[Author's Notes featured at the end of the chapter]
[Please do C&C. Flames, MSTs, anything]
[Special thanks go out to Morgan Hudson, the
greatest Fan this story arc will ever know.
He's been a great help since day one.]
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Twilight of the Dead - Series I
A Ranma/Day of the Dead Crossover
----------------------------------
by James Jeans
(The Man With the Machinegun)
=============================
Chapter 1 - Memories I
=============================
The city had become a grisly war zone. It was like
something out of old World War II films, only twice
as graphic with a little less charm and grace. And
it had all happened so fast^� So damned fast^�
There had been no warning, of course, and no
time to prepare. It just fell upon them, like a
sudden, violent hurricane, relentless and merciless.
The bodies of the dead -- they were
returning to life. No one had a clue to what was
happening. Nobody in authority, anyway. Someone
would always believe, in their own naive way, that
they had some kind of handle on the moment.
Rumors of all variety had been flying.
Witchcraft, Voodoo, Satanism, and other various
black arts had come under fire. There were also
accusations of a chemical spill, but there was no
way the entire planet could have been infected in
one night.
The rumors continued to spread, creating
panic, sweeping over the general population like a
swift, sticky river of lies, confusing them, barely
allowing time to breathe. The rumors would be their
downfall, drowning them before they ever had a
chance to swim.
Akane Tendo sat under a skylight that showed
the rich, black night sky. She stared through the
tempered glass, seeing very few stars. A thick
overcast that, for three days straight, had blotted
out the sky and made sure of that.
She continued to reminisce, thinking about
earlier days, and how cruel people had become to one
another when it first begun. She couldn't believe,
then, how easily her peers could lay blame.
But that was the easiest way. She realized
this now. Instead of the constant headache of trying
to root out the ominous reason behind the
catastrophe, they would lay blame on the most
likely, most vulnerable soul. A person who was
different, even in the smallest way.
A group of her 'fellow' students had gotten
together one night, almost a year ago, and decided
that Hikaru Gosunkugi, the school geek, had been the
cause of the waking dead.
A preposterous idea, as far as she had
been concerned. Gosunkugi may have been naive, shy,
and an outcast, but he was harmless. Pathetic, even.
For those students, however, his involvement in the
catastrophe was as clean-cut as that.
Furinkan High had become one of the designated
zones of sanctuary back in the beginning, before the
order to remain indoors took effect. The local
television stations had declared it one of the safer
buildings, before the people within, newscasters,
journalist, police force, were all devoured by a
sudden brigade of Flesh Stalkers.
It was after the students and their families
had arrived that Gosunkugi had been deemed unfit to
remain amongst the rest of the normal population. He
was a misfit, and likely in league with whatever
devil had caused the destruction of their fine
community.
Akane felt, no KNEW, poor Gosunkugi was
fortunate that they hadn't known about the worldwide
spread of living-dead creatures.
She could still hear the shrill screams
and pleas of a desperate teenager as she moved down
the corridor, towards the Co-ed washrooms. She
shivered as, like a wet sheet, the thoughts
blanketed her mind....
* * *
Akane Tendo exploded through the doors of the
Co-ed washroom and gasped in horror. Her eyes moved
from the floor, up the depthless porcelain wall,
which was streaked with a thin red fluid.
A chill slithered down her spin as she saw
what she had hoped she would not ^� Hikaru Gosunkugi.
She watched in disgust as the 16 year old dangled
from the rafters helplessly, rope tied firmly around
his neck, fingers grasping uselessly at the noose.
They had strung the rope over a crossbeam
high above the floor and dropped him. Or maybe they
had eased him down slowly, taking morbid joy in
watching the teen suffer.
She looked away from the dying student, only
to see five of the offending students in the
rafters, watching.
Her eyes returned helplessly to the boy, and
she could see a thin trail of blood and saliva
drooling from the corner of Gosunkugi's mouth, his
body hanging before her limply. The cries had
stopped.
