Author's Notes: Well, TVMaster2000, you did mention something in your review that did remind me of something; Asami's death. I understand(though, it seems not many others do) that it was to show that these are kids, and they are susceptible to mental anguish during this apocalypse, but I do agree with TVMaster2000; she did die rather early, and so did the yank...but he was a minor character, so I'm gonna have him die off when he does, and Asami...I'll have to think her death over a bit.
As an answer to TVMaster2000's question, yes, they are still going to the clinic, but for a different reason; I'll disregard the old lady's original condition all together for the sake of continuity, since, following the time line of the fic, three days have already passed since the EMP blast and the blood plasma would be bad by now.
And for a quick response...
To L-annethunder: Thanks for the reviews; I really appreciate them, and I take those overly critical dorks with a grain of salt, taking some advice, I guess, from their complaints. And I'm glad I've made you like Rei; her character archetype is good, but she can be annoying sometimes because of the stress she put under with what happened in the manga/anime, and her wanting to go for Takashi when, frankly, her chance had already passed.
With Kaede though, she has someone she can peruse a relationship with without causing drama and crap that made her an unlikeable character.
Alright, with that out of the way, here's the next chapter; don't forget to review! Constructive criticism and educated opinions are more than welcome!
Chapter 14: Valiant DEAD
A heavy atmosphere hung over both Saeko and Kaede as they stood on the roof of the mall, near the edge so they could peer down into the parking lot; their eyes followed a group of four, the only living beings in the parking lot, as they made their way to the other side.
One of the two from the original mall survivors leading with the other three in tow; amongst them was their voted leader, Takashi, as well as Kouta. Before his departure, Takashi had but both Kaede and Saeko in charge of the rest of the group until their return; neither of them were particularly happy with this mission that left them in charge of the rest of the group for their own reasons, but neither of them had plans on going against Takashi's request of them.
They watched as their leader fell behind the other four, and turned towards the mall, looking up at the roof and raised his hand, waving the other two off; Kaede returned the wave, and watched him turn to catch up with the others. Kaede became aware that Saeko had gone back inside only when the door had closed behind her, making him turn slightly towards the noise.
Kaede shook his head slowly and turned back and looked into the parking lot, at the groaning mass of the creatures he had suggested be refereed to as creatures, and not identified as the humans they once were; they were non the wiser that living flesh had just slipped through their ranks unnoticed.
With a grimace, he turned away from the edge of the roof, and followed Saeko back into the mall it's self.
Flashback
For the first time since arriving at the mall, both group were having a joint meeting, in a familiar place; the mattress store, where Shimada had tried forcing himself on Shizuka. This time, it was for a completely different reason, and they all stood around one of the beds with one of the mall group's younger members laying on his side.
Shizuka was over the teen, far too busy to give any thought to what nearly happened in that same room; under her, the teen thrashed around in pain, and his side was swollen and red. Although she didn't have anything to test to confirm, Shizuka could guess from the area the pain was originating from, as well as other symptoms, that the teenager's appendix was inflamed, and possibly near bursting.
"Appendicitis...a swollen appendix, it looks like." Shizuka reported as she moved away from the teen, frowning for a moment before smiling. "It looks pretty serious too, but I think I can remove it. It would be a simple enough operation..."
Her smile turned into a frown once more as something more important came to the ditzy nurse's mind.
"If I had the right equipment..." she added, sullenly; this stuck Takashi a bit odd.
"If it's something sharp you need, I think we can find plenty of things to use..." Takashi spoke softly to Shizuka.
"T-that's true, but I don't think I can do something like this with stuff we can find around here..." the nurse replied, shaking her head with little confidence in what they had available to them. "It would be too dangerous to try, but, if I'm not mistaken, there's a clinic in the area."
"There is; I use to go there for check-up when I was younger" Takashi said with a nod. "You'd have the equipment you need, right?"
"They should, yes." Shizuka's voice enthusiastic once more. "The clinic's near by, so we can go and pick up what we need and..."
"One question sensei." Saya cut Shizuka off, before she got much further in a serious tone. "...why us?"
The atmosphere suddenly became heavy over the group, while the other seemed to shrink away, some understanding that the joint meeting was over, and others just having to reason to be around anymore. Shizuka was speechless in front of the teens who had already come to the understanding that saving others might mean the end; even if they didn't like it, they had avoided trying to save others from them.
"W-we have to help any one we can...!" Shizuka tried to sound convincing,but it was hard; deep down, she new the truth, just as the others did, but she had difficulty admitting it to herself.
"What happens if something goes wrong? During the operation, or while we go out to the clinic. Sure we've been doing just fine against them so far, but what if something happens this time?" Takashi finally spoke, having difficulty himself refusing helping somebody, but he had to think of the others as their leader. "And what about afterward? If the wound gets infected or something?"
"Takashi's right; there's too many risks involved. For us, and him." Kaede added, looking towards the other teenager, younger than them, in the bed; he had been soothed into a sleep by someone, but he still looked like he was in great pain.
"It's horrible...but it's true." Rei said softly with a troubled look; Saeko kept quiet, but she looked like she agreed the most about not going.
"What is?" came the inevitable voice of innocents as Alice spoke up finally, looking up at the dark, troubled looks of the others. "Takashi-onii-chan, you're not going to help the other onii-chan?"
"I wish we could..." Takashi replied, not even trying to make something up or fake a smile for the child. "This might just be too much for us."
