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Author Topic: Alive among the dead [Mayuki, WMatsui] - Chapter 4 Part 1 (24/1/2019)  (Read 4752 times)

Offline Kyuartz

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Author's note:
Hi everyone. I am new in writing here, so please be kind to me. All this time, I've been reading numerous fanfics here and now I am thinking on why not contributing as well. How fast I'll be updating, I am not sure but I'll do my best in keeping a regular update as I am pretty busy for most of the time and at the same time praying that I won't get a writer block on further chapters.
So, I decided to post a prologue and hopefully you guys could comment on it whether I should continue it or not. Of course, constructive criticism is welcome.
One of the most important thing is that:
All of this is a work of fiction and if there's any similarities of characters or story, all of that is unintentional (too many stories that I haven't read here, so a bit of similarity on it are bound to happen)


Prologue

Somewhere in an unknown isolated island, inside an unknown building.
“Activate the emergency protocol.” The general shouted among the crowd, hoping the news reached the lab at the certain level of the institution before going back to control the situation. One guard directly made a call towards the lab and it's soon picked up by a female.
“Miss Iriyama, we gotta go.” One of the guards told the scientist who was picking up the phone as the news on what’s going on the upper level had been heard.
“Wait a moment.” The girl named Anna said, as she rushed to the project she was doing and pushed the button of the keypad that was located on the glass panel of a huge glass chamber, pressing the password before the ‘enter’ button. The glass chamber opened up and freed the woman inside of it.
“Get out fast. They’ll reach here soon.” The guard shouted in panic to the scientist who was waiting for her project to wake up.
“My priority is you. If she isn’t going to wake up, we should leave.” The guard gave Anna a warning.
When Anna was going to turn around, the woman who was her project, opened her eyes and got out of the chamber.
“It’s been a while…” The woman said, rather cheerfully.
“Talk later, for now we gotta go.” Anna cut off the words that the female going to say and dragged the female out as they made a run towards the emergency purpose elevator with guards following behind them, stalling the incoming.

In another level of the building
“Let’s go Rena.”
“You’re not going to activate her?” The girl named Rena said, looking at the female inside of the glass chamber with the look that no one could comprehend.
“Better be fast, guys.” The guard told the two females as they were shooting towards the incoming.
“We got no time, Rena.” The female pulled Rena’s arm but Rena didn’t budge as she was still looking at the female inside of the glass chamber.
“Please, Oshima.” Rena shook her head as if she had just said the wrong words. “No. Please, Yuko. I don’t want her to die here.”
“But…” Yuko herself also wasn’t quite sure she wanted to leave the female there.
The guards soon pulled the two female out of the laboratory, taking them to safety before they could do anything.

Somewhere in Tokyo
“Mayu, stay at home and lock the door. Make no sound. I’ll be there soon.” The lady over the phone said.
“Okay. Be here fast.” Mayu answered as she went to lock her door, closing the windows and turned off the TV and also other things that can make any sound.
“I promise, I will. Until then, don’t go anywhere.”


« Last Edit: January 24, 2019, 05:42:27 PM by Kyuartz »

Offline arfi

  • your fic make my imagination runs wild..!?
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Re: Alive among the dead - Prologue (28/5/2018)
« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2018, 07:36:04 PM »
new stories..interesting  :whistle:
keep going!!  :on gay: :on gay:

Offline Haruko

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Re: Alive among the dead - Prologue (28/5/2018)
« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2018, 07:47:03 PM »
Hahaha ok.. you are so cruel with that names in every line I swich the image of every girl like Anna (Murashi Anna, Ishida Anna, Ijiri Anna or iriyama anna), and about Rena also I don´t know wich Rena (Nozawa Rena, Matsui Rena, Hasegawa Rena, kawakami rena or Kato rena) I need to create in my imagination.

Offline Kyuartz

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Re: Alive among the dead [Mayuki, Multipairing] - Chapter 1 (17/7/2018)
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2018, 10:16:21 AM »
Author's Note:
Sorry for the extremely long wait for the first chapter which I need to divide into two parts, I guess. I'm a bit busy lately, so yeah. So in this chapter, I would be presenting a few members that you guys had known too well and hopefully you guys will enjoy this chapter as much as I am enjoying writing it. And don't forget that this is a work of fiction. So things might be coincidentally similar to others or at least have the same idea since I might be inspired by some fictions or movies that I've read or watched.

@arfi: hopefully you'll enjoy this new chapter
@haruko: well... For Anna I've mentioned it very clearly. Haha. you just don't pay attention to it very clearly. For Rena, I guess, you should just stay tune. Although it won't be too hard to guess since if you realised the fit I'm commenting, you'll know who she was. Hint: I'll be using famous members for now :)



Chapter 1 – Smoke

I

Tokyo, Shibuya. 12.30 pm

Just like any other day, Shibuya, the shopping area of Tokyo, always crowded with people. People came there to buy things to follow the newest trend, doing some window shopping or simply to spend time with their friends and family. Nothing was out of ordinary at all. Stores were crowded, cafes were full with people chatting and eating.

Suddenly, the sky turned dark and no one expected anything, thinking that it just might be raining soon or it’s just cloud and it would be gone in a while. However, it wasn’t dark cloud, it’s more like a mist, coming closer to the most crowded shopping district in Japan. How it was formed? Where it came from? No one knew for sure. This thing still hadn’t caught anyone’s attention at that moment, until…

“Mommy, look.” A kid pointed to the mist that was coming closer to them and also people ran around. Instinctively the mother picked her child up and made a run together with the people, looking for a safe place.

As the mist came closer, people started to realize that it was a dark smoke, thinking that buildings were in fire to cause such smoke. People started scrambling around, joining the previous crowd, running to the opposite way of where the smoke coming from till they realized apparently they were surrounded by smoke. People started coughing, entering the nearby building that they could find. They just hoped that they didn’t catch carbon monoxide poisoning and the smoke would be gone soon. It definitely caused a panic in the earlier calm day.

***

Breaking news
As you could see behind me, dark smoke could be seen covering the area behind me. It is said that the wind will bring the smoke towards Shinjuku and whether it will dissipate or not is still unknown as well as where the smoke is coming from. Authorities starts to work on this. We will report the news after there’s a further update.


People were standing on the hall and also the hallway, crowding around the TV that was showing the hottest news of the day, trying to look at the TV. The news was mentioning about the unusual phenomenon that happened that day, something that was sort of rare to happen in such a peaceful country.

A female cladded in white coat, colourful pens were arranged neatly inside the coat pocket on her chest with a badge clipped on the front part of the pocket, written doctor Watanabe Mayu. The doctor was standing among the crowd, watching the TV with concern written all over her face. She hoped that nothing serious would happen to the people that were trapped in the smoke and that it would be gone really quickly.

People were still standing watching over the news, looking whether there would be a new update about it. People were wondering if this was a type of a natural disaster, an accident or even worst and act of terrorism. People prayed for the good according to their own beliefs as they stood there. Meanwhile, the doctor was the first person to step away among the crowd, however she stopped walking when she heard a new update coming from the TV.

Apparently, this incident doesn’t happen only in Japan but also other major countries, USA, England, Australia and there are still others that are still unknown and waited to be reported. The cause is still being investigated by the authorities behind me as they start to set up to get into the smoke. This incident isn’t only located in Shibuya, Tokyo but also in other part of Japan such as Hokkaido, Fukushima, Nagano, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kagawa and Fukuoka. Number of victims are still unknown but there are indeed some survivors that managed to get out of the smoke and are treated by paramedics. No serious injuries found on the survivors, just some scratches and bruises. We will report the improvement of this incident after we have more updates on it.

People could let out a slight sigh of relief from knowing there were survivors but the unknown numbers of victims or what was going on inside the smoke and also the number of countries and prefectures that were affected by it was indeed had become a huge concern. All of them had this incomprehensible look on their face as they were busy with their own thoughts about it.

The doctor didn’t stay long after she heard a new update from the news. She had the same look like how those people in the hallway was, although soon it turned into worry and concern as she thought about someone. She needed to walk away to contact someone that was dear to her as she knew that person would be jumping head first into incident like this and tend to make her worried. However, the doctor wouldn’t stop the other person as she was the person that understood the latter the most, the young soldier that was already on site as she could see from the news preview earlier. Both of them were basically on the line of job where selfishness should be put at the last place.

Mayu pulled her phone out and unlocked her phone, going through her contact and went to the first name that she last contacted. Kashiwagi Yuki, the name that came up to the screen as she started dialing the number and waited for it to be connected, hoping she could catch up with the soldier before Yuki went into the smoke.

Honestly, prior to this incident, Mayu had just had a huge fight with Yuki and now they sort of in a cold war. All of that was because Yuki made a complain on how Mayu always came so late after surgeries and always busy and so in a split second, evertything that Mayu had kept bottled up, selfishness, insecurities and worries finally burst up and she snapped at Yuki for not coming home for weeks because of Yuki’s missions that were always confidential. Mayu knew she should be more understanding about it but sometimes, she just couldn’t help it when she couldn’t even know where her girlfriend whereabouts was. Until now, Mayu still hoped that Yuki would at least tell her that because she deserved that. However, her concern for Yuki was bigger than her pride now, so she wouldn’t turn off this phone call until the soldier picked up.

After a few beeps coming from the phone that was pressed against her ears, which she thought would end up in her girlfriend’s voicemail, like how mostly did. Surprisingly, this time it didn’t when Mayu heard voices coming from the other line, what was said was undecipherable. She heard instruction, people talking in a slightly panic tone, siren until the voice of her lover came through the phone.

“Mayu? Are you okay?” Yuki asked and from her voice could be heard concern for the doctor.

“I’m okay. I’m more worried of you though.” Mayu spoke out her concern, not even remembered of the cold war they had before all this. “I know I won’t be able to ask you anything about your work, but just be careful, okay?”

“Thanks, Mayu.” Mayu could hear relief and appreciation on Yuki’s voice. Although Yuki didn’t say much about it but Mayu had known Yuki long enough to know about it.

“We’ll talk more later, once we’re done with work. Hopefully things wouldn’t be that bad.”

“Yeah.” Yuki weakly answered as if she was really troubled with it and from what Mayu had sensed from the way Yuki answered her, her girlfriend wanted to tell her more but she couldn’t.

“Gotta go now, Mayu. I’ll call you again once I’m done with work.” Yuki said in hurry as Mayu could also hear someone calling for Yuki among the sound of a lot of people talking.

“Be safe.” Mayu quickly said before the call ended but she knew her message was perfectly delivered to her lover.

***

Secret facility in an island of the northern sea of Japan. Some time after the smoke incident.

“Yo, Anna.” A petite female on her ponytail and military uniform walked into the laboratory casually before sitting on the bed provided. She had heard about the news on what happened in the main shopping district and some other part in Japan and also the world. Basically she knew all of the news, the matter was just whether the higher authorities were going to dispatch them or not.

“Hey, Takamina.” Iriyama Anna, the scientist who was busy in the laboratory of her robotic answered in a quiet and calm tone. She was one of the best scientists that the facility had, especially when it’s related to biology and robotics. she had been working there for quite some time and enjoying her work experimenting on things that people had never seen before and she had also seen some that beyond one’s imagination in the facility that other scientists were working on or some were like the ones that could only be seen in the science fiction movies or comic books. The slight disadvantage that she had was, she rarely could go outside the island. The only time she could, was when she took vacation. But lucky enough the island was really beautiful as the nature was kept intact so whenever she was bored, she could still go outside and have a little walk.

“How’s everything?” Anna walked closer to Takamina and started her examination on Takamina’s robotic arms and legs.

“Pretty good. Everything is alright. Of course, it’s a lot better now, in comparison to the first ones that I had back in those years. Not to mention, you’ve installed more gadgets into my new arms and legs and all those work just fine although I haven’t tried all of those.” Takamina answered with a soft chuckle, commenting on the new robotic arms and legs that were installed a few weeks ago.

“Try using the techs for combat too since we never know when you are going to be deployed.” Anna jotted a few things in the chart, looking on what she could upgrade or making better after looking at the robotic arms and legs. “We don’t want a malfunction arms or legs when you are fighting.”

“I’ll make sure to check those out later on.” Takamina said before she looked at the glass door as she saw a familiar young general walking towards the door before knocking on it.

“Come in.” Takamina and Anna said at the same time before the door swung open and the young general walked in with a frown on her face. Takamina obviously knew what was bothering the young general.

The young general stood in front of Takamina and saluted. Takamina shook her head and waved her hand, clearly mentioning to the young general not to be bothered by small detail like that as the young general couldn’t dismiss the habit of not being too formal around her. Basically the young general was one with the highest authority in that place that was why she asked the young general to be less formal around her, besides all she had for the seniority was just in term of age.

“Told you not to be formal around me, Yui.” Takamina playfully scolded.

“But…” the moment Takamina heard that she raised one of her eyebrows, clearly didn’t want to argue about this.

“There’s a problem in several prefectures and I don’t really like the look of it.” Yui could be seen having her eyebrows creased from all the stress. Somehow the young general had bad feelings about this.

“I wonder why the government hasn’t sent us.” Yui continued with a frown on her face, she couldn’t wait to go there and see by herself and helped out as much as she could although she knew most probably she would be asked to stay and sent her agents instead, knowing that she was the leader in that place and needed to stay to keep things in order.

