"Onii-chan," Komachi whispered, her voice trembling with a mix of horror and disbelief. She could barely keep her eyes on the scene unfolding before her, the horrific sight pulling at the corners of her mind. "Someone... someone is being e-eaten." Her heart raced as she and Taishi instinctively began to shuffle back, inching away from the woman in front of them, her movements disturbingly primal.
"Komachi... be very quiet. That person =isn't a person. At least, not anymore. It's a blood thirsty, violent creature that won't hesitate to attack and kill you. Listen, those things react to sound. So move as quietly as you can and get out of the store, find a safe place, and stay away from them. And Komachi, no matter what, do not let them bite you." Hachiman said carefully, his voice trembling slightly.
Komachi started to tremble, unable to tear her eyes away from the gruesome scene before her. In her distraction, her elbow accidentally bumped into a rack of chips, sending it crashing to the floor. Taishi, having overheard Hachiman on the phone, turned his head to watch the rack fall, as if in slow motion, with dread. Finally, a loud clang echoed throughout the silent grocery store as the rack fell.
"Ragh!" A woman's head snapped up in their direction. She quickly stood up and began limping towards them.
"Run!" Taishi cried and grabbed Komachi's hand. He pulled her along as he guided them down the aisle.
"Komachi! What's going on?!" Komachi heard her brother yell from her phone.
They bolted down the aisle, a surge of terror electrifying their veins, when a sudden crash echoed to their right. They whipped around to see the woman, her eyes wild with fury, colliding violently with a shelf brimming with canned goods. The cans clattered to the ground like a thunderous warning. Without missing a beat, the woman pushed herself off the floor and made a mad dash toward them once more, relentless in her pursuit.
This time, it was Komachi who had moved first, her survival instincts driving her forward as she yanked Taishi along, and together they ran through the maze of aisles, desperation propelling them toward the exit. Each step felt like a heartbeat echoing in their ears, urgency growing as the automatic doors of the store loomed closer. But in the frenzy, they failed to notice that the old, now undead store worker was rising from the floor.
"Watch out!" Taishi shouted, lunging to jerk Komachi back just as the bloodied old man sprang to life, leaping through the air with a terrifying speed aimed straight at the girl.
Komachi stumbled into Taishi's quaking arms, their eyes locked on the growling, bloodied old man who just earlier that day smiled at them kindly as he welcomed them in. They stood frozen, eyes wide, as the undead man stepped on one of the rolling cans and crashed into a shelf stocked with ramen noodles, his limbs thrashing violently as the shelf leaned over and fell on top of him.
"Let's go!" Taishi screamed, the urgency in his voice fueling their escape as they tore toward the exit.
As they stepped out of the store, a deafening roar of chaos enveloped them, causing both to freeze in disbelief. The streets were a scene of utter pandemonium; terrified throngs of people surged past, their faces twisted in fear as they fled from the nightmare chasing them. Down the road, a speeding car rammed right into an idle vehicle, killing the shocked driver instantly.
In the midst of the turmoil, four infected loomed ominously over a man who writhed helplessly on the pavement, his ankle broken. He screamed in sheer terror, his voice raw and pleading as the infected lunged and began to rip him apart, their faces twisted in a savage hunger that sent chills down both Komachi and Taishi.
Every instinct urged them to run, yet they stood frozen, horrified by the gruesome spectacle unfolding before them. The sounds of flesh tearing and glass breaking could be heard as a young woman was tackled into a storefront by a running man in a business suit. In the distance, various police sirens echoed, as well as faint explosions.
"What-what is this?" Komachi muttered.
Komachi and Taishi jumped as the glass window of the grocery store shattered, as the infected woman from before threw herself through without regard for herself. The only thing that mattered to it now was its need to eat.
As she rose to her bare feet, a large shard of glass could be seen sticking out of her eye. The woman ignored it and turned to them with a loud growl. The growl garnered the attention of the other infected close by. Their teeth clattered and snapped as they began to head in their direction, their now dead victims forgotten.
"Run!" Taishi yelled, urgency lacing his voice as he grabbed Komachi's hand, pulling her into a desperate sprint down the street.
With every pounding heartbeat, Komachi felt adrenaline surge through her veins, heightening her senses. The thunderous sound of their own footsteps echoed in her ears, but it was the shrill howls and guttural growls from behind them that served as a chilling reminder of their relentless pursuers. She risked a glance over her shoulder, her breath hitching as she caught a glimpse of the twisted faces contorted by madness, driven by the primal hunger that now ruled the streets.
With tears in her eyes, Komachi raised her phone to her ear, her voice trembling yet desperate. Tears brimmed in her eyes, blurring her vision.
