IMPORTANT UPDATE: I will be taking a...productive haitus from this story, for two reasons: one, I'll be going back and revising the chapters I have already done, and upload them when I'm done. I'll be hopefully shortening chapters a bit, adding things I skipped or missed(namely, the time with Saeko and Takashi, since it's a popularly demanded scene, and I'll be tossing Hishashi in as well in the first chapter) and adding in small summaries at the beginning of long chapters for your convinence.
The second reason would be, well, I won't go into details to keep the story short, but because of issues regarding my family, I won't have access to the computer very offten any more. But I will get on as offten as I can to work on the revisions of earlier chapters, and on new chapters I will upload when I can.
Also, in regards to this fic turning into a cross over...there seems to be some confusion as to what I'm doing; I'm just going to add characters from the anime/manga Bamboo Blade(if you want to know anything about it, I'd suggest watching or reading it; it has a nice story and is a pretty nice read, or use Wikipedia to get an idea of it if you don't want to). That's it. And a crossover between H.O.T.D and Bamboo Blade is not as far feched as a lot of these crossovers(like the numerous Naruto crossovers...ninjas and zombies, really? Come on...) so it's not going to be some unfollowable storyline after I start the crossover.
Author's Notes: I don't have much to say right now, so I'll just go right ahead into some review responses...
To T-Biggz: That's...quite a unique review with the dreams and everything, but thank you very much for deciding to stick around despite your er, fear; I'll try my hardest not to disappoint you(or any of my dear readers, for that matter).
On another note, thank you to everyone else who has reviewed, or simply have been reading this fic up until now; your support, silent or viced, has encouraged me to continue with this story, even when I've felt like quitting.
To XeroBlitzAce: Excellent suggestion; I'm all too aware that the chapters end up very long by the time I finish them, so a recap of the previous chapter would be helpful, especially if I take a long time between updates. However, I'm not quite sure how I'd go about doing it; should I have like an omniscient summery from the, well, storyteller's point of view at the beginning of the chapter, or have one of the characters reflect on what happened? A suggestion from anyone on this matter would be great; which one would you guys like to see?
Oh, and also, no worry about not knowing anything about Bamboo Blade; I'll basically just be using characters from it, so they're skills and everything will be mentioned as I go along. And of course, Wikipedia is your friend in these kind of situations, if you wanna get a feel for the series and characters.
To Rocketfist: Your review kinda startled me...in the terms that I went to bed with 38 reviews, and woke up to 41 when I only get a review maybe every other day or so. But, anyways, I am aware of this fic not seeming like a Takashi and Saeko fic. That's because it isn't; there is no specific pairing of this fic, but Takashi and Saeko is a pairing most easily pointed out, which why I catergrized it as such. And as for Kaede and Rei seeming like the main pairing...that might be my bad. I personally see their relationship as...well, I see Saeko as one to keep their relationship on the low. Like more of a profesional relationship when in the view of others, which would explain why she wouldn't show much affection for Takashi as Rei does for Kaede, and that their relationship really comes out in the bedroom...I'm sure I'm not the only one that sees Saeko's personality like that.
And as for you dissapointment with me leaving out the scene where Takashi and Saeko were at the shrine...yeah. Read the update if you haven't already.
Now that that's all done, on with the next chapter, and remember to review with anything you think I may need to know!
Chapter 16: ...Sale on all non-DEAD Items, Limited Time only!
Unlike the group of teenaged survivors also occupying the mall, the original group held up in the mall weren't as organized, nor were they cooperative with each other; they let their individual opinions prevent them from working together.
For example, for the better part of an hour now, the group of mall survivors have been arguing about what they were to do now in their meeting place; they news that the police would not be bringing relief any time soon had broken the thin veil of peace over them all.
The only two present that weren't arguing were two of the remaining teenagers of the group; a student who was sitting with his knees drawn to his chest, and the other was probably a high school drop-out and recently reveled zombie movie fanatic that carried a kitchen knife with him at all times. Ever since he spoke up about everyone dying, he had been wandering around inside the store they made their base, mumbling to himself and having an occasional outburst of hysteric laughter, out yelling about how none of them would survive.
The adults had quickly learned to ignore him by thinking he was trying to get attention, or he just simply had gone crazy, and there was nothing they could do for him anymore. Either way, when he had another outbreak of laughter and shouting, they let him be and continued throwing harsh words at each other.
Because they were ignoring the teen and continued arguing, they were oblivious to the other teenager raising to his feet and walking out of the backroom unnoticed by any of the others.
"Ahahaha! Everyone's gonna die! Die, die, die! Hahaha!" the gloomy teenager's outburst came to it's peak, throwing his head back in laughter; it really did look like he had snapped and fallen into insanity with his constant outbursts.
Before the dark teen, lets call him Daichi, could realize the younger teen, lets call him Hiiro, was in the room with him, Hiiro was rushing towards the door; before he could make it however, Daichi stepped in his way, preventing him from leaving.
"Hey, were-?"
Daichi wasn't even able to get his full question out before Hiiro ran right into him, a folding pocket knife no one knew he even had suddenly embedded into his stomach.
"DONT' UNDERESTIMATE ME!" the small teenager yelled out in a surprisingly loud voice; it was more then enough to get the attention of the adults in the back, and indeed the entire mall!
The adults came rushing out as fast as they could just in time to see Hiiro pull the short knife from Daichi's stomach; the blade and his hand both had blood on them, and Daichi's shirt quickly soaked the crimson in. Daichi fell to his knees seconds later, and one of the survivors let out a scream.
"Y-you've got to be shitting me!" he gasped out in shock as the blood continued staining his t-shirt darker with blood. "That did not just fucking happen!"
And then Daichi dropped to the floor completely, the initial shock passing quickly; the wound was not deep enough to make him pass out right away and neither was the pain, but it became obvious the teenager could not handle pain very well, and began to thrash on the ground in pain, screaming and yelling.
