The woman stared at Rukia wide-eyed as she cleaned her sword off again. "You're the counselor, aren't you? Neliel, right?"

Neliel opened her mouth, but no words came out for a few seconds. "I…uh…yes! Yes, I am!"

Rukia smiled and lent her a hand. "C'mon, we need to get going. As you can probably tell, the school's under attack by zombies—"

The counselor gasped. "Zombies? Is it really true?"

"Naw, I'm really not sure what they are, I just dunno what to call them, so—"

Nel covered her eyes with her hands and squealed. "Oh no! We need to get out of here before the zombies eat out brains!"

Rukia raised an eyebrow. "Er, were you even listening to anything I just said?"

Suddenly, Nel straightened up, eyes wider than tennis balls, and grabbed Rukia by the forearm. "Come, kendo girl! I know how we can get away!"

"Tatsuki—" smack. Tatsuki's arm brace slammed into the face of another zombie, and Keigo's stomach lurched at the awful sound that occurred upon contact.

"What is it, Asano?" she asked carelessly.

"I…I don't really see anyone else here…anyone else that's alive, that is," he stammered.

Tatsuki rolled her eyes. "And your point is?"

"Y-you don't think everyone else has been bitten, do you?"

She paused for a second. "Yeah, pretty much."

"WHAT?" he screamed. "You mean we're the only one's left?"

"Yeah, pretty much. And hey, don't scream, dumbass, you'll attract more of them," Tatsuki snapped.

Keigo buried his face in his hands. "Why must she always make me look like an idiot?" he sobbed.

"It's not her fault, Keigo, I'm sure it just comes to you naturally," Mizuiro said lightly.

For the past ten minutes, the three of them had been slowly making their way up to class 2-B. Surprisingly, there hadn't been many of them to fight off, and Tatsuki was pretty much the only one taking care of the zombies that did attack. Even still, Keigo and Mizuiro gripped their broomstick-halves tightly, prepared to help at any time.

"How far away are we?" Keigo panted. He had been lagging behind for a while now; even though he was skinnier than a stick of pawky, he was still a godawful runner.

"About twenty feet," Mizuiro supplied.

"Oh, wow," Tatsuki laughed. "Time flies when you're having fun, huh?" They stared at her. "It was a joke, guys."

They both chuckled uneasily, and at the count of three, moved into the room.

"It's—" Keigo started.

"Empty," Tatsuki interrupted. "I don't understand. Ichigo said to meet here, why would he not come? Unless he's dead…"

"Oh, look," Mizuiro said boredly. "The window's open."

Tatsuki gasped. "That's it! They had to escape out the window! If we go ahead and go out too, maybe we can still catch them!"

"More climbing?" Keigo groaned. "Great."

"Um, Ms. Oder—uh, Odel—I mean, um—"

"You can just call me Nel."

Rukia nodded. "Right. Nel, where exactly are you taking me?"

She turned around, and the two girls stood face-to-face. "My car, of course! I'm leaving this place, and since you saved my life back there, I suppose I'll have to take you, too!" she cried, whipping back to face the other direction and tightening her grip on Rukia's arm.

Rukia breathed in slowly. "Wait. Don't you think we should try to pick up some of the other survivors, too? Does your car have room?"

Nel sighed, clearly disappointed. "Yes, I suppose so…"

"Aha! Yes! There they are!" Tatsuki yelled as she pointed a finger at Ichigo, Uryu, and Orihime, who were only about fifty yards away.

"Shush, be quiet, remember?" Keigo said. Tatsuki ignored him and ran up to her friends.

"Orihime!" she cried, tackling her in a giant hug.

"T-tatsuki! I'm so glad you're alright!"

Ichigo turned around, and his eyes widened as he saw that his friends had arrived safely. "Oh, hey, you guys made it."

Tatsuki gave him a lighthearted punch in the arm. "What happened to 'meet in class 2-B'?"

