if she was on a pedestal she damn well wanted to have earned that position on her own merits. She had also begun to resent the fact that neither of her parents had tried to check up for her or come to get her when this crisis began. To her mind that showed their priorities in as unambiguous a fashion as possible.
Ranma nodded grimly. They had just gone through quite a lot of their ammunition supply in the past two battles, so Kohta's point was a definite consideration. "Good job thinking ahead Kota, but if we can get re-arm there you're in charge of clearing the road for us. Single shots, and only if they seem to be making their way towards us." Kohta nodded his eyes gleaming again with anticipation despite the fact they had just exited a pretty hot battle, and Ranma nodded firmly.
Nodoka, Saeko and Ranma began to look out while Kohta took up his position in the gun hatch again. The three of them were looking at the side of the roads, the concern of whether or not they would be attacked by other groups rather than zombies paramount in their minds while Kohta studied the road ahead of them making sure that there were no zombie clumps in front of them that could impede their progress.
Thankfully they made the transition from this one lane road to one of the main roads back towards the river in another twenty minutes without further incident, and were belting along it when they noticed what looked like stakes along the side of the road in front of one of the alleyways. The women turned away in shock and horror, and Takashi made a point of covering Alice's eyes to stop her seeing what was there.
Ranma and Saeko exchanged a glance of grim rage. Someone had created what looked like stakes in the entrance to the alleyway and had stuck what looked to have been a still living person there. His mouth was open in a silent scream, and several zombies were still chewing on him, his intestines having already been ripped out and eaten. The Hummer sped past, and Nodoka shook her head. "What kind of person could do something like that?"
"Especially since whoever it was could get the zombies attention with fireworks or something else," Saya barely holding her stomach from throwing up.
"I don't know," said Rama thoughtfully, tapping the chain of his meteor hammer around his waist gently, but there was nothing gentle about his eyes as he looked back at the gruesome scene now behind them. "I don't know, but if I ever meet the person behind it I'm going to make certain they go the same exact way."
No one, not even Kyoko concerned as she was about his inner darkness and love of violence, spoke up against that idea and they all sat silently lost in their own thoughts as the Hummer continued on its way.
OOOOOOO
Only at one point during their trek to the river did the group run into further problems. This was in the shape of over three dozen zombies milling about around what looked like a small enclosed park along their route. Ranma noted absently that the park had seemingly been set up for some kind of small concert or something, and grimaced as he noticed the fence around most of it. That must've blocked everyone in, and if the zombies were coming in from the one entrance I can see everyone inside must've been trapped there.
There were several zombies around the fence as well, and he could see where some had been bitten on their legs as they were climbing over the fence and grimaced when he saw some kind of mascot character, his head missing and a bite taken out of the side of his jaw surrounded by several zombies that had once been kids. That was probably one of the more disturbing things he'd seen since this all began, right up there with the impaled individual they had passed a few minutes ago.
"Just don't look at it," he muttered looking down into the Hummer, and Shizuka grimaced but Hummer kept going, splattering two zombies in the road, several more going down to Kohta as the Hummer raced on.
About 10 minutes later they reached the river, and plowed into three more zombies there or were just milling about in the center of the road before going down the hill and then out onto the river.
Ranma again stuck his head down into the center of the Hummer, looking around at Saya. "How far do we take the river down before heading to your parents place?"
Saya frowned thoughtfully pushing up her glasses as she looked down at the map. "For that we have a sort of choice to make she said. We could try to take the main roads, where we've had mixed success. The group nodded, remembering back to that ambush they had run into before having to take a secondary route to be police station. Even the two mothers nodded, having been told about it on the way here.
Ranma's aunt in particular was looking a little amused remembering all they had been told about the teen's adventures up to this point. She had never expected that Ranma would be the leader of this group, indeed she had expected an adult to be somewhere in the mix. But after talking to Shizuka and Kyoko she realized that she had greatly underestimated her nephew. Not only was he an even more deadly martial artist than she had thought, he had a brain on him too, and the willingness to do anything he had to keep the rest of them safe. All in all she was well pleased with his leadership and was more than willing to back off and let him continue to be the leader. This also would allow her more time to be by herself and grieve for her husband. Despite what she had told her daughter she knew that she would never see him alive again.
