“JESUS HIDEKI” I yell out from the back. We aren’t exactly wearing seatbelts, so we all slam forward leading me to be in a mass of limbs with Saya and Saeko in the back.

“Calm down theres a wire fencing on the road It’s hard to see from a distance. I only noticed it because of some zombie guts hanging from the side. We need to jump it if we want to get around.” Clambering from the back floor I look out and sure enough theres a thin wire fence covering our route.

“Well, no zombies on the other side so I guess this is the edge of the territory. Looks like your parents might be tied to the survivor stronghold. It makes sense that’s a highly defensible position.”

We use the jeep to jump the fence without holding it and leave it locked up.

“Hideki we will likely be awhile do you want to head back, come with us or stick around here?”

“I think I’ll come with you guys see how it is.” She looks hesitant but shes been doing great the last two days. She doesn’t talk much but its obvious shes been forcing herself a bit. Her and Taniuchi hang out a bit. Shes still very hurt though so I don’t know about her making the jump. She grits through it, but I can tell it hurt her making it.

We walk for a while, Saya’s legs get tired, and I end up having to start carry her. Thankfully the other two are track members and an ex-police officer so they have some physical training even if shes still bruised up.

“Erg why did they have to put the barricade so far away! Mom what were you thinking!” We come up on a corner and see some people coming up.

“SAYA?! IT REALLY IS YOU!” A woman in a gas mask and full body suit starts to run up and takes off her gas mask.

“MOM!” Saya hopes off my back and starts running towards her too. She starts to run then seems to realize that her legs still hurt and settles for a slow jog to fast walk.

“You’re safe! My-my girl is safe.” She seems to be crying a bit.

The rest of us catch up quick. Some greetings are passed and introductions. Saya hesitates a bit before introducing me.

“Um mom this is Haru”

“Haru huh? Come to our home finally after all this time hmm?” She gives a teasing smile to Saya.

Saya starts to blush and look away from her mom.

“Yeah, sorry about that, Mrs. Tokagi I was in a lot of other extra activities after school. With kendo, sports medicine and other extra classes. My Auntie was also very protective of me. So sorry about the inconvenience.” This gets a few nods but she still looks a little confused that I’m not more flustered.

I walk up and hug Yara.

“We’ve done our best to protect her to the best of our ability though.”

“Hmm it appears so. Regardless let’s get you back to our base. There are many things to discuss.”

“We have other survivors actually. Would it be okay if we move them with us? They are other students and teachers we also found a military member and her family with kids.”

“Well supplies are already strained but there is plenty of room for now for family and friends.” She says but she still looks concerned about the idea of more people. They might already have a lot.

“Oh no we have enough supplies to last our own people a month and a half at least. We are also willing to go on runs to help with supplies too! Honestly, these zombies arnt that difficult to deal with.” This gets a look of surprise from her and clear agitation from a few of the guys around her.

“What do you mean? They have killed hundreds of thousands of people! EASY?! WE RISK OUR LIVES OUT THERE! They don’t even fall down dead from a couple of shots to the chest. Even when they do, they just keep coming!” One of the guys besides Sayas mother starts yelling out. I harden my look at him.

“Yes easy, we have killed over a hundred of them already and me and Saeko spent some of our free time taking down the zombies around the path here. The normal zombies are easy enough that we have had little problem with them until now.” I point off into the distance.

“Bullshit you’ve killed hundreds of them? You are all just kids.” The muscular man is tightening his fist staring at me. I close the distance quickly and move my sheathed machete to his side. Its slightly less intimidating considering a lot of chunks have been taken out of the machete side from overuse at too much strength.

“So…So quick.” The man stammers out backing up a bit.

“We are much more capable than you would expect. So don’t treat us like children.” I glare at the man.

“Such tenacity, young man perhaps you should put the blade away.” Sayas mom cuts in she may sound somewhat cheery still, but I notice her hand is on a holster as she says this.

I give her a nice smile pretending like she isn’t threatening me and pull the blade away. “Of course, people like this just don’t believe it until they see it. If you’d like we have a car down by the fence. We plan on going back to our base if you would like, we can show it to you before returning to yours? It is just across the river. You can see our people, then you can let us in through one of your access points on the way back. It would probably be faster then walking all the way to the house actually.”

