Solace

Hɪɢʜsᴄʜᴏᴏʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Dᴇᴀᴅ~

Was doing a ton of stuff today and now I'm tired. I'll reply tomorrow.

Hɪɢʜsᴄʜᴏᴏʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Dᴇᴀᴅ~

"Howlite Maeda," The blond, finally taking a seat and able to rest his heart, said his name following Nakamura's introduction. He looked back to Ren, who was still firmly grasping his bleeding arm, seeing his friend stare out of the window with empty eyes as they passed through the streets of undead. In a matter of under an hour, everything had changed from a normal day at school to some infection pushing the brink of humanity into extinction. It was all still too much to absorb, and now that he was safe for the time being, this was the time where he could recollect his thoughts and breathe.

Howlite thought of his father, the head of a private security company, he was certain that his father was safe out there. Then there was his mother, the Chemistry professor at one of Japan's top universities that he had planned on attending in the near future; had the infection spread there as well? Finally, the thought of his older brother came to him; he had recently gotten a job under their father, so that had to mean that the two of them were okay. Still, Howlite worried about his family, but as of now, he had to focus mainly on surviving and looking after his friend.

When Howlite saw a boy in one of the seats dig into his pockets and begin laughing as if nothing had happened, his ears caught the sound of pills shaking in a bottle. Was it medicine? "Hey, you," he rose from his seat, walking down the aisle and hovering over the boy with the bottles in his pockets. "My friend down there is hurt and is losing blood. If you've got painkillers or bandages, or both, hand them over right now. He needs treatment."

Hɪɢʜsᴄʜᴏᴏʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Dᴇᴀᴅ~

Seeing that the bus had finally arrived at the base of the school just beneath the rope, Howlite saw the opportunity of escape just a slide down. He watched as the remaining students begin to file one by one down the rope, until only Howlite, Ren, and Sakura were the only ones on the roof.

"Go," Howlite spoke up as sounds of undead hands slamming against the door to the roof started, knowing that it wouldn't hold too long.

Ren, hearing and seeing the same, stood up. "You're coming too, right?"

"Of course I am," Howlite replied. "But with that arm of yours, you're going to need some time getting down, so you go first."

"What about you two?"

Howlite blinked, tensing himself. "You're going to need some time, so we'll hold them off for a little bit before we get overwhelmed."

"Are you crazy? With a protr-"

"Shut up! You could've already been halfway down the rope! Just go!" Howlite shouted, the hinges of the door beginning to give in from the combined strength of the zombies hitting the door. With his eyes completely fixated on the entrance, he did not turn back as he heard reluctant feet shuffle towards the rope, sighing in relief. When his friend went over the edge, Howlite breathed deeply as the hinges finally broke, and the undead tripped over their own as they flocked straight through.

Howlite nodded towards Sakura and decked the first zombie coming towards him, taking a short hop back before lunging his fist towards another, causing it to fall back and knocking over a number of the zombies in the incoming horde that were on the roof like bowling pins. Though, in mere seconds, the horde only grew more in numbers as the danger of being overwhelmed grew, to the point where they were faced with nearly a dozen walking corpses.

Throwing punch after punch, Howlite was able to land one final haymaker before the protractor shattered and his knuckles bled from the glass. "Damn it!" he winced, his voice full of fear as the two of them found themselves backing away from the advancing crowd. "Go down the rope! I'll continue fending them off!"

But the next thing that Howlite saw was haunting. The girl turned to him with a smile on her face, despite the odds, and uttered a goodbye as she plunged herself into the horde. "What-" he could only extend a hand as the shrieks of the girl filled the air and the zombies, tearing away at their food, feasted on her. She sacrificed herself. Knowing that standing there in thought for another moment longer would get him killed, he turned and quickly wrapped his sweaty hands along the rope, sliding down as a few of the undead from above threw themselves off of the building and down to the bus.

"Good, he made it," Howlite said to himself as he saw Ren glaring upwards from through the hatch, seeing the other boy-- Mat, was it?-- standing atop of the bus alongside Yami. As he slid down, he saw one of the zombies from the roof catch Mat off guard and, landing directly onto him, knocking him off of the bus' roof and into the mass surrounding the bus. He winced at the sight, but at the back of his mind, he thought of only his own safety. Howlite's feet nearly slipped as he landed on the roof of the bus, quickly turning to Yami before heading down. "That's all of us, I'm gonna close the hatch!"

