A/N: Well, this took a very, VERY long time to come out with. Stupid block. Eh, that's a stupid excuse; I did have a block, but I'm also very lazy. Well, I'm still glad I got this out and even though I believe I did better in the first chapter, I'm somewhat satisfied with how this turned out. Enjoy chapter 2.

All was quiet in the living room of Yui Hirasawa's house. The place almost seemed dead with the eerie silence that accompanied the air, save the TV. The only occupants inside were the four members of the light music club, minus Mio of course, and Ui. All of them were gathered in the living room, eyes figuratively glued to the television set in front of them. After finishing the letter by writing their signatures, albeit those looking like random scribbles on the whiteboard, they headed toward the Hirasawa household.

News casts were always boring to them but this particular one on the TV could possibly save their lives. It's not like they had a choice anyway; all the other channels were broadcasting the same program. Yui confirmed this when she attempted to watch the Food Channel.

"They didn't even show that special recipe for that triple-layer chocolate cake they promised yesterday…"

"Quiet Yui!" Ritsu hissed. "Wait for the message to repeat itself!" After a good thirty seconds, the message restarted right from the beginning.

When they arrived at Yui's house, the younger sister didn't even bother to give them a warm greeting. Instead, she pushed each of them quickly inside, locked the door, set up a bunch of chairs against the knob, and gathered them all in the living to watching the broadcast on the TV.

"Please just watch this and it'll explain everything…" she said only minutes ago. Giving her a look of confusion, they all agreed to just listening to whatever this certain broadcast had to say, especially if it was important enough for Ui to throw away her nice persona.

"I am Yo Aradumats, here to report about the strange phenomena that has been occurring around the whole country of Japan." Everybody's ears perked up when this man spoke. A man who seemed to be in the military due to his uniform seemed to be talking from a location that seemed completely foreign to the girls. However, if it was on every channel, serious shit must be going down. "What I am about to tell you is the only conclusion the scientists have come up with, despite how unreasonable it sounds."

While the military man was talking, Ritsu couldn't help but remember how strange everyone seemed while on their way to the Hirasawa residence. First of all, almost every person they passed by along the way carried the same dead look on their faces. The first few were amusing to the group, as they thought of it as just a very realistic zombie costume. Yui was even playing with one of the people's ears, accidentally pulling it off in the process. Assuming it was just cheap plastic, the girl shrugged it off and placed it back in his hand as if nothing happened. However, the sightings of these deceased-appearing people increased and their feelings of amusement were quickly turning into fear and just being creeped out. It felt as if every person had their eyes focused on solely them.

Each of them was beginning to get scared so they quickened their pace to Yui's house. Something's up, Ritsu thought at the time, but I'm honestly too scared as hell to even wanna find out. On the way there, she even bumped into one of them and his arm detached from the rest of his body. Her mind was definitely freaked out, but she managed to convince herself it was just another realistic costume. By the time they arrived, they felt the weight of the sky lift off of their shoulders now that they were under the secure roof of a modern day Japanese home.

Without even noticing, the military man already moved on to discuss about whatever it was he mentioned earlier. Damn it, I wasn't listening. Ritsu internally face-palmed at how she wasn't listening to something that appeared so important.

"Uh, hey guys, could you tell me what that guy said? I kinda wasn't listening, haha…" Her weak laugh began fading away as she spotted the expressions of horror on each of their faces. "Um, hey guys? Could you tell me what he said…?"

No response.

The drummer was beginning to get nervous but annoyed at how they were completely ignoring her. She took out her drumsticks and clacked them together as loudly as she could.

"HEY!" she yelled. This brought everyone back to their senses, yet it didn't take away that expression…

"Now that I got your attention…" Ritsu said while putting her drumsticks away, "could someone tell me what the hell that guy said that was so important?"

Everyone returned to the phase of looking anywhere but at Ritsu. This only frustrated her more, and caused her to raise her voice even further. "COULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL THAT GUY SAID?" Her voice was now ten times as louder as it was a few seconds ago. It echoed throughout every room and back to its source. The only other noise evident in the house was the broadcast that Ritsu was now paying no attention to.