While one survivor knelt to see if they could do anything for him, the others turned to the culprit; Hiiro was standing where he had been, with a crooked smile on his face, staring at the writhing Daichi. He gave a twisted chuckle, before turning and running straight from the store, though none of them made a move to chase after him.
Then the other mall survivors started panicking, Daichi's screams and thrashing making the wound seem more serious than it really was.
"That little asshole actually stabbed him!"
"What should we do?"
What should we do! He's in pain!"
"W-we need to wrap it up! Q-quickly!"
"How! If you know so much, why don't you do it?"
Seeing as how the group was quickly deteriorating into another argument, even if Daichi's screams pierced their argument and how no one made a move to help the teenager, one of them quickly darted out the way Hiiro had fled.
"Where the hell do you think you're running off too!" the survivor heard behind him.
"I'm gonna get that nurse...!" he yelled back without pausing or turning back to the others; it was more than enough to get them to shut up for the time being.
That time where the adults had started slipping into an argument was more than enough time for the runaway teenager Hiiro to get to the first floor and to the emergency exits to the outside; all the while, mumbling to himself. Unlike Daichi who was only acting like he had gone insane because he could with society as it was known crumbling, Hiiro had truly gone off the deep end, and went crazy.
"I won't lose. I won't lose to those monsters out there...I won't lose." he muttered over and over again to himself as he made his way to the door with only the short folding knife in his hand, still dripping blood from earlier.
Without hesitation or any remorse for what the consequences would be for the others taking refuge in the mall, he threw open the door to the undead-infested outside; they were already on alert for any sounds thanks to the inhuman yell Hiiro had produced echoing even outside, and if the door banging against the wall when he threw it open wasn't bad enough...
"I...I can do it! Come and get me if you can!" he yelled at the top of his lungs at the zombies limping around just yards away; they quickly took the invitation, and went straight for Hiiro.
His crazed slashing at the undead proved very useless, and in a blink of an eye they overpowered the teen, and began ripping him apart; as soon as he had stopped screaming, less and less of the undead stumbled to their knees to get a piece of him, and instead started stumbling into the opening in the wall they had a difficulty getting past.
Even if they were unaware of each other, they were still able to pour into the mall in a matter of seconds, and venture inside on the first floor to look for more prey, and it wasn't long for them to find it.
Luckily for the survivor that had run out of the store to look for the nurse, he was on the second floor, but by no means did that mean he ignored the fact the things they were trying to keep outside were now inside.
"They're here..." he muttered in disbelief, turning back to where he had just come from; the reality of what that meant hit him finally, and he panicked. "Oh my god, they're inside the mall! They're coming in through the emergency exit!"
Those words were quick to alert the adults, and they all rushed out of the store, leaving Daichi behind(much to his displeasure) to confirm; the undead were indeed inside, and their numbers were increasing and spreading all over the first floor. Just like they were quick to argue, each of the adults were also quick to try and take command; only in times like this and where their orders were logical was someone temporarily put into a leader role in the mall group...
"Grab that furniture over there and move it over here!" one quickly yelled, trying to put himself in the leader position; of course, his attempt was met with resistance.
"What the hell do we need it for!" another quickly questioned; luckily, the first survivor already had part of a plan going in his mind.
"We're going to block off the stairs with it!" he quickly explained to those who were reluctant to agree; others had already done so, so he was helping move large pieces of furniture towards the stairs while he spoke. "We have to abandon the first floor completely! We have no choice now!"
While the others struggled to get the stairs blocked off with the furniture, the survivor that had originally gone to get the nurse for Daichi's stab wound had started off again; as it turned out, he was the one who had the opinion of staying with the other group of teenagers, and now he was more concerned with getting their help in this latest crisis then having the wound tend to.
He didn't get very far though, before he ran into something; it was enough to knock him down, but it had felt soft on impact; the high school nurse Marikawa Shizuka's huge breasts jiggled from the impact of the man running into her chest, making her step back in surprise.
It wasn't only the nurse there, but the whole gang, including the police officer, the two dogs, and the child, standing just feet from where the man had fallen; they all were obviously aware of the problem of the undead infesting the mall as well, as a few of them were looking down at them spreading across the first floor, and all of them were armed with the acceptation of the nurse and child.
In the face of their to-be saviors, the man quickly tried getting everything out, but it ended up in broken, jumbled words.
"B-big trouble-there was a knife-they're inside-kid bleeding-!" jumbled out of his mouth in a matter of seconds; that plus him panting made any message that he was trying to get across was lost on the others.
The one with the sword, Busujima Saeko swiftly moved up to him as he continued trying to get his story out in a panic, and grabbed his shoulder roughly, silencing him.
"Get a hold of yourself and tell us what happened, man!" she yelled; that seemed to work somewhat, but his mouth kept moving, and he still couldn't get a comprehensible sentence out. "Take three deep breaths and start over!"
So he did, and was able to convey the whole story to the teenagers while the other survivors worked on the makeshift barricade on the stairs; his story stopped at when he had noticed the creatures entering the first floor, so they were left to infer what the other survivors were doing on their own.
"Looks like they're abandoning the first floor, and making a barricade with furniture to make the second safe." Saya guessed right on the dot, speaking just loud enough for the others to hear, and getting the man's confirmation as to her thoughts before taking a look around the mall; just from where she stood, she could see four other alternate stairwells, and not to mention service stairwells made her continue in the way she did. "It's a good idea, but it won't do shit! There's not enough time or able people to block all the stair ways, and maybe not even enough furniture; we need to get out of there! There's an emergency exit on the second floor that leads to a fire escape we should take."
"Ugh...I'm afraid of highs..." Shizuka muttered and shivered, but no one but two really paid her any mind.
"Is...this really a time to worry about that...?" Asami asked Alice, of all people, though the child was smart enough to answer properly.
"Nope; definitely isn't!" Alice replied with a shake of her head, she and the police officer(and Shizuka) oblivious to what was going on, though they were aware.
"I'll lead; Kouta, you take the back." Takashi spoke up after getting all the needed information from Saya and seeming to have forgotten the man was there, speaking directly to his group. "Don't shoot anything unless it's to save your life!"
