Stepping through the portal they found themselves on the roof of a two-story building, looking around they saw that it was late nearing nightfall, looking over the edge of the he saw that they were on the top of a small store.
Looking he saw the panicking people running around like they had no commonsense, drawing the attention of the hordes of zombies, shaking his head he turns to look at Emma and Cameron.
"These things are attracted to sound, as far as I remember they don't react to touch and I don't know if they have a sense of smell, so Cameron use silencers on your guns, Em don't let them get a grip being dead they don't have the natural limiters a living person has so it would most likely be like being held by a gorilla or something like that." He lets them know what he knows about the zombies.
Emma nods while Cameron holsters one of her guns and attaches a silencer then dose the same for her other guns.
As this was going on a bus made its way toward the building they were standing on and stops, he leans over some to get a better view on what's going on when a group of teen get off of the bus and runs into the store while a girls holding a bokken stands near the door of the bus as a boy with a baseball bat moves to the back of the bus, the other teens can be heard running around the store gathering stuff, turning to Emma who has joined him in watching the group.
"The main group, we could go along with them for a time to get some combat practice, later as we take out zombies from range with lights sources weapons making, we can throw needles of light while Cameron watches our backs." He says while one group brings stuff out to the bus while others are still gathering.
Emma nods then turns to Cameron, "We are going to try and join that group for a time and see if we can help them somewhat, once they stop for the night we will go on our own and practice our skills out of their sight."
Cameron nods and holsters her guns again then looks over the edge, then she walks around to ta side of the roof while looking down, she seems to have found what she was looking for and then jumps over the edge, Marcus and Emma ran to where she jumped and looks down to see she had landed in a pile of boxes and other things, looking toward the ally entrance she was now in they float up and over the edge then down to beside Cameron.
Unholstering one of her guns as their draw their bokken they walk to the front of the store and out into the street, the boy with the bat sees them and calls out but neither Marcus or Emma understands him while Cameron tilts her head and then answers him while keeping her gun pointed to the ground.
After some back and forth between the boy and Cameron, the teen nods and steps back as Cameron turns and waves them toward the bus.
"He wanted to know if either of us had been bitten or wounded by the zombies, when I told him that we hadn't and were looking for a group to join for safety he agreed as long as we don't cause any trouble, I think my guns are one of the reasons he has agreed." Cameron told them as they walked to the bus.
Looking into the store and seeing that the teens are just grabbing the junk food and water he shacks his head and turns to Cameron and voices his concern, she then told the teen with the bat what he said causing the teen to facepalm and nod.
Cameron turns and nods toward the store and enters startling the teen still inside as she grabs a basket and walks around grabbing meats both fresh and dried while also getting breads and fruits.
Marcus whispers to Emma "The longer we are around them the faster we will learn Japanese the lingual skill doesn't just give you the language you have to learn it over time."
Emma nods as she watches the teen and then enters the store to help Cameron while keeping an eye on the teen and shacking her head as they still just grab the junk foods.
Marcus turns just in time to catch a slightly warn bokken being swung for his head while throwing it to the side with his hand, he then lay his own bokken across the throat of the girl that had swung at him, getting a good look at her he shakes his head and releases her bokken while pushing her back.
The girl that had swung at him narrowed her eyes and went to swing at him again until she felt the bokken in her hands vibrate, looking to her bokken she finds the handle of a thrown knife just inches from her hands, jerking her head up to look at the man but he was facing away from her, she looks around and finds the older woman that had come with the woman with the guns looking at her with a glint in her eyes as she was lowering the hand that had thrown the knife.
Emma had seen the girl swing at Marcus and him catching her bokken and then pushing her away before turning his back to her to keep an eye on herself and Cameron, when she saw the girl ready herself for another swing Emma hand moved before she really thought about it as she threw a knife at the girls bokken, glaring at the girl as she looked her way she walks out of the store and stands at Marcus's side holding the basket of food and water.
Cameron came out of the store holding her own basket in one hand while she had a gun in the other hand while she looked to the teen with the bokken.
"Don't kill her she is a bit unhinged but is one of the reasons this group will last more than a few days." He whispers to the two as they stand beside him.
