The day the world changed forever, was just an ordinary Thursday for me.
Waking up early, make my bed before taking a hot shower, brush my teeth, and put on my uniform to prepare for another boring school day, thinking to myself, how much do I wish to break free from this routine, that things could change.
Now… If I could, I would take back those words, I would give up anything to return to that routine.
My hand tries desperately to reach her, as the fire consumes it all and I see them approaching slow but steady.
It's a nightmare, one I'm never waking up from.
"Hajime!" A voice finally returns the boy to reality. "Daydreaming as usual huh?" She said as her chin leaned in her hand, the elbow resting on the desk.
"I'm sorry?" The spiky-haired boy blinked a few times, trying to focus.
"What's up with you lately? You've been spacing out all day" Another girl said, jumping into the desk to take a seat, crossing her legs.
The boy held between his eyes pressing his fingers as he tried to remember what they were talking about in the first place, his mind felt fuzzy for some inexplicable reason. "I'm sorry I- I've been thinking about things lately… What were we talking about?"
The blonde rolled her eyes. "The vocational quiz! Next year we'll be seniors so we have to start thinking about our future and all that, do you know what you'll be answering?"
"Cut him so slack Natsumi" The dark-green haired girl said. "He probably doesn't know and I doubt your yapping will help him find out soon, not everyone has a powerful family with a position ready for them"
"Oh, don't you start now Sato" The shorter girl scoffed. "We went over this already, I'm not taking charge of the Kuzuryuu group, I'm doing something else entirely!"
"I see, have you figured it then? Since you're so vocal about it" Sato smirked as she leaned towards Natsumi, swinging her legs.
"Well… I-... You- see-" The more she stumbled on her own words, the more Sato's smirk grew. "That's why I wanted to hear him! So I can get an idea from him!"
"You and I both know you can't get 'Inspiration' from anyone, this is your future, not his, just admit you have no idea!"
As the two began their argument, Hajime simply rolled his eyes.
This is the average day for him, the typical Hajime Hinata experience to say the least. Since he could remember, Hope's Peak has been his dream, an unattainable dream since the best he could do was the infamous Reverse Course.
At first, it sucked, a lot, being so close but so far away from his dream school tore him apart, the mere idea of being cataloged as just one more average Joe in this world was a nightmare. Until he met this girl; Chiaki Nanami.
His life changed a little, now he had someone who truly listened to him, who cared and was there when he needed it, she taught him he could live as himself, that his life doesn't have to be a nightmare that it could have some color in it.
It's thanks to her that he can sit here with both Natsumi and Sato at the same time without one of them trying to murder the other right on the spot.
They used to have some bad blood between each other and another girl from Chiaki's class, but as it can be seen now, that's just water under the bridge, it has come to the point where they can talk about the vocational quiz without seriously taking out a bat to knock each other out.
"Right eh vocational quiz… I completely forgot about it"His eyes averted from the pair of girls arguing. He instead observed the almost empty classroom. it was only the girls, him, and a couple more students eating their lunch."What I want to do, what I want to become after graduating…"
Thinking about it is just making his head spin around again."Is there a point to think about it…?"
His life has gotten better for sure but, he can't help but to still think if it even matters, it's most likely he'll end up working in an office like any other person in this city.
"What difference would it make? It'll be a new routine but just different colors now…"
The sudden sound of sirens interrupted his thoughts, not only one but many were heard in the distance, it even interrupted Natsumi and Sato.
"Do you heard that?" Sato asked as the sirens increased.
"Yeah… Wonder what happened, sounds like they deployed an entire unit" Natsumi mentioned. Then ambulances joined.
Just a couple of seconds later the sound of helicopters followed through, by instinct they looked up at the ceiling since it flew right above them heading East, the three stood up from their spot and headed to the window seeing at least six or seven helicopters from the army.
"The army…!? Are we under terrorist attack or something?" Natsumi frowned. Behind the helicopters, a new one joined one from the news.
"Something is not right…" Sato quickly pulled out her phone, typed her password then proceeded to search for anything that could give them an idea of what was going on.
Natsumi joined her, the two now busy searching for any lead failed to notice a figure standing behind the gates. Hajime did see it, it was so far away he couldn't see their face nor even what they were wearing.
Hajime felt a chill run down his spine, whoever that person was, they noticed him and could them staring back, an unnerving feeling began to overwhelm him, and the moment he blinked the figure was no longer there.
"Wha-?" His eyes moved around the entire place, desperately trying to find them, but they were long gone. "That's not…"
"Aha, found something" Sato suddenly said. "It's a video that's trending, it's called 'Chaos in the Kanto region'"
"That's unnerving. Well, whatever the case, play it, we gotta see what's going on there" Natsumi leaned more to see the phone screen, the two girls then looked up to Hajime, waiting for him to play the video.
". . . " Hajime couldn't find words to express what he just saw. Ultimately he decided to ignore it, and just joined the two girls, and as soon as he did Sato pressed the screen to reproduce the video.
