Resident Ranma
Chapter 5
Disclaimer:- I don't have time to give one at the moment, bigger fish to fry. "Back zombie, back I say! Now give me back the broom….Nice zombie…." Boomm!!! "Hah, you didn't know I had my trusty sawn off under the chair," Boooomm!!!, "Hah, eat lead zombie! Take some of this," Booomm!!!, "and this!" Booomm!!!. "That'll teach them, now, any lawyers out there want some? Didn't think so."
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The first day saw an ordered response to the advance of the T-virus, towns that were known to be infected were wiped off of the map regardless of whether there were survivors or not. The later part of the first day saw those that would destroy the infected areas in turn infected, and the resistance faded until the last governmental defences fell and the virus swept the rest of Japan. The Tendo dojo came to be the new centre of the resistance as the large ki source there sheltered those within its walls and more than three hundred metres out. The survivors knew that if there was anywhere safe then it would be inside the Tendo compound and they made their way to seek sanctuary in their hundreds.
The Nekohanten proved to be indefensible as the zombies smashed their way into the restaurant and forced the Amazons to retreat in the face of over-whelming numbers……
……and so the second day commences with a desperate mission.
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"Everyone has their orders? Xian Pu is heading North to check out any of the old martial arts schools and temples as far as the foothills, Mu Tse you're to head North-East, there's an American military base, you are to raid it for weapons and medical supplies, also there are a couple of places you could check for survivors but that's not a priority for you. Ranma you're heading South, you're going that way because it's going to be infinitely harder to get survivors back through the mess of zombies in the inner city areas, you have the best offensive capabilities. Specific areas for you all to check have been marked on the maps you've each been given, but don't pass up an opportunity to check an unmarked area if you sense ki of any kind. I don't have to tell you that speed is of the essence. The faster you get this done the more likely there are to be survivors. Mu Tse as you're on a supply run you'll only be taking one weapon with you so choose wisely, the others should take whatever weapons they can carry."
"Why stupid duck-boy only need one weapon? You think Xian Pu too too weak to take out some zombies?"
"Hey there's no way I'm gonna take any weapons, only the weak have to rely on them." Ranma glared at the Amazon elder who happened to be glaring right back at him.
"Shut up both of you, Mu Tse is primarily going on a supply run, put simply he can carry more in stuff space than he can with his hands. You two on the other hand are more likely to see combat as you attempt to rescue people and bring them back here. Now remain silent until I've finished, Happosai and I will remain here to maintain a constant Chi presence in the area, we don't know why none of us fell to the virus but I'd lay money on it that it has something to do with our Chi. It also might explain why so many people from around the dojo survived, my hope is that it happens this way in other areas where large sources of Chi are present. Now Mu Tse take me very seriously when I say if you come back with anything that isn't on that list without a good reason I'll superglue your glasses to the bridge of your nose. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, I do honoured elder."
"Good then you'd better drop your weapons." She watched him drop a vast quantity of steel weaponry, she hadn't realised he could carry that much since she hadn't watched him train in a long time, though she noted he kept hold of a wicked looking war scythe. "Smart boy," she murmured, "keep them as far away as possible. Alright you can depart duck-boy" Saying the last loud enough for the only male Amazon present to hear she watched in satisfaction as the white robed Amazon leapt over the wall and disappeared rapidly in the direction of the American base like the obedient male he should be. Xian Pu looked quizzically at the elder, "Okay, you may go now as well, do not tarry anywhere, your sole objective is to rescue as many people as you can. As a secondary objective you should note any stores that we can raid for food." Xian left so quickly that only four people in the compound could follow the purple blur.
"Nice, she's been training ain't she?" Ranma asked of the ancient woman. She didn't answer as she gave him a level look that had Ranma sobering up rapidly.
"Ranma, come with me." She leapt to the top of the wall that surrounded the Tendo home and looked out over the massive crowd of zombies, they didn't look anything like in the movies he'd seen, their skin was pale but nowhere near the greys and blues of the big screen, neither were their eyes white with cataracts. Some of the worst had limbs missing or gaping holes where flesh had been removed as if they'd been eaten. Other than that it could have been a normal crowd of very pale people out for a stroll, well other than the fact that their inhuman attention to the pair on top of the wall was unnerving. "Now Ranma, tell me what turned them into zombies? Do you know how the virus is transmitted?"
"Er, no." He tried not to look too puzzled at the jist of her questions.
"We can discount airborne, at least for us since it seems that our chi protects us. If you're scratched by one however..." she paused as Ranma snorted at the very thought that the clumsy animated corpses could touch him, "Granted it's unlikely but there's another possibility, what if merely touching them leaves you vulnerable? If that's the case you could look just like that." She pointed down at a zombie in the front of the crowd as it reached towards them, it's mouth gaped as if trying to bite. When they'd appeared on the wall the groaning sound that pervaded the air rose to a near wail of despair as the zombies renewed their efforts to get to the living within the high wall.
