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.

Timeline Request: As far as I can tell, Takashi & Saeko's arrival at the mall, the mall arc/clinic mission, the exploration of the police station, and the the stop at the convenience store all happen within the same day (Day 5). While reading through the manga I couldn't find any concrete indication of an overnight break between these events, which seems odd as it's a lot to cram into a single day. If you can find something suggesting otherwise, please let me know.

Chapter 3

Half an hour after leaving the Tanaka house, Takashi Komuro was inclined to agree that Saya Takagi was, in point of fact, a genius.

The short trek to the Itos', the property alongside Rei's, had passed without significant incident. Saeko again had taken the lead, and backed by Rei, the pair had effortlessly downed the three of 'them' they had been forced to fight while making their way to the house. Takashi had acted as the wall scout, choosing where to cross, and at Saya's suggestion, he had also remained back to cover the rear; she had forbidden him from taking part in combat unless absolutely necessary, based on their prior discovery that the excess noise of the shotgun's blunt force attacks seemed to attract more of 'them' than the bladed techniques employed by Saeko and Rei. Once they had scaled the final wall surrounding the Itos' western-style home, they were fortunate to find the back door unlocked and the house devoid of 'them', and a few moments of searching had seen the group clustered into the small room opposite Rei's bedroom.

The room had been used as a study: bookshelves lined two walls, and at the window, a pair of comfortable looking chairs were arranged on either side of a chessboard on its own pedestal. On the far side of the room was a desk and table lamp, along with a closed laptop computer.

Despite what Saya had said, Takashi had found himself eyeing the broad surface of the desk and the sides of the shelves to use for the bridge, but they seemed either to short to span the gap, or too flimsy to support the weight of a person. It was disconcerting, as in his quick glance over the yard outside, nothing had stood out that might serve as a plank, nor did he see any ladders.

Saya, though, simply pushed her way past Takashi into the room, took one look at the window to judge the distance, then turned, a satisfied smirk on her face as she pointed to the door through which they had come. "Four-eyes! Bring me that!"

"Um, bring you what?" Kohta asked in puzzlement, looking back at Saya.

"The door! That's our bridge, idiot! Take it off its hinges. You do have a screwdriver, don't you? And get the drill out, too."

"Yeah, they're somewhere in here..." he replied, stripping off his rain coat to get to the backpack he had underneath. He began to dig through it on the floor, and Saya joined him after a moment, muttering caustic words that made Kohta begin to sweat.

Rei came to stand beside Takashi at the window, which he had already raised open. "I think this should work." Running a hand along the windowsill, she added, "It's big enough to fit the door through."

"Seems like it," he said distractedly. "Good thing this house has real doors, though. Wouldn't want to try this using a traditional sliding door."

The focus of his attention was on the window of Rei's bedroom. As he had remembered, there were approximately two meters between the houses. The windows were not directly across from one another, but the very slight angle barely made a difference, and to his relief, hers had been left open just a crack. But what still nagged at him was what he couldn't see through the drawn curtains and the obscuring rain that clung to the window, making the darkness on the other side all but opaque. The house still had not betrayed a single sign of life.

"Listen, Takashi," Rei said in an apologetic voice, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have jumped down your throat back there. It's just... being so close to finding out about my parents – I guess it's got me on edge."

"Don't worry about it. We're all wound pretty tight around here." Not wishing to upset her again, he made no mention of the growing dread he felt over what they would find awaiting them in the house.

A somewhat uncomfortable silence followed, and Takashi stole a glance at Rei from the corner of his eye. She had pushed back her hood, though her light brown hair remained tucked behind her and vanished into the rain coat, acting to frame the edges of her face. Her downcast gaze was hesitant as she absently rubbed one shoulder, trying to restore some feeling where the straps of her rifle's harness were doubtlessly digging in. Every now and then, her lips parted as if on the verge of speaking, but no sound came and she never looked up.

Whatever Rei had intended to say was cut short as Saeko stepped up to the window, arms crossed beneath her breasts, seeming to unconsciously emphasize her figure despite the concealing nature of her red trench coat. Her long black hair fell loosely behind her, nearly to mid-thigh, and was slightly damp from the rain. Her parasol, she had left at the entryway of the Ito house. When she saw that she had Takashi's eye, Saeko inclined her toward Saya and Kohta behind her. Alice had begun to help as well, holding the wood screws as Kohta removed them from the hinge leaves of the door.

"An interesting concept," she said coolly, "but I have doubts on the execution."

