Authors note: In this chapter, I will not be switching over to the scene in the bus were the group parts with Shidou and his students, mostly because it plays out the same way, just quicker since Takashi's there and makes the decision to leave, making them even more determined to leave Shidou and his religious faction behind...oh, by the way, did you guys know that Kouta has the same name as the artist for Hellsing? And they even kind look alike; wonder if the Kouta from HOTD was based on the manga artist or something...
Chapter 2: Democracy under the DEAD
the streets were empty, and so was a convince store along the side of the road, save for it's single employee, who was standing, oblivious to the world. Just outside the door, and undead old lady been limping towards the store, groaning inhumanly. Suddenly, a bus whizzed by, taking out the zombie, with the employee never even knowing.
"It's dangerous to dive like this! Be more careful already!" one of the male students(let's just call him Sasaki) yelled from the back of the bus, the original group obviously annoyed by his constant complaining, turning on the group quickly without hesitation. "Why the hell do we have to be with you guys! You've all decided on your own were your going! Wouldn't it have been better to find a place we could hide out at the dorms or the school!"
Sasaki continued yelling, Shizuka swerving around a few cars before having to come to a dead stop at a pile up of cars.
"H-he's right you know!" another male added in, Ito, as Shizuka pulled back and drove around the cars, speeding down the empty streets once more. "We're only putting ourselves in more danger by driving this way...we should stop somewhere...there was a convenience store just a little ways back...! Can't you drive any slower?"
The bus suddenly came to another stop, this time Shizuka unbuckling herself and whipping on Sasaki.
"That's enough! Lay off of me!" Shizuka yelled angerly at the teen. "I've never driven one of these before, so gave me a break, will you!"
After this, Sasaki fell silent, as did Ito, and Shizuka buckled herself back in, driving once more. They continued in relative peace until Sasaki happened to look at Takashi when his eyes were on him, and it started again.
"What the fuck're you looking at, huh!" he yelled at Takashi; at this, Kaede rose.
"I've had just about enough of your bitching, punk" he growled, Sasaki spinning on him.
"The fuck did you just say!" he yelled, not even waiting to swing a punch at Kaede.
With ease, Keade ducked under the thrown blow and delivered one of his own to Sasaki's chin, knocking him back. It wasn't a full force hit, so he was only stunned for a second before rushing at Kaede again, infuriated. However, Rei was the one who intervened this time, swinging the broken broom handel full force into his stomach. Bile was forced up from his stomach and Rei withdrew her spear, letting him fall to the floor, holding his stomach and wither, everyone a bit more than a little shocked by the sudden act of violence from Rei; form Kaede, it was expected a bit, but from Rei...
"...you're horrible..." Rei said in a disgusted tone, looking down at Sasaki squirming on the floor.
"R-Rei..." both Takashi and Keade muttered, her looking back at both of them and smiling, making even harder for the two to figure out who she did such an act for, even though it would seem like she did it for Kaede, but he had originally did it, more or less, to get Sasaki off Takashi's back.
Their thoughts were interrupted by a clapping coming from the far back of the bus, Shidou standing and clapping as he approached the three.
"What a sight!" Shidou exclaimed, approaching closer. "Komuro-kun, Himoura-kun, Miyamoto-kun...that was a wonderful display of teamwork. However, this only proves my previous point...we need a leader to prevent any future fights from breaking out..."
As he spoke, Shidou leaned against Saya's seat, who pushed her glasses up and finished for him.
"And lemme guess; there's only one person fit to shoulder the burden, right?" Saya spit out sarcastically.
"I am a teacher after all, Takagi-san. And you are all students." Shidou put emphasis on both 'student' and 'teacher,' looking down at Saya. "I'm the only one qualified...so how about it? If you agree with lil' ol' me..."
Shidou quickly spun towards the other half of the bus, full of the students he himself had saved.
"Would you please clap your hands?" he finished, and almost instantly, they all started clapping, and Shidou took a deep bow, in this case obvious that he had more supporters than the rest of the group; Shidou, with his victory, turned to back to Takashi and the others. "...just as I said. The majority rules that I am to become our leader."
Before anyone could stop her, and without a word of warning, Rei went for the door, opening it and hopping out.