>From the look of it, his face had been smashed
against the wall, before he was drug up by the
noose, to his final destination.
Her eyes locked with Gosunkugi's. It was far
less than an actual lock, as though his eyes were
simply angled at her, unseeing. She suddenly felt
very sick to her stomach.
"It's that Tendo girl!" one of the students
screamed, his voice masked by rage and, strangely,
fright.
Akane backed up slowly, toward the door,
shaking her head in shock, her eyes darting up to
the students. They didn't even call her Akane
anymore^� It was quite a change from a seven months
ago, when the Saotome's had first arrived.
"She helped him cause this," another one
accused, his voice dripping acid. "Why else would
she have rushed to his aid?!"
The other students made sounds of agreement.
"Get the bitch!"
Akane's mind snapped, harsh realization
setting in as these harsh, untrue words reverberated
throughout the washroom. Her feet slapped against
the concrete floor loudly as she raced out of the
room, hearing the other students scream and shout.
"Get her! Kill her!"
"Don't let her get away! She might let those
things in!"
Akane stopped for a moment and looked back
into the washroom. Her eyes were glazed in
surprised abhor as one of the students released the
rope holding Gosunkugi in the air.
His body fell to the ground suddenly. The
impact sound was nothing like what Akane had
expected. Rather than a loud, sharp thump, she heard
only a dull, wet smack. It turned her stomach.
The raven hair girl suddenly ran as hard as
she could, turning a blind corner, continuing down
the corridor. It didn't make sense to her. More than
anything else, these kids sounded frightened, but
why was it like THIS? The reality of Gosunkugi's
corpse laying in the washroom hadn't really sunk in
yet.
She stopped behind an extension wall at
the far end of the corridor and whimpered as she
realized she had made it right to a dead end.
"Where is she?"
"I saw her go that way!"
"Let's get her, then!"
She slid down onto the floor, closing her
eyes tightly. So many times in the past she had
taken on these very students. Again she remembered
her daily duels with them before school every
morning. Things were different now, though. She
didn't know if she wanted to fight anymore.
"URGH!"
"OOF!!"
"URNK!!!"
Akane's eyes snapped open, the stunned cries
of pain from around the corner jolting her from
thought. The grunts and groans continued, followed
by a familiar, welcomed voice.
"Ya got somthin' bad to say to Akane, ya
clear it through me first, ya got that?"
"Out of the way, Saotome," one of the
students replied, his voice shaky. "This doesn't
concern you. Your fianc�e and that wizard kid
Gosunkugi are to blame for all this. She can't go
unpunished!"
The voice darkened. "Wrong answer."
Akane heard another loud 'OOF' and a
tumultuous inrush of sound, followed by a flash of
energy, and concrete crumbling under intense force.
Then silence. The general sounds of a
building full to the breaking point with people
still existed, but she could no longer hear the
cruel sound of false accusations.
Akane adjusted her position on the floor and
crawled on her hands and knees over to the corner,
peering around it.
Ranma stood silently in the hallway, his face
riddled in a confusing array of emotions as he
looked around himself. A light mist rose from the
wall next to him, where one of the students had
been flattened into the structure by a bolt of raw
ki.
On the floor lay the other four students,
beaten and unconscious. Akane's eyes trailed from
the destruction to Ranma himself.
The boy turned slowly, his eyes closed
tightly as he moved toward the dead end at the
other side of the hall. His movements, though shaky,
were strangely graceful, as if he practiced the act
of walking down a hallway.
The student who had been flattened against
the wall pulled himself out slowly, shaking his
head. He felt a thick, warm liquid dripping down
his lip, and reached up to wipe it from beneath his
nose.
The boy stepped away from the wall, holding
his left arm against his chest, as if to protect
himself, or the arm, which was obviously broken.
Ranma stopped and grimaced, his back still
facing the student. "Back off, man..."
"You and Akane were in on it together,
weren't you?" The student directed an accusing look
at the martial artist. "You both...!"
Ranma's ear perked suddenly, and the hair on
his neck stood on end. He no longer heard the
student, but, something was creeping up^� "Look out!"
