Disclaimer - Me no own Bleach! :D

Somewhere in the world a computer switched on. . .

"Hey, Kuchiki Rukia here. I'm 18 years and 5 days old. It's been exactly 19 days, 12 Hours and 49 minutes since that day. The day the world as we know it fell to pieces. As cliché as it sounds, Zombie apocalypses are more realistic than they first appeared to be, it turns out biological warfare was the new millennium's nuclear weapon, and Kim Jon Ill was just one of the leaders of a new-age al-Qaida. I know what you're thinking; 'But 19 days is a short time for anything truly bad to happen' – did any of you hear about the Tsunami that wiped out my country, or the Volcano that put half of Europe on a standstill, or the Hurricanes that devastate parts of North America almost every three years? Exactly. Bad things happen in a short amount of time.

Even when you're expecting it.

I guess I should explain everything to you now, ey? Who knows, perhaps in a few years time this Blog will be famous! . . . or wiped from existence, but maybe somehow we'll get out of this Armageddon (I saw that film :D) . . eventually.

I'll go from the beginning. It's strange how much you can remember when you know you have nothing to loose anymore.

30Th December 2011, 13:26 – The Last sane moment of our lives.

Me Orihime, Tatsuki and Uryuu were all sat eating dinner on the roof at school; (It was our usual spot)Uryuu was cross-stitching on an embroidery loop, as per usual, he's making a little badge for us all, to remind us of our last year. Tatsuki's animatedly telling Orihime about annihilating some Ichigo at Karate (them words exactly – don't really wanna know what she means by 'some') - Annoyingly I'd missed that day. And I was just reading one of the books we had been given for English lessons. It was harder then because Ichigo wasn't there to decipher most of it with me – It was my worst subject, but his best so we'd work on it together a lot. The five of us were very close, one of them groups of people that your average pupil would just look past to talk to another friend across the room. Never particularly popular, not overly amazing grades, (well, on the behalf of me, Ichigo and Tatsuki.) A good B in most subjects, just there, to everyone else. To each other we were just this huge family that we could trust with our lives and spend hours a day with, chatting or in silence. Complete comfort if you will. I'll go into detail about them now for you, just to be able to picture what the world was once like:

Orihime:

Pretty much your 'perfect' woman – almost anime-like. She had long layered glossy auburn hair that reached down to her waist, which was small and curvaceous. An ample chest that any girl would be jealous of. And big steel-grey eyes that sparkled whenever she smiled. (In all honesty, she was someone I have always envied) She was 4 months older than me (almost to the date) and had one of them dispositions whom anyone could instantly love and trust, welcoming and gentle. She had one flaw. She had the worst cooking I have ever tasted, even the boys whom would go after her would disappear if she offered her food. Of course, it made us love her more however, imperfections are what make a person human are they not?

Tatsuki:

Quite the opposite to the above really. She had spiky black hair that had only recently grown out, it was at the 'choppy' phase. A very slight figure, and incredibly thin, despite how many lunches she would have. Her figure, I guess was down to her training, she was a black belt in karate, and the second strongest girl in Japan (Something she boasted to anyone about, should they look suspicious.) she would have gotten first, had she not broken her arm the day before. To people who didn't know her, she was a scary beastly girl whose eyes would pierce you from any distance, rendering you speechless and void of fight. However for us few, her eyes were always soft and gentle, her personality at a quirk, and ready to fight anything or anyone who would dare insult or harm us.

Uryuu:

A slight, quiet and ridiculously intelligent boy. Quick with a needle and, something others were surprised to find out, insane hand-eye co-ordination – despite being about blind without his glasses. He had quite short, black, hair – it was long enough to reach the top of his head, and so be combed back. But not long enough to put in a ponytail (something me and Tatsuki frequently tried, and failed, attempting many times) – yes, quite the average 'geek' really however, something we knew to do, but others didn't was to piss him off – do that, and you'd be dead in a millisecond. If his ice-gaze wasn't enough, his speed and agility would just come back to haunt you. Never, NEVER, annoy Ishida Uryuu – you won't live to tell the tale.

