by Ben Stevens
Turning away from the man and the burning house, Dawes searched for her cigarettes in the handbag she’d placed next to her on the fallen log. Only now, as she located her cigarettes and so felt for a lighter, did she abstractly consider the man’s strange attire.
He wasn’t dressed in a modern fashion – not unusual for this area, but the appearance was oddly reminiscent of the 1920s. When he’d faced her his expression had been a little tragic, and when the flames from the house had momentarily burned more viciously they’d highlighted a long white scar on his forehead.
Hands that suddenly felt like ice dropped the handbag, as Caroline Dawes sharply turned her head to where the man was seated.
But she was alone on the log.
Tokyo Zombie Apocalypse
Ikeda-sensei stumbled into the classroom looking like he’d not slept for a month. Usually he was neatness personified; but now his hair was a mess, his glasses askew, his tie undone and his shirt ripped. And his slow, shambling gait was entirely opposite to how he normally walked.
Ikeda-sensei’s class – poised to stand and together announce ‘Sensei, ohiogozaimasu’ (‘Good morning, teacher’) – gave a collective gasp at his appearance. Still, they then began to rise. Regardless of how he looked, to have remained seated as Ikeda-sensei entered would have been unthinkable.
Sat at the back of the fourth-floor classroom, Miyuki Yoshida’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the girl hurriedly getting to her feet right at the front of the class.
Fucking teacher’s pet, that Akane thought Miyuki contemptuously, chewing hard on a piece of gum. She’d decided not to stand up herself. Would just remain seated, staring hard at the teacher Ikeda – and exactly what the fuck was wrong with him today? – while blowing bubbles. She’d done so before. He’d try and stare back at her, attempting to exert his authority, but would just get ever redder and more flustered.
Finally he’d shout at her for her insolence, order her to leave the classroom – something she’d do with deliberate slowness, pursing her full lips at the teacher who was somewhere in his mid-thirties as she passed him on her way out. Miyuki knew she was hot. Fifteen but already showing in all the right places. Maybe Ikeda-sensei went home to his sad little apartment and masturbated over her; imagined her blowing him while wearing her school uniform…
Well, tough luck, Sensei, ‘cause such a scene is remaining strictly in your imagination…
The thin teacher lurched towards the student named Akane. He rasped something unintelligible, his hands reaching out over the small desk to grasp Akane’s shoulders. The girl stood next to her took several hurried steps back, shouting out ‘Kowai-yo!’ (‘I’m scared!’)
Miyuki’s heavily-made up eyes with the long, false lashes – already narrowed in preparation for her staring competition with the teacher – suddenly widened as Ikeda-sensei pulled Akane towards him and sunk his teeth into the side of her neck.
Akane gave a shriek, blood shooting out in a manner that bizarrely reminded Miyuki of a whale spurting water. The other students (it was a mixed class) began to shout and scream, chairs and desks being knocked over with a clatter as they quickly retreated to the back of the classroom.
Ikeda-sensei raised his head, his teeth detaching from Akane’s neck, his chin slick with blood. Akane’s body flopped to the floor, where it lay quite still. It was obvious that the teacher’s bite had severed some major artery and now she was dead…
…Except she then began to rise again. Turning to stare at her classmates with the same glassy-eyed stare as that possessed by the teacher. A huge lump missing from where Ikeda had taken a bite, but the blood no longer flowing. She began to lurch forwards, her lips moving as she rasped some strange noise, her expression vacant and yet also somehow –
Hungry.
‘Shit’s sake,’ muttered Miyuki, as the other students – both male and female – continued to scream and cower against the wall just behind her. Miyuki was so scared she thought she was going to piss in her pants; but she wasn’t going to just stand here whimpering until the teacher and the teacher’s pet reached her and did –
Whatever.
Only now did Miyuki stand, her hands the gripping the back of the wooden chair. She lifted it slightly, experimentally, off the floor. It felt reassuringly heavy…
Lifting it higher, she started forwards towards the staggering, mumbling man and young woman. With a yell, she then smashed the chair down onto Ikeda-sensei’s head.