"Doubts?" Takashi asked. Rei, too, had turned to Saeko, and her brow twitched with no small amount of irritation at the intrusion.

"Yes. How do we get it in place? We won't be able to support it solely from one side – it's too heavy, and it isn't long enough to offer adequate leverage."

Takashi considered the question for a moment. "What if we propped it vertically on the ledge, then tipped it over?" He made a falling tree gesture with his hand. "Problem solved, instant bridge."

Rei shook her head. "Wouldn't that be too loud? It'd attract 'them' when it hit the other side."

Saeko nodded. "There's also the chance that it might twist or land at the wrong angle, and we could drop it entirely."

Saya snorted loudly, drawing all three pairs of eyes. She now knelt by the door, which had been taken out of the doorway. Kohta, with Shizuka's help, had maneuvered it so it lay propped on its longer side against one of the bookshelves. The mechanical drill dangled idly in her fingers, and a smug smile split her face as she regarded the three by the window.

"Thought of that finally, did you?" Saya purred, rising to her feet, content as a cat with cream, "Well, I've already figured out that part, too." She turned to Kohta and held out her other hand, empty palm up. "Rope."

"Don't have any."

Saya was caught utterly by surprise, golden brown eyes widening with shock, rapidly displaced by outrage. "What?!" she barked, poking a stiff finger into Kohta's chest, "How could you not have rope?! It's one of the most useful things to have around! Heroes in movies always have rope with them, and they always end up needing it!"

Kohta backed away, his hands held up defensively. "But it's heavy, and takes up a lot of space... and since we haven't done any real climbing, I didn't think to bring any..." His weak protests trailed off as Saya's frown deepened; she had stopped jabbing him with her finger after she had backed him up against the wall, and instead, she hefted the drill in her other hand contemplatively. The dangerous look flashing behind her glasses left no doubt as to what, or whom, she would be using the drill on next.

"Wait! If you just need to tie something, wouldn't paracord be fine?"

Saya paused, cocking her head. "Paracord?"

"Yeah," Kohta breathed, relaxing a little as the glare holding him in place tempered somewhat and Saya slowly lowered the hand drill. "I found some at the mansionette; it's in my pack. It was originally used for parachute lines by American paratroopers during World War II, but because it was so versatile, just about every branch of the military uses it nowadays as an all-purpose lightweight rope or cord. If you had enough you could even braid it together as climbing rope!"

"Let's see it." Kohta scrambled to the backpack and within moments pulled out a wrist-thick bundle of lashed, dark green cord, the actual line around four to five millimeters in diameter. Saya looked at it critically, finding one end and rolling it between thumb and forefinger. "What kind of tensile strength are we talking about?"

"Umm, it's rated for 550 pounds, so 250 kilos?"

Saya seemed pleased by his answer, and her contented smile from earlier returned with renewed energy. "It'll work. Good going, Kohta, I guess I won't have to kill you after all." She tossed the bundle into Kohta's chest. "Cut some. Four pieces, around four meters each." He swiftly got to work on the cord, measuring it against the length of the door and severing it with a small folding knife. The cut ends, he melted together with the lighter taken from Alice, so that the cord would not separate.

Takashi narrowed his eyes at Saya. "Rope will help how, exactly? If your plan is to use a grappling hook and make me swing to the other side, let's stop right now so I can go look for a ladder."

Saya sniffed contemptuously at the suggestion, then pointed a finger at one corner of the door. "Do you think I made those for decoration?" A neat hole had been drilled through the wood in each corner, perhaps four or five centimeters from either edge. "That's how we'll get the leverage to keep it horizontal.

Saeko seemed to grasped the idea immediately, a slight smile curving her lips; Takashi and Rei were not far behind in realizing the implication. "I'm impressed, Saya," he said, rubbing his chin, "that's actually pretty clever!"

"Would you expect any less from a genius?" Saya preened. At a puzzled look from Shizuka and Alice, she elaborated. "We'll support the weight of the far side using the cord, tied to the corners, and angled toward the top of the window. That way we'll be able to push the door out and reach the other side without losing control of it or making too much noise."

"But why make holes in the bottom too?" Rei asked, gesturing with a hand to the far side of the door. "We'll be pushing that end, right?"

Saya grinned. "It's to support the other side the same way, when we pull the bridge into your room. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not let my way out get blown away by the wind. If the weather clears up, we could also leave it drawn up halfway, kind of like a castle's drawbridge."

