This took...ages. Not to write, just to motivate myself to write. I mean, it's been, what, little over a year since I updated? I'll try to get myself back into this and hopefully write out the big finale I had planned (and one person knows about muhaha). This is a double update, and I'll upload the next chapter shortly after this one.
The character drawing is going to be put on hold for a bit, considering I need to brush up on my art skills and draw more than just chibis with mustaches. However, if you interested in putting your character up on the Highschool of the Dead Fanon wiki (started by yours truly), I say have at it. I'm considering putting Holly's info up there, especially since she only got one scene and was killed in it horribly.
And why yes, that is Kohta Hirano holing up in the mall with another OC. Credit for the OC, Lisle Freedon, goes to Digital World Warrior; I hope I do her justice! :3
Otherwise, enjoy the chapter~
She opened her eyes with a daze, wondering why everything was so quiet and why her breath tasted like chicken. She was too tired to remember anything by just looking at the rather far away ceiling, and finally sat up with a silent grunt.
Aria ran a hand through her hair with a yawn, feeling around for her jacket before realising she was covered by a sheet. Not only that, she was laying in a perfectly fine bed with no hard areas or any uneven spots. She wasn't even sharing the bed with anyone. Shocked, thinking that the whole zombie apocalypse had been a dream, she rubbed her eyes and looked around frantically.
She wasn't sure if the sight of numerous other mattresses surrounding her had brought her hopes down, or if the sight of Mei sleeping directly across from her did the trick, but something about the scene made her realise that Holly, Yomi, and her parents were still very much dead. Letting out a breath, she looked around her bed and reached for her jacket, sliding it on before climbing off of the queen mattress. How long had it been since her last video diary? A few days, wasn't it? Almost a week? Damn, had it been that long?
Maybe Daniel was going to come soon...
Making her way to the office on the other side of the room, Aria snuck inside and reached for her phone. She closed the door behind her, letting out a small breath, and sat in the corner, just next to the small bookshelf in front of the desk. It was cramped, hardly her style, but it was the only place at the moment that had some cover.
She opened her video camera, beginning her next video diary. "Day, what, six or something?" she said into the screen. "I don't even know - too tired of this shit." Aria rubbed her eyes and let out a yawn, going over the past couple of days in her head. "So, we - Alec, Roberto, Freddy, Sora, Mei, and I - were given the task of finding some more food for the dictator back at the house - we found a house on a hill with some totally hard-arse pricks running the joint, by the way - and Mei and I managed to find our way into the giant store complex or whatever this place is before the day ended, and then apparently it turns out two people have been living off of this joint for a couple of days now. We've already raided Subway and McDonalds, and I think the Burger King stall is the next to go. Soon all we'll have is the food from the Dunkin' Donuts and whatever sweets we can find in the small grocery store on the other end of the place."
The sound of someone walking past the door caught her attention, and she froze as the door was slowly opened. In poked the head of one of her comrades - Roberto himself, curious as to what she was doing. "What're you doing in here?" he asked with a slightly raised brow. Aria shrugged.
"Video diary," she told him. "Just in case I die and some arsehole loots my corpse. Plus, if I need to, I could send these to Daniel as updates on how I'm going." She nodded to the spot next to her, patting the ground slightly. "Come, sit with me and guest star in episode three of Diary of a Zombie Apocalypse Survivor."
Slowly nodding, Roberto entered the room and shut the door behind him. He made his way over to her, sitting down and peeking at the phone's screen for a moment before awkwardly waving. "Hi," he said.
Aria gestured to the screen. "Future viewers, Roberto," she introduced. "Roberto, future viewers."
"So," Roberto said. He paused for a second, thinking over his question. "What's this episode's topic?"
"The downfall of Subway and McDonalds and the uprising of Dunkin' Donuts's baked goods."
He gave her a confused look, to which she shrugged again and grinned. "Screw it," she went on. "Let's just talk about random stuff or something."
"Okay." Roberto looked up to the ceiling, thinking of a topic. He glanced at Aria the moment one popped up. "Who exactly is Daniel? I don't think you've explained who he is yet."
"Hm..." She considered her answer, taking a few seconds to think. How did she sum up Daniel, Lambert? "He's my brother - my big brother, about seven years older than me. He's a doctor."
"Doctor? But he's only what, twenty-four?" Roberto frowned slightly. "That's a bit young..."
