HOTD: A New Dawn

"The name's Tysone." He replied casually, giving a curt nod. "That's Mai, Saya, Miku, and Saeko, though I'm sure you already know them by name."

Rei frowned momentarily but quickly smiled. "My name is Rei Miyamoto." Then, she pointed to her friend. "That's Takashi, and that over there is Hisashi." She gestured towards him.

Takashi had an inexplicable frown on his face, but remained quiet.

As for Hisahi, he looked like he'd have been a more cheerful company if not for the wound on his arm. Beads of sweat ran down the boy's pale face—

Tysone's eyes widened as he made quick strides towards Hisashi.

"It bit you?" Tysone's question held an accusatory undertone that bordered on alarm. 

Hisashi raised a brow in surprise as he looked at him warily. "Um... yeah?"

"You stupid fucking brat." Tysone glared intensely. His words dripped venomously, and everyone froze in shock. Even Takashi tensed.

Hisashi had clearly tried to tourniquet the bleeding with the cloth he wore over the wound.

"How long ago did you get bit?" Tysone asked him, his glare deepening.

"Uh... five... ten minutes ago maybe...?" Hisashi replied uncertainly, looking down nervously.

Tysone furrowed his brows deeply. "You'll turn soon..." He muttered quietly to himself.

There was a mix of determination and unwillingness in Tysone's eyes; he knew what had to be done. The question was, wait for Hisashi's inevitable change or finish him off quickly?

"W-What..."

"Wait... what do you mean?!" Rei asked frantically, stepping forward with a concerned expression on her features. "He'll turn?! What does that even mean...?!"

Tysone sighed in exasperation.

"He means exactly that." Saya intervened bluntly, crossing her arms as she regarded them impassively. "If Hisashi has truly been bitten by one of the infected, then we have no reason to believe that he won't suffer from the same fate as any other unfortunate victims of this pandemic."

"B-but… it's impossible… How can such things exist—"

"It happened right in front of my very eyes." Saya cut in coldly.

"No! No, no, no! I refuse to believe it!!" Rei shouted angrily. "There's gotta be something we can do about this! Anything...!"

"Rei, calm down..." Takashi tried to placate.

But she didn't hear him.

"Calm down?! You want me to calm down when my friend is gonna turn into those THINGS just because of a bite mark?!" Tears brimmed in her eyes as she looked back at Hasashi, whose eyes showed uncertainty.

"That's right. I am asking you to calm down." Takashi said firmly. "Look around you Rei, we can't afford to panic now. Not here, and definitely not with these kinds of adversaries roaming freely throughout the campus."

"But..."

"Listen to him." Tysone intervened. "Even if there was a chance he'd survive this, do you honestly think you guys have the knowledge to save him? And where would you take him? To a hospital?"

"..."

"Ah... haha..." Hisashi slumped down the fence, a helpless smile on his face.

Everyone surrounded him. 

Rei plopped herself right next to Hisashi, who jerked forward in a coughing fit, spitting blood all over the ground. "Hisashi? What's wrong!?"

His breathing was brittle, as if he was on life machine.

"No way..."

Rei still didn't believe it.

"It's just like in the movies. There's no stopping it after you get bitten..." He grimaced.

Tysone was now facing a situation that required a great deal of tactfulness in dealing with people whom he wasn't even particularly close to, or rather, knew very little about. Although he knew what was to come, he couldn't act brashly.

Not even Saeko, who he barely knew for ten minutes, wanted to risk doing anything. But judging from her tense demeanor, she knew just like Tysone and Saya what would happen next.

The sun was beginning to set, bathing the landscape in hues of pink and gold.

"H-hey, man..." Hisashi began softly. "... You know, I thought I'd have lived a little longer."

Rei clenched her fist.

"But at least... I've had fun, haven't I?"

"Of course we did, right, Takashi?" Rei said urgently.

"R-right."

Silence reigned for several moments. Tysone stared silently at the boy who was sitting on the ground.

"Listen..." Hisashi struggled to lift an arm. He pointed a trembling finger towards the railing. "If I fall off from there, the fall will probably crush my head..."

"What are you getting at...?!" Rei's voice rose.