The recording began with police officers aiming at a group of walking citizens, ordering them to stop but they didn't react, neither to the gun nor the orders.
"Stop! Stop I said!"
The cameraman was shaking, making the image more blurry plus the sun shining as bright as it could today made it impossible for the trio to see what these people looked like, what they could see were a couple of officers running away from them carrying citizens on their backs, one in particular carried a child who was bleeding out from the shoulder.
Sato gasped at this, Natsumi even frowned more, and Hajime felt his heart race.
"I said stop or I'll shout!"
At mere centimeters away from the officer, the policemen had no other option but to open fire at the ignored orders, and all of them began to shoot. Right when the first bullet was shot the video freezes.
"Huh!? Oh c'mon, you stupid thing!" Sato desperately tried to tap the screen to reproduce it again, but it was clearly not working.
"Great your phone had to malfunction now of all times!" The blonde sarcastically remarked, crossing her arms as she rolled her eyes. Her hand went to her pocket searching for her own phone.
"Is not malfunctioning! I just bought it last week!" The green-haired responded, still trying to make the video work by reloading just to pop a 'Service not available at the moment'
"Were you saying?" Natsumi raised an eyebrow.
"Hold on, I don't think that is the problem. Look" Hajime pointed at the top corner of the phone, then they noticed an important detail, the signal bar was missing entirely, replaced with a big X instead.
Natsumi already with her phone at hand quickly unlocked it to confirm, while Hajime took out his confirming by looking at the still locked screen. It was the same for them.
"You gotta be fucking kidding…" Natsumi whispered, opening different applications hoping for at least one to respond, but not such luck.
"Look, whatever it is, it's not here, it's in Kanto, right? If the army is involved I'm pretty sure they can handle whatever it is, it won't be long before the teachers proceed with instructions for us, so-" Sato's rational explanation sound would be interrupted by the sound of metal.
The three went silent for a moment to confirm they heard, what they heard. Soon they heard it for a second time, this time louder, then a third, a fourth until it became a consecutive sound.
The three turned to the window for a second time, and to Hajime's shock that figure for before returned, hitting themselves at the gates desperate to enter, this time both girls did see them, their erratic movements and clear ignorance of pain made them shiver in fear.
Hajime swallowed, starting to sweet."This can't be real, right? Whatever is going on might be just some weird hallucination…? I mean, how can he keep doing that without feeling any pain-!?"
The noise finally woke up at the security guard at the gate. His eyes opened, he flicked his cap up and his eyes could witness an erratic person trying to force his way in.
His instincts kicked it, immediately stood up taking out his nightstick. "Hey, you better stop that!"
But his order was ignored, just like with the policemen in the video.
"I said stop it, or I'll be forced to use lethal force!" The guard warned again, sweat dripping from his forehead.
For a second time, his order went ignored. This person just extended their arms towards the guard through the iron bars of the gate.
"Last warning! Stop it and walk away or else there will be consequences!"
Nothing. They now tried to slip their head through the gate.
"That's, it you asked for it!"
The guard squeezed his nightstick and without hesitation hit the face of the suspect causing them to fall on their back. There was a sense of relief to the trio behind the window at seeing this, they could breathe in peace now.
"077 here, do you copy? Over" The guard said through the radio in his shoulder as he began to unlock the gate with his key.
"078 here. What's the matter? Over"
"I have a suspect here, tried to force his way in. Had to use force to stop them, I think I'll need medical attention for him, and some backup to keep him in check. Over"
Now with the gate open, the guard prepared a pair of handcuffs.
"Sending backup and medical attention right away. Over and out"
"Well thanks, asshole, I was looking forward to returning home early today to celebrate my son's birthday. Now thanks to you, I'll have to stay here watching over you until authorities come over" With a resigned sigh the guard made his way to the suspect on the floor.
His hand reached his arm to handcuff his right wrist first, but in doing so, the sleeve slid back revealing a flesh wound. The guard's eyes widened in horror at the disgusting mark that resembled a bite.
"What in the world…" He whispered under his breath. "Hey pal, are you ok-?" His eyes moved to meet theirs, but when doing so he finally got a more close up look at their face. His skin was gray, a bloody open mouth revealing rotten teeth and lifeless eyes, completely white. "...-ay.?"
In just a second they stood up right away, holding the guard by the shoulders with incredible strength, they kept him in place and no matter how much the guard struggled he couldn't escape the tight grip.
"No! Wa-wait! What are you doing!? Stop! Stop!"
His pleas were ignored, as the creature landed a bite right on his neck.
"Agh-! Ugh- Pl-pleaase!"
Their teeth pierced through the skin and soon reached the flesh, without remorse, they bit off a great chunk of meat from the man and began to chew on it, pushing the flesh into his mouth with both hands in desperation.
"A-agh! F-fuck! Aahh-!" The guard cried, holding onto his wound with both hands trying to avoid bleeding out, but it was too much the wound was huge and he soon began to choke on his blood as he started to cough it.
After the creature swallowed, he crawled to the injured guard preparing for a second bite.
