Chapter 4: DEAD Night and the DEAD Ruck
From the balcony, Kouta, Takashi and Kaede all watched as a single survivor ran along the streets, coming to a stop when he was met with a wall of them; the teen no older than them had a shotgun however, and blew away several undead before contuing. As the teen continued on, on of the undead he though his killed reached up, tripping him, and allowed others to fall over the teen, flocking around him as they began devouring him, his screams reaching the apartment the group was in.
The three watched gravely, Takashi's hand gripping the Ithaca in his hands tightly as Kouta watched though the scope of the AR-10 and Kaede sat on a high chai that was out on the balcony, the M1 resting against the chair and a plate of half eaten curry sitting on the table.
"Damnit, this is just too cruel!" Takashi growled as he watched yet another survivor get chansed down and eaten, the screams chilling them all to the bones.
"Takashi...!" Kouta called, turning to Takashi with ready look on his face, Takashi looking back at Kouta in responce. "Do you think we should shoot?"
"That should be obvious! Shoot them...!" Takashi retorted, Kaede going for the M1 at his feet at this, ready to help out Kouta kill the undead.
"Have you forgotten? They react to sound, Komuro-kun. Also.." Saeko's voice came from behind them, coming to check on the three, turning off the lights in the bedroom as she walked towards the balcony; Takashi fell silent, knowing Saeko was right. "Survivors will come flocking here when they see the light and our figures...even if we use everything we have, we won't be able to keep many more people alive. They have to survive on their own; That's exactly what we're doing. I understand if you dissagree, but get used to it! The world has become a place where those with noble causes alone won't survive."
"I got the impression that you thought differently, Busujima-senpai" Takashi replied as Saeko began walking back into the house; he didn't mean to sound so harsh, but his words stopped Saeko in her tracks.
"Don't get me wrong, Komuro-kun. I'm just stating the facts..." Saeko said, turning and giving Takashi a sad smile before looking to Kouta and Kaede. "You two should eat; still not hungry, Hirano-kun?"
Kouta shook his head, watching people eat eachother completely and utterly killing his appitate while Kaede picked up the plate of curry and began eating again. As for Takashi, he had already eated, so he picked up the binoculars and looked out into the carnage happening on the streets.
"Oh, and make sure you look outside descreetly, so you don't attrack anyone" Sake said over her shoulder as she walked back into the house.
Everywere Takashi looked, it was the same thing; the few survivors running, most sreaming, from them only to be cornered or tripped and eaten alive by the undead in grusome ways. Takashi almost decided to put the binoculars away when he came across a pair that made him want to throw aside his better udgement and Saeko's words; a father and his young daughter, making their way to a house with the lights still on.
Takashi watched as the father lead his daughter int to the gate, closing it behind them and began knocking on the door; Takashi couldn't hear him, but he could guess he was begging to for he and his daughter to be let in. At some point, the man raised the wrench in his hands, seeming to threaten breaking the door down. After a moment, the man lowered the wrench, and the door opened shortly after.
Takashi gasped loudly and Kouta, who had been sitting on the balcony, hidden by the railings, quickly knelt, resting the rifle on the railing and looked in the same direction as Takashi.
"What is it?" Kaede asked, slipping from his chair and taking a simmilar position with the M1 to see the family inside the house at the doorway, one holding a pole with a knife tied to the end, which he hand stabbed the father with, and withdrew the weapon; after a quick look, Kaede saw the little girl, and put it togther. "S-shit! No way..."
The father backed up as the family closed the door, hitting the gate and knocking it open as he fell to the ground, the little girl rushing to his side, crying and hugging her father as he died. Behind her, one of them stumbled through the gate.
"Fuck!" Takashi growled, no longer able to watch, however, a gunshot drew his attention to Kaede, followed shortly by another from Kouta's area, two bodies dropping from behind the girl.
"I didn't even need any practice shots! I was able to get a headshot with a complete stranger's gun; I guess I am gifted after all~" Kouta cheered as he lined up another shot.
"Please, the target wasn't even a hundred meters away, and the sights on these gones were done by a profesional" Kaede interjected, also lining up a shot and firing, dropping another of them before it reached the girl.
"I thought you guys weren't going to shoot?" Takashi asked sarcastically. "You're risking you life for a total stranger?"
"It's. A. Little. Girl!" both Kaede and Kouta bit back, punctuating each word with a shot of their guns.
"You're going to save her, right? We'll support you from here" Kouta said, Kaede nodding, having a bit of time sence they had taken out the closest of them to the little girl.
"You'be better get your ass moving!" Kaede yelled as Takashi rushed into the house, turning back to the scope and taking a few more shots.
"Hey! At lease take a shotgun with you!" Kouta yelled after Takashi, but he was already heading down the stairs, a 'I don't know how to use it!' echoing to Kouta's ears as he turned back to his current task.