"Onii-chan! Help me!"
...The Present…
"What do you mean, I?" Kawasaki said as she kneeled beside me and began tying one of the curtain ends to the bolted-down legs of one of the workstations. She tugged on the fabric firmly and nodded in satisfaction. Keika sat next to Yui as she watched her older sister work. "My brother's out there, too. Don't think I'm going to stay here while he's in danger. I'm coming too."
I turned my gaze to Keika, whose tear-stained face looked up at me, a knot of worry forming in my stomach. "What about Keika?" I said, my voice laced with concern. "It'll be dangerous out there."
Saki's expression darkened as she looked over at her little sister. "I understand that," she replied, conflict etched across her face. "But I can't leave Taishi out there alone. And I don't trust leaving Keika behind," she added, her voice trembling slightly. "I have to protect them... they're my siblings... You understand that, right?"
After a brief moment of silence, I nodded. I understood her completely—her fierce determination to keep her family safe was one I shared. "Yeah, I do," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "Don't worry, I'll help take care of Keika, too. I promise."
A small, grateful smile broke across Saki's face, momentarily easing the tension. Yui and Yukino exchanged glances, uncertainty flickering between them as they tried to process the gravity of the situation. Once we finished our knots, I tied one end of our makeshift rope onto one of the workstation's legs. Giving it a tug, I nodded in satisfaction that the knock stayed strong.
I grabbed the pile of curtains and, without a second thought, hurled them out of the window. The vibrant pieces of fabric tumbled through the air, their colors swirling as they fell. Yukino, Yui, Saki, and I watched intently as the corded-together pieces dropped just shy of three feet above ground level. A lone infected turned to the hanging makeshift rope and swiped at it. After several swipes, the infected lost interest and wandered off.
"Hold on, you don't expect all of us to join you in your little rescue mission, do you?" Tamanawa asked. "We're perfectly safe in this room. By going out there, we'll be risking our lives. No, I'm staying right here until the JSDF comes to rescue us. We have to be patient!"
"Y-yeah, that's right!" Kaori chimed in, trying to distract herself from the events of the past hour.
"Indeed, this room is safe and secure. We're better off staying here." Another member of Kaihins' student council, Yasuhiro, said as he adjusted his glasses.
"Huh? Who the hell asked any of you to come?" Saki glared at Tamanawa, Kaori, and the rest of Kaihin's student council. Tamanawa flinched, but sensing the eyes of his classmates, he ended up glaring back at Saki. However, when a house cat glares at a lion, it has no effect. After a moment, he backed off.
"Why you..." Tamanawa whispered.
"What you two are doing isn't a good idea," Meguri said softly. Her hands were clenched tightly as she looked at Saki and me. "We all saw what those… creatures can do. If you go out there, especially with a child, you'll just end up getting yourselves killed. Maybe you should stay here with everyone else? I'm sure your siblings have been found by police officers. Perhaps the police have rescued them already?"
"You expect me to sit around while my brother is fighting for his life?" Saki said hotly, causing Meguri to flinch back. "Don't fuck with me."
"I hate to say this... but the likelihood of police, firefighters, or even the JSDF arriving to help us, mere students, is incredibly slim," Yukino said, maintaining a calm demeanor. However, her voice was laced with fear. "The police and the JSDF are likely overwhelmed, stretched thin across various emergency hotspots. Given the unprecedented scale of this disaster, I can only imagine they will take a moment to assess the situation before attempting a response. We may be left waiting for a while, with no clear idea of when or if assistance will arrive."
"So you're saying we're on our own... That nobody is coming to save us," Iroha said quietly.
"I'm afraid so," Yukino said.
Yumiko stood up quickly and glared at Yukino. Her eyes were stained with dried tear marks.
"N-no! You're wrong! Someone will come!" Yumiko yelled. The growls and bangs outside grew louder.
"Be quiet!" I hissed, glaring at the blonde girl. She flinched at my sharp gaze and narrowed her eyes in response.
"Don't tell me what to do, Hikio!" Yumiko hissed back in a lower voice.
"How? How did this happen? Whatever those… people have. It's like a disease. No, more like an infection," Hayato said numbly, sitting against one of the workstations with Hina just a few feet away. Yukino nodded, resting her hand on her chin.
"This is akin to the Spanish flu of 1918. An estimated five hundred million people worldwide contracted that virus, leading to a death toll between seventeen million and fifty million, and possibly as high as one hundred million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history," Yukino said, her fingers trembling. "But this is spreading much faster. Too fast. Assuming that whatever this infection is, it's happening all around the country, then I don't doubt the death toll could far surpass the Spanish flu death toll in half the time."
