Fanfic / The Last Alarm

Last Alarm is a High School Of The Dead Self-Insert Fan Fic written by firemanjim. It was published in February 7, 2013 and is currently ongoing as of 2018 with 56 chapters. The author himself acknowledges the ending is in sight.

The story resolves around Tejano-American Jim Treveño, a former San Antonio Paramedic/Firefighter, turned mercenary, as he and his teammates in the private military company are forced to land into Japan after their plane suffers a mechanical breakdown. Predictably, they get caught up in the beginning stages of the Zombie Apocalypse as we see in the manga/anime.

Things go south from there pretty quick.

Included in this fanfic are references to first responders (as the author is former fireman), the military, action movies, pop-culture, and heavy firefights against the undead.

The Last Alarm is followed by Last Alarm: The Okinawa Offensive written by Ponyton90, a friend of firemanjim who also appears in the story as a former Royal Marine and former SAS operator.

A non-canon follow up, called Brothers - An HOTD 9-11 Tribute was published on September 11, 2014 in honor of the first responders of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

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Last Alarm provides the following tropes:

• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: While there are instances were there are fighting done against zombies and hostile human survivors, the fanfic itself has quiet a lot of drama.
  • An example is Jim's feelings of insecurities of his own past failures and his Heroic BSoD after he was nearly killed by the Takagi household staff thinking he was a terrorist.
  • Jim wanting to adapt Saeko as his daughter.
  • Saeko counts as well, as deep inside, she has feelings of sadness because her real father is always away overseas for kendo tournaments. Jim was able to notice this from the start. However, Soichiro and Yuriko Tagaki both advice Saeko not to get in too attached with the American mercenary.
  • The drama between Saya Tagaki and her parents is taken up a notch, something we never saw in the anime.
• The Alliance: NATO and Japan, along with the special forces contingent already present in Okinawa.
• Apocalypse How: Class0: The outbreak is mentioned have only affected countries in the Northern Hemisphere, specifically the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, China, and the two Koreas. The rest of the world seems to have fared better.
• Awesome Personnel Carrier: The JSDF uses APCs alongside tanks to support troops fighting the infected.
• Asshole Victim: Shido and his cult.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • The PMCs, who were mentioned to have saved the lives of thousands of trapped soldiers behind infected lines.
  • Jim counts as one too.
  • Andy who into harms way to save a lost girl an airport terminal full of zombies. He succeeds in doing so.
  • The SAS squad that rescued Andy, officially reinstating him back to service.
  • The U.S. Marines, Deltas, SEALs, and other special forces from other countries during the airport fight.
• Blade Enthusiast: Jim brought a collection of knives with him for his first mercenary mission, including a MAC-V SOG knife used by the UDT, a survival knife, and many others. He specifically hands out some of his knives to the teens as a last resort weapon.
• Boom, Headshot!: Happens to a lot of zombies and hostile humans.
• Bottomless Magazines: Horribly averted. Jim and Andy often check their remaining ammunition in their load-bearing vests so they do not chew all their precious rounds.
• Conscription: Due to the shortage of manpower and the fact that many civilian news choppers landed on the Bonhomme Richard, the captain of the ship decided that the civilians that sought refugee must contribute in order to stay aboard such as repair, food service, and the loading of supplies. News choppers were also given roles to ferry supplies from the ship to the airport, often taking troops with them as military helicopters became full.
• Cool Plane
  • Subverted with the plane that the mercenaries get. They wanted a Mil-Spec C-130, but end up with an old Soviet Air Force An-12 due to it being cheaper to buy. The An-12 proves to be a maintenance nightmare and contributes to their having to make an emergency landing at the Tokonosu Offshore airport.
  • The USAF C-5 Galaxy that took the British embassy personnel to the safety of Australia. Unfortunately, Andy missed the flight as his cover was blown.
• Cool Ship: The USS Bonhomme Richard and the supporting USN and JSDF destroyers.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: The PMC team are composed of former special forces operators, namely SEALs, Delta, SOAR, SAS, and Australian SAS. Only Jim is the non-military but has been given an elite status due to his knowledge in emergency medical situations and fireman escape tactics.
