CH7 - The abyss outside

[Lyon's POV]

Hours passed by in silence as not even a growl from the zombies outside could be heard. The scientist/doctor didn't mention this in the news but zombies enter something akin to a hibernation state wherein they don't move from a certain location until the sun rises again. This, of course, did not mean that they were unresponsive, rather they quickly returned to their usual agitated state once they hear a noise around them.

'Not even a single scream huh... I remember there being two groups that managed to hide, one was in the western building while the other was in the same building as us. I only know this not because I actually saw them in the flesh but instead I heard their cries for help coming from the direction of the northern exit of this building' I think to myself, remembering my and Alyssa's inability to help them. If it was the old me that had this gear then I probably would try to help them but I'd rather not put my group at risk for strangers.

Alyssa was still laid down on my lap so taking out my phone took quite a bit of effort since I didn't want to wake her up only to find out its still too early. It took me a while but I managed to fish out my phone, I swipe my finger across the screen only to find that it is already 11:30 PM, which meant that I should start waking them up already so they wouldn't be disoriented when we go out. I start to hear footsteps coming from the direction of where Chisato and Ren slept, I could hear the footsteps but aside from the light reflected by the moon and my phone, much of the room was shrouded in pure darkness which meant I couldn't see who was walking towards me.

"Hmmm, are you sure you two aren't a couple yet Lyon? I mean, your already using a picture of you two as your wallpaper. I thought we were best friends dude, why didn't you tell me?" A voice coming from my side whispers to me in an overdramatic tone. The source of that voice was Ren who managed to wake himself up without my help. By the time we saw each other again in my original timeline, much of this cheery disposition of his had disappeared, replaced by the bare bones of a person who only cared about himself and the few people he trusts anymore.

'Whatever made him that way hasn't occurred yet nor am I sure that it will even actually happen anymore, after all, I have already distorted this timeline too much.' I think to myself without even noticing that Alyssa had already risen from my lap, slightly blushing over the position she had woken up in. She quickly notices my unfocused eyes, prompting her to squeeze my cheeks, hoping to break me out of my stupor. This gesture of hers works as I then voice out my thanks and earn a nod from Alyssa.

I turn on my phone's flashlight feature and flash it to where I last heard Ren from. The flashlight makes his expression visible as he sports an amused face over somehow seeing our acts of "intimacy". "Ren go wake up Chisato and make sure she's not in a half-asleep state by the time we go out. Alyssa go look around the room and make sure we haven't left anything of value outside of our bags. I will start moving the chairs away from the door. Oh and Alyssa, use your phone's flashlight, I doubt you'd see anything with how dark it is." I tell the two as they start executing the orders I had given them.

Ren managed to wake Chisato up quite easily, not even needing to shake her up a bit so she would lose that post-sleep drowsiness. Ren joins me in moving the barricade out of the way while Chisato then joins Alyssa, who was looking around the room for whatever item we could use. Moving the chairs out of the way took less time than it should have had Ren not chosen to join me in moving them. All in all, it took us around 25 minutes before we were ready to head out, 15 minutes for the tasks I gave them while the excess 10 minutes were used to give them a short rundown again over the hand signals.

"Whatever you see, whatever you feel, don't scream. Is that understood?" I ask them, only to receive a nod of nervous affirmation from all three of them. With that taken out of the way, I open the door slowly and silently only to be greeted by a sight most people probably would've only seen in horror houses, movies and nightmares. Handprints of blood could be seen dried on the window, a white sneaker missing its owner, left on the floor and dirtied with the color red which is most likely blood. A slouched-over body with pale skin and disheveled hair leaned against the wall with half its face and much of the palm of its hand missing.

Dried blood could be seen on the floor around the body, forming a small puddle of dark red liquid. I do not react in any way, a sight like this became quite common in my profession as a ruin scavenger in the original timeline. The same could not be said for my three other companions who grimace at the sight in front of them, this being their first dance with death face to face. The body remained unmoving possibly hibernating, I look to both of my sides and find it empty with only the blood of this virus' victims telling me bits and pieces of the story of what happened here.

'No point in caring over dead strangers, we should go back to the stairway we took earlier and head towards the maintenance room' I think to myself while glancing both left and right for any more hibernating zombies. It seemed like lady luck had sided with us for now at least as I start heading towards the stairway to our right with the rest of the group following close behind. The entire hallway had been dirtied with marks of blood and abandoned bags without their owners. The maintenance room was located on the first floor near the building's canteen which meant we either go the long way around or directly go across the canteen which in the original timeline, was where most of the zombies in this building were.

