AN: Matthew Yan- I have no plan of being a light novel author. I don't think I have that kind of imagination to come up with my own world, a full cast of characters that vary in personalities, a world that's unique, and, most importantly, a story that's original in it's own way.

Thanks to JDUBZ for being an awesome Beta Reader, as usual!

Chapter 7: One More to Save

April 27, 2015

9:12am

The Tenshi family home remained untouched as did every other house in the block. Why the walkers hadn't come yet was unknown. But that false sense of security would soon be gone.

Within the Tenshi house, voices could be heard through the basement door.

"Father, be careful."

"I will, just stay here with Subaru, Rem."

"While I have no problem staying with Rem I'd rather come up and see the outside for myself."

"Leaving me out, that's expected of Barusu."

From the sound of it, Subaru was being sarcastic, "Oh, I'm sorry Ram did I hurt your feelings?"

"Barusu is too impuissant when it comes to women."

"Hey, I don't know what that word means, but it better be good!"

"Quiet you two, we don't want to make too much noise."

"Subaru-kun, can Rem hold your arm? I'm scared."

"Wha-? Oh yeah, sure I guess."

"Impuissant, Barusu."

"I didn't ask for the comment, Ram."

"And Barusu doesn't need to, I provide them 24/7."

"Okay, enough from the both of you. I'm opening the door."

The sound of multiple locks being slid out of place came from within the door. The doorknob turned and then the door started to open slowly. A tiny creaking sound came from the hinges, making Quarke cringe a little. The kitchen was spotless. Not a single thing out of place that would give away the fact that something was in here over night. Still, Quarke held his gun in front of him, ready to shoot.

Following closely behind was Subaru who had Rem latched into his arm. Subaru was following timidly, scared about what could be around any corner. This was a new day, somewhere he hasn't been yet. He had no clue what was going to happen, that's what was unnerving him. Behind them was Ram, looking calm and bored, not exactly knowing what was going on but still choosing to not care.

She gave a disapproving look at the sight of Rem wrapping her arms around Subaru's. Subaru was a good friend and all, but seeing her cute sister fall in love with the arrogant Subaru didn't sit right with her. She wanted Rem to find someone that more suited her, someone more charming or respectful. Subaru was just too...not like that. Plus, Ram herself would notice when Rem would flirt, but in Subaru's idiocy, he didn't notice it, so it seemed Rem would never be able to get to him.

Ram said under her breath, "Barusu, you idiot."

Subaru turned his head around, "What was that."

Ram looked up at him, "I said 'Barusu, you idiot'."

"Why would you say that?"

"Just one of the many things that have come out of my amazing mind." Ram pointed to her head while keeping her mocking demeanor.

Subaru looked at her for a few second before looking back at Quarke, humming through his lips as he did so, "Hmmmmmmmmm…"

Ram closed her eyes and slowly shook her head at Subaru.

The front door was intact. Nothing had broken it down or anything, that should have been clear anyway because if the walkers hit it then they would have heard from the basement. Quarke proceeded to check all the windows as Subaru stayed with the twins in the living room.

"So what is happening, Barusu? Did you plague our father as well with your idiocy?"

Subaru crossed his arms, "Calling your father an idiot now are we, Ram?"

"No, Barusu, I'm calling you an idiot."

Subaru put a hand to his heart and feigned being hurt, "Ow, that hurts me every time you say such things, Ram."

Ram used her hands to gesture to all of Subaru, "See that? That right there is why I think you're an idiot."

Rem giggled from the side. She was enjoying the banter between two of her favorite people in the world. She had split from Subaru and was cupping her hands over her face to suppress her laughter.

"Barusu, you still haven't answered my question."

"Well I'll gladly answer it when your dad comes back because…" Subaru trailed off while spinning a hand in front of him, looking Ram.

Ram rolled her eyes and finished Subaru's sentence, "Because I won't believe you."

Subaru smile and clapped his hands, while striking a pose, "That's the ticket."

