Chapter 17: E.R. of the DEAD
On April 19th, 2010, the world ended, in more ways than one; the spread of a unknown disease that made the dead walk, and hunger for the flesh of the living brought chaos and disorder to the cities worldwide. There was no publicly released reason for this Outbreak, and so many turned on their governments, blaming them for what had happened, some going as far as to even claim the governments had constructed this disease, and it was some how released.
No matter the cause or the culprit, the disease spread like wildfire; those bit were then turned into the walking dead. No matter how insignificant the bite may have been, it would always lead to an eventual death, and reanimation. With the rate the infection was spreading, the civilian population was quickly dropping across the globe, and the governments took action to contain the infection.
The only problem was the disease had reached even the highest levels of government, leaving only a few operating members of governments active; the sudden shift of power into less experienced hands, and the current pandemic that had caused millions of casualties in a matter of days, would prove only to help crumble what was left of any order in the world.
Days after the Outbreak, as survivors will come to call it, the weakened United States government finally deemed the disease biological terrorism, and that the U.S. was under attack from an unknown enemy. The order was carried sent out from Air Force One to fire intercontinental ballistic missiles unbiasedly, at any and all potential enemies. In other words, every other country on the face of the Earth.
Other countries with nuclear weapons were quick to retaliate in a similar fashion, and casualties of this large scale, short-lived nuclear war are unknown.
Only one country was able to get off with little damage, and that was the island nation of Japan, which posed little threat to other nations, and was only targeted with a few missiles that were all but one destroyed by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. The one that had gotten through detonated in high altitude, and caused an electromagnetic plus over a region of Japan.
Despite this and many other obstacles, pockets of survivors appeared everywhere around the world, and with or without the help of their crippled governments, they continue to survive against all odds...
Z-Day, April 19th 7:30 pm
Over the last two weeks, the hospital room assigned to a Ryuugu Sage had become increasingly familiar to said patient; that didn't mean he was use to waking up in the room, of course. It was late when he awoke in the dark room, and it took him a moment for everything to come back to him; the drugs still lingering in his system also slowed his though process and made him groggy for the first few minutes after waking.
He had been hospitalized two weeks ago thanks to a particularly nasty illness that attacked his kidneys; luckily, he had pulled himself through without needing any surgery, and the doctors were content to discharge him. In fact, as things cleared up in Sage's mind, he remembered the day was tomorrow that he'd be released.
With that in mind, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and swung his feet over the edge of the bed to sit up. As any average teenager in high school, he was thin and maybe a bit more in shape than any others with some light muscles; his skin was somewhat pale from being bedridden for so long, but there was still some of his skin tone left to tell he usually had a darkish tan. That and brown hair that fell mid-back with golden eyes, and he didn't look completely Japanese.
And he wasn't; he was only a quarter. The rest was American Indian, Navajo to be exact. But now wasn't the time for many details on his heritage, or how he came to live in Japan; Sage became aware of the need to piss, but also remembered the I.V. he was hooked up too nearly twenty-four seven during his hospital stay, which he wasn't allowed to disconnect himself.
Instead, he needed a nurse to do it, and so, he pushed the call button that would alert the nurse on duty. In the mean time, Sage slipped his bare feet into a pair of provided slippers; since he hadn't had and wasn't going to have any surgery, he was free to wear his own clothes.
As such, he was wearing a pair of around-the-house style pants, basically a pair of dark gray capri style pants with black cargo pockets, and an old long sleeve shirt. He fixed his shirt slightly so it looked a little more presentable, and then began doing something with his hair instead of leaving it in the mess it had become during his sleep. He tied it up in a sort of sloppy, feathered bun, which took a full minute tops to do, and yet, no nurse had come yet.
Sage wasn't an impatient person, but he had to go; if it wasn't for the damned I.V. all he would have to do was get up and walk to the bathroom in the room, but that wasn't an option. Again, he pressed the call button, and waited to again have no one come into the room.
Finally, Sage chose to just do it himself, and disconnected the I.V. were it was suppose to be disconnected, and pinched off the flow of the drip, which was really just water or something to keep him hydrated. With that done, he walked over to the bathroom to take care of his business.
