DEad Ja Vu


Takashi's fingers latched around the end of the baseball bat firmly as he led the small group up the stairwell. Their goal was the rooftop, as they were hoping they could barricade themselves at the top, right where the fire hose was. However, there were certain… obstacles, in their way.

"Get the fuck out of here," Takashi screamed, swinging the baseball bat horizontall at the zombie in front of him. The bat slammed into the undead's shoulders, and although the striked didn't crush it's head, the force of the blow sent it slamming into the rails. Takashi continued to push with the baseball bat, his lean muscles straining, until the zombie flipped over the edge.

"You're not cool enough to be on my level," Takashi commented, grinning as he watched the zombie plummet four levels, before smashing head first into the ground. A large, red blood splatter marred the ground below.

Hisashi just rolled his eyes at Takashi's line, but Rei replied more verbally.

"You think you're so cool, don't you Takashi," she snapped. Takashi stared at her for a long, drawn out second, before turning around.

"Whatever," he said dismissively, before continuing up the stairwell. They made it to the roof without encountering any more undead, but it appeared they hadn't been the first group of students to attempt this.

Unfortunately, it appeared that they were the only group of students still alive. A dozen undead, dresses in familiar student clothes, shambled around the rooftop. Two of them were leant over a body with its head clearly demolished. They showed no mercy to their fallen. The sound of flesh being stripped from the bone caused the living students to wince as they watched the undead eat the dead.

"Let's get up there," Hisashi said, pointing to the other side of the roof. It was the raised section of the roof, the place where couples often snuck off to during class time to 'let off steam'. There was only one stairwell up, and the main stairwell in the building could be seen jutting up around it, providing a solid wall of cover for anyone to hide behind.

"I'll lead," Takashi said, and before waiting for a response, leapt forwards. He sprinted at the nearest zombie, and swung the bat downwards onto its skull before it noticed them.

"Batters up!" Takashi called, just as the bat smashed down into the skull, crushing it. The student hit the ground, dead, once again. Takashi stumbled forwards, having put too much power into his swing, and the baseball bat swung into the concrete floor.

The banging resonated around the roof, and every single undead turned to face the source of the noise. There was complete silence for just a moment.

Then one of the students roared, the jaws of his mouth dislocating as he forced them open. As one, the undead converged upon them.

As one, without any words being spoken, the three students began running for the raised roof. Hisashi, who was weaponless, ran behind Takashi and Rei. Rei speared an undead that was in her way, directly through the heart. The undead barely reacted. They just reached their arms forwards, desperately swiping at Rei as they slowly slid down the bloody, make shift spear. Takashi stepped over to her, baseball bat raised to help her.

"Hisashi!" Rei screamed

Takashi hesitated. Why was he even helping her? Why had he even gone to her classroom in the first place? Every word she said felt like a knife wound to the heart.

Then the undead roared in frustration as it scrambled forwards, further impaling itself, as it tried to reach Rei. Takashi placed his foot forwards and swung his weapon. The bat collided with the students head, and its face caved in.

"And I thought you looked ugly before," Takashi joked, kicking the undead with his foot harshly, causing it to slide off the end of the spear.

Takashi glanced at Rei, expecting a word or two of gratitude.

Nothing.

Hisashi ran forwards and grabbed Rei's hand, who had stopped running as she stared at Takashi. He dragged her forwards and up the stairs to safety. Takashi growled under his breath, but continued to follow. He reached the base of the stairs, but instead of running up, he held his ground at the bottom.

A female undead clambered towards him. Her skirt had been completely torn off, revealing her striped panties. She might have been pretty before she'd died. Takashi glanced at her face. He could just make out where there may have been cute dimples in her cheeks. It didn't help that half of her hair was torn out, and blood was seeping from one of her missing eyeballs.

"This is so fucked up," Takashi muttered to himself. The undead girl screamed, an unearthly sound that should never have escaped a female's lips. He slowly raised his baseball bat up high.

"I was brought up to never hit a girl," Takashi said to the undead sadly, "But I already slapped a bitch earlier today." He then slammed the bat down upon her face. Her features crumples under the weight of the wood, and she hit the ground limp.

"Takashi, get your ass up here!" Hisashi called.

