Once out of the wreckage, Saki squinted against the daylight and immediately spotted someone firing flares into the sky.
"Oh great, someone decided to let the zombies know we're all okay and still breathing," Saki said sarcastically.
"Right, decent of them innit? They cared enough to keep the poor rotten bastards fed. Let's go save the morons before they die," Dani said with a laugh.
Saki and Dani pushed through the remaining half of the plane's wreckage, jagged metal scraping past them, and emerged just in time to find three people standing among the debris. One was a man with short brown hair wearing a blue shirt, red tie, and blue pants. Another was a man with short black hair and a thick black beard, dressed in a white blazer over a black button-down shirt with white pants. The third was a woman with neck-length black hair and sharp green eyes, wearing a white button-down shirt, blue pants, and black high heels.
The man in the blue shirt finished firing off another flare.
Saki stormed over, snatched the flare gun and remaining flares straight out of his hands, and glared at him.
"Hey, what are you doing?" he said in anger.
"Shut up and get ready to run from all the zombies you called in, dumbass," Saki said as she loaded a flare into the gun.
"Well, I didn't have much choice. I had to call for help. I'm escorting a very important V.I.P.," the guy said matter-of-factly.
"Oh yeah? And who is that?" Saki said with a scoff.
"Emma Jaunt," he said, pointing toward the woman in white.
"And I told you, Michael, I doubt there are any military left to come save us," Emma said calmly to the man.
"Oi, Saki, give us a hand over here, darlin'!" Dani shouted as she struggled to lift a heavy engine part off a trapped man.
Saki ran over and grabbed hold, muscles tensing as she grunted with effort. The wreckage slowly started to budge.
"That's it, keep—"
"Those things are coming!" Michael shouted in panic.
"I thought I told you idiots to run," Saki said as she let go, snatched up a metal pipe, and smashed it straight through the nearest zombie's skull.
She looked up and saw seven more zombies staggering toward them.
"Well, if you two make it out of this, come to my house at 66 Alpine Drive in the Bel Air district," Emma said as she and the others took off, running as fast as they could.
"Hah, if we make it out of this, that's funny," Saki said with a chuckle.
"I mean yeah, it's just some shamblers. Any idiot with a weapon could take them out," Dani said, grabbing a sturdy board.
Saki and Dani split apart, attacking the forming horde from opposite sides. Bones cracked, heads shattered, and the enemy ranks collapsed before they could fully close in. As Saki crushed the final zombie's skull, Dani threw her board and knocked down a flaming tire, sending a mountain of rubble crashing down and sealing the hole the undead had poured from.
"Saki, you check around for more. I'm gonna see if this guy and his wife are alright," Dani said.
Saki already knew what was coming. This was the point in the game when Dani got bit.
Right on cue, the moment Dani leaned over the woman, the wife snapped awake, lunged forward, and bit Dani before leaping onto the husband. Saki rushed in and bashed the woman's head in with a brutal swing.
Saki could have intervened earlier. She could have stopped Dani from being bitten and even saved the man. But the man had already lost too much blood. He was dead no matter what. And Dani needed to be bitten to trigger her change into a Numen.
Saki helped Dani back to her feet, supporting her weight.
"You should leave me here, darlin' I've been bit I'm already seeing red and having trouble keeping my eyes open," Dani said weakly.
"Nah, you're fine. I heard one in a thousand people are immune," Saki said as she continued carrying her uphill.
"You believe that shite?" Dani said with a laugh.
"Well, we'll find out, won't we?" Saki said bluntly.
"I suppose we will, love," Dani said tiredly.
Saki made it down the hill and jumped over a white wall, landing beside a dumpster across from a sprawling mansion. She gently sat Dani down and sank beside her.
"Might as well check my game screen while she's unconscious," Saki said quietly.
She tried several things, muttering commands like "status" and making awkward hand motions. Nothing happened. Finally, she said, "Menu."
A holographic screen blinked into existence before her eyes. Four options appeared:
At the top: Perks
At the bottom: Quest, Settings, and Map
On the right: Inventory
On the left: Spells/Powers
She opened Perks first.
Currently listed were: Enhanced Strength, Enhanced Endurance, One-Handed, Two-Handed, Tsubaki Style Mortal Combat, Energy Manipulation, and finally Berserk.