Tsumugi and Azusa flinched at how Ritsu used the word "hell". Although it wasn't a valid cuss word, they never heard their drummer use such language at them. It's best that we tell her, Tsumugi thought. But my mouth won't even open for me, Azusa thought at the same time.

"Ricchan?" Yui beat the two to confessing.

"Thank God that somebody responded, tell me whatsup Yui."

"Um…" the guitarist fidgeted with her fingers as she attempted to tell "whatsup". She looked at her fellow band members and Ui, clearly looking for assistance with this.

Ui had stayed quiet after that quick statement at the door, Azusa's lips stayed closed as if someone threw a super glue grenade at them, and Mugi's eagerness to confess was now low.

"Yui, spit it out already." The drummer gave her an impatient look, making it all the more difficult to tell.

The way both their eyes met was an absolute burning sensation for the guitarist. Her best friend's amber eyes were blazing with impatience that was ready to turn into rage. Yui's innocent brown, chocolate eyes were quivering before her.

"Well, Ricchan, you see…" She couldn't bring herself to do it. Unfortunately, this allowed Ritsu's impatience to get the best of her. She grabbed Yui by the collar and held her up against the living room wall with a loud thud. Where everybody's heads were once staring at random locations, they all were horrified at how angered Ritsu had gotten.

"TELL ME ALREADY, DAMN IT!"

The occupants in the room snapped out of their trance at this action.

"R-ri…ch-chan," Yui was having difficulties even speaking Ritsu's own name with the sort of grip she had on her.

As this scene was taking place, none of them noticed how the program just finished. The message was now repeating itself right from the beginning.

"I am Yo Aradumats, here to report about the strange phenomena that has been occurring around the whole country of Japan…"

Ritsu let go of her death grip on Yui to focus on what the reporter had to say. While Azusa and Ui went to go make sure she was okay, Mugi couldn't help but worry about what she was about to discover.

"The only conclusion that seems plausible, even with the logic we have created as scientists, is this…"

"…" Ritsu's eyes widened. Her jaw dropped straight down onto the floor.

…What…?

The other members didn't hold back their emotions anymore. All four girls quickly gathered into a group huddle and began to cry their hearts out.

No…

Ritsu's own heart began to beat ever so faster.

H-he can't be serious…

The rate only increased.

This has to be some prank or something…!

It suddenly stopped for a moment.

Everything began to blur in her eyes as the world slowly disappeared around her. Her ears stayed intact for a few seconds before rejoining the rest of her body into unconsciousness. She could make out each of members' cries of her name. After that, everything went blank.

"Oh no…you don't think that…"

"I don't think, I know."

"She could not have just done this…"

"Oh, she definitely did. Take a look out there Suki-chan."

"Zombies as far as the eye can see…"

"Exactly. And there's only one person we know who had the book with the incantation last night."

"Good point…one question though…"

"What is it?"

"Uh…why did you let her have the book in the first place?"

"…"

"I mean, she just joined us not too long ago…and you haven't even let me see the book…"

"…"

"Um, so why did you give it her again?"

"…"

"Kyo-chan…?"

"…Because shut up."

"…"

Ergh…what the hell happened…

Ritsu had finally awoken from her fainting after a seemingly long five minutes. To her, it felt like an hour passed by.

Her mind was still experiencing the short amnesia it gets when you wake up. Ugh, I can't even get my own body to move! It was true; despite her being awake, she didn't have any energy to move her arms, legs, mouth, or eyes. She could only stay in that state where only her thoughts were intact. Frustrated, she tried moving her arm to hit whatever she was lying down on in anger. Even more frustrated since she couldn't move, she mentally imagined herself hitting the surface in anger, which honestly didn't make her feel any better.

Okay, since I can't move anything for shit, let's see how I got like this…Mio had once told her that if she forgot about something, which was very often, she should try to remember the things that happened before it and link to that event she couldn't remember.

I remember…um…nothing. Yes, I remember nothing, dang it. Unfortunately, Ritsu couldn't even recall any events before the event she was trying to recall.

Goddamnit!

"Ricchan?"

Did I just say that out loud…? Ritsu's mouth finally responded and yelled out her current thoughts. Of all the things I could shout in this state, it HAD to be that?