Tears welled in Alice's eyes, and her arms around Zeke tightened and quivered; as a child, there was no hope of her understanding what the others had been forced to through the deaths they had witnessed and the battles they fought against the undead.
"Then...then, if saving him is too much, why did you guys save me?" Alice asked, her voice cracking as she tried to keep from crying.
"Um, well..." Kouta said, kneeling at Alice's side as she wiped her tears on her sleeve. "Alice-chan, this is a little different..."
But the damage had been done; Takashi, and the others as well, felt even worse than before. But there wasn't much of a choice; this time, it may be too risky for them to try and play the heroes.
"Asa-I mean, this officer will go then!" came the by nor familiar phrase of the police officer Asami. "Just tell this officer where she needs to go and what she needs to get!"
"B-but, Nakaoka-san! It's too dangerous, especially alone!" Kouta yelled, on his feet once again.
"Ignoring the risk for the sake of the citizenry is the duty of a police officer!" Asami replied confidently.
Her words struck hope in many of the other survivors of both groups, and there was unanimous agreement; this time, they'd make an exception...
They came to the street corner of the clinic, Kouta and Takashi motioned for the yank and the police officer to hold, while Kouta checked if the cost was clear; the two were once again armed, Takashi with the Benelli and Kouta with the M1 instead of the AR-10 or DSR he had claimed as his own, for the bayonet's melee advantage. When they had decided to go, besides ordering the others to stay behind, Takashi had decided to have the guns broken out, from where they were hidden.
Keeping in mind what had caused them to hide them in the first place though, the M1 and Benelli were taken discreetly for only the yank and Asami to know about, and Kaede having orders to only break the others out only in the case of an emergency.
"It was sure sneak of you guys, hiding guns like that in the mall without anyone else knowing." the yank finally commented in a whisper, pointing to the guns. "Had no idea whatsoever."
"You wanna try one out for size?" Kouta asked, holding the M1 out offering after eying the led pipe the yank used to arm himself with after motioning for them to move on.
"Nah, I'm more of a handgun guy myself." he replied, shaking his head. "Besides, you look like you could put it to better use than I can, right?"
Kouta grinned slightly, but didn't reply as they moved on; it didn't take long before they came to the clinic. The door was slightly ajar, and seemed empty from a first glance. But Takashi and Kouta knew better; taking the initiative, Takashi took a look through the door.
"How does it look?" the yank asked over Takashi's shoulder, peering in himself but, like Takashi, couldn't seem much.
"Hard to tell..." Takashi replied slowly, looking sideways at the yank. "Can I ask you something?"
"Make it quick."
"Why'd you come with us?" was his question that the other two were asking themselves as well out of curiosity.
"...I dunno." he replied simply, with a wide grin; such a simple comment was able to lighten the mood by a lot, making Takashi grin, Asami giggle, and even Kouta cracked a smile.
It was a little over an hour since Takashi and the other three had left for the clinic, and things had more or less settled down in the mall; Shizuka and another woman from the mall group were staying with the sick teenager, but the others had dispersed to do their own things within the mall.
Outside of the mattress store that was being used as an infirmary for now, Kaede stood, leaning over the railing and watching two of the other survivors argue over smoking inside of the mall, hardly paying any attention to them; he had more important things to worry about.
What if something went wrong? What if, God forbid, they somehow broke in? Kaede hadn't seen Saeko anywhere when he came back into the mall, but he knew he could count on her to kill plenty of the undead and keep safe, and Rei could probably take care of herself, if she got her hands on anything resembling a spear.
But what about Saya? She was with Alice and the two dogs now; Rei too, probably, now that Kaede thought about it. They should be able to hold them off, at least, until we be able to get the guns; but even if they could pull through, what about the mall survivors? Their safety wasn't his priority, but they'd no doubt be a factor if they did get it; good or bad, Kaede couldn't say, but a factor none the less.
"You look like you have a lot on your mind..."
The familiar voice of the school's nurse pulled Kaede from his thoughts and turn halfway towards her.
"Something you want to get off your chest?" Shizuka asked with an encouraging smile as she lent up against the railing like he was, only her breasts were resting against the railing more than her body was, and Kaede had to try his hardest to avert his eyes. "You can tell sensei..."
"It's nothing horribly serious" Kaede replied, shaking his head, knowing the nurse wouldn't follow his worries enough to discuss them with her, but gave her something to worry about, at least. "Just worried about everything, I guess. What about...that guy? How is he doing?"
Kaede quickly changed the subject, though he didn't actually know the teenager's name; with a gesture of his thumb, Shizuka understood, and Kaede's attempt to change the subject worked.
"Well, he's sleeping for now, but removing his appendix is the only option now; he should be fine for now, but I left Urushibara-san with him..." Shizuka answered, suddenly remembering why she had left the teen's side in the first place. "Oh yeah, I was going to change into some new clothes, like you guys did! Don't try following me and peaking now, Himoura-kun~"
"Wouldn't dream of it, Shizuka-sensei..." he muttered rolling his eyes and hardly giving the nurse or her teasing any though; the nurse pouted slightly before leaving Kaede to himself once more, for a few moments at least.
Not even five minutes after Shizuka had disappeared, rapid footsteps were approaching Kaede's position; this time, it was one of the mall survivors that Kaede was already familiar with. It was the would be rapist of the nurse, Shizuka, and he looked rushed; Kaede was ready for the worse before he even got close.
"The police woman said to come to you guys if anything happened." he said after catching his breath; none of them knew, but, before she and the other three had left, the mall survivors had a short meeting among themselves, where Asami had told them to trust the judgment of the teens, and to treat them as the ones in charge if something went wrong. "There's something you should see..."
