AN: Mathew Yan- I'm shooting for 40 chapters or so. I'm not even done with all the introductions for the main set of characters. Rem and Ram haven't fully been introduced, Quarke is here but hasn't really done much but kill his own family, and Emilia is yet to come. Some other side characters will come along to add to the making allies aspect in a zombie apocalypse. I also still need to finish the plot, add more conflicts, put some death, death, and even more death, throw in looping situations, and then finish with a conclusion.

JDUBZ is the man with the plan when it comes to Beta Reading this and every chapter I write!

Chapter 5: Downtown

April 27, 2015

2:33am

A sudden stop only to start just the same.

Same time, same place, waking up in the same spot.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

The same thumping, every time. Subaru sat up from his bed. He'd been killed, practically shot on sight by the two men. But why? One of them had stated that what they were doing was their profession of sorts. Or maybe t was just one of those people that took the opportunity of chaos to delve deep into their deepest, darkest desires. With the law too distracted with the crisis, they wouldn't have anyone that would enact justice on them while they committed crimes. The thought made him sick to the stomach. He'd be lying if her said he hadn't been looking for a way out anyway, but he never thought he'd meet his end at the hands of his own kind.

But for now he had bigger problems. He needed to save Quark himself to prevent him from becoming infected. He didn't wasn't what had happened to happen again.

He fears he'll fail and it'll all end up like it did last time. What they did to Rem, Ram, Quark, and worst of all, what they'll do to Emilia, he had to stop it. No, he wanted to stop it. Breaking this cycle was his ultimate goal. What happened after didn't matter to him just yet.

Downtown.

Subaru had to get there and save Quark if he ever wanted to keep everyone safe. With Quark not infected, Rem and Ram would be safe from him. Safe for only a short while. The infection was fast, if he wasn't faster than it, all his hard work would be for naught.

However, there was one more problem he had to solve. He had to find his parents. Subaru hadn't the slightest idea where they were, but with Quark's help maybe, just maybe he could find them. Quark was his only hope of ever finding his parents.

But first, he had to save Quark.

Throwing his legs over the side of the bed, Subaru had already decided what to do when he previously died. There was an old bike of his in the garage that he never used. I guess now's the best time to use it.

Subaru went to his parents' room to retrieve his dad's bat, the same weapon he had been using since the beginning, and he was going to use it to end this loop and save those he loved most.

Quietly, Subaru crawled out of his bedroom window. He heard the zombies break through his front door and took that as his opputunity to dash for the garage. It was small, yet big enough for one car and some storage space.

Boxes of various junk were strewn around. Subaru sneezed when a cloud of dust was kicked up as he moved some boxes. Hiding beneath a big stack of boxes was his red bike. It was a gift from his grandmother when he turned 16. Although, he was pretty sure it was an attempt by his father to get him to go outside more. It didn't work.

He jerked on the bike, releasing it from its prison. The bike was dusty and dirty, but there was no time to clean it now, he had to get moving and find Quarke.

Hopping on, Subaru realized just how bad of a condition the bike was in. Every time he pedaled a loud squeaking sound would come from the gears. Looking down, Subaru could see the rusted metal of the bike, the chain was looking a bit weak.

Subaru still kept pedaling as fast as he could. "Things could be worse." He rode for 12 minutes, making it halfway downtown when things took a turn for the worst.

He was going fast, but as he rode past houses walkers would heard the squeaking and ran after Subaru.

"RRRRAAAAGGGHHHHHH!"

Subaru dared to look over his shoulder to see about 20 walkers giving chase. They ran quickly and sure enough they started to catch up to Subaru, who was growing tired from pedaling so much. Seeing that he wasn't going to go far Subaru made a split decision.

Panting madly, Subaru rode up to a house and hopped off the bike. Without thinking of the people who might've lived there, Subaru smashed a window with the bat and jumped through. The pieces of glass cut up his right arm as he used it to brace himself. The blood rushed down his arm and dripped onto the floor. He looked up to see a dining table.

"AAAAAAARRRRRRHHHH!"

