Yosuke ran into the meeting room at 10:27 in the morning, gasping to catch his breath. The room was full of campers sitting in a circle on the floor. He spotted Yukiko and Chie sitting next to each other on the other side of the room. He made his way to them and dropped himself on to the ground.
"Hey," he panted.
"Sheesh, Yosuke. Where have you been? You were supposed to be here about an hour ago," said Chie, annoyed.
"I overslept," said Yosuke with a smile and a wink. "I was in bed when suddenly my dad came in and started yelling at me about getting ready for this camp you talked me into coming to. Man, this better not suck as bad as the school trip. Where's everybody else?"
"I think it's just us three and a bunch of other students. Rise has some sort of charity tour going on, Naoto wasn't the least bit interested, and I don't think Kanji wanted to go because we ruined the whole idea of 'camping' for him," said Yukiko, ending with a frown.
"H-h-hey, Yukiko. Don't blame yourself. Anyway, what about Teddie?" asked Chie.
"Yeah, I told him about the trip and he was pretty pumped, but I couldn't get a hold of him. He must be in the other world for whatever reason," Yosuke answered.
"Well, it doesn't surprise me too much that he'd forget. Anyway, you didn't miss much, Yosuke. The counselors just introduced themselves and put is in groups. They didn't group you because you weren't here, but Yukiko and I are together, so maybe you can just join us."
With that, a counselor came in and brought all of the campers to a silence. He asked that the groups meet up in their assigned locations to begin their first activity before lunch. Yukiko stood up and brushed her knees as another counselor came up behind her. Some of the food in the kitchen has gone bad, and the camp staff was all busy with the first-day commotion. The counselor thought Yukiko looked mature and capable and asked her if she could handle going to the supermarket down the road. Yukiko agreed and received a backpack, a list, and some money.
It was a fine day, but a long walk. The road was long and curvy, and was surrounded by thick forest on either side. The road led from nothing but the camp behind her, and stretched ahead to a small town in front of her. Yukiko had been walking for a while and still couldn't see any sign of settlement besides the occasional faded road signs; she was already tired and was afraid she had gotten herself lost. She began to worry about the whole scenario. Why would they send a camper down a road this long? Aren't they worried about me getting lost? They gave her the camp's phone number in case something went wrong, but she didn't want to call unless there was a true emergency.
Yukiko was tired now. She had been walking for about thirty-five minutes, according to the clock on her cell phone. She walked off the road and found a mossy boulder to lean against. She couldn't help but to be a bit proud of herself, though. A year and a half ago, she wouldn't have made it as far as she did. She knew that it was her excursions into the TV world that had kept her in such great shape. She thought about it, and began to miss going into the television regularly. All of the exercise kept her in great shape, and nobody asked why the elegant heiress was getting better toned despite all of the fried tofu and steak she had been eating with Chie. She had kept most of her new muscle, but she knew that she would never be able to return to her diet now that she didn't have any extra-curricular activities like dungeon crawling. She stretched out, examined her legs with admiration for a moment, and then fell asleep.
Yukiko woke up later, sprawled across the ground. She sat up, stared forward for a second, and then began to panic. "I fell asleep!" she said aloud in her fear. She got up onto her feet. She was worrying about the camp counselors. They counted on her and she took too long. They were probably scared stiff about where the unsupervised camper was. It wasn't until then that she thought to pull out her phone. 12:11. She had been asleep for about thirty minutes. She was about to call camp when she noticed the smell of smoke. Because of the light breeze, she couldn't tell wear it was coming from, but it masked over all the other odors of the wilderness. She called the counselors but she didn't seem able to connect with them. Or with Chie. Or with Yosuke. Or with Kanji or the inn or the Dojimas or anyone she would talk to in case of an emergency. Something must be awry with the phone company. Overreacting. I'm just… Overreacting. She stepped back onto the road when she realized she didn't remember which way was town and which way was camp, in fact, she did not recognize anything around her. And even if she did know where she was, she wasn't sure if she should go through with her responsibility as an errand girl or check up on the camp. She went ahead and chose a direction, frequently pausing in hesitation to ponder whether she made the right move.