The teen had finished gathering the food in the store and as he watched them leaving and getting on the bus he saw that only the chubby boy had done as his girls had done and gotten more than junk, the group was really lopsided with only two boys with three teen girls and two adult women, as the teens got into the bus he turned to the teen with the bat who seemed to be having words with the girl with the bokken as he grabbed the knife handle and jerked it out of the bokken and then walks to them holding the knife handle toward Emma.
He says something that they recognize as an apology, Emma nods as she takes her knife back and sheaths it, he then turns and waves them onto the bus.
Getting on the bus they take seats near the front, the adult woman who was sitting in the drivers seat shuts the doors and starts the bus, the grinding of the gears sets their teeth on edge, Cameron stands and walks to the driver and taps her shoulder, after talking back and forth the driver gets up and Cameron take over, the relief can be felt as Cameron shifts the bus smoothly and pulls down the road following the directions of the previous driver.
Emma has slid the window open and had a hand hanging out of it every now and then it seem that her arm twitches, every time her hand twitches a zombie falls to the ground and doesn't get up again, Marcus has moved to the other side of the bus and has done the same as Emma, the number of fallen zombies raises while the teens are unaware of their actions.
After an hour of driving they reach a bridge that has been blocked by the police with a riot wagon in the center , quickly the bus was blocked in causing the teen to panic as everyone can tell that the police are not letting anyone pass, Cameron calls out something to the one of the adults, getting and answer that they can almost understand , they look to Cameron to fully translate.
"We were heading to a police station on the other side of this bridge to meet up with a parent of one of the girls but with the block ahead and now behind us we will have to go on foot and try to make it by foot but it is a long way around, there is a place they can get to before it gets dark and hide until daytime but it may not be as safe as the bus and now they are arguing over what to do." Cameron tells them.
After several minutes of the teen arguing Marcus stands and motions for Cameron to open the doors, getting off the bus he looks around to see if they can get the bus off of the bridge but is pulled from his searching when he hears some screaming as the people notice that the zombies are coming toward the noise, jumping back onto the bus he looks at the teens then Cameron he nods then lifts one of the food baskets then jumps off of the bus again followed by Emma and Cameron, the teen can be heard arguing again as the adult woman that had been driving the bus gets off behind them slowly followed be the other adult and teens.
Cameron talks to the woman again for a moment, after some back-and-forth Cameron takes off through the cars dodging the people that were trying to get through to the roadblock set up by the police, they followed behind her with Marcus and Emma pushing people out of their way with the bokken.
Once they were off the bridge Cameron looks to the adults again for directions, after having the way pointed out Cameron steadily leads the way, turning where she was told by the adult woman, it was getting darker as they walked and they had to take out a few small mobs of zombies, with Marcus and Emma striking them with the bokken while Cameron shot them with her guns almost completely silent, they made it to the locked gate of an apartment with a hummer parked there.
Cameron sticks her arm between the bars of the gate she gives a jerk breaking the lock lifting the bar out of the way and letting the teens enter, once everyone was through the gate Cameron shuts it dropping the bar back into place.
Everyone enters the building as they do the teens relax and drop what they are carrying as they make way into the apartment the adults on the other hand pick up the food and take it into the kitchen to sort out what they have.
Marcus is cursing himself out in his mind, he had forgotten about the bridge and how these teens don't really act like they are fighting for their survival until later, now he and Emma were stuck in this house with the teens and daft nurse whom he can't really see how she even passed the test to become a school nurse.
Emma is confused as to why he seems stressed but says nothing as she sits on a chair in the kitchen while she keeps an eye on both the teen and Marcus, also between Cameron and the other group talking almost constantly her understanding had grown a lot so now for the most part she could follow what was being said unless someone is speaking rapidly.
Marcus had made his way to the front of the house and finds a balcony outside a sliding door, opening the door he looks out over the streets and listens to the chaos of the panicking people fading out as they learn to be quiet, out in the distance he still hears the occasional crashing of a car or even an explosion.
Feeling a hand on his shoulder he turns to see Emma looking at him with concern, he smiles at her then nods out away from the house before speaking. "We are going to have to sneak away to get some practice with infusing weapons with light, I really didn't plan to stick with this group this long, right now they haven't accepted that the world is falling apart."
Emma leans her head on his shoulder, as she looks out over the streets as well. "When they fall asleep we can get out there and practice, if you think we need to we can just leave right now, its not like we need the food and drinks we gathered."
