Dead in the Water, a Highschool of the Dead Lemon Fanfiction by ClockMaker411
Standard Disclaimer: Highschool of the Dead and its characters are not my property. I do not own, nor am I affiliated with the series in any way, shape or form. The following work is derivative, non-commercial fiction. If you're offended by explicit, mature themes, then read on and let me try to change your mind. Lemons to follow in later chapters; rating will be updated accordingly once 18+ material is added.
Author's Note: As the HotD manga has been on hiatus for way too long, I thought I'd try my hand at a continuation. This story follows the manga plotline, so if you've only watched the anime I'd suggest reading that first.
Chapter 2
Drops of cold, fat raindrops fell unceasingly from the dispassionate gray, late afternoon sky as Takashi and his companions made their way through the spidery, maze-like streets that composed one of Tokonosu City's many residential neighborhoods. On the whole, the houses in this district were small, two-story affairs, with narrow yards and high, bordered walls, clustered in a cheek-by-jowl fashion so that only a few meters separated where one house ended and another began. Taken together with the rain, the tight formation of the houses and the layout of the blocks made for a tactical nightmare. The streets – or more aptly, wide alleyways, as they could only barely accommodate the width of two passing cars – often met at angles rendered blind by the walls of residences, and with houses to obscure the view for any significant distance, one had to risk a broken leg or broken neck in climbing on the wall tops to see what little could be seen.
But most dangerous of all was, by far, the rain. It hadn't rained to any significant degree since before the Outbreak had begun, and by now, Takashi well-knew the perils of fighting against "them" in wet weather.
The effect was threefold. First, and most simply, the moisture made their weapons more slippery and thus much harder to handle with speed and force. Perhaps that issue was also compounded by Takashi's unfamiliarity with the grip style of his new shotgun, switching from the traditional stock of the Ithaca, to the pistol grip, adjustable stock on the Benelli. Regardless, during their first of two encounters with "them" in which fighting had been unavoidable, he had nearly lost hold of the shotgun when he had used it to buffalo one of "them" across the temple.
He had overbalanced himself, and quickly discovered the second pitfall of fighting in the rain – it made one's footing very treacherous, especially when wet concrete was made slicker by the remnants of partly chewed entrails dragged along by one of "them". Its lower half had been missing, the abdominal cavity having been ripped open and feasted upon. After Takashi slipped, he had nearly become the thing's next meal, but at the last moment, he managed to bring his weapon up between them, and while the dead woman snapped its teeth uselessly on the steel action of the shotgun, a near surgical thrust of Saeko's katana behind the thing's ear had ended the threat.
From that point on, Takashi decided to forgo carrying the shotgun in what he took for a tactical stance, only to transition to a melee grip; instead, he held it horizontally in front of him in both hands like a short staff, gripping the tube of the fully extended stock firmly in his right hand and using its angled bottom corner to deal devastating right hooks to heads and necks, followed up as needed by powerful, forward or downward strikes with the breech teeth of the shotgun. After only a few such applications, the condom at the end of his shotgun was showing punctures in several places. When Kohta remarked on it and Takashi suggested "double-bagging" for added durability, both Rei and Saya had given him such a look that he instinctively checked himself for stab wounds or bullet holes; wisely, he refrained from making any further condom jokes after that.
It was during the last moments of their second clash with "them" that the third characteristic of rain battles was revealed, and that was what the rain did with regard to sound. It proved to be a double-edged sword. While the falling rain reduced the overall distance that sounds carried, this worked both ways; the noise that Takashi and company made while fighting was not as noticeable from farther off, but at the same time, the group had little warning before stumbling upon pockets of "them", as the dragging feet and shuffling sounds "they" made were drowned out by the rain. Further, and more consequentially, the constant drone of the rain seemed to hyper-stimulate either the sense of hearing or the sense of heat detection that directed "them" in their hunger; assuming "they" were close enough and within line of sight, say, within fifteen or twenty meters, "they" would stir and approach, even if the only sounds the group made were no louder than a modest snap of fingers.
Apparently the sickening crunch of the shotgun's muzzle into the left orbit of a skull was enough to draw "their" attention. As the former salaryman, its throat torn open, collapsed bonelessly to the asphalt in front of him, Takashi cursed under his breath. They were at the top of a T intersection, and back the way they had come, from the bottom of the T, he spotted the six or seven of "them" that they had passed silently just moments before. Creeping steadily forward.
