Disclaimer: I only own the stuff I made up; the rest belongs to the rightful owners.
A/N: Welcome to book 4 in the Dying Love series and the first book in the next trilogy.
Warning: The contents of this story include (but are not limited to): violence, blood, gore, underage smoking, underage drinking, underage sex, death, abuse, offensive language, etc.
Extended Summary
They survived over one year in the zombie apocalypse and after living on the road for several months, they think its time to finally settle down. Kaminari finally feels like he can relax and find a moment to take a load off in the zombie apocalypse with his good friends but peace was a fragile concept in the zombie apocalypse. After being separated from his group, Kaminari and his squad - the Kamisquad - must find a way to get back to the others after retrieving something stolen from them.
You know, when you face a life-or-death situation, you tend to feel alive. Even if it's not a life-or-death situation. Let's say you just barely avoid hitting a car. In that case, your heart is pounding but as it pounds, it reminds you that you are alive and breathing and the previous breath you took was not your last. That's how I felt when I was living in this zombie apocalypse. Well, still living but, more to that later. This is the story of how we survived the zombie apocalypse and how we got to where we are today.
But first, just a quick recap to those now tuning in. Nice to see I have more of an audience here as we tell our story. For those who don't know me, my name is Chargebolt and I'm just going to quickly recap the important events that I went over yesterday for today's session.
During Day 1 of the apocalypse, me, Kyouka, Shihai, and Kinoko were sent to Isamu Academy to do some catch-up on extra credit. That's when all hell broke loose. The students turned into zombies, tried to eat us, and we barely escaped with our lives and I got myself an awesome dirtbike. Musutafu was lost within hours and we spent the last several months surviving by the skin of our teeth. It was just me, my classmates, and Class 1-B. We survived, yes, but we weren't out of the woods and it wasn't a walk in the park. We encountered zombies in a factory, the League of Villains attacked us, Aoyama was revealed to be a traitor and was killed by Iida who Deku subsequently killed, then we went to Hosu City to save Koji Koda from a group of hostile survivors, met Kenta there, lost Koda, then me and Deku got exiled, we met Shiketsu, they died except Camie, we fought the League of Villains again but we won this time, and now, here we are, around four hundred days into the outbreak.
I know, pretty quick and straight to the point but I didn't want to waste your time. Oh, and just some quick zombie terminology before we begin so there's no confusion. One year into the outbreak, we encountered five different zombie variants.
Bloodhounds. Bloodhounds are zombie dogs with a wicked sense of smell, durability, and speed. These guys are fast as they were as living canines and they can track you for kilometers, no matter how far away you go from them. We've only encountered them once at that time but there was more in store for us in the future.
Walkers. Walkers are the generic red-shirt army of the living dead.
Runners. The running zombies of the undead horde whose primary goal is to bite and infect you rather than eat you.
Beasts. Holy hell, these motherfuckers are giant zombies, around ten feet tall. They're strong, fast, durable, and hella terrifying and the only way to kill them seems to be by destroying their brains but their skin is like impenetrable armor on all cylinders. Seriously, practically nothing can cut through their skin and to their brain but I'm sure you guys figured that out. One of them from Isamu turned into a beast and has been hunting me since Day 1.
Brainiacs. These are the leaders of the zombie hordes. They're smart and they possess some form of telepathy that allows them to communicate with zombies. They're also smart enough to outsmart survivors. These guys are rarely found alone and if a horde of zombies starts to get organized and the survivors seem to be losing, either the survivors' luck is running out or a brainiac is in the crowd.
Okay then, now that that's out of the way, it's time to get into the story. So, after spending a few weeks on the road, we decided to leave Musutafu behind so now, we were somewhere down south. Not too down south of Japan but we were traveling south.
Day 401, 7:35 AM
Pulling up on his dirtbike, Chagebolt carefully gets off as he approaches the gated community. Looking through the gates, he stops and peers through. Behind him are the rest of his classmates and one by one, they approach the gates.
Deku looks over at the welcoming sign. "A gated community. Looks like a neighborhood abandoned during the apocalypse."
Ground Zero steps forward. "Think anyone still lives here?"
Deku shakes his head. "No. There's no guard tower, no one standing guard, nothing."
Earphone Jack retracts her earphone jack. "I can't hear anyone inside either. Not a single soul."
"It's worth checking out." Ground Zero climbs over the gate.
Chargebolt does a wall run up the brick wall and leaps over the gate, landing with a roll. "Still got it."
