Hound of the Dead

Day 2: 1:15 P.M

Osaka Streets

Time before the Night Rage: 5 hours and 45 minutes left

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Borborygmi is the sound of the stomach rumbling and that same sound is a bit strong inside the van. Most of the time, the sound of the rumblings in their stomachs alternate from one another.

"Ugh... I'm hungry," Yuko rubbed her empty stomach.

"We can't help it. The food in the mansion are already spilled after the commotion you know. I did not even get to eat anything either. We are both in the same boat," Risa sighed.

Kyosei did not talk as he glanced at the people at the back of the van. Two out of the eight people woke up after a few minutes. Risa and Yuko keeps on grumbling about food. Even he is hungry but he is already used to the empty stomach in the past so he didn't mind. Its just a bit of uncomfortable feeling, that all.

Not that far from the Bang Gun store, he saw a small mart that seems to be not attended but all of the items are scattered around the floor and some of the shelves are destroyed or brought down. Its a bit big for a small mart but that is what the sign board says when Kyosei reads it. And since he is getting annoyed by the rumblings of the people in the back of the mini van despite the loud music in his headphones, he decided to stop for a while and loot for food.

"We will stop here for a while. If you keep on rumbling like that, I have to take action. We will loot this so called Mini mart despite its elongated size. Bring the food and stuff it at the back of the van as many as possible. This food won't last long anyway so let's finish it, so that we can take lunch for Pete's sake, tss," Kyosei facepalmed facing the others who are wearing confused faces.

"I see, then, can we eat while we are looting?" Yuko asked, excited on what she was about to do.

"I don't care what you do as long as you can bring food back inside. If there are things like possible weapons, you can also bring it along, and before you all go, I need someone to watxh over here on this guys. I don't know what will happen if we let the mini van alone for a while,"Kyosei ordered.

The others nodded.

" Then I volunteer to be the one to leave behind inside the van. Besides, I was injured and my clothes are tattered," Lin said.

"I don't care, do what you want to do," Kyosei disregarded what she said and gets outside the mini van. He still didn't bring any heavy firearms and still sticks into the Colt 45 and the Taurus Series Magnum Revolver as his guns.

The two who just woke up are Jin and Risha. Kyosei didn't care what their names are as long as they don't try to backstab them. He prepared his guns and melee weapons. In terms of age, Kyosei is the youngest and Lin is the oldest but in terms of combat experience, Kyosei is overflowing on it. If anyone tried to backstab, they will experience hell instead.

Kyosei entered the mini mart and scanned the surroundings. The place is silent but it is really deceiving. Not every silent place is safe to venture out. He always see this kind of scenes in movies and usually, the dead are just lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce on their helpless prey.

He picks up a bottle of wine in the nearby rack and throws it far, making the others following him startled by what he just did.

The wine bottle landed on the ground, destroyed and its contents are splattered on the ground. Furthermore, the bottle breaking causes a sharp sound. Just a few seconds after the bottle is broken, countless of undead appeared behind the shelves, behind the counter and a few seems to appear out of nowhere.

"Sh*t! Its the freaks!" Jin shouted and readies the rake he randomly grab inside the van earlier.

"I'll handle this, gather the supplies, we need to move quick!" Kyosei pulls out his kukri.

The others hesitated but when Kyosei rushed in, they have no choice but to obey.

Jin didn't listen to Kyosei and instead attack the undead lake a madman.

"Yaaaaahhhhh!!!" Jin shouted like some sort of swordsman wielding the rake.

The rake did not deal too much strength in reality and just pierces its head but did not reach much to the brain to deal any significant damage.

"Idiot! I told you!" Kyosei gritted his teeth.

Jin was about to pull out the rake but another undead grab him from behind and bite his neck, removing a large part of his skin and flesh off.

"Aaaaggghhhhh @#$*!!!" Jin shouted but then his voice is inaudible when the undead pour in to feast on him.

Kyosei did not rescue him on time since his side is also hard to deal due to their number.

"F*ck this," Kyosei frowned and shook his head when he saw the fate of Jin.