He swayed but didn’t fall, his lips moving as his eyes fastened onto Miyuki’s throat. One of his hands moved forwards; and as it gripped her shoulder, Miyuki gave a shrill shriek of terror, pulled away and again brought the chair down.
An audible crack came from Ikeda-sensei’s skull; but still no blood showed. Still, he now fell back, his frozen expression registering confusion rather than any pain.
What the fuck is this guy on? wondered Miyuki, as she turned her attention to the teacher’s pet. Miyuki had sniffed glue, taken speed and drunk alcohol – but nothing had ever got her in anything like the state this teacher was in.
And how to account for Akane? Little Miss Perfect Grades, scurrying to school and between classes with her head bowed. On occasion she’d passed Miyuki and some of Miyuki’s circle in the small park nearby, as they smoked and talked too loudly. And Miyuki had hurled abuse at Akane as she passed, encouraging others to do the same…
…But there was nothing bowed or scurrying about Akane now. The top of her previously immaculate light-blue school blazer soaked with blood, her lips twitching as they uttered those guttural, incomprehensible sounds, that glassy, oddly hungry gaze fixed upon Miyuki’s trachea as the strangely claw-like hands stretched forwards…
‘Shit’s sake!’ cried Miyuki, as she lifted up the chair and brought it crashing down for the third time. Straight on the crown of Akane’s head.
The teacher might be on something – how else to account for the fact that he was still standing, and obviously about to lurch towards Miyuki again – but what about Akane? How in the hell was that delicately-built, petite, in-bed-by-nine-o-clock-each-evening girl still standing after that blow which should have split her head straight in two?
To say nothing of the fact that she’d just had half of her neck bitten out, had decorated the walls, floor and even ceiling with her spurting blood before flopping down as though dead – and had then got straight back fucking up again…?
…Again, Miyuki had heard the crack of breaking bone. A noise which automatically filled her with revulsion. Even worse than it had when she’d struck Ikeda-sensei.
And Akane was still standing…
Dropping the chair, Miyuki moved quickly around the two groaning, stumbling figures and headed towards the classroom door. The only way out, unless you fancied a four-storey drop from one of the two large windows set along one wall.
The door was open… but as Miyuki reached it something made her look back. The other students were still there, at the back of the classroom, crying and whimpering and crouched up against the wall as the teacher and Akane swayed towards them.
‘Shit’s sake,’ muttered Miyuki again – her favorite expression. She said it in English, although it came out something like Shittu-sayku, Miyuki having first heard it in some American movie.
As well as Akane, Miyuki had also bullied half the members of this class at one time or another. Had demanded money from some of them, or the answers to some piece of homework just before the teacher arrived. And the other boys and girls were now like so many rabbits, just waiting there to have their own throats ripped out by the snapping teeth of this former math teacher and his star pupil…
Then Miyuki took notice of the fire-extinguisher located on the wall next to the open door. She grabbed at it, tearing out the plastic band which meant that she could now pull the handle and fire –
‘Hey!’ cried Miyuki, white foam shooting out. Ikeda-sensei and the girl turned slowly, almost reluctantly round to face her; and then their ja
ws sagged open and their hands came up slightly as the contents of the fire-extinguisher covered their faces and body.
‘Everybody out! C’mon – let’s go!’ cried Miyuki. A couple of the boys responded, that was all, staring wide-eyed at the girl with the too-short skirt and hair dyed with blond streaks as they passed. But the rest of the class – some fifteen other boys and girls – remained where they were, huddled against the wall, too petrified to move as the contents of the fire extinguisher began to run out…
‘Go! Now!’ cried Miyuki, dropping the extinguisher and running over to one of the girls, pushing her shoulder. This action seemed to set a precedent: the other pupils at last began moving. But as the final student passed by Akane, the foam-covered, cracked-skulled former teacher’s pet suddenly grabbed at the fleeing boy with her claw-like hands.
