AN: Haaaappy New Years, guys! And to commemorate this awesome day, I decided to submit the new chapter a week early! YEEAAAAAH! BDDD
Also, that last chapter was weird to leave off on, soooo- *shot*
Oh, and do you guys have New Years resolutions? Mine are 1) to improve on my art and 2) Try to do better in my classes[ because my mom had thrown a fucking box of wrenches in my life and rubbed them all in my face, causing my grades to steadily drop from their usual places high on the academics spectrum as they usually are.] 3) is to try not to procrastinate, which is a nasty habit I've abused as of recently. 4) Is to be more social, but not with those fucking kids I find annoying from church that my mom wants me to be chummy with [I call bullshit on that, mother]. 5) is To be the very best that no one ever waaaaas-
- -CHAPTER VI: TREADING THROUGH DEAD WATERS- -
"I- I dunno why, but it feels like we're going in circles," Jessie thought despairingly as she held her gaze at Taro's back. "What's going wrong? Isn't Taro leading us straight out of here?"
In all honesty, Taro didn't really know where the fuck he was going; he's been so on edge that he doesn't even remember what direction they where going.
He'd gotten them lost.
He sure as hell wasn't going to admit it, though. No need to cause panic, after all.
They'd eventually find their way out, right?
…Right?
- -MAGIKARP OF THE DEAD- -
"Can we rest now, for a bit? We've been walking around the edge of the beach for a long time," Francine groaned wearily.
That was certainly true; Nathan had just been leading them on and on since the last time they've rested, wanting to keep his mind off of certain things…
The man in question stopped, snapping out of his reverie. "Yes, of course," he quickly relented and the rest of the group all but collapsed on the sand.
"Cher Dieu! I thought that my feet would fall off!" Francine complained, taking off her shoes and rubbing her slender foot.
"It's your fault for wearing heels through almost all this," Dahhria groaned.
"But getting out of the camp was the highest of priorities! Besides, I am perfectly capable of running in heels if it's not on sand!" Francine rebuked.
"She's actually right for both points," Josh commented warily.
"...How much time has passed, exactly, since this morning?" Sammy suddenly asked everyone.
Nathan swiftly brought his arm up, pulling back his coat sleeve to look down at his watch. "It's five o'clock."
"Arceus- that long ago?" Josh exclaimed, astounded.
Francine suddenly tugged on Nathan's coat sleeve. "When will there be a bathroom break…?"
Nathan sighed. "I guess that right now's as good as any…"
"Where, though?" Francine persisted.
"Erm, I guess in the trees…" Nathan said uncomfortably.
The others sighed, resigned with the fact that they had to walk all the way back to the woods.
Francine considered his answer for a few short seconds, and then asked "…How?"
Nathan just stared at her, bewildered, and the others turned to look at the woman as well.
"Haven't you been traveling…?" Dahhria asked, irritated.
"Um, yes," Francine said uncomfortably.
"Then how don't you…?" Dahhria began.
"Just- Just pretend that you're going camping," Nathan tried to supply, getting jumpy and nervous as strange mental images fluttered in his mind.
Francine's eyes widened considerably at the suggestion. "Camping…?" She started to shake, and Nathan had to backtrack considerably.
"I'm sure that Dahhria and Sammy will tell you how," he said quickly.
"Did I just trigger some horrible memory for her?" Nathan thought guiltily as he watched the hysteria in the woman's eyes ebb away.
"Come on," Dahhria groaned as she struggingly stood up, extending a hand to Francine. "Sammy n' I'll go with you; going in groups is safer, anyway." Francine blankly took Dahhria's hand and Sammy stood up, bounding over to the other two females.
"Guess that we'll have each other's backs," Josh said as he made his way over to Nathan, who was getting up off the ground.
"I guess so," Nathan said as he watched the trio of females walk towards the trees, then started to follow their general trajectory until he slanted off to the side to let the women have their privacy.
