X

[1st]

When I opened my eyes, there lay a familiar sight albeit one that I hadn't expected to ever see again. Home, or one of them at least.

I looked around the house, wondering why here of all places. I was upstairs, for one thing. I couldn't remember the last time I'd slept upstairs. The house was a lot quieter. How early was it? I don't ever remember being the first person awake. Unless this was a weekend? I looked around for a calendar. It was April 14th, 2010. I froze. April 14? 2010? I checked again, the calendar was for the year 2010, the head said April and the x's on the sheet showed that it was indeed the 14th. I stared at the sheet for some unknown amount of time, only taking myself away from it to look out the window for signs of zombies.

There was junk littering the street, but more worryingly, there were zombies; not a lot since I lived in a suburb, but still way too many for me to be comfortable with in this body. It was bad enough having to do it with preparation, this was a disaster.

I'd thought about how I would fare against the undead only a few months ago, having pushed those thoughts aside in favor of getting stuff ready.

Now. Now I couldn't push it aside. I had to see for myself what was going on with me and my family on the other side of the world. And I couldn't do a thing about it.

"Timothy?" I quickly turned to whoever said that. I hadn't heard my name in months. My throat went dry. There was my brother, sitting up, rubbing his eyes. He was so small. So thin.

So helpless.

So was I.

I didn't know what to say.

"Hello," I didn't recognize my voice but I was in 5th grade and my voice had barely begun getting deeper. We stared at each other for a minute or so until he just rolled over and went back to bed.

I blinked a bit. What was with that reaction? I thought he'd be a little more wary. You know, the whole zombie thing? Did he forget? Was he in denial? Had I just been seeing things? I glanced back at the window, seeing a biter just shuffling about. No, I wasn't seeing things. I just pursed my lips and started walking downstairs, freezing when I heard the floorboards creak. I'd forgotten about how noisy this house was. I tried to remember what spots were quiet and made my way back to the window, none of the zombies were coming our way. That was good. That meant there was more noise outside, which hopefully meant more survivors.

I tried to go downstairs again, looking over the stains on the carpet on the way down. Seeing this house again was surreal, even if it'd only been a few years since we moved.

When I got downstairs, the possibility or hope really that this was just a dream occurred to me before I brushed it aside, weirder things had happened than briefly experiencing things as a younger me. I think. They were around the same level at least.

The windows were boarded up, the weaker parts of the house had furniture pushed in front of them. There was a noise from the door and I tensed up, feeling a bit nauseous when I saw it start to open.

I tried to head to the kitchen to get a knife but my body was unresponsive. The door opened and my father stepped inside, looking exhausted.

My body ran forward without my input, hugging him as he closed the door. "Dad!" I could smell the sweat and grime on him, how long had he been outside?

"Hey champ, what are you doing up?" He sounded so tired.

"I don't know!" I just beamed at him, he felt so tall now, it was kind of nostalgic.

I heard the door close, followed by a heavy sigh and saw my eldest brother, Ian. He was already in high school and built like a small tank. He walked past us and sat on the couch, sinking into it.

Dad rubbed my shoulder and walked to the kitchen. "Do you want some breakfast?" I cheered and saw Dad smile as he went into the kitchen to get me something.

I started to walk forward-

o0o

And spilled forward onto the floor of the Humvee, jolting awake at the feeling of slamming onto the floor.

When I got up, everyone was looking at me. Not surprising, really, considering I'd just flung myself forward.

Saeko was the first to move forward, "are you alright?"

"Dream," I said, my face heating up a bit.

"What was it about?"

"Home. My family." I replied, thinking back on it. I couldn't recall the last time I had such a vivid dream. I wasn't even sure if therewasa time before.

"We were just trying to make plans to check on our families, if you let us know where to go then I'm sure we could check on yours too," Rei suggested, not seeing the looks on Hisashi or Takashi's faces.

"My family's in America," I said. Her eyes widened considerably before shifting away from me.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." Everyone looked a bit uncomfortable, save for Shizuka who's face I couldn't see and Kohta and Alice who were on top of the Humvee and singing.

"'s alright," She hadn't known, and besides that, I'd already thought plenty about the fact I wouldn't be able to see them again, not in person at least. I'd even kinda sorta come to terms with it.

She looked ready to say something but Hisashi put a hand on her shoulder. When she looked back, it seemed like they had a silent conversation somehow and she stopped.

