Chapter 1: Parade of the Dead
MC PoV
The bright blue sky brought the heat down from the heavens, scorching the asphalt and left me exhausted before I could even start my day. I looked both ways before sprinting across the road, horns blaring in my direction. I only turned around and waved over to my two friends who were still standing on the other side. The one with white hair and silver eyes was the first to speak, the second with black hair and red eyes following.
"He's such a kid.." He sighed as the pedestrian light turned green.
"Yeah, I don't think he's going to change much." The other agreed, taking the first step crossing the road. "But hey, he is the one leading today's joint. Let's let him be." They grouped up with me as we stood in front of the gate to our new school: Tokonosu High. We came from a school in Kyoto over to this region for a joint mission in the protection of the students. But it wasn't a regular mission at all, it wasn't something that anyone could prepare for.
The apocalypse.
The zombie apocalypse was a scientific myth, the resurrection of the dead that turned into flesh-eating monsters, and they would turn anyone they bit into their own. People say that the only way to prepare yourself for it is with firearms, weapons of any sort, and plenty of food and water. But the average person could only do so much before being overrun by their sheer numbers. How did we know about the apocalypse, you might ask? It's simple, really.
It's fully manmade. And my friends Gray, Lucifer, and I work for an apocalyptic company that rivals the company known as Demon's Blood. This company ran illegal scientific research for decades in order to create the zombie apocalypse. They believe in the human's ability to evolve under certain circumstances, in order to kill off the population's weak, and only the strong would remain. Why hasn't anyone done anything if we knew the entire time? We could never locate their base of operations, no matter what we tried. The only thing we could do was ready groups of elites from each country to help people survive the imminent apocalypse, and try to restructure the world before the Demon's Blood's plan of evolution takes full place, forever changing the way humans live.
But for the time being, we're just high school students.
The three of us walked confidently through the courtyard towards the front doors, joining in the crowded groups of students getting to their classes. The only thing that was a little different, were the stares that we were getting. There happened to be a group of girls standing to our left, who all couldn't take their eyes off of us.
"Who are those three?"
"Are those new kids?"
"One with the white hair's attractive! Have you ever seen someone with silver eyes before?"
"Same with the one with black hair!"
"What about the guy in the center?"
I was yawning so hard to the point where it looked exaggerated. The sun's rays beating down made me excessively tired as I stretched my arms out, accidentally cracking my back in the process. "Shit- that hurts!" I shouted as I pressed my arms on my back to make a deeper crack.
"Uhh, he's a character all right." I looked at Gray and Lucifer,
"They do know we can hear them, right?" I asked as the two nodded in agreement, Gray responded,
"What can we do about it? We do look out of character here. We're also not wearing uniforms."
"I guess you're right," I continued as I stretched out once more, "But hey! You guys are third years and I'm a second year in high school now. Let's just take it easy until, well you know what". Gray sighed as we walked through the front doors. We each had our papers, mine reading class 2 while the other two were in 3. "Hey, I'm gonna go take those stairs up to my class, see you guys later?" Lucifer looked at me in confusion,
"Don't those stairs go outside?"
"Yeah, but hey! I can get a view outside while I go up" He and Gray looked at each other before shrugging, and waving me off as I went outside. I looked around the courtyard area, not realizing the view I had before. I was able to see over the walls and into the Tokonosu city. I wanted to get a slightly higher view, so I ran up the stairs until I saw a brown-haired boy talking with a pink-haired girl. How did I not hear them before?
"You got into this school by sheer luck, stupid!" The girl shouted at the boy. What an attitude. You can tell she thinks she's some sort of genius. The brown-haired boy shrugged it off as I walked up to them. They both turned to me simultaneously, "Hi. I'm new here, uh, do you happen to know where the second-year classes are?" The girl was the first to talk,
"Oh, you're one of the exchange students? Let me see your paper," I handed her the sheet as she read over it, looking up at me, "You're in my class, I can show you. Let's go," she looked over at the brown-haired boy again, "See you later, stupid." He rolled his eyes and looked back over the railing. He seemed to be sulking over something. Hope he's okay.
"So, what's your name?" I asked her as we made our way down the hall.
