(A/N: I have nothing to say)
Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool of the Dead or Black Lagoon. Neither does my co-author
3rd Person pov
Takashi stood still, staring. Things had seemed to be looking up. The thugs they had met had proven to be good, strong fighters. Cocky, unafraid, no-nonsense. He had had hope; things had looked up.
Now the wall of the living dead was advancing, like a scene from hell. The stink, the low groaning, that inevitable gait... he felt hopeless. Ammunition was going to run low soon, and the others- oh the others! Saeko, Saya, Kohta, Alice, Shizuka, and Rei- would they all die here? Would this be it?
Takashi's moment of despair was abruptly interrupted by Revy's foot connecting with his posterior with enough force to send him face first into the ground, skidding towards the wires.
"Get yer ass MOVING!" She roared. She grabbed a molotov, lit the fuse and tossed it. The flames rose high, cutting the infectees off. Shenhua, Sawyer and Saeko finished the first of the advancing horde off, giving them a few second's worth of respite.
"All right kiddies, MOVE!" Revy shouted. "Move, or I am killing you myself! Everyone, get by the damn Humvee, we'll use it to block our left side off! Rotton, get your useless ass over to the wires and get them all through, NOW!" Revy quickly mounted her bike, drove it a few meters closer to the Humvee, resting it against its rear end. It would hopefully be enough of an obstacle that the infectees would be slowed down just a little, or even forced to walk around it.
"Rock, toss your damn molotov!"
Already ahead of her, Rock had lit the rag fuse and tossed it. The first cocktail was burning out; the second one was desperately needful.
"You know, if I didn't know any better, I would say you cared if these kids lived or died, Revy." Rock shot her a grin.
"I'm not about to pull some god damn heroic sacrifice, Rock. This ain't FUBAR yet- get whatever god damn supplies you can over those wires!"
Rotton, not wanting to argue with both Revy and the hellish oncoming horde, had gently pushed first Alice and then Shizuka under the wire, helping the school kids best he could.
It couldn't end like this. Everything just couldn't end. Takashi ran like a gerbil on caffeine towards the wires, and with an energetic yell he jumped onto the hood of the Humvee for a boost; using it to propel himself over the wires whereupon he landed on his feet and skidded a few meters forward. He began panting like crazy with sweat dripping down from his brow like lemmings off a cliff.
"I give him ten for landing." Shenhua chuckled.
Revy, once everyone had crossed the wires to relative safety, took a page out of Takashi's book, planted her foot on the hood of the Humvee and leapt over the wires, and loaded up her last clips of ammo.
"Well this is it, boys and girls." She said.
"You can't be serious. We're gonna die here!" Takashi shouted.
"I'm almost out of ammo and the dead are coming like a slow moving angry mob. Those wires ain't gonna last forever. With all the shouting we've been doing there's bound to be more of these fuckers just down the road. We need to—"
"Get down!" A voice cut Revy off.
Everyone dropped flat as a blast from a fire hose ripped through the undead horde like a rampaging bull.
"I'd say we're about even now." The voice that spoke had Revy whip her head around to make sure that she wasn't hearing things. Standing nearby, in an alligator skin shirt and pants, wearing rose-tinted sunglasses and sneering down with a 'You owe me' grin was Eda. "Don't you think Revy?"
"I don't fuckin' believe it..." Revy groaned.
"Sometimes, you just have to believe. Believe, not in yourself, but in the me that believes in yourself!" Eda cackled as she hosed down the oncoming zombies.
"Eda, you're full of shit." Revy grunted.
"And don't I know it! Who the hell do you think I am?"
"She's snapped." Rock stated.
Eda grabbed him by the collar, staring him in the eyes. Her eyes were bloodshot.
"Now listen, you little shits," she said, dropping the hose. Not wanting to take any chances, Rotton and Shenhua grabbed it, pumping water down the street. "I've been through absolute hell. I've spent the last thirty-six hours running from zombies, from looters, and from crazy-as-fuck ultra-nationalists, so you will damn well have to forgive me if I am a little on edge! Now get on your fucking knees and thank me for the rescue, you ungrateful fuckers!"