As he stood there in front of the toilet, he wondered what could possibly be holding up the nurses on duty; maybe there was another patient that was taking up their attention? But then, wasn't there suppose to be enough of them working to deal with everyone on that floor?
Sage let out a groan, knowing his curiosity would eventually get the better of him, and would not let him forget about the lack of anyone coming to the room after the two calls; even now, no one had opened the door to the room while he was in the bathroom.
He shook, zipped himself up and washed his hands before heading straight for the door. He opened the door and took a look down both hallways, looking to maybe see a nurse heading to his room to explain some reason for the delay, but he saw none; so much for this being easy.
With that attempt leading to nothing, Sage ventured out of the room; the halls were lit from the lights on the ceiling, as it was getting late outside, and were empty, even as he ventured away from his room and down the halls.
Now, that was almost explained by visiting hours ending moments ago; even if Sage was unaware of that, the lack of nurses or doctors walking around was what Sage was more concerned about; there was usually at least a few going from room to room for hourly check-ups.
But there were none; not a soul in sight in fact, and Sage's mind couldn't help but to wander over the possibilities, some more far-fetched than others and included, but not limited to, having somehow slipped into a coma and waking after some mass scale disaster.
Sage brushed the thought off as just that, a thought brought on by too many cheesy movies and an overactive imagination; little did he know that he wasn't far off the mark with that idea.
The teenager continued his search, but found absolutely no one in his search for a doctor or nurse for much too long; the hospital was eerily quiet, and the hair on the back of Sage's neck started standing on end; something was wrong, maybe some emergency or something, but Sage couldn't even begin to grasp what was really going on.
After a few minutes of wandering around the all too similar looking halls, Sage finally found what he had been looking for, other than one of the hospital's staff; the nurse's station. He was bound to find someone there, or maybe something that would tell him what was going on.
The station soon came into view from the hall, but Sage couldn't see anyone there; he was also starting to realize he didn't find any other patients around either, and just as he realized that, he passed a room with an open door. Not only that, but the glass in the door was broken, and blood was running down the glass, like someone cut themselves on it when they broke the glass. The room was also empty, but from where he was standing, he could see the bed sheets tangled up on themselves, and soaked with blood.
There definitely was something wrong, and Sage contemplated on going back to his room, locking the door, and just waiting; not that he was cowardly type, but through his years in Japan, he learned it was better to let the Japanese police force deal with their own problems.
The sound of something hitting the ground from over at the nurse's station made Sage whip around to investigate, and he let out a sigh of relief; a nurse, of course wearing a nurse's uniform, was now standing with her back to Sage behind the desk of the nurse's station.
"H-hey, nurse?" Sage spoke out, his voice coming out a bit quieter than he had wanted despite himself.
As he expected, the nurse didn't hear him at all, and Sage started towards the station. The nurse was almost unnaturally still, though Sage didn't think much about it, and just made his was over to the station; he was relieved he had found someone that could potentially explain to him what was going on, but even more than that, the sight of the room and blood had his mind running a mile a minute.
The best theory of what could have possibly happened was a murder was loose in the hospital, but wouldn't there be an alarm or doctors alerting the patients? Wouldn't there be cops running around? So many questions, and hardly any answers available; at least the nurse may have some answers.
"Nurse?" he said again, hoping to get her attention this time; the woman moved(or was it twitched?), so he assumed he had her attention this time, at least some of it, at least. "Hey, what going on? The room back there..."
Sage trailed off as the nurse started turning towards him; to his horror, the nurse's front was soaked in blood, and even worse, her left eye missing. When she turned fully, the source of all the blood was an open wound on her neck, which the woman seemed completely unaware of. Sage was hardly even able to fully asses the situation before the nurse started heading straight for him; she had little regards for anything in her path, as she bumped into several desks while she walked, completely oblivious of the obstacles in her way.
Now, Sage, like most males his age, weren't easily scared, but something like this had him freezing up; a wound like that was probably life threatening, and the fact that the nurse was oblivious to it, or any of her surroundings other than him made it almost too clear. A zombie, made universally famous by movies and books, was heading straight for Sage.
'But those kind of things existed only in movies and books, right?' was Sage's train of thought as the woman groaned out as her advance was again stopped momentarily by a desk; she simply backed up and walked right back into it, although a little closer to the side.
