Author's notes: By the way, I changed a little something in chapter 6...so you don't have to go back and re-read it for such a small detail, I changed the breed and name of Kaede's dog; it's now a three year old female Akita Inu named Yuki. It was a small detail in that chapter, but it'll be important soon.
Chapter 11: Assault on DEAD Precinct and the DEAD Truck, Mark II
Takashi and Kaede came to a silent agreement that the reason for him and Rei being so late would be told at a later time since, now, there was plenty of rejoicing among the group, Alice and Shizuka, of course, being the most excited to have the group complete again, but Kouta was also a bit excited at the two's return; actually, he had noticed the new guns Rei and Kaede were carrying, and before her could mention the two MK 23s, he was distracted...
As Shizuka calmed down enough to realize she should check both to see if they were hurt or not, Takashi's eyes drifted over to Saeko, and soon found Saya's on him in turn as Shizuka fussed over the bloodied bandage from Kaede's re-opened wound, pushing the thoughts of giving Kouta one of the handguns from Kaede's mind.
"So, what's our next move, Komuro-kun?" Saeko asked what was on most of their minds, now that they had everyone assembled.
"Well...now that we have Rei, we can do a cleaner sweep of the building, right?" Takashi said, looking over to Rei, already knowing she would know the layout of the station by heart already. "And we should check around for weapons and ammo too, right? Since this is a police station, after all...is there anything else we should keep in mind?"
His question was addressed to everyone, but Kaede looked towards Saya for an answer, making the genius scoff and look away.
"Are you asking me to do all the thinking for you or something?" Saya replied, sarcastically.
"A leader normally has his staff help him strategize, right?" Takashi replied smoothly, with a small grin; Saya blinked at his response and sighed defeatedly.
"You got me there..." Saya muttered under her breath, spotting the directory that hadn't really been any help before, but decided to give it one last look, addressing Rei as she walked over to it. "Miyamoto. Do you know where they store the guns?"
"They probably have a storeroom or something, but I don't really know about it...my dad wasn't allowed to show me that part of the station." Rei replied with a thoughtful frown, that being the only place that Rei didn't know how to get to and her expression told them that, their hopes of Rei being able to lead them anywhere in the station fading slightly; she suddenly thought of something, and turned to Kouta. "You're into this kinda stuff, right? Do you have an idea where they'd put the weapons?"
Kouta was instantly fired up, having a general idea of where the armory was at in the station.
"It would have to be somewhere easy to get to when the police are dispatched," Kouta replied excitedly. "So I'd bet it's somewhere here on the first floor, labeled as an armory more than likely."
"Then let's search this floor!" Saya said, turning towards the hall that lead further into the station, the others more or less getting ready to set out.
"Shouldn't we just check the map for the directions...?" Takashi asked, almost regretting saying anything from the looks Saya, Kaede, and even Kouta sent towards him of disappointment; Saya was the one to respond, as usual.
"Do you think the police are stupid enough to point out where they keep their gun to anyone who walks in off the streets?" she bit sarcastically, Takashi needing no other reason than that.
However, Saeko did pause in front of the map on the wall as they started heading deeper into the station before catching up with Takashi, who had somehow ended up leading the group with the Ithaca in hand.
"They don't have a description for the room in the back on the left side. I think that would be our best bet." Saeko commented, proving that the map was a bit useful to their needs in the case of what was missing from it helping them find what they were looking for.
"Right; Kaede, Kouta, keep an eye out behind us!" Takashi ordered, guessing there was still a few of them lurking about in the station; without needing to be told twice, the two fell back, herding Alice, Shizuka and Saya towards the middle, Rei walking ahead of them for a frontal defense, since Saeko and Takashi were walking a bit ahead, making sure the path was clear.
It also gave them time to talk a bit about what they may or may not find, away from Rei's ears.
"Do you think it's possible that we may encounter Miyamoto-san's father..." Saeko trailed off, her tone making it clear what she was talking about to Takashi, who tensed up at the sudden realization that it could happen. "I don't see many signs of a struggle though...you don't suppose there might still be people inside, do you? We didn't really check very far before, since it could be easy to get lost without Miyamoto-san."
"It's possible...both of those scenarios...but there's no way to tell for sure. We saw those tire marks outside, so we do know a lot of the police were dispatched, maybe even all of them..."
"So a lot of things are up in the air then..." Saeko replied with a light sigh; their attention was suddenly drawn to Zeke the small white dog that had been ultimately leading to sniff out any danger that may be approaching.
And Zeke was growling furiously in an attack position; down the hall came the tell tale groans of them shuffling down towards them, putting them all on alert while they just happen to be heading their way.
"You guys didn't sweep the building!" Kaede hissed, suddenly realizing the fact and looking more towards Kouta than anyone. "You should have had plenty of time-!"
"And we did! We just didn't know if we'd get lost, not knowing the station! Maybe if someone hadn't taken their sweet time-" Saya said in Kouta's defense, having been suddenly shut up by the icy glare Kaede shot to her, his mood suddenly foul after being unintentionally reminded of the Yakuza who tried making him join them by using Rei.
In front, the sound of Saeko's Murata sword sang as she moved to the undead hobbling towards them with a deadly grace; before they were even aware of Saeko's presence, she had decapitated one, and thrust the blade's tip through anothers neck, pulling the blade straight up and splitting it's head in half.
Though they were somewhat use to Saeko's amazing skill and brutality on the battle field, it still made most of the group shiver at the sight of Saeko's sadistic grin as she hacked away at the zombies. Unfortunately for him, Kouta was left out of the loop, but Kaede was given a chance to 'shine' himself, as a single walking corpse coming from his side, and two on Kouta's side, drawn by Saya's little outburst .
Before Kouta was forced into firing his AR-10, Kaede drew one of the replica ninja swords, flinging it with an accuracy at one advancing on Kouta, striking it right between the eyes as he drew a second of the swords, easily dispatching the one nearest to him by driving the sword through it's skull; he jerked the blade free as an afterthought as he moved quickly to the other corpses, grabbing the hilt of the one he had thrown just as the body fell, gravity withdrawing that blade for him.
The last one seemed a tad bit smarter, being able to use the sound of the second body dropping to take a lunge at Kaede; unluckily for it, Kaede simply stepped back, out of the way of the lunge and swung both blades upwards. Normally, the swords he was using would be able to sever a head, but using two like Kaede was, he was able to send the head flying, and Saya vaguely noted not to piss Kaede off again, even if she didn't know what she did in the first place or if it was really her.
To say the least, she was sure not to mention he and Rei's absence again for awhile.
In the front, Saeko had finished dispatching the undead there, having even decided to draw her second sword for a test run at dual wielding; it was quite a thrill for her, being able to cause twice the carnage, twice as faster; she almost had a reenactment of the 'I'm wet!' incident at the shrine, but she held back the best she could, enjoying a silent bliss as she cut through them, feeling a bit unfulfilled when she cut down the last one a little too soon for her liking, wishing there were more in her dark state of mind, before being pulled back into a calmer state of mind when she felt Takashi's hand on her shoulder.
