If you've got any criticisms, suggestions or have spotted a mistake or anything, feel free to drop a review or a PM to me. I'm more than willing to listen and get more ideas to keep this fic going, be that in the form of new characters, scenes and whatnot or edits to existing ones that'll help flesh out the story and make it all the more enjoyable to read. I can't guarantee any form of an update schedule, but I'll try my best to push out chapters when I can!
If there's any edits, they'll be mentioned here. Please, enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own H.O.T.D nor any of it's characters, nor do I own any other franchise that may be mentioned.
I've had nothing but bad sleeps as of late. This one in particular was the worst thus far. Barely a couple hours of shutting my eyes and I wake up to being slapped across the cheek by a certain outraged pinkette. Sure, a slap isn't bad on it's own, however.
I still have a massive headache, my cheek is still bandaged due to being cut by glass, and to top it all off I haven't drank anything since the staff-room and my mouth is dry as the Sahara. That's not even mentioning how my back is aching from sleeping in this shitty bus chair.
The first word that comes out of my mouth as I look up at Takagi is simple; "...what?"
Another slap for my troubles. "Ugh, you dumbass! You were told not to go to sleep! You're no good to anyone in a coma or dead!"
I rub my cheek with a frown. She's right, but still. "Can you stop slapping me?"
She does it again. "Not until you apologise!"
"I'm sorry, alright? Hirano and everyone else fell asleep, and so did I after a while. You can only keep yourself busy for so long staring out the window, you know." I cross my arms in annoyance, and she seems to accept my answer... after a solid moment of glaring at me of course.
With a 'hmph', she spins on the spot and moves back to her seat, leaving me to gather my bearings in relative peace. Sure, her seat is literally just across from mine, but still.
I say relative, since Hirano is snoring next to me. It's not very loud, but with how my heads ringing it's like there's a fly in the bus buzzing non-stop.
Nudging him with an arm gives me no results, so I do my best to ignore him. Somehow, over the night, we weren't violently flooded and mauled to death by a swarm of corpses. Surprising, really, with how much noise is being made just outside even now. Hell, looking out the window, there's a line of people just- walking along the sidewalk towards the bridge. Police are still there and ready for a fight and all.
Things go wrong all over the world, yet Tokonosu's citizens are somehow... calm. Or at least, not blatantly panicking with the police there? I don't get it.
Saya might know. "Hey. Takagi-san."
A wordless glare is her response to my calling for her- although I do see Kato peek out from the window seat to look towards me.
"...never mind, sorry to bother you." And with that, she turns away once more. Think I've pissed her off enough today.
Standing up from my seat and working my bag back to its rightful place on my back, I move to the front of the vehicle, crowbar and wrench held in my off-hand while I hold onto the bus pole. Curiously enough though, I do hear a shuffling behind me as I do this and see Takagi move to sit next to Hirano.
Good for him. "Morning, Shizuka-sensei." I call out quietly, looking down the highway infront of us through the windshield.
The roads are still packed to the brim. No wonder there's so much foot traffic. My fellow blonde turns to face me after a moment, blinking slowly- bags under her eyes. Oh, right- she's been up for god knows how long. So have I, but I at least got a couple of hours before being slapped around- although it wont mean much with this damn headache.
"...wow, you really need a break. I can take over if you want." I probably could. I've never driven a bus before, but inching it forward in traffic every now and then can't be too hard, right? My initial questions can wait.
She shakes her head slowly "-no, you still might have a concussion. No driving while impaired." She states resolutely, although falters a bit as she rubs her eyes- the lack of sleep getting to her.
"Your impaired right now with your lack of sleep, and it's just inching forward in traffic. Unless someone else thinks they can get this thing moving, then either way we're having someone impaired at the wheel. At least if it's me you'll be able to move around in an emergency" I argue, and she seems to deflate a little at that.
"-Check with the others first, see if any of them are able to take over. If no-one else can, then you can, Smith-san." Works for me.
A thumbs up is my response to her as I yawn loudly- a move that gets her to lean forward onto the steering wheel just that bit more. Let's be quick about this then, shall we? Saeko's- awake and staring right at me. That's a little unnerving, enough to make me tug at the hem of my shirt. Takagi and Hirano are chatting, Kato is watching the world go by, Rei's asleep and Takashi is looking out the window.
Let's start with the closest person first, then. I go to speak, and am interrupted instantly. "No."