"Ricchan, are you okay?" Her temporary amnesia began to fade away as she recognized the voice who called out to her.

Willing her mouth to move, she called back to her. "Mugi?"

"Ricchan, you're okay!" Yep, definitely Mugi's voice. With her lips functioning, she now tried to open her eyes to see the familiar blonde hair that accompanied her voice. It was a big white blur at first, but slowly, they adjusted to the light and eventually made out the strands of blonde.

"You had us worried, Ricchan..." Now fully awake, Ritsu noticed the odd expression present on the keyboardist's face. It showed obvious grief at how her friend was now awake, but the horrified expression from earlier was still evident.

"Mugi, what's wrong?" At that moment, everything that happened before she fainted flashed through her mind in a split second, almost giving her a headache. She clutched her forehead at the sudden pain that erupted in her mind from the split second flashbacks.

"Are you okay?" Mugi cried out, clearly worried. Ritsu settled down after a few seconds, though her expression was similar to Mugi's earlier one.

"Yeah…I'm just fine…" The brunette flashed her trademark grin towards the blonde, but anyone would be able to notice how much she was struggling to keep a smile on her face.

"Ricchan…you don't need to hide it…" Her grin instantly disappeared. "I wish I could say that this is a dream…but it's not…" Tears began to form around the corners of Mugi's eyes. "What you heard on the broadcast...is 100% true…"

As much as she tried to discard that memory away, it just refused to leave.

"Yui-chan and Azusa-chan even looked outside…they saw…them eating her neighbors…"

She just had to accept it.

"It's a zombie outbreak…" Ritsu muttered softly. Mugi nodded with more tears flowing down her cheeks.

Obviously, Ritsu's head was filled to the top of her headband with questions: who, what, where, why, how, and all of that other crap. But it didn't seem like asking them would help, since they just realized this too. Instead, she asked something else that was racking the back of head.

"Everyone's safe though, right?"

Wiping away the liquid on her face with a tissue, Mugi nodded with a small smile. Good…at least no one's…dead, yet.

"They're just upstairs, looking at the destruction from Yui-chan's window." Ritsu flinched at the word destruction, thinking about how much chaos the zombies could have caused. "Y-you can see the school from up there, hehe." Mugi said, trying to change to a lighter subject. However, this only sent a revelation to Ritsu's head.

"Mio!" The brunette stood up, with her drumsticks gripped firmly in her hands as if they were weapons. Heading towards the door, her once calm amber eyes were now teeming with the same anger as earlier. "Mio's still at the school!"

It seemed as if Mugi realized this earlier because she held no surprised expression on her face. Instead, she only seemed more depressed than ever before.

"We know Ricchan…" Mugi's bangs covered up her blue eyes in saddened fashion.

"What are we doing here then? We need to get to the school and save her!" Looking up from the ground, she saw the brunette head towards the front door, shoving away the load of household furniture Ui took no time in setting up shortly after their arrival.

"Ricchan, come back! We have to stay here! Just calm down!"

"What…?" Turning her back to face the blonde directly, she walked towards her, her face having the appearance of wanting to murder anyone who dare defy her. "How…the…FUCK, do you expect me to calm down?"

Mugi was obviously scared out of her wits when Ritsu cussed at her. Only her. However, Ritsu pressed on.

"My own fucking best friend is out there with a bunch of fucking zombies and you expect me to feel all calm? She's the biggest scaredy-cat in this whole damn world! Just mentioning zombies to her would make her jump out of her seat, but actual zombies invading the earth? How do you think she's doing right now, huh?" Her skin was now full of creases at the amount of anger she just exerted on her poor friend Tsumugi. The latter's eyes were ready to burst from the amount of guilt and sadness with rivers of tears.

"Ricchan!" Looking to her right, she saw Yui, Ui, and Azusa staring at the head banded-brunette in horror.

"Ritsu-senpai, listen to Mugi-senpai! Just calm down!"

"Don't tell me what to do Nakano!" Azusa flinched at how Ritsu referred to her by her surname, revealing the amount of outrage the drummer had. "How would you feel if Yui was out there all alone with a bunch of undead guys who want to tear you apart limb from limb with their own fucking mouths?" Azusa cringed at the thought of an innocent person such as Yui being devoured by those undead demons from hell.

