A/N: My apologies for taking the time to update... I haven't been in the HOTD mode and it's been costing me, I kept telling myself I would write this chapter but it took me some time, however, I am pleased with it!

I can only hope you would be as kind to leave a review? It really helps me see whether or not you guys like these chapters or stories.

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Discord: Kano #3425

THWWACK! THWWWWWACK! THWWACK! THWAACK!

Hard at work on a sunny day, Kohta and Saeko pressed the hammerhead down onto the wooden posts to smash it deeper and deeper into the ground, once it was deeper into the ground the two would then proceed to use the long wooden planks to slot in between the two poles and then use the nails they had gotten from their raiding and smash them into the sides of the post securing the planks being secure within the posts before stepping back.

Saeko wore a grey tank top with a bra underneath, her breasts pressing against the tight fabric as she wore pants and a pair of combat boots to go with her attire, her hair pulled up into a neat ponytail as she did the same as Kohta, pressing the wooden posts.

Letting out a breath, Saeko was forced to step back and admire what she had just done with the wooden posts, admiring the long formation she had done so far alongside Kohta who seemed to be struggling as he went along, Saeko snorted at the sight and realized that Kohta was not cut out for the work being put in front of him.

'These posts could do with the barbed wire from inside.'

Saeko thought as she looked to her side, a crate that was placed upside down that held a steaming cup of coffee that had been warmed up on the firepit.

Using her mind to imagine what it could be like, Saeko came up with a mini-plan in mind, straightening it out and then proceeding to lightly wrap them around the fence posts they had built next to the gated off fences.

A part of Saeko was relieved that she was one of the two out of the group to not be leaving the academy grounds today, partly being because she trusted her own ability to look after Alice while she could.

She hadn't been given the chance to get to know the little girl yet, they had been so preoccupied with other things she had put it in the back of her mind.

"My god, this is... so... heavy!"

Ignoring Kohta and his groans of annoyance, Saeko turned her head over towards the firepit where the child had sat next to the fire.

Her hands hovering over the fire as she sat on an old chair with a wool texture on the backboard.

Her legs were crossed, a book of some sort that she assumed Kohta or one of the others had given the younger girl before she had left, she appeared to be halfway through it as she took a heated up her hands.

'She must be cold, although that is surprising considering it is really warm out here. Unless it's because I have been busy?'

Saeko assumed it was just her and stood up.

Turning around and smiling as she walked over towards the younger girl who picked up on Saeko's footsteps as she turned her innocent yet childish glance towards her.

"Hmmmm?"

"Are you really that cold? Do you want me to go get you a blanket?" Saeko smiled warmly as she bent down, being level with the girl as she looked at her.

Alice thought deeply for a few moments, looking anywhere but at Saeko as she tried to make her mind up.

"I'll be fine, I just feel a little cold that's all..."

"A little? You are practically shivering and you look tired now that I get a good look at you, have you been sleeping well? Have you been staying up past your bedtime? Is one of us waking you up at night?"

Saeko almost acted like a concerned mother as she brushed the side of her cheek caringly, Alice took well to it as she smiled slightly.

"It's not that, I got woken up by big brother and that lady with purple hair."

"...?"

Saeko was caught slightly off guard by Alice's reply, her innocent look had quickly grown to a curious one.

"Am I going to be getting a little sister or brother? Big brother and the purple-haired lady were doing what my mommy and daddy would do at night? Am I going to be an older sister?" Alice now looked at Saeko excitedly.

THUMMMMMP!

'What the hell...? What is this... feeling?'

Saeko felt her heartache, her left hand clutched her chest as she smiled wryly at the younger girl, not letting her emotions show in the slightest.

"Ummm I don't think they were... going to give you a little sister or a little brother."

"Oh... I thought..."

"Your big brother doesn't even have a girlfriend, let alone to be able to give you a sibling." Saeko nodded awkwardly.

"Girlfriend?"

"Yes your big brother doesn't have a lover so I don't think they were actually doing 'that' last night, you may have been imagining it or something." Saeko smiled at the younger girl and gently caressed her head.