Hisashi picked up the slack in the conversation before it could awkward. "We're making our way across the river in order to reach Takagi's house, after landing we'll have a quick stretch and then Marikawa-sensei is going to get the Humvee up there. Somehow." He added the last part with a touch of confusion and curiosity.

Shortly after, we hit land and Shizuka told everyone to get out. I went to the top where Alice was to try and lift her mood some more and show off a bit. "Hey," I called over to where she and Kohta were, drawing both their attention. She seemed to be wiggling about as Kohta started handing her to Takashi. "Wanna go up?" I didn't really know how else to put it and figured simply was best. The three looked confused and I tried to elaborate. "You know. Like. Fuwahhh." I spread my arms as I said that, getting a bit flushed as they continued staring. Alice wriggled out of Kohta's grip and came over, still not getting it but wanting to see what I meant. When she came over I scooped her up and made my way to the side opposite where we'd be leaving, Takashi and Kohta's eyes following the whole time. My stomach twisted as I realized just how bad an idea this was.Sure, pull attention to yourself, showing off always ends well. Especially in a setting like this.Last time I'd been carrying Alice we'd been a bit too preoccupied with trying to get to safety and having to go to the restroom but now she could enjoy the feeling of being high up completely.

I took a deep a breath and ran for the edge, trying to jump as high as possible once reaching the end and as I'd spent the last six-plus months training my body, that was quite high. It had taken a bit getting used to, to be honest. Mostly due to the fact that as far as I was aware, before coming here the highest I could go was somewhere around two feet. Now it was upwards of seven. That added to the fact that jumps had more hang time here than before meant I could get quite a bit of distance between jumps.

Everyone, including those that had gotten out, watched or at least caught sight of me sailing through the air with Alice in my arms, screaming in glee (I hoped) the whole way, eventually landing next to the stairs leading up to the street.

"That was amazing, mister! Again! Let's go again!" Alice hopped about in my arms, waving her arms around and almost smacking me in the face. I relaxed a bit knowing that putting myself out there hadn't been for naught. Good as everything was going, there was nothing to say she couldn't have a bit more to enjoy now that most if not all of society had gone kaput.

I put her down, smiling a bit. "Maybe later, right now I've gotta check something." Takashi and Kohta were making their way towards us but I went ahead without them. Even if I didn't remember this, that also meant there wouldn't be any zombies nearby, or at least not enough to cause them a problem. Sure enough, when I got up, there weren't any nearby. Cool.

"Nothin' here," I called back, waiting for them to catch up. Takashi and Kohta waved to Shizuka, who just revved the engine and floored the gas. I couldn't see Takashi or Kohta's expression as they peeled off to the side in order to avoid being run over but I would hazard a guess and say terrified; especially if their yelps were anything to go by. I was already off to the side and just watched as Shizuka blasted up the side of the embankment. Flinching from the noisiness of the vehicle as it slammed down near me.

Hisashi and the girls followed behind, a touch bewildered but definitely calmer than the other two. "That was...impressive Marikawa-sensei." Hisashi didn't seem like he knew what else to say.

"Holy fuck, that damn near took my head off!" Takagi swatted Takashi for saying such a thing near Alice and Hisashi laughed a bit.

"Come on guys, we should get going. Takagi's house isn't too far right?" Hisashi looked to her for confirmation and she nodded, though she did tense up a bit at the thought of home.

Everyone piled up into the Humvee save for Hisashi and Rei, who got on top. Once inside I pulled a little book out of one of my pockets and started to read it.

In order to make sure I didn't forget anything I deemed important, I'd written everything down sometime after realizing where I was. After even more time had passed, I'd discovered I could read more than just English and Japanese, though it took a bit more concentration and the handwriting still had to be discernable. I'd used this to translate everything into a few different languages in the hopes that if someone read it, I wouldn't have to explain myself. I opened the book to where I'd left off, looking over the lines written in...Greek, I think, and narrowing my eyes to read it. Takashi and Rei fell off and there was a short scuffle before everyone was rescued by Takagi's mom. That fight was where the boob bullet time thing happened if memory served. After that, we would be lead to their house and other stuff would happen, ending with Shido showing and wrecking things with his party bus. I smiled to myself at that thought. The only people who would be able to stomach him were probably dead, not to mention the sleazebag himself.Wonder if anyone'll find his body now.I shrugged, good riddance either way I suppose.God, there's so much happening soon,I was skimming through the pages to get an idea of how much was left. Even with that being the case, I hadn't gotten everyone killed yet so there was that.

