Chapter 3: Acceptance
Author's Note Part 1: Alright guys, I'm here with Chapter 3! So in this one, I'm really hoping that I won't have a problem with my word count, due to the fact that a good portion of this episode actually switches perspective quite a few times. Granted, I managed to split the first episode into two chapters, so it's actually likely that this one won't be a problem. With that being said, I'll let you guys get to reading!
3rd Person POV:
A few minutes after Chris helped Hisashi over the railing, and allowed his friend to fall to his death, he simply stood there, looking down at the ground, and the point of impact where Hisashi's body now lay. As he does this, he can hear the sound of Rei crying behind him, before she tries speaking. "Why…? Why…?" She asks, that one word being all that she can manage to ask. And when Chris doesn't respond, Takashi does it for him.
"If Chris hadn't done that, Hisashi would've turned… And then, he would've bitten you." He tells Rei, having let go of her right after Hisashi fell. In response to his worlds, Rei rounds on him.
"Well I didn't ask either of you to save me!" She exclaims, before hiccupping. "And how would you know that, anyway? What are you, some… Expert?" She asks, before her personality changes slightly as her face falls and she looks at the ground. "…And I would've been willing to get bitten." She admits, before more tears gather at the edge of her eyes. "Better to die that way than survive by doing something like that!" She exclaims, becoming slightly hysterical once again. In response to her outburst, Chris remains silent, while Takashi fixes her with a slight glare.
"I don't think Hisashi would've wanted that for you." He tells her with force behind his voice, but Rei takes it differently.
"How do you know that Takashi?" She asks him condescendingly, before going silent for a few seconds. However, when she starts speaking again, she's back to being slightly hysterical, while a crazed grin appears on her face to show just how out of it she is at the moment. "Oh, I know… I know… You must have hated Hisashi, am I right…? Because he was dating me! She exclaims, making Takashi's eyes widen for a second, before they go back to normal as her words sink in.
He had never hated Hisashi. Not once… What he hated was the fact that he'd been dating Rei. But had he ever actually hated his friend? No. No, he'd never hated Hisashi himself. But Rei's words hurt him. And as a result, he turned, and headed towards the barricade to do the first thing that came to his mind. And as he walked away, Rei narrowed her eyes as she continued to talk to him. "Hey, where do you think you're going?" She asks him, the anger and hysterics still present in her voice. When she asks this, Takashi turns his attention back to her with a dead look in his eyes.
"You obviously don't want me around anymore. I'll go downstairs and smash some heads…" He says as he walks over to the barricade, missing Rei's look of horror and Chris' body stiffening as he starts to undo some of the bindings on the barrier. "W-what are you talking about?!" Rei exclaims as she pushes herself to her feet, and runs over to Takashi. "You can't take on that many of them by yourself!" She exclaims. However, Takashi apparently ignores her as he continues to get rid of parts of the barrier, the tables and chairs shaking more and more with each part he moves.
As he does this, Rei watches him with tears at the edges of her eyes. "Hey wait… Takashi…" She says, but the raven haired teen simply ignores her, before climbing up onto the barricade as he gets ready to climb over. Realizing that he's actually about to go into the horde, Rei finally snaps as she rushes forwards with a yell. "No stop it!" She exclaims, grabbing onto his arm and keeping him from going over the barricade. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I really didn't mean it! So please… Please stay with me…" She begs as she holds his arm, before looking up and meeting his dead eyes with her own tearful ones. "Don't leave me!" She exclaims as tears trail down her cheeks.
After a few seconds, Takashi gets down from the barricade, and wraps his arms around the crying Rei, surprising her for a few seconds, before she continues to cry as she hugs him back. While all this was happening, Chris had stayed in the same spot he was in when he helped Hisashi over the railing. And if either of the other two had been looking at him, they would have seen that he had the same look in his eyes as Takashi. Except that it wasn't because of the events of the past few minutes affecting him. No, the dead look in his eyes was an outcome caused by the events that had ended only three years ago, after he'd been forced to live through Hell for five years straight…
A few minutes later, the three are sitting against the wall of the storage area, simply trying to finally come to terms with what's happened so far. Well, Rei and Takashi were. As for Chris, because of the events that happened to him in the past, he was just trying to find out what they could do next that would be a good idea. However, he's brought out of his musings when Rei speaks up a few feet away. "What's the matter?" She asks in a whisper, making Chris turn to see that she was looking at Takashi. Whether she whispered because she didn't want the Zombies to hear her, or if it was the loudest she could bring herself to talk, Chris wasn't sure.