I turn around and put my arms behind my back like I’m about ready to carry something. Everyone looks at me strangely until Saya seems to understand and walks up.

“You idiot, do you really need to do this?” She whispers to me with a hiss.

“Yep, if you got some proper exercise before this maybe I wouldn’t but for now I’ll have to bear your ‘Burden’” this got an annoyed look from her but a giggle from her mom.

“Are you calling me fat you idiot!?” she smacks my head a bit.

“Haha no no, just not athletic enough to keep running like this.” She wants to argue but she can’t really because that would mean having to run long way.

“I suppose we should see the living conditions that our Saya has been living in. We’ll radio in and let them know first though.” Saya’s mother goes up to one of the backpacks of one of the guys. It’s a long-distance radio station built into the backpack. That’s a smart idea. After letting them know whats going on they get ready.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Alright show us to your car.” Sayas mother smiles at us.

We brake into a jog. At first Saya wanted to try to run with us until she just can’t anymore and begrudgingly gives in to the piggyback ride. Much Saeko, her mother and I’s amusement.

50 minutes later Mrs.Tagoki and the larger guys are breathing heavily. Early on I offered to take one of their packs and while the guys seemed to refuse out of pride. Sayas mother was happy to lose the load. She seemed interested when I suggested it too since I’m already carrying Saya. Who is enjoying using me as a mount much more then she probably thought.

“If you think you can handle it big boy.” She laughs a bit looking at me strap the backpack to my front to offset the weight with Saya.

Turns out having increased strength, endurance and speed makes long distance running a joke. I’m putting less strain on my body since I have resilience and moving below my max speed. I’m able to last longer because of endurance all together the 50-minute jog is like a morning walk.

“haa haa why do we need to get there so quickly!” Samada comes from the side trying to keep up with us. Hes on track but probably only did short sprints instead of 100 min jogs with a backpack.

“Hmm? Oh, we don’t I was just setting a pace. I was going to slow down if the rest of you lagged too far behind.” This gets a lot of annoyed looks since everyone else was following me and most of them have a good amount of pride. I’m surprised that Sayas mother is keeping up considering shes still wearing a lot of layers and as far as I could tell was just a rich woman at least the two men with her were guards of some sort.

“Onward my noble steed! Hya” Saya’s having way too much fun doing this despite being embarrassed about it at first.

“As the lady says, onward!” Saeko gets a bit of a laugh at it too shes carrying Hideki after her injuries acted up too much. Shes still tired but is seemingly supernaturally strong too. Maybe she has some sort of system too just she can’t see it?

“Saya, I never imagined you would be willing to ride your ‘boyfriend’ in front of your mother like this.” Saeko speaks up causing Saya to blush and start wanting to be let down, but I don’t let go. Mrs. Tagoki seems to understand whats happening and pitches in too.

“hohoho she sure has become much more daring to do it so brazenly too. Here I thought she would be bashful about us meeting him. Now shes already riding her stud with joy.” Mrs.Tagoki joins in on the teasing too.

“SHUT UP MOM!” Mrs. Tagoki is now jogging besides us but a quick glance its easy to tell she can’t keep this pace no matter how much she tries to maintain a clear face.

“Well, we are nearly there anyways.” I slow down a bit and everyone else sighs in relief.

We reach the Humvee, and everyone takes a nice breather for a bit before we head off.

Once we arrive and head off to the base Mrs.Tagoki takes off a couple of layers much toSayas embarrassment I try to avoid looking but it’s good to know what Saya might look one day. She then asks a few questions about our supply’s situation and weapons. I tell her about our guns which surprises her and the men around her. Then once all the needed talks finish, she starts pestering Saya.

“So, where’s your phone? We have been trying to get ahold of you to know your position for the last two days. We checked the school but there was no one there.” This gets a look of surprise form Saya. She probably didn’t think her parents cared that much.

“Haru got us all out of there on the first day of this. Things were bad we didn’t have proper weapons and didn’t have a lot of the knowledge we do now to handle them. We also had other survivors that kept screaming attracting more of them.” Ah right the weasels group.

“Something similar happened in our base. We thankfully had hired guards stationed so not many people fell but until everyone learned to go for the head or spine, we lost a lot of people. Even then it’s been difficult for many to kill them.” Mrs.Tagoki looks out the window. We finally come up on the part where me and Saeko released some stress.

