“Come on you two, it’s time to go,” said a quiet voice. Rei looked at Ranma, who looked back and nodded. They were ready. Both stood up, and headed over to the speaker, the third member of their quartet of survivors, a shadowy figure with eerie black-and-white hair, a scar across his dual-toned face and dressed in a black suit with cape. “Thanks for being patient in allowing us to bury our dead, Dr. Hazama,” the raven-tressed woman replied as she bowed to him.
The man’s features scrunched in annoyance. “Please, don’t call me that. I prefer to be called ‘Dr. Black Jack’.” He said as he stood back from the two younger people when they got close. “I’ve only allowed this so you can come to cope and be of use. If you’re distracted, you won’t last much longer and I’ve not been able to save any life today...” he mumbled as his hands clenched. He considered himself to be one of the premiere doctors in the world but the wounds that had been inflicted today, this communicable disease that turned people into monsters... he was of no more use than a field medic at this point.
The Senshi of Mars raised her head, eyes narrowed as she glared at the supposed medical genius. “You’re a cruel man, you know that?”
“These are cruel times, Hino-san,” was the rather blunt reply of their teammate. “As men are capable of goodness they are also adept at harshness. My outward appearance should be more than a sign of such.” He said as he leaned forward.
Ranma frowned as he stepped between the two. “Hey! Ease up, both of ya! We’ve all seen too much death but we have to keep our heads together and tempers in check or else we’re joining the hordes of the dead!” He snapped suddenly.
Looking down at the youth, Black Jack told him, “They’re not dead.”
“Wuh?” The Heir of the Saotome School of Martial Arts queried suddenly. “What do you mean they’re not dead. If those things ain’t undead monsters than what the hell are-”
“Diseased,” the unlicensed doctor answered. As the two turned their full attention to him, he explained, “Why do you think I was even in this country anyway?” At the silence he received he explained, “I was asked to come over on an emergency call by an associate of mine over at Tokyo General. They were being overwhelmed with cases of the condition you’re seeing. These virally-mutated people we’re up against aren’t the slow-moving entities commonly seen in old-school zombie horror movies; they’re incredibly agile with very keen senses.” He sighed. “As you’ve noticed when you came to my aid, if one spots you, they will not hesitate to run towards you in an instant.”
The pigtailed martial artist nodded his head, all too aware of how quickly they were overwhelmed in the open city streets of Tokyo; they seemed to come from all sides and fighting them really left him banged up. Fortunately the doctor was wise enough to patch him up after the battle. “So what do we call them if not ‘undead’?” Ranma snapped; while not mad at the doctor per se, he was just upset with the situation in general. “Can we call them ‘monsters’? ‘Demons’? ‘Them’? ‘Infected’?”
“That works,” Black Jack admitted. “Just keep in mind that these things are not zombies but infected human beings. As a result, you do not need to damage the cranium or spinal column to take them out of commission. Attacking one of the Infected anywhere will damage them and ultimately cause death, as we’ve seen from Miss Hino’s liberal use of flame manipulation and my use of surgical tools.” He them smirked. “Of course, aiming for the head is always the best course of action in this case.”
Nodding her head in agreement, Rei added, “Just keep distance from the big ones that look like they’re ready to pop though... the ‘Boomers’ I think someone referred to them as. That stuff they explode with just seems to make a bad situation worse.” She winced as she saw the look on Ranma’s face. “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “You’re not the only one that lost someone to-”
“What to next?” The heir of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts asked their resident ‘adult supervision’, interrupting Rei from saying something he knew would only upset both of them more. “You have an idea of what we can do to keep ourselves alive?”
A grim look came over the doctor’s face. “Obviously we need to collect our forth member and leave the Hikawa Shrine; we’ve been here too long. I’m surprised a Horde hasn’t come this way already. Once we’re all together we head towards Tokyo Bay to the JDSF base.”
The young woman’s eyes widened. “JDSF!?” She shouted. “Do you have any clue how treacherous a trip that’s going to be. That place is probably crawling with all kinds of the Infected! I’m also pretty sure they’ve taken all the aircraft and boats they had to get everyone they could out of Tokyo already.”
“Very true,” Dr. Black Jack agreed with the woman. “But that also means they’ve probably left a number of land vehicles there as well, armored vehicles. Not to mention that I’m sure that while they’ve taken a number of firearms and munitions with them, their priority was people and supplies for them; medical, food and fuel. There was no way they could’ve taken all of their on-hand supplies and I’m sure that of the majority that was left will be items of the Ground Self-Defense Forces, more than enough for a quartet of survivors such as us to defend themselves.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Ranma nodded his head in agreement. “Sounds good to me. Then what?”
“We see what’s available for us at the base and make plans on where to go from there but know this...” he turned about towards the Hikawa Shrine. Walking, the Doctor told them the greatest truths as he made his way to collect their fourth member. “Tokyo is now a death-trap and unless we want to become part of it’s destroyed landscape or one of the Infected ourselves then we are going to leave and we’ll do so by any means necessary. Any means.”
Both Ranma and Rei nodded their heads in agreement with the rather mercenary doctor. There was nothing to argue about.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Red Priest of the 17th Order
(Posted Tue, 26 May 2009 06:09)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.