Saya continued, "The other choice is to take the river further down, and then try the back roads. We'll be going through a housing district if we try that route."
Ranma nodded looking down at her, trust in his eyes as he asked "Pros and cons?" He wasn't really the kind to plan ahead, but he knew to take advantage of Saya, who was good at that kind of thing.
Saya grinned up at him thankful that he was finally learning to follow her example in thinking ahead. "The first choice would probably be faster, we might run into some more trouble in terms of numbers of zombies and maybe even other groups like what Ms. Miyamoto mentioned, but we might get there faster in the end, and we can double back more easily for the first leg of the trip until we hit the housing district."
"With the second option we have less chance of running into many zombies and far less of a chance of running into other scavenger groups because we'll be travelling through housing district the entire way. But it would take longer because that route would be much less of a straight line and, if we run into any barricades or anything that permanently blocks the Hummer we would have to backtrack almost to the river and try again. There are also places that if they're blocked we would be forced at least half an hour, maybe more out of our way to go around. Moving a barricade would obviously make a lot of noise and would bring more zombies down on top of us."
Ranma frowned thoughtfully, tapping the chain around his waist. "Kohta, how's your ammo doin'?"
"The shotguns out, we ran out back during the fight by the police station," He said promptly, which caused Takashi to shrug unrepentedly in the front seat. Between conserving ammo or blowing away zombies he knew what he'd choose.
"The knight SR and Springfield M1A1 are down to about 60 shots broken evenly between them." The gun otaku sighed sadly. "If we had had time to police the area after that barricade incident we might've gotten some more guns and hopefully some more ammo too, but with the zombies coming on as they were that wasn't going to happen. And we didn't have the chance at the police station either."
"Couldn't be helped," Ranma agreed frowning thoughtfully. "What about the crossbow and the nail guns?"
"The nail guns are fully loaded, we grabbed a lot ammo for them at the few maintenance shops along the way before we dumped the bus, and they didn't weigh much so never got rid of any. We have enough to load them both up three more times."
Yuuki scowled at the memory of what happened to the bus and all her hard work on it and Rei patted her shoulder consolingly while Kohta continued. "The crossbow only has two bolts left, Kyoko sensei went through most of them during that last fight."
Ranma frowned thoughtfully then nodded decisively. "Let's go with the route through The back way. Kohta, Rei, switch out your guns to the nail guns, don't shoot if you don't have to. We'll try to sneak through. Once we get ashore Saeko and I will go ahead and scout out ahead of the rest of you."
Nodoka frowned slightly, really wishing she had kept up with most of her martial arts exercises. She had once been able to roof-hop as easily as Ranma did but that had been a long time ago. She had kept up with her sword exercises, but not the others, and even that hadn't proven enough to keep her from getting sore after the last few days constant use.
Ranma continued. "We won't use walkie-talkies or even speak much. we'll stay within sight of you and use hand gestures to signal what we want you to do. The rest of ya will have ta stay as quiet as possible. I don't think any of us are up to another battle at this point, so sneakiness is the way to go."
The others all nodded fervent agreement with that and settled in for a nice little break from the danger. Rei leaned against her mother's shoulder, smiling slightly as she remembered times when she was younger and fell asleep just like this. Kohta, Takashi, Ranma and Saeko all leaned back and tried to take a nap. Takashi first had to help Alice to move into the back where she sat down on Kyoko's lap, the two of them talking quietly about some kind of children's TV show. Yuuki moved to the front and joined Takashi in his chair, smirking inside at the glare this cause Rei to send her before they both closed their eyes in the hopes of a nap.
Shizuka pouted slightly at the fact everyone else was able to take naps, one of her favorite pastimes, but was comforted when Yuuki put Zeke in her lap to play with as she kept the Hummer in the center of the river.
Time passed quickly and 30 minutes later they reached the point where they would have to move off the river to head towards Saeko's house.