As Takashi began down the stairs, Rei had been heading up the stairs to see what the gunshots were about; Takashi pausing as he pulled on his gakuran over his red t-shirt.
"What's going on, Takashi?" Rei asked as she stepped out of the way for him.
"We're helping a little girl; I'm going to get her and bring her back" Takashi explained quickly as he began heading down the stairs again, only for Rei to grab his sleeve, stopping him momentarily.
"I'll go with you then." Rei said, wanting to help.
"No, you guard the enterance; I'm ging to the other side of the street on the bike." Takashi replied firmly; Rei looked like she was about to argue, but she was stopped by Saeko's voice.
"So you're going?" Saeko said from the foot of the stairs with her booken in her hands, looking up at the two, and making eye contact with Rei. "The man has made up his mind."
"Sorry, Busuji...Saeko-san" Takashi replied, correcting himself and using Saeko's first name, as he was instructed to. "But, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't..."
"Of course; I already knew that." Saeko said with a soft smile as Takashi started down the stairs again and went for the door.
"We'll take care of things here" Saeko said with a smile as Takashi passed her, looking over her shoulder at him as Rei also desended the stairs; Takashi gave Saeko a nod, confident that the rest of the group would be alright without him for awhile. "Don't worry; now go already!"
"Takashi!" Rei called as be reached for the door; she walked over to him, and held out the revolver She and Kaede had found the night before. "At least take this with you; you'll be able to hit them at close range, right?"
Takashi nodded, and accepted the gun from Rei, slipping it into his pocket, and opened the door. Rei and Saeko followed him out, the bike on the inside of the fence so Takashi wheeled it up to the gate, were Saeko and Rei were waiting to open it.
"Don't use the gun too much; the sound'll attrack more of them than you'll be able to handle." Saeko said softly as Takashi readied the bike. "Even if the bike makes noise, the gunshot will only attrack more of them, and you won't be able to get away."
Takashi simply nodded, pulling on a pair of fingerless gloves as the gound of gunshots above them showing that Kouta and Kaede were still at it. With another nod to the two, Saeko and Ri took out the bars holding the gate shut, and opened them; at the same time, Takashi started the bike up and speed out before they outside the gate had time to react to the noise. Takashi took off down the street, dodging most of them in the way.
As Saeko and Rei closed the gate, locking it up again, Saya walked out towards them.
"What was that sound?" Saya asked, groggily; she had been woken up to the sounds of the bike, and the gunshots upstairs.
"Something goo" Rei replied with a smile, ignoring Saya's questioning gaze and looked up were she could see the flashes of Kouta and Kaede's guns.
Durning this time, Kaede had made a run into the bedroom while Kouta covered the little girl, preventing any of them from getting close; when he returned, he handed Kouta a full clip and swapped out his own empty one for a new one. Kaede had to pull back the action for the M1, but Kouta, being the gun otaku he was, left a round chambered so there was no need; he simply switched out the empty clip for the full one, and kept firing.
From the balcony and with the help of their scopes, Kaede and Kouta were able to see Takashi arriving at the house the girl was stuck at and whipped the bike around towards the gates. Takashi jumped the bike through the gates and hitting one of them neither Kaede or Kouta took out with fears of hitting Takashi; the impact threw the bike's balance off, and Takashi jumped off before it hit the ground, skidding away in a heap.
Takashi recovered quickly however, sighing as he picked up the crowbar that had been on the bike that fell along with him, and walked over to the gate, closing it as he muttered to himself.
"Damn...I need to stop acting like I'm in a comic or something..." Takashi sighed, closing and locking the gate before looking around for the little girl. "S-shit!"
Takashi quickly spun around, the little girl surrounded by two of them looming over her. Back on the balcony, both Kaede and Kouta tried lining up a shot, but they were blocked out by a tree and neither wanted to take a chance and shoot blindly. They both waited, watching to see if they'd have a chance to shoot while the sounds from inside the house echoing up to them, mostly Saya's attempts at waking Shizuka up.
"Sensei! It's time to get up, Shizuka-sensei!" Saya yelled at the sleeping nurse, who groggily opened her eyes and sat up, the blankets and towel falling from her body.
"Eh...? is it breakfast time already~?" she muttered dreamily as she wiped a bit of drool from her chin.
"This is serious damnit!" Saya yelled, pinching and pulling on Shizuka's cheeks to get her fully awake, ignoring Shizuka's wines until she was sure Shizuka was awake.
Once Shizuka was awake, Saya dragged her along up to the bedroom, Rei and Saeko already having been direction on what to do. After having been waken to gunshots, Saya quickly evaluated the situation and it's reprocutions, which all ended out of the group's favor. Her mind quickly began thinking of soultions to the problem, and there was only one logical solution; to leave the house. So Saya had directed Rei and Saeko to start packing up the food and went upstairs to inform Kaede and Kouta of the plan.