He jumped as a sudden cry of pain exploded
from behind him. He spun on his heel, hearing his
fianc�e cry out in surprise. The martial artist took a
step back, his eyes wide with a new, un-experienced
terror.
The student struggled backward, his hands
grasping desperately at the unseen menace that held
him from behind, a sharp, searing pain in his neck
causing his vision to explode red. The realization
that this red tint was not only caused by the pain,
but a flowing jet of his own blood threw him into a
frenzy.
Ranma watched, his mouth slightly agape as
Gosunkugi's corpse slid its long, slender fingers
easily through the material in the students
uniform, through the flesh in his chest and
abdomen.
Akane leaned forward, no longer able to
contain her fear and anxiety, and felt the contents
of her stomach explode upward, a white, thick liquid
covering the floor in front of her.
She looked up and witnessed the continuing
destruction of the student.
Gosunkugi's corpse clasped its large mouth
down on the student's neck, its teeth shredding
skin, flesh, muscle and vain, causing a geyser of
blood to flow, spraying from the pressure on his
jugular.
It continued to chew, working it's way
through the student's neck in a horizontal line.
It's teeth soon began to work into the windpipe and
spinal cord, causing the student to convulse and,
after a few more moments, lose control of his body.
Ranma closed his eyes, unable to move as the
student's screams became desperate, and then
stopped, the only sound now Gosunkugi's teeth
ripping at flesh, and crushing spinal cord.
And then silence. A low thud echoed through
the hall, and Ranma opened his eyes reluctantly to
see the student's head rolling uselessly toward his
feet, eyes moving, jaw snapping wildly.
Akane felt herself wretch again at the sight
of the rolling head. She closed her eyes as red hot
tears began to blur her vision. "Oh god!" She began
to scream, an uncontrolled, violent scream.
Ranma watched as Gosunkugi released the other
student's body and its attention focused on him. He
wasn't surprised by its fast, jerky movements. He
was just killed, by the looks of it. The only
indication that he was dead were the marks around
his neck, and the angle at which his head rested on
his body. He didn't hesitate any longer.
Screaming, Ranma spun around suddenly,
leveling a rotating heel kick with the top of
Gosunkugi's head.
Gosunkugi's head flew across the hall and hit
the wall, rolling down, onto the floor, several
feet from Akane. She screamed and backed away,
pinning herself against the wall.
As tears continued to flow, she focused her
attention back on her fianc�e. A noticeable change
had taken place in the pigtailed martial artist. He
looked older, somehow. As if the whole situation
had aged him before his time.
* * *
Indeed, Ranma had matured considerably since
the whole ordeal began, but he had still possessed
that childish, foot-in-mouth characteristic. This
Akane was thankful for, because, moreover, Ranma
had become quite uptight. He snapped overly often,
but still verged on the softer side.
They had all changed a lot after the first
few creatures had arrived in Nerima. She knew Ranma
was still suffering from what he considered to be
his ultimate failure.
She twisted a finger in her once again lengthy
hair, a habit that had formed back before Ryoga had
chopped it of with his belt-lance two years earlier.
Sighing, she looked out the skylight into the
thick, gloomy night. "Where are you, Ranma?"
* * *
The young male looked out over the large,
dead town of Nerima, watching the many vacant
streets and massive buildings. It was so damned dark
out there. Most of the power had gone, and very few
buildings were supplied with backup units. The
building he stood upon had a small solar powered
generator, and he could hear its endless drone
behind him.
In the day, he could see most of the
surrounding wards: Itabashi, Toshima, Nakano,
Suginami, Musashino, and Hoya. But at night, it
wasn't that simple. There wasn't enough light from
buildings in any of the other wards.
He focused his concentration on watching the
streets below. His eyes had grown used to the dark,
and he never had any problem seeing almost every
detail below. In the immediate distance, he could
make out what remained of Furinkan High. Most of the
building's upper levels had been destroyed in a
'freak explosion'.
