Mark

"Nothing seems to be moving." Saya mumbled as she looked around through her scope, laying flat on the left side of the car's roof. Said car parked right under the main gate.

"The main building's first floor is a broken mess, whole parts of the wall seem to be missing, as I can see straight through the house and towards the back side of the estate." I add as I point ahead, my feet touching the hood while I was sitting on the center of the roof...

(The first floor seems to have several walls made from traditional Japanese paper/lattice walls. I'd go on a limb and say that these are bad for keeping corpses out, seeing how it seems like a damn train passed through the first floor...)

"The back wall, half of the left side, and the front side of the first floor were traditionally built." Saeko, who was next to me on the right side continued.

"So all that noise 'should' have moved most corpses out of the first floor then." I nod slightly as I fold my arms.

"Hypothetically." Saeko nods back.

"The second and third floor should be intact though, as they were made with sturdier materials" Saeko continues.

"Make the bottom floor out of paper, the upper floor out of titanium. How come the house is still standing?" I ask as I chuckle.

"If the supports and load-bearing walls are sturdy, then some open holes won't matter." Khota, who was with his upper body out of the hatch, replies flatly. Causing me to turn and stare at the guy.

"W, what?" He then asks as he glances at me.

"I didn't know you worked in construction." I respond as I arch an eyebrow.

"Ahh, well. Uhh, there was this survival game I played that had realistic structural support physics and if you messed up your whole house could get toppled if you put too much weight at the wrong spot..." Khota mumbles.

"Huh, so the geek's knowledge ended up being useful." Saya scoffs.

"...Saya, you know I'm a 'geek' too in that aspect right?" I sigh slightly as I turn to the pinkette.

"Uhh, well you're..."

"And were you not the one playing video games on that laptop Saya?" I cut her off with a small smirk.

"You play video games?!" Khota then exclaims, leaning his face towards Saya with sparks in his eyes.

"L, let's focus on the task at hand you idiots!" Saya quickly blurts out as she turns to look back through her scope.

"Busted~" I chuckle as I turn to look ahead as well.

"Shut up..." Saya mumbled.

"So, should we start?" Saeko then asks as she leans toward me.

Other than the main building in the center, there was a roofed garage to the left, big enough for about three Humvees, behind it I could make out a big building that looked like a warehouse.

In the center was the main building as mentioned, and to the right, another smaller warehouse/garage, that also had the generator attached at the outer side that faced the main building, based on what Saeko told me.

Behind that in the distance the Dojo was partly visisble. Behind the main building, a Japanese-style garden, at least from what I could see through the holes in the main house.

And finally, in front was an open unused space. Unpaved, meaning that if somebody had the know-how, they could hypothetically plant something.

"We'll start with the two small warehouses next to the house, then move to the main building." I say as I get up, checking my Scar-H and sword.

"Very well. Let us begin then~" Saeko then adds as she also gets up a smirk on her lips.

"Keep away from the fallen corpses, we don't know if any of them are crawlers." I point towards our left as I jump down the car's hood, taking the long way around the mass of 'dead' corpses that had fallen over each other in the courtyard.

"Checking these will be a risk. Need to figure out a safe way to do it..." I mumble as I keep walking.

"We could just make a lot of noise." Saeko, who had followed up next to me whispers.

"Yea. But one problem at the time. Let's see the insides before we turn our back to the house." I respond. Saeko nods slightly.

And so, upon reaching the leftmost building, the garage, I knock on the closed shutter gate. And...

-Thud!-

"...We got at least one inside." I look around before walking to the edge of the front wall as I speak, looking at the small 'corridor' between the garage's wall and the main building's wall.

(Huh, this house seems even taller from up close.)

"I see a window here, half open. Saeko, keep an eye on your back, I'm going to check the window, I'll tell you if you are to make some noise." I turn towards Saeko, who had drawn her blade. She nods at me and turns to look behind her.

And so, I walk up to the window. And upon peeking inside...

(One by the shutter, one on the opposite corner hitting its head against the, wall? And two on the floor in the middle. No car inside, metal rack shelves with tools, and a table on the far right side...)