Each perk branched upward into its own skill tree. Only Enhanced Strength and One-Handed showed any progress.
Saki immediately opened Berserk and read its description. Once the Berserk bar was full, she would enter a berserk state, attacking everything with ferocity. While in the state, she would gain increased strength and speed, but her intelligence and durability would drop.
She closed it and checked Inventory, finding her armored gloves and her odachi. She pulled them out, strapped the sword across her back, and slid the gloves onto her hands.
Finally, she opened the Map.
A holographic map of Los Angeles spread out before her. In the corner, glowing ominously, were the words:
Current Grade: E
Saki closed the map and sighed.
"Well shit. Hopefully saving people and killing undead is enough to raise the grade, or else I'm fucked," Saki said As she checked the Settings tab, one of the first and only options available was the ability to enable notifications and HP, MP, SP, and BP bars, as well as a mini-map. After a brief pause, Saki selected yes.
Instantly, a full red bar, a blue bar, a green bar, and a yellow bar that was barely filled appeared in the bottom-left corner of her vision. At the top of her sight, a thin, flat bar resembling a compass faded into view.
At first, she frowned, thinking they might be distracting. But as she shifted her focus away, she quickly realized the displays subtly shrank and became semi-transparent when she wasn't actively paying attention to them, settling comfortably into the background of her awareness.
Finally finished checking everything out, Saki let out a quiet breath, turned, and sat down beside Dani once more, keeping watch as she waited for her to wake up.
--------
After a couple of hours, Dani finally stirred awake, pressing a hand to her head as her face twisted in pain.
"Oh feck me, my head hurts," Dani muttered groggily.
"Well, at least you're still alive," Saki replied, straightening as she stood and offered Dani a steady hand.
"I suppose I am, aren't I?" Dani said with a weak chuckle, taking her hand and letting herself be pulled upright.
"Well, I suppose we should try to find Emma's house. We are in Bel Air after all," Dani suggested, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Eh, worst case, they're all dead and we pick out the most well-fortified mansion we can find, reinforce it, and build our own survivor camp," Saki said bluntly, shrugging.
"I love the sunny optimism, darlin'. Let's start moving," Dani replied with a laugh.
After some searching, the two managed to power on the front gate by finding a spare circuit breaker and entered the grounds. Dani glanced sideways at Saki, her eyes drifting to the massive blade strapped to her back.
"By the way, Saki, where the hell did you find that big fuck-off sword?" Dani asked, staring openly at the odachi.
"In someone's luggage," Saki said plainly.
"Next time, find me one," Dani said with a pout.
As they entered the mansion, they stepped into an expansive trophy room. Saki's eyes immediately locked onto a saber resting inside a glass display case.
"Found one," Saki said with a smirk.
"Smart ass," Dani shot back with a laugh as she smashed the case open and grabbed the sword.
An alarm suddenly blared through the room. Saki's head snapped toward the sound, and without hesitation she grabbed a nearby lamp and hurled it, smashing the alarm to pieces. Unfortunately, it was already too late. Groans echoed from outside as several zombies began shambling toward them.
Saki drew her blade, her stance steady, and with a single powerful swing cut the first zombie clean in half. Dani didn't miss a beat, slashing into two others with fierce efficiency.
"Well, that was exciting. Let's get moving," Dani said breathlessly.
After searching the mansion for anything useful, the two made it outside to the back gate.
"Oh feck me, it needs a code," Dani said irritably.
"Here you go," Saki replied, handing her a small piece of paper.
"Oh shit, the code. How did you know?" Dani asked, quickly entering it into the keypad.
"I saw it on the fridge," Saki lied smoothly.
Before she could even blink, a notification flashed across her vision.
[Deception Acquired]
"Neat," Saki murmured with a satisfied smile.
"Very neat," Dani added as the gate slid open.
The two made their way to Emma's house, conveniently right next door. They hopped the gate and reached the front door just in time for Dani to start experiencing blackouts, her steps faltering.
Once inside, the housekeeper immediately pointed a gun at Dani, shouting that she was infected. Saki didn't bother listening to the frantic arguing from the housekeeper, Michael, or Emma. She simply stepped forward, took the gun from their hands despite their shocked protests, slung Dani over her shoulder, and deposited her firmly on the couch.