"…Just thinking about what the hell is really going on." Takashi mutters in response as he turns to face her.
"That's a straight forwards answer." Rei returns sarcastically, getting a humorless chuckle from Takashi in response.
"What's the point of lying about it?" He asks, before sighing as he turns to look forwards once again, and bring a hand up to scratch the side of his head, if only because it gave him something to do other than just sit there doing nothing. Chris had a similar idea, standing up and heading towards the barricade, looking over his shoulder as he does so.
"I'm gonna thin out the horde a bit." He tells them, making them turn to look at him with wide eyes. In response to their looks, he holds up his hands. "Don't worry, I'm not jumping over the barricade into the thick of them or anything like that. I'll stay behind the barricade, and only take care of a few of the ones that are doing the most damage to it. Until we find out what we're doing, we're essentially stuck here. It wouldn't do us any good if the barricade gave out while we were up here, cause otherwise we'd be completely cornered." He tells them, making the two share a look, before turning back to him to give him two nods in response.
"Just make sure you're careful over there Chris. We've… We've already lost one…" Takashi mutters, making Chris look at him and Rei in sympathy, before nodding as he turns around and heads over to the barricade. While it was true that Hisashi was his friend, the platinum blond haired teen knew Takashi and Rei better than he did Chris. And the same could be said for the raven haired teen, since he didn't know all that much about Hisashi.
Thank you…
Chris shakes his head as Hisashi's final words to him echo through his mind, before he climbs onto the barricade, and looks down at the small crowd of Zombies pushing against it. Scowling at the sight, Chris unsheathes the claws on his bracer, and uses them to separate the heads from two of the Zombie's bodies, leaving them to collapse and roll down the stairs. A few of the other Zombies manage to get their arms through a few cracks in the barricade, and at the sight, Chris pulls out one of the disks at his belt, and separates the arms from the bodies. The Zombies don't even react to the loss of their limbs, and simply continue to try and get to the humans behind the barricade.
For the next few minutes, Chris proceeded to severe limbs, decapitate heads, and knock bodies down the stairs where their brains would be smashed in by the steps. Finally, he stepped away from the barricade when he felt that it was clear enough that if they left fairly soon, they'd be able to get back down the stairs without a problem, until they reached the middle of the roof. After all, the sounds from the Zombies that had been banging against the tables and chairs had drawn the attention of nearly every Zombie on the roof, and they were all slowly making their way towards him and his friends.
Nodding in satisfaction for the time being, however, Chris turns around and heads back over to where he'd left the two. However, what he finds is a crying Rei being held by Takashi, who's looking down at her with a frown, before he notices Chris, and looks up to meet his confused gaze. The look that he gives his fellow teen tells Chris that his friend would tell him later, after Rei had managed to calm down. He nods in acceptance of this, figuring it would probably be for the best not to mention whatever it was that had caused her to break into tears while she was still crying.
So, with that thought in mind, he moves over to the storage area, and sits down against the wall once again, pulling his Sports Bag onto his lap as he does this, before opening it to check the contents once again. Alright, let's see. Plenty of gauze, some bottles of pain killers, rubbing alcohol, and some random bits and pieces to make a makeshift splint if I need to. Alright, the medical supplies look good. As for the food and water, a few bags of chips, and a few bottles of water are still in here. Hopefully we can stock up on more of this stuff either in the school before we leave, or in a convenience store that hasn't been robbed completely after we leave. Chris thinks to himself with a nod, pleased at the amount of the normal items that were still in the bag.
Alright, now onto my items… A few extra Disks and Shurikens, the Mask is still in there, and there's also my "extra layers" that I'll probably be forced to wear before the day is over… He thinks with a frown as he recalls the loud shriek he'd heard over the intercom earlier that day, shaking off the fear that accompanied it. I don't have the luxury of feeling fear right now. When it comes to those Bugs, Takashi and Rei are gonna be counting on me to get us out of that kind of situation. He thinks to himself with resolve, nodding his head as he looks over a couple more items that were in the bag, before closing it again, and looking up to see that Rei had finally managed to calm down, but neither her nor Takashi had let go of one another.