"S-stohp s-stohp p-hwleas!" The guard couldn't even speak properly, as blood kept pondering out of his mouth as he bled out. "Stoooooopphhhh!"
And from afar, the trio could only witness how this thing began to chew off the guard's face without a care in the world.
Words couldn't be enough to express the multiple emotions they were feeling right now, Hajime sweated bullets as Sato's legs trembled, and Natsumi's hand went right to her chest, her heart beating faster than ever.
Once the creature was done, they stood up, blood splattered all over the floor, all over their clothes, his head slowly began to turn to the window where the students were staring from and a chill slid down their backs as he began to walk towards them.
This time pushing through the gates without a problem, leaving them wide open.
And as if things were not bad enough, behind that thing, they could see more of them walking in this direction.
"... We need to get out" Sato whispered, barely hearable.
Natsumi kept hyperventilating, and Hajime just took a couple of steps back.
"We need to get out!" Sato yelled and made her way out of the classroom.
By now, the other two students had already left, and the scream of Sato finally returned both Natsumi and Hajime to reality, they would soon walk out too.
The three walked at a fast pace through the hallway, earning confused stares from the other students walking by.
"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!" Natsumi kept repeating as she walked behind Sato. "What the fuck was that!? W-what… Just-!"
"I don't know! And I don't want to find out!" A panicked Sato yelled, causing other students from the reserve course to glance at them in confusion, a few of them on their phones trying to make them work looked up at them too.
"Calm down! Don't panic, whatever that was let's just get as far away as we can from it" Hajime said, getting in between the two before they could make an argument out of this. "Do you hear me"? He now focused his attention on the other students staring. "Someone just entered the school and they're not friendly, get as far as you can and tell the others!"
No one even responded, it just made them more confused. The three continued walking away, just leaving a bunch of students staring at each other hoping one would understand what was going on.
As they reached the back door, Sato suddenly was hit a realization. "...They're not just coming this way, are they?"
"What do you mean?" The blonde asked, holding the door open.
"I mean, if they're heading this way…" Her gaze focused on Hope's Peak, the Main Course.
The realization hit Hajime's head like a brick, and without communication, they had no way of knowing what was going on, Chiaki had no clue of what was happening.
Behind them, they could start hearing screams. By holding the door open, they could witness the carnage starting, that very same thing that ate the guard's face was now inside, biting the head of their homeroom teacher.
"Get it off! Get it off meeee!"
He was desperately trying to escape, but the more he pulled the more blood spread around, a few students tried to help, hitting the thing with their fists, with their bags but it didn't move an inch.
To make things worse, two of those things jumped out from the corners into the students who tried to help, they couldn't push them away.
"Get the hell away from me!"
"H-help! Somebody!"
And just like the first of those things, these two immediately went for the bite, one bitting the first one in the arm as he tried to cover his face, and the second one bitting the shoulder.
They started to chew causing agony to their still alive victims, and as they enjoyed their flesh more of those things walked in, extending their arms toward the masses of students still in the hallways.
The fear took them over, and everyone began to scream and run away, pushing each other, hitting each other or a worse fate if they happened to fall in the middle of a panicked crow.
Before a large amount of the running students could arrive at the back exit where they were, Natsumi acted by instinct.
The door shut down right in their faces, soon after it was locked from behind and Natsumi kicked a full trash can in front of the door.
"What the hell-!? Open the door!"
"Please open the door, let us out!"
"Dammit, you bitch open this damn door or else!"
Natsumi walked back a couple of steps without saying a word.
They began to tackle the door, in an attempt to bring it down but being a door made of strong wood it was gonna take more than a couple of those to bring it down.
"Please they're coming, open the door! Please! Please I beg you!"
"Shit, shit, shit!"
Natsumi didn't move an inch, she turned to her two companions, who were staring at her in disbelief at her rashed action.
"Fuck! They're here! Open the door! Open the door please!"
Hajime broke free from his shock at the sound of their pleas, and rushed in to attempt and open the door, just for Natsumi to get in the middle preventing him from reaching it on time.
The disbelief on Hajime's face could be noticed from miles away, he held her arms in an attempt to push her away but by the time tried that, the sounds of their pleas quickly became horrific screams begging for mercy.
He could hear them, all of them crying, shouting, begging, each of those people was being bitten to death and still trying to desperately open the door.
At the sound of this, he, along with the girls did the only thing their instinct commanded; Escape. They ended up running away as fast as they could from the carnage that had just started.
Author's Note:
So, what is this? It's my attempt at a take for a zombie AU for Danganronpa. I'm not sure if I am even going to update this one, I just wanted to try something new to ease up my mind and have some fun, I've never written horror in my life before and I fear this ends up being edgy, but I can't learn without failing first...
So let's see how I can handle this one, for now, this is part one of the prologue that is meant to be fast hopefully i can keep the rhythm for the next chapters.
I haven't decided pairings yet, but if you're familiar with me you probably know what to expect, regardless I might try something new and different so I am open to suggestions.
That said, criticism is welcomed, and I'm open for betas!
Take care.