The Infirmary

Walking slowly and quietly down the stairs I could clearly hear the screaming and yelling echoing throughout the halls below.

Yuuki was cowering slightly behind me, the noises only hammering home the realization that hell was descending on the world as she knew it, making what she saw on the roof more and more horrific to her.

Though I did provide her enough security and safety that she didn't break down, which warmed my heart enough, seeing that she trusted me this much, that is.

Hearing the hysteria, I wondered about the others and started to think over my decision of only bringing Yuuki to the roof and if it was too reckless or not.

I knew Saeko would be safe - her abilities with her wooden bokken would make sure she could withstand any of the Zombies that came at her. Plus, her ability to adapt to such a situation is many times better than ordinary people, so I had no doubt that she'd kill anything that came at her with ill-intent.

And I felt like my worrying about her would damage her pride as a warrior. It may seem trivial to most people, stupid even, but not to me and Saeko. I know for a fact I wouldn't want to be worried over as it would make me feel like people were doubting my abilities, and if there's one thing I know about Saeko it's that she hates it when her ability as a fighter is doubted.

Shizuka, however...right now it was Homeroom or at least it was when the Infection started. So, there shouldn't be anyone in the Infirmary with her, meaning there won't be any Zombies in there with her for quite a while. As a bonus, if she keeps quiet there won't be any Zombies trying to get in there either.

Anyway, I was on my way there, so she'd be on her own for a minute at maximum.

The person I was really worried about was Saya. In my worry, I only picked Yuuki because she holds a special place in my heart as the first girl I've ever loved. Add this to the fact I know how truly fragile Yuuki can be and in my immense worry, my thoughts were on focused on her.

It was stupid and irresponsible and if something went wrong - it's on me.

With this thought in my mind, I hurried along and turned right to get to the Infirmary. But in front of me were a few of 'THEM' gnawing on the corpses of some unlucky students.

Yuuki let out a small gasp when she saw this scene. Seeing it from far away and seeing it from a few feet away were two completely different things. If I wasn't expecting this - and if I were a normal person in general - then I would've done the same thing.

She couldn't help it, and I didn't blame her, but that didn't stop the fact that the Zombies in front of us were now groggily getting to their feet and facing us.

"Step back and stay near the stairs...I'll sort this out quickly, Yuuki," looking back reassuringly at Yuuki, I then checked behind us and past the stairs to see if there were any of 'THEM'. There wasn't, so I could know Yuuki was safe without the chance of her getting attacked from behind.

Good.

The reason I didn't want her near when I was fighting was because of two reasons:

One, she could distract me which could lead to her getting hurt.

And two, I didn't want any blood, or anything from the Infected for that matter, getting into her mouth, eye or other orifices.

Yuuki looked up at me with severely worried eyes, "Ryu! I know you can fight but these...these things! They'll-They'll--" I cut her off with a light kiss and brought her in for a brief hug.

"You have to trust that I can beat these things, Yuuki - because I can. And I will," I separated from her despite her reluctance and turned to face the undead slowly limping toward us.

I quickly did a head count and saw there were 5 of them. Looking down at the corpses they were just 'feeding' on, I counted another 5 possible enemies.

Knowing time wasn't on my side, I quickly burst off at my opponents.

The first one I appeared in front of was a pretty big Zombie but I took no real notice of its size before I swept my leg at its knee with furious speed.

My shin went straight through the knee in a small explosion of gore before doing the same to its other knee.

It collapsed to the floor and I quickly stomped down on its head with a quick movement before kicking the corpse with enough force to take the top off of the Zombie behind it, killing it also.

Turning toward my next 'victim', I charged at them and sent a strong fist into its nose-region, completely crushing the area and turning its brain and most of the top half of its head into mush. Gross.

One of the zombies didn't seem to have a limp and was walking like a normal human, so they got pretty close to me by now and they went to bite down on my shoulder.

Yuuki let out a small yelp of worry but I wasn't worried. I made my hand into a knife hand and backhanded the neck of Zombie, slicing through it with my superior strength and speed, making my hand more like a metal blade than a fleshy appendage.

