Second chapter (introduction chapter, actually) is here!

A quick message to VengefulBiscuit: I didn't mean to make Aria be a badass (she was being one? 0.o) I was trying to make her seem cold or at least a little bit twisted (if twisted people act like she did). I apologise if she seemed otherwise.

Anyhow, I present the next chapter ^^

~Miki

Wendy gave in soon and decided to go with the two, knowing that she wouldn't make it on her own. She wasn't a fighter. These two obviously were. Alec and Aria – the gun boy and the sword girl, both with similar eyes and different ways of walking. Wendy wasn't sure if she liked either of them, but she knew that she wouldn't be running to Aria for help any time soon.

"Where to next?" Aria asked Alec, casually walking beside him with her hand on the hilt of her sword, looking lazy. Alec shrugged.

"Your call," he replied. He glanced down at Wendy, curious. "What do you wanna do, kid?"

Wendy was silent for a moment, not looking at either of them. Just as Aria was about to say something, Wendy suggested, "Look for some survivors."

Aria let out a thoughtful hum. "Good call," she mused. "Good ol' fashioned pillage and rape. I like it."

Alec suppressed a laugh, but it seemed to require more effort than he could muster. "I don't see any villages we can plunder, Captain," he said in a pirate voice. Wendy couldn't help it; she laughed a little.

"Then we will continue in a..." Aria was thoughtful as she glanced around. She was looking for a word, it seemed. She finally pointed ahead of them. "...that way direction."

"West," Wendy immediately corrected. The orange-haired girl chuckled, while Alec nodded in agreement.

Aria waved them off dismissively and walked ahead, hands behind her head. Would Wendy stand a chance, attempting to take the sword? Maybe, if she slid it out of the sheath and ran with just the sword itself. Then again, Aria used her dagger pretty quickly – who's to say she wouldn't move just as fast to keep her sword away from Wendy?

Alec whistled two notes, like Mr Fox from Fantastic Mr Fox did. Wendy soon knew what he meant by it. They were approaching a large group of those people.

It was getting to a point where the two girls had to punch each other on the shoulder to keep each other awake, in case one fell off the roof as they fell asleep.

Of course, during this boredom, Iza noticed that Mei had a tendency to swear like a sailor.

"Come fucking on," Mei groaned. "All I see if 'them' – look to the right? Fucking 'them'. Look to the left? Fucking 'them' again. In the house? Good Lord, 'them' a-fucking-gain."

Iza figured the last one was a sarcastic sentence. But she wasn't entirely sure…

"I hate to say it, but we're–"

"Fucked?" Mei supplied. Iza gestured to her, the action saying "more or less". That simply caused Mei to grin. Any other word than the curse she'd supplied would've done fine, but no other word would sum it up as bluntly.

"I think I see some live ones," Mei muttered, raising her hand to her eyes and shading them, squinting her eyes to get a better view. "Bet you they die in five minutes of getting here."

"Mei!" Iza gasped. She paused. "Ten minutes. One has a gun."

Mei glared at the group approaching 'them'. "Whoop-di-fucking-doo for bed-head," she replied sarcastically. The two watched carefully as the three people neared 'them'.

Aria's hand landed on her sword nervously as they neared the crowd, heeding Alec's warning whistle. From what Alec had told them as they approached, all they had to do was keep quiet and not bump into any of the freaks.

Easier said than done for Carrot.

Avoiding them was one thing, but walking through a crowd of them? Nada. Aria wasn't having any of it. Then again, it wasn't like she had a choice. She joined Alec in order to stay alive, and she wasn't leaving the Takahashi boy's side any time soon.

She gulped as she started to thread her way through the crowd, Alec heading toward the other side with Wendy. Despite the fact that Alec had wanted to kill her brother first, the kid seemed to be keeping away from Aria more. Not that Aria didn't mind, but still.

Movement from a nearby house caught her eye, and she paused for a second, standing as still as a statue as she raised her head to see what it was. She stifled a gasp. Two teenagers – probably near her age, if not a year younger – were sitting on the roof of a building just a little ahead to her left, watching them eagerly. They looked like opposites of each other, from where she was seeing them. One with white hair, the other with black. One with short hair, the other with longer hair.

The thought 'opposites attract' came to mind, but maybe that only applied to personalities – not looks. For all Aria knew, these two were like personality twins. She could be wrong, but she may have been right.

