The next morning.

Last night everyone went to the Tagoki residence. We set up quickly enough I’m sharing a room with Saeko and Saya. We got through a few of our awkward bases of being that close and it turns out Saya can be a little loud, so I’ve been getting glares from some of the others as I move around the house. I’ve just been avoiding her dad since we got here like the plague. Her mom seems to just chuckle at it and say, ‘young love’ and stuff like that but its always the dad that’s scary. Saeko’s was a bit odd because he approved of me before we started dating and her mom passed away years ago.

I’m walking down the stairs getting ready to potentially meet Saya’s father. I notice Takashi is running out of Rei’s room as she yells at him to get out.

“Tch whatever she loved it.” he says while looking at the door. Well, that’s not a good sign. I take a sip from my morning coffee enjoying the show of his lifes drama. I’m surprised hes already up and about with the wound to his leg but I guess he has that plot armor going for him.

Two men are lifting a box and one drops one side as they try to fit it through the door.

“You idiot you dropped it! You’re walking too fast!”

“Let me help you!” Takashi tries to move in to help just about to grab one side.

“Na kid, it’s alright go play around and let the adults do the hard stuff.” Shrugging off Takashi.

I’m having a chuckle to the side. At the face hes making at them as they struggle to carry off the box of supplies.

“Whats their problem?” Takaish just stands there staring at their backs.

“Don’t worry about it too much.” Saeko walks in wearing a full kimono with a purple, blue and gold design. It makes her look beautiful. I’m about to say something to her when Takishi goes and ruins it.

“Um whats the matter?” Saeko notices him staring at her slack jawed.

“Nothing just it looks good on you… Really, Really good.” While looking away with an embarrassed face. This makes her nose scrunch up a bit. He notices she doesn’t seem to really like the complement and he quickly responds with “I didn’t mean it in a weird way you know I have more self-control than that. Like I can turn off that part in my brain that says ‘fuckable’ so I’m just uh giving you a complement because that’s how I feel. Yeah, that’s it!” digging his hole deeper and deeper not knowing when to shut up.

“Okay…. Well, I’m going to go spend some time with Haru. You just do…whatever it was you were doing?” she looks a bit awkward and doesn’t know how to respond to the odd response he gave. Speed walking over to me we all but run away from the frustrated form of Takashi beating himself up in the main hallway.

As we are heading up stairs, we overhear whats very much Saya yelling at someone.

“Fine you’re always right, Always! Erg” coming from a hallway up ahead me and Saeko probably should check that out and I guess Takashi wants to as well since he chases up behind us.

The first thing we see is Saya borderline crying. Before either of us can get a word in Takashi speaks up first.

“Whats the matter with you?!” Takashi starts it off. Earning himself a frown from Saeko and I.

“You don’t have to ask like such a prick!” Saya shoots back glaring at him.

“Sorry we all know Takashi isnt exactly a good talker. Hey, Saya whats wrong? We heard the yelling.” I put in, trying to settle this all down. Getting an approving squeeze from my arm from Saeko.

“Erg… fine I guess we can talk about it later I just… I need some time to think to myself.” She seems frustrated but willing to calm down. We should just give her some space I’m sure she will tell Saeko at least about it later.

“Alright, me and Saeko are always there for you if you need someone to talk to. I’m sure Auntie and Shizuka will listen as well.” She nods understanding but still frustrated.

“And me!” Takashi cuts in.

Everyone just gives him a deadpan stare.

Saya just walks away.

Her mom seems to be the one she was in an argument with since she turns the corner obviously having listened in on our conversation.

“Sorry about getting you all involved in our family drama.” Mrs.Tagoki comes walking down the hall. “Though I’m sure you’re used to it by this point being friends or more for so long.” She adds the last bit with a smirk towards Saeko and I.

“What was the argument about anyways?” Saeko asks curious about the situation.

“When the dead started attacking people, the commander of the military sent people to the essential power plants and water treatment plants at his own discretion. However, that won’t last forever, people will eventually leave or abandon their post. One of your group members is even one of them not that I blame her.” She makes a good point, without water or electricity living situations are going to become a lot harder.

“I want to send a group of people out there to secure those locations and man them. But she refuses to listen and feels that this place is lost. I just can’t see it that way everything we own is here.” She looks down with a bit of a frown.

“I want her to understand me but no matter what I say she wont listen. Maybe one of you can get through to her?” Shes looking at Saeko and I when she says this. But its not one of us that responds first.