There was one last Zombie and it was also like the Zombie I just kill; it could walk just fine, and it was walking right to Yuuki.

Now, I can't just let you get to Yuuki, you know that, right~?

Thinking this, I, in a burst of extreme-speed appeared behind the Zombie and ripped it's head clean off of its shoulders.

Before I could rest, I saw the earlier corpses start to twitch, so I quickly went over each of them and stomped their heads into the ground. I turned to Yuuki who was looking dazedly looking at me and the destruction I'd left in my wake. Ignoring her stupefied state, I walked over and grabbed her hand as we continued on our way to the Infirmary.

Luckily we didn't see any more of 'THEM' and within a minute, we made it to the infirmary where I quietly knocked on the door.

I heard some rushing inside the room and before I knew it, the door opened and revealed a familiar figure. Though it was a figure I wasn't expecting to see opening the door.

"Ryu?!" with a hushed yell, a hand grabbed my shirt before yanking me into the room along with Yuuki.

Surprised I looked at the owner of the hand or more accurately I looked down at her.

"Saya? What are you doing here?" I was genuinely confused as I thought she'd still be in her classroom. But before I could get an answer, a blur instantly ran up to me and started checking over my body with a worried gaze and shaky hands.

When she saw the dark, near blackened blood on my hands and shirt, she gasped before looking up at me with worry.

It was my lovely school nurse, Shizuka.

Knowing why she was looking at me with such a worried gaze, I gently smiled at her, "It's not my blood, sensei...and if that's not why you're worried, I haven't been bitten," what I said seemed to calm her down and she quickly dragged both Yuuki and me over to the sink where we washed out hands quickly. Though there wasn't anything we could do with my blood-soaked shirt.

After getting cleaned up somewhat, I turned to Saya who was wearing her glasses. My gaze inquired on my earlier question, wanting an answer.

Saya saw my gaze and understood what I wanted.

"I'm here because I was on my way here to discuss an m-medical problem of mine, but on the way, I passed out. So, when I woke up, I quickly rushed here because I thought there was something seriously wrong with me but when I got here, Marikawa-sensei said she'd experienced the same thing...and before we could call an Ambulance for the both of us, we heard...heard the screaming from the surrounding classrooms," her voice trailed off as her hands started to shake and her face went pale in fear before she looked over at Shizuka, "Marikawa-sensei wanted to go and check the sounds out like an idiot, but I held her back and then we saw 'THEM' walking past the door..." the fear got a hold of her and she had to sit down on a bed as her knees had gone weak.

Shizuka, despite being called an idiot, still went over next to Saya and rubbed her hand up and down on her back to calm her down. While Saya was calming down, Shizuka carried on with what happened.

"W-we saw that those 'things' weren't people anymore...they were like walking corpses with their dead eyes and stiff bodies," she audibly gulped before shaking her head to rid herself of her inner thoughts, "Anyway, we kept quiet and away from the door, and we were doing that until you came," she weakly smiled when she finished speaking and I just took in what they said.

When I looked at Saya, safe and sound, I felt like the weight of the world had been taken from my shoulders.

I was an idiot. Leaving her life up to chance as I did could only be described with one word:

Stupid.

Looking over at Shizuka, I felt the same feeling. I should've saved them all when I had the chance.

I'm truly a piece of shit, huh?

Before I did anything else I walked over to Saya before kneeling in front of her. When I saw her confused face, I quickly pulled her into a hug. Before she could start complaining, I let out a relieved sigh before speaking to her.

"Saya...I was coming for you after I got Sensei but the thought of you being hurt was...challenging to bear to say the least," tightening my embrace around her, I felt her arms snake around my back, "What I'm trying to say, Saya, is that I'm so truly glad that you're fine."

Feeling her small but bountiful figure in my embrace I felt content. Although it wasn't a romantic embrace, nor did we share a romantic relationship, my romantic feelings for her made any physical contact feel heavenly, like something in my heart was filled with warmth.