Ichigo:

Ahh yes. Strawberry. An annoying brute of a boy not slow to insult a person smaller and more intelligent than him. Hmph. Okay, okay, I kid I kid. Tall. Orange hair. Stupid face. Arrogant disposition. All-around moron. Frowns too much. Hot temper. Over-protective arse. Brown eyes – dark, brooding brown eyes for that matter. Strong cheekbones, sharp jawbone, not really muscly but quite muscly arms. Hard chest. Nice guy-legs. Really nice smile when he smiles – especially when the sun hit's his face and all the shadows are accentuated and like, make his face look all gentle and kind - err. Surprisingly immature in 'those' ways for a boy of 18, I'll even admit it to a point, (but I DON'T fancy him alright? I don't CARE what you think, there is no way on EARTH I would EVER fancy him so get that out of your head fast!) who's that good-looking (he's never even kissed a girl, let alone anything else – I suppose it's a good thing though, when you think about it. The kind of guy you'd drea-), perhaps it's the hair . . . It's natural though, so I don't get why he get's all the agro he does. Insanely good at English (again, unbeknown to many others) to a point at which he actually reads Shakespeare, for leisure. I don't think even native English-speakers do that! Brilliant at kendo and karate (He's only ever lost to Tatsuke) not that great at science . . er, quite bad actually . . . - we accidentally set the table on fire and singed our teachers' arm-hair off once. – (*AN: True story.) good mathematical brain although he get's way too caught up in his emotions and instinct, so logic just flees from his brain entirely (The amounts of fight's he's got in over one little thing . . .) quiet around most people, but an arsey loud-mouth with us, especially when he insults a certain person who's name begins with R *glares*. He has a good heart though, while he's an over-protective moron, he's a great big brother and the oldest friend I've ever had, we grew up making mud pies na-IN the back garden when his little sisters were only babies. He even got me into Karate and Kendo, something which I frequently practice on him, and win *grins*. I guess he's the most important person in the world to me – but not in that way. Seriously, after my family died he was all I had.

And then there was me I guess. I am about 4ft9 I had black hair down to my mid-back, I'm quite slender, flat chested. Did a bit of Kendo/Karate here and there, did okay in my subjects and have stupid purple eyes. People would tell me I'm cold but the others would say to ignore them so I did. That's about it really. I did have two older brothers and parents, but they died in a fire when I was about 12, so I lived on my own since then. Trust me when I say, I'm not that important.

Anyway. Finally, back to the Blog.

We were sat as we were, and then all of a sudden Ichigo came pelting around the corner, running at us at full speed, fear plastered all over his face. We all stopped moving, breathing, everything. And then he reached us, panting, hands on his knees. All he said was

"We need to look at the news, now"

Not the most melodramatic of words, but we agreed, packed up our stuff and ran with him to the lunch area inside. The creepy thing was, nobody talked, all you could hear were are footsteps, we hadn't even asked him why or what was going on. Maybe it was his fear that we'd only ever seen once before, or the fact that deep, somewhere inside us, we could feel something was wrong. Very wrong. Even the corridors were quiet. That was until we reached the dining room. We reached the doorway and stopped. Almost every pupil in the school must've been there looking at the giant Telly on the wall to he side of us. We walked inside, and turned to face it also. There wasn't a sound in the room. No dishwashers churning, no dishes clanking. Just silence. The telly flickered and the news lady came on. From What I could tell, there must've been a message about an emergency newscast notice and parents had rung everyone to watch it ASAP, because it was airing in 5 minutes – something they only do when it's a state of emergency and everyone needs to listen. Again the Telly flickered and the newswoman appeared. Sub-consciously, everyone in the room suddenly held their breath.