"..."

Alice did not have a particular reaction to Saeko's words as she gently patted her on top of her head in a soothing manner for the little girl, instead, she used her childish like mind to think for a few moments, trying to figure out what she heard last night, were they wrestling? She considered it as an option and to her it was the most likely option, she had spied on her parents once and twice and noticed their 'odd' actions. If they were wrestling then what were they doing? Her innocent yet unaware mind could not comprehend it all just yet.

'What was Onii-chan doing if he wasn't creating a sibling for me?'

Alice's innocent mind was unaware of what must have been happening the night before, a part of her wanted to ask her little brother later on.

Saeko on the other hand stared into the sunny sky with a dark expression on her face.

Her heart yearned for answers.

(Scene Change)

"Alright! The last of the canisters is done! I've put it with the rest in the back and now when we head back we can give it to Takashi and the rest to deal with." Rika walked around the Humvee as she placed both of her hands in her back pockets.

"You never quite explained why you decided to come out and get whatever you have now gotten."

For a brief moment, Kiriko thought, trying to think of a way to phrase her next few words the way Takashi would, simple yet understanding to others, after a few seconds of thought, she snapped her fingers and got the attention of the two sisters and her companions, the perfect explanation running through her mind before she even started speaking.

All eyes landed on the older woman.

"Think of the fuel one of two ways, it could potentially power some things of ours in the future, and it can allow for future vehicles to have something powering them."

It did not take long for Kiriko to realize that her perfect explanation did not go the way she wanted to.

She hoped in the very least that she got her point across.

"That makes sense when thinking about it, Oh right! you've mentioned this 'Takashi' once or twice over the last while... Mind if we know who this person is?" Crystal brushed strands of her hair out of her face.

Stella, Crystal's sister was as equally as curious.

"Takashi is sort of our unanimously decided leader without being a leader? It's hard to explain without it sounding weird!" Saya pushed up her glasses and gave them a more confusing explanation than what they were expecting.

"Not too sure how he is our leader but she is right, Takashi became a leader without truly becoming one? You would think we would elect a leader and I would be in contention considering I was a police officer..."

"I was a part of the military you know? If the same logic applies, then I am further along that path."

"Please sugar tits, just make sure your ovaries are ready for whenever we have to start repopulating this desolate planet once more, I'll worry about becoming a future leader." Kiriko rolled her eyes at Rika and ignored her claims.

"HUUUUH!?"

"HUUUUUH!?"

"HAHHHH!?"

Saya, Stella, and Crystal reacted at the same time with shocked expressions at the forwardness of Kiriko.

"Please we as the adults of the group talked about this before, If I am going to get pregnant then surely you have to as well, if not I can just have Takashi all to myself~" Rika blushed as she held the side of her cheeks in embarrassment, half-joking and the other side was serious.

"Woah! WOAH! Hold on!"

"?"

"?"

Kiriko and Rika turned to the exclaiming Saya as Crystal and Stella spectated, unable to mutter any words.

"So you are telling me that you and Rei's mom here have been talking about 'repopulating' the earth through pregnancy?! Takashi is m- I mean I'm pretty sure he has been focusing on surviving!" Saya spluttered through her words as she blushed.

"Of course we have discussed it."

"We will have to start having children at one point?"

"Exactly, I and Rika have discussed this between the two of us and we were going to bring it up between you and the others."

"You are making this sound like one of those harem stories..."

"Well, technically it is."

Saya, couldn't help but be simply surprised, it was baffling that Kiriko and Rika were talking about repopulating humanity through pregnancy, The pink-haired beauty knew that at one point that one of the girls including herself was going to have to get pregnant with Takashi's baby, what she never expected was the two older women to be so open and create a plan between the two which involved herself and the other girls.

The two sisters on the other hand were caught off guard by Kiriko and Rika, although they hadn't known them for more than forty-five minutes, their actions to be so direct and forward than what they were used to.

The women looked at each other, the cold and awkward silence was unnerving and unsettling.

