Chapter 2: Planning for the DEAD

Author's Note Part 1: Alright, so I let this sit for just under a day, and now I'm back to working on it so that I could take any constructive criticism, as well as take some time to actually think on what I'd written so far, that way I don't make as many mistakes as I did in my past stories. Which I'm actually pretty glad that I did.

You don't really need to go back to read it since nothing's really changed, but I've edited the first chapter a bit so that it fit with DL just a bit more once again. Now, instead of having a handbag, he has a backpack, considering the "Survivor Skills" outright tell you that you're using a backpack to store the stuff, and not a handbag.

Anyways, not much else to say before this chapter, though you can expect a few more minor changes to occur in canon. This is still the beginning of the story however, and even though Zach's lived through Harran, he's not able to do too much to alter the current events. The bigger changes will start to occur as things start to "calm down" for a little while like they did in Canon during the sixth and seventh episodes…

3rd Person POV:

At the moment, the three remaining teens were sat against the wall of the storage shed, their faces blank as they simply took in the current situation, and what had happened only a few minutes ago. Zach had been forced to help someone he was trying to save, instead kill himself, while Rei and Takashi had been forced to watch, with Takashi also being forced to make sure Rei didn't do anything to stop him.

It had taken some yelling, as well as a slap, to calm Rei down enough so that she wouldn't follow Hisashi over the railing, and the result was the current situation, where the three weren't entirely sure what to do. Zach had a few ideas, specifically involving going back into the school to find the nurse's office in order to help one of the few people he cared about, but he couldn't leave Takashi and Rei alone on the roof, especially since there wasn't a light source anywhere nearby.

That's another thing that's going to be difficult as fuck… We need to find UV lights somewhere, and relatively fast… He thinks, glancing at his backpack about a meter away. Sure, he had his flashlight, and his UV flashlight in there that he'd kept after Harran, along with a few other materials and keepsakes, but that wouldn't be enough for the three of them. And that wasn't even counting the UV lamps they would eventually need wherever they rested during the nights.

A few seconds later, Rei pushed herself off the wall and to her feet, getting the attention of the other two. "I'm, Sorry… I think… I think I'm better now…" She says, getting a nod from the two in response. She takes another breath, before turning to look at Takashi. "I think… I should try to call my father." She says, making Takashi stand up as he reaches into his pocket to take out his phone for her to use.

"School rules were meant to be broken after all." He says as a way of explaining the fact he had it on him. For some reason, the school required the students to leave their phones in their dorms whenever they were at classes. Not that it stopped pretty much every student from keeping their phones on them throughout the days. "But Zach had a point earlier, 110 is probably way too busy, how are you gonna reach him?" The raven haired teen asks her, getting a small smile from her in response as the teen in question stood up with his two friends.

"I know this secret number he told me not to call unless it was an emergency." She tells him as she starts punching in numbers. After a few seconds she places it to her ear, and stands there in the silence that's only broken by the Biters moaning at the stairs a few meters behind the three. After a couple of seconds, she straightens her posture a bit. "It got through." She says in a mix of relief and surprise. Unfortunately for the two boys, they can only hear Rei's side of the call, and the following sentences don't help them without much context. "Dad? … Dad? Hello, listen. Daddy we're at school and there's been- … Daddy?! What's the matter, can't you hear me?!" She exclaims, with the other two looking on in confusion and a little bit of worry.

However, a couple seconds later, the sound of a gunshot is clear to hear over the call for all three, making them all flinch. After a few more seconds of listening to the phone, which Zach views as a good sign since it means the gunshot didn't kill her father, Rei pulls the phone away from her ear to look at the screen. "No service? But I don't understand, I just called him!" She exclaims in confusion. Takashi watches his friend in worry, eventually speaking up.

"Rei!" He exclaims to get her attention, only for his face to soften as the girl turns to look at him, tears trailing down her face.