The white-haired one that was more or less dressed in purple covered her mouth, looking slightly worried, and then pointed to Aria. No, pointed behind Aria. The orange-haired girl slowly went to turn, only to have something bump her from behind. A chin landed on her shoulder as whoever was behind her tried to make her walk forward. Wheezing breaths were right at her ear, the closeness of the freak starting to push Aria over edge. No one was allowed to get this close to her – only Holly and–

Panicking, Aria reached behind her and pulled her dagger out silently, whipping her hand around and lodging the blade into their skull, a slight crack of pierced bone sounding in her ear. She slowly eased them down, trying not to make a sound, and exhaled shakily. She caught Alec out of the corner of her eye, watching her curiously. Wendy was behind him, sticking close to the buildings, where almost none of the freaks were.

She raised a trembling hand and gave him an 'okay' gesture, her fingers shaping an O. Alec hesitated, then nodded, and he continued through the crowd. Aria glance up at the two girls, finding one of the frowning while the other was smiling, relieved. Well, at least one was happy she didn't get eaten alive and turned into one of them. She could just imagine it:

"One of us! One of us!"

Aria shuddered. Whoever came up with zombies was a sad, sad person with too much time on his hands.

I'm talkin' to you, almighty creator, she thought angrily. You just had to give us zombies. What, vampires and bloody Godzilla weren't enough? You wanted to take it one step further from werewolves? Not fair, man!

At least you can kill them, unlike with werewolves and vampires and Godzilla, her little voice reminded her. It had a point there.

She crept along the crowd, sidestepping toward the house the two were seated at, and cast another glance at Alec. He was also heading in the house's direction, catching on to what Aria had seen. The three neared the house, Aria growing more uncomfortable with the crowd behind her, and Alec quickly drew his sword. Aria finally recognised it as a tantõ sword. If Aria remembered correctly, it was a Japanese sword from the feudal era, coming from the Heian period. Samurais used it, too. Personally, Aria preferred her jian – her Chinese dual edged sword.

Alec went in first, Wendy right behind him, and Aria followed, slowly drawing her sword. They climbed up the steps that led to the second floor, Alec acting fast at the sight of one of them inside the house, slicing at its head. They went down like a ton of bricks, and they advanced to the balcony. There, Alec backed up to the edge of the balcony and grinned at what was above him.

"Lo and behold, ladies," he said teasingly, keeping his voice low. "Your knight in shining armour has come to your rescue."

Aria raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "I don't see him anywhere," she said. Alec shot her a glare that said, "Quit it."

She shrugged with a grin and led Wendy over to Alec, looking up at the two on the roof and smirking. "This a private party?" she asked. "Because I love being the party-crasher."

Alec nudged her shoulder with his elbow. "Don't forget me, Carrot-Top," he reminded her. She rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, Static-Hair," she sighed. The two glanced at each other, a shared idea coming to both of them, and then they took hold of Wendy, lifting her up so that she could reach the roof. The black-haired girl glared at Wendy venomously as the pre-teen climbed up onto the roof.

Alec gestured to the roof, saying, "After you," with the look in his eyes. Aria shook her head. "After you," her refusal said. Alec's hand slammed onto his forehead in defeat as he jumped up and grabbed onto the roof, the two girls helping him up. Aria simply stared up at the roof, thoughtful. For those two girls to get up, one would've already been up there.

Curiously, she climbed onto the balcony (thankful that it was a cement edge) and kept as much balance as possible, creeping along the side. She spotted a quick way up – a drainage pipe on the side of the house, evidence of being used all over it. With a deadly grin, Aria jumped and climbed up, one hand around the pipe and the other grasping the roof. She pushed up with her right foot, the pipe groaning slightly, and before she knew it she was up on the roof with the others.

"That was fun," she muttered, still grinning. The black-haired girl rolled her eyes.

"You obviously have something wrong with your head," she growled. "Using that pipe is not fucking fun."

Aria had a look of mock-offense on her face. "To you, maybe, but I think it was fun!"

"Girls," Alec grumbled. "Do not start this while I'm the only guy in the group."

Aria and the girl glared at him. He immediately raised his hands in surrender and glanced over at Wendy. She waved a hand, telling him not to worry, and then his attention was on the two opposite girls.

"Do we get the pleasure of knowing your names?" he said. The white-haired girl smiled, genuinely sweet.

"I'm Izanami, but you can call me Iza," she introduced. The other girl set her jaw, defiance in her eyes.

"Mei Todashi," she grumbled. "Don't get used to calling me anything."

