CH29 - The academy's courtyard
[Lyon's POV]
"It seems that the people who we've been encountering these recent days, both the home looters and the killers are all connected by one thing, a white Venn diagram-like symbol." I informed my companions while mentally summing up all of the information I've managed to gather and observed these past two days. We couldn't get much information from the two siblings but it had at least shown us that this group's area of operation is a bit wide.
"How many of them do you think are on this side of the river?" Ren asks without taking his eyes off the road. I had already told them about the details I overheard from the two looters who went inside my house during dinner last night, so they were now aware of what kind of people we were dealing with.
"I can't exactly give anything accurate but there should at least be 3-6 of them here, 9 if we include the ones I killed back at my house but there's probably more of them." I tell them while putting a hand over my chin. If each team consisted of three people and the ones that killed Chisato's family and tried to loot Onishi's family are different teams, then it wouldn't be too unlikely to say that there are a few more teams here.
'It isn't too hard to believe that those two teams are the same though since Chisato's house and the house we slept in are within a day's car ride of each other but that just begs another question. What was the team that attacked my house doing so far away from the river?' I questioned myself while peering outside the window.
They all used the same symbol and attire from what I've gathered so does that mean there are teams assigned to loot houses close to the river and teams assigned to loot farther into the city? If so then that would escalate their numbers by quite a margin, if they assigned two teams each on the closer and deeper parts of the city that would raise my previous guess of 3-6 to 6-9 instead, and that'd be the best case scenario.
"We wouldn't need to do all this guesswork if we managed to capture at least just one of them but I guess that just comes with a whole bunch of risks." I complained quietly, we were enclosed in a small space so it was still audible to my companions but it was at least quiet enough to hide the frustration I held toward the lack of knowledge I've managed to gather so far.
"Well, no point in worrying about stuff we have no control over. What's the itinerary for today?" Ren quickly asks, probably hoping to just move away from our previous topic of conversation out of consideration for Chisato's mental health. "I think we're only two to three blocks away from your house Lyon. Do you want to drop by and get a memento?"
"Don't bother. One picture is enough and we shouldn't make any more unnecessary stops than we have to." I resolutely tell them, earning a few worried looks from all of my companions while Ren spares a glance at the rearview mirror just to confirm. "It's fine, we should be able to reach the academy midway through the afternoon. Do you need someone to guide you?"
"Having one would be great since I'm not familiar with this side of the city" Ren quickly answers with Chisato volunteering to be his guide since she was the one sitting in the front passenger seat. We reached and stopped in an alleyway on the opposite side of the block where the school was located by 12:30 in the afternoon, a welcome surprise as we got here earlier than I originally thought. We would've gotten here faster had we not driven around the area of my house earlier but that was a precaution worth doing since it only added an extra 5-10 minutes to our journey.
"Let's stop here, we can use that building next door to scout the academy from the outside. The military would've learned that noise attracts zombies so that may be one of the reasons why it's so quiet but they should've known we were here by now." I tell my companions who nod to my words as we all leave the car after Ren stopped the engine.
'I wasn't expecting a motorcade to suddenly appear but they should've heard of the news about a vehicle coming toward the evacuation site from people guarding the perimeter of the academy. It's a bit too quiet for an evacuation site too since let's face it, people are bound to be noisy even when they're scared.' I thought to myself while making my way to the building's external stairway
The building was similar to Ren's apartment with it having a stairway on the building's side which just so happens to be in this very alleyway. One obvious difference between this random apartment and Ren's apartment is that it only had two floors instead of three, and the stairway only reached the second floor which meant we'd need to somehow get on top of the second floor's rooftop. This task was quite easily done though after I used the railing on the open hallway of the second floor as a foothold to push myself up the rooftops.
Another thing that made this harder though was the state of the apartment itself, its aging structure, rusty stairway, and unmaintained outer appearance had already become red flags from the beginning. A problem further solidified by the fact that some of the tiles seemed to be just about ready to fall at a moment's notice, cowing me into slow and careful steps as I made my way higher up the roof.
I reached the top of the roof, giving me a bird's eye view of the terrifyingly empty courtyard of the academy. It wasn't empty per se since there were a few cars, motionless corpses, and piles of burnt bodies, but the fact that it had a striking resemblance with the one I had seen in my dreams gave me anxiety. The previously hidden sandbags at the school gate that we hadn't noticed from the inside of the car were now visible to me as well as the black banner placed above the academy building's entrance.
'This... how could a dream be able to accurately describe a place I've never even been to?' I questioned myself while calming my heartbeat down, it had unknowingly begun to rise in frequency a few seconds ago while I was looking at the courtyard's structure which was somehow an exact copy of the one I had seen in my dream. I had never even gone close to the building in both the past and current timeline and all information I know of this place was very vague like its general location and direction.
