Highschool of the Dead: Fanfiction Darkpenn

Chapter 20: exploration

Exploration

A close-up look reveals that the clock is ticking.

"So you two drew the short straws," said Rise to Alice and Hotaru.

"What is this straws thing?" said Lian.

"It happens when there's a shit job that has to be done and you make the mistake of putting your hand up to scratch your nose at the wrong time," said Alice.

The four of them were in the building usually known as the Observatory, located on the top of a steep hill looking over Tokyo. Once, it had been a lookout for tourists; now, it was used by the humans to monitor the zombies in the city. This month, Rise and Lian were in the observation role. Alice and Hotaru had stayed there overnight. The two of them were on their way to explore Tokyo, to try and get a better understanding of what the zombies were doing.

"Seen much of our undead friends?" said Alice, nodding towards the city as they finished the morning meal.

"Yes and no," said Rise. "We see them moving around a lot, but of course we can't see much at night. Two weeks ago, a big column of them moved north. Came back a few days ago. I think it was a war party, going out for a rumble with one of the other zombie tribes. They each had a weapon, a piece of metal, like a sword or spear. That's new, previously they seemed to use whatever they picked up, and sometimes they didn't have anything. So someone is getting them organised."

"Have you seen those big weapons that Hirano thinks they have?" said Alice.

"No, and there was no sign in the latest round of Benaro's snaps. But there's plenty of places they could be hidden."

"Any sign of them moving south?" said Hotaru.

"No," said Rise. "But there's plenty of them, that's for sure. They spend most of their time, day and night, dismantling the city and building these damn towers."

"We've counted 46 of them," said Lian. "The tallest is as big as a ten-storey building."

"Whoa," said Alice. She looked through the telescope as Lian directed. She whistled. "Saya was certainly right about them continuing to evolve," she said. "Makes you wonder where it's going to end."

"Nowhere good, I think," said Lian.

Alice and Hotaru were moving carefully along a freeway choked with abandoned cars, stopping often to check the path ahead for zombies.

"Big city," said Hotaru.

"Yes, and I wish we knew had some better information on it," said Alice. "But there are no known survivors from Tokyo. Shun saw it soon after the Outbreak and said the whole place seemed to be on fire. And from what we've seen most of the old buildings, the wooden ones, were destroyed, either by fire or fighting. But there were plenty of concrete ones and other things that didn't burn." She took out the map they had, which had been overlaid by a drawing done by Saya, using on the aerial photographs. Some other information had been added by Rise and Lian, based on what they had seen from the Observatory. "According to this, the main concentration of them is another five kilometres. It used to be the city centre but most of it has been levelled by the zombies," she said.

They checked their weapons. They were both well-armed, with a good supply of new bullets, but they were aware that the number of zombies was so large that if it came to a fight they would not have much chance. If the zombies had become as fast and tough as Saya had said, even trying to run would be useless.

They crept forward. The parts of the freeway began to multiply into a confusion of routes and levels.

Hotaru stopped, and studied the area ahead of them through her binoculars. She pointed.

Alice looked. It was the machine Hirano had described. Or, rather, three of them. Each was six metres tall, a structure of beams and cables, mounted on platforms which themselves were supported by what appeared to be the salvaged wheels of trucks. They were under a raised part of the freeway.

"That explains why Benaro couldn't locate them," said Alice, taking a camera with a long-range lens from her pack and snapping photographs. "With those things, if it comes to a fight, they wouldn't even have to come within gunshot range. They could just sit back and pound us to dust if they wanted to. Guess they've learned from the battles there have been so far."

"That fact that they're hidden means the zombies understand the idea of aerial surveillance," said Hotaru. "And they know we have an interest. Alice, have you ever thought about how things look from the zombies' side? We're constantly watching them, and if they were in some sort of hive-mind contact with the tribe in Nagoya they would know that we killed them all there. From their perspective, it might look like we are the belligerent ones."

Alice considered. "Perhaps," she said. "When we saw first the zombie army move on Maresato, many years ago, Hirano mentioned that maybe they wanted payback because we had killed so many of them in Tokonusu and elsewhere. It's possible, but you'd have to discuss it with the non-aggressive zombies in Rest. Oh, no, you can't, because they're dead. Entirely dead."

Hotaru nodded. "The bottom line is that we just can't live together," she said. "That was a lesson from China, I think. The ones at Rest were important to you, weren't they?"

"They helped me when I needed help," said Alice. "I was always wary around them but to tell the truth I never felt any sense of danger. I was very sorry, and very angry, that they died the way they did. Deliberately dishonoured and left to rot. If there was ever a chance of humans and zombies sharing the planet, it died at Rest."

She looked around. Picking their way through the labyrinth of wrecked cars, they were making only slow progress. It was already early afternoon, and they had no intention of staying in the city overnight. She looked up at a tall building, not far away, standing on its own.

Hotaru knew what she was thinking. "From the top of that we could see the whole city," she said. "But if we get trapped there, it's game over."

"I know," said Alice. "But we are here to observe, aren't we?"

So they set off. They found an open door to the building and went up through the internal stairwell.

After thirty flights of steps, they emerged on the flat roof of the building. It offered a sweeping view of Tokyo, or what was left of it.

There were zombie towers, dozens of them, some still under construction. Alice and Hotaru, with binoculars, began to study the area around the largest one. A line of zombies was hanging onto the side, passing more material upwards. At the top, more tied it into place.

A hundred metres away from the tower was a small group of them, apparently giving directions. In the centre of the group was one that had once been a teenager. He had a black scarf wound around his neck.

"The Boss," said Hotaru.

"Not much more than a kid," said Alice. "Which means nothing at all, I know."

They began to survey the rest of the city.

"Uh oh," said Alice, pointing.

In the distance, there was a crew of zombies on a freeway. They were lifting cars up and throwing them over the side. It was a slow process, and there were many cars ahead of them. But they were making progress.

"Clearance operation," said Hotaru.

"Yes," said Alice. "And that freeway leads south."

END