VIII

[1st]

Unless I was off, there was less than a week to go before Z-day.

I had decided that today was the day that I would kill Shido.

Despite my initial plans it actually didn't take long to get his normal day to day schedule down, so I'd decided to just go for it and take him down.

That being said, it didn't make me any less nervous to be doing this. The only thing keeping me from fainting from stress or something was constantly making jokes and distracting myself, although I made sure not to think too long so that I could make sure no one had spotted me or that he wasn't approaching.

"Should've taken up harmonica or something," I muttered to myself, checking all my stuff over for the 12th time, I hadn't really brought much with me so it was a quick task.

I moved my lower jaw around a bit.

Glancing out from my cover, I checked for Shido even though I knew he wouldn't be here yet, that nagging what if? feeling you got whenever you were about to do anything important kicking in.

I'd forgotten what it was like for time to seemingly slow down because you wanted it to pass quickly. Even working provided more entertainment than this, at least then I could just daydream or something for hours on end since not much ever happened.

I shifted to look from my cover.

Oh? So you're the one that's been following me. I can't imagine what for but I suppose that doesn't really matter. Can't really have someone digging around in my life, now can we?

I swallowed and resisted the urge to hit my head in an attempt to get that thought out quickly.

I moved to check if Shido was here.

If you're looking for me you should really get better at tailing people, although I guess it's a bit too late for that.

I grit my teeth and held my breath, if things were this bad I couldn't imagine-

He's here.

My body froze.

I carefully waited, counting the seconds until he walked past where he could see me before checking for any people that had spotted me. None. Good.

I took another breath and swallowed again. Moment of truth, worst case scenario I end up dead once Shido sicks his goons or whatever on me.

That didn't help at all.

I slowly slid out of cover, making sure to keep out of the light since as bad as the lighting was I could see his outline well enough.

I pulled back on the bowstring. I'd been practicing almost obsessively for the last week, using a small catapult to launch things for me to hit. I could most likely hit him even if he started to run.

I aimed at Shido and held my breath, pulling back further. My body wouldn't stop shaking.

I put it down silently and choked back a frustrated growl.

If it was this bad now, how long would it take for some zombie to get lucky and chomp me while I'm quivering in fear?

Would I just lay down and accept my death? Would I silently watch in horror as I was torn apart?

No.

I wouldn't.

I'd told myself a thousand times, nothing would change that.

I slowly breathed in and out and pulled back at the same time, repeating the process as I took aim.

One last look around for anyone and making sure it was in fact Shido. Negative and positive.

Perfect.

I let loose.

Shido went down.

I smiled.

Then I waited for a reaction just in case there was someone there I wasn't aware of.

Nothing.

I lept from the building I was on and rolled, quickly making for Shido's body, knife at my side in case he was sandbagging. Not very likely but I wasn't taking chances.

When I drew near I slowed down, holding the knife closer in case he jumped at me. When nothing happened I bent closer and stabbed him twice, the ease with which the blade slid through was...unsettling.

I put some gloves on and rolled the body over.

It was him. Thank God.

When I had started following him I'd found two things: One being a place to hide the body and another being just how much of a sleazebag he was, which had further cemented my wish to get rid of him so that he couldn't kill more people through corruption, his crazy sex cult or actual murder. At some point I thought of leaving his body out for people to get worked up over so they could have their guard up for the zombies but decided against it since being cautious wouldn't mean they'd go down any smoother and I didn't want everyone's last few days of normalcy to be tainted with worry over a killer on the loose.

I dumped his body in a garbage bin and moved the trash around to cover him completely, not only did the thing smell bad enough to dissuade people from looking in the first place but he was where he belonged.

And thus the world was a better place.

I brought the arrow with me back to my stuff and put it in the quiver after cleaning it off.

Around 6 days left and Shido was already gone.

Now I could use my remaining time to get stuff together. I'd already requested more time off, promising to come back with more energy than ever before when it was over, which was true in the sense that if there was indeed work to come back to I'd probably be so pumped to be alive that I could be used as an alternate energy source.

I inhaled deeply, less than a week until everything went South.

And I was gonna try to enjoy every last second of it.

o0o

[3rd]

After White Day Saeko was surprised to see Thomas carrying a case of his own, not the same kind as hers but a case nonetheless.

When she asked what was in it he had simply answered that it was a bow.

Following that, despite no longer being able to keep up with her, something which disappointed her more than last time as she'd actually been looking forward to taking back victory again, and how this seemed to be becoming a pattern. She remained entertained however, by conversing with him about things like his bow and how long he'd been practicing archery.

"Mid-November," He puffed out, case swaying despite his attempts at keeping it from moving.