That earned him a laugh. "Daniel was a prodigy during high school - he managed to graduate uni early and get a job treating soldiers on the battlefield. Well, after he worked in a small clinic back home." She shrugged, letting out a small yawn. "He's the one who's been calling me these past few days. Well, not really as frequently as when this shit first began, but you get the picture."
She gave him a playful shove, grinning at him. "So, c'mon!" she laughed. "Question for a question: Who's the little girl with you on your screen?"
It seemed that she didn't need to mention it was his phone she was talking about; he reached into his pocket, switching it on (thank God they'd found chargers last night), and stared at the picture for a moment. It was just like Aria remembered it - Roberto kneeling down, a young girl wrapped in his arms and smiling widely at the camera. It was the perfect picture of peace, in Aria's opinion.
"This is my sister, Ana." Roberto held up the phone to display the picture. "She's five - we used to live with our Aunt Gabriela. Before all this, y'know?"
"No kidding?" He nodded. Aria grinned. "Man, you must've gotten away with so much!"
"What makes you say that?"
"It's like an unspoken law that aunts, uncles, and grandparents spoil kids more than parents. I don't have any of those and even I know that."
"Fair enough."
Their conversation didn't get much farther than that - Mei had woken up, exclaiming loudly that she was "fucking hungry and needed sustenance." No one could argue with her, and majority of the group agreed with her. Freddy volunteered to go with Kohta to get some food from the grocery store while Lisle offered some coffee for everyone. Soon enough they were all sitting at multiple tables in the food court, munching on their breakfasts and listening for any sounds coming from outside.
Breakfast took up half an hour of their time. Alec was quick to remind everyone that they needed to take food back to the house, ordering Mei and Aria to get the frozen goods after they found bags to carry them in. In hindsight, it was a very bad choice. Sora and Roberto were in charge of gathering canned food, as well as bottled water to take with them on the trip back. Alec and Freddy remained with Kohta and Lisle, staring them down as they finished their food.
"So, Lee Sill," Alec began. Lisle was quick to cut him off, waving an index finger in a 'no-no' fashion.
"Lisle," she corrected. "It's one word. Two syllables."
He paused, raising his brow at the blonde, before finally continuing, "So, Lisle. How long have you and Kohta been staying here?"
The duo actually had to consider that, frowning at each other. Kohta adjusted his glasses, nodding to himself when he finally thought of an adequate answer. "I'd say since day two of the Outbreak," he said. "Lisle and I ran into each other when we raided a house, decided to come to a truce, and then Lisle mentioned that this place hadn't been opened yet.
Lisle nodded, grinning. "It was pretty easy to get rid of the few zombies outside - not as many people had been munched on by then - and all it took was me pulling the same stunt your friends had, finding the key, and then letting Kohta in before more showed up. We've been living it large in this place since."
"Huh." Freddy blinked, leaning forward slightly. "What kind of loot did you find?"
"Not much to find," she sighed. "Guy only had a revolver on him - none of the bullets used, surprisingly. Kind of a bust, if you ask me."
More silence settled over them, a solid thirty seconds passing before Alec finally brought up another question. "The house on the hill - the one we came from. How do you know about it?"
A shrug from both of them. "Guy who runs the place offered to let us stay," Kohta explained. "In exchange for all of our stuff, that is."
"Not to sound judgmental, but majority of them looked like they would put a bullet between our eyes the minute we agreed and let them in." The blonde let out a small breath. "Kohta had to get up on the roof and fire a few warning shots just to get them to leave. That's what attracted the huge crowd outside. Y'know, the one you guys oh-so-happily beat the crap out of."
"You're welcome," Alec said. "And I'm guessing the roof has a good view of the house, then?"
"Best viewpoint in the area." The duo stood as though getting ready to show them to the roof. Kohta collected the empty places, sitting them on a random counter behind him. "We'll show you, if you want. You can check on the rest of your group, sort of." Lisle nodded for the boys to follow her, leaving Kohta with the order to keep an eye on the other four. He saluted lazily, heading in their direction, and soon the boys were following Lisle to the stairway on the other side of the building.
"You get a pretty good view using binoculars and scope, but it's hard to make out details." They reached the second level. Two more to go. "I mean, you notice enough to get a rough idea of what's going on. Just yesterday they cleaned up the useless ones again."