“They have their own consideration, Yui. Somehow for this case, I hope that they’ll never need our help though. Cause if they did, it means that it is really the worst case that we could ever imagine.” Takamina answered with a sigh. She wasn’t the type of person who showed her thoughts much. She was more of the person who tried to figure it out by herself and honestly when she saw the news and also footages from the security cameras around the affected areas, it gave her a really terrible feeling, like she was gutted inside. So she pretty much understood what Yui was feeling right now.

“You’re right.” Yui’s voice was solemn and the room turned quiet once again as the three were deep in thoughts. All that could be heard was the sound of machine, whirring and beeping in the room.

The three understood pretty well what it was meant if the agents in the facility got deployed and in worst case scenario would be the emergency protocol which they hoped that they would never need to activate it. Most of the time they got deployed was when things were really serious and the government didn’t know how to handle and would create a lot of chaos. Although during the time of calm, it didn’t mean that they didn’t do anything and just sitting down, idling. Yui and her team always monitor the condition of all Japan, and also connecting with other countries secret defense team. Sometimes the facility also sent their agents to some cases that was out of the jurisdiction of all authorities or if they saw the threat first and no one was handling it. If not, they would also be requested help by the authorities as their facility had the best agents and also equipment, for sure things that others had never seen before.


to be continued.......



PS. I used Takamina in this fic instead of her full name, it's easier for me to type. Hope you guys don't mind. there might be a few mistakes in this chapter since I haven't done the editing but I hope it's not too much.

Offline Kyuartz

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Re: Alive among the dead [Mayuki, WMatsui] - Chap 1, Part II (11/9/2018)
« Reply #4 on: September 10, 2018, 08:24:54 PM »
Author's Note: Finally an update after making you guys waiting for a long time. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter. Doing my best to deliver my idea. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Comment your thoughts if possible :) Once again, enjoy~~~

@anzai: Yup, I hope you like the idea of their character. haha. Hmm... I don't know why you can know it's Matsui Rena from Yuko but yeah, you got your answer in this chapter. Haha. For the pairing, I guess it's so so very clearly when you read the first paragraph of this chapter.



Chapter 1 - Smoke

II


Long hair girl with fair skin was staring at a lady clad in white shirt and pants, the typical wear for patients in the hospital, inside this glass chamber. She was deep in thoughts as she took a spot on a chair that she set in front of the chamber. She missed the other person as they used to be the pair that no one can separate from one another except that now, they are after a decision that was made by her other half who was now in deep slumber in that glass chamber.

‘Rena, I miss you too, you know’

A whisper came to her mind as she stared at the sleeping figure. Things were limited to this, emotional contact. Maybe she should feel satisfied with it, that some other people didn’t even have the privilege of this. She was lacking of physical contact, the cheerful presence that accompanied her as she grew up, being the source of her happiness, her smile which she had forgotten when was the last time she did so. It’s hard to smile without the presence of the person who made that happen.

‘But, this is for everyone’s safety, including yours.’


“I know that you won’t hurt me, ever.” Rena was trying her best so that her voice didn’t break at all the overwhelming emotion she felt. She missed the old time of her and Jurina.

“I see that you’re staring at her, again.” Yuko walked into her lab with a few packets of chips in her hands before dropping everything on the table before she plopped herself down on the chair, making herself comfortable.

Rena remained silent, wanting Yuko to know that she should drop the subject, eyes never parted from Jurina as she always let the beeping of the vitals from Jurina’s machine to tell her that the latter was still alive, especially when Jurina didn’t speak anything in her mind. Although there were times that she felt that all of it was just her imagination, that Jurina didn’t actually talk to her, that it’s her that was missing Jurina too much that her mind started to make things up.

“You might not remember what happened, but it’s for the best.” Yuko sat down straighter on her seat before looking at the files on the table, mainly was about her project which was Rena and Jurina.

Yuko was a biochemist and geneticist and she had been working on this project for a few years and everything that she worked on and paid attention to was Rena, with the request of Jurina. Since basically Rena was taking some traits of Jurina’s DNA, and Jurina was scared that Rena had some of the negative traits which might endangered others, so Jurina made a few list for Yuko to look at before Jurina asked Yuko to let her sleep in the chamber for as long as possible and not to wake her up unless Yuko thought that Jurina needed to.

“Why? Why locking yourself up?” Rena murmured softly, basically asking the female inside the glass chamber for answer, rather than Yuko. Rena didn’t get an answer and it was time for her to think that she must be dreaming of things again before…

‘I’m a time bomb, Rena… If I’m out of this chamber, it’s only a matter of time, I hurt others. It’s not like we can’t talk like this.’

Rena stayed silence while listening to the beeping of the machine, somehow letting the sound hypnotized her while looking at the female in the chamber. Somehow she wished that she wasn’t too cold to Jurina in the past although she knew that Jurina always knew that she did care for Jurina.
Yuko went to do her daily job, writing her chart on things that she needed to pay attention to, coming from Jurina.

Health condition: Good.
Senses: Normal.
Physical condition and appearance: Nothing out of the ordinary. Endurance is getting better. Speed is faster than normal human and today’s test has shown that she has reached Jurina’s speed which was 100m in 3s.
Psychologic condition: As per usual, talking to Jurina by herself, if I ask the reason, high possibility that Rena would say that she is talking telepathically to Jurina. So, that talking, I think it’s getting worse lately as it’s getting harder to ask her to join a conversation if she has taken spot in front of Jurina’s chamber.
Genetic and Cellular: Cellular growth has stopped, causing Rena to stop aging. Cellular regeneration is normal as there isn’t any sign of unhealed wound.
Additional notes: the concern of bloodlust that might surface which is mentioned by Jurina, still hasn’t shown and the parameter in Rena’s gene, doesn’t show anything and still in the same condition like how I last checked. Other than the things I’ve mentioned above, things are pretty normal. As like last note, Rena’s past sickness doesn’t show any sign of relapse, which is good. Maybe the gene treatment really works on Rena as so far no negative sign surface on her. She gets all the good traits from Jurina’s.


Yuko placed the pen down on the table, then looking at Rena in concern. She wanted to help Rena but she didn’t know how. If she woke Jurina up, Jurina would be upset with her, although she knew Rena would easily calm Jurina down, but that’s not her main concern. The main concern of waking Jurina up was, she was scared the incident that happened ten years ago would repeat and she didn’t want Rena to be in that kind of situation again.

“Rena, let’s go and have our lunch.” Yuko tried to ask Rena to stop being on the same spot subtly. She knew how much Rena held Jurina dear, she even saw it with her own eyes. they had grown up together as sisters, protect one another in every possible way. For sure wherever Rena was, there would be Jurina and vice versa.

“I don’t want to leave her. What if something happens when I do so?” Rena answered weakly, speaking out the concern that bothered her, every time she was parted with Jurina. This was one of the rare days Rena spoke out her mind, of how she felt.

“Nothing will happen, okay? Jurina’s chart show that she’s in a healthy and fine condition. The machine is working fine. So you don’t need to worry.” Yuko assured Rena as the shorter girl now had stood next to Rena, looking at Jurina, missing the hyperactive teenager as well. “Besides, you and Jurina has all your time in the world to catch up when she wakes up.”

Rena nodded, wishing that day could come soon, when she could greet Jurina when the latter opened her eyes, being the first person Jurina saw.

“For now, you need to eat. I don’t want Jurina to kill me, when she wakes up, seeing you lost your weight.” Yuko promised herself, to do better and tried to fix Jurina’s bloodlust, so Rena could be together with Jurina again. Despite that it’s not an easy thing to do, which she had been trying to crack for years and failed miserably. It seemed like whenever she found a breakthrough, the next thing happened was she was back to the square one, like she went nowhere. If his teacher was still here, she believed things would be different as they probably had solved this.

“Alright.” Rena got up from her seat, walking to the glass chamber before pressing her palm on the cool surface of the glass, the closest she could feel towards Jurina. It had been her routine whenever she wanted to part from Jurina. After a few moments, she turned to look at Yuko and gave the latter a small weak smile.

Yuko walked with Rena out of the laboratory to have their lunch. Maybe after this she could go and visit Takamina and Anna. Maybe the two could cheer Rena up, even if just a tiny bit, since all of them used to grow up together.

***

Inside the thick smoke that slowly started to dissipate, following the direction of wind blows, black figures could be seen among the mist, steps silent and careful. The squad was fully equipped, mask and coms on, bulletproof vest, guns and ammos, a few were carrying backpack full of supplies. They didn’t use any flashlight, in case there was threat lurking on them, because it could bring attention that they didn’t want.

“Captain, this…” One of the soldiers whispered through the coms, telling the captain who walked at the front.

“I know… I don’t like the view of this too.” Captain Kashiwagi Yuki answered, voice was trained not to break in this kind of situation. When the number of bodies on the road lay down lifelessly, clearly showing that they failed to get out of the thick mist and suffocate from it. What was even more heartbreaking when she saw children were trapped in this too. Whoever did this was indeed too heartless. She didn’t know how to report this. She knew they would be questioned the moment they stepped out of the place. She felt hopeless that there would be any survivor right now, and somehow she believed her squad thought the same although she didn’t show or voice it.

“What should we say to the people?” One mumbled to himself, clearly the view on their surrounding started to affect the moral of the soldiers. It’s pretty traumatizing to see innocents as the victims.

“We shouldn’t let this stop us or affect us for now. We need to find a survivor. I don’t believe we couldn’t find one.” Yuki tried to bring the moral up. She knew having low moral in unknown situation like this wasn’t really good.

Yuki looked to her surrounding, through the limited visibility, bodies around, on the road, pavement, inside the car. In every way she looked at, there wasn’t empty spot, there would always a body there. Suddenly, she thought of Mayu. If her girlfriend saw this, Mayu would indeed feel heartbroken, totally aware of how emphatic Mayu was. That’s why her girlfriend was always a good doctor.

Yuki could see that the smoke was getting thinner, either the wind brought it to another place or it was dissipating slowly. Besides looking for survivors, she was also searching for the source which couldn’t be found. From the intel of the people who managed to get out of the smoke, they saw it coming from one direction, and some said that it was coming from the ground. Yuki was looking for a device that could spread the smoke in such amount, but the floor of the street was clear from such thing, through every step that she had taken and that she and her squad could see. If they couldn’t find it, maybe they should do another check once the smoke was gone.

Yuki and her squad reached on the intersection which now silent and empty and stopped as the smoke finally cleared out. They could see through the end of each intersection which would be the blockade. Their heart broke even more when they saw how devastating the condition was. This would be a huge catastrophe without any explanation. If what said was true, that it happened throughout the world, somehow Yuki deducted that it was an act of terror and it was indeed a bunch of heartless people that could do this.

Yuki looked at her squad, now clearly sees the terror in their eyes from what they saw but their body and facial expression remained calm as all of them knew that it wasn’t time to break down. One thing all of them knew for sure was they wanted to go back to their love ones now and cherished them like no tomorrow.
Yuki knew, she didn’t need to say anything to her superior or the media as they could see themselves what the smoke had done. There wasn’t anything that they could hide. The bodies were clearly seen as the day. The smoky and misty day had gone now, changed with the clear sky, bright sunlight shining the city, showing everything clearly, with nothing to hide.

Yuki and her squad started to spread out, going to buildings and did the work they were asked to. The clear day had made things a bit easier but they didn’t let their guard down. While their superior sent more teams in and also helped by the police, paramedics and firefighters. Some looked for clues and survivors while others started to move the bodies to the hospitals for further examination.

In the distance, there’s a figure standing, phone on ear, clearly contacting someone about the situation. “I believe it’s NOX. Prepare for the worst while I continue the investigation. General, you should send our people to help out. This isn’t like how it was in the past. We need to mingle around fast, to get more info so we knew how to handle this.” After that, she turned off the phone and slipped the phone into her jacket, disappearing into the sea of people.

Offline sophcaro

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Re: Alive among the dead [Mayuki, WMatsui] - Chapter 1, Part II (11/9/2018)
« Reply #5 on: September 11, 2018, 10:04:31 PM »
I was waiting to read more before commenting, as it was hard to forge myself an opinion with only the first chapters.
It really looks interesting and intriguing.
The plot thickens, and I'm curious to know what will happen with the WMatsui pairing.
Do you already have an idea how long the story is going to be?

Thanks for bringing us a new story.
Deeply appreciated!  :)

My WMatsui fanfics:

HEARTBEAT trilogy
- Heartbeat | Completed
- Partners | Completed
- Destiny | Completed

OTHER FANFICS
- Warriors | Ongoing
- Back in Time | Ongoing
- One Shot collection: Her Sun | Completed
- Fire and Water | On hiatus

Offline Kyuartz

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Re: Alive among the dead [Mayuki, WMatsui] - Chapter 2 (22/9/2018)
« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2018, 05:02:59 PM »
Author's Note:
Fast update, if one week could be counted as fast. Haha. Didn't know why I finish this chapter pretty fast. Hopefully everyone enjoys this as I am very nervous posting this chapter cause this chapter really shows on how I am going to bring this plot later on.

 
@sophcaro: OMG!!!!! you comment on my fanfic. Now I feel nervous. Hopefully you like the story so far. It's starting for the plot and everything. I don't know how long this fiction was going to be. But I have overall picture on how I want things to be. Too many fiction ideas in mind lately that I feel the need to write it, simply sharing this.