"Really? It seems to me like you started many things in the last few months," Her answers were usually longer than his, due to her being more experienced with this.

"Yep,"

"Why is that?" She had never heard of someone having so many hobbies.

"More free time, kinda" He seemed to think a bit longer before saying "plus, learning all this stuff is fun."

Saeko moved closer to him and looked for a smile or something of the like.

"You don't seem to be enjoying this," She stated teasingly. "Or rather, I have never heard of someone enjoying nightly activities such as this." When she said that he snorted, to which she raised a brow, though she did not comment on it.

"Well, I can't say wearing myself out is fun, but at least I'm not suffering alone,"

"On the contrary, I am rather enjoying this." When that left her lips she tensed up a bit, feeling as if she might have said too much. She glanced to Thomas to gauge his reaction but saw the same flat expression as usual, albeit a bit lower due to fatigue.

That was good, she did not want to make her more undesirable thoughts known.

There was not much conversation after that. As Saeko thought she might let another, in her mind, crude, joke slip through and Thomas was focusing on running and his own problems.

When he stopped, Saeko did too, though more out of surprise than anything else.

"So, uh," Thomas started, still thinking about how to word what he wanted to say. "I won't be out for like, four or five days and I know I didn't tell you last time but you know, we've actually talked a bit since then so, yeah," He stopped as he waited for a reaction. If she didn't say anything or thought it was unnecessary he would probably be too embarrassed to say anything for the rest of the night.

"Why will you be gone? Is there something going on?" She asked, he hadn't really taken any longer than two days since coming back.

"I've got a deadline and I'm not sure if I'm prepared so I'm just gonna stay home for the next few days and work on that,"

"Ah, then I wish you good luck in your endeavors," Saeko bowed, her earlier perceived mistake forgotten.

He nodded. "Well, I'll be going then, need to get up early tomorrow."

And with that he made his way home.

She was sad to see him go but continued nonetheless. Whatever it was he was working on, she wished him luck in it.

o0o

[1st]

April 9th, 3 or 4 days left.

Luckily Shido's body hadn't been found yet and Hisashi told me he hadn't come in for 2 days, something which most of the school welcomed.

Hard as it was to kill him, I wanted to head out to places on the outskirts of town in order to check for zombies. I figured looking for them now would be the closest I had to a safe environment for this kind of thing.

The first place I checked for them was Zeke's neighborhood. I didn't think I'd find anything there but it was good to check.

It had been a while since I'd come here, only doing so three times to get a rough mental map.

Speaking of Zeke, I hadn't seen him since or Sachiko since my first time here and I felt kind of bad about that too as meeting her once was enough to bring her to mind under the current circumstances.

Regardless of my feelings on the matter, I didn't see them the whole time I was there, nor did I find any zombies thankfully, though that also kind of built up suspense as I made for my next destination.

When I found nothing in the next area a part of me thought maybe I wouldn't find anything, a smaller part of me thought that might mean it wouldn't happen at all.

But I moved on regardless, heading to the poorest part of town.

Tokonosu, being a large city, had an area where quality of living took a large turn down from the middle class. I had planned on checking here last from the beginning since I thought it the most likely place to have zombies that nobody would notice. This was due to the fact that there were multiple abandoned buildings that homeless people took shelter in. Keeping track of all the missing persons was likely enough of a struggle, let alone those that most would consider wastes of space or resources. So as I entered the first empty lot, an apartment school that didn't seem to be up to snuff in the first place, I was once again shaking. If I was gonna see any zombies before the expected time, this was the kind of place I would do so.

I was right.

As I stepped in, I noted the walls, lined with old drawings and furniture suited for children. The fade and gunk on the wall ruined what would be an endearing sight. For a second I thought about how much this seemed like a horror movie before I realized why that was and slapped myself. The emptiness of the area made the sound echo through the halls.

Suddenly a shuffling sound came from somewhere behind me.

I whipped around and saw somebody slowly making their way out of the room.

I hoped that it was just some tired or drunk person. That hope died when I saw their face turn towards me.

Pale skin, pulled taught by bulging veins around white, clouded eyes. When he got out of the doorway I saw what turned him. A gaping hole in the side of his face, muscles and at one point bone out for all to see, some of the meat that hadn't been pulled off successfully was laying in his mouth or swaying with his movement.

As my throat tightened and stomach twisted I got ready to head for the zombie, knife in hand, stopping when I saw another one step out.

And another. All of them looked just as pale and hideous as the first.

I'd wanted a safe testing ground for this but stepped into the building and went as far as the second floor. If, when I got out of this I was going to go home and punch myself in the face—another zombie stepped out—twice.

The only thing that made me feel like less of an idiot was that I'd brought my anti-chomp clothes and put them on before stepping inside, that was also the only reason I thought I'd be making it out of here.