"Good call," Kohta commended as he tied the cut lengths of paracord to the door's corners with quick bowline knots. "It'll be quick to lower, but nothing from the other side can mess with it. You've really thought this through, Saya."

She grinned. "Why thank you, Fatty." Saya shot a victorious look over at Takashi, then asked with a cocked eyebrow, "Better than a plank or ladder or something?"

Takashi bowed his head, conceding defeat. "Much better. Now let's get this thing across."


For Takashi, the uplifted mood upon successfully deploying the bridge was thoroughly crushed beneath the cold reality of their situation as he found himself crawling on hands and knees across a slippery, narrow piece of wood suspended over a five meter drop, at whose bottom waited no fewer than two dozen of 'them', any one of which would be more than willing to tear him to bloody ribbons should he be "lucky" enough to survive a fall. Further still, what lay hidden behind the window before him might very well trigger a mental breakdown in one of the members of their group; the increasing number of 'them' that he saw on Rei's side of the dividing wall beneath him seemed to point toward that conclusion with greater certainty. He now saw four animate corpses, though thankfully none of which he recognized – the old, bald man he had spotted with the binoculars, who had a ragged hole from one cheek down to its chin, exposing teeth and jawbone; a pair of young women, perhaps only a few years older than he when they died, one missing its left arm from the elbow down, the other with a gaping void where the left part of its right thigh had been; and a child, younger than Alice, who pulled itself around on its hands, as both its feet had been gnawed on, exposing white, wet bones still held together with semi-transparent ligaments.

Takashi turned his attention back to the task at hand; early on they had found out the hard way that looking too closely at 'them' was a fast way to empty one's stomach. When he reached the window to Rei's bedroom, he cleared away the beads of rain from the glass using the sleeve of his windbreaker, then quickly looked in through cupped hands. The interior of the room was dark, but by the fading twilight of the evening he was able to determine that it remained empty; "they" were not ones for subtlety in that regard. Acting carefully, he wedged his fingers beneath the lower edge of the window and slowly eased it upward. Its craftsmanship was good, and it made barely a creak as he opened it as wide as it would go.

Shifting his body slightly, Takashi signaled to Rei, who waited in the study behind him. Their order had been decided beforehand; Takashi would enter first, followed by Rei and Saeko, then Shizuka, Alice, and Zeke, with Saya and Kohta as the last to cross. Before climbing through the far window, Rei slid over the Benelli; although he knew that the room inside was clear, it still felt reassuring to have a weapon in his hands again. It was another small change among many that now seemed perfectly sensible and had become second nature, the world being what it now was.

Getting through the bedroom window without making an undue amount of noise proved to be a challenge of its own. Directly beneath the window was a chest of drawers, its top adorned with a miscellany of small personal items – tubes, vials, bottles, and jars of makeup, two small boxes for jewelery and other odds and ends, and three hairbrushes – all of which Takashi had to move aside to make enough room to pass. Then he had wriggle through the window and over the dresser, supporting the weight of his upper body with outstretched arms, the shotgun still in his hands. Once his legs were far enough inside, he tucked his head and shoulder beneath him in a tactical roll to complete his entry, and managed to pull it off rather well, shouldering the shotgun dramatically in a kneeling position at the end of the move – except that, somewhere along the way, the shotgun's breech teeth had caught on a snatch of fabric, and Takashi came up to find a pair of white string panties dangling from the muzzle of his weapon.

He plucked them off with thumb and forefinger sheepishly, and of course, that happened to be when Rei popped her head through the open window, showing more foresight than he in that in addition to her rifle, she also had Alice's flashlight in hand. The light illuminated Takashi within, making him squint and drop the panties. "Just what the hell are you doing?" she growled in a low, exasperated voice.

"Uhh... It sort of, just, happened." With the glare of the light, he couldn't see her expression, but he hardly needed to: the waves of disapproval emanating from her were nearly palpable. "Ugh, nevermind," he said with a small sigh. "You caught me at a bad time."

The flashlight wavered. "Whatever, you perv. Help me through and I'll forget what I just saw."

He did, propping his shotgun against the side of her bed, to be joined by her rifle a moment later when she passed it through ahead of her. As it turned out, the quickest and quietest way to go through a waist-high window was to do so on your back; Rei turned over so that she stared at the ceiling, and Takashi locked his elbows beneath her arms and pulled her all the way inside, lifting her up just enough so that she could get her legs beneath her.