"If that's the case, I'm leaving!" she said loud enough for them to hear as she began walking away.
"Rei!" Takashi yelled, about to follow her, but Kaede was faster, jumping from the bus and running over to Rei.
"Rei...!" Kaede said as he caught up with her. "Listen, it's dangerous to be out here..."
"There's no way in hell I'm traveling with that bastard! I'd rather face them than have him as our leader" Rei spat, wiping around on Kaede, yelling loud enough that everyone on the bus could hear her; Shidou's followers all looked to Shidou to see him sigh.
"It sounds like I won't be able to do anything to change her mind...she's just a lost cause." Shidou said, a sadistic grin on his face. "To bad..."
"How can you say that!" Takashi growled at him before jumping from the bus to try and help Kaede get Rei back onto the bus.
"Just until we get to the city! Just bear with him till then!" Kaede said, following as Rei kept walking away from the bus, grabbing her by the arm; he knew now that there was something about Shidou that Rei was telling them, that undoubtedly had to do something with what he had seen earlier, the blood stained, fearful face of that students and Shidou walking away calmly as his student was eaten right behind him.
Takashi was just about to catch up when there was a crashing sound to the left; a bus was speeding towards Rei and Kaede and, on closer look, Takashi could see people inside, along with them inside, attacking the living.
"S-shit! Get out of the way!" he yelled, Kaede seeing the bus as well and heading Takashi's warning, grabbing Rei and running inside a nearby tunnel; the bus overturned after the driver was pulled from his seat, and the bus came to a skidding halt in front to the tunnel, completely blocking the path.
Shortly after, the bus exploded in flames, and Takshi quickly ran to it, followed shortly by Saeko, who joined him.
"Rei! Himoura!" Takashi yelled past the bus.
"Y-yeah, we're fine!" Kaede's voice came a few seconds later. "There's no way we can get around this...we'll have to meet up somewhere else!"
"Let's meet up at...Higashi Police station!" Takashi yelled back after a second of thought, Saeko watching his back and taking out any of them limping towards them, drawn by the crashes noise. "Five o'clock today, or tomorrow at the same time, okay!"
"Got it. Higashi Police station, 5 o'clock. I'll see you there!" Kaede yelled back from the side of the bus he and Rei were on, and helped her up. "We need to get going, Rei"
On the otherside, Takashi and Saeko returned to the bus, Saeko closing the door behind them.
"We can't keep going this way, Shizuka-senesi..." Saeko said as Shizuka restarted the bus, turning it around. "I'll take us down another route!"
Back with Rei and Kaede, they had exited the other end of the tunnel and were out in the open again; however, they suddenly heard groaning, and one of them suddenly jumping onto Kaede from a leadge high up. It had been a biker, and his head was luckily encased in a helmet, so it couldn't bite Kaede...yet. It's attempts to bite Kaede were wild enough to start loosening the helmet, Kaede holding it as far as he could, but the helmet slowly falling off was becoming a big problem.
Behind them, Rei had taken action, looking for something heavy enough to bash it's head in; just as it slammed it's head into Kaede's face in an attempt to bite him, Rei picked up a slab of concrete. As Kaede pushed it's head back, Rei slammed the concrete into the back of it's head. The body slumped over, and Kaede pushed it off of him.
"You okay?" Rei asked, holding her hand out to Kaede, who took it and stood up with Rei's help; the two sighed and looked around. "Can we really walk all the way into the city like this...?"
"We don't really have any choise...wait..." Kaede muttered, looking around the area. "That guy's bike should be near by..."
It didn't take long for Kaede to spot it laying on the side of the road, the key still in the ignition. With a victorious smile, he and Rei walked over to the bike, lifting it onto it's wheels.
"Do you have a licnece?" Rei asked skeptically. "More importantly, do you know how to drive?"
"Yeah, actually. It's customary for highschool students to dive without on, right?" Kaede said with a grin as he got onto the bike, Rei sitting on the back with him with a soft smile, holding her spear to the side as Kaede started the bike up.
'The world may have ended...' Kaede thought to himself as he drove off with Rei holding onto him tightly with one arm around his waist. '...but there's no way we're just gonna give up on living!'