"Takashi… My dad… He didn't know that it was me at all… He didn't even know me…" She says as she cradles the phone to her chest. In response, Takashi can only stand in silence, before walking forwards and bringing Rei into a hug, allowing the girl to cry into her shoulder. Zach frowns at the scene, both in sympathy for Rei, as well as how fast the phone she was using lost signal.

It shouldn't have happened that fast… Even Harran took a couple days to lose phone reception… Unless… The antennas are already overrun… Shit. He thinks to himself as he turns to look out over the city, walking forwards a bit to place his hands on the railing and leaning forwards to get a better view, while also doing his best to avoid looking down due to where he was standing. Squinting his eyes, he could see numerous helicopters flying around areas of the city that were slightly further away from where smoke was rising, indicating where fires broke out.

The thing was, the scope of destruction he could see was on a much larger scale than Harran, but the helicopters at least gave a good idea of where the area of damage was either being held back, or hadn't reached yet… He flinched as he looked out towards the sea, already noticing the numerous boats that were out there, as well as a few wrecked ships that were lit ablaze. Guess people are already trying to make a break for it… He thinks with a frown, before shaking his head as he turns back to the other two on the roof with him, Rei's sobbing having calmed down now.

"Alright… It's unfortunate, but by this point, things inside the school will have settled down to there being a few straggling survivors, and a good number of Biters… What confuses the hell out of me though, is that there haven't been any Virals…" He tells the other two, making Rei wipe away the few tears lingering at the edges of her eyes while Takashi raises an eyebrow.

"Virals?" He asks his friend, making Zach glance at him.

"Think of it like the intermediate to final stage of the virus while you're still "alive". After the slight aches and the seizures, you officially become one of the infected. However, instead of becoming a mindless shambling Biter, you become a fast moving, flesh hungry, bite-crazy member of the infected with just enough of your mind left to occasionally get a glimpse of what you're actually doing and try to hold off, only to fail seconds later. After a few days of your mind officially going dead, and your body starting to decay from the virus within, that's when you start to become a shambling Biter." He tells the two, frowning as he turns in the direction the moans were coming from.

"However, this Virus seems to skip past those first two stages and quickly kill the host, which is completely different from the previous virus where your body was still alive, and then reanimate their bodies as Biters within a timeframe of a few seconds, to about fifteen minutes or so depending on the severity of the bite wound. Which means I'm not entirely sure what could come of this… Unless…" He trails off, his eyes widening in horror.

"Unless what, Zach?" Rei asks, not liking the look on his face. However, Zach quickly shakes his head,

"No… It's not something to focus on at the moment. Right now, we need to worry about our current situation." He says, turning to face the area the stairs were in. "The best thing to do at the moment is take out the Biters at the stairs as effectively as possible, and then seal the gate." He says as he walks over to his backpack. "We'll leave the tables and chairs where they are for a bit extra protection. That way, if anyone makes their way here over the course of this outbreak, they'll have a safe place to rest their heads… At least for now." He says as he kneels down and opens the backpack, reaching in and taking out some clothes.

At the same time, he removes the school's jacket, revealing to his friends the yellow shirt underneath, which had black wings designed on the back. "Right now, I'm going to use the storage shed to change into something to better fit our current situation." He says as he stands up and turns to face the other teens. "You two get ready to take on the small group on the stairs. After that, we'll head into the school. I'm hoping at least one other person is still alive in there, and if we don't find them, I'm at least hoping they made it out alive…" He trails off as he walks towards the doors to the shed, opening them up and walking inside to change.

As he does this, Takashi and Rei grab their respective weapons, and look them over to make sure they weren't about to snap in their grips. Afterwards, they walk over to the barricade they'd made, and look over it at the group of zombies moaning and pushing against it. At their count, there seemed to be around five, with three of them banging against the barricade, and two others standing on the stairs behind them. Hearing the doors close a couple meters away, they turned towards the larger area of the roof as Zach walked around the corner to them, and took in his new appearance.