Takashi maintained his grip after she was back on her feet, holding her in place. "Rei," he said into her ear in a kind, patient voice, "I know you want to go look for your parents, but we don't know what's behind that door. We have to stay quiet, and wait for the others first, okay?"

She tensed noticeably in his arms, but after a moment, her body relaxed somewhat, leaning back into his. "Okay, Takashi. I'll wait."

"Thanks." Takashi released his hold on her, and after she had stripped off her gloves and hung up her rain coat to dry, she contented herself with sitting atop her bed, the flashlight wandering idly along the pieces of furniture in the room.

"Just like I left it on the morning of the outbreak, ages ago." Takashi sympathized with her. Had it really only been five days since all of this had begun? He could barely remember the last time he had seen his home, or his parents.

The glum thoughts were pushed from his mind when Saeko put her head into the room via the window, and Takashi likewise drew her inside, but not before she murmured a sly remark on his forwardness about "getting her on her back" that made his ears burn. Shizuka followed, and she insisted that he wrap his arms around her waist, or more accurately, beneath her breasts, and that unique experience made him inordinately grateful that the low light of the evening hid the crimson mask that was his face. Alice and Zeke scampered across, and she was so small and light that she could crawl through without a hitch and ended up hanging from Takashi's arm when he helped her down from the dresser. Saya took his aid as no more than her due, waiting for Takashi to settle her to her feet and brush the rain off her poncho before she turned and gave him a curt nod of thanks. Kohta took the longest of all, having to send through his backpack and his AR-10, then insisting on wriggling inside the same way Takashi had, although he skipped the combat roll and allowed Takashi to help him up when he was fully inside.

Once Kohta was on his feet, Rei sprang up from the bed and rushed to swing open the door, any thoughts of precaution thrown to the wind. Thankfully she had the presence of mind to hang onto the doorknob, and so it didn't slam into the wall. As she leveled her flashlight though, she stiffened visibly, remaining perfectly still except for the arm that held the light; it wavered, a trembling circle of white drawing every eye to the bloody, smeared hand print that shone black as pitch on the far side of the hallway.

It was Rei's piteous voice that broke the silence that followed. "No..." she breathed in a low whimper, a child's lament, "no, no, no..." Like a wire stretched to its breaking point, the tension holding her body rigid suddenly snapped, Rei sinking bonelessly to her knees, repeating that single word over and over. She still clutched the flashlight, and its beam remained morbidly fixed upon the indelible stain on the wall.

As if her collapse were a cue, the others began to move. Shizuka went to Rei, relieving her of the light and helping her to her feet, just long enough to bring her to sit at the edge of the bed. Having already taken off her rain coat, the older woman cradled Rei's head into her bosom, making soothing sounds when she began to weep silently, her body racked by shuddering, stifled cries. Alice gave what comfort she could, holding Rei's larger hand in both of hers after pushing Zeke's warm, furred form into Rei's lap. Alice herself seemed on the verge of tears, but held them in with a grave, doleful seriousness that only the very young can fully convey.

Saeko touched Takashi lightly on the arm, drawing him to the far side of the room, closer to the opened door. She motioned for him to stay there, then put her head out through the doorway, looking up and down the hall, before closing it quietly and returning to stand before him. "I haven't see any yet, but if 'they' are inside, we need to check the other rooms," she said in a calm but not unkind voice.

"Yeah." He paused, looking at Rei on the bed, feeling torn between the desire to go and comfort her, and his responsibilities as the leader of their group, one of the forefronts being to ensure the group's safety. It was duty that won out in that argument, but not because of any greater, nobler justification; in truth, Takashi felt guilty and ashamed, having inspired Rei to hold onto hope despite having none himself, then changing his stance and callously asking her to prepare for the worst when things looked dire. If she went to him now, Takashi feared that he honestly wouldn't know what to say, or what to do, and it would serve only to upset her further.

He shook his head as if to clear it of those worries, returning his attention to Saeko. "Okay. You, me, and Hirano?" She nodded. "Will you be okay with fighting in the dark?"

"Not a concern, though I'll be at a slight disadvantage in tight spaces." A gloved hand plucked at the material of her coat. "Help me take this off?" She pulled on one tail of the knotted bow at her hip, unfastening it, then turned around so that Takashi could help her out of the trench coat. It caught a bit on the katana at her side; the separate panels of skirt allowed her to wear the scabbard outside of her coat, while still buckling it securely around her waist beneath the garment. Once he had set it hanging in Rei's closet, Saeko drew the Beretta from the holster on her thigh, proffering it to him. "You can spot for me. It has a flashlight attachment that still works."