The two traveled in silence, passing many crashes and burning houses; the path to the city in complete chaos, but not a soul in sight, dead or alive, but plenty of blood on the ground. As they neared the city, they crossed a bridge, the sound of an approaching jet suddenly drowning the sound of the bike. Rei turned to see that the jet was lowering it's path to fly along side the bridge, keeping pace with them for awhile. Rei waved excitedly at the pilot as they rode along with the jet until it broke off and flew away. Rei frowned slightly and hugged against Kaede tighter, making him blush and pull to a stop, watching the jet fly out of sight.
"They were flying so low just now...why didn't they help us...?" Rei asked softly as she too, watching the jet disappear.
"It's the same as the helicopter on the school roof...they have a specific job to do, and they can't help us..." Rei replied with a frown as he looked back at the road, looking around at the nearby buildings.
"Why did we stop anyways...?" Rei asked curiously, looking around as well, not of what to be looking for though.
"Oh...we need to find a gas station" Kaede replied with a slight blush, remembering how Rei's breasts were pressed to his back before they stopped, and pointed to the gas gauge that was near empty. "We're running out of gas..."
"I think there's one after a few more traffic lights" Rei replied, looking at the gauge as well and frowning; Kaede nodded and started down the road again, Rei grabbing hold of him as he did, slowly picking up speed.
As Kaede drove, he kept an eye out for the mentioned gas station, noticing it was starting to get late now, the sun was starting to set now. He felt Rei's grip suddenly tightened around his waist.
"Himoura-san! Up there, at the next intersection!" Rei yelled, pointing with her spear at a police car, just barely peaking from behind a building at the interesction they were coming up to.
"Heh heh...we're riding without helmets or a license on a stolen bike! We're sure to be pulled over, eh?" Kaede joked as he directed the bike towards the police car. "Don't tell me you're scared of dealing with the police after fighting so many of them?"
Kaede brought the bike to a stop as they came to the intersection, both their eyes widening.
"Y-you're...kidding me, right...?" Rei muttered; a truck had rammed into the side of the car, and the two police officers inside were both dead; none the less, Rei got off the bike and started walking to the car.
"H-hey! It might be dangerous, Rei!" Kaede said, getting off the bike as well.
"I'm gonna look for something that might be useful to us" Rei replied, pausing and turning back to him. "Well, come help me!"
Kaede nodded as he walked over to the care as well, Rei taking the right side and Kaede taking the left. After a few moments, they returned to the bike, and placed what they had found on the bikes seat; a gun, a pair of hand cuffs and a collapsible baton.
"Do you know how to shoot one of these?" Rei asked hopefully as she held up the Smith & Wesson Model 37 revolver to Kaede.
"Yeah, actually" he replied, taking the gun and looking it over before opening the cylinder, checking the bullets. " Just as I thought...only five shots."
"Here, hold out your hand" Rei said, Kaede doing as instructed, and watched as Rei dropped five more bullets into his hand, noticing her's was covered with blood. "The other police man had them...his gun was broken, so I took the bullets."
As Rei spoke, she cleaned her hands on a handkerchief she had taken from the police man she searched. Kaede watched for a second before closing the gun and slipping it in one pocket, slipping the bullets in the other.
"You're pretty amazing, Rei...wasn't expecting you to know anything about guns..." Kaede said as he tossed the handcuffs, doubting they'd need them against them, and handed Rei the compact baton.
"Yeah, my dad carries one, so he showed me the basic stuff" Rei replied as she picked her spear up from were she had left it. "Should I throw this out, now that we have a gun?"
"No, it's best if you keep it, just in case" Kaede replied as he got back on the bike and motioned Rei to do the same. "Come on, we need to get going..."
Rei nodded and got onto the back of the bike, Kaede starting it up and they continued down the road until reaching the gas station, Kaede pulling up to a pump and stepping off the bike along with Rei.
"Oh damnit..." Kaede muttered as he looked at the pumps, noticing Rei's confused look, and motioned to the pump. "This is a self service place, so we need to put in a card or money..."
"Well do it then!" Rei shot back, crossing her arms.
