CH11 - Knee guards

[Lyon's POV]

I looked through the peephole of the door and look at the front in case there would be a zombie standing right in front of it but I see none. The zombies were in their wandering state now as the sun had already risen which increased the risk of wandering around since it raises the possibility of accidentally bumping into one. It's not that zombies were stealthy ninjas who didn't make a sound, on the contrary, they actually groan somewhat audibly enough to hear if they're already close by and if you paid enough attention.

'The front of the door is clear of any zombies so it should be fine to open it, though as a precaution, I guess opening it only halfway through should suffice.' I think to myself as I turn the door's handle and push it forward, prompting the door to open as quietly and carefully as I could. After all, I'd really rather not accidentally bump the handle on the opposite side of the door and agitate a zombie that might be standing to the side of the door where the peephole didn't provide me any insight.

I open it just enough for there to be enough leeway to fit both us and the bags we carried as long as we went through the door one by one. With me being the one in front, I was the first to see the hallways outside of the door, the hallways were the same as the hallways in the northern building, the walls in front of the door itself had blood dried on them but instead of it being dried handprints, it looked as if the wound had been dragged across a fair portion of the wall before it slid down entirely, I look at the floor adjacent to it and find dark red blood in a puddle on the floor, the person it had come from now missing from the spot.

I quietly step out of the room and look to both my left and right only to find the hallways dirtied, but otherwise clear of any zombies, for now at least. Though I doubt that the doors to the club rooms are locked, choosing to go to the teacher's lounge for the keys wouldn't hurt since we might be able to find loot inside as well. I turn right and start walking in the direction of the hallway there were many multiple dried footprints of shoes that led to the same direction we were heading which did not go unnoticed to my companions.

Nothing much happened until we were close to the corner of the hallway as I began to hear what may be footsteps coming from the hallway that led to the volleyball and basketball club rooms. I slightly raised my hand in an open palm position, signaling the three behind me to pause in their movement as the figure of what was wandering the hallways slowly became visible. The thing that was shambling in front of me was a man who looked no older than I did and had much of his left arm missing as his clothes were soaked with what most likely was his blood.

He kept moving in front of him, managing to get inside the teacher's lounge, not even noticing we who were standing only a bit farther away from him. I waited for a few seconds before moving forward as well, we were now standing right outside the door to the room which was pushed aside as its surface was dirtied with splotches of blood as if it was rammed repeatedly or forced open as the people inside failed to close the door in time. The open door allowed me to see the portion of the room adjacent to the door still somewhat blocked by the zombie that had just arrived, the floor's carpet had dried splashes of blood illuminated by the light coming from the window inside.

The zombie was slightly deeper into the room when I put my head in to check on how many were inside. There were two teachers and three students including their newly arrived guests. I knew there would be very few teacher zombies inside this building since it wasn't club day today; which meant there wasn't any need for a teacher to stay here. There was nothing notable about these zombies except for one of the students who kept bumping quietly into one of the desks.

Its head had been deformed, the top of it being a bloodied flat mess which explained how the zombies got in. I raise my hand and signal to them the information about how many were standing inside the room. The zombie we had encountered earlier was now positioned further deeper inside the room, it remained standing motionlessly in front of the window, looking as if it was a student that was just staring outside in boredom while it waited for its teacher to arrive.

I remove my backpack and lean it on the wall as I take out a screwdriver from the toolbox and give it to Ren who is clueless as to the reason why I gave it to him. I entered the room and placed my phone inside my hoodie's pocket, replacing it with a knife that I had been keeping inside my pant pocket as there was no need to use a flashlight here. I checked the back of the door in case there was a zombie that managed to hide from me while I was peering into the room earlier but there was none to be found.

My three other companions follow me inside and look around the room, confirming where the 5 zombies I had signaled to them earlier were. The room itself looked the same as the world outside, with dried blood on the carpeted floors and the bulletin board where future projects and whatnot were plastered onto the wall behind all the desks. I drop to the floor and look at the desks below for any zombies that managed to hide by going under the desks but there were none to be found.

I wait for the others to look back at me before I raised the hand that held a knife; I held it in a reverse grip before doing a downwards slam motion. Alyssa and Chisato quickly understand what I was trying to say while Ren just stood there, still perplexed by what I had been trying to portray. Chisato notices this and grips Ren's hand that held the screwdriver, raising it before guiding it downwards, earning a nod of understanding from Ren.

There was one zombie standing in front of the window, two wandering the space between the teacher's desks in the central and eastern rows. Another was inside space in between two of the desks in the western row while the last one wandered the space behind all of the rows. I close the door as quietly and as slowly as I could before moving in front of my companions. I touch Alyssa's shoulder and point her to the zombie that stood motionlessly in front of the window, she nods to my order before moving close to the zombie assigned to her.