Revy, having gotten up on her legs, slung an arm around Eda's shoulder.
"I knew you could make it, you stupid bitch!" There was some unmistakable joy in her voice. Perhaps the sight of somebody familiar had excited her, or she was simply happy to see Eda again; Rock didn't know. "I knew you were too tough to eat! Fuck yeah!"
"Yeah, yeah, calm yourself..." Eda said, sounding mildly embarrassed.
"So what happened, Eda?" Rock asked.
"Well... I got swept along the coastline, managed to swim to shore a few miles closer to town than where we got separated. Then, I walked in there 'cause there was no shelter anywhere, and I was hungry... and then, I did a lot of running. Had to lose the nun getup, too bulky. Killed a bunch of zombies, beat the snot out of some punks who thought a lone woman was easy prey, and then I got into a fight with some ultra-nationalist fuckers, and somehow I ended up staying at their place. I dunno, maybe their leader thought I was hot? Anyways, that's my story in short. Now, how the fuck did you manage to tow along half a school class?"
"Wait. Ultra-nationalists?" Saya spoke up before anyone else could. "You wouldn't happen to be talking about a large building about a couple blocks from this exact location, would you?"
Eda lit a cigarette. "Yeah, why?"
"That's my house! How…is everyone there alive?" Saya was almost too excited for words.
Rock cut in, since Eda was confused. "After the boat sank, Revy grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me to the surface. She passed out, and Rotton had a life raft out on the water, he let us in and we got to shore where we met up with everyone else here. The girl with the pink hair is Saya Takagi. Her and her friends were headed for her house for shelter, since it's the closest out of all their homes, I think."
"You guys are a bunch of tough brats then." Eda complimented taking another puff on her cigarette. She then looked at Revy with a sly grin.
"What?" Revy snapped.
"Saving the white collar trash in your group rather than your best friend? Something you wanna tell me about the two of you, Revy?" Eda chuckled.
Revy pushed the blonde off her. "Fuck you Eda." she said nonchalantly.
"Hey, stop pretending like I don't exist! Are there people alive at that house?" Saya shouted.
"Plenty. I was sent out to scout since I'm taking up space. I guess they figured I might end up chow for those undead fuckers." Eda responded.
"Take us there." Takashi said with a demanding look in his eye. When Eda didn't respond he added. "Please."
Eda pushed up her glasses. "All right, follow me and stay quiet. You guys were so loud earlier I think every zombie in the neighborhood probably came headed to this spot."
"Can we not use that word?" Takashi said, on edge. "Using it makes all of this seems fake and we're experiencing a very real life or death survival of the fittest apocalypse. Hearing you all throwing that word about so nonchalantly just makes my skin crawl."
Revy stepped up face to face- invading his personal space like the Mongols did China- and in an incredible display of maturity, she slowly drawled:
"ZOOMMM-BEE. ZOMM-BEE."
"Look, that's-"
He was cut off by an armor piercing slap right across his cheek.
"What part of this is fake to you, Trashy? This is as fucking real as it gets. The dead now literally outnumber the living. Not figuratively, literally. This is the single biggest fucking crisis in human history, and you're gonna tell me not to call it what it is 'cause it sounds fake? You dumb fucking brat, this shit is FUCKING REAL!"
Takashi staggered backwards, shocked and a little scared.
"I think you made his balls pop back, Revy." Eda said, grinning. "Lighten up, he's just a dumb kid-"
"A dumb kid with a gun, who thinks he can protect something. This ain't the kind of movie where you can afford to whine or walk around naive. Come the fuck on, let's get outta here!"
With that, she turned around, and trotted down the street. Behind her, Shenhua, Rotton and Sawyer picked up what supplies they could, and hurried after.