I closed in on the first zombie, stabbing it when I got close, more out of discomfort with being so close than sureness of a clean hit.

When it went down I sidestepped it and started to move for the one behind it, yelping when my foot went straight past the floor and into a lower one. As the second zombie walked towards me it found that the spot in front of me was no less fragile, falling right alongside me, to which I just raised my knife up and it fell on top of it. As I pulled myself out the others were already upon me, the leading one reaching to grab me. I just punched it in the face with the cestus on my other hand, the spikes at the end doing their job and punching through its skull before I rushed the one the last one and did the same with the other hand.

At least I knew both weapon choices were both perfectly functional personally now.

I breathed in and out to steady my breath, that hadn't even been close but it still shook me up terribly.

Now I had confirmation that corpses were indeed going to get up and try to eat people. A few days before killing Shido I'd decided to look around the internet and see if I could find any reports of people going around to munch on each other and turned up nothing despite my hours of trying. It might not have been that no one else saw it but that I was the first to survive the encounter.

I pursed my lips. So, did I go through the building trying to clean out the buggers that were hidden or did I go home for now and absorb what had happened before trying again tomorrow?

My thinking was cut off as I was pulled from behind. I tried to twist out of the grip of whoever was grabbing me and slipped back into the hole, the zombie falling on top of me. As we started to struggle I found that even with my strength it was still overpowering me, as its face drew closer. I heard more noise around me and looked past my shoulder to see a handful of them were coming from the direction of the stairs.

This was bad.

I couldn't really risk pulling back to punch it as both arms were preoccupied trying to keep this thing from getting my face, I spared a glance behind myself to see some of the others already a few doors away.

This was really bad.

My mind started racing, attempting to pick the golden route that would lead to my survival.

I just kept looping around, this thing's thrashing was really distracting and the ghouls drawing in weren't too welcome either.

A sudden clarity came to me, along with a plan.

I had a leg that was free.

I raised my leg and pushed against the zombie, its head slumping forward into my chest. I used the opportunity to punch it in the head, which caved from the force alone.

Quickly pushing the body off and yanking myself out of the hole I rushed towards the other zombies and let loose on them, breathing out heavily once they were all down.

All the sounds no doubt attracted whatever zombies were here. I would clear this place out then head home, no reason to draw them outside and start everything early after all.

I went back to the first floor after pulling my knife out of the second zombie and started beating on the wall. Nothing. I did it again, still nothing.

I guess the few that had come up were the only ones on this floor.

The second floor saw similar results.

When I walked up to the third and final floor I saw two already shuffling towards the staircase but pounded on the wall anyways. When none came out I just finished off the ones coming towards me and started heading to the entrance again.

Mission accomplished. Yay. Time to go home and freak out at the fact that I'd confirmed the apocalypse was coming.

Actually, since the place had been cleared out I guess I could do that here.

Yeah, that sounded good.

With that decided I took as deep a breath as possible and screamed.

o0o

April 12th. This was the first day that I assumed the apocalypse would go down on, the second being that nothing had happened, my gut told me it would be tomorrow, no ifs, ands or buts about it. I'd cleaned out more zombies around some parts of town for much of yesterday and the day previous, hoping to cull the amount of death on the first day, not that I expected many people to make it through even with my help. I'd done it to make it easier for me, or us. Yesterday had been worrying, I'd found a few dozen zombies in multiple buildings, I'd even been forced away from an area once I saw the place was already filled with more of them than I was comfortable with trying to take down. I took down 20 or so before heading off however. That place probably contributed quite a bit to the local damage done.

Moving on from the zombies themselves, I'd taken a small loan a little before starting to chase Shido to get the remaining stuff I wanted, which wasn't much considering I could only carry so much with me without putting too much burden on myself or making too much noise, at least for now. I planned on leaving some stuff here for when I could afford to make the trip.

I'd gone on a bunch of forums and warned them of what was going to happen, using pictures from my phone of zombies as evidence. With predictable results. I became the butt end of a bunch of jokes and harassment but shrugged it off, then I made a second account and warned them about crazy people attacking others, that was taken a bit better but still largely laughed off. If they didn't want to believe me then that was their funeral. Heh.

I had expressed an uncomfortable feeling to my friends and the Kouno's, as if something terribly wrong was going to happen soon and I'd managed to sneak one in a few weeks ago with Shizuka and Kazu, her assistant when I had first started tailing Shido. All of them had been nice about it but I don't think any of them believed me either, except for Kohta, who had messaged me the next day asking how bad it felt, I'd told him to expect the worst. A bit discouraging that only one person had really taken me seriously but I doubted outright telling them or showing them would help either, since I'm pretty sure they would freeze up in terror or keep denying it, at which point they wouldn't be of any help to anybody.