Saeko shuttered softly as she calmed down, looking to Takashi over her shoulder as she let her hands relax slightly. After receiving a small smile from Saeko, Takashi turned to the rest of the group to confirm they were okay too before motioning them to continue onwards, in silence naturally, having no way to tell if there was more of them or not.
It wasn't too long before they got to the end of the hall, finding the room on the left with a stairwell to the right; as expected, the door was marked 'Police Armory,' and had a coded lock, plus a regular key lock.
"Here it is..." Takashi said, looking at the lock a bit downheartedly. "And it's locked alright. Looks like we need a pass code to get in."
"Doesn't look like I can pick the lock either." Kaede muttered, rubbing his chin; he hardly surprised anyone anymore with his seemingly endless line of skills, so it was more of a surprise that he couldn't.
"...I'll just have to blast it open then...!" Takashi growled, his hand tightening on the Ithaca, not planning on leaving the armory unsearched now that they made it there.
"Stop! It would take too many shots to do that!" Kouta cut it, waving his hands for Takashi to cease his thought pattern. "We'll run out of ammo too fast like that!"
"More importantly, what if one of the bullets ricocheted and hit one of us?" Kaede added, noticing Kouta had basically placed his argument out in the open; it was convincing, considering their predicament, but there may be a whole armory waiting for them, so Kaede's words were just icing on the cake.
"Then what should we do!" Takashi lashed out before he could hold back, but no one said anything against it; in fact, they basically ignored the sudden outburst.
"Maybe we should try shooting the hinges...no, never mind. I doubt we could get this door off even with breaching charges..." Kouta muttered, now in full otaku mode. "It looks like the lock's power outage-proof, but the EMP probably blew it out regardless...oh, I know!"
Kouta's sudden realization made the others jump slightly; Rei, who was standing guard at one end and Saeko who was at the other both looking back to him curiously.
"Does anyone know the last time they renovated this station?" Kouta asked, looking from face to face, only getting shaking heads all around.
"I'm not sure exactly...but it was around the time my dad was transferred here, so around the time we were in kindergarten, I guess?" Rei offered, hopeful that the information was of some use.
And it was, very useful in fact; a dark grin spread over Kouta's face as Saya caught on to what Kouta was thinking, and Kaede shortly after.
"In that case, it's probably not drill proof then." Saya stated smugly as she knelt, setting the bag she was carrying on the ground before fishing around inside of it.
She eventually produced a hand cranked drill that she had taken along from the school, when she and Kouta were held up in the wood shop classroom.
"Oh? You two know about breaking and entering too, huh?" Kaede said, a bit impressed since he didn't exactly expect it from either of the two.
"This knowledge is highly relevant to covert operations!" Kouta said cheerfully as he looked at the drill Saya had just handed to him.
"You'd better be thankful for this!" Saya said, grinning down at Kouta, who bowed down as if Saya was a god, muttering things like 'I'm not worthy~' and whatnot; Saya only laughed with superiority before pointing Kouta to get to work.
It was awhile before Kouta finally sat back, panting and drenched in sweat, the drill in one hand and the lock in the other, and the door slightly open.
"I...I finally did it..." Kouta huffed, Alice clapping for his success.
At that moment, Zeke gave a warning bark towards the stairwell, a shadow rounding the corner followed by the groaning of them. As it came into view, Takashi tensed up; it was a police officer. Rei had gasped, but luckily, it looked like she only knew him, and it wasn't her father.
"Officer Kato..." Rei said, looking at the corpse with horror; not only was it's shoulder bitten out, it also had a gun wound in it's head, and a S&W Model 36, the standard police firearm, hanging from it's finger by the trigger guard.
"Looks like he tired committing suicide when he was bitten..." Kaede observed, his question about damaging the brain before they rose being answered.
As was beginning to become expected, Saeko didn't hesitate in the lest, speeding up the stairs in a matter of seconds and driving the end of her Murata sword through it's skull; on the landing, she was able to see a few more walking corpses limping towards her, and a small grin spread on her face.
"I'll take care of these. Hurry up and get inside!" Saeko shouted over her shoulder; knowing she could take care of herself, Takashi turned to the door and threw in open, his heart dropping to the ground.
The rest of the group followed him in, their expecting faces dropping as the saw the armory completely cleaned out of everything.
"W-what the hell...?" Kouta chocked, nearly in tears at the sight of an empty armory. "There's nothing left...!"
"Of course! Police were deployed throughout the city, so of course they'd take their weapons!" Saya cried out, stomping her foot in frustration. "God damn it! Why didn't I realize that sooner!"
"We're done in here then!" Takashi yelled, unreasonably angry at the police for emptying the armory. "Saya, where do you think we can find some information that could be of some use!"
"N-no, wait! There may be some ammo left over!" Kouta cut in; Kaede on the other hand, didn't even bother saying anything and rushed through the armory, making a quick sweep of the place before they moved on.
"We need to hurry!" Saeko yelled from outside the room, knowing more of them were on the way because of all the shouting they were doing in frustration from the empty armory they had placed high hopes on before. "We'll be in trouble of you all sit around in there and are ambushed by them!"
Takashi turned to Kaede, about to tell him they needed to move on, but was silent when he saw his attempt to find ammo wasn't in vain; Kouta quickly went to join him and collect a few boxes of shotgun shells Kaede had found left over when the police were deployed.
Takashi motioned Rei out, the two standing guard to make sure Saeko's scenario did become a reality; it wasn't long before Alice, Shizuka and Saya came out, followed by Kaede and Kouta, Kaede pushing the last box of ammo into Kouta's backpack.
"We should check the evidence storage room too," Kouta said to Takashi as they joined him and Rei before heading towards the stairs with Saeko. "That's where they would keep the illegal stuff they've confiscated, and it might include guns. It's not police equipment, so they wouldn't have taken it with them!"
"That's on the third floor! I remember seeing it when I was in middle school!" Rei said, nodding with Kouta's theory. "And they do keep guns there the police take from criminals!"
"Then that's where we're going next! Don't forget the drill." Takashi said, his and most of the group's spirits' high once again at the new chance at getting their hands on some better weapons; in the background, Kouta had checked the body of the police officer to find nothing of use, the bullets in the gun all used. "Rei and I will lead; Kaede and Saeko, you two take up the rear, and Kouta, stick with Saya and the others!"
As they started up the stairs, they fell into the positions Takashi had ordered, with he and Rei leading, Kouta closely behind with Saya, Shizuka, and Alice behind him, and bringing up the rear was Kaede and Saeko, both with their swords drawn, and Kaede's WA2000 strapped across his back.
The rest of the stairwell was empty, thanks to Saeko, so they were able to get to the third floor quickly without pausing; however, as Takashi and Rei pushed open the doors onto the floor, they were met with only a single one of them in sight.