"Good Lord," Aria marvelled. She inched closer to Mei, glaring at her eyes. "Another purple-eyed kid." She quickly pointed to Wendy. "Kiddo, I am not related to this one, either."

"Neither am I," Alec pointed out.

Wendy rolled her big brown eyes, annoyed. Her companions grinned, amused with what they did. Iza cleared her throat, changing the subject almost immediately.

"Moving on," she told them. "Are you guys headed anywhere?"

Aria glanced down at the girl's hands, noticing the samurai sword dangerously close to one of them. She guessed it was Iza's good hand, the hand she did everything with. That also meant she didn't trust them.

Cute, her little voice scoffed. Why not kill this one? And her friend? She only has a sword – something you can beat her at drawing – and her companion is unarmed. You don't owe them anything like you do Alec.

Aria cringed. "Shut up," she growled softly, the fierceness in her voice. Iza cocked her head to the side, confused.

"What's up?" Alec asked. "You okay?"

Aria blinked, glancing up at everyone. She smiled, hiding her eyes with her hair. "I'm good," she said, calm. "Are you okay?"

She heard Mei scoff. "Schizo-fucking-phrenic," she spat quietly. Aria quickly looked up at her and glared, a frowning tugging her face. The group was in silence for a moment, and then Iza cleared her throat again.

"So, what're your names?" she asked the trio. Alec raised a hand slightly.

"Alec Takahashi," he replied. He gestured to Aria. "And the 'schizo-fucking-phrenic' is Aria Lambert. She's not from here, if you can't already tell."

"And I'm Wendy Matoke," Wendy joined. Mei sent another venomous glare at Wendy.

The hell is her problem? Aria wondered.

Now it was Alec's turn to change the subject. "Well, since I already got saddled with a Carrot-Top and a twelve-year-old," he said, "I might as well offer you two the chance to join my 'clique'."

Aria gave him an amused look. "Seriously?" she said. "Your 'clique'?"

"Not good enough?" he mused. "What would you prefer? That I'm a pimp and you and Wendy are my ho–"

"Not something for a little girl's ears," Iza interrupted. "And yes, I would like to join you three." Iza looked to Mei. "What about you?"

Mei groaned lightly. "Fine," she decided. "I don't want to leave someone as cute as you alone with that." She nodded to Aria on 'that'. "Just so long as you keep the jailbait and the schizo away from me."

"Deal!" Alec announced. "Pimp life it is!"

Both Aria and Mei punched his arms. Quite hard.

He exhaled slightly, unsure of what the group was planning. They had spotted another group, low on weapons – mainly firearms – and Hayate, the leader, apparently wanted to spring them.

"Hey," Sosuke muttered. "Pup."

Freddy shot an icy glare at the bald man, annoyed with that name. "It's Wolf," he corrected. "And what do you want?"

Shirō grinned at Freddy's expression and his tone, patting the fourteen-year-old on the shoulder. "We just wanna know if you're ready to use that thing," he said quietly. 'That thing' in question was the M1911 pistol that Freddy kept in his hand, ever since that old man had given it to him as per his dying wish. It was only a short while ago, but now it felt like decades.

"You bet I'm ready," he replied, a determined edge to his voice. Shirō simply grinned further and crept over to Hayate, whispering something to the redhead. Freddy couldn't understand most of it, but he was able to pick up a few words.

"Ready..."

"Shoot..."

"Dump..."

"Bodies..."

Freddy gulped slightly, running a hand through his brown hair as he tightened and loosened his grip on his pistol. No matter what he told himself, he couldn't shake the fact that what he was doing was wrong. Even if it meant he'd survive another day.

Alec let out a short yawn as they walked further down the street, Mei and Iza keeping an obvious distance. No words had been exchanged (Aria didn't want to add on to her current weird-factor) and no one seemed to want to do anything but walk.

Iza opened her mouth to say something, earning the attention of the entire group, and then she closed it again. It was probably for the better, too. No one wanted to beat up any zombies at the moment.

What sounded like a rock landing on the ground came from their left, causing the entire group to gasp slightly and turn to the source of the sound. Before much could happen, Alec suddenly let out a slight yelp and fell slowly to the ground, raising his hand to his neck as he did so. All eyes were on him as the girls watched him. Wendy rushed to his side and examined his neck as Alec's eyes slowly slid shut. Wendy let out a small squeak.

"Tranquiliser," she gasped. "Hide!"