The screams of the zombies wasn't far off.

Subaru quickly grabbed a cloth napkin that was on the dining table and ran to the the dining room's exit. Just as he reached it, two zombies were already climbing through the broken window, with the others not far behind.

His adrenaline pumping, Subaru didn't know the layout of the house and was running blindly, trying to find an exit that led to the back.

A glint of the moon light caught his eye when Subaru ran past a hallway. Hoping what he saw was true, Subaru backtracked a little bit and saw a back door with an upper window, through it, he could see the night sky. Just as he took off towards the door, a zombie ran up to him and grabbed at him, but missed.

Subaru ran out the door and closed it behind him to slow down the walkers. As they pounded on the door, Subaru looked ahead to see a brick wall. Perfect.

By the time the walkers had broken through to door, Subaru was already moving. He jumped at the wall and planted a shoe on its vertical surface, using that to kick up and launch him higher. His hand just barely grasped the top brick.

Subaru hung there like a slab of meat, ready to be cut up and butchered. He threw his other hand to the top and started to pull himself up when one of the walkers grabbed onto his foot.

The walker jerked on his foot and almost pulled him off the wall, but Subaru was able to kick it out and make it to the top. Looking back, he saw all the walkers surrounding him on the one side of the wall, all reaching up to grab him. The sight frightened and saddened him. All these people are suffering. Watching this happen. There consciousness must also be in their bodies just like how his was. They have to suffer within their own bodies, not controlling their own movements as they are forced to watch themselves kill and kill. Subaru hoped he was never stuck as one forever, he would rather die for good than become one of them again.

3:20am

Having seen enough, Subaru dropped down to the other side of the wall and began to remove pieces of glass from his skin. Then, he started to wrap the napkin he had grabbed from the house around his arm. The blood seeped through, but he hoped that it would keep his injuries from getting infected.

On the other side of the wall was an alleyway of sorts, with a roughly made concrete road and a brick wall on either side. Weeds and flowers of dull colors grew from cracks in the ground, giving it a look of a dark, deserted, sketchy looking back alley.

Subaru tried his best to run all the way downtown, but he quickly tired out. The previous bike riding, running, climbing, and rush from trying to escape the hands of the walkers had exhausted Subaru. A steady stream of sweat was rushing down his neck and soaking his shirt as he jogged down the alleyway.

The moaning and groaning of walkers plagued the air as he walked down the alley. The occasional scream of terror and/or pain would cause him to flinch. He wondered what it would be like to die, to really die. Move onto another place that didn't have this hell on earth. He started to think the ones that died were the lucky ones, they didn't have to live and see the terrors that were occurring. To turn into one of the walkers was not being dead, to Subaru being dead meant you were dead as a human or as a walker.

At one point, a walker had stumbled into the alleyway at the distant end and caught sight of Subaru. It gave no verbal clues as to seeing Subaru, but approached him anyway.

Crap.

Subaru stopped walking. He needed to figure out how to deal with the zombie. He held his bat ready, forcing himself to deal with it like he would in a video game. He wondered what the person inside their infected body would think when he was forced to kill them. After a couple swings and a minute of gagging, Subaru stepped away from what he had done.

The alleyway opened up to a street that was lined with trees. No houses were on either side, making it an eerie place with the screaming and moaning coming from every direction. With no mode of transportation Subaru had to get to the distant downtown in less than an hour if he hoped to save Quarke.

In the distance stood tall buildings with lights flashing, Downtown Los Angeles.

3:50am

40 minutes. Subaru had 40 minutes before Quarke would show up at his house and kill Rem and Ram. He knew it took about 10 minutes to get from downtown to Rem's house by car. That only gave him 30 minutes to find Quarke. That wasn't much time considering the chaos happening at that moment. The city was in an uproar due to the sounds of mayhem and fear. People were looting and robbing various places, others were running amok, desperately trying to escape danger.

Cars were abandoned, stuck in rows upon rows of empty vehicles. Some people who had tried to take cars were being dragged out of them by walkers. Their crying echoed through the air. Subaru was surrounded, but luckily they paid him no attention since they had others in their sights or ears. He knew the infection was bad, but he didn't know it was this bad. Everything had changed in a matter of hours.