“You really think I can get through to her where you can’t?” Takashi asks and everyone sort of looks away from him. He obviously didn’t pick up on Mrs. Tagoki looking at me and Saeko and he just happens to be here.

I clear my throat a little bit. “We’ll uh go have a chat with her.” Moving past Mrs. Tagoki.

After talking to Saya for a bit she mentions that it’s an important discussion, so we gather up most of the important people of the group. Saya, Shizuka, Tanada, Saeko, Hirano, Takashi and Auntie are all here. The original members of the group plus Tanada because she is in charge of the kids and knows a bit about the military orders.

“So, what are we doing here? You mentioned needing to talk to all of us?” Rei brings up. I didn’t exactly ask for her to join just Takashi was there and already knew this discussion was happening, so he went and told her.

“We need to discuss something very important for this groups future. We need to decide if we will stay with this group or not.” Saya starts us off still a little rattled from earlier shes red faced but trying to force herself to be a bit more in the moment for the sake of the group.

This makes everyone hesitate for a second.

“It’s a good point, we are two groups at the moment. We can either be absorbed or separate from them.” I put in trying to justify the topic.

“Do we really need to separate from them? Your parents seem to have a plan!” Takashi surprised that we are even discussing it.

Saya starts to speak up. Starting out slow at first but working herself up into more and more of a frenzy. “Ha of course they have a plan they always have a ‘perfect plan’ EVERYTHING needs to be perfect, the perfect house! The perfect job! The perfect Daughter! ITS SUFFICATING HAVING EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR LIFE DECIDED FOR YOU SO ITS PERFECT. I was on a leash not even being able to spend time with the one I had a crush on for fear that I’d rope them into this… this unfulfilling life! THEY DON’T EVEN SEE HOW FUCKING USELESS IT ALL IS.” Shes now crying shit uhhh what do I do. I don’t mix well with crying girls.

“That’s enough” Takashi cuts in trying to stop her. That was obviously the wrong move. I look over desperately at Saeko who is similarly stunned and looking just as lost. Neither of us are exactly the most emotionally supportive people. When Saeko was sad we would just spar.

“IT WAS NEVER ENOUGH! But where was, that leash the other day? When EVERYTHING WENT TO HELL! WHERE WAS IT WHEN I FINALLY NEEDED IT! NOWHERE!” She’s yelling now that’s uh bad. I’m about to move in to give her a hug when Takashi gets to her first.

“STOP IT SAYA!” Takashi grabs her by the scruff of her shirt Raising her up forcibly as she lets out a surprised yelp. This is when both me and Saeko intervene. I move up behind Takashi and firmly plant my hands on his shoulders. Now this we can handle. Violence and attacks and rebuttling anger? Those are easy to deal with. Someone crying? Thats something weird.

“I suggest you choose your next words carefully Takashi.” I put my full weight onto him. He grits his teeth at first then let Saya go. Shes still upset and is glaring at Takashi. He winces and holds his leg while trying to turn around to glare at me but can’t move from my grip.

“Oh what about YOU Mr.perfect trying to save the day? Waiting until shes already having a fucking breakdown before you intervene? Shes a fucking mess so why don’t you help her?” Takashi is yelling while still planted where he stands.

I let out a long sigh. “Well, first of all she has some things she needs to get off her chest. I understand you don’t get that your supposed to listen to others’ problems to understand them. So heres whats going to happen. You’re going to apologize then leave, Saeko and I are going to talk with Saya for a bit. You’ve done enough damage.” I look over at the seething Saya. I let go of Takashi.

“I’m FINE! I-I’m fine…” Saya says from the side but shes pretty obviously not as she trails off into a whisper. Definitely not fine.

I look around the room. Rei is glaring at me, and Alice looks confused when the hell did she even get here? Questions for later. Hirano looks lost likely because hes never really been included in a group before. Tanada doesn’t seem to care about teenage drama shit and Shizuka is eating a banana and looks oblivious next to Auntie who looks like she wants to help but also doesn’t look like anything she would do would just make it worse.

“Tch alright assholes I guess I’ll leave for now. Come on Rei!” He stomps off outside the room. Surprisingly or I guess not surprisingly Rei follows him out. Well, that shows how much she cares about him I won’t save her from that. I’m not even jealous of Takashi or anything I don’t want her either I just think she should find someone else that actually listened to her problems instead of yelling at people and saying we all have problems.

After they leave the room.

