Terror Infinity Side B

Chapter 8 - 1, H.O.T.D

There was not much time left before the mission finally came to an end. It's less than two hours, so we should be in the clear unless something unexpected were to occur, but I just realized that there was something off.

Shin: Isn't it about time for the main characters to move out?

Misaki: For what?

Shin: You know? To go save Alice Maresato.

After saying that they both gave me a strange look. It looked like both Hikari and Misaki were again unaware of what is supposed to be happening now. Really, they should read some more manga. It even has an anime. They didn't know the next plot event, so I informed them about Alice.

Alice Maresato.

She is the last main character to make an appearance in High School of the Dead. After the main characters arrive to this apartment and the commotion on the bridge dies down, Takashi and Kouta who were on lookout duty notice a father and child running away from THEM and attempting to find shelter. The two on lookout had seen a few people killed by THEM so far as they were on watch, but the young child of 7 years old, Alice, and her father were especially troubling to bear and watch silently.

While desperately looking for shelter, a family of survivors pretended to let the father and daughter in, only to then stab the father in the stomach with a makeshift spear with a knife on the tip. There was reason was to keep them away and the father was threatening to bust down the door, but it was a horrible thing to do nonetheless. Then, watching Alice crying over the the body of her now dead father, which attracted THEM towards her, Takashi and the others could no longer stand to stay bystanders and went to save Alice.

Shin: Alice Maresato should be a block or so away from us and will be surrounded by THEM soon because of her crying. It was still dark out, so this all happened before sunrise, so my problem here is that I hear no one taking action. Not Takashi or any of the other characters.

Hikari: So you think that they missed Alice when they were on lookout, or she could already be dead? Aqua caused a huge scene back there on the bridge, so she might have changed the plot.

Shin: It is possible, yet I don't think so. They couldn't have missed her since Hisashi went up stairs earlier where Takashi and Kouta are doing lookout to make sure they are doing their job. Also, the appearance of Alice Maresato is a turning point for the story.

Misaki: How so?

Shin: Not only is she a main character, she is the reason that they leave this apartment in the middle of the night for their next designation. We may have the power to change the plot with our actions, but I don't think God would allow Alice to die somewhere we couldn't possibly see since her existence is incredibly important. It has to be something important.

Hikari: ...

Shin: Hikari?

When I called out to her because she was silent, I noticed that Hikari's face had become very pale. If I had to gusss, she just realized something. A huge something and she was having trouble bringing it up. After calling out to her a second time, Hikari finally snapped out of her silence and told us what was on her mind. Apparently, she believes that Alice Maresato has already made an appearance.

According to her, a few minutes ago she heard Takashi, Kouta and Hisashi arguing about saving a young girl and her father who were running away from THEM. It looked like the father and daughter who really had no where to go, but Hisashi said it was too dangerous to save them. Also, Hisashi went on to say it would be bad to needlessly expand their group any further and that by adding an adult to the group ( A real adult, not an air head like Shizuka ) would make things more complicated since as high school kids, an adult would want to be the one in charge.

So in the end after a long discussion...

Shin: And what, they are abandoning Alice and her father? This is bad. The father aside, Alice is a main character! Who knows what will happen if she dies!

Hikari: I don't like the idea either, but it isn't like if she dies we will lose points. I can't and don't want to look at these people as real, so...

Shin: That isn't the point. This isn't about real or fake NPCs or about morality. Just like how Aqua suspected that letting Shizuka unguarded and following Takashi and Rei was a bad idea, this could be another trap from God.

Misaki: Trap? How?

Shin: It is because of Alice that the main characters decide to leave this place and move on to the next in the middle of the night. Not only will this affect the plot, Alice is still a main character. Who knows what will happen if she dies out there, and what consequences that means for us since so far we have avoided a main character dying.

Hikari: Isn't that a little bit of a stretch? She isn't like Takashi, the leading male main character. What is the worse that could happen (Said the one character in every story that jinx the team with those words)? Is it worth it to check if she is still alive and leave this place to get her? Aqua said that long as we stayed here the undead won't be able to get to us.

Shin: Don't underestimate this world, Hikari. Thinking that the changes that I caused to the story couldn't be that bad is what got me shot in the shoulder by a rioter. This too could be a ripple effect of my actions. It sounds like Hisashi, a character that was supposed to die early on in the story, is the main reason that no one here is going to save Alice.