  • We later see a chapter including actual U.S. Navy SEALs, Delta Force, SAS, Spetznaz, GSG-9, and Chinese Special Forces kick zombie ass in the airport.
• Enemy Mine: Despite Russia and China being at odds with the United States and the West most of the time in Real Life, both Russian and Chinese special forces cooperated with American, British, and German special forces in reclamation of the airport. Justifiable since zombies are greater threat to humanity.
• Establishing Character Moment
  • Pre-outbreak: Jim and the former special forces during their training in Nevada. While he did not mingle with the rest of the operators in their booze and girls after-party in Las Vegas, Jim and Andrew "Andy" Ponyton bonded together by watching a kaiju movie, thus establishing their friendship.
  • When Jim meets with the Teens in Fujimi High. Hilarity Ensues when Khota Hirano sees a heavily armed-to-the-teeth American in a Japanese high school.
  • A rather re-establishing character moment: [[spoiler: When Andy Ponyton is captured by the SAT, thinking he is one of the heavily armed terrorists, Rika somehow recognizes him as their SAS instructor when the SAT was sent to train in England 10 years before. Tajima remembers the incident where Andy was scared shitless with a harmless spider prank, which almost caused the SAT their relationship with the SAS. Tajima decides to pull the prank again using an exotic spider to think of it was really Andy. Andy's response? He immediately rampages the room to kill the spider in a bloodlust , forcing Rika and Tajima to vacate for their own safety.
  • Andy later remembers the incident but then works together with the two SAT in defending the airport from the zombies.
  • Jim being interrogated by Souichiro and Yuriko Tagaki to the point they learn the truth about him.
• Every Helicopter Is a Huey: Not only JSDF Hueys are used, but other helicopters like the Bell 412, Chinook, UH-60 Blackhawk, AH-1Z Viper, and the AW101 also appear.
• Failed a Spot Check: Averted. Jim immediately knows the masked mooks that enter Rika's apartment are not military due to their choice of weapons like long rifles and their movement of infiltration.
• Fast-Roping: The SAS squad that comes to rescue Andy from the airport during the reclamation.
• Flesh-Eating Zombie
• Friendly Sniper: Jim provides sniper cover to the teens as they are attacked by hostile gangs in the bridge. Khota Hirano also counts as one per the anime.
  • Rika Minami as she clears the airport's runway of infected.
  • SEAL and Delta snipers provide support to the U.S. Marines clearing the airport from the infected.
• Gunship Rescue: AH-1 Cobra gunships are used during the airport takeover, though for distraction purpose rather using their gatling guns and missiles against the zombies.
• Innocent Bigot: Not-so-innocent indeed. One of the girls in Shido's cult calls out Jim as a "Mexican hillbilly" who adopted a Japanese girl. Jim's responded by shooting the ground the girl stood out into scaring her while calling her a "racist fuck."
• It Can Think:
  • Rika notes that one of the zombies on the runaway, a Korean actor, had some human-like characteristics such as showing off its vanity.
  • The female zombie police officer aptly named as "It", which was the first one witnessed to sprint and shout in rage. Although unlikely commanding the fellow zombies, it looks It was able to lead a horde of infected straight towards the Takagi estate.
  • By Day 3 of the outbreak, survivors in the Takagi estate and the airport noted zombies have started to run. Characters hypothesize that is probably the acute senses of what-remains of their undead brains acting up, as food sources for the zombies were depleting by the third day.
• Heroic BSoD: Jim suffers two of these.
  • The first one is right after he washes up on the bank of the river he jumped in from a bridge as there was a horde of zombies. He first has two sets of dreams, one where his for U.S. Navy SEAL instructor berates him for being incompetent and one where Saeko becomes his adaptive daughter. When he wakes up, he feels so down that he did not mind if an infected would kill him on the spot.
  • Right after being nearly beaten by the Tagaki security detail and ended up being hospitalized under their heavy guard as they still treated him as a wanted terrorist, Jim just wanted to die from that point.
• Katanas Are Just Better: The weapon of choice of Saeko, Souichiro, and some of the Takagi bodyguards.
  • Saeko initially uses a bokken, a wooden sword shaped like a katana, used in Kendo tournaments. Souichiro later gives her a genuine katana from the Meiji restoration-era as a token-of-gratitude for Saeko's father teaching Souichiro the way of the samurai.
• Kill It with Fire:
  • Zombies escape from a bus while burning but dying before they could reach Jim and Saeko.
  • Jim douses the road near Rika's apartment with fuel as lights a match to cover their escape as they rescue Alice.
  • Andy Ponyton blows up a gas tanker to distract a horde of zombies in the airport, taking a large chunck of the horde and reducing the rest to burning shufflers before rolling over.
  • Jim uses a White Phosphorus grenade during the defense of the Tagaki mansion.
• Last Stand: Common, since this is a zombie story.
  • The last stand of the JSDF holding on the bridge. Just as they run low of ammo, the Laidlaw contractors come right on time to save them.
  • The SAT as they try to protect the remaining uninfected parts of the offshore airport and the civilians stranded.
  • Jim and the Tagaki security detail desperately trying to hold back the infected scaling the walls of the Tagaki estate.
• The Medic: Jim and Ben, serving as the Combat Medic of the Laidlaw contractors.
• Mildly Military: When some masked mooks (later revelead to be Yuriko Tagaki, Saya's mother, and their staff) enter Rika's apartment, Jim immediately notices they weren't military due to the weapons they chose were inappropriate for close quarter combat (i.e. M-16s and M-14s). The way they breaches the aparment also gives their position of not being military.
• Mistaken for Foreigner: Averted. There is no way Caucasian men armed with assault rifles and clad in paramiitary gear can pass in Japanese society without being noticed.
• Mistaken Nationality: Jim is mistaken to be a Mexican-American, so he points out he is a Tejano (Texan-Mexicans).
• More Dakka: J.R., the team leader, specifically orders his men not to go full auto against the zombies.
  • It is only used by the JSDF and the mercenaries during horde attacks, though carefully done.
  • In the beginning chapter, the JSDF contingent defending the bridge has two M2 Browning .50 Caliber machine guns as fire support. One of the soldiers uses a portable M60 as his primary weapon.
  • Tajima uses a light machine gun while gunning down a horde of sprinters in the airport, before passing the gun to Andy moments before the gun jams.
  • Rika prefers to use a M60E4 in replacement for her MP5, though as suggested by Andy and another U.S. Navy SEAL, the Mk. 48 LMG is a much more practical choice.
• Multinational Team: This fanfiction has soldiers and special forces (current and former, nonetheless), coming from different countries namely Australia, China, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
• Nice Guy: The mercenaries, despite their scary appearance, are actually very gentle to the Japanese. It's just that Japanese people are not used to seeing armed foreigners in their country everyday, if not ever.
  • Jim specifically mentions he is one, though he could turn into a Papa Bear if you piss him off or harm those close to him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Rei stabs a gang leader with her spear soaked in dry infected blood, causing the gangster to reanimate into the undead.
  • Jim also does one using the same spear one of the Tagaki bodyguards in Rika's mansion by instinct as he was beaten by them thinking he was a terrorist. Again, it caused the said bodyguard to become a zombie.
• Noodle Incident:
  • The Takagis do not blame Jim for accidentally killing and infecting one of their bodyguards, as neither of them were aware of that time that Jim was not a terrorist as the media labeled him such (when they later find out).
  • Jim does not seek revenge against the Takagi bodyguards that almost beat him to death.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Averted on Chapter 4, when J.R. directly claims "F*cking Zombies Man!" to the other mercenaries waiting the hangar. Their reactions of disbelief is justifiable. In later chapters, Jim either calls them zombies, the infected, cannibal friends or crazy cannibals.
• Police Are Useless: Justified. The author points out the initial first responders that were killed were mostly firefighters and EMTs, being almost unarmed save for fireaxes, crowbars, and rescue tools, with the Japanese police holding off their ground with 5-shot revolvers and ASP collapsable batons. Further justified since (in-universe) no one would expect a zombie apocalypse to suddenly just begin as well as the state of Japan's law enforcement being lightly armed.
• Private Military Contractors: The operators from Laidlaw. The following are:
  • J.R. Wallace, former SOF-Delta, Team Leader of Green Team.
  • Chris Atkins, former SOF-Delta, Second-in-Command of Green Team.
  • Glenn, former operator from the U.S. Army's 160th SOAR, pilot.
  • Steve, former Australian SAS, team sniper.
  • Patrick, explosives expert.
  • David, communications expert.
  • Andrew Ponyton, former Royal Marine then SAS, heavy weapons.
  • Ben, former U.S. Marine special forces, medic.