Ground Zero unlocks the gate from the other side and lets the survivors in. "Come on, don't be shy; it's not an invitation-only party."
Earphone Jack sighs heavily. "Good, because I left my ticket in my other pants."
The four of them quickly scout out the gated community. After searching a few blocks, Deku stops in the middle of the street and takes in the sight. The neighborhood they were in looked like a typical suburban neighborhood except it was deserted and starting to overgrown with nature. Cars were left in the middle of the street and some garage doors open to reveal nothing inside. Leaves were scattered all over the ground from trees dangling over the brick walls and fences.
What Deku found most alarming was that there was a cliff on the other side of the gated community. When Deku went around to check it, he peered over the cliff. The cliff was located behind two large mansions and debris seemed to be crumbling into the abyss before him. He had to take a path between the two mansions to get there and stopped just five feet from the edge. He couldn't help but look over to see the ground about two hundred feet below.
Not something one can survive if they fell from here.
A few minutes later, Deku invites everyone inside and tells everyone it's okay to take off their masks and address each other by their real names.
A school bus running on fumes enters the gated community with the rest of the UA students.
The first to step off is Kendo, who now sports a prosthetic hand on her right stump after losing her real hand to bacteria a few months ago. Monoma steps off behind her.
"Man, now this is definitely a place I can see myself living in."
Kendo looks around. "Let's search for supplies first then we'll talk about our living arrangements. Bakusquad, take the houses on the right. Kamisquad, take the houses on the left.
Kaminari waves to her after wheeling his dirt bike into the community. "Whatever you say. Anything to lend a hand to you, missy."
Kendo laughs. "Thanks."
Kaminari, Jirou, Kuroiro, Komori, Mineta, and the outsider known as Kenta Oshiro began searching the houses on the left side of the community.
They search through several houses after splitting up into teams of two, which makes their job faster.
Kaminari and Jirou search the master bedroom of a two-story house. Kaminari lies on the parents' bed. "Ahh, man, Jirou, this is the life."
She lies down next to him. "You can say that again. Imagine if we can just live here."
"Yeah, totally. We can just live here, not worry about taking turns sleeping in a bus seat, and finally use a pillow for our heads to rest on. This seems like heaven." He turns to her. "You sure you didn't hear any zombies?"
"Negative."
"Good. Because I do not want to become brainfood for those dead sons of bitches." He snuggles into bed and closes his eyes. Jirou snuggles next to him and sighs heavily.
"Aww, isn't this the cutest thing we've ever seen."
The duo spring to consciousness and turn to the person standing in the doorway.
Kuroiro, Mineta, and Kenta were standing there, grinning like idiots.
"You said it, Mineta," Kurorio smirks, "this is the cutest thing we've ever seen."
Kenta laughs. "Hey, that's the parents' bed. You guys were about to fall asleep in a bed parents fucked in."
Jirou feels her face heat up. "Shut up. I've slept with my parents once or twice before."
"Yeah, but as daughter and parent, not boyfriend and girlfriend."
She waves her hand. "No guys, still, we're not boyfriend and girlfriend."
"Yes," Mineta teases. I hope Kaminari makes a move soon; I'm going to be so proud of my boy once he finally claps Jirou.
"Don't you have somewhere to be, Mineta?"
"Nope. We searched the place and we found a few supplies. And a can of pudding. We can share." He gestures to his backpack.
Kenta holds up a shirt. "And I finally found a shirt that fits my size." He gestures to his shirtless body.
Kenta was approximately 19 but he was taller than the average Japanese male at about 190 centimeters. Also, most of his body was covered in dragon tattoos that he denies were involved with the yakuza.
"I'm going to clean this shirt so when I finally get laid, my lover will have something nice, soft, and warm to wear afterward."
"Who are you going to lay, man?" Kaminari climbs out of bed. "In case ya forgotten, it's been months since we found another survivor."
"True, true, true, but, never say never man."
He shrugs. "I didn't, bro."
Kenta and Mineta leave while Kurorio stays behind. "You guys ready? Kendo says we gotta check out the mansions before she decides whether we're staying here for the night."
"Only for the night?" Jirou climbs out of bed. "Aww."
"Too many blindspots. Plus, we're right next to a cliff so if a horde comes our way, we're pretty much dead meat. Or... 'undead' meat.
"Good for us, right?" Kaminari laughs. "Dead meat. Maybe that's what we should call these zombies. Dead-"
"No. We are not in one of those zombie movies where the characters call the zombies something other than zombies. We know they're zombies, we'll call them zombies, and that's all we'll ever call them. Unless they're variants then that's when we'll have a serious debate." He jerks his head to the doorway. "Come on, that mansion is our next stop."