He was confident that they'd do just fine on their own; they've certainly proven themselves capable, so far. Well, except Francine, but she was a separate, confusing topic altogether.
- - M. O. T. D- -
Everything was going alright, for now. Yuki-Rin and Kazuma had thankfully entered the structure carefully and quietly.
"What do we do? Do we search around the rooms or go straight towards the kitchens and stuff?" Teresa asked Hydro and Sunny quietly, uncertain on how to go about searching the ship.
"I guess we can try a few, but we have to be careful; some rooms may have been extremely damaged and opening them could cause a flood," Sunny advised, his voice kept down as well.
Nodding, everyone quietly tiptoed over to face doors that would open up to rooms, and slowly opened them. Thankfully, it seemed like the rooms from this end of the structure weren't damaged profusely, and they quickly went and scrounged up some supplies.
They would use the same tactic in entering the rooms. Eventually, they made their way deeper in the ship, careful about all the items strewn around in the passageway.
And then, their luck ran out.
A wrong foot placement sent Teresa tumbling to the floor, causing a large clatter that resonated through the ship.
All at once, zombies seemed to surge towards them, coming out from a few unexplored rooms or from deeper down in the ship.
- -MAGIKARP OF THE DEAD- -
"It's okay, Aki," a breathless boy said, more to calm himself than anything. "We don't have Isabella here, but it'll be alright."
"How can it be?" Aki, the long-haired Chinese girl, choked out.
"We're together," Heathcliffe, the boy, said in a calm, soothing voice.
"S-Sarutobi-kun!" Aki choked out as she wrapped her arms around her boyfriend.
Heathcliffe made shooshing noises to calm her. "It'll be okay. Look, we're almost at the ocean!"
Aki sniffled and nodded her head, letting Heathcliffe lead the way, their hands intertwined. Soon enough, they were out of the woods and onto the beach.
"Jesus- that's a lot of wreckage," the punkish boy noted as the colossal amount of wrecked ships came into sight fairly quickly.
"Isn't that the Magikarp Express?" Aki inquired, pointing out the large mass that stood out clearly.
"What's left of it, at least," Heathcliffe noted. "Do you think we can find supplies in there? We didn't have much time to gather anything…"
Aki felt guilt gnaw at her stomach. Through all this, Heathcliffe was occupied with protecting her, and for choosing to head straight in to get her out of danger, he didn't get many supplies. She felt as helpless as a newborn kitten for being such a burden.
"I think we should go," Aki decided softly, wanting to repay her boyfriend back. And, besides, supplies were very needed.
"Alright," Heathcliffe said gently, and he tugged her over to the massive ship, helping her over large splinters and parts that were strewn across the sand.
They didn't even notice how some of the parts where in seemingly organized piles, nor where they concerned of the tracks peppered across the sand, signs of people having recently been there before them.
- - M. O. T. D- -
"Shit-shitshitshit," growled Hydro as he ducked under some ceiling lights that were pulled and situated half-way down to the floor to avoid a zombie tumbling on top of him.
"In retrospect, this was moronic," Sunny said wearily and the hacked at a half-drowned zombie. "We can't really maneuver well in here since it's wrecked and waterlogged."
"And there's zombies here too," added Teresa in an apologetic tone as she jumped over some large soaked splinters to avoid a zombie from biting her.
"Bill would be so ashamed," Yuki-Rin said sadly aloud. "Too bad there's no quick-save to fix this up."
A shrill, high-pitched scream was soon issued, it not coming from neither of the two females in the current group. Ruckus came from the front entrance of the ship, which had seemed to have the only accessible one at the time.
"Shit," Yuki-Rin cursed, and gave a leaping bound over a large chunk of plaster, kicking 2 zombies in the head in the process of jumping. She made her way through the ship as fast as she could, Kazuma right on her tail.
