Hey there guys, hope you're all doing well. Sorry for getting this out after so long, but I got busy with some essays and those certainly took a while. On the bright side, the current college semester is coming to an end and I will officially be done with my freshman year in college! On another note, I'm gonna have to find a job afterwards and I don't have the slightest clue how long that will take or how much time I will be spending away from writing…
Anyways, here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy.
Chapter 22
The group spent a good bit of time burying the man that the Assault from earlier killed, Takashi being the one to gently lower the man's mangled body into a hole that Dante and Kohta dug in his backyard. None of them said anything for they really couldn't think of anything to really say, so they just settled for bowing their heads in silence for a moment. They all looked a little solemn throughout this process, even Dante.
After that however, they wasted no time in gathering up all of their stuff and getting some food from the fridge to take on their travel. "You got any bags?" Lady asked Takashi as she grabbed a small handful of snacks while Alice had helped her out with getting a few instant ramen she had seen.
Takashi nodded and went to go get the bags for the food, while Rei, Saeko, and Saya were making sure that they had some spare clothes on hand in case of another wardrobe malfunction, Rei and Saeko being the ones more worried on that matter. Shizuka, on suggestion from Dante and Lady, was looking around in some of the cabinets to see if there were any medical supplies that could be of use to them. Dante and Kohta merely focused on making sure that all of their guns were in working condition and fully loaded. Even Zeke was helping out a bit as Takashi handed him a bag and pointed him to Shizuka, the dog immediately making a bee-line towards the blonde with bag in mouth. Shizuka petted Zeke as she gratefully accepted the bag; while she may not have found anything meant specifically to treat wounds, she did find some supplies that would at least help with other things and began to fill the bag with them.
Takashi, after handing a bag or two to Lady and Alice, went towards Dante and Kohta. "Almost done?"
Kohta looked up at him briefly before focusing back on the machine gun in hand. "Yeah. Just finished checking out each piece of this baby. All that's left to do is just check how much ammo I have left for it." As soon as he said that, the gun otaku quickly pulled out the magazine that it currently had and smiled a bit in satisfaction. "A few bullets used up, but it shouldn't make too much of a difference as long as we don't run into too many of Them or demons."
Takashi nodded, feeling the same as Kohta. "That's good. And you Dante?" he said, the last part directed to the silver haired devil hunter.
Dante gave him a cocky grin. "Armed and ready," he replied as he finished checking Ebony and Ivory. He twirled them around in his hands before putting them away.
Everyone else then began to come into the living room, where Dante and Kohta had been checking the guns. "We're ready," Rei said as she hefted an old backpack of Takashi's, said item clearly stuffed full of clothes.
"Will we be okay carrying all of this?" Shizuka asked as she took note of just how much stuff they had.
"We'll be fine," Kohta answered, reaching behind the couch nearby and pulling out a large dark blue duffle bag. "I found this just a while ago. Figured it would come in handy."
He handed the bag over to Shizuka to put in the bag she had and then Lady and Alice stuffed in theirs as well, being careful to make sure that the bags didn't rip open or squash one another. After a moment, the bags were in and Kohta zipped up the duffle bag, then hoisting the strap over one of his shoulders. He nodded to Takashi, who nodded back.
"Alright. Now let's leave," he said.
He moved aside the blockade separating the door from them and then moved the door itself, walking outside right afterwards with the others following. He turned right, going in the direction where the man had come from and did his best not to spare a glance to the now dried blood left on the ground.
"Where exactly are we going, kid?" Dante asked as he suddenly came up next to him.
Takashi looked at him briefly if only to ensure he doesn't look at the dried blood as he now walked near it and past it. "Well, like I said, we're leaving the country. Nowhere is safe as we can all see so we just have to go to a seaport and get ourselves a boat."
Dante raised an eyebrow. "Alright, I get that. But do you know how to drive a boat? Because I'll tell ya right now that I don't and neither does Lady. And I'm betting the others don't know either."
Takashi shrugged. "I'll manage. If I can drive a damn motorcycle and a car without any real experience then I think I can handle a boat."