@anzai4648: Your comment and sophcaro-san encourage me to write. So I hope you enjoy all the chapters so far and this upcoming one. I don't know much about other Rena as well. Haha. For Mayuki, I totally didn't realise that their occupation was similar to descendant of the sun until you mentioned it  XD




Chapter 2 – All hell break loose


Normal sunny day in the beginning of autumn with people talking, chatting, laughing at some silly jokes or the jokes that weren’t funny at all, or people doing their own activity had turned into a nightmare where people screamed in horror, shouted in panic for help, ran and fought for their life, police and soldiers did their best to protect the innocents, guns blazing to the threats that they didn’t know whether it’s friends, family or enemies. That line had sort of blurred when the reality was like how a horror movie was. They didn’t even know whether they would live another day to see what’s going to happen next. Not just Japan, the world was in the mess, coming from the news that somehow still managed to be reported through the big screen, radio and TV. The power and water still worked for now but soon, it would be cut off. People knew that deep down, especially the ones that had time to think as they were still safe, hiding or still at home, not knowing one bit of what was happening outside before falling as victim the moment they opened the door, or the ones who knew through the news or a phone call and decided to barricade themselves through possible threat.  For the first time, people felt that nowhere was safe as threat could be lurking anywhere, anytime.

Forces were divided, some to keep the threats at bay, some to move people to safety, to the base camps set up, some to keep the base camps safe and also the important people, to stop a country from going down. Yuki and her squad were assigned to keep the threats at bay as their other comrades moved people to the trucks to bring them somewhere safe.

After about an hour or so they tried to keep the threats at bay, Yuki tried to contact the headquarters but it seemed that they’ve lost the connection or the headquarters had fallen. She just hoped not the second option. It seemed that now what’s left was for her to lead what was left of her squad.

“Guys, if we got separated, meet up on the border of the city, heading to Nagoya since we didn’t hear about an attack or outbreak there. We’ll wait for a day. Then, we’ll figure out something together, either leaving or staying.” Yuki told them, knowing sooner or later they would spread out, when everything had turned so chaotic. They did try to safe as many people as they could throughout the mess. They saved a lot and lost a lot too. Yuki had given everyone a chance to call their friends and family to warn them of what happening, like how she had warned her parents, Mayu and her friends. She just hoped they would be okay. She would find Mayu once things had calmed down by a lot. She needed to do her duty first before anything else.

“Yes, Captain.” They shouted in sync, bringing up the morale of the team at the same time, despite the hopeless situation they had, facing with endless threat which was flesh eating living dead in front of them.

“Alright. Now, focus and make sure not to get bitten.” Yuki managed to say before resuming pressing the trigger of her gun, killing the dead on a perfect headshot, trying not to let it affect her that the dead was still alive a day ago, or some even a few minutes ago, not to mention some were friends and comrades.

Looking back and saw that all the rescue trucks had gone to their own destination, she ordered her comrades to go to the trucks provided for them and headed off to where their family were in team of four. The trucks headed for different direction, trying to look for their friends and family, and helped the survivors along the way.

***

Today Mayu woke up after her three-hour-sleep from how busy she was in the hospital after the whole heartbreaking incident that was happening. She wasn’t a forensic but still in a huge scale of problem like this, she was asked to help around which she gladly did so. She loved to help in every single way possible.

However, things were different today. The apartment building where she and Yuki stayed in, suddenly was so silent. It’s as if no one was staying in that building other than her. At first, she thought it’s only her feelings, that maybe she was lonely because Yuki wasn’t around, which was understandable with the situation they had at the moment, a more urgent matter than their relationship. When she turned on the TV and saw the news on what was happening. The dead were coming alive and the first outbreaks were on the hospitals where the victims were brought into. The TV showed how people were being moved out to safety, glimpse of soldiers and police, some were being crowded or chased by the dead or had become food for the dead. She was just going to start worrying over Yuki and tried to stay calm on waking up to an apocalypse. Her phone suddenly rang with a familiar ringtone, almost making her jump on her seat. Rushing to the table where her phone was, she quickly pressed the green button to accept the call.

“Mayu, stay at home and lock the door. Make no sound. I’ll be there soon.” Yuki quickly said over the phone, among the chaos. Mayu literally could hear people screaming and guns shooting from her phone.

“Okay. Be here fast.” Mayu answered trying not to sound worrying over Yuki, because she didn’t want to ruin Yuki’s concentration, especially when they knew how to read one another so easily. She pressed her phone to her ear as she went to lock her door, closing the windows and turned off the TV.

“I promise, I will. Until then, don’t go anywhere.” Yuki tried to sound calm although a glimpse of helplessness could be heard through the hint of her voice, swallowing up the bile that was growing to her throat, not liking the idea if she didn’t make it to Mayu. However, she didn’t say it out loud, knowing what Mayu would say. Both of them wanted to make it through the day.

“I’ll wait for you, no matter what. I won’t be opening the door unless it’s you.” Yuki wanted to tell Mayu to just go if she didn’t go there to save her cause most likely she wouldn’t make it but knowing Mayu really well, the latter wouldn’t accept that idea at all, which was hinted with what she had said.
“I know. But just in case…” But before Yuki could continue, Mayu had cut her off.

“No, just in case. The Yuki I know wouldn’t give up that easily and she would come back to me, no matter what. So, I don’t want you to be pessimistic. I need you to be my Yuki who would do her best to bring the mood up. Like you always said to me, morale in the battlefield is what deciding whether we’ll win the fight or not. Stay optimist and I’ll wait for you to come back to me, no matter how long it takes. And I’ll do my best to survive this.” Mayu assured Yuki after she gave Yuki a wake-up call.

“Okay. I’ll turn off the call now. See you soon.” A smile came upon Yuki’s lips. She was always grateful to have Mayu around. Somehow, the younger woman always knew what to say to bring the best in Yuki. Maybe it’s just Mayu’s trait, which always sees the best in a person, something that made her fall in love with Mayu at the first place.

Mayu listened to Yuki turning off the call, until she could hear nothing coming from the line. Mayu sighed softly but deep inside of her heart, she was hopeful. She did what was needed to survive. If her girlfriend was being brave and always thought of serving her country and people first, being the person on the front line to make sure everyone was safe, she would be the backup. She would prepare everything needed, packing up food, drinks, some clothes, medicine and her basic med-kit and placed it near the door so she could carry it directly the moment the time comes.

Meanwhile, she looked out from the balcony, to see the damage done. Smoke came from a few places, sound of gunshots could be heard although it was something clear which meant it happened in a distance, her neighbours were none to be seen. It’s sort of ironic, the view. She still remembered of doing her best to save lives, just a day before. Now, it had turned into doing her best not to die and survive to meet up with her love ones. After a moment of thinking and making sure not to forget the used to beautiful city, she stepped back and locked the sliding door and closed the curtain.

She went to take a baseball bat from the corner of their bedroom, and sat down on the couch while hugging the bat and at the same time staring at the door. The bat was something that Yuki prepared in case if there’s a thief or intruder coming into their apartment. She smiled remembering when she told Yuki that they wouldn’t need them as there was security for their apartment building but Yuki insisted, saying that you never knew and maybe they would need it, one day. It seemed that it’s finally time to use it. She really needed to thank Yuki for this, although somehow she already could picture Yuki’s smiled in a playful and teasing way and said ‘I told you so.’

***

Annin, that’s how Iriyama Anna was called by the people close to her, was working on her project that was handled down by the previous professor after he was deceased. She was working on the cyborg female who had turned into her friend and sister after all this time. She worked on the circuit on Takamina’s arms as she installed the newest tech, adding some melee weapon, requested by Takamina herself, saying that there should be a backup weapon or sort if she ran out of ammos with the guns that was installed in her robotic arms and legs. Takamina was under sedation as the scientist worked on her arms, main reason was they afraid there might be some side effect like possible electrical shock or some other detrimental issue that might surface if the latter was awake but main reason was for convenient issue, physically or mentally, just like how people didn’t want to be awake when surgeons cut into their body.

Annin raised her head and looked out of the glass wall that separated her lab from outside, taking a short break as her eyes grew a bit tired from looking at the small intricate cables and circuits that were becoming Takamina’s veins and muscles now. When she was just going to go back to work on Takamina’s arms, she noticed slight discomfort from the guards outside her laboratory. It’s like they were restless and that’s something rare to be seen. Maybe it was all because of what happened yesterday.

Annin sighed and went back to focus on Takamina’s arms, connecting the small pieces and soldering the parts before putting back the metallic plate and the part that was imitating the skin tone before she sighed a bit in relief. She needed to ask Takamina to try the new specification when she woke up because new things tend to need a lot of adjustment. Hopefully she broke nothing during the improvement. The last thing she wanted was Takamina couldn’t use her arms and she would end up in tedious work with possibility of no sleeping.

Annin took off the mask covering Takamina’s face and closed the door to Takamina’s glass chamber. All she needed to do now was waiting for Takamina to wake up. She walked to her working table and sat down, jutting down some notes, arranging it to the files before placing them neatly by the corner of her table about her research.

***

Yui was sitting on the office of her headquarter. Her hand was against her forehead as she stared at the screens, scanning the last footages of every single CCTV camera in the location of yesterday’s incident. Restlessness had been growing, gnawing on her insides at the knowledge of NOX’s part in this. Whenever it was related to the so called company, they had been a sworn enemy, which traced back to even the early days of their organization. Too many unknown histories of their organization and NOX, there were files and documents but a lot were sealed as the one who read it would be the one who wrote it which would be the previous generals before her and another person that no one knew whom. The ones that the next generation had access of were the ones, the previous generals made public, cropping off the essential parts of the discovery or invention. She asked her previous general of the reason why and the answer would be they could trust no one and she should have that mind-set too if one day she sat on the position she had now. Now she had found her own reason for those generals. Knowing too much wasn’t really that great. She would totally appreciate the words of the less you know the better, like how she wished she could erase the images that she saw through the screen and knew it would haunt her and became her nightmare once it ended because this was like her greatest failure. In each repeat of the footages reminded of how she didn’t discover about this plan of NOX, and how she couldn’t have prevented it. She should later make a record of this although she still didn’t need to make any official news.

Every general had their entries, which was recorded every single day whether it’s about improvement of certain project or if there’s incident like this. In the past it’s written but now they used recording system, following the advancement of technology. Lately, Yui often used it as something to tell her thoughts out loud, since some secrets couldn’t be shared with others. She always felt relieved once she did that, counting it as she talked to the other someone, whom she didn’t know. She wondered if the previous general also did what she did, talking to a recording machine while thinking that they talked to the other person. Right now, Yui wished that she knew that other person who knew every secret of this organization to ask her every question she had and maybe through that she could have found something or a way to detect NOX’s agenda.

“General…” One of the guards who was watching the CCTV cameras of the city suddenly called Yui, dread could be heard in his voice.

Yui looked towards the live footage the camera as the guard zoomed it up. Yui gulped as she could feel fear crept up her spine. She had never thought of this, not even once, that NOX would pull up a zombie apocalypse card.

“What the hell is happening…” Yui could hear the low mumble of the guards in the room, definitely knowing that tone of worry so much as they must have thought of their family.

Yui’s phone soon rang, destroying the silence growing in the room. Yamamoto. Yui saw the caller id, knowing it wasn’t something that she could choose not to listen. More thing to know about this, the better. It’s not like she had a plan for this. Bombing, acts of terror, war or the sort, she would have a plan or if not she could form one quickly. Bioweapon and mutation, she didn’t have one to plan for it. All she knew was kill with a shot on the head, thanks to the movies around.

“General, have you seen the latest footage?” A question soon was asked the moment Yui picked the call up.

“Yes. What do you know?” Yui’s voice was stern, didn’t show any weakness at all, although deep inside of her, fear had taken over. Her gaze remained on the screens which showed how things unfold, escalating pretty quickly as people were caught by surprise or having nothing to protect themselves with.

“Nothing much. You see… they go back to life. At least, they’re not rotten… yet. A shot to the head is a great way to kill them, I’ve proven it. They’re attracted to light and voice. It seems that they retain their previous memories, although a small part of it before their need to feed comes back as I saw them slightly slowed down to the people they know before attacking them.” Yamamoto Sayaka, the person on the line, told Yui of what she had known.

“Where are you?” Yui asked, definitely didn’t want to lose a good intel at this moment, knowing Sayaka’s skill would be good to have around. “I’ll send a retraction team for you.”

“you don’t need to worry about me. I’ll survive just fine. Save the others to safe the ones who really need it.” Sayaka answered nonchalantly before turning quiet, as a soft rasping voice could be heard through the call. From that Yui knew Sayaka was probably hiding somewhere.

Yui always amazed at how Sayaka could stay calm even in this kind of situation. She thought that maybe it’s because of Sayaka’s job, gathering intel, even in the most dangerous situation, so Sayaka must have gotten used to it through time. Knowing that Sayaka was in a dangerous situation, she decided to end the call. “Text me the rest of the info that you’ve gathered. Hopefully we’ll meet again.” Yui said before she pressed the disconnect button.

Yui was just going to sit down to think on how to deal with this. It’s a lot to be processed. She knew that the government must have taken action and it was only a matter of time before a phone call from the president. However, it seemed that one problem came after another without stopping. Yui heard people screaming and she turned to look out of the office as all the wall in the facility was made of bulletproof glass and the safest place she thought in the whole country had been breached as one of the guards standing outside had their flesh bitten off from whom used to be their friends. Some of the people in the room had went to the door to run away. Yui was stood frozen at first, not understand how the outbreak could reach the facility, then her mind shouted at herself asking her to move. So she did and went to press the red emergency button on the wall. She would think of the rest later. Surviving and did her duty were coming first to mind.