- -MAGIKARP OF THE DEAD- -
As Yuki-Rin arrived, she observed that she was too late. Aki was pushed back into the corner, the only thing keeping her from the zombies was Heathcliffe, and his arms were riddled with bites.
"I'm sorry," Aki sobbed as she kissed her boyfriend's cheek. He started to hack up blood, but was still trying to keep the zombies away from his beloved.
"Run, save yourselves!" Aki yelled at Yuki-Rin and Kazuma as she noticed their presence.
Kazuma grabbed onto Yuki-Rin and roughly shoved her in an alcove as she struggled from his grip, wanting to help out their friends. She howled out their names, and thrashed about in Kazuma's grip fiercely.
Heathcliffe was the first to die; with the copious amounts of bites he obtained, the virus spread alarmingly fast, making the startingly quick progression as if it was one of the most poisonous venoms in the world. He collapsed, making a parting in the crowd of zombies.
The parting didn't last long; soon enough, the zombies got a hold of Aki.
"Yuki-Rin, Kazuma, survive through this!" where Aki's last, strangled words before she endured being torturously eaten by the ravenous zombies.
The shrieks of pain emanating from the girl were mind-jarring in the ship, echoing and reverberating all around the large structure. Her screams masked Yuki-Rin's own in comparison, drawing all the zombies towards her, and zombies never even neared the otaku girl and the blonde-dreadlocked boy.
Yuki-Rin didn't stop shouting and thrashing about until both she and Kazuma watched the Chinese girl finally turn in to a zombie. Death hadn't come as quickly as Aki had hoped for, for instead of getting off-ed in one bite like others she had the luck to have literally have her flesh torn apart brutally.
Both Yuki-Rin and Kazuma stood still, and then Yuki-Rin began to quietly sob, and tears soon leaked out of Kazuma's tears, silently crying, soon after his friend started to express her dread.
Sunny, Hydro, and Teresa finally reached Yuki-Rin and Kazuma a minute later. They had been hiding away in an alcove as well to allow the sudden large surge of zombies that came from the inner recesses of the ship to go after the two unprepared trespassers. They, certainly, did not want to get caught in the wave and be devoured as well.
"Since…the front exit is clogged, we'll use a side exit I found," Sunny said in a sympathetically quiet tone.
Teresa gently guided Kazuma and Yuki-Rin towards the exit down a side hallway, Sunny in the lead.
Hydro was lagging behind, looking over at the two newly-fresh zombies with critical eyes. He made a 'tch'ing sound and shook his head morosely, then went and caught up with the rest of the group, careful to not make any loud ruckus to attract the zombies' attention.
- -CHAPTER VI: TREADING THROUGH DEAD WATERS. END- -
- -"I felt really bad for them; I really did. But, this was a zombie apocalypse, and you have to eventually move on. We pushed them to move on right away, though; the ship just wasn't a safe place for mourning. I have the feeling that they won't be their usual optimistic selves any longer through this, though…."- -
AN: Aaaand this is the mood whiplash chapter! The went from a pretty good and light because of last chapter, and into this one it slowly deteriorated until it went melancholic! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ:･ﾟ✧
There is a reason why this is called the " Mood-whiplash sock-to-the-fucking-face chapter! 8DD " in the original document.
*Aki and Heathcliffe weren't originally from Camp Magikarp. WHOOPS. They were from Camp Delcatty, the rivals, but I just migrated them over to CM.
**Also, I'd like to think that Taro has a HORRIBLE sense of direction and that he's been leading his group practically is circles, or just veering all over the place and not really getting anywhere. [Hell, maybe they've been going in the right direction for the most part but they've just spiraled towards there.]
But, no one says anything about it or really notices because HE'S THEIR LEADER and THEY TRUST HIM AND HIS JUDGEMENT; you just DON'T go against the guy who's lead you to safety and kills a shit load of zombies.
Anyway, this could be how their group has taken the MOST chapters in arriving to their destination.