As stated before, he was wearing a yellow T-shirt, which had black wing designs on the back, and a flashlight now attached to his right shoulder with a bit of duct tape. However, now that they looked, the two other teens could see some faint scars over his arms, a few on his hands, as well as having a better look at the scar on his neck, which spanned the entirety of the right side in a single diagonal cut from just under his chin to his shoulder, appearing to have just missed a main artery that would have caused him to bleed out. His pants were now grey jeans, and he had black kneepads over them, and a larger flashlight hooked on his belt, while his shoes had been replaced by boots, which seemed to have some metal sewn and welded to the bottoms.

His backpack was worn normally, although the straps were tighter than normal, due to Zach learning it was the best way to keep the backpack from constantly shifting, and he was quick to get used to the slight discomfort it caused. "We ready to go?" He asks the two others, getting nods in response as he walks over and looks over the barricade. "Around five of them, huh? Well, they're all Biters, so it should be easy enough." He says with a nod, turning his head to face the two beside him. "Rei, your spear is the best weapon at the moment. If you can take out one or two of the ones against the barricade, the others will be even easier." He says, getting a determined nod from the brunette beside him.

Like with Takashi before her, it takes Rei a little while to even out her breathing and mentally prepare herself. However, after steadying her nerves, she's quick to jab forwards with the makeshift spear, impaling one Biter in the forehead and causing it to go limp, before stabbing the other through its eye, causing that one to crumple on the step it was previously standing on. Zach nods at her work, before climbing up on top of the barricade. "Alright, that takes care of those two. Now, based on what I've seen of their bodies…" He trails off as he taps his foot against the barricade, causing it to let out a dull thud.

As a result, the three zombies that were left turn towards the sound, with the one against the barricade starting to bump into it again, and the other two start making their way up the stairs, causing Zach to nod in response. "Alright… So they still work mainly off sound. Can't tell what's going on with their other senses since it's too early, but for now this is fine." He says out loud as the two stumble up to the barricade. A few seconds later, Zach lashes out with a kick, knocking one of the Biters back, where it tumbles down the stairs, eventually landing on the roof below and impacting it's head, causing it to go still. He stares at it for a few seconds, making sure he didn't just stun it, before nodding as he does the same to the other two, taking them out the same way as the first.

"Alright, that's them taken care of. Let's get this done." He says, getting nods from the other two as they climb down from the barricade. However, they're a bit surprised when Zach starts going through the pockets of the corpses next to the barricade, pulling out some cash and stuffing it into a side pocket on his backpack. Noticing their looks after doing so, he gives them a small frown. "Right, this shit's still new for you guys. Alright, while we move these, let me give you a few unspoken rules about the situation we're in." He says as he grabs one of the corpses by its arms and starts dragging it down the stairs, Takashi grimacing when Zach motions for him to do the same.

As the two male teens drag the Biters' bodies out of the area with Rei standing watch by the gate to take out any that try to get closer, Zach gives them a few of the "Unspoken Rules of Harran", that were now carrying over to this situation in a hushed voice to avoid drawing more of the undead near to them. "Alright, first things first, the rules of "finders keepers". As long as the shit isn't present in a place that's obviously being used as a rest place or something, do your best to grab whatever shit you can carry without overburdening yourself that could help out in the long run. That includes electronics, alcohol, gauze, string, random bits of metal, etcetera. And most importantly, cash." He says, making the two teens raise an eyebrow at him at the last point as he starts to drag the last corpse out of the gated area.

"Cash? But isn't it basically useless now?" He asks as Zach closes the gate, though unable to lock it due to missing the key. In response to Takashi's question, he shakes his head.

"Nope. If anything, cash is one of the most important items to have on you. Because it still holds its value. Granted, it'll be used to buy the more important things in this situation now once people start to take advantage of it, but I'll touch on that once the "Shops" start to pop up like they no doubt will." He says, before turning to the roof, and the Biters shuffling around on it. "Anyways, I can tell you more once we get inside and there aren't any zombies around. Let's get through that door first." He says, nodding to the door that they'd originally exited through around half an hour or so ago.