"Doesn't look like there's too many of them up here." Takashi said back to the group as he slammed the butt of the Ithaca into the corpse's chin, knocking it back, and Rei finished it with the M1's bayonet as they moved on, filing into the hall.
"There it is! At the end of the hall!" Rei chimed, pointing out the double doors at the other end of the hall, with she and Takashi started for.
"Remember to keep quiet now!" Takashi needlessly reminded the group as they moved on, their goal in sight and the last thing they needed was to draw the attention of any of them in the area still.
As the group moved on, Kaede and Saeko started following, making sure none of them came after them; as they caught up to the group, Saeko suddenly stopped as she checked behind them again, and Kaede was soon to slow as well to see what had caught Saeko's attention; like her, a small smirk grew on his lips, but for a different reason than hers.
"Takashi..." Saeko spoke, turning everyone's attention to the fact that she was far behind them for some reason. "The important thing now is getting our hands on some weapons, right?"
"Right!" Takashi yelled back, turning but by no means stopping the group from moving on.
"In that case, I may have found what we were looking for..." Saeko replied, her tongue running along her lips as she eyes her prey; a former police officer, probably of the riot force judging from his attire and the gun hanging from it's shoulder had pushed open a door by walking into it, attracted by the voices in the hall.
Saeko swung the Murata sword clean with a powerful motion, leaving a bloody ark on the ground before she rushed the walking corpse, sheathing the blade for now and using the other katana; she ducked under the arms that reached for her, ending up with her back to the zombie, and thrust the blade straight up, cutting the strap of it's helmet and sending it flying as the blade passed through the top of it's head.
As Saeko withdrew the blade and let the body fall, Kouta was the first on the scene, the rest of the group waiting where Takashi had stopped; Kouta practically jumped onto the corpse, knowing there would be some good stuff to be found from the riot gear it had been wearing. Even Saeko was looking at him a bit oddly at how happy he was to search a dead body...
"Oh~ It's a full-auto MP5-SFK! It's got a suppressor and everything; three extra magazines too~" Kouta hummed to himself like it was Christmas time as he examined the gun that had been dangling from it's shoulder, then spotted the sidearm. "And an M92 Vertec handgun. With two extra magazines!"
"Miss Shizuka...Kouta-chan looks like he's having fun..." Alice said, a bit of fear in her voice at Kouta's obsessiveness with guns, holding onto Shizuka's sleeve. "He's scarier than them right now..."
"Well, everyone has to cope in their own way, Alice-chan..." Shizuka said, not knowing if the child would understand but spoke her mind anyways. "This is just Hirano-kun's way..."
"You should use this, Busujima-san." Kouta said, still addressing Saeko politely, as he held out the Vertec to her, with the clips and the thigh holster, as well as another holster for the magazines. "You can keep it on your leg with these..."
"I don't know how to use it at all though." Saeko replied, taking the gun anyways since she could guess Kouta's response already, and began trying to figure out how to work with the holster of the gun.
"I'll teach you how to later, when we have time. Just hold onto it for now." Kouta said, standing as he strapped the AR-10 to his back firmly, pulling the strap of the MP5 on and sliding the extra magazines into a free pocket in his vest.
"We'll be better off with these now, won't we?" Takashi asked as he watched Kouta adjust the sights on the MP5 a bit to preference.
"They'll help, but a new SMG and a few handguns won't make us unstoppable." Kouta replied, confusing the others for a second before Kouta looked over to Kaede, then to Rei, reminding them of the new guns they had, and reminding Kaede about the MK 23s in his bag. "What we really need is more ammo though in the long run, since these guns'll last us awhile, if we keep them maintained. Plus, it's not like a silencer gets rid of all the sound so we still can't fire whenever we want..."
As Kouta was speaking, the group moved the short distance to the doors, and Kouta went to work drilling out the locks when he had finished speaking. Takashi, Kaede, and Rei all took up defensive position around him and the other four, Saeko still trying to get the holster on properly by herself, and Kaede decided it could wait a while before mentioning the other handguns in his bag.
When Kouta finally got the doors open, Takashi and Kaede entered, and checked around making sure the place was empty just as a precaution. Takashi motioned the others in, Saeko and Rei staying out to guard the entrance.
"Where do we start looking?" Takashi asked, looking back out the door hopefully.
"The police in this prefecture aren't that organized so just start in the Criminal Affairs and Anti-firearms Divisions...those both handle firearms control!" Rei replied from the doorway, peeking in so she wouldn't have to yell too loudly.
After he and Takashi had swept the room, Kaede had started looking for the flashlights in his bag so they could see better in the dark; he turned on on and handed one to Takashi and another to Saya, who had already started trying to look for the divisions Rei had mentioned.
"Ah, so flashlights still work too?" Takashi asked as he was handed the light, and turned it to the nearest rack of items, starting the search as well, finding the Criminal Affairs Division's rack right off the bat.
"Anything that's battery powered and doesn't have any integrated micro chips should still work." Saya said with a sigh as she also was able to find the Anti-firearms Division pretty quickly; she, Alice and Shizuka helped her look and gather a few weapons and some ammo.
Takashi grabbed the only thing that really looked to be of any use; a large black case that was easily the length of a gun. He brought it over to the table the others had been piling up the guns on, and where Kaede was practically turning the contents of his bag out to get to the handguns and their holsters at the bottom; Takashi was a bit surprised at what was in that bag, and his curiosity of what the two had encountered while they were separated grew.
Takashi passed the flashlight to Kouta so he could start looking himself before setting the case on the table, and opened it; the sound of something hitting the ground behind Takashi made him look back to see Kouta, who was walking towards one of the racks, staring at the contents of the case, the stars in his eyes expected.
"W-whoa! A M1014 JSCS...a Benelli M4 Super 90!" Kouta squealed, nearly drooling over the pistol-gripped shotgun in the case, that Takashi found a bit strange, use to shotguns like the Ithaca and M870, which Kaede still hadn't been re-united with yet. "It's a combat shotgun used by the US marines and the British army...! You found it, so you should use it, Takashi!"
"What, me?" Takashi said, looking at Kouta who motioned offering to the gun; Takashi picked it up, feeling the weight and the odd feeling it had in his hands. "It's heavier than the Ithaca though..."
"Maybe so, but it's more suitable for combat; it's gas operated, so it should be a snap to use!" Kouta said, dreamily. "Using it's just like the Ithaca...put the shells in and pull the bolt back like normal! And it's got a door breach on it, so you can use it like a pole-arm too!"
Across from them, Kaede finally got the two MK 23s out, after taking nearly everything out, including their holsters and the extra clips for both of them; when he saw the two guns, Kouta was on Kaede like flies on horseshit.
"T-those are...where did you get those!" Kouta asked eagerly, flailing his arms as Kaede looked at the two guns, ignoring Kouta's question before handing him the one with the flashlight attachment; Kouta took it and examined it happily. "A HK Mark 23...oh how I've dreamed of having one of these...it has a silencer and a flashlight too no less!"