"Oy, Saki, you make sure to shoot me if I turn, okay?" Dani said weakly as she began slipping into unconsciousness.
"No shit, Sherlock," Saki replied with a grin.
"That's my girl," Dani muttered before passing out.
"Excuse me, um… little girl," Michael said nervously. "Your friend was bitten. I think you should put her down now."
"Name's Saki," Saki said flatly.
"Um, right. Well, your friend was bitten," Michael continued carefully.
Saki cocked the pistol with an audible click. "One out of every few thousand are immune. Dani was bitten almost six hours ago. Most people turn in three or four. Dani's bite is healing, and she doesn't have a fever. If she wakes up, she's fine. If she becomes a zombie, I'll deal with it. So just relax upstairs till then, kay?" Saki said, her tone leaving no room for argument.
"Wait, this is my house. What makes you think you get to decide things?" Emma snapped, clearly annoyed.
"One, I have all the weapons. Two, it's my friend. And three, I'll shoot you in the knee if you try anything stupid," Saki said pointedly, meeting Emma's gaze without blinking.
"Fair enough," Emma muttered, turning and walking out of the room.
Michael looked like he wanted to say something, but after a moment's hesitation, he followed Emma upstairs.
The housekeeper, however, took a seat in a chair beside Saki.
"Aren't you gonna join them?" Saki asked curiously.
"Why would I?" the woman replied calmly. "The safest place in the house is right here next to you. Besides, someone needs to be here to help you if you end up shooting your friend. My name is Andrea, by the way," she added kindly.
"I'm Saki. Nice to meet you," Saki said back.
"Nice to meet you, Saki. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard the CDC report that only one in a few million have the potential to be immune, and there are not yet any who are," Andrea said, giving her a knowing look.
"I had to say something to calm them, didn't I?" Saki replied with a small smile.
"No, but I'm glad you handled it gently. As you pointed out, you're the one with the gun," Andrea said with a quiet laugh.
------
A few hours later, Dani finally woke up, pressing a hand to her pounding head as she winced.
"Damn, I need to stop blacking out. It's doing a number on me noggin," Dani groaned.
"Here, this should help," Andrea said gently, handing Dani a glass of water.
"Thanks. Have you seen Saki around by chance?" Dani asked, taking a careful sip.
"Yes. She's currently securing the perimeter of the house," Andrea replied, pointing toward the front.
Dani turned her head toward the open doorway just in time to see Saki savagely beating a zombie to death, her movements sharp and relentless. In one smooth motion, she yanked her odachi free from another zombie's corpse and cleanly decapitated a third.
"That girl is so brutal. I love it," Dani said with a crooked grin.
"Well, best go see if she needs help," Dani added, pushing herself to her feet and heading outside.
Once outside, she spotted more zombies shambling in from the distance and immediately noticed the busted gate controls.
"Keep them busy, darlin'. I'll see if I can't fix the gate," Dani called out as she rushed past the undead.
Saki didn't slow down, continuing to carve her way through the horde, cleaving zombies in two as she steadily advanced. One by one, they fell until the yard finally fell silent.
"Yep, all taken care of. Now to head back inside," Dani said cheerfully as the gate closed then as she turned around.
She froze when she came face to face with a walker lunging toward her. Just before it could grab her, a long blade pierced straight through its body, traveling upward through its chest and bursting out through the top of its head.
"You did that on purpose, and don't even try to deny it," Dani said, her tone annoyed yet fond as she looked back at Saki.
"Don't worry. I'll always be here to watch your ass. Someone has to," Saki replied with a smirk.
Dani snorted, throwing an arm around Saki's shoulders as the two started walking back toward the house.
"Oh, darlin', you and I are gonna be best friends," Dani said with a warm chuckle.
(Authors Note: alright I'm still working out the kinks in this series but so far I'm happy for those of you who didn't see the notice before the old chapters were deleted I'm sorry for blindsiding you this is a rewrite the original version stopped being fun for me and started to feel to complicated I made a set of rules that even I started having trouble following I hope the new version comes out better than the original please continue to enjoy this journey with me and thank you for your support)