After finding Komori sitting on the couch, the six of them travel to the back of the gated community to find the two mansions towering over them. Kaminari feels like a toddler standing before those mansions and smiles warmly. "Man, anyone else feels like they're about to enter a house of the great Greek gods?"
"Nope." Kurorio steps forward. "Come on, let's get this over with."
"Moody much, Vanta, moody?"
Kuroiro looks at him. "Tired, bro."
"Whatever."
They step through the front doors, the first floor of the mansion looks like a library or a museum with all the decayed pictures, priceless vases, and dirt-covered gold color furniture everywhere.
"Rich people," Mineta scoffs. "They always gotta show off."
"Hey, if you got it, flaunt it." Kenta shrugs before stepping forward. "Okay, there's three floors so who gets what floor?"
Kaminari looks up. "Uh, we'll take the third floor. Me and Jirou."
"Second floor for us then," Komori volunteers for Kuroiro.
Mineta nods. "First floor for me and Kneta." Mineta climbs up Kenta and sits down on his left shoulder. "Okay, let's get to work. Now then, Kenta, let's go see where those rich people hid all those dirty magazines."
The dragon boy smiles. "Way ahead of you, perv ball."
They break off into their respective groups with Kaminari and Jirou heading to the top floor. They quickly traverse up the stairs before stopping in the middle of the hallway. The third floor looked like a typical hallway except the carpet was red with dust, the paint on the walls was starting to fade, and there was barely any sunlight coming in on account of the dirty windows. Kaminari quickly opens the windows to give them some illumination. There were only four rooms on this floor so they decided to split up again.
Kaminari finds the bathroom and heads for the toilet. He checks the toilet but it doesn't flush. Huh, so the plumbing isn't working. He heads for the shower and turns the knob. No water figured. He checks under the sink and peers through. "Huh, now what do we get here."
He finds two bottles of rotten deodorant, one packet of expired toothpaste, and an empty roll of floss. He thought he found a drink in the far back but it turned out to be a bottle of mouthwash that lost its original color over the years and now looked like a bottle of piss.
Shit.
Kaminari ducks out of the bathroom and heads for the other room. Inside, was a bedroom but it was a much larger bedroom this time with about one bed and a set of bunk beds inside. Given all the All Might posters on the walls, this was some kind of kid's room. Most of the stuff had been packed up and left and very few items were left behind. The closet was empty of any clothing and the TV stand was missing its TV.
Wait, what?
He pats the bed and gets a faceful of dust off the pillows. "God." He coughs up the dust before stepping back. "Nothing useful here, I guess."
He steps out into the hallway where Jirou comes out holding several supplies like canned foods in her hands. "What did you find, Kaminari?"
"Nothing much."
Jirou steps into the bathroom. "I'll just double-check in here."
"There's nothing in there." He waits thirty seconds before speaking again. "I'm telling you, Jirou, there's nothing-"
"Found something." She pulls holds several water bottles in her hand. She puts both the canned food and bottles in her backpack. "Afterward, we can boil the water just in case."
"Where did you find those?"
"You know that one drawer in the bathroom that never opens? The childproof one? I opened it."
"Oh, I didn't think of that." He curls into himself slightly.
Jirou steps forward toward the bedroom. "So, what do we get in here?"
"Oh, nothing. Nothing worthwhile at least. You know."
Jirou heads inside and returns two minutes later, holding an Easter basket full of stuff like toilet paper, water bottles, candies, and bout three multitools. Not only that but there also appears to be a pair of blue goggles inside that dirt bikers use.
"Oh, where did you find that stuff?"
"In the closet."
I looked through the closet; how did I miss those? Damn it. I checked these rooms out and found nothing but when these guys checked the same rooms out... they found pretty much everything that can be useful.
"This will help us out a lot," Jirou smiles. "Seriously. Goggles will keep debris and contaminated blood out of our eyes. And the multitool, there's always a purpose for that thing. And-"
Kaminari nods. "Yeah. We'll find a purpose for it."
God, I'm so useless. I used to be a great scavenger and now, I'm pretty mediocre. Maybe I've gotten soft because our old home is gone and we're living on the road. Either that or maybe it's been too long since I got a good night's sleep.