She continued that way until she got around the desk, but Sage wasn't going to stick around until she got around completely; finally making his body move, Sage darted down the hallway closest to him. Well, that's what he tried doing, anyway.
As soon as his feet started moving, the weight of another body hit him and sent them both over, and Sage couldn't help but to let out a yell of surprise; a man, probably a patient as well, had tackled him softly, and like the nurse, he had wounds that wouldn't normally be ignored. In this one's case, his stomach had been pulled open, and his entrails hanging from them; Sage watched wide-eyed as the man opened his jaws wide and started for his leg.
Screw what was 'real' or 'fake', what mattered was what has happening in reality, and this man was getting ready to take a bite out of his calf. Like hell Sage was going to let that happen.
With the same leg that the man was taking to munch on, Sage kicked him in the chin as hard as he could, considering he was only wearing slippers, and used the other to kick him off before scrambling to his feet and starting down the hall he had originally started for. Only this time, his escape was hindered by the fact that it was blocked by a group of people. Judging by the fact their clothes were soaked in blood, they were the same as the nurse and the man; charging into that many would be a mistake.
Even if there was little other options on what to call them, Sage wasn't going to throw the towel in just yet and call them zombies, but he also wasn't sure what to refer to them as yet, nor did he have the time to think about it then. The nurse had finally found her way around all the obstacles and was too close for comfort; the sluggish and oblivious nature that she had been showing changed in an instant as she lunged straight for Sage. He barely was able to side step her, and she continued on to slam into the wall that had been behind Sage.
With adrenaline pumping through his veins, Sage quickly looked to the other people advancing on him, and any other potential exits, and almost missed the sound of shattering glass, yet, there were no windows in this deeper part of the hospital's third floor. He quickly whipped around to the source of the shattering to see the nurse had run into one of the emergency fire equipment boxes that held things like fire extinguishers, a hose, an ax...
An ax! It wasn't the best choice of weaponry, but it would have to do, especially since the people didn't look like they would stop unless they got a hold of Sage, and he didn't want to thing about what would happen after that. So, as the nurse charge at him again, he side stepped her and tripped her(after a quick look at the man that had tackled him, it looked like these thing had a hard time getting back up) and went for the box before the others reached him and completely surrounded him while he was unarmed.
He spotted the red fire ax hanging from two hooks near the top and recklessly reached out for it; a piece of glass cut along the back of his hand because of his haste, but Sage barely had anytime to tent the bleeding wound. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw another nurse who had been coming down the hall with the others thrusting her body at him, with her jaw wide open and bloody teeth bared.
As he took the ax from it's hooks and pulled it out, Sage was only half concentrating on keeping from cutting himself on the glass again, and in the same motion swung the ax one handed at the nurse; it had been the spiked side that had been swung, so the sharpened spike was embedded into the nurse's temple, and Sage felt the weight of the body going limp on the ax.
He made no attempt to hold the body up, so the ax twisted in his hands and the body slid right off the spike and fell into a heap on the ground. The fact that the advancing nurse being struck down did little to advert the attention of the others, like Sage had inwardly hoped; in fact, they seemed more focused on getting to him now then they were moments ago.
Again, Sage looked for an easy way out; the hall of people that probably wanted to eat him, or the way he had come from that only had two of them in the way. The choice was obvious, and he took the less 'bloody' path were he had more of a chance at getting through.
Speaking of the way he had come, the man that had tackled him had finally worked his way to his feet just as Sage started down that hall. Before he could even get his body balanced, Sage was rushing him, and sent a two-handed swing with the ax at him; although Sage wasn't calling them zombie and grouping them together with the undead monsters of cinema, he also wasn't going to take any chances, and aimed for the head.
The ax cut into the man's skull with a dull thud, and he collapsed again, this time completely still; if Sage's adrenaline hadn't been pumping, the teen would have more than likely hesitated at killing someone with a fire ax, but it was, and he hardly gave it a second thought at the time.
The nurse was still down, so Sage didn't have to worry about her, ran down the empty hall. Even if he didn't stop once, he realized the halls he was heading down were completely empty without a single oddity, other than the teen himself running full speed down the halls, carrying a bloody ax. In a matter of moment, he slid to a halt in front of a familiarly numbered room, and rushed inside his room.