Her statement caused an uncomfortable silence to settle over the room. Everyone exchanged scared and hopeless expressions. One of the Kaihin girls began to cry, and Kaori quickly moved to comfort her.
"Unlike the Spanish flu, whatever this disease is, it's causing once perfectly healthy people to become violent, ravenous beasts that want to kill and eat those around them. And as they do, their numbers will keep growing. And it's not just happening here; from what we've seen, it is happening all over the world. What's going on now is so much worse than the Spanish Flu," Hayato added.
With a weary sigh, I walked forward. "Given Japan's status as a small island nation, where large numbers of people live in tight cities—up to 38 million in Tokyo alone—this infection will spread like wildfire. At this rate… I have no doubt that within a few weeks, maybe even days, half of the country's population could end up infected if nothing is done to stop whatever is going on."
"It can't be..." Yoshiteru said.
"We're doomed," One of Kaihin's students mumbled.
"Impossible," Tamanawa gulped as he turned to his friends, who shared his sentiments.
"There… has to be a safe place," Yui said weakly. "Somewhere out there, there has to be a place that wasn't affected by this. Maybe… somewhere outside of Japan?"
"I… I don't know," I said gravely. "We can't think about abandoning our country. At least, not yet. The only place here I can think of with a low chance of being safe would be the countryside, where the population is smaller and more isolated. But even then, that's not a 100% guarantee."
"I'm sorry to cut in, but… take a look," Gulping nervously, Yoshiteru stepped forward and showed everyone his phone. On his screen were several headlines posted just a minute ago.
"Breaking news… China has set off several of its own nuclear facilities, erasing large sections of the country off the map. The cause for this is currently unknown," I read one of the headlines slowly, my hands trembling beside me.
"Is this it? Is this the apocalypse?" Oka said from beside Yamato. "We're all going to die!"
"Stop it," Yukino said. "I can't accept that. There has to be something we can do. Perhaps… perhaps a vaccine?"
"A vaccine for what?" I asked. "Are you suggesting that we somehow create a vaccine to turn those people back to normal? Some of them don't even have stomachs or half their limbs. Or do you mean we should develop a vaccine that will make us immune to the infection? I'm sorry to say, but that's not possible. Whatever this infection is, it spreads too quickly and is extremely volatile. Humanity hasn't even found a cure for the flu in a safe and controlled environment after several decades of research. You expect us to figure out this nightmare before… before…"
"Before, what, Hikigaya-kun?" Meguri asked.
I paused and noticed everyone staring at me, dreading what I had to say. Like always, I prepared myself to say what had to be said. No matter what anyone's feelings on the matter are.
"Before humanity is ultimately pushed to the brink of extinction, we need to understand that these things aren't alive; they're dead and don't feel any pain. Some of them walk around with missing or broken limbs as if it's nothing. Large chunks of flesh and organs are gone, and they don't care. They're unstoppable—at least, as far as we know. All they seem to want is to kill or eat us. Once that happens, our bodies will stand right back up and add another member to their growing population… I know what I'm saying is the worst-case scenario, but it's better to prepare for the worst than to live in a delusion."
"That's a big leap, Hikigaya," Hayama said as he rubbed his face. "We humans aren't going to roll over and allow ourselves to be killed off just like that. I'm sure we'll find a way."
"Y-yeah! Hayato is right! This isn't the end for us!" Yumiko said, turning to me. "You hear that, Hikio!"
"Shut up, Bitch," I mumbled, tired. After having encountered the horrors of the day, I didn't find the fire queen intimidating anymore.
"Hah! What did you say?!" Yumiko hissed.
"But… if they're dead, won't rigor mortis or body decomposition affect their bodies at some point?" Saika said, trying to change the subject. "Maybe we can just wait it out until they all stop moving on their own?"
"You might have a point," Meguri said.
"But that applies to normal dead bodies. Whatever these creatures are, they seem to defy what we consider normal." Yukino added, "Also, with the current temperature, their bodies aren't likely to decompose any time soon."
I watched as Saki placed one of the metal curtain rods between two workstations. She grasped it firmly, her fingers curling around the cold, smooth surface. The rod resisted her initial efforts. However, with a sudden infusion of strength, she leaned her full body weight onto it, her brow furrowing slightly in concentration.
In a swift moment, a sharp crack echoed as the metal gave way under the pressure, snapping the rod neatly in two. The result was a jagged end that now pointed menacingly outward. Kawasaki turned to me with a triumphant smile as she held her new weapon.
"Not bad," I said, impressed at her ingenuity.
"Thanks."
"Hikki. What else did you notice about those things?" Yui asked me as she rubbed Keika's head. I stopped grabbing plates from a cabinet and turned to her.