We reached the stairway without delay only to see someone standing upright while staring at the wall. I raise my index finger and point at the stairway's corner where the zombie stood motionless. I stick my back to the railings and walk past the zombie as quietly as possible only to then be faced with three more standing near the hallway at the staircases' exit, my phones' light directly flashing their faces which had bloodshot eyes with mouths that were dripping out blood. This time I raised three fingers and pointed directly in front of me as the three remained motionless even while having a flashlight directly aimed at them which meant that their vision degraded to a point wherein as long as we stayed silent enough, passing through them safely would be easy.

It took us quite a while but we managed to reach the first floor safely without any hiccups along the way. As we descended the stairway we are greeted by the sight of the building's main entrance broken into shards of glass on the floor. Both directions of the hallway had exits in the middle that led to either the western or eastern building before circling back to the canteen but going down the right hallway would let us reach the maintenance room first before the canteen. We walked down the seemingly empty hallway in eerie silence, passing the exit we had to take to reach the eastern building. A few more minutes of sneaking around and we finally reached the maintenance room with the doors to the canteen located just to the side.

I made sure to break this specific room's locks earlier during class which meant no one was there to see me and I doubt any of the employees had the time to repair the door while they still had their duties to fulfill. I grip the door's handle and as expected, it opened without difficulty. I point my phone inside and see a small room with shelves on both sides of the door filled with various tools meant for who knows what. I point my phone to the center of the room this time only to see a man staring right at me while sporting a janitor's uniform. Seems like, this unfortunate person tried to hide inside hoping to be safe from the virus without even knowing that it was already inside of him, turning him into the same things he tried to run away from.

I signal to the others again before heading straight inside as the others follow me, not without closing the door behind them of course. I harden my grip on my bokken before raising it straight up and bringing it straight down on the zombie's head. The hit causes the zombie to crumple down on the floor, unable to growl in agitation as I repeatedly slam my boot down its skull until it bursts open as brain matter oozed out. I look back at my companions with a slick of blood on my cheeks which I then wipe using the sleeves of my hoodie as they look at me with faces mixed with both fear, awe and surprise at what I had just done without hesitation.

'With the door closed, it should be safe enough to at least communicate through whispering' I think to myself as I clean my bokken using the dead bodies' clothes. "Look, the world we used to live in, the day-to-day life we took for granted is gone. We can't go back to the yesterday where we would wake up, eat breakfast with our families, take a hot shower, go to school then go back home to our families. That shit doesn't exist anymore, ok? We can't let old-world morals hold us back anymore, not for these things at least." I tell them while pointing my bokken at the carcass of the zombie.

My words to them settle in as I look around the shelves for a lock cutter we needed for the exit. Much of the tools found inside were either blunt and short or shaped in a way unfitting for a weapon like hacksaws and window cleaners. Though useless as a weapon, tools like this were useful for other stuff so I stuffed what I could inside a toolbox I found and placed it inside my bag. Ren, Chisato and Alyssa had already broken away from their dazed state and seemed to have somewhat "accepted" our grim reality, Ren stood beside me, carrying the lock cutters I found earlier, his bag wide open in case I decided to put anything in his bag instead of mine. The other two were looking for a weapon Alyssa could use, unfortunately, all they managed to find were extra screwdrivers that I left behind since the toolbox I took already had them.

It took us roughly 30 minutes before I was satisfied with the assets we had just added to our inventory. I swipe across the screen of my phone again, checking for the time. The screen shined brightly with the numbers and letters 12:37 AM in bold, white and big texts right in the center of the screen. I place my hand on the door's handle again but before I could open it, Alyssa walks to my side, a flashlight in hand while sporting a proud expression on her face.

I remove my hand from the door handle and place it on top of her head, this action of mine makes Alyssa sport an expression of pride and happiness as the other two just watch in amusement. A few seconds later she goes back behind me, the usual nonchalant expression returning to her face as she holds a screwdriver while I open the door handle and see no changes to the outside of the room. 'Nothing new to take note of, we should start looking into how we're gonna clear the canteen of those things.' I think to myself as I begin recalling the structure of the canteen. That place was separated into two rooms and had three exits. One exit led to the campus square, one to the left which led to a hallway that circled back to the stairway we came from and lastly, the third exit which was the one in front of us.

As previously mentioned, the canteen was separated into two, the storeroom and the dining room which were separated from the two by a mere door and a wall. If you count the opposite side of the cashier and the freezer inside the storeroom as separate rooms then we'd have a total of 4 rooms. The door that led to the campus square closes automatically unless someone enters recently. The storeroom was where the goodies were at but I doubt a prestigious college like this used canned food as ingredients so at most what we stand to gain from this is beverages, knives as weaponry, stale pastries and possibly even a fresh meal.

