Inside a small convenience store, a man is just casually sitting at his register with a bored look on his face. A zombie was slowly approaching from outside...only to get run over by the passing school bus escaping from Fujimi Academy. The man didn't even notice as he just waited for a customer to come.
With the Fujimi Survivors, Shizuka continued to drive at the wheel. Matthew and Kyoko were sitting together behind the driver's seat. Eddy and Ed were sitting on the opposite side of the two teachers. Saya and Kohta were sitting behind Eddy and Ed. Toshimi and Misuzu were on Saya's opposite side. Double-D and Yuuki were sitting behind Toshimi while Takashi and Rei were behind Saya, and Saeko was sitting with Konrad behind Double-D. Everyone else was sitting in the back.
"Look, the city!" Yamada yelled.
Everyone looked and more than a few gasped at what they saw; columns of smoke rose from the city like it had been carpet-bombed. Down what few streets they could see, shapes of people could be seen running around in a panic. Emergency vehicles were flying down whatever streets weren't blocked with traffic and a few were tipped over, having run into something, and the crew were attacked by the walking dead, drawn by the crash and sirens.
The few areas that weren't covered in the dead were clogged with the living, running for what shelter they could find or looting whatever they could grab. At one corner gas station, a police officer could be seen arresting a looter with cartons of cigarettes lying at his feet, only to have a small horde of zombies converge and devour them both.
"Panic, chaos, and then complete anarchy. The steps of the collapse of civilization in the face of disaster." Saya muttered.
"But can't the police restore order?" Naomi asked.
"Somehow, I doubt it. This is a pandemic, probably worse than the Spanish Flu." Double-D said.
"Really? I thought it was more like the Black Plague." Shizuka spoke up.
"Heh, didn't you dress up as that for Halloween, Double-D?" Eddy jokingly asked as Double-D rolled his eyes.
"We're missing the big picture here. How did we beat those diseases?" Morita asked.
"Well, in some cases the disease had killed so many people that it couldn't spread anymore," Shizuka supplied. "But in this case…"
"The dead rise up to continue the spread of the disease," Kohta concluded.
"So, what? This disease is just going to keep spreading?" Yuuki asked.
"Looks like it. Unless the dead are stopped or decompose." Takashi said before turning to Shizuka. "Ms. Marikawa, how long does it take for a body to rot away to bone?"
"Well, let's see… in Summer it can take as little as a few weeks for flesh to decompose to the skeleton in certain limbs so… two to four months tops. That's not too bad."
"We can only hope we last that long..." Double-D muttered.
"Doesn't seem all that promising, to be honest," Kyoko added.
"So why are we headed into the city then? We should have just found a place to hide in the school!" Snapped a boy from Shido's Group, Tsunoda. "Why are we following Komuro's group anyway? No one asked the rest of us what we wanted to do!"
"It wouldn't matter if we hid ourselves from them. Those zombies would have just found us due to some dumbass mistake you all made." Eddy said.
"The fuck do you mean by that?!" Tsunoda snapped.
"I meant your whole group would have fucked something up considering you're following that jackass, Shido!" Eddy bit back.
Shido, for his part, didn't seem to be all that bothered by Eddy's comment. However, the snake-like teacher did sneer for a brief moment before Shizuka slammed her foot on the brake.
"That's enough! It's hard enough to concentrate on driving without all this yelling!"
"Well, I … whatever."
"So why don't you tell us what you want to do," Saeko said calmly
Tsunoda seemed like he was backed against a wall before he turned toward Takashi angrily.
"I just can't fucking stand this guy!"
Takashi glared. "Why? What the hell did I ever do to you, asshole! I barely even know you!"
"You know!" Tsunoda snarled as he moved to hit Takashi...only for Rei to slam the blunt end of her mop into his stomach, making him keel over.
"You're horrible."
Konrad clicked his tongue as he picked up Tsunoda by the back of his collar and glared at him through his visor. He knew exactly why the jock hated Takashi and it was because he had always been there to stop him from bullying the other students, never even giving him the time of day otherwise.
"Sit down and shut the fuck up, Tsunoda. In case you didn't already know...we're all struggling together. It doesn't matter who we were at school, we're all survivors now."
Tsunoda felt his bravado leave him slightly as Konrad forced him back into his seat, not making any other complaints after that. However, it was at that moment Shido began clapping his hands.
"Well done, everyone. But we wouldn't be having this problem if we had a leader." The teacher said snidely. "Someone who puts others ahead of himself. One who could lead us to safety in this troubled time."
Saya rolled her eyes. "And I take it YOU are the best candidate?"
Kohta scowled. "I'd rather have McGee-Sensei over you..."