"Moving on... Shouldn't we just focus on what is in front of us? All this t-talk should be saved for another time and the right place!" Saya pushed her glasses up and coughed.

"Ehhhh? Alright then..." Rika let out a sigh, the purple-haired beauty picked up on Saya's blush.

"No Saya makes a good point, we have better things to worry about like going back home and dumping those canisters at our base of operations." Kiriko crossed her arms and walked towards the humvee which was next to Stella and Crystal's own vehicle.

"Agreed, it is in our best interests to plan for our future." Rika let out a sigh, getting more serious.

"Before we go... wouldn't it be best to check inside there?"

Saya pointed towards the small garage that was next to the fuel pumps, a mini store that was there for the convenience of customers for snacks, drinks, and smaller and lesser items that they may need before paying for the fuel they had gotten.

Or so what it should have been.

"Why?" Kiriko raised her eyebrow. "If you are thinking about eating with that glutinous brain of yours, I would suggest otherwise because the food would be outdated." Kiriko finished.

Rika giggled at Kiriko's comments.

"Are you forgetting that certain foods do not expire and go out of date for a meaningful period of time?!" Tick marks began to show above Saya's head.

"She's right..." Stella nodded in agreement.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What?" Stella questioned the odd looks she was receiving.

'What the hell have I got myself and those kids into again...? Hopefully, a sense of normality kicks in soon.'

Crystal turned her head to face the car she arrived in, the many children she had sworn to protect were looking back at her and the other ladies with curious yet childish expressions written across their faces. A small smile was brought upon Crystal's face, she found their actions cute.

"I also agree with Saya, how about this? Stella and Saya take your weapons and go see if you can find anything we can use."

Rika commanded the two younger ladies, the pair nodded and looked at each other briefly before turning around and walking over towards the store.

Silence reigned between Rika, Kiriko, and Crystal for a few moments, Rika had her eyes closed as she thought.

"This gives us time to talk about where things will go from here..." The purple-haired vixen looked over at Kiriko.

"Agreed." Kiriko looked over at Crystal.

"?"

Crystal looked at the two, a confused expression as she shrugged her shoulders and stood still with a wry smile, becoming more and more nervous about what the two were perhaps talking about, the den mother hoped that they weren't secretly serial killers out to kill her and her sister.

"Can we trust you?" Rika asked the woman a simple question.

It all made sense to Crystal.

"I understand now, I can tell you two are women that are able to read others well, as for trusting me? Only you can see that for yourself, but before all of that... please allow me to prove myself." Crystal asked with an almost begging tone lingering in her voice.

Rika and Kiriko looked at each other once more.

"I do admit we do not trust you one hundred percent yet but those kids needed you and I can see that you would never abandon them. It tells me all I need to know about you." Kiriko gave her nod of approval.

"Thank you!" Crystal turned to Rika, awaiting her answer.

"I agree with this old hag here. We do need to compare stories and notes about everything since all of this occurred but none of the less I am willing to take a chance that you are one of us." Rika smiled like a Cheshire cat after gently elbowing Kiriko in the stomach.

"Thank you the both of you!" Crystal bowed in front of the two ladies.

"No need for formalities, we will need each other to be sisters in arms for whatever we will face out here and at our new home base thingy?" Rika did not know what to call their current home.

"Just call it our headquarters..." Kiriko began to feel like she was developing a headache.

"Does that mean we will get to see your home for the first time?" Crystal raised her eyebrows, turning back to the kids who were waving at her.

"Of course, you are one of us now." Rika giggled.

Crystal smiled brightly at the thought of herself, her sister, and the children to finally have a place to relax with others, with others around her that knew what they were doing that meant she could feel at peace and protected for the first time in a very long time.

"Oh right, what is this about you calling me an 'Old Hag'?" Kiriko's demanding eyes turned to Rika.

"Am I wrong?"

"Yes, you are, very wrong in fact."

"Aren't you forty or so?" Rika cockily asked with a smirk on her face.

"A woman's age does not matter, in fact, if I remember correctly it won't be long until you are getting on." Kiriko turned back to Rika with her remark.

