They started off beneath the knowledge tree
And they chopped it down to make a picket fence
And marching along the railroad tracks
They smiled real wide for the camera lenses
As they made it past the enemy lines
Just to become enslaved in the assembly lines

Blue lips, blue veins
Blue, the color of our planet
From far, far away
Blue lips, blue veins
Blue, the color of our planet
From far, far away

– Blue Lips, Regina Skeptor

Glass crunched under his boots and he edged his way round the building, back pressed firmly against the cold, hard wall. His breathing was deep, but soft, as he tried to mark his presence from the creatures that he knew were lurking deep in the gym. He was positive now – even more sure than he had been before – as he neared his destination, the thick smell of rotting carcasses flooding his nose. Kaoru grimaced at the stench – something akin to a mixture of gone off milk and dog-shit. Lovely. He ran his fingers across the rough texture of the brick wall, a film of cold sweat clinging to his skin. He wasn't a fighter – far from it. He was an observer. In fact, since having arriving at Ouran, back when the 'zombie' population was low, Kaoru hadn't really left the grounds. Most of that was due to Kyoya, though, but a good percentage was because of something else. Fear.

He didn't want to kill, and he didn't want to be killed. When first showing up outside the Ouran gates he had been shaking like a leaf, splattered in blood and gripping his phone like a lifeline. He had tried calling his brother. Once. Twice. Thrice. Only to get through to voicemail all three times. He was shaken – broken – his eyes wide and panicked, and when Kyoya had ran out of the school building and gripped the terrified teen by the shoulders, demanding what had happened, whether he was alright, Kaoru just replied in a flat monotone with three simple words.

"I killed her." He had then started crying, falling against Kyoya's chest and sobbing his heart out, gripping onto the other boy's shirt as he repeated those three words over and over. A mantra. "I killed her. I killed her. I killed her...!"

"Who did you kill?" Kyoya had whispered, voice tight, as if he wasn't used to comforting people. Which he wasn't. He was the Shadow King, he didn't usually have to deal with sobbing teenage boy's. Kaoru went rigid at that point, a tense silence settling over the two before finally the auburn haired teen spoke again, tone clipped.

"My mother."

Kaoru shivered at the memory, as well as the frigid night's air, and furrowed his eyebrows, trying to focus on the task at hand. That was the past, right at that moment he was outside, about to come face to face with a horde of sicko's. And nobody knew he was gone. Taking another deep breath, the teen crept round the side of the building, feet shifting to make his movements as quiet as possible. The stench that caked the air grew even viler, stronger, as Kaoru drew nearer to the nest – so strong that he gagged, feeling bile rise in his throat. It was revolting, worse than anything he had ever smelt before. But he persevered – lifted the neck of his shirt to cover his nose and hopefully filter the air somewhat. The thick cloth now covering his nose and mouth made breathing more difficult, but at least it relieved him of the sickening smell a little bit.

He was close now. So close he could feel the warmth radiating off the mass of fleshy beings – thick, clogging heat. He could hear their moans too – those deep throaty noises were so far away from being human one would think that a pack of dying dogs was nestled around the corner. Taking another breath, sucking air through the material of his t-shirt and tasting the tang of the tainted oxygen, Kaoru edged a bit closer once more, craning his neck round the corner to peer in through the ajar double doors. Rotting Flesh. Tangled limbs. Yellowed, broken teeth. That was the sight that greeted him. The adults were huddled together in the hall, all of them barely fitting in the dark, enclosed space. There were so many. So many more than Kaoru had originally anticipated. Over a hundred. Over two hundred! God, he couldn't count them!

Kaoru stumbled backwards, tripping over a pebble and falling to the ground with a shrill yelp, smashing his head against the wall just a few feet away from the gym doors. He groaned. Eyes narrowing in his pain as his vision double, blurring the double doors of the gym. The moans from within ceased, their latent whines still echoing in Kaoru frazzled mind, and everything slipped into tight silence. Then there was a shuffling sound. Kaoru's heart beat fast in his chest as he stared at the doors, trying to decipher which set was the real thing and which was the double that his whacked out brain has created. He almost expected one of the adults to creep out, followed by another and another and oh god. His breathing was fast and ragged and he scrambled to his feet, only to wobble and stagger backwards yet again, hand raising itself to rest on the back of his skull. He felt something warm, and wet. Oh brilliant.

Groaning again, the boy slumped forwards, a spider web of black spinning itself across his vision. Something warm latched underneath his arms, preventing his from falling to the ground. Kaoru barely managed to tilt his head backwards to see what had grabbed hold of him, a distinct ringing buzzing in his ears. He caught sight of a blurred shadow, glasses glinting in the moonlight, and he heard the muffled words that slipped from the others lips.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

And then everything went black.

"What the hell is she doing? She's been out there for thirty minutes already..." Hiromi muttered, watching from the window as Kai's hair blew in the gentile midnight breeze. Her pale, almost white, eyebrows scrunching above her eyes as she stared town at her comrade. Next to her, Lisa hummed a bit, her own gaze also trained on the girl outside.