"About that—"

Tatsuki shook her head. "You know, never mind, I'm just glad you're okay." To his surprise, she stood on her tiptoes and gave him a short hug as well. In the background, Keigo glared at him.

"Oh, hey, Mizuiro," Ichigo said, completely disregarding Keigo.

"Hi. Oh, and hello, Ishida," Mizuiro said as he turned to face Uryu. "How are you?"

As he lifted a finger to push his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose, Uryu replied, "Despite the situation, quite well. And yourself?"

Mizuiro opened his mouth, but before he could answer, a smooth, crimson-coloured sports vehicle pulled up right beside him.

Keigo cocked his head to the side, shocked. "Hey, that's…"

Mizuho Asano stuck her head out of the car. "Mizuiro, baby, get in! We've gotta get out of here!"

Mizuiro smiled happily. "Okay, then," he said, walking over and climbing in the passenger's seat. Mizuho started the car up again and prepared to drive away.

"H-hey! Mizuho! What about me?" Keigo called nervously.

Laughing dryly, Mizuho pushed down on the petal once more. "Ha! I'm just here to pick up my boyfriend. There's no room for idiot little brothers in my car," she had time to yell before driving away.

Keigo's eye twitched. "D-did you just say BOYFRIEND?" he yelled back as Mizuiro gave him a small wave goodbye.

Tatsuki sighed. "Keigo, by now you should know that Mizuiro's dated practically every Senior in the school."

"B-but she's my sister!"

Uryu snapped his fingers, calling for attention. "Okay, people. As of now, there are five of us here, two of which don't have proper weapons."

Ichigo threw a bat to Keigo and Orihime. "Problem solved."

Nodding, Uryu continued. "Good. Now, we need to find a way out of the school grounds and into the city. Since this is a boarding school, I'm guessing none of you have your own cars?" Everyone nodded. "Then we'll have to go on foot, which is doable."

"Wait," Tatsuki said, looking concerned. "What do we do when we get out of here? Most of us live at the school, and our parents are hundreds of miles away, so we have nowhere to go. And what if the, er, zombie-things are in the city, too?"

Uryu hesitated. "Alright, I'll be blunt; more than likely, these things are in the city. I mean, whatever epidemic caused this outbreak had to come from somewhere, didn't it? That being said, after we escape from the school, we'll have to leave the city too, if not the country—"

Orihime gasped. "Let's try to be optimistic, please," she whimpered. A collective sigh came from the group, and she broke down in tears. "I-I just can't b-believe this is h-ha-happening!" she sobbed.

There was a small silence until Ichigo raised his bat. "What's that?"

Orihime sniffed. "I-it looks like people. Are th-there more survivors?" she asked, looking hopeful.

"Those aren't people!" Uryu grabbed her arm and pulled her back a bit.

"Oi, here they come!" Ichigo yelled.

"Uryu, stay here with Orihime! Asano, get your ass over here and let's fight these things off!" Tatsuki snapped.

The three of them charged forward, Keigo somewhat reluctantly. Tatsuki took the left, Ichigo the right, and Keigo stayed stranded in the middle.

One by one, they began to pick off the zombies, either by smashing their heads in or stabbing them through their hearts.

Thwack. Tatsuki embedded her spikes into another zombie's head, covering her with more blood. She whirled around as decaying hands began to reach for her from behind, and there were at least five of them standing there, ready to bite into her flesh.

Tatsuki stumbled back and fell, landing on the ground, totally helpless. "H-hey, Ichigo! I need a little help here!" she yelled, panicked, but Ichigo was too far away to hear her.

One of them lurched forward, and she shielded her eyes. Shlunk. Blood covered her body, and she gingerly opened her eyes. "K-keigo?"

He smiled weakly, lifting his bloodied bat proudly. "I'm not always useless, am I?"

"Drive around back. There, there, THERE! No, you missed the exit! Here, let me—"

"Hey, don't order me around! I am your elder, aren't I?"