“Activate the emergency protocol.” Yui shouted among the crowd, hoping her command reached the lab at the certain level of the institution before going back to control the situation, shouting command for evacuation. She knew at least she could rely on three extraordinary people in the facility as they might be the beacon of hope in this whole ordeal. One guard stopped to make a call towards the lab and picked up by a female, relaying the info before escaping, avoiding the dead.

Yui took her gun out of the holster. She aimed at the dead and made the shot as she made her way out towards the emergency exit that bring them to the landing pad. The escape plan that was made so far back in the day in case if the base was attacked in a way.

***

“Miss Iriyama, we gotta go.” One of the guards told the scientist who was picking up the phone as the news on what’s going on the upper level had been heard. His face was indeed showing terror, despite that he still tried to stay calm and not fleeing and leaving the lady alone.

“Wait a moment.” Anna said, as she rushed to Takamina and pushed the button of the keypad that was located on the glass panel of a huge glass chamber, pressing the password before the ‘enter’ button. The glass chamber opened up and freed the woman inside of it.

“Get out fast. They’ll reach here soon.” The guard shouted in panic to the scientist who was waiting for her project to wake up, still trying not to let the panic affect her.

“My priority is you. If she isn’t going to wake up, we should leave.” The guard gave Anna a warning.

When Anna was going to turn around and gave a retort to the guard, Takamina opened her eyes and got out of the chamber.

“It’s been a while…” Takamina said, rather cheerfully, clearly clueless of what was happening at the moment.

“Talk later, for now we gotta go.” Anna cut off the words that the female going to say and ran towards the table and gather all the files to place it on her backpack before dragging Takamina out as they made a run towards the emergency purpose elevator with guards following behind them, stalling the incoming.

“What’s happening?” Takamina asked as they ran while clenched and unclenched her fingers, familiarizing herself with her ‘new’ hands, to make sure that at least it worked right for now.

“Why don’t you look behind you?” Anna said slightly breathless as both of them stopped in front of the elevator and pressed on the keypad before the door opened and they stepped in. That moment, Takamina saw what happened that the guards were shooting at the zombies.

“Oh… My… God…” Takamina’s jaw was hung opened at surprised, blinking a few times before shaking her head. “Get in quick.” She shouted for the rest of the guards to get to the elevator after her mind sort of registering what was happening.

One of the guards was bitten and that sort of stalled the dead to advance towards the elevator as the dead tried to get a piece of him. That moment the elevator door closed as Anna, Takamina and five more guards escaped to the surface.

***

Yuko was bobbing her head according to the music she was listening while she did her reading, legs were placed against her wooden table. Across her was Rena sitting on a chair, looking at Jurina. Her look was solemn, as always, ever since Jurina made her decision, asleep for everyone’s good.

The telephone on Yuko’s table had been ringing for quite some time. Rena heard it and thought Yuko would pick it up but apparently the latter didn’t, earning a glare from Rena before she sighed and decided to pick it up for the midget that was too serious on her reading. Yuko almost fell from her seat when she saw Rena stood in front of her table with eyebrows creased, clearly annoyed by the noisy ringing that Yuko didn’t notice.

“Hello.” Rena asked short, not in the mood of talking for too long.

“Oshima-san, you need to get out of the facility now.” The moment Rena heard that, the alarm in the entire facility rang loudly, deafening their ears.

Yuko pulled her headphone off her head when she saw the red siren light throughout the hallway, knowing that it was the emergency protocol that once were taught to her, the first time she was recruited working there.

“What’s wrong?” Yuko directly asked the moment she took the phone away from Rena’s hand. Rena didn’t bother much and walked back towards the glass chamber, watching Jurina again.

“Let’s go Rena.” Yuko said, the moment she placed the phone down, taking every research note that she had on her table and shoved it into her bag that she placed under her table. She then slung it over her shoulder.

“You’re not going to activate her?” Rena said, looking at Jurina who was still inside of the glass chamber with the look that no one could comprehend. The sound of shootings could be heard in between of the blaring siren. The females in the room knew by then, they didn’t have much time.

“Better be fast, guys.” The guard told the two females as they were shooting towards the incoming, another fact confirming their deduction earlier.

“We got no time, Rena.” Yuko pulled Rena’s arm but Rena didn’t budge as she was still looking at Jurina. Yuko also knew that she wouldn’t be strong enough to stop Rena if the latter decided not to move. Rena was basically stronger that everyone. The one who could match up with her strength was laying asleep inside of the glass chamber.

“Please, Oshima-san.” Rena shook her head as if she had just said the wrong words. “No. Please, Yuko. I don’t want her to die here.” Rena’s voice was sad, heartbreaking even. Rena couldn’t imagine what she would do without Jurina around, the female she had known ever since she was a kid, a friend whom her father brought home when she got no one to play with.

“But…” Yuko herself also wasn’t quite sure she wanted to leave Jurina there, knowing that Jurina might be a great help in their situation but it would also be a great danger to the people around if Jurina’s bloodlust came back and the latter couldn’t control it. So far, the one thing that kept Jurina’s alive and in control was Rena’s blood, something that Jurina told her after the whole incident back then. Yuko had been trying to fix Jurina’s bloodlust but Jurina was too hard to understand.

The guards soon pulled the two females out of the laboratory, catching Yuko and Rena by surprised. Rena was going to use all her strength to struggle, to break free and went back to Jurina’s side.

‘I haven’t talked to her yet…’

Rena wanted to shout that out loud to them. However, what she saw stopping her from doing so. She didn’t want to cause unnecessary trouble when the facility was sort of being taken over by the dead. Besides, she was even more certain to stop when she felt Yuko’s hand holding her wrist and when she looked at Yuko, she saw Yuko shaking her head.

“We should trust her.” Yuko referred to Jurina whom they left behind as they were brought into the elevator.

Rena remained quiet as she looked to her feet while the elevator brought them up to the surface. Her heart was heavy as she was getting further away from Jurina. Memories of her and Jurina came back flashing through the back of her mind. Rena then nodded to herself, deciding to trust Yuko on her words. She shouldn’t have doubted Jurina. The younger girl was strong, that was something she knew through experience. Jurina always protects her from anyone and anything. Knowing what their threat was, she decided that she would be the one protecting Yuko and the others, the people she treated as friend and family. She also knew that her decision was something that Jurina wanted.

Blinding light soon came through the elevator door as it opened up. They saw Yui urging people getting into the helicopter. Meanwhile Rena and Yuko saw Takamina and Annin getting into another helicopter provided. The guards escorted them towards the nearest helicopter to them.

Yuko and Rena got into it, strapping the seatbelt before soon enough they were up in the air, leaving the facility. Rena watched Yui getting to the last helicopter before it joined them up in the air. Rena didn’t stop staring at the facility until it was gone from view, the home for everyone she knew.

Yuko held Rena’s hand, giving the latter some comfort, understanding what Rena had decided was extremely hard thing to do, leaving her other half. Rena looked at Yuko for a second, giving a nod to the latter before looking out of the window again.

‘I believe one day we’ll meet up again Jurina...

Offline Kyuartz

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Re: Alive among the dead [Mayuki, WMatsui] - Chapter 3 (21/10/2018)
« Reply #7 on: October 21, 2018, 06:54:55 PM »
Author's note:
This is the longest chapter so far. Hopefully everyone enjoy this. Introducing new people and also plot started to deepen even further. Have fun reading and comment if you like, always open for your opinion  :) :)

Replies:
@anzai4648: Glad that you love it. I'm nervous in taking this direction actually. Haha. So your comment really made my day. Baseball bat for Mayu seems worrisome and not really a good weapon but Yuki doesn't really think of zombie apocalypse would hit them. So yeah, no gun for Mayu. I've watched 'Train to Busan', a good movie. I'll try to find 'I am a hero' to watch. Thanks for recommending those movies for me.


Chapter 3 – Plans and Questions

The helicopters blades whirring was something could be heard in the silent sky. No other voice could be heard, no sound of birds, other planes or machinery. Sometimes, they only could hear wind blowing or sound of waves underneath them. Everyone in the helicopter was literally just losing their home. Most of them basically only had themselves until they were recruited by the team and the people they knew throughout their lives either had turned into zombies or left dead there, the hardest decision they had made. They still remembered those who had sacrificed themselves to hold back the dead just so that all of them could safely fly off and those were gotten bitten when they were protecting them or just simply to delay the dead coming closer to them. They silently decided and agreed that this moment would be used to grief over those who they had lost.

Yuko looked over the female who hadn’t had a word spoken ever since they got into the helicopter. The lady with long black hair, who was busy with her own thoughts, simply staring out of the helicopter, far to the horizon, watching the sky starting to get dark and cloudy, the sun was hidden behind the dark clouds, which somehow projecting how everyone was feeling at the moment. Yuko definitely felt guilty, leaving Jurina behind and how she wished that she didn’t hesitate to let Jurina out. Then maybe she wouldn’t see this depressed Rena. She even had a thought of losing her courage into staring at Rena’s eyes, afraid seeing the melancholy in her eyes. Yuko also felt sadness and failure, as it’s like she was letting down Rena, Jurina and her late professor who entrusted the two females to her. She wanted to cheer her up but she knew whatever she did right now wouldn’t make Rena feel better. Only time that could heal Rena now.
Meanwhile, Rena somehow remembered about the talk that she had with her father. How it was the happiest time in her life, being with her father and Jurina. She also didn’t quite understand why that specific thoughts came to her, right now.

‘Rena, if one day you are out of this facility, it would mean that something bad had happened. I want you to do your best to keep everyone safe with all the strength you have and even your life.’

‘With my life?’


Rena remembered little her asking that to her father, completely confused on what the older man meant back then. Seeing how her home now infested with the dead, somehow she understood the meaning of it. She owed her life to the team, they were literally who raised her and Jurina up, especially after her father passed away. The only way to repay those was just something like how her father had told her. If her home, that was guarded with the best team she could possibly know, was easily infested with the dead, creating such chaos and destruction, how would people outside doing? It must be worse than that.

‘Keeping everyone safe?’

A cheerful voice somehow rang inside of Rena’s mind and it brought a smile directly to her face although it wasn’t as bright as how she usually smiled. Honestly, she herself had forgotten how her true smile looked like lately. Yuko who was sitting next to her, probably saw the smile she had but as usual, Yuko wouldn’t speak of anything, unless the latter thought that she needed to.

‘Then I’ll also keep everyone safe, especially Rena.’

‘It’s good that you think that way, Jurina. Just remember to protect one another and watch each other’s back, okay? If that day ever comes.’


Rena’s smile slowly disappeared from her face. Thinking about it, making her realized that if there’s anyone to blame, it would be her. She was strong enough to bring Jurina out. She could just ask Yuko to leave and let her stay to save Jurina. They had promised to watch each other’s back and she was betraying Jurina by leaving her behind.

“You know… you shouldn’t blame yourself. You’ve done so much for us, raising us up and shoulder the troubles that both of us brought to you.”

Yuko looked at Rena as it was the first time the female talked after they were out of the facility. Yuko could see the sorrow in Rena’s eyes before the subject of speaking turning her gaze away to the horizon again, hiding her feelings away from Yuko, clearly didn’t want Yuko to feel even guiltier.

“If there’s any betrayal and person for Jurina to blame, it would be me. If there’s a chance for Jurina to scold anyone right now.” Rena let out a bitter chuckle. At first she wanted to bring the mood up, even if it’s just a little bit. It seemed that she failed as usually it was Jurina’s thing when it related to other’s mood since Jurina was someone who never really thought much about everything, always cheerful and goofy.

“It’s alright to grief, you know. Everyone is doing so, right now. Let’s not point finger to you, to me or others. After this, I believe all of us need to think of something, a way to go forward and see whether we could reverse this whole thing or if not, a way to make things at least better than now.” Yuko told Rena as she needed to be the rock for the both of them now, continuing to do something that she had been doing all this time. Although Rena had assured her, she did still feel guilty. However, she would do as what she had said earlier. When they had settled down and had things planned, maybe she would continue her self-blaming after things had slowed down.

“If it’s related to Jurina, I won’t grief. But to others who have fallen, I would. Because like how you also know, Jurina is always the fighter.”

“You are right. I guess we should just trust that Jurina would be alright.”

Rena gave a nod, smiling softly to Yuko. She didn’t want Yuko to blame herself further and she wanted Yuko to see that she was fine. Besides, she had made a decision. When they didn’t need her any longer, she would go back and find Jurina, even if it meant to fight all the zombies in the facility. She definitely would go back to Jurina at all cost. For now, so that people around her wouldn’t worry, she would think of how Jurina would be if she was out here with her. She was supposed to feel excited and even nervous to be out after she never stepped out of the island ever since she was a kid but the condition now doesn’t allow her to and the nervousness that she felt was from different thing. She would also hate to admit one more thing that she felt, fear. She was scared, deep inside, going to unknown environment with unknown danger. She shook her head, reminding herself that she was no longer that fragile child and she was a lot stronger now, much stronger than people around her. The role of protecting, she should step up and do it, no time to be a coward.