10 Minutes Later
After gathering all the stuff they scavenged, they headed out to the middle of the community to meet up with the rest of the survivors. The group suddenly seemed slightly smaller with several of their students gone. If Kaminari counted, then he would need more than two hands to count all the people they've lost since the first day of the outbreak but he was not inclined to relieve those moments.
"Found nothing again," Sero nodded. "Not surprised, Kaminari."
Shoji turns to him. "Lay off a little, will ya?"
He rolls his eyes. "Whatever man. Whatever."
Of all the people to searched the mansion, only Kaminari was the one who came back empty-handed and he didn't like the feeling. After the rest of the cars pulled in to bring the other survivors through, Kaminari looked around and counted how many of them were left.
27. There's only 27 of us left.
Kaminari clenches his knuckles as he waits for his leader to make an announcement.
"Good work guys," One-Handed Kendo smiles. "Excellent work. Now, it's time to get down to business. I know you guys are waiting to hear my verdict so I'll just say this: yes. We're staying here. I don't know for how long but I think we're all kinda tired of sleeping in the bus so now, we're going o be staying here for a while."
"Dibs on the master bedroom," Shoda exclaims.
"Get in line, buddy," Mashirao tells him.
"I'll take a bunk bed," Shiozaki goes next. "Bottom please."
"Then I'll be on top," Sero says happily.
"Guys, wait," Kendo interrupts. "Before we do anything, we need to figure some things out. This place is good for sleeping but there's still a lot of complications. First of all, we need a lookout in case of a horde passing us through. We need a barricade of some kind. We need a roadblock, we need hiding places. We need to know all this stuff in case. We're surrounded by trees in all directions and there's a cliff at the very back of the community. If the worst happens, then we'll be stuck between a rock and a hard place. We need to create emergency exits and we need to know the layout of this place just in case. These are all stuff we need to know now."
Deku steps forward. "I'll help you on that."
"There were a few houses with basements," Bakugou points out. "We can use those for safe houses just in case."
"Is it really such a good idea to hide in a basement during a zombie horde?" Uraraka asks.
"It's better than nothing but I agree." Deku grabs her shoulder. "We'll dig up extra exits in the basements just in case if we have to."
"We'll figure it all out later." Kendo leans against the bus. "For right now, let's just... sit back and relax. Let's finally take a load off."
"Seems like a good idea."
"And then we'll see who is going back to sentry duty."
"I'll volunteer," Shoji raises a hand. "I don't sleep much anyway and I'm a minimalist so I'll take night shift."
"As always, Shoji, we can always rely on you."
"Thanks."
Kendo turns to the others. "If the mansions and houses are clear, then you're more than welcome to settle in. I'd do that right about now if I were you because as soon as Deku and I get to talking, we're assigning you to guard duty and cleanup duty."
Camie laughs. "Guess we better sleep while we can, fam." She turns to Bakugou and whispers in his ear. "I'll keep a bed warm for you, bae."
He looks at her. "Thank you. Not too warm though."
"Whatever you say, Bakubae." She runs a hand down his cheek before stepping away.
9:01 PM
After spending the whole day clearing out houses and scavenging, Kaminari was the only one who came back empty-handed. Seriously, everyone was scavenging and he was the only one who didn't turn up with anything useful. This though lingered with him as he headed for the bedroom on the third floor with the single bed and bunk beds.
Everyone decided to pair up and sleep together since they were so used to it and so the Kamisquad began settling in for the night in the rather medium-sized room.
Jirou climbs into the bottom bunk and scoots over so Kaminari can join her. As for the others, Kuroiro and Komori took the top bunk while Kenta and Mineta took the single bed in the corner.
As Kaminari lies on his side, he feels Jirou snuggle next to him.
"Happy to sleep in a bed again?" Jirou smiles. "Admit it, you are happy."
He nods. "Yeah, I am happy. Happy as I'll ever be today." He checks his wristwatch and notes the date. "Today is Tenya Iida's birthday."
"I miss him. I miss him and his air-chopping hands."
He chuckles. "Yeah, you can say that again." He narrows his eyes. "Wait, I just realized something: the TV from the TV stand is gone. Why would someone want to take a TV with them if they're leaving this place?"
"To watch TV, duh."
Mineta is at the TV stand and looking through the cabinets. He finds several movies. "Kami bro, you got a point. They took the TV but none of the movies?" He shows several movie cases. "Look. 'Home Alone'..."
"Love that movie," Kaminari smiles, "the traps are just so creative. But I hate the later ones."
Jirou simply shrugs. "Never seen 'Home Alone'."
Mineta shows another movie cover. "'Titanic', anyone?"