Slowly and ever so cautiously, the four with Takashi leading and Kouta taking up the rear entered the clinic, and made their way through the dark hall to the examination rooms. There were no windows down the hall, only doors, so there was little light other than that coming from behind them.
So far, the clinic looked empty, but that hardly put them to ease. While leading, Takashi kept his eyes peeled for any movement, but it seemed the long hallway of doors was empty; the only problem then would be clearing each room while they looked for what they needed.
Just as that thought came to mind, a door slowly creaked open in front of them, halting their progress and making each of their hearts jump into their throats. They were still, waiting, but nothing came, and they were just about to brush it off as the wind when inhuman groaning was inevitably followed by a wave of bloody corpses stumbling from the examination window; one even broke the small glass window in the door, the shattering sound echoing through the clinic.
With little other choice as more of them started pouring from other examination rooms, Takashi and the yank began beating them down with blows to their heads, while Kouta and Asami turned to face the ones coming up from behind. Asami froze up at the sight of all the walking corpses that were once doctors, nurses or patients of the clinic, and Kouta was forced into the spotlight; with the M1's bayonet, he was able to take out a few of the undead without firing and drawing more to their position.
Either way, more of them were inevitably drawn from the sound of the struggle, as well as the crashing of glass when the attack started, as well as now, when another of the corpses was able to put itself through a receptionist's window; in response to this particular window breaking, Kouta ducked down under it, narrowly dodging the wild grab from the corpse on the other side.
Asami, who was near the receptionist window as well, wouldn't have been so lucky if it weren't for the otaku's quick reflexes; he raised the barrel of the M1 and drove the bayonet straight up and through the skull of the attacking zombie. As the body went limp, Kouta gave Asami a quick reassuring smile; it was quickly wiped off his face though, when the sound of more of them came crashing from the entrance of the clinic.
"Dammit to hell...!" Takashi growled from between his teeth and made a quick decision, thrusting his backpack in the hands of the yank. "I'll hold them off; you go get the supplies!"
With Takashi's instructions, the yank followed by Kouta rushed into the nearest storage room while Takashi took out the approaching corpses. As soon as they were in the storeroom however, it was quickly found out that they weren't alone as a handful of the undead made their way towards the sounds of the struggle, unknowing the yank and the gun otaku were their path.
With no hesitation, Kouta rushed one and sent the bayonet of the M1 through a skull while the yank bashed one over the head with the lead pipe, successfully smashing it's skull and preventing the body from raising again.
"It's a damn shame though..." the yank muttered under his breath after that one, who happened to have been a rather attractive nurse before she became one of the undead.
Further into the room, Kouta withdrew the bayonet with some difficulty, the few seconds the blade was stuck in the skull was enough for another one of the undead to hone in on his grunts and charge; Kouta was barely able to thrust the bayonet at the zombie, but he didn't have enough time to make the lunge count, and the bayonet cut through the soft flesh of it's neck, a point that left the zombie's functions completely unharmed.
Before the zombified nurse could bite Kouta, or he do anything to the undead nurse, Asami finally lept into action; with the collapsible nightstick that every police officer was equipped with, she stabbed right through the soft flesh of it's eye and straight back through it's brain. The weight of the falling body pulled the nightstick from the body for her, and she returned the earlier smile to Kouta.
"Are you okay, Kouta-san?" Asami asked, and only got a nod from the otaku before they both noticed the yank hand successfully put down the rest of them that were in the room, and was gone; some shuffling of things in room branching off of the one they were in told them were he was, and what he was doing.
With their mission back in mind, they both scrambled to the nearest cupboard, and Asami began grabbing anything that looked useful while Kouta pulled his own backpack off. He held it open for her to start shoving things in, and Kouta became increasingly nervous about the sounds of the struggle in the hall were Takashi alone was holding off untold amount of the undead now.
Just as the yank returned to the room with them, and they finished filling the backpack, the inevitable shotgun blast echoed through the clinic, and no doubt a wide area around it as well. Within a few seconds of the gunshot, Takashi rushed into the room with the others.
"We can't go through the front anymore; there's too many of them! We'll have to find another way out" he said as he slammed the door closed behind them; the others barely got a peek at the mass of withering bodies crowding the halls now.
The yank and Kouta quickly moved to barricade the door before it was thrown in by them. The two worked together to get a bed up on it's edge and wedged it against the door; they also grabbed a few heavy pieces of equipment in the room and pushed them to the bed to help keep it from moving.
"We can go through the window there and get into the courtyard!" Asami suggested as soon as they finished the barricade, pointing towards a window on the other side of the room; this not only brought their attention to the potential exit, but also to the fact it was already compromised.
When they had looked to the window, they could see another horde of the undead making their way through the courtyard towards them, a few of the faster ones already at the window; within a matter of seconds, they broke through the window, and began pouring in.
"The fuck do we do now! Is there any other way outta here!" the yank yelled as the four were back against each other with the undead coming in through the window, and their barricades slowly deteriorating from the mass of them slamming into the other side.
With both exits blocked and them closing in on them, Takashi and Kouta's grips tightened around their guns, and Takashi thought about handing the yank the Mk 23 to use since things were getting worse by the moment, but it looked like Asami had a better idea than making this their last stand.
"The ceiling! We can get to the second floor through the ceiling!" she yelled, pointing up.