"Yeah, but we're kind of IN THE MIDDLE OF A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, and you just missed where you were supposed to turn!"

"Oh, well I am so sorry about that—"

"Don't give me that sarcastic tone, woman! I just saved your life!"

"Psh, I could've handled it by my—AHG!" Nel jerked on the steering wheel, sending the car flying to the left in order to avoid hitting a few kids who looked like they were still human for the time being.

Rukia's eyes widened and she hurriedly threw open the passenger side door. "I know them! That's Orihime Inoue from class 2-B and Uryu Ishida from class 3-A!"

Nel opened her mouth to say something, but after realizing that Rukia was already gone, she murmured to herself, "Fine. I guess I'll just wait here, then."

"O-orihime? Hey, it's me, Rukia!"

Orihime whipped around so fast that her long orange hair flew up and hit Uryu in the face. "Rukia? Rukia! I'm so glad you're okay!" she cried as she ran forward to embrace the girl that she barely knew.

"Um, hi," Rukia said in surprise. "Uh, hey, listen, I've got the school counselor with me in the car over there, we need to get out of here, and you guys should kind of come with us if you want to live—"

Orihime opened her mouth and held a finger up in front of Rukia's face. "Wait, you can't leave yet! Ichigo and the others are over there fighting some of the, um, things off. We can't go without them!"

Rukia looked over at the three kids fighting and sighed. "You sent Ichigo Kurosaki and Keigo Asano to protect you guys? One's got no motivation whatsoever, and the other's too dumb to tie his own shoes…let me show them how it's done," she said with a wicked grin.

And with that, she was off running towards Ichigo, Tatsuki, and Keigo, anxious to show them "how it was done".

As she ran, she laughed quietly and pulled her sword out of its sheath. Thwack. A zombie fell to the ground, and Ichigo turned around, shocked.

"Hello, Kurosaki," Rukia said with a wide smile. "I've come to save the day."

Ichigo laughed slightly in disbelief. "Rukia Kuchiki, huh? Good to see you could make it," he said as he gave her a high-five.

Rukia blushed. She didn't know him very well, but he was pretty good looking, after all. "Enough talking, let's get going," she said coolly, turning her back on him and engaging in combat once more.

Slash. Thwack. Splatter. Slash. Thwack. Splatter. The next few minutes flew by as more and more twice-dead bodies piled up on the ground.

At long last, all was quiet, and Ichigo and Rukia were the only ones still standing for several yards. They both looked at each other, breathing deeply. "Should we go help Tatsuki now?" Ichigo panted.

"No need, Kurosaki," said Tatsuki's voice from behind. "We're already done. Who's the girl?" she asked.

"Rukia Kuchiki. I'm in your year."

Tatsuki nodded. "Ah, cool. I'm Tatsuki Arisawa, and the hyperventilating idiot over there is Keigo Asano."

Orihime came running up. "Rukia! Ichigo! Tatsuki! You've done it!"

"What, no love for me?" Keigo scowled.

"Now, what did you say about a car?" Orihime asked Rukia.

Rukia straightened up lightning-fast. "Oh, yeah! I've got a car over there, it should fit all of us. We need to go."

"Can't we wait a few more minutes?" Tatsuki asked. "I want to check and see if we can find any more survivors."

Rukia shook her head urgently. "No, we really need to go, more are coming!" Everyone looked in the direction she was pointing and saw hundreds of walking dead moving towards them, and everyone began to run.

"NEL!" Rukia yelled to the counselor, who was leaning out the window. "PULL UP!" She seemed to get the message. Nel started the car—with Uryu safely inside—and sped towards the group.

"Hurry, inside!" They all piled in, and Rukia slammed the door shut just before taking a seat next to Ichigo. "Floor it!" she told Nel.

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!"

Author's Note

New chapter 3 Hopefully now, things are starting to pick up.

Please review, it only takes five seconds, and they touch my soul (-cheesy line of the day)

Espada in the next chappy, I promise!

Later,

-Potter/JediEspada