Saya leading the way, they soon came upon the ultra-nationalist mansion Eda had talked about. It was impressive; the house alone was majestic. Old, imposing- and the camp around it was no less impressive. Fences, refugee camps, armed guards- it made Rock's (and Takashi's) heart swell with hope. Humanity was not doomed at all. There was resistance. Life finds a way.
"This is it, then?" Revy said, inspecting the house. She looked unimpressed, but gave it an appreciative nod. "Your dad must be loaded."
"Daddy's got a lot of supporters. He's a strong, brave man who loves his nation very much. In times like these-"
"He's a sap, then." Revy said, tossing her smoke and putting it out with her foot. "Patriotism's just another excuse for somebody else to die for you. On the other hand… looks like he could be a useful sap, at least."
"You may wanna tone down the attitude, Revy." Eda said, her face serious. "These guys take pride, honor and all that bullshit very seriously, and they've got guns, and an attitude."
"Sounds like with us in the mix, we've got a powder keg." Rock said solemnly.
As the group came back to the front gates Eda banged on the gate. "Hey! Open up and let me in! I got refugees!"
Two armed men opened the gate, standing in front of it. They scanned Eda and the others for a bite marks. They radioed to 'Yuriko' with an all clear, and the others went inside the courtyard. This was the second time Eda had been checked for zombie bites and the second time her bite had been missed. Eda was sure it was a lucky oversight thanks to the fact that she had removed most of the blood and plastered the area down with so many bandages and gauze wrap to hide it when she was on the Lagoon Company's boat.
If anyone was going to ask, Eda was hoping to pass it off as a surgical growth removal.
"Look at these fuckers. Half those tents don't have weapons or ammunition." Revy snorted as the group walked through the busy courtyard.
"Not all the people here are fighters, ya trigger happy bitch." Eda chastised. "Everyone here's lost family and friends to these undead fuckers."
Takashi clenched his fist and looked at it remembering how he had killed Hisashi with a bat. He looked over to Rei who was standing close behind him certain that he'd never let such a thing happen to her as well.
As the group walked towards the front door to the house, Saya bolted towards the front steps when she saw a gorgeous woman with strawberry pink hair leaning up against a support beam.
"Mama! Mama!" Saya cried and ran forward and leapt into her mother's arms.
"Oh, so that's your kid, is she? Figured she had to be related." Eda said with a grin to Yuriko.
"You already know each other?" Takashi asked.
"Yuriko's the one who broke up the fight when I got it in nasty with her group. She's easier on people messing with her boys than Balalaika, I'll say that much." Eda said as she rubbed the back of her head.
"Yes, I did." Yuriko said, giving a smile. "I don't know this Balalaika, but she doesn't sound like a very nice person. You always get so much further with a smile and a kind word."
"Not a nice person... now, that's a contender for Understatement of the year." Rock muttered.
A little later, they had all been given lodgings. It was good luck that they had been helping the school kids survive- especially Saya- because otherwise, Revy doubted they'd have been given rooms inside the mansion.
Sighing to herself, she ran a bath. She wasn't normally one for this sort of thing, but after the gore, grime and dirt, and the hell of a day she had been through, she felt she needed a break. A long, relaxing break.
"Hey, Revy, I-" Rock, just now walking in, turned right around when he saw her soaking in the bathtub.
"Get back here, you pussy." Revy shot after him. "Come one, what did you have to say?"
"Uhm, well... nothing special, I guess. I just didn't feel like doing nothing, sitting alone. So... I guess I wanted to see if you wanted to do something."
"What, like bumping uglies?" Revy snorted. "Hell of a sense of romance you got, Mister Okajima."
"I was thinking more along the lines of playing a children's card game." Rock shot back. "You're the one who brought it up, not me."
"Eh, just kidding." Revy said, indifferent to her nudity. "You wouldn't have the balls to do anything, anyway."