And with that, Howlite jumped down into the inside, reaching up and pulling down the hatch. He breathed heavily, unsure if his heart was about to rip straight through his chest as he ran up to the driver's seat. "Drive!"

As One | Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

I would prefer Daisuke to be involved with the story than to be taken home.

Hɪɢʜsᴄʜᴏᴏʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Dᴇᴀᴅ~

Hɪɢʜsᴄʜᴏᴏʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Dᴇᴀᴅ~

Flying hippos
Also, considering that this is a CASUAL roleplay, a bunch of you need to brush up on your grammar and spelling. Just a note to consider.

Hɪɢʜsᴄʜᴏᴏʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Dᴇᴀᴅ~

Howlite remained silent and allowed the two of the other boys to comply with their plan, containing the urge to join them down the rope as they sprinted for the buses. Despite being a knucklehead upon his first impression, Yami was actually smart to some degree. He knew that Ren would've argued that Yami was just as suicidal as the rest of the kids who tried to escape on foot, but as he watched Yami and Nakamura reach the buses, he was confident that they would survive.

That is, until a shattering noise came from the emergency fire entrance to the roof, causing Howlite to wheel around with his blood-covered protractor still held like a brass knuckle in his right hand. He had thought that the zombies finally discovered the emergency exit, but it was only the one girl who was... revealing. He would make no further comments of the matter, his attention diverting to the now-shattered glass window of the door.

"What the hell did you just do?" Ren cringed, falling onto his backside as his hand tightened around the bleeding wound on his arm. We need to get that treated soon.

"Uh... why did you break the glass?" Howlite questioned in a suspicious manner, eyeing the girl down. "When the zombies get up here, that could've held them back for an extra second or two. Those seconds matter."

Ren sighed, mumbling under his breath. "No wonder why a lot of women are subjectively useless in zombie movies."

"When Yami and Nakamura get the bus nearby, we can use the rope to climb down to the top hatch of the bus," Howlite explained. "Then we can get out of here. Safely."

As One | Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Nope
We'll skip
into the distant future
the year 2000

Hɪɢʜsᴄʜᴏᴏʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Dᴇᴀᴅ~

maybe that's your intention?

Hɪɢʜsᴄʜᴏᴏʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Dᴇᴀᴅ~

"Right," Howlite agreed with Nakamura, nodding. It was strange how much Ren seemed to mirror the Yami guy who kicked him in the face, while Nakamura was more or less the voice of reason among the duo, like himself in a sense. He beckoned for Ren to follow him and the group, the former seeming reluctant but otherwise left with no choice but to do so.

"Kid thinks he finally has some freedom, now that all of this started," Ren complained about Yami as the two of them climbed up the stairs of the emergency exit, still tightly gripping his bleeding arm. "Should learn how to think and use his brain more."

Howlite sighed, wondering just how all of this even started. One minute, he was relaxing underneath a tree after finishing a few laps around the track, and next, he was being chased by flesh-eating cannibals. He didn't understand how this day could've had such a transformation so quickly, and it bothered him greatly.

Though, now was not necessarily the time to really think on matters like that. Adrenaline-charged situations like this needed action before words, and granted, they couldn't just burst through the entrance of the school and charge straight through a horde of zombies expecting to live, their options were limited and the clock was ticking. It was only a matter of time before the entire school would be overrun completely, and if they just stayed on the rooftop for the entire time, they were all dead.

When the group reached their destination, they spotted two other students. Howlite recognized one of them; Jake Sterling, one of the foreign senior honors students that he always saw lurking around in the library. Because Howlite had been a scholar of academic finesse, he had been granted the leeway to enroll in two less classes than normal students did, which allowed him to spend a good portion of his time in the library. He never really talked to the upperclassman much, given that Howlite's English needed improvement.

Upon mention of the buses, Howlite looked up. "I can drive, but..." he paused momentarily before resuming. "I don't think any of us has ever driven a bus, myself included."