Highschool of the Dead: Fanfiction Darkpenn

Chapter 0.2: Z-day- Shizuka's story

Z Day - Shizuka's Story

Life is not exactly as good as it might be, reflects the school nurse. But it's going to get a whole lot worse

[This story takes place a few hours before the first zombie comes to the gate of the school.]

"Whoa is me," said Shizuka Marikawa. "No, wait, I think that's supposed to be 'Woe is me'. Or something."

Fortunately, no-one heard. This was not surprising, since she was sitting alone in her little Mazda, in the parking garage of her apartment building. The issue she was considering was whether she should go to work at the Fujimi High School today. She sighed.

Her head hurt. That was, she thought, entirely understandable, since she had had a few drinks of peppermint schnapps the night before. Perhaps a few more than a few. She had not really meant to, but she had been invited out by a couple of girlfriends, and that had led to a bar, and that had led to the peppermint schnapps. There had been a man involved somewhere along the way, she seemed to recall, but to tell the truth that part was a little hazy. As was much of the evening. Peppermint schnapps will do that.

Which did not resolve the question of whether she should go to work. On the negative side, the traffic looked really bad. She had looked out her apartment window a few minutes ago, and there seemed to be traffic jams and roadblocks everywhere. There had been a lot of police cars and ambulances all over the place, and that had been going on all night. Which had not helped the hangover in any way whatsoever.

The thought of police reminded her that she should not, in fact, even be driving. It was a secret, but her licence had been suspended a month ago. Presumably, this was because she kept hitting things: no people or animals, but poles, parked cars, rubbish bins, that sort of stuff. So if she was pulled over by a policeman, she would have to hope that it was one who could be charmed. Fortunately, she had worked out how to lean out of a car window at exactly the right angle to display her ... assets. And how many buttons had to be undone. Two buttons were adequate for most situations, although three were sometimes necessary. But there was always the possibility of a lady cop. For some reason, they seemed to hate her on sight.

Still on the negatives, she had to attend a performance review with the school principal soon. That was not good. She was, after all, only a temporary employee. She was doing a night course to upgrade her qualifications but, well, some of the classes just weren't that interesting. Like the one on delivering babies, for example. Now how could that ever be useful? So she had done something else that evening, she forgot what, something with Rika maybe.

She had a bad feeling that the review would not go well. Sure, the students seemed to like her - there was a constant stream of them, especially boys, to her office - but some of their parents seemed to not be so impressed. Maybe it was because she was willing to hand out various types of contraceptives without asking too many questions. Well, gosh, it was a high school, after all. But the bottom line was that she might be looking for another job by the end of the week.

Another negative: her head hurt. No, wait, she'd already mentioned that one.

Now, the positives. Were there any? Well, the job paid well, and most of the time she enjoyed it. Getting paid was important, since her credit cards were pretty well maxed out.

One of the main reasons for the parlous cash flow situation was something she was wearing right now. It was a really nice Dior skirt. She had been sensible when buying it: it had been marked down. By five per cent. Sure, that meant that it was only outlandishly expensive, compared to ludicrously expensive, but five per cent was five per cent. And, yes, the skirt was so tight it was difficult to walk in, but it gave a really nice shape to her butt, which was important for someone who was, how could she put it, on the top-heavy side.

Another positive: during class hours, her office was seldom busy. If she stayed home, she wouldn't be able to get any sleep, what with all the sirens and everything. At the school, she could put her head down on her desk and have a nice little rest. Oh, and aspirin from the medicine cabinet as well. Quite a lot of aspirin, possibly.

Okay, that sounded like a deciding factor. She would go to work and take it easy. She started the car and pulled out of the garage, narrowly missing a mailbox that, she was sure, hadn't been there yesterday. So maybe the situation was not totally woeful. It should be, at least, a quiet day.

END