First things, I want to wish everyone out there reading a happy new year. Hope your 2024 goes well. I will start coming back to writing, but this will be my last year as a college student so my schedule will fluctuate as the year goes on. For now, enjoy.
Fujimi Academy at 12:30 p.m.
As Saeko and Johnny stared at the chaos and death unfolding in front of them, Johnny started to wince in pain. His hand was bleeding heavily, and he knew eventually he'd turn. He doubted that there was any Zombrex in Japan, meaning his death was inevitable. Despite that, he knew if he was going to die, it wouldn't be in this school.
"Quickly, we need to get to the nurse's office." Saeko prompted, as she began to lead the way to said office. Johnny followed behind, holding his hand.
Something told him that something was good off about Saeko. Sure, he was the foreigner and for all he knew everyone practiced how to fight with wooden swords and was stoic as hell, but Saeko didn't even waste time to mourn any of her fellow students dying or being eaten.
Still, she was the one with a weapon, and he wasn't one to turn down a helping hand when he got it.
The pair proceeded up several flights of stairs to the nurse's office, all the while either fighting off or avoiding the undead in their path. While Johnny couldn't do much to help, Saeko simply proved she didn't really need it, as she was either cracking skulls in single swings, or pushing the zombies aside or to the floor, giving them enough time to move uninterrupted.
"You seem awfully calm about all this." Johnny blurted out. Saeko formed a slight smile as she kept moving forward.
"Could say the same about you. You're handling bleeding out a lot quieter than most would."
"Yeah well, yelling out in pain constantly would bring all your classmates and teachers to us, so let's hope that I can find some painkillers before I bite my tongue off." The pair then set off, with Saeko leading the way as Johnny followed close behind.
"Don't take this the wrong way Johnny, but once we get you fixed up, how do we know you won't get bite again?"
"What do you mean?"
Saeko, not breaking concentration in the conversation, used her sword to push a zombie back onto the ground as they continued their route.
"I mean can you fight?"
Johnny nodded his head. "Yeah, I can fight. Not my first zombie apocalypse unfortunately..."
Saeko stopped dead in her tracks, forcing Johnny to make his own stop, less he bring both of them to the floor. The Kendo leader turned her attention to him.
"Wait, what do you mean this isn't your first apocalypse?"
Johnny sighed. "Look its a long story. Can we just get my hand wrapped up and discuss it later?" Saeko thought about it for a second and then saw a small horde closing in on them from behind Johnny, making the decision very easy.
"Ok, but if what you're saying is true, you better not drag me down." Saeko continued onto the nurse's office, as Johnny mumbled something under his breath while continuing to follow her lead.
Nurse's Office.
The nurse's office contained only 3 individuals. The school nurse, Shizuka Marikawa, and 2 students, one who was Kazu Ishii, who was on guard with a steel trolley, while his friend Okada was laying on one of the beds with a towel over his head. Currently, Shizuka was trying to treat the bite wound on his arm.
"How is he doing Ms. Shizuka?" Kazu asked nervously, unable to keep his hands still to hold the trolley.
Shizuka stood up from her seat and went to the medicine cabinet to get a fresh bandage. "I can't lie, I've never dealt with anything like this before. No matter what medicine I've given him, he's not getting better."
Just then, both Johnny and Saeko entered the Nursery and closed the door behind them. The pair of them turned to see both Shizuka and Kazu slightly startled at their arrival, with Kazu holding the trolley as protection for both of them.
"S-stay back. You two aren't not one of them, are you?"
"No, we're flesh eating zombies. That's exactly why we were able to open the door." Johnny said in frustration, earning him a scowl from Saeko.
"You're going to have to excuse him. He's a foreigner."
"I don't see what-" The room went quiet when groaning was heard. The 4 people occupying the Nursery turned to the source.
It was Okada, and he was looking like shit. His skin was turned grey, and mouth was pouring out his mouth.
"Okada?" Kazu went to get closer as Okada started to rise. It became visible to everyone that Okada had turned, and now was going for the closest living person to him.
That being Saeko. Johnny noticed it and pushed Saeko out of the way as the zombified Okada now grabbed onto him. Not willing to repeat the same mistake that got him bite, he kept the zombie at bay with his left arm underneath the chin of Okada while his free hand searched for some type of weapon.
Saeko and Kazu were readying themselves to pry Okada off Johnny, but then a small horde was pounding at the windows and door. They knew that if they were to live, they had to get rid of this horde first and foremost.
Johnny, still struggling with the zombie on him, saw the group entering the room and knew he needed to make himself useful or die in this cramped room. He returned his free hand to be in front of him and grabbed onto Okada's shirt, and moved his left hand to where he grabbed his neck.
