Chapter 16

Ranka and the gaggle of teens had ended up a little off course while they'd been walking but now they had the van, they were making great progress. Ranka sat up front with Kyoya and the others were all crammed in the back. It might not have been the most comfortable but it was a ride and they were making excellent time.

"Only another twenty minutes or so and we'll be there!" Ranka sang out from the driver's seat.

"Thank god finally" Kaoru squirmed a little, nudging his brother by accident "it's getting cramped back here"

"Would you rather walk?" Haruhi asked with a small grin

"No… no thank you" he squeaked, settling back down again.

Honey had fallen asleep against the left side of Mori and Tamaki had fallen asleep against the right side. Hikaru was half asleep even after Kaoru accidentally nudged him.

Sure, the van wasn't spacious and it was kind of uncomfortable given the lack of padding but it did mean they weren't having to walk that last four or so miles on their tired feet. This whole zombie thing, it had showed them a thing or two about the real world… mainly how hard it was to get around when you didn't have a driver to come pick you up and of course the unpredictability of your next meal and what it might be because you didn't have a private chef to whip something up in the kitchen.

Mostly, they were all just tired. None of them had gotten a good night's sleep since this started because they didn't know when something was going to come knock the door down and devour them but that was going to change. They were heading to a safe location, somewhere with high walls and heavy gates, somewhere they could lay their heads down and actually sleep the whole night, not just snippets here and there until morning.

The ride continued in silence until Ranka spoke up.

"Oh… no… it's raining" he groaned as he saw the first few splatters land on the windshield, hitting the button for the windshield wipers.

"Why is that a bad thing?" Kaoru asked, shifting a little because his ass was going numb.

"It's a bad thing because it reduces visibility" Kyoya answered "and in the current climate, reduced visibility is not our friend"

"That's right Kyoya!" Ranka smiled "and this is why you should be president of that club of yours and not the insect"

"Dad come on…" Haruhi sighed at her dads jab towards her senpai.

Thankfully, Tamaki was a sleep and didn't hear that jab. He put up with a lot of jabs from Ranka and deep down Ranka knew he was a good guy, he just liked to give him stick about it because well; if Tamaki could stick through it and still want to be around Haruhi and treat her like he did… then maybe someday Ranka wouldn't mind if they started dating. Haruhi needed someone to see her for who she really was and accept her like that and not try to change her… and maybe Tamaki was the one? Who knows…?

A short while later, Ranka seemed to perk right up "Hey… hey isn't that the place up ahead?"

Kyoya squinted his eyes a little and gave a nod of confirmation after consulting the map "I believe so… we should radio Nanako and Kasanoda"

"I'll do it" Haruhi dug the radio from her bag and hit the talk button.

Nanako's POV

I guess I fell asleep or something because the next thing I know, I was awoken by the sounds of radio static and voices coming from the coffee table.

"Hello? Come in… come in… hello? anyone?"

Grunting a little, I rubbed my eyes and yawned, sitting up straight to see Ritsu fast asleep beside me, his arm draped around me. With a small smile, I gently slipped away, picking up the radio and padding into the entrance hall.

"Hello?" I pressed the button to talk before letting it go to listen.

"Nanako? Thank god! It's Haruhi"

"Haruhi?" I squeaked, relief passing over me "where are you guys? What's going on?"

"We are approaching the front gate; we'll explain when we get inside out of the rain"

It was raining? I blinked and moved to the window, peering out to see rain lashing against it… huh so it was… and it also looked like the sun was going to start setting soon… how long had I been asleep?

"Okay, I'll buzz you in, sit tight" I moved to the keypad in the camera room and hit in the code for the main gate.

"Ah! It's opening! Thank you, we'll see you soon!"

"See you soon" I grinned and hit the code in for the inner gate and tucked the radio into my back pocket, moving to the front door, grabbing a shinai on the way… I wasn't going out there unprepared.

