CH5 - Z-01

[Lyon's POV]

No sound was made as Chisato stared back at all three of us while pointing a practice bokken at us, her face was plastered with a serious expression that looked more like it was just there to mask something else, fear. As this was happening sounds of a flood of footsteps could be heard coming from outside the hallway we had just come from earlier. With the light finally illuminating our faces, Chisato became able to recognize both me and Alyssa, this realization then caused her to quietly drop the bokken she had been pointing at us earlier to her side and rushed towards us with the goal of hugging us out of possibly relief or worry.

While Ren and Chisato did indeed know each other from the few moments of interaction between the two coincided, no other instances of them actually even talking on their own really happened which meant Chisato's hug had been limited to only me and Alyssa, who she was already more than familiar with. This exemption slightly made Ren feel awkwardly misplaced, prompting him to just scratch his cheek and look around the room we were currently hiding in. The room looked like the generic meeting room with the usual table and 11 chairs meant for its members to sit on, except it had a window that overlooked the campus square.

Ren looks at me and Alyssa who were still being hugged by Chisato, I give him a gesture meant to tell him to stay as silent as possible which he nods to while walking around the room. "I'm so glad that you guys are safe, have you seen what's been happening outside yet?" Chisato whispers to us with her face close enough to both our ears. "Yeah, we had a window beside the teacher's table in our classroom which gave us a front-row seat to one of them" I reply to her question with Alyssa nodding affirmatively.

Chisato stops hugging us and goes to the window that overlooked the campus center while gesturing for all three of us to follow her. We followed in pursuit and the sight shown to us looked no worse than a sight you'd see at the beginning of a zombie apocalypse though technically it IS the start of a zombie apocalypse, only instead of an American neighborhood with cars burning or flipped over, all we had were zombies chasing after the unlucky many who were outside the three main campus buildings. Those poor souls out there probably looked like walking all-you-can-eat buffets in the eyes of those zombies but well I can't save everybody, let alone strangers who I have no relationship with whatsoever.

Chisato weakly sat down on the chair closest to the window before sighing to herself. Ren and Alyssa follow in pursuit while I walked towards the door to barricade it using the unused chairs inside the room which is admittedly, not gonna be able to hold back 4 of those dead corpses, 3 are hoping for the best but 2 shouldn't be enough to break through our "barricade" at least. I gesture again to remain silent except this time everybody else could see it, the zombies were mostly dependent on hearing to hunt for their food but that didn't exactly mean it was unable to "see" us.

I go back and look at the central campus which was looking a lot worse than it did just a few seconds ago. The previously unmoving bodies that laid down on the ground began to twitch as they slowly rose up only to then growl in anger or possibly hunger and rushed towards the closest unturned human they could see. They are able to see people as long as it was during the day and have recently turned but for some reason 2 to 3 hours after being infected, their eyes become effectively useless for unknown reasons. This basically meant that we only had to wait for the sun to set, which is actually already in the process of doing so and wait for maybe 3 to 5 hours just to be extra sure that their eyes have become worthless for chasing down their next meal which we can then utilize for when we inevitably leave this school.

While losing their sight was indeed a boon for us, it did not mean that escaping from here will be smooth sailing as a sound louder than the average human talking noise a person can make will be enough for a zombie to know of your general location. Though they are unable to communicate, once a zombie hears you they growl loud enough to garner the attention of other zombies within a somewhat average distance around them. This means that once outside this room, no sound communication must be made between us four, forcing us to just use hand signals to communicate to the others what action we should take or what the person in the front and behind of the group sees.

'I can't exactly tell them such information about those zombies without getting their suspicions on me to grow, but telling them to just keep conversations to a whisper should be more than enough to at least mask our location from those things outside.

"Why exactly were you here Chisato? Didn't the second years get to go home 30 minutes earlier than usual today?" Alyssa asks Chisato who takes her phone from the pocket and faces it in Alyssa's and Ren's direction. What they saw was a chat between us two with a message containing the words "Meet me at kendo meeting clubroom inside our building, I have something to tell you".

"I got the message an hour ago from Lyon. When I received the message, I thought that my kouhai Lyon has finally mustered enough confidence to finally confess to his beautiful, cute and awesome senior. Well, that's the reason I believe he messaged me but I wonder Lyon. Why did you call me here?" Chisato replies back to Alyssa with her tone laced with teasing while plastering a grin on her face. Alyssa began to sport a sad expression after hearing the former half of Chisato's explanation before turning towards me to hear my answer to the question just given to me.