At the sight, Chris manages to smile. Even in this shit show, those two manage to find a bright side. He thinks to himself, before his frown returns. Hopefully Saeko and Kohta have managed to either get out of the school, or survive inside of it as well… He thinks, before giving a snort as a small smile works its way onto his face. Knowing Kohta, he's managed to use something in the school, and transformed it into a makeshift gun to use, while Saeko… Yeah, the Zombies don't stand much of a chance against her. He thinks to himself, relaxing slightly as these thoughts go through his head, since it helped not to have to worry about people he couldn't protect anyways.
A few minutes later, the three teens remove what remained of the barricade, Chris taking out the Zombies that were present on the stairs while the other two moved everything behind him. While they were moving the chairs and tables, they decided to leave them set up as a partial barricade, just in case anyone, at any time, came up to the roof with a similar idea to hold out for a while on the observation deck. And as Chris decapitates another Zombie with his Wrist Blades, as they were named, he thinks about what Takashi had told him just a few minutes prior.
Apparently, while he had cleared out the majority of the Zombies trying to get through the barricade earlier, Rei had asked for Takashi's phone so that she could dial a special number her dad had given her to call in case of an emergency. Unfortunately, it seemed that the call only went one way. While Rei and Takashi could hear the prior's dad, he was unable to hear anything that Rei said. As a result, the man had believed that Takashi had called him, and couldn't hear anything that his daughter was trying to say. Thrusting his Wrist Blades through another Zombie's head, Chris frowns.
He could definitely understand how a situation like that would make Rei break down into tears, especially with everything that had happened during the day up to that point. For her, the failed call was finally her breaking point. Thinking about it, Chris had seen a lot of people reach their breaking point today. Rei, after she had failed call to her dad, all those students and teachers that couldn't face reality, and jumped out of the school, maybe even Hisashi, when he finally realized that he was turning into one of the walking dead, and asked his friends to help him stay himself to the end by helping him over the railing on the roof.
Sighing, Chris attempts to get rid of the depressing thoughts as he kicks the final Zombie down the stairs, watching as the side of its head hits the corner of one of the steps, effectively re-killing it as that side of the head is smashed in. He stares at the lifeless corpse for a few seconds, before Takashi places a hand on his shoulder, making Chris turn to face his friend. "We're ready to go." Takashi tells him, getting a nod from his friend in response.
"Right. Guess our first order of business would be to get back into the school, right?" He asks, getting a nod from Takashi as Rei walks down the stairs to stand beside Takashi.
"Here." She says, holding out his bat to him. Takashi takes it form her, though the two stiffen slightly when their hands graze each other as he goes to take it, before he grips the handle just above Rei's hands, and takes it from her.
"Right, let's go." He says, getting a nod from a blushing Rei, which Chris smiles sadly at the sight of.
It only took the death of one of our friends for Rei to realize her true feelings for Takashi… He thinks to himself as he shakes his head. A few seconds later, however, he's running behind Takashi and Rei as they rush across the rooftop towards the exit, the two in front of him batting away any Zombie that gets close to them, leaving him to take care of any that try to grab at the three from the sides as the first two pass by them. In the process of their escape from the roof, heads go rolling after being decapitated, are smashed in by a baseball bat, run through with a makeshift spear, or the bodies are hit with enough force that they go tumbling over the side of the roof, and fall to the unforgiving ground below.
Takashi is the first to reach the door, wrenching it open and waving the others inside, before slamming it shut behind them to keep any of the Zombies from following them. Once he does this, he shares a nod with the other two, before they start to descend the stairs towards the ground floor, stopping when they reach a landing a few flights down from the roof as Rei brings up a valid question. "Where do we run to?" She asks Takashi. The raven haired teen is silent for a few seconds as he thinks about the question, before turning to face his two friends with what he hopes is a reassuring smile.
"My house. We go there and get the supplies we need, and then meet up with other people who haven't turned yet." He says, resting his bat on his shoulder. "Work together, and find some place safe. Sounds like a plan to me." He says, getting nods from his friends in response, Chris giving his own smile.
