Zombie Army 4: Ultimate Dead War

Chapter 6: Locomotive Lockdown-Part 3 (Part six of Dead Ahead)

OST: Zombie Army Trilogy OST: Gateway to Hell

As Kill Squad 78 rested and rearmed inside the fortified base, Makoto was planning his next move while he was reloading his guns. As he loaded the spare magazines he had on him, he saw the other members of his squad doing the same. As he loaded each magazine, he looked into the eyes of each of his squadmates and saw the individual motivations of why each of them had joined the resistance in the first place.

For him, it was to keep his sister safe from the undead. For his co-leader and squadmate Byakuya, it was to keep his family safe as well. For Sakura, it was to keep her friends safe, no matter what happened. For Aoi, it was the same, except she wanted to keep her little brother safe as well. For Taka, he joined to keep his friends, especially Mondo, safe as well. In Mondo's case, he joined to honor his deceased brother, who was killed trying to defend him from the unholy creatures during the first days of The Dead War. For both Mukuro and Junko, they joined to keep each other and their friends safe from the undead scourge plaguing the entire continent. In Kyoko's case, she joined to investigate the unholy violence occurring in Europe and find out the reasons and motives behind them. In Yasuhiro's case, he hoped that the resistance could pay him for the debt that he was in. Celeste joined the resistance for personal reasons, but Makoto guessed that it involved her trying to keep people safe. In Hifumi's case, it was to protect his "wife". For Leon, he joined as he didn't like playing baseball, so he joined to get away from it. For Sayaka, it was to keep him as well as the others safe.

But the case of Chihiro was what touched his heart the most. Growing up before the war, he was bullied for being small and was perceived as being weak, as he felt insecure from all the bullying and had taken himself to the point of dressing as a girl to hide his insecurity. That was the case until he joined the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division, who found out that his size and expertise with radios made him both a crack scout and an expert radio operator. His small size made him invisible in the bombed-out ruins of European cities, where he could scout enemy positions out without being seen, and to add to that, he could use his radio to call in fire support or to report the location of an enemy stronghold back to the base. This would fuel his motivation as he wanted to show that he was strong as well, by joining the US Military. As Makoto stared at the small soldier, he knew that although he looked frail, small, and weak, he had saved his life more times than he could count. And he knew that when the time would come, he would save his life as well.

As he turned back towards what he was doing, reloading his guns, he walked over to the Coca-Cola vending machine that was inside the base. After inserting in several quarters, the vending machine spat out a cold, refreshing, and satisfying bottle of soda for him to drink. As he drank from the opened bottle, he felt relieved, refreshed, and ready for the next phase of his plan. But his squad would need to wait for some time as he was making his way towards the radio workshop to check on the progress of Yasuhiro's radio.

"Edie," Makoto questioned, "Are the repairs done?"

"Yes they are," Edie responded, "I'll get the radio for you, so give me a few minutes."

Edie then left the shopfront and went to pick up the radio from the workbench it was sitting on. As Makoto was waiting, he leaned back against the wall of the storefront, took out a sharpening stone taken from a dead German soldier, took out his stiletto, and started to sharpen it while staring at his kill squad, particularly Yasuhiro in general. Knowing that he had a fear of ghosts, he knew that he had the idea for the perfect prank to pull on him. He also knew the perfect collaborator for such a prank: Chihiro Fujisaki. After he felt that the stiletto was sharp enough from rubbing its edges along the sharpening stone, he rubbed it against his belt to firm up the edge. He then put away both the stiletto and the sharpening stone, walked to the weapon workshop where the squad was resting and rearming, went straight to where Chihiro was, and told him about the prank.

"Oh, that's going to be the worst thing that's going to happen to him," Chihiro snickered, "Knowing that he wants to be a clairvoyant, this is perfect!"

But Makoto and Chihiro's secret conversation about the prank wouldn't be secret for long, as Junko, Mukuro, Byakuya, Mondo, Celeste, Toko, Leon, Taka, Aoi, Sakura, Hifumi, Kyoko and Sayaka heard about what Chihiro and Makoto were talking about, as they were close to them. Seeing this, Makoto and Chihiro told the others about what they were going to do to Yasuhiro. After the thirteen others heard about it, they laughed quietly so that Yasuhiro didn't know what they were laughing about, but all fifteen of them knew.

(Thirty Minutes Later...)

"Alright," Makoto spoke as he laughed, "Is everyone ready?"

"Yeah Makoto," Chihiro responded with a grin on his face, "I'll go hide somewhere inside the base, and when Hiro contacts me, I'll pretend to be a ghost."

"Are you sure that we should do this, Fujisaki?" Taka chipped in with a serious tone. "This seems to be a cruel joke to play on him."

"I agree with you, Taka," Mondo responded, "Well, it's wrong, but it'll be fun. I've never heard Hiro scream from seeing a ghost before, so this is going to be some comedy fucking gold."

"I kind of like this idea, Mondo," Aoi joined in with a grin, "I'm going to get Hiro's radio for him because it's essential to the prank."

"I don't," Sakura joined in, "I don't think it's a good idea to mess with a comrade like this."

"We know that, Sakura," Leon chided, "It's messed up, yes, but we might as well have some fun. We don't have anything else to do other than prepare for the next mission."

"Alright, Makoto!" Junko chimed in, "Give the signal! Hiro's just standing there, doing nothing!"

"Got it!" Makoto responded, "Chihiro, follow me to the shooting range's backroom! The person in charge of the shooting range never checks that room anyways."

Chihiro and Makoto then dashed to the backroom of the shooting range while Aoi went to the Radio Workshop to pick up Yasuhiro's radio to give it back to him. As soon as Yasuhiro slung the radio onto his back and turned it on, it was time to pull off the prank.