"We're gonna hold you to that," Lady said, her and the rest of the group now walking right behind Takashi and Dante.
"And please try not to crash the boat when we do get our hands on one," Saeko said in good humor, remembering how she, Saya, and Rei had witnessed his saving of Alice what felt like so long ago by crashing said vehicle through the house gate. Saeko also couldn't help but remember when Takashi also used the buggy to keep the zombies occupied by keeping it in a fountain.
Takashi had the decency to blush in embarrassment. "I'll keep that in mind."
They all then walked in quiet for a while as they followed Takashi down the streets, making a few turns along the way. They were still in the suburban area, but several minutes later, they were slowly beginning to exit this area and get into the actual city.
"Just where is the nearest port anyway?" Kotha asked suddenly, making the whole group come to a stop for a moment.
Takashi scratched the back of his head. "Well, I know where it's at, but I've never been able to memorize the street names to get there."
The group looked at him with slight worry in their eyes. "But you do remember how to get there?" Rei asked.
Takashi nodded. "Then that's all that matters right now," Rei muttered, Saya nodding her head in agreement.
Takashi sighed and began to lead them once again the way he remembers. However, once he walked a bit further, he stopped again. "Holy shit," he whispered.
The group stopped too and they too felt like repeating his words at the sight of all the blood and bodies littered across the streets. Limbs flung about, torsos blasted throw by something and more blood than any other time they've seen blood before.
Shizuka immediately covered Alice's eyes, but the little girl had already seen the sight before them and so it was pointless; she most likely wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight.
"Definitely the work of demons," Dante said, walking towards the nearest, most relatively intact body and taking a good look at it.
Lady hefted the Kalina Ann. "We better get going. If the state the city is in right now is any indication, then there must a very, very large number of demons roaming around. Even with me and Dante around, there might be too many to handle."
The group looked around, trying to get their eyes off of the mutilated bodies, and took note of what Lady clearly saw. The surrounding buildings were in even more terrible states than the houses, large chunks of them missing, others collapsed and smoking. The ones still standing ranged from looking like they could stand for a while still while others looked ready to fall down as soon as someone touched them. It didn't really help soothe the group at the fact that some bodies also loitered the outside of some of these buildings. Some of the walls were even covered in now dried blood, though there were those nearby where the blood seemed rather fresh.
"Yeah, good point," Rei said dumbly, not really knowing what else to say at this point.
Takashi nodded his head in agreement. "Let's just keep moving. We could go through the alleys too if it comes to that."
He started walking, but Saya caught up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "And you're sure you know your way to the nearest seaport?" she asked, eyebrow raised in what could possibly be scrutiny.
"Yeah," was Takashi's reply.
Saya's eyebrow raised even further. "You sure? even if we go the back ways?"
Takashi sighed and shook Saya's hand off his shoulder. "Yes, I'm damn sure."
She looked him dead in the eyes as he answered back and a few seconds later she backed off, satisfied with his confidence in his words.
Takashi started walking again and so did the rest of the group. They all followed closely behind him, yet also kept a few feet apart from each other, that way should an attack of some kind come, they'll all have enough space to get out their weapons without bumping into one another. There was no noise save for their own relatively light footsteps and the debris that would sometimes fall from crumbling structures.
"Anyone else reminded of a certain video game series here?" Kohta said from out of the blue. "Seriously, the destroyed buildings, the blood, no one around save for us?"
Some of the group smiled to themselves, Dante actually chuckling as they realized what he was getting at. "Just be thankful we don't have some morphing monster after us," Takashi said.
They fell silent again as they moved on, eventually making their way across several city blocks, some turns made at certain streets. "We sure decided to prepare this time around," Saeko noted aloud.
Saya nodded. "We have to. After how things have turned out for us so far and the state of everything now, we have to keep our own food and supplies on hand."