"Well, from what I saw, I think these things must be blind or have difficulty seeing. They seem to rely on sound to find their way around. Like the man from earlier, he only reacted to the loudest noises in the room. I confirmed my suspicion when I used a pot to lure Tobe towards me." I said. From the corner of the room, Yamato gritted his teeth and closed his eyes at that.
"Secondly, once you get bitten by one of them, it seems to take between two and four minutes for the body to die and transform into one of them completely. At least, that's around how long it took for Tobe to turn. I'm not sure if being scratched by them would have the same effect, but it's possible. After all, there is a lot of buried DNA and bacteria under our fingernails." I said, looking out at the now night sky.
"I see, those details do seem to line up with everything we've seen. While your scratch theory isn't yet proven, I think it's in our best interest to play it safe. We should avoid getting in close contact with those things completely," Yukino said with Hayato nodding alongside her.
From there, everyone began offering their own ideas about what this infection could be and theories on how the infected operate. But most of what was said was nonsense and way over the top. Or at least I hoped it was.
"W-what if these infected monsters continue to mutate to the point they grow in size and develop claws!" Yoshiteru said.
Looking away, I felt a growing unease as the crescent moon overhead cast an eerie glow over the bloodied streets. The burning building from across the street filled the area with a warm orange light.
Just hold on, Komachi. Your big brother is on his way soon.
Both anxiety and relief washed over me when I recalled my last phone call with Komachi. She had assured me that she and Taishi had found a safe hiding place away from the infected. The bug even managed to fortify the room they were in to make sure nothing could make it inside until I arrived. While the bug annoyed me, I was glad he was with Komachi. At least, this time.
Remembering the map from my phone, I predicted it would take me a day or so to reach their location on foot. Still, with all those infected lining the streets, it could take me longer.
Peering into the dancing shadows of the streets, I noticed the undead beginning to gather, their numbers steadily increasing. Some shuffled along aimlessly, their vacant eyes staring into nothingness, while others ran in frantic disarray at random noises in the dark. Closing my eyes, I felt the ever-growing sense of fear slowly overtake me.
Stop it. Calm down. Remember, you need to stay strong. For Komachi!
I fought to suppress that fear, pushing it deep into the recesses of my mind. Panic would not help me now; my focus had to be on rescuing Komachi. She was depending on me, and I couldn't afford to fail.
I wouldn't fail.
"Hikigaya-kun," Yukino called out softly as she stood beside me, her voice barely rising above the tension that filled the air. Behind her, everyone had decided to take a break by eating some of the chocolate that had been made earlier. The now-silent room seemed to calm the infected outside, but the occasional groan and bang echoed through it. "Will you... will you be leaving soon?"
I could feel the weight of her gaze, and when I turned to look behind her, I found Yui and Iroha standing nearby, their faces etched with concern. The expressions in their eyes pleaded with me silently, begging me to reconsider my decision to leave.
I looked away and nodded. "I have to… Komachi needs me," I said, causing Yukino to frown. But her eyes held a light of understanding.
"I see," she said.
"What about Haruno-san?" Hayato spoke up and stood to face me. His face was tired, but a hint of anger could be seen in his eyes. It seemed that, despite what he said earlier, he might still blame me for Tobe's death in some way. "She could still be alive somewhere in the building. Are you going to leave her to die? I hate to say it, but... you're one of the more capable people here. We need your help to go find her."
Yukino's gaze dropped to the floor, her expression twisting with worry as she slowly held onto the phone that Haruno had accidentally forgotten behind. Her fingers trembled with a mix of anxiety and desperation. When she finally looked up at me, her eyes were filled with a desperate plea, a silent request for support that I couldn't ignore.
But the logical part of my mind couldn't help but think that Haruno was probably already dead.
She was most likely one of them already.
You truly are a monster of logic, aren't you, Hachiman?
"Sa-chan? Are we going to bring Tai-chan here?" Keika's innocent question pierced the atmosphere as she tugged at the hem of her older sister's skirt. Saki bent down and hugged Keika, turning to me with a hopeful look in her eyes. Like me, she desperately wanted to go out and save her sibling above all else.
Haruno or Komachi? Who should I help? My precious little sister, or Yukinoshita's older sister? Can I help them both? Is there enough time for that?
"Hikki, please... Komachi said she was safe where she was, right? So, we should look for Yukinon's sister first. She could be in trouble right now," Yui said as she grabbed the sleeve of my jacket. I looked down at her hand and closed my eyes.
I hope I don't regret this decision.
"...okay," I whispered. "Let's find her."
I'm sorry, Komachi. Just hold on a little longer.