"Get the hell off me!" Johnny, making use of Okada's weight and knowing how the zombies would stumble, threw Okada into the horde. The result was the front of the horde stumbled to the floor, giving time for Johnny to find a weapon.
With the horde slowly getting back up, Saeko took the opposite to kill a few of the zombies before they had a chance to become a problem. She stomped on one head, bashed another's with her sword, and pushed one back into the broken window, causing it to land on a glass shard head first, killing it instantly.
Kazu was in full panic mode, and looked in horror as Okada started to crawl towards him. Grasping tightly to the trolley, he brought it up and repeatedly bashing in Okada's head.
"Forgive me! Forgive me! Forgive me! Forgive me!" Kazu yelled repeatedly. Throughout the chaos, one sole zombie passed got through and was right in front of Shizuka.
Shizuka backed up as much as she could until she was leaning against the counter and window of the office. She couldn't manage to utter a single word as she was terrified. Johnny knew he had to act.
Thinking quickly, he noticed one of the bottles of medicine that Shizuka had out to try and take care of the zombie. He grabbed it, quickly poured some on his wound, hoping at the very least it would speed up the healing process before he turned. Smashing the bottle against the counter, he now had a makeshift weapon in hand. Armed with a shiv, he grabbed the shoulder of the zombie and drove the bottle straight into its skull, killing it instantly.
Once the zombie was lying dead on the ground, Johnny turned to see that Okada's head was fully bashed in by Kazu, and Saeko had taken out a majority of the horde. All that remained were a small group of 3 zombies.
An idea formed in Johnny's head. If he was able to muster an attack that either pushed them far enough away from the room so they could escape, or they fell onto their heads hard enough, they would be safe. Gripping his camera tightly, Johnny started running to the remainder.
"God this is dumb. This is dumbthisisdumbthisisdumb!" Johnny yelled mentally as he was running. Close enough to pull the attack off, he jumped into the air and then proceeded to bring his legs forward and pushed them outwards, drop kicking the group of zombies. Since they were all close to each other, all 3 of them flew back.
The force of the kick surprised everyone in the room, including Johnny. He only expected them to stumble back at the very least, or fall to the ground at most. Yet all of them stared at the now lifeless bodies, who's heads were bashed against the wall from the force.
"Jesus. Didn't know I had that much strength." Johnny thought to himself. He turned around to see the survivors in the nurse's office staring at him.
"You ok Johnny?" Saeko asked.
"Yeah, yeah. Just...my head is killing me right now." Johnny put his hand on his head to rub it, but ended up showing everyone in the room his bite wound.
Kazu ran to the trashcan as the sight of blood and gore was getting to him while Shizuka looked sad for Johnny.
"You got bitten." Shizuka stated plainly.
"Yeah, I know. I just need the bleeding to stop for now."
Shizuka tried to determine in her mind if treating a wound she knew was going to eventually kill him was realistically worth the medicine to treat his bleeding. But judging from the look he was giving her and the fact he did save her life, she opted to treat the wound.
Grabbing some alcohol and gauze, Shizuka poured the alcohol on the bite wound to sterilize the bleeding. Johnny struggled to stay still as the pain was intense, and he was gripping the counter with his free hand to stop his movements.
After the alcohol was applied, Shizuka then wrapped up his hand. With his hand now free, johnny moved it and closed his fist to see if the bandage would hold and if he could actually use his hand effectively. His hand felt like it was on fire, but at least now the bleeding was controlled.
"Thanks." Johnny said.
"We need to get out of here. Do you two have any weapons on hand?" Saeko asked. Kazu just held onto his metal trolley while Shizuka shook her head.
"There's too many of us and not enough weapons. Any ideas Johnny?"
"Well unless there's any room nearby with large enough objects, we're playing it careful." Johnny stated. Just before they were about the leave the room, Kazu spoke up.
"Wait, there's a chance Okada might have a knife on him?"
"A chance?" Saeko asked.
"Yeah. He's always talking about he keeps a knife on him just in case. But he probably left it in his locker. I can show you guys the way."
Knowing he needed a weapon ASAP, Johnny stuck out his hand towards the door.
"After you."
Hallways, 12:45 P.M.
Once their group had formed, the emerging zombie threat seemed a lot more tame than it was initially. But Johnny figured that had to be because the hallway they were going down was scarcely populated and Saeko was essentially taking everyone out one by one. And by taking out, she was simply either pushing them out of the way or knocking them down.
"After we get this knife, how exactly are we supposed to get out?" Kazu brought up.
"Well, there's the school bus out in the parking lot...but we'll need the keys for it." Shizuka answered.
"And where are the keys?" Johnny asked.
"In the faculty room."
"The faculty room?" Saeko asked after pushing a zombie into the lockers as everyone kept moving. "Jesus, what a pain in the ass."
"But all the car keys are in that room, that's where they keep them."
