Escape

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A/N: GIVE ME POWER-STONES PLEASE

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"

We heard a loud shriek. Looking at each other we nodded before running toward the source of the scream. As Takashi and Rei were slower than us we sped up trying to get to them as fast as we could. If I remember correctly this scream should have come from Saya Takagi.

Arriving there we saw two others running down here from the other corridor. It was Saeko Busujima, and Shizuka. Looking for the source of the scream we saw Saya holding a drill, drilling a zombie's face in.

"I can't take it anymore. SOMEONE PLEASE!!" she pleased with tears forming at the side of her eyes.

"Aimi, you take the left side, I'll take the right"

"Alright"

Looking around there were 6 zombies in total, 3 on each side roaming around the entrance door. I walked towards them as they charged at me. Tripping one, I grabbed its right arm, bringing it down, and breaking its neck. Continuing my onslaught, I walked toward the other two and kicked their legs, breaking them. Immobilized, I broke their necks before walking over to Aimi who also just finished.

Finally arriving both groups looked at us shocked. Ignoring it I walked to the doors before shutting them as the noise might have attracted more zombies. Looking back, Saya was still in shock after the incident. Her large dilated pupils and face full of fear easily made it clear to everyone present.

"Well, everyone probably knows our paramedic Marikawa. I'm Saeko Busujima, Class 12 "A". Saeko introduced herself.

"I am Takashi Komuro 11 "B""

"That's right, Busujima-san, it was you who won the national championship two years in a row. My name is Rei Miyamoto from the spear martial arts club."

"Oh, well… my name is Hirano Kohta."

"I'm Sumeragi Kodaka"

"I'm Sakura Aimi"

As for Saya, she was clearly annoyed by the observed situation, and very much so. The accumulation of stress abruptly spilled out like a volcano in the form of hysteria.

"Why are you so calm!? The dead walk and eat the living! We just killed!" she shouted at everyone.

As a result, the other girls hugged her, and she started roaring. A few minutes later when Saya felt better, we all went into the faculty room.

- - -

Eventually getting inside the faculty room, we barricaded the door tightly with some rope. Tossing me the keys for the bus, Aimi turned on the TV to see if the local news had anything to report. Walking towards the couch, Aimi soon joins me leaning her head on my shoulder as we watched the news.

Though what we saw on the news was nothing good.

The whole world was plunged into chaos and anarchy. The dead walked the streets of cities, and people only helped them in the extermination of humanity. Countries are considering the idea of nuclear strikes on large cities with large populations.

"We're having technical difficulties. F-From now on, we will be broadcasting from the studio. …Is what has become the central Security Office Requests that all citizens remain indoors. If at all possible, please stay in your homes. Also please close any windows or other potential entranceways. The government is advising people to keep others out of their homes. This is due to the evacuating shelters being…"

*Channel Change*

"The United States is working to get these bizarre occurrences under control. The president and his cabinet have fled the white house. Reports say they are flying westward. Furthermore, the United States is preparing its nuclear weapons. Critics say that if actions are taken, circumstances would be dire."

"At present, we are still waiting for correspondence from Moscow. The entire city of Peking is in flames. In comparison, London is having relatively little trouble maintaining public order. But the prevalence of looting in Paris and some is staggering…"

*Turned off TV*

"I don't believe it. I can't believe it… Nothing like this has ever happened before.." Rei said but nobody answered seemingly in their thoughts, "Hey, I'm right aren't I? There's got to be somewhere that's still okay, right? Everything's probably the same as it ever was…"

"You're completely wrong," Saya told her.

"Don't talk like that," Takashi said.

"I can't help it!! The fact is that we have an apocalyptic pandemic on our hands." she retorted, shrugging her shoulders.

"A pandemic…" Shizuka muttered.

"The infection is spreading like wildfire! The rest of the world has the same disease we have here."

"Is it like influenza?" Takashi asked.

"No it's more like the Black Plague from the 14th century or the Spanish Flu of 1918," I spoke up.

"What did they do to stop the disease?" Takashi asked.

"They tried many, many things… a lot of people died, but it ended suddenly. People developed an immunity to it." Shizuka answered

"But…People who die come back and start attacking the living," Kohta said.

"...You're saying there's no way to stop it from spreading," Saeko said

"When it gets hot, their muscles will rot and fall off their bones, and they won't be able to move anymore," Shizuka exclaimed.

"And how long will the decomposition take?" Saeko asked with interest.

"Well~u…. This is ~o… About three weeks, so we need to find a safe and just wait it out,"

"What makes you think that they will start to rot at all? The dead have not risen before." Saya remarked.