Again, Christmas had come to Kouta earlier, and Kaede ignored him; he grabbed on of the other holsters, and a three of the six magazines for the MK 23s, and walked over to Takashi. He handed them to him, and cut in before Takashi could say the over used 'I don't know how to use it.'
"This one had a laser sight, like Rei's does; all you have to do is aim the laser and shoot, okay?" Kaede said as Takashi took the gun, holster, and magazines. "It's an under arm holster, unless you want the leg holster?"
Kaede jerked his thumb towards Kouta, who was already attaching the said holster to his leg; Takashi shook his head, and pulled off his gakuran to get the holster on like Kaede had his. When he was done, taking a bit of time to get it on, and the gun in with the magazines in the holders under the one for the gun; there was only two, so there was one left over that Takashi left on the table for now. Kouta on the other hand, had gotten his on without a problem, and slid the magazines into another few pockets, which were specifically for handgun mags.
As Takashi pulled his gakuran back on, he was thinking of simply sliding the last clip into his pocket when he spotted something other than the box of shells in the Benelli M4's case; curious, he pulled it out to find it was a sort of harness that, as far as he could tell, would go around the waits and over the shoulders, and hand several pouches around the belt part, and slots for shotgun shells.
Taking a glance at Kouta and his vest, Takashi put the harness on, sliding the extra magazine into a long, thin pouch towards the front, and pulled the shotgun shells from his pocket, sliding them into their now proper place, before turning to find Saya standing at the other side of the table, which had a small accumulation of handguns and a few shotguns, and quite the pile of ammo boxes.
"This is all we were able to find" she said with her arms crossed; apparently, they had been waiting for awhile while the three were busy, as their attention drifted to Alice and Kouta; Alice had just gotten Kouta's attention, and scared him with a flashlight she had found herself while helping look for things.
If Kouta's reaction was true or he was humoring the girl was unclear, but Kouta was hyperventilating on the ground at the moment. Takashi sighed and looked over to the guns and ammo, then to Kaede as he was packing up his bag.
"What should we do with these?" he asked, drawing Kaede's attention to the guns.
"Our current equipment is better, but we can bring them along just in case; the ammo will surely come in handy though." Kaede said thoughtfully as he finished loading up his bag, and started filling the bit of extra space with some of the other ammo they had found. "It may be a hassle to carry them all for now, but once we get to the humvee, we can store them in there."
This time, they were distracted by Shizuka trying to act frightening like Alice had done; all the flashlight had done in her case was highlight her chest, and gave Kouta a nosebleed.
"No body's perfect, but there's such a thing as being too imperfect too..." Saya muttered under her breath, her eyebrow twitching at the sight of Kouta twirling in happiness. "Oi, lard ass. Get over here and help out a bit."
Kouta quickly came to Saya's call, and began loading what guns he could and the rest of the ammo into his backpack, having to leave behind most of the shotguns behind because of their lengths; Kaede grabbed one, however, that had grabbed his eye, as well as a sort of holster for it that Kaede added to the things strapped across his back, taking up holding the WA2000 again. The shotgun was a older model, and strangely had a five shot revolving cylinder, like a revolver; it was actually a Baikal revolving shotgun*.
"Is that everything then?" Takashi asked, making sure that they had everything they were planning on taking; there were nods from Kaede and Kouta, and a few from the others as well.
"Should we get going then?" Saeko's voice came from the doorway of the storage room.
Takashi, followed by everyone else turned to see her standing there; she had finally gotten the holster on properly on her ow, and just that was enough to change her whole appearance. With the two katanas at her left hip, the handgun strapped to her right thigh, and a second holster foe the magazines which was where the slit in her skirt was, made her seem even more dangerous...and sexy.
The girls look in jealousy while the boys couldn't help to stare, bringing about a small squabble among the developing pairs; Shizuka and Alice were simply amazed at how much cooler Saeko looked, giving a few awed words as the group started filing out, Rei clinging to Kaede jealously and even Saya sticking closer to Kouta as the exited.
As the group filed out of the storage room, Takashi hesitated outside of the door; he looked back in and could see where he had left the Ithaca leaning against the table. He had decided to leave it behind, since he now had a better gun, but there was still some regrets at leaving the gun he had actually become attached to.
He lifted his hand, and halfheartedly saluted it before turning and catching up with the group.
"Saya, where to next!" Takashi called out as he caught up; Saya, in turn, looked towards Rei, already knowing where they needed to head to next.
"Miyamoto, do you know where the communications office is?" she asked; Rei thought a second before replying.
"It's on the top floor." she replied, knowing the way after thinking about it. "I can lead us to it from there!"
With the directions given, the group started back down the hall to the stairs and started up again; more of them had gathered during their time in the storage room, so it was a fight up to the top floor. The group fell into a positioning with those able for melee attack were leading, Saeko and Kaede, who slung his gun onto his back again despite the shotgun, at the very front, followed by Rei and Takashi, Saya, Shizuka, Alice, and Kouta bringing up the rear.
With those four clearing the way, it wasn't too hard for them to make there way up the stairs, but none the less, Shizuka had tripped and fallen at some point over a corpse; it became a close call when it turned out it wasn't dead, and started moving towards Shizuka, who naturally screamed.
Before it could grab her however, one of the ninja swords suddenly was embedded into it's head, making the body go limp. Kaede had happened to see Shizuka fall and the corpse still moving, so had stopped progressing at the landing, throwing the blade skillfully to save her.
Kouta moved down the few stairs and helped Shizuka up, looking towards the blade still sticking from the head and thought about grabbing it; when he looked back towards Kaede however, he had started moving on, obviously unconcerned with the blade. On top of that, Kouta could see that the blade was dull, and chipped in many places, so he left it, and ushered Shizuka on before following at the rear once more.
When they finally made it to the top floor, Rei took the lead, the group not slowing their pace in the least as they moved down the halls; the communications office was a bit harder to get to, but when they did, Kouta was relieved to see the door was open. He and Takashi checked the room first, seeing no shadows of them inside the dark room; even so, just to make sure, Kouta lit up the under slung flashlight of the MP5 and did a quick sweep of the room.
"It's clear" Kouta said, giving the thumbs up and they started entering the office.
"We may have cleaned the station out by now, but stay on alert." Saya commented as she looked around the room; now that they were there, she was a bit skeptical they'd find much, since the EMP had wiped out the all the computers, and the files would be more than likely dealing with criminal cases, nothing much about the situation they needed information on.
"Looks like everything's out in here too..." Rei said with disappointment as she looked around to all the black screens.
"I don't think the police were prepared for an EMP either..." Kouta added with a bit of sarcasm towards the police; however, Alice noticed something out of place.
"That computer over there's on though..." she said, pointing over towards the only light coming from a computer screen Kouta and Takashi had missed in the initial sweep of the room; Saya was rushing over to the lit screen before Alice could even finish speaking, pushing Kouta out of the way as she did.