Quarke returned to the living room after checking that every room was clear and that every window wasn't broken. Nothing had gotten in overnight, or tried to get in for that matter. As a matter of fact, looking outside, he noticed that the entire street looked safe. Nothing was wrong. The only evidence that proved last night happened were the skid marks Zoey had left in the road when she took off.

As soon as Quarke returned, Ram demanded to know why he was being paranoid, "Father, what's happening?"

Quarke opened the front door and looked outside, "There's a sickness and it's making people...angry." The look of the walker through the window popped into his mind. "They don't seem to have any reasoning, I'm afraid."

Ram walked up to her dad and looked outside as well, wondering what he was looking for, "What does that mean, father?"

"Subaru knows more about them, he's the one who saved me last night." Quarke turned to Subaru, as did Rem and Ram.

Subaru started to get nervous, he put a hand to his chest as he stuttered, "M-Me? Well, I did save him, yes. I couldn't have done it without Zoey though. She was a great help with the car and whatnot."

Ram stared at him with half lidded eyes, "Barusu."

Subaru sighed in defeat, "Fine. Well, like your dad said, there's a sort of sickness spreading, spreading fast. It causes umm," the walkers were yelling, "rage," their teeth were bloody, "cannibalism," a woman was running from a group of them, "and I think it dulls the senses along with feelings. If not dull then eliminate."

Ram's expression never changed as she looked at Subaru. After a few seconds she turned to her father, "Father, what's happening?"

Subaru face palmed, "You've gotta be kidding me."

Quarke shrugged his shoulders, "Well, you've gotta admit, Subaru, it is pretty far fetched." He put a hand on Ram's shoulder, "But it is true. I saw it with my own eyes. Downtown is in ruins, we can't go there anymore."

"But there is nothing wrong." Ram walked outside and scanned the area. Everything was fine, an old man was even watering his garden. He waved to Ram when he caught sight of her.

The sun beamed down on the street, casting a welcoming glow upon the houses. The blue sky was dotted with clouds, birds flew across, chirping as they did so. Everything was bliss, everything was….normal.

Before Ram could say anything, Quarke pulled her into the house. Closing the door in front of her, Quarke slid the security lock into place. When he did so, he turned to Ram with a finger pointed at her, "From now on, no one goes out of this house unless it's an emergency."

Rem was huddled against Subaru again, a look of worry directed towards her dad, "Father, you're scaring Nee-sama and I."

Ram put a finger up, saying in a matter-of-fact tone, "I'm more confused than scared. I still barely know anything, no thanks to Barusu."

Subaru rolled his eyes as he looked outside one of the windows to see the perfectly normal scene outside. Have they just not gotten here yet? Did CEDA get rid of the threat? That thought made him happy. He would be able to see his parents again when they came back. He would have so many questions to ask them.

All it came down to was his power. His ability to reset time, but it seemed this power wasn't under his control but seemed to work as it wanted to. He wasn't able to go back in time at any point and he only does so when he died. Also, his respawn point was always in his bed. Would it move if I died again or would I have to relive that hell? He only had two regrets about last night; forgetting about his parents and leaving the couple, Harold and his wife.

There just wasn't enough time to save them, it was either them or the Tenshi family. That was the first time he ever had to make such a devastating decision because either way, people died.

Looking at Rem's face pressed against his arm, Subaru realized he made the right decision and shouldn't dwell on it.

Thinking about Ram's previous comment, Subaru said urgently, "The news! They've gotta have something!"

Quarke snapped his fingers, "Subaru's right." He picked up a remote that was on the couch and turned on a television that was in front of it.

A documentary was playing about something, but Quarke didn't pay it any attention as he flipped to whatever news channel came to mind.

The first thing that came up was a man and a woman having a conversation while aerial footage of a city playing in a small box in the corner. A large city appeared to be glowing and smoking. It became clear that the city was on fire. The unmistakable Golden Gate Bridge loomed in the far side of the city.

The man started talking after a logo transition revealed a larger version of the video. "If you're just tuning into this morning's breaking news it appears that a large part San Francisco is up in flames. What started as a small apartment building has fire quickly spread when it wasn't dealt with immediately."

