GRRRAAAAHHH!

  "Hold on!"

  John barreled his way though the school gate, the flimsy design was all form over function. He crushed several zombies under the bumper of his truck in the process, and carried on down the road. He made a mental note to make sure anywhere they decided to settle down at would have a much more durable barrier. He was liking the idea of moving into one of the old castles that littered the country even more, though he wasn't sure which would be a better choice.

  "Slow down John-San, you have people in the back." Shizuka said, a death grip on the dash in front of her. He looked in his rearview mirror and could see seven terrified faces holding on for dear life.

  He slowed down after he made it far enough down the road that the zombies that had been congregating nearby the school had thinned in numbers.

  "What is the pn Sensei?" asked Saeko behind him. She was watching out the window with interest, particurly anytime John ran over another zombie.

  "Well, I think we need to gather some food and supplies. Maybe another vehicle or two now that there are a lot of us. Then we need to find shelter for the night. We can decide our next moves then...after I have a nap anyways."

  "A nap? Really? You're not an old man Sensei, or are you just pying up your silver hair to get...sympathy or something?" Rei said, a baffled look on her face. It was kind of surprising considering the situation, but from her perspective, he should be in his prime, not in his twilight years.

  "REI! Don't be rude. He rescued us and is willing to help us find our families." Saya said next to her.

  Oh if you only knew how close she was to the mark you sweet innocent child.

  "Sure, you caught me. I act old so I can sneak in more naps. Does wonders for decreasing stress." He joked, ughing a bit at how absurd this all was. If his shoulder and back weren't on fire, he might actually enjoy this unique experience. He decided to switch topics.

  "Shizuka-San, which way to the closest grocery store? I would like to gather as much food as possible before others beat us to it."

  "Umm...if you turn down the street coming up on the right, there is a small store there. My pce...well my friends pce isn't too far from here."

  "Okay lets do it."

  John, turned down the street, and came to a stop. There were hundreds of zombies roaming around, along with several overturned cars, some of them on fire. It was oddly a perfect representation of what a zombie apocalypse should look like in his mind.

  "Yeah, new pn, lets try a different route." He backed up and tried to get their from a different direction.

  The day started to drag on, and John fired up the diesel generator of his truck. They kept having difficulties finding routes that would get them closer to the store. It wasn't a complete waste of the day. He got to know his passengers a bit better, and had Saya slide open the rear window of the truck so a student in the back could stick their heads in and talk.

  Rei seemed like a sweet girl, though she had a bit of an attitude too. She was really hoping her folks were okay.

  Kohta was...interesting. He was apparently a shy kid before today, but broke out of his shell earlier killing the zombies. He ughed a bit whenever John ran over a zombie in their way, and would sometimes take a potshot or two at ones they were passing by, until John put an end to it, telling him to conserve his ammo.

  Saya was...smart, but had no filter. Now that they were in the retive safety of the truck, she pulled no punches on what she thought the government was doing wrong with this situation. Apparently, they had seen a news report on a TV in the school before meeting up with them. He didn't want to judge considering no government pns for an actual zombie apocalypse so they were probably doing the best they could with the little information they had and fucking it up at times. That is being human.

  Saeko spoke little, focused on watching the outside. The little John gleaned from her made him think of her as kind and caring but like she was holding back. Not surprising, considering the situation they were in. Maybe she would open up more to them with time.

  The little bundle of energy beside him, Shizuka, was easily the most talkative. She said her roommate would usually have her drive normally, so being a passenger was fun. She chatted about everything, from clothes to how the zombies seem to react, and debated with Saya on potential causes for them to turn, the simirities to outbreaks of different pandemics, also what restaurant made better Yakitori.

  The conversation was all over the pce, and it made John wonder if that was why Rika, her roommate, made her drive so she would focus on that instead of constantly talking. He found it adorable though as she was so enthusiastic about everything. At some point she pced her hand on his thigh and was rubbing his leg slowly. He was going to say something, but thought better of it. It wasn't hurting anyone and having some human touch was fine by him. It had been years and he missed it.

  The girls all tried their cellphones again, to try and get in contact with their families, but there was no signal.

  "Don't towers have battery backups and multiple redundancies? Seems weird they they would stop working so quickly." John asked.

  "Yes they do, however this happened at a horrible time. My fathers company owns the towers in the city, and they were all scheduled to get their power banks repced this month. Due to locations of the towers, they had to pull the old battery units out first before putting in the new ones.

  They have generators too, but with this...situation happening though, I am not sure if anyone was around to turn the generators on to power the towers if the main power failed." Saya said. She didn't seem too happy about the fact that communication was down due to her family, but John wasn't too worried. Likely once they got away from the city, cell service might pick back up. Or not, he wasn't a comms guru.

  It was ter in the afternoon, and John was getting hungry. He knew his passengers must be as well, as most probably hadn't eaten since that morning. They passed by a small convenience store and John made the executive decision to pull in. The grocery store would be better but he needed some food and a pce to y down. He was tempted to break into a random home to see what he could find, but with over a dozen mouths to feed, a store was a better option.

  There were three zombies milling around the outsides of the store. The lights were on, but he couldn't see through the gss if anyone was inside.

  "Miss Busujima, Miss Miyamoto, get out and take those down. Mr Hirano, cover them and keep watch. Shizuka-San, get in the drivers seat and be ready to drive incase something happens. Miss Takagi, you are with me and the other students. We are going to raid the store."