"This is an emergency broadcast. A state of emergency has been declared, the terrorist group known for association with Kim Jong Il, known as the Gillians (AN: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll stop, I promise) have detonated Biological warheads in the above countries and cities;" The screen flickered again, and a map of the world appeared. Suddenly countries, seemingly at random turned red and the woman read out their names: "South Korea; Seol, Australia; Melbourne, Germany; Munich" my hand flashed to my mouth as more kept coming

"France; Paris, Italy; Rome, Denmark; Copenhagen, The United Kingdom; London, The United States; Washington, and finally the last one we know of hit the Hokkaido region at 13:23 this afternoon. We do not know of what effect it will have and Hokkaido as we speak is being quarantined, we advise everyone to stay calm and keep on as usual. Of what's known the bombed cities of the affected have similarly quarantined the cities and are undergoing investigations as to their effect. We'll be back with more at 2:00. The T.V flickered off.

Everyone was silent for another few seconds, suddenly a guy from our year called Keigo yelled out "it's not going to affect us though". It broke the Ice.

All hell broke loose.

It was as if someone had pressed the fast-forward button on everything. Immediately people were running towards us and the door, usually I'm fast but I just found myself stuck, about to be stampeded when a hand roughly grabbed my shoulder pulling me into something hard and lumpy. The heard ran past, the room vibrating with their footsteps; I looked up to Ichigo who was cradling my head, fear stricken in his eyes. My voice cracked as I spluttered out

"Asano's right though? It-It's not going to get us. Right?"

Ichigo just looked at me, the same expression. I looked to the others and they all wore an identical emotion to Ichigo. Suddenly, my instincts kicked in. I stepped backwards, punched my fist in my hand and stared, locking away my fear – well they didn't call me cold for nothing –

"We will survive this. I will not let us die." I forced the determination into my eyes, locking them with Ichigo. The fear evaporated, and a hard expression replaced it. He nodded.

"Looks like we're going to my house."

30Th December 2011, 18:30 – Decision time

A lot happened in those 5 hours. The infection had spread throughout the infected areas of all the countries, by now we had found out that the biological 'warhead' basically did what happened in all of the movies – for once – turned about 100 humans into flesh eating Zombies. They were the only living ones that were affected, after that, it just went on how it does – the zombies biting the living, and so on and so forth. All the schools had been cancelled, people were ordered off the streets, and by the looks of it, all of the affected countries were updating by the second, via internet. We were all at Ichigo's house planning on sticking together no matter what happened. In a weird sense I suppose it was lucky that me, Orihime and Tatsuke lived alone. Uryuu's dad was well acquainted with Isshin, and so that left him with us too. Isshin had only happily obliged to the 'extended family' and so we were going to our houses to pick up the necessities. Unfortunately, they predicted that it would hit us on the 1st, allowing us a day to get sorted, we weren't going to lose any chance we might have.

We decided to go in groups. I was to go with Ichigo with his car, and Tats and Hime (you can guess who they are by now :P) would go in Uryuu's car to their house (they had offered to house me too when they found out I lived alone, but I was too stuck in my family home, Ichigo's was the only other place I could also feel comfortable in, and besides, I didn't really mind the loneliness.) as a just-in-case. We quickly separated, agreeing to meet back at his for 8:00. I got in his car, and he slowly trundled us to my house.

"Dear God, drive ON the speed limit, at least!" I bit. He just glared at me, and carried on. We quickly got to mine and entered into the house, locking the door behind me. I ran to the cupboard under the stairs, as Ichigo yelled from the doorway;

"Don't forget! Just the necessities!"

I turned around to glare at him

"Who do you think this Idea was?"

He just shrugged

"Whatever, I'm gonna raid your fridge, call me when you're done." He called, disappearing into the kitchen.

"Stupid boy, eating all my food." I mumbled, rummaging for the rucksack we bought for camping once. I saw a little glimpse of green.