"Yeah? What if I got into that bath, taught you a lesson?" Rock wasn't sure why he was speaking so boldly. Usually, this might have been suicide.
"Go on. I dare you." Revy shot back. There was a challenging look in her eyes- did she really...? No. They were all tired, all on edge. Without a word, he got up and walked out.
"Pussy."
"He really is." Eda's voice came from the other room, now walking in wearing only a towel. "A real man would just have gotten in there and raped you, duh."
"Fuck you, Eda."
"I'm just saying, if you really do want in his pants- and you do- then don't be such a bitch all the time. There's tons of pussy for him to score 'round this mansion, and most of it is less stingy than you."
Revy didn't answer, but glared angrily.
"So, room for one more?" Without waiting for an answer, Eda took off her towel and went into the bath. There was plenty of room, sure, but Revy felt annoyed. Most of all, she just wanted to relax.
"Come on, I'll wash your back." Eda complied, reluctantly, and turned around with her arms folded, using one hand to cover up her bite. Through the steam Revy wouldn't be able to see it. The two women switched positions and Eda used her unbitten arm to wash Revy's back. When Revy saw Eda's left hand in the mirror she paused and noticed there was something not entirely right with the picture before her.
"Aren't you right handed?" Revy asked.
"Umm…" Eda's arm retracted quickly. Revy, unsure what had Eda so skittish and very interested in finding out whirled around grabbed Eda's right arm and twisted it to try and see what was up. It was then that she saw the gauze wrap and gigantic bandage on Eda's arm, covered in gauze.
"What the heck happened to you? Stab wound from a fight?" Revy asked.
"Uh…yeah…" Eda said trying to come up with some fake story on the spot. "I had this uh…fight…with these guys…out on the street and…yeah…" Eda held out her arms. "Biiiig fight."
"Anyone ever tell you that you suck at fibbing?" Revy sneered.
Eda glanced in multiple directions trying to come up with some way to get out this hot water and not the steamy bath currently running.
Revy turned around and sat back down with a lackadaisical grin. "Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter. Couldn't be that you got bit. You'd be dead as a corpse with one of my bullets through your skull if that were the case."
"Oh, so I'm nothing more than a blight if I go mindless, you cold-hearted bitch?" Eda ranted.
"Pretty much." Revy said, implying that she wasn't going to change her response any time soon.
Eda relaxed herself. Revy wouldn't pry, and she had been fine so far. Right now, she should just relax, soak up and let the memories of the last few days steam away...
Relaxing herself, she leaned back onto Revy.
Suddenly, she realized Revy had grabbed something-. And before she knew it, Revy had put a knife to her bandage, slicing it open.
"Hey!"
"Yup, you really do suck at lying." Revy stated, holding Eda's arm up for a good look. The inside of her right arm really did have a bite- a nasty wound, raw and sore. It was not bleeding, Revy noticed, and... it even looked like it was recovering.
"Look, Eda," Revy said, casually holding her knife to Eda's throat. "You're gonna have to be straight with me on this one, okay? I don't like risks. Tell me all about it, or your ass is grass."
After perhaps half a minute of silence, Eda spoke up, quietly.
"It was old Yolanda. I heard the flu was really fucking bad, so I stayed inside the church. 'Course, somebody had already gotten the flu, and one night this guy turns, and it's like Resident fucking Evil in the church. Yolanda and me locked ourselves in her office, but she already got bit. Come morning, I awoke with her all over me. She got a bite out of me before I shoved her off, put a bullet in her head. I guess I was lucky she was old and weak."
Revy nodded. "And this was how long ago?"
"Over three days now, plus all that time at sea- must be at least ten days old. I figured I was doomed, so I decided to just clean house and take as many of those assholes with me as I could before I lost my mind. Then I got to the afternoon, everyone in the church was dead, and I didn't feel one bit like groaning, wandering around or eating people. So I figured, maybe I had a shot. So, I called you guys."
"And you don't want to eat people? At all?"
