On the day the world ended, I finally got to hug the girl I like.
Takashi was well aware of the irony of his situation. He had dreamt of being with Rei for years, sure, but this was far from the way he had expected things to play out. After all, the world had seemingly come to an end in a single day. A fairly normal day, at that. As boring as the monotony of high school was to Takashi, he had never realized how much worse life could be. Now sitting in what was almost certainly the worst possible timeline, Takashi realized how good life had truly been only hours before. It had all happened so quickly: A true testament to life's extreme ups and downs. The single monster at the front gates of the school. The group of teachers. The sudden frenzy followed by an eerie silence. The voice over the loudspeaker. From there, everything had been a blur of complete chaos. At least there was now a moment of reprieve.
Holding Rei in his arms, he felt her tremble as sobs racked her slender body. Her world had been turned upside down, as had his, and her tears were simply her way of processing the events of the past few minutes. Her gentle hands gripped him tighter as tears came in even greater waves. Looking down at his childhood friend, Takashi realized he never wanted to see her like this again. It was there, on the barricaded roof of the school building, that Takashi vowed he would do whatever it took to protect Rei in this now unfamiliar world.
Takashi knew they only had a few minutes until the makeshift barricade collapsed, but he wanted this moment to last as long as possible. After some time, Rei's sobs grew softer and eventually disappeared altogether. She took a deep, shaky breath and slowly lifted her head from Takashi's chest before giving him a precious smile. The two had said nothing during the long embrace; no words were needed. Takashi had quite literally adopted the role of a shoulder to cry on, nothing more. He knew this perfectly well, but the interaction still carried great significance in his heart. His childhood friend and his only love, Rei meant more to him than he could ever convey. Even if it truly meant nothing, Takashi took great pride in the fact that he had been there to comfort her. After giving her some time to readjust to reality, Takashi finally spoke.
"We need to go soon," he said, stating the obvious. "Do you have anything in mind?" Rei, always the resourceful one, had already wandered off in search of an escape route. She had opened a door marked "Maintenance" and was scouring the small room for anything useful. Her response came from inside the room, though Takashi couldn't quite see what she was doing.
"I think I found something we can use! What do you think about this?" Her words were followed by a loud metallic clatter and a pitiful "ouchie."
"I don't even want to know…" Takashi thought to himself. Before he could go in and help, though, Rei hopped back through the door with a firehose in hand and a smug, childlike grin on her face.
"Yeah, that'll work." Takashi couldn't help but grin too as she stood there looking like a little girl visiting the fire station on a school trip. This was definitely not how he had envisioned his afternoon playing out.
The two positioned themselves in front of the barricade, now standing only feet away from a large horde of Them. Rei clutched the silver end of the hose excitedly. "May I do the honors?" Rei asked, looking to Takashi for approval.
"Be my guest."
With that, she turned the nozzle. In less than a second, Rei was on the ground wrestling with the hose. It continued to blast water down the stairs, and the barricade was long gone. She was doing it, sure, but Takashi could see she was struggling with the hose's strong, rambunctious movements. He ran over to help her, getting quickly drenched in the process. Together, the two of them were able to gain control of the flailing beast and clear a path down the stairs. Takashi grabbed ahold of the nozzle and turned the hose back off. With its lifeblood now restricted, the hose deflated, returning to its original, flaccid state.
Before they could catch their breath, though, the two were sprinting down the stairs. There were quite a few of Them on the roof, but it was a large area and the clumps were far between, so they were able to reach the stairs without any major conflict. Descending the stairs, Takashi began to look out the windows to locate their next destination. It was down in the parking lot that he found it. A blue motorcycle just big enough to fit a second passenger leaned sideways against the bike rack. Takashi didn't have a license, but he figured the police had more important things to worry about at the moment.
Dodging more small groups of Them in the parking lot, they arrived at the bike rack. However, instead of celebrating, Takashi simply brought his hand to his face. How much of an idiot am I? He had no idea how he had expected to start the thing with no keys, but this was certainly not what he had planned.
Rei had only been following Takashi and had no knowledge of his plan. Instantly, she regretted ever putting her faith in him. She could only follow suit with a facepalm of her own. "How stupid are you? It really never ceases to amaze me," she said, clearly agitated. The horde was growing, and the prospect of re-entering the building was all but gone. The two simply stood, thinking of a way to make up for Takashi's dimwittedness. Suddenly, a voice cried out.
"Get out of the way! That's my bike!"
The pair turned to see a fairly heavyset man running straight towards them. He wore a large suit and his tie hung loosely from his neck. Takashi figured he was a teacher who had driven a motorcycle to school in an attempt to forget his real age. What Takashi didn't see, though, was that the man's shoelaces were untied as he barrelled towards them as fast as he could. Takashi could hear the man panting as he exerted all his effort into one last sprint for his survival. Unfortunately, the man tripped over his untied shoelaces only a few yards from them. In this new world, Takashi knew, a mistake like that meant death. As he struggled to get back on his feet, the man was onset by a group of Them. They wasted no time tearing into his flesh, ripping it from the bone, each bite bringing him closer to the numbing mercy of death. Their live meal was soon to become one of them.
From inside the chaotic mass of flesh, blood, and screams, Takashi saw a glimmer. The man had raised his hand above the throng of Them. In his hand were what Takashi presumed to be the keys to the motorcycle. "Go!" was all the man could muster before using the last of his strength to hurl the keys towards Rei and Takashi. Grabbing the keys and not looking back, Takashi silently thanked the man for his considerate act, even if he was dead now.
The pair climbed onto the motorcycle and Rei wrapped her arms tightly around Takashi's waist. She had never been on the back of a motorcycle before, so she was understandably terrified. Takashi, on the other hand, had watched some anime with motorcycles, so he assumed he could figure it out pretty quickly. He didn't tell Rei this, of course. After starting the motorcycle, Takashi leaned forward, causing Rei's chest to push into his back. She was quite well-endowed, and it wasn't as if Takashi had never noticed. At the end of the day, he was a teenage boy. This combined with the fact that she was still soaking wet from the hose created a distraction that Takashi certainly didn't need while driving a motorcycle for the first time. He definitely wasn't going to complain, though.
The smell of gasoline and burnt rubber filled the air as Takashi tore through the courtyard, having the time of his life. Rei clung to his torso for dear life and screamed at him to slow down. That definitely wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Hordes of Them were drawn to the noise but could do nothing to stop the duo as Takashi blasted through the now open front gate and veered down the road, heading in the direction of his house.
Takashi had seriously never imagined he would be in this situation. His lifelong love cutely clinging to his waist, the wind flowing through his hair, and the horrifying screams of people being eaten alive tickling his ears. It certainly was a bittersweet combination. As he rode along the coast, dark clouds of smoke gathering on the horizon, Takashi could only wonder what the future had in store for him.
**AN: Hisashi doesn't really exist in this version of events, which means he didn't die on the roof with them. Just wanted to clear that up in case anyone was wondering how Rei could be so upbeat all of a sudden.