The woman started talking, "Sources say that a mob of people abducted the firefighters when they arrived. Not much else is known of the whereabouts of the firefighters. However, the mob of people have begun to create mass hysteria, chasing others, beating them, and in most cases, result to homicide."

The video showed people in the streets being chased and taken down by what looked like walkers. The walkers were even running into fire, just to catch someone. People ran away from the walkers that were ablaze, hoping not to get burnt or worse, killed.

The video shrunk as the man suddenly began talking after a brief pause from the both of them. "What? Ah, yes. We have our eyewitness on the scene now being escorted by members of CEDA. Apparently they are trying to suppress the threat that is causing this panic. Rochelle, you're on the air."

The shot of the man was replaced by one of a woman with dark skin who had a short curly hair that was pulled back and tied together. She was smiling as she looked into the camera, "Thanks you, Brandon. Now I'm here with Lt. Kleiner of CEDA, who was part of a squad sent here to purge the threat. What do you mean by purging the threat?" She held the microphone out to the soldier that was standing next to her. The camera panned to him as he started speaking. His voice was monotone as he spoke.

"We have official orders to keep the city safe by any means necessary. Our main goal is to stop the spread of the virus." He adjusted the M16 assault rifle that was in his arms.

Rochelle asked, "So it's a virus that's spreading?"

"Yes, it's um, it's the result of a-." the soldier caught sight of a man running at them from the side. He quickly held up the rifle and pointed it at the man, yelling in a loud menacing tone, "DO NOT GET ANY CLOSER!"

The camera quickly panned in the direction the soldier was looking at. A walker was sprinting toward them. It's face was covered in blood, a shirt it once wore was torn to shreds, one of it's hands was missing, flinging blood everywhere as it swung its arm, and it's eyes were bloodshot, trained on Rochelle who was closest.

"RRRRRAAAAAGHHHHHAAAA!"

When the walker was within 10 feet of them the soldier was forced to shoot him. The first bullet struck the walker in the shoulder, but it kept running after having its upper body be jerked to the side. The second bullet hit the walker square in the chest, sending the walker to the floor with blood leaking out of the hole in its chest. No sooner did it fall to the floor did the walker get back up on its feet and resume running. This time, the soldier took aim down the sight and landed a shot on the walker's head. This made the walker immediately stop running and wobble towards them until it fell to its knees and then belly in front of Rochelle. The entire time, Rochelle was screaming bloody murder as the soldier shot the walker.

The camera panned back to the Lieutenant who was still aiming his gun at the dead walker. His breathing was uneven as he looked at the dead body, "We-We've been ordered to shoot any infected on sight."

From behind the soldier came another walker who had heard the gunshots. The cameraman shoved the Lieutenant and pointed at the incoming walker. The Lieutenant shot at the walker, missing the first few shots aimed at his head. When he succeeded in killing it, a loud groaning sound was heard. The camera jerked to the side to see a group of walkers up next to the camera. They tackled the camera man, sending the camera to the floor, showing only the feet of the Lieutenant and Rochelle as they ran from the scene. The screams of the camera man were heard as the sound of tearing of flesh and bones reached the camera, broadcasting it all over the United States.

Rochelle's scream could be heard, "Oh my god! What do we do?!"

"Just follow me!"

The broadcast ended and was replaced by a 'Please Standby' screen.

Quarke turned off the television, everyone had seen enough.

The infection was spreading, and it was spreading fast. Like LA, San Francisco was also nearly taken over by walkers in only a few hours. How long do we have until they come here.

Subaru was surprised they hadn't come to Rem's yet, it worried him and also relieved him. His relief was obvious, but he was worried that it was going to be the calm before the storm. Something bad was going to happen, he could tell. The question was when.

Hopefully, CEDA had already taken care of it in their side.

9:32am

"ACHOO!"

"Bless you." A woman stood at the kitchen counter making tea as she blessed her husband. She said in a worried voice, "Honey, I don't think your cold is getting any better."