"Do you have a barricade set up yet?" Takashi asked. He couldn't glance backwards. he was steadily following the remaining undead as they shambled towards him.

"All set, I'll give you a hand over," Hisashi replied. In response, Takashi leapt up the stairs, ignoring the undead behind him. He leapt at the barricade of desks and chairs that Hisashi had set up and clambered up halfway. Just as he felt himself slipping, Hisashi grabbed his wrist, and with a firm grip, tugged him over the edge.

The two collapsed on the ground, laughing.

"What the hell's so funny?" Rei shouted at them. The sound of fists banging slowly, but repetitively against their barricade punctuated her statement.

Takashi turned to stare at his ex-girlfriend, who was glaring at him furiously. At the moment though, so pumped up on adrenaline, he couldn't bring himself to be angry.

"I'm just happy I'm alive," Takashi replied, grinning at her.

Then, they waited.

There wasn't much to do. There wasn't anything to actually, especially for Takashi. Rei was cuddled up next to Hisashi, practically asleep. Black Hawk helicopters flew by, and Rei tried calling her father, but in the end, the students were alone, living among the dead.

"What are we going to do?" Takashi eventually asked, breaking the long, dreary silence. It was only a silence in talking though. The constant moaning and pounding of the undead were ceaseless.

"What do you mean?" Rei asked, her hazel eyes peeking open to stare at him.

"We can't stay here forever," Takashi replied. "We have no food, no water, no source of heat. Come night, we'll probably freeze to death."

"So we need to get out of here," Hisashi agreed, sighing. He picked himself up and walked over to their barricade. He peered over the edges, and paled considerably. "Shit, there's more of them."

"How many?" Takashi asked, not really bothered.

"About sixty."

Takashi turned around to stare at his friend, eyes wide.

"Sixty."

"Yeah, sixtyish."

"What, the fuck," Takashi swore, kicking the nearby fire hose reel in frustration. "We can't break past sixty of them."

"What are we going to do, Hisashi?" Rei asked, her eyes worried. Her boyfriend walked up to her, holding her tight.

"It's fine, we'll think of something. I always do in the end, don't I?"

"Mmm, yeah, you do."

"Hey, guys?" Takashi called.

"Yeah, I know, no PDA," Hisashi said, rolling his eyes.

"No, not that," Takashi called, and Hisashi finally realised that his friend's voice was different. He turned to his friend, and saw that he was staring at the fire hose.

"Remember middle school?" Takashi asked.

"Do I ever," Hisashi replied, chuckling, "we were suspended for a week after that."

"Think it'll work again?" Takashi asked.

"Only one way to find out," Hisashi grinned.

It was amazing what having a goal to work towards could do to people. Gone were the lost and vacant expressions upon the students faces. Now they worked with determined eyes, setting up the fire hose in front of the stairwell, and slowly weakening the barricade so that it would tumble forwards.

"Ready?" Takashi called.

"Ready," Rei replied.

"Three," Hisashi began.

"Two," Rei counted.

"One!" Takashi cried.

Hisashi walked forwards and kicked the barricade. The desks and tables tumbled forwards with ease, knocking the current undead down the stairs, crushing several of them under the wooden weight.

"Now Rei!" Hisashi called.

She twisted the handle as fast as she could, allowing for a large blast of water pressure to shoot out.

Nothing happened though.

"Rei, did you turn it on?" Takashi called.

"Of course I did! Why isn't it running?" Rei replied.

The undead had picked themselves up and were clambering up the stairwell towards them. Hisashi hadn't been lying. There were at least sixty of them.

"Guess we fucked this one up," Takashi muttered, chuckling weakly.

"You, fucked this one up," Rei snapped at Takashi.

There was no response for her. There was nothing he could say. Even as the undead reached him and tore into his body, there was nothing Takashi could have, or wanted to say to her.

He didn't even scream when he felt his throat torn out by sharp, powerful teeth.


I awoke with a searing pain in my throat, as if I'd swallowed liquid fire. I scratched at my neck, leaving sharp, red marks. Only moments after the pain resided, I felt a new pain arise in my stomach. Swallowing hard, and clenching my throat, I ran to the bathroom, just in time to empty the contents of last night's dinner into the toilet.