In response to his words, Takashi and Rei nod, getting ready for the sprint on either side of him. "Ready?" He asks, getting nods in response. "Run!" He yells, the three taking off across the roof while a number of Biters turn towards them due to both Zach's shout, and the sound of the three teens' feet pounding across the roof. Unfortunately for them, they're quickly knocked out of the way or rendered dead a second time by Takashi and Rei's actions with their bat and spear respectively, with Zach following close behind the two on their way to the door.

As the trio made their way into the school and down the stairs, Zach continued to tell the other two about some of the things he'd learned in Harran, that the two would need to know. So far, he'd explained scavenging, the different types of "normal" zombies they could expect to encounter in the coming days, and the need to constantly make sure your weapon wouldn't break after a few more swings. "Most items that you can use as weapons can be repaired fairly easily, as long as you have the materials and a bit of time. Although there are some that can't be fixed no matter what." He explains as they make their way down onto the second floor. "And then there are the enhancements." He says while glancing at their weapons and thinking of what he could do if he had the time.

"Enhancements? What do you mean?" Takashi asks him, making Zach pause on the steps, and causing the two other teens to stop behind him as he slightly turns to face them.

"Well… Take your bat for example. Give me some metal, nails, plastic, batteries and a power cable, and I could pretty easily make it so that each time you hit a Biter with it, even if you don't smash in their head, it'll cause them to get electrocuted and stun them, or even shock their brain enough to kill them. It was dubbed the "Tru-Action Electric Baseball" by the others at The Tower." He says with a smirk, getting wide eyes out of the two. "When you have a ton of shit laying around an abandoned town roaming with infected that want to eat your flesh, you're pretty quick to find ways to use all the "useless" stuff lying around to give you a better chance at surviving.

"…Well shit." Takashi says, getting a light chuckle from Zach in response, before his mouth thins into a line. "Anyways, I think that should be enough info for now. Right now, we need to decide on a next step… Damn it, a part of me wishes Brecken or Crane was here. I wouldn't want them to go through this shit again, but it would definitely be nice to have some guys who knew what they were doing here." He says, running a hand through his hair. Shaking his head, he turned to look at the other two.

"Alright… For now, the first thing we do is head to the nurse's office. It'll give us some medicine and other stuff we'll need, and after we pick that stuff up, we can figure out where to go from there. We can't stay at the school, because at the beginning of the Outbreak, that's just asking to be swarmed with all the students and faculty that became infected, and die horrible deaths." He says, getting grimaces, but nods from the other two in response. However, before they could start towards the nurse's office, their attention was immediately brought to a scream that echoed across the floor they'd just stepped onto. "Shit! Put that on hold!" He exclaims, running through the door towards the scream with the other two right behind him.

As they neared the area the scream came from, they could see two other people coming from the opposite end of the hallway, Shizuka Marikawa the school's nurse being one that Zach knew and was glad to see alive, while he didn't know the purplette. However his attention was brought away from them when a second scream came, though this one had words.

"Get away!" The person shouted, the voice being recognized as Takagi by Zach, Takashi and Rei, and causing their eyes to widen as they heard something start to whirl from the direction her voice came, making the people running in the direction speed up and turn the corner, with Takashi, Rei, Shizuka and the purplette skidding to a halt to take a look at the situation, while Zach continued running after turning the corner.

His time in Harran had made him used to situations like this, and he was quick to take in the scene before him. A slightly overweight teen with a nail gun that had been turned into a makeshift rifle, zombies shuffling about, and Takagi standing in front of a shattered trophy case, using a drill to hold back a Biter that was trying to get to her, with the drill bit being used on the zombie's head as she grunted with effort to keep the undead away from her. "I can't take it anymore! Somebody, please!" She shouts as Zach closes in on the situation.

As the other four that arrived to the scene split up to take out the other Biters around the area, with Shizuka staying back due to not being a fighter, Zach drops down and slides across the floor towards the zombie attempting to get to Takagi, and when he's a couple meters away, kicks out one of his feet into the Biter's legs, causing it to fall to the ground and knock it's head against the floor. Zach quickly shoots up to his feet, turns around, lifts his leg, and harshly brings his foot down on the zombie's head, the sound of snapping bone being heard as his foot presses the head against the ground, blood beginning to pool under it as the body goes still. After doing so, he looks up to find the others finishing up the other Biters around the area, and allows the slight tension in his body to relax as he sees the situation calming down.