"I don't know – I've given up trying to figure that girl out..." The red head muttered, a slight English accent tinting her voice. Hiromi's red eyes just narrowed pointedly before she sighed and leant back against the wall, white-blonde locks slipping off her shoulders to hang limply down her back, the curls that usually made up the bottoms almost completely flat by now, and grime staining the once clean strands.

"Well she better come in soon before she gets picked off by a Parent – if there are even any left anymore." Hiromi scoffed, eyes slipping shut as tiredness washed over her. "They've been acting weird lately... not even tried to make a snack out of us. It's strange..."

"I'm sure everything's fine. You're just being paranoid." Lisa cut, narrowing her eyes as she tried to read her book, the pages having yellowed a wee bit after being buried under something decomposing that the red head hadn't even tried to name. "Maybe you're not cut out to still be alive."

"Oh shut it, Shrimp." Hiromi bit back, opening her eyes again to send a red glare in the other girls direction. She then let her gaze drop back to the black haired teen outside. "But seriously... what is she up to?"

Kai sniffed the air, purple eyes flitting round the empty streets. It was quiet. Too quiet. And it had been that way for a few days now. Occasionally a stray Parent would shuffle down the road, but they would hardly ever veer off in the kids' direction, even if they were just out in plain view. It was weird, and out of character for the creatures Kai had come to know quite well over the last two months.

They were bloodthirsty, and would attack anything with a pulse, is what she had seen first and foremost. Secondly, they never seemed to have a destination in mind, unless they got a whiff of something tasty. Third, they preferred the cover of darkness. They would hardly every breach out into sunlight. It seemed to... hurt them, in a way. Like a vampire. But not the Twilight Vampires. No, these Parents didn't sparkle, no matter how cool and morbidly fascinating that would be.

But lately... Their behavioural patterns had been off. For one, they hadn't attacked any of her group. Even when Hiromi had basically stood in front of it one of them for ten minutes it hadn't tried anything. Just tried to push past her. No bites. No attacks. Nada.

Weird point number two: They seemed to have a destination. Which was completely ridiculous and the black haired girl was most likely seeing things. Maybe she shouldn't keep her fringe in front of her left eye anymore – might be putting too much strain on the right and causing her vision to twist. If that was even possible. But no, it really did look like they were heading somewhere.

They would stick to the middle of the road and just shuffle forwards, their eyes even more vacant and glassy than normal. Which was saying something, because they were practically the walking dead. No pun or show reference intended.

And the third point.

They would travel to their 'destination' even in the daytime. And Kai could tell it hurt them. Burned them, or whatever it done to their already rotting flesh. She would see them shuffling down the roads while she was on a hunt in the middle of the day, when the sun was at its highest and the heat was roasting the dead things littering the streets.

And it bothered Kai.

It bothered her a lot.

She thought she had them down – she thought pinning people and things was her specialty. But apparently it wasn't. Either that or something was going to on. Something worse than what had already happened. And what had already happened was a plane wreck that had caused a train wreck that had plunged into the middle of the Atlantic and caused a boat wreck and then subsequently killed a bunch of marine life and also caused an oil spill that had flooded shores and destroyed a major food source.

Basically what had already happened had been a gigantic pile of shit, so how it could get worse Kai had no fucking clue.

But that feeling wouldn't go away.

She tilted her head to the sky and stared at the moon, the clouds having disappeared on this clear winters night. She crinkled her nose, eyebrows furrowing.

A storm was coming.

And she didn't know how, but she had a feeling that it was going to affect everyone left in Japan.

Perfect.

The first thing Kaoru noticed upon waking up was that it was warm. Not cold, like outside. No, warm. The second thing he noticed that his head hurt like a bitch. He winced, letting his eyes flutter open and adjust to the small amount of light coming from the candle in the corner. It wasn't much, but when you're used to not having any light at all during the dark period of the night, even the smallest drop can make you recoil.

The auburn haired teen groaned as he maneuvered his body into a sitting position, reaching up to his head only to find a bandage wrapped tight around his skull. He blinked.

"So you're up." A cool voice spoke, drawing Kaoru's attention to the doorway. Kyoya stood, body leaning against the door-frame, his face tight and eyes hard behind scratched lenses. Koaru blinked again.

"Kyoya." He said, voice slightly raspy. He grinned weakly. "I take it you were my knight in shining armour? How romantic – I'm flattered, truly." Kyoya's nose wrinkled.

"What were you doing out there?" The Shadow King snapped, voice clipped.

Kaoru tilted his head from side to side before wincing and decided that that was not a smart idea. In fact, maybe he shouldn't move it at all. Yep.

"Oh, you know – fancied a stroll."

Kyoya's eyes narrowed.

"Did you not hear me earlier today when I quite clearly told you to drop your stupid ideas?" The black haired teen hissed, and Kaoru frowned.

"Of course I did – I'm not death. But really Kyoya, you should know that I'm a Hitachiin – the word 'obey' isn't in my dictionary." Kaoru quipped. "I may be the nicer twin, but I still don't like being told what to do. And anyway, my ideas are no longer 'stupid'. I found proof of that. But you probably didn't even bother to check inside the gym, did you?" Kaoru scoffed. "You probably just came to drag me home, still thinking that I'm being delirious."