  • Jim Treveno, former Paramedic/Fireman, team medic.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Jim towards the teens. He often scolds them when they attempt to do something immature and reckless.
  • Souichiro and Yuriko Tagaki, the head of the Tagaki household. Souichiro is a nationalist politician who tries to shelter refugees of Tokonosu City in his mansion grounds. He is described to be a man that should not be directly challenged with.
  • J.R. Wallace and Chris Adkins, former Delta Force Operators. J.R. is the leader of the Green Team of the PMCs while Chris is his second-in-command.
  • Commander Narahara (codename: Sakura) of the SAT.
  • The captain of the USS Bonhomme Richard amphibious assault ship.
  • In Jim's dream sequence, his Navy SEAL instructor who berates his incompetence during training.
• Tank Goodness: The JSDF contingent defending the bridge has two Type-10 main battle tanks as their fire support in addition to their .50 caliber machine guns.
• Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: The only way to take down the infected as per manga/anime canon.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Not as much as they have a choice since Japanese police are mainly armed with 5-shot revolvers as their service weapon.
  • The guard at the airport is armed with a revolver, managing to kill 2 zombies with it.
  • Takashi manages to obtain one during his and Rei's separation as they reunite in the bridge.
  • Horribly averted with Andy as he disarms an airport police officer. As he takes the revolver, he noted that it was "like a toy" compared to semi-automatic handguns issued to most airport security nowadays.
  • Even funnier was when Andy gave the revolver back to the cop and apologizing for disarming him earlier, the cop throws away the same revolver in favor for an assault rifle and even says "I've never liked that shit gun anyway."
• Remember the Alamo: Being a Texan, Jim mentions about the Alamo in quiet detail, especially during their Last Stand at the Takagai manor.
• Shout-Out: Oh, many of them.
  • George Romero's Living Dead Series (Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day Of The Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead) gets indirectly mentioned by Jim, where he thanks the situation had slow zombies as compared to the fast runners of Dawn of the Dead (2004).
  • Jim makes numerous references to Call of Duty, possibly emphasizing on Modern Warfare where he deconstructs the facts that warfare is NEVER as easy as how it is portrayed in reality. This applies greatly during the Zombie Apocalypse in which he scolds and warns the teens that attempted to escape from the Takagi estate.
  • Jim also mentions about Grand Theft Auto where he bluntly states driving a stolen vehicle is not as easy as it seems.
  • Godzilla: Mentioned at least thrice.
  • The Money Pit: Referenced in Chapter 4.
• Shotguns Are Just Better:
  • A Yakuza member's primary weapon was a sawn-off shotgun, in which Jim later takes it after killing him.
  • Rika Minami's gun locker has a M37 Riot control shotgun.
  • Jim attaches a Masterkey underbarrel shotgun to his M4A1 in the Takagi manor.
• Shown Their Work: firemanjim did do extensive research into how Special Forces operate, the equipment used by the Japanese Self Defense Forces, and the culture of Pacifist Japan.
• South of the Border: Jim sees a news report of thousands of cars coming from the U.S. heading to Mexico, clogging the border checkpoints in the U.S.-Mexico border.
• SWAT Team: The Special Assault Team (SAT) and Special Security Team, responsible for clearing the airport from zombies.
• We ARE Struggling Together
  • Jim against Soichiro and Yuriko Tagaki and his security detail. They initially distrust him thinking he is one of the "foreign terrorists" responsible for the massacre at the airport, though they later learn he is from the Laidlaw private security contractors the Takagis hired to protect their oil pipelines in Africa from rebels, a highly controversial move. This is supported by seeing former SAS operation Andy's knife on Jim's pack, where they realize he is indeed telling the truth. They later apologize and work together to sort out the crisis.
  • Andrew Ponyton and the SAT detail. Similar to Jim's situation, Andy was detained by the SAT thinking he was a foreign terrorist. As the infected later breached the airport terminal, Andy and the SAT work together to protect the remaining civilians before the USMC launches an amphibious assault to retake the island.
• Zombie Gait: The infected start out as slow but by day 3 of the outbreak some have developed the ability to sprint.
• Zombie Infectee
• Zombie Apocalypse: It's set in The High School of the Dead universe with some cool looking mercenaries and special forces.

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