Ranma went cold as he looked down into the flat stare of the creature. He could feel the hunger as a palpable force. Looking at it with ki sight was even worse as the thing wasn't even there, it had no ki, it was dead but it moved, animated by something else. Something he didn't want to consider as it was dark, this was the very essence of the word evil, not the fact that they were all dead but the fact that anyone could create something like this. How could any human unleash something like this on their own kind?
"The only defence we can be sure of is to not make contact with them. Take the weapon Ranma, live a little longer." The elder held the haft of the spear she'd pulled from a sub-space pocket.
"Alright Khu Lon, I'll take it." He took the spear in his hand then looked down in surprise when she didn't let go.
"Good boy, you'll make a wise leader one day. Sometime in the misty unforeseeable future." She smirked at the irked expression on the youths face as she finally released the weapon.
"So what are Oyaji and Tendo-san gonna do?" He tried not to look to sceptical as he considered the usually useless pair.
"They'll be responsible for clearing out the zombies around the dojo, and hopefully finding the best way to get rid of them…" she trailed off at the smirk on Ranma's face.
"Oyaji and responsible in the same sentence just don't work Old Ghoul. It's one of them, uh, what's the word…"
"You're looking for oxymoron I think." Nabiki said as she stepped out onto the porch.
"Nah I ain't looking for him, I'm pretty sure I already seen him, an your right, he's breathing and he's definitely a moron." Nabiki raised an eyebrow, she'd almost suspected the martial arts jock had made a play on words.
"Hey! That's enough out of you son-in-law you should already be gone." One of these days Ranma was going to figure out how the Old Ghoul kept smacking him in the head with that damned staff of hers.
"Yes elder." He said in a sententious tone as he hopped to the wall, if Xian Pu was fast Ranma could best be described as lightning incarnate as he simply vanished. Khu Lon watched the last of her children vanish into the distance and said a silent prayer for their safety. Happosai cleared his throat as he tried to gain her attention.
"Khu-chan," Happi had a great deal of practise at ignoring women who glared at him, so her worst glare barely moved him at all as he continued, "did you say something about getting my students to get rid of the zombies?"
"You know I did, they've got to do something constructive, other than playing go that is." She cast a disparaging look at the oblivious pair as they sipped saké as if nothing had changed in their world, which was true for all of the next five minutes if she had her way.
"Why bother with those useless sots? I can do it much quicker." He demonstrated as he pulled out a number of his bombs and held them up, their wicks sizzled as they counted down to explosion. Happosai, Grand-master of the Anything Goes school of martial arts looked at the bombs and called out, "Happo Daikarin!" as he cast the one with the shortest wick over the wall, then followed it with the others at equal spacing along the street fronting the dojo, totally ignoring Khu Lon's shouted protest at his action.
"Damn it Happi, that's not the way…" BOOOOOOM!!!
"What? I can't hear you Khu-chan."
"I said….." BOOOOOOM!!! Happosai grinned manically and then shrugged knowing how badly it would annoy her. The windows in the neighbourhood rattled again as the third explosion rocked their world, the fourth caused cracks to appear in the outer wall and Happosai's grin slipped as he realised he might have overdone it a little. The fifth Happo Daikarin exploded and the walls bordering both sides of the street collapsed inwards narrowly missing the people who'd sheltered within the gardens. The street between looked like a glassy plain as the road surface bubbled for a few moments, other than that the street was empty of zombies though they could see the veritable army of dead at either end of the compound regaining their feet from the shock waves passage.
A few moments of silence ensued as the stunned spectators looked at the walls in shockbefore Happosai yelled for his students.
"Get out here you lazy bastards; it's time to earn your keep! Grab a Naginata each and defend either end of the compounds." He stopped speaking as the scared duo ran to do his bidding faster than he'd actually thought the pair could move, then again if the zombies got in here it was all over for them as well as the couple of hundred survivors they'd managed to get into the compound. Just as he was about to assist a scorched arm landed a few paces in front of him, shortly thereafter more body parts came down, all showing varying degrees of being burned.
"Well what do ya know Khu-chan, it's raining." He laughed uproariously as he made a gesture to grab an umbrella from the front hall while dodging a thrown brick.
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Ranma was just passing Furinkan High school when he heard the first of the explosions that shattered the silence causing him to glance backwards at the rising column of smoke near the dojo. His attempt to change directions was thwarted as his feet went through the tiles of the next roof. His body connected with an underlying joist and he spun into the darkness before smashing through the plasterboard ceiling and into the room below and landing in a heap. A zombie that'd been trapped in the room disappeared in a flash of energy as it was punched through the side of the suburban home and into the street below where the badly mangled and partially cooked body attempted to stand up.