Yuko didn’t quite believe on the words that she herself said to Rena about Jurina. She didn’t think the glass chamber would be able to hold the dead away from Jurina. It’s bound to happen that the chamber would break. It’s a matter of time. However, she didn’t have the courage to destroy the bubble of hope that Rena had at the moment. She didn’t know how it would impact Rena emotionally if she did so. She just knew that if the worst happened to Jurina, it would be in the least pain possible, remembering that Jurina was still under deep sedation when they left her behind.

***

Yui took out her phone from the pocket of her pants. She unlocked the device and sighed when she saw that there wasn’t any service. That was bound to happen anyway. It’s just that she didn’t expect it to be that fast. She saw that she had one unread mail and she knew it was from Sayaka, the best intel the team had. She had a few missed calls and she checked about it. Those were from the authorities and the president. Apparently it got through before the service got cut off. Taking the satellite phone in the helicopter, he called to every single authorities, from head police, head military even the minister and lastly to the president. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get through to any of them. It made her think on how bad things would go right now as there would be no more rules or law. She would leave the phone for now. If there was any survivor that had a hold on the satellite phone, they would be able to contact them. This was one of the things that she could start for now. The only plan she had. The others would be done once they landed and she would discuss this with Takamina. She needed some help and insight for the older general. Then, the next thing she did, was reading the mail from Sayaka.

‘They are sensitive to blood. As I’ve observed, blood made them more sensitive as they ran towards the source. So could be concluded, they still had their senses. It’s just they’re dead. And, the last info is related to NOX. It could be true but it could also be false. The guy, you asked me to look for, I found the info that the latter is in Nagoya but then the next thing I heard he was in Tokyo. That’s why I’m here and also then that incident happened. I’m always a step too late and he’s really good in erasing his track. After this, I don’t know where he would go. I hope the history of his appearance could help you in finding him.’


Now, Yui had a purpose, especially for her new plan. She needed to find the head researcher for NOX, someone in his late 50s and had been the target of her team for years. She didn’t know much about that researcher, except for the part where whatever illegal experiments that were done by NOX was led by that man.

Keeping her phone back to her pocket, she looked out of the helicopter. The weather was slowly getting colder, the wing blowing was getting stronger and dark clouds could be seen forming. She believed storm was coming soon.

“We should look for somewhere to land.”

The pilot nodded, knowing the concern of Yui of the weather. It wouldn’t be good if the storm coming to hit them. However, for now they still hadn’t found a place suitable to land as they were still on above the sea with no land to be seen and they wouldn’t be getting any assistance from control tower which only making things harder. Now they only fly based on the compass and radar with the help of the flying logs and maps.

After almost an hour flying with little help, they finally saw a piece of land. As they got closer, they saw the damage done. Many broken buildings, smoke as proof of fire did break out earlier in the day, and people who had turned to zombies wandering around the road aimlessly. The scene under them as they got closer was enough to make them grimace at how tragic it was.

“Let’s find the airport. We need fuel anyway.” One of the pilots said through the coms to other pilots.

“If the airport is safe enough, maybe we could sit the storm out too, while do the planning.”

Everyone in the same helicopter as the young general agreed with her. The nature wasn’t being supportive at the moment. They needed to find a safe place before they ran out of fuel which wouldn’t be easy. If everything went smoothly, they wouldn’t lose another family member in it.

***

This place was worse than warzone. That was what Yuki had in mind. At war, she needed to kill the people that became threat to her country. But now, she needed to kill her own people after protecting them all this time. How ironic it was when she really thought about it.

“Captain, there’s a roadblock ahead. Where should we go?”

Yuki looked ahead and saw how the cars were totally in a disarray, blood could be seen on the window of some cars. Those used to be perfectly parked along the sideway or driven on the street had long gone. The owners maybe had turned into the dead around them right now.

“Take right turn now, we could go through the parking lot of that building. After that, we’ll reach my apartment building.”

Yuki’s comrade nodded while Yuki started to check on the things they had right now. She started to count on the amount of grenade and clips they had left. She knew each of them had a grenade, so four of them meant four grenades count. None of them had used it. Ammo clips that she had with her was six, two on her vest, two on her belt and two on the pocket of her military pants. She had her military knife on her belt and a handgun strapped on the side of her leg, just above her ankle inside her pants. Her comrades pretty much the same. On the back of the truck, they still had a few more guns and ammos. However, they should use their guns only on the time of need. They should reserve the rest for future needs, knowing how it would be hard to get one.

Yuki also had decided that she would be the only one go to save Mayu while the team remained in the truck. She didn’t want to sacrifice the lives of her comrades for her and Mayu. It’s enough for her alone to take the risk. She hadn’t told them that though, knowing that most probably they wouldn’t agree to it.
The truck stopped with a screech. Yuki and her team got out of the truck, looking around. The surroundings seemed empty although they couldn’t let down of their guard especially with the danger could be lurking around and got to them at the most unexpected time.

Autumn wind blew, spreading the dust and leaves on the road into the air, making them blink for a few times to stop the sting in their eyes. Yuki pulled her cap down a bit before turning to face her team.

“I want all of you to stay here. This isn’t worth the risk for you guys. It’s enough that you guys agreed on letting the first stop to be mine.”

“But captain…”

“I need you guys to keep the things in the truck safe while one of you get ready to drive the moment you guys saw me and Mayu.”

Her team contemplated on the plan. They wanted to disagree with their captain. However, they knew if their captain turned this into an order, they couldn’t do anything but to follow. Thus, they nodded reluctantly at what Yuki had said although they did want to return the favor after all this time Yuki always kept their priority as first instead of hers.

“If I’m not back in half an hour, leave without me.”

Yuki said before she jogged her way into the building, leaving the team with heavy heart, afraid something happened to her comrades when she’s away. Responsibility as the captain always made her put her team needs and priority first. She would thank her teammates after she saved Mayu, despite that her comrades were the ones insisted that they saved Mayu first with an argument of how Mayu was a great asset for the future.

The compound so far was empty. She kept her gaze and ears sharp, for possible sound or movement. She went to the backdoor, exactly towards the emergency exit. There would definitely be people, maybe now had turned into the dead, still it wouldn’t be as bad as the main entrance where the threat could be coming from every direction.

Carefully opening the metallic door, she stepped into the building. Faint raspy sound of breathing could be heard. She knew that it was coming from the door heading to the corridor of the apartment. Taking careful steps up the stairs, back sticking close to the wall, she switched the safety off, knowing there would be something waiting for her before she could reach to Mayu.

‘Wait for me a little longer, Mayu. I’m here now.’


***

The apartment building was still silent, extremely silent that even Mayu could listen to her own breathing and heartbeat. The ticking of the clock became her company. Occasionally, she could hear the raspy voice of the dead as if they were struggling with breathing or speaking. That voice concluded that her neighbors must have turned. Maybe even manifesting the corridor now. Funny thing was Mayu didn’t feel scared at all with everything that was happening. Maybe she was in her working mindset. When she was focus, she literally didn’t feel anything at all. It’s like she was totally empty, except for her concern over her girlfriend and she needed to stay alive. That’s all she had in her mind.

Mayu didn’t move from her spot, still hugging the baseball bat while sitting on the couch until she almost fell down, that’s when she realized that she had dozed off. How long had it been last she talked to Yuki? She couldn’t quite remember. Checking it on her phone, it was around two hours ago. Was it supposed to take this long? She patted her own cheeks with both of her hands. It’s not time to be negative. She knew if she let the negativity get to her, it wouldn’t do good to her own self, especially in condition like how it was right now.

Walking towards the sink, she took the glass and turned on the tap to fill it with water. It seemed that the water still worked, at least for now. She gulped the water down. She just realized that they had lost the electricity when she was placing her glass down by the sink as she was standing just across the TV in the living room. The red light on the bottom left corner of her TV was off now.

Mayu paced around the room, trying to calm down as she could feel her anxiety building up. She never felt suffocated in her house before until now. Even with a huge risk of Yuki’s job, she never felt that way. Because she knew she would still get news from Yuki by the end of the day. Now, they couldn’t contact one another even if they wanted to. The communication was down along with the electricity. It wasn’t hard to know. Once electricity was out, things would be going down one by one.

Then, Mayu heard thudding sound and soon knocking coming from the door. She directly ran towards the door, not forgetting the baseball bat. It’s better being safe than sorry.

“Yuki?” Mayu asked in a soft whisper.

After a few pregnant seconds, finally she heard voice coming from the door. “Mayu, it’s me.”

Mayu wasted no time to open the door for Yuki. Mayu managed to glance to the corridor and saw a few familiar people down the floor, blood coming from their head. Then she turned to face Yuki and at the same time close the door behind them. She saw Yuki’s hand was covered in blood and Yuki had tears in her eyes before Yuki turned her gaze down didn’t want to let Mayu see her tears.

Mayu took the knife from Yuki’s hand and tossed it to the carpeted floor before hugging her girlfriend. Wanting Yuki to share her burden and guilt that Yuki was feeling with her and also to let Yuki know how relieved she was, seeing that she was alright.

“Mayu…”

“Shh… The condition forces you to do that. You don’t need to explain anything to me.”

Mayu understood what troubled Yuki right now. Mayu saw the bodies on the corridor. Those were their neighbors and among them, there were two old couple, Mr and Mrs Suzuki, who were like parents to them. So she understood what Yuki was feeling. If it was Mayu, she would probably cry her heart out already. She was sad, but the impact was different with what Yuki was feeling. Mayu saw their bodies while Yuki was the one ending their life, although they couldn’t really say that they’re still alive when they’re mindless and soulless.

Yuki to others might not seem like a type of person who would hold someone so close to her heart, especially when Yuki was on duty, but once people knew Yuki, they would realize how it was the opposite of the image she portrayed. Comparing the two of them, Yuki was the one who cheerfully greeted others and befriended them. She didn’t think that there isn’t anyone in the building who didn’t know Yuki. While she would be the one who was always quiet and looking from the side. She tends to draw a line, not wanting to be too close to someone, a habit that came from her job somehow, to remain professional, that’s how she worked.

After a moment in silence, Yuki pulled away from the embrace before sighing. Mayu watched Yuki collected herself and she gave her a small and warm smile to Yuki.

“Feeling better now?” Mayu asked softly. Although from the look of it, Mayu knew that Yuki had finished her grieving from the tears that had started drying on her girlfriend’s cheeks.

“I wonder how come you don’t feel anything. Always the cyborg.”

Mayu shrugged as she took the knife from the floor to clean it with water in the sink. When Yuki could start joking, Mayu knew her girlfriend would be alright.
“Not when someone cries like that.” Mayu wiped the knife clean with towel as Yuki took the spot on the sink to clean her hands and slightly blushed at what Mayu said. A rhythm that they both knew extremely well, when one of them was having a breakdown, one would stay strong for the other.    

Mayu threw the towel to Yuki which was caught by Yuki to dry her hands before Mayu handed Yuki the knife. Yuki sheathed the knife and placed it back to the belt. Mayu disappeared into their room and took their white bed sheet out of their room. When Yuki saw what Mayu was holding, somehow Yuki understood what Mayu was going to do with it.

“Let’s go?”

Mayu turned to face Yuki, already carrying one backpack and Yuki walked to carry the other one after moving her machine gun from her back and holding it instead. Mayu always managed to surprise Yuki. In a way, Mayu seemed more prepared than her in facing their reality now while she was still slightly troubled and frustrated over changing her mind-set, from protecting the people from outside threat into protecting her family from the people she used to protect. It’s like making a decision on taking one side in a civil war for her.

“The corridor is clear but we still need to be careful. Less voice the better, since they are attracted to sound.” Yuki explained to Mayu about the condition that she knew so far. Something she discovered a while ago when she climbed the stairs. That was why she changed her gun into her knife.

Emergency exit would be her concern next because she only cleared the stairs towards their floor, there might be a possibility of the dead from the upper floor moving down. Hopefully there wouldn’t be that many left wandering around the stairs.

Mayu held the baseball bat in her right hand while her left was holding the white sheet. Yuki opened the door for them and peeked out, so far the corridor was empty and silent. Mayu followed Yuki and for the first time, truly saw what was happening. Some losing chunks of their flesh on their arms or legs or some even worse, having their guts spilled. If she wasn’t the person who cut into people every single day, she must be feeling nausea by now.

Mayu placed her bat against the wall before she walked towards the body of an old lady and gently pulled the body closer to the body of an old man. Then she joined their hands, as if the old couple were holding hands before she gave her prayer, followed by Yuki who was standing behind Mayu who was kneeling. Then Mayu covered the bodies with the white sheet she took with her. This was one thing that Yuki loved about Mayu. Mayu might not show how she felt all the time but what she did clearly show the concern that she had.

Yuki then led the way towards the emergency exit. When they reached the metallic door, separating them from the stairs, Yuki pressed her ear against the door. She listened to what was behind the door. Knowing that it was quiet enough, she opened the door carefully while Mayu watching their back. Having a soldier girlfriend helped Mayu know some basic of military stuff, like moving strategically.

Yuki made the way to the stairs first, turning to look on her left and right before up and down. So far, the area was clear. She led their way down, making silent steps. They stayed alarmed because they could hear faint raspy voice near them. Mayu followed Yuki close while checking her back once in a while. Then she heard Yuki fired up some shots as down the stairs there were a crowd of the dead, like around 10 of them. Soon the bodies fell to the ground one by one. Mayu knew some of them and clearly they didn’t make their way out. Mayu directly turned around to make sure no zombie was chasing after them.