"I-I'm broke..." Kaede said with a shrug and a frown. "I used my money yesterday for lunch..."
"...you suck" Rei said softly, turning her nose from him; Kaede's hand shot out to her, making her flinch before his hand stopped, his palm up.
"Lemme borrow some money!" Kaede said awkwardly.
"...I...left my wallet in my bag..." Rei replied, looking away again with a light frown.
"Jeez, what a hypocrite..." Kaede muttered, looking over to the store before walking towards it. "Scream if anything happens, okay, Rei?"
Keade continued to the store, entering and taking a look around as Rei remained by the bike, unknowing of the eyes watching her. Inside, Kaede found the cash register on the counter and checked it; with a frown, he saw it was locked and couldn't find any keys or dead employees to find the key to it. After taking a look around, he found a crowbar and went back to the register, a grin forming on his face.
"Heh...I've wanted to do this for awhile, actually..." Kaede muttered before bashing the register with the crow bar until is was forced open.
Outside, Rei winced at the sudden banging, figuring out what Kaede must be doing by now.
"He can do whatever he wants now..." Rei sighed before giving a small smile. "...I guess that could be said with all of us."
Back inside, Kaede picked up a few bills and began walking back in when he suddenly heard Rei suddenly screamed, running back outside to see Rei being held by some big guy, holding a knife to her neck.
"Hey bro. You're girlfriend here's a good catch. Heh heh..." he said, watching Kaede draw his katana with a swift motion; he pressed the knife closer to Rei's neck, his grip tightening. "Whoa there buddy. Drop the sword buddy, or I'll slit her pretty neck...it would be a shame though; everyone in the world's turning into monsters, so their ain't no bitches left."
"Are you insane?" Kaede growled, however, ke complied and tossed his sword a few feet to the side.
"Ha! Insane? No shit! I had to kill each one of my family when they turned into monsters. Busted each of their heads open; my mom, dad, my granny...my kid sister and little brother too!" He bit back, and started laughing loudly. "I'm colder than ice and without a shread of decency!"
His hands suddently grabbed ahold of Rei's breasts, holding them tightly; Keade growled and took a step towards them, but was stopped by him pressing his knife to Rei's throat again, watching him as Rei squirmed and screamed at his touch, but he held her tightly against him, preventing her from getting away; he was just too big for her to fight off.
"Ahh, your voice and tits are so fucking great! Yah got nice big milk jugs girly! Hehehe!" he yelled over Rei's screams, Kaede's fists tightening.
"You son of a bitch! Get your fucking hands off her!" Kaede yelled, held at bay only by the knife at Rei's neck. "You really think this is going to make anything better!"
"No, but at least I get to go out fuckin' some hot bitches!" the man laughed over Rei yelling Kaede's name. "Now, your gonna take that bike of yours, and get the hell outta here!"
"It's empty-!" Kaede started before being cut off by the man again.
"You broke open the cash register; fill it up!" he yelled, pointing the knife at Kaede before pressing it threateningly at Rei's throat again. "Get to it!"
Reluctantly, Kaede complied, already deciding to use the gun on the man, and watching for an opening; he was using Rei as a shield for most of his body, his eyes discreetly watching for an opening. The only thing of the man that was kept open was his knee caps, Rei's legs barely acting a sheild for his lower body. Kaede finished filling the gas tank and looked back at the man and Rei.
"Alright, now get the fuck out of here!" he yelled, motioning Kaede to the bike with the knife.
"You know, you really should let her go...I'll forget everything that you've done so far" Kaede said, deciding to try talking at least once more.
"Are you fuckin' deaf? I said to beat it, fucker!" the man yelled. "Don't get cocky; you don't have shit over me!"
"Oh? You think so?" Kaede replied coldly, his hand going for his pocket and drew the revolver from his pocket, jumping off to the side as the man's eyes widened under his hat.
Two shots rung out, and them man dropped, screaming. Now on the ground, Kaede quickly grabbed his katana and scrambled up, just as he reached for Rei, who had been stunned still by Kaede's sudden sharp shooting. She screamed as the man started lunging his knife at her, but Kaede stabbed him through the shoulder, making him drop his knife and scream again.