'Now that I think about it... I've never heard nor met any survivors that said that they came from this evacuation site.' I think to myself while searching my memories for any information related to this place. Ultimately finding nothing, I went back to checking the courtyard's contents, searching for any signs of recent human action or structures to take note of.
Beside the door laid the same four bulletin boards I had seen up close in my dream as well which forced me to remember the slightly hazy contents of my dream. Anxiety had begun to rise from inside me due to the sight that lay in front of me but choosing to not go there wasn't a yes or no question I could just ignore or tick a no answer to.
'I have to get there. I have to see the contents of that letter.' I think to myself while slowly going down from the roof as memories of that dream's contents were flashing through my mind. Weirdly enough, my memories of a dream that I had the other day were still quite clear, and yet I had already forgotten what kind of dream I had just a few hours ago.
'I didn't see any signs of them either.' I think to myself while remembering how the group we had met at the gas station was also planning to go to this very academy. They should've been here by now since this was the destination they were already heading to but complications during a journey can always rise and slow a journey down to certain degrees. Their presence wasn't really important to me but a few seconds of thought here and there was something I didn't mind sparing for people I met and parted with on friendly terms.
In the end, worrying for others was something meant to be done in safety so I turned my attention back to our current situation. The courtyard had nothing much to take note of aside from the abandoned cars in the parking lot as there wasn't a single sign of the JSDF or evacuee so I opted to just slowly go down the rooftop using the same railing earlier to go back to my waiting companions. I tell them what I saw from the rooftops in a hushed tone, makings sure to provide "clear" details about what I had seen.
"We are not going to go inside the school, I'm just gonna go check the entrance of the school and then we'll leave." I informed all three of my companions while earning confused looks from them. This time, the limits of our objective were quite vague as we hadn't talked about what we'd do if something like this were the case. Maybe it was due to all of us not wanting to even think about such an outcome to be true, that's certainly the case for me at least.
"Lyon, we are willing to help you. Just say the word and we'll break inside of that building and look for your parents with yo-" Ren tries to tell me only to have his words be interrupted by my voice as short flashes of the familiar sound caused by the use of a lock cutter I had heard in my dream coursed through me.
"No. If we find no signs of my parent's whereabouts on the bulletin boards then we give up. We proceed with the original plan of finding Alyssa's father, then we leave the city. Is that understood?" I quickly interrupted while gritting my teeth as I forced words out of my mouth while my grip on the railings beside me tightened.
Did it sound like I was giving up? It certainly sounded like it from what I'm hearing as I couldn't let myself be led by my emotions. Taking my observations, decisions, and plans from a logical standpoint was something that spurned my decision to not place going inside the school as an option.
My dream had so far been scarily accurate with how it described the academy courtyard's layout so if the doors to the school were to be locked from the outside with the same padlock from then that could only mean that they were placed there to keep something inside of the school itself. If that "dream" was truly special then it wouldn't be a stretch to say that whatever lay on the opposite side of those doors wouldn't be any different from what I had seen before.
"Lyon..." Alyssa whispers while placing her hand over mine, a worried expression accompanying her eyes that stared right through mine as if it was looking for something from my own. Maybe she was looking for uncertainty in my eyes? Something that would convince her to try to encourage me to change my decision on the matter as it was probably quite obvious to her what the implications of my plan were.
'Please... give me a sign that you're alive. Tell me that my logic was wrong and that those locks were just wrongly placed there, show me that they aren't meant to stop zombies from filing into the courtyard.' I inwardly pleaded while turning my gaze in the direction of the school as I suddenly felt warmth coming from arms that tried to envelop me, causing me to turn my gaze back to Alyssa's shorter figure.
I hugged her back, finding comfort in the warmth she emanated as she tried to comfort me. It seems like she couldn't find any uncertainty in my eyes earlier so she opted to just hug me in an attempt to comfort me instead. It looks to be working too as the previously volatile beating of my heart began to slow down after a few seconds of tightly hugging Alyssa.
"Come on, we should start walking." I tell my companions after a few seconds of hugging Alyssa as I made my way down the stairway with the others following close behind me. The building we were in was directly opposite one of the school's perimeter wall corners which meant we still needed to walk for a few seconds before reaching the school's gate which was located at the center of its walls.
We were already close to the gate itself so it only took us less than half a minute to finally reach those oddly familiar large black gates that had two piles of sandbags in front of it. These sandbags were most likely used as cover once by soldiers that were assigned to guard the entrance but they were probably quickly abandoned due to how ineffective standing behind them would be to protect the school from zombies.