"RITSU-SAN!" Everybody's eyes looked at Ui now, surprised at how much she raised her voice. "I may not know Mio-san as well as Onee-chan or you do, but she's our friend too!"

"Mmhm," Yui said, agreeing with her younger sister. "Mio-chan's also our friend! We care about her too!"

"And you shouldn't be taking out your anger on Mugi-senpai!" she stated, recovering from the image of Yui being eaten by zombies. "Look at her!" Azusa pointed toward the quivering figure in front of her.

The outbursts from her friends had calmed her down but seeing her own friend Mugi, her face abundant with droplets of water, like that, and knowing that she caused it…it made Ritsu's anger immediately dissipate.

"Mugi…I'm sorry…" Ritsu's mind was almost ready to break down. Too much had already happened today. Her heart was going through too many emotional mood changes. First she found out about the zombie apocalypse, which was enough to make her faint. Then, she learned about the almost inevitable fate of her own best friend dying. Now, she herself caused one of the gentlest creatures on Earth to break down on the floor crying, all because she couldn't control herself. Ritsu flashbacked to earlier, remembering how she couldn't control herself with Mio either. She went too far with Mio's feelings; now she went too far with Mugi's. What the hell is wrong with me today…she thought, her face filled with guilt. I need to get my act together…Mio could have been with us if I hadn't pushed her too far…I don't want to lose Mugi to this crazy apocalypse either…

"It's okay…" Ritsu's head instantly flared up at the sound of Mugi's voice. "It's a lot for you to take, Ricchan…" She was barely able to talk between the constant sniffling. "I'm sorry…" Ritsu could barely take the sight of those normally friendly and gentle ocean blue eyes crying.

"Mugi-chan, you shouldn't apologize." Yui was beginning to have another wisdom moment. "And Ricchan…"

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry Mugi."

"No no no, Ricchan! Wrong!"

"What?" She looked at Yui quizzically.

"This is a lot for you to take, especially so suddenly like this. It's a lot for all of us to take, right?" She looked around at everyone, with all of them nodding sadly. "You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, okay?"

"Yui-senpai's right," Azusa joined. "Besides, we need to focus on saving Mio-senpai; not being sad about the current situation, right?"

"…Right," Mugi and Ritsu said together. At this, the two dispelled any of the earlier tension and calmed down.

"Now…" Azusa, despite being the junior in the club, began to take charge. "We need to get to Mio-senpai. She's at the school, and there's no doubt going to be a bunch of…z-zombies," It seems like she was still extremely frightened. "So we need to be on our guard at all times!" Yet she managed to keep her cool and stay confident. "Of course, we're going to need to defend ourselves against them somehow…"

"Oh!" Ui raised her hand as if she was in her classroom.

"Uh…Ui?"

"We have a lot of pots and pans we can use as weapons," she said.

"Perfect, you go get them for us." Saluting her friend as if Azusa was her commanding officer, she marched off to the kitchen to gather their equipment.

"Heh, I'm surprised," Ritsu stated while watching Ui advance towards the kitchen. "Whenever I played Left 4 Dead, I'd imagine you guys as the ones who would freak out and I'd be the one who stayed calm." Everyone smiled at how Ritsu seemed much calmer now. "And then Mio would be the one fainting…" Calmness destroyed. Ritsu's voice faded as the mention of Mio's name brought her to that earlier revelation.

Frantically wanting to change the subject, the two guitarists looked around for something to talk about. Okay, they really didn't know what to talk about and that's the advice they got from Sawako whenever they ran out of things to say.

"Just look around the room and find something interesting to talk about! That's why boys were so attracted to me; cause I never ran out of things to say!" To Azusa, remembering this caused her to sigh and sweat drop at her sensei on numerous occasions. To Yui, however, this was one of the best pieces of advice she'd ever receive from anyone ever. That's why the airhead seemed so random. Even when she was involved in a conversation, she would randomly look around the room and talk about whatever she saw.

The twin-tailed guitarist's eyes finally landed on a familiar picture: the Christmas picture they took on the hillside, the sunrise clearly visible in the background.