And so did Hisashi's. "I don't want to become one of them!" He yelled hoarsely, jerking forward once again to throw up blood. The quantity was astounding, and it kept coming out in a drizzle even as he was pushed back by Rei.

"Come on guys..." Hisashi smiled, his eyes sunk in. "I want to die as myself."

Another coughing fit tore through him as he fell on the floor, writhing in agony.

"Hisashi!" Rei cried out, trying to hold him down.

The clouds overhead slowly drifted by, their shadows passing over Hisashi's prone form. Rei was slumped over him, sobbing softly.

Tysone glanced at Takashi, at the way he was gripping his baseball bat.

"I'll do it." Tysone suddenly said, taking everyone by surprise. Truth was, he couldn't let Takashi take that kill, and it was not out of the kindness of his heart. He simply had to estabilish from the get-go who'd be in charge, and his ruthlessness could serve that purpose. "Rei, move aside."

Rei looked up at the slowly approaching Tysone. The sun was behind his back, a shadow was cast over his features. "No!" She spread her arms protectively over Hisashi. "You can't kill him! He isn't going to turn into one of them! He's... he's special!"

"Move aside..." Tysone repeated, in a low baritone.

Rei flinched, until Hisashi twitched, finally showing responsiveness.

"Hisashi?"

Hope filled her voice.

"See? He wouldn't die from—"

And then Hisashi began to rise in an awkward way. Rei was smiling. A smile that quickly faded when her friend stood up to his feet, shoulders slumped, head cast low, and his skin an ashen, dead color.

"Hisashi?"

Rei tried to approach him, but Tysone held her back, dragging and pushing the young woman away and towards Takashi, who refrained her from making any sudden moves. "This isn't happening..." She mumbled.

"You fool." Saya narrowed her eyes dangerously, her tone icy. "Accept reality."

"Tysone...?"

Mai called out uncertainly.

He briefly glanced at the idol.

"I'm sorry your debut had to end this way."

"I—"

She looked away.

Saeko placed a hand on Mai's shoulder, offering comfort.

After a sigh, Tysone stalked towards Hisashi, stopping right before his unresponsive figure. There was a strange sense of resignation in his heart now, knowing he was about to end the life of someone he actually got to know.

Killing a zombie that wore a stranger's face was one thing, killing someone you actually met was entirely different.

Tysone steadied the reinforced bat between his palms, its handle clutched tight as if afraid that it might disappear along with his conviction. With a grunt, he gripped his bat, cocked it back, and swung forward in a wide arch, hitting Hisashi's right cheek with the full weight of his power.

In a second, Hisashi's zombified head was blown apart and his lifeless body fell to the floor with a loud thump.

For a moment, Tysone felt numb.

It took a few seconds for his heart rate to return to normal. He sucked in a shaky breath, steadying his trembling hands. He hadn't anticipated such feelings to surface, given the dire circumstances, but in spite of that, he managed to retain some semblance of self-control amidst all this chaos.

'One down...' He thought with slight melancholy as he slowly looked over his shoulder and met the shocked expressions of the others. 'And plenty more to come.'

…

The stairway that led up to the observatory was barricaded, though it was a temporary solution considering how long the zombies had been mindlessly bumping into it. 

Meanwhile, a tense, melancholy atmosphere hung over the group. The bat that was used to finish off Hisashi was discarded, lying on the ground with a visible dent where the tip had connected with Hisashi's skull. 

As a result, Tysone had to rely on the javelin strapped to his back. 

Everyone was sitting down. Hisashi's corpse in front of them, as some sort of reminder that death wasn't far off for any one of them should they let their guard down. 

Mai and Miku together near the wall, sharing a silent moment of grief. 

Takashi sat brooding near Rei, who rested with her head resting on her knees, her eyes red-rimmed.

Saya's brows were knitted together in thought whilst Tysone sat cross-legged, his gaze fixated on Hisashi's lifeless body.

Finally, after several long minutes of contemplative silence, he spoke. "There's no use dwelling on this." He declared aloud, causing everyone except Saya and Saeko—who remained stoic throughout—to glance his way. "We've all lost something today whether it be someone we cared about or something less tangible such as our peace of mind. Either way, we must move forward from here and find safety wherever possible.

 Our only option left right now is to escape this damn school and seek shelter elsewhere."

Author's Note:

If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.