"W-wait! What about us?" the man said, having really thought they had been forgotten; in truth, the other group had already decided on how they would deal with the mall survivors. "What should we-?"
"That's for you to figure out." surprisingly, Asami said, basically informing the man of the other group of what had been decided. "It's all over...you guys are on your own now; you need to figure out what to do for yourselves. You should decide on your own because Asami's made a big decision herself. She's decided to quit being a police officer!"
Though that was new to the group, the rest had already been decided before hand, and the looks on the teenager's faces showed that they were serious about leaving them to themselves, the man inferred. It was then that Saya's observation about the other stairs and how long they would take to seal up became a reality, as one of the faster ghouls made it up another unblocked set of stairs, and started advancing on the group.
Without hesitation, Saeko quickly moved between the others and drew her Murata katana from it's sheath and drove the razor sharp blade through it's skull.
"There's no time to talk now; we'd best hurry" she declared as she withdrew her sword and slid it back into it's sheath with one quick motion.
"B-but you guys just can't leave us here to die!" the man said, the fact that they were already on the second floor making him speak up. "W-we...we're not armed like you guys! We won't have a chance!"
There was a silence amongst them after that; even Alice now understood they couldn't help every single person, so she kept quiet. After a moment, Saya spoke up with a sigh.
"The emergency exit on this floor's that way anyways..." she offered, leaving the actual decision to Takashi.
"...fine. We'll only take you guys along if you all keep your mouths shut; understood?" he spoke directly to the man this time; he quickly nodded and scrambled to his feet.
Not waiting for a verbal answer, Takashi motioned with his hand for them to start off; while still being loose and not as strict as any other time, they still moved into a natural formation where Alice, Shizuka and now Asami kept to the middle, while Takashi, Rei, and Saeko took the leading spots, and Saya, Kouta, and Kaede taking up the rear, even though he didn't have gun with ammo at the moment.
"An honorable man follows a strict code of chivalry, huh?" Saeko commented jokingly, almost sarcastically even on Takashi's choice of actions.
"We always seem to end up responsible for other people's survival!" Saya also commented a bit...unkindly; regardless, they all followed Takashi's orders to the letter and followed him to the group of mall survivors, who had moved onto another stairwell.
It was obvious they were having trouble moving the furniture this far, and were a little too slow in getting the barricade up before any of the undead navigated the stairs; at one point, they had accidentally pushed a dresser down, buying some time but also causing a lag in putting up the barricade.
But either way, they had beaten them and got to the top before they had gotten the barricade up, and crawled over it; the fact that the survivors made sure to place the furniture in a way to prevent it from falling also lead to their downfall, as they were able to go right over it without pulling the dressers on top of themselves.
As they started advancing on the retreating survivors, Takashi was the first to move in for a kill. He drove the edged barrel of the Benelli into the eye of one of the walking corpses far enough to put it down for good, but the body stumbled forward before he could fully pull it out. The body fell on top of Takashi and the shotgun was pulled from his grip; although Rei and Saeko were quick to move out as well, Asami had moved up as well, and ended up saving Takashi by aiming a swing at one of the undead who hard started lunging at Takashi last second. The collapsible baton she was using bashed the zombie's teeth in and sent it over the edge of the second floor; a thud showing it hit the ground below, and hopefully killing it.
Both Rei and Saeko were already in action by this time, slaying ghouls left and right. As Rei drove the M1's bayonet into another skull, she shuttered slightly to herself as she pulled it back.
"I hope I never get use to killing like this..." she muttered, getting ready to kill the last one that that had gotten over the barricades so far.
"Look on the bright side...Saeko started, moving beside Rei before she could thrust her rifle forward, and decapitated the zombie Rei was just about to kill with a grin. "At least you're better off than me!"
The two girls exchanged glances where Saeko only smiled lightly and Rei wore a half smile, though whether it was was for Saeko taking Rei's kill or some other reason, but the little exchange of looks made several of the onlookers sweat some.
"Uh...can I ask you guys something?" one of the survivors who, like the others, asked of Takashi, who had slid out from under the corpse awhile ago.
"Sure, I guess..." he replied with a shrug.
"What the hell are you guys!" the survivor asked, and Takashi looked away.
"Oh, uh..."
His mind may have been working on an answer, but he was watching as a second wave of undead, from the stairs as well and behind them, started advancing; he watched and Rei and Saeko more or less worked together at the stairs keeping them from crawling over again, and watched as Kouta and Kaede started knocking the ones coming up from behind over the railings, Kouta using the but of his gun and Kaede his bare hands until Rei kicked Takashi's abandoned Benelli over to him.
Takashi didn't mind much, and in fact only watched as Kaede quickly picked the shotgun up by it's barrel, and used it as a club, hitting one of the walking corpses hard enough to send it right over the side. Taking his time with replying, Takashi also decided to take a look around to the other survivors as well; a few of them were still working on moving the furniture over to the stairs since they still though the plan was to barricade them all, and the one that they had come into contact with earlier seemed to now be pretty carefree now that they were there.
At least, that what it seemed like, since he was now trying to lecture the smoker to stop smoking inside the mall; the old guy who was smoking seemed pretty oblivious too. He even watched pretty calmly as the teen who had been stabbed, Daichi, wander out of the store seeming more like one of the undead then someone who only had a stab wound.
"...don't ask me." Takashi finally replied with a shrug and a light sigh that made the survivor who had asked him the question in the first place look at him as if there was something wrong with him.
Just as Takashi replied to such a pointless question, Saya exclaimed as she saw something in the distance; it looked like they had found the other staircases, as well as the service stairs as well since there were way more than if they were coming up from the few stairs available.
"They're coming from over there too!" Saya pointed out, and then turned her attention to a few closer ones. "And these ones will reach us soon; we need to get out of here before we're overrun!"
With Saya's warning, Takashi quickly assessed the situation; there were too many of them to try and make a stand, and even if they could, the corpses' numbers would only increase. The only option was to get out of the mall as soon as possible.