He shakes his head. "No this is the main group, if there is going to be a large mob of zombies to show up it will be around them, the skinny boy is the protagonist of the manga based off of this world, so it will be fine but I just don't know if I can stand that spear girl she is a whinny little shit who blames him for losing her boyfriend whom she was seeing to make him jealous but the guy she was seeing was his best friend so he just stepped back and let them be a couple not seeing the game she was playing, god I hate teen drama."
She laughs at his last exclamation then hugs him and asks. "If you hate teen drama, why did you read the manga?"
"I was looking for another manga that had a similar title to the one based on this world and bought several volumes and didn't notice my mistake until I got home, by then it was too late to take them back so I just read them, the only character that was not crazy in some form was Alice, but she was a little girl who hadn't went through all that teen stuff yet." He told her while keeping his eyes moving over the street.
The numbers of zombies moving along the street slowly grew as the night moved on, while they kept watch they could hear the people inside the apartment, the boys were off to the side going through supplies while the girls and women for some reason all went to the bathroom, they did try pull Cameron and Emma along with them but were ignored.
The giggling and laughing coming from the bathroom while not overly loud grew on Marcus's nerves, to him it seemed these people didn't care that they were close to putting their lives in further danger, when the noise from the bathroom finally ended Marcus relaxed thinking that they would finally sleep, but no the nurse decided it was a good idea to get the girls drunk.
After some time, the thin boy came out onto the balcony with a sad and frustrated expression, he was grumbling to himself and not really paying attention he leaned against the railing, not long after the chubby boy joined him, while he did nod to the others, he stood next to the thin boy.
While the two teens were commiserating over their lot in life Marcus was totally focused on the streets now, looking up and down the street he saw a large mob slowly making its way along the street, getting Camerons attention he waves at the mob. "Keep an eye on them but wait to do anything.'
His speaking gets the attention of the boys, but they still didn't know what he was saying but they followed his hand motions, upon seeing the mob they ran back into the house, moments later they returned with weapons, the thin teen had his bat while the chubby boy came out with a sniper rifle, he had found somewhere in the house.
Upon seeing the rifle Cameron seemed to pout or at least Emma thought a pouty expression crossed her face, looking back to the street they saw that the mob was moving faster than it had been moments before, looking down at the street nearer the apartment they could see a man and child going from door to door trying to open them but not having any luck.
The man and child finally made it into a yard that was about a block away from them, and while he was trying to open a door it opened slightly ad something quickly struck out of the door causing the man to fall back grabbing his chest, as he fell back the child started crying gaining the attention of the mob.
Marcus pushed himself away from the rail then looked to Emma and Cameron, he then turned and ran into the house and down to the first floor and out the door, jumping up onto the hummer he ran and jumped over the fence, hitting the ground and rolling he gains his footing and ran toward the crying child along the way he swung his bokken striking the zombies down and he ran, so focused on getting to the child he didn't notice that Emma and Cameron had followed him taking out other targets as well.
As they got closer to the child they had to fight harder as the mob was growing thicker and crowded, Emma didn't notice that she had been adding light to the bokken and each strike even body blows were dropping her targets.
After what felt like an hour but was only minutes, they had made it to the yard where the child was and found her curled up on a corner of the yard with a small dog held in her arms, using a bit of force Cameron pushed a gate closed with a loud clang.
Emma ran to the girls and dog and looked them over the dog was licking the girls tears away while her crying had calmed down after they made it to the small yard, the girl looked to be nine or ten years old, but being Asian she could be older as most Asian people looked younger than they were until adulthood, reaching out a hand and laying it on her shoulder Emma got the girls attention, once she had it she lay a finger over her lips in the universal sigh to be quiet.
"The gate wont last long and the male is dead." Cameron said while keeping an eye on the gate that was even now showing signs of failing, while she was dropping zombies with headshots.
"Up on the walls, Cameron give me a gun and take the girl, Emma take the dog I'll keep them off of you , walk along the top of the wall up to the corner of the street if it is safe jump down and make way back to the others." Marcus said while pointing up to the wall that was just over six feet tall then taking the gun held out to him.
