Right, here's the new chapter, sorry I've been gone for so long. Though those of you who read my stories probably aren't that surprised by my leave of absence.
Anyway, I've been working on this story a bit every day (that and one other story which I have yet to publish) so there shouldn't be another month long wait for the next chapter. I'm leaving on a short vacation next week, so I'll try and get chapter 10 out before that, but it might be a bit on the short side because of it.

This chapters is the first one in the 'Shibata' arc. It'll be 3-5 chapters long, depending on how much I cram in to each of the following chapters.

And so,

Chapter 9
Living or DEAD?

What is the price of salvation?
No, I'm not making any sense. Let me put it this way, if you weighed your life against your freedom on a scale, which one is worth more in the end? Which one would you sacrifice for the other?
It's a harder question then it sounds, partly because 'survival' in general is not guaranteed no matter what choices you make. Not in this world. So should you always choose freedom? Even if giving it up would increase your chances of living?

Is a bird in the hand really worth two in the bush?

1000 Suns

Takashi was escorted down to the third floor after his meeting with Shibata, his mind tumbling over itself, tossing questions without answers back and forth. He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he barely noticed when he reached his family.

They had been waiting for him in a small alcove-like room on the third floor. There were two burly men with aluminum bats standing in front of the door, but Takashi got the feeling that they were only there as a formality. One of them even nodded to Takashi as he entered the room. He nodded back distractedly. He managed a hello and a smile to his family, but clearly his mind was on other things.

Takagi snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Well fearless leader, what's the verdict?"

"Ah," Takashi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "They want us to join them... this Shibata, offered us a place to stay as long as we obey her 'rules'. She even said that I might end up in a position of leadership. And if we don't want to stay they'll let us leave." He replied, "She was very... charismatic.

Isou cocked an eyebrow, "Wait, 'she?' this Shibata person everyone seems to worship is a girl?"

Takagi bopped him over the head, "What's that supposed to mean, baka?"

"Ahaha, sorry."

"In any case," Saya continued, "I doubt that we can just up and leave with no strings attached. But after what happened at... my house... I'm not especially eager to join another group for shits and giggles. We're doing well enough on our own."

Rei nodded, "I managed to talk to some of the people here before the guards threw us in this room. Apparently, if you want to leave you have to pay a 'departure fee' or something. We'd have to give up something we came here before they'd let us out."

"The humvee,"

"Probably."

Takashi sighed, "Nothing's ever easy." He murmured, "So it looks like we have to stick around for a little while, if they take the jeep there's no way we can carry all of our camping supplies. And giving up those or our guns instead isn't a good option either"

"What a remarkable scam," Saya remarked. "They make it look like we can leave whenever we wish, but bleed us dry if we actually choose to go our own way. Are we just going to roll over and let them do what they want?"

Takashi shook his head, "I never said we'd let them have their way, but for now, it's getting dark and needed a place to sleep regardless. Plus, we're outnumbered, out gunned, and they're watching us like hawks." He frowned. Getting out of Shibata's high rise at all would be practically impossible. Even from one meeting he could tell that she was impeccably organized, and he'd seen several guards in the stairwell on the way down. Without a doubt Rika's guns and Saeko's katana would be protected as well, so getting their weapons back to begin with be a pain in and of itself.

Summary: They were screwed.

"Umm" Yukiko raised her hand timidly. "Why do we have to leave at all? I mean, it's safe here, and they'll only take away our stuff if we go. Everybody seems happier here... and," She glanced at Shin and the rest went unsaid, and maybe my little brother might actually survive.

Takashi shrugged, "Like I said, we just have to wait and see. I don't know what to think about this place, it just seems..."

"To good to be true?" Rei supplied glumly. "If they have such a nice setup here, why didn't they join up with other survivors, why haven't they tried to get out of the city?" So they were all a bit jaded and cynical after all they'd seen. Is that really such a surprise?