So here I was, packing things up, checking and rechecking my stuff, finding the best arrangement in my pack, adjusting the straps for minimal sound later, looking over my weapons, etc. I'd done this yesterday and once I was done I would enjoy the biggest meal I could comfortably fit into my stomach and relax.

This would be the last day I could truly do so.

o0o

The alarm was set.

My stuff was set.

I wasn't.

o0o

[3rd] {No one}

As dawn came upon Tokonosu City, it painted a beautiful picture.

Clear skies, a gentle breeze and the Sakura trees alone showed just how nature could capture the hearts and eyes of so many. The picture of serenity.

Were it not for the smoke and corpses.

Soon the city and the world (those parts that weren't already affected) would know how quickly things could collapse.

And those not wishing for simpler times before would most certainly do so now.

o0o

{Hisashi}

Hisashi had turned his head when the door was slammed open, as had everyone else. "Komuro! Not only are you cutting class but you're also interrupting-" Hisashi stopped paying attention when Takashi had walked up to Rei.

As everyone had started laughing and Takagi got mad, Hisashi had gone up to him. "Takashi. What are you doing with Rei?"

"There was an incident with a killer at the front gate." At those words Hisashi's eyes widened.

"That's horrible." Nothing like this had happened so close before, he grimaced. "Are you serious?"

Takashi nodded, "What would I have to gain by lying about something like this?"

Rei suddenly interrupted with an indignant expression on her face until Takashi slapped her across the face. Hard.

"Just listen to what I have to say," Takashi turned to Hisashi, who nodded. Hisashi excused himself and Rei.

Once they were out Takashi started to run down the hallway, where to Hisashi didn't know.

"You remember how Tom said he had a bad feeling about this week?" Hisashi nodded, while Rei took on a confused face, it quickly changed to anger and disbelief when her ex next spoke.

"He was right, someone ate one of the teachers, then he got up and started killing the others. They're all dead now." Before Rei could protest how stupid that was Hisashi interrupted her.

"Like a zombie?" Takashi grimaced and nodded.

Rei saw the seriousness on Hisashi's face and decided to trust in his judgement, though she still didn't really believe such a thing happened.

Rei went ahead of them and stopped in front of a bunch of tools. "If Takashi's story is true, you'll need these." He took the head off of a broom and gave it to Rei, while Takashi received a bat.

Takashi frowned, "What about you?"

Hisashi reached into his pocket, bringing out the knife his father had given him for Christmas. He had been bringing it with him since

"I'll use this," He paused for a second, staring at the knife. "In any case, let's get out of here. I'm worried about my family."

"We need to call the police! My dad's a detective so he'll come right away!" Takashi handed his phone over for Rei to try calling. She started to look scared when her father didn't answer.

"Repeat. This is a recording. We at the 110 Emergency Line are held up at the moment. If after calling again, we still can't receiver your call, please wait and call again later. Repeat. This is a recording..." The phone continued its message but Rei had stopped listening.

"A lot of people must be calling 110... How can that..." She looked lost, somewhere between confused, terrified and concerned.

The intercom crackled to life, "Attention all students and teachers! At the present time there is a violent struggle occurring on the premises. Students stay with your teachers and follow their instructions! Repeat at the present ti-" whoever was making the announcement was cut off as they suddenly heard the sounds of a scuffle. "What are you doing? Hey get off me! Help! Stop! I'm going to-" The transmission stopped. For a second, no sound was uttered throughout the school.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The group of three heard faint screaming coming from the lower floors, although the fact it made it through at all let them know just how loud it was.

As they heard others start screaming in the classrooms Hisashi seemed to think for a second, whispering something to Takashi when he finished, who looked a bit weirded out by whatever Hisashi had said before nodding anyways. Then they began running, Hisashi dragging Rei along at first until she began running of her own volition. "Weren't we going to get out of here?"

"The class building is full of people trying to get out! We're going to head to the roof to check on the state of things!" Hisashi relayed part of his plan to Rei, who was just relieved to have one.

"Isn't that Wakisaka from current events?" As Rei said that Hisashi rushed forward and stabbed straight through his head, Takashi bashing it in to be completely sure he was dead.

"What are you guys doing?" Rei screeched, wondering why they thought it was a good idea to kill one of their teachers. Hisashi moved aside to show Wakisaka to her. Blood was coming out of his nose and eyes and even covered some of his shirt. More importantly, his whole body seemed wrong, too pale and veiny to be normal, especially his leg which had more blood on it though the flow had stopped a while ago if the dark, almost black color and dryness to it was any indication.

"He'd already turned when we ran into him." He looked back to Takashi whose grimace deepened as he stared at the body.