Slamming and locking the door behind him, Sage let the ax clatter to the floor as he slumped against it. There were hundreds of questions rushing through his head, and above all, the fact that he had just killed something that looked all too human, regardless if the title of undead really applied to them; he felt his last meal try to raise, but he swallowed it down and turned to the dull pain in his hand, and the sound of his own blood dripping onto the ground. He looked down to find a small puddle already forming below, and also became aware of the I.V. still in his arm.
Deciding there wouldn't be any further use for it, he took hold of it and ripped it out of his arm, ignoring the sudden and passing pain it caused. He dropped it on the ground and went looking around the room for something to wrap his hand up.
Finding nothing, he sat on the bed, and tore up the sheets for a makeshift bandage while turning his eyes momentarily on the T.V. set up in the room.
"Maybe I can get some information from this..." he muttered through gritted teeth; he was tying the the knot of his bandage using his teeth and free hand.
When that was done, he picked up simple remote for the T.V. and pressed the power button. It came to life, and even if the channel it had been on was no way related to the news, it was already playing a news report. From just that, Sage assumed it was something important, and put his attention into the report.
"...riots previously have believed to be brought about by civil unrest have now been confirmed to have been brought about by a disease. There have been little words from the government on the origin of the disease, or it's symptoms, however, were are getting numerous reports that those infected are attacking those who are not; the disease is presumably spreading in that manor, and is creating a mass hysteria in those infected or not..."
That report barely explained anything to Sage, and judging on how the man was in a studio, and continued droning on about the government and of course, the famous 'Stay indoors and deny aid to those outside' line, Sage figured he wouldn't get much information from this report, and flipped through a few stations. A few other channels were playing the same report, while others were off the air completely; he was basically channel surfing, but every channel had the same thing; something about riots all through out Japan, and possibly the world(though not confirmed yet) and a disease, as well as usual precautions for disasters. Some even mentioned the deployment of Self Defense Forces, but the details were very slim on the reasons why or their missions.
After flipping through the limited channels on the hospital T.V. at least once, Sage deemed the reports for now useless; he did get some useful information though. Riots were nation wide caused by a disease, and it all only started happening today.
Wasn't much, but it assured him that falling into a coma was still wrong; the disaster part...not so much, unfortunately.
It also let him assume a lot of other things as well; getting bitten was probably a bad idea, that outside was probably a lot worse then inside, and that every officer the police had to offer was probably already out, trying to deal with these 'riots'.
Sage jumped suddenly as a body slammed into the door of the room; his attention snapped to the door, and through the glass he could see the figures of people out there. Judging from how they continuously slammed into the door instead of trying the door handle, they were the same as the ones he had run from. They were infected with what ever disease that was spreading around.
"They should have had more details on this damned disease..." Sage thought to himself out loud as he stood and moved over to the door; he picked up the ax even though it looked like they wouldn't be getting through the door soon.
Since he was calm and more prone to noticing things, he observed the infected people on the other side of the door(three, Sage counted from the limited range of sight through the window) seemed to get more...excited was the best word Sage could think of; they started slamming against the door more for seemingly no reason, and were groaning in a more hostile way, maybe even frustrated.
From that, Sage inferred that the disease's symptoms included increased stupidity, and the loss of speech(he still wasn't just going to assume these were zombies or the undead, even if they all had wounds that would normally kill someone). Any thought of rationalizing with these diseased people was out of the question, since Sage could only guess what they would do if he tired. He also inferred that there was something drawing them to him. Well, something in the room, at least.
At first, he thought it was because they could see him and were trying to get to him, but if that was the case, wouldn't they have been trying to get in as desperately as they were now when they first showed up? And, on top of that, how did they figure out he was in this room anyways? When he had gotten to the room and locked himself inside, the halls were empty from what he saw, so how did they find him?
"Ah, dammit!" he shouted out in frustration and kicked the wall; even going with popular zombie lore, there wasn't any explanation Sage was aware of to this behavior, and there sure as hell wasn't an explanation offered in the news.