"They want our cooperation? They'll have to earn it." Takashi said. "But for now, let's not debate it anymore. It'll be more trouble than it's worth to try and leave right away, so for now we just have to stick around. I'll tell Shibata in the morning. For now, let's just catch some sleep, I have first watch." It went without saying that Takashi and the others would still set watches throughout the night. Even though they were off the streets they weren't quite safe.

The rest of the group spread out around the small room, lying down in clumps: Shizuka with Alice, Rei next to Yukiko and Shin, Saeko sitting gracefully with her back to a wall. Takashi, for his part, remained standing a while longer. This was the time of day that he organized his thoughts and looked back over his successes and failures. He usually took first watch so he would have time to sort out his emotions and still recover a bit before the next morning.

Today, his family had been captured by another group of survivors and all of their weapons and supplies had be taken. The only reason they were still alive was because it was never their captors intention to do them harm. Not to mention Saeko's last minute intervention. If she hadn't stepped in when she did Takashi would have been a killed. He rubbed his neck gratefully. Other than that though, the day had been no better or worse than any other. They'd had their goals delayed yet again, but that was nothing new.

So, at most, it might take his family another week to get out of the city. At best they'd have found a permanent home. Takashi wouldn't get his hopes up.

The rest of his watch passed uneventfully, and he woke Hirano a few hours into the night before laying down and falling asleep himself. Eventually, the entire building grew quite as all of its inhabitants called it a day. Watches changed several times throughout the night, but dawn came uneventfully for everyone in the building. A new day beginning no better or worse than any other.

Of Takashi's family, Rei was the first to awake. She yawed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she sat up. There wasn't much primping to be done after a night of sleeping on the floor, but at least Rei tried to get her hair into a manageable state. Her two 'antennas' just popped up and stayed there regardless.

Looking over the rest of the group Rei frowned when she saw that Komuro was sleeping next to Saeko. They were on the other side of the room as her, and though there was nothing compromising about their position, she was still hurt that Takashi continued to pick the swordswoman over her. Rei had sworn to stay by his side no matter what, as girly and sappy as it sounded, but all the same it was painful to see him with someone else.

She wasn't some innocent school girl anymore, if that's what came, if he really did choose Saeko over her, then she would just have to accept it.

That didn't mean she had to let it happen quietly.

Crawling over to Takashi, she brushed his bangs out of his eyes and caressed his cheek softly. He began mumbling in his sleep, eyes scrunching as he began to wake up. Rei blushed as she contemplated what she was about to do, but leaned down all the same, and placed a tender kiss on Takashi's lips. "Good morning, love," She whispered.

"Rei?" Takashi, finally awake gazed up at her in surprise. His cheeks were tinged slightly red and eyes smoky, which Rei found adorable, not to mention downright sexy, and she kissed him once more before standing up and smirking conspiratorially at him. She placed one finger on her lips in a shushing motion. Let's just keep this to ourselves.

Takashi glanced away, "Rei..." His eyes moved to Saeko, still sleeping by his side.

Rei frowned, but all the same she took his hands in her own. "I told you didn't I? Even if you pick her over me, I'll still be here, I'll stay by your side every step of the way."

Takashi didn't even try to deny it. He knew that she wouldn't accept any excuses he could come up with anyway. "You deserve better than that, Rei," He murmured.

"I'll choose what I deserve," She shot back with a smile. It was a sad smile, the kind of resigned smile that you wore when you knew that you had lost, but were going to keep fighting all the same.

Takashi sighed and stood up. He helped Rei to her feet, but instead of another kiss like she wanted, he said "We should wake the others." Rei nodded glumly.

It did hurt, to be glossed over, especially in Takashi's heart. But she would keep trying for a while longer. She wouldn't give up so easily this time.

Takashi pushed Rei from his mind as he woke the rest of the group. As harsh as it sounded, he couldn't spare the time to resolve his issues with his girls right now. Saeko, Rei. Rei, Saeko. It was just too confusing to deal with at the moment. He had to deal with Shibata.

