6 Chapter 6 - Z-Day After

Since we needed to move locations today, I destroyed the repairs I did to the cameras in case Umbrella came back. Getting everything and everyone loaded on the bus, we got out of the area and looked for a new place to camp.

Settling on a small daycare we came across near Rika's pad, I led a small group in to make sure it was safe. Once the whole building was cleared of danger, we brought everyone inside and got them settled. After everyone had setup, I distributed tasks to people. All of us would be sent out, along with me, to search for necessities.

"Alright, stick with your groups and don't wander off. With the events of last night I don't think I need to remind you of the dangers.", I told them.

Everyone nodded in agreement and said they would be careful. Taking Rei, Saya, and Kyoko with me we decided to check the area south of us. This was a residential area so we had a high chance of running into survivors and undead. I had told Kyoko to stay behind, but she insisted on coming with me. It was probably her fear of being left behind pushing her to come along.

The first couple of houses were duds, but the third house had some food and weapons. Before taking anything, I made sure there were no signs of life. I didn't want to steal from survivors, especially if they had kids. I'd feel like shit for taking food out of a kid's mouth. Once I was sure no one was living here we loaded up on food and anything we could make into a weapon.

"How many more houses do you want to check?", Saya asked.

"Well...I think we have room for two more.", I stated checking our duffle bags.

Nodding their heads, we went to leave when I noticed some red dots appear on my mini map. Pulling the women away from the window, a few moments later a group of heavily armed civilians appeared. Carrying makeshift spears, axes, swords, and a few guns I noticed they had several cops and civilians tied up in the middle of the group.

"What the hell are they doing!?", Saya hissed, "Don't they know what the hell is going on!?"

"They are either criminals taking revenge, or the are psychopaths that intend to use those people as shields.", I replied looking closely.

The captured group was an even spilt of men and women with a few children so I didn't think it was for their own pleasure. There was definitely something going on here, and I wanted to find out what. Cracking a window open I focused on listening to their conversation.

"Why are you doing this!?", several of the officers asked.

"Shut up you damn meat shields!!", two of their captors retorted, "All of you pigs are our ticket across the bridge. Better hope you comrades value your lives, otherwise you will dead."

"Please no!!", a woman said.

"Shut up you old hag, or your kid gets it!!", another captor said.

"Please don't hurt him!!", the woman pleaded.

Looking at me, I could tell Rei and Kyoko wanted me to help. Saya looked at me like I had already decided to fight the group.

'I swear...when we finally start sleeping together I am going to destroy you.', I thought, "I can handle them, I need to you to help get them in here. Once they are inside, lock the door and cut them free."

"I can help you!", Rei said.

"I need you to pull defense here. We don't know if any of those captured people are dangerous.", I stated, "They may attack you when they get inside. You need to kill them if they do."

"I will do it.", Rei said firmly.

Pulling several throwing knives out of my bag, I put them under my shirt near my pistol. Slipping out the front door, once they passed it, I used trees, trash cans, and cars as cover to get close. Not suspecting anything was out of place, the three watched in amazement as I silently killed the man in the back by slicing his throat. The dispatch was so quiet that even the prisoners didn't hear it.

Stowing the body out of sight, I stabbed his head to ensure he wouldn't come back as an undead. Taking out the last two people in the back the same way, the three were in disbelief by this.

"How much did they teach him!?", Saya gasped.

"I don't know, but...I feel much better knowing he is really skilled in fighting.", Rei stated with a smile.

"Yeah...", Kyoko said, "It's also really scary, why did they teach a child to be this good."

Since I could only managed to fling 8 knives accurately, I threw them from behind the group. Slamming into the base of their skulls the people with guns and ranged weapons died without a scream. Having severed their brains from their spinal cords, there was no chance they survived.

Hearing their comrades fall, the leader turned around to find a gun in his face. Freezing in place, he quickly told his party to not move.

"Who are you!?", he gasped staring into my cold eyes.

"All of you prisoners, get to that house.", I ordered pointing to the house we had been looting, "As for you lot...I don't take kindly to people that threaten kids. They may be a pain, but they are innocent souls...unlike you."

"We...we can talk about this.", the man said.