Eh? "I don't know how to drive a vehicle like this. My apologies, Smith-san. I believe Komuro-san might be your best bet on that front." Oh.
So she was listening in then. "Alright, sorry to bother you, Busujima-san."
"It's quite alright, you mean no harm. If anything, I'm glad your stepping up to the task in spite of your current afflictions. Shows a certain amount of grit." Now that? That puts a smile on my face.
"Thank you, Busujima-san." I offer a brief bow and spin on the spot to face Takashi.
He hasn't moved an inch. Probably spacing out again, like he usually does on the roof. Or would it be did now? I can't imagine things suddenly taking a U-Turn for the better.
"Komuro-san? Do you know how to drive?" Straight to the point. I don't think he's the kind of guy to bother with pleasantries.
I'm proven right a second later as he doesn't call me out on it. His expression? Unchanged. "I can ride a bike."
Not the answer I was looking for. Come on. "Think you can drive this bus at all?"
"No, but I can try." Expected as much. I shake my head.
"If you don't think you can then that's all fine. Just trying to discern who can drive this thing. Shizuka needs some rest, and she doesn't want me at the wheel unless absolutely necessary." I move to rub my cheek, and instantly regret it with a wince.
His response to this? A nod. "Yeah. I don't think any of the others can drive this, so you'll have to do it."
Straight to the point. Nice. Rei wakes up next to him, and of course, her first instinct is to glare at me. Very cool, spear-girl. She was probably listening in and just didn't want to admit it.
"Thanks, Komuro-san." I step away before she can say anything, Takashi waving me off as the two of them begin whispering to one another. Rei strikes me as the sort of person to hold a grudge, and I don't think she believed me when I said I didn't cause that rush to the bus.
Urge to see if Shidou's bus is in the line and go strangle him increasing, abort! Shaking my head, I go back to Shizuka and motion to the back of the bus. "Asked around, I'm the only one for the job. Go get some rest, Shizuka-sensei. You deserve it."
A smile and a sleepy 'thanks' is her response. Feels good to do something right.
I lied. It doesn't feel good, sitting in the drivers seat for a few hours, staring forward and occasionally, rarely moving the vehicle forward a few inches. The others behind me are chatting, bar Kato and Shizuka who seem to be taking a nap, and Saeko who's just doing that thing she does. Which is sit there... menacingly!
Seriously, it's actually kind of menacing how still she can sit. I'm pretty sure she's been staring at me but I genuinely cannot tell at all. The monotony of it all actually got me to put on some music. Didn't pick anything out of course, I'm still at the wheel after all, but with my headset firmly on my head I got a fresh stream of random tunes.
Like 'Jingle Jangle Jingle'. I don't have spurs, nor am I riding merrily along, but it's still a great song nevertheless, and I will fight someone over it.
The stream of pedestrians on the sidewalk was petering out, but I couldn't see the end of the line of cars behind or infront of us. Hell, even the police watching the sides have been inching forwards, which leads me back to the question from before. How are we not dead yet?
Sliding my headset off my ears and around my neck- still able to hear the music without turning it off completely, I speak aloud. Hopefully she'll hear me.
"Busujima-san? Any clue why we haven't been violently swarmed by a horde of notably slow sound-hunting corpses yet?" No way your missing that kind of a question.
Think I asked that a bit too loud, since some of the others have turned from their conversations to listen in. "The entire city is likely in chaos. I imagine 'they' will be distracted by the sheer amount of sound. Order is being maintained here towards the bridge, but there's likely all kinds of riots and looting going on in earnest just outside of the barricades."
"Makes sense, but with this amount of noise? The worst we've seen thus far is a couple of shots being fired, and with how big the queue is, well. It just doesn't feel right. Like it's just a ticking timebomb" I shake my head. It just feels wrong.
Did I mention my headache has subsided a fair bit? Because it has, thankfully. "Mh. In order to escape, I believe we will need to abandon the bus. It's as you say- a timebomb. Eventually we will get swarmed with how much noise is being generated, and we have been lucky thus far to not have been."
Saeko continues after a moment to stand up and stretch. "Most, if not all of our families are on the other side of the river. This means we must cross the Onbetsu bridge or find another way across, and with how stagnant the traffic is we will not make it across in any reasonable timeframe."
It's Rei who speaks up next. Haven't heard her speak much at all to anyone other than Takashi and Takagi, and even then hardly to the latter. "Where is everyone's families? We need to be quick, so we need a route now before we leave the bus."