Kyosei pulls a vodka in a nearby shelf and match not far from him and throws it to them before lighting a match to burn them. Kyosei clasp his hands together while muttering a silent prayer.

Kyosei did not look at the dead being burned to crisp much and just used his time to gather resources. Death is always not inescapable whatever he do and anyone will encounter death sooner or later.

"Bark!!"

Kyosei's ears covered by headphones perked up when he heard a familiar sound.

"Bark!!"

Kyosei cannot be mistaken. Its a dog. He cannot determine where the bark is coming from but he is quite sure that it came from this mini mart. Kyosei scanned the area and he spotted a metal door near the entrance of the broken door of the emergency exit. The room beside it must be a room for the cleaning tools used by the janitor. He can hear a few scratches on the door. Kyosei tried twisting the knob of the door but finds oit that it is lock inside. This is not a problem for Kyosei and picks the lock using his trusty picklock.

When he open the door, he is not mistaken. It is a dog. Its a Siberian Husky with a color or black on its top part. The black part didn't cover much its snout and instead, it is covered in white, even its belly and paws are covered in white. The dog seems to be delighted seeing a new human and frantically returns to its owner. Or what seems left to his owner.

"Its owner is already dead, preferably using a gun due to the gunshot on his head. There is no signs of struggle so that means that this guy committed suicide. Kyosei looked at his right arm and found the gun he used. Its a Glock 19. One of the most common pistols used.

Kyosei

noticed that the Siberian Husky is scratching his owner and seems to be waiting for its owner to wake up. He noticed a small piece of paper on his jacket that he is wearing. He pulls it out and saw a small message.

"If you are reading this, that means I died and you discovered my body. I was bitten and has no more time to live. I will leave my only family, Laika here in the world. I locked the door but I have no idea who will come. I just wanted Laika to live as she is my only companion. I can't risk her to die. Whoever you are, please take care of Laika. Thank you..."

The message is no longer readable due to the blood smearing the remaining half, maybe the blood flows down to his jacket and the letter was drenched in half. Kyosei looked at the dog who still keeps on scratching its legs to "wake" her owner. Kyosei grab her leash and holds her head slowly.

"Its alright, your owner entrusted you to me, it will be alright. I know you are sad but we can't let it consume us. For the sake of your owner who just died, you need to live," Kyosei said to Laika.

Laika seems to understand what Kyosei just said and approaches her former owner and put her paws to the corpse's lap before going back to Kyosei. Kyosei also clasp his hands together and muttered a silent prayer before closing the door shut.

Kyosei noticed how Laika seems reluctant to leave the body of her former owner.

Kyosei didn't force Laika to go with him but he is much more on focus to his surroundings. The others are busy packing up, the undead he burned earlier are already burned to ashes but for some reason, the fire did not grow bigger like Kyosei thought. The body of Jin is also burned to crisp and Kyosei is quite sure that his body won't rise up after he did stab what used to be Jin's head with his Kukri. He did not feel any emotions to him due to the short time he was with the guy.

He walks with the leash of Laika when Risha rushes towards Kyosei.

"Hey, Kyosei right? Lin just notified us that a large horde behind is inbound to our location!" Risha said as he is out of breath.

"Let's go, we can't let them catch up with us! Let's go!" Kyosei shouted and he pull Laika along as they rushes back into the mini van.

Just as Risha said, a huge amount of undead are inbound and are almost near the mini mart. Lin and the others are inside.

"Where is Jin?" Lin asked.

"He died," Kyosei said without emotion.

"Hmm, we don't really know him much. No emotional attachment though," Lin said.

"I see," Kyosei nodded and holds the steering wheel.

Laika look around the new faces and the new surroundings she is in.

"Oh? A Siberian Husky?" Risa patted on Laika.

"Its a dog I found inside the mini mart. Her owner died earlier. Her name is Laika," Kyosei explained.

"I see, dogs are quite good companions and they are not going to leave you despite the circumstances you are in. Aside from that, they are loyal and will fight to death for their masters," Yuko said.

"..." Kyosei was silent.

'Loyalty huh?' Kyosei thought. That word is no longer in his vocabulary since he became a delinquent. Is it possible for him to regain that back to his life?