Soon the group found themselves in front of Okada's locker. Unfortunately for everyone, it was locked.
Johnny turned to Shizkua. "Don't suppose you have a key to the lockers?" Shizuka simply shook her head. Johnny then turned to Kazu.
"Know the combo?"
"Nope. Usually he leaves is slightly open, but I guess today he locked it."
"Well that's just shitty convenience now isn't it?" Johnny responded. He was about to say to give up on the knife until he saw Saeko ready to strike at the lock.
"We can't afford for you to remain unarmed. Hopefully this'll be enough to break the lock." Everyone moved out of the way and let Saeko attempt to break the lock. She steadied herself and pulled her sword up, and quickly brought it back down with force to hit the lock, breaking it.
The sound of the lock hitting the floor echoed throughout the hallway. Whatever the original plan of searching the locker was would have to be cut in half if they wanted to not get surrounded. Johnny opened the locker and saw a backpack resting inside. He pulled the bag out and opened it to discover only two things inside, a kitchen knife, and a journal.
"If you got the knife, we need to keep moving, they'll be here any minute." Saeko brought up. Johnny nodded and held the knife in his right hand and put the bag on, continuing on with his group as they now focused their attention on finding the faculty room.
"We're all mostly armed now, why don't we just continuing killing them on our way there instead of pushing them out of the way?" Shizuka asked. The group had reached a door that led to an outside walkway, which Johnny assumed connected to the building that housed the faculty office.
"Believe me, one or two at a time, no problem. And I wouldn't think twice about doing it."
"But? Kazu asked. This time, Johnny opted to continue.
"We keep killing every single one that's in our way, two things are bound to happen. We get tired out and get eaten, or our weapons break with no back ups, and we get eaten. And these undead assholes tend go swarm in groups so, better to save confrontation as a last resort."
"Oh wow. I didn't think about it like that. But all this just started, how do you know all this?" Shizuka inquired.
"Seriously? Nobody's heard about Willamette in this country?" The combined silence of all the Fujimi students and nurse gave Johnny his answer. "The point is I've been through this before."
"But...there's no way that-" Shizuka point was cut off when she tripped on a carpet. The nurse immediately began rubbing the leg she landed on to try to reduce the pain.
Saeko kneeled down to the nurse. "You know, your clothes aren't exactly made for running." Saeko began to start ripping the skirt to allow Shizuka to run more easily, although the slight reveal of Shizuka's panties caused Kazu to stare with his face bright red and for Johnny to turn his head while covering his face.
"Wha-are you crazy?! This is Christian Dior!" Shizuka yelled in anger at her skirt being ripped.
"And I'm sure they're forever thankful for your cash and dedication to wearing it, but organs and gallons of blood are kinda hard to wash out." Johnny retorted.
Saeko simply sighed as she rested her hand on the door to the outside walkway. "Your clothes or your life? Which is more important?"
Shizuka, with a mixture of both anger and stubbornness, held in a slight upsetting sound before blurting out "Both are!" Just then, they heard the sound of both a girl screaming, and what sounded like bodies crashing into tables, as well as something being shot.
"What the hell is that?" Johnny asked. Kazu focused his attention on the direction of the sound.
"Its coming from the faculty room." Johnny reached his hand out to help Shizuka back up when they heard the screaming get louder.
"Ok, we gotta get there now!" Johnny exclaimed. Saeko lead the group into a full sprint, making sure to knockdown or dodge any zombies they passed along the way. After a few minutes of running, they saw two more students running to the source of the screaming but from the opposite direction.
Both groups stopped at the intersection where they saw a pink haired girl held against the school's trophy display, shoving an active power drill into the skull of the zombie trying to close the distance on her.
The whole time the drill was active, the girl couldn't bare to look at what she was doing.
"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!! SOMEONE PLEASE!!" The girl yelled out in genuine fear. Johnny and Saeko, along with the other two teens looked at the surrounding zombies.
There were 4, one for each teen it seemed. The first two teens went to handle theirs. The boy got a running start and jumped slightly in the air, bringing down his baseball bat onto one of the undead, killing them instantly. The girl with him followed suit, using what looked like an impromptu spear and raising it from underneath to drive it into its head, also killing it instantly.
Johnny knew his knife meant he had to get close. Already dreading the fact he'd turn eventually, he didn't see a downside. Running towards the zombie focused on him, he grabbed the back of its neck with his left hand, and repeatedly stabbed the zombie in the heart with the knife in his right hand. It took a few attempts before both visibly and physically the zombie stopped moving, in which he let the zombie fall to the floor on its back.
While Johnny was focused on his kill, another zombie was approaching him from behind, unbeknownst to him. The zombie was close behind him when he turned around to see hits head spilt open from the side and falling to the ground from being hit by Saeko's practice sword.