The three turned as they heard a guttural chorus from down the hall. At least a dozen zombies shambling towards them.

"This way," Hisashi waved them on. Rei and Takashi followed without any more prompting. As they reached the stairs he immediately went up bursting out of the door onto the rooftop. "Just as I thought." Hisashi turned to his childhood friends, seeing the looks of abject horror on them. He locked the door and pulled both of them up the stairs, quickly blocking the stairs.

Takashi and Rei stared at the chaos before them, taking in every detail with wide eyes while Hisashi got to work putting together the things they'd need to escape. He looked off into the distance, expecting the helicopters at any moment. When he finished setting up he rushed over to his friends, seeing the copters fast approaching. As they flew overhead he made sure to cover Rei, who gladly held onto him, violently shaking as she did. "Blackhawks," he noted as they passed, ruggling up everyone's clothes.

"Hey! Help us!" Rei shouted, waving her arms wildly. Hisashi sighed and put a hand on her shoulder. "They're not here for us, they have some order or another to carry out. Besides," he started looking out among the school, "they won't notice us with what's going on." He stood up, helping Rei to do so as well as he walked over to the hose. "We'll leave in a bit, first we should see if Rei's father will answer now." He hoped the call wouldn't disconnect.

Takashi handed his phone back over to Rei. She looked at the schoolyard for a second, then the city, eventually setting her face into an expression of determination and dialing her father's number.

"He picked up," she smiled brightly at the others, their spirits lifted a bit at that.

"Hello? This number... is this Takashi-kun?"

"Dad! It's me, Rei! We're at school!"

When he replied her face brightened up even more, though Hisashi started to think instead. They needed to get down to the entrance but Hisashi didn't know any ways that wouldn't be brimming with Them. He turned to Takashi. "Hey, do you know any lesser known ways to the entrance?" Takashi nodded. "Good, after Rei's done we can head down then." He nodded again.

"I got cut off," Rei said, staring at the phone.

"What'd he say?" Hisashi asked, hoping for some good news.

"He's at the station," She started, face scrunching up a bit in worry as she did. "They're still busy at the moment dealing with a whole a bunch of stuff. He doesn't know if mom's safe either." Tears started to appear in her eyes as she said that.

"Rei," she looked at him, "we'll find them, and when we do, they'll be fine," that was really all he could hope for. He didn't know how Rei would react if she found out either of her parents, or, worst case scenario, both of them, died. She didn't seem sure on whether to believe him or not but smiled nonetheless.

"Yeah, thanks Hisashi," He nodded and moved towards the hose.

"It's time to leave," He said, turning to Takashi. "Start making a bunch of noise, once I'm in position and we've got a bunch of them nearby, pull it down and I'll blast them with the hose." Takashi nodded and rushed over to the railing, banging on it with the bat to draw Them. Three minutes passed and Hisashi nodded at Takashi, who took a deep breath and pulled at their makeshift barrier. When They came rushing in Hisashi turned the hose on, knocking Them all down. "Go! Down the rail!" Takashi lead the way, Rei soon following after him. Once they reached the bottom, Hisashi turned the hose off and went right after them. There was still a lot that could go wrong but he would rely on what he knew until then.

o0o

{Kohta}

Bad as it was to feel this way, Kohta was rather happy about what was going on. When Thomas had told them how he had a bad feeling about this week they'd all just shrugged it off, except for Hirano. He'd had bad feelings all the time, and more often than not, they proved right.

He was rather glad he'd listened to him now, especially as he held the modded nail gun in front of himself.

"What are you humming to yourself for?! They're coming!" Earlier he'd ignored Takagi in favor of grabbing all the things he wanted, er, thought would be helpful. He had regretted that when she started yelling at him about it.

A smile that most would call bloodthirsty stretched across Kohta's face. "Let them." They started coming in, arms reaching out and teeth gnashing as they approached. Oddly enough, Kohta didn't feel a single bit scared.

"Hi-Hirano?" He responded by pulling the trigger and cackling as he saw one of them go down. He continued shooting. "Grab all the stuff on the table," he said, letting out a particularly vicious laugh as he shot down Kurokami, one of his previous tormentors.

"What's wrong with you? Ordering me around?!" Takagi's voice rose at first before she saw them start to head towards her.

Kohta turned around after firing at the closest one, smiling gently at her "if you would," his mouth twitched "be so kind." Takagi nodded dumbly as he finished of the last of them. The two of them leaving the room.

He grabbed one of the bags and made to lead the way. If things were going as they should be then he knew where they would need to go next. Takagi started to open her mouth to argue with that but fell silent as he quickly punched one of those, things.