I groaned, mumbling various swear words under my breath. I felt better almost immediately though. I flushed the toilet, grabbed the disinfectant, and gave the seat and inside a quick clean. Mum'd kill me if I left the toilet without cleaning it.

I showered, and felt back to normal after several minutes of letting the warm water run down my shoulders.

The dream, like the other two, had been highly realistic. The difference was that this was the first time I'd experienced pain in the dream. The first dream had been a smooth, instant death, while the second dream had been harmless for me. The pain had felt so real. I shivered as I felt ghostly teeth pressed against my throat.

Groaning, I made my way downstairs. I completed my morning ritual by snatching a piece of toast from Mum's plate, and slipped through the front door before she could lecture me. I wasn't late for school, so I spent my time casually walking up the hill to school. Sure, the motorbike would have been more entertaining, but I had already been caught riding illegally once.

As she had been for the past month, Saya was waiting for me at the entrance to the school. She stood haughtily, glaring at anyone that stared at her for too long, which, unfortunately for her, was a large portion of the boys.

"Enjoying the stares?" I asked teasingly. She scowled at me, and shoved a stapled set of paper into my hands.

"Memorise that by tomorrow, idiot," she snapped.

I sighed. I probably shouldn't have said anything. Saya had been used to stares from boys her whole life. Growing up with politically powerful parents tended to do that to their children.

"Saya," I began, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that."

She turned, her pink hair tails swinging along with her body, and her sharp expression softened slightly. Her amber eyes seemed to shine brighter than usual when she stared at me.

"I know Komura. Thank you," she said. It was probably in that moment that I understood why a large portion of the boys couldn't stop staring at her. She was cute when she smiled the way she did, a tight lipped smile that was so rare on her, it was like a secret. A secret that she was sharing only with me.

"What's wrong Komura, you're blushing," Saya said teasingly, edging closer to me.

"Eh, well, it's just that…" I stammered, trying to think of what to say. "Have I ever told you that you look good?"

Saya paused, her eyes widening slightly. "No," she said slowly, "I don't believe you've ever said that."

"Right. Well. You look good," I finished lamely.

It must not have been as lame as I thought. Saya giggled softly as she hid her face beneath one hand.

"Come on then, Mr. Suave," Saya said, grabbing my arm and hugging it close to her. "We have class to get to."

I tried not to smirk as I saw the faces of the other boys, as Saya, looking as cute as she always does, led me to class, holding my arm close to her body.

I was still looking pretty smug though.

Classes felt like they went on forever. Still, I was amazed at how much I was understanding compared to last month. Saya's stern, lecturing voice playing in my mind every time we looked at something complicated, and her sharp words just seemed to slice through the confusion, allowing everything to make sense. We even received a quiz back, and I score in the high nineties. Saya caught my eye, and she quirked an eyebrow at me. I replied with a wink and a thumbs up, causing her to smile proudly.

"That's incredible Hisashi!" Rei's voice called suddenly, piercing through my happiness. "You scored an eighty-five."

"It's not that great," Hisashi said humbly. "I'm sure Saya scored full marks."

"Who cares about her," Rei said, a tone of jealousy in her voice. She glanced at the teacher, to make sure her back was to them, before leaning in and kissing him quickly on the lips.

That was too much for me. I stood up, my chair scraping loudly against the floor as I hurriedly escaped the room. I caught Hisashi's apologetic glance, just before I stormed out of the room. I also caught Rei's insufferably smug expression as she followed my exit, but I tried to ignore that part.

I somehow ended up on the rooftop. It must have been a habit I'd developed from Hisashi. 'When in turmoil, head for the roof', or something like that.

There was no one up at the roof yet. Lunch didn't start for several more minutes. Most classes were still doing lectures. I sighed, and strolled around the roof, looking for something to do. My dream from last night distracted me as I stared at the vacant roof. Was it really possible for an undead outbreak to occur within the school?

I snorted, and shook my head. Like hell it was. I must have been watching too many scary movies lately. Nevertheless, I made my way to the raised platform of the roof, to where the fire hose lay. I stared at it, wondering if, just maybe, the water wasn't running, just like in my dream.

I glanced around me suspiciously. If someone saw me playing with the fire hose, I'd be serious trouble, especially with the way Shido was eyeing me these days. The roof was still empty though, so I unreeled the hose, and pointed it away from me. With my other hand, I reached behind me, fumbling for the handle.