I pull my radio, which I took from a reluctant Saya after giving mine to Saeko, and press the speak button.

"Kick the shutters." I whisper before pocketing the radio again. And a second later...

-SLAM-

A loud noise echoed from the shutter. Yet, nothing changed, other than the corpse in front of the shutter getting aggravated and slamming back harder.

The two corpses on the floor stayed there, the headbanger kept banging its head...

(Well, here goes nothing.)

With a last glance behind me, I open the window and quickly take a look inside to make sure there were no corpses next to the window.

And then I enter the garage through the window.

I pull my knife and silently walk up to the two downed corpses while staying crouched...

I quickly grab one corpse by the collar and yank it before stabbing it on the side of the head. And as quickly, do the same for the second downed corpse.

I lift my head to see the other two standing corpses still doing their own thing...

I get up and walk up to the headbanging corpse. Using my free hand I push it up against the wall so it would stop moving around, and then plant the blade of my knife to its side of its skull as it turned its disfigured head towards me. Backing off and letting the corpse fall next to me.

Or at least that was the idea, as apparently all that headbanging might have made the thing numb to the fact that it should be, dead dead. As it tried, and failed, to turn around and charge at me, the word being tried, as it ended up stumbling and charging right into a shelf filled with tools that were next to it, a good two meters away from me.

-CRASH-

And it toppled the whole thing with it under it, causing the corpse by the shutters to turn around and come towards me.

"What happened?" And my radio speaks up.

"I'm fine!" I shout as I sheath the knife and draw my actual sword. And with a quick side step as the corpse walked up to me, I bring the blade down to its extended arms, severing both with a clean cut, then, with a swift kick to the back of the knee, the corpse fell to one knee, and one sideways upward slash later the corpse lost its head, as it's body slumped lifelessly to the floor.

"Clear." I whisper as I look around, sheathing my blade and walking up to the shutters.

After a quick look around, I find the manual roller on the left side and head to it, grabbing the thin flat rope and giving it a strong pull, causing the shutter to lift slightly off the ground...

(If this was a video game this'd be a button-mashing moment.)

I chuckle under my breath as I start pulling the rope until the shutter was about three fourth's open. While in the meantime Saeko crouched under the shatters and entered the now clear building.

"What happened?" She quickly asks as she looks at me.

"Apparently corpses don't use the whole of their brains." I motion with my head towards the now unmoving corpse under the shelves.

"Thing kept going after bashing its skull against the wall and getting stabbed to the head" I add.

"Hum, I knew that some people working under my father were a bit, thick-skulled. Didn't expect it to be literal though." Saeko huffs as she makes a one-sided smirk.

"And here I was thinking that you might get bothered by the fact that we might be killing people you knew..." I chuckle back.

"I did not know them. I did not interact with the people my father had give and takes. They had nothing to offer me that I was interested in." Saeko shrugs as she turns to look back out.

"Alright, let's go back to the other storage next to the house, then the main house." I back off from the rope and head up next to the purple-haired Samurai, who just nods back at me.

And so, we walk back out of the garage, and towards the front entrance of the main building.

The front, as I mentioned, was wrecked, as after a few wooden steps and a porch, one-third of the wall that should have been there was essentially missing, as if ripped off from the seams. With only part the sides of the wall remaining, as they seemed to be made from a sturdy material. From where I was, I could see that the main room was a Japanese-style living room. Tatami floor, short wide table in the center and all. I also noticed that the still-standing walls had some bullet holes in them...

"Somebody went a bit trigger happy it seems, or there are corpses that are packing heat around here somewhere..." I arch an eyebrow as I keep looking around, then start to walk past the main building. Saeko just tilted her head questionably.

( At least, I hope they are corpses. Living people with guns is trouble.)

And so, we moved to the other side of the building, the smaller, warehouse-like structure becoming visible, its shutter wide open, completely empty inside.

Also, on the wall that faced the main house, a relatively big rectangular metal box, a single panel embedded in it.

"This's the generator?" I ask with a whisper as I motion with my head towards the box. Saeko nods back.

