Network

Mamoru-san and I were sitting in the balcony…

The bright moon had illuminated the whole balcony. I could see Mamoru-san's face. I was astonished to see her face. It was bright in the light of the moon. But she looked a bit sad looking at the sky.

When she noticed that I was looking at her, she became red and said that, "What are you looking at?"

"No. It seemed that you looked a bit sad." I said.

"Oh, this…. My granny used to tell me stories at night when I wasn't able to sleep. She would tell me the stories and I would enjoy them very much. But now…" tears rolled down from her eyes. She was crying. But I didn't know what to say.

"Don't cry..." I tried to console her a little.

"But my granny, she's gone. She's..." I stopped her.

I patted her head and said warmly that, "Your granny's not gone. She is now residing in your heart. You just have to cherish her."

Mamoru-san looked at me for a while and wiped a lot after that.

"You are right. I can not waste my time crying. I get to get stronger." She said with a determined face.

After that, we talked a lot about our personal lives. At a point, she fell asleep.

I was yet again astonished to see her sleeping face. But I came to my senses because I gave up on love a long time ago.

While I was looking outside, I saw that a zombie came near our inn. It stood still for some time and then it started to make a very weird sound from its throat.

I didn't take it seriously because I needed to us the washroom, so I took up Mamoru-san in my hands and carried her to the couch.

I went to the washroom to relieve myself. I had the habit of checking my phone on the washroom. When I unlocked the screen, I was extremely shocked to see that the network was available.

I quickly opened the contacts and called Rumia-nee.

Beep… Beep… Beep…

I was getting more nervous every second. I could hear my heart beating very fast and loud.

Suddenly someone picked up the phone.

"Hello? Shoyo? Is it you?" Shoyo's heart stopped. It was Rumia-nee.

"Rumia-nee? It's me." I said.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. How did you get the network?"

"I don't know. It suddenly happened."

"Okay, but Shoyo…Listen to me now."

"Okay."

"Where are you now?"

"I don't know correctly because I woke up just a while ago in the car. But I'm at the inn of the petrol station where you spent the last night."

"You saw me and Yuu-san on the CCTV, right?"

"Yeah, but who is this Yuu-san?"

"He's a friend. But more importantly, we need to meet."

"But where are you?"

"Listen to me. Your inn is located near a rail station."

"Is it the Hyogo station?"

"Yeah. I need you to come there. We will pick you up from there."

"But I'm with some of my friends. Do you have any vehicle?"

"Of course, we have one that is very big."

I was not sure but I felt that Rumia-nee was laughing sadistically.

"Ok. One last thing." Rumia-nee said.

"Okay, what is-" I couldn't finish my line. The connection was cut out. I saw that there was no network again.

"Shit. Why did it had to happen at this moment?" I got super annoyed and was about to throw away the phone. But suddenly I heard that the door was being knocked hard.

"Hey Shoyo, get out! This is an emergency." Shouted Nakamura.

"What is it?" I got out of the washroom putting on my pants. I saw that Mamoru-san was packing up the bags.

"Look, a zombie was making a weird sound and suddenly all of the zombies nearby started to eat that zombie. They are also trying to enter the inn." Nakamura said being worried.

I looked from the balcony. Yes, a huge flock of zombies were trying to break into our inn.

"Shit, Shoyo! Your hand!" Nakamura whispered aggressively.

I looked at my hand and saw that those black signs on my hands became visible again. I quickly went to the washroom. I tried to wash away the signs but they were not going away. I stopped washing and looked at my hand. These signs looked like blood vessels but it was black.

But why did these marks became visible? Is it because of these zombies? But why did these zombies came here in the first place?