Subaru watched as the chaos took place around him, "Ho-ly shit." It seemed impossible that it all happened so fast.

The rapid decline did make sense though, a densely populated place like LA would definitely spread a contagious infection at an alarming rate. It would seem this city was doomed from the start.

The buildings were still intact and in nice shape, Subaru wondered how long that would last. People ran in different directions, screaming for help as they were chased by walkers. Others, who were driving, plowed through people and walkers, just trying to escape the massacre.

Subaru had to roll out of the way as a car speed towards him, obliterating a walker that had been sneaking up on him.

Blood and gore was everywhere, people were screaming, running, helping, begging for mercy, praying, dying. A car with a man struggling to tear his wife away from his bitten neck swerved out of control in front of Subaru, smashing head on into a building. The man and woman flew out the windshield. The man suffered fatal head injuries while the wife picked herself back up and ate at his corpse. Subaru made sure she never had another bite.

Subaru knew he had to keep moving, he had to find Quark. That was all that mattered. He tried to avoid anyone and everyone he could. He couldn't risk being held up with helping anyone unless he hoped to lose all that he'd worked for.

However, when the opportunity came to save someone who could be saved, Subaru couldn't just ignore them as well.

As Subaru ran he was pushed into the road when a girl jumped out the front door of a shop he'd been running past. The girl fell to the floor, quickly turning onto her back and lifting up a gun she had in her hand. An infected person ran out the door, looking down at the girl and suddenly realizing that a bullet had ripped through his shoulder. Unfazed by this, the zombie began to drop down on top of the girl but was knocked to the side when she smacked him across the face with the pistol. Almost immediately, the zombie regained its composure and ran at the girl as she began to get to her feet. Taken by surprise, the girl dropped her gun. She was then forcefully slammed and pinned against a car with the infected man trying to get a taste of blood.

The only thing that prevented the zombie from eating a mouthful was the girl's hands that held him back from the neck and shoulder. Craning her head away to get her face as far away as possible from the man's jaws she caught sight of Subaru and looked at him in the eyes.

Despite his better judgement, Subaru didn't hesitate to grab the gun the girl had dropped and jab it onto the zombie' head. Turning away with his eyes closed, Subaru pulled the trigger. There was the sound of a body hitting the floor so Subaru looked back at what he had done.

The girl was safe, and at her feet was a dead infected.

"Woo. Ah, hehe. Thanks, man." Seemingly out of breath, the girl thanked Subaru for saving her life. She smiled, turning to Subaru.

Subaru turned to meet the girl's green eyes as she tried to wipe blood off of her red jacket.Her ponytail swayed around as she wiped her hands against the sides of her jacket, a look of disgust on her face when she no longer found wiping infected blood with her hands to be very heigenic.

I have to hurry. Thinking this, Subaru turned to leave and head further into town.

The girl's smile fell and her eyes widened as she saw Subaru walk off, she stepped in front of him and put a hand to his chest, "Wow, wow, wow, where are you going?" She gave a nervous chuckle as pointed in the direction Subaru came from, "Out of town is that way. Why are you going towards the city?"

Subaru nudged her hands off of his chest, "I have to save somebody. They're the reason I'm here in the first place."

Her green eyes flashed with understanding, "Are they family?"

Subaru thought of his parents and stopped for a second to answer, "Yes." He looked down at his hands and realized he was still holding the gun. He didn't want to take her only weapon so he turned and held it out for her to take. But the girl just held up her hand and shook her head.

"You keep it. I got plenty more at my dorm." Realizing what she had said, the girl covered her mouth.

Subaru wasn't sure how to react, but he did chuckle a little at her own reaction. When it was over, he turned and started to take a step when the girl spoke up again.

"Fine, but I'm leaving this place with or without you, so now's the time to choose. Come with me and live or stay here and...well...you know."