"So it's supposed to connect to the main building," I add as I turn to look towards the main building's wall. This one fully intact, as it was made by actual, well, walls. Yet, there was one weird thing about it.

"Huh? Why are the windows this up high?" I ask as I point at the main building's windows, which were in fact about two to two and a half meters up high.

"The house is a bit elevated, I think it had something to do with foundation problems? From the inside the windows are actually where they are supposed to be." Saeko then responds as she folds her arms.

(No wonder the house seemed tall.)

"I'd say that would make it harder for intruders to enter, but uhh. The first floor is missing half its walls right now so..." I chuckle as I look towards the far back side, behind the main building, the dojo visible, along with a small part of the garden.

"Well, this side looks cl..." Just as I was about to finish, a single corpse pops up from behind the warehouse, still several meters away from us.

"Lear..." I sigh as I start to draw my blade, only for Saeko to dash past me and teach the corpse how to divide itself, before glancing towards the blind side behind the warehouse, and quickly raising her blade again before disappearing behind the wall...

A 'slash' and 'thud' later, she pops up, blood staining her shirt and side of her face.

"Now it is clear." She gently smiles as blood trickled down her cheek...

I just stared at the sight before shaking my head to snap out.

"Uhh, right." I mumble as I turn around to head towards the main building's entrance. Saeko just followed behind me with a small giggle.

Upon heading to the central entrance of the main building and climbing up to the front porch...

(Damn, this place is a wreck. Gonna need to expert levels of carpentry to fix them holes. Also bleach, because bloodstains...)

I turn to Saeko and motion to be silent from now on by putting my finger over my mouth, she just nodded back in silence.

Now as for the insides go, other than a single corpse that was under the short table, slowly shuffling about, I could not see other corpses, yet the place was like a blood tornado just passed from here, the wall in front of me, ripped off the seams, the wall on the other side, also torn to pieces, along with the back outer wall of the main building. With the missing walls, a staircase on the far right side of the building was partly visible, along with a wide view of the back garden, the large warehouse, and about half of the dojo.

The wall to my left was partly intact, the part next to me was still there, but the further side was once again missing, essentially fusing the hallway that should have been between this room and the outer wall into one. Now the wall to my right was actually fully intact, even the door was still there. It was just that, I was pretty sure that that wall was not supposed to be crimson...

I motion to Saeko towards the corpse on the floor under the table as I silently start to move towards the other side of the room. Saeko nods and draws her blade as I walk past the table, only to hear a single 'thud' from behind me seconds later.

Once I was near the stairs, I glanced toward the upper floor.

(Pitch black. Fun...)

Then look to my left. And I found why the left wall on the inner side was still partly standing. The still-standing partition ended up being part of another room, having a single closed door that looked towards the garden.

Throwing one last glance at the staircase, I head to the closed door and get a better look at it.

(Solid wood, no idea what's behind it.)

With that though, I push it slightly...

No reaction...

I frown and grab the handle slowly turning it and pulling the door.

This time the door opened with no resistance.

And, I didn't even need to fully open it, to see that the insides were a bathroom.

I take a deep breath, and fully open the door as I backstep...

A single corpse was inside a filled, blood-red bathtub on the far side of the room, a line of cupboards on the left side, much like you'd see in a modular kitchen, the central cupboard having a sink attached to it, the wall over the cupboard being a giant, sadly cracked mirror. And finally, another corpse on the ground, missing half an arm.

I pull my knife and enter the bathroom, walking over the female-looking armless corpse before kneeling over it, using my leg to push against it as I make sure it was 'really' dead.

Afterward, I glance at the corpse in the tub. Unlike the dead body I found in the bathtub inside the building with the tools that shot Rika, this one did not look pale. It was a male corpse, butt naked with bitemarks all over the place.

"You should have watched where you stick it I guess..." I whisper as I hit the hilt of the knife on the cupboard next to me a couple of times, and the corpse reacts. Groaning as it tries to get up, only to keep losing its grip as its hands kept slipping on the lip of the bathtub.