I do the same with Ren, the only difference being that I assigned him to the zombie that stood in the western row. I assigned Chisato to the one that wandered in the open space behind all the desks while I reserved the two that were grouped together for me. I wait for everyone to be positioned close to the zombies before I silently walk to where the two zombies were. The two zombies were clueless I was in front of them but one of them was getting closer to me while the other shuffled slowly behind it.

I raise my knife and bring it down the zombie's head, the noise of metal piercing bone alerts the zombies inside the room, groaning as their voices start to get louder only to then be interrupted as my companion's own weapons pierce their heads. I push the recently killed zombie's corpse into the last zombie remaining, interrupting its agitated screech, and preventing it from calling others to our location, the carpet muffling the sound of them falling to the floor. I rush towards its fallen body and bring down my knife as it tries to clutch onto the portion of my hoodie where my shoulders were.

Its arms fall limp to the side as I stand up and look at my companions who managed to kill their assigned targets as well. My glance lasts longer when it goes to Ren who seemed slightly bothered by his first "kill" but he nonetheless looked fine. The other three stare back at me, waiting for what we should do next. I lean down and stab both of the zombie's heads below me a second time, the other three doing the same for their assigned targets.

'Making sure they're dead a second time wouldn't hurt so we might as well, not like anything bad is going to happen if we bother doing it.' I think to myself as the other three gather near me, the doors were closed, their agitated screeching was interrupted and the last zombie's fall was muffled by the carpet so I doubt anyone heard it but just to be safe, one of us should stay close to the door.

"Ren, move the bodies to one corner of the room. Chisato and Alyssa, look for the keys to the club rooms and search around the drawers. If you think you found something useful place it on the front desk in the central row, I'll check it out and see if it's something we should take with us." I tell everyone, receiving a nod as they start doing their assigned task while I head towards the door and look through the glass pane.

The hallways remained empty, slightly assuring me that we were safe from any unwanted visitors. I stood guard in front of the door for an unknown amount of time before feeling someone gripping the hem of my hoodie from behind me. I look back and see Alyssa who, in turn, looks at where the table I had mentioned earlier was situated. I whisper my thanks and start heading to the table, Alyssa following close behind me.

"Ren take my place and guard the door, leave your backpack behind though. I might allocate some supplies to your bag if they found anything good." I informed Ren who nods back to me as he leans his backpack on the desk's leg before going to the door to stand guard for us. I glance at the desk's contents and see an assortment of car keys, phones, a box of vitamin tablets, some insulin, and a bunch of painkillers.

"Hm, aside from the medicinal supplies we got, it seems there's nothing else worth taking. The car keys are useless with the roads most likely being clogged up with abandoned cars." I take three phones and checked their batteries, one had 36%, another had 49% and the last one had 74%. I turn down all their volumes before I place them inside my backpack while I split the medicine we had just gotten between all three of them. I look around the desk's content one final time, making sure that I didn't miss anything of value.

"Did you guys manage to find the club room's keys?" I ask them, hoping that some idiot decided to walk around the hallways with the keys in their pockets. I look at the two who stood close to one another, Alyssa glanced at Chisato, prompting me to do the same while Chisato took out a set of keys from her skirt's pockets.

"Good, that's one less loose end. Alyssa, you should hold onto the keys, they'll be safer with you or Ren since I and Chisato are at the front and back of the formation. Make sure to stop the keys from making noise while we're moving, we wouldn't want to broadcast our location to everyone in the vicinity now, wouldn't we." I tell them, earning a nod from the two as Chisato hands Alyssa the keys.

"Baseball clubroom is our next destination, let's go." I tell them while picking up Ren's bag which was still leaning on the desk's leg and handing it to him. The others returned to their usual position in the formation as I look through the glass pane once more, checking if there were any standing at the door's side. I "clean" my knife by dragging it through the carpet on the floor before putting it back in my pockets as I take out one of the phones from my backpack and turn on its flashlight feature.

It seems nothing to take note of occurred while I was checking out our recent boon so I opened the door carefully, trying to avoid making any noise. I go outside the door with the hallway in front of me leading to the Basketball and Volleyball club rooms while the Baseball and Tennis' club rooms were to my left. I turn left and start heading down the hallway, the other three following close behind me.

We continued walking down the hallway, passing the kendo clubroom and the stairway we will be taking later before reaching our 2nd destination, the baseball club's room. I grip the door's handle and slowly turn it to check if it would open completely or if it was locked. As expected, it wasn't locked and with the light coming from the windows to the opposite side of the room where the door was, there would be no need for us to keep our flashlights on.