This has completely blindsided me. To put it as an example. If we had the option of ditching the main characters and flying off to a safe and isolated island till the end of the mission, I believe God and this world would not allow us to so comfortably survive. What could happen is that we eat something that is infected with whatever is causing human to turn into undead, and with our guard down we could all be turned, or a ship or plane crash lands on the island and one of the passengers that survive is infected. Both ideas are crazy and unlikely, but within the realm of possibility. In H.O.T.D, no one knows the cause of the the walking dead, and survivors wanting a chance at survival could show up on the safe island in the middle of the night without us knowing. This world and its God can't be underestimated. If you do you will blindsided like I waa just now.

Shin: I am going to save her.

Hikari: But...

Shin: No, I have to. Despite the danger, I prefer to face horrors that I can see and expect than an unknown horror waiting for me to slip up.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

After making my decision to save Alice to avoid the possibility of something unexpected happening, I made my preparations. I took a handgun and the trusty bat that I have been using throughout this whole mission with me. We found more powerful guns and even a crossbow that would be perfect for near silent attacks when compared to a loud gun, but although with my increased my stats I became a better shot with a gun, I didn't have the skills to use a crossbow which isn't just point and shoot. It may not be a bow and arrow, but it should be much more difficult to use than a gun.

Hikari and Misaki who started to agree with my choice in action to save Alice wanted to come with me, but I was against it. I wanted this to a quick rescue operation where all I have to worry about the safety of Alice and my own life, the two of them were too big of a liability to take along. Takashi, Rei, Hisashi, Saeko, Saya, Kouta and Shizuka (Who has sobered up a little) saw me getting ready to leave. They were all on the fence about saving Alice and her father, so me taking action was enough for them to offer to help me, but I turned them down. I made the excuse that one person was enough and that I could move better alone, but the truth was that I didn't want the possibility of anymore main characters to die and mess with the difficulty of the mission. Hisashi strongly tried to stop me from going by saying that it was a group decision and that I was risking THEM following me back, so I said that I wouldn't come back then, and that if saving the little girl meant leaving the group, I would do so without hesitation.

To be honest it was fine to not come back since there wasn't much time left in the mission, yet my words came across differently from my thoughts. Like I was some MC who would risk anything to save a innocent life. It was a cool thought, but my reasons were much more selfish. If say, there was less then thirty minutes left when this was all going down, I would risk God making one last move at us and take my chances by staying here in this safe, big nice apartment filled with comrades, top of the line guns and beautiful women that were half dressed... Really, why was I going again? Whatever.

With no further words to say to any of them, I left to save Alice.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Dangerous.

Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, Dangerous, and know what? I am in freaking danger!!!

I ran alongside the fence of the apartment complex and jumped over to the other side after finding a spot where there were no THEM. Then moving from shadow to shadow without, or trying not to make any noise, I made my way to Alice on foot. At least in the manga/anime, Takashi had a bike he could use to get there quickly even if the engine from the bike attracted THEM, but not me.

While moving as fast as possible to get to Alice, I had to worry about making unnecessary sounds as I moved. I don't know how ninjas do it, but it is actually very hard to stay silent while moving less you are tiptoeing the whole way. Thanks to the chaos at the bridge dying down, it was no longer the biggest source of sound in the area, so one wrong move from me and hundreds of THEM will be crashing down one me like a tidal wave.

Alice: Papa... Papa!!

I heard the sound of a little girl crying coming from where there was a large crowd of THEM had gathered in front of the gate of a house. Damn, please don't die on me!

- *BANG*!

In the manga that sound would have been Kouta giving the hero, now me, cover with a sniper rifle he acquired from Shizuka's friends gun stash, yet unfortunately it was just me. I shoot the undead with my gun in hopes that the sound would drawn out Alice's crying and bring THEM towards me and it worked, too well in fact. All of the undead that were at the gate came towards me in a large wave dead set on devouring me.

Shin: Half-assed plans always give you half assed results and they come back to haunt you, but isn't this too much!?

