Chapter 1 - Prologue: My Fault

"Shit!" Maka screamed as she swerved to avoid a straggler. The car almost flipped but she quickly regained control thanks to her experience.

"Maka," a voiced yelled through the radio on the passenger seat. "How's it coming? We need you here pronto, they're starting to get closer."

Maka grabbed the radio, "I'm on my way, Soul, and I can only go so fast when these fuckers are clogging up the streets. I got the blood and poured it into the trunk, I'll release the plugs when I get near. I found a radio station that's still working, too, so I'll start blasting it after I pull the plugs." She replied while speeding down the deserted highway, making her way to the gigantic grocery store. She was already being chased by a horde of walkers, but if she sped up she would have enough time to hop out and pull the plugs on the holes the drilled in the trunk. She stepped on the gas and quickly went from around 50 to 80 miles per hour. She continued for about 3 minutes before slamming on the breaks and hopping out of the, what Maka calls, "shit-brown" SUV-made-convertible to pull the plugs. An SUV for hauling and a convertible for easy entrance, it took them forever to saw the roof off.

"Ugly ass car," She muttered under her breath while wrenching the several washrags from the holes. Thick, clumpy, rotten blood that she stole from an abandoned blood drive leaked out. Ironically, the outbreak came right when an earthquake hit the east coast, so blood drives had opened up all around. She turned and saw the walkers had stopped about 50 feet away and were sniffing the air. When some of them started snapping their attention towards her, she sprinted to the front of the car and hopped in the driver's seat. She floored it and the tires squealed in protest while the car lurched forward.

"Maka we can hear the car in the distance, why isn't the radio on?" Soul questioned through the radio.

"Do you want me to get trapped between two hordes that are attracted to the noise?" She yelled back. "I swear, Soul, sometimes I- wait… what the fuck?"

"What? What is it? Are you ok!?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine don't have a cow. I have to go," Maka said, all the while staring at the human walking down the side of the highway with a camping backpack*. She started slowing down enough to where the car wouldn't flip when she slammed on the brakes next to him. As she was slowing down she noticed him reach into his pockets and when she slammed on the brakes he pulled out twin pistols.

"What do you want?" The raven-haired boy asked. He had the peculiar stripes on the side of his head and stunning golden eyes. Maka was unfazed by his good looks, for she had a serious distrust in men other than her weapon, Soul, and childhood best-friend, Black Star.

"Get in," she replied while opening the door.

"And why the fuck would I do that?"

"Because, if you don't get in now, I'll leave you here and you'll get eaten by that horde following me. I would have trouble sleeping if I knew an innocent died because of me."

He looked behind the car for the first time and noticed the fast approaching horde was only about 15 feet away. He quickly stripped off his backpack and threw it in the backseat and climbed over the door while Maka started to speed away.

"Cover your ears for a sec," she said and reached to turn on the radio. He shot her a questioning look but decided to listen since she didn't leave him for the zombies.

Maka flipped on the radio and turned it on full blast right as she got off the highway. She drove past the hideout where her friends were waiting for her to bait the zombies away from the store. She waved as she passed by and Black Star, Soul, and Tsubaki smiled widely but frowned upon noticing the extra person. Maka slowed down and circled the parking lot a few times before the car was had walkers on both sides but she still had a clear shot of the exit. She slammed on the acceleration and the two passengers shot back in their seat just as the song Radioactive by Imagine Dragons came on.

"Irony, you cold hearted bitch," Maka muttered. She turned down the radio enough to where she could raise her voice over it "So, what's your name, Stranger?"

"Death the Kid, but just call me Kid."

"Ah, so your Shinigami-sama's son. He'll be happy to know your back. My name is Maka. I take it those are your weapons?"

"Yes, Liz and Patty."

Maka smiled, "Nice to see something familiar in a world of chaos. Those three people we passed were part of my group called Spartoi, we managed to survive to outbreak by taking shelter in the DWMA. Your dad is fine, by the way. Jovial and enigmatic as ever," she laughed.

Kid laughed with her, "Yeah that sounds like father. So why exactly did you blare that music to get us chased? Seems a little idiotic to me."

Maka laughed, "We had to get the walkers out of the store, there were so many that we couldn't go in. Right now we are going to drive until we see a sign with a neon pink 'X' on it, then we are gonna switch cars so they will be distracted by the blood and sound of this one. Kinda reminds me of a bank robbery with these getaway cars."

"Yeah," Kid chuckled. "So where exactly are we going after this?"

"We? You wanna join my little renegade or something? Oh, you probably need a ride to the DWMA. That is why you're here, right?"

"Actually, no. I was just walking with no clue where I was heading. I had no idea where I was until I saw that grocery store. If you don't mind, I would very much appreciate a ride to the school, though."