As I kept staring at the poor SOB that was trying to get out of the bath.

-Knock, knock-

Knocking from behind me.

Throwing a quick glance behind me, I find Saeko, making an 'ok' sign at me, before raising an eyebrow and looking past me at the naked corpse. She then looks back at me, eyebrow still arched. I just shrugged and turned to look back at the corpse again. l placed my knife on top of the cupboard to my left, drew my blade, and stabbed the sluggish corpse to the face, essentially doing it a favor.

Then I sheathed both my blade and knife and turned to Saeko, who turned to exit the room. Me following behind her.

(There's only one door left to check, the one in the bloody wall.)

I nod slightly and head towards the wall to the right side of the living room that had now an unmoving corpse under the table.

Upon reaching the door, I glance at Saeko as I put my hand on the handle. She nods and ready's her blade. I nod back and try to pull the door.

No reaction.

I then push, and the door clicks as if it was now open, yet it just budged, very slightly.

I frown and give it a stronger push. Nothing.

"Barred from the other side." I whisper.

"We can use the windows. The ones you asked me about a few minutes before." Saeko responds, I just nod and turn to leave the building.

And like that, we found ourselves by the generator again.

"Can you give me a boost? Or you want me to?" Saeko then asks as she sheaths her blade.

I shake my head and walk under the window, kneeling slightly and intertwining my fingers.

Now, the thing was. Saeko wears a rather, short skirt...

And nobody told me that after she would step on my hand, she would bright her other leg on my shoulder to balance herself, essentially spreading my legs right on my damn face...

(...Black...)

On the other hand, knowing Saeko. Maybe she was very well aware of what she was doing...

Especially considering that...

(...I can feel a glare all the way from the Humvee right now...)

The car was in plain view.

"There is a table blocking the door." Saeko casually remarks as she essentially keeps flashing her underwear at my face.

"I also see three corpses inside. No idea if there are more on the floor" She adds as she finally climbs up completely.

"Hmm, ahh. There, this window is open." Just as she says that she jumps back down, landing in front of me, then taps my shoulder to move out the way.

"But I do not think I can enter through there with the corpses waiting right next to the window." She folds her arms as she narrows her eyes, looking at the window. She then glances at the second window that was further down the wall.

"Can we try that window too?" She asks casually as she points that the further window.

"Sure." I answer with a slight shrug as I head toward the second window.

(I could make a joke of her not having to stick her panties to my face, but I'm eighty-nine present sure she'd turn that joke on my head)

With that though, I motion towards Saeko with my head as I take position under the window.

Saeko nods, and repeats the exact damn movements...

(...Zombies, Naier, keep focus on the things trying to stuff their face with your face...)

Saeko uses the hilt of her blade to hit the window a couple of times, causing the corpses inside to turn towards the source of the new noise.

"Alright, this should do it." Saeko nods slightly as she jumps back down.

And as we walk back to the first window.

"You want me to open the door first, or clear the corpses?" Saeko asks as she turns to me.

"Open the door, it's a kitchen, how much free space you got in there to move freely?" I ask back.

"It is spacious enough for me to deal with a couple of corpses of that is what you are asking me." Saeko answers as she tilts her head, while in the time I take position under the window.

"See if you can free up the door, if they get too close, then drop em." I answer. Saeko just nods back and proceeds to climb up, this time entering through the window.

(Alright, let's go to the front.)

I nod and quickly run back towards the front of the house, before entering and stopping in front of the kitchen door.

A few seconds later, I hear the sound of something heavy being dragged across the floor, and the door opens, Saeko peeking her head from behind the door.

(Is it just me, or is she even more bloody now?...)

That question got quickly answered, as I entered the room to find not a single corpse was still standing...

"...You just could not resist huh..." I chuckle as I fold my arms, looking at the 'dead' corpses on the floor.

"They, got too close?" Saeko responds, while still 'hiding' behind the door, only her head peeking out.

"Close? These guys are on the other side of the room." I arch an eyebrow as I point to the far end of the kitchen.