Opening the large door, I stepped out onto the porch and watched as a van came driving up from the gates… I thought they had two cars? What on earth had happened? My grip on the shinai tightened until I could see Ranka was the one driving, with Kyoya sat up front. I felt myself relax as Ranka stopped opposite the doors and hopped out, followed by Kyoya who moved round the back to open the van doors.

Out tumbled a very ruffled looking Tamaki who straightened up and helped Haruhi out. After a quick head count, I stepped aside and let them in.

"You guys!" I grinned, hugging each of them in turn "I was so worried! What happened? You should have been here hours ago!"

"Well, let's get the supplies inside and then we'll talk about it" Ranka nodded before moving back out to the van.

"What's all the noise about?" Ahh there he was, sleepy Ritsu looking all adorable.

I grinned "they finally made it here!"

"Great…" Ritsu yawned "maybe now you'll stop worrying like a mother hen"

I scowled at him as he passed me to go help bring in the supplies and I headed off to the kitchen.

There was no fresh food here sadly but we did have a lot of dried and canned goods, plus some stuff in the freezers so we wouldn't have to run for supplies… but somehow I knew a supply run would be inevitable… there was going to be something someone wanted and when these guys want something, they get it… they are quite tenacious.

First port of call was to put on some coffee because I am sure everyone would benefit from a nice hot drink. While I was sorting drinks, the others shuffled in behind me, setting bags down on the counters before unpacking what supplies we had. Ranka, who was the official mother hen of the group, set about putting our supplies away.

"I'm so glad you guys got here safely… So why did it take so long?"

Later…

That night we all got to sleep in beds… real actual beds and not futons on the floor. I am telling you… futons might be great for saving space but my back couldn't handle one more night of it, no sir!

We'd sat through the tale of how they'd ended up in a van after walking almost eight miles and of course they then rounded on me and Ritsu, asking what we'd gotten up to while waiting for them… they were surprised to hear that we took a 'napccident' that would be a nap accident, though both Ranka and Tamaki looked relieved about it… no idea why.

I'd ended up in a room by myself, Haruhi got her own room, Hikaru and Kaoru shared, Honey and Mori shared, Ritsu got his own room, Ranka got his own room and Tamaki and Kyoya shared. There had been some sort of argument that us girls should share for security reasons but it had been shrugged off and now… here I was, curled up in bed, waiting for sleep to come.

It had definitely been an interesting day to say the least.

Normal POV

Morning came round quickly, especially for people who'd had their first full night's sleep in four days. Gradually, people surfaced and headed downstairs where Haruhi was already awake and taking care of preparing something to eat.

The rain had stopped sometime during the night and once the sun had risen it was a relatively nice day outside, the ground was dry and the sun was shining. The group gathered around the dining room table for breakfast consisting of porridge, the last of the eggs and some toast. Ritsu had made himself comfortable in the room just off from the entrance hall that housed the monitors for the security cameras, mostly for peace and quiet because Tamaki was faaaar too energetic for his liking, especially in the morning.

As he tucked into his breakfast, his eyes scanned the cameras for anything suspicious going on outside. He'd already spotted some zombies ambling a little too close to the front gates but something had caught their attention just outside of the cameras view and off they ambled. He was just about to munch on his toast when something on the camera's caught his attention.

"What on earth…? Hey guys, I think you wanna see this!" he called out, setting his plate down on the desk.

"What's up?" Nanako was the first to arrive, the others following behind her, their breakfasts abandoned in the dining room.

"Look…" Ritsu pointed to the camera for the front gate.

There was a little girl, probably around seven or eight years old and a man that could possibly be her father. They had no bags with them, nothing aside from a katana that the man was carrying.

"What on earth are they doing out there?" Ranka asked, watching as the guy reached out to press the intercom.

Almost immediately, there was a buzzing noise from the intercom in the hallway and Nanako dashed off to see to it.

Pressing the button she swallowed before speaking "Hello?"