"Saya Takagi, the genius of this school, of course!" Yeah, I called it. "If you need help with anything in the school, just go right to me! And you are?" I gave a nervous laugh before responding,
"Sora Suzuki. Hope we get along?" We shared a wide smile as she gave a thumbs up. We made our way to the class, Saya turning around and pointed at me right before she opened the door,
"Just so you know, don't even think about calling me by my first name". I tilted my head in confusion and shrugged,
"Fine by me." She nodded and opened the door, taking her seat. The teacher called me to the front and asked me to introduce myself. "Hi, I'm Sora Akuma, I'm transferring in with two of my friends from Kyoto, I hope to make acquaintances with you all!" I bowed as the class clapped. I stood back up and looked around for an empty seat as the teacher said,
"Oh, the empty seat to the right is taken by Komuro, but there's a seat open by Miyamoto over there," he pointed to a girl with light brown hair who waved. I walked up to the seat as we made eye contact with each other. I gave a friendly smile before taking a seat. Right as I sat down, the brown-haired boy from earlier slammed the door open and stormed over to Miyamoto. He took her arm as she stood up,
"We need to leave now." He sternly put it as she gave him a look of confusion,
"What are you talking about? You know, I don't get you anymore. Why are you-" She was paused by a slap across the face. My eyes widened as a gray-haired boy stood up behind him,
"What do you mean? What's going on out there?" Quick to believe I guess... he's not wrong though. Demon's blood's biological weapon has gone off by now. It's time to get to work.
"There was someone at the front gate earlier. Gym teachers went to go check it out and they started biting- killing each other. No bullshit." The gray-haired boy nodded his head to him in full belief, "Rei, let's go." the brown-haired boy named Komuro spoke again, her agreeing this time and they left the room. I looked over at Saya who shared the same intrigued look like an overweight kid next to her. She got up and looked at me,
"I think he's telling the truth."
"Oh? What makes you so sure?"
"I've never seen him lie before, we've been friends since childhood." I held a soft grin as I stood up from my seat,
"Let's go then." The teacher and class looked at us as if we were out of our minds, except for the overweight kid.
"H-hey, I believe you guys as well. Can I come with you two?" Saya looked at him responding harshly,
"Okay tubby, if you want to live come with me!" Oh lord, she's really full of herself. The teacher stuck his hand out,
"Hey! Where do you kids think you're going?" I waved at him,
"To somewhere safe! Let's go!" Saya grabbed my arm and pulled it down,
"You don't get to order me around! Now let's go tubby, you too Sora!" I sighed as I followed her out, the overweight boy shutting the door behind us. I tapped the boy's shoulder,
"What's your name?"
"Kohta Hirano. I didn't know you knew Say-" she turned around giving him a glare as he stumbled to get his words back together "Takagi".
"It doesn't really matter, I guess. But things are about to get really rough."
"What do you mean by that?"
At that moment the intercom went off, one of the staff members announced a state of emergency at the school, "Everyone needs to remain calm and listen to their teachers for evacuation--" the microphone paused for a moment before the halls were filled with screams of horror and pain as one of the undead had taken his life.
"Any moment now," I muttered, Saya and Hirano both looked at me,
"What do you mean?" Doors flew open as students were flooding into the halls in a full panic. They even began to hurt one another by punching, kicking, pushing, pulling, anything to get them in front of the other person. The undead from outside slowly made their way in as the number of turned humans went up exponentially. "Oh my god-"
"We need to find a safe space. Let's head to the engineering room, I'm sure we can find something to protect ourselves there" Saya groaned as I led the three of us, Hirano following close behind. I awkwardly turned around and asked, "Where's the engineering room by the way?" I could tell it was a bad time to ask by Saya's facial expression.
"Of course you don't know where it is, idiot. It's your first day at school! Come on, follow me." I couldn't disagree with her, I don't know the layout of the school at all. We turned the corner as two of the undead stood in the hallway. "How are we going to get there? The engineering room is right after the next turn!" I put my hand on her shoulder, she turned and looked up at me with a slight pink tint on her face,
"I mean, you've seen zombie movies right?" I asked her. She had no words and could only nod. I patted her head before walking down the hall, "Give me a little bit of space, we'll make it to the engineering room."
"Are you crazy!? Those things will kill you!" She shouted at me as one of them turned at me, reaching its arm out. I grabbed its arm, pulling it towards me before lunging my knee into its skull. A crack sound echoed throughout the hall as I tossed it against the lockers. The body slid down to the floor with no response. Her mouth dropped to the floor as Hirano looked behind us.
