One

Beginning of the Dead

I remember when all this hell started. It was a month ago, I was at school...

The door slammed open. Komuro Takashi burst through the door. He walked over to Miyamoto Rei and Igou Hisashi. Grabbing Rei's wrist, he said "C'mon. We have to go, now. Some teachers just got killed at the front gate." Rei ripped free of his grasp, "Wait, what's going on?"

"There was a man at the front gate. Some P.E. teachers went to check it out, something happened, and now those P.E. teachers are killing each other!" Takashi explained.

Hisashi stood, "No shit?" He asked.

"You think I would make shit like that up?"

"No way, I'm not going with you." Rei protested.

There was a sharp smacking noise as Takashi slapped her face. "Shut up, and listen. We're getting out of here, now!"

They ran out the door.

Teachers randomly killing each other? Takashi was my friend, but I just couldn't believe it. I was pondering my thoughts when the loudspeaker blared, "Attention all students and staff, this is an emergency evacuation order. Please follow your teachers in an orderly fashion to a safe place. I repeat, this is an- Wait w-what are you doing! No get away from me!" There was a disgusting sound, like ripping flesh, for a few seconds, then the fizzle of the mic.

The school went dead silent. Literally. Well almost dead silent. You could hear the slap of my sneakers on the school floor. As soon as the announcement started, I believed, and ran to find my classmates.

I found an open supply closet, they had been here. I kept running, then I saw Akira Hinata, a girl in my grade. She was acting strangely. She drug her feet, making a SHNICK as she did. Her breath was raspy.

"Hey, Akira, are you alright?" I asked cautiously.

She lifted her head, and turned toward me. I took a few steps toward her, slowly. "Are you okay, Akira."

She looked up, her skin was unusually pale. She looked up the stairs, to where I was standing. Her face was covered in, was that blood? She moaned, and came up the stairs, limping. She reached for me, her fingernails had flesh underneath them. I stepped back, her hands flailed centimeters from my face. "What the? What happened?"

Then it hit me. IT had happened. Whatever happened to the teachers, had gotten to her. She, no, IT opened it's mouth, and stepped toward me, barely missing my exposed arms. I knew what this was, like in the movies and video games I was addicted to. It was a dead. A walking corpse. That's when I noticed the chunk of skin missing in it's thigh. Yeah, she was bitten, then turned into a real zombie. I didn't believe it until I heard a scream, down the hall, a freshman was kicking and screaming as another student ATE him. The scream got to Akira. She turned around and limped toward the new student.

I couldn't just stand there, so I ran over to my once classmate, and kicked the back of it's head. It tumbled down the stairs, slamming it's head at the bottom, causing it to burst open and bleed.

A few minutes later, I made it to the front door of the school. They were everywhere, dead students and faculty walking around, eating every living creature They could find. I knew I needed a weapon, give myself a little more range. But a weapon was the least of my current worries. I turned to go to the gym, but I almost screamed as one moaned next to my ear. I flinched, preparing for my premature death, but nothing happened. I looked straight in it's eyes, before it limped off. Lucky to find a weakness, I realized, "They can only hear..."

I had ran into several of Them on the way here, but I somehow, miraculously, made it to the school gym. The one empty room... I ran into the supply closet. Baseball bat? Too heavy. Perfect! There was a rack of bokans (Japanese training swords). They were wooden, so they'd hold out for a while. But they were all broken already! "Fuck!" Wait, two were missing. I figured one was taken by Saeko, the Ken-do club president. Ah, there! I luckily noticed one unbroken sword on the ground in the corner. I picked it up, no cracks, perfect.

As I was examining the hunk of wood, I remembered, "The door! Dammit! I left it opened!" If only I had remembered it earlier.

I screamed...

I slowly opened my blood-shot eyes. One of Them was chewing on the bokan in my hand. "Huh... Well, you undead bastard, you like that? Well have some more!" I kicked It's chest, staggering it, then pounced, my sword slammed into It's head, crushing It's skull.

I heard a CLICK as the door closed. I pivoted on my heels, sword at the ready. I lowered it as I realized it was a senior student, Shin Ryuu, the best hitter this school's baseball team had ever had. "Huh? Thank God! Another survivor! I'm Ry-" He was interrupted.

"I know who you are, Idiot. Who doesn't?" I gave a smart-ass remark.

"Good point, and who are you?"

"Makoto. Ken Makoto. We need to work together, there's a bat in the closet over there." The truth? I needed help, and he probably did, too.

"Now, how the hell are we gonna get outta here?" He asked, sounded cocky.

They had swarmed, pounding on the glass walls of the room, they were about to shatter.

"Hey, remember last week? The rope climb?" I had an idea.

"Yeah, and?" I was really not liking his attitude about this.

"There's a cat-walk above us, leads to the roof."

"Yeah, but, if we stay, won't They trap us up there?"

"Not if we don't stay up there."

"Nice! Let's go."

We had lowered the rope I was halfway up. The windows shuttered, faintly cracked. "I'm up!" I shouted down.

"Alright!" He grabbed the rope. About halfway up, the glass broke. The hoard of Them swarmed in. He had almost made it, but he shouted. The rustling stopped. Several heads turned toward the rope, then it started again. He was close, but one of Them snagged his shoelace. He lost grip, and screamed as he fell. But only a few feet, I had clenched his open hand. I shifted to his wrist, "Grab on!" He didn't hesitate. He had both hands squeezing mine, kicking the dead student holding his shoe. It finally fell, landing on several of Them, but they had perfect recovery. They stood as soon as Their fellow creature got up and shifted it's feet away.

Luckily, we had made it out of that alive. We were about to open the door, leading to the roof, which I figured was over-run already.

"One,"I began.

"Two," Ryuu replied.

"THREE!" We both shouted, busting open the door, weapons ready.

There were only a few of Them. As Ryuu held his bat to strike, I whispered to him, "Avoid fighting as much as possible. They can only hear us."

He lowered his bat, shortly glaring at me, before he turned and sneaked off.

I followed reminding him to be quiet and make way to the front gate.

We had made it around the building safely, when we heard a voice, "HEY! HELP US! ANYONE!" It was familiar, but from where. As we followed the voice, we heard noises. Punching, feet shuffling, moaning, screaming. There they were, two girls, two guys. The girls were cuddling in the corner, next to the railing, while the guys fought off a hoard of Them. I looked at Ryuu, he nodded. We charged screaming as we bashed Their heads in. smashing Their skulls. That was done. "Ken? Ken Makoto? Is that you?" One of the guys was staring at me. That was the familiar voice.

"Hayato? Well this was unexpected." I seemed unusually happy.

"Makoto, can I ask you a VERY important question?"

"Sure..."

"Wanna team up? The girls, Osamu, and I could use some help." He seemed nervous to ask.

"I was gonna ask the same thing,"

His expression changed, relief.

"Welcome to the team!" We shook hands.

Along the way I had teamed up with;

Shin Ryuu, the baseball team's MVP.

Ryouichi Osamu, an otaku in about every subject.

Isamu Hayato, a childhood friend.

Aimi Masami, an average student.

Moriko Kohaku, Aimi's best friend.

We had made it to the front gate. This band of high school students were about head out into the world of destruction.