10.

"I'm taking the keys so you don't have to wait for us. Just go and get some rest. We are leaving early morning." Kakashi said to Kohta and Takashi.

He and Homura were going out to scavenge some supplies. There was a small protest at first, later Nino said she is going with him, but Kakashi put her down saying it would be much safer if only just the two of them goes. Then Saya voiced out that what they are about to do is basically theft, but Homura responded that the world went to shit anyway so no law applies to them.

"And I understand that you are in 'that' age. You know, hormones and so on. But try to control yourselves, okay?" Kakashi smirked at the two teens as both of them blushed hard. It looked like Kohta was enjoying his imagination as he almost fainted from excitement and Takashi just told him to go to hell.

******

The night was as silent as never before. There wasn't a distant sound of engines working, no bustling noise of people coming back home from their shifts. But wasn't that good kind of silence when you enjoy it, it was more creepy and disturbing.

Kakashi peeked his head from behind the corner, seeing that no zombies were close, he signaled to Homura to run to the other side of the road.

"Let's take this way, it should be safer," Homura said after hoping above the small wall.

They didn't take an AR or SMG, just knifes for each of them and a Glock with one spare magazine. Both had a black bag on their back, meant to load the supplies in them. Kakashi said they won't need a vest, as it's supposed to be a quick action, in and out.

A stray zombie was banging on the metal doors right in front of them, thankfully the alley was too narrow to let too many of them wander around. Kakashi silently approached the former human and with swift and a powerful stab to the temple he permanently killed the walker.

Homura walked over and checked his pockets. "Poor bastard. They ripped his face off." He said in a distasteful manner after standing up from the corpse.

Kakashi cleaned the blade on the zombie's clothes. "Leave it. The shop should be further down the alley."

"Yeah."

The two of them silently jogged through the alley, taking care of the met walkers in turns, once Kakashi, once Homura. Both men were glad that they didn't encounter an Infected. That would make a lot of noise. Kakashi checked his wristwatch. 15 minutes passed already.

"Akado, open the door." Said Kakashi as he covered his friend.

Homura walked to the door and checked it for a few seconds. They were obviously locked from the other side.

"We won't get through here... we can try through the other building. Or through the front door."

"No." Kakashi shook his head. "There are too many of them on the streets." He looked at the wandering groups of walkers. "Bust the door."

"You sure? That would make a lot of noise." Homura wasn't certain about that plan.

"We have no choice. Do it, I will cover you." Kakashi sighed and walked a few feet away, closer to the street.

"Damn it... Fine." Homura took a deep breath and backed off from the door. In the next second, he charged at them and set a kick near the doorknob.

*Bam!*

The sound of the kick spread through the silent night, making it feel louder than it was in reality. The nearby Zs were alarmed by the sudden noise and started walking towards the two of them.

Kakashi didn't wait for them, instead, he dashed at the first approaching walker with a knife in his hand. The walker throws his arms toward him, but Kakashi just sidestepped to avoid it. He kicked the knees of his target and smashed its face on the wall, breaking it like a coconut.

"Hargh!" The gurgling noise alarmed Kakashi in time. Crouching down, the female zombie missed him and crashed into the wall. Wasting no time, Kakashi pulled the zombie by its hair and struck the knife through its forehead. Both deads happened in seconds.

After his second kill, Kakashi backed off a few meters, making a distance between himself and incoming zombies.

*Bam!*

Kakashi heard Homura breaching the door again. 'Fuck, it could be the wrong idea... If they are barricaded from the inside we are fucked.' Thought Kakashi while killing another zombie.

Suddenly he felt a pull on his leg. Down on the ground, the half of a man was crawling towards him. The man was missing his lower part, dragging his insides on the concrete. Yanking his leg out of the zombie's grip, Kakashi kicked its head like a soccer ball. More zombies were attracted by the commotion. The narrow alley started lacking space, slowly pushing back Kakashi.

A hand from the side shot at him followed by the growl. Kakashi grabbed its wrist and redirected the hit to the side, shoving his knife through the lower jaw of the walker.

*Bam!*

*Ting!*

"Get back here! It's open!" Homura yelled to Kakashi.

Kakashi sighed in relief. He swept the nearest walker of its legs, making other zombies stumble over it, buying a few precious seconds for Kakashi.

He ran toward his friend and saw him standing inside the building by the opened door. Dash in inside, Homura slammed the door shut.

"Come on, get something to block it!" Homura said in hurry. He was holding the door as they couldn't use the lock because it was broken.

Kakashi looked around quickly, there was nothing of use on the left, but on the right, he saw a vending machine, just a few feet from the door.

"Give me a hand!" Kakashi pointed toward the machine and jumped to it. Homura grabbed it and pulled it with all he got, while Kakashi pushed it. Even though it was empty, it was heavy as hell.

"Garh!"

The door busted open as one of the zombies burst inside. Homura let go of the machine and threw the walker back outside, falling on another zombie. Homura closed the door again and hold it against the raging monsters.

"Faster, Kakashi!" Homura yelled as he could feel he is pushed back.

"Move aside!" Kakashi instead of pushing the machine to cover the door decided to knock on the ground.

As the machine fell, it covered almost half of the door. But most importantly, it created a hell of a noise!

Both men looked at the barricaded door and then at themselves, sighing in relief. They sat at the vending machine and fist-bumped.

"Two minutes?" Homura asked stretching his shoulder.

"Yeah..." Kakashi agreed on a small break. Massaging the back of his neck, he could hear the voice of his friend.

"Quite ironic isn't it?"

"What exactly?"

"This whole situation. I imagined myself in this kind of scenario, like all the time but..." Homura's voice trailed off.

"But it's hit differently in reality, huh?"

"Yeah." Homura agreed. "It's a lot different. We used to protect them in the past and now we are bashing their head to gather some food. I mean, it feels wrong... But nothing we could do about it, no?" He chuckled in delf mockery.

Kakashi put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't think too much about it. We are doing it to survive so don't jump out with some existential crisis shit." He hit him friendly in the shoulder.

"Aye, aye." He laughed honestly and jumped on his feet. "Let's go. We should make it quick. I want to have at least a few hours of good sleep."

****

"Sooo~! Tell us more about him!" Rei jumped on Nino and started tickling her.

"N-no! Hahaha! G-g-get off!" Nino started fighting for her freedom, yelling through the laughter.

It was 10 minutes ago when Kakashi and Homura left the apartment. The girls were inside Nino's room, all wearing pajamas, meaning their underwear and tank tops.

"Hey, hey, give her a rest." Tome grabbed Rei and put her aside, like a little kitten. Before Nino could thank her, she looked at her with a strange glare. "Now, let us hear you out."

"Ooh~ A love story! I love these! C'mon, tell us, tell us~!" Shizuka started chanting aloud, jumping up and down while sitting on the bed. Tomoe stared at her chest and cursed life for being unfair and inferior genetics.

Feeling cornered, Nino looked for help from Saya, but she was in the bathroom, so her hopeful eyes fell on Saeko. She was sitting cross-legged at the edge of the bed.

"I want to know more about him too," Saeko said seriously staring Nino in the eyes.

'Hold up!' Nino jolted in her place and frowned at Saeko's words. "Why? Why do you want to know more about him?" Nino said with her arm crossed, her eyes sternly looking at the older girl. She didn't know why but she felt threatened.

Rei, Tomoe, and Shizuka just sat aside and amusingly spectated the show with amused grins on their faces.

"Just a curiosity. He seems like a very capable man with an experience in fighting... and killing." Her last words brought silence to the room.

Nino's eyes widened as she didn't expect the conversation to take such a turn.

"He killed before, didn't he?"