"I'm in my twenties."

"Shouldn't you of had children of your own already? Or perhaps you couldn't find a lover of your own?" Kiriko walked towards the Humvee with an evil smirk on her face.

"Please, no man back then could light a candle to the standards I wanted in a man." Rika giggled and walked over towards the Humvee too.

"Is that because your feral bitch with wild tendencies?"

"Hmmm, can't answer that directly so I'll ask Takashi that and get back to you on the answer~"

"?"

"?"

Crystal and Kiriko stared at Rika with confused expressions, unable to understand what the purple-haired girl meant by that.

'Oops! I guess I let the cat out of the bag!'

(Scene Change)

In the typical style of the game of life that Takashi knew all too well, nothing ever went well, when it did on the other hand? There were always some major red flags about the situation he had landed himself in alongside the other girls. Rei and Shizuka were with him shortly after they were dropped into the middle of the large and open city.

Numerous amounts of badly-smelling and decaying zombies roamed the desolate streets without any aim in the slightest.

None of the less, the three pushed on and through it all, ignoring the gruesome sights that had been laid on on the streets for some time now, bodies that had begun to decay one month after it all started.

The three however made sure to only push forward with their mission when they had found out a more open path, with undead roaming the three knew they had to avoid causing a ruckus and getting the attention of the zombies, sticking to the shadows and the alleyways.

Their previous encounter with zombies which led to the three having to get higher ground had sparked a paranoid yet made them extra careful.

"No matter how many days and months pass by, I will never get used to seeing... dead bodies." Rei grimaced.

"We are nearby..." Takashi held out his hand.

"My God, can you see the crates of weapons exposed next to the gated door?" Shizuka stepped around a corner and pointed towards the middle of the bridge.

"Good spotting, those weapons can be useful in more than one way." Takashi smiled at Shizuka and praised her.

The group of three walked closer to the bride, approaching cautiously as Rei killed a zombie to their left, the undead's intestines were left hanging out of its body as its legs were snapped and unable to walk on them. Rei stabbed it through the head before catching up to the others.

Numerous destroyed vehicles were left open, crashed into walls or into each other that had been left clear for wreckage, the two cars they passed by had been burnt to death, indicating that there was a fire.

The railing going over the bridge was a clean red color, normal metallic railings going across the left sides of the pathways on each side of the road.

SPLAAAAAAAAAAT!

Takashi's boots had been covered in blood slightly, the zombie he had hit in the side of the head with his bat had collapsed before him on the ground, blood spilling onto the concrete ground.

Takashi took a step over the body.

"So how are we going to do this? Kill the rest and get to that gate?" Rei let out a breath and stepped forward.

"Yes, once we reach the gate we may need to shoot the lock, or depending on what type of lock it is we can get in a different way." Takashi turned to Shizuka and checked behind them.

Zombies in the distance.

Rei wasted no time using her weapon to trip the decaying and smelly zombie onto the ground, knocking its head on the concrete in the process before she dealt with the final blow to the head, stabbing it through the left side skull and crushing its brain.

SPLAAAAAAT!

In front of him were two zombies, one he headed towards and another Rei had her eyes on, the closest one being on the right side of the road and Rei's target was near the gate with the numerous weapons.

Takashi watched as the undead figure launched itself towards him in an attempt to kill Takashi, however, the boy with soft brown hair and a red t-shirt dodged the attack quickly and watched as the crumbling and frail zombie fell to the ground.

The teenager in his late teens noticed the bone in the back of the zombie's left leg was sticking out like a sore thumb, the boy could not help but grimace at the site as he did not want to think about the pain of an injury on that magnitude, it made him feel sick almost.

"You'd think for such a straightforward place like a bridge that there would be more zombies on here."

"We've seen that the undead gets attracted by sound, perhaps after all of the commotions on this bridge they got distracted and scattered?" Shizuka question with a tired expression.

Takashi swung his bat as hard as he could to the face of the undead zombie that began to get up, killing it once and for all.

SPLAAAAAAAAAT!