"Yeah. A rough plan, but a plan none the less. Better than what most people are doing right now." He admits, Takashi nodding in agreement as Rei continues to smile at finally having something logical to latch onto in the situation they were currently in.
"Yeah, you're right. Now that we know my dad's okay… Oh! We should probably call your house to make sure they're alright too." She says, getting a small scoff from Takashi in response.
"Waste of time, nobody's home. My dad won't be back in town until next week. And my mom's a school teacher, so she won't be home until after five." He says, before he continues walking down the stairs. "Besides, they get on my nerves." He says in a joking manner, getting a light giggle from Rei in response.
"Well, they're parents, that kinda comes with the job." She says as she follows the raven haired teen. Meanwhile, Chris gives a quiet sigh as he follows the two, a few things from the conversation standing out to him. The first wasn't a surprise to him, the two were still in the early stages of denial, even though they probably didn't realize it. Takashi said his dad "won't be back in town until next week", and his mom "won't be home until after five". Just the phrasing alone showed that Takashi was still having trouble coming to terms with everything that was happening.
And then there was the fact that he'd passed his words off in a joking manner, despite what he'd said about his mom. If his mom was in a school, that meant that she was in an environment that was more than likely identical to the events that were occurring here. Meaning that on the inside, it was likely that Takashi was panicking for both of his parents. And yet, he was able to keep it from affecting his judgment when it came to helping his friends. And if he was honest, Chris was already seeing that as one reason for Takashi to be the leader of their little trio, among a few other reasons. However, he's brought out of his thoughts a few floors down, when a loud scream of fear fills the air.
At the sound, Chris' eyes widen, before he leaps over his friends and down the stairs, landing and rolling without much of a problem after jumping an entire flight of stairs, and then takes off down the hall in the direction that the cream came from. Takashi and Rei take a moment to stare in shock at what they'd just seen, before they snap out of it and quickly follow their friend. Meanwhile, as Chris took off down the hall, he could only wonder if the scream was caused because of a run in with Zombies, or if the scream had been caused because the person ran into one of them. And he didn't mean that in the way that Hisashi had labeled the Zombies earlier…
However, rounding the corner, he felt a large mixture of shock, relief, and at the same time, a small sliver of fear. The relief was because of a few reasons. Two of which were the sight of two woman, who rounded the corner in front of him at the same time as he did, no doubt brought to the spot because of the scream as well. The first was Saeko Busujima, an 18 year old with Caucasian skin, blue eyes, and long purple hair, who was wearing the female school outfit. The second was the school nurse, Shizuka Marikawa, who had Caucasian skin, long blonde hair, and light brown eyes. She was wearing a white button up shirt, a black skirt that was torn to allow better movement, and brown shoes.
Another large part of the relief came from the fact that even though Takagi was the one being attacked, with Kohta being a few feet away as she used a drill on a Zombie's skull, she was being attacked by a Zombie, and not one of them. And the fear… Well, Takagi was being attacked in the first place, despite holding back the living corpse. "I can't take this anymore! Someone please!" She screams, making the people who'd just showed up share glances with each other as Takashi and Rei join up with Chris just in time to hear Takagi's fear filled plead. And after sharing glances, the group of people are able to communicate without any trouble.
"I'll take the right." Saeko states, and Chris moves by her side a second later, a wide grin on his face.
"It takes two to tango Saeko." He states, getting a grin from the purplette in response as everyone tenses.
"Break!" Takashi exclaims, and everyone rushes towards their respective sides of the wide open area, Chris and Saeko going to the right, while Takashi and Rei head to the left. What followed was the complete slaughter of the walking corpses. Rei pierced the heads of the Zombies on the left, with Takashi taking care of the others by bashing in their heads, hitting one hard enough in the chest that when it hit into the wall behind it, the back of its head was smashed in, causing the body to fall limp to the floor.
On the right side of the area, Chris used his wrist blades to decapitate the Zombies or stab their brains, while Saeko used her Bokken with precision, hitting the tops of the Zombie's heads hard enough that while they weren't smashed to bits, they were instead split open in a way that left the body dead once again. However, when Chris turned to the final Zombie on their side, he felt a familiar feeling surge through him. For Chris, using the Wrist Blades after so long had awoken a part of him that he attempted to leave behind three years ago.