As soon as they moved up the little hill they came into the housing area that Saya had mentioned. Most of the houses around here were pretty large and very well-to-do especially the ones right by the river bed. There actually wasn't a bridge or road here; the houses just looked over the river bed with nothing between them. This forced the Hummer to smash through a fence and over someone's little lawn to get to the road on the other side. There ere a few zombies around, but Kohta killed them quickly as they responded to the noise of the Hummer's movement.
They successfully got out onto the street and Saya pointed out the direction they needed to go to Shizuka then passed the map with the route highlighted up to Ranma, squeezing her arm past Kohta's bulk.
He and Saeko looked at it then nodded at the others and silently jumped off from the top of the Hummer to the nearest rooftop. Saeko made the jump easily this time, and smiled at Ranma's grin of encouragement.
From there Ranma jumped to the other side of the street, and the two of them made their way a few houses forward of the Hummer, looking around for threats then turned and waved the Hummer on.
Shizuka move forward at a crawl, the engine barely turning over and she winced looking at the gas dial. They had filled up at the mall, but it was obvious that they were going to need to fill up again once they got to Saeko's house. Luckily the Hummer could run on practically anything, so it wouldn't be that difficult. Despite this Yuuki's work on its engine was proving its worth again, as the sound of the engine was barely audible to the two scouting marital artists.
Saeko and Ranma moved silently over the rooftops, stopping occasionally and looking around them, the sunlight of the fading day behind them. Most of the time they simply waved the Hummer forward, but twice they ordered it to halt, as they cleared out a patch of zombies as silently as possible. Despite this Saya looked to be correct, this area didn't have many zombies in it and while the going was slow, it was safe.
About thirty minutes into the trip Saeko called a halt then motioned Ranma over to join her as she jumped to the next house. The two of them stood there looking down at a barricade right below them blocking the route. It was a simple stone one like construction crews used, showing none of the ramshackle nature of the other barricade they had seen.
Despite this the two of them carefully looked around at the houses and the streets, looking for any sign of movement. They didn't see anything to indicate an ambush and with Saeko remaining on guard before Ranma jumped down. He lifted the stone up careful not to let it scrape on the asphalt, before dropping it to the side. With that done Saeko motioned the Hummer through, then went ahead while Ranma replaced the barricade before rejoining her.
It was very nervous making for everyone going this slowly in fits and starts like this, but it was also safe, and despite the few zombie groups and the barricade they didn't run into any trouble until about three blocks away from Saya's house.
The houses here were even larger than the houses they had been moving through, and were actually segueing into actual mansions rather than regular houses. One of them however caught Ranma's attention because he thought he saw movement in one of the upper story windows.
Raising one hand he called a halt, motioning Saeko back to tell the Hummer to stop several turns back. With that done he went down on his belly looking over the tip of the roof, staring at the window where he saw the movement. His patience was rewarded when about two minutes later a man stepped into view, holding a pair of binoculars
The look of the guy and two cut off fingers on the hand Ranma could see indicated he was a yakuza, not someone you would normally find in this area of the town. The fact he was staring out toward the Takagi estate rather than around probably meant he wasn't there to spot groups coming in or for zombies, but rather to keep an eye on the mansion and the people inside.
It looked almost as if someone had set up a spy on the house, and he moved back swiftly to join Saeko, whispering what he had found to relay it to the others. With that done he dropped down to the road, doubled back and around to come at the house in a direction where there were no windows that could spot him jumping onto the roof.
He landed lightly, not making any noise then slowly and quietly made his way around the roof.
He swiftly came to the point above the window where he'd spotted the guy. Looking over it he was able to see that the window had been opened, and he breathed a sigh of relief before flipping himself over and into the room, his feet impacting the man's face and throwing him back.
In the room he found two other yakuza thugs and a walkie-talkie set by the window which he deliberately crushed before charging the three surprised toughs. All three of them whipped out knives, even the man whose face Ranma had just hammered, and they came at him snarling. "We're gonna gut you twerp!"