Subaru smiled at the girl, who smiled as well, "Sorry, but I'm gonna have to decline that offer." The thought of him opening up a candy wrapper crossed his mind. "They're all too important to me." Slowly, he started backaway before sprinting off into the city again.

The girl cupped her hands so her voice would reach Subaru, "At least tell me your name!"

Amongst the blaring sirens and the sounds of fires and chaos, the girl's voice was lost, her request never heard by Subaru.

4:16am

Subaru was panicking, neither Quark nor his parents were anywhere to be seen. After talking to the girl he got into the habit of looking for his parents as well, instead of totally relying on Quark, if he found him.

Subaru was looking down almost every street, trying to find Quark's police cruiser in the middle of all this chaos. "Where is he? Where is he?" However, almost every car was either empty or had a walker inside, and there were a lot of cars to go through. In one, he found that an infected cop had broken open his own car's back window and pulled out the arrested suspect. The scene was gruesome, one that Subaru avoided at all costs.

It wasn't until a minute later did Subaru's journey come to an end. He ran across a dirty alleyway to reach Grand Ave. To his right, Subaru saw the flashing lights of a police cruiser. He began to run towards it, but soon slowed down to a shuffle when he heard the sounds of several gun shots. He looked on and saw Quark. He would've been happy had it not been for the fact that the man was holding his neck while blood flowed from between his fingers.

Finally, Subaru's journey had ended. With Quark already infected, and with his parents no where to possibly be found, Subaru had no idea what to do. He was too late, and because of that everyone he loved would die. The chasm of hopelessness he had been struggling to keep repressed for the last hour was now overflowing with self hatred.

Zooming past, Quark didn't notice Subaru standing just off the road. From there, Subaru could make out a bloody hand print on the door of the car.

Subaru walked into the middle of the street, looking at the bumper of the cop car that just flew past him. Subaru was too late, Rem and Ram were as good as dead and it was all his fault. He fell to his knees, not knowing what to do or where to go.

Unknowingly to him, these questions would soon be answered with blinding lights and the blaring horn of a car.

April 27, 2015

2:33am

When Subaru awakened he grimaced, not expecting a car to come hitting him out of nowhere. Taking deep breaths, he slowly sat up in bed and cradled his head.

"Why can't I just get this right?"

It felt like a videogame to Subaru. No matter how many times he died there would be no consequences. Each and every time he learned something new to help him figure out the solution.

The walkers were his first death. He didn't recognize them as killers, resulting in his death.

His second death was by getting bitten by a walker. That's when he learned of the dangerous cannibalistic nature of the things.

His third death was when he learned that Quark was infected and would go home immediately. This led to Rem and Ram's death.

His fourth death showed him that Rem and Ram cannot be reasoned with when he had no evidence to support his claim about the infection. And whenQuark would inevitably come home he would kill infect Rem and Ram.

His fifth death made it clear that he didn't want to kill Quark. It would break the twins' hearts to see him dead. He leaned that killing him wasn't the answer.

Then his most recent death showed him in what general direction Quark was in downtown. That's where he would find Quark and save him. With him safe, Rem and Ram would be safe.

Subaru felt like this was the one. He was going to conquer this loop and bring an end to Rem and Ram's suffering. He was going to save them. This time, he was sure.

"OVER HERE, YOU DUMN LOOKING PIECES OF-!!!"

The three infected ran at Subaru, who stepped out of their way just before they reached him. They each ran past him, tripping over eachother when they ran into the table in the backyard. Quickly, Subaru closed the sliding door and made his way out the front, closing that door behind him as well.

I just have to do everything the same.

Once again, Subaru opened the garage door and rode out on his bike. Sure enough, walkers were giving chase once he was at the point where they chased him last time.

Knowing what to do, Subaru smashed open the window of the same house he entered and carefully jumped through it. This time he didn't suffer any injuries.

Without pausing, Subaru ran to the hallway that ended with the back door. While the walkers had just barely reached the window, Subaru was already out the door. He climbed the wall with more of an understanding of how to climb it.

Subaru was puzzled when not a single walker came out of the house. From one of the bedroom windows, Subaru saw a walker looking around the room. They're looking for me. It was obvious, but they didn't see him go out the door so of course they would think he was still in the house.