Freddy glanced at Alec, wondering if he was thinking the same thing. "You mean their 'adapt or die' test?" he asked. She gave him a thumbs up, finishing her walk up the second level stairs and waiting for the boys at the third. "I guess that comes in handy with seeing how they're going. I gotta admit, I'm a little worried about Kit and Wendy. Jun, too."
"What, and not Iza?" Alec laughed at him and gave him a small shove. Freddy shrugged.
"Judging by the fact that Iza has handled Mei up until this point and seems to know what she's doing, I'd say she's strong enough to not be worried about. Much, I mean. There is still that little inkling in the back of my mind."
"It's nice that you're worrying." Lisle made it to the fourth level stairs, pausing once again to wait for them. "Your group is pretty big, and taking care of someone as young as the kid you mentioned can be hard work. Although I am a little worried that you left them with the tattooed man..."
They arrived at the door leading out, their conversation coming to a halt as Lisle held it open for them. The boys nodded a small thank you to her, then waited as she knelt down beside a small bag placed by the doorway. She fished around for a moment, frowning in thought, and then presented two pairs of binoculars. Handing them both to the boys, she told them the house was east of their current location. Upon their unsure looks, she pointed to her left.
They turned towards east, raising the binoculars, but froze before they could even begin to search for the house.
"Please tell me that smoke isn't coming from the house," Alec muttered.
The sound of screams was what brought her to consciousness.
Not entirely, she thought to herself, but they did play a big role - especially considering they sounded like Wendy. She dazedly opened one eye, the near-darkness keeping her head from feeling like it was going to split in half, and tried to take in a deep breath. Her throat felt dry, causing her to absently wonder how long she'd been out.
More of Wendy's screams broke through, although they were quickly being drowned out by loud cheers and yells. Most were male, from what she could hear, and they were apparently waiting for something. Or someone, she reminded herself.
She tried to sit up, opening her other eye as far as it would go - it was almost swollen shut, the question of how it happened coming to her. As she went to lean on her left arm, she felt immense pain shoot all the way up it. She yelped loudly, falling onto the arm, and couldn't contain the scream that escaped her. Her right hand flew to her shoulder, feeling for damage, and she began to choke on her own breaths when she felt what was wrong. She was pretty sure a shoulder wasn't supposed to be shaped like that, and as far as she knew she had perfect arm and hand use before being unconscious.
Did someone dislocate her shoulder or something? That had to be it. The arm wasn't sticking out weirdly, from what she could see, and she didn't have the impending pain and doom feeling that came from having a bone protruding from skin.
Yep. Dislocated shoulder it was, then.
Out of nowhere, lights flickered on and damn near blinded her. She cringed, trying to sit up again, but ended up aggravating her shoulder even more. God damn it.
"Look who's awake."
She froze, searching around for the source of the voice, but her eyes weren't adjusted yet. Damn it, why was everyone yelling so loudly?
Finally mustering enough strength, she pushed herself up and leaned back against the wall behind her. Well, it wasn't quite a wall - from the way it moved and made distinct sounds of metal against metal, she could only assume she was fenced in somewhere. That meant...
Shit.
Her eyes opened wide, the light becoming less harsh, and immediately scrambled to her feet. She held her shoulder carefully, looking around as panic rose inside her, and felt her stomach drop the the sight of so many blooded people yelling and cheering from the other side of the fence. She glanced around frantically, trying to find where Wendy's voice was coming from, and finally spotted her by the fence door. She was being held back, as was a nervous Jun, and beside her was an unconscious Kit. She felt her panic growing rapidly.
Attempts to call out and ask what was happening were useless - her throat was too dry and her shoulder hurt too much to allow her to form words. Her breathing became rapid, her eyes unable to lock onto one thing at a time, and it wasn't until she heard the moans that she froze entirely. She turned to the fence wall beside her, spotting yet another door. Behind it, countless undead.
Where were her weapons? What was going on? Why were there zombies on the other side of the fence? Why was she the only one in there, about to be put in with them?
"Someone throw her a weapon!" a voice yelled above the noise. Out of nowhere, a bloodied baseball bat was chucked in. It landed loudly to her left, alerting the zombies further. She hurried for it, her arm swaying painfully by her side as she picked it up and held it defensively. She watched the door carefully, wondering when it would be opened.
And then, out of nowhere: "To hell with it! Throw the runt in there too!"