"Well I'm not being delirious, Mr. I-Know-It-All, because there are over one hundred adults in that gym. I saw them, this time."

"I know there are."

"And if you try to tell me they're not there I will drag you down there and show you myself. Maybe even lock you in there... Wait." Kaoru furrowed his eyebrows. "Did you just say that you know they were there?"

"Yes – I know they are there. I've known for quite some time. So has Neru."

Kaoru felt himself bristle.

"Then why the hell didn't you tell me?!" The teen yelled, throat still raspy. "You've been calling me crazy, and delirious when this whole time you knew I was right?! What the hell is going on that brain of yours?!"

Kyoya pushed his glasses up his nose.

"You were making too big of a deal out of it. Everyone had heard your yells and rambling speeches, and knew that you wouldn't ever shut up about your 'theory'. So if you just suddenly stopped speaking about it, it would make everyone suspicious. Neru and I wanted to avoid that. We wanted to avoid people panicking. Especially the younger ones. So we decided to deny everything you said. Which in retrospect, wasn't the best decision because you then decided to take matters into your own hands like to stupid little boy you are. You may be the nicer twin, but, dare I say, perhaps Hikaru has more common sense that you, Kaoru."

"Was you ever planning on telling me about this? Or were you just going to let me rot in my own mind?" Kaoru growled out, hands clenching into fists.

"We were going to tell you eventually, once we had everything sorted and our plan could be put into action."

"Plan?"

"Yes – plan."

Kaoru's nails dug into his palm.

"What plan?"

There was a moment of silence, before Kyoya looked Kaoru directly in the eyes, their gazes even.

"Evacuation."

The door slammed behind her as she entered, a swift clicking sound following as she bolted the heavy hunk of wood using the locks and chains they had stolen from a rundown DIY shop when they had first found this place. She then hopped up the stairs, taking them two at a time, before opening the second door, the one leading to the second landing. She bolted that one behind her too. Double security – can never be too careful these days.

"Have fun?" Hiromi asked upon Kai's entry, and the black haired girl just scoffed, shrugging off the bulletproof vest that she had stolen for a local police station.

"Yeah, I had a brilliant time. You know, those Parents are really just misunderstood babies, if you talk to them, you can see that. We've even arranged a Peace Conference to sort this whole mess out."

Hiromi rolled her eyes.

"Alright, alright – no need to get sarcastic. A simple 'What do you think?' would've been sufficient enough."

Kai sighed and ran a hand through her hair, plopping down onto one of the sofa's in the small above-shop apartment.

"Sorry, sorry..." She muttered. "It's just... these stupid Parents and their sudden change in behaviour is bothering me."

"Like I told Hiromi earlier, you're just being paranoid." Lisa piped up from her perch on the windowsill.

"No, it's something more than that... there's something going on."

Hiromi sighed and plopped down into an armchair, sending a glare to Lisa.

"Be a bit sensitive, Shrimp," She snapped. "It's worse for Kai because of the direction they're going in."

"The direction?" Lisa asked, her interest slightly piqued. She looked up from her book.

"Yeah, the direction – they're heading towards her old town, where she lived before everything kicked off. She's worried for the survivors left there, because chances are she went to school with them."

"Well sorry," Lisa mumbled, "You forget that I only joined your little romance in the last few weeks – I haven't had the pleasure of sitting round the fire sobbing into your shoulders and whining about everything that happened after all this shit hit."

"Oi!" Kai suddenly snapped, her cool facade slipping in her tiredness. "Enough, come on..."

There was a moment of silence before Lisa coughed, her face buried in her book as she tried not to show her interest in the topic.

"So, um, where did you used to live...?"

Kai sighed and let her purple gaze train itself on the inky black sky outside, the view smudged with fingerprints from the glass.

"Ouran."

Can I just start off by saying how sorry I am? I know I've kept you all waiting so bloody long, and I feel so bad but hopefully I'll be back on track now! I've taken my options, finished my Year Nine mocks, things at home are finally getting better and the school year is coming to a close, so to say I'm feeling more refreshed is an understatement XD

This year has been tricky because my dad was diagnosed with cancer last May, and so he's had to go through a lot of treatment, and things have just been falling apart. But he had an operation in the Easter Holidays they managed to remove the tumor, which is the biggest relief there is and we're all so happy and things are getting so much better and easier.

So I'm sorry this took so long, but I hope you can understand how hard it's been for me, and hopefully I'll be more active as of now! I'll definitely try to keep my once and month routing from now on :)

Oh, and in this chapter we see the first Oc's appear, who are Kai Hoshina (Deathfairy78), Lisa Conquest (MiniFlame) and Hiromi Tsubaki (girlygurl720)! There are so many more to come, too, but their appearances will be staggered to give me a chance to develop characters as I go along. And to see Tamaki, Hikaru, Haruhi, Mori and Honey/Hunny's entrances, you'll have to be a bit patient, because I want to set the scene in Japan first before moving onto our other Hosts~

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Leave a review if you want~