"Takagi-san and S-Shizuka-sensei...?" Kouta had left Kaede on the balcony to grab another clip for he and Kaede when Saya walked in the bedroom with a completly nude Shizuka, her lower parts convienently covered by the suitcase she was carrying; Shizuka's hair was disshevled, and she was rubbing the sleep form her eyes, oblivious to the fact that she was naked.
"Hirano!" Saya yelled, making the otaku jump and tear his eyes from the well endowed nurse; in a sort of defence againt Saya, Kouta quickly covered his crotch, but the way he was holding his AR-10 only made it look worse. "Keep working! Only say something if it's absolutly necessary!"
Kouta gulped and nodded, grabbing what he entered the room for and noticed Shizuka packing up clothes in the suitcase she had as Saya tied her hair up in her normal twin tails. Unable to hold his curiousity back, Kouta asked about what was going on.
"We're getting ready to leave!" Saya yelled back, obviously annoyed with Kouta's questioning.
"Eh? but why? This place is well protected-" Kouta started but Saya cut him off.
"There's no way we can stay after all the noise we've already made! We're leaving, and that's it! Bring whatever you can." Saya lashed out before Kouta could finish his complaint, making him jump again and comply, packing up everything from the lockers.
[A/N: Just a quick note, I'm skipping the part with Takashi and Alice since it's the same as the anime/manga]
Once Shizuka had finished packing the clothes, she and Saya went down and outside, Rei and Saeko already outside keeping a look out with several bags of food already sitting out and waiting to be loaded into the humvee, which brought another problem to Saya's mind; how would they load the truck? As Saya pondered this, she looked over to Shizuka, who was still naked.
"Shizuka-sensei, you've done enough. Just try to put some clothes on for now..." Saya adressed Shizuka with a sigh, the nurse seeming to only now realize that she was, in fact, nude.
Shizuka quickly made her way back into the house, and Saya sighed, shaking her head. She walked over to were Saeko was keeping an eye out, looking over the gates to see the streets empty.
"Well, as long as we're quite, we should be able to get the car packed and ready..." Saya said softly as she looked over at the humvee. "I was worrying what we were going to do about them while we packed up..."
"That's the least of our problems; they're surrounding Komuro-kun now." Saeko replied, motioning down the street; even from were they were at, Saya could see a dence crowd of them gathering around a house which she guessed was were Takashi had gone.
"Geh...waht should we do? There's no way he could get back on the bike with all that" Saya mentioned with a frown, Rei nodding in agreement as she tried thinking of something as well.
"Why don't we just go pick him up?" Shizuka offered halfheartedly as she buttoned up a white dress shirt with a plaid skirt the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra obvious to the other girls; not even a second after speaking, the other three turned to Shizuka, making the nurse reget saying anything, squirming under their gazes. "Um...uh, did sensei say something stupid? I only mentioned it because I have the keys..."
"No, it's a good idea, actually" Saya said, smiling at Shizuka along with Saeko and Rei; Shizuka gave a sigh of releaf as Saya's smile formed a smirk, already forming a plan. "Alright, that's what we're doing; we'll go rescue Komuro, then we'll escape to the other side of the river! Let's get ready!"
At that moment, Kouta came down with the first load of things from the bedroom, including a duffle bag of ammo and other gun accesories, the AR-10 across his back and the Ithaca in his hand. There weren't many words passed between the group as Kouta dropped off the bag and the shotgun before heading back upstairs, having already heard the plan from the doorway of the house on his way out.
Outside, Shizuka and Rei looked down at the pile of things that would unboubtly grow, and Shizuka gulped.
"We sure gathered a lot of stuff...I wonder if it will all fit?" Shizuka said nerviously looking at the humvee. "And how will we move this stuff to the truck without them noticing and coming over...?"
"Do it like an R.P.G. and use stealth!" Saya wispered harshly at the two, having overheard Shizuka's questioning and looked over at Saeko, who was unlocking the gate and opened it, the four girls quickly moving out.
Shizuka quickly unlocked the humvee and unlocked the back so Rei and Saya could start loading things while Saeko stood guard. As Saya and Rei loaded the back, Shizuka familarized herself with the humvee's councle, checking everything she was familar with and guessing on the rest.
Upstairs, Kouta was finishing packing a few last things from the locker as Kaede kept look out, watching Takashi down the street and as the crowd around the house grew bigger and bigger. Kouta strapped a few belts of ammo across his chest before looking out to Kaede.
"How are thing's looking?" Kouta asked as he hoisted a few bags onto his back and picked up the cross bow; he was originaly going to leave it, but Kaede convinced him otherwise.