The only sound left in the hallway is Takagi's ragged, uneven breathing as she tries to make sense of the current situation, causing Zach to frown in sympathy and concern for her. Near him, the slightly overweight boy, Kohta Hirano, holds out a hand hesitantly towards the pinkette, even though he's a few meters away. "Takagi-" however he's cut off when Rei and the Shizuka rush past him, the nurse boob-checking him on the way past, and causing him to fall to the ground as Rei kneels by Takagi's side, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Takagi… Are you okay?" The brunette asks, making the girl in question flinch slightly and turn to face the brunette by her side.

"Miyamoto…" She says in a whisper, obviously still in shock and trying to wrap her head around the events happening around her. As this happens, the purplette, Saeko Busujima, and Takashi check around the area for anymore Biters, before the raven haired teen closes the door leading to the outside pathways. As he does so, Saeko walks closer to Zach, making him turn to face her.

"You already know the school nurse, Shizuka Marikawa. And I'm Saeko Busujima, from class 3-A." She introduces herself, getting a nod from the brunet in response.

"Zach Carter, class 2-B along with Takashi Komuro and Rei Miyamoto." He tells her, getting a nod from her in response.

"Miss Busujima, I remember you won the national championship last year. I'm Rei, I'm also in the Spear Martial Arts club." The brunette introduces herself, while Kohta pushes himself back up onto his feet, and rubs the back of his head awkwardly.

"Oh, And I'm… I'm Kohta Hirano, from Class B, just FYI." He says bashfully, making Saeko turn slightly to look at him, and give a close eyed smile.

"Nice to meet you." The purplette greets him, getting a gasp of surprise and joy from the second raven haired teen of the group. Unfortunately, the mood around the group drops slightly as Takagi stands up and speaks aloud to them.

"Why are you guys being all warm and fuzzy?" She almost growls out, getting the attention of everyone present. "Why are you being so polite to her, Miyamoto? You flunked last year, you're the same age as her, she's not your elder." She says, though Zach can hear the slight tremble in her voice, and recognizes what's currently happening, being ready to step in if need be, even as Takashi speaks up about her words.

"Hey, what are you talking about Takagi?" He asks, slight annoyance present in his voice. Unfortunately, that breaks the hold on Takagi's emotions as she whirls her head around to face the group, her pupils shrunk to pinpricks in her eyes.

"Don't talk to me like I'm stupid! I'm smarter than all of you combined! You should be lucky I'm even in the same school as you!" She yells at them, turning to face them fully as she brings a fist to her chest, looking down slightly after her tirade as she starts breathing deeply while trying to continue. "I'm a… I'm a…" She trails off, unable to continue as Saeko walks up to her and places a hand on her shoulder, getting a sound of confusion from the pinkette.

"It's okay… That's enough." Saeko says softly, calming Takagi down just enough for her to glance to the side, and see her reflection in a mirror that was hanging on the wall nearby.

"Look at me… All of these bloodstains… Now mom will… Have to take it to the cleaners…" She manages to say in a breathless whisper, Zach and Takashi walking over to stand behind her, the both of them looking at her with sympathy. That was the straw that finally broke the camel's back, as Takagi sniffled, before she started to sob uncontrollably into Saeko's chest, the purplette letting her get her emotions out as they slowly slid to the floor, with the rest of the group standing silently around them and letting the pinkette have her time to grieve over the current situation, and the loss of normalcy.

A few minutes later, the larger group was now inside the Faculty Lounge, with Zach, Kohta and Takashi finishing up building a small barricade against the double doors leading back out into the hallway. "So, what do you think?" Takashi asks with his hands on his hips, getting nods from Kohta and Zach in response.

