The vault door in the main hall of Hope's Peak Academy creaked and moaned as it gave way to the outside. The teens behind the door were expecting to be blinded by the sun, which they hadn't seen for around a fortnight now. But the bright beams never arrived.
The path before them was barren; the ground was brown and no plants seemed to be growing, let alone blooming. Makoto stared in disbelief, as he began to slowly trace the path. The bag on his back, despite his short time wearing it, was already making his shoulders ache, and he visibly winced as he rolled the strap on his left shoulder. ''Perfect, not even a few yards out of this g-g-godforsaken school and you're a-already struggling.'' Makoto turned to the timid yet harsh voice's owner, Toko Fukawa. ''I'm okay, just wasn't expecting this to be so heavy is all.'' Toko seemed content with that answer, and chose to turn her attention to the Academy building that now loomed behind them. ''Hmph, seems a little more worn than I would've expected, even with atomic blasts,'' Byakuya mumbled almost to himself, pulling on the rope in his hands. ''Though I suppose we would be dead had we not been in the building, so we at least have something to thank our little mastermind for.'' The group looked about each other anxiously and silently for a moment, not knowing whether to agree or disagree. ''Would it have been better to die with everyone in the blasts all at once, or-'' Hina paused, a look of dejection on her face, ''- I-I don't know, watch them die in front of us?'' Kyoko and Hiro, who had been silent since leaving the school continued as such, leaving the rest of the group to fall silent as well. Makoto turned face and gave his signature grin to his peers, before motioning for them to follow him out of the seemingly invincible gates to the school.
It took some time to reach the gates (had the walk from the gate to class really been that long?). ''You okay with her, Byakuya?'' Makoto asked, hoping to at least reignite some conversation after several minutes a silence. ''She hasn't tried to resist yet, so I assume she's accepted her fate.'' He returned, almost jovially. He had her hands bound in rope, the end of which was in his right hand, which gripped it as if his life depended on it. It was Enoshima after all, so his life may well have depended on it. ''She hasn't yet?'' Kyoko inquired, turning back to see the subject in question. Junko Enoshima. Why she had decided to give in to Makoto's demand to accompany them was beyond Kyoko's deductions, especially after what she had explained about the outside world, the nuclear holocaust she had caused. It was the reason Kyoko had insisted they take as much food and other useful supplies as possibly, though that was now a detriment to Makoto's shoulders. ''She's been real quiet too, almost as if we gagged her!'' Hiro laughed, waiting for a chorus of giggles that never came. ''We did gag her, Hiro.'' Kyoko said flatly. Hiro could only chuckle nervously at the rolled eyes of those around him, including a particularly disapproving look from Junko herself, who didn't seem the slightest bit amused with tape covering her mouth.
Makoto, stood in the empty road directly outside the gate, looking back and forth down the street. The only thing in his vision was cracked overgrown pavement and the remains of people and cars alike. He had never seen anything like this, not even in dystopian movies. He looked at the bodies that decorated the street and the ones that were up against the fence, with the occasional arm outstretched as if yearning for something. Had the corpses he saw before him been people who knew that Hope's Peak was a shelter, or had they simply waned to be inside for the blasts? The more important question was one that made him question his thoughts further. How would these people have known that the Academy was a glorified nuclear bunker? He looked amongst his classmates. Other that Kyoko, who was attempting to examine several of hundreds of bodies in the street, there was little in the way of movement towards them. Even Junko seemed slightly apprehensive, though Makoto couldn't tell if that was because or Byakuya's ever tightening grip on the rope, or the guilt of causing all these deaths; he eventually decided on the former as he was pulled out of his thoughts by Kyoko. ''Did you hear me, Makoto?'' She asked politely, but clearly. ''Sorry, I was kinda out of it, what was it?'' ''Most of these bodies here have bullet holes in their skulls or ribcage.'' Kyoko stated dryly, pointing to the row of bodies she had been searching. Makoto's eyes widened, before he felt them look to the ground in front of his feet. ''They were probably shot for trying to get into the Academy to avoid the bombings.'' He glanced at the same row of skeletons again, and opened his mouth to speak before he was cut off by Byakuya's prideful, yet evidently solemn voice. ''I know what you want to say. That 'they were still people who deserved to live' and all that nonsensical waffle.'' Makoto replaced his thoughts of rage for the murders with ones with a softer rage for Byakuya. ''How can you say that when these people did nothing wro-'' Makoto began quietly, but was once again cut off by the Ultimate Heir. ''I never said I believed it to be nonsensical.'' Byakuya began, surprising even Toko with the lack of hostility behind his words. ''I meant that from the perspective of those in charge of Hope's Peak, letting commoners mingle with Ultimates is jeopardizing the only thing the school still had. Why risk the lives of Ultimates, even the more useless ones,'' He said, eyeing Hiro, who could only respond with a dulled 'Hey!' before the Heir continued, '' by allowing irrational and potentially dangerous citizens into the Academy?'' The 7 students once again fell silent, no one having a sound argument to Byakuya's strong one. The Progeny pushed up his glasses before walking over to The Mastermind. He stopped just short of her, not tempted to stare at her cleavage as Hiro would've been. ''Do you know which way it is, Naegi?'' He asked almost in a snarl, as he kept his eyes firmly locked with Junko's. The shorter boy didn't respond, choosing to double his efforts looking up and down the road. Byakuya sighed, before ripping the tape from Junko's mouth, who acted as if he removed it as delicately as possible. ''Talk, Now.'' Byakuya demanded. Junko rolled her jaw, lifting her bound hands in the direction she was facing. ''That way, four eyes!'' She yelled triumphantly, as if ungagging her was a personal victory the Killing Game's survivors didn't quite yet realise. Byakuya placed the tape over her grinning mouth as soon as she's shut it. ''You heard the creepy lady,'' Hiro said confidently. ''Let's set sail for salvation!''