After pulling herself up onto the wall Cameron squatted and held a hand out to the girl and easily lifted her up then motioning for her to piggyback, Emma followed them up onto the wall and took the dog from Marcus and follows Cameron walking along the wall to the corner, she held the dog toward the houses while keeping her bokken toward the street, every now and then she would strike a zombie that would reach up trying to grab them.
Marcus followed them taking out targets as he walked, as they got near the corner and Cameron was getting ready to jump down in the mostly clear street, there was a loud roaring and clanging, looking up he groans as he sees the hummer heading their way with the chubby teen holding the sniper rifle taking shots every now and then while the girl with the bokken stood in nothing but an apron and panties for some reason on top of the hummer.
"Those idiots, we could have gotten farther from the mob and made it back to the apartment, 'but no let's use the loudest thing around to go save the people who use quiet weapons and draw more zombies out way.' "Marcus snarks as the hummer slides to a stop.
They watch as the girl with the bokken jumps from the hummer while the thin boy takes up his bat as they wade into a small group of zombies taking them out and clearing a path as the chubby boy had swapped to a shotgun and was firing into groups causing more loud noises and drawing more zombies.
While walking and taking out targets Cameron heard the girl whisper "I need to go."
"Its fine these clothes can be washed later." Cameron said over her shoulder, after a few more steps there was a warm sensation running down her back.
Stopping at the corner Cameron watches the teens for a few seconds before jumping down from the wall and walking to the hummer and turning her back to the hummer she lets the girl be pulled from her back as she watched Marcus and Emma make it to the corner as well, Marcus did not look pleased but he said nothing as they walked to the hummer all the while knocking down zombies , once near the hummer the teens that were farther away fighting ran back to the group.
Climbing into the back seat of the hummer Marcus sits near the little girl catching the smell of urine looking to the girl he can see a wet place on her pink dress, her head is hanging low, sighing he takes off his jacket and then his shirt, ignoring the gasps of the people around him he turns to Emma then points to the girl and his shirt, giving the shirt over he pulls his jacket back on and hears some groans that he again ignores, Cameron had taken over the drivers seat and had started driving again under direction from one of the women.
Emma looks to the girl seeing the wet spot puts the dog behind the back seat and then climbs over herself then she gets the girls attention and holds up the shirt and sees that the girl understands what she wants she climbs into the back herself and hidden from the men she strips off her soiled cloths and pulls the shirt on to cover herself, Emma then pulls a bag from a corner of the back and digs around coming up with what looks like wet wipes and then reaching under the shirt she pulls off the girls panties then using the wipes she cleans her under protest of the girl.
"You can't keep those on sweety it can hurt you in more ways than giving you a rash." Emma says while still trying to clean the now squirming girl.
All heads other than Marcus and Cameron turn to Emma as she had spoken clearly to the young girl, all of them had thought that other than Cameron they couldn't speak Japanese.
"I told you all that they were learning, and that they were fast learners." Cameron says while looking trough the rearview mirror.
Nodding everyone went back to keeping an eye out for trouble, once she was cleaned the red-faced little girl climbed back into the seat beside Marcus while smiling shyly up to him, he pats her head and smiles to her.
"We may need to stop in a safe place and get her some clean and dry cloths, while your shirt will do for now, she can't go around with nothing but that on and that other girl needs something on other than that apron it will just distract the boys." Emma says speaking English.
Marcus nods and looks out the window keeping an eye out for a safe place they should be able pull over and gather something for the girl he just now realizes is Alice, hitting the roof of the hummer he calls out to the two people sitting up there mainly speaking to the bokken girl. "Get down here and put some cloths on its going to be cold later and you are just a distraction right now."
The two teen boys groan as they hear him telling Saeko to put some cloths on earning themselves glares from the other teen girls, and snickers from the adult women, Emma reached up through the hatch on the roof holding a pair of pants she had pulled from another bag and handing them to Saeko, after pulling on the pants she takes the blouse now being held up to her and works it under the apron and put it on.
Ater twenty minutes of driving they found a small store with very few zombies around they stopped, Emma took Alice by the hand and led her into the store while the others kept lookout, Marcus got Camerons attention he then points the her and then the store then plucking at her cloths, after a few minutes they came back out with Alice now wearing cute but functional cloths and Emma was carrying a bag stuffed with more cloths for Alice, while Cameron had just changed into some clean cloths while bagging the soiled ones.
