Highschool of the Dead: Fanfiction Darkpenn

Chapter 8: sakhalin

New World: Sakhalin

In the New World, even the first step of a long journey has its dangers.

Hotaru passed the battered binoculars to Rise. He surveyed the town.

"Damn," he said. "Same as the last one. And just like the towns we saw on Hokkaido."

"Zombies, zombies, nothing but zombies," said Kemi, taking the binoculars from Rise. "I make it, what, maybe a hundred? So this town is out for re-supply, I guess."

They crept back down the hill to where they had hidden the horses, and in a few minutes were back with Nozomi and Kazuki.

"Another Z-town," said Rise to them. "I'm starting to think that Honshu is the only place where there are people."

"Let's not forget that our objective is the mainland, so don't get too pessimistic," said Nozomi. "But if there are zombies around, we should move a bit further along the coast before making camp. That way, we can have a fire. I don't think we want another cold meal."

Everyone nodded, and started to re-saddle the horses. Aside from the five riding horses, they had another two for carrying their equipment and supplies.

It was ten days since they had left Japan. They had reached Hokkaido from Honshu through the Seikan Tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait, and had got to Sakhalin on the bridge between the two islands which, Hotaru's father had told them, had been completed but not officially opened at the time of the Outbreak. It had been a big step for them: none of them - in fact, no-one of their generation - had ever left Japan before. Their plan was to head up the western coast of Sakhalin, find a boat, and cross to the mainland where the strait narrowed. They could sail, having learned in Mulitenko, but they were aware that the seas could turn rough quickly, and that the mid-point of summer was past.

The five of them had known each other for as long as they could remember, and they had all been trained by their parents and the extended network of people they thought of as aunts, uncles, and grandparents. And one of the key lessons was: don't pick fights with large groups of zombies unless there is a damn good reason to do so. So they had avoided the towns they had come across where there were only zombies, and so far they had found nothing else.

They had plenty of supplies, although they were also adept at living off the land. Sakhalin was certainly tougher territory than Hokkaido, but even here there was edible fruit and small animals.

There was a road that followed the western coast, and they continued to ride along it. Not for the first time, Nozomi thought of her parents. Momma had made clear that she had not wanted them to go; Dad had been accepting. Saya had imposed a few conditions: one had been that she, Hotaru and Kemi all cut their hair short, and wear male-style clothes. Nozomi had thought this odd at first, but when Alice had told her about marauders, and their usual attitude to women, she saw the point. Of course, Kemi's hair was still startlingly blond, one of her inheritances from her mother, and cutting it had not made her less eye-catching.

Kemi rode up to be beside her. "I thought you might like to know," she said, "that we're passing out of the old Japanese zone and into the Russian one."

"Huh?" said Nozomi.

"Of Sakhalin. We should be entering the Russian zone any time."

"I don't understand you, Kemi. Not for the first time."

Kemi sighed. "Some people just don't do their research," she said. She showed Nozomi a book. It was A Traveller's Guide to Sakhalin.

"I got this when we stopped in Akita. Apparently, once upon a time, after a war between Russia and Japan, the southern half of Sakhalin came under Japanese control. The north was Russian. After World War Two, Russia took the whole island over again, but the southern part was still sometimes called the Japanese Zone."