Takashi examined the handgun; it had a tactical light mounted on a rail beneath the barrel, and with a bit of fumbling, he located the switch. It was surprisingly bright considering how small the light was, and Kohta had to lift an arm to shield his eyes when Takashi located him with it. "Come here for a second, Hirano."

"Don't point that at me!" Kohta said with horror, the blood draining from his face when his eyes adjusted and spotted the source of the light. Abashed, Takashi lowered the pistol so that the beam lit the floor, and Kohta nervously walked over. "You've got to learn not to do that!"

"My bad. I wasn't thinking." Takashi handed the pistol to Kohta, who pulled back the slide part way and checked the chamber. He breathed a sigh of relief upon finding it empty. "Can you show me how to use that thing?"

"Sure. Do you want the long version or the short?" He maneuvered the pistol familiarly in his hands, releasing the magazine and checking the rounds within before reinserting it and clicking on the safety.

"Short for now, I guess – explain the rest later, after we're secure."

"No problem." He pulled back the slide and released it, chambering a round, then decocked the hammer with the safety but left it in the "fire" position. "It's loaded now. Pull the trigger to fire. For the first shot, the trigger pull will be long, but after that they'll be pretty short and crisp, so watch out for it. You've got fifteen rounds in a magazine. When you're out, the slide will lock back, so you'll need to drop the mag by pushing this button," he pointed at a small button on the left side of the frame, where the trigger guard met the grip, "put in a fresh one, then push down this lever here with your thumb." He indicated a rectangular tab on the left side of the frame, above the forward corner of the grip panel. "That'll release the slide and it'll spring forward again. If you forget, you can also just pull the slide fully to the rear and let it go – it does the same thing."

"All right, I think I got it. Hirano, you and I will check every room with Saeko. Then we'll take care of the four of 'them' in the yard." Kohta gave a grim nod of confirmation.

"Hold up a sec, you three." Saya crossed the room to them, whipping her poncho over one shoulder so she could unsling the submachine gun at her side. "Fatty, take this. I'd go deaf if you shot that cannon of yours indoors, and we'd end up with more of 'them' trying to get in. Better chance that none of the ones outside will hear if you use this. And it has a light, too."

"Are you sure?" he asked, half reluctant, half excited to trade his AR-10 for her MP5. He gushed over the weapon, similarly checking chamber and making sure the safety was on before activating the light in the foregrip. For her part, Saya seemed surprised by the weight of the rifle she received in exchange, nearly dropping it before she set it down carefully on its buttstock to lean against the wall.

"Yeah. I'd come with, but I don't know the first thing about shooting in close quarters. I bet you've practiced stuff like this before, haven't you?"

Kohta blushed, scratching his nose absently. "You could say that. I ran through a CQB course a few times while training in America." His expression was at the same time both guilty and pleased, an interesting combination that made Saya smirk.

"Figures. Get to it, then. Oh, and Takashi, I'll be holding onto your shotgun. Remember to knock before opening the door if you want to stay in one piece."

Takashi smiled, but the expression lacked any real mirth. "I'll try not to forget." He cocked his head in a gesture to gather up Saeko and Kohta, then turned toward the door.

"Takashi, you're leaving...?"

The quiet desperation of Rei's voice stopped Takashi in mid-stride, and he willed himself to turn to face her. Shizuka had put an arm around her shoulders, while Alice at some point had shed her raincoat and kicked off her shoes, and was curled up on the bed with her head in Rei's lap, Zeke cuddled in her arms, both apparently asleep. But it was Rei herself who drew him in; the fragile, delicate expression on her features made his chest tighten when he saw it, from her quivering, red-rimmed eyes, to her tear stained cheeks, and her half parted lips, trembling with uncertainty, as she waited on his reply.

"No," he found himself whispering softly in the silence of the room, "I'll stay." Walking slowly forward, Takashi offered the butt of the Beretta to Saya as he passed her, who accepted it with a slight nod. Together with Saeko and Kohta, she left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

He took Shizuka's place, and Rei leaned into him, her cheek pressed to his shoulder. Shizuka occupied herself by gathering up the sleeping Alice, and by extension, Zeke, and settling them properly on the bed so that he and Rei could have a bit of privacy. But neither spoke, and Takashi simply lent what support his presence might offer, with an arm around her shaking shoulders while she squeezed his other hand in both of hers. The shotgun was still propped upright against the bed by her night stand, as if in constant vigil even as she mourned, and he comforted her in her grief.