I point my phone at the door and see silhouettes of at least 7-10 zombies just near the exit which meant there were probably more zombies deeper into the canteen. My mind wanders back to the laptop we had inside our bags for a solution to how we'd handle the zombie-filled canteen problem. The plan I had in mind was to have all of us wait inside one of the many rooms in this hallway while I leave one of our laptops in an open room to the farthest corner possible. I would then connect my phone to the laptop using Bluetooth and have it play whatever song I had inside of it.

We then go back to the maintenance room so I could brief the rest of my group on the plan I concocted just a few minutes earlier. None of them objected so I started setting up a soon-to-be zombie dance party in a room directly opposite to the doors of the canteen. "Well, now this is sort of a problem... I guess?" I whisper to myself while scratching my head. Alyssa who was right beside me the entire time managed to hear what I had just said, prompting her to clutch the hems of my hoodie, hoping to get me to tell her why.

"Well, technically I could raise the volume enough for the zombies inside the canteen to hear but if I did that then the audio might be heard by the things outside as well. Another option is that I stay outside, open the door myself and only play the audio strong enough for the zombies inside the canteen to hear." I whisper to her. With each word out of my mouth, her expression grew warier and warier of what had to be done. This, of course, did not go unnoticed to me as I took the hand she was clutching my hoodie with and held it with my own.

"It's going to be okay, the zombies can't see me anyways. Come on, I need to inform the others of the changes I've made" I tell her, knowing that my words wouldn't be enough to clear her worries. I go to the other two who remained guarded while watching our backs for any stragglers and inform them of my final decision. They grew worried as well but it was either that or risk calling the rest of the campus to our location. I stand in front of the door, phone in hand while the rest of the group stood inside the maintenance room. I breathe in what might just be my last breath as I open the door to the canteen and start playing the audio. The chosen song was about never giving you up nor will the singer let you down or something along those lines.

This wakes the hibernating zombies inside which begin to growl loud enough to wake all the others inside the room with them. A total of at least 20 zombies came out and charged in the direction of the laptop. I leave the cover of the glass door behind me and go to the maintenance room where the others stood on standby. All four of us then head inside with me letting the others go in first but before I could join them inside, the audio of the song starts playing on my phone which probably meant one, the previously distracted zombies are going to come to me now and two, the laptop had possibly be trampled or somehow broken by the zombies. The audio that comes from my phone manages to attract at least three of the zombies' attention back to our general direction, prompting them to begin running toward me.

I enter the canteen while turning my audio off before they could even reach halfway close the door. Ren and Chisato push the table right as soon as I get inside and out of the way, effectively sealing and stopping the zombies in the hallway from getting in. The three zombies who managed to hear the sliver of audio that came from my phone bumped their heads straight into the reinforced glass door, alerting the rest of their "pack" of where their next meal is residing.

Ren and Chisato continue reinforcing the barricade with the closest tables and chairs they could find while I sit down on the chair next to me. Alyssa walks up to me and pushes the sleeves of my jacket up as if she was looking for something specific. "No wounds, that's good" she tells me breathlessly before hugging me all of a sudden. This intimate moment between us lasts only a few seconds though as we hear a snarl coming from the opposite side of the cashier.

Pushing through the small horizontal exit only to stumble in its way was the same cashier who served us our first "meal" here at the school, back when I gave Alyssa her tour. This time though, one of the waist straps of the apron she wore had been removed with her pants soaked in blood as a huge chunk of her thigh was missing. I remove my bokken which I had strapped earlier to my back and grip it tightly, intending to end the zombie in front of us myself but Alyssa holds me back by placing her hand on my chest before opening her palm while looking at the bokken I now had. I hand it to her semi reluctantly, understanding what she was intending to do.

She walks toward the zombie which had just gotten up after stumbling earlier only to then push it away using the end of my bokken. The zombie slightly stumbles back only for it to then be hit at the side of its head, causing it to crash against the wall before slumping down on the floor. The zombie lays prone on the floor while looking sideways, directly exposing its temples to Alyssa. She finishes the job by directly slamming my bokken to the exposed temple, killing it, permanently this time.

She goes back to me, this time her head faced downwards as she hands the bloodied bokken back to me. I reach out to her hand and take away the bokken, placing it on top of the table close to me before hugging her, hoping it would be enough to comfort her over her first "kill". She hugs me back with her face pushing further into my chest as I glance at the doors that led to the campus square, staring directly at the abyss outside.