Ranma didn't wait to see if the zombie made it as he catapulted himself back through the hole he'd made in the ceiling and bolted for home. Halfway back he started to cycle his ki in preparation for whatever he'd find. Hitting the next roof right at the apex he spun to the side to avoid a smoking torso, somersaulted over an assortment of body parts that came flying in his direction and then he was back on track. In passing he noted the kind of damage done to the bodies or at least parts there of and figured out the most likely candidate for an ass whooping when he got back.
'Well it ain't Pops or Soun, they ain't got that kind a' fire-power, Khu Lon ain't that stupid. I suppose that leaves Happosai or maybe Ryoga. Nah, I think I can let Ryoga off the hook since the Shi Shi Hokoudan woulda left the zombies crushed in the bottom of the crater it forms. Alright, Happosai it is….' He struck the crest of the last roof with his right foot and let his momentum change his trajectory just slightly downwards, anyone who saw it might have thought that he'd tripped but would have been disabused of that idea when his left foot struck the near side of the roof on his way down and propelled him towards the road between the two compounds even faster than before.
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Khu Lon lowered her hand, she'd been about to start working on the gap in the wall when Happosai opened his mouth and laughed like a hyena. She'd thrown the brick in her hand on reflex and barely missed the insane troll as he ducked towards the umbrella stand. The startled yelp from further in the shadows of the house told her that someone else hadn't been so lucky.
"Stop playing around Happi, we've got work to do. They can't hold the breach for very long…." Her sixth senses started to tingle as she 'felt' something heading in their direction at great speed; she turned around in time to see Ranma land in the centre of the road equidistant from both of the fathers. He nailed the landing so hard he seemed to vibrate in the air as her eyes tracked a motion that was expected but never happened. He reminded her of that road-runner character from the cartoon she thought irreverently.
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Ranma had assessed the situation while coming in for his landing and figured that the biggest problem was that the two fathers were about to be overrun by zombies, the rebuilding of the wall could take a back seat to the gaining of needed breathing space.
"Hey Pops! Fire in the hole!!" He yelled as he powered up a massive Mouko Takabisha which he fired off even before his father started to take evasive action by springing several metres to his left. The elder Saotome felt the massive energy blast brush by him as he landed in a sprawling heap on the grass of the next house over the back of his gi smoking slightly. The ball of energy roared off down the street smashing anything in its path, zombies flew in all directions as the ball smashed into the house at the end of the street and detonating. The back of the suburban home disintegrated in a spreading arc of deadly shrapnel even as the roof and front wall began a slow motion collapse under their own weight.
"It needn't have been quite that close boy!" Genma jumped to his feet to berate his son but was stopped by the cold glare that came his way in return.
"Yeah, you're just gettin' slow old man! I ain't got time for this now I gotta help Tendo-san. Hey Soun! You might wanna get out of the way," he yelled as he turned from his father and watched as Soun moved rapidly to the side covering even more distance than his long-time friend had since he'd seen the ravening ball of destructive energy that Ranma had launched down the far street. The second sphere of energy roared through the gap like a freight train and proved to be just as unstoppable as it rolled through the zombie hordes crushing what it didn't blast out of its way. At about three hundred metres the energy dissipated into the air as it reached the effective range that Ranma could control its form. Ranma stood panting as he attempted to regain some of his energy, he very rarely had to throw so much energy in one go as he just had. Given a chance to look around at the stalled scene around him he realized that the people who should be rebuilding the walls were too busy staring at him.
"Oi! Are ya waitin' for an engraved invitation? Get the walls rebuilt before they come back!" He watched in satisfaction as Happosai and Khu Lon flew into action even as he moved to the section of wall still standing near Soun, using the naginata he'd been forced to take with him he used it to slice a five metre section of wall and then to undercut it. The powered leap he made hit the top of the wall with enough force to break the wall off in one complete slab as he grabbed the top of the wall and flipped over to land in time to brace the wall. Shifting his grip he bent his knees lower so that the wall shifted over him and then stood back up with the wall balanced on his palms as he moved to cover the breach.
Khu Lon appeared at his elbow as he held the wall up, she placed several large pieces of rubble down just as the wave of zombies struck the wall. More of the people in the compound waddled up carrying rubble and soon the wall ceased to tremble as the zombies attempted to push through. All in all it took ten minutes for Ranma to feel the wall was secure, he'd had time to look around and see that the people at the far end had fared a little worse than he had but all in all had done the same thing. The exception had been his father who'd attempted to do the same thing as he had with the wall but when he'd undercut it he'd gone too far and the wall was already collapsing towards him when he struck the top of it. It took both Soun and Happosai to lift the wall off of the corpulent martial artist.