Once they were on their way again Alice had climbed into his lap and cuddled closely before falling asleep, Marcus looked to Emma while he wrapped an arm around Alice to keep her from falling, Emma was smiling while looking at the cute scene she then took his phone from a pocket and takes a picture.
While they drove along passing smaller groups of both normal people and zombies, the people tried to get their attention, but Cameron ignored them while swerving around the zombies where possible, every time they had to hit a zombie Alice would just but slept on.
Every now and then she would snort or mumble something in her sleep which he paid no attention to until his phone pinged drawing everyone's attention which she waved off, looking at the phone she frowned a bit then looked to Marcus while turning the screen for him to see 'Bound Alice Maresato 2 points, due to youth the bonds will register as familial.', after reading the message he sighs but nods.
After another twenty minutes of driving, they reached a shallow but wide river, getting out of the hummer everyone stretched while looking for a way to get the hummer down to the water, Alice on the other hand took Zeke from the back of the hummer and let him down and then they chased each other around the hummer under the watchful eyes of Emma and Cameron while Marcus went to talk to the teens.
The pink headed girl with glasses was pointing toward a large house on a hill across the river while saying. "Mother and father should be home I'm sure we can get to the house, and it'll be safe for us at least for a while."
This started a small argument amongst the teens, after a few minutes of this they turned to Marcus, who raised his hands. "Don't look at me aside from Emma and Cameron I have nobody here that I need to find."
He hadn't really planned to be with them beyond getting them to the house with the hummer, turning he looked to the big house and nodded, then turned away from the group and went o find Emma to talk over what to do about Alice, which was a surprise apparently even asleep she meant it, or it was a confusion of emotions due to her age.
He found Emma leaning against the hummers rear and watching Alice and Zeke playing a kind of game of tag while Cameron was off looking through parked cars along the road every now then she would lift her gun and pulling the trigger.
"Well, that was a surprise so what are we going to do about her? I'm not sure how the world hoping will affect her, from what I read from the mission options some of those missions will affect our age most of the time making us younger." He said while leaning next to her.
"I'm not sure Cameron did say she could act as a nanny, or we can order one but that's kind of the problem isn't it when we enter a world and then open a portal back to the island will we regain our former age, or do we stay the age we are in the worlds?" she ask while laying her head against his arm.
Cameron came back from policing the area and stood watching Alice playing, she tilts her head slightly then looks to them. "You will remain the age you become during the mission, most of the missions wont de-age you much at most you will de-age to fifteen but most of the time it's not very much beyond a year or two, in masters case you should go on a mission that will get you to twenty-one or so."
Marcus looked to her while she was speaking and then whined out." I'm only thirty-three."
Cameron looked to him then pointed to Emma." And mistress is twenty-three, while that's not a large age gap it will look better all around if you two look closer in age than you do now."
Emma huffed while throwing a playful glare at Cameron, then sighing she looks back to Alice. "We will work that out later but what do we do with that bunch back there, it's almost a miracle that they have survived this long with the way they are going making so much noise a def mouse can hear them miles away."
"Plot armor I think it's called, no matter the situation they pull through somehow. Most of the time it's a goofy kid or sometimes a tragic girl usually they make it through to the end and then something happens, and they are alone or move on to another place where they can start over." He said waving his hand toward the teens.
Looking to the teens Emma frowns and shakes her head. "I'll never understand that I guess, but for Alice if we work it right, we can take her with us to the Harry Potter world and she can get magic and then we can train her up to where she an protect herself while learning in a mostly safe environment inworld then go from there depending on how long we are there."
"Ok so do we leave the group now or when they reach that large house they are heading for, one of the girls lives there, plot armor will see them through I guess although now we have one of the main characters in our group with Alice." He says while gesturing across the river and then to Alice.
Shrugging a bit Emma turns to hug his arm and resting her head against his chest, she then turns her head slightly so that she can watch the teens again, they seemed to still be arguing over what to do it was annoying her deciding that it may be best to leave and go on their own, they needed to practice and babysitting the teens wouldn't give them the time they needed.
Looking up to the sky he sighs." We will have a day or two max before they use a high altitude nuke throwing the world into darkness, not really sure what the nuke was for though, sometimes I think it was done by some shadow group that caused all of this just to make sure their schemes go as they want."