Saya looked down at the screen as the group crowded around her, a bar on the screen reading 'Alert!' in big red letters flashing on the screen.
"The J-Alert system is still working!" Saya yelled, hardly able to contain herself as she started hitting the the keys and looking through various windows that popped up.
"J-Jay-Alert...? What's that?" Takashi asked, a bit out of the loop, though it seemed only Rei, Saya and Kouta really knew what it was.
"J-Alert! It's Japan's nation-wide emergency warning system!" Kouta explained hastily, excited from one of the uses behind it. "It's an automated satellite-based alert system made to alert and provide information to citizens in the case of emergencies from earthquakes to missile strikes. It's EMP-proof!"
Where is it getting its electricity from? Is there a nearby power plant that still working?" Saeko asked, even though she did expect anyone to know, as she set the shine katana down, pulling out a tissue from a box on a table to clean her Murata sword of blood first, before sheathing it and doing the same to the other.
"It's probably running on back-up battery power. The machine's on alert so it must last pretty long." Saya relied, her answer good enough for Saeko and the others.
"Oh, like they have in hospitals." Shizuka said, understanding better that way; Saya didn't reply as she continued looking through the windows popping up on the computer, closing most out almost as quickly as she opened a new one.
"Do you know what you're doing?" Rei asked as she took a seat, watching Saya become more and more frustrated with the computer.
"Of course; it's designed to be so simple, a child could use it!" Saya bit back before finally letting out an aggravated yell, Alice taking the moment to examine what she had helped find.
"What's wrong?" Takashi asked after Saya's outburst.
"There's too much stuff in here that we don't care about, and I can't find the search function!" Saya replied as Alice hummed to herself, and pushed down a key, bringing up a new window and pointing to it, obviously pleased with being able too, but Saya was unamused. "What do you think you're doing, munchkin!"
"I couldn't help it!" Alice replied with watery eyes for being scolded by Saya.
"...it's almost a natural instinct to push a button when you see it, Saya..." Takashi muttered, preventing and further yelling from Saya; she looked towards the screen to fix whatever Alice had done, but instead was stopped at what she had opened.
"Hey..." Saya muttered, her eyes widening as she scanned the page; she suddenly patted Alice on the head as she started reading the page more carefully. "Nice going, munchkin!"
"W-what?" Alice asked in wonder, unknowing what she had just done.
"Saya?" Takashi said, waiting for an explanation.
"The SDF is implementing an evacuation of Tokonsou!" Saya said, turning to the group with a grin, it taking a second for it to sink in to the group, and there was soon surprise and a new hope put into the group.
"'Evacuation'? It's not 'back-up'?" was Takashi's questioning reply, having expecting the military to assist, but not by moving the people.
"You've seen how bad thing are around here. The only choice they have is to get the survivors out of here!" Saya replied, and Takashi nodded, knowing as well as all of them the numbers of them outside.
"So what's their plan, Saya?" Kouta asked. "Where is it being held?"
To answer, Saya turned back to the computer, and began reading on further before replying, relaying the information as she read on.
"It'll be at...I'll be damned. It'll be at Shintoko Third Elementary School!" Saya said, looking back to Takashi to see his shock. "That sure is convenient...let's see...it's only gonna be for a few hours, since the SDF are so tightly stretched, and it will be...
Saya was suddenly silent, and the rest became worried.
"Saya, when is it?" Takashi asked, fearing he already knew the answer; he hopped in vain that it wouldn't have been proper to say 'When was it', but he new Saya's reply would crush that hope.
"...yesterday." Saya muttered, crushing the hopes that had just formed; Saya was silent, reading on before she suddenly brightened up. "But that wasn't the last one! It's the only scheduled one, but the SDF will be making as many trips in and out of the area effected by the EMP for at least two weeks, maybe even longer, depending on how long resources last! We just gotta hope we're in the area when one happens then..."
"I see..." Takashi said, grateful that there was some good new, even though their hopes were nearly crushed into the ground; he then turned to Rei with a light smile. "Is there anywhere in the station your dad may be?"
"Y-yeah!" Rei said with a nod, the fact not lost on her that her father may still be alive in the station somewhere. "His office! It's on the floor below us!"
The group had moved down the stairs, which were clear this time and Saya mentioning they may have cleared out the building by now came to mind; as soon as they were on the floor under the one they were previously on, Rei took the lead rather quickly, quicker than Takashi or Kaede would have like, even though they understood why Rei was is such a hurry.
Kaede quickly ran to keep up with Rei to back her up if she was suddenly attacked, with the group trying to keep up as best they could without making so much noise. Rei came to a skidding halt outside of one of the doors, Kaede nearly running past her, and, before anyone could stop her, threw open the door with a loud bang.
"Dad!" she yelled, throwing caution to the wind in hopes of finding her father; needless to say, she was crushed when she was met with an empty room.
"Rei..." Kaede said softly as he stepped behind her, placing his hands on her shoulder, feeling them trembling slightly.
"There's...no one here..." Rei said, not wanting to believe it herself.
Takashi soon joined them in the room, already guessing that the room was empty from the sudden silence that had followed Rei's outburst.
"Saeko, can you keep on the look out?" Takashi asked in a low tone, looking back towards Saeko, then over to Kouta and Saya. "Let's see if we can find anything that might tell us Rei's father is alive; Kouta, Saya, you two help as well."
Takashi left Kaede and Rei, knowing now he was probably the better one to comfort Rei at the moment.
"None of the computers are working in here." Saya stated the known fact because of the computer they had just found working, keeping her tone mostly flat and her words few for Rei's sake, for now at least.
Rei had left Kaede's presence and had walked over to her dad's desk, his being able to be told apart by the picture of Rei and her mom, at the opening ceremony when she started high school, judging by the background of blooming cherry blossoms, Kaede and Takashi watching her. Takashi finally looked away, over to Kouta and saw Shizuka bump into a chalkboard, thanks to her huge chest; he didn't give it much though at the time, his attention on Kouta who was looking at a notebook.
"Did you find something, Kouta?" he asked.
"Looks like a guide to helping survivors, but it was written in a hurry, and it's nothing we don't already know." Kouta said, setting the notebook down again; a sudden slamming made them look over to Kaede.
"Where the fuck is he!" Kaede yelled out behind clenched teeth after slamming his fist into a table, knocking over a coffee mug and spilling cold coffee as it broke; the outburst had been caused from Rei's down-trodden look, tears in her eyes for her father that they had no idea where he was.
"I-is this something...?" Shizuka cut through the tension nervously, drawing the attention to the chalkboard she had run into as she rubbed the breasts that had made the find; the chalkboard had been flipped, so the writing on the other side that was hidden could now be read since it had been unveiled by Shizuka's breast when it had hit it.
The board read 'All survivors to Shintoko Third Elementary School' and had been written hastily, but Rei recognized the handwriting instantly.
