Massacre

As you would expect from the chapter title...this will get messy. Please enjoy and review!

Ukitake commanded from the balcony shouting orders and frantically sending Hell butterflies to the front lines with encouragement and instructions. The men fought bravely, but the undead were slowly getting through.

"They're pushing us back!" A terrified soldier cried before one of the creatures latched onto his neck, tearing off a long strip of flesh before consuming it before his very eyes. The man tried to scream, but more creatures surrounded him and tore him to pieces. He couldn't even fall as the beasts held him up while they skinned him with their rotten teeth.

A nearby soldier hacked the heads off of the first two, and then he ran the third through with his sword. He smiled confidently until the beast crawled through the sword until it could reach him. The man cried out as his eyes were gouged out and his face gnawed by the decaying fangs of his opponent.

In the centre of the bloodshed, a large mass of the undead charged through the gate, only to be intercepted by a team of shinigami. The troops raised their swords proudly and then rushed to meet the enemy. In one minute, four of them were dead. The remaining troops doubled their efforts to avenge their fallen friends, but even the additional furiosity could not overcome their undying opponent.

Ukitake could feel the sweat pouring down his forehead. From his vantage point he could clearly see how the undead were forcing their way through. A wall of shinigami was preventing further advances, but they were already on first squad territory. Worse still, there was no sign of the stranded captains. If they don't show up soon, then the rescue mission would have to be abandoned.

"Hurry! We can't hold them off much longer!"

The wish was granted soon after. The rear flank of the undead was being broken up by a large figure barrelling through them. The giant warrior charged on until he reached the front line. He then flash stepped inside the gate. Kommamura was covered in blood and looked worse than ever, but he was alive. The giant took something off of his back and laid it down on the ground. It was Soi Fon's unconscious form.

Ukitake came out to meet them. Kommamura frowned at Soi Fon.

"I found her lying in the pathway towards her own barracks. She's knocked out."

"What happened?!"

"She was fighting at some point. She must have worn herself out and collapsed." Kommamura glanced over at the dire situation at the gate. "Shall I take care of this?"

Ukitake cocked his head.

Kommamura glared at the approaching horde of zombies. "It won't kill them, but it will clear the way...Ban-kai!"

A giant golem formed out of the air and towered over the assembled armies. It stomped on a patch of the undead and then kicked the nearby ghouls, sending them flying across the battle field to land in a way that would permanently incapacitate them, or kill. The rest were taken care of by the golem swinging his gigantic sword. The blade sliced through them and knocked them outside of the gate. When the job was finished, the golem returned to it's master and reverted back into the fox-mans large katana.

Ukitake stared at the area which only minutes ago were teaming with the undead, but was now bare.

"Shut the gate!" Kommamura commanded and the surviving troops closed the huge gates, preventing the undead from coming back in. Kommamura ran his gaze across the numerous corpses inside the fortified barracks. "We need to prevent all of these men from turning into the enemy. Find every corpse and sever the head!"

"What?!" Ukitake yelled. "We can't do that!!"

"If you leave them, they will rise and attack us. If we slay them while they are still human, then they retain their honour." the canine eyes bore through Ukitake and he eventually submitted. He sighed and turned away.

"Do as you must." He murmured.

The remaining shinigami underwent the grim task of executing the fallen. The once grey stone ground was now a sickening red pool in which the fallen now drowned. While the threat of attack had diminished, the shinigami began cleaning up. The smell of blood would only attract more of the wretched zombies, so to prevent that, a pyre had been constructed. The bodies and their seperated heads were thrown into the great fire and a plume of smoke that smelled of dead flesh wafted up into the air and carried over Sereitei.

*****

Kiyone smelled smoke. She rose from her fitful sleep and shook Isane awake. Her older sister groaned and rubbed her eyes.

"What is it?"

"There's a fire somewhere! Maybe it's a signal or something!" Kiyone beamed.

"Maybe it's a fire?" Isane muttered and tried to get back to sleep.

"Isane! We should check it out!" Kiyone persisted.

"You can. Come back and tell me if it's actually anything important." Before an argument could start, Isane closed her eyes went back to sleep.

Kiyone went to the wall and climbed up the stairs so that she could see over. The smoke was coming from the direction of the first squad barracks which was always the emergency meeting place for shinigami. That meant there were survivors out there, but in between them was an army of zombies and a long trek through the ruins of Soul Society. Kiyone summoned a Hell butterfly and studied the little creature. She sighed and took a deep breath.