"Well, while Hayashi and McGee are both very qualified teachers, it would make the most sense that I am the one leading this group," Shido said smugly. "After all, I have the most experience in that regard."
Kyoko clicked her tongue. "Bite me, asshole..."
"No need for such harsh words, Hayashi-San. Let's all put it to a vote, shall we?"
However, Konrad had a different idea as he stood up and marched over to Shido, who noticed.
"Yes? Can I help you?"
The only answer Shido got was a punch to the nose, breaking it and causing blood to gush out as the slimeball fell on his ass. Some of Shido's Group wanted to stand up and defend him but were cowed by Konrad's glare.
Before Shido could get up, Konrad was on top of him and began punching him over and over again, his armored fists knocking out more than a couple of teeth in the process. As Shido coughed up a glob of blood from the beating he had been given, he suddenly found himself staring down the barrel of Matthew's Colt Python, which the older McGee brother had discreetly given to Konrad.
"H-Hey, now! N-No need for that!"
"Give me a damn good reason."
Before Shido could come up with some pitiful defense for his continued survival, Konrad suddenly felt an alert in his suit's HUD.
[THREAT DETECTED.]
"Shit!" Matthew cursed out, getting everyone else's attention as they saw a large touring bus barreling towards them.
"Shizuka! Back up!" Konrad yelled.
"Punch it!" Saeko added.
Tires squealed as the survivor's smaller bus got out of the way of the charging juggernaut. The larger bus soon hit a parked car and flipped around to crash into the tunnel entrance sideways.
"Whoa..." Kohta muttered as everyone saw the devastation.
A few zombies poured out of the crashed bus but started dropping down like flies from exposure to the flames surrounding them.
"Heh, guess fire kills everything, huh?" Matthew joked.
"Too bad we don't have any marshmallows," Ed said.
Knowing they needed to get away before the fuel tank in the crashed bus exploded from the flames, the survivors drove off as fast as possible. Shido coughed as he picked himself up, clutching his broken nose in pain as he glared hatefully at Konrad, who returned it with a glare of his own.
"I always knew you were dangerous! You tried to kill me just now!"
"Seems more like Konrad was protecting us to me." Rei glared.
"Seems you're outvoted, Shido. And even your precious students from your group have some semblance of common sense to follow the ones who actually have a plan." Matthew sneered, enjoying the sight of Shido squirming.
As midnight approached, the group saw some police officers shoot some zombies along the evacuation route. Konrad, Matthew, Ed, and Eddy jumped out to help them mop up before going over to get some information.
"Is Dad with you?" Ed asked.
The police shook their heads but told them that the ones at the bridge were going thorough medical scans of every person crossing the bridge and at the rate they were going, the group wouldn't make it across until at least tomorrow afternoon.
"You're Taggart's son, aren't you?" One of the officers asked Ed. "I recently got in touch with your old man. He's fine."
Ed smiled thankfully and gave a quick word of thanks before the boys returned to the bus. A shot rang out in the night sky, and Double-D sighed knowing that someone out there got to live just a little bit longer.
"I feel like we'll be hearing a lot more of that pretty soon..."
Konrad made a quick radio call to his dad to let him know where the group was and looked skyward when he answered, "I know." It was a relief to know that his parents were keeping watch over him and his friends right now.
[SURVIVORS DETECTED.]
Konrad nearly fell over himself from surprise by what he heard.
"This suit can pick up survivors too?" He thought before turning to Shizuka. "Shizuka, can you stop the car real quick?
"Why?"
"We should just keep moving. It makes no sense to stop now." Shido scoffed.
"For some reason, my suit was able to pick up some survivors. We should see if they need help."
"You sure?" Saeko asked. "Where?"
"About 50 meters northwest from what I'm seeing on the HUD."
Shizuka nodded and drove in the directions Konrad provided. Soon, they stopped and Konrad got outside before turning to Ed, Double-D, and Eddy.
"Hey, you guys wanna join?"
"Oh dear..." Double-D gulped before Yuuki gave him a reassuring hand squeeze.
"Don't worry, we'll hold the bus for when you get back."
"We'll keep an eye on Shido for ya." Matthew winked as he ruffled Eddy's head. "Break a leg out there, Pipsqueak."
"Screw you, Bro."
As Konrad and the Eds got off the bus, the former's HUD gave him a general direction to the survivors. He found the home they were in but he had no way to know how many survivors or infected.
"Maybe we can find some stuff to take with us." Eddy suggested.
"I don't like raiding through other people's things, but we have no choice." Double-D sighed.
Konrad opened the door slowly and saw the home was dark. He got to the living room and he froze again.
"Konrad?" Ed asked his pen pal worriedly.
