Highschool of the Dead: Fanfiction Darkpenn

Chapter 5.2: Fall

The end of Takashie's and saeko's epic love.

[Author's Note: This story takes place within the last section of the story Dead and the Last Show; specifically, after Takashi Komuro is killed, and before the coda section sub-titled Z+1277.]

"Goddamn!" said Major Arimake, as the 50-calibre machine gun jammed. Five zombies were climbing onto the APC now; they were only a few metres away.

Then the heads of the two closest ones left their bodies in a gush of blood. The other three fell a moment later.

"Saeko!" said Arimake. "Thanks - "

But she stopped, and gasped, when she saw Saeko's face.

Saeko was in another world now, the universe of the sword. She would not be coming back.

She leapt off the APC and into the throng of zombies.

"My god ... " said Arimake, watching her. Then she remembered: the 50-cal. She cleared the jam and started firing again. She tapped the intercom on her helmet. "All APCs form up on me!" she shouted. "Mow through, mow through! We've got to get to the volunteers on the right!"

It was a world of black blood and a roar like thunder. Slash, stab, this one, here, that one, kill the next one and plunge into another group of them -

Alice climbed onto one of the APCs. Her sniper rifle was empty but she had picked up a machine gun from a fallen soldier, and she was spraying a group of zombies with bullets. The soldier firing the APC gun shouted out to her: "Welcome aboard! Hey, you're just a kid!"

"Not really," said Alice. "You wouldn't happen to have any more clips for this, would you?"

Saya walked into the battle, firing her Luger, one shot after another. Now it was out of bullets. She reached into her pocket for another clip. There was a trio of zombies coming straight for her. No rush, she said to herself. Concentrate. Then the clip was in. Three more down.

She didn't even feel angry. Indeed, she felt immensely calm. She walked on.

The four APCs pulled into a line abreast. Their heavy guns were hammering and the soldiers - and Alice - clinging to their sides were firing as fast as they could.

"Forward!" shouted Arimake.

Smash this one, take this one's head, there are two on the right, slash and burn, burn, burn -

They're drawn to her, thought Arimake, as she watched Saeko tearing a swathe through the crowd of zombies. They want to kill these people. And now she has a reason to kill them as well. It's personal. To the death.

Saeko was now the focal point of the battle. Arimake watched as a group of zombies tried to leap onto her, and for a moment she disappeared beneath the crowd. Then they were thrown off, most of them in bloody pieces. The two swords were silver blurs, cutting through the mass of the undead.

Saya was knocked down by a zombie that had got behind her. He raised a club ... and then was smashed aside. Miss Marikawa reared the horse, and then it stomped into the zombie on the ground. She wheeled Buttercup and charged into another group of them, shooting as she went.

Saya scrambled to her feet and lifted the Luger again.

She rammed the temple sword into the skull of a zombie; as it fell back the sword was pulled out of her hand. And then another zombie, wielding a jagged-edge bar, slashed her across the stomach. She decapitated the zombie with a single stroke of the Hokusawa blade, but she could feel the blood flowing from the wound. Not yet, she said to herself. Not yet.

The APCs were ploughing through the crowd. Arimake could see the civilian volunteers now, hacking away at the flank of the zombie army and doing pretty well, too. There seemed to be two older people, a man and woman armed with double-barrelled shotguns, in the middle, directing the fighting. The end of the line was anchored by a broad-shouldered man with a long-barrelled pistol and a machete.

And between the soldiers and the volunteers was Saeko, now standing atop of pile of zombie bodies. The zombies were trying to charge on her, and the more that came the more she killed. And their focus on her was leaving them exposed to the closing pincer.

Arimake started another belt on the 50-cal. "Form up and wheel right!" she shouted into the intercom.

Faced with so many enemies, the line of soldiers began to falter. Someone jumped from the next APC onto Arimake's vehicle. It was a young girl but she was firing a gun as if she had done it all her life. She shouted out to the soldiers: "We can take 'em!" The line responded, finding a new strength and surging forward again.

She had taken another wound, and then another, but she continued to fight even as she felt her life drifting from her.

For a moment, the crush of zombies fell back, as they prepared for another onslaught.

"Takashi," she breathed.

"I am here," he said. "Take my hand."

She did. The pain began to fall away.

"Time to go," he said.

"Will we be together?"

"Always, my love."

Saya saw Saeko fall. "Goodbye, my friend," she said softly.

"FORWARD!" roared Arimake.

Almost suddenly, the APCs were through to the volunteers. The zombie line fell back, wavered ... and broke. They began to retreat ... and then run.

The soldiers and the volunteers, linked together now into a single force, began to advance, firing as they went. They knew that they had to finish every last one of them.

And finally ... finally ... they did.

And then, as the echoes of battle died away, Miss Marikawa came walking out of the dust and smoke, carrying the body of Saeko Busujima in her arms, to lie it next to that of Takashi Komuro. It was over.

END