Love in the Dead

Democracy of the Dead

Inside the faculty room, Maikoni was sitting in the corner hugging her knees while Takagi was rinsing her face. Takashi and Hirano were barricading the door. Rei, Saeko, and Shizuka-sensei were resting. Hirano walked towards the bathroom door. "Takagi, are you okay?" She sighed and put on her glasses.

Hirano looked at her in shock. "Gl-glasses?" She threw a towel at him. "So what? My contact lenses keep moving." She walked past him irritated while he whispered 'glasses'.

Takashi sat down and leaned on the copy machine. Rei came by and handed him a bottle of water. He took it and replied with a thanks. She continued to hand everyone else, but Maikoni, a bottle. She glanced at Maikoni then the bottle in her hand. With a deep breath she walked over towards her.

Maikoni felt something cold on her arm. She lifted her head and turned it towards the cold sensation. In her line of vision was a hand wrapped around a water bottle. She looked to see the hand connected to Rei. Her eyes lit up slightly as she stood and embraced the orange haired girl. "I'm glad you're okay. I'm glad Takashi protected you and I'm sorry about Hisashi." Before Rei could reply she grabbed the bottle and went to sit next to Saeko.

"Marikawa-sensei, where's the car key?" asked Takashi.

Shizuka-sensei began rummaging in her bag. "Oh, it's in this bag." Saeko rested her chin on her fist and looked at Shizuka-sensei. "Is the car big enough for all of us?"

She stopped looking in her bag and thought about the size of her car. "Now that I think about it..."

"What about the microbus that we use for the clubs' away games? There's the key on the wall hook." Saeko suggested. Hirano looked through the blinds. "I see the bus."

The blonde turned her chair towards Takashi. "That's fine, but where are we going?"

"We're going to make sure our families are okay. We'll start with the family who lives closest to here. If you're worried about your family we'll bring them with us. After that, we'll look for a safe place and.." He trailed off as he looked at Rei

Takagi wringed her shirt out and glanced at him. "What's wrong?" Maikoni looked at Rei then the T.V.

Saeko grabbed the remote and turned it up just as Takashi got up from his spot. "Rei, what's wrong." The channel was on the news. One of the two anchors' voices began to fill the room. "The government has begun to consider emergency measures against the outbreaks that have been occurring all over the place. However, all the political parties have been expressing their uncertainty about the Self-Defense Force's security operations."

Takashi slammed his hands on the desk. "Outbreak?! What do they mean 'outbreak'?" Saeko turned the T.V. up. The scene changed from the two anchors at the new station to a live footage of an anchor woman. Behind her police officers were giving orders and trying to get a handle on the situation. "It's feared that more than ten thousand have been victimized in the Saitama area so far. The governor has already declared a state of emergency." A gunshot went off in the background making the anchor cower. "It's a gunshot." The camera panned away from her and towards the direction of the shot. "It looks like the police are finally using firearms." The camera moved once more from the police officers to the ambulance truck. Two bodies that were in a body bag on a gurney rose up and the police continued to shoot at them.

The female anchor shrieked in horror. "No! What?! No way!" She began to run away while yelling for help. The camera fell to the ground. The only thing showing was the legs of 'them' before the live video turned to static then a 'please stand by' appeared on the screen. No one in the room spoke as they digested what they saw.

The screen quickly switched back to the news station with a different anchor as she was being handed a piece of paper. She glanced at it then back to the camera. "It seems that something has happened. F-from now on, we'll bring you the story from inside the studio. The conditions outside seem very chaotic, so please stay home unless it's absolutely necessary to go outside. We'll bring you more on this story as soon as it's safe to cover the current situation from the site."