"Haha! Got you!" I grabbed the arm-sling-thing, and pulled. It was wedged tight under a load of crap I had just pilled in there over the years.

"Ugh, damnit!" I put a foot against the doorframe and yanked, everything came tumbling down in a crash and heaped above me on the floor. I heard running footsteps and a

"Rukia are you okay?" enter the living room, and then a quick following of laughter as he found me under the pile. I yelled

"OI, stop laughing and get me out of this! Stupid foot's stuck under a load of shit!"

He just sniggered still, grabbed under my arm and yanked me out, successively getting my bag; I shook off his shoulder and ran upstairs to my room. I won't go into mindless details – It was a room, with a bed, wardrobe, floor and ceiling. It had a few posters of 'Chigo' from 'Detergent' plastered on the walls however, (it was an obsession of mine, Chigo and RukiRuki MUST get together at the end, they MUST) those I were going to miss. Mi hi-Fi too . . . Well, I suppose my whole house really, but shit happens and you have to deal with it. I ran to my underwear draw and neatly squished all of it into the bottom of my bag, quickly running to get the rest from the airing-cupboard. Next I grabbed some clothes. I changed out of my uniform and shoved on some comfy leggings and a big old t-shirt of Ichigo's (don't ask) I grabbed a load of spares and neatly piled them in too. I decided it was pointless packing anything nice, no doubt they were just gonna get ruined and annoying. We needed stuff to move in. I grabbed a few pairs of walking-boot socks, shoved a couple in the bag and put some on. You can guess what shoes I grabbed. I then went to the back of my room to a cabinet on the wall. I lifted the panel covering the inside and stared at my heritage. A gleaming white samurai sword was perches inside. Sode No Shiraiyuki. Something I had trained to be able to use for years. Never thought I'd need her though. I quickly grabbed her (yes, I refer to my sword as a breathing female, shush) before I got into fond memories and grabbed the belt that would hold her. Clipping her around my waist, over the T-Shirt I looked at myself in the mirror. Now more than ever I looked like a boy. Only thing to complete it would be the hair.

My hair. It was too long. I put a hand to my mouth, remembering when i was a child and me and Ichigo were playing in a tree, I had long hair then but it got caught on a branch as we climbed, it tugged and then I fell. After that I kept my hair short – until I met Orihime, she helped me realise that long hair could be nice if you were careful enough. I was going to miss it. While it got on my nerves being so long, I'd still miss it.

"Gaww".

I grabbed my bag about to run downstairs, when a flash of light caught my eye. I quickly looked round to find it was a picture on my bedside table. Horrified that I almost forgot it, I ran, hugged it quickly to my chest and then put it inside the bag. No matter what happened, that picture would stay with me forever, the one of me and my family all smiling, in the sun back when they were still alive. There was another one next to it of The 5 of us, me nuggie-ing Ichigo, laughing as he laughed and winced, Tatsuke laughing at us and then Orihime sweetly smiling at Uryuu, who blushed with a finger pushing up his glasses. (We all knew he had a soft-spot for her)

"Oh what the hell" I grabbed it and shoved it inside too. My friends were just as important now. I checked around the room. Seeing if there was anything I missed. I was in two minds, but grabbed my kindle anyway – it could last for a month without being re-charged, and I had re-charged it fully only last night (reading was something I enjoyed mucho). I shoved in the charger too, a few keepsakes including a charm bracelet from my brothers, and a locket from Ichigo (It was my last birthday present, inside it was the same picture as the bigger one now in my bag) I clipped on the locket and shoved it under the tee, a tiny little silver drum-kit clock from Hime, a small Dagger (I know, but she's odd, don't blame me) from Tatsuki that could be clipped on a thigh, on my own over the legging and a bow and quiver of arrows I had once got from Uryuu – I know again a weird present, but I had always put these up on the wall, they were real and worked, but I liked them as ornamentals, never thought I could ever need them. And lastly I grabbed my purse, running to my parent's room, and getting the box that had all the money-cards in it. Isshin had said to organise them and put them somewhere safe so I could use them later in life. I shoved all the cards in my purse, and chucked it in the bag too. Finally I ran to the bathroom, putting in my toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, a bar of lush soap, a hair brush and some girl-stuff. Eventually I zipped up the bag, checking I had enough stuff and ran downstairs to the kitchen.