"That's...that's my dad's handwriting!" Rei choked out happily, knowing her father was alive now and he knew about the evacuation, so he was more than likely there, helping coordinate the evacuation; Rei unexpectedly jumped at Kaede, hugging him tightly in relief for her father. "Thanks god he's alive! I'm so happy!"
There was a mix of emotions among the group, but they mostly were happy for Rei, relieved that she at least knew for a fact one of her parents were alive an well. Saya, who was the only other one that knew her loved ones were more than likely still alive, had her arms crossed, and looked away from the sight with a huff.
Kouta noticed it, and decided to address it before said something, like she was known to do.
"U-uhm, Saya-san..." Kouta muttered, his easily intimidated nature making him nervous to say anything directly to her about the matter, but he didn't have to.
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill the mood this time." Saya replied, turning her back and sighing, even though she could say plenty that could reduce Rei back to the state she had been in seconds before; she suddenly changed the subject, pulling the Luger P08 from her side where it had been hanging, pretty much uselessly for the past few days, and pressed the barrel to Kouta's forehead. "But this...!"
Kouta nearly shat himself, stumbling back and flailing his arms around as he sobbed.
"W-what? I haven't been bitten or anything!" he cried out, Saya looking at him with a raised eyebrow, even if she was exercising trigger discipline with her finger laying across the trigger guard, nowhere near the trigger.
"It's not that; I haven't even fired this thing once because I don't want to waste bullets or make any loud unnecessary noises..." Saya said, letting her arm lower slightly, keeping as much of her usual high-and-mighty attitude as she could, even with her next words. "Lately, I've been feeling useless and I don't like it!"
"It's not like I can shoot much either..." Kouta replied, giving a relieved sigh at the reason for behind held at gunpoint. "Besides, you fight in your own way-"
"I've been watching you!" Saya cut in sharply, getting Kouta's attention right away. "I just...I want to fight too! Like you do, Kouta!"
Kouta was silent for a second, letting Saya's words sink in before pulling the recently obtained MP5 off, and held it out to Saya.
"You should use this then." he said, holding the gun out until Saya took it. "The MP5 series actually recoils shortly after the first shot has been fired, so it's perfect for aiming at close range. This one's only semi-automatic, so you won't have any trouble of hitting your mark, or wasting ammunition."
"Kouta..." Saya muttered, looking down at the gun, remembering the fuss Kouta had made over the gun before, when they had found it, but he seemed perfectly fine with giving it to her.
"Just don't rely on the suppressor too much. Er, silencer, I mean." Kouta added. "The bullets aren't subsonic, so they'll still make sound as you shoot, so you'll still attract attention to yourself...let's see...what else...?"
Saya smiled softly at Kouta's efforts to tell her everything she needed to know about the gun and, after a second of though, she decided she shouldn't let her mother's Luger P08 go to waste; she pulled it off her shoulder, and tossed it Kouta's way, who caught it, stuttering out a 'What?'
"You can hold onto that, but I'll kill ya if you lose it!" Saya said, getting a 'Yes ma'am as she winked at Kouta, and the two grinned at each other; their little bonding moment was broken shortly by Takashi, however.
"Uhh, are you two about finished?" he asked; even Rei and Kaede had settled down by now.
Saya jumped slightly, and pushed Kouta away from her, even though they weren't that close; none the less, Rei, Shizuka, and even Saeko were giving Saya sly looks.
"W-what!" Don't look at me like that!" Saya yelled, her face flustered from the looks.
"Ahem..." Takashi cleared his throat, waiting for the attention to be on him before continuing, in a leader-mode. "Rei's dad probably was evacuated, an my mom was too, so we can check off Shintoko Third Elementary from our list now, however, we will still stop at Rei's house, to see if her mom is there or not. After that, it's Kaede's house, then my own; we'll worry about trying to join up with the SDF to be evacuated after that!"
Takashi was pleased, if not a little surprised, at the ready and agreeing looks he received, even from Alice.
"So, if everyone's clear," Takashi continued, unaware of Zeke wandering over to him. "Let's get outta here!"
The firm look on Takashi's face faded when he felt his pant leg suddenly become wet with warm liquid, and was horrified to see Zeke peeing on his leg.
"Whoa, whoa!" Takashi jumped away from the yellow stream, and Alice started scolding Zeke; it hardly made Takashi feel any better that the dog was being scolded thanks to the way Alice was going about doing so.
"Bad dog, Zeke! Onii-chan's leg is not a pole!" Alice pouted as Zeke stopped, now that Takashi moved away; laughter rung out among the group at Zeke's antics, and Takashi's developing pride as a leader was already dented.
"Maybe I'm not cut out for this after all..." Takashi muttered to himself. "That was so lame..."
"No, you're perfectly suited for it, Takashi." Saeko said with a smile.
"I don't think we could have asked for anyone better!" Rei added cheerfully.
"Yeah, not only are you a fearless leader, you're also a porta-potty the dog too..." Kaede muttered in a teasing tone under his breath, though everyone heard him; Saya was the first to burst out laughing, shortly followed by the rest when they couldn't hold it back, and it was Rei's turn to scold Kaede, even though it wasn't very convincing with her trying to hold her laughter in.
Takashi sighed lightly, his lips twitching into a smile at the humor in Kaede's joke even though it was at his own expense and easily forgiving Kaede for the crack; maybe the days ahead of them in the world of the walking dead would be just a little more bearable if it continued to be with everyone...
The group was on the road once again, heading for the nearest place on their list; it was then reviled in the humvee, that Kaede lived alone for the time, while his mother lived elsewhere, and that was where they were headed.
They were about a quarter of the way, from Kaede's directions, when they hit trouble; the humvee's engine sputtered, and thick, black smoke began rising from the vents in the hood. The back draft of the smoke caused Saya and Kouta, who had been sitting outside of the porthole together, had to come back inside to get away from the suffocating smoke.
"Damn...don't tell me it's going out now..." Takashi muttered, nodding to Shizuka who was getting increasingly worried about the smoke blocking the window; with that, Shizuka pulled off to the side of the road, and the engine gave another bang as she shut the truck off.
Finding to would be easier to simply assume from now one, Takashi looked back to Kaede, who shrugged, leaving everything behind other than the M870 shotgun and got out of the humvee. Takashi motioned to Kouta to get out as well before sliding out of the drivers side himself, and the three walked over to the front of the truck.
"Now, I don't know much about cars..." Kaede warned, looking at the horrible smelling black smoke rising from the hood with a wrinkled nose and Kouta took to keeping an eye around the area, Rei popping up from the porthole to do the same; luckily, there weren't many of them in the area, so they were safe for awhile. "But even if I did, I doubt there would be anything I could do about this..."
Kaede popped open the hood and hopped back as a huge cloud of smoke rose, coughing at the stench. There wasn't much he could see with the smoke, but after awhile it cleared enough so he could see inside, covering his nose with his hand.
"Well?" Takashi asked impatiently; he knew he had no grounds to be snappy with Kaede, but their only form of transportation dieing was the last thing he was hopping for.