Not giving a moment's doubt, Takashi raised the Benelli upwards, and shot up into the ceiling; the first shell put a good sized hole right through, but not big enough. He shot three more shells up into the ceiling, widening the hole more than enough.
While Takashi was doing that, Kouta and the yank moved a table near, and then under the gaping hole up into the room directly above them. With the hole made, Takashi stepped away and began reloading the shotgun while pushing away one of the corpses that had gotten too close and turned the barrel towards the mass of the undead invading the room through the window. One shot was able to dismember or blow away several of them, which was good enough for now.
The yank held a stool stead on top of the table so Kouta could peek up into the room above them. He then pulled himself into the room and motioned for Asami to come up next.
"It's clear up here, Nakaoka-san, you come up next." Kouta called down into the room, making another quick sweep over with his eyes of the room, before turning to help Asami up who, thanks to a slip on Kouta's part, ended up laying on Kouta.
The otaku stammered and blushed at how suggestive and close Asami's face had suddenly gotten to his own.
"Call Asami by her first name now..." she said, but was suddenly off Kouta when the yank's voice called out from below them, along with a few more shotgun blasts.
"Hey you! You go up before me!" the yank yelled over the groaning and the gunshots, catching Takashi's attention.
Without a complaint, Takashi climbed up onto the table and stool, and was helped the rest of the way up by Kouta; just when he was up and safe in the room, the barricades finally were knocked in, and with no one holding off them coming through the window, the room was quickly being flooded with the undead.
"Hurry up! Grab my hand!" Takashi yelled out, reaching his hand out as he hung from the room above the yank; he didn't need much more incentive and ran to the table, hopping up onto it and grabbed Takashi's hand.
"Heh, piece of cake." he chuckled as he started to pull himself up with Takashi's help, but it was just too late.
Takashi watched with horror as they below them lunged at the yank's dangling feet as if sensing their meal was about to escape, and caught his left foot. A look of pure dread fell over the yank's face as Takashi watched one of them take a bite out of the yank's calf; the sound of tearing flesh was drowned out by the yank's scream as more of the undead grabbed onto his legs and began tearing them to shreds with their teeth.
The yank held onto the sides of the hole with all his strength against the countless corpses pulling him down, but not for hope of being pulled from their cold, deathly grasps.
"Please..." he rasped out, looking up at Takashi, who was the nearest to him. "I'm done for...don't let me come back as one of those fucking things..."
Knowing what he had to do, Takashi raised the Benelli, but he just couldn't pull the trigger as much as he knew he had to, knowing he owed it to the yank for helping them so selflessly. But his finger just froze on the trigger, and he couldn't do it.
"Please! Do it!" the yank yelled out desperately as his strength started fading against the hands pulling him down, and the pain from his legs being chewed on. "Do it!"
"T-tell us your name..." Asami said as she stepped up in front of the frozen Takashi with a sad smile for the yank, and the police revolver Kouta had 'returned' to her at the mall already in her hands. "Because you will never be forgotten!"
"Tamaru..." the yank said, realizing himself he had never even properly introduced himself to the others yet; so sad it was in this situation, his end, that his name would be known. "Tamaru Hiroshi..."
The yank's full name was followed by another scream; one of them had pulled itself up his body enough that it was now biting into his chest, causing blood to flow from his mouth and pool before him. But he had already accepted he was done for, and made no attempt to struggle, only holding on to the edge of the hole.
"Good bye, Tamaru-san..." Asami spoke softly as she raised the gun.
Yet another gunshot echoed through the quiet streets around the clinic, and echoed continuously in the ears of the three as they escaped the overrun clinic, leaving the mauled body of the yank Hiroshi behind, there being nothing they could do for him.
'We gave up a life to save another...' was the though that ran through Takashi's head as he lead Kouta and Asami across the roof, both also gravely effected by what had happened. 'Now that I think about it, I think that was our first real defeat...'
The four teenagers stood on the roof of the mall, looking out to where the older would-be-rapist Shimada was pointing to; in the parking lot below them, a mass of what they had come to call only as 'them' surrounded one of the many abandoned and useless cars.
The only difference between this car and the others was that this one had a group of about five people stuck on top of it, just out of reach and with no where to go without having to confront the undead.
"They were heading here to the entrance when those things started going after them" Shimada explained to the teenagers that stood with him, glancing back at them as he continued. "As soon as they got up onto the car, I came to get you guys... so, what will you do?"
Two set of cold stares fell on Shimada for his challenging words, but Kaede and Saeko both understood what he meant; with their leader having agreed that it wasn't their business to go out saving people left and right, though there were to be exception.
And that was the question; will they make an exception without the approval of their leader, or were these survivors none of their business.
"What do you say, Busujima-senpai?" Kaede spoke, breaking the silence that had fallen over them; he was sure she would be apposed to taking any risks not okay-ed by Takashi first, but they were forced into a corner and to act as temporary replacements for Takashi. "They're not too far away, so it shouldn't be much trouble."
Seeing as how Saeko only stared back at him with no verbal feedback, Kaede took the incentive with a sigh and shared the plan that had inevitably formed itself after he had seen the situation.
"Saya and I will stay up here and provide cover for whoever decides to go...it would be nice if you go, Busujima-senpai." Kaede looked over to Saeko once more before looking down at the survivors in the parking lot; Shimada was completely out of the loop now though, having no idea what the teenagers had up their sleeves. "At least one other person should go, unless we can get the help of the others. This is all assuming Saya can fire a gun and hit something..."