“Careful.” Yuki mouthed to Mayu as they made their way through the bodies on the ground. At the same time, Mayu observed Yuki’s emotional state through her gesture and from her eyes. Mayu noticed the serious gaze of Yuki and with that she didn’t need to worry over her girlfriend anymore.

Finally reaching the last step, Yuki pushed the door open to the compound. There were a few zombies there but it didn’t bother her much. They could sneak through them or a simple kill with her knife. Pushing the gun behind, Yuki unsheathed her knife and started walking towards where her comrades was waiting for behind the gate. Along the way she would stab the head of the zombie that she met while Mayu by her side would hit the head of the zombie with the baseball bat. Although it wasn’t exactly killing the zombies because it was barely a day for the bodies to be dead, so they hadn’t started to decay at all, which doubling the effort but at least it managed to slow the dead down.

As they were getting closer to the gate separating them from the truck, they saw another black SUV passing. They didn’t feel suspicious of anything, thinking that it might just be another survivor until they heard shots fired. They directly ran as fast as how their legs could bring them to. The moment they got out of the gate, Mayu saw Yuki’s friends on the ground. Mayu directly went to check the damage done, going to the one unconscious first while Yuki looking around their surroundings. Who are they? Yuki thought to herself as she knelt down to her comrade, Kitahara Rie.

“Captain.” Rie greeted Yuki and held the gun up to help putting up defense since they could see a few zombies making their way to them. Rie was ignoring the pain she was feeling on her right leg and arm which were bleeding from the shots while Yuki supporting Rie so she could stand up.

Mayu knelt next to a guy, the tag let her know that his name was Sutou Akira. She checked his pulse but it was gone and Mayu didn’t feel surprised by it, seeing where the shots landed, not just on his chest but also on his head. Mayu pulled the metallic necklace from the dead body, a memoria of the fallen soldier. She then went to check Rie and seeing Rie’s condition, she didn’t worry much. Rie didn’t bleed too much, meant that the bullets didn’t hit major arteries. Rie was also fully conscious.

A click could be heard. Someone was opening the door. Another Yuri’s comrade was coming to the back of the truck to provide backup for them since everything had sort of calming down. She managed to get down to hide when she saw the gun coming out of the window of that SUV from her side mirror. The regret was she didn’t fast enough to give warning to her friends.

The female that Mayu knew as Kizaki Yuria rushed towards her girlfriend and Rie. Helping the captain in supporting their teammate. Mayu could see a hint of sadness from the three soldiers over the loss of their friend.

Mayu climbed to the back of the truck silently before helping them to get Rie to the truck, although the view she saw ahead of her wasn’t something she really liked. She could see herd of the dead coming closer to them and it seemed that they were getting faster and faster.

“Get to the truck. The zombies somehow run towards us.” Yuki said while helping Rie getting into the truck, gently pushing her friend up while Mayu pulled Rie up. They could see the zombies were getting closer to them, just a few feet left.

“Must be from the shots earlier.” Mayu concluded while helping Rie to sit down before turning towards Yuki and Yuria, to make sure they are getting into the truck with Rie already started pointing the gun behind her captain and comrade, ready to shoot anytime.

“Kizaki-san, go and start the truck.” Yuki directly fired up an order to Yuria who ran back to the front of the truck and soon the engine sputtering could be heard, breaking the voice of the zombies that told them that they’re getting closer.

“Captain, I’m ready anytime.” Yuria turned to look behind from the small window provided.

“Hit the gas.” Yuki directly shouted once she got to the back of the truck. If they were just a second too late, they were need to fight against the never-ending zombie waves that were coming towards them.

The truck soon moved away from the zombies and Mayu placed her backpack down to the seat and started to rummage. First thing, she did was tying Rie’s wound with towel, to slow down the bleeding while she assessed what to do best. Mayu looked at Yuki and then Rie before she sighed.

“I have the basic kit. But… I have no anesthetic. We could take risk to find a clinic or hospital for it. Meanwhile, for now… she still could survive with this until you guys made the decision.”

Mayu then sat down next to Yuki and took the dog tag from her pocket, handing it to her girlfriend. Yuki slipped the tag into the pocket of her vest. Rie slightly winced when a little bump on the road shook their body. The ride pretty much silent while the captain and her comrades thought of the best decision on what to do for Rie.

“Let’s go to the nearest hospital or clinic that we could find.” Yuki got up from her seat and went to the small window, telling Yuria what to do.

“Are you sure? There isn’t enough manpower for us to win the fight.”

“We can just check the place first. If it’s possible, we go in. If not…, I’ll ask Mayu to operate on Rie without anesthetic.”

So, Yuria headed out towards the nearest hospital or clinic that she could find, agreeing to the decision their captain had made for them. Still, deep in their mind, they still thought of who the people in the black SUV were.

***

The wind blew harder and the cloud grew darker. Slowly the rain started from small drizzle which soon turned into a downpour. The visibility was extremely low as they barely could see the view ahead of them which made the pilots be extremely careful since they were flying low as they were reaching the airport soon.
The heavy rain now had turned into a full blown storm. Flashes of lightning could be seen and clashes of thunder could be heard roaring in the sky. Everyone just hoped that they could land safely as the helicopter started to shake from how strong the wind was, while the rain, with the help from the wind, drenched most of the people in the helicopter.

Rena had never seen such a bad storm as this in her entire life. For the soldiers, like Yui or Takamina, this weather wasn’t really the first time and had grown familiar with it, and Yui sometimes even went to help after the storm was over. While for Yuko and Annin, although they had never experienced it themselves but they saw it before in the news. Rena held on the seatbelt tightly. Noticing that, Yuko held Rena’s hand and her own seatbelt, bracing herself from the shakiness. I totally need new clothes after this Yuko thought, complaining in her own mind because she was extremely cold right now. With that kind of thought, she even considered of wearing raincoat everywhere start from now on, when the weather was unpredictable like this. It was sunny when they were out of the facility but now it was a complete opposite of it.

Yuko spared a glance next to her to assess Rena’s condition. It’s like her habit now. She had grown this ability to observe her subjects silently, seeing the change in them without them knowing. This kind of moment was a good chance to observe and to know more of how Rena’s body reacted to this new environment. Since the facility never tested Rena or Jurina for this kind of condition and they just trained them physically in case they needed them to handle a fight. However, to Yuko, nothing could be better than a fight with nature because it’s so amazing on how one could surpass beyond one’s ability when they were forced to until that person could no longer fight. The training that maybe Rena or Jurina never had in the facility was a training of will. How much a will to survive, to live and to protect could change a lot of things in this condition.

Now what Yuko saw from Rena was how amazing the gene that Rena got from Jurina worked. Rena was just like herself, drenched from head to toe but Rena’s hand was so warm as if it’s a glow from the campfire despite the thin piece of white garment the latter was wearing, a common clothing for patients while others, including herself already started to shiver from the cold although she didn’t feel as bad as others from holding onto Rena’s hand. She wondered what secret was still hidden inside Rena and Jurina. She still got a lot to comprehend. Two of them had their own similarities and their own difference. Thing that bothered her was the complication, the side effect that Jurina had mentioned. Could there be something that she had missed? Certain symptoms or signs of the side effect that Rena had shown but she didn’t see it all this time.

As they were getting closer to the airport and the control tower could be seen much clearer, they flew much lower that they could see the condition on the airport’s runway. There were zombies wandering around and they would take their chance. They didn’t think that there would be a place without one of the zombies walking around. They would fight their way when the time came, when they stepped their feet down on the ground.

Suddenly lightning flashed and struck on the helicopter where Takamina and Annin were. The tail was caught on fire and the helicopter lost control, hitting on the helicopter next to it, where Rena and Yuko were.

“Brace yourselves.” The pilots on both helicopter said while tried to hold still the control, a hint of panic could be heard in their voice.

Meanwhile the pilot in Yui’s helicopter managed to dodge in the last second. If not their plane would be going down as well and they were watching their friends in full of concern and horror as their helicopters going down, heading towards the runway of the airport.

As the helicopters going down, Takamina tried to think and made a decision as fast as she could. She could see what was written and calculated through the lens type monitor in her eyes, telling her the command on what she should do. She could see the countdown started and when it reached zero, Takamina unbuckled her seatbelt and Annin’s. Takamina pulled Annin closer to her, keeping Annin in her embrace as a shield unloaded from her arm, coming out in a form of a metallic tube before it spread open. She shielded herself and Annin before jumping out of the helicopter once it was getting closer to the ground, shield first and sparks of fire came from the friction of the shield and the asphalt of the runway. Takamina wanted to save all of them but it would be impossible. Her mission would always be protecting the one with the highest value and in that helicopter which was Annin. 

Everything was happening so fast for Annin, she was in the helicopter and next she was flying out of the helicopter in Takamina’s embrace. She didn’t even manage to scream and she just groaned when the shield behind her back landed on the ground before the two of them rolled around the asphalt. She would be in pain later on, but at least she was still alive.

“I’m just so crazy…” Takamina said as she registered everything out as she pulled back from hugging Annin. What if the calculation was wrong earlier? She would kill Annin. “What have I done…” She mumbled to herself repeatedly as panic set in, standing there with an empty gaze.

“Takamina… Takamina…” Annin tried to calm Takamina down and at least Takamina’s attention was on her now until they heard loud crash. Annin’s concern over Takamina would always be this, when Takamina’s logic fought with her emotion since that always clashed somehow since part of Takamina’s brain was computer and the real Takamina’s brain retained was only on her memory and emotion part.

They watched their helicopter fell down and exploded. They tried to go to the helicopter, hoping there’s a survivor until they saw a crowd of the dead was heading to the source of fire. They looked at their surrounding and Takamina thought that they needed to look for a safe place. Damage assessment would be done later and she knew that there’s already an issue regarding her left arm as she couldn’t make keep her shield back, somehow her robotic forearm couldn’t read her command.

Takamina spared a glance upwards towards the sky. Rain didn’t bother her eyes at all and she could see that there’s another helicopter going down. She wished she could stop that but there’s limit to what she could do. She hated feeling helpless. She thought she was strong enough for time like this but she wasn’t. Even her left arm wasn’t working that well right now. Annin followed Takamina to glance upwards, shielding her eyes with her hand and saw the same thing. Both of them braced their heart, knowing they would lose another friend. Tears started to form in Annin’s eyes although soon washed away by the rain.

Takamina tore her gaze away and looked at their back and the dead was getting closer to them, heading to the burning helicopter. Black smoke started to billow to the sky. Pulling Annin with her right arm, distracting her from looking up the sky, their mourning would continue later.

“We need to run.”

Annin just saw what was right behind them. She wiped her face from rain and tears. She needed to focus. Gathering herself up, she followed Takamina who had started running ahead of her, clearing a way for her, punching every single zombie ahead of their way, who directly collapsed with their head fell apart from their body. What Takamina did, she didn’t need to know nor wanted to see it. Takamina was doing her job and she wouldn’t be a burden to her by slowing the latter down. Rain washed the blood that was coming from the body of the dead and Annin stepped her way through, sprinting behind Takamina, tagging close to the cyborg.

***

“It’s left.”

“If we go left soon we’ll reach the end of the road.”

The argument continued and they did that ever since they heard helicopters sound. First whether they should go and chased it or not, now they were arguing over which road to take, knowing the city well, if they continued they’ll reach the end of the road and faced with a wall. However, that argument didn’t last long when they saw a helicopter on fire heading down to the ground.

“Sae, It’s going down.” A tanned tall girl who was driving the container truck told her friend who was sitting next to her. They had been chasing the helicopter for a while now, even fighting the storm to get to it, believing that it must be the government who was sending help around and they wanted to make sure to get to that place.

“Let’s go there, still.” Sae, the ikemen girl, insisted. “If we don’t find any help, we could still get the scraps from the helicopter. How cool will it be?”

“You are so crazy, at times, you know.”

The ikemen girl just shrugged and pointed straight while checking her map, deciding to take different route to go closer to the helicopter. The more they looked at it and how familiar the road was they came to a realization.

“We are heading to the airport!” Two of them exclaimed before laughing at their own silliness from driving around for quite a while and even arguing.

“But are you guys sure? Airport bound to be dangerous, don’t you guys think so?” A girl said while playing with her pet bird which was perching on her finger.

“Don’t you hear how Sayaka just said that I’m crazy?”

“Well… I just think that Sayaka is crazier that she supported your idea, Sae.”

“Both of us are just crazy and you should just join us.” Sayaka wrapped the talk up with her silly grin before driving happily.

The girl who was holding her pet bird shook her head. She tolerated their craziness as that was just their rhythm. She knew that because they had been neighbors for quite a while. Besides, she knew how the two would be when they were serious and she could trust them in keeping her safe while she would help them watch their back.

***

In a secret laboratory

“Activate project doomsday.” An instruction was given by a guy on the lab coat to his subordinates.

“Yes, sir.” His subordinates had horror in their face but they still did it, knowing how monstrous that guy could be. It’s better that others be his victims than them. In the end, they pressed the red buttons, releasing every single creatures in the lab, things that they better didn’t see or would ever face with.
« Last Edit: November 09, 2018, 04:34:27 PM by Kyuartz »

Offline LoyalFlutist

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Re: Alive among the dead [Mayuki, WMatsui] - Chapter 3 (21/10/2018)
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2018, 09:49:07 PM »
Kyuartz,

I am in awe that this fiction is barely garnering any attention. Then again, there is a possibility that I'm just out of the loop and barely visit other threads. Nonetheless, it has been a long time since I've last read something that really grasped my attention.