"Thanks." Johnny said in response. Saeko nodded as everyone caught their breath. The immediate danger was gone, and silence filled the room, which was quickly followed by the pink haired girl's cries.
"Taka-" The heavy set student with the pink haired girl started, before stopping when the girl with the makeshift spear ran pass, and getting knocked down by Shizuka bumping into him. The pair went to the girl's side to comfort her.
"Takagi? Are you ok?"
"Miyamoto?" Takagi asked. The girl nodded her head.
Johnny turned his attention to a door leading to another outdoor walkway, which was being locked by the student with the bat. Saeko also noticed what he was doing and decided to break the ice.
"You already know the school doctor, Marikawa, right?" The student nodded his head, which let Saeko know to continue.
"I'm Saeko Busujima. From class 3A."
"I'm Takashi Komuro. From class 2B." Takashi responded.
The girl with the spear looked up, turning her attention to Saeko. "Ms. Busujima, I remember you won the national Championship last year. I'm Rei Miyamoto. I'm in-well was in the spear martial arts club."
The student that was knocked down got back up, rubbing his head. "Oh and I'm Kohta Hirano from class B, just fyi."
Kazu took up next to Johnny, which everyone noticed one his trolly made a slight metallic rattling sound. "Umm, I'm Kazu Ishii. I'm a second year."
That ultimately left everyone looking at Johnny, who quite honestly looked like shit. "Johnny Caldwell. I was with the Willamette High-school group when I was separated." Everyone seemed content, until Hirano noticed Johnny's hand.
"Hey...Johnny, is your hand ok?" Johnny looked down and saw his blood completely soaked the bandage.
"Yeah, its a..."
"He was bitten." Everyone turned to the voice and realized it was Takagi. The teens that didn't initially meet Johnny sounded confused while the people who were with him remained quiet.
"And why is everyone acting all warm and fuzzy?" She then turned her attention to Rei. "Why are you being so polite to Busujima, Miyamoto? You flunked last year, you're the same age she's not your elder." Everyone was taken aback by Takagi's sudden change in behavior except Johnny. He's seen emotions run wild like this before.
"What are you talking about Takagi?" Takashi questioned.
"DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE IM STUPID, IM SMARTER THAN ALL OF YOU COMBINED!!"
Everyone was silent. No one knew whether to interrupt or not.
"You should be lucky I'm even in the same school as any of you!" Takagi's rant and rough exterior was beginning to break, and everyone was seeing it.
"I'm...I'm..." Takagi stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Saeko in front of her.
"Its ok. That's enough." Takagi turned to the mirror on the trophy case, and began to mutter.
"Look at me...all these bloodstains. Now mom will...have to take it to the cleaners..." The tears began to run down Takagi's face. She buried her face into Saeko and began to cry.
Everyone around stood in silence as they watched Takagi break down from the trauma. To add on to the problems they were facing, Johnny began to feel very weak.
Kazu, who was right next to Johnny, put his hand on Johnny's shoulder to support his weight if needed.
"Johnny, you ok?" Takagi stifled her cries while everyone turned their attention to Johnny.
Shizuka moved closer to inspect him, and saw that he was burning up temperature wise.
"I'm...fine." Johnny took a step forward and immediately got extremely dizzy. He stumbled into a nearby wall and leaned against it to maintain his footing.
"Johnny..." Saeko started before getting interrupted by another girls voice who was running down the hallway.
"JOHNNY!" He turned to see that it was Chrissy. He smirked slightly before sliding down to sit. He looked up to Chrissy and saw just how the last hour in this school treated her.
Chrissy's usual look was a middle ground between a goth and emo look. She usually had dark red hair thated covered covered her right eye, but now her hair look disheveled, as if she got into a fight. Her clothes consisted of a black turtleneck and leather jacket, ripped black jeans, and combat boots all were covered with spots of blood. She knelt down next to Johnny.
"Johnny! Thank god you're ok."
"I don't think you'll wanna thank him just yet." Johnny raised his bitten hand, and a look of horror and sadness came onto Chrissy's face.
"No..."
"Yea well...you know. Shit happens." Johnny said. He felt his eyes burning, as if the lights were too bright from him to handle.
"He's turning. We have to deal with him now." Takashi stated. He gripped his bat tightly as he began to raise it when everyone saw Chrissy stand in front of and over Johnny.
"You idiot, he's turning!" Takagi yelled out.
"No, he's not! We've seen this before. He's only showing signs of being infected, but he would've been coughing up blood and turning pale by now if he was turning." Chrissy blurted out.
Everyone was confused. What did she mean we've seen this before?
As everyone was at a standstill, Johnny's symptoms seemed to subside and he returned to normal, though he didn't know how long that would last. He began to stand up when Rei asked the question.
"What do you mean before?"