"I merely wanted to practice my close-quarters combat with her today since I wasn't going to be able to attend tomorrow's club practice" I answered which makes Alyssa's previously sad expression turn to one of relief as if a weight had just been lifted off of her shoulder. Chisato snickers to herself, amused with the various expressions shown to her by the usual distant Alyssa before returning her previously casual tone and expression to that of seriousness.

"That's enough joking around, what do you guys think we should do from here on out" Chisato asks the million-dollar question which prompts both Ren and Alyssa to begin thinking of what this sudden zombie apocalypse implies for their future actions from here on out.

"We should take stock of whatever we have for now in terms of food, water and items we can use to defend against whatever those things outside are" I tell them while I remove my bag from my back and place it on the table. I start taking out the various supplies I brought like the three days' worth of food, 9 bottles of water and my swiss army knife. I didn't bring out the three two-way radios since I didn't have an explanation I could tell them if they were to see it.

"Why do you have so much stuff with you in your bag?" Chisato asks me but before I could even answer, Ren points out my hiking boots to the others which garnered their attention and made them glance towards my feet. "I was planning to go mountain hiking today and tomorrow which is why I brought all this stuff and is also the reason why I wanted to train with you today since I wouldn't be available tomorrow" I lie to them without pausing for even a few seconds just to remove any doubt from my words. 'Damn, I am so good at thinking up lies on the spot' I muse to myself as the others begin to nod to my words

"Well, it's my turn now I guess" Chisato tells us as she begins to pull out a few crackers and a 3/4 full tumbler of water while throwing aside the notebook and ball pen case she believed she won't need anymore. She was about to throw her laptop aside as well but I stopped her since I thought that I might be able to use it on one of my exit plans later on. Phones today had flashlight features on them so we can use them as makeshift flashlights while the laptop will only remain useful to us as noisemakers we can utilize to attract the zombies in one spot while we pass right through them once the wifi goes down.

With every possible useful item from Chisato's bag taken accounted for, Alyssa also start taking out the contents of her bag with the end result being similar to what Chisato had taken out in her own bag except she also had earphones with her. As for Ren, well he didn't really have anything in his bag that I deemed useful so we just emptied out his bag and planned to use it as the general inventory backpack of the group since it had a lot more pockets than our bags did. We start putting back all of our stuff except for the laptops in our respective bags with Ren's and Chisato's laptops being placed in Ren's bag... basically, he has been elected and given the position of pack mule of the group.

"The electricity should remain operational for a few days at least while the school's wifi network seems to be usable for now. We might as well charge the unused phones and laptops we have since the electricity is still running." I tell the others who nodded to my words, in all honesty, the electricity around the campus will be gone before the moon even rises but I should act like we are only charging our phones and laptops since we still can.

"We can use my laptop and Alyssa's earphones to learn about the situation outside without making too much noise but I am warning you right now... you might not like what you see." I warn the others and see both Ren and Chisato nod at me as they start charging all of the other laptops and phones before going to the windows together to look at the situation outside and have a silent chat between the two.

Alyssa nods as well but instead of joining the other two, she chose to sit beside me and puts her hand out. I give her one of the earbuds and place the other on my ear as we start browsing on metube for news channels that were talking about the domestic and international situations.

We find a live stream of a news channel that was reporting on the ground information about the situation of Japan as a whole. Me and Alyssa look at each other before pressing the video as our ears start hearing the audio of the video. "We are standing in front of Yoime City Medical Center which is the biggest hospital in the Iwate Prefecture. Areas like this hospital and Tohoku Iwate Academy are currently held and protected by the JSDF. No word or news has come from both Tokyo as well as the team sent there to report about the situation." The female reporter says only for it to cut away to show the surrounding area of the hospital which used transport buses as a means to seal entry and exit points around the hospital.

A doctor with long white hair and blue eyes whose identity I did not know could be seen coming out of the doors of the hospital which did not go unnoticed to the reporter and her cameraman. They then rush in her direction and start questioning her about what information about the virus has been discovered as well as what advice she has for the people in general. "Good afternoon Ms. Tomoya, I am a news reporter from JP News, you are currently live in front of thousands, if not millions of viewers. Can you please give any information about this virus and advice for the people of Japan?" The news reporter questions the doctor in a hurried voice.