The first plus that I'm getting is old members being used in this story. Call me old-school, but I don't have the energy to learn any more idols in this fandom beyond 2014. Personally, I'm relieved I do not need to perform intensive research for the sake of determining who is who. Second, Mayuki and wMatsui? You got my attention in that sector. Glad that additional members and potential pairings are chucked into the story too. (Twin Tower? PLEASE, count me in. They need much love.)

However, those are small, personal positive perks on my end. The direction of the story and the style you've painted this fiction is one of the few best work I've read. Also, the fact that you've smoothly incorporated multiple characters without glossing over their existence as if some NPC in a video game you shove through is a giant plus. You deliver emotional values and the reactions are realistic, thank goodness for that. As for the concept of a zombie apocalypse, I will not lie, those are actually the hardest to tackle. It is not difficult because they are "hard to write." Rather, it is the overused concept that makes everything so... predictable. Media and books represent so much of the stereotypical traits that it becomes "boring" for others, myself included. However, I am not getting those vibes from your prologue and three chapters so far. :thumbup

Overall, this is enjoyable and enjoyable enough to get me sign-in and comment. Keep up the good work, Kyuartz! Looking forward to your updates. Can't wait to have some in-depth conversations with you about your work whenever you have the chance.

Best,

LoyalFlutist

"You'll come to treasure these scars."

HIATUS: The Virus | How Far Are You Prepared To Go? | Sanity | Hidden Truth | Disappearance (Season 2) *Tumblr-only* | Vengeance
ACTIVE: Majisuka Gakuen OS | OS | Idol Royale
REMAKE: Disappearance S1 | Wandering Ship | Hidden Truth
COLLABORATIONS: Phantom Pain w/Llyloo

Twitter: https://twitter.com/animeminafans | AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KazueEmiko/pseuds/KazueEmiko | Discord Server: https://discord.gg/ZAfq3QtEwA

Zine Projects: Our Future Days (The Last of Us) [Pre-order TBA] | IDOLIZED! (Love Live!) [Pre-order - Digital] | Eizineken! (Eizouken Ni Wa) [Packaging] | Tales from the Animal Forest (Animal Crossing) [Pre-order TBA] | Amor Fati (Fate/Grand Order) [Creation Period]

Offline Kyuartz

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Re: Alive among the dead [Mayuki, WMatsui] - Chapter 3 (21/10/2018)
« Reply #9 on: December 22, 2018, 08:36:00 AM »
Kyuartz,

I am in awe that this fiction is barely garnering any attention. Then again, there is a possibility that I'm just out of the loop and barely visit other threads. Nonetheless, it has been a long time since I've last read something that really grasped my attention.

The first plus that I'm getting is old members being used in this story. Call me old-school, but I don't have the energy to learn any more idols in this fandom beyond 2014. Personally, I'm relieved I do not need to perform intensive research for the sake of determining who is who. Second, Mayuki and wMatsui? You got my attention in that sector. Glad that additional members and potential pairings are chucked into the story too. (Twin Tower? PLEASE, count me in. They need much love.)

However, those are small, personal positive perks on my end. The direction of the story and the style you've painted this fiction is one of the few best work I've read. Also, the fact that you've smoothly incorporated multiple characters without glossing over their existence as if some NPC in a video game you shove through is a giant plus. You deliver emotional values and the reactions are realistic, thank goodness for that. As for the concept of a zombie apocalypse, I will not lie, those are actually the hardest to tackle. It is not difficult because they are "hard to write." Rather, it is the overused concept that makes everything so... predictable. Media and books represent so much of the stereotypical traits that it becomes "boring" for others, myself included. However, I am not getting those vibes from your prologue and three chapters so far. :thumbup

Overall, this is enjoyable and enjoyable enough to get me sign-in and comment. Keep up the good work, Kyuartz! Looking forward to your updates. Can't wait to have some in-depth conversations with you about your work whenever you have the chance.

Best,

LoyalFlutist

LoyalFlutist,

Since you're commenting in a very formal form, I should do the same.  :) I honestly don't really mind whether it garnered any attention or not, because I write for fun and also to pour out the idea I have in mind. I am glad that you find this story interesting, as long as I know someone liking it, it is enough to become the fuel for me to write. Although I haven't been updating due to hectic daily life and also internet problem lately.
I decided to write about AKB because suddenly they got my attention and somehow the ones did so were the graduated members, hence the choice of characters. That's also the reason for Mayuki and Wmatsui pairing.
Plot wise, when I was thinking on bringing this as a zombie apocalypse, I kept on thinking on whether I would be able to write as good as what I have in mind. With your comment, at least I know that someone do get the picture, although maybe it might be different here and there but at least the general idea was delivered. Honestly, when you think it's easy to write, I find it quite the opposite, it's extremely hard. Maybe it's because I need to bring something different to it, like you've said there are too many books, fan fictions and even movies for it  XD
I totally would love an in depth conversation about my work with you. it's nice to get an insight from someone, so I know where I could improve and so on or maybe there were things that might be confusing. So I would love to talk further with you in this comment section or even on private messages here. Once again, thank you for the support for me to keep on writing.

Best Regards,
Kyuartz

Offline Kyuartz

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Re: Alive among the dead [Mayuki, WMatsui] - Chapter 4 Part 1(24/1/2019)
« Reply #10 on: January 24, 2019, 05:41:36 PM »
Chapter 4 – Encounter

I


Heavy breathing in the form of soft panting and running footsteps were echoing around the emergency room hallway. Two shadows reflected against the wall as the two people made a run towards the exit with the dead behind them, trying to grab them. The exit was so close and yet so far for them.

“Why is it so far?” One of them spoke while trying to catch her breath.

“Shut up and just keep running.” The other grumbled in a whisper, didn’t want to attract more attention than they were supposed to. Danger could be lurking anywhere and anytime and they didn’t have a proper item to fight them with, that’s if an axe could count as one. Now she wondered why among all, she must meet up with her.

About an hour ago…

Sayaka looked at the screen of her phone, seeing that her message was sent before slipping the device back to her pocket while she was crouching down in a dark janitor closet.  Her hiding place was safe from the dead for now, as the zombies roamed around the hospital hallway. In this kind of situation that hit them so suddenly and without anyone could predict it, definitely had become an emergency situation for the government. This time, it’s obvious that the government would send the organization she was working with. However, with the communication going down soon enough, she wondered if the government managed to contact them. Despite that, she also knew that General Yokoyama would try to build a plan on what to do from her information. One thing that she could pray for was that hopefully the facility didn’t get hit by this biohazard because she wanted to hold on that hope that there would be one place that she knew was safe for everyone.

Now, she needed to figure out a plan on how to get out of this place safely. Should she wait or should she get out now, had become a debate that she had for quite some time now. If she waited, this place would become the den for the dead. If she gets out now, the risk of herself turning into one would be a lot higher than waiting. However, if she properly gave it a thought, maybe in the end, it would depend on luck. Therefore, she decided to wait for a bit and hopefully there wouldn’t be a crowd later on in front of her door.

Turning on the screen of her phone, that way it wouldn’t be too bright that made her known to people or to those who had turned outside, she went to look for what she could use as a weapon when she ventured outside once it had calmed down. Since it’s a janitor closet, there really wasn’t much for her to choose. The thing that she could possibly weaponized was a mop. She could break the wooden part and made it into a spear like or simply used it as a stick. Hopefully it’s enough, if not count it as she would be unlucky and it would be the end of her fight.

After she waited a while and how outside had turned silent, she pressed her ear on the cold surface of the metallic door, separating her from her hidden spot with the hallway. She closed her eyes and focused on her hearing. She needed to know and predict how many of the dead were wandering around the front of her door. If there were a lot, she would wait until it dispersed a bit or maybe she could create a distraction by throwing a bucket or something to the opposite direction of where she was going. All she wished for was when she opened the door, there wouldn’t be one right on her face.

All she could hear was silence at first, then a faint rustle of some clothes and a drag of the feet. Taking a deep breath and then she sighed as she was readying herself to get out. Turning off the screen of her phone, the only source of light that she had, back into the pocket of her jeans, she stretched her hand out to take a hold of the mop. Gently opening the door, she peeked out and saw a few on the end of the hallway, just by the door that would bring her out of the morgue. The opposite end of the exit was clear but she knew that if she was going through the door of the opposite that was heading directly to the morgue where the bodies were kept, she would be facing with a herd of it.

Walking slowly, silently and yet confidently, Sayaka headed towards the zombies that loitering around the dim lit hallway. Making a count, that would exactly be three and she had made a plan on all the strikes she would do. Gripping tight the wooden stick, she smashed the head of the first zombie, crushing its skull. Once it was down with a thud on the cold floor, she swung the stick towards the second zombie, landing exactly on the neck. A crush could be heard but she wasn’t sure that it was enough, so she made another swing on its head, breaking the skull, at the same time snapping the wooden stick into two.

Sayaka gave a glance on the broken stick in hand before shrugging. She walked towards the last zombie that was making its way towards her, dragging its dead body as fast as it could towards her. She changed the grip that she had on the stick earlier, from the way of holding a sword or a baseball bat into as if she was going to throw a spear. Once she was close enough to the zombie, she stabbed the wooden stick through the eye socket and through the skull and pushed it to the floor before she got up and walked towards the exit that would bring her to the stair that would lead her to hallway on the first floor of the hospital, where the emergency room, pharmacy, lobby and examination rooms were.

Opening the door carefully, blood from the zombie earlier, staining the metallic handle, she looked out of the small gap, to look at the situation outside. It seemed that no one was around, counting that maybe there weren’t many people walk on this passage. She walked up the stairs carefully while looking around what she could use as weapon. By the stairs, she found an axe, still perfectly encased in the glass wooden red box, clearly for emergency purpose. Without thinking twice, she broke the glass with her elbow. The glass shattered and she took the axe and made a small dash towards the first floor.

Pushing the door, she walked out of it and the silence somehow made her stop on her tracks. The silence was pretty eerie. She expected to hear some rasping or at least some sound coming from the dead. Moreover, just a few steps ahead, she would reach the door that would separate her from the Emergency Room on her right. To come to think of it, it might be the fastest route to go out, if that place was empty but whoever that was smart and careful enough, knew that the route wouldn’t be that easy.

Sticking her back to the wall, she carefully made her steps further ahead, getting closer to the emergency room. Now, the room was exactly across her. The only thing separating her from looking into the room was a white swing door with a small square glass window. She could see shadows walking inside the room but none was exactly in front of the door. Option getting into the emergency room seemed wasn’t a right one although it’s pretty tempting, since she didn’t know how many more were in hiding.

So, she forgot the idea of the shortcut through the emergency room. She would just take a further exit through the lobby if it wasn’t infested with the dead. Just like what she thought earlier before making her way out. In the end, everything would just be a gamble with her life at stake.

Walking silently towards the lobby, she passed one of the examination rooms. So far it was empty and that brought her a bad feeling about it. She had never really believed with things going on smoothly like that. Just with that thought and when she spared a glance at the lobby, keeping herself hidden behind the wall, she saw a crowd of zombies right in front of the exit. They were somehow in a dormant state, standing still although some were shaking to left and right. She knew that just a little sound would manage to trigger them awake.

She tried to calm herself as somehow her heart started to race. She was supposed to get used to this but maybe one wasn’t supposed to as at certain moment one’s composure could break. It’s just like how she was in the warzone back then, before she joined General Yokoyama in this secret organization. The work lately was a lot easier and maybe for a moment she forgot how all this felt, the thrill, fear and rush of adrenaline on her veins.

‘Maybe the route through the emergency room sounds better.’ She thought to herself until she saw a pair of eyes staring back at her from the examination room across her. She felt herself jumped from the surprise, luckily was there wasn’t any sound coming from her that would bring attention to her. She squinted her eyes to see clearer on who was inside the dark room. The door slid open with faint screech and that directly turned her attention to the zombies rather than the person behind it. She didn’t want because of that, she ended up with her losing her life. Rolling her eyes and groaned, her prediction had just come true as the zombies woke up from their dormant state and started to go to the source of sound which where they were.

“Sayanee…” The female called her before Sayaka dragged the female along with her towards the direction that she came at first. No other choice but to go through the emergency room.

“Shut up. And remember that it’s Yamamoto-san to you.” Sayaka warned already knew who it was from the voice and she wondered what she did wrong to be trapped with the female next to her in this situation. A con artist that she met back then whom she hired to get information and somehow the female always wanted to stick close to her ever since that. She must admit the latter was good when they were doing their job but when the job ended and things got personal, the con artist was pretty annoying.

“Take this and we’ll go through the emergency room. Only attack if necessary. We need to get out fast or we’ll get outnumbered and that’s the end.” Sayaka bluntly spoke, although wasn’t that loud that would bring attention to them as she handed the axe on her hand to her companion.

Despite of having a frenemy relationship with the con artist, she still had the urge to protect the latter since it’s just how she was and it’s also her duty, being a soldier. In their partnership all this time, being manipulative and the sort was always the con-artist’s role while the muscle role was always hers. No matter what, the female had become someone that she needed to save now.

Making a mad dash while dragging the female, Sayaka directly pushed the door of the emergency room. Her eyes scanned the room for the zombies and the sign of exit across the room had become the target for the two of them.