"Takashi..." Saeko's voice interrupted his train of thought; she was standing near by with her sword drawn, though she made no move to engage the enemy at that point, but did keep a close eye on them. "Are we changing plans again?"
"Isn't that what we always do?" Takashi replied, disregarding any thoughts of following the plans they had laid out before, since none of them would work in this situation now. "Kouta and Nakaoka-san should go secure the emergency ext and the stairs; Rei, Saya and Kaede, you guys cover Shizuka and Alice-chan; Saeko-san and I will take up the rear guard!"
"You'll need this back then..." Kaede said, stepping forward and holding Takashi's Benelli out for him with a grin. "Thanks for letting me barrow that."
Takashi nodded and took hold of the shotgun, and Kaede went to quickly find an alternative weapon; in that case, Rei quickly pointed out a hardware store they had conveniently ended up near. Takashi put their mobilization on hold for a few seconds later to allow Kaede to find something; during that time, Alice wondered up to Takashi.
"Onii-chan?" she said to get Takashi attention, and then pointed to a bicycle that had been on display in front of a store. "Can I bring the bike?"
Takashi's initial response was to say no, that it would probably cause problems later on since they would still be using the Komatsu when they got to it, but he also thought about how it may be better for Alice to have some sort of transportation, just in case something did go wrong. Plus, though he was unaware, Alice was quite good on a bike, and had spent a lot of free time playing on the ones around the store.
Takashi finally gave a shot nod, giving Alice the thumbs up and nodding; Alice was more than happy with that, and quickly went to get the bike. She tested a few things out before hopping on and peddling over to the others just as Kaede returned from the store with a plain ax for cutting wood; now they were ready to go, and just in time. Saeko was already starting to drop the corpses that were getting too close.
"Alright, let's get going!" Takashi called out to the others; Kouta and Asami taking that as a cue to head out first, and started for the emergency exit.
"W-wait, what about us? What do we do?" one of the survivors spoke up as the rest of the group started heading after the otaku and police officer.
"How should I know?" Takashi replied to them in a flat tone, and they were inevitably held up by the distraction.
"What's that suppose to mean! You're just going to leave us?" the business man yelled out in a panic. "You're going to leave an injured person to die?"
Having taken advantage of the distraction, Shizuka had quickly gone to examine said injured person; the teenager Daichi's energy had run out, so he wasn't thrashing or making a fuss anymore, so Shizuka had an easy time assessing the wound.
"It's okay! The wound is not life threatening!" she announced, trashing the business man's argument without even knowing.
"You can try to escape with us, or hide out on the roof; I don't care." Takashi offered in the same flat tone; he had taken enough of the other survivors' complaints, and with the little bubble of 'chivalry' lost, he didn't particularly care about them anymore. "It's up to you, but you'd better decide quick, cause we're leaving!"
He motioned to the others of his group once again to head out, but was again distracted by what one of the survivors said next; the elderly man who smoked a lot, to be specific.
"I've never seen such irresponsible young people! Your parents must be ashamed!" he yelled out finally, completely ignoring the fact that they were advancing fast, and yelling was only making them move faster; Saeko was of course killing them as fast as they came, and Kaede was also breaking in the new ax, but more and more of the undead kept coming.
"They might be, but we won't know until we find them." Takashi replied with a sigh; the mentioning of their parents hit them all pretty hard, since the question rested heavy on all of their shoulders.
Were their parents okay, regardless of where they were?
"Give us a break here...we're only high school students." Takashi finished, hesitating.
"I'm getting out of here!" one of the survivors said, heading to join the group of teenagers. "There's no point in staying inside; might as well head to the roof, like they suggested."
"I'm going too!" another agreed; several others decided to go along after that, but others also stubbornly chose to stay.
"I don't wanna rush you guys, but could you hurry up over there!" Kaede barked over the disagreements of the mall survivors, and over the sound of him and Saeko keeping the undead from reaching the others.
With that serving as a reminder of what was going on around them, Takashi motioned to move out for the third time, letting those of the mall survivors that were coming with them act instead of argue for whatever reason; with the Benelli in hand, Takashi began leading his group as well as a few of the mall survivors along the way Kouta and Asami had disappeared down.
As they finally mobilized, the teenagers fell near flawlessly into the prearranged formation; Takashi and Kaede switched places so Takashi was at the rear with Saeko, and Kaede along with Saya and Rei formed a triangle around Shizuka and Alice, who rode the bike she had been allowed to take at the pace to keep next to the nurse.
Far ahead of them, Kouta and Asami had actually already reached their goal, the emergency exit; assuming that Takashi and the others would be on their tail, Kouta had gone ahead and lead Asami there instead of waiting. Well, it was more Asami leading Kouta, as she walked ahead of Kouta who kept an eye out behind them to make sure none of them snuck up on their rear.
The two soon arrived at the emergency exit, and without words, Kouta motioned Asami to open the door when he was ready; she quickly complied with his order and threw the door open as soon as Kouta gave the order. Though Asami hadn't been the top of her class in the police academy, she at least held onto the knowledge of how to enter a potentially hazardous room; or maybe the whole situation they were in made her remember that lesson.
As soon as the door was opened by Asami, Kouta quickly moved outside onto that floor's landing and checked the stairs above and below, sweeping both areas with his rifle raised; luckily, it seemed like they had overlooked this stair case, and it was completely empty. Seeing no immediate threats, Kouta lowered the AR-10 and then took a look out at what they were going to be dealing with; the stairs lead down into the rear parking lot, probably for employees, but it was still loosely packed with the undead, and cars.
"This isn't good...we won't be able to get out fast enough on foot..." Kouta muttered more to himself, then remembered Asami didn't even know about the Komatsu yet; he pointed off to the exit and towards the building across the street before speaking to the police officer(well, ex-police officer now). "Over below that building is an underground parking lot; we've hidden our truck there, so that's where we're heading."
"But aren't cars not working after the, uh...E.N.B...?" Asami asked with some concern.