Would have thought there would be a vote over leaving the bus, but I guess it's already decided. No complaints here on it. "I worry about my father, but he is overseas at a dojo. All I have to worry for right now is our lives, as I have no doubt he is fine." Saeko speaks up first. Well, that makes this notably easier, as bad as it might be to say.
"My house is in the same area as Komuro's on the other side of the river." Takagi stands up, crossing her arms. Shit, are we all just going to abandon the bus as soon as we're done, run out instantly like we did with the staff room? Come on, at least let me pull over first.
Hirano's next "My parents are out of the country right now, but... I'll follow Takagi-san to the end of the world."
Wow. You couldn't be more obvious about how much you like her if you tried. Sucks to suck though, since she seems a little repulsed by what you just said.
"-mine are in an apartment just across the river." Huh, didn't even hear Kato stand up before she said that. Need to pay more attention.
Shizuka's still asleep, but seems to be waking- so... guess it's my turn. I don't get up though, nope. I'm parking this whether you like it or not. "I live just down the road from the Takagi estate- both my parents work there."
"Haah?! And I never knew!?" Why does she sound outraged by that? It's not like she can expect to know everyone, right?
Right? "Me and you never really spoke before all this. Besides, my parents are guards, so I don't think you'd have met them much anyways."
She crosses her arms and looks away, a motion I see through the mirror. Well, guess she did. Turning in the seat to face them properly, I'm met with raised eyebrows. "What?"
"Nothing." Is the combined response. I'm probably missing something here.
"-cool. Miyamoto-san? Where are your parents?" I redirect the conversation to someone else, and she doesn't hesitate to answer. I doubt her animosity towards me is completely gone, but at least it's not stopping conversations now. I'm tired of being glared at.
"My house is on the other side of the river, although further away from Takagi-sans than anyone else's. My father is a police officer though, so he'll be at the nearby police station." If he's alive, that is. But that might just be the pessimistic part of my brain screaming at me that everyone is dead already.
Shizuka's up and about it seems. "Huah? What's everyone on about?"
"We're going to be abandoning the bus in favour of going on foot. It's not safe to wait. We're just working out a route based on where everyone's family is." Takashi responds. The flow of pedestrians on the sidewalk has stopped nigh completely, and I can see a car pulling over behind me, it's occupants getting out and proceeding on foot. We're far from the only ones with the same thoughts.
The nurse blinks, then places a finger to her chin. "I see- well, my parents are dead and my other relatives are very far away, but I'll be happy to tag along!" She nods confidently. I pointedly look away as she does so.
It's rude to stare, you know. Hirano doesn't seem to know this, but stops after seeing a nasty glare from Takagi. "Right, so..."
I begin pulling the bus off onto the side-walk, as far into it as I can manage as to avoid blocking the path too much as Takashi speaks "...we'll find a way to cross the river and go to Kato-sans house first. From there, we'll go to Takagi-sans, followed by mine and Smith-sans, with Rei's being last due to distance. Everyone fine with this?"
A chorus of affirmations, including a raised thumb from yours truly, is his response. The bus is still blocking the path a little, but nowhere near enough to prevent foot-traffic from moving. Besides, there's nowhere for me to manoeuvre it to as the little red hatchback that was behind us has already shuffled into our place.
Isn't that the same guy who almost ran me over? Nah, couldn't be. I turn off the bus, but leave the keys in the ignition. Maybe some poor sod can get some use out of it in an emergency. Standing up, I double check my things.
Group? Check, they all seem to be ready. Crowbar? Yup, still as rusty as ever. Pipe wrench? Good to go. Headset and phone? Still blasting music, we're onto Stay With Me now. As fun as it is listening to a randomized playlist, I turn it off. Gotta conserve battery power, after all. Backpack? Firmly on my back. Hat? Uneaten.
"Good to go." And with that affirmation, we open the doors to be greeted by a wave of sound.
A giant line of traffic doesn't sound that bad in a bus with others to keep you company. But stepping out into it with cars still honking their horns and engines rumbling? Loud. I wince instinctively and wait for the others to exit, seeing who will take the lead this time.
"Where to?" I ask- none of us are really moving right now...
Saeko is the first one to respond "We could try one of the other bridges, but it'd likely be just as blocked as this one. We could try going up to the bridge on foot, but I doubt the situation there would be any better for foot-traffic than it is for actual traffic."
