Chapter 3 - Range to Target

The shot went wide, and the girl vanished from the Sniper's scope.

It's not real, he told himself. That wasn't real. It can't be real.

But, despite that, he could still feel the blue of her eyes burned into his brain, staring back at him.

No, not staring, he decided. Looking. Looking and thinking and probably accusing—

Impossible, he told himself. The only ones out there who could have survived were members of the Company, and maybe, maybe the military. Schoolchildren? Never.

Then what was it? What did I see? Am I going insane?

As if in answer to his question, the voice started up.

"Hello?"

Shut up, he thought.

"We're okay! We're not infected! Don't shoot!"

Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

"Please, say something!"

He readjusted the scope on his rifle, accounting for the slight drift from the Type 64's single-screw attachment system. "Go away," he muttered under his breath. "Go AWAY!"

He saw movement by the wrecked Prius and fired.

There was a spray, of course. He expected there to be a spray. There ought to be a spray when you shoot someone/thing. Blood, guts, brains…

Breakfast cereal…

The Sniper stared down at the cone of corn flakes that lay scattered beyond the car, and started to laugh. It was a subdued, quiet laugh; just enough so that he knew that it was there. Just enough so that he could tell that he couldn't stop.

He ejected the next casing, and dared—willed—prayed for the girl to come out again.

Besides, he needed more of those eyes.

Yuuri saw the fire axe the moment that she and Yuki entered the emergency stairwell. It had been placed there years ago, presumably with the intent of fighting another, different yet still-uncompromising threat.

Next to her, Yuki pointed her flashlight up the central shaft of the stairs and into the darkness above, and said, "That's a lot of stairs. Can't we take the elevator, Rii-san?"

"There's no electricity," Yuuri replied, absorbed by the weapon on the wall. She tried to remember back to the shopping mall, what felt like ages ago, when she had initially taken the big knife. Had she planned on using it against someone? Perhaps not at first… but then she had kept it hidden from the others. She must've been planning something, but she simply couldn't recall.

Now, here she was, new weapon, about to…

About to, what, exactly?

She'd have an axe. The man on the top floor had a gun. Even if she managed to break down the door—which would almost assuredly be barricaded against zombies—she would need to cross the room with that gun pointed at her. And supposing that she got close enough to strike, then what?

Kurumi and Miki both had experience killing infected, but what she would need to do… what she had almost done to Kurumi…

"And we can't turn it back on?" Yuki whined, "It looks like a really long climb."

Yuuri grasped the axe and lifted it. It was about as heavy as Kurumi's shovel, and the edge looked about as sharp. "It's twelve floors," Yuuri said. "You might want to leave your backpack here at the bottom."

"Huh?" Yuki looked over her shoulder at the bright pink winged backpack on her back. "But my snacks and water are in there!"

"It'll be heavy, and you'll get tired easily."

Yuki thought about it, then said, "Nope! I'm going to take them up to the top to share with whoever's up there!"

Huh? Yuuri froze at that one. Yuki had witnessed both gunshots, so she knew what they were dealing with.

It was a defense mechanism, it had to be. Yuuri thought over some of the things that happened before they'd left the high school and that was the only conclusion she could come up with.

Like the High School illusion.

Like Megu-nee.

"I see," Yuuri said, offering a warm smile that she didn't feel. "Don't go ahead of me, okay?"

"Okay!"

They had barely passed the first landing when Yuki added, "Don't you think they'll be happy to meet us?"

Yuuri said nothing.

"I know they will!" Yuki exclaimed. "Remember with Mii-kun? She was all grumpy at first too, but once she got to know us, she became much, much better!"

"That's… an interesting way to put it."

"But that's because she only spent a few weeks alone. Can you imagine being alone for months and months? Whoever it is, they must be really grumpy," Yuki said then, after a pause, "Probably sad too."

Yuuri really, really didn't need to hear that right now. Her fist tightening on the axe handle, she said, "Yuki?"

"Yes, Rii-san?"

"You know that they're not friendly, right?"

Silence for a moment behind her, then, "But—"

"He shot at Miki. He's dangerous, and we need..."

Again, Kurumi's voice. Promise me.

I need to kill him. There, she'd admitted to it, but even so, she felt her stomach twist and she grabbed the handrail as her sense of balance momentarily dropped out.

"Rii-san!" Yuki shouted, grabbing her before she could tumble further.

I'm going to kill him, she realized, I'm going to take a living person and bash their brains in with an axe. Imagine that, pretty, little Rii-san covered in blood. Imagine what Megu-nee would think. Imagine what—

"It's fine," she said. "I'm fine."

"No, Rii-san, you look sick!"

"I'm FINE," she snapped, Swiping Yuki's hand away.

Yuuri regained her footing, took a deep breath and told herself, you can do it. You must do it. You have to. "Yuki, we need to assume the worst. The person with the gun wants to hurt us, and as President of the School Life Club, I need to make sure that everything we do stays safe. That's my job, to keep you safe."

She looked back at Yuki for a response, but the girl's eyes were downcast, and she looked on the verge of tears again.

"If you don't think you can handle it, wait here," Yuuri said. "Kurumi and Miki are waiting for me, and I have a lot more stairs until the top."

"This is bad," Miki said, ducking closer to the car. "Very, very bad."

The infected man was still a way's off, but even from this distance she could see the greasy hair, torn lips, vacant eyes, and jerking, stiff gait. He was wearing a black tee shirt with a large print of some weirdly-proportioned bishoujo from a magical girl anime.

"What?" Kurumi said.

"I've been spotted by an Otaku with a hunger issue."

"Don't all Otaku have troubled tastes?"

Miki rolled her eyes and said, "I think it'll be here in ten minutes, maybe less."

"No problem, I'll just—" Kurumi stopped, realizing the ramifications of leaving the RV, and said. "Oh."

"I've got the bat," Miki pointed out, "But if I stand up to get a good swing at it, the sniper will be able to see me."

"You can't swing at it from behind the car?"

"And do what, bash its kneecaps in? Either way you look at it, I'm too low."

"The sniper might kill it first."

"If the sniper was shooting at every one of them that walked by, wouldn't there be a mountain of bodies around here? We're in the middle of a city!" Miki couldn't help but feel like this reinforced her previous concern. They WERE in the middle of a city, so why was the only infected person present a lone Otaku? Where was everyone else?

"If they're not shooting at them, why are they shooting at us?" Kurumi argued.

"I don't know! Look, we just need to wait on Rii-san. She'll fix this."

"Rii-san's not a fighter," Kurumi said. "I've killed plenty of them before, and you and Yuki have done it at least once, but Rii? Planner, yeah. Scout, sure. Defender, absolutely. Could she kill anyone, particularly someone… someone who's not infected? No. Not in a million years."

"Not true," Miki said through gritted teeth.

"Rii will die if I don't do something," Kurumi insisted, "Yuki too. I have to go."

"DON'T YOU DARE," Miki screeched, nearly lunging out from behind the car. "NOT AGAIN! NOT AFTER KEI!"

"Then what makes you convinced that Yuuri can pull this off? What has she killed before today?"

"The only reason she hasn't killed anything is because I stopped her!"

That gave Kurumi pause, and her face drooped slightly. "When was this?" She said. "What was she trying to kill?"

Miki couldn't take it anymore. Kurumi's was the same well-intended boneheadedness that she'd loved Kei for… and which had ultimately cause Kei to run off. It no longer mattered what Yuuri wanted, or what was polite, or if there was a better time.

Kurumi would not become another Kei.

"You," Miki said. "She almost killed you."