The door behind her opened, Wendy screaming as she was thrown in, and the the sound of something heavy followed. She turned around, immediately rushing to Wendy's side, and gave her the bat as she picked up the crowbar.
Wendy was sobbing as she stood up weakly, hiding behind her with the bat held in her hands. "Iza, I'm scared," she whimpered.
Iza did her best to comfort her, although only managed a croak of, "I know, sweetie," before a loud buzz sounded out. The fenced door slid open, and the first zombie stumbled quickly toward them.
She could vaguely hear the sound of a phone ringing as she took down the first three, and then it stopped after the fourth one. As soon as Wendy knocked one to its knees, giving Iza a better aim, she could hear someone speaking in a loud, confused tone.
"Who is this?" they demanded. "Are you with them?"
She barely had time to turn around and see what was happening. One of the zombies crashed into her, pushing her to the fence, and grasped her shoulder tightly. Iza yelped, forced the crowbar up, and heard the crack of a jaw and skull. The zombie went limp, and she immediately pushed it off of her and into one reaching for Wendy.
As soon as she did, Wendy ran for the fence closer to the confused voice and shrieked, "House with the bodies! House with the bodies!"
That was all it took for Iza to know where they were.
She took down another, two more headed for her behind it, and just as she was about to hit the closer one Wendy hurried to her side and dragged her away. The man on the phone was now screaming about how some asshole had hung up on him, and absently Iza began to feel for her phone. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't there. Not in her pocket, not in her bra, not even in her sock. (Then again, she'd stopped putting it in there when summer started. Why would it be in there now?)
They continued this pace, running and then attacking, taking them down one, maybe two at a time. Finally, after what felt like hours, there were only four left. The pile separating them was huge, making the six in the cage trip with every movement. At one point Iza had felt something grab her ankle, only to find one of the zombies not quite dead, and had to stomp its face into the ground while Wendy frantically hit the others where she could reach.
It was a miracle they'd made it down to four, frankly.
Iza readied her weapon, charging at one of the closer ones, and hit it square in the nose. The crowbar broke through to the other side of its head, stuck in the jagged remains surrounding it. Iza panicked. She couldn't get her crowbar out of its head, and Wendy wasn't in a situation where she could readily throw her the bat.
Shit, shit, shit!
Not good! Not good at all!
Taking in a shaky breath, she cradled her arm and turned to a zombie closer to Wendy. Steeling herself, she rushed forward, ramming it with her shoulder, and knocked it off its feet. As it tumbled to the ground, she swung her foot around and hit the one behind it at the knee. It went down as well, unbalanced, and quickly tried to stand back up. As it did, Iza took Wendy's bat and swung lopsidedly at its face. It was down for the count, leaving the one she shoved and the one that kept tripping over other bodies to deal with.
Before she could so much as move, a loud boom and a small quake made everyone freeze and silence their shouts. The ceiling shook, dust and plaster falling from weaker portions. A third of the group outside the fence began to leave the room, various weapons at the ready, and someone shouted out something about the people on the phone finding them.
Jun and Kit were dumped in the corner, closer to the fence than before, and were immediately put under the watch of two men carrying rather large rifles.
A too-close moan brought Iza back to the current situation at hand, and she swung madly in the direction she'd heard it. It came in contact with a face, the zombie knocked into the fence and next to Wendy (who shrieked in terror, to poor thing). With it gone, all that was left was the tripper. She rushed forward, ready to swing the bat, but another boom and rumble had her crashing into it. They toppled to the ground, landing on a rotting pile of zombies, and immediately it grabbed her shoulders. She bit back a yelp, shoved her bat between them, and tried to keep it back as it snapped its teeth together like a hungry puppet.
Its face was getting closer, its breath stinking as it reached her nose, and she could feel the bat slipping from her grasp. Iza took in a deep breath, her shoulder searing with pain, and prepared herself for the worst.
But it never came.
The zombie's weight was knocked off of her, a loud thwang of metal hitting bone replacing its moans, and soon she was taking in a deep breath of somewhat fresher air. Wendy stood above her, crowbar held tightly in her hands, and hands covered in the dark blood of the zombie she'd ripped it from. She was shaking, crying, and immediately Iza sat up and brought her in for a hug.
A third boom sounded out. The rumbles were becoming more intense. More people left the room. Soon it was just a select few people who were heavily armed, and the four teenagers.