Ichigo was waiting for me. He raised an eyebrow

"I heard a lot of running around, what were you doing?"

I just glared at him.

"I was just getting everything, now I need yo-"

"What are you wearing?" He sniggered. Laughing at my combination of garments.

"Oh shut up, I'm going for practicality!"

He laughed more

"I don't mean your clothes; I mean what's with your sword and all the weapons. We won't be fighting them you know!"

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. I stepped towards him

"Won't be fighting them? Are you kidding? Ichigo a quarter of the globe will be affected by this by the end of the week. The quarantine in Hokkaido will break down, and by the time it gets here we'll have to be ready! We can't take chances! These are our LIVES at stake!" I exclaimed, throwing out an arm in frustration. He just stared back. Slightly shocked. I just kept staring at him, hoping that the fierceness I was trying to put across was evident in my eyes. Inside I was terrified, but you've just got to get past it. Fearing it won't stop anything. Eventually he must've seen reason, because his eyes firmed out, and then nodded, seemingly to himself. Making a decision.

"Fine, but if you fight. So do I." I just blanked.

"I thought that was obvious?"

He stared back, a dead strength in his eyes

"I mean, I fight. As in, I want Zangetsu back."

I was about to protest, breaking my fierce shell, but realised. This wasn't a time to be arguing. Ichigo was the best at kendo for a reason, the only time he'd been beaten was when I had to force Zangetsu off him, he was getting scary. And he had not once ever asked for h-it back, I think he was scared himself. I met his gaze. Pouring strength into my eyes to intimidate him. (It was something I had mastered a long time ago, before he got cocky with his sword . . . That didn't sound nearly as wrong in my head, I swear)

"Fine, but if you get like that again, I'll force him off you again and break it."

He nodded.

"Deal."

So I ran downstairs to the glass vault in the cellar. Zangetsu was a sword my family had gifted Ichigo in a will, back when we were fifteen. But he got over stimulated and started going too violent from his own power. So I stopped him and took it back, locking it away until I thought he would be mature enough. I know what you're thinking; "I thought Ichigo was the strongest Kendoist?" He is, but I'm the fastest puncher. *Smile*

I grabbed the hilt and took it off its stand. It was placed to the side of my family's Zanpaktuo's, It was sleek and Black, very similar to my own only, Black, a square hand-guard and a chain instead of a ribbon (basically his old Bankai) I unsheathed it from its scabbard a bit too even the blade (I suppose another similarity between Shiraiyuki) was black. I could see my gaze reflected in it. I quickly re-sheathed it and ran back upstairs, slowing as I got into the kitchen. He was waiting for me, a stern expression across his face. I walked up to him, holding out the sword in my right hand. He uncrossed his arms reaching for it slightly but stopping to say

"If I do go out of control again, make sure you stop me" and then grabbed it. I kept it in my hands a few seconds longer, staring back, talking the emotion out of my face.

"I will"

I let go and he took Zangetsu back, unsheathing it instantly, flicking it here and there in the light, and then sheathing it back, clipping it to his belt. He smiled at me.

"What now?" I grimaced back.

"Right." I un-sheathed Shiraiyuki, his eyes widened and his hand flashed to Zangetsu.

"Not that you Moron! I need you to hold my hair for a moment" he just raised an eyebrow

"Okaay"

He walked over to me and grabbed my hair

"Now what?" I rolled my eyes.

"Grab all of it at the bottom and pull on it lightly." I think he raised an eyebrow, But he did as I asked as I felt the slight pressure on the back of my head.