After running for a while Takagi stopped when she saw another one. Kohta got closer as she moved to grab a towel from a bucket. "They respond to sound and heat," he grabbed the towel and threw it at a locker. When she looked at him for an explanation he shrugged. "I'll tell you on the way, we need to get going." She scowled fiercely but followed after him anyway, no reason to waste his distraction after all.

"We need to pick the pace, we'll be in trouble if we take too long,"

Seeing as there weren't any zombies nearby she decided to let him have it, "then pick up the pace fatty! You're probably like this since you only ever drive!"

"Um, well, I don't have a driver's license or a car," Kohta said, a little miffed she called him fat since he'd slimmed down a bit, apparently not enough however.

It was then that he realized Takagi had yelled at him. In a hallway.

That, of course, was when they basically started spilling out of whatever room they'd been idling in. Heading for the both of them. A frown settled on Kohta's face as he started shooting at them. "How can you be so good at this if you've never done it before?!"

He really wished she would be quiet "Takagi-san, could you please help me fight them?! I'm almost out of ammo!"

"I'll help when you're out!" He looked behind her.

"But they're right behind you." She whirled around and fell on her butt when she saw that one of them was indeed behind her. "Get away, get away," she whimpered, tears forming as it drew closer. She screamed as it fell forward, shoving a drill into its head as she screeched at it, "don't come any closer!" The thing fell to the side and she saw that her actions were unnecessary since it had a knife sticking out of its head. She stared at the thing in shock as other people rushed those that surrounded them.

"I'll take the ones on the right!" Takashi called out, running towards his goal.

"I'll take care of the left side!" Rei called back, going opposite Takashi.

As they departed, a girl that Kohta didn't recognize rushed those in the middle.

"Nice one!" Takashi high-fived Hisashi as he went to get his knife from the one that had almost gotten Takagi. After they finished, everyone took turns introducing themselves while Rei and Shizuka checked on Takagi.

"We were planning on heading to the parking lot for a bus, but I'm glad none of Them got you," Hisashi said as they headed somewhere to get Takagi cleaned up.

"Them?" Shizuka asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"They might look like something out of a movie or a video game. But we can't call them 'zombies.' And so, they are 'Them.'" As he said that, Kohta seemed to get what he was getting at and nodded his head, followed shortly after by the others.

When they got to a suitable place Takagi headed to the restroom to wash off while the others had a break. They began to discuss their families and soon found out that everyone's family except Hisashi's, as they were away for a business meeting, were close by.

When Takagi came back it was to see the others watching a report on the TV. The image of a clean cut, well-dressed man in his 30's in the center of the shot. "Due to many riots throughout the country, the government has been forced to rethink its emergency policy. However, when questioned on what the self-defense force would be able to do in order to maintain public order they refused to comment. The local death toll has already surpassed 600. The- what the hell?" Everyone watched as the body bags that had been laid out for all to see were starting to get up, some of them even started to rip through before the reporter was taken by surprise for an unaccounted body and started to scream. The feed cutting off soon after, going back to the studio, who attempted to brush off what had just happened.

No one said a word.

600 dead and counting?! Kohta couldn't imagine how much worse it was going to get if this was only in the first few hours or however long.

How were they going to make it through this?

Kohta looked at the others and saw the same thing on all of their faces.

Kohta remembered what Thomas had said when he'd asked how bad he felt.

Expect the worst.

He'd had no idea at the time just how right Thomas was.

o0o

{Morita}

What the fuck was going on? Morita ran his hand through his hair. He sat on top of some random roof.

Last he'd remembered, he'd told Takashi—Holy shit, was he okay? —that he was going to hide out at the dorms but when he got there one of his buds tried to rip his face off. After he accidentally bashed the guy's brains in when he caused him to trip and fall, Morita had started freaking out. Sure, the guy had been trying to have him for lunch but that didn't mean he wanted to get arrested for killing him. Then things had just gotten worse when he saw someone down the hall trying to run before being ripped into by whoever was in the room with him. Once he started seeing and hearing that happen a lot closer and more frequently than he ever wanted it to be, he ran away.

Shortly after he'd been ambushed by another person, only surviving due to how buff he'd gotten recently. Then it happened again and again, and Morita knew that, beyond the shadow of a doubt, this was not something just happening to him. It was at that point that he'd decided to do the other thing he'd learned recently and managed to jump about until he could get to a roof that was otherwise inaccessible.

So here he was. And he wasn't any closer to puzzling out what the flying fuck was going on.

He rubbed his face and groaned. A bunch of zoms down on the street apparently heard that and looked up at him. His face twisted into a harsh glare. He stood straight up and grabbed a can off the roof, rearing back to throw it. "Hey, asshole! Eat this!" He launched it and heard a clang as the can made contact with its head. He nodded in satisfaction until a thought suddenly struck him.