"Hey, Komuro, are you up here?" Saya called, suddenly walking up the stair case. She turned to face me, and consequently the, also the high powered fire hose, just as I spun the handle around, releasing the water.

Saya screamed at the top of her voice. It was really quite an attractive scream, and, like everything coming from her, surprisingly cute. She ducked to the side, and tucked her hands and head into her chest, bracing herself for a blast of cold water.

Which never arrived.

"Huh, so it doesn't work," I said to myself, staring at the end of the hose curiously. I then turned to Saya, who was still tucked in a ball, shivering slightly as she waited for the water, and chuckled softly. Next moment I found myself in a headlock, my back bent towards the ground as Saya accommodated for my height.

"You think that's funny do you?" Saya snapped, tightening her grip around my neck.

"Ahh, I give, I give!" I declared, tapping the side of her leg as I tried to escape.

"You give? You give what? Your life?" Saya growled, still not appeased.

"I'm so sorry Saya, please forgive me!" I begged. She finally, albeit reluctantly, let me go.

"Do you mind telling me why you were playing with the fire hose?" Saya asked, her hands placed firmly on her hips as she interrogated me. I stood back up straight, stretching my sore back. I couldn't tell her that I'd had a dream about the fire hose not working. That would just make me sound kind of crazy.

"I was feeling nostalgic," I said instead, referring to the time back in middle school.

"You mean when Hisashi and you got suspended for blasting three kids with the fire hose?" Saya asked sceptically.

"That's the one."

We were both silent for a while, until the sound of voices rising from below reached our ears. Lunch had begun. There would be students on the roof in less than a minute.

"We should probably tell a teacher that the fire hose isn't working," I commented.

"You're actually an idiot, aren't you?" Saya snapped.

"Why are always so mean to me," I muttered.

"Because it's true," she replied, hands still on her hips. "What do you think would happen if you told the teacher that you discovered the fire hose isn't working?" She leant forwards as she said this, revealing the soft rise of her chest. I could even see the hints of her pink, frilly bra showing.

I pulled my view upwards, which resulted in me staring directly into her amber eyes. That didn't make me feel any better, so I turned my whole body away, scratching the side of my cheek with my hand to cover the blush. I realised that she was still waiting for an answer to a question that I had completely forgotten.

"Er, not sure?" I replied meekly, hoping she wouldn't explode.

"They'd ask you how you discovered it was broken, of course," Saya said, leaning back upright. "And then they'd discover that you tried to play with off-limits equipment."

And then I'd be expelled. She didn't have to say the last part out loud for me to understand.

"It still doesn't feel right though," I murmured, staring at the hose. "What if there's a fire?"

"You really want to fix the hose?" Saya asked sceptically.

"Well, yeah," I said.

"Why? You've never been worried about stuff like that before," Saya interrogated.

Again, I didn't want to tell her about my dreams. She'd think I was crazy. Hell, I already thought I was going crazy. Still, it seemed so important to me that the fire hose worked properly.

"I just want to make sure no one's hurt," I said instead. Saya still looked sceptical. "What if it was you that got hurt Saya, and I knew that it was my fault for never fixing the fire hose?"

"Geez, Komuro," Saya mumbled, turning away from me, so I could no longer see her face. "Fine then," she replied, although her voice sounded slightly different than normal. Slightly more… high pitched? "Luckily for you, I'm a genius, and can fix anything."

"You know what the problem is?" I asked excitedly. Saya turned away from the hose and made her way to the nearby power box.

"Not exactly," Saya admitted, "but it most probably has something to do with the power."

"Power?" I asked, confused. "But aren't hoses run by pressure?"

"Idiot," Saya mumbled under her breath. She tried to pull open the power box, but wasn't strong enough to. "Hey, idiot, be useful for once and open this for me."

I walked over and pried my fingernails into the latch that would unlock the box. It was twisted on overly tight, and I could understand why Saya struggled to open it.

"You're not wrong," Saya explained as I worked. "Hoses are run by pressure, but we're on the roof of a multi-story building, and the water source is far below us. The only way to create enough pressure for this hose is through a motor with sufficient power."

"Got it!" I cried, tumbling backwards as the lid of the box flew open. Inside was a variety of fuses and wires, all labeled with various purposes.