"Of course I can!" the pink haired genius scoffed out with a roll of her eyes in the direction of both Kaede and Rei, the two that could fire and hit something quite accurately, one only thanks to the others teachings; it seemed to be the general census to go and help these survivors, so Saeko's personal opinion was outnumbered.
And Saeko knew it, and nodded towards Kaede.
"I'll do it" she said shortly, inwardly agreeing with Kaede's plan somewhat; it was the best that they could come up with that should guarantee the safety of both parties.
Plus, it would let her get out and cause some carnage, and she wouldn't want to miss a chance like that at all.
"So, can I ask a question?" Shimada finally spoke up, looking toward Kaede who had mentioned what had confused him in the first place. "What exactly are you gonna use to 'provide cover' with? That shotgun of yours ain't gonna do much from a long distance, right?"
"Heh...well, let's just go back downstairs for a few moments, and we'll show you..." Kaede said with a small grin as he motioned everyone inside again.
On the way in, Alice and Shizuka(who was now wearing new, more casual clothes) joined the group as Kaede lead them to where most of their weapons were hidden; out of the four teenagers and the school nurse left at the mall, only Kaede actually knew where they were hidden. In fact, Rei and Shizuka were unaware any of the guns had even been brought into the mall with them other than the handguns Kouta and Takashi had, and the shotgun Kaede kept with him.
When the great hiding place was finally revealed, the others seemed a bit skeptical at first about how they ended up in a lingerie store, more so when Kaede lead them to a sales bin of large sized bras.
"Y-you hid them here?" Rei asked with obvious confusion and slight distaste.
"N-not me! It was Kouta's idea..." Kaede said in his own defense as he reached into the pile of brassiere and pulled out the first thing solid from the pile; he pulled up the MP5, which had a bra hanging by it's strap off the scope.
"I actually think it was a good hiding place..." Saya muttered, despite her own opinion about the hiding place and looking at the facts...and Shizuka's bust. "Only someone with titanic breasts would have any reason to look here..."
Kaede nodded halfheartedly, hoping that was Kouta's train of thought as well as he shook off the bra handing from the gun, and checked the magazine before setting it down; next came the AR-10, which he likewise checked, before finally pulling up his WA2000 from the bin.
Needless to say, Shimada was a little more than surprised at the magnitude of firepower these teenagers had; originally, after seeing Kaede carrying the unusual shotgun and the girl, Saeko, carrying those katanas of her, he suspected they had had good fortune in finding arms in this disaster, but defiantly not to this extent.
"J-just where did you get these from?" Shimada asked in shock, watching as Kaede pulled the strap of the WA2000 over his back, then handed the AR-10 to Saya and, with a moment of consideration, handed the MP5 to Rei after setting it to semi-automatic.
"Don't use it unless you really have to, Rei." the familiar warning came from Kaede's mouth, more because Rei wouldn't be able to fire the weapon accurately, and the fact that it had very limited ammo compared to the other guns went hand in hand with that, as he didn't want Rei trying to shoot and run out of ammo before she hit anything; with that out of the way, he replied rather simply to Shimada's question. "Here and there. Amazing what you can find after a week out there..."
With that, Kaede turned back to the others, particularly Saya who he noticed was holding the AR-10 a bit awkwardly in her hands.
"You sure you can use that?" he asked skeptically, which caused the girl in question to turn her glare onto him.
"Of course I can; I'm a genus, remember?" she retorted, her most common comeback only receiving a short nod from Kaede.
"The plan's the same then. Busujima-senpai..."
"My first name is fine, Himoura-kun" Saeko cut him off with a half smile that was easily mistaken as a kind gesture; in truth, she was holding in her excitement about getting out for awhile and shedding some blood with a 'noble cause'. "Don't worry, I'll escort them inside safely."
"...very well; Saya, let's head back up to the roof-" Kaede was once again cut off, by Shimada this time.
"I want to help out there too." he said, stepping up and towards Saeko and Rei with a serious and regretful look in Shizuka's direction. "I...I want to redeem my self for what I almost did...back then, I couldn't control myself, with everything that had happened, and I apologize for it."
There was a general silence after he spoke; they could tell his apology was sincere, and so was his wish to redeem himself, but it was unclear in who's eyes. Saeko finally looked towards Kaede and silently transferred the decision to him.
He let out a light sigh as he stepped over to Shimada and pulled the sawed-off Baikal from it's resting place on his belt, and held it up to the older man with a nod for him to take it.
"How about you; can you shoot and hit something with this?" Kaede asked as Shimada took the gun from Kaede's grasp.
"I've shot a gun before, but nothing like this thing..." Shimada said in a bit of awe as he looked the unusual shotgun over, only noticing that Kaede had pulled out a handful of extra shells from his pocket for him until they were held out for him to take.
"That's good enough; it works like a revolver, so the hammer needs to be pulled back before you shoot, and there's a latch to open the cylinder." Kaede explained as he dumped the shells into Shimada's open hand. "It takes awhile to reload, so be careful. Furthermore, sound attacks them, so shoot sparingly."
"I got it." Shimada said with a nod, having already known that fact of the undead, but he didn't mind being reminded; he then stepped over with the the other two that would be going outside of the mall, making it three for the rescue party. "We should hurry now!"
Rei, Saeko, and Shimada were now on the first floor of the mall, and at one of the service exits with a few of the other mall survivors; Shimada had quickly explained the situation to the others. While they did try bringing up something about the teenagers had guns, and that they shouldn't be in charge, Shimada surprised Rei and Saeko(although only slightly in the later's case) by telling them if they don't like it, they could get out of the mall or complain to the police officer later.