"Ritsu-senpai, do you remember last year's Christmas?" Caught off guard at the random topic, she gave her a look of confusion. "We played at the Live House, remember?"

"Oh yeah, why?" Her question was almost drowned out by the sounds of clattering coming from the kitchen. Ui must have been digging deep inside the cupboards for the "special" pans.

"Wasn't it fun?" Azusa asked, becoming enwrapped in the memory.

"Yes, it was a very fun time," Mugi said, still sad about what happened earlier.

"Oh yeah, it was!" Yui said, now involved in the conversation. "Hehe, Azu-nyan was wearing those tiger ears the whole time; so cute!~" She grabbed onto her kouhai as usual.

"Yeah...it was a fun time…" She reminisced at the performance; how their rehearsal sucked at the first few attempts but then how the other performers encouraged them. Azusa could almost hear the roar of the crowd now. She could hear the "Fuwa Fuwa Time" sung by Yui, and then repeated by Mio. I wonder if we'll be able to have a fun Christmas this year…she thought.

"Okay, here you go!" Ui's voice snapped Azusa out of her Christmas-related thoughts and back at the current situation at hand. What was I thinking? The girl thought as she received a big frying pan from Ui. I need to focus on saving Mio-senpai! Now, what's the fastest path to Sakuragaoka?

While Azusa was busy trying to formulate possible routes to the bassist, Ritsu sent a text to her best friend, assuring her that they were completely fine, indirectly, of course.

If you're in the clubroom, STAY INSIDE THE CLUBROOM. You have plenty of tea and sweets to keep you content. Stay there until we arrive.

"Yeah, that should be enough," the drummer said to herself. "Oh, wait, I forgot something." As if fate didn't feel like cooperating with her, her phone shut off due to the lack of battery power. "Ugh, damn it. Azusa, let me borrow your phone for a sec."

This is Ritsu; my phone died so I used Azusa's. A few last words of advice before I go: Be ready to fight.

"Hm…maybe I should be a little less serious…" At that moment, Azusa announced that they would be leaving the house soon. She put away the junior's phone in her own pocket, ready to hear what the little student had to say.

They would be leaving the safety of the Hirasawa household, and venturing out into the dangerous, zombie-infested world right outside their doorstep.

I can do this, we can do this…we're going to make it, we're going to save Mio-senpai…Azusa repeated similar phrases in her mind to keep herself confident.

Just wait Mio…we're on our way…Ritsu thought.

Just as Yui was putting her jacket on, she looked at her younger sister. The ponytailed brunette had a smile on her face, as if this was a completely normal situation. She definitely knew something was up with Ui. She even noticed the slight crinkle at the end of her smile.

"Ui?" she called out.

"What is it, Onee-chan?" Ui asked.

"Um…is there-"

"Alright, who's ready to bust some brains?" Ritsu waved her frying pan in the air, trying ever so hard to motivate everyone. Luckily it worked; Mugi seemed to finally get over herself and waved her own weapon in the air, with Yui and even Ui joining as well. Complying with the rest of the group, Azusa raised hers high in the air, despite her being the shortest one there. Nice to see the old Ritsu-senpai back…

"I don't exactly think that's a good reason…"

"Just shut up."

"…"

"…"

"…so what are we going to do now?"

"Simple; that book had the incantation to raise them from the dead. It should have one to put them back in their hole where they belong."

"Um…there's one problem with that…"

"What?"

"How are we going to get past all of those zombies?"

"Again, it's simple; grab the nearest broom, recruit a few other survivors, and fight our way there."

"Easier said than done…"

"Which will make this all the more fun."

A/N: Oh my gosh, original characters…? This story is so going to suck now! …Well, it might be a risk since most people tend to make original characters bland and uninteresting, especially when they're important to the plot, but I'm still going to try it. I apologize if Ritsu's cussing was overdoing it too, but hell, it IS a zombie apocalypse after all. A lot of people would do things they wouldn't do normally, cussing probably being one of them. Also, I'm not completely in the dark anymore and I actually have an idea of where I want this story to go. Yay. Well, review the story if you wish to do so; constructive criticism is very much appreciated.