Saeko spared a look around. No matter which street they were on, the look of everything still seemed to remain the same. That certainly didn't calm her. So far, there have been not so much as a single sign of human life nor any glimpse of a demon or Them. Have all the humans in the city been killed or turned into Them? And where did the demons go? These were merely some of the questions running through Saeko's mind right now. "This is truly bad. Just how far does all of this destruction extend?" she thought. Out loud though, she replied to Saya's words. "Makes sense, though we will have to find some place to rest if it's required down the line."
Lady hung back to walk near the girls. "That's true. But I wouldn't count on that if every building and home is like this," she said, gesturing to the buildings around, "and that's assuming we don't get to the seaport soon."
The girls nodded and fell silent while the guys up front started a bit of a conversation of their own. "Just how far is the seaport anyway?" Dante asked Takashi.
Takashi mulled over this without slowing down in his pace. "Well, since we're walking… maybe a few hours?"
"That's… actually closer than I expected," Kohta remarked, having thought it would be quite a distance away that would require them to rest for the night at least once.
"We will be putting the stuff in the duffle bag to good use though; it's not like we're gonna be out of danger once we get to a damn boat," Takashi said to him.
"As long as there ain't a damn zombie head in an ice chest aboard the boat, then I'm not gonna complain about how things go," Dante said while cracking his neck.
The boys nodded; they were far more prepared this time around than any other time as Saeko noted earlier and with good reason too. After all, is there really such a thing as being over prepared in situations like these?
The group walked in silence once again until they heard the unmistakable moan of a zombie around a nearby corner. They all froze, suddenly very careful in moving around, even Dante and Lady. They really weren't in the mood to be causing any noise and having to fight their way through God knows how many zombies. Not even Dante wanted to spend all day painting the city with Them.
The group walked slowly around the next corner, thinking for the briefest of seconds that they were safe, but that thought immediately went into the gutter of their minds as they looked down the street they just turned on. Many of Them, far more than they could count in a relatively quick manner, were loitering about, walking without purpose around the streets. Some bumped into walls, the slight noise drawing some more nearby to that spot.
"So many," Rei whispered, but the whole group heard it; they were just that silent.
"Far too many," Saya said next, biting her thumb as she thought. "We aren't going to be able to just walk past all of Them regardless of how quiet we are. We need a distraction of some kind."
Dante snickered, but it was rather quiet compared to how loud he usually snickered. "Leave that to me, kid." Without another word, the devil hunter walked quietly and quickly to the nearest building, what was left of it anyway.
Picking up a piece of debris that was roughly the size of a basketball, Dante turned and hurled it off past the group and down the street they were on just a moment ago, the debris flying in the direction they'd have gone in if the group had just headed straight rather than make the turn.
The piece of debris smashed right into a building, shattering upon impact into dozens of pieces. The smash and shattering of the debris caused quite the bit of noise, enough to draw the attention of a good portion of Them, who were somewhat close to the group's position and so began to stumble their way to the source of the noise.
The group remained absolutely motionless as the zombies groaned and stumbled past them, not even remotely twitching in their direction as their sole focus was on reaching where the noise came from. Dante smirked at the result he brought about and signaled for the group to come forward. They did so cautiously, one slow step at a time. The zombies ignored them as they moved to the side and made their way to Dante.
"That was unbelievably reckless," Saya growled out to Dante once she was close enough to do so without consequence. "What if they heard the swish your arm made when you threw it?"
Dante shrugged. "I'm not gonna focus on the what-ifs, kid. Just be glad that they're not swarming us right now."
Lady sighed. "I'm not complaining about the results, but just be more careful on how you bring them about."
Dante rolled his eyes and just started walking, the group following after him after several seconds. However, not even ten seconds later, they all froze at the sound of a roar. "Ah shit…." Dante muttered.
All around them, the zombies stopped in their tracks, this roar taking their attention away from the debris smash. Some of Them groaned, trying to pinpoint where it had come from. They didn't have to wait too long on that part for now the rapid scraping of a blade against the ground could now be heard. It was heading in the group's direction.