"Not as good as it could be, but then again this is a temporary barricade instead of one that's gonna try to last the whole outbreak, so it's perfect for right now." He says, turning to face the others in the room. Shizuka had looked through the purse she'd left here for her keys earlier, only for the students to shoot down her idea of leaving the school grounds in it after Zach reminded her that her car was actually a small two-seater, while Takagi was in the bathroom washing the blood off her skin from the zombie she'd been holding back.

Since they finished the barricade, the three guys split off, with Kohta walking over to check on the pinkette, Takashi sitting on the floor and leaning against one of the copiers, and Zach walking further into the room to sit down in a chair that was closer to Shizuka and Saeko. As they do this, Rei walks over to Takashi with a few water bottles in hand that she'd grabbed from the refrigerator in the corner.

"Here you go." She says, holding one out to the raven haired teen, who looks up at her voice and sees the offered drink.

"Oh, thanks." He thanks the brunette, taking the bottle, which lets Rei walk around to the others and offer them water as well. While doing so, Takagi and Kohta walk back out into the main room and stand in their own spots near the group. "So, since Shizuka's car isn't going to work to get out of here, anyone else got any ideas?" He asks as he unscrews the top of the bottle, and starts taking a few gulps of the liquid inside.

"How about the microbus we use for away games? It looks like the keys are still on the wall hook." Saeko says, making Zach follow her gaze and see the keys she was talking about, while Kohta walked closer to the window and moved the blinds to get a better look outside.

"Hey guys, I can see the bus is still parked." He tells them, getting a nod from Zach in response to the information. It was good, since it meant that no one had managed to get into it and carjack it to drive away already.

"That's fine, but where are we going?" Shizuka asks, turning around to face the rest of the group. At her question, Zach turns to look at the blonde nurse.

"Well, the original plan me, Takashi and Rei had was to raid the nurse's office for anything of use, but luckily it seems like you already grabbed most of the stuff from there Ms. Shizuka." He says, nodding to the other bag by her feet that held a number of items she'd grabbed from the office she and Saeko had escaped from. "With that being done, we can all figure out our next move together. With the bus being available, a good idea would probably be to try and get everyone's family together in it, and then find a good place to fortify as… A…" He trails off what he was saying as he glances to the side, and notices Rei stood in place staring at the TV in the room, which she'd turned on.

The silence gets Takagi's attention, who looks at him, and then follows his gaze to the brunette. "What's wrong?" She asks in trepidation, Rei staying still even as the rest turn to face her, her eyes wide at the events playing out on the television.

"What is this?" She asks in a quiet whisper, causing Saeko to stand up and walk over to the remote sitting on the table a few feet away, and pick it up to raise the volume. As she does this, Takashi stands up to walk over and join the rest of the group.

"What's wrong Rei?" He asks as the TV's volume is raised enough for the group to hear what's happening, but quiet enough to hopefully keep any Biters from having their attention drawn to the room.

"The government has begun to consider the emergency measures against the outbreaks that have been occurring around the city." The reporter on the TV says, getting a flinch from the group in response to her words. In an attempt to get more information, Saeko changes the channel to a separate news station, this one showing a newswoman standing in front of a mostly deserted street with paramedics rushing around moving body bags to ambulances.

"It's been feared that more than two thousand have been victims of this new Virus in Tokonosu City so far. The governor has already called for-" She's cut off by a gunshot off screen, with the camera panning over to what was being shot. "Already declared the state of emergency… And requested the Emergency Disaster Relief… It's a gunshot. It seems the police are finally using firearms!" She exclaims as the camera shows body bags sitting up on their own, only to be shot through the head and fall back onto the gurneys they were lying on. "From what I can see, they're… No… No! Noo! Noooooooo!" The newswoman yells as the camera is dropped to the ground and tilts on its side, revealing the sight of a few Biters shambling towards the area, before the screen goes to static as something interrupts the camera's feed.