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE.]
"Hold on, my suit is doing something," Konrad warned everyone.
[PREDATOR VISION ENABLED.]
"What does that do?"
[PREDATOR VISION ALLOWS THE USER TO SEE 40 METERS IN ALL DIRECTIONS WITH X-RAY VISION. PREDATOR VISON ALSO SHOWS INFECTION LEVEL IN A PERCENT ALL INFECTIONS BEYOND 60% ARE BEYOND TREATMENT. PREDATOR VISION REQUIRES SUIT ENERGY.]
"Good to know..." Konrad muttered before managing to use his new Predator Vision to locate the survivors...where there was only one.
The house had a couple of zombies but Ed was able to bash their brains out with his bat. Konrad then made his way to where the survivor was and saw that they were blue, meaning they were uninfected.
"Hello? Are you okay?" He called out.
"That voice...Konrad?"
Hearing a familiar woman's voice, Konrad opened the door and felt a wave of relief wash over him at who he saw.
"SIS!"
The woman was quite tall and had cream-colored hair tied back into a ponytail. She wore an eyepatch over her right eye and had a brown left eye. She was clad in a black tank top tucked into waist-high pants with a large belt.
However, the discerning thing about her was that she was quite...rotund. Her gains were mostly focused around her belly, and even with her pants covering her midriff, the rolls still bulged out like a sore thumb. Those same pulled-up pants struggled to contain her gargantuan ass, which rivaled her gut in width, and her leg rolls visibly stuck out even inside her pants.
"Am I glad to see you."
"Same here."
The woman, Quanxi, was an older sister-figure to Konrad. She had past experience in the military herself and even though she was, for lack of a better term, FAT, she was still quite skilled in combat and gun training.
"What's with the new suit?" Quanxi asked.
"Don't ask. It's an old baby shower present from my Mom and Dad."
"Hey, Konrad! We need to head back to the bus! Is whoever we're rescuing coming or not?!" Eddy barked from downstairs.
Konrad and Quanxi nodded at each other before going downstairs to the Eds, who were all surprised to see her.
"She is huge!" Ed commented.
"Well, well, who's Queen Tons-of-Fun?" Eddy asked.
"Oh, you're the one Konrad has told us about before!" Double-D realized. "Miss Quanxi, was it?"
"Just Quanxi is fine. Miss makes me sound too old."
With their new ally in tow, the boys headed back to the bus. It was a rather tight squeeze for Quanxi, but she managed and opted to stand since she doubted any of the seats would fit her.
"Did anything happen while we were gone, everyone?" Double-D asked.
"Some desperate idiot tried to hijack the bus with a gun. Saeko smashed him in the neck and Matthew confiscated his weapons before throwing him off." Saya explained.
"Quanxi, it's nice to see you among the living." Saeko smiled at the larger woman.
"You too, Saeko. Hope you're taking good care of my little bro."
The bus continued on its way and soon, by sun-up, it was becoming clear the group wouldn't be able to make much progress with all the traffic going on.
Luckily, they were near a side street and although the cops there weren't too keen on letting them go, they couldn't exactly keep them there either, particularly after they saw the hardware some of them were packing.
"Worst case scenario, we draw some of the dead away from the rest of these people and we'll take some out along the way." Eddy said.
The group found a footbridge that they were fairly sure they could squeeze the bus onto and were in the process of removing the vehicles and barricades they found there when a long, whip-like tongue wrapped around Takuzo.
"TAKUZO!" Naomi cried.
The tongue that grabbed Takuzo belonged to something that clearly wasn't a zombie; it was a skinless humanoid with its brain exposed, no eyes, and rows of sharp teeth with the tongue shooting out of its mouth. Before it could drag Takuzo into its awaiting claws, Takuzo stomped on its tongue and ripped it out of his mouth, making it shriek in pain.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Eddy screamed before seeing another 'Licker' jump in and hiss, its tongue flickering.
"Heads up!" Matthew shouted as he fired at the creature with his rifle, turning its attention to him as Konrad jumped on it, having killed the first one already.
The Licker struggled but Konrad was stronger as he shoved his knife into its head, killing it. A third one climbed up and pounced, only to be shot in the back a few times by Kohta's nail gun, stunning it as Konrad grabbed it by the neck, snapped it, and tossed it aside.
"Come on, get back on the bus!" Quanxi ordered Takuzo, who did so and embraced Naomi in relief.
With the Lickers dead, Konrad turned and made his own way back to the bus, only for him to freeze.
[SYSTEM FAILURE.]
"What the...?" He suddenly fell to one knee, feeling the suit weighing a hundred extra pounds.