"No. I just... shit, Revy, this is fucking tough. I don't know anything anymore. I just wanna live."
She felt Revy's knife press against her throat. "Listen!" she added, desperately. "If I'm not turned, then I might be immune! That means not everyone turns! Something in my blood, genes or whatever is resisting this! This could be fucking priceless for a scientist!"
She felt the pressure go off, and a small 'clink' as Revy dropped the knife on the floor.
"Good point, I guess. But don't show anyone. These guys don't look like they are taking chances."
Eda nodded, relieved.
"So, have you cleaned that wound out yet?"
"Uh, no. Been sorta busy, and there was no privacy to change back at the boat."
"Well, let's fix it now, then. It looks pretty nasty." With that, Revy grabbed a small bottle of saké she had next to the tub, and splashed some of its contents over the wound.
"Ouch! That fucking stings, bitch!"
"Shaddap! I am wasting quality saké on you, you ungrateful bitch. This is seventy percent alcohol, this'll sterilize it just fine."
While Eda grumbled, Revy firmly and successfully cleaned out her wound.
Meanwhile, Rock stood outside, having a smoke. He started thinking about everything that had happened in the last week or so. He thought about how things had gone completely to hell. The sanity of the world was slipping bit by bit, and the idea of having to continue through this mad world put Rock so on edge that he just really needed a cigarette to forget about it.
As he stood there with the smoke pouring from his jaw, Takashi walked up to him with a dark expression plastered over his face.
"Hit me." The teenager said.
"Aren't you a little young to be smoking anything?" Rock inquired.
"What does it matter?" Takashi returned. "There's no law and no order. Rei was drinking sake the other night. I shot a living human being and bashed my best friend's skull in with a baseball bat. Just give me a cigarette."
Rock sighed, realizing there was no point in arguing. He chuckled, thinking how Revy would give Takashi props for his attitude and light him up. This, in turn, made Rock realize he had to toughen up a bit if he wanted to live. He saw the teenager before him, already wrapped into the world around him and having crossed a threshold that put him in a state where he could go in and out of being a normal high school teenager and acting like he was a hardened soldier, the latter of which Revy would mock consistently. He lifted a cig out of the box and handed it to Takashi and passed him the lighter.
Takashi lit himself up and coughed, noting this was his first time doing anything of the sort. Takashi got somewhat used to the smoke, and continued to use the cigarette; still coughing every other breath.
"So, what's your story?" Rock asked Takashi.
"What do you mean?" Takashi asked.
"You seem like you've been through a lot." Rock responded.
"Like you'd be one to talk given how you seem kind of out of place hanging around with that friend of yours and those other weirdos." Takashi responded.
Rock chuckled as he thought about everything he had been through with Revy and the Lagoon Company. "Well, I can't argue there."
"How did you end up with those... criminals, anyway? You use to be a yakuza tough guy, or something? You sure don't sound like one. You sound like... well, my uncle, or something. A normal guy."
"I was." Was all Rock said. Not satisfied, Takashi kept prying.
"So what happened? That girl, the crazy one with the foul mouth- what's she to you? What happened?"
"Asks the school kid who won't even tell his own story."
"Show me yours, I'll show you mine."
Rock broke out laughing for the first time in what seemed like years.
"Come on, tell me. Who is she? How did you end up with her?"
"The circumstances... well, it's sort of like something out of Die Hard, or something. I was a messenger boy for a huge company, something important was in my briefcase, and Revy, Dutch and Benny were hired to steal it. She stuck a gun to my face, kidnapped me, because she figured she could sell me back as a hostage."
Takashi flinched. "...that is how you first met? Really?"
"Don't believe me if you don't want to."
"No, go on." Takashi said, intrigued. Having seen Revy in action, he didn't exactly find it improbable she would do something like that.
"Well, shit happened, and my company decided it was better if the pirates just killed me. So they left me for dead, the Lagoon accepted me into the crew and I became this... sort of pirate, I suppose. Never touched a gun, though."