"Well, there's not much to say, really." Kaede replied, shortly, just as annoyed with the truck dieing as Takashi, since he too knew what that would mean for them; he stepped aside into Shizuka's view, and motioned for her to try starting the humvee.
When she did, engine rumbled and turned over before emitting a thick cloud of smoke before dieing out without starting. Shizuka tried again only to get the same result, and Kaede motioned for her to stop.
"I dunno exactly what's wrong, but it's dead." Kaede said with a sigh, looking over to Takashi. "There's no way I could fix this even if I knew how to; the best thing is to ditch the truck and continue on foot..."
Takashi let out a frustrated growl before heading back to the truck to give the bad news to the group and move on before they caught up with them, wondering just how they were going to continue like this; they had quite bit of stuff to carry, and pretty far destination to get too. Things had been up and down since the Outbreak, but this defiantly was one of the greater downs for them, and they all knew it as Takashi conveyed the situation to the rest of the group.
Before the first of them got to the humvee, the group was already on the move, carrying what they could and leaving the rest with the humvee; Saeko and Alice were the only two not now carrying a full backpack as they moved, with Takashi and Saeko in front, Rei and Kaede on either side of Alice and Shizuka, and Kouta and Saya taking up the rear so their non-combatants were well protected as they continued on foot in a dead silence, for more reasons than just avoiding them.
Luck just didn't seem on their side anymore as even the weather started looking dark and gloomy as dark clouds started forming over head; ah, they joys of Japan's unpredictable weather...
"Does anyone know if there's any convenience stores in the area? We're gonna need some ponchos if it starts raining..." Kouta finally asked, carrying the same backpack full of ammo; Takashi was carrying another back pack, Rei was carrying one of the duffel bags of odds and ends, Kaede had his messengers bag and the Baikal shotgun he had brought from the police station, Saya was carrying another backpack of ammo and the M870, just in case she needed it if something happened to the MP5, and Shizuka was carrying her medical bag.
All that, with their normal equipment on top, and the group wasn't in the best of moods.
"I think there might be one up ahead a few blocks..." Kaede said, this being somewhat of a familiar area to him. "And we should probably grab something to eat there too, if there's anything..."
Takashi simply nodded to the words, noticing too that it may rain soon but trying not to acknowledge it at all, having enough problems to think about now with the humvee gone. It wasn't long before the convenience store came into view, a bit sooner than Kaede had expected, but that was better than later or never.
Ever cautious, the group approached the store; on the outside, it looked empty, but they knew better. Kaede and Kouta were tasked with checking the building before the rest entered shortly after Kaede dispatched one of them that was inside with one of the two remaining ninja swords, having dulled the other two out of use back at the police station.
As was becoming a habit, the group searched the store when it was clear to enter for anything useful, in this case, eight ponchos and some food, mostly snack food and warm drinks. While searching for weapons would be useless, Takashi did look around for anything useful in the store as those who were hungry munched, mostly to waste time since he himself wasn't hungry at all; the only thing that may come in handy would be lighters, so he grabbed a few off the shelves and tossed them into his bag.
"Oi, Takashi." Kaede said as he walked over towards their leader with his arms crossed behind his head. "Listen, I know some shortcuts through the residential areas we could take to get there faster, but I don't know how crowded it might be, so we might run into some trouble, if we decide to go that way..."
"Anything that will get us off the streets quicker; do you think there's any possibility of finding a new vehicle that works along the way?" Takashi asked, at least a bit relieved they would be getting to their destination a bit quicker then originally anticipated.
"No clue; I don't know that much about the area." Kaede said with a sigh, waving his hand in front of his face in response to Takashi's question. "Sorry Takashi."
"No...I was asking too much..." Takashi replied after a slight pause, knowing it was foolish to ask so much from Kaede and there was no way Kaede could provide such information, but the fact still rested heavily on Takashi's shoulders; it was extremely dangerous and time consuming to travel far distances like they would need to on foot with them dominating the streets, especially if there were still more of those dog ones that Kaede and Rei had encountered running around too. "I should be the one apologizing, Kaede."
Kaede waved off the apology with a grin, stating it was unnecessary before wandering around the store with a similar intention as Takashi had before, not finding much else but some batteries and grabbed a few lighters to hold himself.
"Alright guys, we're moving out in five minutes." Takashi finally said, seeing as how most of the group had already eaten enough for themselves; with their departure time set, the group filled any remaining room in their backpacks with water bottles.
When the group was ready, Takashi motioned for Kaede to take the lead so they could take the mentioned shortcuts, and gave the group a quick warning.
"Kaede's gonna take us through the residential areas to get to his mom's house faster, but there's no telling what we may face out there, so keep on your toes people." Takashi said, motioning Saeko up with Kaede. "Saeko-san, you stay at the head with Kaede; I'll take his spot at the side."
As they exited the convenience store, they fell into what could be called their standard formation, though right now, Kaede and Takashi's positions were switched momentarily. As they moved into formation, Takashi gave the hand signal he had learned from Kouta awhile ago that meant to move out, and Kaede started leading them towards the narrow, maze like streets in between houses in the residential area standard of Japan.
Since the streets were narrow, hardly enough for two cars to pass through, they did encounter many wreaks as they moved; luckily, none of them obstructed their progress too much and they were able to move on relatively quickly. Surprisingly, there wasn't many of them around, unlike their previous times in areas such as this, where the streets were nearly packed with the undead.
Any that happened to get it the way had their unnatural life ended at the edge of Saeko's blade, the relatively close-quarters being perfect for her katanas, and she didn't have to share the kills with anyone but herself as Kaede was too overburdened with things to be able to fight, and to get to Takashi or Rei would mean getting past Kaede...
Keeping this in mind, whenever they came in contact with a horde of them, Saeko made sure to wipe them out before they had a chance before getting any further to the group; the rest were thankful for Saeko's skill in destroying them so fast and before they had to deal with them, but it was still a little stomach-turning to see her slice the once human bodies to shreds, Shizuka taking up leading Alice with her hands that were also nearly permanently covering the younger girl's eyes.
It seemed they were making pretty good progress through the residential area when they reached a road block, literally, that stopped them. Three cars had collided and completely blocked the path they had just turned down; under normal-ish standards, meaning that they weren't lugging around a small armory, they'd easily be able to get over the pile-up, and onto the other side, but there was no chance in their current situation.
"Is there anyway to go around?" Takashi asked of Kaede as the teen tried looking for an easy way over. "Like backtracking or something?"
"Yeah, but not by going back." Kaede replied, giving up on trying to find away to get the group and all their luggage over the pileup, and looked back towards the main street the one they currently were on branched off of. "We just head back there, an go down to the next street; we should end up at the same place in the end."
Takashi nodded, pleased that the set back wasn't too serious, and since the others had been near enough to listen, they were quick to start heading back the way they came; on the main street, they fell back into the proper positions with Kaede and Saeko leading them once more.