"Vega-san?" I turned to Saeko, thankfully noting that no one else was looking my way. Good, so I hadn't said any of that out loud or been chuckling ominously to myself.

"Hm?" Had I done something to just attract her attention then?

"You were smiling quite a bit, I was wondering if you'd read something funny."

I had to think about the right way to word this. "Nah, nothing funny, I was just trying to read this. I'm pretty happy with how well it's going." I'd gotten better with skirting the truth over the months. At least, I liked to think I was getting better.

"Can I see? I would like to know how well I can follow along with a native English speaker." She started to lean a bit to get a peek and I turned the book over to her since I knew she wouldn't be able to read anything.

"It's not, this is Greek."

"Greek? Is that your second language or something?" Takashi asked, he and Kohta were right next to me, so it wasn't all too surprising they'd heard.

"No, it's-" I paused as we hit some more zombies. This was getting a little too plentiful to be comfortable with. "Hold on a sec," I walked over to where Rei and Hisashi were, popping out of the hole leading to the top.

"You guys should come down, there's no telling when you could get thrown off and you don't need me to tell you how bad that would be in this situation." They nodded and came back down, finding a place to sit before they began talking again, though I noticed that Takashi seemed a bit put off by how happy they were while he was excluded. I started thinking about whether I should try to help them with that problem when Saeko shouted something and the vehicle swerved before slamming against something, though it didn't stop.

"Stop! Why won't it stop?!" The frustration in Shizuka's voice was understandable, though I ignored it in favor of heading for the door and tearing it open to jump out of the vehicle. Since this is when we started getting swarmed, it would be best to start damage control before the cavalry got here.

I rolled as I got out, pulling my knives out and briefly landing in a pose that would have been embarrassing if not for the situation.

Here's hoping that they got here in time.

o0o

[3rd]{Saeko}

"The tires are locked! Let go of the breaks and hit the gas just a bit!"

Saeko thought she saw Thomas jump but didn't have time to confirm as Shizuka took Kohta's advice and the Humvee careened soon after. When she regained her balance she saw the door open. He must've jumped as soon as he heard trouble. While that may have sounded cowardly, Saeko was sure Thomas wasn't the type to do that to his friends. She followed out soon after and saw-.

A massacre.

Skilled as she was, Saeko could say with certainty that this was far from elegant, from efficiency and from stylish.

But she would never say it wasn't effective or beautiful in its own way.

The scene that greeted her was of death. Of those powerless to stop it.

Thomas was flitting about, slaying Them by groups of two or three as they hadn't had the opportunity to group up after Shizuka had ripped through Their ranks.

Unbeknownst to everyone else, a small grin slid onto Saeko's face, then she rushed in.

o0o

{Kohta}

Kohta had expected to storm out and swing out any of his little babies that had recently come into his possession, filling them with bullets as him and his friends fought for their lives. But when he got to the door, he didn't really think he'd be needed, at least not yet.

He'd already seen Saeko fight, even if it was only briefly, back at school as well as when they arrived at Shizuka's friend's house, so he'd known what to expect, even if it was still impressive. Everything he'd seen had made sense, most of it looked like kendo taken to a more lethal level and what didn't could be explained as her learning it outside of school. Which wasn't to say it wasn't impressive, it still left him in awe at how elegant you could make killing people look.

What he hadn't expected was just how brutal Thomas could be. While he wasn't as good as Saeko, that wasn't to say he wasn't contributing his fair share of bodies. He casually stepped forward, foot caving in its knee, its face landing on the knife in his left hand, though it seemed to last only an instant as his hand flew forward unimpeded by the person falling on it as it went straight for the next one. His right hand had gone behind him to backhand another one in the face, its skull caving in due to the force of his knuckles. Soon after he was sprinting to the next small group, making short work of them as well. When a larger group started to come near, Kohta brought the Armalite up to cover and got two shots off before Thomas grabbed one of the corpses he'd just shot and threw it into the others. Kohta watched as he took small quick steps to step on those that fell and punched those that were still falling, rushing off at a low tilt when he was done.

At one point he got surrounded, but ran up a wall and pushed away, leaving them for Kohta to pick off and think that maybe it had been on purpose.