"I'd worry the least about the dead if I were you," I said with a calm expression.

"That is?" Takashi asked.

"I'm sure that almost all the food supplies that don't have preservatives will deteriorate within a week or two."

Everyone focused on me.

"You mean…" Saya looked at me in shock.

"Yes, there will be hunger. A huge number of people have become zombies, and the survivors are mired in panic and anarchy. There will be no delivery other than a support crate from the military if they decide to do so. Besides, I'm worried about how the virus is transferred. Perhaps even the water in the taps is already infested."

At what I said everyone frowned at the upcoming future.

"It's spring right now and there is still an opportunity to plant and harvest," I told them.

"Kodaka, people get infected through a zombie bite, right?" Takashi said as if asking himself.

"Yes. But I don't believe that's the only way to get infected. I watched the news this morning and there was nothing of dead bodies walking around it was normal. The virus has spread quickly among people which means…" I started to say.

"There are other ways of infection," Saya finished, "Most likely by airborne droplets."

"Exactly!" I said giving her a thumbs up.

"Wait!", Rei exclaimed, "But we didn't get infected!"

"We still don't java exact answers so all we can do is speculate on what we have. But the fact remains multiple outbreaks are happening worldwide and it's not possible through simple zombie bites."

Silence descended upon the group. Everyone was thinking about something.

"Alright, thoughts aside. We need to get out of the school before it gets dark. I'm pretty sure the zombies can't see but it will still give them the advantage." I reasoned with everyone, shaking the keys I continued, "We'll take the bus and leave and then decide where we go next."

"Good idea. Marikawa-sensei, can you drive a bus?" Rei asked.

"Well… I don't know… I haven't tried driving a bus before."

"There's a first time for everything you know. So let's start now." I said with a grin.

"How can you be so… positive about what's happening?" Rei asked me.

"Positive? I'm trying to see the bright side of things if that's what you're wondering. And if I told you guys why you would call me crazy."

"Why are you wearing a blindfold?" Saeko asked with interest.

"Before you guys ask, yes I can even though I'm wearing the blindfold and to answer your question, Busujima-san. It's because I don't want to accidentally seduce someone." I explained to them.

They just stared at me with blank expressions.

"You look like you don't believe me." I said to which they nodded, "Well, I'm going to take down the barricade. You can ask Aimi and Shizuka to see if I'm lying or not."

- - - 3rd POV - - -

"Hah? There's no way you seduced—" Saya's words cut off as she caught the sight of the blushing woman.

"Wait seriously?!" Saya exclaimed.

"Sakura-sensei is even in a relationship with him," Rei added.

"Isn't that illegal?"

"I'm a college student you know. Plus Kodaka is legal. He's 18 so it's safe I tell you. SAFE." Aimi said, triumphantly.

"Wait, what about…" Saya started as she realized something, "Is Marikawa-sensei dating him as well?!"

"Hweah! Uh, um no. I'm not dating him." Shizuka said, looking away, a light blush on her face.

Aimi noticing this was about to ask her something but was interrupted by Kodaka.

- - - Kodaka's POV - - -

"The barricade's down, we can leave." I told them, "But before we leave, I'll tell you this. The zombies are blind and react to sound so it doesn't take much energy to defeat them, you just gotta use your brain."

"And what do you advise us to do?", Kohta asked.

"Don't let the zombies catch you by surprise or grab you. They are very strong as the brain no longer limits their strength. But despite their strength, they are blind, slow, and very clumsy. For an easy victory, you just need to knock him down. Either a trip or push, it doesn't matter. In case of collision, just quietly leave. It will purposefully follow your last issued sound. Their weak point is their head. Destroying the brain will kill them permanently and other organs don't function. In addition, zombies do not feel pain, so this will not scare them away." I calmly enlightened these poor souls. The information should prove useful.

"One last thing before we go. This is especially for those who are clinging onto the hope of this magically going away," I said gaining their attention.

"If you want to survive then you need to accept reality. This is happening whether you like it or not and you're going to see a lot of things you never expected to see. This is only going to get worse, I am sure of that. Right now you will be complaining about zombies but soon it will be about humans." I said, staying quiet for a bit so it would sink in.

"I am only going to say this once, with society gone to hell some people are going to resort to doing whatever they want. That could be murder, theft, arson, r*pe, kidnapping, and many more… When we leave here don't let your emotions get a hold of you, 'cause the dead aren't the ones you should be afraid of."

"It's the Living", I told them.

- - -

Making sure everyone has a weapon of some sort in their hand we left the faculty lounge. As we made our way through the corridor toward the exit, the group reached the stairs leading to the front floor. The staircase itself led into the hall.