Zach flinches while the others in the room continue to stare at the screen, waiting for something else to come up while they try to get it around their heads how bad this has already gotten out of hand. As for the brunet, he simply sighs as he sits down in a chair and pushes a hand through his hair. "Here's hoping Japan can react better than Harran in the beginning." He mutters to himself. "Because if they can't seal these parts of the city off… Then the rest of Japan is fucked." He continues, glancing over towards the windows, and the slowly setting sunlight that was streaming in through the blinds. And I really hope it takes at least a week before the Nocturnal Infected show up… Unfortunately, if my earlier thought is right… That's unlikely.

Author's Note Part 2: Well guys, this is the second chapter. Once again, a few changes were made to Canon, but due to how early it is, there aren't too many situations that can actually be altered all that much. Zach is only one guy, and a teenager at that. And being with Takashi and Rei, he's unable to affect anything for Kohta and Takagi, or Saeko and Shizuka until they all meet up.

But, with that being said, let me get into what I've altered in this chapter, and then I'll touch upon the reviews that people have left for me!

- Getting rid of the roof infected without the hose:

So, with Zach being present, due to the differences in both the end of last chapter, and the beginning of this one, the barricade on the stairs was fairly solid, and wasn't giving way to the few zombies pushing against it. And because of his past experiences, he was able to take out the few that were on the stairs with Rei and Takashi, without needing to blow apart the Barricade to take out the Biters.

Another reason he did this was something he brought up in the chapter. He's leaving the barricade as it is, so that if anyone else makes it to the roof at any point in the outbreak, they'll have a small place to rest for a little while without worrying about the Biters getting to them.

- Zach taking the lead, and not Takashi:

Alright, so while I wouldn't mind writing it like Canon where Takashi takes the "leadership" role in the group, in this story, it kind of has to be pushed onto Zach instead, because he's been through Harran, and as a result, has experience and knowledge to pull from in order to get the group through the current situation they're in, and the future ones that are to come.

- The slightly smaller "infected" toll and area on the TV:

So I said at the end of the last chapter that I would be giving some more info on the smaller scale of damage, and I've done the same with the smaller number of people affected. As Zach has been constantly thinking, this is where the AU aspect of HOTD is starting to come into play. The smaller scale in regards to location and infected, and as a result, the "containment" that's coming up…

Anyways, that's what I felt I should expand on in regards to what I've altered from Canon, so now I'll go ahead and touch on the reviews that some of the readers from last chapter left me!

Dehaka – Primal God Emperor: Believe me, I'm also glad as hell that I managed to crawl my way out of the writer's block I was plagued with since uploading that last story. And I'm hoping I'll be able to stay on a roll, so a six chapter minimum would definitely be nice. As for your question, I'll be honest and say that I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that, but if you're interested in the Harran Virus and what's happening here… Well, stick around, I've already given a very minor hint in this chapter.

Pyrojack25: I'll admit, I'm mostly going to be pulling from the situations shown in the anime for how the people deal with the infected around them. So mostly melee weapons, yes. But as seen a few times, some random guns do make their way into people's hands, which I can only assume is due to the looting that occurred pretty much directly after everything started going to shit. As for the recently turned, well I touched on the "Virals" point earlier.

Yeah, him not being able to stop everything was something I wanted to get out of the way early on, just so everyone doesn't think this'll be a "veteran swoops in to save the day" story, because it is definitely not going to be one of those. As for the Volatiles… I'm still in the planning phases due to how I've decided to go about this Virus affecting Japan, but it's currently 50/50 on if they'll make an appearance before the Takagi Estate or not…

The Muslim/Guest: Hey, I'm glad to be back! And I figured that's what you meant the first time, no worries. XD

I really thought: Yeah, I'm sure a number of my readers were the same, sorry to worry you and the rest of them. It's good to be back to doing this.

Anyways, that's about it for this chapter. I've already got some plans for the next one, but for now I'm gonna post this, and then start to work on the third chapter tomorrow. That way I'll be able to let my brain think of any more ideas I want to include, as well as get some feedback on this chapter from you guys. Hope you all enjoyed it, and I'm hoping you'll enjoy the future chapters as well!