Seeing a shadow behind the curtain, separating the bed from the hallway they were in, Sayaka knew that it was danger lurking. She pushed the con artist to run ahead as she held back the zombie that jumped out of the curtain.

“Milky, run!” Sayaka shouted as she struggled with the zombie, left arm resting on the neck of the dead as her right was pushing the head.

Milky stood there and watched as Sayaka struggled and she wanted to help but she was afraid that she would bring more trouble and would cause Sayaka to be mad at her. Deep inside she was feeling guilty, knowing that they were being chased because of her. If she didn’t open the door, then they wouldn’t be in a brink of dead like this. With heavy heart she ran ahead of Sayaka, just like how the latter asked her to.

Groaning and gathering her energy, Sayaka pushed the zombie back and made a kick as hard as she could before she followed behind Milky. Just a little bit more they would reach the exit and at least they wouldn’t be in a cramped place with zombies chasing behind them. Together with Milky, they pushed the door that brought them outside of the hospital. Sayaka felt slightly relieved but they couldn’t relax, not until they reached somewhere completely safe.
Milky was heading towards the nearest car but the door was locked, she was going to throw some rock into the glass to open the door. Before she could do that, she felt a pat behind her back and she spared a glance to see that the dead was still chasing over them. That plan was scrapped off immediately and she followed Sayaka to run off again.

Just when they were heading towards the gate, they saw a military truck driving into the gate. Sayaka directly waved at the truck and the truck made a turn around the parking lot before heading towards them. The truck kept on moving, slowly matching the pace of their running until it was slightly ahead of them, ready to get out the moment they were in the truck. Hand stretching out of the back of the truck to pull them up, Sayaka urged Milky to grab a hold of it first while she trailed behind the latter. The hand safely pulled Milky up into the truck before the hand once again stretched out to help Sayaka which was grabbed by Sayaka soon enough in a firm grip before she was pulled into the truck as well.

“I’m Kashiwagi Yuki. This is Watanabe Mayu and this injured soldier is Kitahara Rie.”

“I’m Yamamoto Sayaka.” Sayaka introduced herself as she sat down across Mayu and injured Rie. Seeing the way Mayu tended Rie, Sayaka could already make a conclusion that Mayu a doctor. Well, her skill in gathering information, made her pay close attention in little detail like that.

“I’m Watanabe Miruki but people usually call me by Milky. So I hope you guys aren’t being too formal around me.”

Yuki and Rie gave Milky a warm welcoming smile while Mayu just had her cyborg face and gave no reaction at all to Milky. It’s just Mayu’s habit and Yuki knew that pretty well as her girlfriend tend to be cold to people that she just knew. It made Milky questioned on whether she did something wrong in the introduction when she locked gaze with Mayu.

A pat on Milky’s back from Yuki made Milky looked at the latter and found Yuki giving her an understanding look. “Well… don’t worry about it. She’s always like that to the people she just met.”

“So what now?” Sayaka asked out of sudden and everyone turned their attention to her.

Yuki sighed, knowing that decision would be on her and that she needed to lead right now. The pressure was there but she would do her best to keep everyone safe. She also knew that one of the two new people could contribute something for the group as she noticed from the grip given earlier and the way the latter got into the truck, the latter wasn’t a normal weak citizen. The latter was at least had an athletic background which would be of a help later on.

“For now, we’re going to look for a place to lay low so we can operate on Rie. The rest could take a small break before we gather for more fuel and supplies. Plan after this is to head out of Tokyo, our plan is to Nagoya since it’s the closest place that I don’t hear that it’s being attacked by the smoke bomb. Hopefully it’s safe.” Yuki told the plan and Sayaka gave a nod.

Sayaka most probably would stick for a while since the latter was heading there as well, knowing that her boss most probably would head there too with the last information she gave. At least luck seemed to be in favor to her now. Her real identity, she would keep secret from the group. If she met up with her general, by then maybe she would tell her new companion about the secret organization, that’s if general Yokoyama gave her approval. She wasn’t really sure that she would definitely meet up with General Yokoyama again but it wasn’t wrong to keep positive thoughts. However, she wouldn’t deny that if her personal assessment on the group was pretty good and they were trustworthy enough, it would be an incentive for her to reveal her real identity and background.

***

Never before in her life, Iriyama Anna ran as fast as this. Cold air and freezing rain made the fear she felt even worse. This time, shivers in her spine prickled her to keep running, forcing her feet to move on the wet cement beneath her shoes. Her gaze remained on the back of her cyborg general, clearing the way for her, making sure herself didn’t slow down and followed the pace of the general as she didn’t want to waste the way that was cleared out for her.

Dark colored blood trickled down the robotic arms down to the ground as the rain washed it off Takamina’s arms, coloring the gray cement, coming from the dead that Takamina killed for Annin. Seeing the way ahead of them was clear, Takamina slowed down so that Annin could catch up with her. When Annin was by her side, she ran slightly behind Annin to keep Annin protected, knowing even if she got bitten, at least she couldn’t get infected by it.

They finally got closer to a building as they finally could read the letters on it, stating where they were. They were in Narita International Airport. That could at least help them on planning which route to take to get out of there and to the destination they wanted. Sparing a glance behind them, Takamina could see that they were at least already on some distance away from the zombies. As they were getting closer to the building, Anna encouraged herself not to stop, even when she was feeling extremely cold and out of breath.

Eventually, Anna saw the glass swing door separating the airport from the runways outside. Just a few more steps, that was what she told herself. She stretched out her hand and touched the metallic handle to push the door open. Unfortunately, it was locked, leaving it simply rattled at the push Anna made.

“Why?” the word slipped out of Anna’s lips with desperation. The overwhelming feelings inside of her finally poured out without she was able to stop it. She felt hopeless, like even after all that struggle to get to the safe place, still they were trapped outside. She didn’t even know how the condition of the rest of her friends was.

Suddenly, sound of explosion could be heard behind them, taking the attention of the zombies away from them. Anna let out a sob, knowing that her close senior was on the helicopter that just crashed. The view in front of her blurred because of the tears that welled up in her eyes as she fell down on her knees, hands covering her face as she tried to stop her tears. She hated that she couldn’t do anything to about it.

Takamina had an apprehensive gaze as she stared at the scientist who was kneeling down on the floor. She would let the latter take a short moment to calm down and grieve. If she wasn’t a cyborg, she would probably cry like how Anna did. However, there wouldn’t be any tears even if she wanted to. All she could feel when things like this happened was how painful her chest was. Maybe it was just a sensation she remembered because when things like this happened, something related to emotion as she never could process that properly. All the things she felt was something that she remembered, a term she always told Anna when the latter made a review about her status. It had become an upgrade that she always wished to have but never insisted on for the young scientist to do so because she understood she had requested too much and she didn’t want to burden Anna with her selfish request.

The faint whirring from the helicopter blades that slowly turned even clearer woke Takamina from her trance and train of thoughts. Turning around, she saw a helicopter landed on the field not far from them. It was in a safe distance from the zombies as they were busy with the unfortunate distraction which was the other helicopter that went down.

On the left side of the field, black smoke still could be seen billowing into the cold rainy air. Takamina couldn’t asses the incident since it was too far from the infrared sensor she had but she still hoped for her friends to survive the accident.

Yokoyama Yui jumped out of the helicopter she was in after the vehicle landed. Her feet landed on the water, creating small splashes before the water washed underneath her military boots. She walked, slightly sprinting towards where Takamina and Annin were, followed by three guards with machine gun on their hands, ready to shoot at any time. Her face was indecipherable by Takamina because the cyborg never saw the young general like this at all. The only thing Takamina knew was everyone’s feeling and thoughts were exactly like the storm hitting right now. One didn’t need to be smart to read them right now as it was clearly seen on their face.

“Can’t we get in?” Yui asked, cold didn’t seem to affect her, even with her drenched from head to toe, wet uniform stick onto her skin.

“it’s locked.” Takamina shook her head as she answered and Annin had stand up from her previous kneeling position. Annin seemed to have wiped away her tears and kept her composure back.

The moment, Takamina gave her answer, they could hear a click coming from behind the door. The door opened up soon enough revealing a guy in his twenties and from his eyes they could see fear although the latter did his best in masking it, showing up a brave face to them. They saw the security outfit the guy was wearing and they knew that the guy was an airport security and that was the reason why he got a key to the door.

“Get in fast. It’s dangerous out there.” His voice laced with fear and panic, silently hinting for them to get in fast which made the group a bit confuse as there wasn’t any zombies near them. From the guy’s face they learnt that the latter really wanted to quickly close the door.

“They’re far away from us, so you don’t need to worry.” Takamina calmly assured, wanting to ease the guy up.

“Just get in. I’ll explain later on.” The guy urged them to get into safety, getting impatient at each second passed.

Looking at one another, they walked into the building, staying alert all the time. The words of the guy brought confusion to all of them. Was there something more? A more dangerous threat lurking? Those were what they could conclude from the voice of panic. The guy waited for them to get in before he went to lock the door. When he was about to pull the door to close, a force suddenly grabbed him and he let out a scream that alerted the rest. Takamina and the group directly turned around and only to see the door swinging, cold air blowing. Takamina directly rushed in front of the group, ready to take on the threat, she even turned on the infrared sensor she had, and she found a group of people alive in the building. That moment, she knew that she needed to stay alert even more to make sure whatever the far more dangerous threat didn’t manage to get in.

Quickly, she rushed to the door to close it, just in case that the threat was trying to get in. She pulled the door and quickly locked it back, slipping the key back into the pocket of her shirt. She looked at all of them and their surroundings to make sure that she didn’t miss out anything.

Suddenly a thud could be heard behind the door and it caused Annin to scream. It was the dead body of the security earlier, blood slightly seeping into the room from the small gap underneath the door. The body was gutted opened and they didn’t really pay more attention to the detail as it was too gory to watch. They silently prayed for the man, thanking him as he sacrificed his life for them despite of the fear. At the same time, they tried to stop themselves from feeling guilt since it had been haunting them ever since this outbreak happened and the guilt didn’t stop at all in chasing over them.

“There might be some survivors around here. Let’s find them.” Takamina said, deciding to move on from the death. It’s time to find those people as they probably knew what other creatures were out there as apparently it wasn’t only zombies around. She must admit that NOX indeed go all out on them. Yui seemed to think the same since Takamina could read the determination on Yui’s face, definitely couldn’t wait to reach the source, to the guy that had created a lot of bioweapons for NOX, and ended everything. Too many innocents got caught up in this fight already and Yui had enough of that. This was a dirty fight to her and she always hated things like that.

They started to walk around, heading towards the survivors with the guidance of Takamina. They stopped in front of what used to be a restaurant and there were seated quite a lot of people. It’s almost like a refugee camp. The guards lowered their weapon as Yui’s group exchanged glances with the survivors. They didn’t want the survivors thinking that they were a threat to them when they basically wanted to do quite the opposite, protecting them with all they had. Although their presence indeed earned everyone’s attention, especially towards Takamina since she still couldn’t keep her shield back into the compartment in her arm. That reminded her that she needed to ask Annin to fix it, with whatever they had. If not, she must leave it the way it was right now, although sometimes it would be a bit of a hassle to move around in that condition.

Among those people, a lady in her military uniform walked towards them, seeming to be the leader of the group. From that uniform, they knew that she was from air force. Seeing their leader went towards them, at least that managed to stop the group from staring at them and went to do whatever they were doing earlier before the group was disturbed by them. The lady greeted them politely, giving them a salute which was returned by Yui, Takamina and the rest of the guards. Yui seemed to know the lady, at least that’s how it was from Annin’s observation.

“From all places, I didn’t expect to see you here, Sashi.” Yui stated, feeling a bit happy, being able to meet a friend in this kind of world.

“Me too. I don’t expect my vacation end up like this and from the way I see it, he didn’t make it. Right?” The female air force, named Sashihara Rino let out a sigh and her eyes looked a bit sad, losing a member of her group. Yui nodded, knowing whom Sashi was referring to.

“That explosion earlier…” Just the moment Sashi talked about the topic, she could see everyone’s grim reaction. It directly made her stop talking and decided not to talk about it anymore.

“Lost 6 of us in it.” Yui stated with a sigh, decided not to elaborate about it any further of how they had lost two best friends as it would open up the feelings she held back.

Sashi asked them to follow her with a wave of finger, deciding to postpone the introduction and headed straight to discuss more important things. Yui followed Sashi towards one table. Sashi took a seat on the chair by the table and Yui and Takamina did the same. Right in front of them, a map was laid down on the table and some were marked with crosses and a few more were marked with circles. From the reading, Yui concluded that the crossed areas were the ones attacked by the smoke.

“I guess… you’ve known a bit of this.” Sashi said and Yui nodded. She just didn’t know the circles, since it must be happening with her busy getting out of the base. Some news that she was late in getting.

“The cross is the places where the smoke and breakout starts first.” Yui stated as she looked around. “But the circles…” She looked at Sashi, waiting for her explanation.

“Places where we think are safe and the base camps set by the government, if they still hold until now.” Sashi said as she looked around the people of her group. They weren’t completely calmed down yet but at least they were trying to accept the fact and get used to everything.

“But as you could see, they are barely coping and some aren’t a fighter. We managed to survive this far and with this amount of people is sort of good enough.” Sashi continued and then her face turned a lot more serious comparing to before. “Not to mention, the thing that we face isn’t only the zombies.”




Author's note: Sorry for the late update. Been so busy lately. Hopefully you enjoy the update.  :)

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