"AHHHH!"

Below us was a group of students fighting off a small group of students. I continued walking as Saeko, Takashi, and Rei rushed down to save them.

"Th–Thank y…" one of the students started.

"Don't speak so loudly. Were any of you bitten?" Saeko asked, cutting her off.

"Huh… No, we weren't!!" they hurriedly said.

"They look fine. Really." Rei said turning towards us.

"We're going to be escaping the school. Do you want to come along?" Takashi offered.

"Y-yeah!" they accepted the offer.

With me in the lead, I looked over the wall to the lobby. The concentration of zombies on the first floor was at least 3 more times more than on the upper floors, and that's not counting the street where the undead also roamed. All the idiots who came down in a crowd met their death here.

"They can't see, so it'll be like you hidden," Saya explained.

"Well then Takagi, go out there and show us proof." Takashi offered. To which she flinched.

"Show us your theory is correct, Takagi-Kun. We won't be able to move quietly with a group this big. Inside the school… During the first attack, I couldn't find any consistency in their movements. Someone… Going to have to confirm that for us."

Everyone went silent. They all looked at each other wondering who was going to do it.

"Haaah, so annoying," I said scratching the back of my head, "I'll go, I'll go"

Getting up from my crouching position I walked downstairs in a quick silent manner no one had time to object, and it was too late for them to shout. Calmly passing by the zombies, I opened the door to the outside and checked to see if there was any undead nearby. Propping it open using a shoe that was nearby I grabbed a pencil case that was on the ground and threw it to the other side of the student lobby.

The zombies all went berserk and began to attack the wall that I threw it at, as they were fighting to try to find the source of the sound. Beckoning them over with my hand the group came down the stairs except for one student who finally manage to gain enough courage to come only to fuck it all up anyway.

*CLANG!!!!!!!!*

The kid hit the metal railing, making a loud rattling sound that had every disease in 100 meters running in our direction.

"RUN!!!!!!!!!!", Takashi shouted.

'This idiot!', I thought to myself, as I told the group to run towards the bus. If he didn't scream then we would only have to deal with the ones closest to us. It seems that Saya shares the same thoughts as me.

"Why did you yell?! If you had kept quiet we'd most likely only have to worry about the ones that were close by!!" She shouted at him.

'Nice job, Saya. I'll give you a head pat later, I thought to myself as I kicked the zombie that was approaching Saya away.

"Pay attention to your surroundings. We'll cover you and Shizuka until we get to the bus." I explained loud enough for everyone to hear.

As we fought our way to the bus one of the fillers got grabbed resulting in him getting eaten. The girl, presumably his girlfriend, ran after him only to be eaten as well.

"I can understand where she's coming from." I heard Shizuka suddenly say, "If the rest of the world is this bad… Maybe it's better to die."

"Eeeh, don't say that. You got us here, don't you? Aimi and I won't tolerate you saying something like that again. If something's wrong you talk to us capeesh." I told her sternly.

Nodding with a smile on her face, she ran into the bus and began figuring out how to start the bus.

"Takagi, Kohta, get inside. The rest of us will serve as support till the bus is ready to leave." I instructed.

"Take that!" I heard someone yell out from a distance.

Looking at the source of the sound we saw a group of students running here. Heh, he finally appeared.

"Who's that?" Takashi asked.

"That's Shidou from class 3-A," Saeko told him.

"Shidou!" Rei said, venom laced in her tone as her face had a dark expression.

As Aimi and the others got into the bus, Saeko and I stayed.

"We're ready to go!" I heard Shizuka yell out.

"Hold it for just a minute!" Takashi told her.

"They're coming from the front too!! If we wait much longer we won't be able to leave!!" She explained.

As the students were coming close I turned towards Saeko and saw one of them was behind her.

"Duck!" I called out to her.

She listened as I grabbed it and threw it across the fence, smashing its head on impact.

"Thanks, Sumeragi-Kun."

"Let's get in"

Getting inside the bus, me and Saeko saw the sight of Rei holding Takashi back.

"DO NOT LET HIM IN!!" Rei shouted at him.

Takashi, however, didn't budge.

"No! He's going to come in here. We have time." He rebuked.

As I saw Shidou running with his students I saw he tripped a student who had books in his hand and he fell, breaking his glasses. He went to grab Shidou's hand only to be kicked in the face and left as bait.

The teacher and 8 other students jumped onto the bus and we finally rode right out of the school crashing into other cars as we exited the parking lot.

"They aren't human anymore!" I heard Shizuka say to herself as we rode through the gates toward the city.