Ranma knew better, though. He remembered all
too well how it had happened. No one could get
along, and morale broke down completely. Everyone in
the building bickered, argued, and complained.
Finally, somehow, the creatures made it into
the school building via a door into the basement
area. It was an utter slaughter. Ranma helped as
many people as he could, and watched as one of the
desperate students who had been surrounded broke a
gas line with his boot heel and took his lighter
from his pocket.
There was no time to help him, or stop him. He
had been thrown out the window, down to the ground
below. He thanked the gods for his quick reflexes
and agility. Those things were on him in no time. He
scaled up what remained of the school and had, after
much effort, escaped.
But when he rendezvoused with the survivors,
several students, some he knew and some he didn't,
had gone missing -- Ukyo, Ai, Cloud, and... and...
"Akane," Ranma said mournfully, his head
hanging low. "I've failed you. I'm sorry." He
closed his eyes and fought back tears, knowing it
would be "unmanly" to cry. But what did THAT matter
anymore? After all, his mother was no longer around
to enforce the rules of said manliness, and it was
his fault.
He felt a strong rush of wind blow through
his hair, and he let his thoughts drift with
it.
* * *
"Ranma!"
Ranma skidded to a halt, his feet dragging
across the asphalt below him loudly. He turned his
head, breathlessly, and looked at the person who
followed him.
Ryoga Hibiki moved up the street quickly,
darting around abandoned cars. Tears flowed from his
eyes, but not heavily enough to attract immediate
attention. He did, however, press on through the
large puddles of gasoline, surrounded by burning
debris, as if they were simply pools of pure, fresh
water.
Ranma turned fully to face his long time
rival. He straightened his posture and watched the
Lost Boy approach. "What d'ya want, Ryoga? I ain't
got time to fight, I've gotta get to the Dojo.
Mom and Pop are there..."
"Ukyo's dead, Ranma," Ryoga interrupted, the
tears in his eyes beginning to flow a little
harder. "I... I tried so hard... There were so many
of them... I couldn't..."
Ranma took a step back, shaking his head. "Oh
no... I gotta get to the Dojo!"
* * *
Ranma could still feel the sting caused by
that news. He didn't know whether or not he'd ever
get over the loss of his friend. Out of all the
fiancees, he knew she would have been the most
likely to remain his friend if he had not chosen
her.
He could feel a familiar ache rising in his
stomach, one he had never felt, not until after the
fall of Tokyo.
He remembered what happened that night at the
Tendo Dojo^�
* * *
Ranma and Ryoga bolted through the narrow,
cluttered street. The two boys leaped up and over
obstacles, ignoring a pile of over-turned vehicles
as they passed.
Ryoga was having a hard time keeping up. He
kept catching unwelcome glimpses of what he knew to
be dead bodies. In his sixteen years, he had never
seen a person killed in such a manner. Eyes,
throats, stomachs eaten out. Heads ripped from their
torsos, and many various other forms of death.
Ranma, on the other hand, barely noticed
any of the dead civilians. He could only think of
Ukyo's death, and reaching the Tendo Dojo.
The two martial artists rounded the corner
that connected the streets where the Tendo Dojo
had been built. They ran up to the gate and looked
through it. The door to the house sat agape, slid
back into the open position.
Ranma grimaced, he and the Lost Boy running
into the yard. He cried out in surprise as suddenly
something latched onto him from beside the gate.
The cold, clammy hands grabbed at his arm firmly,
pulling with incredible strength.
Ranma looked over and his eyes widened. He
thrashed and jerked, swinging the groaning creature
around in the air.
Ryoga pulled back and punched, growling
loudly. His fist embedded into the creature's back,
causing it to hiss in pain. He pulled his hand back
and looked in horror at the creature, which was
still on his arm, thick dark fluid seeping from
within, around the cloth of his shirt sleeve.
The creature turned to look at Ryoga, growling
in agitation.
Ranma spun around to look at it. He kicked
up and around, toward its head.