"There are more up ahead," Saeko said quietly over her shoulder, from her position at the front of the group. "A dozen or so to the left, and slightly fewer to the right. They will be on us in less than a minute." Her breathing was heavy, and though her katana did not waver, its blade shone darkly red in the dimming light. She had angled herself toward the left branch of the T, to take on the brunt of the oncoming attack.
"Too many to handle between just the three of us," Rei added, equally breathless as she darted quick looks behind her to Takashi. Her M1A1 rifle was held out in front of her in a spear stance, bayonet at the ready, covering the street on the right.
"Takashi?" Saya said from behind him, a trace of apprehension in her tone as she fidgeted with the suppressed MP5 slung at her waist. She stood in front of Shizuka and Alice, who sat atop her bike, with Zeke standing sentinel at her feet.
"Should we shoot, Komuro?" Kohta asked, with no small amount of eagerness in his voice; he had already taken a firing position, kneeling with the AR-10 shouldered and his eye tracking a target with the scope's crosshairs. His line of fire followed the same direction as Saeko.
Takashi grimaced. "No, not now. If we get surrounded here, I don't like our chances. We've got to move..." he trailed off, glancing around. "Wait a second." Dark eyes narrowed at the building in the next lot over. "That's old lady Tanaka's house!" He opened the nearest gate and ran to the back of the yard, going immediately to a section of fence that was different from the rest. He pried at its top and after a moment of resistence, the slats of the fence swung downward, as if on a hinge, making a short ramp to the neighboring yard – that of the Tanaka house. "Rei! Find something to bar that gate. Everyone else, through here! Quick!"
"I'll go scout it out!" Alice exclaimed, ducking through on her bike before anyone else could move.
"Munchkin!" Saya hissed, chasing after her through the passageway in the fence. Saeko, Kohta, and Shizuka followed behind, leaving Rei and Takashi to bring up the rear.
"I see two outside, and two in the house!" chirped Alice, just as the tires of her bike slipped in a water puddle and she crashed, her squeal of sudden surprise turning into a high pitched yelp of pain. The noise, coupled with Zeke's frantic but ineffectual barks, attracted the two of "them" in the yard. Alice scrambled back and away on her hands and heels, bumping against the side of the house. Trapped and frozen by fear, "they" closed in on her with deadly, deliberate intent.
"Munchkin! Stay down, and close your eyes!" Saya yelled, ripping open and casting off her raincoat to shoulder the MP5 and flicking the selector to semi with her thumb. Muttering imprecations, she readjusted her sight line, shifting from the useless red dot sight atop the gun to look through the iron sights instead, and opened fire. The shot was muffled somewhat by the suppressor, and took the thing in the chest. No – not just a thing – Takashi knew her!
"That's Mrs. Seto!" Rei gasped behind him, apparently as stunned as he was.
Frustrated, Saya dropped to the ground, going prone, and took aim once again. The second subdued report hit Mrs. Seto's shoulder, and the third, her right hip. "Don't even think about helping!" she reprimanded Kohta, who had moved behind her and had his rifle half-raised, "I'll get it with my next shot!"
"I know you will!" he replied confidently, "You're a genius, Saya!"
"Damn right! I'm the smartest genius EVER!" The submachine gun coughed one last time, and the shot was true: a cloud of red mist exploded behind Mrs. Seto's head, preceded by a neat hole just above her right eyebrow.
In the stillness that followed, Saeko streaked past, a blur of red apparently unimpeded by the uncertain footing afforded by the rain. "No need to trouble yourself further!" she called, tossing her parasol high in the air. The blade of her katana whipped to her left side, then forward in a rising arc, its path delineated in a splash of blood that spattered on the side of the house. The second of "them", whom Takashi thankfully did not know, sank to its knees, its head flopping to one side, now barely attached to its neck by muscle fiber and skin tissue.
The two others, who had been in the house, had broken through the large picture window during the commotion. Before "they" could get to their feet, Saeko was suddenly there, downing one with a vicious back slash that sent a cross-sectional hemisphere of skull, from the occipital bone to the top of the forehead, spinning away and rolling into the grass. She pivoted, the red tails of her trench coat flaring to all sides as she dispatched the second with a swift kick of a booted foot, twisting the thing's head back to nearly 180 degrees, and followed it by a two-handed driving strike of her sword through what had once been its left eye. She paused over the last motionless body, steadying her breathing, and without turning her head, she reached behind her and to one side. The parasol glided gracefully from the sky and into her hand, as if drawn to it by a tether.