"They were being uncivilized." Saeko responds a bit as she closes the door.

"Uhh, speaking of the other side of the room..." I take a deep breath as I look around the room.

For a kitchen, it was big, maybe too big.

It was wide enough to need four to five people standing next to each width-wise. And it essentially looked like a long corridor, since it run most of the length of the main building.

To the right, where the windows were, a line of kitchen cupboards, two installed with sinks, other having kitchen utensils on them like blenders or cutting boards.

The left side had some steel trips with hooks, with even more kitchen tools hanging on.

The whole place was also paved with a marble-like floor. Yet, it was not slippery, considering all the blood splattered about. Which was honestly a good thing. One for the fact that unlike the tatami floors in the main room they will be easy to clean. And two, well let's just say I'd rather not slip into a corpse's open mouth.

And lastly, on the other side of the room. A big, sturdy metallic door...

"Why do you have a vault door here?" I ask as I tilt my head.

"Vault door?" Saeko also tilts her head questionably. I just point straight ahead.

"Ohh. That's just the fridge's door." Saeko monchalantly responds.

"...That's, not a fridge Saeko, that's a vault door leading to another room." I respond flatly.

"Yes, to the fridge." Saeko awnsers just as flatly.

"...You fridge is room sized?" I turn to look at Saeko with a preplexed expresion.

"Making constant trips to the city to restock was just as much of a waste even before the outbreak Naier." Saeko chuckles back, missing the point that, well. Fridge room?

"If that was stocked up before electricity got cut, it must smell like crap now..." I sigh as I drop my hand.

"No idea if it had anything inside, let's check it?" Saeko asks as she starts walking towards the door, casually walking over the corpses.

(...Did she just grind her heel on that corpse's face?...)

I blinked a couple of time before following Saeko.

Upon reaching the door. Saeko puts her hand on the handle.

"Wait. Come over to my side, so you'll be behind the door when you open it." I raise my hand as I pull my knife. Saeko nods and lets go of the handle, before grabbing it again after we changed sides.

With a small nod from me, she then pulls the handle, unlocking the metallic door with a loud thud, and starts to open it.

Yet, before she could even fully open it,

-THUD-

Something from the other side slams into the door, violently opening the rest of it, essentially slamming the door into Saeko. While at the same time the perpetrator himself was with arms stretched out, blindly charging straight at me.

I pull one leg back and ready my knife, only to find out that the leg I pulled back to stabilize myself, ended up getting blocked by a body before I could actually get a stance to counter the changing corpse, leaving me in a posture that was plainly put, bad.

"Shi..." Was the only thing I managed to mutter as the corpse crashed into me, sending me falling backward as I reflexively brought my right arm up in a defensive motion.

"Naier?!" And the moment I hit the ground, I heared Saeko shout. Opening my eyes, I found that the corpse was now gnawing at the armguard on my right arm.

Yet, somthing was weird, the pressure felt from the corpse's bite felt, strong, too strong. And then it hit me.

This armguard had already been cracked when Rika and I got stranded and a corpse had managed to get a bite out of it in the office building. In other words.

It was not doing its job properly.

(FUCK!)

I didn't manage to do anything else before the corpse found its head crushed against a cupboard and a boot heel. Only to then get grabbed by the back of its collar and get yeeted back inside the fridge, causing a chunk of the armguard to fly off along with it.

I quickly twist my arm and look at the armguard. A bite-sized chunk missing on the outer side of the middle section.

"Well, shit..." I mutter as I keep looking at the armguard.

"No, No no no!" Saeko kneels next to me, grabs my arm and undoes the front belt of the armguard, then violently pulls my sleeve up.

Now, the bad news, while the corpse didn't manage to actually bite the underside of my arm, was that there was an outline of a bitemark on the upper side of my arm. The good news was that there was no blood, and the mark did not seem to have broken the skin...

"Got to disinfect that, yesterday." I take a deep breath and use my leg to close the fridge door for good measure. Yet as I try to get up, Saeko did not move, she just kept an iron grip on my arm, staring at the mark.