"To anyone who receives this message...I am third seat of thirteenth squad, Kiyone Kotetsu. My sister and I are trapped in the barracks of eighth squad. We are requesting aid, if possible. If not...then tell my captain that it was a pleasure serving under him and-" She stopped to cry and realised she could not speak anymore. She set the little bug free and it fluttered through the spreading smoke which was beginning to pass over the barracks. Kiyone sniffed the black smoke and her eyes narrowed. Due to the circumstances, she had grown to recognise the terrible odour that lingered in the smoke.

"That's..." She couldn't bring herself to say it, but that smell was of rotting flesh! Before she could panic, she noticed the shuffling silhouettes in the distance. As the sun disappeared and the smoke choked the sky, the hungry creatures came out to look for food and since the smell of flesh was carrying over everywhere, the zombies were spreading as well. Rather than move about in one giant group, they were splitting up to cover more ground.

Kiyone gasped. Escape would really be impossible now...

It took ten minutes for a force of the undead to arrive at the gate, sniffing the air like dogs and banging on the gate. More joined after a little longer, while others went around the perimeter. Every exit was now covered, there was no escape. There would only be death!

*****

Mayuri observed the footage of the zombies. He always had cameras installed all over Soul Society to monitor things. Now he was using it to study the enemy. Despite causing the end of all things, this was an intriguing occurrence and he was not going to miss the chance to study these undead beasts. He became curious when the zombies, who were in strictly huge masses suddenly split up. They spilled into every area of Sereitei as if a dam had broken.

"Hmm, interesting...Now how will we get out of this predicament?" Mayuri asked to no-one but himself.

*****

Kenpachi wiped the blood from his face and sighed. One hand held the severed head of Izuru Kira; the other held the large bite wound on his left shoulder. Kenpachi gritted his teeth and hurled the head to the ground. The head rolled over until Kira was staring at him with his cold, dead eyes. Zaraki roared and stomped on it until it was a mushy pile of crushed brain matter and bone fragments.

"You bastard! I sure as hell don't want to end up like you!" Kenpachi considered the wound on his shoulder. "They probably won't take me back anymore...I guess I'm on my own for now." Kenpachi's murderous smile returned to his freshly scarred face. The claw marks dribbled blood as his skin wrinkled up into a hideous fanged smile. "Bring it on!" He stabbed at the sky and laughed maniacally.

*****

Back in the real world, events were taking a decidedly terrible turn for the worse.

Jill's escape team managed to sneak out of the front gate, but the smell of fresh meat was easily traceable to the undead. Jill shot down the first few stragglers who tried to get an easy meal, but more and more came each time, until it was a wall of the ghoulish creatures.

"What now?" Steph asked.

A group of zombies took up the duty of taking the rear. They were surrounded now.

"How many weapons do we have?" Jill asked, struggling to remain calm.

Tatsuki rummaged through the exercise bag strapped over her shoulder. "We have a pistol, a chainsaw and...A knife."

"Shit!" Jill threw one of her Berretta at Steph. Point and shoot. It's simple! Tough girl, you take the pistol. Your friend can have my other gun. She hurled her second Berretta to Orihime. "As for me...Give me the chainsaw!"

Karin frowned at the approaching horde of hungry beasts. "What about me?"

"You stay calm and stick with us!" Jill instructed as she tugged at the pull string on the chainsaw's hide. After three attempts, the engine roared.

"You sure you can use that? It's pretty heavy." Tatsuki muttered.

"I'm fine! I was in the S.T.A.R.S for god's sake!" Jill glared at her opponent and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath of air. She savoured what could possible be her last breath. Then...

"!!!!!" Jill charged straight at them, raising the chainsaw and trying to roar louder than it. She brought it down on the front row of ghouls, the blade tore through them, spitting flesh out all over the place as arms were lopped off, heads were severed and torsos cleaved in two. Jill hacked frenziedly at the zombies who began to encircle her. She screamed in rage as she spun in a circle with the blade raised high. She decapitated the whole circle of ghouls and then stepped into the open to attack again.

Tatsuki, Steph and Orihime took care of the zombies approaching from behind, raining bullets on them, firing blindly. Some shots missed but the majority hit something.

Despite fighting on two fronts, the survivors were losing. Slowly they were getting pushed closer together and the undead were managing to create a thin circle around them all.

The female fighters shrieked and screamed as they dealt out killing blows time and time again.