Takashi heard the sound of Rei finishing off her zombie, the noise of blood splurting other than the one he had killed had made that obvious.

Checking if the undead creature was still alive, Takashi noticed no movements except the red metallic liquid leaking from its body and skull.

Looking up Takashi looked ahead.

"They could have been scattered, by what or who? I do not know..." Takashi stepped forward with Shizuka.

The three approached the metal gate.

The rest of the bridge was separated by each other with a gate and a long wall with sandbags being used as the second wall to protect the fenced-off area. There was no way around the military-protected outpost which this bridge.

"Ummm the only way to get past this is to have a key card from what it looks like?" Takashi's eyes narrowed at the sight of the red button on the side of the gate.

With Takashi's rhetorical question, Shizuka felt relieved to have picked up a key card off of a zombie that Takashi had killed moments ago, the woman with long blonde hair stepped through with a smile on her face as she pressed a bloodied key card against the red light.

"?"

"?"

TIIIIIING!

The gate opened automatically on its own as Shizuka stepped through with Takashi and Rei following slightly stunned expressions.

"How did you...?"

Shizuka turned to him and smiled.

"One of the undead had dropped a key card when you killed him." Shizuka let Takashi and Rei past herself.

Takashi could see the other side of the end of the small military outpost, it was gated off and had a second layer of sandbags, not allowing anyone or anything to see inside of the small compound. Around it was a few dead bodies, Takashi held up his hands and stopped the girls in their tracks, watching for any signs of movements from the undead.

Takashi stepped forward silently, there were two bodies that twitched slightly, Takashi turned to Rei and pointed at the second zombie, signaling for her to stand over the creature and wait for his command.

Rei watched him, waiting for him to give his command to bash the skull of the undead creature.

"1..."

Rei tightened the hold of her weapon.

"2..."

She lifted the weapon above its head.

"3!"

SPLAAAAAAAAAAAT! SPLAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!

The two zombies that Takashi was worried about waking up and killing were now dead for sure. Letting out a sigh of relief he turned to the two ladies, looking at them individually before taking in their surroundings.

To Rei's right and in front of Takashi was a gazebo that had a military-like design, a desk inside with multiple laptops that appeared to be switched off with blood on the wooden desk.

Next to the entrance which they had entered were dark green crates full of different weapons which they had not checked out yet.

In the middle of a compound was a radio of some sort, one that made small amounts of static on a plain white table with a chair in the middle, the now-abandoned military outpost. Takashi got a weird feeling after entering the compound.

"This place is littered with stuff to say in the very least..." Rei let out a breath.

Behind Takashi were multiple lockers, one of them being open and showcasing some military rations that had been placed neatly in a pile, one on top of the other, it was tinned food of course.

Takashi walked past Rei and into the gazebo, curious to see if the laptops that were spread out in a messy fashion without their screens or any signs of being able to be used, considering it was in a military outpost, Takashi wondered if they contained special information.

"Hmmm..."

Takashi placed his bat next to him on the ground, grabbing the wooden chair and sitting on it.

The boy with brown hair pressed the 'turn on' button.

"Wow, these weapons are some serious fire damage... It's too good to believe that the military just left them here..." Rei had placed one of the green crates stacked on top of each other onto the desk in the middle of the outpost.

After opening it up she was confronted with a sigh which shocked her.

Next to the weapon was a piece of paper that contained some information about the weapon it read:

'FN SCAR-H MK2: The FN SCAR -H Mk2 assault rifle can be fitted with a 40mm FN40GL-H Mk2 grenade launcher that quickly attaches to the lower rail of the rifle for additional firepower, fire control unit that increases hit probability of 40mm grenades, night and day. Please see the commander for a piece of more information.'

The crate contained the weapon it is self and what appeared some attachments and 4 ammo cartridges stacked upon each other.

"And there is more of these weapons?" Rei said as she let out a breath.

"How are we going to get all of this back...?" Shizuka placed her hands on her hips and looked towards Takashi.

"Takashi?" The young boy turned around.

