Don't have much to say, so let's just move on shall we?

Chapter 5

Isuzu Residence - 1856

After covering Shinzaburo's corpse with a nearby blanket, seeming the respectful thing to do, the group prepared to exit the premises. Miho stooped to pick up the shovel she'd used. Staring at it somewhat desensitized from the previous hour's events. Fear replaced with determination to get herself and friends safely to the school.

"Yukari-san! Get ready to open the gate!", Miho ordered.

"Yes, Nishizumi-dono!", Yukari replied back, ready to quickly open the latch while the thing tried to grab at her through the bars, Miho readied the shovel, taking a deep breath, she shouted, "Now!"

Yukari quickly unlatched the gate, it swung open with the creature pushing its weight against it, it moved quickly for Miho, who after a quick apology, swung the shovel as she had earlier. The infected stumbled but was still alive. Swinging again while it was down, she finished it off with a sickening crunch. Miho only cringed but felt relief it was over. She turned to her friends stating,

"Quickly, we have to go before more of those things show up!", and that they did, running down the once familiar streets, now alien and silent. The ship-wide alarm that had been sounding off earlier, had died down. Replacing the commotion, was an eerie pen-drop silence, only broken by the distant ocean. Fear and worry plastered on the groups' faces, except for Hana. Hana stared ahead blankly, no hint of emotion. Turning a corner, they came to an intersection, now only blocks from the school, they noticed people making their way quickly to the school, living people. Deciding to follow the pockets of survivors, they quickly moved with the group.

Ooarai Girls High school - 1920

Miho looked all around, looking for anyone familiar. Where were the other students? Were they okay? She then noticed Hippo team, miraculously all still in one piece. She called out to them, and they quickly ran over.

"Commander Nishizumi! You're okay!", Erwin called, clearly relieved. The feeling was mutual. Miho smiled, but then quickly got serious once more,

"Have you seen anyone else Erwin-san? The other teams?", a sense of urgency in her voice. Caesar answered for her, "No, we just came running when the announcement rung out. We saw…Well we're not sure what we saw, they look somewhat human but sure don't act like it. I take it you encountered a few as well?"

Miho simply nodded, still brandishing the bloody shovel, "I'm afraid so, they aren't people anymore as far as I can tell…"

Caesar just shook her head sadly, "I hope everyone else is okay…"

Erwin then added, "We should get inside." The group agreed, turning towards the main building, they moved in. It appeared local law enforcement and a few JGSDF soldiers were ushering people into the assembly room, and ordered the girls to do the same, however not before stopping Miho, asking her to drop her weapon, she complied. They were then allowed into the assembly room. It was somewhat crowded, a good chunk of the population was there, civilians, ship workers, anyone who'd not been able to take immediate shelter. She scanned around before noticing Anzu on the stage, surveying the crowds, she made her way quickly, eager to see another of her team, but stopped short noticing Anzu's expression. Anzu had always been carefree, she'd rarely openly show sadness or fear, always choosing optimism, a good trait of a leader, now was different, now she looked lost, scared, and deeply upset.

Miho mounted the stage, Anzu quickly turned to regard her, "Nishizumi!", she shouted, and ran over to her. "Anzu-chan, where is everyone?", Miho asked, suddenly desperate to know.

"I'm not sure where most of the teams are, Yuzu-san is upstairs in the office still and will be here soon, and Momo-chan was attacked the other day on route to the school…She didn't- ", Anzu trailed off, Miho connected the dots, "That's horrible…I'm so sorry…", is all the sensha-do commander could mutter. Anzu smiled sadly, her eyes slightly glazed over, attempting to maintain her composure.

The once great class president lost it then, hugging onto Miho, bawling into her shirt, Miho could do nothing, but hug her back, staring into space. They remained like this for several minutes, the rest of Anglerfish team and Hippo team having come up as well, deciding to stick together. Eventually, Anzu had stopped sobbing, merely sniffling now, sitting down on the stage, staring at her feet.

Over the course of an hour, everyone had begun to settle in the auditorium, Yuzu had come down from the office, having no luck in trying to reach the crew in the ship's control tower. Rabbit team had shown up, all in one piece, along with Anteater team, who'd been down in the computer labs playing their favorite tank game when the announcement aired. Sodoko, along with the rest of Mallard team were desperately trying to keep order in the crowded auditorium, Duck team had actually been one of the first in the auditorium, having been playing volleyball in the nearby gymnasium when the commotion began, finally Leopon team, two members short, made their way through the doors, a grief-stricken Tsuchiya and Nakajima sat on the stage, staring at the ground.