"Not so good...Takashi's completly surrounded. I have no idead how he's...oh, that smart bastard..." Kaede chuckled as he watched Takashi climb onto the walls seperating houses with the little girl on his back, and what seemed to be a dog in his coat; confident Takashi didn't need him anymore, Kaede slung the M1 across his back, picking up the spent clips to be used for later and entered the room. "He'll be fine; so what's the plan?"
"After we get the luggage in and rescue Takashi and the girl, we'll make our escape across the river. We'll be able to get through them with the humvee, but..." Kouta said, walking over the the balcony to see for himself what Kaede was talking about while the other teen placed a belt of shotgun sheels across his body; with a look though the binoculars, Kouta grinned. "Ah, of course. He's a genius as well, eh?"
"Seems like it, huh?" Kaede replied with a chuckle, sliding his katana in his belt and picking up the last few bags and his own shotgun. "Ready to get going?"
"Yeah" Kouta said with a nod as he followed Kaede out of the room, taking one last look to make sure they weren't missing anything.
Out with the humvee, Saya carefull closed the back of the truck as quitely as possible after finishing loading everything into the truck, motioning Rei who had one last bag into the truck.
"Were's Hirano and Himoura?" Saya said, looking around and noticing it was only the girls outside at the moment.
"Aren't they still on the second floor?" Rei replied, looking up to the balcony to see it empty.
"Jeez, I don't know if their amazing or just a pair of dumbasses..." Saya muttered; just then, Kouta and Kaede stepped out of the gate, heavil ladden with the reamaining guns, Kouta looking like a sweaty mess and Kaede slightly panting.
With a pat of his shoulder, Kaede got Kouta to continue to the humvee, both with a smile on their faces; they didn't notice the odd stairs the group was giving them.
"Uhmm...is something wrong?" Kouta asked, the first to notice the stares.
"You two look like you're having fun..." Saya said sarcastically, looking at the two; Kaede grinned back and Kouta returned a light smile.
"This is the rest of it, in anycase~" Kaede chimed in as he carefully unloaded a few bags and unstrapped the M1 from his body, handing it to Rei for her to place it in the truck, followed by his katana and the bag, which he put into the humvee himself; Kouta followed suit, storing the crossbow, the bag, and the ammunition belts in the back of the humvee.
With all the luggage loaded, the girls piled int the humvee, followed shortly by Kouta and Kaede, armed with their Remington 870 and AR-10 respectivly. Once inside, Kaede quickly opened the turrent port and hoisted himself onto the roof, sitting with his legs hooked on in the opening with his shotgun in hand, followed shortly by Saeko who likewise pulled herself on the roof, but instead stood as Shizuka started up the humvee and pulled out, Saeko kneeling momentarily to keep her balance; Shizuka quickly speed down the street, driving the military vehical with no expreiance before hand the best she could, which wasn't too bad, considering the circomstances.
The headlights of the humvee soon illumiated Takashi walking along the wall with the girl on his back and the crowd of undead just below them, completly oblivious to them.
"W-wow, there's so many..." Shizuka gasped as she looked at the fast approching horde, seeing Takashi on the wall.
"It doesn't matter now; charge!" Saya yelled, leaning over to Shizuka's shoulder and pointing forward; on the roof, Saeko who had been stanting had no choice but to kneel down again, this time practically right in Kaede's face.
Needless to say, there was a trickle of blood coming from Kaede's nostrols as he held on as well as the humvee went right through the undead, nearing Takashi and the little girl.
"They...really know how to make an enterance..." Takashi couldn't help but comment as he watched the fast approaching humvee.
"Friends of yours, Onii-chan?" the girl on his back asked as she watched in suprise as well.
"Yeah, very important friends!" Takashi said with a grin as he began walking along the wall again towards the end were he humvee came to a skidding halt, waiting for Takashi.
As he neared however, they began recovering, pulling themselves to their feet and hobbling towards the humvee. Kaede saw this and raised her shotgun to his shoulder, taking aim; there was already a shell loaded, so all he had to do was aim and fire and that's exactly what he did. The approaching undead were stopped by the shotgun's spread,bowing away bit of head and chests.
"We still have to get to the other side of the river." Saeko said, tucking her hair behind her ear as she looked at Takashi with a smile. "You coming?"
"Of course!" Takashi yelled, Kaede firing another shell into the crowd and making an opening for Takashi, who lept from the wall and onto the humvee.
'And so, we escaped that second night...of course, everyday afterwards was a never-ending nightmare; even after crossing the river, we still had to find our families..."
Chapter 4, end
Author's note: This chapter came out alittle shorter than expected; I was thinking of combining this chapter and the next into one, but that may be just alittle too long, so I desided just to cut this one alittle short; I'll make up for it in the next one, hopefully.