Think...so they think with reasoning?

The city was still under chaos. The same people he saw before were dying the same way he witnessed it in his previous life.

After repeating the same path, Subaru found her again. The same girl he had been hoping would still be in the same place, under the same circumstances.

"Hey!" Subaru yelled when the girl suddenly threw herself out the door. She looked over at him, her gun now out.

Subaru threw himself in front of the door just in time to collide with the infected man and knock him out of the way. The girl looked in interest when Subaru readied his bat and swung the bat, connecting it with the side of the zombie's head.

The zombie fell over onto his then instantly started getting back up. Before he could regain his posture, Subaru kicked him in the chest, knocking him onto the side of a car. The girl took this oppurtunity to shoot her gun, putting a bullet in the zombie's head. Now dead, the zombie slumped down to the ground.

Nervously laughing, the girl thanked Subaru. "Hey, thanks. That was something, wasn't it?"

Subaru turned to look at the girl. Nothing was different about her. She still had the same calm tone to her voice. It was af if she had trained for this her whole life or something, and now she was able to finally put her skills to the test with comfort. He remembered her mentioning having more guns in her dorm room, as if she had been prepared for this exact scenario.

Subaru began walking away. Just as he suspected, the girl stopped him with a worried expression on her face, "Wow, wow, wow, where are you going?" She gave a nervous chuckle as pointed in the direction Subaru came from, "Out of town is that way. Why are you going towards the city?"

"There are people that need my help. They're important to me, so I want to save them."

"Same for me, really, except I'm headed across the country." The girl looked at Subaru with understanding, "Are they family?"

"Yes." He took note that the girl told him something she hadn't in his previous life.

The girl opened the car door and reached inside, retrieving a revolver. When she tried to place it into his palm after telling him to take it, Subaru closed his hand, not taking the gun.

The girl was shocked that someone would refuse to be given a weapon during a time like this. She looked at Subaru in the face speaking with attitude, "Hey, what gives? I'm trying to thank you for saving my life."

Subaru turned to the green eyed girl and said, "Keep your gun. I actually have something to ask of you."

The girl placed the gun into her back pocket and crossed her arms while throwing her ponytail back over her shoulder. "I'm listening."

"I need your car. Think you can take me for a ride and help me find the person I'm looking for?"

The girl only stared at Subaru.

Subaru added, "It'll make us even."

The girl held her breathe for a whole ten seconds before giving in. Sighing, she said, "Fine, if it makes us even, but afterwards I'm outta here." She made a gesture of throwing her right thumb over her shoulder.

Subaru held up his hands, "I won't stop you."

The girl smiled again, "You better not." She turned around and walked to the car.

Subaru followed closely behind and went to the passenger side. When he opened the door the girl said to him while pulling out the gun, "Any funny business and you're dead."

Subaru ducked behind the car to avoid being pointed at by the gun. "Mind pointing that thing somewhere else. I'm not gonna do anything."

The girl sat in the driver's seat and turned on the car, giving Subaru an apologetic smile, "Sorry, it's just during times like these you can't be too sure who you can trust."

Subaru made a mental note of that.

Without any warning, the girl slammed down on the gas, sending the car flying through the streets. The loud roaring of the engine and the popping of the exhaust attracted the attention of any nearby walkers, but they soon were distracted by any unlucky person who fell under their gaze.

The girl turned the wheel, sending them drifting onto another street. She took her eyes off the road for a moment to look at Subaru who was gripping the chair so hard his knuckles had turned white. She giggled at the sight, "I just realized, I never got your name."

Subaru was too busy trying not to die of a heart attack when she pointed that out, "W-What?!"

"I never got your name!"

Subaru closed his eyes as she narrowly missed a parked car. "It's Subaru!"

The girl smiled and turned her eyes back to the road, "That's cool, like that one car company."

"Y-Yeah, yeah. What's yours?"

"My name's Zoey. Nice to meet you."

If I live through this, then I'll be sure to say the same.