During this little confrontation that Shimada took care of, Rei had strapped the MP5 to her back with Kaede's words still in mind; though, without being able to really use it, she was technically unarmed, so picked up a long metal pole she spotted.
The pole was probably for plumbing or something related to that, but one end had been cut at a sharp angle, and could be a deadly weapon in the proper hands; Rei's hands to be exact.
It wasn't long before Shimada rejoined the two after finally getting a few of the more stubborn survivors off their back, and made an arrangement with one of the more agreeable survivors to lock the door back up when they left, and to open it back up when they returned.
"Are you two ready?" he asked as he unlocked the service door; with the nods from them both, he pushed the door open slowly, with the Baikal ready in case something jumped at them.
But the area around the door was clear, and they slipped from the mall unnoticed. The door clicked behind them, and Rei hesitated a moment while the other two started moving out into the parking lot.
"Don't worry; they'll unlock it when we get back" Shimada whispered back to Rei a bit loudly for her to hear; quickly following was the groaning sound of the fleshing ghouls nearby.
Obviously jumpy, Shimada whipped around with the Baikal raised, as a single walking corpse stumble into view from around the corner of the building; before he could pull the hammer of the revolver shotgun back, Saeko placed a stern hand on his forearm, and pushed it down with surprising strength.
Shimada looked towards the purple haired teen in confusion, but was offered no explanation as Saeko walked by, followed shortly by Rei; Saeko simply walked briskly past the groaning corpse towards the parking lot were the survivors were, while Rei used the pole to give it a hard shove.
Surprisingly to Shimada, she pushed the thing quite a bit back and made it stumble to the ground; he put together that these things don't have great balance, and assumed they could just be pushed away like a rag doll, judging how they girls treated them like one.
"Guess you really learn new things everyday, huh?" Shimada scoffed quietly to himself with a shrug before jogging up to catch up with the girls, who were not quite running yet, but they were in a hurry to get this done as quickly as they could.
Just as they started moving again, there was a gunshot overhead, followed shortly by another and then a scream from the parking lot; now it was time for them to run. The three quickly shot off as more and more gunshots echoed high above them.
They came around the back of the mall to the parking lot just in time to see several of the walking dead reaching for the five survivors fall as nothing but corpses; it could be assumed from either Saya or Kaede gunfire, as only one of the survivors was armed, and that was with a metal baseball bat.
As they drew closer, Saeko's Murata sword flashed from it's sheath and they became vaguely aware of what had probably drawn their attention to the group; one of them had a baby, raising their numbers to six, and it was crying it's head off, and no doubt had alerted them of the meal in their mists.
Saeko was obviously the first one there, having bottled her excitement up for long enough, and began hacking away at the crowed of corpses, but that was all that she was doing in her blood lust invoked fury; every time she cut down a few, twice as many showed up. Rei and Shimada soon followed and tried helping thinning out the wall of undead between them and the other survivors, but there was just no use, even when the one armed survivor tried helping from the inside, bashing down as many of them as he could.
On the roof, Kaede and Saya had an even better view of how hopeless it was down there, even with them both picking off the zombies that one of the others missed, or were too close to attacking; there was their limited accessible ammo supply to think of, and how the other temporary leader was more interested in cutting down the corpses than the mission as well. With that in mind, Kaede paused and took a look around the roof for something they could use to ensure the completion of the mission safely.
Finding nothing, he decided to improvise.
"Keep at it Saya!" he yelled over her gunshots as he slung his rifle onto his back; he was a bit surprised at how quickly she had taken to sniping, but it just went to prove she really was a genus. "I've got an idea!"
"What do you mean!" the genus in question shot back, though she kept all her attention in the scope of the AR-10.
Hearing no reply, Saya only groaned, letting him do his thing while keeping the undead off her comrades' backs. Kaede's 'plan' consisted of kicking a protruding ventilation shaft with all his strength; luckily, the thing wasn't bolted down, and after a few hard kicks, it came loose.
With one last kick, it was knocked clean off the top of the roof and fell over; Kaede quickly took hold of it and dragged it over to the edge of the roof beside Saya; she gave a glance over to it and was a bit surprised and lost, until Kaede hoisted it up over the edge, and pushed it over into the parking lot.
It was the devil's luck that, just as Kaede had caused the distraction, that the mother of the baby had gotten it to stop crying moments before the ventilation shaft hit a car. It would been quite a detraction if the car's alarm was working, but the shaft crashing into the roof and shattering the glass was enough to draw most of the mindless corpses away from the survivors.
The slower zombies were hacked down by Saeko, but both Rei and Shimada went for the car at the center of dispersing horde, knocking any of them to the ground if they got in their way. As Shimada helped them down, Rei motioned for them to be quiet; apparently, several of them didn't know they were attracted by noise and tried to start their thanks when the slower ghouls were still lurking very close by.
Now that the survivors were rescued from the horde of undead, it was time for them to get back into the mall; luckily, Saeko wasn't too far gone not to notice this as well, and hacked down a few more zombies in a more gory way than really necessary as the others, plus the new survivors, started back towards the service door they had come from before taking up the rear position while Shimada and Rei lead.
Unfortunately, their luck ran out real fast as they came around the building; just when the service door was in sight, the baby, a boy not even a full year yet, started crying again at the top of his developing lungs. Every one of the undead that was limping towards the sound of the vent crashing into the car was now turned to the high pitch crying of the baby and were moving towards it as fast as their decaying brains could get the signal to the rest of their dead bodies.