At the word nuke she looks up to him sharply worry on her face, he shacks his head," We will be gone before any possible radiation can affect us other than the emp everything should be fine."
Emma lets go of his arm ad steps away from him while looking to the sky seeing the day was getting on so nodding to him, she walks over to Alice and Zeke, kneeling she catches the dog and waves Alice to come to her and begins talking to her and letting her know her options, the little girl looked between the teens and Marcus.
Walking to the teens Marcus sigh as he gets ready for the ruckus they are bound to cause as he tells them that they are going their own way, and his thoughts proved right as the teens down right begged that they stay with the group, the nurse even tried to flirt with him but he paid it no mind, after saying what he needed he returned to stand at the rear of the hummer while Cameron gathered what little they had leaving the food.
Emma and Alice came to stand with him holding hands, once they were at his side Alice took his hand while looking up to him with a smile. "I want to go with you and big sisters Emma and Cameron."
Nodding and smiling Marcus grips her tiny hand a bit nodding. "That's good to hear little one, just remember to listen to us and all will be fine."
"I left the food and gathered all our things which aren't much, just the soiled cloths and extra for Alice, we won't need the food once we are away from them so we should be fine." Cameron said as she held up the bags of clothes.
Waving to the teens they walk off and through the streets taking down the zombies as they go Alice stayed out of their way as much as she could, Marcus and Emma were improving with adjusting the amount of light they infused their bokken with, Alice was watching them awed with the glowing bokken and how fast they were taking down the zombies.
After two hours of fighting as they moved Cameron called them to a halt and looking around seeing that there were no people around, she nods to Marcus, nodding back and waving his hand opening a portal causing Alice to gasp, walking through the portal they went to the car they got into it and drove up to the house getting another gasp from Alice as she got a good look at it.
Entering the house Cameron takes the cloths off somewhere while Marcus turns to Emma. "Take Alice up to pick a room and a bath if she needs one, while I let Alfred know that we have one more with us now so he can cook enough."
Nodding and taking Alices hand Emma leads her upstairs to show her where the bed and bathrooms were also pointing out their room. "You can pick which room you want while that room at the end of the hall there is mine and Marcus's room, bathrooms are there and there."
Leading her to a door Emma opened it to show the bathroom and looked around and found that either Cameron or Alfred had placed everything where it needed to be. "Do you want to take a bath, I'm sure we can find you some more cloths, then I can help you get cleaned up."
Alice pouted a bit as she looked up to Emma." I'm eleven and can take a bath by myself."
Emma laughs and ruffles Alices hair and nods. "Sorry sweety but you look younger than you are Marcus and I thought you were only about eight or so years old, I'll have Cameron bring you some fresh cloths, once you are done just leave your dirty cloths in the basket in the corner and someone will get them later."
Leaving the bathroom door open Emma heads back downstairs to look for Cameron to let her know that Alice needed cloths, once done telling her this she went looking for Marcus finding him sitting at the dining table with a glass of tea.
"Got Alice set up in the room nearest ours, Cameron will fill her closet with cloths while we are eating right now it only has a bed and some other furniture so we will have to let her get some things to decorate it as she wants, also we will need to decide what skills to share with Alice." She told him as she sat and took his glass and laughing at his mock pout.
Nodding as she spoke and thought for a minute over the skills they had so far and didn't see why not to give Alice the full spread nothing they had now shouldn't be given to a child, telling her his thoughts she agreed that it would be fine for now but if he ever got a skill later that may not be child friendly they would hold off till she was older before sharing.
After about twenty minutes Cameron led Alice into the dining room where she sat across from Emma and next to Marcus, just a little after she sat Alfred pushed in a cart of plates of spaghetti and bread sticks and melted garlic butter and shredded parmesan cheese, at the confusion on Marcus's face he explained. "The dairy portion of the farm had a time dilation room for aging cheeses, Jessup has it set up for most cheeses."
When they finished eating and left the dining room they went to the living room so they could explain as much as they felt Alice could understand, after they finished telling her she looked back and forth between them then she jumped a them both and started crying, confusing them both.
An: someone asked about Raven but I know nothing about Teen Titans other than a few episodes I saw years ago, also my brother brought up Alice from High School of the Dead being so young so I'll say it here she is not going to be a part of the harem unless I get to the point where she is of age and I'll not be artificially aging her when they go to worlds