"God, that's a sad movie," Kuroiro comments. "I can never watch that movie without crying."
"You think they could've survived if they had quirks back then?" Kaminari asks.
Kuroiro scoffs. "Kaminari, if you were on a sinking ship, you would be the first to die."
"Nah, I'd totally survive a sinking ship man."
Mineta gasps. "Holy shit, they even have my favorites." He holds up a DVD case with a vulgar cover. "Porn movies."
Kenta leaps off the bed. "Hell yeah, man, we gotta watch some."
Kurorio nods. "I'm in, bro."
Jirou sits up and snaps at them. "Stop being such a bunch of perverts. Besides, how are you going to watch it with no TV."
The boys look toward the empty TV stands.
Kaminari sighs with disappointment. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But, we should save them, right? For the next time we come across a TV, right?"
Mineta tucks the movies in his pack. "Way ahead of you, Kami bro. Man, I can't wait to see these beautiful naked girls."
Komori dangles her head upside-down over the top bunk to look at Jirou. "Why did we have to be friends with such a bunch of perverts?"
Jirou settles back into the bed. "Because some god of fortune decided to give us the middle finger, that's why."
Kaminari laughs. "Guys, we should really settle in for the night. Seriously, we're finally going to get eight hours of sleep. Come on, let's do it."
"Oh man," Kurorio sighs happily. "Eight hours of sleep, I can only imagine."
12:30 AM
With Shoji
After getting bored of standing near the front gate for so long, Shoji finally got the chance to wander off after Awase came over to take his shift.
Pacing through the streets at this time of night seemed stranger, gloomier, but nothing he wasn't used to. When they had been living in the school bus and whatever cars they still had left, she used to sit on the top of the bus and keep a watch out, even without any light to help him see. This wasn't so different except that he was now walking and pacing an empty neighborhood that he could barely see.
He always took the power of lights for granted back when everything was normal but now, he won't.
He meets up with Sero as they both meet up on the street in front of the two mansions.
"How's it going on your end, man?"
Sero shrugs. "Nothing too bad, honestly, I'm managing."
"Good." Shoji looks around. "You know, this place kinda gives me the creeps."
"You said it. I mean, I know that it's the apocalypse but at night, it doesn't look like the apocalypse hit. It looks like any other neighborhood that existed except it doesn't have any streetlights and it still manages to be creepy."
"Feels kinda haunted."
"Yeah, you can say that again."
Sero spots something on the ground. It looks like a flower overgrowing on the sidewalk. He couldn't identify what kind of flower it was so he got up close to get a better look. It looks like a white camellia flower. Sero plucks it from the ground and smiles at it. "Hey, you think Shiozaki will like this?"
Shoji steps forward to get a look at the flower. "Probably."
"What with all her vines and everything, maybe..."
"That flower looks dead."
Sero looks back at the flower. After his eyes adjust, he tries to make out what he can on the flower. Remembering the flashlight in his pocket, he takes it out and shines it. He didn't have much battery left so he didn't turn it on as often.
The flower was a white camellia but the flower wilted and began leaving small pedals behind in Sero's palm.
"Oh well, it's the thought that counts but-" Sero silences himself after something starts to happen.
The wilted flower starts to move. The petals start to tremble slightly in his hands and then expand. Sero and Shoji lean forward to get a better look. The flower then pulls the front of itself apart to expose the middle and when the petals are stretched as far as they can reach, the flower explodes into a puddle of blood that gets on their faces.
Sero and Shoji step back and wipe the blood out of their eyes with both boys panicking.
"What the hell was that?" Shoji asks with wide eyes. "Did... did that flower..."
"It was dead," Sero gasps breathlessly, "the flower was wilted..." He wipes more blood off his face. "Blood, no, plants don't have blood. No, no."
Unbeknownst to the boys, as they stood there in the dark, reliving the shocking moment before them, the blood that erupted from the now permanently dead flower did its trick. The blood entered through their system through their eyes and was now flowing through their bloodstream. When Shoji tried to use his dupli-arms, they did not respond to his commands. Sero could not produce tape for the life of him. It didn't take long for both boys to realize what had happened though they both denied it.
No, it can't be, Shoji panics internally. No, we can't be infected.
Those who got infected with the zombie disease suddenly lost the ability to use their quirk.
They didn't want to believe but no matter how many times they tried to deny it, they couldn't escape the irrefutable fact.
That dead flower wasn't so dead as it was undead and now, they're infected with the zombie disease.