A couple of the people in the car gag at the smell of guts in the air and the brutal sight of all the bodies. “My god what the hell happened here! Its like a war went on!” The men are looking outside at all the gore. Some of the people are looking sick.

“Ah yeah sorry about that me and Saeko went out and cleared a bunch of them. It helps release stress a bit too you know?” The men are looking at us like monsters now. Mrs.Tagoki is looking at me with a more appraising eye as well but still a little pale.

“You two did all this? Ah I suppose with firearms it would be much easier.” She looks at the bodies with a pale face.

“Hmm? Oh no we didn’t use any firearms I’ve never shot one before. We are just both good with the blade. Though I suspect my machete is far too gone to keep.” It finally had its last legs in the fight.

“You two did all of this -gulp- with swords?” The man that called bullshit on us earlier is a bit scared.

“Yup! Nice bit of a workout too before the jog back. The normal zombies are easy to deal with. So far, we have run into a red skinned one that is far stronger and more deadly. It nearly killed me.” This makes them exchange worried glances.

“What kind of monster could nearly kill someone able to do this…”

“Its skull is extremely thick. When I attempted to cut into it the blade was lodged inside. I would have gone for severing the head instead, but I didn’t want to take any chances, so I jumped from a building and cut. It wasn’t enough. The thing was able to see, albeit only movement since it can’t recognize a person if they stand still but it was searching for prey actively. After testing stuff out on the body back home we realized that the flesh will, come off more easily and that damage to the spine can still stop them since the thickened bone also thickened the intervertebral disks giving easier access to sever the segments. Regardless we need to be much more careful going forwards in our supply runs.” This worries the other people in the car.

“We havnt run into anything like this yet. We did lose one supply group though and just decided that the area was too dangerous, and we won’t send any more groups there. If what you say is true, then perhaps theres another one of those ‘reds’ there.” This causes Saeko to perk up a little bit.

“Perhaps or they just got surrounded by normal ones. If you’d like we can check it out later but not today.”

“Of course, you’ve had quite the busy time.”

We ride in silence for a bit. The Awkwardness from treating us like children now fighting with the mental image of killing a horde of zombies that they were afraid of. Eventually Mrs.Togaki breaks the silence.

“So, my daughter says you’ve been together for quite awhile now?” she gives a teasing look to Saya. “You havnt taken advantage of the current situation where shes away from her guards have you?” She turns her look to me.

“And if I have?” I tease back.

“HARU! Don’t talk about uh that um I mean nothing has happened mom.” Her face turns very red. The saddest part is shes probably talking about me kissing her cheek but it’s coming off much worse.

“hohoho your fathers going to want to hear about this.” She looks over at Saeko.

“You seem awfully fine with this situation. Was I given the wrong impression?”

“No, your impression was correct. We just share.” Saeko grabs my arm.

“Oh? Such an insatiable child.” She looks at me. “Though if your earlier performance is anything to go by you sure have stamina to spare.”

“Its more then just that you know.” I cut in.

“Of course, if it was then we would have to take care of you. Even if you are a monster with your blade.” She looks down my body resting her eyes on my lap as she says blade.

“MOM! ENOUGH” Sayas getting more flustered.

“Hooo come on dear this is the first time we’ve met your friend here and I’ve had years to prepare to tease you about this. Can’t you just let me have a little bit of fun? It’s just harmless, isn’t it? Besides he seems to be enjoying it too.” She smiles over at me. I won’t deny that its fun but not because of her being attractive and making comments but more because the face Saya is making makes me want to take a picture. Its so red its almost matched Kawamotos hair color.

“But but it’s not really the time for that kind of talk?” Saya tries to weakly defend herself from the onslaught.

“Haa I suppose not.” Her mom takes mercy on her and Saya sinks into her seat with relief. Just because her mom agreed to stop doesn’t mean I will.

“Instead let me tell you both about the time that she thought that all meat was fish and asked the restaurant to give her fish. She got so upset when they came out with caviar and cried when we told her what it was.” Her mom starts telling us a bunch of embarrassing stories on our way back to the base. Much to Saya’s continued annoyance.

By the time we got back Saya was just hiding in my shoulder only coming out when me or Saya had to give our own stories as compensation for more of Saya’s.