"E.M.P., and yes, and no; some cars had special plating and aren't effected by it, like some military vehicles...our first truck was like that, but it broke down. In this case, this one is still a military vehicle, but it was brought in from outside the blast, so it still works." seeing as how Asami was hardly following what he was saying, Kouta dropped the subject, and again went back to the matter at hand; how they were going to get to the truck without having to face the mass of undead down there? "If only we had a few grenades from the Komatsu! Then we'd be able to distract them...!"
While Kouta continued trying to think of someway, even starting down the path of staying behind and covering the others since he was the only one with ammo left for a long ranged weapon, an idea popped into Asami's head; seeing no reason why it wouldn't work, Asami quickly turned and started for the door in a run.
"Asami will be right back!" she said over her shoulder, not waiting for Kouta to reply before rushing right back into the store.
Having no chance to object, Kouta was left out on the stairs as Asami rushed back the way they had just come; it wasn't very long before she ran into the others who were heading out to the exit. The others were quick to jump to the conclusion that something had happened, judging by the urgent air around Asami as she approached.
"What's wrong? Did something happen!" Saya was the first to question; as much as she didn't want to admit it, she was worried for Kouta, especially since he was no where to be seen.
"What's going on!" Takashi also inquired as the ex-police officer ran past him as well.
"There's something Asami need! Cover her!" she yelled over her shoulder, not stopping once; Rei was the first to break off and chase after Asami.
"I'll go with her! We'll catch up in a second!" Rei said just as she rushed off in the direction Asami was going.
"Good luck, and hurry back!" Takashi called after her; trusting that Rei could handle it herself(considering Saeko and Kaede had nearly wiped out all of them that had gotten onto the second floor during those numerous distractions earlier), he once again put the group into motion to the emergency exit that would lead them out of the mall completely.
Not knowing where Asami was heading, Rei followed her every step of the way until they were a little past the survivors who were chose not to have anything to do with the teenagers, which included the middle aged business man and the old smoking man, among a few others.
Asami finally stopped outside a store with a small firework display outside and let out a successful exclamation before diving into the display, looking through the bags of firecrackers and small scale fireworks.
"What exactly is it that you're looking for?" Rei finally asked, dodging a few of the fireworks Asami was tossing around while also keeping an eye on the next wave of undead heading up to the second floor.
"I'm looking for those little fireworks that blow up when you throw them...what were they called again?" Asami replied, moving onto another set of displayed fireworks searching through them just like she had with the other trays. "Not those...not those either..."
"You mean cracker balls?" Rei offered, having actually caught a pack of mentioned fireworks Asami had overlooked and tossed over her shoulder; Asami glanced over her shoulder and recognized what Rei was holding, and nodded enthusiastically.
"Oh yeah! Those!" she said, turning back to the display and picking out all of the cracker balls, and well as a few other things and began filling brown paper bag she grabbed from a counter with the fireworks. "We'll need some of these small firecrackers too, and a few of these...these too..."
Soon, the bag was nearly full, and Rei was starting to get the idea of what the fireworks were going to be used for, and mentioned something Asami hadn't thought of yet.
"Shouldn't we try these out, to see if they work right?" she asked as the police officer handed her the bag of fireworks; Asami blinked as that idea came to mind as well.
"Right...er," Asami nodded with a bit more of a lost expression before looking at Rei hopefully. "Do you have a lighter by any chance?"
"I'm in high school! Think about who you're talking to!" Rei replied in angry disbelief before putting it aside to look for some form of fire.
"Oh, then, uh..." Asami looked around the immediate area looking for a lighter or something like it; she then spotted the old man lighting up a cigarette.
Without hesitation, and ignoring the fact that Rei had found some in the store they got the fireworks from, she ran to the old man, and snatched the lighter from his hands.
"What the hell're you doing!" he yelled out, already pissed off about having his smoking delayed.
"Sorry, but in a public place like this..." Asami spoke at the man, though not paying him any particular mind, and instead concentrated on lighting the fuse of one of the small sets of firecrackers she held. "Smoking is prohibited!"
As soon as she got the fuse lit, she threw it into the face of one of the approaching ghouls; it bounced off the corpse's forehead before going off with a loud bang, horribly disorienting that particular one, and drawing the others to it.
"Alright! Success!" Asami cheered as they swarmed one of their own, though didn't attack, and gave them time to head back to the others, and the other mall survivors a false sense of safety.
Though no one was paying attention to those who chose to stay away from the other group, they had decided to head for the roof, as soon as the teens were gone, of course. The fact that the undead were now confused and no longer heading towards them made them feel less rushed, which would eventually lead to their downfall.
Asami and Rei knew the distraction was only temporary though, and quickly went to catch up with the others, who turned out to have stopped a safe distance away to watch and wait; even as the two approached, they could tell Saya was beating herself up over something.
"Using fireworks as distractions! Why didn't I think of that, dammit!" she growled, hitting her forehead into the palm of her hand repeatedly.
"Why are you so made, Saya-chan?" Alice asked innocently enough, but of course set Saya's fuse off.
"Because I'm me!" the genius replied, getting ready to reprimand the young girl for her using the informal chan suffix on her name; before she could though, Asami stepped in, called Alice's attention to her.
"Here, these are for you, Alice-chan~" Asami said sweetly, holding out the paper bag of fireworks, which also contained the lighter as well, to Alice.
"What's this for?" the girl inquired cluelessly.
"Pipe down and I'll tell you!" Saya said before the ex-police officer could.
But before she could explain anything to Alice, Saeko's voice interrupted over her own, with a bit of urgency in it as well.
"Guys, they're still coming; we need to get out of here!" the swordswoman warned, bringing their attention to the wave of undead now heading to them in almost every direction but the way to the emergency exit. "Let's hurry up and get out through the emergency exit!"
The group was quick to get moving again, though the other survivors lagged behind, complaining about constantly having to stop and go for the past ten minutes, but the fact that none of the teenagers even hesitated to listen to their complains made them shut up and rush to catch up.
As for the other survivors, the fact that the undead were advancing on them again made them think twice about their plan of sticking around and waiting, and instead followed suit and started heading to the exit as well; unfortunately for them, they had waited too long, and the undead ghouls were already upon them.