Akane snarled as she pulled the boy to the floor with unbelievable strength, the boy screaming as Akane’s teeth then sank into his throat, the hot blood spurting again…
Nothing can be done for that one thought Miyuki, determinedly pushing away the horror, the revulsion she naturally felt at such a sight, replacing it instead with a hard-nosed desire to survive. If she was going to escape whatever the fuck was taking place alive, she needed to keep her wits about her, and her head as cool as possible. Screaming and crying wasn’t going to accomplish anything.
She darted into the corridor outside with those other students from her class who’d also escaped having their throats ripped out. But now Miyuki realized that this nightmare was taking place across the entire school. Here in the corridor students were running past, screaming. Other students were lurching around, some with their teeth and jaws stained red, clawed hands grasping at the clothing of those who sought to escape them.
And there was the Principal. Crouched down, face buried in one side of a gurgling male student’s neck. Miyuki stared, transfixed by the horrific sight. Then she saw the eyes of the bitten student slumped against the wall transform first from wide-eyed terror and pain into a fixed look which clearly indicated death – and then all at once into that already chillingly-familiar, hungry and glassy expression.
The male student began slowly to rise, the Principal also standing up and lurching away from his last victim, his own glassy-eyed stare swiveling around the corridor, searching for another source of warm blood and flesh…
Miyuki tore away her attention. She needed to get out of this school, somehow. That was the only thing she should be focusing on. Blot out the screaming, the terrified faces, the stumbling glassy-eyed whatever the fuck they are…
Then – with a feeling almost of detached, dazed bemusement – Miyuki saw that one male student was filming the lunacy taking place using a smartphone. This student was podgy, with thick glasses. The still-walking, still-breathing stereotype of an otaku or geek – someone who spent their free time absorbed in anime movies and manga, and who went as frequently as possible to Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood, where other, like-minded people could be met.
The geek briefly turned his camera towards Miyuki, filming her as he excitedly exclaimed:
‘This is a real Tokyo zombie apocalypse!’
‘Shittu-sayku,’ returned Miyuki, shaking her head. Amid all the screaming and spraying blood, more-and-more students and teachers getting bitten and thus turning into these creatures, it seemed as though this situation had resulted in at least one tubby young manga fan having the time of his life.
Miyuki began to move. Along the corridor, pushing past the bodies of the still-living and the creatures, heading towards the main staircase. That too, she saw now, was condensed with yet more screaming bodies. She took the stairs, shoving her way down. A hand grabbed one ankle and she almost tripped over. She looked down, clenching a fist as she determined to punch whoever it was as hard as she could in order to make them let go –
But it was a girl of no more than twelve. Her terror-struck eyes showing that she was still one of those who hadn’t had their throats torn out, prior to coming back to life.
‘Help me… please…’ she whispered, staring pleadingly at the type of rebellious student whom she would usually have avoided like the plague.
Grabbing the young girl’s upper arm, Miyuki then pulled her to her feet. She dragged the whimpering child down the stairs, pushing through the mass of bodies. Despite the screaming and yelling going on all around – the school’s fire-bell also now beginning to sound – she could hear the child whimpering and crying behind her.
Still chewing hard on her gum, Miyuki briefly pulled the girl to her so close that their faces were nose-to-nose.
‘Shut up, do you hear me?’ she said harshly. ‘Save your energy, and stop bawling.’
The girl sniffed once and then nodded, struck dumb by Miyuki’s chastisement. The pair set off again, now on the second-floor. A blood-stained figure suddenly reared up in front of Miyuki, the scarlet teeth snapping barely an inch away from her face. Almost without thought, Miyuki brought her right knee hard up into the male creature’s groin.
Nothing. A blow which would have instantly brought any living man down to his knees in agony had not the slightest effect on this teenage creature.