"Hey guys, there's more of them!" Saya turned around and squealed as there were no less than 10 coming straight for us. I grabbed the second zombie by its chest and pushed it back against the wall. I jumped, leaving a roundhouse kick into its skull. It turned in the direction of the head as I landed, and I left the second kick in its back against the wall, shattering the spinal cord. I waved my hand at them to move that it was okay to come now. They ran right behind me as we ran straight for the engineering room. I opened the door,
"Hurry up!" Saya ran in as Hirano followed close behind. I slammed it shut and locked the door. "They'll be here soon, we need to hurry and find something to use." At that moment Saya and Hirano were gathered around the work table. Saya was looking at a nail gun,
"Hey tubby, you're one of those military geeks, right? Can't you make use of this? I swear I've seen these in one of those Mel Gibson movies..." before I could say anything, Hirano seemed to have this devilish look on his face as he picked up and examined the nail gun.
"It's 4 kilograms, lighter than an old assault rifle I used to have. Stability might be an issue though, I can't get a clear shot." I blinked twice to make sure I heard him correctly, he must be some sort of gun nerd. Oh well, seems to be our advantage. He began to wrap tape and a pencil around the top of the nail gun. I turned around and looked around the walls, and that's when I realized.
"Hold on... Is that?" the doors busted down as Saya shouted once more,
"Hirano! Sora! They're in- do something!" two snaps could be heard as I turned around at Hirano, who now has a serial killer look on his face.
"Yes!" he shouted as he began to shoot the nail gun right in between their heads. Something definitely clicked inside of him. He turned to Saya asking "Can you put that drill, those nails, and gas can in the bag? Oh, and the toolbox too." she scoffed at him, brushing her hair with her hand,
"Who do you think you are ordering me around?" that's when he turned around slowly and looked at her,
"Pretty please?" He had stars in his eyes. She sighed and began to pack the items into a duffle bag. We made our way outside of the room and down the hall, "Should we go to the teacher's lounge?"
"Are you an idiot?" Saya shouted again, "What are the teachers going to do about it?"
"Okay..what about the police? Do you have a cellphone on you, Takagi?"
"Please, I'm an honors student. Even if I did have one, who would I call?"
"True.." I butted into the conversation,
"Hey, love the chatter, can we move on already?" I asked, the two looking at me. We made our way to an intersection where we saw students banging on the teacher's lounge door. They were greeted by a group of the undead that pinned them down and began their feast. We turned left and made our way to an empty hall with only one of them being present. Saya took a wet rag from a fountain and began to toss it at them.
"What are you doing?" I asked as she turned her face that instantly highlighted pink,
"Why are you so close to my face?" she returned the question before wetting another rag, "I'm trying to see how they react, idiot"
"Okay, okay, no need to be harsh. Yeesh." I joked as the second rag hit a locker, the zombie turning towards the noise. Saya clenched her fist in accomplishment,
"They don't seem to have any senses except for sound, and possibly heat."
"Noted, so just as long as we're quiet we're safe?" She nodded at me as we turned around to a set of stairs. Before I knew it we were at the teacher's lounge doorway. There was just one problem.
We were met by a large group of the undead and backed into a corner. Saya was the furthest back against the trophy case as Hirano began to unload nails into the group. Saya took a clear look at me before realizing what I took from the engineering room,
"Where did you get a BO STAFF!?" she shouted as I spun the staff, making contact on one of their chins and launching it against the ceiling.
"The engineering room, of course! I guess one of the students was working on a project and left it there." I snickered before making a slight spin, the staff sweeping two against the wall, instantly shattering their heads. One grabbed my shoulder as Hirano shot a nail right in between the eyes. I gave him a thumbs up that he returned before realizing he had run out of nails. One of them managed to slip by me and get close to Saya. "Saya! Be careful!" Hirano reached for the bag,
"Oh no! There are no more nails left! Takagi!" she shouted and fell to the ground against the trophy case. She threw two trophies at the zombie, only to have no effect. I tried to turn to help, but one of them grabbed my leg and I swung the staff up to knock them off, before swinging it to my right to incapacitate another. She only shouted more,
"Get away from me! S-Stay away!" she reached for the drill as Komuro, Rei and Lucifer came from the left, and a purple-haired girl with a blonde adult came from the right with Gray. Blood splattered all over as she drilled the zombie straight in the forehead. I scanned the hall as I saw another small group behind the blonde woman and purple-haired girl,
"Watch out!" I shouted as she and Gray turned around with two bokkens, instantly decapitating two with sheer force. "Oh- well shit." They gave each other a nod as everyone grouped up. I turned around and looked at Saya, "Are you okay?" she was at a loss for words, stumbling to her feet as she slowly stood up and looked in the mirror.