None of Takashi's group spared even a second to pause for the other survivors when their screams echoed as they were overrun, and the survivors who decided to stick with the kids for the time being only hesitated a few seconds out of fear of being left behind as well.
Moving at a brisk pace, the group made it to the emergency exit as quickly as they could manage while keeping their formation, though the few mall survivors lagged a bit behind. Having no desire to try and get them into their formation, Takashi let them just follow as they made their way to the exit; the door was already propped open, and they could see Kouta on the landing waiting for them.
As they piled out onto the balcony, the teenagers started down the stairs to make room for the others to get out as well; however, the mall survivors started up the stairs instead.
"Thanks for your guy's help, but this is where we part ways" the last of the mall survivors said as he came out of the mall and he and Takashi closed the door behind them; he slid a metal pole he had picked up as a weapon between the handle of the door and the railings beside it, so it wouldn't be opened from the inside anymore. "We're staying here on the roof."
"Alright you guys. Good luck!" Takashi replied, holding his hand out to the man who had spoken up.
"Thanks...uh, hey, listen." the man said, taking Takashi's hand and shaking it in thanks; though they were a little rough in doing it, Takashi and his group were responsible for getting them out safe, and they were grateful, but there was one more thing that needed to be asked. "If you actually reach anybody out there, do you think you could..."
"Yeah; if we run into someone important, we'll spread the word about you guys being up here!" Takashi replied with a quick nod; taking Takashi's word for it, the remaining mall survivors continued up the stairwell to the roof of the mall.
Kouta and Asami with Kaede and Saeko following closely behind, were already halfway down the flight of stairs to the landing between the second floor and the ground when Asami paused, looking up at the mall survivors as they went the opposite direction; a remorseful look came over her features while she waited for Kouta to make sure they were clear to continue down.
Kouta noticed the look, and read what she was thinking all too easily.
"We're not abandoning them; they decided on their own, just like we did." Kouta tried reassuring the ex-police officer, though it didn't quite work as well as he wanted too.
Before he could say anything more, Kouta's attention was snapped back to what he had been doing moments before; like he had feared, they were starting to attempt getting up the stairs to where they were. Seeing as how it may take too long for either Kaede or Saeko to get down to that level and past he and Asami, Kouta pressed the AR-10 to his shoulder to aim a head shot.
Of course, his thought of someone with a melee weapon getting down there in time was quickly proven wrong as Saeko did something quite daring and unexpected; she took hold of the railing above and hoped over in, landing midway down the stairs and plenty close enough to the corpses heading up.
Within a blink of an eye, Saeko sent a swift kick and knocked one of them back, ensuring that a domino effect followed and knocked several of the corpses back down the stairs they were able to get up. As for the last few on the stairwell, Saeko moved just a quickly down several steps so they were within reach of her sword.
In seconds, Saeko dispatched the remaining corpses and let their dismembered bodies fall down the stairs with the rest of the still moving ghouls as she turned back to Kouta.
"We don't need to draw their attention to us anymore than we already have..." she said, giving her wrist a quick flick, cleaning the blade of blood while turning her gaze up to Takashi who was just coming to the landing Asami and Kouta were on with the others. "I suggest Himoura-kun and I lead to prevent any unnecessary gunfire."
"Right; everyone else, into the usual formation. Kouta and I will take up the rear." Takashi ordered and motioned for the others to start heading down while he and Kouta stood aside to let them pass; Kaede and Shizuka were carrying Alice's bike down, so they took the longest to get down.
As soon as they did however, the group of teenagers once again deployed into the most suitable formation for the situation; Saeko and Kaede who had weapons that didn't cause a loud enough sound to cause a swarm and the skills to use them efficiently lead with the two non-combatants, Shizuka and Alice, stayed in the middle with the least skilled fighters, Asami and Saya, beside them, and finally Kouta and Takashi, the two who couldn't quite fight without shooting, took up the rear as a last resort if something went bad.
Before they actually started off however, Alice silently held up the bag of small scale fireworks she had been given; the girl was quite good with keeping quiet when she needed to, and was catching on to speaking through motions, so she was quietly asking anyone who was paying attention if she should go and use the firecrackers as Saya had explained they were for on the way down from the second floor.
Takashi was the one who caught on to what she was asking first, and nodded to her then to the two forwards to keep an eye on the girl; overjoyed to be helping the rest of the group, the young Alice rode out in front of the group and to the right where there was the most open space.
The two dogs, Yuki and Zeke, had even run out with her; about halfway, Yuki the more trained of the two, darted off and started barking wildly in different directions. Through just a dog, she had caught onto them at leastbeing distracted by noise, and added to the ghoul's confusion by running around while barking.
To top off the distraction, Alice took a handful of cracker balls that went off without the need of fire, and threw them out at a few of the wondering corpses; they went off, drawing the undead from around the parking lot to that location, and Alice began heading back with a successful smile on her face.
Although the action deserved praise, it would have to wait, for the window brought by the distraction was small; Alice wasn't even able to ride all the way back to where the others had been before they came and met her halfway. Within moments, Alice was beside Shizuka once more and as soon as that happened, they were off.
By the time the group reached the parking lot across the street, the sun was already starting to set. Luckily, it wasn't as infested as the mall's parking lot, and they had a relatively easy time navigating around any of the undead and to the Komatsu.
Though, that was putting it lightly; as it turned out, they seemed a lot more active and vicious at night, and attacked at the lightest of sounds. With the underground parking lot echoing almost everyone of their foot steps, the undead were wild and lunging at things left and right, most of the time at one of the group; since the echoing made them even more crazed than normal, using the firecrackers as a distraction was out of the question, and there was no other option then to fight it out.
By the time the eight had reached the Komatsu, both Kaede and Saeko were practically drenched from head to toe in blood, while the other four weren't much better off; Shizuka and Alice ended up being the only ones that came out of it somewhat clean, mostly because they stayed out of the fighting.