(Meanwhile, with Yasuhiro...)

"Hiro," Byakuya called, "Turn on your radio. I want to make sure it's working. Besides, Chihiro and Makoto said that they were going out on a supply raid. Try contacting them."

"Alright, Togami," Hiro responded, "Got it."

Hiro then turned on his newly fixed radio and twisted the frequency knob until he reached what seemed to be a communication window with Chihiro's radio.

"Ok, here goes nothing," Hiro spoke under his breath, "Hello? Hello? Makoto? Chihiro? Anyone, please respond immediately!"

(Meanwhile, back with Makoto and Chihiro...)

"He's taken the bait! He's taken the bait!" Makoto exclaimed in glee when he heard Hiro's voice on the radio, "Chihiro, do it now!"

"On the way, Makoto!" Chihiro smiled and laughed as he turned on his radio. "He's going to shit his pants after we do this..."

(Meanwhile, back with Yasuhiro...)

OST: Zombie Army 4: Dead War OST: At A Time Like This

Back on Yasuhiro's end of the transmission, he then heard a voice emanating from the speaker of his radio. But there was a problem. The voice that he heard on the radio didn't sound human at all.

"Y...Yasuhiro..." the voice spoke in a foreboding tone. "Y...Yasuhiro..."

Hearing this, Hiro was startled by what he heard on the radio.

"W-Who said that?!" Hiro spoke in fear, "W-Who are you?! What do you want from me?!"

"This...is a message..." the voice answered back, "...from beyond the grave..."

"Y-You're a ghost?!" Yasuhiro screeched in shock and terror. He was about to receive the scariest moment of his life.

(Meanwhile, back with Makoto and Chihiro...)

Back inside the Shooting Range's backroom, Chihiro heard Yasuhiro on the radio begin to panic. Holding back his laughter, he tried his best to keep his composure and keep speaking to him using the radio.

(Meanwhile, back with the entire kill squad...)

"I come to you with a message and an omen, Hiro..." the ghostly voice spoke, "Your life will end soon after this radio shuts off." That was when it all came to a head.

"W-What?!" Yasuhiro shrieked in terror, then he screamed, "N-No! I don't want to die!"

"After this radio shuts down," the voice spoke, "you have ten minutes to reunite with your closest friends and to wish them farewell."

The voice speaking began to get jumbled, as the last thing he heard the ghostly voice say was, "I... suggest... going...back...to...base..." before it cut off completely.

After the radio had cut off, Yasuhiro dashed towards the base's armory with tears in his eyes just as Makoto and Chihiro had already reentered the place just as quickly as they had left the armory.

"Guys!" Yasuhiro yelled in fear.

"Huh?" Makoto was confused. "What's wrong, Hagakure? Did something happen?"

"What's up, Hiro?" Chihiro spoke, "What happened to you?"

"Someone was there," Yasuhiro spoke weakly, "...a ghost on my radio...as I was heading back here..."

Aoi and Sayaka then walked up to him and slowly hugged him as if he were a big stuffed teddy bear that needed love.

"It...it said I only had 20 minutes before I die," Yasuhiro spoke, "I don't want to die yet...I don't..."

Everyone started to feel a little bad for him. They expected him to be scared, but not crying out of horror due to a prank.

"They said that I could only go to people I trust and spent my last moments with them..." Yasuhiro continued.

"Hiro," Aoi spoke, "Pfft..."

At that moment, everybody except him began to giggle.

"W-What's up guys?" Hiro spoke. "What's happening?"

"I'm...I'm sorry, Hiro," Sayaka spoke, "but...that call on the radio was just a prank we did on you."

"The ghost that told you that you were going to die," Chihiro spoke, "That was me talking on the radio."

"W-What?!" Hagakure was shocked, "You scared me half to death, Chihiro! What the heck, man?!"

"We just wanted to have some fun!" Chihiro continued, "It was so boring here, and we thought it'd be fun to play around for a bit. But, we didn't expect it to mess with you this much, so... we're sorry, man."

"Hold on a second, Chihiro," Yasuhiro responded, "How many people knew about what happened?"

"Y-yeah," Junko admitted, "Well you see..."

"I was part of the prank," Celeste joined in. "Didn't you notice us talking about it half an hour earlier?"

"Me too," Mondo spoke. "I was with them while we planned it."

"I tried to stop them," Taka spoke. "But they pulled it off anyway..."

"I tried to stop them as well..." Sakura admitted. "But at least there wasn't any lasting harm..."

"I could care less," Byakuya spoke, "I was the person that told you to contact Chihiro."

"I-I told you, dummies, i-it wasn't a good idea," Toko stuttered, "Y-you nearly scared him to death."

"We apologize for what happened, Hiro," Mukuro chimed in, "It will not happen again."

"I knew about it as well," Kyoko spoke, "I helped out."

"And to top it all off," Makoto chirped in, "I was the one who initiated the entire thing."

"You guys," Yasuhiro spoke. Everyone was expecting him to get mad and yell at them for what happened, but he just hugged everybody back and they hugged him back.

"I'm so glad it wasn't legit!" Yasuhiro spoke with renewed confidence, "I'm so, so glad that it was fake!"

"Do you forgive us?" Aoi spoke. "Are we still friends with each other?"

"Of course, I do!" Yasuhiro spoke, "I can't just stay mad at you all forever!"

"Thanks, Yasuhiro," Aoi spoke.

Everyone began to go back to what they were doing before the prank, with Aoi eventually pulling away from Yasuhiro and leaving him to himself. He then spent the rest of the day thinking about the next plan of action and their next mission.

And that's a wrap for the third part of Locomotive Lockdown. In the next chapter, the zombies breach the base in an unorthodox way. Please Favorite, Follow, and send a review for this story! I hope you guys enjoy it!