“Saya, are you okay?” I move up and place my hand on her shoulder and look her in the eyes. Her glasses fell off in the scuffle.

“Ye…yes.” She looks unsure herself.

“Well despite all of that you made some good points. I want us all to continue the previous discussion feel free to say something if you want but you don’t need to. I am of the mind we should separate from this group like you said.” She looks at me a bit surprised. Everyone else does too.

“Why?” Auntie finally speaks up. “We have food, water and protection here.” She has a point but theres a few other things too.

“Yes, but the undead seem to be getting smarter and from what I’ve seen the people of this camp are kind of dumb. No offense Saya but your father ruined a perfectly good water supply this morning as a public display.” This morning as a show of strength to the common people he killed a zombie that was previously a member of their guard. In the display though the cut off head flew into the fountain which was hooked up to a water supply contaminating all of it.

“Yeah… Mom yelled at him for an hour after that…” Saya gave a long distant look but a slight chuckle hinting at her breath, but she fights it down not wanting to laugh.

“The noncombatants also don’t understand that the zombies are truly dead. I have a cure for it but even that is only effective within 1 minute of being bitten but once you go full zombie it would have no effect. They don’t seem to understand the concept of protection and even think that they should be the ones in charge rather than the ‘barbarians’ that go out and kill sick people.” This makes everyone feel a little uncomfortable.

“Wait what was that about a cure?” Hirano, Tanada and Alice all look confused. Shit right I didn’t tell them about that. I shouldn’t have said that here. Espeshally with Alice shes just a kid. She might not mean to but she will probably tell someone else.

“Ah well I’ll explain that later for now let’s continue this subject.” They nod but seem distracted by the idea of a cure.

“So, what do you suggest we do?” Tanada looks a little worried we just moved in here and now I’m bringing up leaving.

“Well, we need a few things to be successful on our own. First a supply of water our options are either a place that has access to a well water or a place with a water filtration system.” This gets a round of nods. Saya is a bit less distracted now that shes concentrating on the problem rather then her family.

“Second we need a supply of food. This limits us to either searching for a farm outside a city or running frequent supply runs within a city. Personally, a farm sounds perfect. Out of the way your own food supply, water supply and plenty of moving space for expansion into a small community. The only downside would be electricity which many people have come to rely on. Even if we stay in the city, we may not have access to it.” This gets more people thinking.

“So, what does everyone think? Farm or city raiding group? If we go farm, we can likely still go on raids into the city, but it would likely be much less frequently and for less stuff since gas will be rarer and we don’t know how the zombies will change over time. The farm is the safest option since its outside where most populations will be. On the other hand, other survivors may think the same and try to run out to the farms as well.” Saya is staring at the ground for a while.

“I…I think we should go to a farm as well. Even without technology we can restart. It will take a long time to make it functional, but it will be a lot safer espeshally if Tanada and the kids come along.” She looks over at Tanada who brightens up at the idea of the kids being safe.

“Mom and Dad will likely not want to come though. I… I don’t know if I can leave them here knowing it will be less safe…”

“Why don’t they wouldn’t they want to come?”

“Well, they can’t stand the outdoors and wouldn’t want to be out in a rustic area. They also think this place is very safe. I thought the same until some of the points you made…”

“Well, we can always just find a small town and clear out its zombies. Its not like they are moving far distances they walk towards sound unless they change to become something much more roaming, we should be able to kill a couple hundred with guns in one of the little villages far from major cities heck we may just find a civilization there that doesn’t even know whats going on.”

Mental me has had a bit of time to sort through the memories and get use to the way things work there. It’s like a search engine where searching for key phrases and move different books to different places based on order allowing for key phrases and such. Using that I’m able to search my memories for an area that meets our criteria.

There are several different results thanks to messing around with google maps a few times when I was younger trying to figure out if things were the same as my old world. They weren’t there was no such thing as Timorak California here so I mostly just messed around looking at other stuff.

“True, well what would we need if we do go to the farm?” Saya pulls out a notepad.

“Well, it needs to be near a mountain so probably mount Tate since it’s the closest one.” I point out already having a place in mind its easier to work backwords and give justification.

“Why does it need to be near a mountain?” Hirano questions.

“Well three reasons one is to get fresh water from streams or more likely to have a prebuilt well system. Two theres more wild game around mountains since there is less civilization most areas of Japan are packed with people except for these areas. Three sulfur so we can make some old-style gunpowder.” I give Hirano a smile as his face brightens up.