But they had made it to the truck together with no one injured, no one bit; then came the problem of getting into the truck. As it had been, they were pretty crowded inside before, and now they had an extra person plus the bike; of course, it was contemplated on being left behind, but the fact that it would probably come in handy later made Takashi decide to take it. He then motioned for everyone to start getting inside, while Kaede offered a solution.
"If you're certain you want to bring the bike with us, it can be tied up to the top of the truck so it won't take up any room on the inside." he suggested in a barely audible voice, pointing up at the top of the Komatsu and the railings along the edges. "We have rope in the truck we could use, though we'll have to remove the front wheel; that can be tied to the side as well."
"I'm guessing you can do all that?" Takashi replied, also in a whisper; there was no point in drawing more of the undead to them now.
Kaede's response was to hand off the bloodied ax over to Takashi before throwing open the back door of the Komatsu and dove into the supplies in the rear for the mentioned rope.
"I'll leave it to you then..." Takashi muttered, turning to join Saeko in keeping the undead away from the truck.
Kaede worked fast as he could, looking for the rope as well as wrench to get the wheel off the bike; they luckily had brought along a took kit separate from the rest of their supplies, so that wasn't too hard to find, and neither was the rope. Thanks to that, Kaede had what he needed in a few quick minutes and was quickly got to work on the bike.
The sense of urgency felt for the past hour or so had now melted away; the parking lot may have had a high number of the undead inside, but since they had been attacking nearly nonstop and there was no choice but to take them out, their numbers dwindled to nearly nothing; the few that were still limping around were either taken out by Takashi or Saeko, or they simply stayed away.
Saya, who had yet to try and squeeze into the already full truck, watched their behavior; from where she was standing, those remaining corpses were keeping their distance on purpose; were the intimidated, or were they waiting for an opening?
Either way, this new behavior was odd and raised many questions, but most of all reiterated that they shouldn't travel on foot during the night; there was so much about these things that they didn't know, and that's what made them dangerous.
While Saya observed their new behavior, Kaede was quick at work, and eventually got the front tire of the bike off and motioned silently to Takashi for help, not wanting to take any chances and speak out yet. Takashi caught onto what he needed to help with, and set the ax up against the truck as Kaede scaled the side of the Komatsu.
Once on top of the truck, he motioned down to Takashi that he was ready; at the same time, Takashi was already picking the bike frame up, and raised it so Kaede could grab a hold and pull it up. Wasting no time, Kaede went right to work tying the bike into place against the railings of the roof; it took awhile, and during that time a few of them tried attacking again, but were quickly put down by Saeko's blade.
As soon as the frame was tied down, Kaede held his hand out for the wheel, which was handed to him by Takashi again before he and Saeko went for the truck's open door to get inside. Saya did also, and from the roof, Kaede could tell from here on out, they'd need to keep an eye out for a new, working vehicle or suffer with little room inside the truck.
By the time things had settled down inside(several people had to sit on others laps, and it had just so happened Asami took Kouta's before Saya could even get into the truck), Kaede had gotten the tire secured as well, so he dropped in halfway through the turret port and gave the thumbs up.
"Everything's good to go up here...I'll stay up here too." he announced before disappearing back up through the hole.
"Alright Shizuka-sensei, get take us out of here!" Takashi said from the back of the Komatsu, Saeko happily taking up the space in front of him.
"That's fine, but where are we headed this time?" the nurse asked from the drivers seat as she started up the truck; to her surprise, a the undead flocked to the sound of the truck starting.
Keeping as calm as possible after the shock, Shizuka peeled out, any response Takashi could have given lost as the truck was sped around and then shot off to the exit of the parking lot; even if it had only been a day since Shizuka had driven, there was still plenty of fearful groaning at her driving like it was something new.
The Komatsu hit the parking lot's exit hard, and at the end of it was launched a few feet in the air and landed equally hard; Takashi couldn't help but wonder if Kaede had held on when they finally were on level ground again. Asami, the newest one to Shizuka's driving, had a look of fear and confusion on her face, that would have almost been comical if it weren't for the question if Kaede was still with them.
That question was answered with a hard thump from the roof and some incoherent shouting from above, but Shizuka's question was still unanswered. Takashi took a moment before he was ready to answer.
"Rei's house is the closest right now, so we'll go check there, and then my house since it's close by too." Takashi finally answered when everyone was finished shifting back into their original positions after being tossed around a bit. "Sorry, but you guys'll have to tag along for that..."
"Don't worry; we've agreed that it would be one of our objectives. Besides, you guys have been worried about you parents as well, right?" Saya spoke up, knocking down the need for Takashi to apologize; she was sitting in the passengers seat with Alice in her lap, and Zeke in Alice's. "We'd have to go there eventually, and this is the best time since we're close anyways."
"Thank you guys..." Rei said, sitting between Takashi and Kouta in the back, her voice getting emotional again. "For all your help through all this..."
Just then, the truck's engine sputtered, breaking the moment up in seconds.
"What was that?" Takashi asked, almost fearfully.
"We're almost out of gas..." Saya responded, since Shizuka was looking everywhere for an answer to the problem but the gas meter on the dashboard. "I don't think it's a very good idea to just stop and refuel right now either..."
"Neither do I" Takashi agreed, shifting slightly; Saeko got the hint and moved off of him, unintentionally squeezing against Rei who got a face full of breasts for a moment while Takashi slid out from under Saeko; the purpose of that was for Takashi to pull himself up the porthole.
Up top, Kaede was sitting near the bike, with his arm through the ties holding the bike in place in case their driver had another bout of road rage and threw him off; at least that way he would be completely thrown off without a fight. When Takashi's head popped up, he looked to him with a mild curiosity.
"What's up?" he asked as Takashi took a look around their ever moving surroundings.
They were still in the mid-city area, so they were surrounded more with ships and businesses than houses or someplace they could stay, and just the thought of the number of undead out there made it a very bad idea. So, for now, there was no stopping.