And, if he were to be perfectly honest with himself, he still didn't know what to do. Those stolen moments with Saeko were like breath, he needed them. But waking up with Rei, framed by the morning sunlight like an angel, for a moment he thought...

Takashi swore to himself. And now he sounded like a fucking pansy, or one of those stupid harem anime protagonists, unable to pick a girl and leading them all on like a heartless bastard.

He shook his head, now was not the time to deal with this. He looked over his family, making sure his gaze didn't linger on Rei or Saeko. "I'll give Shibata our choice now, unless anyone has something new to add, we're going to stick around for the time being."

Yukiko glared at Saya when the pinkette opened her mouth. Saya glanced away, "What? I was just gonna tell him to get our weapons back, and Shizuka's magic bag..." Takashi chuckled.

He opened the door to his room, noticing that two different guards were outside this time, he nodded to them.

"Ready to see Shibata-sama?"

'"Un, we've decided."

The man nodded and lead Takashi to the stairwell while the other guard remained behind. Insurance to make sure the rest of his group didn't try anything, he supposed. It was a quick trip up the stairs to Shibata's office.

Shibata regarded him with a cool smile as he entered, as if to say well? She had been pouring over a map of the city a few moments prior, and seemed content to return to her task until Takashi said something. Takashi shook his head at the oddity of it, most people would consider her actions rude, he saw them as pragmatic, why waste time on some random highschool kid like him?

Well, might as well bite the bullet, "We've decided that we would like to remain with your group." Takashi stated, "But, I have to ask you to return at least some of our weapons to us alone with our medical supplies, for the girls safety if nothing else."

Shibata raised an eyebrow at him, "You've only just accepted my offer, and already you're making demands?" She seemed more amuses than anything else by his straightforwardness.

"I have to put the safety of my family first. I'm sure you understand,"

"Of course," Shibata replied with a smile, "But I'm sure you understand why I'm hesitant to give a group of newcomers back their firearms, especially since the most my men have are pistols. In time, I do hope that such a precautions will be unnecessary, but for now I cannot abide by your request."

Takashi crossed his arms as the woman continued. "As for the safety of your girls, I'll have my trusted guards accompany them around for a bit, until they settle in with the rest of my group. That will be enough to make sure nothing untoward occurs."

"At the very least, please return Saeko's katana. Its safekeeping is her responsibility" Takashi shot back, "and I would rest easier knowing that, worst comes worst, at least one of my group and defend themselves."

"Oh? You don't want your own weapons returned so you can protect them?"

Takashi glanced away briefly, "I assumed that you'd probably want me and Hirano out in the city, considering that we're the best marksmen. I'm sure you have patrols and other things set up, there's no way the group that captured us yesterday left the high-rise just to corner us at that chokepoint. But even still, I'd prefer it if Saeko's katana was back in her hands. It holds a lot of... sentimental value to all of us."

"I see," Shibata steepled her fingers. "You were correct in her assumption, observant of you to make that connection."

Takashi shrugged, "I'm the leader, it's my job to think."

She smiled, "Be that as it may, I believe we can come to an agreement. I will return this 'Saeko's' katana to her. In return, I would like you and Hirano- the boy in the military jacket yes?- to take part in two separate patrols of the area to gather additional supplies and the like."

"I would prefer if he and I could remain together."

"You have to give a little to get a little, Komuro-san. I wish to see how each of your group performs individually, though I may choose to put you all into the same 'squad'" She made quotation marks with her fingers, "once you all prove yourselves trustworthy."

"This seems to be happening awfully fast, Shibata-san," Takashi replied.

She just shook her head and glanced back towards the map, "There isn't time for probation or relaxation or any other sort of needless dilly-dallying. I have to provide for everyone in this building: guards, scavengers, mothers, and children alike. If you and yours are willing to be useful, then I don't have the time or the inclination to waste your aid."

Takashi nodded in understanding. Even though his group was much smaller by comparison, he knew all about never having enough time. "I'll make sure you aren't disappointed then."