Ryoga watched as the creature's head
separated from its body at the base of the neck. It
flew through the air, spraying Ryoga with a thick
white liquid, before landing on the ground. The
white ooze was quickly joined with a viscous red
fluid, and a pool of blood began to form around the
corpse.
The body twitched as blood began to pour from
the neck, onto Ryoga's arm. He pulled back and let
the corpse fall to the ground.
Ranma looked down at the creature in disgust.
He then glanced up at Ryoga.
The two looked at each other for a moment,
but both suddenly averted their attention to the
house.
"Sayuri!!! Nabiki!!! NOOOOO!!!"
Ranma arched a brow for a moment. Sayuri?
That was Akane's friend from school. What was she
doing here?
"That was Akane!" Ryoga bellowed, his
expression twisting in a dark mix of concern and
anger.
"Come on!" Ranma almost literally flew
through the open door of the house, sliding to an
abrupt halt as his eyes surveyed his surroundings.
It didn't look good. He had to dodge four of
those things just to get into the house.
Once inside, his mouth fell open in horror.
The house was infested. The dead humans stumbled
around the room, up the stairs, into the kitchen,
and out the back door onto the veranda.
Ryoga burst through the door, behind Ranma.
"Akane?!" He stopped and looked around. "This can't
be..."
Ranma moved toward the stairs, going up them
two by two. He pushed the zombies out of his way as
he went, giving them no chance to attack.
At the same time, Ryoga had begun the
hazardous ascension into the higher level of the
home. His agility was increased by the pure
adrenaline rush that flowed through him, and it
only pulsed with more force as his fear increased.
Ranma stopped at the top of the stairs and
moved toward Akane's room. He froze suddenly and
looked down at the floor.
A group of zombies huddled down around
Nabiki's corpse. Her neck had been ripped in half,
and the hollow space that remained drained a thick,
dark pool of blood across the floor.
He watched the zombies begin to prod at her,
grabbing at exposed flesh, ripping at it greedily.
Her school uniform had been torn, and her stomach
was bare.
One of the creatures slid its hands down onto
her belly and grasped the skin. It pulled in both
directions. Ranma's eyes glazed with disgust as the
flesh ripped, as easily as latex, exposing her
stomach, intestines, kidneys, and other vital
organs. Blood splashed across the floor as the
creature began to chew on the torn flesh.
Ranma covered his mouth and turned away,
gagging. He closed his eyes and felt his body
shaking, a sense of terror gripping him for
possible the first time ever.
"Look out!"
Ranma spun on his heel, his arms raised to
defend himself, only to see Ryoga's fist separating
a creature's head from its body. The body slid
uselessly to the floor, and the head hit the wall,
leaving a large red splotch.
Ryoga looked at Ranma, who nodded his thanks.
He nodded in return and turned, only to see Nabiki,
her body being ripped to pieces. "Nabiki^�?"
Ranma moved over to Ryoga, simply nodding.
"Come on."
Ryoga felt his stomach turn, and he thought he
were about to pass out. He looked away and closed
his eyes.
Ranma darted past Ryoga, who followed him
promptly. They moved toward Nabiki and the other
creatures.
As the pigtailed martial artist passed one of
Nabiki's killers, he pulled his fist back and
snapped it forward, sending the creature into the
wall. He heard a sickening, crushing sound, and knew
the creature's skull had collapsed from the force.
Ryoga glanced down at Nabiki as they passed
her and shook his head. It was inhuman, the damage
that had been done to her. In his mind, he secretly
prayed for her.
They reached Akane's room and Ranma threw
the door open....
===============================================================
[Author's Notes]
Okay, everyone, you've just read chapter 1. I posted the
prologue back a week ago, so if anyone missed it, just e-mail
me to get it. I'm working on Chapter 7&8 right now, so I've
decided to repost chapters 1-6 because I've been away from the
list for so long. Please, if you can, C&C the story, either to
the FFML or directly to me. I'd appreciate it.
James
=============================
"Speaking of exploding sharks..."
=============================
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