[INTEGRATING NEW T-VIRUS STRAIN...STAND BY.]
"Konrad! Are you alright, man?!" Takashi called out to his cousin.
"It seems that he has reached his limit, let us go before more of those things come for us," Shido said with his normal grin.
"No man gets left behind!" Matthew snarled at Shido before getting off the bus to help Konrad to his feet, Takashi, Kohta, Ed, and Eddy doing the same.
"I'll assist as well," Saeko said as she rushed in to help her boyfriend.
It took everyone's strength, but they managed to get Konrad on the bus.
"Geez, what is this suit even made out of?!" Eddy complained.
"I have no idea..." Konrad muttered.
[INTEGRATION COMPLETE. SYSTEM RESTART.]
Konrad felt movement return to his body, the suit no longer weighing him down like a giant block of tungsten and lead. It was then he got an emergency call from his parents.
"Konrad, what the hell just happened?! Your systems went nuts, I've been trying to get a hold of you for the last few minutes. What did you do?"
"I don't believe it...Lawrence, did you see that? Did you see that!?"
"What the hell am I looking for?!"
"The suit absorbed some of the T-Virus. The suit can absorb it and make Konrad stronger!"
"Are you sure that's a good thing? What if our son gets infected?!"
"He won't. The suit makes him immune to the negative effects of the T-Virus negative effects. He and the suit will only get stronger."
A new, unfamiliar voice had spoken that last part, surprising Konrad. It was sophisticated but also mechanical.
"Hello, Konrad. I'm Dr. Samuel Hayden, one of the heads of Umbrella as well as your mother's superior."
"Hayden...are you related to Double-D?"
"You mean Eddward? Yes, he is my grandson." Hayden clarified. "I sincerely apologize for the catastrophe currently inflicting this world that has forced you into this game of survival. I am willing to take full responsibility for the actions caused by my cohorts in their narrow-minded goals of achieving so-called Godhood."
"You know that Umbrella is behind this?"
"Not everyone at Umbrella is evil, I should remind you. However, some of its top brass have gone behind the rest of our backs for their own benefits...at the expense of the whole rest of the world."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Simple...because I helped design that suit with your mother. It will benefit you in the long run." Hayden explained. "Be on the lookout for more high-level infected. Only something of that high concentration of the T-Virus will help us."
"So you're basically telling me to just attack every super zombie I find, right?"
"Rather crass words, but yes. Also, keep my grandson safe, please. As for your friend, Ed, there is something waiting for him at the home of Rika Minami. I believe her friend Shizuka can guide you there."
Konrad nodded as Hayden left the communications. He then turned to the rest of the survivors.
"I've got coordinates to a safe house. It belongs to Rika Minami."
"Oh!" Shizuka chimed in. "You mean her house? Well, I'm sure she wouldn't mind if we stopped by and freshened up."
"Is it a high rise?" Kohta asked.
"Does it have good all-around vision?" Kyoko asked.
"Is it privately gated?" Saya asked.
"Oh, yes. It's a duplex standing along the river. There's a convenience store nearby too. Ahh, and a car! You know, the one that looks like a tank? The one that drinks gas? BIG!" Shizuka spread her arms wide for emphasis. "The really big one."
"I don't care about a car as much as I do a shower," Saya said running her hand through her long hair. "I don't think I've ever felt dirtier in my entire life."
"I couldn't agree with you more," Eddy smirked.
That just earned him a sharp slap across the face but the grin still on his face said it all that it was worth it.
"I'm sold," Takuzou said.
"Me too." Naomi followed suit.
"I'd love to just crash and sleep." Kurokami, a boy from Shido's Group, sighed in relief.
"Then we go. Let's get there soon, Miss Shizuka." Takashi said.
"Right!" Shizuka nodded as he began driving to her friend's home.
"Also, Ed, apparently, someone left something for you there," Konrad told the lovable oaf. "Maybe it's some weapons you can use."
"Weapons good for Ed!"
Meanwhile, Shido was glaring at Konrad from nearby.
"You may be stronger in that suit, Normandy-Kun, but I am far smarter. The next time you shut down, I'll take it upon myself to kill you and take the suit for myself. I will become the leader this group truly needs."
Unfortunately for the snake, Konrad's hearing was much sharper than normal and the military boy had his own plans in mind for Shido in case he eventually tried something...
We rescue a survivor and it's Quanxi from Chainsaw Man, having put on a bit of weight it seems. (Reference for her size can be found on DeviantArt. Just look up Quanxy by Nepirou.)
Also, it seems we have Dr. Samuel Hayden from Doom here as well and he had a hand in the creation of Konrad's Nanosuit. He also has a gift for Ed, but what could it be?