Takashi didn't know how much time had passed – perhaps ten minutes, perhaps a half hour – but eventually he heard a soft knock, followed by the door opening and Saya ducking her head in.

"Takashi," she said in an urgent whisper, "I think you need to see this."

"You... found them?" he asked quietly, and Rei's tightened her grip until his hand started to hurt.

"We found two of 'them', but I don't..." she stopped herself, shaking her head irritatedly, her pink twin tails swaying. "Ugh, I don't want to explain it. Just come with me for a second!"

"All right," he said, and murmured more softly to Rei, "I'll be right back, okay?" He raised is head. "Shizuka-sensei, can you sit with her?" It took a few moments to loosen her grip on his hand, but eventually he extracted himself, though Rei did give him a sullen look as he went.

"Just two?" Takashi asked after closing the door and following Saya, who walked quickly toward the far end of the hallway, to a door directly opposite the staircase that led down to the first floor.

"Yeah, just two inside the house, anyway. They were in the master bedroom." The ambient light around the beam of her pistol was enough to illuminate the side of the hall, where Takashi could see more smeared blood leading in a trail toward the far door, as if someone had supported themselves on the wall while stumbling down the hallway. "Saeko and Kohta are taking care of the ones outside. Here are the ones I want you to look at."

Saya swung the far door open and moved inside, Takashi following a few steps behind. Her light shone on two bodies that had been laid out on the floor, their limbs straightened after death - what had once been a man and a woman. The man had the remnants of a tattered, bloody bandage around his right hand, and the woman was missing a chunk of flesh from her shoulder. Saeko, it seemed, had shown more respect for these two than the others that they had encountered; the wounds that had put them down for the second time were identical, precise strikes beneath the jaw and through the top of the skull.

When he saw them – really saw them – Takashi's eyes widened and he pivoted, darting back through through the hallway to the room and bursting through the door, startling Shizuka and Rei who looked up in sudden surprise. He crossed the intervening distance in an instant, kneeling in front of Rei and grabbing her shoulders, staring straight into her red brown eyes as he said in breathless excitement, "Rei, it isn't them! Your parents aren't here!"

Shock faded into confusion and doubt, along with a tiny flicker of what might have been hope – something that made Takashi's heart swell when he saw it. "Wait, what?" she asked in a hesitant, quavering voice, "You're sure...?" Her hands clung to his upper arms as if they were her only support, squeezing hard, but he didn't mind.

"Absolutely."

"I don't understand. Then who...?"

"The Arakis'. They must have come looking for your father, or maybe they broke in thinking he'd have weapons here. Mr. Araki was bitten. I guess he turned and bit Mrs. Araki when she tried to dress his wound."

"Oh thank god," she breathed in relief, leaning forward to slip her arms around his upper body as he accepted her in a tight embrace. "I mean, I feel bad that they're dead, but..." Her words trailed off when he shushed her, stroking her hair with one hand as the other soothingly massaged the back of her neck.

"I get it," he murmured softly, "we've got to take our victories where we can." Rei made a sound of what might have been agreement, nuzzling a cheek lightly against the side of his neck.

Shizuka, who had remained silent the entire time, caught Takashi's eye and offered him a warm smile. She rose slowly, whispering something into his ear before slipping out of the room.

"What did she say?" Rei asked, as the door shut behind the departing nurse.

"I'll tell you later. It wasn't important." He squeezed her shoulders reassuringly "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah. But let me stay like this for a while longer?"

"All right."

Takashi held her close in the stillness that followed, a sweet silence that settled serenely over the room, accompanied only by the susurrous sighs of breathing and the rhythmic thrum of heartbeats, content in the knowledge that despite what had happen out in the world, or how brutal and violent things might yet become, there were still moments like these that made it all bearable, and there were still people, loved ones, to give him the strength of will and the strength of purpose to keep on fighting.

End Chapter 3

Author's Note: I'm not sure when I'll be putting out the next chapter, but it will likely include lemon content. To be honest, though, I'm a little discouraged by the lackluster reception of this fic; not sure if it's the nature of the fandom, or my premise or writing style or whatnot. Anyway, if you'd like me to continue please leave some feedback and/or constructive criticism! I don't bite, and if I did, you wouldn't turn into a zombie, promise! Writers need motivation too!