"You should have just let her go..." Kaede said coldly as he twisted the blade, making him yell, and withdrew the sword from his shoulder and began walking to the bike; Rei got over her shock, looking down at him and angrily kicked him in the stomach. "Leave him; he's not worth it. Plus we've made alotta noise already."
As Kaede spoke, Rei could now hear the groaning and shuffling feet of them approach. Rei nodded and left the man screaming, joining Kaede on the bike. With one last look at the man with no remorse in their eyes, the drove off, ignoring his cries and yells not to leave him, to disabled to move now.
As they drove back into the dark city they ignored his cries, that echoed for several blocks before finally dieing out, Rei and Kaede silent. for awhile.
"We'll have to deal with this shit everyday now..." Kaede muttered lightly.
"R-really...?" Rei replied, somewhat surprised before shaking her head. "No, you're right..."
'Doing something like that...ended our humanity as we knew it then and there...' Kaede thought, the two falling into silence once more for a few blocks until Rei asked a question that had been bugging her.
"Himoura-san...were did you learn to shoot like that?" Rei asked, leaning against Kaede more.
"Oh...uh, I wasn't actually born in Japan..." Kaede said, figuring he should start from the beginning. "I was actually born in American, and was raised by my dad for most of my life; he was a real gun nut, so when I turned nine, he started teaching me how to use one, and four years makes you pretty proficient, even though it's been four more years since I last fired one."
His explanation was followed by a shrug, knowing himself it was quite the out of the ordinary story; at least he didn't have to explain much more, the rest of it even more strange. Rei didn't ask anything more, and they continued on into the night in silence. They rode through the night, it being to late to stop anywhere even if they wanted to, their goal much too important to them; none the less, Rei began dozing off at some point and leaving Kaede to his thoughts. Next thing Kaede knew, the sun had risen, and they were nearing the bridges into the mainland. As they approched the bridges, Kaede quickly took a sharp turn onto a side road along the river and skid to a halt, waking Rei up instantly.
"W-what's wrong, Kaede?" Rei asked as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, having not been thrown from the bike thanks to her hold of Kaede.
"They've got the bridge blocked off; look" Kaede said, motioning to the bridge to see it completely packed with cars and people and what seemed to be bulldozers blocking the other side about half way.
"It looks like we really won't be able to cross after all..." Rei mutered, looking back at the bridge as well, looking at Kaede's back, but she had seen something out of the corner of her eye.
She looked up down the road and, sure enough, Takashi, Saeko, Shizuka, Kouta, and Saya all walking towards their direction. Rei quickly jumped from the bike and began running towards them, alerting the rest of the group of their presence.
"Ah, that's..." Shizuka said, being the first one to notice Rei running towards them with Kaede close behind, pushing a bike along; Shizuka was cut off by Rei jumping and hugging her tightly as Kaede propped the bike up.
"Not exactly the right meeting place, but it still works, huh?" Takashi said to Kaede. "Good to see you guys alright; any problems?"
"No, not really..." Kaede said, desiding not to tell them about the incedent at the gas station just yet. "It's good to see you all are okay. I'm guessing you had the same problem with at the bridges?"
"Not exactly; we left the bus before we even got to the bridges. The streets out of the city were packed to a stand still" Saya answered his question. "But we would have had the same problem with the bridges, it looks like..."
"Yeah, it seems they've shut down all transportation over to the mainland..." Kaede muttered, looking back at the bridge once more, then back at Takashi. "But, more importantly, what are we going to do now? We all lived over on the other side of the river..."
"Certainly, we need to get across, but how?" Saeko stated thoughtfully. "How about upstream?"
"They're working on constructing a river dike up there so we can't cross, and I don't think it'd be any shallower upstream..." Saya said, also trying to think.
"Um...I think we should go settle down for today and get some rest" Shizuka said, seeing how tired Kaede and Rei looked. "I don't think any of us got much sleep last night..."
"It's still relatively early though...around noon or so..." Saya started protesting, but after seeing how everyone else was tired, she feeling herself a bit worn out as well, she stopped.
"But were can we find somewhere safe to stay?" Kouta asked, again putting a halt to their plans, or so they thought.
