Chapter 15

"My feet hurt" Honey sighed as the group moved onward.

They'd walked about three or four miles which in all honesty was a lot for all of them aside from Ranka, who was leading the group along a back alley. They'd made the sensible choice not to walk out in the open and so far they seemed to be doing okay.

Mori scooped Honey up to ride on his shoulders as they snuck their way along, relieving the smallest host of his achy feet.

"Maybe we should stop for a short rest" Ranka spoke up, noticing how they'd all started to slow down "we have another eight miles or so to go"

There was a collective groan at the mention of eight more miles.

"Don't give me that!" Ranka hissed "the longer we take to get there, the longer Nanako and Ritsu are left alone for"

That seemed to light some weird fire under Tamaki "no! we can't leave them alone for too long! Who knows what might happen!"

"Simmer down insect" Ranka hissed, causing Tamaki to hide behind Mori "that wasn't what I meant at all! I just meant that anything could go wrong… we don't even know if they got to the house yet"

"It's a good point Ranka… but I must agree, a short rest is needed" Kyoya spoke up, adjusting his glasses "by my estimate, we have walked almost four miles and we are making excellent time… the sun sets in about four hours so if we take a small half hour break now and then another in a few miles, we'll make it there before dark"

After a look around the group, Ranka nodded "Okay… okay. I see your point…"

They walked a little further until they came across a small shop that dealt in second hand goods… well the back entrance to it anyway. After a quick check inside, since the backdoor was open, it was decided they'd rest here for a short while and then continue onwards.

Nanako's POV

We'd been here for over an hour and a half and I was getting seriously worried. By my earlier estimates the others shouldn't have been too far behind us and I'd even tried contacting them via radio but from what I could tell, they were out of range. Kyoya had yet to modify our radios to cover a longer distance and so there really was nothing I could do about it apart from wait as patiently as I could for them to radio me.

"So… can I call you Ritsu now?" I asked, trying to do anything to distract me from my worries.

"Uh.. I guess?" he shrugged

"Okay well then you can call me Nanako now" I grinned at the way his face went all red.

"Thanks…" he mumbled, staring down at his hands.

I didn't think dropping the whole 'so are we boyfriend and girlfriend' thing on him right now would be a good idea… I mean he'd just had what I could safely assume was his first kiss without getting a nosebleed. I had a feeling if I asked that he'd be all nosebleed city in less than three seconds. That could be something saved for later.

"So we sorted our supplies which will make things easier when everyone else gets here" I nodded, leaning back into the couch cushions.

God I felt so awkward right now.

"Yea…" he nodded.

Apparently Ritsu felt awkward too.

Normal POV

Meanwhile…

"How much further?" Hikaru asked as the group ducked behind some dumpsters.

"Just a few more miles…" Kyoya sighed softly.

They'd reached the end of an alley and their only choice was to move out into the open. The only problem? That meant trying to get past a gaggle of zombies hanging out in the middle of the street.

Everyone looked so tired and it was no surprise… they'd walked over eight miles by this point in the day and somehow by some kind of divine luck, they'd dodged every damned zombie they'd come across. Even Ranka looked tired and he had stamina for days normally.

"Hey… hey look" Honey pointed to a van parked just across the street.

"A van?" Ranka perked up "I think we could all fit in there!"

"All we have to hope is that there's no more blocked off roads" Kyoya nodded.

"Okay, so how are we going to get it?" Kaoru asked "and what if there aren't any keys?"

"Oho! Don't you worry" Ranka had a devious smile on his lips "I am sure I can work around that!"

At the Estate…

Nanako was still worried about the others and had turned the television onto the news network, however it seemed nothing new was being broadcast. It was the same discussion as it had been this morning about how the police were doing everything they could to keep things from worsening, though Nanako had a feeling that the point of no return had already been breached.

"Somehow I think the police have failed to keep this under control" Nanako sighed, kicking her feet up onto the coffee table.

"I don't know… they haven't announced complete failure" Ritsu shrugged a little "and besides, it hasn't been like the movies with hoards of the undead coming for us"

He had a point.

"I guess? But then again, we haven't seen a single police officer since this all began, not at the school, not near Haruhi's, not in the city" she looked over at Ritsu with a raised brow.

"That's fair… though the police are likely at the city borders stopping people crossing in or out of Tokyo" He stretched a little

"You'd think they would have tried some kind of evacuation technique… not that I'm bitter about being stuck at school for three days or anything" she rolled her eyes.

Ritsu snorted a laugh at that "Oh yeah, you sure don't sound bitter…"

Nanako eyed him a moment before speaking again "I don't know… I mean I guess I am kind of mad at the adults"

"How so?" He asked from the other end of the couch.

"Well, when all this started… the teachers kind of just took off and left us all to fend for ourselves… there was no coordinated effort to keep all the students together safely" Nanako edged along the couch a little "they just… vanished. I saw students running all over the place, chaos erupting everywhere and not a single damned adult did anything to help"

"Hm… I see your point" Ritsu nodded thoughtfully, shuffling a little and lifting his arm just in time for Nanako to edge her way under it, leaning against him, his arm coming down to curl around her shoulders.

"Not only that… but no adults came to the school in any blaze of glory to see if any students were still there… I mean I know the phones haven't been working but I have no idea where my parents are and they probably have no idea if I am alive or not" Nanako grumbled a little at the whole thing.

"That's the nature of the beast" Ritsu sighed "you'd think there would be some kind of inbuilt thing that adults would take charge and do the right thing but in reality they get scared like we do… and in times of crisis they aren't always thinking of other people… they think only about themselves"

"Hmm…" Nanako leaned her head against Ritsu's shoulder "I guess…"

"What the eyes don't see, the heart can't grieve" he mumbled "if they can't see it happening, they can pretend everything is just fine…"

"Mm…" Nanako mumbled softly.

Ritsu looked down to see Nanako had fallen asleep against him. Her face looked so angelic, free from the worries of the world right now and he couldn't help but smile just a little as he wiggled down a bit and got comfy.

"Sleep tight…"