To keep everyone together, Miho opted to have the sensha-do teams stay together on the stage, so they didn't get lost in the swarm. She scanned over her teams, and then she scanned again, and again…Something was wrong.

"Mako-san!", Miho finally noticed. Mako was missing, she'd been with them mere minutes ago, where had she gone?!

"Saori-san, have you seen Mako-san? She's vanished.", Miho asked. Saori looked at her, pondering the question, and then with a horrifying realization hit her head on,

"Oh no…I think she went after her grandmother.", Saori stated fearfully.

Mako's grandmother had been hospitalized yet again due to an ailment, she wasn't supposed to stay more than a couple of days, the doctors wanting to make sure she was okay before releasing her. Miho panicked, how could she let one of her friends just slip out from under her like that? It's hell out there, Mako doesn't need to be running around out there…She tried to decide on what to do, where to go from here, before she was cut off by a sound that rang out over the din of conversations.

A gunshot, and then another, and another. Gradually, more joined in, the officers were now actively shooting into the distance, Miho then realized why. Hundreds of infected, in an uncoordinated mob, ran for the school, they were close enough now that Miho could see their blood stained, snarling faces. The crowd on the assembly floor began to panic, thankfully, the decision to keep the Sensha-do teams on stage was detrimental in keeping everyone together, Miho had one idea left, the tank sheds.

"Anzu-san! We have to get everyone to the tank sheds, the buildings are sturdy and closed off, we can start evacuating people through the exits.", Miho called towards Anzu, who looked towards her for a moment, then she turned to shout as best she could to the other teams, "Everyone, out the door quickly, make your way to the sheds, get the tanks ready!", she shouted. The group complied, the teams running for the doors, while the chorus of gunshots and screams behind them only intensified.

The sprint to the tank sheds was brief, adrenaline having spurred the group on, moving the heavy door to one of the sheds open, revealing the StuG III. Miho turned to the teams,

"Everyone to your tanks, see what you can do to get them functioning, we do not have much time!"

The group split apart, teams running for their tanks. Miho ran outside, looking for her fellow team members, everyone had gotten lost in the shuffle to get out the side exit, she had gotten separated from Anglerfish team, she looked, and waited with bated breath. Finally, a familiar face crested the hill, but only one, that being Yukari.

"Yukari-san! Where are Saori-san and Hana-san!?", she asked. Yukari shook her head, "I'm sorry Nishizumi-dono we got split up, I lost them.", she looked down.

"It's fine.", replied Miho, sounding barely assured herself, "Let's get to the Panzer IV, and see if we can get her going again."

Yukari nodded and ran with her inside towards their tank. It was ravaged from the previous day's fight. The transmission was still blown. Miho quickly opened a nearby toolbox and went over to the tank. She decided to tackle the easy issue first, and moved to re-track the tank, and with the assistance of Yukari, they were able to get it secured within ten minutes.

"That's the track fixed…But what about the transmission…", Miho thought aloud, turning to look towards the other teams, Anzu and Yuzu stood silently, looking morosely towards their Jagdpanzer 38(t), obviously lost in thought and memories, Leopon team had broken apart, trying to help other teams who could not repair their tanks on their own, the work clearly difficult seeing as only Nakajima and Tsuchiya were around. Anteater stood by their Type-3 Chi nu, waiting for orders, Hippo team were already in their StuG, ready to go, Mallard team had yet to be seen as they were not on stage at the time, and were helping organize the people on the ground floor, Rabbit team was sound in their M3 Lee, feeling much safer within the mass of steel, rather than out of it, and finally, Duck team were playing volleyball on top of their Type-89, although playing was not really the case, as they showed no enthusiasm in it and simply stared at the ground or each other as the ball bounced around listlessly.

Miho was about to take a second look at her Panzer, to see if there were any other repairs she could make, when a dreaded sight caught her eye through the open shed door. Silhouettes in the distance, hundreds, maybe a thousand, were quickly moving towards the sheds, Miho shouted as loud as she was able,

"Here they come!"

Okay. That's another one down. I wonder where this'll be when Halloween rolls around..? Hopefully going to get more active with the chapters as that day draws near...Well, that's all I got. Until next time, see ya.