They were now emerging from all over the place; from around or behind cars, from the other side of the building, everywhere they could, and there was now a massive amount, now that the source of the sound had moved, spreading the echo out even further and alerting more.
Above them, Kaede and Saya quickly moved from their previous position to a better one where they could see the group clearer, but they refrained from shooting just yet; both Saya and Kaede were on their last magazine, and the rest of the ammo was stored in the hidden away Komatsu.
Shimada urged Rei and the others to move faster since, for now, their path to the service door had a minimal amount of the undead blocking their path. Shimada moved to the back to where Saeko was moving to catch up to the others, slashing the arms and heads of the undead that tried getting to close.
Saeko didn't go far past Shimada before stopping to confront several of the undead chasing after the rest of the group; she knocked one aside with a swift kick and got ahead of them before slashing one across the shoulder, severing the upper portion of it's body. Before it could hit the ground, Saeko skillfully decapitated it in the same stroke, before moving in towards another.
This one, she raised her sword high and cut straight down; the corpse hardly put up any resistance to the razor sharp Murata katana, and was cut in half, right down the middle. Saeko quickly altered the direction of the blade as another zombie came up, and cut upwards at an angle, catching it's side, cutting it similarly to the first one; she finished it off just like the first, but only cut the head off at the jaw.
Her feet slid around on the blood slicked ground as she moved once again, and with a quick thrust, the sword went through it's head and the body went limp; the withdrew her sword, and with a quick movement, decapitated the corpse she had knocked down to begin with, killing the last one of them that posed an immediate threat to the others.
This all happened before Shimada could fully register that Saeko hadn't caught up with the others like he had expected.
"You kids really are terrifying..." Shimada muttered out despite himself; to prove his point even further, a bullet from either the AR-10 or WA2000 whizzed past him and killed one of the zombies advancing behind Shimada, reminding him of why he had stopped in the first place. "Get going; I'll distract 'em so you guys can get inside!"
Saeko didn't let her surprise hold her up long as she glanced back at Shimada for a split second and watched him pull the Baikal's hammer back before nodding shortly in his direction. Without a word, Saeko ran to catch up with the others, who were very close to the service door now, with Rei and the one man with the bat leading the way.
It looked like they would have smooth sailing the shot distance they had left, but just as that passed through Rei's head, three ghouls stumbles out from behind some trash cans, and a fourth pulled itself from a nearby dumpster.
Not giving them enough time to come attack, Rei rushed to the four corpses with the man quickly taking to her example and followed after; Rei almost effortlessly put the pointed end to the pole through one of their heads, right through the eye and out the back of the head. Pulling it back out took a bit more effort though, and one of them almost got their hands on her from behind if it wasn't for the sharp shooters on the roof.
Rei payed no mind to the other body as it fell in a heap behind her as the wrenched the pole free, letting the corpse fall onto its back. She pulled the pole back to her body quickly as another one of the undead drew near. With a flip of the pole, she hit it hardacross the face with the unsharpened end, making it stumble back.
Just like with the other, Rei thrust the sharpened end through the corpse's head, right between the eyes; it was much harder to withdraw the pole this time, and Rei ultimately left it protruding from the body's head when the sounds of a gunshot, much louder than the ones above alerted her, and the sounds of a nearby struggle caught her attention.
The man, who had confronted the last of the four zombies blocking their advancement hadn't had so much luck or skill to kill it before being overpowered. He was lucky in the sense that was able to get the metal baseball bat between him and the corpse before it could bite, and now, he was struggling to keep it that way.
Rei was quick to come to help, rushing over and grabbing the ghoul by the remaining tatters of its shirt used all her strength, and a bit of help from the man, to throw it off of him, and against the wall. The man scrambled to his feet as Rei pulled the MP5 off her back, but before she could get close to the corpse to kill it, the man stepped forward. He knew that they were attracted to sound, and stopped Rei before she added something else for the undead to come after them for.
Rei understood what he was doing, and backed off; she turned back to the others to see Saeko viciously cutting down more zombies that were approaching from the side while the mother of the baby tried unsuccessfully to quiet the child. She motion them to head towards the door once again, while the man raised the bat and bashed it down over the zombie's head, making it still.
"Come on; we're almost there!" she called out in just barely a whisper, motivating them into moving again even though they were nearly surrounded by the undead; with the mall's walls blocking two sides of them, and the undead approaching on the other, they had been nearly given up if it wasn't for the two teenager's will to go on(even though they were mistaking Saeko massacring the undead as some sort of desperation)
All while this was happening, much further behind them Shimada fighting off a few of the undead and causing enough of a distraction to at least slow down the corpses moving up behind the group; fearing being overrun, he was only using the Baikal as a sort of club at the beginning, but that idea was quickly scrapped as he couldn't actually land a killing blow on any of them with it.
So, he did the only thing he could to, and fired the shotgun at the mass of zombies. He was able to maim several of the more faster ones, but the wall of corpses converging from miles around to the only source of sound. With a quick look back, Shimada saw the others starting to head towards the service door once more, and were nearly there; he decided it was time to retreat now, but just when he was about to turn and run to catch up, one of them caught his arm.
Shimada's heart jumped into his throat as the hands gripped his arm, and the jaws of the zombie opened wide before starting to lower onto his arm. Before its jaws could clamp down on him however, the corpse's knee burst open as a bullet ripped though it; it had been a tricky shot, but luckily Kaede had pulled it off. The zombie's body jerked to the side as it started falling and the bite narrowly missed Shimada's arm.
