Fuyu(Author): We finally meet Takashi's group in this chapter so...Get ready to completely throw the original story out the window.

Chapter 12: Silent Ride - Encounter

The drive up to the streets above was nice as we've met with none of those undead to ruin our day. Yet, the streets were strangely quiet all around us. Even the sounds of gunfire and undead moans sounded so faint. Suddenly, just as we were about to get our bearings, were stopped by a Humvee with many familiar faces. Behind us, Josh spoke into the radio, "What the hell, man? What's going on up front?"

"We got company," I answer, "Looks like someone in the Humvee."

"Should we get ready to fight," Suzuki asks me as has his .22 rifle ready.

"I don't think they're hostile," Suita says, "Plus, isn't that the Humvee we saw a few nights ago?"

"Looks like it," I say as I get out with my arms up leaving my weapon in the car, "Hey, don't shoot. We're not looking for a fight of any kind."

Two people on top of the Humvee are there and one of them says, "I recognize you, you're from Fujimi Academy right?"

"Yeah, that's right," I say giving the speaker a good look. I recognize his face and hairstyle as his hair is dark and messy as he gives me a look of recognition.

"We've haven't officially met. Thankfully, you're not here to fight," he says, "I'm Komuro Takashi, I think I saw you and your friends skipping out a few times at class."

'So I was seen,' I think to myself as I say aloud, "Yeah, that's right, I'm Seishin Fuyu my friends are with me along with a few more in my group," I gesture to them as they look out, "I assure you we're not infected."

"I'll take your word on that, Seishin-san," He says as he pats the top of the jeep, "Wanna join us?"

I look to my friends and they all agreed so I say, "The more the merrier, I guess."

"I'll take that as a yes," He says with a smile.

From the window, a bespectacled girl with long twintails that I completely remember says to us, "We're heading to my family's estate so stay with us."

I nod and get into the driver's seat and drove behind them. On the radio, josh said, "Well, that went much better than I expected. I actually thought that they'll just leave us or worse, shoot us."

"They're not animals," I answer, "They're humans, like us, and intend to keep it that way."

"By the way, we should have given them a radio," Suita says, "Can't keep up a good group without communication."

"Oh shit, you're right," I say out of realization, "Next time, maybe, when we're all up close to talk face to face."

We quickly see a lot of the undead crowding the streets as we drive. More and more the closer we get to their destination until we are near a freeway that's infested with the damn things. Beyond that, I see what appears to be a roadblock.

"Oh shit," I say when I see what's ahead when we drive up to them. I was thinking to just to stop and ask what to do when Komuro's jeep plows through the undead. I have found no choice but to follow as Josh began to do the same. Three of our cars together had all formed our own paths through the horde and stopped before the fence as it seemed to be reinforced. Since we're all parallel, I get my gun and roll down the window. I look to my side as I see that both of the riders on the roof fell off. "You guys okay," I shout to them, as I heard gunfire. A shotgun, no less. Now with the hatch open, a rather big guy with long hair and glasses seemed to be shouting instructions to Komuro after he said, "Their fine, one of us just fell off." I then see him firing a very familiar gun, an Armalite AR-10.

I briefly smile at his gun and asked Suzuki to hand me a reflex sight from a bag. "Looks like we got one hell of a fight on our hands," I say to everyone as I attach the sight. I see Suzuki behind me to my left sitting on the windowsill and firing with his .22 rifle. I switch the safety off to semi-auto and fire shot after shot into the crowd before us. Hikari is shooting as well with her hunting rifle. Far to my left, I see Josh's group is opening fire as well out the corner of my eye. The fight felt like it is going on forever as more zombies began to get closer. I hear a different gun coming from my far right as I realize that they have more guns than just a shotgun and AR-10. Despite my usual need to keep going, I began to lose hope but kept shooting and reloading. Suddenly, I saw Komuro armed with an empty Ithaca M37 and a dark-haired girl with a wooden sword charge through and seem to be carving a path. I signal Josh and his group to hold fire along with my group as I notice that they're attracting the horde away from us. As their diversion began to work for a lot of them, so I actually get out off the car and run up to Komuro's ride, shooting along the way. "What the hell was up with that," I shout at the guy still in the turret hatch.

"We have a dog that was with a little girl that we have with us," The guy says to me, "he just jumped out to fight and suddenly, Takashi just said, 'Zero can't do it alone,' and charged in holding that shotgun as a club. Busujima-san joined him as they just diverted them away from us. By the way I'm Kohta"

"The name's Fuyu. And also that's just fucking insane," I say in disbelief as I back off from the zombies while firing off round after round until I heard the dreadful click of an empty mag, "Oh fuck...oh fuck, oh fuck..."

As the undead got closer, Kohta picked up a little girl and told her to get over the fence. The girl protested and cried as the same thing was about her dad. My blood ran cold as I about that. 'So, I'm not the only one who saw their dad die,' I think to myself disregarding the fact that I pulled the trigger on him by his request. I was about to charge foreword like Komuro did until I heard a woman shout commands and men in full riot gear and what looks like pressurized water cannons bring up a ladder to us while a few men with the water cannons blast away the infected. With no choice to question it, we climb the ladders over the fence and touch down on the other side. As the school nurse thanked the leader, the woman removed her helmet revealing her to be of striking resemblance to the twintailed girl aka Saya Takagi, the smartest of her class.

When Saya called out, "mommy," and hugged her is when it confirms it all about their relationship. I turn to where Komuro and the girl ran up to and see that they are safe. When Takagi turned to look after her reunion the two ran off. "They'll be fine," Kohta said to her with a reassuring smile, "They'll be just fine."

"How so," I ask, "I mean, you sure they'll survive here?"

"Oh, you bet," Kohta said, "Takashi's lived his life in this area since childhood so he knows this place like the back of his hand."

"Really? Well then," I say, "I was born here as well, but since my late father's in the military I got to travel around. He even got invited to America for some time and took me with him."

"Did you say military," He asks me.

"Um y-yeah I did, why," I cautiously say.

"So that explains your weapons," He joyously says to me, "The M16 that you have there, you must've got it from the States and reassembled it here! What other weapons do you have!?"

I take a step back from him but asked Haruko to hand me back my .44 Magnum revolver. "Will this satisfy you," I ask as I hand him the gun.

"Whoa! Are you serious," He exclaims, "This is a S&W model 629 Stealth Hunter .44 magnum!" He twirls it around like a giddy cowboy as he says, "You gotta show me more of your guns once we're at the estate!"

I smile a little, hiding how creeped out I am towards him. So with that, we head to the estate as we also hear the cars getting retrieved. All that we did along the way was introducing ourselves to each other mostly to Komuro's team, but we didn't touch on each other's stories just yet. I actually smiled at the little girl, Alice, mostly out of feeling since I really have a soft spot for children. Even Kiko says, "Hi," to her which is when I remember that she worked as a part-time babysitter before the shit hit the fan. Looking at the group we joined, I just hope things will go smoothly.