Her husband was wrapped in a blanket at the kitchen table, looking like an Eskimo. He had a sickly complexion and a tired face. "It is…..just a little."

She grinned, "Sure, Honey. You'll probably be bedridden for another few days." She placed down a warm mug of tea in front of her husband.

He gladly took in his blanket covered hands and shakily took a sip with a refreshing, "Ahhhhhhh...I feel much better already." He tried to make his voice sound normal but just ended up coughing at the end. His wife giggled at his attempt and went behind him to put her hands on his shoulders.

"Don't worry, Honey. Rest up for today and we'll see how you feel tomorrow, OK?"

The husband took another sip of his tea and slowly nodded. "OK."

"That's my champ." The wife kissed the top of her husband's blanket hood before walking to the bathroom to take a shower.

As the man sat alone at the kitchen table he began to sip more of his tea until he was finished with it.

Thump.

"Hmm?" The man had heard the thump at the front door and waited for his wife to get it since he was sick. However, she never came. He turned in the direction she had left, he heard the faint noise of their shower door opening. He concluded that she was done taking a shower.

Getting up from his chair, the man slowly made his way to the front door, "Guess it's up to the champ."

Thump.

"Yes, Yes, I'm coming….ah..ah...ACHOO!"

A thin line of mucus was hanging down his nose after he sneezed. The man's face cringed, "Ewwww." Grabbing a tissue from a tissue box next to the front door, the man began to wipe it up as he opened the front door to greet whoever was visiting.

The door opened to reveal a man with a torn shirt. The sick man hadn't seen him yet since he was looking down to put the used tissue in a trash can. When he discarded the wad, he looked up, "Sorry about that."

The visitors head jerked at the man's voice. Blood dripped from it's mouth as it opened it to let out a throaty groan. It's blind eyes flew in every direction until they settled on the man when he spoke.

Before he could comprehend what was happening, the man was tackled to the ground as the walker took a bite from his torso. The man wasn't able to scream as the walker had accidentally put a hand over his face. The only thing that came out was a muffled, "MMMMMMMMMM!"

The man tried to push away the walker, but ended up having a few of his finger bitten off. This created more pain as the man desperately tried to escape in his weakened state. Before he knew it, the walker was being shoved by his wife.

His wife was pushing on the walker's hip, trying to push them off, she succeeded. With the walker off of her husband, the woman grabbed his arm and started to pull him away. He started to get to his feet as she dragged him. She was breathing heavily and moaning with every tug as she pulled in her husband.

However, the walker had recovered and tackled the man once again. Crouching down, the walker smelled something only it could smell. The walker opened its mouth and let out a raspy noise.

"Get off of him!"

The walker jerked his head in the direction of the woman, hearing his next meal.

The woman ran, screaming as she did so, away from the walker when it shot up and started sprinting at her.

The husband got to his knees, listening as his dear wife's screams were silenced when the walker caught and bit into her.

The man weakly called out for his wife, "Alex…."

The man got to his feet, cupping a hand below the bite wound in his chest. A purple substance was moving at an alarming rate as it traveled throughout his whole body. "Alex…."

An excruciating pain overcame him as the purple substance reached his neck and traveled up to his face. Screaming, he wobbled and ended up planting his hands on a single-drawer table that was below a mirror.

His hands gripped the ends of the small table as the pain in his body only increased. In turn, the volume of his screams increased as well. He put one of his hands to his head when he saw the purple substance travel up his face. Sweat fell down his face as he tried to fight whatever was traveling under his skin. Of course, his attempts to fight it mentally did nothing. His control over his own body was diminishing as he started to flail his body around.

Falling to the floor, the man could feel the substance deep into his eye sockets. His eyes bulged as he felt it wrap around his brain. All at once he lost consciousness, but his body still flailed for a second before going still.

That was when the man awoke, except with bloodshot eyes and an angry look on his face. Heavily breathing, the man got to his feet and stood up to his full extent. The walker looked in the mirror, pale skin, sunken cheeks, purple veins.

The man within the walker could only scream internally. He had no control over his own body.