“OF COURSE! Ancient gunpowder was made using a combination of sulfur and salt petter which could be made from corpse pits. We don’t have a lacking number of bodies and I have the ratios memorized I just didn’t consider old tech weapons…” He looks off but frowns at the idea of an old black powder gun.

“I know it will be unsatisfying but its better to have any gun then no gun, right?” he nods but still looks a little sad.

“We should pick up a bullet press and some other small tools for tinkering just in case.”

“Oh! We have one of those at the pawn shop! Along with a black powder rifle. Someone sold it to us awhile back, but we never could get rid of them since no one was really interested.” Tanada speaks up happy to help.

“Alright, next we need some lab equipment for Shizuka. We can raid a science lab at a nearby university or something.” Shizuka gives a smile to that but doesn’t comment further.

“We need lots of seeds for planting various crops. I understand the basic premise of crop rotation and planting specific types of plants to restabilize the nutrients in the soil, but I honestly don’t know enough to be successful at it. So, we likely need a lot of books on farming and other things that might get lost to time. So, lets raid a library. At the very least it will give us something to read in our spare time without electricity.” This drew some looks at the idea of something to do when not in a life-or-death situation the concept of being bored had been forgotten the last few days.

“Alright, then anything else?” Saya looks up from her notes.

“Hmm a hand cranked generator and an electric car? That would probably help us maintain an amount of power for basic needs like heat in the winter and fans in the summer once that becomes an issue.”

“Other than that, I can’t think of anything else.” Everyone else starts writing their own things. There were some good stuff, like blacksmithing tools which Saeko suggested and Saya mentioning some board games and a lot of paper since it’s not being manufactured anymore and the process is difficult to create. In the end we have a couple of pages of stuff to get to start a new civilization.

Then I bring up the final item on the questions for the group and why I waited until now to ask it. “Now the final thing to bring up. Should we include Rei and Takashi?” Everyone goes quite at that and look at me confused.

“What? Is it not obvious, the guy may have been my neighbor growing up and I don’t want to see him die but hes also a bit of a prick. I don’t really want to live near him when hes been constantly acting out in anger and being an idiot ever since the start of this apocalypse.” Not to mention if hes the protagonist everything crazy will happen around him. If we are away maybe, we won’t have to deal with it and I can survive to 18 then just live my life with Saeko and Saya.

“Hmm true, but I don’t feel comfortable just kicking them out like that.” Hirano looks awkward likely thinking of it like how he use to be kicked out of groups.

“Well, it’s not kicking them out so much as leaving them with this group! Its not like they are off on their own or anything. Besides they likely want to still find their parents so they would need to stay here anyways.” He looks halfway convinced but still a bit reluctant.

“I guess so…” He gives as a sort of non-committal answer.

“Haru, I understand what you want to accomplish but do you think this will be enough?” Auntie looks me in the eyes. “Do you think you can abandon your friend since you were 3 years old because they are being rude?” She seems to be searching for something in my eyes. I don’t know what since I was never really friends with him.

“Yes… If it means a better chance of survival for my friends and loved ones.” I stare back she nods. “Then I vote in favor of leaving them behind.” This is followed by a few other half committed yes’s and nods.

“Tanada I want you to try to convince your parents. I would prefer if you came along with us too, I think it would be great for the kids since they would be able to run around without worry of zombies every day…” She looks at me and thinks about it for a moment picturing the kids running around on a farm vs here.

“I’ll… I’ll try my hardest.” That seems to bring a small smile to her face.

After the meeting Alice walks up to me. I don’t know how exactly she got into the room with us. Maybe she just walked in with the others? Oh well she knows it all now. Worst case scenario she tells Takashi or Rei and they throw a fit not that they could really do anything about it.

“Big brother… do we have to leave behind Takashi and Rei? They have been nice to me…” Alice looks up at everyone putting on a semi pout.

“Yes, we do… I’m sorry if we kept them around our chances of survival will go down. Takashi takes risks and only leads to others being hurt.” She seems to think about that for a bit. I can’t really explain to them why I want to put distance between him and us. It’s mostly just s hunch on my part from thinking of this world like an anime that says being near the main character is bad news.

“I-I understand…” Alice still looks conflicted.

Wrapping up the discussion I start to explain the cure samples we have. I don’t tell them how I got them instead saying we got them with a description from a military vehicle. Which they seemed to buy or at least not have any better idea how we would have gotten it. Tanada and Hirano walk off together talking about guns. He refuses to set them down except for letting her hold on to one of them.