The world around him turned into a living Hell, fighting for his survival, and the scarce number of people that he could actually rely on, had all brought back his memories from the past, and forced his instincts to remember how it was that he acted back then. So, while his next actions were surprising for the purplette that saw what he did, for him, he was forced to accepted this part of himself once again, since from this day forwards, it would be the way that he would have to act to survive. So, he followed his instincts, muscle memory that had been learned over the course a two out of five year period coming back to him.
First, he allowed the Wrist Blades to extend to their full length, each reaching two feet out of the bracer, before he ran the Zombie's stomach through, and lifted the body in front of him. Then, his left hand flew down to his belt, grabbed onto one of the disks there, and then flicked it to activate the serrated edge, before shoving it into the Zombie's head, making the body go limp immediately, before he retracts his Wrist Blades a few seconds later, letting the body fall to the floor as the top half of its head falls onto the floor, and the disk rolls onto its side, revealing the greying brain within.
Chris stares down at the body for a few seconds, before reaching down and grabbing the disk, clipping it onto his belt a few seconds later as he ignores the body below him, and turns around towards the others in the area. Rei and Takashi were each taking care of the last couple zombies on their side, and the Zombie that had been attempting to get to Takagi finally fell to the ground when the drill entered its brain. Meanwhile Kohta had taken the opportunity to reload the nail gun in his hands, and Chris could see a few of the bodies in the area laying on the ground with nails embedded into their heads. Shizuka had stayed out of the way, looking away from the bloodshed. However, when he turned to face Saeko, he raised an eyebrow in confusion.
This was due to the fact that the purplette was staring at him, her gaze being drawn to the body laying at his feet for a few seconds, before it rose back up to meet his eyes. And what surprised Chris was the sudden look of slight lust in her eyes, while at the same time, her cheeks were slightly flushed. At the look that Saeko was giving him, Chris could only raise an eyebrow in response, even as he tried to find out why she was looking at him. At least, before he came to a conclusion.
Huh… Guess that's one thing no one would've known about Saeko if this didn't happen. The fact that she's apparently turned on by this kind of violence. He thinks to himself, before shaking his head clear of those thoughts as everyone's attention is drawn to Takagi as they hear her start to sob, no doubt from the events that just occurred, and what she'd been forced to do as she stares at the dead body lying on the ground in front of her.
"Takagi…"Kohta starts, only for Rei to rush past him towards the pinkette kneeling on the floor, Shizuka right behind her, no doubt hearing the lack of violence and by extension realized that the bloodshed was over, so she immediately went to the student that was in need. And in the process, she boob-checked Kohta, sending him falling backwards onto the floor from the force behind it.
"Are you okay?" Rei asks as she kneels beside Takagi, placing a comforting hand on the pinkette's shoulder, even as Takagi continues to stare at the dead body in front of her.
"Miyamoto…" Takagi says in response, hiccupping because of the tears as her brain attempts to catch up with what happened. As this happens, Chris sighs, before turning to look at Takashi as he closes the doors that led to one of the school skywalks, making sure that no more Zombies would be able to enter the building easily. When he turns around, he finds his friend and the purplette looking at him.
"You already know the school nurse Marikawa right? And I'm Saeko Busujima from class 3-A." She says, getting a nod from Takashi in response.
"I'm Takashi Komuro from class 2-B." He says in response. A few feet away, Rei leaves Shizuka to tend to Takagi as she stands up and looks over at the others, Kohta doing the same after getting over the fact that he'd been boob-checked.
"Ms. Busujima. I remember you won the national championship last year. I'm Rei Miyamoto, I'm from the spear martial arts club." She says with Kohta standing a few feet away, rubbing the back of his head.
"Oh, and I'm Kohta Hirano from class 2-B, just FYI." He introduces himself sheepishly, making Chris roll his eyes in response to his nervousness. While he completely understood it, he was trying to get Kohta to break out of his shell. Hopefully, everything that was happening would let his fellow raven haired teen become more like himself. When he introduces himself, Saeko turns in his direction with a smile.