The doctor, now known as Ms. Tomoya sighs to herself before looking straight at the camera with a serious expression. "As of now, we have only confirmed that the virus is not airborne and is spread through the blood and saliva of infected individuals. A doctor who had been bit by a person we believe to either be patient zero or at least one of the first few people to be infected hours earlier has volunteered for further testing. What we found in our experiments is that infected individuals gain a heightened sense of hearing but lose much of their visual prowess a few hours after being infected. The GHO or Global Health Organization has designated this newly discovered virus as Z-01 and has advised the public to stay indoors and avoid all contact with known infected individuals." The doctor states to the camera in a monotone voice as if she was reading from a script. The reporter then asks her if she has a personal message for anyone in particular.

The doctor's previously stone-cold expression turns to one stricken with a mix of hope and despair as the grip of her hand on the side of her coat hardened. "Misako, if you can hear me, please... stay safe and meet me at" The doctor states only for her words to suddenly be interrupted by the sound of a car crash and gunshots coming from somewhere behind the camera. The cameraman then faces behind him only to see a white cargo truck with its windshield painted red pushing aside two of the transport busses to the side, leaving a gaping hole for zombies to enter through. More soldiers position themselves in front of the horde in an attempt to defend their assigned sector, only to then fail and reposition themselves farther away as the sea of zombies was too vast.

The doctor, cameraman and news reporter run to the entrance of the hospital before the video feed was suddenly cut off for unknown reasons. I take off the earbud I had before looking at Alyssa who was still sitting behind me. If one were to look at her from afar she would seem fine, unmoving even, but If a person was right beside her then they would see her slightly shaking body. I take the earbud off of her own ear before hugging her and pressing the side of her head close to my calmly beating heart. Her heart starts beating faster and her ears turn red before her shaking stops altogether as she leans further into my chest.

Rena and Chisato who were still standing beside the window quickly notice our positions but before Ren could even tease us, Chisato had already gripped Ren's shoulder forcing him to face the window, she then flashes me a smile and a thumbs-up before also turning her attention to the window as well. Minutes pass by before Alyssa moves away from my chest with a blush on her cheeks and thanks me before standing up to talk with the others by the window.

I look down at the table and begin contemplating our next course of action. 'We are going to leave the school using the abandoned southern exit, that's final. The 3 days' worth of food was only meant for three people but now it should only last us two days since Chisato is with us. We can probably scavenge around the canteen on the first floor but that would be risky since an exit that led to the campus center was there. Going at night would be the safest choice since we have flashlights on our phones and the electricity should stop working in less than an hour from now. If we choose to stay and wait for tomorrow then we would be living on a small lifeline of hoping that we can scavenge for supplies before the second day ended and admittedly, I would rather not stay in this school for much longer.

'6:45 PM, in less than 30 minutes both the wifi and the electricity will go down. Maybe I should tell the others to use the time to try and contact any family members and friends they want to check up on' I already checked my account for any new messages from my parents but I got nothing. Worrying about them while I am still unable to even get out of here will only strain my mind and make me lose focus. I did send them information regarding how I was doing since they might grow distracted and worried over how I was currently faring and having one's mind in the gutter will be detrimental to anyone in this situation. With everything set and done, I call to my three other companions and tell them to use this chance to talk with their families.

Chisato and Alyssa didn't have any luck contacting their families but Ren was able to contact his family who lived north in the countryside near the Aomori-Iwate prefecture border which meant their current location was definitely a lot safer in comparison to ours. It was 7:03 PM by the time Ren finished talking with his parents and right on time, our world and vision became darker as the lights of the school turned off for the last time in its existence.

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Author: When I first started writing this story, I was planning on keeping the number of Lyon's romantic partners to just one person(Alyssa) but a few voices from the various discord servers I am a part of have voiced their united opinion that giving my mc a harem would be better. I am limiting the size of the harem to just three characters and if you look at this chapter and the previous chapter then you would be able to see sneak peeks of what the members of the harem look like (Chisato won't be a part of the harem). The rest of what I have to say will be in the Author's thoughts.