Quickly recovering, Shimada jammed the barrel of the gun down its throat and pulled the trigger before turning and running full speed to the service door, were the rest of the survivors had gotten to with Rei; one of the other survivors of the group had gotten to the door first and, upon finding it locked, began frantically banging on the door.
To their relief, it was soon opened from the inside and the survivor who had been banging on the door rushed in; the others quickly caught up and were not panicked enough to try and shove their way in. The mother and her infant were the first ones in, and then the others filed in quickly after with Rei and the man with the bat at the rear.
Rei stayed outside, waiting for Saeko and Shimada to get inside while the man with the bat kept the survivor from closing the door after them; he had panicked after seeing how many of them had been attracted, and nearly shut the door if not for the man with the bat. He was gone now, and the man was holding the door for them while Saeko made sure none of the undead got to the door.
Not wanting Saeko to get overrun, Rei shouldered the MP5 and looked through the scope to try taking out a few of the undead herself, but learned the hard was that the scope was the same that had originally been on the M1, and therefore was no longer working like it should.
She didn't let that discourage her, so she quickly figured out she could peer through the small gap between the scope and the railings of the gun to look down the MP5's original sights; it would be difficult no doubt, but Rei tried her best aiming at one of the approaching undead Saeko wouldn't be getting anytime soon.
The first shot missed the zombie she was aiming at and hit another behind it with little effect; the next hit, but just barely, and ripped off the corpse's ear and tore open the cheek. Rei altered her aim just a bit, and fired again, this time hitting just under its eye and dropped the corpse.
That was the only one she was able to actually hit, unfortunately, before she was unable to calmly aim; Shimada's path to the door had been cut off and things were looking bad for him. He had started off with similarly bad luck with getting any good head shots with the shotgun, and by the time he had got it down to aim for the neck area and obliterate the lower part of the head and the neck altogether, he had run out of ammo.
Without a chance to reload, he reverted to using the shotgun as a club, but there was no chance of him getting out, now that his exit was closed off. He beat away one of the corpses and turned back towards the doors were Rei was waiting, with Saeko not too far away; he was happy to see them waiting for him, but there was just no point.
"Get inside! Go on!" Shimada yelled over the mass of groaning bodies around him as her looked to the two teenagers; he turned and bashed away a few more of the undead with the shotgun, feeling the wooden handle he was using to hit them start to splinter and give way. "There's no way I'm getting out of here; just leave me behind!"
Rei didn't want to leave him behind, even after what he had tried; no one deserved to be ripped a part and then come back as one of them, even the attempted rapist like Shimada. She almost went out to try and help him, but Saeko, who had already figured Shimada as a lost cause, was already at the door, and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Torn between what was 'right' and what was 'safe,' Rei let herself be lead back into the service door; she paused a moment and looked back to Shimada one last time.
"Thank you, for all your help" she yelled out back to him, hoping to at least put his mind at ease for what he did. "I'm sure everyone will agree that you're forgiven!"
With that, Rei really did put Shimada's mind at ease, and he watched through the reaching hands as Rei and the others disappeared into the mall, safe. He bashed the shotgun into one more skull before it broke completely as he felt the cold hands of the undead start to latch onto him.
On a whim, he looked up to the mall's roof and saw the other two teenagers that had saved his ass more than a few times, and he felt his eyes connect with Kaede's.
"Sorry for breaking your gun, kid..." he muttered as the first bite came on his shoulder, the mass of zombies around him now thrown into a furry now that they had a meal. "Bet you wanna shoot me now, huh?
Kaede kept eye contact with Shimada the whole time, both he and Saya having guess what had happened from their bird's eye view. After a moment, Saya raised the AR-10 to at least prevent the brave man from raising once more; it just felt right that he would rather someone else kill him than to be eaten and come back. Before she could aim properly, Kaede lowered the rifle with his hand.
"You're empty anyways..." he said, looking out of the corner of his eye as Saya released the magazine to find it indeed empty, and no round in the chamber; he lifted his WA2000 and looked through the scope, looking down and finding Shimada looking right back at him. "And I only have one round left..."
With their rescue mission completed and the others inside the mall, Kaede had sent Saya back down as well with orders for Shizuka to check out the survivors after the AR-10 and MP5 were hidden, this time in their meeting place, the coffee shop.
He on the other hand would wait on the roof until Takashi and the others returned. Luckily, they had left from a different part of the mall, so when they did return a little over an hour later, they didn't run into the mess of zombies that had been left after the rescue mission.
Even from the roof, Kaede could see that they had the same luck on their mission at the clinic as they had here at the mall; they returned successful, but with one less survivor...
Chapter 14, End
Author's notes: God damn, it took me too long to finish this chapter. I'm gonna try to update more often, but I'm sure you guys have heard that millions of times from different people, so meh...sorry for the delays, and they probably won't be ending anytime soon.
And as some may notice, I'm not going into a great deal of description in clothing other than for Kaede(for now, anyways); that's because their appearances are the same as in the manga, so look towards the manga for their apparel.
Oh, and I just went and did a little rereading of the manga...I really changed how Shimada was, huh? Well, other than how he died(which was a last minute decision, by the way), how quickly he came to terms with Takashi's group and their skills; in the manga, he was a douche until the escape from the mall. And I've decided Asami's fate, by the way; she'll live for now, but she'll eventually have to die, sadly.