Shibata smirked at him, "You do that. I love it when people live up to my expectations,"

"When to Hirano and I leave?"

"Soon, I'll have Yamato tell you where to be." Takashi nodded. "You'll be given weapons, of course, but for now don't expect to get your shot gun back."

Takashi returned to his group to tell Khota what the plan was. The others were worried, of course, but unsurprised at the development. Saeko and Rei both told him to be safe, and no one said goodbye. It was all, "see you in a bit," and "come back in one piece." Saya was the most vocal, as usual.

"That's stupid." She grumbled, "Any competent leader, would know that you'd do best with your own god damned group, not a bunch of Rambo wannabes that she's likely to send you off with."

Takashi had chuckled at that, and promised to stay safe as he and Hirano departed with a young man named Yamato who would lead them to their squads. Patrol would last for a few hours. It was eightish now, and Yamato said that all the morning patrols should be back before noon.

The rest of the group was more or less given free rein of the complex. They weren't allowed to go to the lobby or any of the storage areas above the twentieth floor, but other than that they could do what they pleased. An older woman had given them a list of tasks that they had to complete before the end of the day -Rei was conscripted to kitchen duty, much to Saya's amusement- rather ordinary chores like gathering up all the garbage and getting it ready to be thrown out. Saeko offered to take that one.

Saya, for her part, wandered through the office building and found different people to talk with. Many of the people there were suspicious of newcomers, or just unfriendly in general, but she found a few that she could talk with.

"Everyone has jobs to do every day," One woman told her, "If you don't do them you don't get to eat, and Shibata-sama had to banish a few people early one who refused to do anything." Other than those noncompliant few, Saya gathered that everyone else did their jobs, usually jobs were assigned to groups of people (presumably those who had arrived together) and they were allowed to divvy up the work as they so desired. The one mother in the building, whom Saya had seen on the first day, wasn't required to do much of anything. A little bit of laundry along with some teaching and looking after a few of the younger kids for an hour or two each day. It seemed that Shibata took motherhood seriously.

One thing Saya couldn't understand, however, was why everyone addressed Shibata as 'sama'. Saya's father had been know as Takagi-sama, but that was because he was a powerful politician and the Takagi family could trace its lineage back to feudal Japan. For all intents and purposes, her father really was a lord. Shibata held no such distinction.

"In all likelihood, the others call her that because of what she did after the world went to hell," Saeko had said.

"It still doesn't make sense," Saya shot back, "I mean, we don't call Takashi 'Takashi-sama' or any of that bullshit. And she's not a freaky wannabe cult leader like Shido as far as I can tell. It would make sense if a few of her more zealous 'followers' called her that, but everyone in the whole building?"

"Peer pressure is a powerful force. It is not all that surprising from my point of view."

"Yeah, well I just don't get it. I haven't seen this lady do anything other than kidnap people and designate patrols."

Saeko nodded, "It is a bit odd, but I believe the reason she is so respected will become clear in time." Saya just grumbled at the swordswoman's reply, she hated not knowing things.

It wasn't until about eleven that something interesting happened. The only reason Saya even noticed it was because she was gazing disinterestedly out a fifth story window. About a block away, she saw another group get captured much the same way they had been yesterday. Only this time, the people had decided to resist.

It couldn't even be called a fight.

The moment on of the survivors pulled out his pistol, Shibata's men opened fire. The other group was shredded in seconds. And Saya could only stare in fury as one of Shibata's men used her Luger, the one her mother had given to her, to execute the last one standing.

It was hard to be sure at this distance, but she swore that they were laughing as they looted the bodies.

"Why am I not surprised." Saya murmured to herself. Outside the window she could see one of the men kicking a corpse a few times for the heck of it. So everything isn't hunky dory here after all...