Why was there a can of soda on the roof when no one else was supposed to be here? He turned to where he'd picked up the can and started to curse. "Son of a-" He cut himself off as he saw that it was just a bunch of stuff that had belonged to someone at some point, the person was no longer here, however.

He looked around and saw a body on the floor around the building. Morita looked towards the ledge and saw a pair of shoes there, the fancy kind that he saw free runners use. The guy must've jumped.

Morita went over to his stuff, poking around the pack.

Most of it's still here, I guess he just brought along in case he wanted to enjoy it before jumping. Well, I hope he doesn't mind if I use it. Before taking up the pack Morita muttered a quick prayer.

"Please don't haunt me, dude." He muttered, hefting his find and getting ready to leave. Being safe here was fine and all but he wanted to be somewhere safe and comfortable.

Hopefully I can find Takashi or something, Morita thought, he seems like he'd be pretty good at surviving this thing, especially if he's together with Hisashi. Or maybe Thomas, he has that hobby so he seems pretty good too. Morita stopped in his tracks.

Oh shit, Thomas! Hisashi! Kohta! Why did he keep forgetting his friends? If I find them I'm gonna make sure to bring them something or hope they don't find out.

Morita sighed. I guess anyone would be fine as long as they're not completely useless.

Especially if they were hot. Morita grinned. He hoped they were hot, like Busujima or Takagi.

As if, them joining a group with him or one of his buds wasn't gonna happen.

He sighed, it was nice to dream about though.

Ah, if only.

o0o

Well, he's not useless, Morita thought to himself, looking over the guy he'd managed to befriend.

Kazu Ishii, second year. Not scrawny and not shaking like a leaf, even if he was admittedly kind of scared looking. Definitely not the worst that could've happened.

When they'd met both of them were surprised to see another person that was alive, completely that is.

Morita had struggled to hold in his relief at the sight of another person and instead settled for happily introducing himself and telling Kazu his story after they moved into a building to rest.

"So, how did things go on your side?" He asked, taking a swig of a water bottle he'd looted from some sap.

"Well," Kazu said, drinking from his own bottle, wetting his throat as he got ready to tell his tale.

"I was with Marikawa-sensei trying to help with a patient that had been bitten." He scowled, "It was my friend, Okada Shuji. Eventually he died, and Marikawa-sensei didn't know what to do, then he got back up. After that I had to..." he swallowed and crushed his bottle a little. "I had to kill him, so I did."

He looked a bit confused as moved on, "a few weeks ago, some guy came to the school looking for Shido-sensei and when Marikawa-sensei saw him she said hi, asking him what he was doing there. Well, he told us but neither of us knew where Shido-sensei was so we just said sorry we couldn't help." When he stopped this time, his confusion went up a level in magnitude. "Then he looked at my face for a bit before suddenly grabbing my hand. Both of us were shocked at that, then he stared at my hand for a few seconds before telling me to stay away from windows for the next month or so. Marikawa-sensei was very excited that he could read fortunes, so she asked for hers, he took her hand and told her to not wear any tight or designer skirts for the next month." He laughed a bit as he moved onto the next part, "I had pushed that out of my mind until today, I turned around to look out the window when I suddenly remembered it and stepped away from the window I was in front of, then the glass shattered and some zombies spilled in."

Morita's eyes widened considerably, "really? No way! What was this dude's name?"

Kazu had to think for a bit until he could recall it. "Vega, something,"

Morita's eyes fully bugged out, "Did he have curly hair or droopy eyes?" Kazu nodded, surprised that Morita knew the guy.

"Son of a bitch, he did it again." Kazu was about to ask what he was talking about, but Morita just went on ahead. "Oh, sorry, dude, you were saying about your side of the story?" Kazu just blinked at the sudden change of topics.

"Uh, right, so after that a third year named Busujima Saeko came in and saved us," Morita sagged a bit in his seat, muttering something about everyone but him meeting her. "When she was done they started to take off for the entrance I think but I decided to split up and look for another one of my friends." He sighed, "I didn't have any luck finding them, so I just set out by myself,"

"Seriously? That takes balls dude," Kazu didn't seem to know what to say to the sudden praise.

"Uh, thanks. But anyways that's pretty much it, after that, I started trying to reach another friend's house until I met you." When he finished his story Kazu took another long drink of water.

"What's their name?"

"Sachiko."

"Well, I think we've had a long enough break," Morita abruptly stood up, taking a quick drink and then putting it in his pack. "You ready to head out?" Kazu just nodded, a bit confused.

"Alright, let's head out!" Morita pumped his fist, getting excited at the thought of meeting a cute girl. Or better, Morita thought as he inwardly waggled his eyebrows.

o0o

[1st]

I sneezed. Then I recalled what that usually meant in manga.