At another he bowled through one of Them on his way to a group, ripping its head off and chucking it at another as it fell.

Kohta couldn't think of a way to describe other than a step above a street brawl. Meanwhile, Saeko was killing almost twice as many with much smoother strokes, looking for all the world as if she was just sparring with a particularly clumsy underclassman.

That wasn't to say that everything was under control. Even with almost everyone joining the fight, Kohta was still finding himself shooting more and more. He was still confident they would pull through but wasn't sure of how long it would take nor if anyone would get bitten during that time as the only person that was sufficiently covered was Thomas.

"Get down!"

Reloading had busied his hands and kept his head mostly out of the way but Kohta still didn't have enough time to process and follow the orders before he saw Them being pushed away by a lot of water.

They were quickly escorted away from the fight and made aware that they were safe. Kohta sagged to the floor with Alice in his arms, both of them smiling and tearing up as the relief washed over them, with everyone celebrating the same thing in different ways.

Hisashi walked over with Rei, the two holding hands as they did. "Thank you for helping us, I'm not sure how we can repay you but-." The figure he was talking to raised their hand and waved him off, pulling their helmet off as they did.

"No need for payback. I just wanted to help my daughter and her friends."

o0o

[1st]

No one had asked how old I was or if I'd gone to college. When I told them I was a working adult with a job, I could instantly tell that I was being treated with more respect than the rest of the group, save Shizuka. Even if had only been a few hours I could tell Hisashi and Takagi were tired of being treated that way. The latter more so.

Since arriving and settling in, I'd gone around and started checking up on everyone else. Rei and Hisashi were walking around the area last I checked, with Takashi and Kohta broing it up elsewhere. Takagi was sulking by ordering people around with more venom and brattiness, Alice was with Shizuka playing around with Tamotsu (who they'd kept calling Zeke, though I had told them his real name) and I'd made a promise to Alice that we could 'go up' when I found a nice place to jump from. Lastly, Saeko was reading a book and relaxing.

Now I was going to talk to Kohta and Takashi about Takagi. Soon after arriving, she'd initially taken her anger out on Kohta, needling and harassing him. It had most definitely been intentional, and that was strange. She'd been volatile at first, sure, but she'd hadn't been this bad as far as I remember. While some of it could be excused as her being riled up by how some of the people here babied them, it didn't explain why she'd gone after him specifically. The only reason she'd gone to annoy other people was because the others had called her out on it.

I could've been reading this wrong and she really was just that awful but I wanted to be sure. Maybe I could do something about it. Maybe. The worst Kohta and Takashi could do was say no. Maybe.

I went where I'd last found them and sat down next to Kohta, "any idea why Takagi seems to have it in for you?" I managed to get that out without stuttering or getting my tongue tied. Nice.

Kohta blinked for a bit, then settled with a bitter expression, looking down at the floor. Takashi looked over to him, seemingly for approval, to which Kohta nodded but turned away to sulk presumably. "A bit after we'd left school, on the bus, some guy started being an asshole and Kohta shot him. Straight in the head. Takagi didn't like that he took someone down over what she thought wasn't too big of a deal, even if it was annoying. It only got worse when he kicked a group of them off for seemingly no reason. They started to argue but Hisashi got them to hold off and things have been tense between them since." Kohta had looked as if he was going to cut in when Takashi had said 'for no reason' but held his tongue, continuing to glare at the floor a few feet away. From what I remembered of the bus, Kohta had nearly killed Shido that early on, missing and then leaving shortly after. Rei and Takashi had been separated due to Shido claiming leadership of the bus and... that was all that was relevant at the moment. So Kohta had presumably actually killed someone, probably one of Shido's lackeys. I'd had no idea Takagi would get mad at that. Nothing I could've done since there'd been a small chance of Kohta missing in the first place, I wasn't surprised it had struck true this time.

Since Kohta definitely wouldn't regret it and Takagi was probably too stubborn to admit that she could see why he'd done it if she ever did, there wasn't really much I could do. I doubt I could stick around long enough to try and explain it to her without blowing up at her or at least getting off my fair share of snips. Someone else would have to do it.