Jill was surrounded by herself and the others were too busy to aid her. She spun around in another circle, eviscerating a new wave of the undead. As more rushed in to finish what their unnatural brethren started, Jill spun again. She took down another thirty zombies until.

'Chink.'

The chainsaw's blade stopped moving. The engine died.

Jill stared wide-eyed at the blade and screamed in pure terror. She needed to return to the others quickly, before they got her. She charged into the weak line of zombies and ran towards her friends, but one ghoul gripped her hand and refused to let go. The grip was stronger than an industrial vice and the claws dug into her soft flesh. She cried out in agony and as she struggled, the claws bit down further, severing her artery.

"Jill!" Tatsuki glanced over and her eyes widened. She put a bullet in the zombies head and Jill was released. She took another step until two more grabbed her arms. She writhed about as she tried to escape. Tatsuki fired three rounds but she was so terrified she could not shoot straight. One bullet caught the left zombie in the knee. The second skimmed past his cheek and the other hit the right zombie in the arm. All did nothing to stop them.

"SAVE ME!!!!" Jill screamed as a set of fangs dug into her forearm. She squealed as another zombie latched his teeth onto her lower jaw. She tried to scream but only blood gushed out. Another zombie grabbed her chest and dragged her down to the ground. Jill's eyes focused on Tatsuki and her final words caught in her mouth as the ghouls ripped her stomach open as if she were a box of chocolates. The rotten hands reached inside her and pulled out her innards. Her skin went pale instantly and Tatsuki collapsed to her knees.

A shadow loomed over her and she spun around to face another ghoul whose head exploded instantly.

Steph helped Tatsuki up and they both nodded to each other before unleashing hell on Jill's killers. The ghouls were too absorbed in devouring her stomach and intestines to realise their kin were getting slain around them. Tatsuki emptied her clip, ending the wretched life of every ghoul around Jill. The sight of what remained behind made her throw up and Steph guarded her while she emptied her stomach.

Meanwhile, Orihime closed her eyes and shot randomly, too terrified to open her eyes or take aim. Karin screamed at her to aim, but it fell on deaf ears.

Karin ran to the discarded bag and took out the knife. She then rushed back to Orihime and waited for them to come. The creatures closed in and Karin slashed at them. She wasn't tall enough to reach their heads sometimes, so she aimed for the throat. Dark blood showered her and she felt more repulsed than ever, but she would wait until it was safe before she felt sick.

The battle raged on and as the undead decreased in numbers, the small pack of survivors managed to regroup. Tatsuki and Steph did the most of the work and Inoue and Karin took care of those who came too close. They fought well until both gunners ran out of ammunition at the same time.

They fumbled around in their pockets for a new clip all the while, the zombies shuffled ever closer.

Karin roared threats at the growling creatures, but to them she was no threat, merely prey.

"Inoue! Shoot them!!" Tatsuki demanded, but the scared young girl shook her head and curled up in a ball.

Steph found a clip and stuffed it into her gun. She reloaded just as the undead came within a hands width of her. She fired point blank and cheered when the bullet passed through the first ghoul and went on into the one behind as well. Unfortunately, the lucky shot was not enough and they closed in too quickly. A zombie tackled her to the ground and Steph tried to wrestle with it, but the monster had strangely superior strength. She stared at the gaping wide mouth, filled with rotten black fangs. The jaws of fate closed in on her neck and tears flowed from her eyes. This was the end...

'BOOM'

The ghoul flew off of her, blood spewing from his mouth. Steph turned to see Inoue with her gun raised, her eyes misted with tears. She had a fiercely determined look on her face and she forced a brave smile. Her hands were shaking but she still held the weapon high.

Tatsuki dragged Inoue to her feet and ordered for them to run for it. Steph staggered to her feet as Tatsuki provided cover fire. They then sprinted out of the way of the undead horde and ran to a nearby office building. It would serve them well as a place to lick their wounds and count their losses. As the assailed the winding staircases, they realized they had only travelled one block away from the school. In actuality, they hadn't really escaped at all. They wasted time, resources and lost one of their best fighters. They had done nothing except leave Ichigo and Rukia and Alice for dead and use up everything they had.

This was their worst loss yet, but there would surely be more to come...

Jill has been lost...and for nothing! Was this the wake-up call the survivors needed, or was it an unneccessary slip-up? Will it make them stronger, or will it shatter their hope? Find out in the next chapter!

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