As she said, Saya was not surprised by the brutality of Shibata's scavengers. Anyone and everyone who had survived this long were bound to develop a few mental... quirks... even if they didn't go off their rocker. She could already see signs of impending mental breakdown in herself and was worried about Takashi's most recent mood swings, but she felt they could all hold out for at least a while longer. So it really didn't bother or unnerve her that some of the others Shibata had recruited were unstable as well.

But it did prove that Shibata's little refuge in the city wasn't nearly as perfect as the woman made it out to be. A little while after Takashi and Khota had left Shibata came and returned Saeko's katana, stating how Komuro wanted his group to have some protection, and she'd given them the rundown on how her little 'community' (she was very fond of that word) worked.

Hearing it from her one would almost believe that Shibata had created a utopian society without any sort of crime and where everyone was provided for. Saya though that Shibata just had any criminals or dissidents executed or banished. But even without the little display going on a block away Saya had already noticed that the real way of things in the office building was much more opaque, and probably quite a bit darker.

For one, Shibata always made a point to make quick rounds of the building and talk to everyone. Saya admitted that being in touch with one's followers was a good trait of any leader, but Saya also noted that certain people became still and quiet when Shibata entered the room. They were the ones that never approached the woman and instead lingered on the fringes of the room or slipped out of it as quickly as possible.

Most of those people were women or teenage girls, and there were seven of them.

They did a good job of hiding it, but Saya could tell that those seven people, six women and one man, more or less shit their pants whenever Shibata entered the room. So obviously there was something going on underneath the surface. Now if only Saya could figure out what.

Meanwhile, while Saya was looking for conspiracy theories and sinister plots in Shibata's apartment complex, Komuro's group was doing something interesting too.

They look like a family, Takashi noted, two parents in their forties, a fifteen or sixteen year old kid, and his grandmother.

"Just relax and put the weapons down," Takashi said. His voice was remarkably calm for having a pistol aimed at his head. "These people really don't want to hurt you, they picked me and my group up the other day and offered us a place to stay. They offered us safety."

The leader of Takashi's group had left the 'recruitment' pitch to him, wanting to see how well a supposed leader handled himself in a stressful situation. So far, Takashi could see that the family in front of him was wavering, he had done a good job of convincing them. Right now, they were still skeptical, as evidenced by the gun pointed at him, but he knew they wanted to believe him.

"How the fuck do we know you're telling the truth?" The kid, also the one with the pistol replied. He was acting all pissed off, "You fuckers have us surrounded!"

Takashi just sighed. "Look around you. This isn't really Japan anymore, not the place where you can count on everyone to be helpful and polite. How did we know that you wouldn't shoot first and ask questions later?" Takashi leveled regarded the boy seriously, "I don't have any real way to prove what I'm saying. How am I supposed to show that I was ambushed yesterday, pull out a video camera? All you have to go on is my word. That's the world we live in now. So, I guess what it comes down to is this; are you will to take to risk and except me at face value?"

"Will you take a chance, and come with me?"

For a second the tense silence lingered in the air, and, for a second, Takashi thought the kid was gonna pull the trigger and try to end him.

Then his father placed a hand on his son's shoulder.

"We'll take that chance," The man said. Takashi knew the look in his eyes right then. It was the look of someone ready to die, ready to put his life on the line, for so that his family would survive. The teen looked at his dad for a second, then lowered the gun.

1000 Suns

In the end, I'm still not sure about Shibata. I'm still not sure I made the right choice. Hell if we really wanted to, Saeko and I could have taken down the guards, we could have snatched our stuff back, and run during the night. We might have gotten away with a few backpacks (not to mention one or two of us probably would have died), but we would have been free.

But would that have been the right choice either? I don't know, I don't know if I ever will know.
And That's nothing new. So, for now, we just keep on living, day by day, hour by hour. And I'll pray to Kami that I didn't condemn these people to some terrible fate by having them join Shibata. All I know is, if push comes to shove, my family will probably suffer the same fate as these poor souls.

You're never really free in this world.

High School of The DEAD
Living, or DEAD?