Thank you so much to those of you who have reviewed! We are going to be getting into some drama in the next few chapters and I can't wait for you guys to be able to read it! Anywhooo enjoy this weeks update and I'll catch you all next week with another chapter :D

Chapter 21

Karuizawa was usually such a peaceful mountain town, bustling with life but when Ritsu and Nanako arrived it was like a ghost town. There were no people bustling along yet there were no zombies either… there was no signs of life anywhere.

"Spooky…" Nanako whispered as she peered out of the car window.

"Yeah… just a little bit…" Ritsu agreed "where's this pension?"

"You see that large house in the distance?" Nanako pointed "that is Pension Misuzu"

"Huh… well the place is a ghost town, doesn't look like anyone is around…" Ritsu continued driving, though he had slowed down to almost a crawl.

"Look… if Misuzu isn't there, then we can just turn around and head back down to Bunkyo City and head for the school" she promised, holding her hand out, pinkie up.

"What are you doing?" Ritsu grumbled a little, trying to keep his eyes on the road.

"It's a pinkie promise Ritsu… the most serious of promises" she grinned softly

"Lame…" he rolled his eyes

"Aw come on just do it!" she wiggled her pinkie at him.

"Fine! God can't you let me drive in peace?" he grunted, curling his pinkie finger around hers, solidifying that pinkie promise "you better mean it… if Misuzu isn't here, we leave"

"Well I did just pinkie promise you Ritsu" she huffed "if he isn't here, we can leave again"

Nanako's POV

Oh god I hoped Misuzu was here. If one thing could come out of our panicked wrong direction driving it would be finding Misuzu alive and well at his pension in Karuizawa.

We approached the front door and slowly I reached out a hand, curling it around the handle, turning it to find it was locked. I rattled it for a moment before stepping back.

"Misuzu doesn't normally lock up the pension… so either he's here hiding upstairs or he fled when it all got hairy down in Tokyo…" I looked around, trying to see if there was anything I could do that might grab Misuzu's attention if he was in there.

Ritsu looked at me and then the pension "you promised Nanako… if he wasn't here we could go"

"I know…" I grumbled, looking around. One of the windows upstairs was open…. I had an idea!

Misuzu had ears like a bat and so I knew what I had to do. I gave Ritsu a look that he should play along before I declared happily:

"Oh my goodness! What a refreshing young man!" I hoped to god those words had floated up in through that open window.

A few seconds passed before I heard "refreshing?! Where!"

"Misuzu!" I grinned, waving up at the man who was hanging half out the window in question.

"Oh! Nanako! Hold on!" and with that he'd wiggled back inside.

"Is Misuzu like Ranka?" he asked, trying not to be rude.

"Yes… don't worry, you'll get used to him" I smiled softly.

The door to the pension swung open and Misuzu ushered us inside before locking the door behind us.

"What on earth are you doing in Karuizawa?" Misuzu gasped, nudging us towards the stairs and the makeshift barricade he'd put together.

"Well… it's a long story but we can explain" I nodded quickly, climbing the stairs after Misuzu swept past.

Soon enough we were sat in one of the larger bedrooms that Misuzu had turned into a sort of living area, a cup of tea each and a curious Misuzu who was staring us down.

"Explain" he demanded "but first… who is this refreshing young man!?"

"This is Ritsu" I grinned a little

"A boyfriend?!" Misuzu gasped in shock.

"Yes Misuzu… but he's a good one… I promise… if it wasn't for him I'd be dead already" I rambled out, trying to ease the other overbearing father figure in my life.

"Well… okay" he huffed a little and then "now explain how you ended up here?!"

I spent the next half an hour, with Ritsu's help, explaining just how we'd ended up in Karuizawa of all places, and why the others weren't with us.

"Oh… oh my…" Misuzu sighed "I hope Ranka and Haruhi and your little friends are okay!"

"They have Ranka with them, I'm sure they will be fine" I nodded

"I just can't believe it… a little girl used as a spy like that… and those men! Cutting the power to the house so they could chase you out with a hoard of zombies!"