The sound of a lawnmower attracted the walker, leading him out the front door. Shambling into the middle of the street, the walker looked to his right. More walkers were aimlessly walking towards him. Looking to his left, the walker saw a certain elderly man watering his garden. He let out a groan as he went to feed.

"Emilia!"

The sudden outburst from Subaru made Rem, who was currently still clamped onto his arm, jump.

Ram gave Subaru a disappointed look for scaring her precious sister, "What are you on about, Barusu?"

Subaru gave Ram an exasperated look, "Emilia is alone at her house! We have to make sure she's safe!"

"Didn't you say she went with her dad on a business trip?"

Subaru waved a hand in from of him, "Is that what you heard? Nonono, her dad's on a business trip! She's home alone, I have to make sure she's OK."

A few days prior, Subaru had nonchalantly mentioned to Rem and Ram at school that Emilia's dad was going on a trip. It was just something that he brought up when there was nothing to talk about. It must have gotten mixed up somehow during the conversation.

That's was what Subaru was thinking until Ram said, "Well, to be honest I wasn't even listening to Barusu when he was talking then."

Subaru was irritated, "Then why say anything at all?!"

Ram cracked a smile for once upon seeing Subaru angry, "Remember? 24/7."

Seeing her sister's smile, Rem happily bounced on her feet as she said, "Nee-sama is the greatest!"

With his mouth agape, Subaru made a sound that sounded along the lines of, "I don't believe this."

They're acting so normal! What is wrong with them?

His confusion was from Rem and Ram's everyday normal behavior. After seeing the news he felt that they should be scared or worried or SOMETHING! However, they resumed their usual selves, and it worried Subaru. It meant that they still didn't really believe it. Perhaps when they see it for real they would see that it wasn't a joke. That wasn't something he was looking forward to.

Subaru closed his mouth. He saved Rem, but now he had to save Emilia. She was the one he wanted to be with, wanted to live with. Without her, there would be nothing worth living for. This was exactly what he thought of Rem. If either died he wasn't sure what he'd do.

Subaru grabbed his dad's metal bat that he placed next to the couch, "I'm going to get her." Bring her here, keep her safe.

Quarke nodded while he spoke, "You're going to bring her here? When you do make sure to not bring anything else here." He looked outside suspiciously, "It may look normal, but I'm still worried that it isn't over."

Rem let go of Subaru's arm, saying, "Can Rem come?"

Subaru looked at Rem with a blank stare, "Uhhhhhhhh…" he looked at Quarke, who shook his head. "Um, stay here with your dad and sister. I'll just be right back. OK, Rem?"

Rem's eyes and face fell, but she still kept her cheerful voice, "OK, Subaru-kun."

Rem didn't like the idea of Subaru being alone with Emilia. She knew he liked her, but that wasn't going to stop Rem from trying to win him over. She felt Emilia would someday return her love for Subaru and then he would leave her. Maybe, Rem wasn't even sure if Emilia even liked Subaru in that way. It was a hope she guiltily hung onto.

Subaru tried to cheer her up by patting her head. I don't know why, but she likes it.

As if confirming his thoughts, Rem blushed and smiled when Subaru's hand rubbed her head.

With nothing else to talk about, Subaru said, "Well, I'm off. I'll see you guys in a bit."

Quarke watched Subaru walk out the door, hoping nothing went wrong.

Outside, the old man was still watering his garden, minding his own business. Subaru waved at him before making his way to Emilia's, a block away from Rem's.

The old man carefully watered the bush of roses he kept growing under the window sill. It was something his wife loved to look at, but didn't put time to keep them healthy. That was his job, to keep the roses and the rest of the exotic flowers in front of the house healthy.

It's not like it really mattered now since him and his wife were planning to live the rest of their lives in Hawaii. It was something that came up during dinner a few months ago. He was sure moving to Hawaii would keep his wife happy until the day of her death. It wasn't something that he wanted to think about, but it was definitely something he wanted for her.

Thinking this, the old man looked up from behind some bushes to see one of his neighbors sprinting at him.