"Hmm, how curious," Saya said to herself as she examined the inside.

"What's up?" I asked, standing behind her and peeking my head over her shoulder.

"The wire for the fire hose is right here," Saya said, tracing it with her finger, "and it should plug into here."

"But it's unplugged," I stated, my eyes following her finger.

"Yes, but not just that. It looks like it has purposely been unplugged," Saya mused.

"What?" I exclaimed.

"It doesn't really matter. We just have to plug it back in to fix it," Saya said dismissively, doing exactly what she said.

"But it's curious, isn't it," she said, craning her neck to stare at me.

It was only then that we realised just how close we were to each other. I was pressed up against her back, and my head was positioned right over her shoulder. When she turned her head to face me, our noses were just spaces away. We both blushed heavily, and yanked our heads away from each other. I couldn't help but notice though, that Saya's blushing face really complimented her hair. She had looked really cute.

"G-give it a shot, idiot," Saya said, her eyes averting my gaze. I shrugged my shoulders and stepped over to the hose. I lifted it back up again, and being careful not to point it at Saya this time, twisted the handle.


"Ready?" Takashi called.

"Ready," Rei replied.

"Three," Hisashi began.

"Two," Rei counted.

"One!" Takashi cried.

A powerful burst of water exploded from the end of the hose, rushing forward at an incredible rate. It slammed into the barricades, pushing the back and smashing any of the undead that lay behind. Slowly, I progressed down the stairs, blasting any undead away the tried to make for the bottom of the staircase.

The hose was incredibly high pressure. Every time the blast of water struck an undead, they were sent sliding backwards several meters, collapsing in a tangle of limbs. Several of them that had already weak, torn limbs lost them as the water tore them apart from the body. Slowly, Takashi descended further away from the stairwell, carefully keeping all of the undead away with his new weapon.

"Alright guys, we're good, let's get going," Takashi called, and Rei and Hisashi came running down the stairwell.

"That was such a great idea Hisashi," Rei said to her boyfriend.

Takashi just grit his teeth and continued spraying the undead backwards. He needed someone, anyone other than his ex-girlfriend and boyfriend to take his mind of things.

Anyone.


Someone screamed when water flooded out of the hose. i wasn't sure who, but I knew it couldn't have been Saya, because she was currently by my side. In a panic, I reached over and twisted the handle off, shutting down the water. Standing in front of me was a girl, absolutely soaked with water. Her long, purple hair was plastered against her skin, and her white school uniform was soaked and see-through, causing her black, lacy bra to stand out.

"Are you alright?" I asked meekly.

"Somehow," the girl replied. Despite having just been blasted by high pressured water, and now wearing transparent clothes, she still managed to maintain an air of dignity.

It seemed as if everything would be alright, and that the girl would forgive me.

Until Saya laughed.

It wasn't so much of a laugh, more than it was a quiet giggle, but in the severity of the situation, it was more than enough.

"Hey, Saya, don't laugh at her," I whispered.

"I can't help it. So is this why you were laughing at me earlier?" She replied, still giggling.

"Nothing like it, I didn't actually spray you, did I?" I countered, but I couldn't help the smile that crept onto my face.

"I see you both find this amusing," the girl said, and both Saya and I whipped around to stare at the unfortunate girl. She wrinkled her nose up, and sneezed before she could stop herself.

"I am really, really sorry about this," I said, trying to amend the situation.

"You're names?" the girl asked, ignoring my apology.

"Takashi Komuro," I answered.

"Saya Takagi," Saya answered, still trying to hide a smile.

"I see, I am Saeko Busujima," Saeko said. "Please don't do something like this again," she said simply, before walking off.

Saya and I were completely silent until we were completely certain that Saeko had left the roof.

"I hope we never have anything to do with her again," I said, glancing towards Saya. We caught each others eye, and next thing, we were on the ground, laughing our worries away. It didn't matter that the concrete ground was cold and wet. Our laughter was enough to warm ourselves up.


And so Saeko is introduced.

I realised that I've been rather spoiled in my other stories, in that there's always at least one review per chapter. I never realised just how lonely it is not receive a single one :(

Either way, I'm enjoying writing this, so I probably won't stop. Yet. :P

Cheers

-Council