That caused the group to panic somewhat, but before they could run Wendy fell on top of Alec, also unconscious.

Aria gritted her teeth, frustrated. "Iza," she ordered. "Grab Wendy and run. Mei, help me carry Alec."

"Magic word?" Iza reminded her. Now was not the time to be saying 'please'.

"Now!"

Mei scoffed as she made her way to Alec while Iza hurriedly picked up Wendy and carried her in a piggyback position. Aria on his left and Mei on his right, the two girls lifted him off of the ground.

"Ah!" Mei suddenly yelped. Just like Alec and Wendy, she slowly collapsed to the ground. Aria groaned in annoyance. They were being picked off like flies.

Run! Now! Leave them be! SURVIVE!

"Shut. Up," she growled.

Iza hurried over to Aria, just as frustrated as she was, and the two girls glanced around frantically. Someone was hitting them with tranks, and their aim seemed pretty well-placed.

A jolt of pain surged through Aria's neck and she felt her body slowly go numb as Alec's arm fell from her grasp. Her eyes became droopy and her legs gave way beneath her. Before the darkness crept in, she caught sight of Iza, falling to the ground as she placed a hand on her throat.

Hayate scanned the five children lazily, watching their movements as they all slowly came to. First was the guy – of course it was him first; he was the one they tranked first. Following him was the orange-haired girl. Her awakening confused Hayate, as she was one of the last to be hit. Followed by the girl with the scar on her stomach and the girl that was tranked last, all he had to do was wait for the little one to wake up.

The one with the scar – he was pretty sure the orange-haired girl had called her 'Mei' – started fidgeting, trying to escape the rope. She was also making sounds that, if translated into words, would make a nun wail in horror. Silence was golden, but duct tape was silver.

Shirō and Sosuke entered, the pup following them and stopping next to Shirō, and then Hayate let out a breath.

"They're all awake," Hayate told them, "so what do we want to do with them next? Torture or frisk?"

Sosuke grinned. He had taken all the swords the group had – the jian that the carrot top had with her, the samurai sword that the white-haired girl kept in her hand, and even the tantõ that the guy had with him. After searching their pockets, they found two pistols with the girl that had the samurai sword and they – unintentionally – discovered an old blade on the carrot top, probably from ancient warring times. How someone like her snuck blades like those into the country, they didn't know.

"I'm fine with either," Sosuke chuckled. "So long as we get to choose who we frisk and or torture."

The carrot top made a noise that sounded like, "Pitiful."

Sosuke managed to figure out what her noise meant. He gave a death glare in response. The girl's eyes squinted slightly, probably because she was grinning under the tape.

The little one finally came to, panicking as soon as she realised she was tied and silenced. Once the girl had woken up, the group's appearances changed slightly. 'Mei' was no longer squirming and cursing through the duct tape, and was instead glaring worse than Sosuke had been; the guy looked vaguely relaxed, no longer scanning the room impatiently; the girl with the white hair – Hayate assumed she was 'Iza' – was sitting closer to the little one instead of watching 'Mei' cursing and squirming; and the carrot top just sat there, watching everyone instead of pissing off Sosuke.

"Why don't we just let them go?" Freddy reasoned. "Without their stuff, those things will kill them in a heartbeat."

Hayate chuckled slightly. "I'm not sure if you're being optimistic for us," he said, "or pessimistic for them."

At that, Freddy frowned and glanced down at the five, observing them. With a sigh, Hayate stood.

"For that, you can watch them while we check for anymore wandering survivors," he ordered the teen. Freddy's expression changed slightly, and then it was back to the frown.

"Understood," he sighed.

Hayate walked past him, patting his head hard, and he was soon followed by Shirō and Sosuke.

Well, well, well. Look who should've listened.

Shut the fuck up and be useful by helping me get out of here.

Oh dear, Carrot. You're starting to sound a little like Mei.

Aria groaned and rolled her eyes, rolling onto her back. The guys that had hit them with tranquilisers and looted them just left the room, leaving the youngest one with them. Despite being with those fuck-knuckles, he didn't seem to enjoy holding people hostage before killing them and taking their stuff.

'Fuck-knuckles.' That's a new one, Carrot.

She banged her head against the ground once, forcing her little voice to shut the hell up. That simply earned confused stares from her friends– comrades, actually. As far as Aria knew, they were only in it to survive. Well, she knew Mei was and possibly Wendy too.