Surprisingly enough, it's Shizuka who has an actual course of action though. I was kind of expecting Takashi to have a plan in mind to cross the river, but he seemed just as lost on where exactly to go as the rest of us.
"We could go to my friends place! It's a bit of a walk away, but it's along the river and has a convenience store nearby!"
Takagi raises an eyebrow, placing one hand on her hip and the other to her lips, as if trying to hold back the smug smirk coming onto them "Is it your boyfriends?"
I've got to admit, her refusal? Kind of funny. Waving her hands back and forth in disagreement as a blush springs onto her face. A sentiment the others agree with if their expressions are anything to go off. "No, no! Nothing of the sort, she's out on work so often that she gave me a key. I go in every now and then to check in on the place and let some air in! It's a maisonette."
"So, we go there for supplies and see if we can come up with anything on the way?" I ask, idly getting onto one knee and slipping my backpack around onto the floor, sliding the crowbar back into the pack. Good to have you back where you belong.
A chorus of nods is enough of an answer for me. "Cool. Let's get going then. Shizuka-sensei, which way is it?"
"Uhm..." Oh boy. This is going to take a while, isn't it?
The police didn't try to hold us up more than necessary as we left the bridge area- although I'm fairly certain one of them said it was our funeral. That or I was just imagining it.
It's midway through our walk, gone lunch-time and having avoided a few smaller clusters of infected, that something actually interesting happens. It's not a big unavoidable horde or anything, we haven't seen any of those yet (and thank god for that), but it is something that makes us pause.
Glancing up from the pavement and placing a hand above my eyes to block out some of the sunlight, I look up to the distant planes flying overhead. From the shape? Phantoms. No clue if they're armed or not, but it's both a good sign and a bad sign.
On one hand, they'll distract the undead by simply flying around. Way more so than the airport and bridge ever could
On the other hand, they might be armed. Which means bombing or gun-runs like the Americans are doing in their cities. If they mistake us for infected... well. I'd like to avoid learning how it feels to have a well-ventilated chest. No way to tell if they're going to do that or not though unless they get close.
Naturally, we're rudely interrupted in our observations. Not by an infected or another person or anything, but by another Phantom. Now, when your flying over a town or city, there's height limits to avoid crashes and all sorts of other issues, mostly related to the sound of the vehicle
Some asshole coming from right behind us, flying over at a very low altitude, at a notably high speed? Well, not only has it caused any infected we've passed to slowly turn towards us and follow the sound of the low-flying jet, but it's also made my headache return with full force and hit us with a wave of air that I'm pretty sure shattered a few windows.
Definitely set off some car alarms if the flashing orange lights on most of them are anything to go off though.
Not that I'd be able to confirm with how my ears are ringing of course.
Clutching my head in pain at the sound which probably would have burst my eardrums if people in this reality weren't more resilient overall, a quick glance to either side of me shows that the others are in similar states of agony.
On the bright side though, it's distracted most of the undead, something that I only take notice of when I see Takashi has begun literally dragging us forward in a chain, each person holding the arm of the next. I'm at the back again, with Kato grabbing my arm.
As painful as this is, it does give me an interesting thought that I try to voice. "Can the infected have their eardrums burst?"
I receive no response. Guess I'll have to ask again when our ears are no longer wanting to explode violently.
Escaping the street of car alarms is a simple affair- it's not like we stuck around to let a horde gather or jump us. Just needed to run down the street as fast as we could and bash some aside, before slowing down as we approached the river's coast again.
Can't even just yell over the ringing, as that'd probably attract most of the dipshits shuffling in our direction. Speaking of them though, there's one ahead that's just crawled out of a window. I don't think it's approaching us, but it might be.
Crawling zombies are arguably worse than normal ones, a fact confirmed by literally every encounter with them ever. You tried hitting a target on the floor without having it grab your ankle and crush it instantly? No, didn't think so. And it's for this reason I separate from the group momentarily and point towards it, earning a nod from the others.
Slowing my pace and readying my pipe-wrench in both hands, I manage to get just behind it as it begins crawling towards our group with a surprising amount of speed. Still walking speed, but more of a fast walk rather than a slow shambling motion. I'll chalk it up to the lack of weight given it's missing its legs.
Guess we're loud enough for it to hear though since it's still coming for the group- not that we'd be able to tell right about now. Bastard must have not had as many hearing issues due to being indoors when the Phantom flew over.