When everything settled back down Genma stumbled away groaning in pain.
"Hey Pops, looking good! You losing weight?"
"What are you talking about insolent boy?"
"I dunno you look thinner or something." Ranma laughed at his father, which was nothing new really. What was new was that a number of people in the compound joined him. It took a moment for him to realize they weren't laughing in hilarity but rather nearly hysterically as reaction to the close call set in. That reminded him that Happosai needed to be put on notice not to do anything stupid like that. He turned around to find the diminutive martial artist.
"Hey Old Goat! You responsible for all this?"
Happosai looked sheepishly at his heir apparent as he snubbed his toe into the ground. Ranma wasn't buying whatever the old man was trying to sell though and he continued staring at the elder.
"Alright, alright it was my fault alright. I admit it! I just wanted to clear the zombies like Khu-chan wanted." He clasped his hands together while he did his pious master act, "Look, things went bad but I did it for the best of reasons, and as a bonus we have a larger compound for the people you rescue. By the way what are you doing back here, shouldn't you be out rescuing damsels in distress?"
"Oh I dunno, it might have something ta do with explosions in the street! An' damsel rescuing can wait a while, like I thought it might be good to have somewhere to come back to if I did find anyone to rescue." Ranma was highly unamused by the Grand-masters antics, "Next time leave it up to Pops and Tendo to do what they're asked to do. And you can get these body parts cleared up as well." He said in an aside.
Khu Lon walked up behind Happosai as he opened his mouth to begin a protest, the sound of her staff meeting the back of his head reverberated around the enclosed area, while leaving a crease that rapidly began to swell. "Shut up Happosai, don't even think of making excuses. Son-in-law, I think we have things under control now. Why don't you go on with your mission now?"
"Yeah I suppose. Just keep the hentai from doing anything else stupid."
"I'll try, Kami knows I'll try." Khu Lon shook her head in resignation at the folly of the only other elder present. Age was supposed to impart wisdom or some such but that didn't seem to be the case in Happi's case.
"I can hear you, you know?" Happosai groused as Ranma made his way to the wall.
"Son-in-law? Why are you leaving the naginata behind?"
"I told ya I don't need no weapon, I'll just blast anything that need it." He smirked at the elders expression as she gave in to the inevitable. "I'll see you guys later, I gotta go rescue some of them damsels you mentioned." For the second time in less than half an hour the pig-tailed martial artist vanished in a red and black blur that was barely visible to the two multi-centarians.
"Make sure they're pretty." The ancient hentai yelled after his protégé. Happosai smiled at the thought of the pretty ladies then winced as Khu Lon introduced her staff to the back of his head again, "Will you stop doing that?"
"When you stop being an idiot. Now you'd better go and check those houses for zombies, make sure the gates out onto the back alley are secure at the same time."
"Why me?"
"Call it penance for you stupidity." Khu Lon said ascerbically.
"Good point. Remind me to never get on Ranma's bad side." He said as he began to walk away.
"Too late Happi. I don't think I've seen him that aggravated in a long time. I think if we didn't need you so badly he'd have taken you out for that."
"Way to make me feel better about it Khu-chan, I'd better go check on the zombie situation."
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Remi Sakimodo moved the mouse and clicked it rapidly, "Yeah, another zombie bites the dust," he yelled, the reaper hidden in the corner took him by surprise as it jumped his character and annihilated it, "Damn, I'll get it next time." He went to click on the restart button when a hand descended on his shoulder and spun him in the office chair. The screen blanked and showed the Doom 3 logo on the start screen.
"Hey man, give some of us a chance, you've been on for half an hour. Nabiki said we gotta take it in turns. Tendo rules."
"Shut up dweeb, I'll play it again if I want, and no weak pussy like you can stop me." He punched the younger boy in the shoulder as he swung back to the screen ready to click restart again. Remi blinked as he came face to face with a head which blinked back at him, it seemed to depict some girl in lines and shadows of ruby Sred on the computer screen.
"Excuse me, but you're not a zombie are you?" Issued from the speakers.
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Authors notes:- Okay everybody, I have to admit this took longer to get out than I thought it would. That had something to do with a lack of response to the last chapter, I didn't know if anyone really wanted to see the next chapter. Don't forget to review, let me know if you liked this chapter, hated it, thought it needed work. You get the idea, just drop a line regardless.
As you can see I'm moving things into another track in the story, i.e. how the survivors survive. Ryoga is still around wreaking mayhem and destruction wherever he goes. The Americans are eventually going to turn up, just got to figure a reasonable way to make it happen.
Hope you enjoyed what I wrote.