That wasn't to say I held greater feelings for her than I did for Yuuki or Saeko - that wasn't the case. But I guess it could be put like this; The fact I couldn't always hold her like this made times when I could, worth it.

Saya was shaking slightly and I could hear the slight sobs coming from her but she was a strong girl, mentally at least, and she soon stopped before she slowly separated from our embrace.

Though, I was incredibly reluctant to do so.

"...Thank you, Ryu. I'm glad I got to know you..." hearing her quiet, almost whisper-like words, I felt that despite the undead rising, today wasn't so bad. However, she kept on talking..."But who gave you the right to suddenly hug me, huh? Are you seriously a pervert? Your girlfriend is right there."

Haah~ At least she's still her...

I got up and turned around to look at Shizuka who was trying to keep herself together for the sake of us, her students.

Shaking my head, I walked over to her and pulled her into a hug as well. She really looked like she needed it.

She tried to resist it at first but found my arms were like steel bars wrapped around her. Instead of continuing her futile resistance just hugged me back and let herself calm down from the stress she'd been building from hearing and seeing such horrific things.

She, unlike Saya, felt a need to care for people. It was the reason she became a nurse and also why she was training to become a doctor, after all. So, to hear such screams of pain - some of them being calls for help - without being able to offer a hand must've been horrendously difficult for her.

But she was the teacher, how could she let her grated mental state show? She couldn't. She had to be strong for Saya and her other students. But I wouldn't let her risk crumbling under that pressure just so she could save her pride as a teacher, no, I'd make it so she would allow me to comfort her and make the stress go away.

It was the least I could do for such a gentle and caring woman.

Someone who even gave a savage brute like me a second chance even after knowing what I did to Tsunoda and his goons.

Once we separated from our hug, Shizuka looked much more relaxed. Still fearful of what was outside the infirmary door, but not as much as before when she looked like a paranoid drug dealer always looking out for the DEA.

I walked back over to Yuuki, who grasped my hand tightly.

Giving it a reassuring squeeze, I looked over at Shizuka and Saya before speaking, "I need to go and find the others," looking specifically at Saya, "Our friends. I'll take you guys to the roof - it's not too far from here and it's the safest place to defend from. It only has one entrance and you can barricade it with the desks and chairs strewn about the rooftop."

What I said caused a massive fright in Yuuki and Shizuka, the latter of which froze solid before rapidly shaking her head, "I can't allow you to go out alone, Ryu!" she said in a hushed whisper, still aware of the situation despite her anger at my 'reckless' decision.

Yuuki knew what I was capable of but it didn't stop her from squeezing my hand in a gesture of 'don't go'.

Before I could answer, Saya spoke up.

"He's right, you two. We need to go and gather the people we care about before leaving the school grounds, and Ryu's the most suitable to go out and look. He's the strongest person here in terms of fighting ability and physical prowess, so outmaneuvering some corpses shouldn't be too hard for him and if push comes to shove, he should be able to run away," she let out a sigh before weakly smiling at the two glaring women in front of her, "I don't want Ryu to get hurt either, but...we need to be calculating and get what needs to be done, done, okay?"

Hearing what she said, I nodded my head and looked at her with both pride and admiration. She truly had a strong mind if she could still think this logically in such a fucked up situation.

Both Yuuki and Shizuka had nothing to refute Saya with. Sure, they could complain and whine about it but facts are facts; we had to gather our friends and leave the school, and I was the most suitable candidate to go and get our friends.

And then coming with me would only put them in more danger. The partially-secluded roof was much safer than delving into the undead-infested school looking for people, right?

Seeing that deep down both of the women agreed, I smiled before speaking again, "So, it's decided. I'll take you guys to the roof before going and getting Saeko, Takashi and the others. Though I'm sure Saeko's fine and probably enjoying the fighting..." letting out a small chuckled, I walked over to the door followed by Yuuki, Saya, and Shizuka. Stopping just before the door, I looked back at the others, "Ready?" I got three anxious and nervous nods, so I turned back and opened the door.