DISCLAIMER: Ain't mine. Period.

Chapter Four: The Truth

The rain continued to pour mercilessly. The wind and droplets of rain immediately entered the broken window. The strong wind made the books, which was scattered everywhere, almost fly. Papers flew in every direction.

And the dead continued forward, arms outstretched.

As they came nearer, Maki and the others could already smell the growing stench of blood and rotting flesh. Thankfully, the powerful gust of wind from the smashed window blew away some of the hideous stench.

"Don't come any closer!" Sakuragi yelled angrily and unnecessarily.

His voice only seemed to excite them. They responded with eager yet painful moans.

"I'm not gonna let them get me!" shouted Kiyota. "I'm gonna die first!" following Hanagatta's example, he was about to run towards the windows when Maki hurtfully grasp his shoulders, his fingers digging down his flesh, swung him around then hitting him on the face with an equally powerful force.

"You coward!" He said harshly. His hands were still on his shoulders and he was shaking Kiyota angrily. "You're giving up without a fight? I taught you better than that, Kiyota!"

Kiyota stared at him with his eyes wide, one hand going to his bruised and throbbing cheek. He then looked beyond Maki, where Sakuragi and the others were picking things to use as weapons. He gazed back at his captain who had already released him.

" I don't want to die." He whispered. Only Maki heard him.

"We're not going to die… At least not without a fight." Although there was fear in his eyes, Kiyota also saw determination.

He understood.

Kiyota nodded.

Maki and the rest were waiting rigidly, with their backs to the windows, for the dead to come nearer. It was in total agreement that when they were hopelessly defeated, they would all jump out of the window.

It was a desperate plan.

Each were equipped with either chairs, long pieces of wood or metal, or anything that can do bodily damage. They held their breaths as the strong odor of decomposing flesh became stronger and stronger as the dead came closer and closer. With the wind on their backs, whipping their hair on their faces and plastering their clothes tightly on their bodies, they waited.

"Are y'all ready?" Uozumi asked. Everybody nodded.

"Alright!" Uozumi boomed loudly. "Let's kick these moron's asses…" He didn't get to finish his sentence for there was a loud crash that came from behind them. They all instinctively dropped to the ground and covered their heads with their hands. Deafening gunshots were heard followed by agonizing sounds of pain. This seemed to go on forever. At last, when the sounds faded, no one still dared to raise one's head.

"You guys can stand up now." An amused feminine voice called out.

They reluctantly raised their heads and looked around.

"What the…" Sakuragi said, shocked, as he stared up at three girls, around his age, busy reloading ammunition into their guns. He looked past them and was even shocked with what he saw.

The stinky creatures were all dead.

Sendoh eyed the three girls suspiciously while standing up. They were already shrugging off the wet trenchcoats that they were wearing. "Who are you people?" He finally asked.

The girl with the sexy smile raised an eyebrow at him. "Sorry, honey. We're the ones asking questions here. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"We tried to head to the nearest town." Sendoh started hesitantly. "But, well, we got lost and…" He raised his arms in defeat. "Here we are." He ended lamely, trying to smile.

"How wise of you." The quiet one said cuttingly.

"Aw, relax Chris! I'm sure they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time." The easygoing one chided. She smiled at them. "I'm Maya. That's Jo over there…" Gesturing at the girl with a sexy smile. "… And that's Chris." Referring to the quiet one. "We're here to do a job."

"A job?" Fujima asked, annoyed.

Maya raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Why the reaction?"

"You mean you people do this everyday? Shoot those… those…" pointing at the dead ones.

"What's wrong with that?" Chris cut in nastily. "You know pretty boy, we just saved your asses here so you should be thanking us."

"What are those?" Maki asked, changing the subject.

"Those were Negro slaves." Jo explained, her tone as if discussing ordinary things like the weather.

"What?!"

"Negro slaves?"

"But didn't they live like…"

"Yeah, yeah." Jo waved the question away. "We know. They were like, in the 1800's or something. Who cares?"

"What do you mean, 'who cares?' ?!" Sakuragi burst out. "Those creatures already killed two of our friends!" Then realizing what he just had said. "Well, inadvertently killed one of our friends… but that's beside the point!"

"Chill out, redhead!" Maya sniggered.

"If they are already dead, then why…"

"They resurrected back from the dead. " Maya stated simply.

Sakuragi chuckled, refusing to believe any of it. "You got to be shittin' me."

Maya's smile was sickly sweet. "Now why would I do that?"

"I don't understand." Maki butted in, thoroughly confused.

"A month ago, Dr. Casey Jones discovered the bodies of those Negro slaves." Told Jo while taking out complicated and hi-tech gadgets from a backpack she was carrying. "The owner of this mansion was a plantation owner who got a kick out of mutilating the bodies of his slaves."

"He tortured them alive." Chris supplied.

"Although the carcasses were seriously defaced and mangled, they were perfectly preserved." Jo continued. "Dr. Jones was amazed by this. So, with the government backing her up, she researched and experimented on them. They thought it was a scientific breakthrough on immortality. But they were wrong."

"What happened?" Uozumi asked quietly.

"It seemed that the slaves' master was practicing some sorta dark magic, which explained his behavior towards his serfs. But there's more. He created a substance, which prevented the slaves' bodies from decomposing."

"If the potion enabled them to prevent decomposition, then why are they rotting?" Kiyota demanded.

"I was about to explain that part." Jo uttered, obviously irritated. "Anywayz, they were rotting because they had awakened. It seemed that the potion's effect on them ends when they wake up. But there's a side effect. When they wake up, their senses only command them to inflict to others the same pain that they experienced. When their prey is almost dying, the dead salivates on them, thus contaminating their curse on others. In that way, the pain in their body lessens a little. The prey then becomes one of them."

"What happens when they killed enough people and they don't feel any pain anymore?" Asked Maki.

"Then the curse is lifted and then they die." Jo answered.

"But they're already dead!" Sakuragi protested.

"Not really. They're kinda half-dead… if you know what I mean." Maya replied.

"So you're saying that they operate based on their survival instincts?" Uozumi queried.

"Well, that's one way of putting it. However, they're getting wiser and wiser. They're getting desperate, you see. So some of the smart ones plan among themselves to get their prey."

Silence reigned for a while. Each was contemplating on the situation they were facing. The only sounds that were heard were the howling of the wind and the steady fall of the rain.

"How did they, you know, wake up?" Sakuragi unexpectedly asked, breaking the silence.

"There was a trap on one of the bodies. When it was moved, a sound echoed throughout the place. Then they woke up."

"Which, I suppose, was caused by that Dr. Jones." Sendoh assumed drily. "It seems all this was her fault. She shouldn't have experimented on those slaves in the first place."

All three girls tensed up.

"That's unfair!" Maya protested.

"You don't know what you're sayi…" Jo began but she was interrupted by Chris' quiet voice.

"Who are you to judge someone you haven't met?" She asked coldly. "For your information, she tried to stop the experiments when she sensed something wrong. But the government wouldn't hear any of it. They were too greedy. She was trying to find evidence that the experiments shouldn't be continued when the slaves woke up. You don't know anything so I suggest you shut your trap."

Sendoh raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright! I'm sorry. Geez, you sure are sensitive on that Jones doctor."

Maya and Jo glanced at Chris, who turned her back on them.

When she faced them again, her face was carefully blank.

"That Jones doctor was my mother."

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I'm not very familiar on the facts about Slamdunk…. So if there are any errors, please don't flame me…^_^ Oh, and by the way, thanks for all those who reviewed…