"Damn," Takashi drawled, the admiration clear in his voice. As if in afterthought, he was just now bringing his shotgun to bear. The others all seemed similarly impressed, save for one.
"Sheesh," Rei muttered to herself, "what anime did you step out of?"
It was apparently not low enough, as Kohta volunteered, in tones of awe, "A freaking amazing one?" The comment elicited a small smile from Saeko, though it made Saya huff in irritation. "You were awesome too, Saya!" Her sardonically arched eyebrow seemed to convey a sense of "too little, too late," and Kohta nearly fell over himself while trying to appease her ego, even going so far as to exchange her now sodden raincoat with his relatively drier poncho. It ended with Kohta earning a swift kick across the jaw – probably because his nose kept gushing blood when he glimpsed her water-soaked T-shirt, considering the way it clung revealingly to the curves it was supposed to conceal.
"Takashi, if you please?" Saeko murmured, offering him the parasol. He accepted it wordlessly and held it over the two of them as she drew a piece of cloth from a pocket of her trench coat, wiped the blade clean, then sheathed the katana smoothly. "Thank you."
"You were right," he admitted, somewhat sheepishly, as he returned the parasol. "When we recognized one of 'them', we couldn't do anything." Rei tossed her head and looked away, lips compressed into a tight line, expressing her dissatisfaction more clearly than any spoken words. But her hands shook as they held the rifle slung across her body.
Saeko nodded in gracious acquiescence, traces of the former smile still lingering about her clear blue eyes. "It makes me glad, in a way. It means that I am a better judge of your character than I had previously thought."
"Now you, munchkin!" Saya began, rounding on the redheaded girl as she approached and looming authoritatively over her. "Don't go off like that!" she scolded, letting go of her submachine gun and rapping her hard on the head with her knuckles. "You could've gotten hurt!"
"I'm sorry, Saya-ch-!" Alice was interrupted by Saya, who pinched her cheeks fiercely and stretched, "I mean, Saya onee-sama! I just wanted to help out like you do!" Tears began to well at the corners of the small girl's eyes.
"Oh, geez," Saya sighed, relenting a little and pulling Alice into a tight hug. "I get that you want to help, but you gotta be smart about it! You need to plan two steps ahead so you don't back yourself up into a corner!" Alice nodded, stifling her sobs into Saya's waist.
"Oh, now I don't want to ruin the nice mood you have over here," Shizuka said suddenly, her fingers twirling an errant lock of blond hair that had fallen free of the hood of her rain coat, "but we should keep going, shouldn't we? I mean, if we're on this side and the gate comes down, it'd be bad..."
"Yeah, let's get inside." Takashi tilted his head to indicate the second story of the building beside them. "We should be able to see Rei's house from up there, and it'd be good to know what we're up against for once."
"Shall I take the lead again?" Saeko asked, wetting her lips with a sense of anticipation that made him shiver.
"All right. Rei, you're with me, we'll watch the rear. Shizuka-sensei and Alice-chan in the middle as usual – you'll have to leave your bike here for now, Alice-chan. Hirano, Saya, cover the sides, behind Saeko."
Cautiously and with their formation tight, they entered the house.
"Shit," Takashi cursed under his breath as he studied the street scene below though a pair of military issue binoculars. "Why are there so many of 'them'?"
"See that gate?" Kohta asked, using the scope of his rifle to magnify his view. "It's been chained and padlocked. There must be someone inside the house. I guess 'they' were attracted by whoever's in there."
"Yeah, I saw. Something's not right about it, though. There's one of 'them' inside the yard, too."
Kohta was silent for a moment, swinging the rifle so he get a better look at the yard. Just over the top of the intervening wall, he spotted a barely visible bald pate of sickly gray skin, belonging to one of "them". "Good eye, Komuro. I missed that one."
"What does it matter?" Rei asked angrily from behind them. "We're still going in! My parents must be in there!"
Takashi lowered the binoculars, the same pair they had taken from the mansionette belonging to Shizuka's SAT officer friend, and turned to regard Rei. They were in a small room on the second floor of old lady Tanaka's house, in what was likely a guestroom or spare bedroom. The house had long been abandoned and had fallen into disrepair; a thick layer of dust covered the floor and few fixtures, and every now and then, someone let out a sneeze.