"Oh thank god someone's there! Please… we need help… my daughter… I need to get her to safety.."

Mori and Ritsu were already reaching for weapons as Nanako pressed the button again.

"Are you injured? Do you need medical assistance?"

"Please… just… please help us"

He sounded desperate and Nanako looked to the others for their thoughts on it. For sure it could be a trick to fuck them over but at the same time it was a little girl and her father. Could they live with themselves if they turned them away?

"What do we do?" she asked

"I say we go down there and see what's up" Ritsu nodded "then we decide…"

With that, the group shoved their shoes on, grabbed their weapons of choice and headed down to the gates. It was a relatively short walk thankfully and when they arrived, Nanako input the code for the outer gate to open.

"Thank you… oh thank you…" the man and his daughter entered, the gate closing behind them, leaving the undead outside.

"You're welcome…" Nanako nodded "but before we go further inside… are you alone?"

They were separated by a secondary gate that was used for security purposes in case of a breach, so unless Nanako put the next code in, the guy and his daughter would be trapped there.

"Yes… yes we are alone" the guy looked at each of them and saw they were carrying weapons, a fleeting look of surprise cruised across his features "please… I just need to get my little girl out of this…"

"Daddy?" the little girl looked up at him "you… you're coming too… right?"

"Oh babygirl… no… I need to go find your mommy… she uh… she should be at home waiting for me" he smiled shakily.

In that moment, Nanako realised what was going on and she swallowed hard, looking over at Ranka who'd come to the same conclusion.

"We can look after her for a bit for you sir, until you come back with your wife" Nanako had a sad little smile on her face.

"Really? Oh thank you! now…" he turned to the little girl "Chiharu… these nice kids and their guardian here… they are going to look after you while I go back and find mommy okay?"

"No… Daddy don't leave me…" Chiharu's eyes welled up… she knew he wasn't going to come back… she knew her mother was dead.

"No no… now babygirl… no tears…" he tried his hardest to smile "these people are going to look after you okay? be a good girl… please?"

The group watched as he hugged his daughter tightly before kissing the top of her head. They'd all noticed the bandage on his arm… they knew what this was about.

"Hey Chiharu-chan! Why don't you come with me and we can go get something to eat?" Honey offered with a bright smile, although inside he was torn apart by this interaction.

"O-ok…" she stepped forward and Nanako input the code for the secondary gate.

Once the gate was open and little Chiharu was through, Honey and Tamaki walked her up to the house. As soon as she was out of earshot, the guy smiled sadly.

"What's your name sir?" Kyoya asked.

"Genji Kobayashi…" he sighed softly "thank you… for doing this…"

"Kobayashi-san…" Nanako started

"No no… please call me Genji…" he smiled a watery smile.

"Genji… um… it's not a problem… were you… were you bitten?" Nanako motioned to his arm.

"Yes…" his eyes filled with tears "protecting my babygirl from one of those… things"

Nanako swallowed "she isn't bitten is she? I mean we just let her in and we didn't check…"

"No… no she is clean… I promise" he sighed "I know I don't have much time left… and she already knows I think…"

They group watched as he wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his shirt, all of them felt a sense of sadness about all this.

"We'll do our best for her… I promise" Ranka spoke up

"Thank you…" he sighed out shakily "I um… I decided… if I could find somewhere safe for her then I'd go take my life before I became… one of those… I saw this place and I hoped… prayed someone would answer… thank you…"

He turned "please let me out… I'll never forget your kindness…"

Nanako swallowed hard, moving out of sight and pressing the code in for the outer gate, letting it open enough for the man to step out.

"Thank you again… I hope you make it through this" he turned back to offer that sad smile before walking off, katana in hand, trying his best to seem brave even though he was broken up inside.

The gate closed slowly behind him and the group stood there in silence.

Now they had another in their number that they'd need to keep alive and this one was on a promise they made to a brave man who just wanted to find safety for his babygirl.