The room was similar to our own club's meeting room back at the northern building with its tables and chairs, it seemed like a perfect copy of ours except for the door that; theoretically, led to the club's storage room. I kneel down and check below the table for any hiding zombies or people but found none so I stood up and glanced around the room, looking around the walls that had frames of the team's members, all of them were mere strangers to me so I didn't spare a second glance.

"Ren, lock and barricade the door with the table and stay beside it so you can guard the door for us. Chisato, you will go help Ren with pushing the table but once that's done, look around the room for anything of use. Alyssa come with me, we need to check out the contents of the storage room." I whisper to all of them, receiving a nod as Chisato and Ren start handling their tasks while Alyssa followed me to the door of the storage room.

I grip the door's handle and open it only to be greeted with open cabinets made of wood that all had metallic racks where hangers of baseball uniforms were hung on, these cabinets were found at the front and right sides of the room. Instead of cabinets, the left side of the room had two windows flanked by open racks where two sets of protective gear meant for catchers were placed.

A basket meant for multiple bats had only one which probably meant it was for people who forgot their baseball bats at home while a wooden rack that held a few baseball caps mixed in with casual caps was placed. The room had no signs of both living and undead which effectively meant that this room was spared from the zombie apocalypse outside. I walk around the room and check the individual open cabinets but found nothing of interest.

I walked up to the rack where the two sets of catcher's protective gear were placed and took them with me. I told Alyssa to get the singular metal bat for me before closing the door as there was nothing else to look for inside of it. It took us less than 10 minutes to look around the room but this protective gear and the bat will go a long way for us.

Me and Alyssa go back to the door and find the table had been pushed to the door with Ren sitting on the table itself while Chisato looked outside, probably finished with her assigned task though it seemed there was nothing to show for it.

Ren stands up from the table and eyes us as we place the newly found gear on the table while Chisato moved toward us. The metal bat was only slightly shorter than our shinais since Ren and Alyssa were using the Daito variation of a shinai. The catcher's protective gear, in turn, consisted of a helmet, body armor, and knee pads.

"The material for the body armor seems a bit on the thinner side so I'm not swapping. I think we should give the baseball to Ren, he has more experience with it than a shinai so it's perfect for him." I tell them, earning a nod from Alyssa and Chisato as I hand the bat to Ren who takes it with him as he quietly drops the shinai he had been carrying since we left the kendo club room.

"We only managed to find two sets of protective gear inside so the question is, which one of us gets to wear it?" I inform them. In the end, we decided to just have both me and Chisato wear it since we were in the front and back of the group which meant we were a lot more exposed to danger than they were while we were out in the hallways but there was one problem, a stupid one, but it was still a problem for me.

"Alyssa, I'll wear the helmet, you wear the knee guard." I tell Alyssa while pushing the knee guards to her, to which she shakes her head in refusal. Chisato had already worn her set of armor while Ren was just waving around the bat, getting a feel for its weight while watching mine and Alyssa's conversation in amusement.

"No, that's stupid. You are the one in front of us so you should wear it." Alyssa replies to me as she pushes it back towards me. This goes on longer than it should have and while Alyssa's argument was logically correct and beneficial to me, my worry for her own safety overpowered it.

"Fine" I reply briefly to her only to suddenly kneel on one leg and forcefully hold Alyssa's legs in place as I slightly push up Alyssa's knee-length skirt while strapping the knee guards to her. The other two watch in awe over how bold I was acting while Alyssa herself just blushed in silence while weakly hitting the top of my head with her knuckles.

"I wear pants while you wear a skirt and stockings; therefore, you need them more than I do, okay? Okay." I finish the conversation as I stand up without even waiting for Alyssa's reply who was still blushing in silence while weakly punching my back as if she was massaging me.

"Oh my, that was quite bold of you Lyon, you should wait for when we're not in the same room as you when you decide to do it." Chisato snickers to which I sigh as Alyssa's massage/punches grow in number and speed. I take out the stranger's phone from my pocket and learn that it was 10:44 AM. A bit too early for lunch so we should head for the tennis club's room before we rest and have lunch.

"Come on, it's a bit too early for lunch so we should just wait till we go to the tennis club's room before eating. Ren, come help me with moving the table out of the way." I tell all three of them as Alyssa stops punching me while I and Ren moved it out of the way.

'At this rate, we'd be at the southern building and done looting by 3-4 in the afternoon since we have to check the nurse's office in this building and the maintenance shed first.' I think to myself as I contemplate our next course of action, I should ask Ren how far his apartment is, in the end, his answer will be the deciding factor on when we get to leave.