"Talk is cheap, and you are scumbags. The fact you'd use a child as leverage to get through the barricade makes you lower than dirt. Your type isn't needed once the world goes back to normal.", I said in a calm, cold tone, "You can make your peace with God."

Pulling the trigger, I blasted a hole through his head triggering the four remaining people to attack. Taking some distance to assess the situation, one of the women swung a bat at me. Stepping into the swing, I made her falter as my move threw her off guard.

Grabbing her by the shirt, I spun around and threw her into her colleague who accidentally impaled her.

"Charlotte!!", he screamed, "You-"

Flicking a blade at him that I had retrieved, it flew right into his left eye and into his head. Tripping over the woman, he didn't catch himself and drove the knife completely in when he hit the ground. Realizing the odds were getting worse, the other man pushed the woman forward and went to use her to stab me.

Kicking her back, she fell on him making him drop his sword. Kicking it up into my hand, I drove it through their skulls ending both of them. Pulling the sword out I stabbed the impaled woman, then I flicked the blood away and wiped the blood off the sword.

'Scumbags.', I thought a bit happy I got twenty points for each of them.

"The skill level of the beings you kill reflect the points you get. The more skilled of a person you kill, the more points you get.", a message said.

'Neat.', I thought, 'So it isn't just Zombies that can increase my point intake from kills.'

Rejoining the group at the house, Rei had cut the people free. Most already bolted, but a few stayed behind.

"Thank you!", a curvy black haired woman cried, "They were going to kill my son, he...he is all I have left."

"Your husband died?", Rei asked.

"No!!", she shouted, "He...he ran away!! My son hurt himself when we were running from those things. That man...he told me to abandon our son!!"

"The nerve of some men!!", Saya spat, "Always acting so brave till it matters, then the run like cowards!!"

"Hey, I resent that statement.", I chuckled.

"Not you!", Saya huffed hitting my back, "...I know you wouldn't do that."

"I am sorry he left you.", I said.

"It...it is okay.", she said, "I am Kikyo and his my son Saito."

"Thank mister.", he said bowing his head, "Where did you learn to do those cool things?",

"The US Military.", I chuckled.

"You are a soldier!!", the other group said lighting up, "Is there more of you near-"

"...I am the son of the US Ambassador to Japan.", I said, "Currently I am the only one here. We were working to gather food and supplies when we saw you all out there."

"Were you guys going somewhere?", Rei asked.

"We were on our the bridge a few miles from here.", Kikyo said, "We heard on the news that is where the safe zone is."

"Hmm...it won't be for long.", I stated.

"What do you mean?", Kyoko asked.

"The bridge is stuck between two parts of the city, and these things are attracted to noise. If everyone is going there and making a lot of fuss to cross...", I stated.

"It's going to be a death trap.", Rei said with a nervous look, "It was smart not to go...especially after last night."

"What happened last night?", they asked.

"You heard that loud explosion last night, right?", Kyoko questioned, "Well Umbrella Corp blew up an apartment complex with people in it. They almost killed us, we were fortunate enough to be hidden in a bank vault for safety."

"What!?", they shrieked.

Making sure none of them were bit, we finished our looting before returning back to base. Finding most of the groups already back at base, Kohta ran out to see me.

"Several people took their stuff and left.", he said, "We tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen."

"How many?", I asked.

"Most of the guys, and a few women...fifteen people from the school.", he said, "The adults from the bank also left, they all went to the bridge."

"Of course they did...", I sighed, 'Fifteen from school and six from the bank...that's about half our number...fuck. I knew this would happen, but it doesn't make me feel any better.'

The fact that most of the men left meant that I only had Saeko, Pucca, and Amelia left in the Kendo club as they only had the three female members. Walking inside, the remaining people looked frustrated that so many people left but I couldn't make them stay. If they didn't want to be part of a team, they were more of a liability than asset.

Getting a list of people together in my HUD, this is what I ended up with.

Spear Club:

Rei

Nina

Ichika

Yui

Yonaka

Archery Club:

Aimi

Cherī

Sakura

Aika

Kendo:

Saeko

Pucca

Amelia

Normal People:

Saya

Kohta

Takashi

Hisashi

Shizuka

Kyoko

Kikyo

Saito

That was all I had to work with...eighteen people, including myself. Over half of our number was taken away by this stunt, but I had managed to loose the bimbos. That said...they were in a different group from those here. There was a chance they'd show up, but they were with a couple of normal guys. Either way, it was unlikely they would come back here as they would encounter the group going to bridge.