To Sage's mild surprise, the people outside's struggling to get past the door increased again, their groaning raising in anger; in a matter of moments, the glass gave way under the constant slamming, and arms started reaching inside. He stepped back, unsure if they would try and reach for him, but they didn't even try, even though if one of them really tried, they could easily grab his shirt.
That further confused Sage, but it also put an idea and possible answer to their behavior; what if they were blind?
The theory needed to be tested, and since he was alone with limited resources, he'd have to play a part of the experiment. Making sure the blade of the ax was facing forward, Sage stepped closer into the reach of their arms; even though their blank eyes were on him, none made an effort to grab at him.
He stood there for a good few moments, and none reached to grab him at all, leading Sage to the conclusion that they were blind; it also lead him to assume they were aware of his presence from something else. A look over to the T.V. that had been on moments before they found him, and Sage guessed they relied on their hearing to look for someone; the scraping of the ax on the ground, him talking and kicking the wall had all set them off, further backing up that idea and making it so he wouldn't have to test that theory any more than it had been.
Besides the lack of a need to confirm the idea that they attacked based on sound, Sage also became aware of a different problem; the number of the diseased outside of the door had at least doubled, and he could see more coming down both halls, though in small numbers.
That wouldn't have been much of a problem, but the sound out splintering wood told him that the door wasn't going to keep them out much longer, and there wasn't many other options for them then to get out of there before he was cornered.
First thing first, Sage went to his bed; beside it was a table that had a small cubby for the patient's outdoor shoes. He kicked off the indoor slippers and pulled on his sneakers before standing back up; he then started rolling his sleeves up as he took a look around the room. It took some thinking on his part, but Sage came up with a plan to get out of the room, and started to rearrange a few things in the room to put said plan in motion.
With several tables set up on the other side of the room, and another on wheels near him, Sage went back to the only exit in the room, which was also the same door that was threatening to fall in and let the crazed, blind...things inside; of course, there wasn't much choice but to let them in so he could get out, so his plan was to use that blindness to his advantage.
It was a simple plan, making a ruckus that would take the diseased people's attention off Sage while he escaped; there was always plan two though, which was much simpler, though maybe a bit dangerous, and consisted of hacking and slashing his way out with the ax, but that was to be reserved as a last resort.
Not wanting to wait for them to knock the door down, Sage simply let them in; a few tumbled in when the door suddenly was moved from in front of them, but the ones that came after were more balanced. Taking that as his cue, Sage sent the rolling table across the room, and hit the other tables, knocking them and whatever was on them over, making plenty of noise.
The entire time, Sage was holding his breath and clenching the ax; what if his theories were wrong? What if they just lead him to believe they were blind to trick him?
His fears were quickly put to rest as they went straight for the source of the noise and completely ignored him. Sage almost let out a sigh of relief, but quickly sucked it in; there was no telling how sensitive their hearing was, and that wasn't an experiment Sage wanted to be a part of.
As soon as the ones that had been directly at the door were inside, Sage slid out the door as quickly as possible. More were on their way, and since the higher concentration was coming from the hall leading to the nurse's station, Sage went the other way, further into the hospital; it was simple enough to step around the few people heading back that way, but it was a lot more difficult to keep from making any sounds.
Luckily for Sage, their hearing didn't seem much higher than a normal human being, so his footstep didn't make them go wild, but he still stepped lightly as he moved around the people, who spanned from doctors, nurse, patients and even a few that looked like they had been visitors, all with varying wounds that Sage was sure had to have ended that particular person's life; maybe they were no longer human, but part of the undead.
That certainly would make it easier in fighting and killing them, but that still was a bad idea to try and fight his way to safety, especially since, with zombie lore, a single bite could cause death and reanimation in mere hours. So, combat with them was to be avoided as much as he could help it...
Just as Sage came to that conclusion, his blood ran cold as he felt the ax suddenly collide with one of the many gurneys lining the halls; as soon as he had started thinking things over, he stopped being so careful, and lead to this.
One of the diseased men that Sage had just barely passed spun around to him, and lunged right at the teenager. Sparing no time, Sage brought the ax blade straight up into the man's chin, the ax splitting his jaw. It wasn't a killing blow however, and the man slumped onto the gurney as he yanked back the ax; in a quick, swift motion, Sage rose the ax and brought it down on the back of the man's neck. Sage had felt the ax cut through the man's spinal column after that swing, and the fountain of blood that followed made Sage pale slightly.