It's with a crunch that the crawler is put out of its misery. Pipe-wrench applied directly to the back of the head will do that to someone. It'll also make a bloody mess, but I do my best to ignore that in spite of my stomachs urge to get rid of the sandwich I had yesterday.
Re-joining the chain as a few of the zombies move to investigate the clang of my pipe-wrench meeting bone, we continue on our merry way- batting undead aside and only rarely killing. There's no point in killing all of them anyways, not when we're in a rush.
I'll have to get us to stop at the store before we go into the apartment- doubt I'm the only one getting hungry, and I want to get more Coca-Cola. Three cans isn't enough, after all.
A low-flying Phantom wasn't the only run-in we had on the way along the river's coast. We passed by a few survivors and warned them of the infected we passed- that wasn't much of an issue. No, the issue was the small white dog that was trailing us like a lost puppy. Probably because it was a lost puppy.
It doesn't stick around for long, but it's there. Waiting. I found this out when I went to bash another crawlers skull into the pavement. Little shit came up, ran over the corpse and ran off. Very cool, little guy.
Now, a dog trailing you? Not a bad thing. It's bad when it's yapping at you. Which it is. Right now.
See, a dogs bark is pretty loud, and unless they've mutated in the past hour or so, the infected hunt off sound. So having a dog trail you and bark is like having a permanently ringing alarm-clock strapped to you set to max volume, and it really shows. The street we took to reach our current location is pretty damn packed right now with infected.
It's still barking, even as I think. "We need to shut it up, quickly!" Takashi commands. He's absolutely not wrong, but no-one makes a move other than readying their weapons.
Fine. I'll do it myself. Pipe-wrench in a one-handed grip, I approach the dog...
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Rei calls out. I don't respond. If I talk now, the dog might run. That'd be bad, since it means more barking.
It resorts to growling as I grow closer... and I pat it on the head with my offhand. Naturally, it lets me do this twice before deciding that it'd rather chew on it instead.
Standing up with Chewie here munching on my hand- rather painfully, in fact, I hold my pipe-wrench with my arm and use my newly freed hand to tug him off and simply hold him, a move he suddenly doesn't have a problem with.
Spinning with little dog in hand, in my infinite wisdom, I say but one word in clear English; "Dog."
I'm met with various looks of confusion? Outrage? I don't even know. Back to Japanese. "What? What did I do this time?"
More than one of them turn to keep walking. "H-hey! Wait, what did I do?! Shizuka-sensei, at least help me get some gauze for my hand!"
No response. Ugh. I run to catch up, and Lil' Shit here decides to lick me in the face for my troubles. Thanks, I'd forgotten how weird it feels to have dog slobber on my face. By weird, I meant tickly.
Man, now I miss my dog. This sucks. I look over the dog in question as we walk, the distinct sound of wood meeting skulls echoing ahead of us as Saeko and Takashi carve a path through the notably large horde of infected. I'd love to help them handle it, but with Rei covering the middle and Hirano using his remaining nails to cover the backline, there's no way for me to do such without dropping the dog.
Dropping the dog is the last thing I want to do right now. Mostly because he'll bark at me again. Probably.
He- I think it's a he anyways, and lord knows I'm not going to check right about now- is a big fluffy white ball of a dog with a red bone collar and black ear flaps. If he wasn't being such an annoyance just a moment ago and wasn't the one responsible for my slowly bleeding hand, I'd have called him cute.
Yes, I see you squirming because the wound you made is now bleeding a little onto your fur. Deal with it, you caused it after all.
Can't see any nametag or anything, so for now and forever more, in my head? You will be known as little shit. I will never let you live today down.
As if he could read my mind, he licks my chin again. Ugh.
Guess I'll stick to the back while the others find a path forward.
"..so, what are we naming him?" That's Hirano.
"Chewie" I answer nigh instantly, and I receive denial just as quickly.
"No! With that scare, you don't get to name him." Think that was Takagi. Can't quite tell when the dog is busy licking my chin again. Come on, it's not that bad, is it? I just approached the puppy... with a pipe-wrench...
Okay, maybe it did look bad.
Our group of eight has sort of gone up to nine with the dog. This isn't much of an issue, but it might be in the distant future if we run out of food. I don't know about you, but I'm not looking forward to needing to eat the Emergency Bean Rations hiding in my bag. Yes, that is their official name that I didn't make up on the spot.