"I don't think she's happy that you're here either." I looked at Takashi, raising a brow and hoping for him to explain. "She just met you yesterday and hardly knows a thing about you, the first thing she saw you do other than laundry or sleep was tear apart a bunch of Them like an animal or something. Not that that's a bad thing right now." That wasn't good, but he was right, she hardly knew me for a few hours and then I'm just ripping things apart like a madman, not exactly a good first or second impression if you counted showing up covered in grime. Still, I couldn't really do anything about that yet, what I could change was the way they addressed zombies. Just hearing him say 'Them' made me grimace more than the rest of it did. Well, first thing's first I suppose.

"I see. Nothing to be done about that yet, but have you or Hisashi tried explaining things to her?" Takashi looked at me with confusion.

"No, but Kohta already did, I don't see how that would change for us." He might have a point, but it was better to be sure.

"Kohta's the one she has a problem with, why would she listen to him? You guys are childhood friends and Hisashi's the most reasonable person in the group, I'm sure if she listens to one of us it'd be one of you guys." Takashi thought about that for a bit and nodded, seeming to accept what I said. Good, with that settled...

"Zombies." He and Kohta flinched when I said that, but I just kept a straight face and said it again. They flinched again. They acted as if zombies being real meant it needed new classification, a zombie was a zombie, there was neither a reason nor a way to try and avoid that when they were around every street and corner. Plus, They, Them and all the rest was super vague, the pronoun game wasn't something that was ever enjoyable and while 'Them' would eight or nine times out of ten refer to zombies, it could still be used as a reference for anything else; better to get the need for clarification out of the way and just call them what they were.

"Ghouls, walkers, zeds, etc. That's what they're called, why do you guys say Them?"

"This isn't the movies Vega-san," As Kohta said that I looked to where I imagined a camera would be, 'isn't the movies' my busy, exhausted, tuchus; since multiple universes existed I had no doubt this was at least some kind of media, maybe even just a doujin. Nevertheless, I didn't say anything to interrupt. "We can't just call them that."

"And why not? That's what they are, that's what everyone will see and recognize them as. It's best to be specific when talking about problems and saying zombies by itself does a lot more than Them, at least for anyone with sense. Saying Them will do no one any good." My mind went to the idiots from the bridge and the ones that had died when the manor was overrun. Hopefully, they'd get some sense knocked into their thick skulls. Regardless, I'd said my piece and started to leave. Hopefully, they followed what I said and didn't take offense to the way I'd said it.

Now that I'd officially run out of parties to crash and things to do, I just set about to wandering about. I'd been so busy these past few weeks and missed just walking without purpose. Maybe an idea of what to do would come to me as I did.

o0o

[3rd]{Takashi}

They'd just sat there for a few minutes after Thomas left. Thinking about what he'd said, then Takashi had slowly risen from where he was sitting and left, what for he didn't know, what he did know was that the short talk they'd just had was sticking with him. The contents hadn't been too much to handle, he was pretty certain that Kohta agreed. He wasn't sure if he did, just that something about it had irritated him. Even if he had some lingering resentment towards Hisashi for reasons he'd rather not go into, he was still Takashi's best friend. Having someone, even another friend, just try and push away what Hisashi had said as wrong, rubbed him the wrong way. More than that, and this was definitely due to the atmosphere, something about it had reminded him about how all the adults had gone out of their way to do everything and just smile at them as if they were kids that needed complete protection. Thomas was hardly any older than they were and the whole time he'd known him, Takashi felt like he was just with a friend that went to a different school, there was no way he would look down on them in this situation.

Takashi took a deep breath and let it out. He started heading to where he'd last seen Takagi, stopping as he thought that going to his highly volatile, possibly still angry, friend probably wouldn't be a good idea and that he should just get Hisashi to do the explaining. Then he remembered that Hisashi had gone on a walk with Rei and the joy on both of their faces and his heart twisted a bit. He continued heading to Takagi, thinking about the couple he'd chosen to leave be.

"Pinky promise? What a load of shit."

o0o

{Saeko}

Saeko had been reading for the last couple of hours before deciding she'd sat down for long enough. As much as her life had been in danger before, she'd still felt a rush at being able to let loose and just cut through everything. Suddenly going from that to sitting still as she was pushed to safety was tough. She'd done it without any visible difficulty as was expected of one from the Busujima line, but she still felt that itch to go out and feel it again, testing her mettle against some mindless brutes who couldn't and wouldn't tell of the excitement on her face as she cut them down.

"Ah, Saeko, know where the others are?" She looked over to Thomas, seeing him gearing up and tilting her head in curiosity.