She was getting fatigued again, but she didn't want to stop again. Eventually she saw the bright orange and green colors of a gas station's sign at the bend in the road. Excited, she picked up her pace. When she approached it, her heart sank. The place looked abandoned at first glance. The glass of the door was broken and one of the gas pumps was knocked over. Still, a reasonably maintained (but still worn) looking car sat in front of it, and a shiny push mower was sitting by the side, and that gave her hope. She opened the door—unlocked—and took care not to step on the broken glass. She shrieked when she averted her attention from the messy floor to the station in front of her. There were a few men walking around, but one was right in front of her, standing on his hands and knees gnawing on wrapped beef snacks that had been sprawled across the floor. He looked up at the screaming girl and got up with a running start. Yukiko instantly assumed that this man must be some kind of thief and was up to no good, so she ran out of the station. However, the doorframe caught her leg and she tripped. The man grabbed Yukiko by her outstretched leg and began to tug. She kicked and until her shoe became loose and got back up. She found a long lead pipe outside the station's entrance. She seized it, and then returned to the man.
"Now, get back!" asserted Yukiko, surprising herself with the courage she was showing. Still, the man seemed uninterested in her show and lunged forward. Yukiko closed her eyes and swung the pipe with a shout. When she opened her eyes, the man's neck had taken a 90 degree angle. I'm a… murderer? Then, she saw that the man was still moving his jaw up and down without slowing. She looked up away from the man and saw the other gas station inhabitants were starting to shuffle toward the commotion she had made. "Who are these people? Demons? Shadows?"
Yukiko ran out to the lawn mower and revved it up. As she predicted, a couple of the men came out in response to the noise of the engine. She set the mower up so that it was being supported by only the back wheels and pushed forward. The lawn mower's blades sliced up the calves and knees of the first man who got in her way, and he fell down like a chopped tree. She tried to push the mower into her next adversary, but the remaining leg stubs of the man she just mowed down were making things difficult. Speaking of whom, he was still crawling, not bothered by his loss of feet. "Sheesh. It's like in one of Chie's zombie movies." She picked up the mower as well as she could and dropped it on the crawling man's head. She looked away, but the sound of crushing bones and bloody screams was gruesome. Yukiko ran past the other two zombies who had come out and into the gas station again, imagining that she could find something useful in there. She spotted a knife display in the back and ran for it, but tripped over a crouching zombie. The zombie stood up and made its way toward her, and a second one came out from behind a shelf. Yukiko, wasting no time, smashed open the glass case with her elbow and threw a couple of knives with deadly accuracy, much in the way she had been throwing her fans in the television. The first knife hit one of the zombies in the forehead, leaving a bloody gash but bouncing to the ground. The second knife hit the other zombie square in the throat, dropping it to the ground. Yukiko had noticed that the fallen zombie was wearing a uniform of the same orange and green as the gas station's sign. Assuming him to be the sole employee, she unhooked its keys from its belt and darted away before the other zombie took its chance to strike.
Yukiko picked up the fallen knife and drove it into the remaining zombie's temple before making a break toward the station's entrance. But in her way was one more zombie, shuffling towards her. It was time to try something. Yukiko took a deep breath, held out her hand, and concentrated. She had hoped her Persona's tarot card would've appeared. She tried again, this time saying "Persona" out loud. She had never bothered trying to summon her Persona in the real world. The zombie was now right in her face. She closed her eyes, held both fists two her chests, and shouted "PERSONA!"
And the zombie grabbed her. She was able to deter the zombie by grabbing its arm and shoving it away, but she could not help but to feel a little foolish despite her lack of audience.
Yukiko left the gas station. They keys worked and she was able to get into and start the car. She had never driven before, but she knew how to start the car and all that; the rest should just fall into place. She revved the engine, thinking about Chie and Yosuke.