‘Shittu-sayku,’ swore Miyuki, starting to feel desperate. She was trying to push the creature away yet it had unbelievable strength. Those snapping, reddened teeth were getting closer… closer…
At the last moment before the teeth buried themselves in her face or neck, some of what Miyuki had learnt in the string of judo lessons she’d taken a few years back bubbled to the surface of her mind.
She stepped suddenly to one side, releasing her grip and so all of the pressure she’d previously been exerting. With nothing to oppose its own strength, the creature that had once been a male high-school student now staggered forwards, overbalancing and so sprawling facedown onto the staircase.
‘Come on – come on!’ Miyuki exhorted the younger girl, as that student stared gawping up at her, as though Miyuki had just done something truly spectacular.
Again pushing their way through the forest of bodies… People screaming out, for help. One girl screamed at a glassy-eyed boy ‘Shintaro – what are you doing?’ in the second or so before the boy-creature sank its teeth into the girl’s neck.
More blood spurting out; more screaming…
…And then, almost at once, Miyuki and the girl were on the ground-floor. The staircase led straight down to the reception area, the reception office and such just before the main entrance.
The whole area was thick with bodies. A bespectacled policeman, who didn’t look to Miyuki as though he was much older than her, had his gun out and pointing at the groaning, bloody creature that had once been the woman who’d attempted to teach Miyuki physics.
‘Halt… halt… I mean it, I really will fire,’ stammered the policeman, his shaking hands and quivering voice betraying his terror.
The thing that had once been addressed by her students as Nakamura-sensei gave a hideous groan and raised her hands, the long, previously stylish nails now broken and blood-stained.
‘I will, I’ll pull the trigger,’ declared the policeman again, his voice starting to become hysterical.
‘Do it! Shoot her!’ cried Miyuki, realizing that any second the policeman was set to become one of these creatures himself.
And yet he did fire, just as the creature laid its claws on his shoulders and so pulled him towards its opening jaws.
Two shots – bang! bang! – fired point-blank straight into its heart.
The thing’s face with the wide, marble-like eyes didn’t seem even to register that it had just been blasted. Its hands continued to pull the policeman towards its teeth; the young police officer gave a shrill cry of terror, the gun falling from his hand as the jaws closed on one side of his neck…
…The young girl pulled her hand away from Miyuki’s, so that she could now raise both hands to in front of her mouth and give an ear-piercing shriek. Miyuki couldn’t bring herself to scold her, t
his time. She felt like doing exactly the same thing herself.
Quickly looking around to make sure that she and the girl were in no immediate danger (there were creatures all around, but they were currently engaged in attacking other, still-living students, teachers and police), Miyuki then knelt down by the girl and said –
‘We’ll get out of this, I promise. You see over there – that’s the exit. We can make our way to there and we’re outside.’
The girl nodded, Miyuki’s words reassuring and comforting her even as Miyuki felt her own heart sink. For if this was the scene inside this high-school, then what the hell was it going to look like outside?
Only one way of finding out…
‘Okay,’ said Miyuki. ‘Let’s go.’
Again standing up, she took the younger girl’s hand and pulled her through the mass of bodies.
And at once they were outside…
Everywhere there was yet more screaming chaos. People running, shouting, sirens blaring. Those creatures that were stumbling and shuffling around, seemingly so slow, so clumsy and yet almost with every passing second grabbing a new victim from the men, women and children running frantically past and pulling them down to the road or sidewalk that was already hot from the morning sun.
Only the strongest, the toughest of men having a chance in a hundred of being able to wrench themselves free – unbitten. Most people entirely unable to resist as the gnashing teeth tore into their necks, severing the jugular, sometimes biting clean through the trachea.
Miyuki saw one salaryman – a businessman – in a dark suit stand back up, something white and gleaming protruding through the hole in his neck that had been created just half a minute or so before. His eyes were now like grey marbles, his sunglasses lying smashed and forgotten on the sidewalk.
The salaryman stepped out in the road, straight in front of a taxi that blared its horn in the split-second before it smashed into the creature. Up flew the body, landing at the side of the road as the taxi screeched to a half and the driver door flew open.