Ranma ignored their rather idiotic threats and grabbed one man's arm when he tried to stab him, punching the man straight in the throat crushing it. The man fell down grabbing at his ruined throat as he began to choke to death, and Ranma whirled around a spin kick taking the man whose face he had smashed in the side of the head snapping his neck and flinging his body aside.
The last man tried to slash at him but Ranma ducked under it and got behind him, grabbing the man in a chokehold. The man again to gasp in pound at his hands, but Ranma's grip was like steel, and within seconds the man had succumbed falling unconscious to the ground.
Ranma left him there, moving through the house swiftly on silent feet. Luckily the three of them were the only ones there, and he moved upstairs once again to look out around at the other houses. On the roof across from him he could make out a bit of purple hair sticking out above the slope of the houses roof, and he whistled.
Saeko stuck her head out to look at him and nodded then stood up and made her way back to the Hummer motioning it to start forward again.
A shout from the mansion at the end of the road however brought her up short and she looked back at the mansion where a guard set in a tree near the outer wall of the area had apparently spotted her.
Wondering how he had missed Ranma she merely waved at him, then jumped down and joined the Hummer as it made the final turn and began to move towards the house. "Just to prove were friendly Saya-san," she said in a normal tone of voice, hoping it would carry without her having to shout, "I think you should come up here with me."
She helped Kohta stand up onto the top of the roof, and Saya made her way onto the roof as well, after which Kohta jumped back into the hatch. He'd had enough of being on the roof while the car was moving, thank you so much.
The hummer soon turned onto the road leading to the mansion's gate. Saya stood at the front of the roof waving her hands above her head to make sure that the people in the mansion could see her.
She almost fell in her exuberance, but Saeko caught her, pulling her back and Saya actually blushed a little at feeling the other girl's breasts pressed into her back like that. Saeko kept her grip on Saya however, her breasts continuing to press into Saya's back while the Hummer made its way forward slowly.
Ranma swiftly joined them, jumping down and landing lightly alongside the Hummer, his prisoner in a fireman's carry over his shoulders.
Ahead of them the group could see several people rushing out to the gate in the mansion wall, pushing it aside and waving them through. A few of them even shouted out loud in happiness at seeing the young mistress alive and well.
Inside the mansion's walls there were clear signs of fighting, several dead bodies scattered around, and even a few zombies near the walls. A limousine was parked outside the mansion's doors, but it seemed to have been hit by a fire bomb of some kind and smoke was still pouring out of it. Nor had the mansion been spared. It was missing several windows, the front door showed signs of more fire damage. There were also several tents on the grounds as well, but they seemed to have been trampled down and around them were a dozen other dead bodies.
"I wonder what happened here?" Ranma muttered looking up at Saeko and through the window at Kyoko. They both shrugged and Saya scowled angrily, wondering what the hell happened here.
The Hummer ground to a halt when one of the more officious looking guardsmen motioned with his hands for it to stop. Another guard moved swiftly to help Saya down from the roof but didn't make it before Saeko simply lifted the shorter girl up and jumped down easily. The group all boiled out of the Hummer, while behind them the Gates began to shut, sounding a little too final for Ranma's ears for some reason. Nonetheless, he was happy to be somewhere safe again. For a given value of safe anyway. He thought ruefully, then grinned at Saya and moved to stand next to her and Saeko, wondering what was going to happen next.
End chapter
Sorry about ending the chapter there, but felt the scene I have written next and with Ranma and Saya's dad just isn't good enough. As you can see I added tragedy, but didn't make it happen to the group, not quite anyway. And I showed that other people were just as dangerous going forward. Now the question is, should the group add another car, because the Hummer is hell'a crowded right now. And will they add any other people to their unit?
As always, read and review. And should Kiriko and Nodoka be paired with anyone? Could add to the comedy/drama factor, but I have no opinion on it one way of the other.
Next chapter will have Ranma and Saya's dad clashing heads, the group spending some time safe again, and some other things.
*formal version of mother, specifically mother-in-law (though don't quote me on that part)