"Somehow I think the hoard of zombies was just a happy accident for them" Ritsu grumbled a little, sipping his tea.

"I have to agree with Ritsu… I think they hoped a few would break in and distract us enough so they could storm the gates and pretend like they cared enough to help us… but then the hoard came and we had to hightail it out of there." I sighed "if they can reclaim it from the hoard, I say good luck to them. They don't have the codes to open or shut the gates, or for the bunker so I hope they're happy when they realise what they did"

"Nanako!" Misuzu gasped "that's cold…"

"So? They screwed us out of a great place to hold out until this mess gets sorted… so I'm allowed to be cold about it" I huffed a little and sipped my tea.

"So what do you plan on doing now?" Misuzu was definitely curious about our plans.

"Well… we agreed to meet at the school but like I said, we panicked and drove the wrong way for a couple hours to get away from the hoard" I set my cup down "You could always come with us Misuzu… I'm sure Ranka would be more than happy to see you"

"I don't know…" he sighed "this is my pension you know? I don't know if I could just up and go… besides, there are no zombies here, it's quite safe for me to stay"

Misuzu had a point. We hadn't seen a single zombie on the roads leading into town, or the town itself… it was quite safe here and it gave me an idea.

"I could always radio the others, get them to come out here?" I looked to Misuzu, his eyes lighting up.

"Oh yes! I would be so happy to see Ranka, Haruhi and those refreshing boys!"

And his eyes were sparkling with memories from golden week. Oh, I should mention… golden week is a week in Japan that is full of different single day holidays one after the other… so it means almost a week off school. It was nice to see someone was happy right now.

Normal POV

With Haruhi and the others…

They hadn't made it to the school as planned. The hoard had chased them off course by quite a distance and now they were looking for a gas station.

"Where are we?" Haruhi frowned as she stared at the map in her lap.

"I'm not sure…" Ranka sighed as he looked around for a sign post.

"I believe we are in Odawara" Kyoya was leaning over the back of Haruhi's seat to look at the map.

"Wait… in Kanagawa?" Hikaru asked "how did we manage to drive out of Tokyo without coming across any police?"

"I don't know if you noticed… but there were so many zombies out there that I think maybe they might have given up their stations" Ranka sighed a little "at any rate, our fuel is getting low and if we want to get back to the school we are going to need to find somewhere to fill up"

They drove for a little while longer, passing through areas dotted with those undead assholes that had ruined everything until they spotted a gas station up ahead. All they could do was hope it had power.

Pulling up at a pump, Ranka motioned for Honey and Mori to get out too… they were going to be his guards as he filled up. The others watched from inside the van as Ranka began to fill the tank, all of them hoping and praying nothing would come their way.

"Done!" Ranka climbed back into the driver's seat as Mori and Honey climbed into the back "let's get out of here"

As they pulled out of the gas station, they could see a group of zombies had been ambling rather close, Ranka narrowly avoiding them as he turned left and began trying to remember how to get back to Tokyo.

"I wonder what happened to Kasanoda and Nana-chan?" Honey asked, looking up at Mori who shook his head.

"No idea but I hope they didn't have our troubles" Kyoya spoke up "we drove 2 hours in the wrong direction to try and get away from that hoard…"

"Well would you have preferred if we'd let the hoard tail us to the school?" Tamaki asked, brow raised.

"Of course not..." Kyoya sighed

"Then don't complain… Ranka did what he thought was best to keep us safe" Tamaki gave Kyoya a light scolding.

Ranka actually seemed impressed that Tamaki was sticking up for him even though he treated him poorly.

"Thank you Tamaki" he kept his eyes on the road, looking out for road signs to lead them back onto the right path.

Tamaki looked just a teenie bit shell-shocked that Ranka called him by his name and thanked him… and didn't call him an insect.

They drove in silence nobody really knowing what to say to brighten up the mood, all of them just thankful that they'd gotten away without any problems… well aside from losing Ritsu and Nanako. The minutes passed until the radio crackled to life.

"come… guys… come… in…"