"Okay" I breathed.

I grabbed the handle of shiraiyuki with my right hand, and then the blunt edge with the other, reaching it over my head. Ichigo must've just sussed it then.

"What are you DOING?" he'd let go of my hair

"Just shut up and hold it, it's pissing me off, and I'll need to cut it anyway."

He protested

"But you've been growing it for years!"

"And?"

He spluttered.

"WHY do you want to cut it?"

"Because last time it was long, I fell out of that tree, and took you with me! I don't want something like that to happen again and we DIE!" I yelled back, some of my fear and frustration from the day leaking out of my facade.

He placed his hands on my shoulders, and murmured softly into my ear.

"Don't worry, I won't let you die." I laughed without humour.

"It's not me I'm worried about. Please, just hold it. I may as well cut it now"

I heard him sigh, and then shift as he grabbed my hair again.

I cut it without counting. No need for stupid melodrama, it was just hair. I heard it go with a 'shink', and finally after a few hackings, it was all off, meeting around my chin.

"Ahhhh." I smiled and tossed around my head, enjoying the lightness it gave it.

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" I smiled at him. He only looked back, a mysterious look in his eye as his hand met his chin.

"Don't move a second."I stood still, startled at his randomness. Suddenly he was walking straight towards me, hands at his sides, slightly reaching out. He wasn't going to? NOOo, He wasn't? He kept coming closer; I felt my cheeks heating up. I heard him whisper,

"Close your eyes" the sultry monotones of his voice vibrating through my brain. I just followed, slowly closing my eyes, waiting for his hands to take my face and . . .

"Shink . . . . .shinkshink . . . ." I re-opened one eye, and almost jumped back at the closeness of his face to my eye, out of the corner of it, I could see he had both hands sort-of grasped around Zangestu, and like potato-peeling parts of my hair with his tongue stuck out to the side slightly. I almost snorted. Ichigo Kurosaki, kendoist of the century, doing my hair. I let him carry on, and after a few minutes he finished. Smiling and stepping back.

"Go look in a mirror. What do you think?"

I went over to the mirror in the hallway and looked. I was shocked. He had done a pretty good job. My hair now framed my face more, feathered at the top allowing it to look nice enough that I wouldn't have to mess with it all the time like normal. He hadn't been able to do much about the stupid bit that would just stick in the middle, but he'd thinned it out and shortened it, making it look more like a pixie curl. All in all, it looked messy, but nice. I grinned widely.

"I love it! Since when can you do hair?" He just frowned at me

"I used to do yours all the time before you started growing it out, remember?"

I thought back.

"God you're right. Geez, that was a long time ago, ney?" I beamed at him, happy with my new hair and him remembering our childhood.

He just grinned

"It was, it's the same as back then; looks even prettier when you smile." He grinned. Walking out of the kitchen and into my garden, Yelling out,

"Come on, were gonna be late, we've got to meet the others remember! Besides! You need to borrow one of my hoodies. C'mon we'll be late!"

I flustered, flaberghasted as I picked up the rest of my stuff, locked the house and ran to meet him. My cheeks pink, he turned around and grinned at me. I smiled back. Shyly, shyly! All that I could comprehend going around my head was

"even prettier when you smile, even prettier when you smile, even prettier when you smile" Moron, I'll make him pay for making me all flustered like that.

END

For now. Apologies on the badness, the Idea just popped into my head and I spent the day (when I wasn't in lessons) writing it. How ANNOYING is that? 5000 words on Bleach, at random, fine. 1000 on the subject I take at college in two weeks? Not a chance. Gah how annoying. Hope you enjoy this. Touch-wood I'll update it soon, just wanted to upload some of it today :). Apologies on the OCC-ness of the characters, I hope it's not too bad. This song was just going round in my head from about half way through to the end, hopefully I can incorporate it into action later in the story :D ( And don't dessicate me for the version :'( - Bad Reputation, Avril Lavigne)