Or at least, it seemed like she was staring. Her expression looked more like a thousand-yard stare, rather than an actual stare. She also did not seem to hear me, at all.

"Saeko." I grab her shoulder and shake her, causing her to finally turn at me staring at me like a fish for a few seconds, before turning to stare at one of the corpses next to us.

She then lets go of my arm and grabs one of the 'dead' corpses by the hair. Lifts its head, and shoves her wrist in its mouth.

"OI What The fuck?!" I quickly grab her arm and yank it back out, thankfully without any signs of cuts.

"LET ME GO!" Saeko screams back as she tries to break free from my hands.

"I DON'T WANT TO BE ALL ALONE AGAIN!" She continues to scream as she closes her eyes, shaking her head as she keeps flailing her arms, trying to break free.

"Saeko pull it together! There's no blood! It's just a mark not a bite!" I shout back as I bring my arm close to her face. Saeko finally opens her eyes and starts to stare at my arm again.

"I, I..." Was all she mumbled as she kept staring, and then, tears started running down her cheeks.

"Come on. Keep it together." I whisper as I pass let go of her hands and pass my other arm around her neck, pushing her on me as I start to get up, making her to get up alongside me.

"Disinfectant, does the bathroom have any rubbing alcohol and anything to cover it or something?" I add. Saeko took a few deep breaths, and nodded a couple of times

"Rubbing alcohol, yes, rubbing alcohol." She turns and runs out of the room, leaving her blade on the ground.

I glance towards the exit before quickly grabbing her blade and following behind her.

"Naier! What happened! We heard screaming!" Only to find Saya in the main room, staring at me, with Rika behind her.

"Sorry commando, I tried to stop her, she's awfully fast when she wants to be." Rika takes a few deep breaths as she stops next to Saya.

"For fuck's sake people! We're in hostile territory, return to your damn posts!" I shout as I point back out, with the wrong hand. While at the same time Saeko ran out of the bathroom with a napkin and a bottle of what I think was alcohol, or disinfectant, or something.

"Is, is that a bite?" And Saya asks as her eyes go wide, her voice seemingly leaving her lungs. While the meantime Saeko runs up to me and starts whipping my arm, seemingly not ever realizing, or caring that there were two other people here.

"No, I bumped against some bloody kitchen stuff. Everything's fine. Ugh, Rika, please bring Saya back to the damn car. This place ain't safe yet." I groan as I look behind me.

"Yea, sorry about that." Rika nods and starts to push Saya. Throwing a glance at my arm.

"You better not be lying to me..." Where Saya's last, whispering words as Rika made her turn around, though she did keep turning her head to look back towards me and Saeko as Rika led her away.

"Uhh, Saeko, think that should be enough." I then turn towards Saeko, who was still scrubbing my arm, her expression stuck in a blank wide-eyed stare.

"Saeko." I move my free hand and shake her shoulder.

"Huh? Naier?" Saeko snaps out of her unfocused stare and turns to look at me. Yet, she didn't seem any more focused.

"Saeko snap out of it. I am fine." I add as I wave my hand at her. Saeko just turned to look at my arm again.

"Saeko, focus." I bring my hands to her cheeks and make her face me again, then shake her head lightly. Glancing around the house to make sure that the shouting didn't bring any unwanted attention...

Honestly, it was not up until now that I realized how much of a mental crutch I was for her. Yes, she had told me so, but she was also the one that said that 'girls like acting weak'. So I had figured she was at least, partly acting. Yet, seeing her staring at me with that blank expression, as if her brain shut down. This is not something you can 'act'.

"Yes, I am fine." I nod as I keep looking at her.

(But, you are not. It's too risky to try and clear the upper floors while she's like this. And leaving her to do it myself is probably not a good idea. Since I got a feeling that she won't, behave.)

"Let's go back to the car, we'll clear the rest of the building after some time passed. Just so you can see that I am fine. Ok?" I 'ask' and push Saeko lightly as I start to walk, Saeko just nods and follows the force of my push...

(I need to find something to replace the damn armguard. One time I didn't maintain something and it bites me in the ass, or arm...)