The kid they'd left with them sat down where the (assumed) leader had been. There was a gun in his hand, one Aria couldn't name at first glance. It did look like one of those semi-automatics they showed in movies or something. Aria let out a sigh. She really had to stop looking up random crap on the Wikipedia.

Bored with her mind and with waiting for the fuck-knuckles (it was now their official name) to come and kill them, Aria began to hum. First it was just random tunes that no one would know, and then it shifted to a song Holly had once taken a liking to: Mama. She was pretty sure she was humming the Korean version, which was sung by EXO-K.

This simply earned more confused looks.

She stopped after the second chorus and let out another bored breath. Hearing a growl from the kid, she glanced at him. He was standing now, walking over to them. He reached Alec first and began to untie the rope around his wrists. Poor choice, it seemed.

The moment Alec's hand was free, it launched at the kid's face, landing right on the cheek and sending him back a few steps.

Well, at least the guy didn't untie Mei first.

He sat up and rubbed his cheek, frowning. "Okay, I get that I deserved to be sucker-punched in the face," he said, "but come on! You had to do it while I was helping?"

Alec shrugged, grinning slightly. "Then make up for it by untying my friends." The kid stood, but Alec raised a warning hand. "Don't untie Mei" – he nodded to her – "because she will most likely grab something and beat the shit out of you with it."

The guy gulped, but nodded anyway. He moved to Aria and began to untie the rope, earning a kick to the shin.

"Ow! The fuck?" he growled.

"Just be glad it was the shin," she said with a smirk, standing.

The rest of the group was untied and had the duct tape removed from their faces, and Alec quickly devised a plan for them to follow.

"Do we have to?" Wendy said. "I don't think killing them would solve anything."

"It would keep them from coming after us and tranking us again," Aria pointed out. Mei nodded with a huff.

"The schizo's right," she said. "Let's put a cap in their asses."

"A cap in their arses?" Aria scoffed. "Really?"

"A cap in their arses?" Mei mimicked, even copying Aria's accent. Aria rolled her eyes and looked to Alec.

"You've got a good aim, right?" she asked. Alec shrugged lazily.

"You could say that," he said. "What about you?" he asked the kid – Freddy, he said his name was. "Got a good aim?"

"Not bad," he told him. "I could probably hit all three if I had good timing."

Alec nodded. "I say you go for the one with the tranquilisers," he said. "Which one's that?"

"Shirō," Freddy said. "He's fast."

Alec nodded again. "Go for him first," he told him. "Then the guy with our blades."

With a determined nod, Freddy tightened his hand on his gun and crept over to the door leading out. He creaked it open slightly, and then all Aria heard was two shots from his gun, followed by two screams of pain.

The group quickly ran out, Mei making a fast beeline for the leader and raising her fist with a battle cry. Aria paid no attention to how she beat the guy to a pulp, but focused on getting her sword back. She handed Iza her samurai sword while Alec picked up his tantõ sword. Smiling, Aria grabbed for her jian and her dagger, putting them both in their rightful places. Iza raided the other guy's stuff and found her pistols, putting them both in her pockets and smiling as though everything were fine.

Mei finally finished beating the guy as Alec picked up a gun just lying around on a table. It looked like it had some kind of silencer on the end of it.

"Huh," Alec laughed. "An AKM." He held on to the AKM as he glanced around for something else. He let out a triumphant laugh when he found what he was looking for. "And Desert Eagles!"

Aria stood and joined him. "What are you going on about?" she said.

Alec raised two identical guns, which Aria assumed were the Desert Eagles he was referring to. "I got me some new toys," he announced.

Walking as fast as he could through the street, Roberto hurried himself to get to the source of the gunshots. Two had been heard, according to Jun – probably a kilometre away – and now Roberto was determined to see if that meant more survivors.

It was sheer coincidence that Roberto found Jun in that restaurant. All he'd done was walk in, spot a few people with bites on their arms or legs, and when he went into the kitchen he was met by half-dead cannibals trying to eat him alive. After killing them with the kitchen supplies (hot water didn't seem to disturb them) he found Jun in the food supply, hiding with a cleaver in his hands and barely keeping eye contact with Roberto.

"How far have we gone?" Jun asked. He was holding on to Roberto's jacket, running behind him in case they were suddenly attacked.

"I'd say somewhere around fifteen metres," Roberto replied. "Just another nine hundred and eighty-five to go."

Yay! I finished the second intro chapter! :D I wonder what will happen when Roberto and Jun meet Alec and his 'clique'? lol nah I don't think I should be calling it that.