Thinking of them as non-human would have made it easy, but such a way of thinking would take a while to work, and Sage had to hold back a wave of sickness; he wasn't a squeamish person, but this was just...
There wasn't enough time for him to think about anything other then the people now advancing on him; though they were spaced out thinly, there was a lot of them, and the sound of the ax hitting the gurney traveled far. In the distance, he could see a swarm of people now heading his way, and no doubt there was plenty of others he couldn't see.
Sage's body was tensing up for a fight or flight, the later of the two seeming more of a reasonable course of action to take; the fire ax wasn't a weapon of choice for a massacre that would be eminent if he chose to fight against the horde filling the hall.
That left him one option: to run and hope he could get away without injury; just as he was about to turn tail, he was unexpectedly addressed, by name.
"Ryuugu-san! Over here!" a female voice called out; his attention was pulled away from the approaching crowd momentarily as his head turned to where the voice came from.
As he looked back, he saw two teenaged girls around his age waving frantically for him to come to them peeking around a corner at him; one had blond hair pulled into a high ponytail with red eyes and the other a brunet with blue eyes. He recognized one but did not fully register that he knew her because of the situation, though he did notice they were alive and well.
Taking on his initial reaction plan, Sage's body turned completely the other way, his feet moving before he was even facing the right way. It wasn't a moment too soon either, as the savage people reached where he had just been at, and continued advancing.
He didn't take time to watch their progress though, and kept his eyes on the hallway he was heading for; when he was a few feet, the two girls disappeared from view, but when he reached where they had been, he saw they had only retreaded further down the hall. He also noticed a large, muscular man he assumed had gone with them for their safety, and all three of them were heading for an open door from which he could see a few other heads peaking out.
Sage skid to a stop and started down the hall towards them again; he didn't even come to a full stop before he darted off again, down the hallway this time and towards the man and the girls. At this time, the people were coming in from all sides, from the hall they were in now and from both sides of the hall they had just retreated from.
There was some yelling, Sage wasn't sure from who or over what; his attention was keeping from getting attacked by those things chasing them. He watched as the girls turned and ran into the room while the man picked up a rolling table-tray that was nearby in the hallway, and threw it at the horde coming towards them from the same hallway they were in, knocking down a good amount of the first waves, but there was an untold amount coming up behind them.
Sage finally caught up with the man as he kept those infected at bay, though with such simple tactics, not many were knocked over or slowed down; Sage took a few steps forward as the man took a few back, and put the ax head against an infected nurse that had been leading the group, and gave her a hard shove.
They were surprised, Sage less than the man, when the nurse lost balance and fell back; like the table the man threw, the nurse succeeded in knocking several others down. The man gave Sage was about to thank Sage, but by now they were surrounded and the hall was quickly filling with the infected people, meaning they were closing in on them, and the urging from the room behind them finally reached their ears.
The fact that they would quickly be overrun was what made the two quickly go for the room, and as soon as they were inside, the door was slammed shut by someone near it. Almost immediately, the large man that had been outside with Sage and escorted the girls with the help of two others began barricading the door with desks; a mere few seconds later, there was banging on the other side.
Sage would have helped with the barricade, being a more practical teenager and knowing there was a need to barricade the door and quickly, but after seeing the larger man nearly put the barricade up in seconds, and the other two trying to put things up like idiots, he figured he'd better just leave it up to them. Besides, he was pretty tired from all the running and sudden strain on his body; normally it'd be okay, him being pretty athletic normally, but he had been bedridden for the past week.
Because of all that, he was admittedly exhausted, and so he allowed himself to slide down the nearest wall to the floor with a sigh, letting the fire ax that had been gripped in his hand lay next to him; at the same time as he caught his breath, Sage took the chance and looked around the room, getting himself familiar with the set up, and the people inside.
First, the room; it looked something like an office or file storage room. It defiantly wasn't a room for patients or examinations, so there was plenty of things to be made into a barricade, but no supplies for staying inside for a long period of time. There was a window on the opposite side from where Sage was at, but from what he could see, it looked out into the courtyard, and not out to the streets.