"Perhaps it would be a good idea for one of us to leave the outpost and go and find a vehicle of some sort to take to our new home? Leaving this much around would be asking for danger..." Takashi noticed the military laptop screen had booted online with its start-up menu.

"!"

"!"

Rei and Shizuka noticed too, Shizuka approached Takashi with Rei watching from a distance as she placed the paper into the crate and closed the crate for later.

"It's turning on? I would have thought the power when out by now?" Shizuka asked with a bewildered expression.

"I suspect that there is a power source behind this tent thing, or not perhaps this device was switched off before it could run out of battery?" Takashi shrugged his shoulders and rhetorically asked.

'BOOTING SYSTEM.'

The screen of the modified laptop had gone black for a few moments.

Takashi waited and waited until the screen came back on and loaded into the menu of the screen, numerous applications booting up alongside the time and date, Takashi took notice of the date 'December 1st 13:00', Takashi was slightly surprised to find out it was December already.

Looking at the start-up screen and reading through the list of apps that were in front of him, the majority useless like the internet which he expected to be down now, there was no chance of him getting it back.

A folder like an applicant 'Videos' had caught his attention so he decided to click on it.

Takashi couldn't help but be surprised at the numerous amounts videos he saw in front of him, from the icon he could see, it appeared to be a woman with long curly hair sitting in the exact spot as him as she stared down the lens.

"Rei, come over here, there are a few videos we are going to watch..." Takashi turned to his female friend as he hurried her.

The brown-haired girl nodded in response and walked over, leaning over him and placing her hand on his shoulder.

Takashi let out a breath and clicked on the video 'Video 1'.

00:00:00

The video showcased a woman sitting in the exact gazebo that Takashi and the other two ladies were sitting in, staring at the lens with her glasses on and her messy curly hair in front of her face and in front of her shoulders. In the background of the video appeared to be multiple soldiers moving crates in and out of the outpost as they hurried, panicked, disturbed, annoyed, and sad, it was obvious they felt all the overwhelming emotions that had come with the undead and the day the earth fell to its knee's with the dead.

The woman let out a sigh, pushing her long golden hair behind her shoulders and taking off her glasses, her elbows hunched against the table as both of her hands came together with her left hand in a fist with her bandaged right hand covering it.

"It is day nine of this apocalypse, numerous cities across the whole country of Japan have been taken over by this disease that turns dead and alive into psycho crazed maniacs that attack others and eventually turn those who were also normal into one of them, their bodies die but yet they still live..."

The woman rubbed her cheeks, letting out a sigh.

"How do they live...? We are unsure but what we do know is that they do not have a heartbeat, numerous scientists suspect that when they are first contaminated with this virus thing that their whole body is hijacked almost and overtaken by something that isn't the heart. Some have suggested that the contaminated blood goes to the brain and eventually takes over the mind, body, and soul."

The woman looked tired, emotional and had bags under her eyes.

"Every possible country that we know of has been underway with numerous attacks already, it is spreading across the globe much quicker than anyone would have and could have ever predicted, Billions are suspected to be already... dead. The government of Japan has had their military reduced so much that they are now out for themselves... leaving me... my fellow soldiers and those who have survived this onslaught to fend off for their own..."

She looked down at her military attire, her badge with her name on, staring at it for a few moments.

"I fear that very soon it is the end of me and my comrades in arms, more and more of us are getting bitten and turned into one of them every day, every day they bang... and bang... at that gate, those fences... We haven't slept... It is like hell has come to earth."

A tear shed from her eye, she closed her eyes for five seconds or so.

"If someone is watching I and my fellow soldiers are most likely dead and roaming somewhere out there, to have survived this long you must have been formidable... strong and worthy... In the lockers behind me or behind you might I say, in locker 3 there is some information which the next video I document will entail. Before you look, please end this video and prepare yourself for what is next to come."

00:02:47

Takashi sat back on his chair as the video went black, he looked up to see his friend's reactions.

Shocked, surprised, and saddened.

Just like him.

If you liked this chapter please leave it a review! It really helps learn what you would like to see!

-Kano.