Having brought back five people with us, I asked for their names. I already knew the mother Kikyo and son Saito, but in addition there was a policewoman name Merna, a carpenter named Akemi, and a farmer named Akira. The only reason Akira was here was due to bad timing in coming to the city to sell produce. Both Akemi and Akira had families they were desperate to get back too. Telling me that they wanted to bring them here, I quickly hot wired cars for them so they could head out as they would have gone on foot otherwise.

"You worked with my father, didn't you?", Rei asked Merna as I walked back in.

"I think so, you'll have to forgive me...I just moved here.", Merna said, "I used to live in Southern Japan."

"My full name is Rei Miyamoto.", Rei added.

"Yes!!", Merna said with excitement remembering the last name, "I was in your father's precinct!!"

"Is he alright?", Rei inquired.

"I don't know...they pulled most of our manpower to the bridges and those that were left were sent back to HQ.", Merna apologized, "Your father was among those sent to the HQ."

"Do you have your radio?", I asked.

"I do, but HQ has been dead silent since midday yesterday.", Merna replied, "I was waiting for instructions when those animals jumped me. They killed my partner, and forced me to come with them."

"We sure we can hold out a night here?", Takashi asked, "We are have less people than last night."

"We can make do with what we have. I will want to make some tripwires to alert us of people coming close, but that is simple to do.", I answered.

"We have one group left out there, should we go look for people?", Kohta questioned.

"They are in the direction the group that left here was going. Most likely they will join them, but there is a chance they will-", I started to say before looking out the window.

Before I could finish, I saw them pop up on my mini map. Unsurprisingly the normal guys I sent with them were gone. Checking the women's titles, it didn't appear they had used them to escape. A few minutes later, they walked in and gave me their bags.

"Where are the guys?", I asked.

"The losers joined the other group...bunch of retards.", the leader grumbled.

"How come you didn't go, Miku?", Saya inquired.

"Simple, if the only one of us that can seriously fight the undead says it's dangerous I am not going.", Miku remarked.

'Hmm...so she does have a brain.', I thought, 'Here I thought this bimbo would have been an idiot based on her actions at school. She actually listened to what I said, and convinced her friends to stick with us.'

"What?", she asked me.

"Just surprised, I admit I thought you would have joined them. Thank you for listening to what I said last night.", I told her.

"I want to live.", she stated, "I listened to a jock at school when this happened, and about got killed. It was thanks to you that I am not a walking corpse. Not only that, you have made sure the necessities are taken care of so I have no reason not to trust you."

"Wow...you actually do have a brain up there.", Saya gasped, "I thought it was always about boys, make up, and the next trend."

"Listen Saya, not all of us have a family that is rich enough to afford sending kids to higher education.", she barked, "I have several siblings, and no father!! My mother works her butt off for us, and had to take three jobs to keep the lights on. I make myself look like this because it makes me look mature, and I can take work as a bartender."

"You work?", Saeko asked.

"I worked as a bartender at Sakura Wave Bar a mile from here.", she answered her.

"I...I am sorry.", Saya said feeling guilty now.

"Either way, it's good you came back.", I said calming everyone down, "Let's have some lunch and then do some self-defense training."

"Yeah, not all of us that bad.", the other four women remarked.

"Don't lie, I know you four are iffy. We all heard you on the other side of the door, Misuzu and Toshimi were going to push each other into the horde if he didn't show up.", Saya snapped.

"That...", the two women said backing off.

"As for Taniuchi and Kawamoto, you were offering yourselves to the other guys in our group to let you in.", Rei added, "What excuse do you all have?"

"They followed me.", Miku told them, "The five of us are a group, we will follow each other to survive. If our presence is a nuisance, we will-"

"All of you stop, this isn't the time to be arguing about whether someone should leave or stay. If you all have this excess energy to argue, train yourselves so you can hold your own in a fight.", I told them.