"Nice to meet you." She says, getting a gasp from Kohta in response, and making Chris roll his eyes again, but this time it's with a smirk.
"And here I was thinking the only guy you liked to tease was me." He whispers to Saeko, getting an "innocent" smile in response. "Anyways, you all know me, so there's no real need for an introduction." He says, getting nods from everyone. However, their good mood is ruined a few seconds later when Takagi finally stops crying, and pushes herself to her feet.
"Why are you all being so warm and fuzzy?" She asks them with anger present in her tone. While most of the teens turn to look at her in confusion, Chris frowns as he recognizes what's happening, but decides to let things play out, and only step in if he needed to. "Why are you being so polite to her Miyamoto? You flunked last year, you're the same age, she's not your elder." Takagi bites out, and Chris flinches when he sees the hurt flash across Rei's face when Takagi says this. And he wasn't the only one.
"What are you talking about Takagi?" Takashi asks the pinkette, a bit of anger making its way into his voice from seeing how Rei reacted to what Takagi said. However, in response to his question, the pinkette simply rounds on the group, tears at the edges of her eyes as she glares at them.
"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 exclaims as she turns around and places a hand on her chest, making Chris tense slightly since she was having a breakdown similar to what happened to Rei earlier after he'd helped Hisashi over the railing. And the last thing he needed was the pinkette losing it and deciding to end it by taking the easy way to the ground floor. That is to say, out the window. However, he's able to relax when he sees Takagi losing steam, while Saeko walks over to her and places a hand on her shoulder.
It's okay… That's enough." The purplette says to Takagi, making the pinkette calm down a bit more, and turn to look at her reflection in mirror hanging on the wall.
"Look at me… All of these blood stains… Now mom… Will have to take it to the cleaners…" She whispers, before Takashi walks over to stand behind her, and meet her gaze in the mirror with a sympathetic one of his own. When this happens, Takagi finally starts to realize just what's happening, everything coming crashing down on her her all at the same time, and it only takes a few seconds for her to completely break down crying, Saeko allowing the pinkette to cry into against her chest as she offers the girl comfort. And as she does this, everyone can only look on in sympathy.
However, Chris has a blank look on his face as he watches the scene in front of him, since he'd already dealt with it hundreds of times before, and it didn't faze him as much as it did the others. So he can only stand there, his face not showing any emotion as his shoe is slowly surrounded by the blood seeping out of the head of the Zombie that he had brutally killed…
Author's Note Part 2: Alright guys, another chapter done! Next chapter will take place in the teacher's lounge, and you can expect there to be a few additions made to it thanks to those "Game Theorists" and "Film Theorists" videos that I told you guys about in the first chapter, so look out for those scenes! (Note: Anime PJ also used these as references in his revised "Zombies and High Schoolers" story, so don't you guys go assuming that I copied him or anything!)
Anyways, I'm sure you guys have seen that I've changed a few things around again in this chapter, but with it being Re-written over a year later, and me only skimming through my previous version to see if there were any scenes that I actually really liked enough to keep in, you really can't expect me to keep everything from that version. Hell, in case you could tell from the previous chapters, I'm hardly using anything from that version anymore…
Also, for those of you that noticed it, yes, I used a Fatality move from the Mortal Kombat X Predator for that Zombie kill scene near the end. Honestly, you can expect more "Glory Kills" like that to show up in the future, along with a few that might be inspired by another AVP game, or even the occasional one from DOOM…
(Addition: Responses to reviews from last chapter:
Anime PJ:
Thanks! As for the focus of Rei's anger, while it was slightly directed at Chris at first, I hope I gave valid reasoning for her anger being brought to Takashi instead. As for the reveals of Chris' backstory, as you can see, I only gave vague info about it this chapter, as opposed to what I've done over the previous two. But, no use giving too much each chapter… As for the eggs hatching, I'll admit that I didn't actually know that, but yes, he pretty much got to the eggs fast enough to take care of them.
If you remember, just add it into a review for this chapter or whatever. Anyways, hope you liked this chapter as much as the previous two!
KingSora3:
Well, you'll just have to wait and see, since I didn't reveal it this chapter… the suspense! Anyways, thanks for the compliment, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!)
With all this said, I've pretty much finished off this chapter. So, thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this, and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!