Now, the people. Besides the two teenagers and the man that had brought him here, there were seven others, including a nurse, a doctor, both female, two female patients and three male. At least, he assumed they were all patients, and all of them looked like they were in some state of panic; the female doctor was actually sitting in the fetal position in a corner.
He had to admit that looked pretty bad, but his analysis of the others was soon cut short; the teenaged girls had come to his side, and were looking down at him. He now recognized them both for who they were.
"Are you okay, Ryuugu-san?" they asked nearly in unison; it seemed they were worried since he apparently collapsed. "You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
"No, I'm fine, Chiba-san, Kuwahara-san." Sage replied, shaking his head; they were class mates; well, at least they went to the same school, and were in the same year, so it was pretty natural to hear about them, especially since they were on the kendo team, and them to know who he was, since he had tried kendo out for a while. "What are you guys doing here anyways?"
The girl with blond hair in a sloppy ponytail, Chiba Kirino, was about to respond, but one of the men came over to them, looking right at Sage.
"You, boy! Did you see anyone out there? Any one living?" he asked, rather rudely.
Even if the man was older, Sage wasn't going to put up being treated that way. He pushed himself up, standing up against the man who actually stepped away.
"My name is Sage. Ryuugu Sage, and what do you mean anyone living?" he replied, trying to keep as calm as possible knowing getting angry or panicking wouldn't do any good, but he couldn't exactly hide his lack of knowledge. "Aren't they just infected...?"
Sage trailed off as the man jerked his thumb over his shoulder; he also noticed Kirino and the other teenager, the brunette name Kuwahara Sayako, both look downwards, like they knew something. In fact, now that the barricade was up, and less people were panicking, he got that feel from everyone.
Then he noticed where the man was pointing; the doctor in the corner. Sage was hesitant, since there was a general air of distaste around the doctor; everyone but the nurse was keeping their distance from her, and the man had only pointed her out with his thumb, nothing more.
But, Sage soon made up his mind; Kirino, Sayako and the man all stepped aside as he made his way towards the doctor. As noted before, she was sitting in the fetal position, and as he drew near, he noticed something in her hand. On closer inspection, he saw it was a pill bottle.
Great, she was drugged up on who knows what, and yet, she had been the only one apparently that had any answers.
Now that he was standing near her, he also noticed she was shaking, possibly from whatever pills she was taking, and that she was talking in a low voice; he couldn't quite hear her though, even when straining his ears. It was at this point he also noticed the room had gone quiet, well, quieter; even before, the survivors were keeping themselves silent, so now all that was heard was the incoherent mumbling of the doctor, and the thumping outside.
He glanced at the nearest person, who was the nurse that was staying relatively close to the doctor; she gave a slight nod of her head, encouraging Sage to do whatever it was he was about to do.
Even he wasn't sure what he was going to do, but apparently he already had permission to do it; the first thing that came to mind was to figure out what it was that she was saying. So, he crouched down to her level, where he could just make out what she was saying.
However, he could only catch a few things; she was either talking to fast and jumbling things together, or didn't speak in a complete sentence, saying a few unrelated words here and there. After a moment or two of listening, the only thing he was able to really understand due to her repeating it was:
"...he's dead, he's dead, he's dead...why is he getting back up...?"
Chapter 16, end.
Author's Notes:...yeah, crappy cliffhanger, I know. But as you can tell, this chapter gave me hell for some reason, and it was just getting way to long for me to finish. Hopefully the chapters after won't be so difficult. And it's not even like I had writer's block or anything; I don't even know what was the problem myself. Anyways, the next chapter should be out sooner, and be better.
Oh, before I forget, the revisions I mentioned last chapter. After Chapter 18 is done, I'm going to start going on a routine where I write one new chapter, then revise an old chapter, and so on and so forth. I honestly have no idea when these new revisions will be done and posted, so don't hold your breath. For the most part, it will only change a few things story wise, and mostly be altering how I did them, i.e. shorter chapters.
Well, until next time, and remember to review.
Update: I guess I should have given you guys a heads up, eh? I've decided to catergorize this as a crossover, but since it looks like no one was able to find the story after I did, I'll put it back to normal so people can see that I have decided to do it. Then I'll put it back under the crossovers with Bamboo Blade.