"Nah, I don't mind. But to answer your earlier question, we have to make a turnaround somewhere up ahead when we switch cars. Then, we have to go around the horde that will surround this car and pick up Soul, Tsubaki, and Black Star. Soul is my weapon and Black Star is Tsubaki's meister. There's the sign, get your things ready to hop out."

Kid gathered his backpack and put the guns inside. "You guys have to wait until we get to the school to change back, sorry."

"Aw, come on, Kid!" One of the guns said, "We've been stuck like this forever!"

"Actually, there's plenty of room in the van for everyone. Sometimes I feel like a soccer mom, driving people around in it." Maka muttered the last part. "I'm Maka by the way. I would shake your hands, but your still pistols so…"

Liz laughed at Maka's bad joke "I'm Liz, in Kid's left hand. My sister Patty is in his right. Say hi, Patty.

"Hi, Maka! I bet Kid likes your hair, he likes symmetrical things."

Maka laughed, "Hi, Patty. It's nice to meet you. Is that so? Well, that's good cause I wear this style almost every day. It reminds me of a time before all this shit went down and people started eating each other."

"A simple, symmetrical way of remembering nicer, less scary times. I like it." Kid smiled.

Maka laughed "Well, I'm glad. People used to say it makes me look like a kid, but after they saw my "natural leadership" as my Professor like to call it, and my "badass-ery" as Black Star calls it, they left me alone. And by that I mean when they saw me slaughter the first walker we saw in the city. Since then I was almost like the leader, aside from the professors, Death Scythes and Lord Death, of course. But anyway, we're almost at the van, so be ready to run to it."

Kid nodded and threw his backpack on one shoulder "I can deal with the asymmetry for a minute," he said in a strained voice.

"Oh, you were serious about that." Maka observed. "Hm, well we all have our weaknesses! Alright let's go," she said as she leapt over the door. She and Kid ran to the Honda Odyssey and hopped in. She jammed the key in the ignition, jerked it quickly and took off, leaving the blood filled, music blaring car behind where it was immediately swallowed in a wave of zombies trying to get to the blood.

"You guys can transform and sit anywhere you want, there's two rows back there. There's also water bottles under the seats if you want, would you mind handing me one?" Maka asked.

"Yeah, of course." Liz said as Kid placed her in the backseat. She transformed and took Patty so she could as well, then reached under the seat and took out four water bottles.

"Holy shit, when's the last time you three ate?!" Maka exclaimed after seeing the sisters and noticing how thin Kid is.

"We eat every other day. Usually 3 granola bars each but we ran out three days ago." Liz explained while handing Maka two water bottles who gave one to Kid.

Maka reached under her seat and pulled out a box of cereal bars. She opened it and gave each of them three with one left for herself. "I'm making you some curry when we get back to the school," she said.

They drove through a path in the forest next to the road and only had to run over 3 walkers before they made it back to the store. The tree scavengers were waiting outside and each had two packs stuffed to the brim with drinks and food that wouldn't expire easily. When they saw the three in the car Black Star shouted "Who are these people, Maka? you know not to pick up hitch-hikers! They could be infected!"

"Sheesh, chill Black Star. He's not infected and these girls were in gun form when I found them."

"Who the fuck are they?!"

"Black Star. I will Maka-Chop you if you don't stop yelling, you know I just got over that ear infection. This is Lord Death's son, Death the Kid. Can they call you Kid?" she asked and he nodded. "You can call him Kid. This is Liz and Patty… what's your guys' last name?"

"Thompson." Patty said with an innocent smile.

"Liz and Patty Thompson. Now get the fuck in before I leave your egotistic ass here."

He reluctantly agreed and climbed in the far back and pouted.

"Hello, I'm Tsubaki, Black Star's weapon. Sorry about his behavior, it's very nice to meet you all," Tsubaki said with an apologetic smile while she climbed next to the sisters and Soul climbed in the back.

"Sup, I'm Soul. Maka's weapon," he introduced himself then slurped to control his drooling issue.

"It's very nice to meet you all," Kid and the sisters said in unison.

"Alright, how much did you guys get?" Maka asked as she began to drive back to the DWMA.

"Three bags of food and two bags of drinks. Enough to last us a month, even with three new people." Tsubaki answered with a hint of pride in her voice.

"That's the best we've done yet! I knew that plan would pay off!" Maka smiled and told the 3 to drink some water. "We'll be at the DWMA soon."

"So, how exactly did you find these guys Maka?" Soul asked

"When I was going down the highway I saw Kid with his bag walking like a normal person which meant he wasn't a walker. He was the first human besides those at the DWMA I've seen in months. I couldn't leave him there."

"I don't mean this is a rude way, but why not?"

"Because, Soul, I can't just leave someone to get eaten alive by the walkers. Especially if it would've been my fault."