"I have not, but, may I ask what you're doing?"

"I'm going outside the grounds to look for stuff in the area, there's a lot of abandoned houses here and I'm sure most people are either too busy surviving or being dead to get it all." He grabbed his quiver, making sure it was tightly fastened as he spoke.

"May I come with you?" He looked at her for a second before nodding.

"Sure, fine with me, as long as that's what you want to do." She smiled at consideration and nodded her head. He looked down her over and pointed at her attire. "You wanna get changed or were you planning on wearing a kimono out into the thick of it?"

"Ah, please give me a few minutes to get changed." He nodded and sat down, giving the affirmative. Saeko walked off to find something suitable, probably just what she'd wore when they were out earlier. Still, as she walked to get her clothes, she was happy to be able to scratch her itch without anyone being the wiser as to why.

o0o

[1st]

No one really knew what kind of supplies I had, not even the main group. I hadn't really been hiding it, there just wasn't really any reason to pull out my stuff yet. As for those here, I wasn't sure whether they'd try to take some of my stuff and they'd not asked to check what was inside. I figured going out to look for stuff meant I could hand them some, get some brownie points perhaps, while also making sure neither I didn't have to dip into my own resources yet.

When Saeko came back, she'd changed back into her clothes from earlier. As we started to head out, I could see some people sneering at us, seeing what looked like kids playing at adult stuff. Leave it to the HOTD universe to ruin a good thing with trashy people. Rather than a gate or anything, I'd decided to just vault the walls. No need to tell those in charge what we were doing and I didn't want them to tell Saeko she couldn't go for some reason or another. The last thing I needed was for more people to be angry.

"So, do you have an idea on where we're going?" Saeko asked once we'd made it a few feet away from the manor grounds.

"Yeah, there should be some safeish places near here." I'd chosen an area that was rather devoid of zombies as most of them were by the front, where a lot of the noise was. Having most of this area figured out helped me think of places the zombies likely wouldn't be. I had a certain house in mind, it was of a decent size without the kind of security that would attract zombies and was uphill, so any that were there would have a harder time chasing us.

"Do you know this area?" Saeko looked at me, tilting her head. I just nodded.

"I'm familiar with most of the town, I like taking walks, although that probably doesn't come as a surprise to you." After that, there was silence for a time. Even though I'd said near, that had been relative. I had no doubt that the Takagi's hadn't at least considered the idea of looting houses and figured going a bit farther out to get my stuff wouldn't step on any toes. Plus, there would be far fewer walkers there, being some ways away from the more populated part of the area.

At least, that was how it should have happened. Before we'd even come into view of my intended target, I heard groans from nearby. We stopped. From the sounds of it there weren't that many, maybe three dozen, and if they were here so soon then that most likely meant there hadn't been much time for anyone to ransack the place, this thought was supported by the lack of alarms or obvious points of entry. All in all, it was still definitely worth a shot to break in.

"Saeko," I whispered to get her attention. "Go around the other way, there's not that many and this place looks pretty solid so it's still possible this place'll be worth it." She nodded and jumped over the wall we were hiding behind, making her way to the other end of the house. I made my way to the group as well, already getting to work in clearing them out. Saeko came shortly after, cutting through the zombies with much more grace and gusto than I was. Things went rather smoothly until I heard a sharp gasp, the first major sound since we started. Those that weren't busy being double dead were ambling her way now. I was confused why she did that until I saw what she was facing.

Children.

I'd been doing this for the better part of a week, killing kids wasn't really enough wasn't really enough to register anymore, but I remembered that was what had caused her to freeze in canon. If memory served it had been after fleeing Takagi's that this had happened, too bad I hadn't accounted for this happening so soon.

As the little ones raised their hands toward her, jaws already working for what could very soon be their next meal, I ran through those in front of me, ignoring their grasping hands with a few shoves and swept through the ones reaching for her, their heads either turning into a fine mist or flying off from the force of the arm running through. I shoved her away and whirled around, set on finishing the group off so we could head inside and do what we came to do as well as talk this through with Saeko.

With the exterminating done, I pulled Saeko to the door, finding the door unlocked when I tested the knob and pushing through to sit her down.

We sat in silence for a few minutes as I tried to put my thoughts in order and remember what I'd planned on saying to her after she started explaining.