Sure enough, around the corner came a Mega Scarecrow, the massive demon chipping off a good portion of a crumbled building. The demon also ran over some zombies as well, indicated by the silencing of some groans and replacing it with squelching sounds as blood spurted out of the rotting bodies.
The rolling Mega Scarecrow came barreling at the group and Dante reacted to it on instinct, pulling out Rebellion and swinging it like a baseball bat at the oncoming demon. His blade met its blade and the force of his swing knocked it back down the street.
The Mega Scarecrow let out a shrill cry of pain as it skidded painfully across the ground. "Time to run," Kohta said.
"It's just one demon," Dante said confidently.
"And since did those fat things roar?" Lady countered to him, shooting the devil hunter a glare.
Dante didn't have a comeback for that. It was unnecessary as the sounds of leaping could be heard coming from the same direction the Mega Scarecrow came from. The group took several steps back, while Takashi and Lady tried to figure out what would happen next. "Where are they?" Takashi asked as the sounds and now growling sounded louder, closer, and still no sight of the demons.
Lady looked around before looking up and suddenly whipping out a pistol and firing off two shots, the bullets colliding with two seed-like projectiles. "Above!" she said and the whole group looked up to see that the Assaults were trying something different here: they were jumping across the rooftops.
"Oh… shit," Takashi muttered; he could see about seven Assaults and it sounded like more were coming.
Kohta took hold of his machine gun and held it, eyeing the demons warily. "We're more or less in the heart of the city. All the demons and Them must be wandering around here," he noted with a small hint of fear.
Dante held up Rebellion, looking ready to fight. Rei eased her spear/gun off her shoulder and held it in a defensive stance. Saeko also grabbed hold of her sword's hilt. Saya, Shizuka, Alice, and Zeke stayed back behind the others, but they all looked ready to grab something to use as a weapon if it came down to it.
"Looks like they really want to roll out the red carpet for us," Dante said, a small smile on his face despite the circumstances.
Lady put away her pistol and quickly shrugged the Kalina Ann off her shoulder and took hold of it. "Oh yeah? Well in that case, we're not just being invited to one party here." She pointed forward and he and Takashi looked.
The zombies weren't moving towards the debris anymore. They weren't standing around either; the zombies were beginning to slowly move around them, forming a big circle around the recovering Mega Scarecrow and the group.
But they were not the only ones surrounding them. Off in the distance, more roars of Assaults could be heard, blades scraping the ground and more. The demons heard the noise and were inviting themselves to the source.
As much as Dante liked a good fight sometimes, even he knew that going up against such numbers could be very bad. "Well… fuck," Dante said, for once unable to think of something to say.
"Time to run," Takashi said and took off in the direction they were originally heading in. The group followed. The zombies and demons followed too. The chase was on.
Off in the distance, the undead Shidou and his Blitz-zombies approached. After their battle with some Assaults earlier on, a battle that they won, the demonifed zombies wandered around a bit, homing in on anything that made some noise loud enough to catch their attention. Sometimes, this led into very brief battles with a few Scarecrows, the demonified zombies feasting a bit on whatever was left of the bodies afterwards. This continued eating of demons strengthened them. Although they did not take on any qualities from the Scarecrows, the flesh from them did allow for the Blitz parts of Them to strengthen, making the group stronger and faster. As of now, a single one of this Blitz-zombies would be able to take down an Assault by itself without suffering any wounds that would slow it down aftwards.
Shidou and his group had, by sheer coincidence, been relatively close to where the group was, being only several city blocks away. The roars of the Assaults caught their attention, their heads turning at frightening speeds towards where it came from.
The Blitz-zombie Shidou let out a growl, almost as if he was communicating with the other ones. They all then turned in the direction of all the noise and began to quickly make their way to the source of it.
And that is a rap! Wow, nearly three thousand and five hundred words yet it only took up about seven pages. Probably because I focused more on paragraphs this time around.
Anyways, guys sorry once again for getting this out so late; classes and all. And chances are once my finals are done, it'll be a while before I can post the next chapter. But I will try not to take too long, but no guarantees.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please don't forget to review!