Totally. The apartment is within eyesight right about now, but before then? Convenience store for food, and it's just down the road from us in the most literal of ways. There's been a hell of a lot of infected in the area, and there's no point in running around on an empty stomach after all. Night's slowly settling in anyways. We probably could have gotten here faster if we ran, but- running is a bad idea.
Speaking of the dog though, I'm no longer holding it and my hand is now covered with gauze. Who has the dog? Takagi. The pinkette in question is pampering Little Shit with absolutely no complaints from the dog himself. I can't pat your head more than twice, but she can do it for more than ten minutes of walking without complaint?
Damn you, dog. Damn you. Also, Hirano ended up suggesting a name that the others agreed with. I sacrifice my hand to get him and I can't even pick out his name... it's Zeke by the way, but I know what I'm still going to call him wherever possible.
"When we approach the store, gather what you can. Stuff we can take with us and use later are preferrable, but don't hesitate to get something you can have now or up at the apartment. Don't take too much though, taking things other survivors could need more than us is something we should get into the habit of doing." Takashi nods, and I swear I see Rei smile at him at that last part.
"How many bags should we limit ourselves to then?" I ask, earning myself a glare from Takagi. I didn't even do anything other than speak this time!
He takes a moment to respond. "Two. We'll get in, bring everything to the checkout area and get two bags full and leave the rest. If we really need it, we can come back for it." True enough.
We walk down the road right to the front of the store, unknowingly in a vague arrowhead formation. Saeko was acting as the point man, with Takashi and Rei on the flanks. Hirano was to the left of Rei and I was to the right of Takashi, with Saya, Kato and Shizuka behind us all. It's in this formation that we got shit done. Anything that was in the way of our destined food? Obliterated. If it wasn't shot, stabbed or bludgeoned it was promptly crushed as we went over the corpses. Saw Kato stomping on one a bit more than necessary, but I'm not gonna bring it up if she doesn't.
We all have our ways of coping, after all. "Might be wiser to bring up things to the roof. There's a lot of them in the area after all..." I retort, shaking my head but once as Busujima rudely interrupts my swing that was about to cave in a skull by doing it herself before I could.
This wouldn't be an issue if it didn't cause me to almost trip up on the body.
"My apologies." She says as she goes in for another swing.
I wave her off in the most literal of senses. This is no place for a chat anyways. "It's fine."
Approaching the front entrance of the store, we find it- completely empty. The sliding automatic door opens with a ping, and there's no immediate rush of infected or anything. Sure, there's still some outside moving towards us, but surely at least one of them would have gotten stuck on the door, right?
"Keep on your guard, something's not right." No shit, Sherlock. This is why your the leader, Takashi.
[Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location]
"-across the board have shown that the number of infected individuals is rising rapidly. We've lost all contact with the police stationed in the Saitama prefecture and those we have contact with elsewhere are running dangerously low on supplies, bar Tokonosu. They're clinging on by virtue of their larger police force than standard."
"Hm."
"It was for dealing with the gangs in the area, so they've been able to hold off against the smaller swarms without much issue. Flights over the city show them maintaining order around the bridges, but the situation is rapidly deteriorating." A folder is thrown onto a desk. Photos spill out.
Looting, killings, shootings, chaos all around. The gangs, no longer suppressed, are doing as they please. "I see."
"Citizens in the Takagi Estate are setting up a defensive perimeter and guiding people into the walls of the house as an impromptu defensive position. The airport, meanwhile, is rapidly being overrun. It's expected that should the airport fall, the bridges will be next without the sound of jets to distract the infected."
A nod is the speakers response, as the seated individual finally says something. "Hmh. Have the Phantoms load up with ordnance and destroy the Tokonosu airport. Take out as many as possible, thin the enemies numbers. Give the general order to all police remaining in every city to do what is necessary to maintain order and to set up defensive positions in a defensible location. Lethal force on any dissenters or injured individuals is authorized- there's not the manpower nor space to imprison them, and we can't provide any relief outside of bombings. I fear we'll lose that capability soon enough too"
"B-but sir! That's il-" "Do it. Better dead than infected."
"...Yes sir." A salute, followed by the sound of pen on paper as the man in question passes on the order to another in the room. The man continues as soon as he's gone. "SDF deployed in Tokyo are requesting immediate relief, but ammunition stockpiles..."
5th chapter! Introduced Zeke a little early and decided to do a little peek elsewhere, got some plans for Alice in the works. Next up; Looting and The Apartment! Hope you all enjoyed.