There were no bodies to loot as it laid empty of anything but empty bullet casings that told of a story none of us here might ever learn. I put my hand through one of the gaps in between the gate's railing which made up its very surface, unlocking the gate that was closed from the inside by pushing its rod-shaped lock until it was fully disengaged. I slowly pushed the gate open, finding the very same pathway that arched into the same three directions I had seen in my dream.
We made our way deeper into the courtyard as I glanced in every direction that I could, taking note of the fact that there wasn't a single military camp placed in the courtyard which was slightly odd though it might just be placed on the other side of the building. There wasn't anything new I could see from this different angle I was now privy to though I did spot a riot police shield slightly pinned under one of the truck's rear wheels.
I moved closer to it, managing to pull it off since only a small bit of its right rear side was pinned under the wheel's rubber surface. It probably would've been bent in the wrong way had it been pinned on the side facing outwards. Luckily, it had been pinned from the side facing the user which meant it was in a very good position to be pulled from as it was virtually just waiting for someone to come by and pull its slightly elevated left top edge.
I examine the riot shield's transparent surfaces, its grip stretched above the word "Police" that had all its letters capitalized to the very bottom of the word. It also had another grip that was placed close to its top right edge, high above the letter P that was written on the side of the shield that would've faced rioters in the past.
I take a look around once more, looking for more shields but I couldn't find any which meant the people who stayed here, or people who passed this school had already looted the place dry with this lone shield being left. Maybe it was because it was seemingly pinned under a car which discouraged the scavengers or maybe it was just the heavy atmosphere of a school that used to have children running in its courtyard that were now empty that pushed looters away, who knows?
'Hm, not sure if this is going to stop any of the bigger guns like rifles and shotguns but it could probably stop something like .45 ACP or 9mm, right?' I think to myself before handing it over to Ren who accepts it with a confused expression. I did not need it yet, I was already carrying a rifle so I felt like Ren, who only had a single baseball bat as a weapon, would need it more. I wouldn't mind carrying one too but strengthening my companion's loadouts contributes to the group's strength so giving it to him wasn't a bad choice.
I turned my gaze back to the academy's entrance, the very same doors, bulletin boards, stairway, and railings that I saw in my dream laying before me. We slowly made our way to the entrance, slow and quiet thumps coming from the shoes that covered the soles of our feet as we slowly went up the stairway to reach the padlocked door. I put my hands over the lock and bring it closer to my face before examining the door's surface.
'It's clean which means the zombies weren't trying to get in, they were trying to keep things inside of the academy, not out of it...' I think to myself as I stood motionless in front of the gate, I had been hoping to be wrong but there wasn't anything here that could prove my logical conclusion wrong, nothing that I could see at least. I was brought out of my stupor as I saw him already reaching into his bag as the riot shield I had given him earlier as well as the baseball bat he used was laid on the floor neatly.
He takes out the lock cutters we had taken from our college's maintenance room, causing memories of my dream to flock to my mind as I remembered how the familiar sound of lock cutters being used on the door rang out while I was checking on the bulletin boards in my dream. This memory causes me to place my hand over his shoulder, a glare making its way to my face as I shook my head at Ren before receiving a reluctant nod from him.
He stops what he was doing and picks up the shield and bat he had dropped earlier as I made my way to the second bulletin board on the right side of the door. The others stood in front of the other three bulletin boards, reading through each letter with short glances before moving on to the next, it seems like Ren had given up on trying to open the door which meant whatever they were doing now was the least of my concerns.
I look at the various pieces of paper stuck onto the bulletin board's surface, quickly reading through each letter with quick eyes as I only spare each letter's contents with a single glance. I was taking the painfully slow route of looking at every piece of paper stuck onto its surface except for the one placed right at its center.
I already "knew" from my dream that the big piece of paper placed at the center was the letter addressed to me but I couldn't bring myself to check it first out of fear of what I would end up learning. In the end, I had already glanced at every letter except for the one most likely meant for me, I pulled the letter with the words "Dear Lyon" off of the bulletin board and slowly read every word as wrinkles began appearing on the paper's surface after each second that passed.
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AN: Ok so a few of you may think that their travel time is getting inconsistent but for me, it isn't since I have a mental map of the journey they had been taking. They got here faster since they began driving earlier than usual and they didn't have to make over-the-top detours like the ones they had done in going from Ren's apartment to Lyon's house (They are also aware of which roads to just avoid using entirely since they've tried to go through some of them when they were going to Lyon's house). This time, they came from a house outside of the urban section and went to an academy that was still outside of it which meant there were substantially fewer abandoned cars, barricades, and zombie hordes hampering their path.
Just think of it like this, the way they traveled from Ren's apartment to Lyon's house was arch-shaped, which meant it required more time since they made detours and went around the urban sector in its entirety while their travel from the house they just stayed at to the academy formed a shape barely similar to a straight line. They had to make detours here and there, yes, but it wasn't at the same scale as their previous journey.