Even though he hadn't actually counted all of them Saeko had cut down, Takashi could tell from the carnage left behind that there was quite a few of them, which was expected since they were outside walking, and not zooming by in their humvee anymore, so Takashi could notice that, even before they had run into the crash, they were suddenly thinning out; now, there was none left behind after succumbing to Saeko's blade.
Endless possibilities passed through Takashi's head, especially with the thought of the more undead dogs running around; he wasn't to worried about them, since he knew how low their intelligence was and could easily assume it wouldn't get any higher, but the dogs' mobility and greater scenes worried Takashi, if they were in the area and causing the other undead to stay clear. Even though he had nothing to base such a theory on, he still took it into consideration and was extra alert.
Kaede and Saeko had also noticed the thinning in numbers, as did Saya and Kouta, and they were also extra alert while Rei kept cautious, but wasn't any more alert than before; like it mattered, as they soon found out.
They came to the next street Kaede had mentioned and turned down, their hearts suddenly jumped at what awaited them.
"Tell me I'm not seeing things..." Takashi muttered as he looked in the distance, seeing a Komatsu LAV, knowing the SDF's main armored form of transport, sitting in the middle of the street, armed with a standard M2 Browning .50 cal.
"It's there alright." Kaede replied, just as excited and surprised as everyone else, but tried not to get his hopes up; the Komatsu LAVs were not EMP proof. "Lets go check and see if it works!"
Takashi didn't even need to give a proper order before they rushed over to the seemingly abandoned vehicle, keeping an eye out even in their excitement; the first thing Kaede noticed upon nearing the Komatsu was the uncountable amount of spend shells laying around the truck, spanning to the large .50 call to rifle round to small-arms shells and a few shotgun shells; the second thing he saw was the mass amount of blood on the ground, both telltale signs of a struggle that became a last stand.
The third thing he noticed was the body of a soldier laying a short way from the open side door of the Komatsu, and the body of the gunner at the Browning. Kaede went to the body while Kouta went straight to the truck to check out the expected stored weapons in the LAV while Takashi went to check the front seat of the truck, motioning Shizuka over to him, the others taking up watch posts around the Komatsu.
"Will it work?" Alice asked chimed, as she walked over to where Shizuka had slid into the driver's side, Takashi standing outside of the door.
"Not sure yet, Alice-chan..." Shizuka replied as she looked towards the ignition, frowning when she didn't see the keys; her expression changed however, when she saw them laying on the ground below the wheel, leaning down to grab them.
Outside, Kaede hand pushed the corpse laying away from the Komatsu over, the helmet rolling off, and saw the only wound on him was a bullet hole in the head. The thought of friendly fire came to mind, but it was ruled out, since it was a direct shot into the soldier's skull, and intentional shot.
While Kaede was examining the body and Shizuka got into the Komatsu, Kouta was trying to get the gunner's corpse out of the porthole; it was a bit difficult, since he had been gripping the Browning's handle's tightly when he died, but Kouta got him off when he squeezed up with the body, ignoring the fact that it was a corpse, and pried his hands free.
When they finally gave, Kouta lost his footing and fell back into the Komatsu with the body falling on top of him; before he could push it off however, the cause of death suddenly became apparent as the body stirred. Kouta's first reaction was panic as the newly risen zombie reached for him, groaning, and that caught the others' attentions.
"Kouta...!" Takashi yelled, raising the Benelli only to find there would be no way of hitting it but not Kouta with the gun having been familiarized with the spread of a shotgun shell over the time of using one; Shizuka gasped and dropped the keys again, at a loss for what to do, Alice screamed out Kouta's name in fear, Saya froze up, pale as a sheet, and Rei and Kaede turned in horror, too far to do anything themselves.
Purple hair fluttered as Saeko rushed the short distance to the Komatsu, Kouta holding it off with his legs just long enough for her to get there, and grabbed it by the back of the armor vest it had worn when living. With the help of a hard kick from Kouta, Saeko pulled the corpse off of him and flung it out of the truck; all guns were instantly on it, but Kaede was suddenly in the way of anyone shooting it.
He kicked it down when it tried getting up, and painted the barrel of his WA2000 towards its head; with the resulting gunshot, Takashi turned calmly to Shizuka, lowering his shotgun.
"Shizuka-sensei, please try starting the truck." he said, startling the woman before she scrambled for the keys again; he then took a look in the back to see Kouta laying back where he had fallen, panting hard and very pale. "You alright, Kouta?"
"I-I'll live..." Kouta wheezed back, Alice jumping into the Komatsu and hugged him, bawling her eyes out over the close call; Kouta comforted her and Takashi turned back to Shizuka, who had gotten the keys and were putting them into the ignition.
They all held their breath, save for Kouta who'd probably die if her did, as Shizuka turned the key; there were cheers all around, silent or not, when the engine roared to life, and Takashi waved his hand towards the truck.
"Alright everyone, pile in!" Takashi yelled, no longer caring if they attracted any of them, they had another bad-ass mode of transportation, and this one was better armed with the Browning.
"I call gun!" Kaede called before Kouta could fully move out of the way as people started to pile in, scrambling for the porthole and tossing his bag into the back with the Baikal shotgun; this got the otaku moving again, but just a little too late, Kaede looking down at him from the hole. "Maybe next time, Kouta-chan! Try and dig me up some more ammo though...it's dry."
Kouta almost denied, until an ulterior motive hit him as he looked back to the gun storage in the back, spotting something highly out of place among the standard SDF issue Howa Type 64s; a bullpup design sniper rifle with two magazines attached to it.
Kouta nearly wet himself for the second time that day as the group settled in the truck and Shizuka started off down the street.
"A-a-a DSR-1? Here? In a JSDF Komatsu LAV!" Kouta rambled on, picking up the gun and ogling the like the group hadn't seen before; they got that it was a long shot that they'd actually find a gun like that in use by the SDF, but it was still a bit scary to see him looking at the gun like he would make love to it soon.
"Uh, Kouta? Ammo?" Kaede said, peeking into the LAV's interior, his reaction to the gun more like the rest of the groups, even though he was the most understanding of Kouta's habit; forgetting the fact that Kaede stole the gun before he could get to it, Kouta simply handed Kaede a case of ammo for the Browning before continuing muttering over the gun and raping it with his eyes and hands once more.
While he was down there, he gave Shizuka a few directions for the upcoming roads, saying he'd drop by and give more directions when need be before standing back out of the porthole, reloading the Browning, and looking forward, able to see his mother in his mind's even and hoping with everything he had that she was alright.
Inside the truck, Rei looked up through the porthole at Kaede, feeling the same pain as he and hoped the best like he did for her...
Chapter 11, end
Author's notes: By the by, I'm going to be taking a little break from this story, so I can concentrate on my other fics I'm working on; don't worry, I won't forget about it though; I like writing this one too much to stop, but I just have to get some of these other ideas out before they flutter away...
*= I can't find much information on it, so sorry that I didn't offer much information on it, but look it up on an image search and you'll find it.