"Give me those." Saya grabbed the binoculars and pushed past Takashi, reclaiming his former position at the window. That meant she was crouching beneath Kohta, who was standing and still peering through the scope of his rifle. She muttered something and elbowed him in the ribs to give herself a bit more breathing room.
Takashi drew Rei into the relative darkness of the outer hallway, allowing Saeko, Shizuka, and Alice, along with Zeke, to file into the small room. "Of course we're going in, Rei, but we need to hash out a plan, first. There are way too many of 'them' out there. We're dead if we make a mistake."
"Look. I know that. But damn it, Takashi, my house is right there!" She flung out a hand to point through the doorway. "It's only fifty meters away! I could jump the walls and be there in minutes!"
He shook his head. "That's suicide, Rei. It's still raining. You could slip, maybe break an ankle. And we won't be able to see where 'they' are when we're down on the ground. If you jumped over in the wrong spot, you could land smack in the middle of 'them'. It's just too risky. You won't do anyone any good if you get yourself killed."
Exasperated, Rei threw up her hands. "Fine. Go make your plan." She added scathingly, "When decide you have time to help me, I'll be downstairs." But before she could turn away, Takashi grabbed her hand.
"Wait, Rei. Something's not right," he repeated, letting out a tired breath. "If things are worse than we thought... you need to be ready for whatever we find in there."
"Damn it, Takashi, I don't want to hear that right now. You're the one who said I shouldn't give up hope! My parents are in there, and they're safe. Now stop keeping me from them! I want go already!" She wrenched her hand away and stalked off, her back rigid with anger. The stairs creaked slightly as she descended to the first floor.
The words stung a bit, but perhaps he deserved them. He knew he should have handled her better, but the day had been incredibly long and especially tiring. For some reason, Rei had grown increasingly irritated with him since leaving the convenience store, and Takashi just couldn't muster enough energy to figure out why. It was particularly confusing considering they had shared another kiss, albeit a chaste one, and had been on the brink of a far less chaste one, before they had been interrupted. He had thought he was finally getting a better grasp of where he stood when it came to her, but the events of the last few hours seemed to turn that theory on its head. Regardless, it was something he could deal with later; for now, he wanted nothing more than to walk over to Rei's house and collapse into sleep. Reality, unfortunatley, proved far less accommodating.
Once Takashi had gathered enough presence of mind to re-enter the spare room, he found Saeko taking her turn with the binoculars, while Saya and Kohta spoke beside the window. Well, to be accurate, Saya was doing most of the talking, punctuating her words with sharp gestures and sharper scowls, while Kohta offered small suggestions to which Saya either laughed mockingly, or cocked a surprised eyebrow consideringly. The former made Kohta redden, whereas the latter made him redden even further.
"Shizuka-sensei," Takashi began, turning to the older woman, "would you mind going downstairs and keeping an eye on Rei? She's a little, uh... emotional, right now."
"Oh, I suppose I can help with that." Shizuka glided past him, shifting the bag of medical supplies that was slung on her shoulder to rest on her hip, so that she could rummage through it with ease. "I know I had some Midol in here somewhere..." Her voice trailed off once she disappeared into the hallway.
Saya broke off her lecture to Kohta to level a flat stare at Takashi, her arms crossed beneath her breasts, a picture of feminine disapproval. "PMS jokes? Really?"
"Hey," Takashi said defensively, "I totally didn't mean it like that."
"Uh-huh. Suuuure."
Confused, Alice swiveled her head between the two of them. "Is Rei-chan going to be okay?"
"That's Rei onee-chan to you!" Alice scrunched up her face as Saya ruffled her hair with the knuckles of one fist. "Don't worry, Munchkin, she'll be fine. I hope."
"Well then, perhaps we might attend to the matter at hand?" Saeko interrupted smoothly, closing the binoculars and handing them to Kohta, who stowed them in his backpack. She leaned back against one edge of the windowsill, her hand resting at ease on the hilt of her sword. "There must be close to a hundred of 'them' out there. A direct approach is... unlikely to succeed."
"I could set up over here, and give you some sniper support, Komuro," Kohta suggested. "Like the time we rescued Alice-chan."
Saya shook her head. "This place isn't defensible, Fatass. 'They' would get in easily and you'd be toast. Besides, how would we escape if you drew even more of 'them' to us? We don't have a Humvee to throw around this time." Kohta deflated somewhat at that, but eventually gave a resigned nod.