Takashi gave a whistle. "You know, normally I would tell you to pull the other one, 'cause it's got bells on. But... after these last days, nothing really seems too insane to be true. So what is she to you, anyway? It's like she thinks your her possession, or something. Are you two, you know..."
Takashi made a few awkward gestures.
"No." Rock said firmly. "I don't think I would have survived that."
"Seriously, nothing's going on? You're arguing all the time- it's like you're married."
Rock took a puff on his cigarette, delaying his answer.
"It's... complicated."
Takashi burst out laughing.
"Just what the hell is so funny, kid?" Rock said, annoyed.
Just barely stopping himself from laughing any more, Takashi shot back: "Complicated... that sounds like something any of my classmates would say! That's fucking lame for a big, adult pirate!"
"Well, you know what?" Rock sneered. "That kind of shit doesn't get easier with the years! Especially not when the girl's a trigger-happy psycho!"
Takashi took another puff of his cigarette and coughed again.
"So, what about you?" Rock asked.
"My story isn't exactly as interesting as yours. I was always just a normal guy, and then all this happened." Takashi responded, waving his hand around in the air to gesture to the situation.
"Okay, so what happened when all of this started going down? You said you bashed your best friend's skull in?" Rock was curious about details.
"Igo Hisashi. He was my best friend for the longest time. In fact, when Rei and I broke up she wound up dating Hisashi for a while." Takashi said taking another puff on the cigarette.
"Love triangle huh? That shit is always messy." Rock responded.
"Yeah well, the fact that the three of us were running around the school like helpless frightened children didn't exactly help matters." Takashi stated.
"Wait, your school got invaded?" Rock asked.
"Might as well be calling that place the Highschool of the Dead now." Takashi chuckled.
"Sounds like a great name for an anime." Rock laughed.
Takashi returned to being serious. "Anyway, long story short, Hisashi got bit. He didn't change right away, most don't. It was about twenty, maybe thirty minutes to an hour later when he finally transformed. I bashed his head in without hesitation. Rei… hated me at first. She thought I did it for revenge, but… if I hadn't crushed Hisashi's skull with that bat, neither of us would be here."
"You certainly seem to care a lot about her, Rei. Are you two trying to work things out now that everything's gone chaotic?" Rock asked.
"I might." Takashi rubbed the back of his head, "Rather I've thought about it. I mean, when we were kids we promised we'd marry each other. Of course there's also Busujima… Saeko."
"Oh, right the girl with the sword." Rock remembered taking another puff. "You like her?"
"Not… sure. I mean… I hardly know her."
"You know with the world the way it is, indecisiveness like that could eventually turn them both on each other over you." Rock said, putting Takashi on edge. "Whoa, hey calm down, I'm just… saying stuff. If you guys are all friends, especially if you all can fight, there's really no point for one of them to kill the other."
The sound of glass breaking from the window above alarmed the both of them. "I'll teach you to steal my apple, you jerkass bitch!" Rei shouted.
Rock and Takashi both ran upstairs to stop whatever fighting was going on, only to find Rei and Saeko in a competitive game of Final Fight. The apple and the glass shattering were an object and sound effect from the game. Saeko was wiping the floor with Rei, in terms of score, and it was pissing Rei off to no end. The fact that the Takagi's had such an old arcade machine was intriguing to Takashi.
Rock smiled just a little.
"Yeah, it's funny, right?" Takashi said, grinning.
"Not exactly."
"Then what?"
"I guess... even with all this going down, they are just being two normal girls, playing games, having fun. It kinda gives you hope everything isn't going to end. That there's happiness even when it's looking grim and dark."
Rock put out his cigarette, and flung it to the side.
End of Chapter 5
(A/N: So now we're smack dab in the middle of the HotD manga. Damn the fact that I can't find ch 30 of that series freaking anywhere. Ah, whatever. Production of ch 6 will begin after I go back to college)