  No one questioned him, and John got out of the Truck. He took a few moments to stretch his back, the earlier exertion and sitting for hours really let him know he was out of shape. He looked over at Saya, who was observing him, then to the students on back of the truck. They all appeared scared and he couldn't bme them. He pulled his bokken from where he wedged it between the seat and side of the truck.

  He looked over to the blonde spikey haired kid. He had pulled out one of the bokken from the bundle he made earlier. "What is your name?"

  "Tsunoda Fukuda. Why did you leave Sensei behind!?!?!" The kid jumped down and all but shouted in John's face. He was about to bring his bokken up between the kids legs, but thought better of it for the moment.

  "He left another student to die whom he could have easily helped. Worse, he led you all out to us not knowing if I even had keys to a vehicle. It could have gotten you all killed. You Mr. Fukuda, need to lower your voice. Loud noises attract these zombies, and that is the st thing we need right now." John said in an even tone. He would prevent escation here if he could.

  "Tsunoda-san, please. Nothing can be done now. Don't cause trouble again." One of the girls behind him on the truck said. She had fairly short ginger hair held back with a band, yellow eyes and was once again quite busty, probably a solid E cup. He couldn't make out her height with her leaning over the truck to grab Tsunoda's shoulder.

  Gritting his teeth, the kid bit back whatever he was about to say. Apparently that girl was close to him, a girlfriend perhaps? Hopefully she was level headed enough to keep him in check. John looked over at the students on back and decided it was time to introduce himself properly.

  "Okay, first off hello everyone, my name is John Wayne, the leader of our group. I was a new teacher to your school so you probably haven't seen me before. I am working with Miss Marikawa and the others to bring you all somewhere safe. However you will need to help out.

  Mr. Fukuda, I have a job for you. You and I are going in the store and taking down any of these zombies we find. The rest of you, you will follow Miss Takagi here and wait by the door. Once we give you the all clear, you are going to come and and load some bags with as much calorie dense non-perishable food you can find. You will then come back out here and get on the truck. We have somewhere to go tonight, and we will make our pns to go forward from there. Are there any questions?"

  John looked over at the students. Some were shaking, particurly that other boy, but none questioned him. Tsunoda even seemed eager for the roll of enforcer to break into a store. John thought he might be useful in the future as long as he didn't start being a complete asshole.

  They made their way to the store, the surroundings already cleared out by Rei and Saeko. The tter nodded at him and stayed by Rei outside, apparently guarding the truck. John checked the door and finding it unlocked, nodded to the excitable kid. "Ready?"

  "Whenever you are, old man."

  Ahh, least one of them gets it.

  "Remember, go for the head."

  "Yeah, Yeah."

  John swung the door open and the two of them went in. The store wasn't terribly rge, maybe a thirty by forty foot room, filled with tons of junk food and other snacks favoured by the locals. The back wall held several refrigerators, with various drinks from water and pop, to canned coffees and teas. Several doors lead to the back, presumably the staff area and maybe a bathroom. Speaking of, John realized he needed to go soon, else they might need to find a clothing store for new underwear.

  There were two zombies in the room, one was the old cashier, stuck behind the counter, another was on the back wall, near the fridges.

  GRRAAAAHHH!

  "I got this one, go for the one on the back wall." John said, then walked over to the counter and stabbed the former employee in the eye. It continued to growl at him, so he pushed deeper and twisted the handle, destroying the brain matter of the poor soul. The zombie dropped and John remembered to breathe again. He looked over to see how his new 'problem' child was doing.

  Tsunoda was a big kid, nearly six feet tall, athletic build. John suspected he was into sports of some sort, but time hadn't permitted him to find anything out about him other than he was a hot head. He sshed at the zombie, leaving a tear across the front of its chest.

  John moved. Apparently listening wasn't one of this kids skills.

  The ssh did nothing and the kid left himself open for an attack, which the zombie obliged with. John barely got to the kid in time to pull him back as the zombie lunged at him. John jabbed his bokken into the zombies neck with one hand and yanked hard on Tsunoda's colr, pulling him back a safe distance.

  But that was too much for John's already battered frame, and he colpsed on the floor, his arm, shoulders and back all now in agony. He let go of his bokken, a critical error in the middle of battle, and dropped to the floor. The zombie he had tried to stab, dropped to the ground and bit him in on his right hand. John came to his senses for a moment, and realized he was screwed.

  With nothing left to lose, he used his left side, picking up the bokken offhanded, and pounded the zombies head in with the pommel. For whatever reason, John's strength never left him and after a few hits, he buried the pommel, fist and all, into its brain. John used his remaining willpower to stand back up, refusing to die on the ground like this.

  "Fucking idiot, listen when someone tells you something. FUCK...might just save your life, and theirs. FUCK!"

  He turned back to Tsunoda. The kid was on his ass, looking terrified of John. John was tempted to thrash the kid within a inch of his life, but he had to figure out how to return to DEN. This world was a bust.

  He stumbled to the door to the back, using the bokken as a walking stick. He was going to the bathroom. Least if he locked himself inside, there wasn't a chance he was going to attack anyone else.

  He found no more zombies, just an office and a simple bathroom. He locked the door, pulled down his pants and sat on the toilet.

  "Heh, I came into this world with my pants down, I guess I will leave it the same way." He thought it was quite funny, he was starting to get warm. He assumed the zombie virus or whatever was starting to affect his brain. He looked at his right hand, broken skin and torn flesh, blood just seeping out of the wound. Yep he was definitely screwed.

  "What was it again, oh yeah a skill...umm...do I just say it?...return...teleport? wait it was called...DEN Return!"

  With that st one, the world went grey, then it went staticky. Finally it dissolved into nothing.

  Nothing but a void.