"As soon as we get around more houses, keep your eye out for anything that looks good; we're going to stop for the night." Takashi finally said, looking to Kaede who nodded; he may not have known the real reason, or their next goal, but he would no doubt be filled in later, and for now, Takashi could trust that with him.
With that out of the way, Takashi slid back into the truck to share his plan with the others; there were no complaints, as everyone had dealt with a lot that day in so little time. To put it simply, they were exhausted, and needing to refuel was more than enough for an excuse to stop for the night, even though they could fill up the truck with the spare tank they had.
That lead to another problem, as that was the last of the fuel; after having to leave behind the humvee, they also had to leave a lot of the fuel they got at the Takagi manor because they couldn't carry all of it. But for now, Takashi's mind was set on getting everyone some rest, Kaede couldn't say anything without chancing being thrown off the roof, and Saya figured it could wait.
And so, after giving Shizuka the proper directions, Takashi started back for his seat, and again Saeko moved up to Rei, only this time, the pushing of her breasts into Rei's face was a little less unintentional and lasted a bit longer than before. As for Rei, she found the feeling not exactly unwelcomed, and when she caught a smile of Saeko's face that confused her just a bit.
Nothing was said, however, and no one else noticed anything between them; in general, a silence fell over the truck as there was nothing that needed to be said. So Rei eventually pulled herself up through the porthole to keep Kaede company; Yuki took her spot before Saya could push Alice back there, and ended up having a sleeping child in her lap before long.
Even though her goal had been to keep Kaede company, Rei again found it quite silent up there too, other then the wind whipping through her hair, of course, but she nor he made any effort to change that; they simply enjoyed each others company, just like the others inside the Komatsu.
It was less than an hour before when they finally reached a suitable place Kaede had pointed out a few minutes in advance; the ax had been passed up, as requested, through the porthole, and as soon as the truck rolled to a stop, Kaede used the familiar routine of using the tuck's momentum and went right down the truck and jumped from the hood.
Of course, there were plenty of the undead that were either walking around or had already gathered, so Kaede used that momentum and a swing of the ax and decapitated one to start, and went for the others just as quickly; Saeko was quick to join him, practically jumping out of the truck as soon as the door was open with her Murata sword in hand.
The blade was quickly pulled from it's sheath and was cutting through necks and skulls left and right. Takashi was the next one out, and had the crowbar they had kept with them from the beginning, with his Benelli on his back. He closed the door behind him and went for the gate between the Komatsu and the house's garage; with a few swings from the crowbar, he made it there safely, and used the crowbar's hooked end to break open the lock of the sliding gate.
As soon as the sound of the lock breaking reached his ears, Kaede finished off the ghouls in the immediate area before rushing over to help Takashi pull the gate open; when it was open far enough, Shizuka stepped on the gas.
The engine sputtered again, but the Komatsu moved inside and up to the closed garage door.
"Saeko! That's enough!" Takashi called out, seeing as the mentioned swordswoman didn't look like she'd stop and come back on her own any time soon; without a second thought, Saeko whipped her katana out of one of their skulls as she turned towards the gate and rushed inside as Takashi and Kaede stepped on the other side as well, and pulled it closed.
Like back at Kaede's house, they closed up the gate with a chain and lock before a mass of undead formed outside, which it inevitably would; as Takashi worked with the chain and lock, he could already see them heading in their direction.
But he was able to get the lock on before they could start interfering, and turned back; Saeko was waiting near by like he had been expecting her to be, while Kaede was at the door, picking the lock with Kouta waiting to get inside and sweep the building, while Rei and Saya were doing a quick look around the house, but it looked safe. The owners were probably at work, considering there wasn't a car in the drive way, the house was all locked up, and there wasn't a drop of blood anywhere on the premises that could be seen; it looked like Kaede had picked out a good house.
As he went to join Saeko, Kaede got the door open, and he and Kouta quickly went inside with Yuki hot on their heels. Although most of the things they were planning on bringing from the mall were lost because of how they were forced to leave, they were able to still have brought some flashlights as Takashi could see, the lights that were unexpected shining through the windows whenever one of the two got near one.
A few minutes later, the two returned, with a report of the house being safe and empty; only then did everyone start into the house. Saya helped guide the half-asleep Alice inside and to the nearest room while Asami and Shizuka found one to share as well; none of them returned, and Takashi assumed they had gone straight to sleep.
"That leaves two rooms now." Kaede commented after none of the four girls returned, assuming the same thing. "I'll-"
"No, you take a room Kaede. You've been volunteering for night watch a lot, and then things go wrong and you're loosing sleep. Kouta and I will stay out here with your dog. She's good at smelling them, right?" Takashi asked of Kaede, and when he got a nod, he continued. "She'll wake us if anything happens then, so get some sleep. Rei and Saeko, you two take the other room and rest up as well."
Not needing any more convincing than that, Kaede started right up to one of the free rooms(Kouta and he had left the doors open, so any room that had the door closed was taken already) and was out in moments. As for Rei and Saeko, they were both tired, and Saeko started up first, but Rei hesitated, remembering what had happened earlier in the Komatsu and molestation of her face by Saeko's breasts. But, she was admittedly tired as well, and there were only two couches in the living room, so instead followed Saeko up.
Nothing was made out of it, for that night at least, and for the first time in days, the group under Komuro Takashi's leadership had a full nights rest without interruption.
Chapter 16, End.
Author's Notes: So, it should be obvious that I decided to have Asami live on instead of dying during the escape; if anyone noticed, I had the kid die off as well, before getting too far, which in turn prevented the need to go rescue him, which had lead to Asami's death in the manga.
So, yeah...next chapter is gonna break away from Takashi's group and go back to the Outbreak, i.e. Z-Day, as it was called in the anime. This little, er, arc shouldn't last too many chapters, and I'll be getting back to Takashi's group, and following the last bit from the manga(where they find Rei's mom) before completely breaking away from the manga. Well, that's my only choice, since I've already pretty much done everything that's been released in the manga so far...
Anyways, still waiting for someone to explain the whole crossover thing with , if a crossover no matter how light needs to be categorized as one or not. If anyone has any info on that, please share it with me.