"All of these bloodstains...mother is going to have to bring them to the cleaners.." she began to lose her mind as I came behind her and put my hand on her shoulder. She turned and gripped my shirt as we slowly went down to our knees. I wrapped one arm around her and held her as the other caressed her hair.
"You're alright, it's fine now. They're gone." I said as she cried into my chest. The moment was short-lived as Gray and Lucifer came to my sides. "I see you two made some friends." Gray crouched down next to me,
"This is out of control. They have incredible strength, although seem to be slow. Very few of them had the ability to run. It's most likely that they're completely deprived of all senses. I think their nerves are completely gone, so their muscles are able to sustain much more physical resistance than a normal human should." Lucifer came to my other side,
"We should probably leave this place, considering it's a school. There's no saying how many of them are creeping all over." I nodded and looked down at Saya who had become quiet.
"You okay now?" I asked her and she looked up at me with a slight nod. "Good, let's get inside and find a way to leave, okay?" she sniffled once as we stood up,
"Yeah."
I looked around, "I didn't catch your guys' name, by the way," I looked at the two that came with Lucifer. Komuro was the first to speak,
"I'm Takashi Komuro, and this is Rei Miyamoto." she nodded at me as I looked to the right, the purple-haired girl now talking,
"I'm Saeko Busujima from the kendo club, and this is the school's nurse Shizuka Marikawa." I nodded and put my hands together,
"It's nice to meet everyone."
"Oh- Miss Busujima, I'm the Vice President of the Spear's Martial Arts club. I heard you won nationals last year." they smiled at one another as I opened the door to the teacher's lounge.
"Let's go, everyone. Let's find a way out of here." We all entered the room and shut the door, finally able to take a break from all the fighting. Shizuka and Saeko sat in the corner of the room, looking at all the keys on the wall to find potential vehicles to use.
"Would your car be able to fit everyone?" Saeko asked Shizuka as she thought about the size of her car.
"Yeah, it's better we don't take my car..." I looked outside the window at the busses,
"Could we use those maybe?" I asked, pointing out the windows. Before Shizuka could answer, I looked onto the wall where the key racks were. I walked over and picked up a set of keys to bus 6, twirling them in my fingers. "I guess we can" I grinned as I tossed the keys to Shizuka. She stumbled before catching them, everyone sharing a laugh. I walked over to where the sinks were, Hirano was talking to Saya,
"Takagi-san, are you okay?" she looked at him, she was wearing a pair of glasses and holding a wet rag, "Oh- glasses," she grunted,
"My contacts were in for too long, okay?" she then looked over at me, "What?"
"Nothing, nothing at all. Glasses suit you, by the way," I grinned as she became flustered. Before she could say anything, I turned my attention to the TV. "Turn that up," I looked over at Saeko who had the remote. It was a news anchor reporting about the outbreak.
"In a matter of hours there have been casualties of over 10,000 in the Tokyo region, and rising cases throughout the world. Oh- Oh my god-" she shouted as the bodies in the ambulance began to rise, the police firing their weapons to put them down. Soon they were stormed before the camera fell to the ground, and blood splattered the camera. She turned off the TV as the rest of us sat there in astonishment.
"In hours? This happened... in hours?" Takashi slammed his hand on the table as Rei put her hand on his shoulder. He sighed as I slapped the back of his head. He turned to me. "What the hell was that--"
"Hey. Now's not the time to be questioning. We're not in a proper place to be asking questions, are we now?"
"You literally just asked a question," he answered,
"Jesus- okay smartass. What I'm trying to say here is we need to find a safe place to stay at before it gets dark, are we all in agreement there?" I could hear a soft laugh from everyone before Gray butted in,
"I thought we weren't supposed to be asking questions." I rolled my eyes at him,
"Oh holy shit, okay. Let's just go to the bus and find a way out before someone else says something fucking smart." laughs burst from all around as I opened the doors, "They're attracted to sound. Remember that." I grabbed my bo staff resting against the wall as I walked into the hallway.
"Come on, we're leaving."
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Hi hi, this is a new project I wanted to work on and I don't want to make any promises, but I think I can carry through with this. Please, let me know what you think of this start point of the story as a new twist has been put on the original story of Highschool of the Dead. Thanks for reading!