"I actually know a place we can use. It's in walking distance too" Shizuka said as she felt the heavy atmosphere after Kouta's question.
"Your boyfriend's place?" Saya asked with a sly grin, making the nurse fluster.
"N-no! This is different; it's one of my girlfriend's places" Shizuka said, waving her hands as she explained. "She's always busy with work at the airport so she gave me a key; I'm watching over the place."
"Is it an apartment?" Kaede asked, leaning against the bike. "And does it have a good veiw and a gate?"
"Yeah, it's a mezonet apartment, so it's right on the river...and there's a convenience store right by it too!" Shizuka said, nodding and remembered something else. "Oh, and after we're done there, she has a huge car that's like a tank with four doors!"
"I"m so worn out after today and yesterday. I just wanna rest some place and take a shower..." Saya added as she brushed some hair from her face.
"It's decided then; Shizuka-sensei and I will go check out this place on the bike" Takashi looked over at Kaede, who nodded and took a step away from the bike, allowing Takashi to step to in and get on "...okay. Sensei, get on the back."
Shizuka nodded and did as she was told, holding Takashi tightly with both hands wrapped around him, but was a bit too low for Takashi's initial liking; none the less, he speed off, the rest of the group following at their own pace behind them.
"Y-you know sensei, you don't have to hold on so tightly..." Takashi muttered as the drove down the streets, already having the directions from Shizuka.
As they arrived at the house, Takashi could already tell it was a good place to stay, there being fences around the house that would be hard for the living to get over. Takashi's eyes finally fell on the car in the driveway and his face faltered.
"You...really weren't kidding..." Takashi muttered, making Shizuka cock her head to the side before she noticed the rest of the group nearing the apartment.
"Oh, here they come" Shizuka said, waving happily at the group as they approached.
Once they joined Takashi and Shizuka, the group began checking the house out too, Kouta and Saya slightly dumb-struck over the armoured vehical.
"A-a humvee?" Kouta gasped as he stared at the car. "J-just what kind of girlfriend is this...?"
"The fences are high, so they shouldn't be able to get in, right? We'll be able to sleep peacefully like this" Rei said happily.
"Komuro!" Kaede suddenly hissed, his hand going to the katana; the warning drew their attention to were Kaede was looking and saw several of them pouring from the open windows. "It looks like they're already inside..."
"Takagi, do you have anything I can use?" Takashi asked as he pushed his sleeves up, Saya searching through the bag she was carrying.
"We found a gun earlier, if you know how to shoot one?" Kaede offered, drawing his sword and pulling the revolver from his pocket, Kouta nearly drooling as he watched.
"Uh, give it to Hirano; I've never shot a gun before" Takashi said, watching as the gun was passed to Kouta, and turned just in time to see Saya handing him a crowbar.
"Will this work?" she asked, getting a nod and Takashi took the crowbar. "Is this okay though...?"
"Yeah. They're over the fence already, so we need to take care of them first" Saeko said as her hand tightened around her wooden sword; with a nod from Takashi to Rei, she opened the gates into the grounds of the apartments.
"Let's go!" Takashi yelled as he, Kaede and Saeko rushed in, shortly followed by Rei and Kouta, Saya and Shizuka staying outside the gates until the grounds were cleared of them.
It was around mid afternoon when they were done completely flushing out and destroying all of them in the area; none of them wanted to admit it, but they had all changed. They weren't fighting to escape, or only when necessary anymore; they were taking the offensive, and attacking the undead to better their survival. There were no second thoughts, no hesitation; they were fighting to live.
As the slaughter died down, Kaede mentioned they should get rid of the bodies, and so they did; with help from Kouta, they figured out a way to move the dead bodies with as little physical strain as possible with a tarp, and they soon had the house and courtyard cleaned of corpses. They were certainly tired, but there was little time to rest for the men of the group; when they entered the house, the could hear the bath starting and, no doubt, the girls would be taking a bath soon, leaving them for look out through the night.
Takashi sighed and looked around, he and Kaede were dumping the last body onto the street, and there wasn't a single one of them in sight for several blocks. Takashi wanted to feel happy about the break in fighting the undead, but the lack of them made him feel uneasy, like something big was going to happen soon...
Chapter 2, end