"She's right, Hirano," Takashi said, "We're not going to fight our way through on this one."
"So a stealth approach, then?" Saeko mused, turning her head to glance at the view below. Dozens of "them" were milling about listlessly, filling the streets in front of Rei's house. The yards to either side were likewise dense with undead bodies. "Unless the situation's radically different on the far side, I don't see any way of sneaking around them."
"Exactly, which is why we go above them." Takashi stepped to the window and pointed at the house to the left of the one in question. "There, the neighboring house. The Itos' place. There's a window right across from Rei's room – with the houses so close, it must be only a meter or two away. We can bridge the gap with a plank or ladder or something. There aren't too many of "them" in the yards between here and there; they're mostly in the area around Rei's house. We go in through the near side, head upstairs, then cross over to Rei's."
"Simple enough I guess," Saya allowed, absently pushing the bridge of her glasses to sit higher on her nose as she thought it over. "Though I don't like the idea of relying on 'a plank or ladder or something' to just be laying around for us to use."
"We'll make do. I'm sure we can figure out something. Anyway it's the best I could come up with on short notice, and we're running out of time. It'll be dark in an hour or so."
"Maybe Rei onee-chan's parents will have something! They can help us!" Alice blinked as the four teenagers exchanged silent looks. "What is it?"
"It's nothing," Saya said dismissively, continuing in a voice of feigned enthusiasm, "and you're right! Maybe they'll have something to help us cross." She crouched down, straightening Alice's rain coat and pulling its hood up to frame the sides of her face. "Anyway, why don't you bring Zeke downstairs and keep watch with Shizuka-sensei and Miyamoto?"
"What? Why? I want to stay here and help with the plan!"
"But Alice-chan, the plan's good to go!" Kohta said with a smile, scooping up the little dog and depositing him in Alice's arms. Zeke had his own small poncho, something that Alice had found in the pet store at the mall. "We'll be leaving soon, so you and Zeke should help Miyamoto and make sure that our way out is clear, okay?"
Alice gave another sour look, but surrendered after only a moment of sullen pouting. "Oh, fine," she grumbled, and together with Zeke, she trotted out of the room.
It was Takashi who eventually broke the silence that followed. "You guys don't think they're alive, either."
Saeko inclined her head briefly. "The front door. It was left slightly ajar. Were there people, I would think the door would be barricaded – or locked, at the very least."
"Like you said, Komuro, one of 'them' was in the yard," Kohta added. "Why risk one walking around inside the gate?"
Saya crossed her arms, her expression grim. "Not just that. Did you see any movement inside, or any light from the windows? I didn't. It's almost dark. But there are no candles, no flashlights. Nothing."
Takashi gritted his teeth, but nodded in concession. "Yeah, I thought that too. But Rei's not going to rest until we find out for ourselves."
"We know, Komuro," Kohta said solemnly. As if by muscle memory his fingers pulled back the charging handle of his rifle, and he checked the chamber before adding, "But hey, we could be wrong and get lucky." He didn't sound as if he believed it, though.
"Regardless of what awaits, your plan is a good one," Saeko conceded. "It poses minimal risk to us, and the way in will serve as our escape route as well. We've managed well enough with far worse in the past."
"Takashi can be surprisingly competent when he applies himself," Saya confided to Saeko in a whisper that could be heard clearly out in the hallway, "but he's lazy when it comes to details." She snorted. "A plank. Or ladder. Or something. I mean, seriously?"
Takashi scowled. "Got a better idea? I'm all ears."
"Oh, but I do. It's only two meters between houses, you said?"
"Or so. I can't say I measured it or anything, but if I had to I could probably jump the gap."
"Oh, sure, and break the window or your neck in the process, drawing 'their' attention and defeating the entire purpose of being stealthy? Sometimes you really can be an idiot." Saya rolled her eyes. "Anyway, you're lucky to have a genius like me with you. Don't you worry about that part – I've got it covered." Takashi raised an eyebrow, but she answered only cryptically. "You'll see when we get there."
"Fine by me." He cast one last look over his shoulder, at the house. Were there more of "them" around than before? Surely that was his imagination. Takashi dismissed the thought. "Now let's move before Rei decides to run off by herself." The others nodded, and together they left the room, moving through the hallway and down the stairs to rejoin the rest of the group and run through the plan.
End Chapter 2