Leaving the group to train, I did maintenance on our equipment to make sure everything was in good shape. Making extra arrows with materials the groups found, I also make some spears with knives, and metal piping. Testing the balance and durability once they were complete, I was happy with the progress I had made. After their training was over for the day, the women went to shower in the small bathing room they had here. It was really meant for children, but women have an amazing way to adapt when it comes to their hygiene.

"Did you guys see anything we should be concerned about while you were out there?", I asked as Kohta cleaned his pistol.

"Yeah, we found a radio like you wanted.", Takashi said tossing it to me, "As for concerns, there are a lot of those fuckers out there."

"Okay, let's see what is going on out there.", I stated turning the radio on.

With no government officials cracking down on radio transmissions, I wasn't surprised to find lots of people using the radios to broadcast for assistance. Eventually tuning into a government broadcast, we heard the Prime Minister telling citizens that the government was working to regain control. Warning people to stay away from Tokyo, he admitted that there were wandering hordes of nearly ten thousand wandering the streets. Stopping what he was doing Kohta looked at me with a serious expression.

"I really hope we don't encounter a horde like that...we don't have enough ammo or arrows for that.", he said.

"We have weapons...spears, baseball bats, pipes...we have ways of fighting.", Hisashi argued.

"No, Kohta has a very valid point. If we ran into a horde like that we would exhaust ourselves before even killing a thousand of them. These things don't sleep and don't get exhausted...they just keep coming till you take their heads off or you die.", I refuted, "It's something we all need to be cautious of. We aren't that far from Tokyo, eventually they will wander down our way. Our bus isn't going to do much against a horde that big. We are going to need to upgrade it up, or find better transport."

"You mean like steal a military vehicle?", Takashi questioned, "Because you know it's going to be so fucking easy to find one just sitting around."

"Takashi, shut the fuck up.", I spat flipping him the bird, "Construction vehicles would work too, dipshit. We get our hands on a bulldozer or a dumptruck we could use it to smash through the zombies and clear a path for a heavy duty bus or maybe a modified bus...there are improvements that could be made to our bus."

"Whatever dude, we should be heading to the Takagi Mansion. Saya's family is the closest too us so we can-"

"Your mother's school is only half a mile away, don't you want to go check for her?", I asked.

"I am sure they left already, they couldn't hold out with just the teachers. She and the others would have taken the kids, and left.", Takashi refuted.

"So you think they led a group of scared elementary school kids across a city full of undead?", I mocked him, "Do you even fucking think? The smartest decision would be to wait for someone to come, we are close and should go check. At the very least it would narrow down places to look for your families."

"You worry about your family, and I will worry about mine.", he rebutted.

'This guy...I want to fucking kill him.', I thought closing my eyes, 'His mother is still at the school with all those kids. They are too petrified to go out because those kids would be sitting ducks for the undead. If you keep this up I will have you mother, and you will start calling me Dad.'

Hearing the girls messing around all I could do is smirk. Opening my eyes, I saw the three of them peering towards the bathroom.

"Maybe...maybe we should check to make sure they are okay.", Kohta said as his nose bled.

"I am not opening that door, I value my life.", Takashi chuckled, "Saeko will kill you."

"Bet Victor could go in there without any issue.", Hisashi complained.

"Don't hate the player, hate the game man.", I snickered, "Ain't my problem you fucked your relationship up with Rei. You were the one that cheated on her first."

"How did you know that!?", he growled.

"She told me, we are friends remember?", I retorted with a glare, "You cheated on her with her best friend, damn you are stupid. Not as stupid as Takashi for blowing her off when she went to him first. You had all these years to ask her out, but you fucked that up."

"I...I...", he said wanting to argue that.

"Face it, you both done fucked up A-a-ron.", I stated repeating a phrase I hear online, "I mean seriously Hisashi, you didn't even try to make up with her yesterday."

Hanging his head, he knew that was his fault for not speaking with her. Resolving to himself to speak with her after she got out of the bath, I was interested in how this would play out.

"Shizuka, why are your breasts so huge!?", we heard Rei shout, "I mean mine are big, but yours are huge!"

That was the final straw for Kohta. Instantly his bloody nose fired and sent him to the floor. Shaking my head all I could do was laugh as his reaction.