I said as much as I jumped on top of the brick fence next to me. If I were to climb up the undead would have caught a hold of me, but thanks to my increased stats I could straight up jump onto the fence in one motion. I then ran on top of the fence with impressive balance that even I didn't know that I had, and seeing one of THEM about to reach Alice who was cowering in a corner of the inner yard of a house, I jumped and drop kicked the undead away. Alice who was crying looked up at me, not expecting someone to drop down from the sky or save her for that matter, but I didn't have time to introduce myself yet. There were still five undead in the yard of the house and beyond the gate leading out into the street were an army of THEM heading back this way.

Shin: Please stay where you are. I'll take care of the monsters in just a moment and we'll be out of here!

Alice: ...Ok.

Taking the hesitant ok as confirmation I went to work on THEM. This time using my bat, I smashed the heads of all the undead with my enhanced strength thanks to Muscle Density and avoided being caught by surprise due to Reaction Speed. I made short work of THEM in no time, yet I was cutting it extremely close. I ran to the front gate and closed it, and quickly jumped back in a panic as on of THEM was about to bite my hands locking the gate. If I was a moment later then I would have been caught by the countless undead attempting to break through the gate. With the gate locked they wouldn't be able to get in, but from the shaking of the metal gate, I could see that it wasn't going to last forever, or even another minute longer under the assault of the army of undead.

Shin: Al... I mean little girl. We have to leave now ( Oh, that was close. It would have been a spoiler if I had called out her name ).

Alice: But... Dad is...

I had tried not to think or look in the direction of that corpse, but she just reminded me that her father who was just trying to protect his daughter was dead, murdered in cold blood, and that Alice saw saw it all with her own eyes. When I think about it, I can't understand how she was able to stay cheerful as she does throughout the manga/anime, and the fact that she is a child shouldn't make it any better to deal with it, but at this moment she wasn't like that. Just looking at her and I could see that she wasn't very willing to leave her fathers side. What did Takashi do in the manga again to convince her to go along with him? He isn't here, so it should be okay.

Shin: Little girl, what is your name?

Alice: ...Alice.

Shin: Then Alice, won't you come here for a second? We can't stay here much longer, but we can at least say goodbye to your great father here who protected you. You want to, right?

Alice: Ok.

Ah, I really felt like trash here. Manipulating a little girl into mourning for her father just so she would be more obedient to my orders. I said that I was one the fence about the subject, but I can't not look at Alice and not see a human being. She was no NPC or anything less then human. Could a computer mourn a parents loss like this? If one really could then they would be our equals. As I was having those complicated thoughts again (Damn Intelligence), Alice and I paid our respects to her father who I had just put a shirt from a laundry line to cover his face, and unexpectedly I honestly prayed as well. Originally, I had no attention of saving him if the plot had stayed the same. I had already changed enough of the story that all of this happened, so I decided to leave this man to his fate and just save Alice. If I had to do it again I might make the same choice again, but...

Shin: Sorry for not coming earlier even if it was your fate to die here.

It was then at that moment that a message from God rang in my head as I was praying. It was as I was listening to the message in shock of what it said, that I noticed a large, a great change in the mission world of High School of the Dead. It started as a blood red light that had enveloped Alice and that red light then spread over to me when she grabbed my hand with her own small hand, in a small attempt to comfort herself that she wasn't alone. Then the night sky is was dyed the color of blood. It was a dark blood red light that illuminated the world as if to devour world whole.

- HIDDEN SIDE QUEST HAS BEEN ACTIVATED!

QUEST OBJECTIVE: SAVE ALICE MARESATO AND KEEP HER FROM THE UNDEAD FOR THE NEXT THIRTY MINUTES. ALL UNDEAD WILL MARK YOU AND ALICE AS TARGETS TO BE KILLED AND TURNED INTO ONE OF THEIR OWN. ADDITIONALLY, THE UNDEAD'S STRENGTH AND SPEED HAVE BEEN PASSIVELY INCREASED BY 60% TILL THE END OF THE MISSION, AND EVEN AFTER THE QUEST IS COMPLETE YOU YOURSELF WILL STILL BE MARKED BY ALL UNDEAD UNTILL THE END OF THE MISSION.

Shin: ...Well, he got me again. Why is the path to almightiness... So filled with death and violence? Couldn't I have have started out on Easy Mode first?

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Authors Note:

Rate/Follow/Favorite/Comment.

Proofread by Azarza and Deltoren.

.

I thought that the dog Zero ( The Dog ) wasn't important enough, so I didn't write about him. Sorry to his fans.