"So. What happened back there?" I asked quietly, trying not to disturb the quiet too much. Didn't want her feeling too uncomfortable to talk. There was no answer and I carried on. "There must be a reason you stopped earlier." Again, nothing. We sat there for a bit longer. I don't know if there were any pauses originally but I hoped this wasn't a bad sign.

I was gonna open my mouth when she spoke first, body still in the same position as when we'd arrived. "I...I'm not sure if you would understand but...will you listen to what I say? And hold any comments until the end?" She turned her head towards me a bit, that was good, this was progress.

"Sure."

"Four years ago, I was walking alone at night and was attacked by a man. Of course, I had my sword with me and beat him, I broke his shoulder blade and femur. Along with a few other things." This was where she made the reveal. "The police took me in at first but sent me home given the circumstances. But. There was a reason they held me for as long as I did." She abruptly turned to me, a wide smile on her face as her pupils dilated, her face gaining color. "I liked it! It felt so good to see him suffer, being so utterly above him, the way he cowered and scrambled in fear! I loved it! It was exhilarating!" She came down from the excitement, not shying away but drawing into herself a bit.

"That is what the real Saeko Busujima is like. I pretend to have the heart and soul of a young girl but I go crazy when I have the upper hand. Back there, I realized I haven't changed at all. That I might be getting worse." She finished the last part quietly, as a whisper. As if saying it out loud meant it was irrevocably true.

The reason was different than I remembered, even from the very beginning. I'd had it completely wrong. Which meant that the little spiel I'd prepared wouldn't really do much, at least, most of it wouldn't.

So now, here we were, sitting in silence as I tried to come up with something to comfort her.

"This... this isn't a problem." I began, trying to put together what I would say so I didn't mess it up too much. "You've been holding these urges back for years, right?" She nodded, her gaze vulnerable, but wary. She obviously didn't expect me to say anything nice. "If you hold something back, especially if its for a long time it makes sense the feelings would be all the more intense, right? It doesn't bother me anyways, and even if it did, everyone has problems, even the people close to you that doesn't mean you stop caring for them." Unless it was something that couldn't be compromised on, but I doubt saying that would be comforting to her. Still, it seemed she was thinking the same thing, so I tried coming up with something else to say. "Think about Kohta, about how ready he was to kill those people on the bus and he's still here with us. Murderous or sadistic intent is hardly the worst thing you could have right now." I really hope this got through to her.

"You remember Shido? From school?" She nodded, not knowing we this was going. "I killed him." Her eyes went wide, a small gasp escaping her, probably not from who it was so much as it was the fact I did it. "It was about a week before this all started. I was lucky this happened before someone found the body but something I can tell you with absolute certainty is that if I'd known I could get away with this, I would have made him suffer a lot longer before doing him in." She stared at me, shocked into silence, her mouth open a bit.

I hadn't planned on telling her about that but none of it in been a lie. Until I'd come across the zombies and seen them with my own eyes, I'd been both hopeful and worried that this wouldn't happen. If I'd been 100% sure of this happening I'd have tried my hardest to make him suffer for all of the people he'd gotten killed. Or worse.

Having run out of things to say, I set there for a bit, waiting for a possible reply. When she didn't respond after a few minutes, I got up to look around the house. We came here for a reason after all and the heavy subject matter and my maybe not so successful attempt at helping Saeko with her problems wouldn't change that. Better to make the trip here worthwhile than stew in possibilities.

o0o

I'd picked up quite bit of supplies, more than enough to justify coming here, zombies and not so hidden insecurities notwithstanding.

Saeko had come out of the room I left her in, now on the other end of the house searching for goods as well.

We'd hardly gone through half of the house when I realized there wasn't enough room in my pack to bring all this back, we'd have to prioritize what to bring along, not that that was a bad thing. Food and toiletries were a higher priority than water as most of the food we found was perishables and toiletries would be harder to come by when they ran out then water.

All that remained were two rooms in Saeko's area and a shed outside the main house which I'd taken on account of being able to Lockpick, although that decision didn't mean anything as the door here was unlocked as well. When I opened it, I felt something change in the air, something unfamiliar. That put me on my guard.

When I got closer I toned down the noise. It wouldn't do to be caught if it was something alive or undead dead down there. Not that I really thought that's what this was.

When I got down, there wasn't a person, zombie, or even a monster.

What I saw was a circle, written in gray and green.