Was that really a thing?

I shrugged my shoulders. Didn't matter, right now I was heading to Kouno's. I wasn't sure what going over there would do as if they were there I'd feel bad when I left and if they weren't I would be worried about them, but I had decided to go anyways. Knowing and regretting it is better than not knowing and regretting it I guess.

I sighed.

My stomach was twisting into knots just thinking about what could've happened to them.

I sped up a bit.

Usually it wouldn't have taken me this long just to get to their house but even taking shortcuts took longer than it used to, for obvious reasons of course.

As I landed in someone's yard I dashed out of my roll and slid my knife right through the top of the zombie's skull. Continuing as if nothing had happened.

That had to have been the hundredth one at least.

I didn't do a very good job of keeping the numbers down. That thought made me a bit more worried for the Kouno's.

The best I could hope for is all of them being together for some reason, I don't think Satoru or Ayame could survive this by themselves.

I vaulted another fence, the last one if memory served.

When I saw the Kouno's house, my spirits briefly lifted. Then I remembered that they could all be dead in there, or worse. I definitely didn't want to run into run into child zombies.

That would add a whole new meaning to the term little nippers. I stopped. Then I punched myself. I guess my sense of humor was still intact, even if it wasn't very welcome at the moment.

I went around and killed any zombies within a 10 or 20-meter radius, hoping that would be enough for the zombies to not hear it when I knocked on the door.

I knocked.

Nothing.

I knocked a little bit louder.

Still nothing.

Please tell me they're not all dead.

"Hello? It's me, Thomas." I said quietly, leaning back from the door to make sure nothing was coming closer.

When the silence continued I knelt and reached into one of my pockets, pulling out some lock picks.

I was pretty confident I could open a normal door like this.

A few minutes later I heard the lock click. Or was that a gun?

I turned around. Nope, not a gun. Good. I grabbed the knob and twisted it, opening the door.

No bodies at the entrance. That was a plus.

I stopped when I stepped looked more closely at the floor. Blood.

Fuuuuuudge. I lowered my body, softly closing the door and following the trail.

It was Aoi.

I grit my teeth, looking at his body. There was small, neat hole in his head. At least he's completely dead, I don't think he would want to be stuck as a zombie.

I put my back against the wall, sliding down until I was sitting on the floor. Then I lowered my head into my hands.

God, what a cock up this was. It wasn't entirely my fault but that didn't mean it wasn't at all. Someone, Aoi, was dead. Satoru and Ayame's second son was dead.

Didn't he have a girlfriend? I raised my head out of my hands and looked at him again. His fingers were missing. Must've tried calming down a zombie or something.

I reached into his pockets, taking out his stuff.

I started with his wallet, though I didn't need to look long, there was a picture of him and his girlfriend smiling for the camera, apparently these were taken in a booth if the stickers and format were of any indication.

Chitoge, Marikawa Chitoge, that was her name. When I joined the others I would see if Shizuka could contact her sister so I could tell her the news.

I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck.

I looked back at Aoi. Despite the no doubt, awful circumstances for his death, his face looked at peace. Man, I messed up.

I plopped back down and buried my face in my hands again, clenching my eyes shut. They just barely got over losing Ayane, now they had to worry about this?

I rubbed my face and sighed for what felt like the thousandth time.

Now wasn't really the time for this, I had to get to Shizuka's before I could properly mourn or feel sorry for myself.

My eyes shot open, Shizuka's place was across town from here.

I groaned.

I didn't really have the time to dig either, but I could at least give him some burial rights or something.

I dragged his body to the backyard and put it down a few meters away from the door.

I tried to remember what I'd looked up for this purpose, though I hadn't been expecting or hoping to use it this soon.

Wet the face or lips I think. I pulled some water from my pack and put a tiny splash on his face.

Flowers, uh, coins. Maybe. I got a couple of flowers and pulled some coins from his pocket, "Sorry, man," I apologized, I just didn't have any change on me since it, you know, jangled.

Last I placed his photos of him and Chitoge on top of his chest.

I nodded at him. "I hope everything goes well," I paused briefly, grinding my jaw again "and I'm sorry."

Then I left.

This had better be the only personal death I have to deal with for the next decade or I would find the thing that caused this, bring it back if it was dead, and kill it again.

o0oo0oo0o

Writing is suffering, I tell ya. I was working on this thing for like 10 hours straight, and that's not counting the first two or three sections. But yeah, here it is, my masterpiece, and what's sad is that some of it isn't even mine, it's just slightly rehashed parts from the first two chapters of the manga. Not to worry though, the major changes will come, eventually.